Gerard Malanga has an impressive collection of rare photos of artists, musicians, writers and poets, many never before published. Prints are available.
via suwaowa.log (welcome back!)
Thursday, July 31, 2008
William Burroughs and Frank Zappa at The Nova Convention, 1978
Sending and Receiving
The first radio lecture being delivered by radio from Tufts University, 1922.
tout-fait (The Marcel Duchamp Studies Online Journal):
Everything that we call electronic mass media today begins with the sending and receiving of signals without any material connection, with the miracle of "wireless" that started shortly before 1900. From 1920 on, this transmission technique of then primarily strategic military use develops into radio broadcasting. As a result, material things disappear from mass distribution and the media turn into something "immaterial". The uniformity of all products for all people caused by industrialization - as is expressed by the lexical term "ready made" - is only a preliminary stage towards a globally synchronized perception of a "radio-made" experience world.
This is one of the best articles I've read all year. If you're a fan or student of radio, media, communication, the Internet, hacking, the occult, Duchamp, Cage, Baudelaire or Baudrillard, do not miss it. Although it dates back to 2000, it is no less relevant to the present day.
via :::wood s lot:::
stray bullets
Texters hurt as they walk, ride — even cook ER docs warn of serious injuries, deaths from text-message mishaps. I've seen people walk into phone poles and out in front of moving vehicles while texting. (via)
More Performance and cognitive enhancement “Within the next few years, we’ll see the second generation of these drugs,” says Mark Gordon, an endocrinologist in Los Angeles. “Like all second-generation drugs, they will be stronger, longer-lasting, and have fewer side effects.” (via)
Floatation tank horror A 30-year-old became the first person ever to drown in a floatation tank, an inquest heard yesterday. James Richardson, of Woodley, died in Floatnation in Oxford Road after taking the drug ketamine – used to tranquillise horses. Well, I can scratch that off my list of things to do before I die. (via)
also:
How to build a free computer from spare parts
76-year-old experimental music legend Pauline Oliveros on WFMU
Are figs really full of baby wasps?
19 Portrait Photography Tutorials (via)
The 7 Biggest Asshole Computers in Science Fiction (via)
Montana Meth Project does not pull any punches. (via)
viddy:
Intriguing Bigfoot video (real or hoax, it's pretty good)
Social engineering: How to Get Into Any Club (this method probably won't work forever, but it is worth a look) (via)
419 - the Nigerian Scam trailer (via)
Iran Missile Test (yeah, that one)
Darth Vader Meets Wolfman Jack!
Abkhazian Kosak
From the comments on vintagephoto:
One can read about africans from Abkahzia in the book of Fazil Iskander "Sandro from Chegem". Author wrote about africans lived (still live?) in Abkhazia since nobody knows what time... I think local people may clear the situation. But Iskander did not... The local africans according to Iskander lived in the villages and married to local villagers-women etc but their children became africans with local (Abkhazian) mentality...
The Value of Science Fiction
aboutsf:
Nine legendary authors present their ideas on why SF is important to readers and what it teaches them. These excerpts are from a series of interviews and lectures done from 1968-1978 by Prof. James Gunn at the University of Kansas. Full interviews are on the Literature of SF DVD available at http://www2.ku.edu/~sfcenter/. It's brought to you by AboutSF and the Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas. For more info, visit http://www.aboutsf.com.
It was most interesting to see these guys speak. I was never one to look into the authors, I just like to read their books.
via SF Signal
William Gropper's America: Its Folklore, c1946
People Are My Landscape: Social Struggle in the Art of William Gropper:
Cartoonist, painter, lithographer, and muralist William Gropper was born on the Lower East Side of New York City into a working-class Jewish family that labored in the sweatshops of the garment industry. Like many of his peers–such as Philip Evergood, Joseph Hirsch, Louis Lozowick, and Anton Refregier–Gropper rebelled against the formal theories of art that were prevalent at the time. Preferring to depict the harsh reality of social injustices as they were played out in everyday life, Gropper became a defender of the working class. He was best known for his satirical portrayals of the elite and powerful and the effects of capitalism and war on American life.
via coisas do arco da velha
Some Facts About Owls
Tony Dusko:
This is a film I made for science class to get my fifth graders interested in owls. It worked! They love this film (even though a cute little bunny does get eaten).
There is hope for the education system in this country.
More educational fun on Notebook Babies
via Drawn!
see also: Gunnar fångar en uggla (Gunnar catches an owl)
Cytherea (Blue Venus)
Evil Dr. Ganymede:
Here's how I constructed this map: I rendered a global topography map of Venus as a heightfield object viewed from high above with a shadowless light source behind the camera, and a blue plane (the water) set at a water_level of 3 km. I then projected my Earth cloudmap over it (still rendering onto a planar surface) to create the final map. Note that the land colours aren't real, they're just a POV texture (Rusty_Iron) added for a bit of variety.
see also: Blue Mars
via Kenneth Hite
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Cola Life Campaign
photo: Nick Gripton
In 1988, Simon Berry, Chief Executive of ruralnet|uk was working as a development worker in remote north east of Zambia, conscious that while he could buy a bottle of Coke anywhere, 1 in every 5 children under the age of five die in these areas through simple causes such as dehydration through diarrhea. Twenty years later, through the power of social media technology, Berry has launched a simple campaign asking Coca Cola to use a small part of its incredible distribution capacity to get medicines, such as rehydration salts, to dying children.
Read more and see how you can help.
stray bullets
How medical marijuana is transforming the pot industry Most researchers agree that the value of the U.S. marijuana crop has increased sharply since the mid-nineties, as California and twelve other states have passed medical-marijuana laws. A drug-policy analyst named Jon Gettman recently estimated that in 2006 Californians grew more than twenty million pot plants. He reckoned that between 1981 and 2006 domestic marijuana production increased tenfold, making pot the leading cash crop in America, displacing corn. A 2005 State Department report put the country’s marijuana crop at twenty-two million pounds. The street value of California’s crop alone may be as high as fourteen billion dollars. (via)
For Some Products, Prices Have Been Falling A fair bit in the last ten years, too. (via)
Unidentified Flying Threats A healthy skepticism about extraterrestrial space travelers leads people to disregard U.F.O. sightings without a moment’s thought. But in the United States, this translates into overdependence on radar data and indifference to all kinds of unidentified aircraft — a weakness that could be exploited by terrorists or anyone seeking to engage in espionage against the United States. (via)
Extradition appeal for British hacker dismissed A British hacker who admitted breaking into U.S. military computers hoping to uncover evidence of UFOs looks set to be extradited to the U.S. after the highest British court dismissed his appeal against the extradition on Wednesday. This guy is facing 60 years in prison for "hacking" wide open, non-password-protected military computers using a 56k modem. It was found afterward that entire suites of computers were unprotected by the most basic login passwords. They should give this guy a medal and throw their sysadmins in prison. Our government is an embarrassment. (more)
Hacking Without Exploits Black Hat researchers will demonstrate how the bad guys are quietly raking in big bucks without ninja hacking skills, tools, or exploit code (via)
Man deposits millions, one tattered bill at a time For years, authorities say, he and his family have popped in and out of U.S. banks, looking to change about $20 million in decaying $100 bills for clean cash, offering ever-changing stories... (via)
Building 'The Matrix' Now physicists have created a rudimentary prototype of a machine that simulates quantum phenomena using quantum physics, rather than using data kept in a classical computer. While the new device can't make people fly like the Matrix does, it demonstrates a technique that could enable physicists to create, in the virtual world, materials that don't yet exist in nature and perhaps figure out how to build, in the real world, superconductors that work at room temperature, for example. (via)
One teabag, one spoonful of neurotoxins The PBOI says of aspartame: “The chemical caused an unacceptable level of brain tumors in animal testing. Based on this fact, the PBOI ruled that aspartame should not be added to the food supply.” Add to that all the microwaves pumped into your brain by cellphones and you have quite a toxic brew. (via)
also:
Widespread Flaws in Online Banking Systems
Bush Administration Scandal Map (via)
Six Vacation Photos That Can Kill You (via)
Fly 1950s style From the end of July until the end of the year, Finnair’s retro plane, Silver Bird, will fly to several destinations. The cabin crew will wear 1950s-style uniforms and the beat of music from the 50s will spur the takeoff. (via)
10 Most Bizarre Restaurants
The Bureau of Atomic Tourism (via)
Billy Bob Thornton on his music and movies Big Zappa and Beefheart fan. (via)
Laurie Anderson Interview (via)
Glitter And Doom: Tom Waits In Concert Hear A Stunning Performance, Recorded At Atlanta's Fox Theater (via)
Steve Reich Interview (podcast) (via)
Voodoo Funk Record Digging in West Africa (via)
viddy:
Julie Driscoll - Season Of The Witch (groovy)
More Traffic in Tehran (even better)
I Love Sarah Jane Excellent zombie short. NSFW
Tank Man A documentary about the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.
Abe's ghost
That's Mary Todd Lincoln with the ghost of her husband, as captured by "spirit photographer" William H. Mumler. (more)
More images at The American Museum of Photography
Hiroshi Sugimoto
Earliest Human relatives, 1994
Dioramas
Upon first arriving in New York in 1974, I did the tourist thing. Eventually I visited the Natural History Museum, where I made a curious discovery: the stuffed animals positioned before painted backdrops looked utterly fake, yet by taking a quick peek with one eye closed, all perspective vanished, and suddenly they looked very real. I'd found a way to see the world as a camera does. However fake the subject, once photographed, it's as good as real.
- Hiroshi Sugimoto
art: 21 - Hiroshi Sugimoto (bio, interview, video, slideshows, the works)
via Shoot! The Blog
The art of Tim Powers
Tim Powers character sketches: Declare
J.K. Potter illustrations from the Subterranean Press edition of Declare
timpowers.de has a nice collection of cover art and illustrations from various works of Tim Powers, as well as a number of drawings by the writer himself.
see also: Tim Powers Art Gallery
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Jurassic Amber Soap (with insect)
Description
This amber-colored bar has cracks, bubbles, and inclusions like real amber. It also features a (fake, of course) insect trapped inside. The scent is classic and gentlemanly - a bay rum heightened with bergamot and citrus, and grounded with bay leaves and labdanum. Just the kind of old-fashioned aftershave I imagine a turn of the century paleontologist would wear when presenting a large specimen such as this to his colleagues.
Squeaky Queen soaps, potions and oddities
Julien Pacaud - Cluedo
Julien Pacaud:
Pr. Violet and Miss Rose killed the whole humanity from Grimsvötn volcano, with two ray of lights.
via βereníκe
via .PICAPIXELS
stray bullets
Pirates won't rob writers of riches Of course, if ebooks catch on, most publishing firms will go out of business. But I cannot think of many writers who will be sorry to see them go. Whenever authors gather around a bottle of wine, the sole topic of conversation is how terrible their publishers are. Their editors are illiterates, the publicity departments are staffed by airheads and the people responsible for designing their dust jackets should be shot. I blaze through ebooks about four times as fast I do print. I'm blind in one eye and dyslexic, so the medium is a help for me, but most people I know can't read ebooks. (via)
Warp Drive Engine Would Travel Faster Than Light It is possible to travel faster than light. You just wouldn't travel faster than light. (via)
Glass Does Not Flow. Except in Space? In 1999, Christie’s East in Manhattan auctioned off an assortment of space memorabilia, including a flashlight that Buzz Aldrin used during a Gemini 12 spacewalk in 1966. The auction catalog mentions: The flashlight lens became deformed while in the vacuum of space. I saw the flashlight in person. The lens is definitely deformed, just as if the glass had flowed. It’s not cracked. It’s deformed.
Police: Man Stole Miami-Dade Buses, Drove Them On Routes Police: Teen Dressed As Bus Driver, Returned Buses At End Of Day I really hope they don't send this kid to prison. (via)
Hiphop LX (linguistics) In Hiphop the WORD is the message. Language is a system of sounds and symbols and communication in any language is based on how to use that system. If you know the system, you have power over ideas and imagination. You can build, change, plan, play and destroy. Many words and expressions in hiphop represent regions, neighborhoods and cities. Hiphop Lx is dedicated to representing the words and expressions that represent and serve as a symbol for a region and area. It explores the language system of hiphop and how the word came into being, meanings and the overall development of the word and expression. It challenges everyone to represent their region with true bona fide words and present them to be researched, examined, challenged and celebrated. (via)
also:
Renaissance Men Are Evolving Into Renaissance Networks (via)
Top 100 Executives by Total Compensation (via)
The Top 10 Mad Scientists (via)
10 Things You Should Know About the Internet
25 Ways To Earn Money When You’re Broke On The Road
Dalí: Painting and Film (via)
Frank Zappa's Jukebox out Aug. 4 (via) (via)
viddy:
Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Pedal Up (awesome funky)
Wanda Jackson - Mean Mean Man
Dr. Ronald Chevalier – The Art of Relaxating (wth?)
Traffic in Tehran (traffic in UT)
Francis Fukuyama: What Kind of World Power China Will Be?
Marshall McLuhan Quotes
Woz the Wiz meets Captain Crunch (via)
Bill Drummond on Robert Anton Wilson
Man with No Arms Plays Guitar well (via)
Patti Smith Sings 'You Light Up My Life' (don't miss it)
Amazing Audio Illusion (it is amazing) (via)
Remedios Varo - El Paraíso de los Gatos
Varo Registry:
Remedios Varo (1908-1963) was born in Spain and educated in Spanish convent schools. Her father was a hydraulic engineer, which had a recurring influence in her work. Her artistic training was strict and academic, from which she fled into Barcelona's bohemian artistic circle. She was married to the poet Benjamin Peret, and her widower, publisher Walter Gruen. She moved to Paris where she became involved within the Surrealist movement. Forced into exile by the Nazis, she settled in Mexico City where her numerous retrospectives have drawn record crowds.
Nice selection of her work on alienchildren
Mary Ellen Bute - Tarantella (1940)
Mary Ellen Bute: Seeing Sound:
Using an eccentric modern composition by Edwin Gershefski, Mary Ellen herself animated most of the imagery, using jagged lines to choreograph dissonant scales.
recent news @ { feuilleton }
AnimArchiv
Monday, July 28, 2008
Working China
Dror Poleg:
China at work. Shot in May-July 2008 in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Changzhou, Shenyang, Xi'an, Chengdu, and Chongqing.
Droorism
via Danwei
George Christopher: 1910
Shorpy:
Nashville, November 1910. "George Christopher, Postal Telegraph messenger #7, fourteen years old. Been at it over three years. Does not work nights." Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine.
That's me peeking around the corner.
An obliquely related, but irresistible quote from Bruce Sterling's The Hacker Crackdown:
Although Bell himself was an ardent suffragist, the telephone company did not employ women for the sake of advancing female liberation. AT&T did this for sound commercial reasons. The first telephone operators of the Bell system were not women, but teenage American boys. They were telegraphic messenger boys (a group about to be rendered technically obsolescent), who swept up around the phone office, dunned customers for bills, and made phone connections on the switchboard, all on the cheap.
Within the very first year of operation, 1878, Bell's company learned a sharp lesson about combining teenage boys and telephone switchboards. Putting teenage boys in charge of the phone system brought swift and consistent disaster. Bell's chief engineer described them as "Wild Indians." The boys were openly rude to customers. They talked back to subscribers, saucing off, uttering facetious remarks, and generally giving lip. The rascals took Saint Patrick's Day off without permission. And worst of all they played clever tricks with the switchboard plugs: disconnecting calls, crossing lines so that customers found themselves talking to strangers, and so forth.
This combination of power, technical mastery, and effective anonymity seemed to act like catnip on teenage boys.
Edison's Light
Robert ParkeHarrison: The Architect's Brother
Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison
Strange and beautiful images. Sousreal. I had to force myself away.
via Darkened Forest (A weblog I like. I hope they post more in the upcoming months)
stray bullets
Nukes Are Not the Best Way to Stop an Asteroid Although Schweickart has a great deal of faith in the agency, enough to risk his life piloting their lunar lander, he feels that they issued the misleading statement -- under immense political pressure. It was a nefarious excuse to put nuclear weapons in space.
Adventurer Steve Fossett 'may have faked his own death' "I've been doing this search and rescue for 14 years. Fossett should have been found.... "It's not like we didn't have our eyes open. We found six other planes while we were looking for him. We're pretty good at what we do." (via)
Headline of the Day: Human sperm from dental pulp via mouse testicles
Despite pain, woman believes in better days thanks to 'X-Files' Rock on, Kathy Green. (via)
Her Own Society A new reading of Emily Dickinson.
also:
"Comments on Comments" (a must)
Does everyone have claustrophobia?
Schneier Interviewed by RU Sirius (transcript) (via)
RU Sirius banned from Facebook for using a pseudonym (via)
Tomb reveals ancient trade network (via)
Smithsonian Podcasts (wow) (via)
Medpedia (via) (via)
Twitter me Ishmael Starting today, this Twitter account will post one paragraph from Moby-Dick every hour from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
viddy:
Last.fm + YouTube = music tv goodness (via)
Joel Hodgson's Jollyfilter Test Video proof of concept is sound (via) (via)
Hans Richter - Vormittagsspuk (1928) The nazis destroyed the sound version of this film as "degenerate art".
Of course unmoderated anonymous comments on the internet can be incomprehensibly awful and frustratingly stupid. They can also be heartbreakingly sincere and shatteringly honest. That’s because they’re written by real people, and real people are complicated, messy, and weird. -- Derek Powazek (via) (good one, Guy)
Marx Brothers Rule
Uh.... (picks jaw up off floor)
from A Day at the Races
prev
elias12186 has quite the collection of classical and baroque.
seen on (and again later)
Stevie Wonder - Living for the City
I hope you hear inside my voice of sorrow
And that it motivates you to make a better tomorrow
This place is cruel no where could be much colder
If we don't change the world will soon be over
Living just enough, stop giving just enough for the city....
Rarely does a single song capture the vibe of an entire generation.... and more, the entire human race.
We are all responsible. We are the sum total.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
stray bullets
All Streets All of the streets in the lower 48 United States: an image of 26 million individual road segments. (via)
also:
The Bureau of the Centre for the Study of Surrealism and its Legacy
Sweden's Underground Naval Base at Muskö
Musicovery Mood Music (via)
viddy:
Dog Years Ben 39, Leo, castrated mongrel needs love, G.S.O.H essential. (via)
Orson Scott Card Interview Ender's Game is fine and dandy, but Speaker for the Dead is one of the greatest novels ever written. I have a hard time getting my non-sci-fi friends to read it because I have to get them to read Ender's Game first. (via)
Tesla Coil Guitar Amp
Spoilsbury Toast Boy 2 Warning: Do not watch this if you are easily depressed, easily offended, moderately easy to offend, at work, or a kid. Truly some of the most bizarre shit I've ever witnessed. Spoilsbury Toast Boy 1 (they run in reverse order) Spoilsbury Toast Boy (I loved it.) (via)
Picturing the Museum
Museum staff painting background and mounting animals for Tiger Group, Asian Hall
AMNH:
Visual display of natural science has been a cornerstone of the mission of the American Museum of Natural History since its inception. Albert Bickmore, acknowledged as the founder of the Museum, became the superintendent of public education and gave lectures to New York City schoolteachers. He illustrated them with hand colored lantern slides reproduced from the growing collection of photographs created and collected by the Museum staff. Bickmore’s lectures were so successful that a new and larger theater was constructed to hold the crowds. (more)
via Pruned
Dream Anatomy
Dream Anatomy:
The interior of our bodies is hidden to us. What happens beneath the skin is mysterious, fearful, amazing. In antiquity, the body's internal structure was the subject of speculation, fantasy, and some study, but there were few efforts to represent it in pictures. The invention of the printing press in the 15th century-and the cascade of print technologies that followed-helped to inspire a new spectacular science of anatomy, and new spectacular visions of the body. Anatomical imagery proliferated, detailed and informative but also whimsical, surreal, beautiful, and grotesque — a dream anatomy that reveals as much about the outer world as it does the inner self.
via BURNLAB
Earth - A Plague of Angels (live)
Earth (band):
Earth is an American drone band based in Seattle, Washington. Although they have played various styles of music, they are best known as pioneers of a minimalistic, long, and repetitive form of heavy music known as drone doom. The band's early albums could be seen as a variation of the experimental doom-influenced metal of The Melvins. Earth's sound, however, currently has little to do with metal.
Dylan Carlson founded the band in 1990 along with Slim Moon and Greg Babior, taking the title "Earth" from Black Sabbath's original name. Carlson has remained the core of the band's line-up throughout its changes. Outside of the underground music world, Carlson is perhaps best known for having been a friend of grunge music icon Kurt Cobain, as well as the person who purchased the gun that Cobain later used to commit suicide....
Earth official
Earth fansite
via documents
Fiona Apple - Across The Universe
Fiona Apple
Across the Universe has been covered by many artists.
seen on Gatochy's Blog
Ferenc Cakó - Sandanimation - Spring
Sandanimation by Ferenc Cakó
score by Antonio Vivaldi, The Four Seasons
Summer Autumn Winter
via
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Stanley Kubrick's Boxes 1/5
Jon Ronson has a peek at Stanley Kubrick's archival boxes.
See the rest here.
Stanley Kubrick's Boxes
Happy Birthday, Mr. Kubrick
via Lined & Unlined
stray bullets
Ebola-like virus returns to Europe after 40 years Marburg is back. (via)
Why Microwave Auditory Effect Crowd-Control Gun Won't Work Experts say you'd fry before you heard anything (via)
Look At the State You’re In: Absaroka In its short-lived attempt at existence, the US state of Absaroka (pronounced ab-SOR-ka) managed to acquire quite a few trappings of statehood: a governor and capital were selected, Absarokan car license plates issued, and there even was a Miss Absaroka 1939 (the first and only one).
Exit Unusual methods adopted by suicide victims, compiled by George Kennan for a report in McClure's Magazine, 1908. Hugging red-hot stoves? You will certainly twist and shout your way through this list from the incredible Futility Closet.
also:
Savannah River Site Eyeball
Interesting Tricks of the Body
Unnecessary Knowledge
viddy:
Epic 2015 The state of the online world in 2015. (via)
In hiding for exposing Tanzania witchdoctors I am living in hiding after I received threats because of my undercover work exposing the threat from witchdoctors to albinos living in Tanzania. (via)
Late George Carlin Interview Good. Don't miss it.
bleep vs blorf. 4 out of 5 children can’t tell bleep from blorf. (via)
zombie-zombie - Driving this road until death sets you free
zombie-zombie
directed by Simon Gesrel and Xavier Ehretsmann
starring G.I. Joe
found on SF Signal
Friday, July 25, 2008
Homemade record sleeves
guardian.co.uk:
This is probably for Lou Reed's self-titled debut album, but we hope the pretty flowers are hiding Metal Machine Music underneath
images: Stephen Fowler
via Nag on the Lake
stray bullets
Arctic has 90bn barrels of crude The Arctic holds as much as 90bn barrels of undiscovered oil and has as much undiscovered gas as all the reserves known to exist in Russia, US government scientists have said in the first governmental assessment of the region’s resources.
The Top Ten Myths in FBI History Well, according to the FBI, anyway. (via)
In Africa, No Coke Can Mean No Stability (audio) Coke is a big business all around the world. But in Africa, the soda is so pervasive that it acts like a key indicator of political stability. In other words, if you can't get a Coke somewhere, you might want to get out of the country — fast. Alex Cohen talks with Jonathan Ledgard from The Economist about this unusual political indicator.
CalTech: Intelligent space robots will explore universe by 2020 Before the year 2020, scientists are expected to launch intelligent space robots that will venture out to explore the universe for us.
Counterfeit Chic A periodic collection of news about counterfeits, fakes, knockoffs, replicas, imitations, and the culture of copying in general around the globe. (via)
also:
Reclaim Your Time: 20 Great Ways to Find More Free Time (via)
It takes us two days, nine hours and 25 minutes to fully relax on holiday
The &%£§$‡@?!!-ing grawlix (via)
Fantasy Cartography is a blog that posts maps from science fiction and fantasy books. (via)
Mike Patton interview
Anecdotage Anecdotes from Gates to Yeats. We'll start you off with a good one about Steve Martin (via)
Japanese sitting etiquette at a Japanese home
viddy:
Tiny Blue Dot Mind-blowing cosmic perspectives. You think our sun is big?
The Shining (With Robots)
If I want a female to go away, I play this track. It works every time.
Word Spy: DWT abbr. Driving while texting; driving a car while reading or sending text messages. —DWTer n.
Christian Marclay
Good rundown of the works of proto-turntablist and sound-sculptor Christian Marclay. I've heard a number of his recordings, but it was really nice to get to see him in action. I particularly enjoy the "impossible instruments" and the re-assembled broken records.
Christian Marclay
via O Homem Que Sabia Demasiado
Tarantino's Mind
Worth watching all the way through. It looks halfway decent on full screen.
Directed by 300ml
Republika Filmes
Hungry Man TV
via MetaFilter
Nick Cave, Charlie Haden and Toots Thielemans - Hey Joe
I believe this is from the TV show, Night Music.
Nick Cave (vocals)
Charlie Haden (bass)
Toots Thielemans (harmonica)
update: Oddly enough, Hiram Bullock, playing electric guitar on this video, died on the very day I posted this. He was best known for his days with Paul Shaffer's band during the early days of Letterman. RIP, Hiram. (via)
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Nothing That Happens After We Are Twelve Matters Very Much
Andrew Burton:
This body of work is concerned with the transitional changes of childhood through recent generations, stemming from my observations in the differences between when I was a child and the childhood of my younger siblings today. It appears to me that demands are now placed on children that require them to grow up so quickly whilst simultaneously they are denied the freedom of the childhood I led.
Wonderful.
from SeeSaw
via The Exposure Project
via the remarkable ::: wood s lot :::
Tatjana van Vark
Navigation and Bombing System NBS (H2S Mk 9A and Navigation, Bombing and Computer NBC) used in V-bombers Victor, Vulcan and Valiant.
From her website:
Only a selection out of some fields of my activities is shown.
Concerning explanations:
Verbalisations involve personal semantic reactions, yours and mine.
Verbalisations tend to exclude reality.
Just look, maintaining internal silence, until the meaning of my work becomes clear.
Then share my lifelong joy in the mystery Reality with its surprises, limitations and instabilities.
Is it art? Is it invention? Take her advice, shut off your thoughts and give it a look.
via Dinosaurs and Robots
stray bullets
8 things Chinese people shouldn't ask Olympic tourists Posters displayed on bulletin boards in the neighborhood which includes tourist magnet the Forbidden City, and which will host Olympics boxing events, counsel locals against a wide range of potentially awkward conversation topics with foreigners. (via)
How to Frame the Internet: Attention and the New News Cycle The challenge is designing a news website that encourage immediate and full attention. The Washington Post’s web chats with authors and public figures is a good example of this. The opportunity to communicate directly with a person of prominence cannot be done later, nor can one participate in a chat with only half his attention. I would also point to the book readings and events staged in Second Life, if Second Life didn’t seem so pet rock to me. A smart website would start using video conferencing software to have its writers interact with readers. The trick is not to archive the footage immediately. Make viewers mark in their calendars for it. Make them miss it if they miss it. Some interesting points in this post. However, what often seems to be missing in the internet news cycle is the follow-up. Posts are archived and we can go back to what was missed, but as we all know, with the blivets of stories that keep popping up, we as the internet audience tend to drift off and not come back. I often hope for follow-ups to many items I find, but they rarely materialize. I think many bloggers fear being the one that beats a story to death and therefore don't give it the proper earthing out. I'm sure we could have learned more about George Carlin apart from the hundreds of YouTube videos and quotes from his comedy routines, but after a while, no one will touch the story because everyone has moved on. Our hyper-awareness seems to lead to hyper-abandonment.
Printer Toner and Contemplative Prayer: Interview with LaserMonks.com Monasteries all over the world have been self-supporting for centuries, and the practice of monks running a small business is nothing new. Most of them, however, don’t end up experiencing 700% annual sales growth, selling 30,000 products, and competing with Fortune 500 companies. Instead of baking fruitcakes for the occasional visitor, the monks from Our Lady of Spring Bank Cistercian Abbey sell laser toner and business supplies throughout the United States. They’ve creatively branded themselves as LaserMonks, but they offer more than just a great story. They also help businesses save an average of 40% off printer ink and toner, and in turn, the monks donate all of their profits to charity. Laser Monks website
also:
China Miéville's top 10 weird fiction books Telling.
How to Read a Book (via)
Literature Map Very interesting, but based on what readers read, rather than what writers write. (via)
Portuguese team makes first paper based transistor (via)
MoocherHunter - Detect & Track Rogue Wifi Users
Couple choose to live off the government grid Some things you might not have known about your SSN. (via)
Cyber Clean Sanitize your filthy keyboard and peripherals.
You Are Beautiful Spread the word. (via)
viddy:
Peter Gabriel Video on the state of the music industry Not completely boring, like this sort of stuff can be.
The future of knife crime A knife that is also a gun.
Flashback: The KLF Burn A Million Quid
Camera-equipped micro air vehicle weighs only three grams
The Flying Lizards - Hands 2 Take
...at least in self-abuse, there's a little dignity...
You probably know The Flying Lizards from their wildly successful and still popular cover of Money, which has frequently been used in commercials and films and is one of the iconic tunes of the 1980's. However, their second album, Fourth Wall, vaulted them into eternal obscurity, despite the modest success of their return to popular covers with the 1984 follow-up Top Ten. There is a version of Curtis Mayfield's Move On Up on Fourth Wall, but the style of the album is singular and it really is their best stuff.
The primary musical force behind The Flying Lizards was David Cunningham, who has continued to produce some interesting music, and Patti Paladin who we all know and many love for her deadpan renditions with requisite '80s attitude.
It was intriguing to find that Michael Nyman has a songwriting and piano credit on this track. Robert Fripp also appears on the album.
The Flying Lizards fan page (one-stop shopping for everything Flying Lizards.)
Harry Smith - Early Abstractions (1946-57) Pt. 4
No. 10: Mirror Animations (1957)
Pt.1 Pt.2 Pt.3
Harry Everett Smith (29 May 1923, Portland, Oregon – 27 November 1991, New York City) was an American archivist, ethnomusicologist, student of anthropology, record collector, experimental filmmaker, artist, bohemian and mystic. Smith is a well-known figure in several fields. People who know him as a filmmaker often do not know of his 1952 Anthology of American Folk Music, while folk music enthusiasts often do not know he was "the greatest living magician" according to Kenneth Anger.
Smith died, singing in Paola Igliori's arms, in Room 328 at the Hotel Chelsea in New York City, and his ashes are in the care of his wife, Rosebud Feliu-Pettet.
via
Android 207
An android is trapped inside of a large maze.
Splendid! Good story, tension, and excellent animation by Carrotkid.
Carrotkid Films
via Posthuman Blues
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
stray bullets
George W. Bush: "Awesome!" The president has used "awesome" to describe everything from dead soldiers to the pope. How did a slang word trickle up to the highest office in the land? Let's bring back splendid! I maintain that there is something euphonius in the phonetics of words like awesome, especially curse-words, that is satisfying in a more physical rather than cognitive way. There is always something viscerally appealing in the heartily exclaimed shit, motherfucker or cocksucker. Also, have you ever noticed that expletives rarely go out of style? (via)
'Wizard of Oz' Storm Makes Pigs Fly "The wind picked her about 2½ feet up off the ground — she was swimming like her feet in the air — and it took her about 50 feet or 60 feet around the corner and must have slammed her into the fence, and then she came running back..."
Man With No Arms, Legs Takes Part In Triathlon Wow.
You've got me under your skin Reading fiction is good for us, Liam Durcan says, not because it teaches life lessons, but because it immerses us in other minds and other experiences (via)
also:
Artifacts from the Future (all of the now discontinued Found images from Wired)
8 Insane Nuclear Explosions (via)
10 More Unsolved Mysteries of the World
Gillian Anderson Interview
Q&A: Chris Carter
Words Of Wisdom From Tom Waits (via)
Worlds largest selection of Turntables (via)
Convert Your Basement Into A Subwoofer (via)
Desert Paradise
Take a trip through Lost America and the abandoned west with Troy Paiva.
Night Vision: The Art of Urban Exploration
via Telstar Logistics
Super Furry Animals - Drygioni
Busy morning in meatspace, but I'll be back on the axe later this afternoon. In the meantime, enjoy...
Animation by Paul Rayment
Super Furry Animals
via Drawn!
David Lynch - Six Men Getting Sick (Six Times) (1966)
aka Six Men Getting Sick aka Six Figures Getting Sick aka Six Figures Getting Sick (Six Times)
David Lynch's first film from the collection The Short Films of David Lynch
via
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Lost Cities
Badami, Karnataka, India
Lost Cities (many photos of many lost cities)
via Coudal Partners
stray bullets
A quarter of planet to be online by 2012, and able to understand each's other's language
New Chernobyl Video Report
When Spies Don’t Play Well With Their Allies As they complete their training at “The Farm,” the Central Intelligence Agency’s base in the Virginia tidewater, young agency recruits are taught a lesson they are expected never to forget during assignments overseas: there is no such thing as a friendly intelligence service.... But most C.I.A. veterans agree that no relationship between the spy agency and a foreign intelligence service is quite as byzantine, or as maddening, as that between the C.I.A. and Pakistan’s Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or I.S.I. (via)
Britain on alert for deadly new knife with exploding tip that freezes victims' organs It's for real, and I'd wager that sales are exploding. (via)
Lost in Space There are those who believe that somewhere in the vast blackness of space, about nine billion miles from the Sun, the first human is about to cross the boundary of our Solar System into interstellar space. His body, perfectly preserved, is frozen at –270 degrees C (–454ºF); his tiny capsule has been silently sailing away from the Earth at 18,000 mph (29,000km/h) for the last 45 years. He is the original lost cosmonaut, whose rocket went up and, instead of coming back down, just kept on going. (via)
5 Ways Travelers Can Avoid Being Caught With Drugs Many foreigners arrested on drug charges believe they were wrongly convicted. Learn how you can avoid being a victim.
Stairway to Heaven on Harp
My name is Courtney, I am 20 years old and I have been taking harp lessons from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Baldwin Wallace since the age of 6. I am trained classically, but my heart is in rock, country, latino music, and everything else that you would never expect to hear on a harp!
Like Iron Maiden?
via
Monday, July 21, 2008
Will Tang - Love Bites (Andy Votel Mix)
Not sure who made this video, but I'm looking.
Will Tang
Andy Votel
Handmade
Handmade: Makes use of unusual symbols to describe how one feels at the beginning and at the end of a relationship.
Directed by Denis Kamioka
Cast: LoveFoxxx Dan Nakagawa
stray bullets
So Much for the 'Looted Sites' A recent mission to Iraq headed by top archaeologists from the U.S. and U.K. who specialize in Mesopotamia found that, contrary to received wisdom, southern Iraq's most important historic sites -- eight of them -- had neither been seriously damaged nor looted after the American invasion. (via)
Cyber-capos: How cybercriminals mirror the mafia and businesses Cybercrime, the harvesting and sale of credit card and other data for online fraud and theft, is a "shadow economy" that mimics the real business world in its practices and the mafia in its structure, according to a new report from security firm Finjan. I wonder how much of this is typical security-pro-speak, exagerrated to generate the requisite fear to sell more security? (via)
How China's taking over Africa, and why the West should be VERY worried While the bounty has, not surprisingly, been welcomed by African dictators, the people of Africa are less impressed. At a market in Zimbabwe recently, where Chinese goods were on sale at nearly every stall, one woman told me she would not waste her money on 'Zing-Zong' products. 'They go Zing when they work, and then they quickly go Zong and break,' she said. 'They are a waste of money. But there's nothing else. China is the only country that will do business with us.' (via)
also:
Yeats Meets the Digital Age, Full of Passionate Intensity (via)
Videogames getting minds of their own
Alabama man turns 112, still spends days drawing
Song Catcher (1916)
February 9, 1916. "Mountain Chief of Piegan Blackfeet making phonographic record at Smithsonian." The interviewer is ethnologist Frances Densmore. (read it - excellent)
Was there some reason she had to wear a tuxedo?
via vintagephoto
Scarecrow
Pumpkinrot Scarecrows:
Every year in Lahaska, Pennsylvania, Peddler's Village hosts their annual scarecrow competition. In 2003, I entered for the first time. I called it PUMPKINROT, and it took second place. I lost to an Egg...
Pumpkinrot
via In Tenebris Scriptus
SPK - In Flagrante Delicto
I was pleasantly surprised to find this video. An official version, at that.
SPK is known as a charter member of the Industrial music movement as enscribed in the canonical Industrial Culture Handbook. Their 1982 album Leichenschrei is a classic of the genre.
I could get with with Industrial for about 15 minutes and then the klang and sturm und drang and agony of it all just got me down. Life shits on you hard enough without having to listen to music that beats it out of you. There was also way too much ultra-serious Dieter-esque posturing that only got more ridiculous over time.
(notes for future post: I've always noticed that in the poorest and roughest neighborhoods there was a proportional increase in happier music, while the rich kids listened to harder music. On the streets of New Orleans, you won't hear as much gangster rap as you might think. It's mostly R&B. Music to make some woo. Maybe that's just a New Orleans thing, I don't know. Also, in my own experience as a composer, I found that it's easy to make music that scares the crap out of people. It is considerably more difficult to make beautiful music. As life wore on, I saw more value in beauty. It's easier to reject when you're surrounded by it.)
There were a number of items from the Industrial catalogue that I found appealing and that have stayed with me over the years. I still like a good bit of Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire, Einstürzende Neubauten, Chris and Cosey and Coil, to name a few, all made some lovely music.
The one record that really blew me away was SPK's 1986 album, Zamia Lehmanni (Songs Of Byzantine Flowers). When I first heard this, I knew that someone in SPK was on to something. Turns out I was right. The strength of that outfit was the now accomplished and prolific film music composer Graeme Revell. Everyone reading this post has probably heard his work at one time or another. Since 1989 he has written the scores for over 80 films and television shows. Zamia Lehmanni was his breakaway effort. It's one of the hidden gems of instrumental music.
The new, awful and awkward Last.fm has previews
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Mandrill - Afrikus Retrospectus
hot tip: RSS obscuritee
Mandrill kicks ass. You had serious street cred if you were into them, back in the day.
stray bullets
The Truman Show Delusion Joel and Ian Gold, brothers and psychiatrists from Montreal, believe they have discovered a signature mental illness of the YouTube era: patients who claim they are subjects of their own reality TV shows. Can't lay claim to that one. (via)
Nixon's Presidential Daily Diary You'll get the idea after the first couple of pages. (via)
25 things you might not know about Tom Waits 6. He keeps a notebook full of interesting facts, including gems such as the fact that the average cockroach can live up to two weeks after decapitation. (via)
The following is a list of over 3600 titles recorded from my collection of 78 rpm records (via)
NOAA Photo Library (ht)
viddy:
The Mike Wallace Interview - Aldous Huxley (via)
Ray Bradbury Speaks at Writer's Symposium
Bill Hicks's Last Interview (via)
Early 60s Sci-Fi 'Shroom Self-Experimentation
Pablo Valbuena Installation At Sonar 2008 (via)
Pretoria Techno: DJ Mujava - Township Funk
Midnight Juggernauts - Into the Galaxy
Fresh. Infectious. Really like this.
for more info
Midnight Juggernauts's YouTube Channel
Midnight Juggernauts
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Jupiter over Ephesus
image: Tunc Tezel
APOD:
A brilliant Jupiter shares the sky with the Full Moon tonight. Since Jupiter is near opposition, literally opposite the Sun in planet Earth's sky, Jupiter will rise near sunset just like the Full Moon.... see link for more.
Space Food
PULPHOPE:
The dinner menu from Skylab's 1973 mission, based on space artist Robert McCall's sketches done at the launchsite.
more here
Dylan Thomas
image via
I'm only a poet when I'm writing poetry. The rest of the time, I'm... well, Christ, look at me. -- Dylan Thomas
quote via
(for real)
Soupy and Alice
Alice Cooper on The Soupy Sales Show, 1979.
Soupy Sales
Follow Soupy on Twitter
via BURNLAB
stray bullets
Amputee Sprinter Denied on Track, Not in Court The Olympic dream of Oscar Pistorius, the double-amputee South African sprinter who fought so hard for the right to race against fully-bodied athletes, is over. Well, there's always 2012.
Restaurant Manager Dies from Overwork Take it easy.
Heavy metal monk Seriously rocks it. Watch the video. (via)
also:
Free classical music on the internet
Delia Derbyshire Early Dance track (via)
Word Spy: kindergarchy n. Rule or domination by children; the belief that children's needs and preferences take precedence over those of their parents or other adults.
Paper Rad and Tokion Project/04
Tokion:
Now is your chance to work together with the Providence-based art collective, Paper Rad, made up of Jessica and Jacob Ciocci and Ben Jones. As part of the “Project” series of commissioned interactive art projects, Tokion and Paper Rad want you to use the power of creativity and collage to mix and match a new zany character design. Simply log on to www.tokion.com/project for directions. Show us what you can create. Post your responses and view the creations of others.
And if you're an epileptic, watch out for that Paper Rad website. Man, my head is spinning. If you duck out of that phantasmagoria, you'll find all sorts of neat stuff.
via ToyCyte
Eno, Moebius, Roedelius, Plank - The Belldog
From the 1984 album, Begegnungen. A quiet and beautiful masterpiece, way ahead of its time, it was a part of the storied Cluster & Eno cycle. Recorded from 1976-82, this album is full of haunting melodies, odd yet catchy rhythms, and magnificent production. This track is the only one on the album with vocals. I was very pleased to find it.
Track this one down. Begegnungen was a big part of the soundtrack for my life in the mid-1980s.
see also Begegnungen II
Friday, July 18, 2008
Hobo Home with Checkered Wall
R.W. Jeffers. Untitled (Hobo Home with Checkered Wall). Photograph. c. 1930.
The Hope Horn Gallery:
Between 1930 and 1937, motorcycle patrolman R. W. Jeffers produced over 30 photographs documenting residents and shelters in Scranton’s “hobo jungle,” a semi-permanent encampment located near railroad tracks on the outskirts of town. As noted by Jeffers, men in the camp took work whenever they could get it, and “when they got enough money and work, they got out.”
via WRECK & SALVAGE
stray bullets
A good night's sleep really does improve the brain Sleep appears to strengthen connections between communicating nerve cells in the brain - a process thought to form the basis of learning and memory. I know from experience that my brain functions better on more sleep. If I could chart it, you'd see a correlation between how well rested I am and how many typos and mistakes you'll find on this weblog. (via)
I've lost my key. Can you pass me that banana? Lock-picking enthusiasts are cracking the 'uncrackable' in increasingly creative ways. And locksmiths aren't happy about it. (via)
Buckminster Fuller Challenge Idea Index Launched The BFI has launched an interactive, searchable database of entries to the 2008 Buckminster Fuller Challenge. There are some great ideas in there. Loads of them, actually. I'm still getting through them.
also:
An Interview With Alan Moore
Can you assemble a superteam of real human wonders?
Amon Tobin's website is amazing (some of those things that look like debris flying by are zoomable and explorable critters)
On YouTube, Prince, formerly known, and copyright controversy
The Prince copyright controversy and WMC #54
Jahsonic makes a somewhat convincing, yet flawed argument in favor of artists like Prince being right by blocking their content on You Tube:
Look around on YouTube, how many TAFKAP clips do you find? That’s right, none. TAFKAP is convinced that if you want to be entertained by him, you have to pay him. He is right of course, even if it does not make him very likable.
Why is he right?
Companies such as YouTube (a Google owned company) are making millions of dollars on the backs of “minor” artists (the long tail) who do not have the funds to employ an army of lawyers to police YouTube in search of their content. These minor artists should be paid for their work. TAFKAP may set a precedent for this to happen.
A few scattered points to keep in mind when you read Jahsonic's post:
(update: I shouldn't suggest that you filter his post with these thoughts, rather you should read what he has to say and then view my points as rebuttal.)
a). The YouTube medium barely qualifies as content. The image is small and even in high-res is largely unsatisfying. The sound in usually crap, too. (One could say the same for MP3s.) People that would ordinarily buy music will not see these videos as a viable addition to their music collection.
b). YouTube came well after the P2P piracy issue and doesn't hold a candle to it in relation to volume of appropriated content. YouTube is not the problem in this regard. And remember this: "Pirates" buy more music. (update: You cannot tax YouTube for the damage done by P2P. Let's keep this separate. These two are often spoken of hand in hand by music industry types.)
c). Back in the day of record stores, labels released promo recordings for free. These were usually plain wrapper vinyl and cds that were used as teasers and means of exposure-- a way for reviewers to get the word out, for record store managers to promote and prioritize content and for DJs to get the material out in the clubs. YouTube videos help serve the function of promotion today.
d). Artists like Prince and Madonna make money on reputation, name recognition and exorbitant concert tickets. They might view YouTube as a loss of revenue, but let's face it, the YouTube generation by-and-large cares less and less about these dinosaurs, daily. Look at the most viewed items and you'll see where they're going.
e). "Minor" artists do not have name recognition, reputation or the ability to fetch high ticket prices. They are barely noticed by the media and have to rely largely on word of mouth to get their material noticed. YouTube is now "word of mouth" and I'm sure most "minor" artists are stoked when they see their videos being viewed untold thousands of time on the Interenet. In the process they know they are gaining, not losing. They know that YouTube is not riding on their backs. The benefit is mutual. It's good for business. In the end, they will likely be paid handsomely via this exposure, if they merit it.
f). Established acts like Radiohead understand these models and are well engaged with them. The old-school will fade away, life and commerce will go on.
g). YouTube and P2P help create more educated and savvy consumers. No more blind-buying crap records at the store. This will force content creators to make better music to keep up with the quality standard. Did the record companies ever think that sales might be down because people aren't buying their bullshit anymore? They'd be well served to consider this a probability.
h). Micropayments for YouTube videos? See point a).
i). I would not begrudge the right of an artist to block their content on YouTube. I just think it would be a pointless waste of time and resources and a counterproductive business move.
j). I might add a few more points as they come to mind, including those supplied by my readers. I know some of you have something to say about this.
In light of rapidly dying, old-timey methods of conducting the music business, Jahsonic's argument bears more weight. Transposed to the new economy of the Internet, it loses its lustre. However, it is still a valid and interesting argument and it is very much worth reading.
update: repost: Reality Check: Five Words on Why the Music Industry is Still Scrambling to Cope with Digital Reality: "If we don't, we're dead." (link)
spoon guitar
I'm not certain where this came from, but the gentleman playing the guitar is named Hannes Coetzee from Herbertsdale, Karoo, South Africa and it is likely that this clip is from a documentary titled Karoo Kitaar Blues by one David Kramer.
From the documentary web page:
In 2001 South African guitarist/songwriter David Kramer presented a show called Karoo Kitaar Blues that made South Africa sit up and take notice. It was a concert presenting the eccentric guitar styles of the Karoo the unique finger-picking and tunings of a marginalised people who live in remote villages and outposts of the of the semi-desert areas of South Africa.
For the first time audiences were treated to the sounds of the folk music of the’ karretjie’ people of the Karoo - the last generation of nomadic sheep shearers, ‘draadtrekkers’ (fence makers) and aloe tappers - ‘who eke out a living in the harsh and unforgiving outback of the Northern Cape and whose music has grown out of a need to find a distraction from the loneliness and hardship of their lives.’ They are descendents of the Khoisan the original indigenous inhabitants of Southern Africa who were virtually all exterminated at the end of the 19th century.
The guitarists and singers that David invited to perform are all self taught musicians. Each guitarist began by making himself an instrument fashioned from an empty oil can, hand carved wood and gut and then learnt to play by listening to other musicians and experimentation. In the karoo there is no formalised instruction, no written chords or sheet music. These platteland musicians learn through osmosis bywatching, listening and then working out their own tuning and chord patterns. This isn’t just the case between musicians from area to area, but between members of the same family.
via みずほN◇MIZUHO(N)
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Matthias Loibner: tiny hurdy gurdy concert
Last ten minutes of hurdy-gurdy player Matthias Loibner playing a tiny concert in St. Chartier (France) 2003.
Do not pass this one up. This dude plays the meanest hurdy gurdy I've ever heard.
Matthias Loibner:
I am not a musician,
I am an observer of human moods and sentiments.
Since I do not trust words
and can not paint
I use my music in order to tell my observations.
Rather articulate about it, if you ask me.
thanks, j0yr1de
Watchmen Trailer
Seems like every time someone posts this, it gets taken down shortly thereafter. I'll keep an eye on it and make sure it's up. I don't know what's wrong with these people. The Watchmen movie YouTube page stopped posting embeddable videos. (At least ones relevant to the production that anyone would be interested in.) The more exposure the better, yesno?
Watchmen the movie
update: OK, let's see how many times I have to repost this.
A few weeks back, I found a video by Hot Chip that I really liked and wanted to post. The first version I found was on the Astralwerks YouTube. The embedding is disabled, for some reason. Eventually, I found it on the hotchipofficial page, embedding enabled. The kicker is, if you go and look at the view count, on the Astralwerks page, as of this moment, there are 4,617. On the Hot Chip page, 142,037. Do I need to explain?
Do these people think that we're somehow getting over on them by posting and watching these videos? Have they even seen them? If they had, they might have figured out that playing these tiny crappy videos on our computers could not possibly cut into their margins. It's ridiculous. If anything, it's free promotion. Wake up.
stray bullets
Planning smart for your food supply Why store? The world we live in today is fast moving, ever changing and full of surprises. On top of this, there has never been a time when the average family has had less food in their homes than now. A hundred years ago, people generally didn’t go to the store very often. As a rule, America was much more agrarian than it is today, with people growing the majority of the plants and animals they ate. Today, many of us would be at our rope’s end after just a couple of days of not being able to go to the grocery store. (via)
Balloons carried gun away in Red Lobster executive's 'CSI'-like suicide "This was apparently an elaborate attempt to make it look like he was murdered..." (via)
Man claims to know source of 'Phoenix Lights' UFO sighting Dr. James R. Bartzen said he has indisputable proof that the so-called "Phoenix Lights" were a product of secret man-made technology being shielded from the public. (via)
Blurred Out: 51 Things You Aren't Allowed to See on Google Maps Most of these are understandable, but William Hurt's home in Paris? What's going on over there? Maybe he complained like the Borings. (via)
also:
Umberto Eco interview (via)
China Miéville interview (via)
Restoring Renaissance Frescoes (via)
Disturbing bound feet photos (via)
factoid: After studying it for 47 days, the New York Museum of Modern Art discovered that the Matisse painting Le Bateau was hanging upside down. (link)