YES! Vinyl is still going strong and is actually been on a steady increase for the last decade and especially these last few years as CD sales plummet. There's about a dozen legit vinyl manufacturing companies still around in the US and they've all doing well. I'm looking forward to talking to these guys and wish them much success! In the meantime watch another good video about how records are made. They only talk briefly about the process but it's still amazing to watch...if you ever get the chance to actually see it in person, DO IT!! I've only visited one plant so far but will visit more when I'm in those areas. If you have any questions about the record making process, feel free to ask me. Or, better yet, ask them!
If you live in the Cleveland area they'll even show you their plant!! Gotta Groove Records
For an upcoming show at the Barbican Art Gallery, French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot has set up an environment for finches to be musicians. By setting up electric guitars to be the only perches for the birds to stand and play on, they are left with little choice but to make music. What's astonishing is that the little birds seem to enjoy it and try to enhance the sound more by using sticks. This is a fascinating exploration into the relationship of music to all living things in the world. I would love to see this but unfortunately I don't think I will be in London anytime in the near future.
If there's one thing that REALLY annoys me it's wires! Yeah, it seems silly since we think that we need them. In my mind, even as a kid, I thought there must be a way to transmit electricity with out wires or at least figure out a better way to power our appliances and gadgets. Well, as luck/fate would have it, Marin Soljacic at MIT has finally got the technology at a point where it will be widely available in the next few years!! I first heard about this a couple years ago on MIT's Technology Review website (it's one of my favorite sites! yeah, so what I'm a nerd.) but at the time it was big and impractical. In addition to just making sense and being more convenient, this could have major impact from an environmental perspective. Of course, companies will not stop putting wires on products anytime soon but in the future we will hopefully see a dramatic decrease in the use of PVC & copper for wires. Wires actually account for a major percentage of PVC consumption. There's also the environmental perspective of just how an area looks. whether in your house or on the street, wires are an unsightly eyesore. Think about how much better Tokyo will look without the wires everywhere!
I could go on and on about this but read about it more on his company's website- WiTricity
Just a couple of months ago I posted THESE amazing flat speakers coming out of Taiwan. And now I see these that were actually published even earlier. I think the ones from Taiwan will actually sound better though but still these are amazing!
A groundbreaking new loudspeaker, less than 0.25mm thick, has been developed by University of Warwick engineers, it's flat, flexible, could be hung on a wall like a picture, and its particular method of sound generation could make public announcements in places like passenger terminals clearer, crisper, and easier to hear.
Lightweight and inexpensive to manufacture, the speakers are slim and flexible: they could be concealed inside ceiling tiles or car interiors, or printed with a design and hung on the wall like a picture.
This is the first time I've really seen this phenomenon on video. Too bad it's such low quality but still beautiful to watch. There's a photographer, I think Italian, who does some great black & white photos of this sort of thing too. Sorry, couldn't find the name in the few minutes I had to post this...was in Seed Magazine about 6 issues ago.
If you're slightly crazy like me, you've thought about the possibility of flat, flexible speakers and if you're even partially out there you've considered paper speakers. Well, our dreams our becoming a reality. Scientists in Taiwan have developed a flexible paper speaker by sandwiching paper and CNTs together.
”Aside from use in family, stereo, or automobile hi-fi equipment, it can also be used in earphones or for industrial antinoise purposes,” says Johnsee Lee, president of Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), where the technology has been under development since 2006.
The device, named fleXpeaker, is basically a sandwich of paper and metal filled with an electroactive polymer that contracts and expands with an audio signal’s electric field.
”It’s soft [and can] easily fit in different curves,” says Ming-Daw Chen, division director of ITRI’s Electronics and Optoelectronics Research Laboratories. ”Therefore, the product customization can be done in diverse fields, such as art for public facilities, interior design,...costume accessories, and others.”
I doubt these will ever fully replace traditional cone speakers but for many applications these will hopefully become the standard. Read more about it >HERE<
Where do people find time to do these things!!?? Oh yeah, I forgot, some people don't have to actually work or pay bills...or just neglect everything to make awesome lego videos like this for 1,500 hours!! (or roughly 4 months of full-time work.
I hope I never need hearing aids but now at least there are options to make my hearing as good or possibly better than before. Plus, I can have music right in my ears via external source- MP3 player, radio, etc... These are attched to your bone behind your ear via small titanium screws that sense vibrations. So, it's basically like dolphins' ears (which have some of the best sense of hearing in all of the animal kingdom by the way). Read more and get your nerd on > HERE<.
Yeah, yeah, yeah...I know this is a little late but I wanted it to be proper and not just a sentence or 2 and 1 song. Nothing against those that did that but as a blog with a main focus on music I think this post deserved more attention.
For most of us soul music fans, aficianados and DJs the last few weeks has been somewhat emotional to say the least. I just wanted to take a couple minutes to reflect. I'll start by saying that I wasn't an obsessed fan like some people are but that I appreciate good music for what it is no matter who it's by. I can say that Michael did have a considerable influence on me as a young kid and of course as a DJ. When I was 6 years old I remember trying to recreate the video for 'Bad' with my friends and play that album back to back on my friends' boombox that was literally about the size of us.
As a DJ of course Michael got PLENTY of play. I think most DJs would agree that the MJ requests did get a bit ridiculous at times and you wished you could go a few gigs without playing anything by MJ. But at the same time you loved making all the ladies happy and also loved playing the forgotten MJ & Jackson 5 songs or just playing their classics in different ways. Don't lie..you know you've played New Edition's 'Candy Girl' just before or after 'I Want You Back'. The point is that there was no escaping the genius of Michael Jackson, he was THAT good! Most of you DJs reading this have probably worn out at least 2 copies each of Off The Wall and Thriller. The constant stream of excellent remixes also kept him at the forefront for many DJs and admittedly, I usually only played remixes of certain songs more than the originals. The 4 Hero remix of ♪"Get It Together", the Todd Terje remix of ♪"I Can't Help It" and the Sean Smith vs. Karu remix of ♪"The Mirrors" are a few of my favorites.
There is no denying that Michael Jackson was a weird guy and struggled with a lot of inner conflict and pain. Yet through all of his personal pain he always gave back to the world. Essentially, he sacrificed his life to giving enjoyment to others through music. No matter what he did, he always gave a lot too the world and was genuinely a good person. Perhaps to his disadvantage he was not too good at explaining himself in interviews. True, he shouldn't need to explain himself but when in the spotlight he was very different off stage. Unfortunately the American tabloids and 'news' media helped to crush his main stream popularity here in the US which caused him to spend a lot of time in other parts of the world.
From the first allegation in 1993, the child molestation charges damaged him severely and I think hurt him immensely. I never believed it. As weird as he was, he was no child molester. Michael Jackson is a man that devoted millions of dollars and thousands of hours of personal time to do good things for children and especially children who had special needs. Children meant the world to him and he truly just wanted to help kids to be kids and prolong a period of innocence. He was often critical of the media for corrupting children too young and honestly just wanted to do for others what he was not able to have as a youth. Every sunday at his Neverland ranch was a free day for children, often from hospitals and charities, to come there and just be kids and feel loved. No individual has personally donated more and been involved with more charities than Michael Jackson. (most famous people are not donating personal money) The American media usually neglected to speak of all the good things the man did around the world...good news isn't really 'news' in America anymore. I can't imagine how hurt I'd be knowing that I only did good in the world and to then be villified. Behind the plastic surgeries, drug addiction and stardom was a good human suffering inside.
The man was a musical GENIUS..absolute prodigy. Most brilliant minded people experience some suffering so maybe it's no surprise that Michael Jackson was a bit 'out there'. It's well known that, similar to Motzart, he heard entire songs in his head before they were recorded and would tape record himself beatboxing, humming and describing every nuance. Even more amazing was his humility and respect for people he worked with and is also known as being one of the best people in music to work with.
Selfishly, most of us would like to have seen MJ live a full life. At the same time people can find solace knowing that he is not suffering. Michael Jackson dedicated his existence to the world through music and humanitarian efforts and we can all learn from his examples, both the good ones and the bad ones. On that note, here's some of the hundreds of great examples of his musical genius.
A great forum of people sharing stories about Michael Jackson > HERE <
Here's a good clip of MJ showing his process of how he starts a song and his writing/anti-writing process...dude was an ILL beatboxer! check it out > HERE <
?uestlove's 132 Michael Jackson memories is good too. Check it out HERE.
Artie Wayne, life long friend of Michael Jackson and all around everything man (seriously, Artie Wayne has done more than you ever will) has posted some good stories and even a lost song he did with Michael.
Ok, back from a little hiatus....I'll be posting a lot over the next couple weeks though to make up for it. I've seen and heard a ton of great things to share but let's start with something that will only happen once in our lifetime. If I had the money I would have flown over there just to witness that.
On July 22 was the longest solar eclipse the earth will witness this century. Unless you were in the right part of Asia you would not be able to see it though. You can find out more about the event from NASA. Speaking of NASA, this eclipse also comes at the same time of the 40th anniversary of NASA pulling off the greatest hoax in history. (the alleged moon landing...ugh, don't get me started on that!!)
I didn't even know there was a video for this until just now. If I ever saw it as a young'n I don't remember and probably didn't even like it back then. This has become one of my favorite songs by Stevie though...too bad the sound quality sucks here because the mix and mastering on this is phenomenal.
Ok...I'd feel bad if you couldn't actually hear the song so I took the time to add this for you.
These images are from the virtual aerial tour done for New York by Australian based firm PixelCase. They specialize in this kind of work and I have to say that I'm super impressed. It's quite amazing really. The distortion features are cool but for some views can be a distraction. Anyway, imagine what the future of this will be!
Remember those dope handmade Audiowood by turntables by FiveTen Studio I posted a few months ago? Well if, not just click that link and check out these other ones by Thai artist/designer DEr' (maybe someone can help with the translation and tell me a little more about him, his design statement or just something worth knowing. In the meantime, those of us that do not understand Thai can just admire the craftsmanship and the idea of turntables as furniture.
WHOA! This is a monster tune! I'd expect nothing less from an early eighties Hungarian jazz/fusion group named Dimenzió. Unfortunately, I do not own this record and have not heard the rest of the album yet. From what I could learn this album, Pepita, is the only album they released. Someone should really buy this record for me! This is the kind of music that vinyl was made for.
This is one of the best things I've seen in the past year. At first glance it just seems like some cool graphics and sound...fair enough. What's fascinating though is that every piece in this series was made using the Processing programming language. The project is curated by the design studio Universal Everything (which does some really nice stuff) and musician Freeform. This is only 2 short clips from the series. Here's an excerpt from the Advanced Beauty website:
"The films embrace unusual video making processes, the visual programming language Processing, high-end audio analysis and fluid dynamic simulations alongside intuitive responses in traditional cell animation. Each artist was given the same set of parameters to work within; to start, finish and exist within a white space, creating a seamless coherence, all sculptures sharing the same white environment."
I really like this firms' work. Their use and understanding of materials & technology to make temporary installations that leave a long-lasting impression on patrons is very impressive. The way they transform a space with form, color and light & shadow is brilliant.
WOW! Remember the cardboard sound cube I posted a while back? (here) Well this is a similar idea just waaaay better! This piece was an installation for 100% Design Tokyo and co-designed by two amazing firms from Amsterdam, Elastik Architecture and Mat Studio. Together these firms transformed a standard shipping container into a very unique and personal aural experience that is meant to be a blissful retreat in contrast to the turmoil of this high profile event in Tokyo.
This is amazing! It takes the idea of the DJ being the maestro to a whole new level. I don't know why there are no turntables though.? These pictures are of the Baby Grand Master. Yes, they this company also makes a Grand Master model! This will be my upgrade from the DJ desk I'm getting from Metro Farm (view post)
Get more info and view more pics at Gardner Post's website >HERE<
I've been wanting to post this for a while now but it's better late than never! Just go buy the new album by Platinum Pied Pipers, 'Abundance'. It's rare in modern music for an entire album to be thorough from start to finish and really hold my attention. Abundance does just that. It's a beautiful amalgamation of r&b, funk, latin and house. The range of emotions captured in the lyrics help to quantify the diversity in the styles of music represented here. Focusing on the talents of lesser known artists solidifies the passion in the songs. From the uptempo single 'On A Cloud' to the more laid back 'Pigeon Hole' and to the club tracks like 'American Pimp' and 'Rocket Science' this album keeps you hooked in for the duration. The only disappointing part is when it ends, in which case you'll likely press play again or flip the record over.
Buy it direct from Ubiquity. While you're at it, buy their first album too if you don't have it yet (which you should).
Yeah, I know I'm late to post this. For those of you that haven't seen this you'll be shocked and for those of you that have seen it you'll still want to watch it again because it's DOPE!! Israeli producer Kutiman used only YouTube videos to create a new album! Kutiman is known for doing some nice remixes and some original material. Even though this project is technically a 'remix' since it's sample based, I would say it's original work because of the rearrangement and the thought process behind this. Sure, this is a great project but you should go buy his album and 7"s.
No, not the animals from Madagascar (and other places). I'm talking about this new music interface. Lemur is like a combination of Tenori-On, Monome and iPhone. Ok, maybe that's a bad description. But the retro-future interface is definitely inspired by Tron and Star Trek. From what I could see in a few short videos, this interface could add to the changing face of music for the better. It can basically do about 5zillion things. (but no more than that) Just go to JazzMutant's website to learn more. And watch the video below..and watch more of the ones on YouTube, you'll be sold on it instantly. You'll see that you can customize it to your liking, add more screens, control EQs, adjust sensitivity, make music on the fly, etcetera...It's DOPE and I want one...
This one is actually a 'real' woman and not android although she may as well be. She is extremely brilliant and beautiful. Her name is Neri Oxman and if you're geek or just into material science, architecture, design or art you already know the name or at least her work. I forget name pretty easily unless I'm reminded again. In this case, when I was reminded it was one of those, "Duh! Of course I know her work!" kind of things. Amazingly, she's still working on a pHD in Design & Computation from MIT. Her body of work is very extensive and her list of awards and achievements is probably as long as she is tall. She's studied all over the world, been showcased in Seed Magazine and featured in nearly any architecture or design magazine around the world, been in shows at museums around the world, spoke at several lectures and somehow stays very grounded. Perhaps it's her medical background and growing up in Israel? In any event, she is destined to become one of the major players in architecture, design and material science in the 21st century. So what does she do?
" M A T E R I A L E C O L O G Y was formed in 2006 by Neri Oxman as an interdisciplinary research initiative that undertakes design research in the intersection between architecture, engineering, computation, biology and ecology. As such, this initiative is concerned with material organization and performance across all scales of design thought and practice. Material is interpreted merely as any physical entity which corresponds and reacts with its environment. As such, it seeks to promote and define a design research agenda which is ecological in nature, in ideology and in material practice; it aims at embracing the evolving elements of change in both (and indeed related) social constructs and environmental descriptions of the ever changing built environment."
For a proper explanation of what she does, just go to her site- MaterialEcology
To see her most current award or project go to her Blog
I can't believe I'm a couple months late on getting this. Usually I'm pretty on top of new releases as important as this but as I've said before...school's a muhfuka! That's still not a good excuse for missing this release... Ahhhh...where to start!! Well, how about with the immediately apparent presence of mostly live instruments...not what I was expecting from Jazzanova but not surprised either. (remember the Sonar Kollektiv Orchestra album from earlier this year?) As producers of quality music, Jazzanova rarely let me down but there's not much they've done that really blows me away or gives me chills. Oh, and keep in mind, these dudes are from Berlin! It seems like a lot of the best soul & funk music is coming from Europe (or at least gets more support there). I have to wonder though...what happened to their sense of album art??!!! Seriously..it's some of the worst album art I've ever seen in my life and I'm being as nice as I can with that statement! hahahaha.. SUPPORT GOOD MUSIC, BUY THE ALBUM.
This is a Buddhist temple in Thailand made almost entirely from beer bottles! Brilliant! Talk about dedication...the local people held a huge 3 day event to drink this much beer which is about a million bottles. There's only 20,000 people in the town so do the math....they even had the kids helping them.
*just kidding...they didn't make kids drink or have a big rager for three days...they were collected over time using Heinekin and Chang bottles.
yes, you're right...I really don't have a consistent 'video of the week' section but if I did this would surely be the video of the week. just watch! This is by a group called Zeitguised and the do some really dope motion graphics for fun and also for big clients. Check out more of their work here
I don't know why I didn't post this sooner but it came to mind since my trip to Japan. (don't worry...you'll see some of the pics soon) It's a video showing the artist, Stephen Wiltshire, drawing a 360º panoramic view of Tokyo..from memory! This is amongst the most impressive things I've ever seen done with a pen or brush. Yes, even more impressive than elephants painting or seeing HeavyWeight artists painting or that video by Blu.If you've seen aerial pictures of Tokyo or have seen how insane this challenge is you can start to realize how amazing this is...if not, just watch and you'll see what I'm talking about. Hint: most of the best artists in the world could not do this if the could see what they were drawing. Oh, and keep in mind this is with ink (no erasing).
I love this kinds of installations that are funtional, fun and question human behavior and consciousness. One such project opens tomorrow in Dale, Norway. People from anywhere in the world will be able to call a phone number and broadcast their message over the fjord for the people in Dale to be annoyed with. Telemegaphone is the pre-project for something larger (and probably more annoying) called Parafunctional Payphones by Unsworn Industries. My guess is that they are going to hate the artist for erecting such a thing. I'm going to get extra drunk just to talk to myself and broadcast it to the people there to let them know I AM their messiah! muwahhahhahahahahahaha... Or maybe I'll just say a bunch of jibberish in a Swedish Chef accent. Yeah, I know they're not in Sweden but does anyone know what a Nordic accent sounds like?! Ya?
Some of you have probably seen this already on the interweb but for those that haven't, it's called Golden Shellback and it is amazing!!! It was developed for the marine industry but somebody there had an epiphany- we all have electronics and get near water. Except for me, I avoid water unless it's mixed with fermented hops & barley. I haven't showered in years either...that's what deodorant is for.
I just saw this and had to post. Some guy in San Francisco has A LOT of free time. So much free time that he built a sculpture entirely out of toothpicks...over 100,000 of them! Just click the link and let him explain why he does what he does.
Big surprise...BMW does something amazing! (again) If you haven't heard, BMW erected the world's largest hourglass in Moscow to unveil it's new 7series sedan. Apparently Moscow is a big emerging market for the Bavarian company. I love how they make something as simple as an hourglass so amazing due to it's scale and complexity. I'm sure this took at least a few months of planning, testing, more planning, more testing, etc.. The even was called 'Never Stand Still' (click that link to go to the site for more pics and video) BMW, if you're reading....HIRE ME! I could definitely help your team come up with some crazy ideas to coincide with your products and brand recognition. Feel free to sponsor me with a new motorcycle or car!
Like most planets, earth too can be a terrifyingly beautiful place. One can't help but to look in awe at the intense beauty and forces that our planet constantly shows us. These pictures taken by Carlos Gutierrez of the Chilean volcano, Chaitin, eruption in May was one for the record books. It spewed ash 12miles (about 19k into the air) and released ash and thick lava for about a week. The most astonishing visuals were seen during a 'dirty thunderstorm' surrounding the volcano.
Read and see more pictures from this event: here here and here
Heather Ackroyd & Dan Harveyhave been doing some amazing art with grass since the late '90s. The most notable being their explorations in photographic photosynthesis. After realizing that the color of grass can vary greatly depending on the amount of light it gets they developed a process to make negatives to allow for this process. Read more about them and their process here
I don't believe what people say about magic not being real. There's tons of pictures and videos of it and now even artists are doing it. Check out German artist Johan Lorbeer. And here's some pictures and even a video from some one's camcorder!! So, you know it's real now. See...told you so!
If you haven't already seen or heard, BMW has developed a new car that uses fabric instead of metal as the outer skin. I don't know why but BMW's design team seems to like fish and sharks...this is seriously the 4th or 5th car from them that makes me instantly think of a shark, manta ray, angler fish or some other type of marine life. Maybe they used a fabric like sharks' skin? If you've never really looked at shark skin you should...it's super aerodynamic but can also work like sand paper in the other direction. Anyway, as a designer this project made me extremely happy: 1- it is really pushing boundaries and thinking way outside of convention 2- it is REAL!! they actually did it!! (this is not just some computer model folks! they made and prototyped this!!) 3- it is promoting people to think about and question their consumption but also about their choices 4- it is a great study in materials and technology 5- it is a beautiful marriage of above and below the surface design and engineering
Unfortunately, this will only remain a concept car. There is only one and will be put into a German automotive museum. You can see some really good pictures of it at AutoBlog.
This is a piece I first learned about a few months ago from an issue of Tokion I was reading. I'm a sucker for real heady art & sound installations and experiments. But I'm especially intrigued by projects that cross into understanding and interaction from the general public. Recently two prize winners of Absolute Vodka's "Absolut Visionaries" initiative built a remarkable instrument. The first part of Absolut Visionaries is Absolut Machines with a multi-layered question "In an Absolut world, would machines be creative?"
Dan Paluska & Jeff Lieberman have built an instrument called Absolut Quartet that receives data that you input from your computer from any where in the world via internet, then teaches itself a new composition no matter how seemingly random your keystrokes seem to be. This part of the project is amazing in itself and would be impressive if it were just generating computer based music but these guys are nuts and took it much further. They liked the sound of a marimba but just having mallets strike the keys was too simple for them. No, they have balls that are launched and strike the notes at just the right time then bounce off. There is also an organ and drum sounds but they are really just in the background.
This is an amazing feat of engineering, design and programming. Figuring out the delay needed must have been a challenge, but then to program each motor to propel the ball at different arcs and speeds with regards to the size & weight of the balls is an entirely different challenge. And, of course, the balls can only hit one note or else it will mess up the sound. Oh yeah, and part of this quartet is wine glasses w/ water or oil in them that turn underneath some apparatus that makes them produce sound. In case, you're wondering, yes, each part of the 'quartet' plays their own part the same as people would. This is like the Telematic Drum Circle on drugs although, that is an interesting piece as well. (you can find that on youtube as well) I'm pretty upset that I didn't get a chance to make a composition on it. Oh well.. Hopefully, I will get chances to work on future projects such as this one.
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