We are now in the future.

So here we are – the day that Marty McFly chose to drive his time-travelling Delorean to in Back To The Future 2.  If only he had told us to stop drilling for oil, the ocean might not be polluted with 76-days worth of BP oil valued at US$3.12 billion… or maybe we’d all know how to hold an iPhone correctly.

On the up side, flying cars are almost here.  Finally.

Still existing on another plane.

Over 1 year after the intial Hurricane album release, Grace Jones releases the 3rd single: “Love You To Life” (live performance below).  The video – apparently influenced by her live performance of the song during the tour – has been co-directed by Why Not Associates and light artist Chris Levine, and is another outstanding piece of visual art which follows on nicely from the disturbingly warped Corporate Cannibal.

The collaboration between Grace Jones and Chris Levine went further with an exhibition titled “Stillness at the Speed of Light”, held at The Vinyl Factory in London.  A hallucinating collection of footage from the Love You To Life video has also been created (view here),  and for the first time, the Hurricane album has been pressed onto vinyl in a limited edition package available for £300.  I’m open to receiving this as a gift.

Also see: Guardian UK interviews Grace Jones, April 2010.
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Big screen social network.

Although I’m (currently) a member of it, Facebook is a service that I’ve found myself questioning more and more.  The endless invitations to lame local events with DJ’s I don’t want to see playing music I won’t like in clubs that are shit doesn’t help.  Neither does being connected with people who feel the need to make every status update about their other half.  Yawn.
The recent stream of news around their insanely complicated and questionable privacy settings has thrown in more question marks.  Sure, they claim it’s been resolved and they’ve made it easier now, but is my information still mine and only visible to me and those i’m directly connected to?
Seeing 26-year old CEO Mark Zuckerberg (worth $4 billion) sweat – profusely – in this video (below) at the D8 conference is one side of him.  There are apparently numerous other sides as well, and there is a movie due for release in October 2010 based on the story of Facebook.  Promotion for “The Social Network” aka The Facebook Movie has started. Cast includes Jesse Eisenberg and Justin Timberlake.  Nothing was selling me on watching this movie – until I saw that it has been directed by the one and only David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club, Panic Room), known for his unique, dark style.  That one fact alone may actually convince me.

UPDATE (July 1, 2010) Teaser has now been released at the official site.  Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor has also announced that he is scoring the film.
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Weekly Wrap: Where to from here?

Another chapter in the Massive Attack Heligoland video series is released: John Downer directs “Psyche” with Martina Topley-Bird on vocals (watch below / youtube / Massive Attack site) ¶ Manuel Tur is the latest to guest on the Bodytonic podcast featuring Pepe Bradock, a Matthew Herbert remix of Bjork and the Motorbass remix of Daft Punk’s “Around the world”.  ¶ Grace Jones‘ Hurricane album lives on with the release of single “Love you to life”, delivered by label Wall Of Sound with various remixes, but it’s the Dub Version that wins, taking the original and spacing it out with reverberations in true dub-style. ¶ Josh Wink is currently on tour to celebrate 15 years of Ovum Records – quite an accomplishment considering the current state of the music industry.  A new 60-minute DJ Times set from Josh is available here and is yet another fine example of what a house set should be.  Meanwhile, his first remix in well over a 12 months (possibly longer) is rumored to be for Gorillaz… this should be an interesting combination.  The animated band’s new video due for release on June 15, so hope to see the remix soon after.   (more…)

How do you like them apples?

Interesting times for Apple Inc: iPads; overtaking Microsoft to become the largest tech company in the world; Steve Jobs’ 90-minute interview at D8; the unusual leaks in the walls-of-secrecy that showcased iPhone 4 before the WWDC on June 7th; not to mention new ventures into mobile advertising which has initiated FTC investigations.
Despite all of this activity around a company that you either love or loathe, my favourite read has been from The Daily Beast, who look at the state of Apple following the firing and re-hiring of their initial co-founder Steve Jobs, and where John Sculley and others responsible for his ousting are now.

“Management tends to be about persuading people to do things they do not want to do, while leadership is about inspiring people to do things they never thought they could.” – Steve Jobs.

Want: A 220 Degree View.

It weighs over 11 pounds, is considerably larger than your average DSLR camera, and (as PetaPixel pointed out) can see behind itself.  This rare Nikon lens was recently available on eBay, and sold for US$34,020.  it’s fish-eye, 220 degree view was specifically built for scientific and industrial work to shoot constricted areas.  More information here.

Another find from the excellent PetaPixel site is The Geotaggers World Atlas by Eric Fischer.  Using statistics from Flickr and Picasa, maps can be viewed with the number of photos taken and tagged in various areas.  The top 100 locations are ranked from #1 New York, Tokyo, London, through to the Grand Canyon (#100).

Weekly Wrap: Losing.

The past week has been dominated by the theme of losing. Friends gathered together on Saturday May 29th to farewell DBMC before they move to London to join Leigh in a much more exciting part of the world. Bon Voyage friends, safe travels. I’m looking forward to reading about your adventures on the re-launched blog!

Gary Coleman and Dennis Hopper both lost their battles to a brain hemorrhage and prostate cancer, respectively.  After seeing Avenue Q only two weeks ago, I wondered if the Gary Coleman-character would be replaced, but it has been announced that he will live on through the show.

And finally, the TV show Lost came to a close on Sunday May 23rd 2010.  6 Seasons, 121 Episodes. The number of people who told me the show wasn’t worth it far outweighed those stuck with it.  Was it worth it? (more…)

P365: A photo a day.

Starting today, I am embarking on a new challenge: One photo every day for an entire year.

Self-imposed rules:
1) A new photo must be taken every day (ie: no photo’s from previous days allowed).
2) Photos can be manipulated/enhanced.
3) Photos do not have to be uploaded each day, but there must be an update to the collection at least once per week, filling in all missing days.
4) If a day is missed, the counter resets.

I’ll be storing the photos here (click Project 365).