For easter we went on a magical tour of tasmania, where we ate and drank like kings. I’ll post some pics soon, and I send many many loves to our hosts. It was beautiful and oh so decadent. And coming back to work was oh so hard.
But then I found these. It’s just packaging, but I am hoping a handbag might be the natural progression. How wonderfully fruity and fabulous. Please, I want. I would be the finest fruit in all the land.
How I wish I could say I had been frantically busy, thus excusing myself from the lack of posts, but to be perfectly honest I have been whiling away the hours before I begin my new job/career at GPYR with a mixture of boredom, excitement and pure terror.
This has, however, allowed me plenty of time to catch up on cleaning, reading and web browsing. Today’s treats are brought to you by the letter C. Keeping me entertained has been:
The beautiful creations of Heidi Kenney, as found on her My Paper Crane blog, have given me endless hours of giddiness. Discovered after I purchased some new kidrobot toys (a dire addiction, with no known cure).
Slightly sillier but just as giddy-inducing are the adventures of the Middleman by Bayat. Ejecting matter from the stomach thru the mouth (previewed below) has to be my personal fav.
Jewellery that looks like tasty tasty food (yes, it is an ongoing theme. Food + cute = smitten)
Fresh and beautiful music by new russian producer Oak. His lush tune Mongoose has him being compared to the likes of ASC, Electrosoul System and Mav, all regular features on my personal soundtrack.
Thank you to Science and Progress for bringing this track (released free of charge and hosted by etiket) to my attention. I have thoroughly rinsed and can also recommend this fine mix by Electrosoul System.
(Interesting also to me that all of these artists are using Myspace as their main websites. I thought myspace was so yesterday. I should really pay more attention.)
And finally, just for lols, the official ranking of offensive words. As the friend who directed me to it said, it’s science. So it must be real.
Happy xmas and merry new year, suckers. Collective decision has dictated that this will be a far superior year to 08 (do we not say that every year, however??), beginning with the fact that oh-nine rhymes with wine and thus my favourite drink shall be celebrated with the slogan “drink more wine in 09″ (TM Fickuss inc.)
From xmas through to now it has been a heady spiral downwards until we were barely crawling, and tbh I am so glad it’s over again for another year. From santa I got a nice pocket knife (for ghetto fights), some socks, a calender, some soap, an optical illusion and a mean hangover and cheeseover. Do you think that Santa speaks Scandinavian of some sort?? That would explain what part of ‘Please, no more presents this year, I am drowning in shit’ that fattie didn’t understand. Next year I shall rehearse it in Norwegian and try again.
I thought the best part of xmas and new years revelry was this:
Yes. Epic punch (in all manner of the word) and the endless emptying of vodka bottles. Ignore the water, that was a mistake.
But then I found this, and xmas got just a little sweeter. Have a fine 09, y’all.
But! Having finally migrated my blog to its new domain and thus being able to install a new and improved version of wordpress (about 80 editions onwards and upwards), I thought I might celebrate by sharing a list of my current favourite things, aka things I am digging in december.
In no special order:
Favourite book:The Boat, Nam Le…. achingly beautiful.
Favourite new series: 30 Rock. A little slow on the uptake, but it means we can indulge in literally hours at a time.
Favourite continuing series: IT Crowd. It.just.gets.better.
Favourite tune I shall admit to: Blaze and Fade Out, Seba (feat. Krister Linder)
Favourite tune I shall not: The Fear, Lily Allen. Because I too want fuckloads of diamonds.
Favourite new blog: nicefuckinggraphics. Not being able to understand a word of it does not detract from the experience at all.
A little self indulgent, but I am so fickle and like to be reminded of things that possess a certain kind of wonderful before they flee my ailing, alcohol sodden brain. And I apologise for the lack of films or artists -- I’ve had a real dud of a month on movies (yes, it’s true), and haven’t met anything to surpass sheone in the last month. But there will be more soon. You know it.
And in the meantime, let me leave you with this fabulous piece of CG alchemy by Vincent Chai and courtesy of dansdata. Enjoy.
As I have mentioned on here before, Stephen Colbert is my hero.
Kanye West, on the other hand is not. Anyone who truly believes he has invented and innovated a completely new style of music (because he sings???), and then chooses to call it ‘Pop Art’ (not to be confused with the visual arts movement….!!!….??!!!) just seems to me to have lost the plot completely.
This guy’s arrogance knows no bounds, and to add salt to the wound, he arrives in Melbourne this Friday with NAS as his ‘special guest’ (read>support).
NAS!!! A don of hip hop and purveyor of my childhood soundtrack! Supporting this whatshisname West!!! Has the world gone mad??!! Have I completely exploited the exclamation mark beyond all redemption??!
Thus, Operation Humble Kanye has brought me much pleasure. This battle of the egomaniacs can have only one winner, and that of course will be Stephen. But I will watch with bated breath (and coy sighs of crush. I love you Stephen! *sexywink*)
Most of you would have heard about the mandatory clean feed that will filter all Australian’s internet for them. How thoughtful of them. We can all now breathe a sigh of relief.
Aside from all indications pointing to the censorship creep having an authoritarian stranglehold on our ‘free media’, this shit will slow my internet down! That pox is slow enough!! (thanks so much, Telstradevilspawn). So, as I know everyone’s greatest concern is the speed of my internet, PLEASE sign the petition here.
As most internet users would be, I am completely incensed by this. If you’re interested, I wrote an extensive essay on why this concept would not work and would cause logistical disasters and benefit no-one. Check it here. I am off to go find some kittens.
As the prospect of having complete creative freedom over my blog looms, it seems ironic that she who could never shut up is somewhat lost for something to write about. Lots has been happening, but my head hurts from too much sauce, so today it’s just about gentle yet fabulous visual and aural stimulation.
This is beautiful, and exciting to watch further integration of film techniques into advertising. In fact, watching how it is made (here) is almost more exciting than the ad itself.
And then there is this. I can’t get enough of this tbh. bwahahhwaahahahaha. Rap genius. I am gonna learn all the words and wax lyrical to my dad. He will be so impressed!
Meanwhile, I am off to find a burger to cure this hangover. Alternatively, please email me your tried and tested hangover remedies to wtfwhyohwhydididoitagain@regretfuldrunk.com. There is a prize for the best one, and yes, it will be booze.
I have read online comics before, but this is ridiculously sensational.
‘Nawlz is an experiment in interactive story telling.’ But it is also beautiful, innovative, moving, and the artwork is phenomenal, somewhere between hewlett and Mr Jago with just a dash of DC. I’m hooked, so stunning it is. And while reading it, it is difficult not to comprehend that this is what story telling will become in the future, an astonishing composition of sounds, words, pictures, movement, one that grows and breathes with you.
Props are due to creator/illustrator/writer and programmer Sutu, Wayne Harris of Phosphor Studios and all the sound magicians who devise the phenomenal soundtrack. Tap it. You won’t be disappointed.
When we talk about new media, we talk a lot about collaboration, about sharing and building together. It’s a new creative space, one that lends itself to remix culture. It is democratisation of the media, creating a whole new world offering the opportunity to improve upon, change, integrate, or otherwise remix the work of others. With new media, the increasing ubiquity of the network, the chance to share, to rework and to collaborate ideas and visions is no longer limited by cost, space and time.
Online creations can be shared immediately, instantaneously, and their digital format allows such data to be presented, copied, modified and transmitted with just the click of a mouse button. The network capabilities of the internet allow for vast accessibility, leading to vast involvement and, if we were to be idealistic, vast synergy – an environment where the whole truly is greater than the sum of its parts. With such a resource at our fingertips, such a complex relationship developing between previously unknown parties, it seems inevitable that at best synergy will occur, and at the least we will see an emergence of the finest media. It is like the whole world is having a conversation, and not only are you having a say in it, but you can choose which bits you think are most deserving of your attention.
The very nature of the internet, its conversational qualities and huge web of networks, lends itself beautifully to an environment of collaboration – of sharing, copying, remixxing, reworking. While this creates a nightmare for copyrighters, it also signifies a new era for media production. We are no longer just consumers of media, we are prosumers – consumers who also produce media – and we are demanding to be heard. And we are not the rich, the elite, the trained and the qualified. We are the public, the average, the unskilled but the passionate, and we are creating the media of tomorrow.
Second Life is one example of our attempts at collaboration – the idea of a world created and modified by all those who exist within it. ‘Existing’ in Second Life has offered us the opportunity to explore some of the benefits, and the disadvantages, that online collaboration offers. Together we have built far more than any of us could have on our own, and in addition we have learnt from each others work and have been inspired by others’ creations. The space (as I have mentioned before) is a safe one, one in which we can explore the possibilities of collaborating in an online environment, with the freedom to do it in our own time, in our own space, from anywhere. But it can also be threatening….surrendering your Second Life-long work to the mercy of others can leave you feeling slightly vulnerable.
Using the web to collaborate can work in a variety of different ways, but its power is undeniable. You might want to arrange a public event or spectacle, and can use the power of the internet to organise, orchestrate and then record and distribute, such as these outstanding flash mobs. More technically, you can use the combined power of your resources. Projects that utilise distributed computing, such as Folding@home, use the network to access the collective computing power of thousands of computers all over the world, which they can then use to calculate anything from a cure to Alzheimer’s disease to the whereabouts of extra terrestrial beings. Then there is online media collaboration, which can range from collaborative blogs and wikis, such as lolcats or wikipedia, through to the more serious and sophisticated productions, such as open source programing and new and revolutionary collaborative media productions, such as swarm of angels, an outstanding exercise in remixing cinema.
Now this is where it starts getting interesting… where we start to see media created, used and shared in ways we have never seen before. The amount of information out there is vast and ever-increasing, and as a result, from online collaboration so too has spawned an environment of emergence. With so many parties involved in creating, selecting, sharing and choosing the media available, we begin to see an emergent media culture arise – one in which the best quality productions, those with the most currency, the most influence, will emerge on top. The organic spread of viral videos and the continuing ability of wikipedia to remain astoundingly accurate are both examples of emergent media – the ability for the highest quality media to rise to the top of the heap.
There are many tributes to this, to the amazing changes the net has brought about in collaborating. This video puts it quite nicely…
Now, in this new creative space, it’s time to start seriously considering copyleft, a new concept in sharing, developing and producing our ideas.
People [and their productions] can have many different goals and values; fame, profit, love, survival, fun, and freedom, are just some of the goals that a good person might have. When the goal is to help others as well as oneself, we call that idealism.
Think about it. It’s an exciting time to start sharing. And this is what’s so exciting about new media, and the collaboration it brings.
I’ve already posted about Ignis Solus, a machinima that inherently changed the way I considered the genre. Yesterday guest lecturer Leo Berkeley came and discussed machinima with us further. As he spoke about why he liked it, why it intrigued him, I felt more and more excited by the possibilities it presented…
It’s fascinating how machinima evolved – from gamers wanting to be able to record their gaming accomplishments to people using the engines in amazingly innovative ways to produce sophisticated cinematic experiences.
Anyone can do it. Use the capabilities (or powers, as I like to call them) of these games to fulfill your wildest fantasies… Your characters can be anywhere, do anything. Shape environments and situations to cater to your every whim. For you are the most powerful person in the world. And that, my friend, is exciting.
