Teledildonics
September 28, 2004
From the latest Rough Trade releases... Three reviews of albums I'm sure that I'll be buying soon... Like, er, this weekend.
Juana Molina: Segundo This, the debut UK release from Juana Molina of Argentina, is the collision of voice and acoustic guitar with synth and electronics moves that takes the album into sublime territory. The production is intimate and adds a fresh shine to the Latino analogue bubblebath. It's a world music album embracing the new as well as respecting the traditions of the old, and pushes Argentinean music into the premier league.
Interpol: Antics The number of modern rock bands pillaging from the early '80s continues to increase exponentially, but 'Antics', the second album from New York's Interpol, confirms they're still a cut above all in the elegance of their steals. Think the Psychedelic Furs, Television, Peter Hook basslines etc. Interpol have produced a soaring, inventive album that, while incorporating the deliciously dark atmosphere of 'Turn On The Bright Lights', merely uses it as a base to create more ambitious, warmer soundscapes. Some of the dark atmosphere has been lifted and replaced with more optimistic and melodic themes. a magnificent next step on the road to stardom.
Marianne Faithfull: Before The Poison An album of extraordinary power from a true icon, fuelled by collaborations with and contributions from such artists as PJ Harvey, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Damon Albarn. The core of 'Before The Poison' - Marianne's first album for two years - are the contributions by PJ Harvey and Nick Cave. Polly Harvey has penned three of the songs and co-written another two with Faithfull while Cave and Marianne jointly wrote a further three tunes. Both PJ Harvey and Nick Cave - together with members of their respective bands - also perform on the album. Damon Albarn has also contributed a song while the remaining track on the album was written by the acclaimed American composer Jon Brion in partnership with Marianne Faithfull. "Before the Poison's" liner notes are by the renowned novelist and critic Will Self.
Creative Ringtones [if such a thing exist] from sonicobject.com and MIT to power computers with spinach???...
But finally, the teledildonics... Now you can well and truly **** with your PC"
With the sinulator!!! via geekpress.com. There is a review at Wired.
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Modern Toss 2
September 24, 2004
Modern Toss 2 is available now or you can get 1 and 2 together as a book, saving you 3 quid!
Just got tickets for Bill Bailey at the Pleasance Theatre on October 11th. Yessss!!!
Check out my BritArt Gallery... I think they have sorted out the sharing thing now... Not that they bothered to e-mail me back and tell me... Still, you can get your own if you sign up. Or you can just purchase yourself a bit of British Art by artists as diverse as Tracey Emin, Vic Reeves and Billy Childish. And many more, not all necessarily British!
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What's that Pong?
September 23, 2004
As the individual URLs aren't appearing in the search engines yet I've put this LIST ALL LINKS thing over in the right-hand column - It's from bookmarklets.com. It might help you find something... I don't know.
Ghostzilla... The idea behind this is that you want to surf the web, but have it look like you are doing normal work to people walking by your computer. Ghostzilla is a browser that hides itself in your normal work applications, like Excel or Word... anything! With a swish of the mouse, Ghostzilla pops up and you can surf the web. If you see someone coming, simply move the mouse away, and it disappears, leaving no trace. Check out other sneaky stuff at buzzsurf.com...
And pongmechanik... A real life, physical, three dimensional version of PONG!!!
Off to Chichester for the weekend to see Master and Margarita [there's plenty of links elsewhere to that] at last. Hopefully will get some more pictures up at Random Features after that.
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Hitchhikers Guide to the Booker Prize
September 22, 2004
The first series of 6 new episodes of A Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy began yesterday [21 September], on Radio 4, at 6.30pm, which I naturally missed... However, it repeats on Thursdays at 11.00pm .
It seems David Mitchell is favourite to win the 2004 Man Booker Prize with Cloud Atlas. I haven't read this one yet but Number 9 Dream and Ghostwritten are two of the best books I have read in the past few years.
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SMS Novels And Digital DJs
September 21, 2004
Outside The Fortress Besieged, Beijing's first SMS novel [that I mentioned briefly the other day] is to be made into film. The novel, delivered through SMS, will also be transmitted to cellphones and on the Internet. The Taiwan-based company, Bestis Technologies, has bought the film rights to the 4,200-character, 60-chapter novel that was sent out to subscribers in short instalments. The film will consist of 30 to 40 segments and should also be able to be viewed on cellphones. Via Smartmobs
Lots of developments in the MP3 download world... With a number of UK and International labels joining Audiojelly it's getting hard to keep up with all the latest music being added to the site. The most recent being Azuli. Their entire back catologue I believe! Look out soon for a digital album exclusive to Audiojelly: Azuli: Past,Present,Beyond.
Also Beatport have joined forces with Stanton and Native Instruments in a partnership that will take Digital DJing to the next level. The three companies combined expertise in the field of DJ hardware, music software and digital content delivery will develop innovative and highly integrated solutions for the DJ market.
By fusing high-quality hardware with sophisticated software and convenient legal music downloading, Stanton, Native Instruments and Beatport will shape the future of Digital DJing in the time to come. So they say!
Both Stanton and Native Instruments have paved the way for digital distribution with Final Scratch and Traktor. Native Instruments kickstarted professional software-based DJing four years ago with Traktor DJ Studio, and has been dedicated to pushing the envelope ever since. This new partnership will see the first complete and truly integrated Digital DJ platform.
In November FinalScratch 2 launches. Built from the ground up, it includes the new FireWire ScratchAmp 2 with 24-bit/96kHz sound quality, Phono/CD compatibility, Mic and Aux inputs, MIDI and more. FinalScratch 2 also ships with a new version of TraktorFS.
Like the original, FinalScratch 2 is a hardware/software system that lets DJs play and manipulate digital audio files using analog turntables or CD players. However, this new system has the new ScratchAmp 2, which uses FireWire for more reliable multi-channel performance and ultra-low latency, a host of inputs (2 Phono, 2 Line, 1 Mic and 1 Aux) that let DJs connect all their gear. Using the Mic input, for example, users can record their voice and instantly scratch the recording. And by running the DJ mixer's Record output into the ScratchAmp 2's Aux input, DJs can record a live set for CD burning. The ScratchAmp 2 also features MIDI ports for even more creative mixing options.
FinalScratch 2 is powered by TraktorFS 2 software from Native Instruments and runs on Mac OSX and Windows XP!
So now you know... They can send me a free one anytime they like now!
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One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest
September 20, 2004
 One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest is definitely as good as everyone has been saying... Here's a crafty snap taken by Rob [you rebel!]... Should have told that woman in front to sit down though!
Check out Rainer Linz website, particularly for this piece on Percy Grainger... Percy Grainger [1882 - 1961] was an Australian composer and pioneer of electro-mechanical music technology. And something of a Godfather of sequencing... Using razor blades and sticky tape to correct piano roll performances of his work long before studios were doing the same thing with analogue tape and digital sequencers were doing the same with midi. Composing orchestral pieces in sections and letting the conductor decide what order to play them by holding up lettered cards, thus pre-empting the technology used by Ableton Live. His Free Music Machines pre-dated Brian Eno's Ambient and Generative Music ideas by some years. Find out more in Volume 6 of the Leonardo Music Journal from MIT Press... Back issues are $32.00 mind! Which reminds me... Interested to read about Paul Schutze work, via City Of Sound
The KLF's, The Manual is now available, in its entirety, online. Another thanks to Things for that one.
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Limericks
September 17, 2004
 I acquired my Nan's 50's [possibly 60's] Cocktail cabinet on Wednesday and found this beermat inside. There is a limerick competition on the back. The closing date for which is September 29th 1969!!!
More limericks at oedilf.com. The Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form!
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Ambient Noise Strategy v Bone Conduction!?!
September 16, 2004
Who'd a funk it huh? Cannabis may help combat cancer!!! Apparently, according to this BBC item, scientists have discovered that the active ingredient, delta-9-tetrahydrocannibol [THC], can block the spread of gamma herpes viruses.
Digital Street Game is an Internet-enhanced street game in which players stage and document small "stunts" on the street corners of New York in order to claim turf on a virtual map of the city. via smartmobs... Unfortunately the London Noise Map isn't a useful resource for finding the wildest parties, but part of the Government's national ambient noise strategy [which sound like it should be the name of an Eno album to me]. Via Things
Microsoft's woe's continue... A critical flaw in how their operating systems and other software process JPEG's could let attackers create an image file that would run a malicious program as soon as the file is viewed. Because Internet Explorer is vulnerable Windows users could be prone to an attack just by visiting a Web site that has affected images. Better watch those porn sites boys! via Guardian Online
A wristwatch phone that lets you listen by sticking a finger in your ear? It could all be possible using a technology called bone conduction that sends sound waves through the bones around the ear... According to Wired News
And the University of Virginia Computer Science Dept up the ante on the Oracle Of Bacon game with Star Links, via Kempa... Good pub quiz material that, but it's a bit contrary over some names I found !
Communicate: Independent British Graphic Design Since the 60's opened today at the Barbican. On until January 23rd.
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One Baaaad Apple
September 14, 2004
Pity that Klaus Obermaier, Apparition, at the Royal Festval Hall is on the 24th/25th as we are in Chichester then to see Master & Margarita. Looks as though it will be as fascinating as The Complicite/Elephant Vanishes piece.
Interesting little piece on Human Bar Codes [RFID] over at MIT's Technology Review and a funny pi[e] joke over at kempa.com... Well I thought so anyway.
Always one to enjoy seeing a large Corporation suffer...
Apple look set to pay out millions over a long-running copyright dispute with the Beatles. Apple Computer and Apple Corps [The Beatles' holding company] have been fighting over the brand name and logo for 23 years apparently. But Apple Corps now claim that the computer manufacturer has broken a 1991 agreement forbidding it from using the trademark for any music related application. Like, er, iTunes and iPod. Yikes!!!
Then they paid the Beatles Company $30m in an out of court settlement... This time the payment is supposed to make that one look puny!!! I can see those iPod's going up in price!
See Media Guardian for full story.
I've just joined the London Bloggers... Where you can find bloggers from around London sorted by Local Rail Stations.
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Burgering About
September 13, 2004
Check out the Burgerman game at the supersizeme.com website... and these "Think Of Me" rings, by Alison Lewis, are designed [Pat Pending] to vibrate gently on a loved ones finger when stroked by the other lovesick partner to let them know you are thinking about them... Ah, ain't that nice?
Still hacked off I missed out on the extraordinarily overpriced Tom Waits tickets... 70 quid to go to the Hammersmith Apollo !?!?!?! But it's no good finding out about a gig that sells out in 30 minutes a day after it's announced now is it? Guess I'll have to wait another 15 years to see him live. I wonder how old he'll be then?
I'm surprised the Chinese beat the Japanese to this one... A novel in SMS! It's brief...
Scarlet Page... photographer of The Darkness... Daughter of Jimmy [allegedly, 2nd cousin twice removed of the Prince Of Darkness] ... website isn't actually complete, but there isn't a sniff of "famous daughter" syndrome about... But it's got to have helped, hasn't it?
I've been thinking about what to do with all the archive stuff at the end of the year and I was wondering whether it might be easier to compile all the links into one big PDF document, but I'll need to keep all the months up for online searches, although I guess they will still be found even without a link on the home page. That archive list will start getting a bit lengthy after a year is up, which is this Christmas...
And more to remind myself than anything else... There is a David Shrigley exhibition at the Stephen Friedman Gallery until October 8th.
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Terminal Chaos Has No End
September 09, 2004
I found this piece on "Alfred" Nasseri, who was the influence for The Terminal movie... and I think the truth is stranger than fiction in this case...
Some clowns have deemed it necessary for there to be an Advert Channel... which is, erm... stupid really!
Intersting piece on Autonomous Agents, that may be mildly worrying in the somewhat distant future, via smartmobs...
Surprised to see that the movie Butterfly Effect has gone straight to DVD here... Maybe because it stars Ashton Kutcher in a dramatic role, but it's got the sort of storyline that should be up there with Memento and Donnie Darko really. Check out the little skits on Chaos Theory on the movie site, especially Bruce Sterling's... and wander over to look at this Lorenz Attractor and see what you make of that!
And, I'm sorry, but I had to laugh. How much can it have cost to send this
Genesis Capsule thing into space, keep it up there for whatever amount of time doing its dusty thing, then start its decent, whilst then training up a couple of stuntmen to keep a couple of helicopters in the air for 10 ten practice runs in the vain hope of catching it... and then the bloody things parachute fails on re-entry and it crashes... All for a few micrograms of "solar wind" to find out where we came from?????
Like we know where we're going!
DOH!!!
Finally... And this is all over the Blogosphere, but it is such a fantastic story...
French Cinephiles Go Underground. How long before that's a movie??? 190 miles of Parisian tunnels full of bones... I bet Anne Rice has got her pen out already!
I've got a photo of her house in New Orleans somewhere... Now let me see...
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Shed Of The Year 2004
September 07, 2004
There was a Shed Of The Year link here but it's gone now!
Also nyclondon.com has photography and tube maps!
See what you can see at the Hubble website and see if you can find the next Prime Number... get the lowdown on Primes from the BBC. That's it for the science lessons.
Sunday's drunken goings on meant I missed half of the South Bank Show on Ronnie Wood [despite Chris' warning that it was on], which was a pity. But what I didn't miss was the excellent BBC documentary on Emmylou Harris on Friday night which featured rare footage of Gram Parsons.
Jake suggested I post this George Best quote on why he went to N. America... "I was driving through London when I saw an advert saying Drink Canada Dry".
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The Art Of The 60's Vanishes
September 06, 2004
 So, Saturday we did the tourist thing [I even took pictures of London landmarks] and scooted round town trying to fit as much into one day as possible... Starting at the Tate...
I Didn't think much of Art In The 60's... Failing some works by Richard Hamilton, including "She" [left],
Frank Bowling and especially outstanding: Ian Stephenson's painting, 'Parachrome', which looks as if an aerial map of a great city has been showered with tiny pinpricks of colour [and was featured in the Antonioni movie "Blow Up"], a lot of the work was mediocre. Especially the sculptural pieces. I preffered the Real And Imagined Cities section and the photography more than most of the painting.
From the Tate we nipped upstream on the Tate riverbus to Tate Modern and continued on foot to the Design Museum. Unfortunately, we stopped en route for "refreshments" and by the time we got to the Design Museum we were too late to go into the Saul Bass exhibit... So we made our way to the Barbican.
The Elephant Vanishes is fantastic... part Gilliam, part Tomato and slick as you like. The subtitles, above the stage, were a bit high, but we were about 5th row, so that might not be an issue further back. The cast double as stage hands, choreographed to slide props around the stage when they are not speaking or move chairs to imitate the steps of an elephant. The way they interact with the technology onstage and live voices merge into pre-recorded ones was breathtaking. I can't wait for the next Complicite production. It was all over by 9.30, so we were home in time for the Man With The Golden Arm, with it's Saul Bass credits and Elmer Bernstein score and Frank Sinatra as the fantastically named Frankie Machine that is one cool, if slightly overlong, movie...
Sunday was less cultural, as we saw off Trev and Viv from their old home and awoke with almighty hangovers today! So, good luck in the new home at last... and congratulations to Nichola and Simon on the birth of baby Evan. Ahhh!
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Something For The Weekend
September 03, 2004
If you like your bass loud then check out this article at Wired and you might change your mind... It's not about damaging your hearing, it's about your lungs collapsing!!!
Been trying to decide whether or not to join Rough Trade's Album Club... Seem's a nice idea but a bit lazy... Get down the shops!
Blisspix.net has collated a list of songs about Libraries... Why?
There's a digital imaging trade fair in Cologne during October, called Photokina and the Ars Electronica forum is currently on in Linz, Austria... I missed it last year and I'll miss it again this... but the centre is open to visit all year round... Speaking of things I missed there was mention of Six Thousand Chairs, last weekend at virtualnorwood.com which mentions that Living South [which I never seem to be able to find a copy of] had covered it before the event as did Lux.org.uk... yet I couldn't find out a thing about until it was too late... I'd like to hear from somebody that attended.
Got a spare Saturday out of the blue tomorrow so we're going for cultural overload and trying to do Art in the 60's, Saul Bass and Elephant Vanishes all in the one day!
I better go to bed then.
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Pinch Punch!
September 01, 2004
The About Face exhibit at the Hayward Gallery was a bit disappointing. Some great photography but it didn't really live up to it's claims to be representing the effects of phot editing techiniques and cosmetic surgery on portraiture... A bit more annotation wouldn't have gone amiss really... went to see the Stones tour photos after as well and it had shut! Doh!
As I still have to finish Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver I'm alarmed to see how much has been added to the metaweb!!!
I notice that quite a few people are stopping by searching for info on the Gorkem Hotel, where we stayed this year and I didn't really write anything about it. Well it's cheap and functional room wise, but the staff are really friendly and the food was good. They have a pool, the beer is cheap [although not the best in the world] and the pool table is free! I'd go back today if I could :) I just hope my current lack of working permalinks doesn't make finding stuff too difficult. I shall have another look at sorting that out this week.
Great robot/comic art at studiowhite and Kempa get's himself into a linguistic vortex with palindromatic [is that a word?] song lyrics but reminds me of a book I read years ago Godel, Escher Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid which is a a mind blowing mixture of art, maths and music... Things are back from their holidays... The Space Elevator Concept looks like some sort of over elaborate school science project to me! via exclamation mark
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