Hi,
Every so often I have one of those ‘eureka moments’, my favourite this week was when I discovered that Rolling Stone still had some bite left.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/23140513/the_truth_about_sarah_pa
My favourites are the hockey rink and the meth labs.
And Time had a photo essay on the Francis Bacon Exhibition from London’s Tate Gallery. Damn he was a scary dude.
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1846249,00.html
There is also an article that goes with it.
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1846249,00.html
Which brings us to the high point of the week, Jools and I managed to meet for lunch and then went to the Art Deco exhibition at the National Gallery. It was brilliant. Not take your breath away brilliant funnily enough. I think it is because the Deco look is still all around us and seems to do a comeback about ten minutes after it goes out of fashion. But there were some really nice things to look at.
Sadly there was only time to do one video of MFI’s Lomond gig. But I picked a new song at least.
https://thatchspace.com/2008/09/16/my-friend-ian-a-pub-and-a-zoom-h4/
If you get a chance check out Ian’s “Bland on Bland stuff. It’s really interesting where his head goes
http://ianbland.com.au/category/bland-on-bland/
So on with the sillies…
Lets begin with some IP madness, my favourite laugh of the week is that The Pirate Bay (another group of people who are having just way too much fun) in response to a report from Swedish book publishers about how they scraped TPB’s results for a period of time and noticed that 85% of Sweden’s best sellers could be found on the site, the folks from TPB are threatening to sue the publishers for copyright infringement. Hypocritical? Of course it is. But the publishers don’t have a really strong grip on the moral highgound either. It’s merely making the point of just how silly copyright laws are. The lawsuit isn’t so much hypocritical as it is pointing out the absurdities of such a system to those who seem to think that copyright systems make perfect sense.
http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-clashes-with-book-publishers-080929/
and the other gem is IBM has applied for a patent on a process for identifying markets where there isn’t much patent coverage. Yes, think about the recursive silliness here. The application describes a process for looking for so-called “white spaces,” where there doesn’t appear to be many patents covering a topic in a patent database. Just priceless
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/29/140245&from=rss
TED Talk of the week: I was so blown away by architect Liz Diller and her firm DS+R’s more unusual work, including the Blur Building, whose walls are made of fog, and the revamped Alice Tully Hall, which is wrapped in glowing wooden skin (Having seen the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall on the news last week , they seem to be playing with the same ideas). I love the way she vandalises a gallery with a self destructive robotic drill.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/liz_diller_plays_with_architecture.html
Some odd bits of “Blame”.
Jools pointed out that the Ignobles were last week.
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/081003/full/news.2008.1150.html
and sent along this priceless number
http://haha.nu/misc/get-out-of-the-car/
Next up is AndieL (who we haven’t heard from in a while)
” MMI for you….
CLICK ON THE BALL AND IT WILL CHANGE COLOUR.
Yes it does.
Click here: http://thedogpaddler.com/RandomUploads/Ball/ball.htmAndieL “
It’s seriously good fun.
And lastly from CraigH
“Thatch,
A bit of mind candy.
http://www.redistrictinggame.org/
Will there be a Qld version featuring the good old Bjelkemander?
regards,
Craig “
This based on America, but as Craig points out, we have our share of it as well.
John Lydon more popularly known as Johnny Rotten, yep that’s right the lead singer of the Sex Pistols and later on Public Image Ltd. (PIL) {note to self: Load “Rise back on the MP3 player}, has made his first ever television commercial, an ad for Country Life butter. I’m barracking for the cows. watch the ad – you will too.
I will confess to be ambivalent about Neil Gaiman’s work. It doesn’t excite me in the way a new Neal Stephenson book does (anyday now) but the ideas that he writes about have a great way of hanging around in my head (Neverwhere as a case in point) and surfacing ages later and then I will go “Cool”. Weird huh? So this is all a preamble to point out that Neil is reading his new work “Graveyard Book” book aloud, a different chapter at every stop of the book tour, then the readings are whacked online every day, chapter after chapter. I suspect that this may be a way for me to get into the guy. I am going to download the video onto the iPod and check it on the tram.
http://www.mousecircus.com/videotour.aspx
The “Duggup was a lot of fun this week” bit. Jools fave this week was “Poit¡n”, a celtic band from the Czech Republic (not to shabby either). My pick would have to be “Ladyhawk”, a nice simple straight ahead Canadian rock band, trust me. Have a listen and let me know what you think.
Flash Game Dept: Spatially challenged? Have I got a game for you. Coign of Vantage is weird little timewaster, the game presents you with a bunch of seemingly randomly scattered blocks, but if you move the cursor on the screen, shifting your vantage point, you can find a point at which an image takes shape.
OK, you aren’t going to get it in a minute but it is suprisgly good fun, luckily the game gives you hints on the first few images. Try starting with your cursor in the center of of the game screen, then move slowly. The game is to try to reveal as many of the images as you can in 5 minutes, and you earn back time for quick identifications. Perfect for your Monday Morning/
If you are prone to motion sickness, proceed with care.
http://www.bobblebrook.com/games/coign-of-vantage
Well that’s enough for this week.
Have a good one.
thatch
{Currently listening to Warren Zevon and Missy Higgins}
{Currently reading: Harry Harrison’s Stainless Steel Rat’s Revenge }
{Quick Status Check: Hell, its daylight saving again. what already? (insert rude word here)}
{Crop Circle Status: The total for September is now 8 and in a last minute stand on the Avebury Down, the aliens have seen the 2008 season off with a very pretty one. That would seem to be it for this year but we shall just have to wait and see.
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/2008.html }