I walked home today and passed a guy delivering huge stacks of white and yellow pages directories to apartment buildings all the way along my street. It increasingly seems like a huge waste of paper and distribution – I’m sure there are demographic groups who still find use for these tomes, but every year they seem more and more redundant.

Time for an opt-in process?

It’s just a prompt to remember where it was.

There’s something poetic about these sights though. I’ve thought quite a few times about doing something with them all.

One moment it was bright and sunny.

The next, dark and apocalyptic.

It was bright and early. But some trick of the focus makes the photo look like it’s night, and there’s something in the white perfection that looks like computer animation. Trust me, it’s not.

It’s actually more than that. Eva Dijkstra and Michael Lugmayr’s Surry Hills based Infographiti work “explores the aesthetic potential of the graph as a work of abstract generative art.” I love the blurry space between art and science, and this concept of data-generated artworks and installations is right there.

Captivating talks by Intel’s Genevieve Bell and NYU’s Jay Rosen (in the pic above) – more here on Jay’s talk, here’s how it looked in my tweet stream.

Off to see @jayrosren_nyu talk

“news is arbitrary, improvised due to drive of production routines”

“what happens when production revolutionised by web?”

“what if your laptop got updates for software you don’t have installed? This is what news does every day”

“Stories like This American Life’s Giant Pool of Money ‘install the software’ to fire that interest”

Need understanding of big picture before you’ll be interested in incremental news

“journalists should be producing public understanding, not just incremental updates”

@jayrosen_nyu calls for ABC to create backgrounder for topical areas of news – extension to Background Brief?

Puts hand up RT @matt_levinson: @jayrosen_nyu calls ABC to create backgrounder for topical areas of news – extension to Background Brief?

“do things like NYT’s Topics pages and Google’s Living Stories actually help improve understanding?”

Someone just commented on “anthopomorphic” climate change. Obviously a mistake, but ironically encapsulates the issue.

To go see another @jayrosen_nyu talk or get lunch?

@isabel_lo I think it’s going to be a late lunch!

@tmgrimson yes, giving several talks today. on journalists as explainers, citizen journalism, and business models. just the little stuff.

RT: @girlinblack From the Accidental Art file: @matt_levinson’s twitpic from a @jayrosen_nyu talk he’s sitting in right now: http://twitpic.com/2e6wxy

“NYT introduced ‘geek squad’ of 50 to newsroom – clever way of changing to more collaborative culture”

“The Guardian able to be nimble because it’s a trust – needs to ensure sustainable future, despite mid term risks”

Lots of questions about Assange and WikiLeaks – “first global media org”? Anarchist? Hacker? Adaptive to say the least.

“have to find places where closed systems (media – verification) and open (accessible, participatory) work best”

“a journalist is just a heightened case of an informed citizen”

It’s been a while since I last posted, so here’s to another roundup of music and other things taking my fancy. The European sampler from Cyclic Defrost is unsurprisingly great. If you want to read more, check my review at Stylus. But the short version is: the track from Pivot is amazing and I’m dying to hear their new album, Francis Plagne, Inchtime and Saddleback are brilliant too. The rest is great, but those were the ones that surprised and thrilled me.
Everyone’s been waiting for Bugz to drop the first big broken beat crossover, but maybe Royskopp have beaten them to it. 49%, on their new album, The Understanding, pastes a huge garage vocal ala Robert Owens onto a Maddslinky-style rocking chair beat. Those Norwegians also worked on their countryperson Annie’s debut album. She’s been around for a while, releasing singles that everyone from electroclash and househeads through to indie kids get hyped about. Her new album reminds me of that moment, 1am, drunk, at some dodgy bar, and dancing to Madonna, when you start to think that the conically breasted New Yorker is alright. It’s kinda like St. Etienne and Madonna with a touch of Robbie Williams, doesn’t sound like my usual thing, but there you go. By the way, the new St. Etienne album’s quite listenable too. It’s no So Tough, but it’s not that forgettable last one either. Did Brett Anderson get back together with Bernard Butler? The first song on the Tear’s new album sounds like vintage Suede.
The new records from The Chap, Nudge, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, The Legends, 2400W and I’m Not A Gun (AKA John Tejada) are great too. I’ve been hunting for the new album, the first real one, from UK grime crew Roll Deep, but after turning Shibuya upside down, I’ve given up for the moment. Actually I’ve been making do with Radioclit‘s screwed down and chopped up version, thanks to Jace/Rupture.
I’ve been flying through books lately… Yukio Mishima’s oddly existential Patriotism had me up all night last night, thinking that is, after finishing the short 53 pager in no time. Insomnia isn’t cool. Another short one, Murakami’s Hear The Wind Sing. And I’m now reading The Elephant Vanishes, a collection of Murakami’s short stories, which seem to owe a debt to Raymond Carver.
Music

iPods are a big step forward – as much a hot new technology as a zeitgeist defining change in the way people listen to music – but the manufacture seems pretty average on the recent models.
My 4th gen 40GB model died after only five months. Fortunately I’m in Tokyo, where the super-helpful Mac Geniuses at the Apple Ginza store were happy to replace it, but if it happens again in seven months then I’ll just have to throw it away.
Crazy, as friends with early models – one good friend has a happily functioning 1st gen 5GB model – report no problems.

1. Various – Sexual Life of Savages: Underground Post Punk from Sao Paolo, Brazil (Soul Jazz LP)
This dark rhythmic punk funk puts most of the white bread stuff currently exciting the NME to shame. Highlights for me are tracks by Fellini and As Mercenarias.

2. Six Vicious – Krunk’s Not Dead (Sixtoo 7″)
Heavy instrumental hip hop with a dark post punk mood, the sleeve’s cool too.
3. Vex’d – Gunman/Smart Bomb (Planet Mu 12”)
Heavy heavy dubstep . The A-side is all ravey synth stabs that build into a massive ragga dubstep. The B-side is more on the industrial tip. Both bombs.
4. Acetate Zero – Crestfallen (Arbouse CD)
Beautiful Mogwai-ish shoegazer soundscapes, lots of atmosphere, odd French vocals.
5. Jackie Mitoo – Ayatollah/Mash Up Babylon (Basic Replay 12″)
Low down dubbed out mixes of the ska-est rude bwoy.
6. Ark – Caliente (Perlon LP)
I loved Ark’s single a couple of years ago, so I’ve been looking forward to this album. It’s as good as I could have hoped. Off the wall electro, little bits of deep house, techno with a real punk do it your own way vibe.
7. Keith Tucker – Detroit Saved My Soul (Seventh Sign 12”)
The title track, It’s A Mood (Detroit Saved My Soul), is a deep groove that could easily cross over in a very big way. The B-sides are heavy Detroit electro funk, equally good.
8. Jay Haze – Love For A Strange World (Kitty Yo LP)
The label boss of Context and Context-terrior drops a solo album for Kitty Yo. The results are glitchy electro pop, reminiscent of Ken Cesar’s tracks for Cheap. Very cool.
9. Marco Passarini – Sullen Look (Peacefrog LP)
His cover of I House U last year was excellent and this one keeps the tone. It’s a bit more accessible: extremely funky electro with a sharp techno feel.
10. Various – Cooperation Sessions 1 (Goya LP)
I bought the second in the Co-op broken beat series last year from Picadilly Records. That was essential, this is even more so, I was thrilled to see it in a sale bin at Disk Union in Shibuya. A little more experimental and I guess a little rougher round the edges.
11. Mood II Swing – I Got Love (Bingo 12”)
I love Ciafone and Mood II Swing. I’m not totally excited about what they’ve done with this, instead of the heavy repetition and dub delay of the original, they’ve just thrown a big drum’n’bass break under it. Still it’s a killer break and sure to big for d’n’b heads.
12. Dynarec – Eiso X (Vapourwave 12”)
Former Delsin head drops the first track on, what I assume is, his own new label. Still a little of the broken vibe that colours most Delsin, but much harder. This is dark, hard, distorted electro techno like early New York Nugroove stuff from Joey Beltram and Lenny Dee.

I’ve also picked up old records by Freakwater, Durutti Column, Motherhood, Lisa Shaw, Monochrome Set, Orange Juice and BMX Bandits. The guys from Solo Action sent me their back-catalogue, which I’ll write about before too long (suffice to say it’s killer broken techno).
Category: Music

I was a little skeptical at first, but so many sites are tacking on Google Ads – loads of blogs, Sydney Morning Herald and Inthemix.com.au – and plenty of people are talking about the profits from doing it. So there’s now one on Fortune Grey. What do you think?