January 2008
27 posts
Santogold →
“The american MIA” apparently. No sign of an album yet but the songs on the myspace page are pretty cool. And it’s one word.
Wonderland →
Drawings done by children turned into photographs. (From MetaFilter)
“if you give this to your child, you may as well include a note saying,...”
– Wired, On Rock Band (sort of)
rorriM kcalB →
The video for Arcade Fire’s Black Mirror. It takes a while to load, but worth it. the video is pretty, and you can put together a remix by turning on and off the various tracks. (If the “loading” screen steals your cursor, just right click and it will be yours again)
More freeing →
I’ve bought The Atlantic magazine a couple of times in the past but it’s quite expensive to buy over here when Borders have any copies so it’s good news that as of today the online content is available to everyone, and it includes old content as well as new.
Last.fm are "freeing the music" →
Last.fm have sorted out some kind of agreement with record labels that’s going to let them offer entire tracks on their site and, at some later point, through the desktop clients. EMI, Sony BMG, Universal and Warner are on board, as well as a number of independents, and unsigned bands can add their tracks and receive payment as and when they receive listens. The service is being offered...
There will be a Counter Culture 2007! →
I’m sure it hasn’t been announced this late in previous years, but it seems there will be a Counter Culture 07, released 11th Feb, containing the best of last year’s music. No track-list though.
Eventually, because I liked the idea of having...
As a kid, the first storyteller I wanted to be was Jim Henson. I designed and built puppets and had a business performing for birthday parties. If you’re curious what the rock bottom of the middle school caste system is, it’s The Kids Who Play With Puppets. Seriously, The Kids Who Played With Magic used to beat the crap out of me. “Why We Write” is a blog that’s being...
Word Sandwich →
Higher-lower, but with words.
Swapping iPod shuffles →
Since I don’t really use my iPod shuffle anymore I thought it might be cool to trade iPod Shuffles for a couple weeks with someone. If you’re in the same situation where you don’t really use your iPod shuffle anymore and think it might be cool to trade you should let me know. Ideally you live or work in NYC so the trade/hand off is easier I don’t have a shuffle or live in New York, but this...
Members vs Customers
Interesting piece on the differences in how the top-placing Democrat candidate treat their supporters. Those backing Hilary are sent a “confirmation” while the Obama supporters get their own “my.barackobama.com” webpage, where they can gain points by killing monsters creating profiles, inviting friends, and (unsurprisingly) raising money. I know which I’d rather be...
Danger! Eye snatching rabbits have escaped →
Layer tennis is back after their Christmas break. They should do what Terry Wogan does, and ”pre-record” a ”show” to keep us going…
How obscure Economic theories could help your... →
Johnson Banks discusses the Pareto Principle (20% of the population receive 80% of the income) as it applies to the work done by design firms, suggesting that having a small number of high-paying clients supplying less exciting work is a neccesary sacrifice to allow for lower-paying, but exciting and creative, projects.
Honourable Mention #1
The Sequins’ “The Death of Style”. No big enough images that I can find, so a bit of text instead: The Sequins are a band based in Coventry, England, where they make some pretty wonderful indie-pop music. The band went to the same university as I did, and I saw them play there and in the surrounding area quite a few times but “lost touch” since leaving. As soon as I...
Some music lists
Andrew Womack at The Morning News has posted a list of his top albums for 2007. Three from his list appear on mine, but the others look like they might be worth checking out. Michael Surtees of Design Notes put together a list of albums, but accompanied it with a rather nice looking graph/diagram showing the relative plays of each album alongside when in the year it was listened to, and where he...
Number 1
Arctic Monkeys’ “Favourite Worst Nightmare”. Track of note: Old Yellow Bricks (#8)
Number 2
Bloc Party’s “Weekend in the City”. Track of note: Hunting for Witches (#2)
Number 3
Justice’s “Cross” (†). Track of note: Tthhee Ppaarrttyy (#8)
Number 4
LCD Soundsystem’s “Sound of Silver” . Track of note: All My Friends (#5)
Number 5
Klaxons’ “Myths of the Near Future”. Track of note: Golden Skans (#3)
Cursor * 10 →
Really clever little Flash game. “cooperate with oneself” - take note! (I’m blaming Coudal for the time spent…)
“I’ve been working hard on RKelly lately. RKelly is a Ruby implementation of...”
– Aaron Patterson (via Painfully Obvious)