September 2008
30 posts
Mixtapes →
Courtesy of the New Yorker, two free mixtapes for our collective aural pleasure from Megasoid and Hovatron. I haven’t listened to either all the way through yet, but from a quick flick through if you like that kind of thing.
Singapore Grand Prix on The Big Picture →
Awesome photos of the night-time Grand Prix, including tilt-shift, postcard-style cityscapes, flying cars and Alonso “doing it wrong” on a bike.
A Terror Campaign of Love and Hate →
In recognition of the soon-to-be-released film telling their story (previously), the Observer today has a piece from someone who met members of the group before and during their infamous activities. The film is released here on November 14th.
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2008-9-28) →
Jaguar Love
Nick Catchdubs & Mr. Ducker
PJ Harvey
Brad Sucks
M83
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Music Online
This week saw the launch of Myspace Music, described as being a new, separate entity with the potential and opportunity to be as innovative as it would like to be. It has the backing of the big music labels and is selling music via Amazon; it’s not going to fail any time soon, I don’t think.
Unfortunately though, it’s only fully available in the US and there are complaints from...
mixtube →
Like Muxtape (and Opentape, mine here!) but made from Youtube videos rather than uploaded songs. There’s one of Brad Sucks Remixes, and one of Paper Planes Remixes, both of which are worth a flick through.
Manhunt →
HBO is developing Manhunt, a miniseries from David Simon and Tom Fontana about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the frantic 12-day hunt for his killer, John Wilkes Booth.
The project reunites the network with the creative forces behind two of its former critical hit series—Simon created The Wire and Fontana created Oz—as well as the two writers themselves. Simon and Fontana have not...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2008-9-21) →
Diplo & Santogold
Burial
Vampire Weekend
Glasvegas
Jaguar Love
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
The 50 Best Jokes from Edinburgh →
Includes such questionable gems as:
My granny was recently beaten to death by my granddad. Not as in, with a stick – he just died first
(via)
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2008-9-14) →
Nick Catchdubs & Mr. Ducker
Diplo & Santogold
M83
Brad Sucks
Burial
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Radio Friendly Unit Shifter →
Described, rather unfairly I think, as “Girl Talk for people who aren’t insufferable cunts.”, Radio Friendly Unit Shifter is a mixtape containing artists such as Pavement and Nirvana and works quite nicely. And it’s free.
(via)
Brad Sucks, in his own words:
I write, record and...
Girl Turk →
Andy Baio has put the power of the Mechanical Turk to great use in analyzing Girl Talk’s Feed the Animals Album (do you see what he did there with the title? - you can download for free and/or buy an as-yet-unreleased CD). There’s graphs detailing the start-points of the different samples in different tracks as well as the release-years of the songs they come from.
The results are...
Creativity Audit →
Stef Lewandowski had a wander round Birmingham in an attempt to show why he thinks Birmingham needs a Creative Director and his results are, well, quite sad and seem to support his case pretty well. There’s very echoey audio as well now, but the slides themselves make for an interesting browse through.
[Update] There’s a blog post giving a more in-depth look at the presentation and...
You know what? →
There are time when I’ve been listening to music when I think “You know what? This song needs more cowbell. And a touch more Christopher Walken”.
Well, my troubles are over. The people at the echonest have made MoreCowbell.dj where you can upload any song and with two handy sliders add just the right amount of cowbell to any song you like.
There are plenty of examples of what...
Free Music from Wichita →
Always one to spread free music as I find it, here’s a sampler from Wichita containing, amongst others, Los Campesinos!, Les Savy Fav and Simian Mobile Disco.
Enjoy!
(via)
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2008-9-7) →
The Presets
PJ Harvey
Cut Copy
Radiohead
Simian
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Two Americas →
That is the context of The Wire and that is the only context in which Baltimore - and by reasonable extension, urban America - can be fairly regarded. There are two Americas - separate, unequal, and no longer even acknowledging each other except on the barest cultural terms. In the one nation, new millionaires are minted every day. In the other, human beings no longer necessary to our economy, to...
Sony Reader Review →
The Guardian’s digital content blog reviewing Sony’s new Reader device, released in the UK yesterday.
I’m torn about whether or not to get one. I’ve pretty much run out of shelf space for books and having something that’s easy to carry around appeals, but the up-front cost, the fact that this isn’t (yet) negated by cheaper-than-paper ebooks and the lack of...
Storyboard →
Wired have arranged an interview with the screenwriter-turned-director Charlie Kaufman and have decided that they’re going to chronicle the work that goes into the article, right from the beginning.
So far, the writer has pitched the idea and had it accepted by the editors; Charlie has agreed to it, and they’ve decided that they’re going to use this blog to make what might be...
My face makes water - My face is magic →
I cried all day last Friday. I cried because I thought Obama was going to lose and I cried because I thought New Orleans was doomed and I cried because people didn’t care and I cried because one man in particular didn’t care enough about me and I cried because I fear I will turn 40 in a lonely city with a dying tabby who uses a walker just to get to the litter box and my parents will die one day...
Call Me Misha →
And then one night, during the intermission of a puppet show about the Battle of Stalingrad, we got a panicked call. The president had heard the American media was in town—us. Although I hadn’t known that Georgia was a country until the travel writer told me he’d gotten us a free trip there, I was suddenly at the Chancellery Building in Tblisi meeting President Saakashvilli—call him...
Alinea Book Photos →
Some photos of the forthcoming (in the UK, it appears it’s released in the US) Alinea book by Grant Achatz, and it looks really quite pretty, though still not as nice-looking as Heston Blumenthal’s new book, also out next month.
(previously)
(via)
Opentape →
In response to Muxtape being taken down, Opentape has appeared as a self-hosted alternative and so I took a quick look over my recent music-playing trends and created a little mix that gives an idea of what I’m listening to at the moment. I might put a bit more thought into a follow-up, and try and either make it my favourite songs or perhaps songs around a theme? We’ll see.
There are...
A Layperson's Guide to Graphic Design →
The transcript of a radio-broadcast by Adrian Shaughnessy where he attempts to introduce Graphic Design.
Approaches to middle-management →
Mr. Kottke has put together a nice collection of approaches towards the ‘middle management’ layer in a small organisation. Inspire by Joel Spolsky’s most recent column, he includes comments from Adaptive Path’s Advocacy system; a coffee-shop’s rotating management; and a design agency’s very disjoined approach, having a number of autonomous teams that come...
August 2008
34 posts
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2008-8-31) →
Burial
Diplo & Santogold
Lykke Li
Crystal Castles
The Bug
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz