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Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Mannlicher Carcano on Let's Paint TV


Mannlicher were guests on an epic episode of John Kilduff's Let's Paint TV webcast out of his UNDISCLOSED LOCATION home during the GMC20A"NT"WCM-T08 -- we ended up with 3 hours of audio, which seems to have finished off our portable digital voice recorder once and for all. But we got the file off there and will edit it down and post it in due time. Similarly, Mr. Kilduff has begun excerpting what he considers the most compelling segments of the episode and posting them on Youtube. Click here to see the first.


And in case you missed our first appearance on the show, in the Eagle Rock then-Adelphia cable access studios, the full show is on Youtube, broken into three parts here, here, and here. The above resultant portrait in oils is currently on view in the hallway display case dedicated to Mannlicher as part of the exhibit Untidy: The Worlds of Doug Harvey through November 26th at Los Angeles Valley College. MC also provided a new audio installation for the main gallery, entitled Tri-Corps 2008.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Mannlicher Carcano Political Endorsement


Los Angeles, Oct 19, 2008 - Experimental "audio collage" musical group Mannlicher Carcano have formed a coalition with the Filthy Discarded Mattresses of Silverlake to endorse the Nader/Gonzalez ticket in the upcoming United States presidential race.


"The FDMS bloc was flip-flopping in an alarming manner," observed MC Minister of Information Really Happening "So we decided to step in and 'clarify' the issues. You'd be surprised how much a filthy discarded mattress still has to lose, if you get my drift."


Patriotic junior member Gogo Breaks, pictured here in action, was quick to add "I WANT YOU to change my pee-pee diaper!"
Click here to download the historic Mannlicher Carcano Radio Hour from October 18th 2008, featuring Porter Hall and Gogo Breaks' first visit to Really Happening's Los Angeles audio dungeon!
More documentation from the historic Gala Mannlicher Carcano 20th Anniversary "Next Time" West Coast Mini-Tour 2008 coming shortly!

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Gala Mannlicher Carcano 20th Anniversary "Next Time" West Coast Mini-Tour 2008


Yo ma peeps. Mannlicher Carcano will be performing live in the flesh, on the radio and on web TV from Los Angeles between Oct 15th and 23rd. Porter Hall and Lucky Breaks are flying down from Montreal and Gogo Godot SAID he was coming but we haven't got a confirmation yet as he has the mental craziness and the unreliable. Nevertheless, we will persist with a line-up of at least 2/3 of the core and various adjunct members in the following venues:

October 15th 6:30 PM - 7:15 PM mini-set in the art gallery of Los Angeles Valley College, 5800 Fulton Avenue, Valley Glen, CA 91401 as part of the opening rituals for the exhibition 'Untidy: The Worlds of Doug Harvey,' which also includes a sound installation by MC and a vitrine displaying Mr. Harvey's collection of MC ephemera. Followed by a panel discussion and musical performances by Nic Waterman and Wounded Lion.

October 16th 8 PM - 9 PM PRIVATE live improvised soundtracks to a moldy slideshow screening at the Museum of Jurassic Technology. If you would like to be on the list for this event, email us at dghrvy@hotmail.com

October 17th Riverside Art Museum 3425 Mission Inn Ave. Riverside CA 92501 Mannlicher will play a set sometime between 7 PM - 11 PM as surprise guests at EARWAX at RAM, also featuring Jesus Makes the Shotgun Sound, Tim Cosner (of Circuit Scarecrow), Choreographers Hannah Schwadron and Laura Vriend presenting “Premises For A Yellow Manifesto” plus "special Performances by UCR Gluck" $5 admission

October 18th tune in for a special 2-hour version of the radio show at www.cfru.ca at Noon L.A. time or drop by the audio dungeon to participate in you are in the area.

At some point we'll be appearing on the web version Let's Paint TV - probably the 21st

We're scheduled to be guests on Professor Cantaloupe's beloved GLOSSOLALIA show on October 22nd at 10 PM on KXLU Radio at 88.9 FM in L.A. or streaming live at www.kxlu.com

We've had offers of a couple of other venues, but we may be tuckered out from these - if anything new is scheduled, we'll keep you posted. Hope to see you all out there!

R. Happening, Minister of Information

Sunday, October 5, 2008

The Name of this Band is...

...derived from the weapon allegedly used by Lee Harvey Oswald to assassinate President John Fitzgerald Kennedy in November 1963. As regards the implement itself, we learn from Wikipedia that the 6.5x52mm Carcano or 6.5x52mm Mannlicher-Carcano is actually an Italian military 6.77 mm (.266/67 cal.) rimless bottle-necked rifle cartridge, developed from 1889-1891 and used in the M 91 Carcano rifle and its successors. In US parlance, the moniker "Carcano" is frequently added to better distinguish it from the rimmed hunting cartridge 6.5x52mmR (US version: .25-35 Winchester). Ballistically, its performance is very similar to that of the 6.5x54mm Mannlicher-Schönauer.

Under the direction of the "Commissione delle Armi Portatili" (Commission for Portable Weapons), instituted in 1888 to develop a smokeless-powder rifle for the Italian Army, the "Reale Laboratorio Pirotecnico di Bologna" (Royal Pyrotechnical Laboratory of Bologna) developed and tried several different cartridge designs, with a bullet diameter from 8 mm to 6 mm. Finally, due also to the influence of Maj. Antonio Benedetti, of the Brescia Arsenal, Secretary of the Commission and strong supporter of the advantages of smallbore cartridges, the 6,5X52 cartridge was definively adopted in March 1890, first than the rifle that had to use it (it will be the M91 Carcano rifle).

Since the adoption of the cartridge, the Arsenal's technicians worried about the characteristics of the original ballistite load, since that propellant was considered too erosive (flame temperature of 3000-3500 °C) and not stable under severe climatic conditions. Several other loads were tested, including the British cordite but without good results, until the Reale Polverificio del Liri (Royal Explosives Factory of Liri) developed a new propellant called "Solenite", composed of trinitrocellulose (40%), dinitrocellulose (21%), nitroglycerine (36%), mineral oil (3%), and shaped in large tube-like grains. The new propellant, that reduced the flame temperature (2600 °C) and proved to be very stable, was adopted in 1896 and never changed until the end of the military production of the cartridge.

The 6.5x52mm Carcano was designed as a full-blown infantry cartridge, in accordance with the tactics of the time, the adjustable rear sight of the rifle allowing for volley fire up to 2000 metres. It was the first to be officially adopted of a class of smallbore military rifle cartridges such as the 6.5x50 Arisaka (Japan), 6.5x53R Mannlicher (Romania / Netherlands), 6.5x54 Mannlicher-Schönauer (Greece), 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser (also Norwegian Krag-Jörgensen), 6.5x58 Portuguese, of similar ballistic performances.

A comparison with other cartridges of the 7.62mm and 8mm caliber class (starting in 1886 with the French 8x50R Lebel, continuing with the German 7.92x57, the Austrian 8x50R, the British .303, the Russian 7.62x54R, the Belgian and Argentine 7.65x53, the .30-40 Krag, and the much later .30-03 and .30-06) may make all these 6.5mm rounds appear "underpowered" on paper though, and lacking of stopping power, compared to other military cartridges and rifles of the time. On the other hand, they seem to have a long list of advantages, as the flatness of trajectory, outstanding penetration at distance, less weight, less recoil, smaller dimensions, less material required to produce them.

Its short-lived intended successor cartridge, the 7.35x51 Carcano, is sometimes identified as the first intermediate round, before the German 7.92x33 and the Soviet 7.62x39.

The original 6.5x52mm Carcano barrel design, developed by the Brescia Arsenal at the same time of the cartridge, and first than the M91 Carcano Rifle, used a gain twist barrel with deep rifling to reduce wear, extend barrel life and give consistent accuracy. Gain twist has a slow initial twist in the barrel progressively getting faster until the full twist rate is attained at the muzzle, resulting in less torque being imparted to the bullet during the highest stress phase of the interior ballistic cycle, and thus less barrel wear in the throat of the barrel.

The 6.5x52 Carcano is an effective and easy-to-shoot deer cartridge out to 200 m (220 yards), with properly-bulleted ammunition. Its main drawback in military use was that the standard Italian service round had a round-nosed bullet and was highly stable (did not usually tumble unless it hit bone), giving many narrow-channel straight-through wounds.[citation needed] This characteristic is due to the high sectional density of the round (the extreme bullet length compared to its diameter).

Handloaders should note that the currently available factory ammunition may lack accuracy due to use of a 6.7 mm (.264 in) bullet instead of the 6.8 (.268 in) as originally loaded.

Under the heading "Notable Uses" Wikipedia adds: The cartridge achieved some notoriety as having been the choice of Lee Harvey Oswald, who used a World War II Italian Carcano rifle in this chambering to allegedly assassinate President John F. Kennedy.

Here is a link to this week's MCRH Broadcast, hosted by the Temporarily Sane Ken Cheezy - welcome back aboard the bus, Ken!