Loop
Tape loop
Tape loops are loops of prerecorded magnetic tape used to create repetitive, rhythmic musical patterns. A measure of recorded magnetic tape is cut and spliced to end to end, creating a circle or loop which can be played continuously, usually on a reel to reel machine. Tape loop effects are often combined with glissando, a technique wherein the playback speed of the loop is increased or decreased over time.
Simultaneous playing of tape loops to create phase patterns and rhythms was developed and initially used by musique concrète and tape music composers, and was utilized by Steve Reich for his "phasing" pieces, and by Karlheinz Stockhausen.
Beginning in the late 1950's the BBC Radiophonic Workshop began using tape loops for to add special effects to some BBC programming.
Pop musicians, most notably The Beatles, Can, and Pink Floyd have used tape loops on their albums.
In the early 1970s, musicians Brian Eno and Robert Fripp created Frippertronics, a system for creating tape loops during a live performance. A few years later, Mission of Burma began using loops on their albums, and also began feeding snippets of vocals and guitar recorded moments earlier back into their live mix, thereby introducing live loop effects to punk rock. Experimental noise musician NON aka Boyd Rice played loops of speeches, radio broadcasts and conversations just under the threshold of comprehensibility in his live shows, starting in 1977. Since then, he's created loops to evoke a hypnotic, trance state in his audiences.
Digital sampling -- which can generally provide similar results with less effort -- overtook much tape loop use, beginning in the mid 1980s. Some musicians and composers, however, continue to use tape loops for various reasons. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tape_loop [Feb 2005]
Time loop
A time loop is a fictional situation in which time runs normally for a set period (usually a day or a few hours) but then skips back like a broken record. It is a common plot device in science fiction. When the time loop "resets", the memories of most characters are reset (i.e. they forget all that happened). This situation resembles the mythological punishment of Sisyphus, condemned to repeatedly push a stone uphill only to have it roll back down once he reached the top. Plot is advanced, however, by having one or more central characters retain their memory or become aware of the loop through déjà vu. Plots commonly center on correcting past mistakes or on getting a character to recognize some key truth; escape from the loop may then follow. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_loop [Apr 2005]
LOOPLAND
by Bill Landis and Michelle Clifford
Loops have their own style and aesthetic. Like ghosts or dreams, they silently visualize the libidinal desires of the viewer without any pretenses to social propriety.
Kink loops were initiated by New York's Klaw family in the 1950s featuring their infamous bondage model Betty Page bound, spanked, preening and wrestling. In the 1960s, lyricism fell away and aggressive S&M scenes with rough sex emerged as the dominant motivation. Throughout the sensually liberated 1970s taboo loops proliferated, showcasing bondage, sadism, masochism, fetishism, rape, piercing, spanking, golden showers, prosthetics, female wrestling, deformities and amputeeism. -- Copyright 2002 Alpha Blue Archives
Groundhog Day (1993) - Harold Ramis
Groundhog Day (1993) - Harold Ramis [Amazon.com]
Groundhog Day is a 1993 comedy film starring Bill Murray as Phil Conners, an egocentric Pittsburgh weatherman who dreads his annual assignment covering Groundhog Day from its birthplace in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Andie MacDowell plays Rita, his new producer, and Chris Elliott plays Larry, the cameraman. The film was directed by Harold Ramis and written by both Ramis and Danny Rubin.
Phil Connors is trapped in a time loop, living the same day (Groundhog Day) over and over again in the small town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania (which, in real life as in the movie, holds a major celebration for Groundhog Day). He rapidly takes advantage of this knowledge of the events of the day to create an extravagant life of pleasures, money, and seduced women for himself. But when he attempts to seduce his colleague in this way (MacDowell) he meets with repeated failures, he begins to tire, and then to despair of his existence. He commits suicide several times, but even death cannot stop the repeating day. He opens his heart to MacDowell, and her advice helps him to gradually find a goal for his trapped life; as a benefactor to others. He cannot, in a single day, bring others to fulfill his needs but he can make himself a better man by educating himself on a daily basis. He then develops many talents and human understanding which, in return, make him an appreciated and loved man and eventually allow him to escape the magic spell and find love. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog_Day_%28movie%29 [Apr 2005]
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