explodingdog.com is the greatest thing to ever happen.
The illustrations are hilarious and telling. Highlights include the hilarious and frightening “none of them knew they were robots”, the intriguing “theres nothing wrong with me, i have a fish”, and the heart wrenching “i just want a hug”.
Formerly of IslandEdition.com, currently pursuing fortunes in the big city, Kirby Ferguson lives and he’s setup a radio station at Live365.
If you can stand being swamped with ads (I recommend hiding the window behind other windows), you can listen to Kirby’s fine music picks including:
“Steve Earle, Radiohead, Wilco, Vic Chesnutt, Moby, Richard Buckner, Dandy Warhols, Aimee Mann, Lucinda Williams, and Elliott Smith”
The quote of the week comes from Signal vs. Noise. Commenting on the alleged impending downfall of eToys and the subsequent collapse of online retailing, they wonder:
Ah if only they had spent all of their money on a weather control device instead of advertising…
Ok, so you’re pretty cool, you like Kid A, and you don’t like VH1 or top 40 radio.
Chances are, if you are reading this site, you fit this profile, at least roughly. And, if you fit this profile, chances are you hate the song Kiss Me by Sixpence None the Richer. That’s fair, I respect that (I know matt hates this song).
You shouldn’t write Sixpence off for this song (or their follow-up radio friendly cover). Hear me out. Sixpence None the Richer is a great band. No irony intended. Let me explain:
The band didn’t even plan to include the song Kiss Me on the album. It was a throwaway bubble gum song. The record company thought it would be gold. It was. Can you blame them for that? I can just hear matt saying “Damn right you can blame them!”. Calm down imaginary matt voice. There’s more.
At it’s foundation, Sixpence is Matt Slocum. He is a gifted guitar player, songwriter, and arranger. Their non-single tracks show a smart and interesting U2 influence. About the Kiss Me fiasco, Matt has said: ␄…somedays I feel as if we’ve been pushed to a precipice overhanging the sea of one-hit wonders, and until this next album comes out, who’s to say we won’t all fall in?”.
Matt also “…composed [and recorded] a piece for chamber orchestra two years ago based on C.S. Lewis’ novel The Great Divorce”. How cool is that!?
Want proof that they are worth a listen? It you are not Lars from Metallica, and then search for “This Beautiful Mess” on Schmapster. But first, take 1 minute and 10 seconds of your precious top 40 hating time and watch this video of Leigh Nash (lead singer) and Matt Slocum performing an abbreviated version of The Lines of My Earth.
The Lines of My Earth (performed live by Leigh Nash and Matt Slocum) – Windows Media Player:
IDEO is the über-cool corporation, complete with corporate identity hand made by the logo master Paul Rand (you might know some of his logos: IBM, ABC, Westinghouse), that designed such ass-kicking consumer electronic as the Palm V and the Handspring Visor.
They have a bunch of smart asses working around the clock coming up with cool stuff (just what we need more of, don’t you think).
I particularly recommend checking out the Identity Card Project (see link on the front page) and the space vacuum.
The latest issue of Adbusters magazine is, I think, the best they’ve published to date.
If you have a copy, I recommend spending some time reading Kono Matsu’s scrapbook of the EarthWorks media campaign (Kono is the creative director or Powershift, the marketing wing of adbuster’s parent organization, The Media Foundation). It is a facsinating window into the workings of activism and advertising.
Well done, adbusters.
While perusing an extensive list of MP3s I stumbled across an album that I recorded with my old band Horton’s Choice. We wasted all of our attention spans and money recording the CD and didn’t have anything left over to actually duplicate any.
Bottom line is, there are about seven copies of this CD in the world. Having spent a lot of time and money recording it (don’t get me wrong, it was an incredibly low budget and only took a week, but everything is relative, right?), I offer it to you.
You can download the whole album, tentatively un-titled The Borden-Carleton Sessions, at MP3.com except for one track which can’t be posted on MP3.com for legal reasons (email me if you have high-speed internet and curiosity).
Oh, dear. What does Carpal Tunnel Syndrome feel like?
[UPDATE – added 25 minutes later]
It turns out I only ache when I’m doing boring or unpleasant work.
In addition to having some fine websites, I have recently discovered that Prince Edward Island is also home to some fine tunes courtesy of windom earle.
On an unrelated note, I have stumbled across a full length, high quality streaming Catherine Wheel concert.
Imagine a website where you could:
Then imagine that it’s all easy to find and navigate, quick to load, and resists the temptation of self-indulgent multimedia.
If you are lucky enough to live on Prince Edward Island then you already have a website like this: www.gov.pe.ca. “Website architecture and construction by Reinvented Inc. for the Government of Prince Edward Island, Canada”. I build websites and I fancy myself a fine critic of effective sites. This one is insanely great.