Trick of the light
A few photos from the other day, visiting the Tate Modern with some good friends. The turbine hall exhibit isn’t that good, but never mind, they’ll change it again at some point (although it’s nice that you can go behind it and the kids casting playful shadows near the base of the projection is nice).
More Cowbell
This is funny. If you haven’t seen it before, after this you’ll understand if you ever hear someone say ‘we need more cowbell’.
Umbrellas
Hikaru no Go is just great. Even on topics that aren’t Go.
Foster The People - Pumped Up Kicks (remixed by Butch Clancy)
Wouldn’t it be cool to be as coordinated as this guy.
The Good Fight
A rare moment of communication between the town mouse and the country mouse, and one of my favourite bits from Twin Peaks.
Dale Cooper concludes the scene, as the fantastic translator between worlds.
The Same Procedure As Last Year?
Apparently this is kind of the northern European equivalent of The Snowman, in that it is a much loved year end TV institution. It’s quite funny.
Ponyo
This was on TV over Christmas. Studio Ghibli never fails to amaze, bemuse and entertain, this time on the topics of parenting, falling in love and outright psychedelia. Totally excellent. Even dubbed it was great. But still looking forward to seeing it subbed.
The computer let me beat it soundly. In real life I don’t think I should have got away with this, but it was fun to play anyway. Click through for the full game on eidogo.
This is just awesome. Read the blurb on the back of the book (above). If that’s not a fabulous premise for a story then I don’t know what is.
A really nice, relaxing, intuition-stretching and innovative puzzler. Check out the attention to calligraphic beauty in the instructions. (And the Japanese chapter numbering…)
It’s available on Kongregate and iDevice.
A Small Act Of Rebellion
I found a smartphone on a train, accidentally left by its owner who got off a stop or two previously. Less than 24 hours later it was back in the hands of its owner. This was my reward. Much better than a free phone :)
Why rebellion? It does seem to me that we’re trained to consider almost everything as ‘not-my-problem’. It’s good to rebel against that sometimes.
Instantly Related On The Drop Tower
I went on one of these things for the first time the other day (at night, from the top, it’s beautiful to see the fairground from high above). It’s been years since I’ve been on a roller-coaster, which I guess is the closest I’ve been to a drop tower, and it was unexpectedly sickening: substantial free fall seems to evoke a very hard wired ‘oh no’ response, which is kind of thrilling but also ‘oh no’.
My friends wouldn’t go on the drop tower with me, so I had strangers on either side, but it was funny how without really even talking to each other, just the process of screaming and yelling together on those long drawn out ‘oh no’ moments seemed to get us really related. I almost felt like after the end of the 2 minute ride I was leaving behind new friends (even though we had barely spoken).
Don’t underestimate the power of extreme experiences to create relatedness; for better or for worse :) Thrill rides are the perfect demonstrators for this I guess.
Futurology from 1979, the ITV series of which kickstarted the BBC Micro programme. The rest, as they say, is history.
The book is entertainingly written and peppered with valuable insights about the nature of humanity, technology and the world, but it descends into outright bad science fiction by the time he gets onto the ‘UIMs’ (‘ultra-intelligent machines’) at the end (1991-2000 haha).
So, why is it worth reading such outdated stuff as this? My feeling is that as technology and history evolves, we pass ‘decision points’, whereby society comes to various consensus, the alternatives to that consensus get forgotten, and the consensus becomes established ‘fact’, ‘common sense’ or ‘just the obvious way things should be’. Going back to old thinking reopens our awareness onto the issues that are currently unquestioned, forgotten, assumptions and shows that once upon a time we were choosing between alternatives we’ve now forgotten about. This is a great way to be innovative I think: find past decision points and see if the choices we dismissed in the past have relevance today: often I think they do!
Anyway, the book is worth a read if it falls across your path.
