sleepinginmyhead

music monday 14

Back to 1988 today with an all time super classic. This minimalist piece of rhyming, over a super simple beat has been the key track for beginner turntablists learning to beat juggle for as long as i can remember, perhaps due to it's super simple construction. It still stands the test of time as a standalone trackin my opinion, shame they were homophobes, Milk is chillin', Gizmo's chillin', what more can i say, TOP BILLIN'!

Audio Two - Top Billin'

Go find : Wikipedia, Jeru the Damaja doing a Karaoke version!, Jay Slim on the cut.

webwatch 79

hello, want some links?

did anyone see this in milan, i guess it had been taken down before the furniture fair, but i would have loved to have seen it...

who knew jeff bridges was so cool, his hand drawn website absolutely rules!

guide dogs for the blind, i'm familiar with. Guide horses for the blind, i'm not familiar with.

arrrgh this is so frustrating. this site looks incredible, but i can't seem to get very far with it, anyone got any clues, it apears to be for EA games 'burnout 3' game....

gam plus fratesi. Most of the stuff isn't particularly interesting, but their antique wallpaper is quite nice.

I don't do drugs, they're not my thing, but shabu sounds utterly mental, take time to read this account of a 72 hour session.

iranian policewomen. not to be messed with by the looks of things

American sports are only 50% to do with what happens on the field, the spectators form the other 50%. This is very amusing, who throws a pizza? (there's a part one, and a part two)

nintendo get in on the limited-edition-artist-collaboration-bandwagon

These products are the european version of chindogu. It's really nice that you can make most of them yourself. I particularly like the paintbrush doorstop and the summer pedals.

oh, too cool, TOO COOL!

from the top down, surely?

Working in the city is a blessing and a curse. You get great views from the office, but the buildings are constantly being rebuilt or demolished. The building next to ours is currently being torn down, to make way for a new building, not just any new building, but a massive one. I'm no structural engineer, but i was amazed to see how they are tearing it down. I got back from Milan to find that they had started on floor five, and taken out the next two floors, leaving around nine floors hanging in space. It looks mighty unsafe, but i trust they know what they're doing!

brians brain 20

Last year, a family run Japanese temple construction firm finally went bust and was bought by another construction firm. Nothing particularly strange about that except that the firm, Kongo Gumi, was rather old and well established. Actually it was incredibly old, having been continuously trading under the same family since 578AD. That's over 1400 years!

And finally, He-Man and She-Ra tackle a touchy subject. Very odd.

all day protection

Whilst in Milan, a friend of mine bought a pack of gum. We were both amazed by how similar the graphical style was to that used on feminine hygiene packaging. The use of the PROTEX logo just helps even more.

milan 2007

Just got back last night from the 2007 Milan Furniture Fair, one of the biggest shams going. Every designer i know manages to convince their boss that it's essential research, but in reality it's more like a holiday. There are a few things which characterise the trip for me:

drinking too much peroni, preferably the free stuff
bumping into old colleagues and trying to remember their names
working out whether you are more or less succesful than they are
collecting hundreds of catalogues throughout your trip
throwing the catalogues in your hotel bin before you leave
trying to find little black dots on maps of the city
ice cream
endless 'where are you' text messages

I had pretty much the same experience as last year, primarily because most of the stuff on show was the same as last year, but i did all of the above, and got a bit of a tan as a bonus. Here's a few pictures to get the flavour of it.

the end of the world as we know it : using mobile phones to DJ

the undisputed king of the show, Marcel Wanders, collaboration with bisazza

more Marcel Wanders, playing with scale, again.

the ridiculously detailed Mori Tower paper model of Tokyo

Tom Dixon showed his copper lights, again, and i did the Beastie Boys photo, again.

after the Marcel Wanders party. No wonder Via Tortona was so hectic that night.

music monday 13 (innovative tuesday edition)

hi all, especially Mister Mival, i know you're out there! Sorry for the delay, just got back from Milan last night, i will post a little about that later, but on with our scheduled programming...

A friend of mine described 'Fog' as 'lower than lo-fi, perhaps no-fi', which is about as close as i can get. It sounds like a group of blokes just banging stuff and twiddling knobs, but sometimes it really works. They have a new album out entitled 'Ditherer' soon, perhaps the end of summer, but in the meantime, here is my favourite off their first album.

Fog - Check Fraud

Go find: personal site, ninja tunes, myspace

webwatch 78

what up fools?

The globetrotting continues this weekend, as i'm swinging down to Milan for the furniture fair. As i let you down with webwatch 2 weeks ago, i thought i'd get it to you early this time around. I'll give you a roundup of the fair when i return, but have a look at Pol Oxygen in the meantime.

Really nicely shot video, and really fascinating subject matter. You thought your job was stressful.

Samsung concept PC's, interesting but hardly groundbreaking.

really sweet motion graphic piece, visual poetry.

In a world of deception, one man dared to challenge the system, etc. etc. etc. That's Don LaFontaine.

Do any of you remember Nichola Holt, the skinhead from the first Big Brother. Well this should be a cautionary tale for all those 'i wanna be famous' idiots who apply every year.

Serge Gainsbourg is so far from smooth.

This could be cute: On June 15, 1957, a new gold and white 1957 Plymouth Belvedere Sport Coupe was buried in a time capsule in downtown Tulsa. On June 15 2007, they're gonna dig it up!

Sean Duffy makes some lovely sculptures, but this one looks just like the QBert QFO deck from Vestax...

Holy shit, the 'tripwhip' is a reality....

I don't like the Black Eyed Peas, as you might know, so i was chuffed to see Alanis Morisette has been taking the piss out of them.

brians brain 19

Before the internet, before fax machines and before telex machines there were vacuum tubes. The great cities of the Victorian era, all fitted systems some over 400km long. Capsules filled with important documents would zip through the city at the then breathtaking speed of 35kph. One of the last such system in regular use was in Prague. It's vacuum tube system was a paltry 60km of steel pipes but compensated by having some fantastic brass control panels. Sadly the system was disabled by the floods of 2002.

Slightly over enthusiastic engineers even dreamed of transporting people in huge versions of the system. Thankfully they were unsuccessful, I shudder to think of the problems the District line would have if it was vacuum powered.

On another note, you know my penchant for old tech, well I've hit the mother lode !
"L'équipe EndlessFlyers" are planning to cross the channel in/on/under a pedal powered airship.

Airships...check
Human power...check
Pointlessness...check
Euro pop...check

Ok not the Euro pop

music monday 12

I first heard 'Thou shalt always kill' on a mix downloaded from the sometimes excellent Fluokids blog (yes, some of it is in French). It's been getting a fair bit of coverage since then, and ignoring the first three 'Fatboy Slim-esque' beats, it's a good tune. There are too many great lines to pick one out in particular, but the 'is it?' line at the end gets me most times. The video is good too, have a look here.

Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip - Thou shalt always kill

Go find: Bleep, myspace