Free Music: Nine Inch Nails, Jane's Addiction & Street Sweeper

Yo music fans! More freebie tunage just released to coincide with the Ninja 2009 tour featuring Nine Inch Nails (NIN), Jane's Addiction and the Tom Morello and Boots Riley (from The Coup) new side project, Street Sweeper.

Just go to Ninja2009.com and get it.

Fight! Smash! Win!

Your Own Private Sovereign Island

Have you ever wanted to have your own island? I certainly... and continue to dream about how to manage that coup. Apparently, I'm not the only one. And these guys make me seem almost normal.

Yes... another Wired article was the basis of this find: Live Free or Drown.

Patri Friedman is Executive Director of the Seasteading Institute. A bit on the kooky side? Maybe. But then again, folks who innovate and otherwise come up with new, cool stuff & ideas generally are a bit wacked out.

The ideas of Mr. Friedman and the Seasteading Institute should appeal to the wannabe pirate and Libertarians alike.

Laptop Graffiti

Whenever I see stuff like these skins, I always want to buy some. Then I almost never do. Maybe this time I will.

Infectious has solid stuff. Although I'm not too hip to the car decals.

The Age of Agnotology

Agnotology: derived from the Greek root agnosis, it is the "study of culturally constructed ignorance". In other words - if society as a whole doesn't really know something accurately, it is often because "special interests" work hard to create confusion.

Sounds like another word for propaganda.

Beware the Corpus Clock

The ravenous locust has always freaked me out a bit. They just look nasty... and they are really spooky when they show up by the millions and decimate your crops.

Good thing the Corpus Clock's Chronophage is just one grasshopper. It's still damn mean nasty looking, and even more so once you realize that it's Chronophage name means "time-eater". It's a play on what is called the grasshopper escapement, apparently a major clock-making breakthrough in the 1700's.

The Wired magazine article about this caught my eye primarily due to the steampunkish design elements. They also have a cool video about the project.

The coolest part yet is that this clock can slow down, stop... and even run backwards. Now that would come in handy in these hectic days!

Kutiman - Audio / Video Mashup Wizardry

I have already evangelized about Kutiman on Facebook and Twitter... so I might as well put down a sermon here about this mashup wizard.

Someone made a comparison to DJ Shadow's first album in describing the kind of music integration that Kutiman is doing, and I think it's a good comparison, both in terms of skill level and overall musical influences. Kutiman, an Israeli artist/musician/hero utilizes YouTube videos, almost all entirely containing video of musicians playing their individual instruments of choice, to mix together both the video AND audio components to create a whole new musical piece. Think of what a DJ does... but he's just combining audio and video elements to create something new and improved.

I am truly blown away by this initial body of work and have been going back to it several times a day to listen and enjoy. "The Mother of All Funk Chords", "I'm New", and "Wait For Me" are my faves thus far... but they are ALL amazing.

In addition to the Thru-You site, you can find additional info about Kutiman on his MySpace page.

Choose Your Own Adventure Movie

Remember the Choose Your Own Adventure books that were around a lot during the late '70's / early '80's? As the reader, you would have to make choices for the main character throughout the story, and your choices would determine the plot and eventual outcome.

The producers of Late Fragment, a group of Canadian filmmakers, add in some viewer-driven interaction that determines how you view the movie by taking you to different scenes, providing additional backdrop, and otherwise providing each and every viewer with a possibly different movie experience.

It's only available at film fests and DVD... I already checked NetFlix ;) Yet another little tidbit that came to my attention from our good friends at Wired magazine -- January 2009 issue. Here is a link to the online version of the article.

Some Assembly Required

I read about this site in the January 2009 issue of Wired magazine:

Some Assembly Required -- tape manipulations + digital deconstructions + turntable creations

I have not had a chance to really give it a solid once over, but it looks like they have a weekly radio show that could be promising on the mash-up / audio collage tip. The primary force behind the show, DJ Jonathan Nelson, also has an album called Emphasis Added that could be of interest.

Horoscope - Cancer - 09.03.15

"You have lots of irons in the fire. Travel or advanced education perhaps? Saturn's presence in your charm and chat room is a handicap, but counter with that voodoo that you do so well: nurturing. As you chew on that one, enjoy a little getaway. A spiritual retreat, perhaps."

Seems like multiple indicators involving travel and/or academic studies. Hmmmm.... I prefer the idea of travel, but I could be open to finding a new area of interest to study also. Where to go for a "spiritual retreat"?

Horoscope - Cancer - 09.03.08

You moon kids play the devil's advocate so well -- particularly in sensitive situations. Is it news that this is one of those times? In other news: You're ready to learn something new by going somewhere new. And someone slightly off-the-wall wants to take you.

Horoscope - Cancer - 09.03.01

Capricious Venus issues a clarion call to Cancers everywhere. Sure, you're goal oriented, but does that mean you can't live a little? Time now for that voodoo that you do so well. We're talking big arena: Travel in the wide, wide world, higher education or even publishing. And that's just for starters.

Innovation Map

I came across this interesting "innovation map" the other day and wanted to share it here. Its shows countries and some cities in a quadrant view that purports to show areas of innovation. Silicon Valley is the obvious powerhouse here, which is no surprise. San Francisco also shows up relatively high.

One of the frustrations you will likely have after your initial glance is -- what the hell are all of the non-named hubs? I certainly ran into this... and then I discovered this site: www.weformihm.org You can launch an interactive version of the innovation map here. Unfortunately, it requires you to think through which variables you want to include in your own version ;)

I would love to figure out what some of the up-and-comers are. Maybe it's time to change venues.