the atrocity exhibition

RIP J.G. Ballard

2009-04-20T09:45:00.001+10:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2009/apr/19/jgballard

Jay-Z @ Glastonbury

2008-07-01T09:04:00.002+10:00

Noel Gallagher said something awhile ago about thinking it wasn't right for Jay-Z, a rapper, to headline Glastonbury, a mostly rock festival. Oh, Noel, leave the shit talking to Liam.

Wonderwall > 99 Problems (mixed with Back In Black)

Girls > American Boy > Umbrella

Big Pimpin' > Hard Knock Life > Heart of the City (over Sunday Bloody Sunday)

Chicago Sports Advertising

2008-07-01T09:02:00.000+10:00

From bad...

...to worse.

when in doubt, just spell it out

2008-06-27T09:46:00.003+10:00

I'm assuming the creatives who made these new Honda ads basically just took lines off the brief and plugged them into a script. And I love them for it.

YouTube dump 27/06/08

2008-06-27T09:40:00.002+10:00

This is the best thing I've ever seen on the internet. May take a few viewings to fully appreciate it. But it makes life worth living.

This pisses me off because I've had a bet going with a friend for awhile to see who would be the first one to make a TV spot with a centaur in it. This isn't the first to do it, but it pretty much ruins our chances for awhile. I also love the stupid line: "It's two things."

This is just really nice.

And now, two very different videos about whales:

garfield minus garfield

2008-05-26T01:25:00.002+10:00

This is what happens when you remove Garfield from Garfield comics.

See the rest here.

Iron Man Cartoon - 1966

2008-05-26T00:06:00.000+10:00

Cop Rock!

2008-05-02T23:45:00.000+10:00

What the fuck is this and how did it escape my attention for 18 years?

Read about it here.

The Artist Formerly Known as Thom Yorke

2008-04-28T19:34:00.001+10:00

Prince @ Coachella 2008

Man, just... man.

2008-04-26T04:09:00.000+10:00

Ryan Adams: Genius or Asshole?

2008-04-26T03:40:00.000+10:00

I made this.

2008-04-22T13:24:00.002+10:00

inside sudan

2008-03-26T21:06:00.000+11:00

Vice goes to Darfur. Five episodes.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5:

the vice guide to north korea

2008-03-25T23:02:00.003+11:00

Part 1 of Vice's video guide to North Korea. Pretty amazing stuff. The other 13 (!) parts can be seen here.

And here's a little history of Kim Jong-Il from GOOD Magazine:

nancy wilson anyone?

2008-03-25T23:01:00.000+11:00

Video for Ladyhawke's "Back of the Van"

the new workout plan

2008-03-25T23:00:00.000+11:00

pretty colours, girls

2008-03-17T23:49:00.001+11:00

southland tales

2008-03-16T15:51:00.003+11:00

I finally saw Southland Tales. It's by the guy who did Donnie Darko. What a fucking trainwreck. It's terrible. But I've always believed that an epicc failure is better than mediocrity. So in that respect, I respect it. I'm not quite sure that it's so bad it's good, but it's definitely worth seeing. I'll watch it again to make more sense of it. The clip above with JT is actually one of the moments that I did like . There were a few good parts, but the sum of those parts amounted a bunch of nonsense.

Here's the first five minutes, which is actually kind of promising:

awareness test

2008-03-13T09:12:00.001+11:00

Pay attention.

piñata

2008-03-12T07:53:00.002+11:00

This ad is brilliant because they don't play down to us and explicitly tell us it's a piñata.

beaver

2008-03-11T18:02:00.001+11:00

hercules

2008-03-10T21:31:00.004+11:00

The video for "Blind" by Hercules & Love Affair, which, by the way, is a terrible band name but whatever. Song rules.

does a body good

2008-03-10T21:20:00.002+11:00

Here's an Australian ad for milk.

And here's the video for that ridiculously catchy song by PNAU.

25 awesome film title sequences

2008-03-06T09:17:00.000+11:00

Part 1:

Part 2:

jollyball

2008-03-06T09:10:00.001+11:00

nifty sheilas

2008-03-06T09:06:00.003+11:00

Here's something my place of business put together for a panel of judges for the ANDY Awards, which met in Sydney last week. So just keep in mind that this was played for some of the most respected people in advertising worldwide.

pop!

2008-03-05T08:35:00.003+11:00

This just looks fucking cool. Shot at 10,000 frames per second.

four capital letters

2008-03-04T21:00:00.003+11:00

Here's the new video for "DVNO" by Justice. It's pretty similar to their "D.A.N.C.E." video, with just a series of designs. But it's pretty cool nonetheless. Kind of like some sort of retro 70s/80s futuristic "Subterranean Homesick Blues".

DMC-12

2008-03-03T00:40:00.006+11:00

I can't stop listening to Stainless Style, a new album by Neon Neon, which is a side project for both Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals and Boom Bip. It's a concept album about John DeLorean, famous for designing the Pontiac GTO, bangin' Ursula Andress and Raquel Welch, successfully accusing the U.S. government of entrapment, and, of course, the DMC-12, as seen in Back to the Future.

Here's a music video for the song "I Lust U", which is actually one of my least favourite songs on the album. Nice video though.

And finally, here's a lovely video about the first shipment of DMC-12s from 1981.

the dying animal

2008-03-02T23:36:00.003+11:00

Here are a few scenes from Elegy, a new movie based on Philip Roth's The Dying Animal. I enjoyed the book, but it's definitely far from his best. Interesting choice to make into a movie.

And apparently American Pastoral is in pre-production, which is exciting. That could be an amazing movie, or a colossal failure. The film adaptation of The Human Stain was mediocre. Of the two other books that have been made into movies, I've only see one. Goodbye, Columbus is pretty decent, but extremely dated. I haven't seen Portnoy's Complaint. It's hard to find and only available on VHS.

there will be milkshakes

2008-03-02T20:47:00.000+11:00

Pretty stupid, but nicely done.

helvetica

2008-02-27T12:01:00.003+11:00

This is a great documentary. Sure, a movie about a font doesn't sound all that exciting, but it's pretty cool.

This here blog is in Arial, which is basically the poor man's Helvetica. But believe you me, if Helvetica was an option, I'd choose it.

Below is a trailer for it. The trailer is just a collection of images, but the movie itself has a lot of surprisingly entertaining interviews with designers.

http://www.helveticafilm.com/

toys for adults

2008-02-27T08:55:00.000+11:00

see below

2008-02-26T09:25:00.003+11:00

summer in sydney

2008-02-26T07:51:00.002+11:00

The New York Times' travel section just ran a big feature on Summer in Sydney.

This is confusing because:

1. The weather this summer has been shit.
2. It's nearly over.

Read about it here and here and here.

muppets take pyongyang

2008-02-26T07:47:00.002+11:00

The New York Philharmonic visits Pyongyang.

Read about it here.

26 types of animals

2008-02-26T01:18:00.003+11:00

I believe this is a graphic design student's thesis. Fonts based on animals. A different animal/font for each letter of the alphabet.

Here are a few:

See the rest here.

makeshift bookshelf

2008-02-26T01:03:00.002+11:00

This Penguin ad has stickers that you can peel and put anywhere, giving you a bookshelf wherever. Cool idea/design, but does it suggest that having books (and displaying them) is more important than reading books? Or is it just saying that you should have books around at all times?

Found here.

2007: album art

2008-02-26T00:31:00.005+11:00

15 album covers I enjoyed in 2007, for whatever reason.

Alphabetically:

dance

2008-02-26T00:13:00.005+11:00

Click here to dance.

must be the moon

2008-02-26T00:11:00.000+11:00

i'm a family man

2008-02-24T19:48:00.000+11:00

2007: film

2008-02-24T19:05:00.007+11:00

01 There Will Be Blood

02 No Country For Old Men

03 Michael Clayton

04 Zodiac

05 The Darjeeling Limited

06 Control

07 Death Proof

08 This Is England

09 Noise

10 Before The Devil Knows You're Dead

look at this dog

2008-02-21T20:01:00.001+11:00

protection

2008-02-20T22:11:00.001+11:00

I have no idea what's going on here. But it's striking.

Found here.

god bless wikipedia #1

2008-02-20T21:57:00.004+11:00

List of fictional South Park species

1 Crab People
2 Gelgameks
3 Genetic experiments
4 Goobacks
5 Jakovasaurs
6 Joozians
7 Lice
8 ManBearPig
9 Marklar
10 Scuzzlebutt
11 Sea People
12 Towelie (Genetically Modified Towels)
13 Underpants Gnomes
14 Visitors
15 Woodland Christmas Critters
16 Xenu

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_species_in_South_Park

feel the excitement

2008-02-20T09:55:00.001+11:00

cigarettes and football

2008-02-20T09:16:00.000+11:00

the $30,000 cat

2008-02-20T08:54:00.002+11:00

http://www.lifestylepets.com/

cadence weapon - the t-shirt!

2008-02-19T23:26:00.005+11:00

I just got this shirt sent from Cadence Weapon's label in Canada.

It shows Ghostface Killah fighting a shark.

"Swim Starks, Sharks!" is a lyric from a Ghostface song. "Stroke of Death" off of Supreme Clientele. And Tony Starks is one of Ghostface's aliases.

It's taken from the real name of Marvel superhero Iron Man, Tony Stark, which, incidentally comes out as a movie in a few months, starring Robert Downey, Jr. as Iron Man/Tony Stark. I'm not a big comic guy by any means, but from what I know and have seen/read of Iron Man, he's one of my favourites. Tony Stark is a raging alcoholic. Great stuff.

If Ghost's fellow Wu-Tang Clan member RZA can score movies these days, I hope they asked Ghostface to do the Iron Man soundtrack, or at least gave the man a cameo.

philip roth's indignation (part 2)

2008-02-19T23:17:00.004+11:00

I found this description on Amazon.co.uk. Sounds like it'll be along the lines of American Pastoral and I Married A Communist, but from the perspective of a young narrator and/or characters. Of course, I could be quite wrong. After all, we know this was written by Philip Roth in 2007, not Philip Roth in 1951. But it'll be interesting to see the perspective from which it's told. At first glance, it seems like it could be about an older Zuckerman/Roth (the father) and a younger Zuckerman/Roth (the main character, Marcus Messner). Also, trying to analyze books based on a paragraph written 8 months in advance of its release is stupid. I'll be back with more on this later this year.

"It is 1951 in America, the second year of the Korean War. A studious, law-abiding, intense youngster from Newark, New Jersey, Marcus Messner, is beginning his sophomore year on the pastoral, conservative campus of Ohio's Winesburg College. And why is he there and not at the local college in Newark where he originally enrolled? Because his father, the sturdy, hard-working neighborhood butcher, seems to have gone mad - mad with fear and apprehension of the dangers of adult life, the dangers of the world, the dangers he sees in every corner for his beloved boy. As the long-suffering, desperately harassed mother tells her son, the father's fear arises from love and pride. Perhaps, but it produces too much anger in Marcus for him to endure living with his parents any longer. He leaves them and, far from Newark, in the Midwestern college, has to find his way amid the customs and constrictions of another American world. Indignation, Philip Roth's twenty-ninth book, tells the story of the young man's education in life's terrifying chances and bizarre obstructions. It is a story of inexperience, foolishness, intellectual resistance, sexual discovery, courage, and error. It is a story told with all the inventive energy and wit Roth has at his command, at once a startling departure from the haunted narratives of old age and experience in his recent books and a powerful addition to his investigations of the impact of American history on the life of the vulnerable individual."

240 pages. Due 2 Oct 08.

you've still got it, kid

2008-02-19T14:25:00.002+11:00

more here: http://media.nymag.com/fashion/08/lindsay-as-marilyn/index.html

sew sonic force

2008-02-19T10:26:00.001+11:00

i found this here: http://catalog.soundsbutter.com/

where the wild things are (or aren't)

2008-02-19T10:15:00.001+11:00

mmm!

2008-02-19T10:12:00.001+11:00

camera phone photo dump

2008-02-18T22:44:00.007+11:00

joanna newsom
sydney opera house
sydney australia
26 jan 08

kanye west
centennial park
sydney australia
16 feb 08

misc

philip roth's indignation

2008-02-18T21:45:00.005+11:00

I just came across a rather recent interview with Philip Roth. In it he mentions he has a new book coming out later this year, hot on the heels of last year's Exit Ghost.

He says it's "not about age, but about students during the time of the Korean War, the title will be 'Indignation.'"

Sounds to me like this fits in with his so-called American Trilogy: American Pastoral, I Married A Communist and The Human Stain. But those books ultimately centered around Roth's literary alter-ego, Nathan Zuckerman, and that character's experience throughout post-WWII America. And Exit Ghost was purportedly the last in the Zuckerman series.

At any rate, you can read the entire interview here. It's a good read. Some nice bits about Obama as well.

afterparty babies

2008-02-18T17:18:00.006+11:00

Cadence Weapon - Afterparty Babies

Cadence "Roland 'Rollie' Pemberton" Weapon is a rapper/producer/DJ/dude from Edmonton. His new album, Afterparty Babies, comes out on March 4 on ANTI-. I guess you can call it dance-rap? I don't know. Genres are overrated.

I don't want to get into too much detail here, but it's very high on my shortlist for likely best albums of 2008. And yes, it's February. But even after overplaying it for nearly a month now, I still can't get enough of it. Best of luck to Rollie.

Download the opening track here.

P.S. How great is that album art?

music like no other

2008-02-18T09:27:00.002+11:00

Not quite sure how I missed this until now. I like this better than the most recent Bravia spots.

the hermit kingdom

2008-02-18T01:05:00.010+11:00

North Korea is so fascinating because it's so mysterious. The other day I was at a map store, because sometimes I go to map stores, and there was a North Korea travel guide. So I bought it, of course. It's the only one available. Worth every penny. The focus is definitely more on history and the general HOLY FUCK THIS PLACE IS FUCKED vibe. But should I ever find myself in Pyongyang, I'll know which restaurants will accept Euros, which is the currency tourists have to use. They're not allowed to use the same money the citizens use, and there was a time when a special currency was printed just for visitors.

The guide is from 2005, but not much has changed since then, so I don't worry about it being out-of-date. A new edition has just been released, but I'm sure it just has updates on the political climate. And I'm not going there anyway. I'd love to go, but I can't. They don't allow Americans these days. It's too bad, because Pyongyang seems like one of the strangest places on Earth.

A collection of great photos can be found here.

And if you still haven't had enough, check Radio Pyongyang out. This is not a joke. Download a track here.

And here are a couple of photos I particularly like:

there will be graffiti

2008-02-18T00:58:00.002+11:00

i found this here: http://laist.com/2008/02/11/there_will_be_g.php

there will be enthusiasm

2008-02-18T00:54:00.004+11:00

WARNING: Don't watch this unless you've seen (or don't plan on seeing) There Will Be Blood, far and away the year's best film. The clip below contains a variation on the final scene.

That said, this is hilarious:

hillary clinton: the future face of america?

2008-02-18T00:33:00.005+11:00