Art:
Music:
News:
Misc:
- I am John's brain - What exactly is this martian in our heads?
- Which book - A neat way to discover new books tailored to your tastes.
- Blogger has gone through a re-design. I hope my archives start working again.
- I forgot all the 'vias' again. There goes my blogging etiquette.
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I spent some time at the lake this past weekend. Some of this time was spent helping my dad clean out my grandpa's garage/workshop. The breadth of my grandfather�s knowledge always amazed me and the workshop confirmed this amazement. Everything from gardening to electronics repair to carpentry and woodworking to mechanical know-how was represented in the form of tools, books, parts and inventions. The contents of the garage made me ponder the following: With the current emphasis on specialization in education and work are men like my grandfather (i.e. a jack of all trades) a thing of the past? Is there a place for a type of �renaissance man� in today�s world?
The workshop clean up was followed by a trip to the local dump. I wish I had brought along my camera; it was a sorry sight. Everyone should be forced to bring their own garbage to the dump on a regular basis. I try to reduce, reuse and recycle as much as the next guy but this landfill made me feel guilty and sad. There should really be next to no garbage produced by a society as technologically advanced as ours. Organic waste can be composted. Packaging can be drastically reduced by the manufactures and recycled by the end user. Consumer products can be explicitly designed for reuse and recycling. New material taxes could be imposed on manufactures and used-material tax exemption could be applied. Garbage could be a thing of the past!
Speaking of garbage... check out the photographs of Edward Burtynsky. (Via sublimate)
What does music look like? The interactive java applet, The Shape of Song is an attempt to answer this seemingly paradoxical question. 37 exposures has a collection of binaural soundscapes recorded with multiple mics placed at ear level. Listen with headphones on and enjoy. Design 70 has a great collection of retro and funky furniture/objects. (The preceding links were amassed via Things Magazine)
Check out the alien graffiti over at rion.nu.
Neal has a nice photolog over at halftone.org.
Do Make Say Think play the pyramid this Saturday.
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My May 31st mention of Pinback's Offcell has been driving traffic here via google. Hello Pinback Fans! Check out today's song of the week (offline) and then leave a group or album suggestion as a comment. Much respect.
Today will be a link propagation day. I won't be including the 'via's today as I forget where I discovered most of these sites. Long live memes.
We'll start with the woodcut prints of F�lix Vallotton and other selected woodcut artists. Next, you can explore the homepage of Ariel Dolan an independent software developer and artist, living in Ramat-Gan, Israel. The dolls gallery is particularly of interest. And there is always the art of Rachell Sumpter, (wouldn't this piece make a great stencil?) The Morning News is running a piece by John Warner on consumerism called branded for life. Shane Glines draws girls. Brian Mung makes flash cartoons. Polylog is a forum for intercultural philosophy.
Wander-lust has closed it's doors. I'm sad to see it go.
Heaven Gallery lead me to the following gems: Remixed GI-Joe. Siebren Versteeg. A garbage robot. Mark Denardo makes music with a gameboy.
The Dining Rooms released a new album! (See the above 'song of the week' for a sneak peak.)
From the soulseek homepage:
"Soulseek Records is an offshoot of Soulseek, a file-sharing application dedicated predominantly to the free trade of electronic music and the promotion of unsigned artists. Cen-Art, the third release from Soulseek Records, is a compilation of downtempo, ambient, chill-out tracks created especially for the restaurant/lounge/art gallery of the same name, located in Barcelona, Spain. Cen-Art is exclusively available on Soulseek as a 256kbps mp3 release, including hi-resolution artwork. Search for slsk003 or cenart and start downloading."
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All major Hollywood films studios are embarking on a new antipiracy strategy. Seems that what is apparently plaguing the music industry is now starting to affect the film industry as well. As it turns out, people are recording movies using handheld video cameras and then distributing these copies, globally, over the internet. Just check out FastTrackMovies and if you've got Kazaa installed you can start downloading thousands of titles. If you're a little more advanced, you can use a program called mIRC in conjunction with any number of irc search engines (1, 2, 3).
The question that's been burning a hole in my brain recently is does this piracy actually cost the industry money at the box office? Well let's see. Box office numbers don't lie. A list of the top ten biggest opening weekends EVER is comprised of 3 films released in the last month, all of which had pirated copies readily available the day of opening. Does that make sense?
How can 3 of the biggest opening weekends EVER, possibly be plagued by piracy? Had copies not been available on the internet would the box office totals have been more? We'll never know. But think of this: if a film can be watched with degraded resolution on a computer screen instead of a THX equipped theatre and offer equal enjoyment, is the problem the piracy or the product? Is it possible that the internet copy actually increases box office numbers? Is piracy the secret promotional tool of the Hollywood studios?
The Hulk is currently available on the net as a Work Print, which means it came from the studios invovled, so you tell me, Piracy, Promotion or Poor Product?
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I bought a new hat from Value Village today. It's a cross between a cuban military cap, a kangol flat cap and what I imagine Holden's hunting cap looked like. Could there be a cooler hat?
The ill mcenroe jam last night was really fun. Yy and Gumshoe have stepped up their game. mcenroe was working the crowd into a frenzy. I love watching people get so excited! (It excites me, which in-turns excites those around me - positive vibe feedback.) The talent that exists in the Winnipeg underground hip-hop scene blows me away. For an example of this, download Icis Nizz's promo album. Him and some friends kicked off the MCing last night and I was very impressed. On a side note, I went to my first scratching lesson today at the Graffiti Gallery. Dj Brace (the instructor) is hella dope.
"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed." -[from, "The World As I See It", Albert Einstein]
Albert knew what he was talking about. I've said it before, but I think more and more people are dimming their eyes. Comfortably numb. So I propose the following mission for all of you:
Plant Wonder Sparks around your home town (or where ever you happen to be). What are wonder sparks, you may ask? Well that's the best part... The answer is: "anything". Anything that will stimulate the sense of wonder of your fellow man. Paint pictures on the sides of garbage cans, plant trees in strange urban locations, leave poems on the tables in the lunch room, ponder strange philosophical concepts with the other people in the checkout line at the grocery store. You get the picture. Now get out there and create some sparks!
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mcenroe will be performing at the Collective Cabaret (you know... the old Die Machine) this Wednesday (the 4th) along with Yy and the Gumshoe Strut. Unless you've had your canadian indie hip hop blueblockers on, you already know that mcenroe dropped his first solo LP, Disenfranchised, a few months ago. Although I�ve always been more a fan of his beats than his rhymes he doesn�t disappoint on either count. I�m digging his singing on this album. Check out his interview with the Georgia Straight and come down to the show this Wednesday.
Continuing with the music tip, I just finished listening to the new Pinback EP, Offcell. Some people wonder why I refuse to listen to top 40 radio stating that some good music trickles through the system. But why would I waste any time searching for top 40 gems when I have groups like Pinback coming out with CDs like Offcell. Honest, melodic indie-pop. Damn. I hate using the word indie. How many major label acts are being labelled as indie merely because they toss their songs through an overdrive plug-in in the final stages of their ProTools mixdown? But I digress. Offcell is great. Pinback is worth checking out. I recommend their track �Loro� (available on epitonic I believe) as a perfect intro to the band. Loro is one of those loop-able tracks. The kind you can listen to on repeat, over and over and over, while just staring into space and smiling. (I once listened to Orbital�s �Halcyon and on and on� for 5 hours straight while coding a programming assignment while at Uni.)
I�m going to add Amberglow to the links section. It rocks. Period. Here�s an example of some of the links that can be found there:
John Copeland keeps art journals.
The Photo Booth Chronicles.
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