Monday Morning “Impediment to Productivity” – 20080317

Hi,

I finished messing with the promised recording of “Mad Violet and a Zoom H4”, the problem was that every time I started work on it I would just end up listening to the concert and forget what it was I was supposed to be doing (er. that would be picking a track and editing it), finally I decided to go with the last song of their set as pretty representative of what they do. https://thatchspace.com/2008/03/15/mad-violet-the-front-row-foldback-wedges-and-a-zoom-h4/ I had fun.
I also forgot to mention that back in January, the fabbo Atlantic Monthly magazine has dropped its “pay to play” model, switching its 150 years of archives over to an ad-supported model. So I now have the New York Times and the Atlantic Monthly to feed my information habit. To give you an idea of why I wax lyrical about this magazine read http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200712/afghans, it’s an amazing article and you will sort of see why I like it. http://www.theatlantic.com/

And with the unrepentant soundtrack of ice clinking in a glass of single malt it’s time to “Allez Sillies”

Lets start the sillies with YouTube this week, Jools found this and then sent it to me. I fell of my chair laughing (monitor warning. do NOT be drinking coffee while watching this). In all honesty I had forgotten about this band (Jools now wishes she had)
“You could consider this as a MMI. Every one of the RAC boys has a microphone for goodness sake = I’d hate to be the foldback mixer for this little gig.
Love, Jools
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lNFRLrP014 ”

Cai Guo-Qiang is an artist who in his current exhibition at the Guggenheim merges Mythbusters and Top Gear, performance art with a new matrix of cultural meaning, as he pursues the idea that conflict and transformation are interdependent conditions of life, and hence art. This is especially true of Inopportune: Stage One, Cai’s largest installation to date, which presents nine real cars in a cinematic progression that simulates a car bombing, occupying the central atrium of the Frank Lloyd Wright rotunda.
http://www.guggenheim.org/exhibitions/exhibition_pages/caiguoqiang.html

The video at http://www.guggenheim.org/exhibitions/exhibition_pages/cai.html
documents the incredible installation process of Inopportune: Stage One, which Thomas Krens, Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, says “may be the best artistic transformation of the Frank Lloyd Wright space we’ve ever seen.”
I would so love to be able to see this.

Subterranean Press has produced a free MP3 audiobook of Charlie Stross’s comic science fiction novella “Trunk and Disorderly.” Think P. G. Wodehouse meets Robert A. Heinlein as filtered through Mr. Stross’s sensibilities. You can find out about Charlie Stross here http://www.antipope.org/charlie/fiction/faq.html
You can hear the stories (or download them for you MP3 player here
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/winter-2008/audio-trunk-and-disorderly-by-charles-stross/

Steampunk Magazine Issue 4 is out. I have mentioned this one before. Full of steampunky goodness, stories and biographies, an interview with New Weird shakers Ann and Jeff VanderMeer and makers Donna Lynch and Steve Archer, DIY millinery, making a Jacob’s Ladder, learning to plate stuff with brass, and the straight dope on Victorian trance machines. If you like it, slip them a few bucks.
http://www.steampunkmagazine.com/inside/steampunk-magazine-issue-four/

You so want one of these. I quote from the hype on the site.
“Most doormats are about as interesting as…erm, doormats. And anything that veers from those boring, brown, bristly affairs usually features some twee Stepford-style message. So thank goodness the chic Space Invaders LED Doormat has dum-dum-dummed its way down to earth to inject a dash of quirky cool into the foot wiping arena.”
Gadgets & Tech Gifts
Alright then, I want one of these.

Duggup this week was fun.. Still bouncing around across and following up some little nooks and crannies. continuing it’s eclectic romp through music. So what’s there this week? Jools found Anchorsong (who I also thought were spiffy) and my favourite this week was Josh Ritter. Stroll over and check it out. http://duggup.com.au

Flash Game Time: Spin the Black Circle is this weeks offering. It gets of to a thrilling start with a disclaimer claiming no responsibility for anything you might do out of frustration when playing the game. This turns out to “honesty in advertising” , it is challenging and frustrating game but it’s a hoot to play (and a serious time soak)

The concept of the game is fairly straightforward. Large black hole, green ball, sharp pointy bits and a target. You can rotate the entire circle either left or right, and it moves at a constant speed. Inside the circle is a ball that is subject to the law of gravity, and the object of the game is to rotate the circle to guide the ball past various hazards to the goal.
We wont talk about my pathetic score, but I have a “Jack Kerouac” approach to these things now, “the journey is more important than the destination (read loser.. big time)
http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=27404

Well that’s enough for this week. Have a good one.

thatch

{Currently listening to Nightnoise and }
{Currently reading: Still on the godawful SBS2003 manuals}
{Quick Status Check: Held over by unpopular demand. Micro$cum manuals are hell}
{Crop Circle Status: It’s not long to May now (about 45 sleeps) and the games will begin again. http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2007/2007.html }

Published
Categorized as Mondays

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