Monday Morning “Impediment to Productivity” – 20071119

Hi,

I lost my organiser this week. Well that’s not actually right, it knew where it was, it was me that was lost. Scary to find your auxiliary brain functions have been left in a cab. But my redundancy plan actually worked (sort of). The cabby found it under the front seat and brought it around on Saturday. At least one of us was none the worse for wear.

I mentioned that we saw Ross play last week and that I had taken along my Zoom recorder (I do like my toys). Well I have edited up two tracks so far and put them up at Thatchspace
https://thatchspace.com/2007/11/14/ross-ryan-and-a-zoom-h4-at-capers/
Have a listen and let me know what you think. More as I find some time.
I still haven’t got to Minotaur books yet.

So with a glass of Single Malt (the label came off the bottle) and some ice it’s time to “Alez Sillies”

Actually the BBC has some disturbing news. The price of barley is going up so the price of Scotch is going to rise. My question is does the price rise happen now or in 12 to 16 years time when the “water of life” is bottled and sold to the punters (that would be me). Or is it going to be like petrol and go up in price twenty minutes ago.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/6987208.stm

Over at The New York Times, Walter Salles (he’s the dude who directed “The Motorcycle Diaries”) wrote a great article about “The Road Movie”. He is going to be filming Jack Kerouac’s classic “On the Road”. It isn’t due until 2009 but to get his head into the right place Walter is doing a doco about the book, Jack and the “Road”. He is interviewing people like Ferlinghetti and Gary Snyder (one of my all time favourite poets) for the doco.

There is a transcript of the talk he gave at the Berlinale Talent Campus, in February.(I wish we could see the clips he used to illustrate the talk.
http://www.berlinale-talentcampus.de/story/57/1557.html
And the NYT article. This is a beaut. I cant wait to see the doco and the movie.

Spotted this at Boing Boing.
Mindwebs was a radio series produced in Madison, Wisconsin in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Not really audio drama in the strict sense of the definition, WHA Radio in Wisconsin featured weekly readings of science fiction stories by some of the genre’s best writers. Nevertheless, since many of the readings were enhanced by music, the odd effect and the occasional character voice, you could call them ‘semi-dramatized’ and the guy who does the readings is a bit dry. The stories vary in length, but most will fit a half hour format, which makes them perfect for dropping in the MP3 player for the trip to work or furthering our mission statement here and impeding productivity on a Monday.
Plot Outlines can be found here http://www.otrplotspot.com/Mind%20Webs.htm
The recordings can be downloaded or listened to at the amazing The Internet Archive (now that’s a database)
http://www.archive.org/details/MindWebs-SciFi
Just pick one at random is my bet.

Jools, Jools, Jools. Flash game, Blame time and Da Vinci (Dan Brown at least will be pleased) all in one neat package.
You have all seen the pictures of the Da Vinci flying machine in the Codex, well now you can fly it (sort off. not very well, measly 1356 feet, bloody dirigible)
From Jools.

Drive yourself crazy.
Love, Jools
http://www.largeanimal.com/ecards/the-da-vinci-machine

It’s working. I am going crazy. bloody dirigible, mutter, mutter.

And still on the subject of Blame. Chris and Craig were both quick off the mark recommending this one.
From Craig.

One for the highbrows among us – and all in the name of charity. I’m feeling warm all over already!

(Highbrows? Have you seen the Da Vince game yet???)

From Chris.

now I wasn’t certain about this one for the Impediment, as it does exercise one’s vocabulary, which potentially improves one’s written and oral communication (see?)….which is productivity! ……but then I was going to send this 2 days ago, but got caught up actually playing it…..”impedimentary my dear Thatcher” as Holmes would say. And quite possibly addictive.

http://www.freerice.com/
And according to the UN they do donate the rice. http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=24609&Cr=wfp&Cr1=

Over at http://www.notdeadyet.com.au/duggup/ you will find some new additions to the ever-growing collection. The GoStation and The Fiery Furnaces were my faves and Jools did our first email interview with a young pop muso from Ireland called Eoin. It turned out rather well I think. The song is a nice piece as well.

Jools spotted this during the week, it’s a list of band names and how they came about.
Here’s an example.

ART OF NOISE
Named after the 1913 manifesto called ‘The Art of Noises’ by Italian Futurist Luigi Russolo. Russolo made noise machines, wrote music for them, and also recorded sounds from the environment for musical pleasure.

{DIGRESSION ALERT} About 10 years ago I finally managed to borrow a copy of the book and it was an incredible read. The ideas that he had in the book were and still are amazing. I read a review of a recent “new” music event in New York and will swear that the “new” ideas were 90 years old. What goes around comes around. But I digress (as usual).

Have a look at the list. It’s a great time waster. I like the Led Zep story.
http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/music0_name.html

thatch

{Currently listening to Peatbog Faeries and Blondie }
{Currently reading: Back into the PHP/MySQL manuals}
{Quick Status Check: Going to hell, a day at a time}
{Crop Circle Status: It’s over for another year. “Bother” said a rather grumpy bear. http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2007/2007.html }