Pump Up the Volume tells the story of the social and cultural explosion that was House. From its roots in Chicago, where it rose from the ashes of Disco, House music became the soundtrack to every fashion show, after–show party, premiere, and club opening around the world. Today, House is used by leading mainstream music stars, from Madonna to U2, to break into new markets and to update their sound. In fact, House has influenced more artists than any style since rock ‘n’ roll. Pump Up the Volume follows the story from Chicago and New York to Britain, interviewing key players on both sides of the Atlantic. It also considers the social impact of House—a sound that has transcended class, race, and cultural boundaries to become the soundtrack of modern popular culture. To celebrate his sixth year of collaboration with Louis Vuitton, Takashi Murakami has created a new animated movie, "Super Flat First Love", sequel to the "Superflat Monogram" created in 2003 and celebrating the new small leather goods in Monogram Multicolore. Why is it that the Icelandic nations have a monopoly of sorts on all most of the minimal electronic music that sounds fresh, inventive, creative, and clever? Take bands Sigur Ros, Kings of Convenience, Mum, Bjork, BOC, Vladislav Delay, Luomo, Ralph Myerz, Royksopp, Erlend Oye and so on. Minilogue is no exception and double down the stakes with their excellent new Animals CD (I hear they have another great CD coming called IMPS). For us simple folks, us day players in the world of drudge and doom, this double disc release is supposedly broken down into one giant journey - disc one is the dance floor side, with disc 2 being the ambient - techno thing. Neither title really applies since the rules go out the window with note one. These 2 guys, Sebastian & Marcus, have a silent third entity in Rob Zohrab from Henge Design who came up with all the imagined, dreamed, and other worldly animals that serve as the inspiration for all the clever tunes. They also penned most of the videos which add another yet celestial dimension to matters beyond the normal scope of top 40 anything. This is the most unusual and exciting CD out this year. No joke. Nothing else like it. If you like adventure, risk, delight, and discover, make it a mystery and adventure to find one and nestle it down into your personal private world of super cool listening parties. Invite some one special to join you. It sounds passe, but these dudes are true originals. The packaging is also superb and runs congruent with everything else this wondrous whole is about. Some of you will understand what I say and will copt to this like a speeding train to an Asian airport. You want release and escape? I did. I found it too. All 2 plus hours of it. And be sure to check out the cool videos for a preview down below, and to buy the tracks, click here. Visit Minilogue's MySpace Made a collection of highly inspiring poster designs that will keep your creativity busy. Some of them are beautiful to have as real posters. Design at its best!
Old School geeks will simply love this new Pixels video made by Patrick Jean which combines many of the vintage and retro video game classics, characters, looks and feel into one amazing music video. This is Patrick’s new project that features Naïve New Beaters “L.A. trumpets” and also many of our favorite video game characters, such as Pacman, Space Invaders and Donkey Kong…just to name a few.Using wonderful special effects and combining the upbeat music, Patrick has made a wonderful nostalgic video that features the old style and pixel look into a realistic suburban city with the Pixels taking over. With so much color, sound and things happening at the same time, I really could not attempt to explain what is going on and just urge you to press play and really soak in this amazing creation. Although it is completely different in style, it is as extraordinary as the 8 Bit Trip Video that was previously seen which combined bright Lego, animation, and 80’s style in one great mash up. Eleven years ago Dave Devries started the Monster Engine project with one single question: What would a child’s drawing look like if it were painted realistically? This month, Dave’s art is being celebrated at the INDYINK gallery where dozens of artists are putting their own takes on children’s sketches. Look for those photos next week. Many more photos here. And just to mention, doesn't this remind you a bit of Tim Burton?
Source: Monsterengine I'm sure you've heard about reverse engineering and industrial espionage -- they are the bread and butter of a competitive tech industry! -- but I had no idea there were firms, such as Chipworks, that specialize in the process. They've just released glorious, revealing details of the Apple iPad's hardware, and a complete breakdown of the new, top-secret A4 processor. For the less-technically-minded, iFixit has a walkthrough for the reverse engineering, too. The pictures and details are juicy -- you can even order a bunch of die photos! -- but ultimately, there isn't anything exciting under the hood. The iPad is merely a large iPod Touch, with almost identical hardware in places. Chipworks calls the iPad 'a giant battery with a tiny [circuit] board attached to it' -- and looking at the picture above, you can see why! So, no real news here I'm afraid, unless you're trying to mollify a Mac fanatic. What you're paying for is a large touch-screen and a giant battery -- you are not buying a piece of 'magic', but simply a large iPod Touch. The devil, as always, is in the software. It would not be the first time that Apple has shoehorned some fantastic software into a shiny, but otherwise lackluster hardware package. In my opinion, the coolest part of this story is that Chipworks tears apart of bleeding-edge technology to produce full, reproducible schematics of a device's circuitry. Nothing is sacred! Source: Downloadsquad For any given product or service, there are a million different ways to advertise its benefits and offerings. The tricky part, however, is matching a brand's intended message with a creative, eye-catching execution that is both interesting and memorable to the consumer. This is particularly difficult when working with billboards, a medium that is so commonplace in our modern world that people hardly seem to notice them anymore. While most companies still struggle to find new, innovative ways to utilize billboards to reach their target audience, some companies have already begun thinking outside of the box. Here is something you don't see every day, pencils that become sculptures! Jennifer Maestre certainly knows how to use pencils when it comes to making organic forms which remind you of what's beneath the sea. Truely inspiring work to behold.
Found a lovely short movie called "Second Wind", nothing exceptional, but certainly relaxing to watch with its magical atmosphere. A must see! |
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