:: GussetBLOG ::

:: Monday, December 31, 2012 ::

Reading List 2012

Although this blog is currently dead it and I don't know if it will ever be revived, it still seems like the best place to collect my annual reading list, so here goes...

Anthony Bourdain - Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook
William Gibson - Distrust that Particular Flavor
Oliver James - How Not to F*** Them Up
Graham Jones - Last Shop Standing: Whatever Happened to Record Shops?
Ted Hughes - Crow: From the Life and Songs of the Crow
John Osborne - Radio Head: Up and Down the Dial of British Radio
Robin Ince - Robin Ince's Bad Book Club: One man's quest to uncover the books that taste forgot [I have a spare copy of this as I got a dumplicate for Christmas. If you'd like it drop me a mail or tweet @dangusset and offer a suitable bad book in return]
Dave Gorman's Found Poetry (Booklet) [bought at a gig but available online exclusively via his own site]
Jason Oberholtzer - I Love Charts [you should buy this because it is (a) very funny and (b) has one of my photos in it]
Ted Hughes - The Hawk in the Rain
Ted Hughes - Selected Poems 1957-1967
Daniel Goldmark - Tunes for 'Toons: Music and the Hollywood Cartoon
Jim Bob - Driving Jarvis Ham
Roger Taylor [not that one] - Art, an Enemy of the People [interesting chapter on early jazz and how the categorisation as art affected it. Didn't convince me that this was necessarily a bad thing although that wasn't it's intention it was implied. Interesting to see the same thing happen again with hip-hop / footwork / juke and any other 'black' music that white people decide to adopt.]

Plus assorted bedtime reading for the little-man, which I can't list in full but included:

Thomas Story Library Ultimate Collection - 65 Books Boxed Set - The Engine Shed Thomas & Friends
Rudyard Kipling - Just So Stories
A. A. Milne - When We Were Very Young
Roald Dahl - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Roald Dahl - The Giraffe And The Pelly And Me
Kaye Webb - I Like This Poem: A Collection of Best-loved Poems Chosen by Children for Other Children in Aid of the International Year of the Child
Rudyard Kipling - The Jungle Book
Robert Louis Stevenson - Treasure Island
Tove Jansson - Moominland Midwinter
Roald Dahl - James and the Giant Peach
A. A. Milne - Winnie-the-Pooh
A.A. Milne - The House at Pooh Corner
Carlo Collodi - Pinocchio The Tale of a Puppet
[sadistic violence in every chapter, who thought this would make a nice Disney film?] Roald Dahl - The BFG
Roald Dahl - Revolting Rhymes
Richard Carpenter - Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac [DNF]
T.S. Eliot - Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
Rudyard Kipling - Kim

And just in case anyone should wish to buy me anything my wishlist is here ;-]

Labels: Literature

:: Dan 31.12.12 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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Stewart Lee - The Perfect Fool
Daniel Defoe - Robinson Crusoe
Stewart Lee - How I Escaped My Certain Fate
Tim Key - 25 Poems, 3 Recipes and 32 Other Suggestions. (An Inventory)
Marcus Berkmann - Fatherhood: The Truth
Raymond Briggs - When the Wind Blows
Bob Dylan - Tarantula
Kurt Vonnegut - Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction
Tara Rodgers - Pink Noises: Women on Electronic Music and Sound
Nouritza Matossian - Xenakis
H.P. Lovecraft - The Whisperer in Darkness (Collected Stories - Volume 1)
Philip Ball - The Music Instinct: How Music Works and Why We Can't Do Without It
R. Murray Schafer - Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World

Plus assorted bedtime reading for baby, which I can't list in full but included:
Tom Baker - The Boy Who Kicked Pigs
Tim Burton - The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy: And Other Stories
Spike Milligan - The Essential Spike Milligan
Lewis Caroll - Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass
Edward Lear - A Book of Bosh: Lyrics and Prose of Edward Lear
Roger Hargreaves - Mr Men: My Complete Collection
Eric Carl - The Very Hungry Caterpillar & The Very Quiet Cricket
Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler - A Squash and a Squeeze, The Gruffalo etc
Roald Dahl - The Twits, George's Marvellous Medicine, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator and Danny Champion of the World

Labels: Literature

:: Dan 31.12.11 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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Back from the dead, gusset blog lives! Please note that this blog has been superseded by the gusset tumblr but that the long neglected gusset.co.uk website is currently undergoing a major revamp, he says hopefully. To whet your appetite for the new year, here’s my traditional annual reading list post and some short commentary.

Charlie Ayers - Eat Yourself Smart Rare I read a cookery book cover to cover but this one has enough of interest to do just that
Dave Simpson - The Fallen I’ve fallen massively for The Fall in the last year or so and this book is an essential guide, if only the editions could keep up with the line-up changes
Kurt Vonnegut - The Sirens of Titan One of his best
Jean-Dominique Bauby - The Diving Bell & the Butterfly Not as dislikeable a character as the reviews would have it, absorbing read
Isaac Asimov - Second Foundation Read out of sheer determination more than anything, little to recommend it
Dr. Paul Parsons, Martin Rees, Susan Blackmore - 30 Second Theories Good bathroom book
Kurt Vonnegut - A Man Without A Country Very good collection of essays and short stories. The opening piece by his son tells a lot.
Lawrence Pomeroy - The Mini Story - Out of print story behind the design classic, for those interested in the mechanics only
David A. Vise - The Google Story Seems very out of date now, things are almost changing too fast here, see The Fallen
SPQR - Identity Protection – Nice little self-published number with some handy fake cash
Bill Drummond – 45 If Drummond isn’t one of your art heroes you should read this and re-evaluate your opinion, in my opinion
Augoyard / Torgue – Sonic Experience: A Guide to Everyday Sounds A dry academic work but a useful reference
Alison Benjamin & Brian McCullum - A World Without Bees They’re gone! No, it’s ok, they’re back again
Carly Wong - Post Box Portrait Another self-published work and one that has got Carly a lot of attention, go girl!
Ernest Hemingway - The Old Man And The Sea My first Hemmingway and definitely not the last
Mark Simmons - Bristol Black & White Beautiful photo book, sadly missing one amazing shot that he dared not include as shown during his lectures, hopefully later editions will right this
Bob Dylan - Chronicles (Vol 1) Fascinating writing style, as engrossing and enigmatic as his songs, I really hope there’s a Vol 2 on the way
Kurt Vonnegut - Armageddon in Retrospect Another great Veonnegut collection, although I’ve read some many this year they are now blurring
Charles Stross - Accelerando A rare abandoned read but I just couldn’t get into this, for too clichéd
J.G. Ballard - Empire of the Sun A brilliant dramatized story but I was a little disappointed to find out later how far it strayed from his real life experiences
Jon Ronson - Out of the Ordinary: True Tales of Everyday Craziness Not one of Ronson’s best but by separating it from reading close to the others (at Spokesy’s suggestion) it was much more enjoyable for it. “MONTY!”
Charles Jencks - Bizarre Architecture Dated photography of crazy buildings
Philip K. Dick - The Game Players of Titan Dick on cruise control but the usual invigorating torrent of ideas
Andrew M. Butler - The Pocket Essential Philip K. Dick Handy reference, although the plot summaries are simplified to the point they all seem the same. Maybe they are?
Kurt Vonnegut - Welcome to the Monkey House Thanks to Sarah for the loan. Some of these stories really stick with me
Louis & Joe Borgenicht - The Baby Owner's Manual The most readable baby care book I’ve found, not the most detailed reference tool but good starting point and easy to dip in and out of
Kevin Meredith - 52 Photographic Projects Lots of ideas to try in future, as childcare permits!
Gore Vidal - Myron Interesting but not amazing, less disappointing ending that Myra and good to see the character back but not outstanding
Kate Pollard - Totterdown Rising Considering the convoluted (and still ongoing!) planning arguments in this area this is a very readable summary of what happened during the road building period of the '60s and '70s and its effects on a community
Kurt Vonnegut - Galápagos Took a while to get into this one but enjoyable
Mary Shelley - Frankenstein Interesting to see all of the character background that is always missed out of screen versions, but light on detail and heavy on the illness and fainting. We may be desensitised these days but there are only so many times I can read that the creature is “too gruesome for words / for human eyes to behold” without getting annoyed that it is never described.

Previous: 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006

Labels: Literature

:: Dan 7.1.11 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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Great post over on the flickr blog of book and library related photos. Some of places I've posted before, some great new finds. Worth a look.

Labels: Literature, Photography

:: Dan 20.1.10 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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It's that time again:

Stuart Maconie - Pies and Prejudice (hangover from last year)
Kurt Vonnegut Jr - Slaughterhouse Five (again)
Lewis Carol - Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
Oliver Sacks - Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain
Kurt Vonnegut Jr - Breakfast of Champions
Stuart Maconie - Cider with Roadies
Naomi Klein - Shock Doctrine
James R. Blandford - P.J. Harvey: Siren Rising
Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons - Watchmen
Hunter S. Thompson - Fear & Loathing in Las Vagas
Larry Elliott and Dan Atkinson - The Gods That Failed
Philip K. Dick - Radio Free Albemuth
Stephen Morris - In Search of Bristol
Richard Matheson - I Am Legend
Frank Skinner - Frank Skinner on the Road: Love, Stand-up Comedy and the Queen of the Night
Geoff Manaugh - Bldgblog Book: Architectural Conjecture, Urban Speculation, Landscape Futures
Sun-Tzu - The Art of War
Kurt Vonnegut - Mother Night
William S. Burroughs - Junky
David Edmonds & John Eidinow - Bobby Fischer Goes To War
Ralph Steadman - Doodaaa: The Balletic Art of Gavin Twinge - A Triography
Gore Vidal - Myra Breckinridge
J.G. Ballard - Crash
Peter Cook - Tragically I Was an Only Twin (ed. William Cook)
Richard Beard - Becoming Drusilla: One Life, Two Friends, Three Genders

2008, 2007, 2006

Labels: Literature, Reading

:: Dan 27.12.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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Some readers may remember I did a stand-up routine a few years ago about Brian Eno being "The One" (like Neo in The Matrix).

Seems someone else thinks he may actually be VALIS (from the Philip K Dick book of the same name, although Radio Free Ablemuth is a much better book on the same subject).

Before scanning that from the Sunday Time Style magazine I searched for an online version. I didn't find one but did find this from last April:

What pop music tells us about JG Ballard
"Author JG Ballard, who has died aged 78, cast a huge influence over the literary world. But for those who have never picked up one of his novels there's another forum for learning about his work - pop music."

Labels: Art, Humour, Literature, Music, Sci-Fi

:: Dan 4.10.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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I remember chess being big news during my childhood in the '80s, around the time I started playing. So it's interesting to see the biggest match, and biggest rivalry, of the era being relived.

"Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov have renewed their old rivalry in a twelve game exhibition match at Valencia. The contest will last three days with two rapid games on days one and two to be followed by eight blitz games on day three."

Channel 4 news gives a nice introduction [video link] including some explanation of the political backdrop.

The rematch so far is reported here.
"Garry Kasparov beat Anatoly Karpov in two games Tuesday at the start of an exhibition chess match marking the 25th anniversary of their first title bout, a grueling event that was eventually ended after five months."

Pierre Garon: How the game of chess lost its soul
"Yet we only know these names today because of one man: Bobby Fischer.
Before Fischer, chess in America was an intensive care unit patient on IV. The title of world chess champion belonged to the Soviets. Then Fischer rose to prominence in the Sixties, and with incredible ease dispatched all candidates to become, in 1972, official challenger to titleholder Boris Spassky."

Coincidentally, I'm currently reading one of the more accessible books about the match. David Edmonds' and John Eidinow's Bobby Fischer Goes to War.

The psychology is interesting. The authors perhaps overplay the suspicions of cheating, the chapter applying game theory to Fischer's unreasonable behaviour is perhaps a step too far, but it's a riveting read nontheless. The profiles of both players early lives make me wonder about the mindset of the grandmaster. The savant like powers of recall make me wonder about how their brains may be differently wired to some other peoples. In much the same way as Oliver Sacks considered musicians in Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. I'd like to see chess get a similar treatment.

The "Living Chess" chapter of the Bobby Fischer book mentioned touches on this, mentioning the similarities in thinking between mathematicians, chess players and musicians. It also quotes Nabokov, who said, "There is nothing abnormal about a chess player being abnormal. This is normal." It goes on to cite some of the more extreme examples, such as Paul Morphy, the unofficial world champion in the 1850s. (The official world championship is generally regarded to have begun in 1886.) Quoting the same book at length:

"[Morphy] also despised the chess 'scene'. While only in his twenties, he descended into a state of paranoia and depression, and became a recluse. Occasionally he was seen wandering the streets of New Orleans, muttering to himself in French. A shoe fetishist, at the age of forty-seven he was found dead in his bathtub - rumour says surrounded by women's shoes."

For further accessible chess related entertainment there's always the film Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine, reviewed here.

Labels: Chess, Literature, News

:: Dan 23.9.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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Heya! It's been some time. I know I may have thrown you the odd scrap of music now and again but that old spark, it just hasn't been there lately has it. I know you have other places to hang out. I hope you understand what a death in the family has done here. But it's great to meet up again, have a drink, chew that fat, catch up on what we would have been chatting shit about if other events hadn't conspired against us.

Did I tell you I attended the BLDGBLOG book launch last week?

[v.o.g.: You mentioned you were going]

Ah, well, I did. And not only did I get a great book out of it, not only did I meet with and chat with Geoff Manaugh, whose a really inspiring guy, not only is there a photo floating around flickr of me sat at the same table as Warren Ellis (I didn't realise that at the time, I was distracted by the woman with him), but I've also come away with some blog based inspiration.

In the introduction to the book Geoff explains that when he started BLDGBLOG he decided that he wasn't going to pour concerns and negativity into it, it would just be for stuff that interested him. Things that made him think, gave him ideas, starting points for flights of fancy. I like that philosophy. I may try to take it on to some degree.


[source here via here]

So what else has caught my fancy?


Shots taken on Czechoslovakia - East border of the eastern German state security (Stasi)
[via www.ustrcr.cz]
Found in the Vice Magazine photography special, which is out now.

Its good to know that The American President is an Ass Man, Apparently

"But seriously, is this not one of the best presidential photographs of all-time? Even Sarkozy looks like he's sneaking a peek, though he's French, so we expect him to do it. However, in Obama's defense, that is a great ass!"

"Solicitors for the National Portrait Gallery are apparently threatening legal action against a US Wikipedia user for downloading 3,300 digital photographs of paintings in the UK museum's collection, and then uploading them to Wikipedia."
[via clayton cubitt]

Cauty - Julie Andrews tip in the Nude magazine sale


Codex Sinaiticus - Home The ‘Draft for Comment’ version of the Bible

Rumours of a Dr Who film

There, I Fixed It

6 Intriguingly Shaped Communities As Seen On Google Maps

My Pinhole camera experiments


"Patti Smith is one of the most anticipated gigs of the week, and the audience the most vocal. … joined by SMZ leader Efrim Menuck on drums and Portishead’s Adrian Utley, who attacks a guitar with a paintbrush to spooky effect."
Festival review: Ornette Coleman’s Meltdown, Southbank Centre, London SE1 | Music | The Observer
I mentioned this to Leafcutter John, wondering if he was aware Ade was at the Polar Bear gig where John had used the same paintbrush trick a few months back. His response was a spirited "Ah, but did he do it better?"

Stylophone Beatbox

Pre-order here

Open Source TIC - ePetition response | Number10.gov.uk
"The Government supports the principle that, where new software is being developed by the Timely Information to Citizens pilots, this should wherever possible be released under open source licence and available for use by other local authorities. ... Where the pilots will result in new software tools, ownership and intellectual property rights will usually remain with the individual local authorities"
Is this not a contradiction?

‘Ghost village’ to be demolished

"A village built in Argyll to meet the demands of the UK oil boom of the 1970s but abandoned without ever being occupied is set for a new role." [video link]

Stuff you've missed on the tumblr
* a whole bunch of new photographers discoveries
* shoes by architects
* a bunch of LEGO stuff inc jewellery, USB sticks and giant Star Wars models
* London Underground Map print dress
* Geek guide to shoe lacing
* The Battleships drinking game

I've also just discovered that Blogger is limited to 20 tags per post.

So what have you been up to? How are things?

Labels: Art, blogs, Copyright, Electronic Music, Flickr, FOSS, History, Instruments, IP, Law, Literature, Maps, Music, Petitions, Photography, Politics, Privacy, Religion, Sci-Fi, Wiki

:: Dan 14.7.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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Bldgblog Book: Architectural Conjecture, Urban Speculation, Landscape Futures (Paperback) by Geoff Manaugh

The BLDGBLOG Book Global Launch Party
Sponsored by Wired UK @ The Architectural Association
Tuesday, 7 July 2009 | 6-8pm
36 Bedford Square, London
Free and open to the public | Cash bar

Labels: architecture, Literature

:: Dan 6.7.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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"We experience spaces not only by seeing but also by listening. We can navigate a room in the dark, and "hear" the emptiness of a house without furniture. Our experience of music in a concert hall depends on whether we sit in the front row or under the balcony. The unique acoustics of religious spaces acquire symbolic meaning. Social relationships are strongly influenced by the way that space changes sound. In Spaces Speak, Are You Listening? Experiencing Aural Architecture, Barry Blesser and Linda-Ruth Salter examine auditory spatial awareness: experiencing space by attentive listening. Every environment has an aural architecture."



"Eusebio Sempere, a respected minimalist 20th century Spanish artist, created a sculpture composed of a three-dimensional array of polished stainless-steel tubes that rotates at its base, as shown in figure [above]. In addition to its provocative visual effect as the moving surfaces reflect in the sunlight, it was also a sonic filter that blocked transmission of particular frequencies. A listener on one side heard a tonal modification of those sound sources located on the other side, the visual equivalent of colored glass prisms. This sculpture is an aural embellishment because it changes sounds that propagate through it."



As referenced in Trevor Cox's Sound Architecture: Spaces That Speak programme on Radio 4 last week, unfortunately no longer availble on the iPlayer. (Although I do have an MP3 rip. Get in touch if you really want to hear it.)

Labels: Acoustics, Literature, Radio4

:: Dan 24.3.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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I was drinking with my work colleagues in John Torode's Smiths of Smithfield on Friday evening. (Rubbish selection of beers incidentally, unless you like a choice of six shitty cold largers when you go out.)

Torode's panda eyed face stares down at you from the cover of his new book from all angles. The book is called John Torode's Beef. This isn't a food based pun allowing the chef to vent his frustrations with the service industry. It really is a book specifically about cooking beef. Part of the trend I am noticing in ever more specific tomes in culinary instruction.

We start with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's brilliant Meat book (and now a Fish one too, Veg to follow?), then progress to one specifically about the meat from one animal, like Beef, eventually moving on to books about individual cuts from specific animals, like the Steak Lovers Cookbook.

Then there's a plethora of Sausage books and complete freaks can even buy cookery books dedicated to Marmite. Guides to combining food and drinks now even cover what water to drink, following the introduction of the mineral water concierge to certain restaurants. I know I already have books dedicated to soups, to sauces, and to home made pasta.

But how far can this trend go? Will we see Making Sausages with Rabbit Shin Meat or What to Eat with Volvic? Or are short snappy titles the order of the day. Coming soon: Offal? Brassica? Parsnip? Eyes?

Labels: Cooking, Literature

:: Dan 11.3.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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I posted about the free-for-all at the Bookbarn a couple of weeks ago. The opening of the doors at the Bristol book warehouse made national news.

The capitalist past of me was offended that all of those books, some of which were mine that I had taken there for them to sell on my behalf, were just being given away. I felt better about this once I'd visited and made up for my losses.

The anarchist past of me loved the idea of the free distribution of knowledge.

The liberal part of me loved the fact that all sections of society were represented, from charities, to students, to squatters with dogs, to opportunistic wheeler dealers, to pensioners with walking sticks, all picking through the mess.

The English part of me loved how polite everyone was. There was no barging, no shouting, no fighting over anything. Just a melancholic air of acceptance of the literary post-apocalyptic feeling that pervaded.

If ever anyone wanted to stage an intellectual coup d’état in the UK all they would need to do would be to spray all the books in a warehouse like this with legionnaires, open the doors to the public and leak the story to the press. You would wipe out every free thinker in the area. I'm sure there's a book in that.*

* Idea published under a non-profit creative commons licence, thank you very much.

Labels: Books, Bristol, Flickr, Literature, News, Photography

:: Dan 10.3.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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Free books at the Book Barn
Hands off! Some of those are mine. I took boxes full of books in there for them to sell over the years, some not long before it closed. I'm quite annoyed about this. =[

Books' free-for-all in warehouse

People have been invited to help themselves to the books

People in Bristol have been invited to help themselves to free books at a warehouse which were left behind when the owners left the site.

Bookbarn's lease on the premises in Arnos Vale recently expired and when the firm moved out it left behind thousands of books.

Managers of the Paintworks site have invited people to help themselves.

This Bookbarn is in no way connected to the company BookBarn International at Hallatrow in North Somerset.

In no way connected? Except that they were sister stores running on the same account so money you earned in one store could be spent in the other. So I feel like they've given away some of my books. So I went down there on Friday and took goods of equivalent value. Felt better after that.

I also bumped into some squatters I know in there, busty loading book cases into a van. Apparently their fifth day on the job! And I got a gig out of it. I'll be playing another Occasional Cinema film night in Stokes Croft on April Fools Day.

Guardian
Daily Mail *spit*

Labels: Bristol, Gigs, Literature

:: Dan 26.2.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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Time for my annual reading round up. This year I have been mostly reading...

Richard Dawkins – The God Delusion
Joe Inglis - The Greatest Cat Tips in the World
Isaac Asimov – Foundation & Empire
Collected works - Dream on: Bristol Writers on Cinema
Mike Alsford - What If? Religious Themes in Science-Fiction
Eugene Byrne & Simon Gurr - The Bristol Story [1.3MB PDF flyer]
Peter Barber - The Map Book
Philip K Dick - The Simulacra
Dominic Bliss - Being the Best Man For Dummies [see this post]
David Gerrold [Ed] - Taking the Red Pill: Science, Philosophy and Religion in "The Matrix" *
Oh No It Isn't – A History of Pantomime *
Peter Lathan - It's Behind You!: The Story of Panto *
Mark Thomas - As Used on the Famous Nelson Mandela
Stanshaw Lem - A Perfect Vacuum
Belio [Ed] – Pencil Break
Brian Aldiss – Brothers of the Head
David Brunner - The Cat Owners Manual
Ken Garner - The Peel Sessions: A Story of Teenage Dreams and One Man's Love of New Music
John Wyndam - Jizzle
Stuart Maconie – Pies and Prejudice
John Robb - Punk Rock: An Oral History **
Troy Paiva - Night Vision: The Art of Urban Exploring

* As mentioned on the September Skip to the End radio show
** As mentioned on the November Goatlab radio show

Labels: Literature

:: Dan 31.12.08 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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A selection of the worlds most beautiful libraries.


HANDELINGENKAMER TWEEDE KAMER DER STATEN-GENERAAL DEN HAAG

Labels: architecture, Art, Literature, Photography

:: Dan 24.12.08 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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We're doomed! Alien-like Squid With "Elbows" Filmed at Drilling Site.



It seems the Kraken has finally awoken.


[About the lego Kraken]

Speaking of which, the Triffids are back too! I'm slightly concerned that 'it is billed as a "fast-paced, futuristic and electrifying take" on Wyndham's work' but I still can't wait to see it. Slow, impending dread is always better. As Simon Pegg explains.

Labels: Ecology, Environment, Lego, Literature, Sci-Fi, Zombie

:: Dan 28.11.08 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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PencilBreak Book, 200 pages of breakcore inspired graphics from all arround the world, edited by Belio.
Release date: July 20th



"A big mashup of the best art and graphics inspired by and for the digital hardcore subcultures we live and enjoy. This book compiles fresh work from more than twenty international artists. All of them share a similar feeling and passion for distorted sounds and graphics. This book is meant to be an homage to Breakcore and other styles of hardcore music and corresponding attitudes.

"This book doesn't pretend to be the bible of breakcore music [so, don't espect to find everybodies faces here!], it's just a visual approximation to what we think it has been one of most fresh musical scenes during the last years. We like so many different kind of music [not only breakcore, of course], but since an aesthetic and conceptual point of view, we want to focus in this scene, because it means to us [and many others] one of the most inspirative influences in graphic creation, and a perfect mixture and remixture of the best ingredients from the culture we lived during the past decades, from the skate style, passing by the postdigital easthetic, breakcore makes fun and re-invented black metal, trash culture, rave, terror movies, 80's, rock attitudes, videogames, tattoos, errors & mistakes, tv, superheroes... and whatever could be saved in your mind during the time you grew up, all twisted... in a graphic tsunami that defines very well a music genre that is based in the creation of something new using all kind of music styles, where you can't always follow a concret rhythm, to be exact, breakcore's definition is where concret sounds or rhythm are the last thing you gonna find."

UK distro via Toy Life
Strike that. I've checked with Toy Life and although Dave does sell Belio titles in the UK he will not be getting this in. Best to order from Belio direct.

Labels: Art, Breakcore, Comics, graphics, Literature

:: Dan 15.7.08 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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Bluff 4-08 Do Pokerbots Dream of Electric Sheep.pdf [190KB PDF] [HTML]

Not a fantastic article but an interesting find. I wasn't expecting to find a PKD article in a poker magazine (Bluff Europe) I picked up when waiting in a Chinese take-away.

Searching around I also found this story from 2005:
Science non-fiction
"Grace was one of 19 robots participating in the conference's 14th annual Mobile Robot Competition and Exhibition. Her job was to entertain the crowd and allow her Carnegie Mellon University team of creators to test how she uses social interactions, rather than sight and sound, to achieve a task -- in this case, finding a team member in a pink hat. ... Across from Grace, an android version of the late science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick sat in a chair candidly chatting about his novels and personal habits. A true conversationalist, he made eye contact and punctuated his remarks with smiles and scowls on his realistic, three-dimensional face -- sculpted by David Hanson, founder of Texas-based Hanson Robotics Inc. ... Nearby, several robots rolled through a section of a hallway, seeking bright balls and stuffed animals as part of a scavenger hunt. The robots had to make their own decisions about how to locate and retrieve the objects using artificial intelligence: No remote controls could be involved, said Paul Rybski, a CMU post-doctoral fellow and co-chairman of the competition."

Labels: AI, Gaming, Literature, Sci-Fi

:: Dan 23.6.08 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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"best vw vyk Female taste garlic stand began colour noon string contain blackboard perhaps not keg act. rv m [spam url] rather low solution city thumb beat example miserly dream depend thousand also excite oak pig."

Labels: Literature

:: Dan 13.6.08 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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Lovely example of spam poetry just received:
good uih f Girls die knowledge move quotient confess beautiful learning brush blackboard snail memory job stay summer.
[url removed] whistle such flame answer began

Labels: Literature

:: Dan 15.5.08 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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