17 inch Macbook Pro January 2009

The new January 2009 17 inch MacBook Pro, 6.6 pounds, under an inch thick, features a lightweight aluminum unibody, and up to 8 amazing hours of battery life. The curved illuminated keys are fitted to your fingers, and the trackpad is also the button—entirely clickable, with pinch, scroll and swipe, and configurable by you! 

320GB hard drive standard, optional solid state drive, up to 8 gigs of memory, processor up to 2.93 GHz. Glossy screen, matte optional, USB2, firewire, built-in camera, DVD read-writer, ethernet, wireless, all the standard things.  

HD-video-ready, sensationally improved color gamut—60% better, hotter contrast, game and video-production level Nvidia processor, glass display, More software than you will ever use, including the updated iLIfe 09, also has the extremely cool magnetic powercord standard, and greener than ever.

The Theremin–Obscure? Or Underground?

While most people have never heard of a theremin (but most have heard it played) it certainly has its fans.

Here’s one group:

Lots of fun information and links.

Wikipedia knows the Theremin

Not surprisingly, since Wikipedia knows all, Wikipedia does know the Theremin, aka aetherphone:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theremin

It was the first electronic instrument to use a proximity detector, playable without physical contact. It was first played in concerts, and later used by an amazing array of bands, from the Pixies to Pere Ubu to John Otway, in old SF and horror movies, and in TV shows like Star Trek and Outer Limits.

Its inventor, Theremin the man, was a Russian from Saint Petersburg who led an astonishing and varied life:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Léon_Theremin

The Theramin

The theremin may have been the first electronic instrument, and provides some of the most famous science fiction sounds, including the intro to the original Star Trek series. Unfortunately, it was not, as most people assume, used to play the “woohoo” beginning for the song “Good Vibrations” by the Beach Boys–that was a related instrument.

It’s the instrument you never touch–just move your hands in the fields, and it plays its spooky sounds. Another classic, Moog, makes and sells theramins. Moog credits his early experiments building theremins as a teenager for giving him the skills to create his famous Moog synthesizer.

Moog Theremin

Learn to play the theremin well, and you too can be on the Ed Sullivan Show