Just a short one: I googled myself just to see what would come up, and found this. Someone has blogged about a ring I made last year for the Marriage a la Mode project where I had to design and make an unconventional engagement ring. I’m flattered 
Glad to see that someone actually appreciates the ideas that went behind this design.
I have to say, it’s been a personally challenging week, so when Will and Tom asked me if I wanted to go see Thee Fair Ohs and Wavves I jumped on the opportunity. Nice Nice were playing as well but I had no idea who they were so we kinda missed their set, oops. Thee Fair Ohs were so happy, I think their joy was infectious because I was gyrating away to their tropical psychedelic fuzzzz. Click here to read an interview Tom did with Thee Fair Ohs for Dazed and Confused magazine.
Meanwhile Wavves were pure stoner-surf noise, cajoling the already sticky and sweaty kids clad in AA hoodies to mosh and crowd surf. Frontman Nathan Williams asked if anyone knew where to get good weed before playing Weed Demon. Apparently they’re going to have an afterparty (weed anyone?) at the Barfly in Camden with Fucked Up, which I’m clearly missing because I’m here instead uploading free music for you.
On the way home though I ran into the lovely Veronica So of TEETH!!!, turns out they were playing a free gig at the Old Blue. Needless to say I obliged. They played some of their ‘unedited slash unfinished’ new stuff which sounded like something from a really fun video game love song – probably one of their most melodic / poppy tune so far, but still awesome nevertheless. I am a through and through TEETH!!! groupie.
But anyway, here are some good shiz from tonight (and some extra extraz) for you to download, so you can pretend like you were there with me in spirit, getting elbowed and trod on with beer in your hair but feeling really, really HAPPY. Bring on the weekend!
MP3s (click on link to preview, right click save as to download)
1. Thee Fair Ohs – Summer Lake
3. TEETH!!! – Totally In My Way
4. Atlas Sound & Noah Lennox – Walkabout
Make life easy, download the whole lot in one go by clicking here.
Also published at UNKITSCH
I recently saw these amazing series of paintings by Matthew Killick at Viktor Wynd’s gallery of The Last Tuesday Society. Now if you knew anything about me you’d know first hand that I’m crazy about all things underwater, creepy and eerie, though it doesn’t have to be in that exact order. These hyper-detailed paintings are reminiscent of those early days of science where I’d look at a slice of onion or a drop of blood under a microscope for the very first time. Matthew Killick’s love of deep sea diving is probably the impetus for this series, he speaks about it in more detail in an interview.
“Painting and diving are similar activities for me. Both rely on intense concentration and focus, and there is a sense of exploration in both that excites me. When I dive in low visibility conditions, I have a very intimate connection to the things I see. My work gravitated to that type of imagery in a natural way. I didn’t decide to make works that were based on my underwater experiences, it just happened on its own. Since I was young, I had heart palpatations, and during my teen years I learnt how to control them. I put this to use now that I dive, by slowing my heart rate down. This helps conserve air, but also puts me into a focused and meditative state. It is very similar to the state of mind I experience when painting.”
For your added enjoyment, here are some songs you might want to listen to while appreciating Matthew Killick’s creations.
MP3s (click on link to preview, right click save as to download)
4. Tonsstartsbandht – Black Country
7. Matias Aguayo – Rollerskate
Also published at UNKITSCH
Why has it taken them so long to put together two of the most amazing things in life: LEGO and MUJI. If only they were already available for purchase now.. US and European stockists are still yet to confirm their availability. They’re basically coloured pages with pre-cut LEGO-congruent holes on them so you can build more interesting shapes using both LEGO AND paper. There is a range of different box sets that they will come in (are the LEGO pieces included? it looks like it!), each specific to the different kinds of forms you can build. So simple, yet so genius! Now this, ladies and gentlemen, is good design.
In this series BBC’s Channel4 has produced a number of episodes whereby nature’s giants are dissected, studied, and broadcast like never before. The theories proposed aren’t particularly new but they have uncovered substantial empirical evidence regarding evolution. The sheer incredibility of being able to see up close real inner parts of these giants is, to me, a treat in itself. I’ve only finished watching the whale episode but can’t wait to see the rest. They are all on youtube, broken up into 5 parts. I’ll post the first parts to each episodes here for you to start off with, you’ll find the sequel parts probably in the ‘related videos’ section.
The Whale
The Crocodile
The Giraffe
The Elephant
Joy, the whale expert who does pretty much all the work in the episode from slicing the whale open to begin with and later delving deep inside to retrieve various organs (looking almost swallowed by all the bloody blubbery mess) has got to be one of the coolest women out there. When asked by the presenter what she thought was the next step in evolution for whales she said,
” you could never make those predictions because evolution isn’t directed, it has to respond to the environment, who knows what’s going to happen? maybe global warming will turn our whales into something else “
I think I’m going to do some really big blown up photocopy drawings inspired by these giants’ innards. I’ll post them here for you when I’m done so keep a lookout.
On Thursday I went to see Duncan Campbell’s latest film at the Chisenhale Gallery. It wasn’t a mockumentary but it wasn’t exactly a documentary either. I thought it was both witty and fascinating. Below is an excerpt from Chisenhale Gallery’s description of the exhibition.
For his first major solo public exhibition in London, Chisenhale Gallery premieres a new film by Glasgow-based artist Duncan Campbell, co-commissioned by Chisenhale Gallery; Film and Video Umbrella; Tramway, Glasgow and The Model, Sligo. Make it new John (2009) tells the story of the DeLorean car, its creator John DeLorean and the workers of the Belfast-based car plant who built it. The film deftly contrasts the DeLorean dream with its spectacular downfall during a critical period in Northern Ireland’s history, and the canonisation of the car – the DMC12 – as a symbol of the American myth of mobility.
The son of an immigrant Romanian foundry worker, John DeLorean’s natural talent for engineering took him to the top of Chevrolet, General Motors’ most important division. Leaving this behind he persuaded the British Government to back his new venture – building a factory in Dunmurry in Belfast to produce a new sports car. Almost immediately beset by financial difficulties and allegations of embezzlement, DeLorean’s attempts to keep the factory open became increasingly desperate and corrupt, eventually leading to his arrest by the FBI. The factory – which employed 2000 workers – closed in 1982, having produced just over 9000 cars.
As with the earlier works such as Bernadette (2008) and Falls Burns Malone Fiddles (2003), in Make it new John Campbell fuses a documentary aesthetic with fictive moments, using existing archive news and documentary footage from the 1980s as well as new 16mm footage which imagines conversations between DeLorean factory workers. Campbell questions the documentary genre and reflects here on broader existential themes and narrative drives.
Make it new John lasts approximately 50 minutes and will be screened on the hour during gallery opening times.
The exhibition is on until 20 December 2009. I highly recommend it.
I thought this was absolutely hilarious, albeit badly designed. All you sudoku-loving couples can now rejoice because someone has finally, finally recognized and filled this gap in the sex games’ market. The extremely creatively named SudoFUku looks and functions just like any other normal sudoku game, on the surface, with the only twist being that once completed the number tiles can be turned to reveal various sex positions that the couple must without fail enact together. Oh, but only if they can find two of the same tiles consecutively, like in a memory game. Is your boner deflated yet?
Personally I think this is a complete waste of money. Sudoku puzzles come free with the free papers everywhere you go, so if you’re really desperate for some pre-coital number crunching foreplay I think you’re better off grabbing a London Paper or something. As far as sex positions go, how unimaginative and bored must you be to let a game determine what you and your partner should do next? I’d rather blow my £9.95 on a new sweater, or good lube.
We learn to see things before we even learn to think or speak. Languages were invented and devised so we could communicate to one another our visions. Perspective is a word we made up through centuries of different ways of seeing. What would we do without this gift? Blindness explores what might happen should we lose it.
One man’s misfortune at the beginning of the film turns into an all out epidemic of ”white-blindness” that takes over a city and plunges more and more victims into a quarantine site away from the bureaucracy and morality of the real world. In a place where everyone is supposedly ‘equalized’, gangs start to form within the wards as conflicting personalities and priorities clash, resulting in complete chaos. It was a strangely accurate depiction of the nature and history of humanity. There were wars, struggles for authority, murder and prostitution for food before someone decided to revolt and break out of the quarantine site.
Once outside they discovered that the whole world had gone blind. People started to form adoptive families, leaning on one another for support to survive. Out of the chaos comes a new human appreciation for everything previously taken for granted. Everything is shared, everything is less superficial, everyone is simpler and real.
Watching Blindness I was reminded of reading Animal Farm; they are similar on many levels. Bold, disturbing, and enlightening, I thoroughly enjoyed this well crafted piece which boasts a stellar cast that includes Julianne Moore, Danny Glover and Mark Ruffalo.
With the clocks turning back an hour over the weekend, here in London, it only really dawned on me that winter is truly here. I made this playlist to say goodbye to Autumn and to mourn for Summer. Download and mourn with me.
Yo La Tengo. You Can Have It All is the sweetest, most heart wrenching song I’m currently obsessed with.
Banjo or Freakout. Remember LCD Soundsystem’s epic Someone Great? This is a cover of it, it has the same dreamy quality but more staticky and super fuzzy lo-fi.
Trailer Trash Tracys. I only have one song from this awesome band who I accidentally saw live at a warehouse party 6 months ago. More fuzzy production teamed with some pretty sweet guitar riffs and ambient vocals = great for long bus rides or walks in the city.
A Grave With No Name. Probably the cutest band I’ve seen live. The main vocalist was this nervous, apologetic guy who I think had a sore throat on that particular gig, but they still delivered. They like experimenting with looped samples, criss-crossing backing tracks with real instruments and whispered lyrics.
Glass Candy has been around for a fair bit. I haven’t heard enough of all their stuff to know if they’re always as good as they are on Candy Castle but Digital Versicolor is pretty epic too. Apparently they’re so experimental that none of their albums sound the same. I respect that, I like bands that are constantly evolving their sound.
Fleetwood Mac. You must know Fleetwood Mac. If you close your eyes while you listen to Albatross you might actually feel like you’re floating over the ocean, even if just a tiny bit.
Dum Dum Girls. Despite the interesting choice for a name there’s nothing ‘dum’ about this band, who aren’t actually a bunch of girls – just one. She goes by Dee Dee and her “blissed out buzzsaw” music has often been compared to that of the Vivian Girls.
Ducktails. They like to produce simple psychedelic melodies that fail to bore my already frequently ducktailed ears.
Crystal Stilts. Another band I could listen to forever. They are the next Jesus and Mary Chain. There’s no expiration date on this one.
Atlas Sound’s River Card was a track I found on MongoloidGash, my friend’s awesome music blog. It now resides permanently in my favourite iTunes playlist. Dreampop to the max, this song is fantastic for those long 2nd-3rd date make out sessions in the back seat of your car / living room couch. Winter’s here, you’ll need want the body heat.
MP3s (click on link to preview, right click save as to download)
1. Yo La Tengo – You Can Have It All
2. Banjo or Freakout – Someone Great (LCD Soundsystem Cover)
3. Trailer Trash Tracys – Strangling Good Guys
4. A Grave With No Name – Open Water
7. Dum Dum Girls – Brite Futures
9. Crystal Stilts – Spiral Transit
Also published at www.unkitsch.com
Gaspard Ulliel. Look at that face. I don’t need a reason to justify my desire for such divine beauty.
Heath Ledger. I’ve always liked him. Refer to the ‘I Heart Heath’ post for proof.
John Lennon. The Vatican officially ‘forgave’ Lennon in 2008 (25 years after his death) for remarking in 1966 that ‘the Beatles are more popular than Jesus’. I don’t think he would have wanted to be forgiven. He’s so badass, I love his music, and he’s a bit fit.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt. A living, younger, more approachable version of Heath Ledger. Seems pretty dependable, would probably make a good father for our blindingly beautiful offspring.
Richie Tenenbaum, the character. Not so much Luke Wilson the actor, although he’s pretty cool too. If we ignore for a second Richie’s slight penchant for incest, he is the perfect man for me. I have seen The Royal Tenenbaums an exact total of 23 times to this day.
