Everyone has one

Boobs on Bikes

2006-08-23T17:39:00.000+12:00

Auckland's main street, Queen Street, was disrupted at lunchtime today by bare breasts. The 'Boobs on Bikes' parade processed along the central street of the cbd and provided exactly what it's name would suggest.

Organised as a promotional event in support of the city's 'Erotica' Expo which begins at the end of the week, the parade had achieved it's aim to raise awareness well before a wheel turned or a 'D' cup was removed.

Despite vigorous public debate (and strong opposition from the council) the parade was allowed to go ahead as no specific bylaws could be found to support blocking the parade.

Eminem suggests violent voting?

2004-11-03T16:10:00.000+13:00

To coincide with the US election, Eminem has publicly released his new music video for download from Archive.org. It starts fairly tame and quiet but ends up with the riot inciting vitriol you would expect, making it fairly clear who Mr Mathers will be voting for (or "sniping"?)

IPOD envy

2004-10-26T13:12:00.000+13:00

*editors note: This post got a little long winded. Whatever you do, read the last paragraph and listen to the three tracks at the end

I have just found out that the wonderful magazine Wired is going to have a cd with its next publication. For your average audiophile the track list may only raise half an eyebrow. However a read of the fine print should raise the other half or may even leave you with a deer stuck in headlights appearance.

The tracks are being released under a ‘creative commons licence’ which means – copy, distribute, share as you like…

What the?

No longer should you blush when you mention you have been listening to the latest track (even though the album isn’t released here for another couple of weeks). No longer do you need to perform the sneaky backhand manoeuvre when exchanging mix cd’s, the artists are embracing your passion for their music and your frugal penny pinching. Kinda…

There have been howls for a while now about how the advent of mp3 and filesharing on the internet have sounded the death nell for commercial music but for all their posturing and prosecuting there are many who are adapting. Greenday recently released blank cd packs of recordable cds, each branded with a different one of the Greenday albums, the implication being that: if you are going to copy our music anyway, why not give us a little revenue by buying our cd art. Good idea.

Artists are also releasing their live recordings into the public domain. The practice up to this point has been to release poor recordings. That way you get an idea of what the songs are like but if you want to really enjoy them you will need to go to a concert or buy their album (or get it some other way…). More recently this idea has been turned on its head. Some artists are releasing recordings of their gigs taken directly from the sound desk. While mp3 is a reasonable format for recording sound, a true audiophile with a flash stereo (or a decent set of headphones) will realise that mp3 loses a little something of the original recording. It is for this reason that new sound formats have popped up. SHN and
FLAC are both excellent and you don’t really know how good a live recording can be until you hear it recorded straight from the sound desk into one of these formats. The files are between 3 – 5 times bigger than you would expect an mp3 to be and they require special plugin’s to play. A good starting point for finding these recordings is the live area of the Internet Archive. There is a huge amount of Grateful dead recordings available and a lot of unknown acts. I find the Tenacious D recordings entertaining but I know they are not everyone’s cup of tea.

Now if you have suffered through my awkward ramblings upto this point you are in for a treat. While not strictly as legally legitimate as the recordings in the next Wired magazine, the following mashups are well worth a listen. A Mashup is when two or more songs are remixed together and this is phonic poetry has a two main rules. There should be some sort of link between the samples used and the final mix should give you a strikingly different perspective on the original recordings (rather than just a remix where they speed the song up a bit and add a stronger beat)

About six months ago the now (in)famous DJ Danger Mouse mixed the Beatles ‘White’ album with Jay Z’s ‘Black’ album – the result was the ‘Grey’ album which was furiously downloaded from the internet and created quite a stir. The stir was both because the grey album was quite excellent and because while Jay Z had released an A Capella and instrumental version of his album specifically so it could be used for this sort of thing, the official licensee of the Beatles album had given no permission for their use at all. I would ‘imagine’ all Michael Jackson could say was ‘Bugger’. Heh.

Mashup’s are ‘so hot right now’ and of course with every man and his dog trying to create the next Grey album there is a lot of chaff out there. Here are my three picks for a great introduction to mashups.

Crowded house vs. Snoop Dog – ‘Return of the Weather’
Blur vs. Electric Six – ‘Gay House’
Faithless vs. Eurythmics – ‘Sweet Insomnia’

2004-10-25T18:06:00.000+13:00

Not quite the shroud of Turin... but an eerie resemblance appears as I step out of the hotel shower in Melbourne...

2004-10-25T18:05:00.000+13:00

Downtown Melbourne

2004-10-25T18:04:00.000+13:00

Sign post to the not so secret hide-out

2004-10-25T18:02:00.001+13:00

An afternoon spent at the pub

2004-10-25T18:02:00.000+13:00

Amy and Adrian at the Airport

2004-10-25T18:01:00.001+13:00

Warm up at the start line

2004-10-25T18:01:00.000+13:00

A running tour of Melbourne

2004-10-25T18:00:00.000+13:00

Getting a bit hot mid race

2004-10-25T17:54:00.000+13:00

Running along both sides of the river

2004-10-25T17:53:00.000+13:00

6500ish people after a 10km run in the Melbourne sun

2004-10-19T23:15:00.001+13:00

John ordering Subway

2004-10-19T23:15:00.000+13:00

Make sure there are chilli's on it

2004-10-19T23:13:00.000+13:00

Which one's yours Steve?

2004-10-19T23:12:00.000+13:00

Oh, there's Ving!

2004-10-19T23:11:00.001+13:00

Tina's cheeky kiss

2004-10-19T23:11:00.000+13:00

John was there... "and me" - ving

2004-10-19T23:09:00.001+13:00

Dave and Mat were there

2004-10-19T23:09:00.000+13:00

It was Teri's Birthday!

2004-10-18T21:32:00.000+13:00

It's yo cousin - Dei Hamo

2004-10-18T21:31:00.000+13:00

Fast Crew - say "I do" like Hip Hop

2004-10-18T21:25:00.000+13:00

Deja Voodoo - I would have taken more photos but I was having too much fun

2004-10-18T21:24:00.001+13:00

The Bleeders ... yawn

2004-10-18T21:24:00.000+13:00

That's not very nice...

2004-10-18T21:23:00.000+13:00

Take a deep breath Adrian...

2004-10-18T21:22:00.001+13:00

Happy Birthday Jackie

2004-10-18T21:22:00.000+13:00

"Hey isn't that Chang off the Edge?" - uh sure?

2004-10-18T21:20:00.001+13:00

Yes the drinks WERE free

2004-10-18T21:20:00.000+13:00

You alright there John?

2004-10-18T21:17:00.000+13:00

End of the night

Wanna shiver me timbers?

2004-09-17T01:10:00.000+12:00

For approximately one 365th (and a quarter?) of the population, September 19th every year marks the anniversary of when other people give them presents, and something else that happened years ago that they can't remember. If they are lucky they also get presents around the end of december and depending on their paternal or maternal status; on another day. For those of us who aren't presently gifted (like that one?) September 19th still holds special appeal for another reason- well... with a little imagination and if you're that way inclined.

Sit down and read this next line slowly.

September 19th is International Talk Like a Pirate Day

No, you are probably not mistaken, that is what you just read. But just incase, take a deep breath, go back and read that last line again.

I probably won't need to spend time explaining the intricacies of the International Talk Like a Pirate Day concept so go straight to the print ready pdf of the British official talk like a pirate day poster.

Ok it's a pain writing out 'International Talk like a pirate day' so Im just just going to refer to the day as ITLAP.

If nothing else, you have to read the pirate pickup lines. " Avast, me proud beauty! Wanna know why my Roger be so Jolly? " - one in ten rule?

For those who think that buccaneer lingo is limited to alot of "arrr"s first stop should be the language page of the British ITLAP site. Of special note is the very useful cautionary advice on use of the word 'wench' which is not to be used "...around a lady who be stronger than ye." - word

For the more tragically hip amongst my three or four readers this maybe a good time of year to turn your trendy IPOD into a pirate radio station? Just think of it as your chance to educate the world with your superior knowledge of music that doesn't suck. Actually Ipods are cool and I would REALLY like one. Shameless plug... can some rich corporate fat cat please sponsor this site and give me one? Or can everyone just click on the fascinating links at the top and bottom of this page because after approximately 200 x 500 clicks on those ad things I might have the cash for one!?

Ok be honest, we've all taken one of those joke tests to work out your porn name, well now is your chance to work out your pirate name. Once you get over the fact that it is just another one of these quiz things (what else were you going to do with the next 5 minutes - work?) this one is actually entertaining. I especially like the question "Do others consider you charming?" to which I ticked answer "Phrases like "the pants off" have been known to apply." - actually this is all turning totally pants.

Now here comes the gravy. If my ramblings have somehow stired the dormant pirate afficionado in you, then you must read the official (four pages long) write-up on why pirates are cool. Ok I only skimmed the first page and gave up (I concentration not good) but there is at least a little chuckle factor in there?

so umm... "Ahoy ye squiffy scallywags, I'll see ye all at Glenn's birthday/preITLAP party for enough grog that we be loaded to the gunwales. I hope there is a fathom of lasses there and If ye don't go, ye be a son of a biscuit eater!"?

Shooting for Fashion Police - public enemy No1

2004-09-16T16:56:00.000+12:00

When it comes to fashion, I don’t know a lot, but I know what I like. This shouldn’t be an indication that anyone should look to me for inspiration however. A while back I had a jacket that I bought and being winter I wore it quite a bit. In the mean time I noticed this 70’s leather jacket on an online auction and I got it for a bargain. The first time I wore the leather one, a girl came up to me and said “Thank God you’ve gotten rid of that other jacket, it was hideous.” The original jacket has never been worn again…

Despite this temporary style setback, I am making a prediction… I recently joined a couple of mates trolling the lines of clothes at an op shop and discovered the top half of a particularly Steve Irwin’esque style safari suit. It is a little fitted and has large areas that are overlapping fabric rather than actually being connected. I reckon Safari Suits are THE fashion item for this summer (for guys). Rush out and buy one before they become too trendy and expensive. In the commotion I also bought a pair of super short shorts to kinda match the safari shirt. The combination does actually make me look like the crocodile hunter and makes my accent change to a drawn out aussie drawl “look at this bweeuuutiful creature!”

So there you have it… Of course there are much better places to get ideas for cools threads for guys (did I just type that?). Although they don’t export to NZ, TopMan and FCUK are the biz. For clothes you can actually buy (with a reasonable budget) check out the designer clearance store Bluefly.

Dreaming of electric sheep

2004-09-01T17:45:00.000+12:00

The fantasy of having your own robot is nothing new and while efforts to distil this fantasy into a reality have come and gone I woke up this morning and Sam my robot butler was still not waiting to hand me my newspaper.

Don’t you think we must be close?

The only thing stopping us from making human beings from scratch is ethics yet the robotic helpers that countless cartoons promised me through my childhood have yet to appear. Or have they?

For the more serious minded the ER1 is a reasonable contender. With a lot of work you can program it to get you a beer. This thing called the Roomba can randomly crash around your room while you are at work and do a reasonable job vacuuming but even with the optional remote control (In case you want to feel like you contributed SOMETHING to the cleanliness of your room) it still isn’t what I pictured.

Then came the Robosapien. I’m still coming to terms with the name. It’s hinting at being a little cool and verging dangerously on the kind of names 12 year old boys taunt each other with.

I recognise the early adopter frenzy in the way this guy has written his review of the Robosapien but on watching the attached Robosapien music video (that’s going a little far dude) I’m not convinced. If version two can do some real dance steps like the moonwalk and can actually catch cats rather than just feed them… then we’re talking real benefit to society. (just kidding - I'd settle for the macarena)

Not really another post

2004-06-15T15:23:00.000+12:00

Just checking...

A fresh list of distractions

2004-05-13T16:58:00.000+12:00

Well it's Webby time again. This year's nomination list provides a great distraction from whatever you should be doing. A highlight as always, is the weird nominations and this year is no different.

I don't know why or what it is, but there really is something about Carstuckgirls that is mesmerising. The fascination of human beings with one another especially at times of difficulty is well documented. It is generally believed that we have inherited a primal instinct to be curious about why others are in difficulty - thereby avoiding difficulty ourselves.

From some of the camera angles employed on the site, I have a feeling that it is some other primal instinct that made carstuckgirls both a webby award winner and a people's choice award winner!

A new insanity

2004-05-12T17:11:00.000+12:00

"Wars do not determine who is right, they only determine who is left"

When was the last time you finished watching the news with a smile on your face? When was the last time you could stand to watch to the end of the news?

Fact maybe stranger than fiction but somehow news from the onion seems more relevant than the constant gore-fest in traditional news media.

If you insist on keeping a hand on 'real' news try the great news network for the news that never leads these days.

Keep your chin up!

Everything is different yet nothing changes

2004-05-11T16:40:00.000+12:00

I am sure that every generation has shared this feeling. The ground swelling beneath them as a change whether cultural, technical or just fundamental; reveals itself to them in a moment of clarity. The fact that I could expand on this topic to exhaustion is a symptom of the pace of the change that is being revealed in these days. The music industry is one example in particular that offers great insight.

The traditional basis of the recording industry has been the tight control of talent and material. High profits encouraged the seeking out of top talent, promotion and distribution. No one could argue that this traditional triad of the industry is experiencing evolutionary forces, the only difference of opinion being whether these forces are constructive or destructive.

File sharing vs. new avenues for the discovery of new music talent vs. new avenues for the promotion of old music talent or will we just find surprising ways of finding music we like in ways that prove the revolution continues...

Reality tv - Pop idol - does the public really know what they want in a popular music idol? "Democracy doesn't give people equal say on decisions, it gives them equal say on who will make all their decisions for them" - Shouldn't the show be Pop Producer Idol?

Studio production in the home - Will programs such as Apple's Garageband finally empower everyone to create their own music to their own tastes negating the need for a music industry?