Monday Morning “Impediment to Productivity” – 20070416

Hi,
This week I have decided to see whether or not the infamous “obscurity filter” is set too high or too low. That’s right instead of self indulgent twaddle, we are going for obscure self indulgent twaddle. So if you found this weeks a bit too far out there (god only knows what you are going to use as a baseline) put a comment on the website and let me know. https://thatchspace.com/

The next time you are in Washington DC, grab a pair of binoculars and head to the Washington National Cathedral, go to the northwest tower and look up (use the force. sorry the binoculars) and there you will find Darth Vader as a gargoyle. If you can’t use the Force then just follow the instructions on the PDF below. One of our friends from England confirmed this.

Click to access darth.pdf

and over at Make there’s CrabFu’s steampunk R2D2, if they made this for Christmas they would make a fortune, we all want one. Just so damn cute.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/yp8w6c
and the steampunk beetle is pretty cool as well
http://preview.tinyurl.com/34h8aq

I had never seen this before, Superthunderstingcar is Peter and Dud’s “Not Only. But Also” parody of Thunderbirds, Supercar, Sting Ray, and all the rest of The Anderson’s “supermarionation” TV shows , it’s from the sixties and it’s just wonderful, now I know where the the D-Generation got it’s idea from (if you are going to imitate, use the best). I still have no idea how I missed this.

Top 10 lists are always fun (NOT), no don’t panic I’m not going to do one but I was thinking about a conversation I had with a friend awhile back on the top 10 albums that had influenced me back when I was discovering music. Apart from all the regular suspects (Clapton, Hendrix, Fairport Convention, Canned Heat) I would have to put in “Switched On Bach”. Talk about “WOW” moments. There was no going back after hearing that one. So finding a recent interview with Wendy Carlos is pretty cool. the first 30 seconds should be written up a manifesto for “Twitch” I know it works for me. She has some amazing takes on how this all works and a pretty definite points view and she still keeps pushing the envelope.
http://www.newmusicbox.com/article.nmbx?id=5012

Continuing with the “Abuse to Defenseless Vegetables” theme from last week, the video at Dark Sector shows how to use vegetables to make sounds of bodies being crushed, ripped open and torn asunder. George Spanos and Daniel Creena do sound design for games and show a selection of techniques for getting some appalling effects. NOT worksafe by any stretch of the imagination and probably more than a toe over the bad taste line. but weirdly interesting. Oh yeah, turn up the volume, the celery is priceless.
http://darksectorgame.blogspot.com/2007/03/vegetable-abuse.html

This one was just written for us “Non-productive use of essential software!”, sounds like our brief doesn’t it? Enter stage left (with fanfare). Excel Games — the site for games that you play inside a program the network nazi’s will never ever uninstall. Bejewelled in Excel, bugger, there goes Monday http://excelgames.org/bejeweled.asp
http://excelgames.org/index.asp

SO you read William Gibson’s Neuromancer (what you didn’t??? Go to your nearest bookstore and buy a copy. Right Now, I’ll wait.. OK finished it? Lets continue) and were totally captivated by his cyberpunk vision of the future (some of us were). Well check out Christopher Conte’s portfolio and you can see some of the book bought to life like “Mid-Sagital Skull Bisection,” which sports gears and cogs, a la the Tessier-Ashpool terminal at the end of the book (you did read it all the way to the end?). Thanks to BoingBoing for the heads up.
http://www.microbotic.org/portfolio.htm

And lastly some of the highlights from over at http://notdeadyet.com.au/ this week. A bit of an odd one this week, Alice Russell, the amazing Clothesline revival (you have to check these guys out), Ground Components and Carbon Based Lifeform. All in all another good week. Have a listen.

thatch

{Currently listening to John Coltrane & Loreena McKennit Live at Alahambra (just released. yummy) }
{Currently reading: Gravity’s Arc by David Darling}
{Quick Status Check: Giving up a caffeine and sugar fueled life style. this is hell}
{Crop Circle Status: Roll on May 2007… It’s April already, not long to go now}

Published
Categorized as Mondays

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