Sdtrk: ‘Love without sound’ by White noise

Saturday eve Jeff & I got round to Derek’s, for our usual festival of hullaballoo, chicanery and folderol. Jeff brought his copies of ‘Waking life‘ and ‘Infernal affairs‘ for viewing. (Might I add here that he didn’t just buy the domestic version with the shitty cover art; he sprung for the six-disk box set that includes all three films, a ‘Making of’ disk for each film, and a miniature binder that includes critical notes — all housed in a black plastic box protected with black bubble wrap. Most impressive) ‘Infernal affairs’ was rather good, and ‘Waking life’ was alright, but didn’t do a whole lot for me — it was a case of a lot of people presenting various points on lucid dreaming, the nature of reality, and social evolution, but the characters/points that didn’t interest me seemed to go on and on, whilst the people I wanted to hear didn’t get enough screentime.

But lemme tell ya, the highlight of the evening? SpikeTV’s Hey! Spring of trivia, the best psychotically-dubbed Japanese television show since Iron chef. The episode we caught was one wherein they attempted to judge how far the tortoise and the hare ran when they had their legendary marathon. The staffers went to a library in New York that contained the oldest known print versions of Aesop’s fables. Since the distance was never actually mentioned, they took a tortoise and a hare, and had them each run down a length of perspex tunnel. Then they calculated the distance each one of them moved in ten seconds’ time, and had a college professor multiply that, factoring in that the overconfident hare took a nap (which they closely monitored the length of as well, using a videocamera), to come up with the answer, which was 894km, if I remember correctly. It’s properly demented, which is how I like my television, but it’s fat-packed full of trivia, which makes it double-plus good. The show rules, pure and simple.
I cast a vote for it on TVShowsOnDVD.com, but between now and the time it’s actually released, I REQUIRE TORRENTS!!

Sdtrk: ‘Fuses’ by Stereolab

I must be in some sort of building rut. Perhaps long-dead architects are attempting to contact me from beyond the graaaave. You know, like the Ghost of Architectural Christmas Past That Was Designing Buildings For The Future or something.

Anyway! Do these photos look as creepy to you as they do to me?

It’s as if it’s 1982, and I’m flipping through an issue of OMNI, staring at those bizarre illustrations that graced the pages between the short works of science fiction.
I mean, I want to live in a high-rise apartment, but these are just slightly more colourful versions of the buildings in Terry Gilliam’s ‘Brazil’. There’s hardly any sky, it’s just walls.

Ace photography, but I mean, good lord. J.G Ballard characters would refuse to live in these structures

Sdtrk: ‘Never understand’ by The Jesus and Mary chain

D’ye remember how I was exhorting people to take a Gmail invite from me cos Shi-chan & I had so many? Well, I gave away four, but since then I’ve discovered that even if you give them away, Gmail just sends you some new invites, thereby perpetually keeping you at ’50 invites left’. It’s like an Internet version of Sisyphus’ little problem! You give them away, they keep coming back! YOU GIVE THEM AWAY, THEY KEEP BUH HUH HUH *drops to knees, weeps openly*

And you have to check out this recent post that Penda’s scribed.

So I promised that I would scan and post some early journal entries from my childhood.

Scary, but a funny kind of scary. 🙂
I’d do something of a similar nature, but I kinda had a scorched-earth policy on any school-related documents prior to 9th grade. No, I mean, literally — I set them all ablaze

Sdtrk: ‘Sweet hit sherbet’ by Masonna

Instead of tackling architecture (sounds painful), this volume is about a really fab Danish designer by the name of Verner Panton. It’s still on topic!

Panton’s other great contribution to mid-century design is his ceaseless experimentation with lighting. His “Fun” series of shell lamps, his hanging “Globe” lamp and a wide variety of chandeliers introduced a new approach to lighting. He designed entire walls filled with lit panels and futuristic UFO shaped hanging lights. Panton’s designs were made to sway, spiral, create sounds and, most of all, to use color to create completely unique lighting systems for interiors.
quoted from this site

Verner’s designs exemplified a lot of the Euro-design from the mid-to-late Sixties. Back then, even if you didn’t know his name, more than likely you’d have seen one of his lamps, or sat in one of his chairs, or been lucky enough to wander around in one of his environments. You could argue that his style is ‘dated’ today, but that makes it all the better. These days, you’d be hard-pressed to find any contemporary styles that even come close to his uniqueness, and that’s what makes Verner’s futuristic Pop-art visions even more worthy of investigation

Sdtrk: ‘Piazza, New York catcher’ by Belle and Sebastian

To quote the inimitable Withnail, I’ve got a bastard behind the eyes. Actually, I’ve had it for a couple of days now, and I’m sure going to class this eve, where every other student was coughing, didn’t help. Brilliant. 😐
When I awaken tomorrow, I’ll be sure to grab a fistful of ibuprofen to stave it off, and if that doesn’t work, then I’ll pronounce it a tumour. Bleh.

At least I bought my copy of Nausicaä, a snip at $17, from Meijer. Not too shabby

Sdtrk: ‘Warner’s reverie’ by Mount Vernon astral temple

Right, so I see that I’ve wasted yet another hour desperately looking for interesting blogs by other people. And once again, I’ve come up trumps. So far, from what I’ve seen, the ‘Bloggerverse’ is 95% shite, plain and simple. Here, then, would be a small list of pet peeves regarding my blog surfing experiences:

+ Political blogs: I don’t give a steamy white toss if you think all Democrats are hippies, or all Republicans are Nazis. I honestly don’t fucking care. The more of these types of blogs that I see, the less I like people as a whole. People who write these aren’t going to convince a person who sits on one side of the political fence to switch to the other. You’re not just wasting your time; more importantly, you’re wasting mine

+ Religious blogs: see above

+ Adverts cleverly disguised as blogs: You’ve seen ’em. ‘Go Home Leukemia Newsletter Archives Leukemia Links Advertise on this site Add URL LeukemiaLeukemiaFeline LeukemiaLeukemia SymptomsLeukemia SymptomsChronic Lymphocytic LeukemiaAcute LeukemiaSymptoms Of Leukemia’ ad infinitum ad nauseam. Blogger needs to do what BlogExplosion does, and have humans check these sites, and verify that they aren’t just big adverts. Is that too much to ask? Apparently, yes

+ Blogs in a Foreign Tongue: I know this can’t be helped, and I hate to even mention it, as it sounds really bigoted/xenophobic. But if I’m madly clicking the ‘Next Blog’ button atop my site in a single-minded masochistic pursuit, I find that a good portion of sites are in either Spanish, Portugese or Italian. (Never French. I can handle French, but there’s never any French ones..) There should be a set of selection boxes you can check off, to indicate if you wish to view Blogs written in other languages

+ People who don’t fill in their profile: So you’re typing away, publicising your most private secrets, or even your day-to-day existence (such as it is) for the InfoBahn to scrutinise. Why have you not filled in your profile? Maybe it’s just me, but I view the profile question section as another opportunity to be witty (such as it is). Also, I like to know a wee bit about the author. Call me crazy, I know, but hey.
Besides, if you maintain that you’re so dreadfully boring that no-one wants to know about your boring details, then why did you start your boring blog in the first place?

+ That goddamned spelling ‘style’, where eVErY OtHeR leTTeR iS TypEd liKe tHiS: I swear, if I ever meet someone who admits to doing that, I will tie them down, break their hands, and make them watch as I set their Ashlee Simpson and/or Good Charlotte Cds on fire. Who started this bullshit, and why?? Furthermore, I should bloody well hope they have some sort of programme that mixes up the cases for them, cos if they’re actually typing like that, then they are irredeemably retarded. It took me thirty seconds to type ‘eVErY OtHeR leTTeR iS TypEd liKe tHiS’, and these people have their whole blog written like that. Do they start a post on Monday, and finish it Wednesday afternoon??

+ Blogs that have to have some sound file instantly load: I’m gonna hazard a guess, but if you have one of these, chances are very verrrry slim that it’s going to be something I want to hear. Do yourself and your intended audience a favour — get rid of your soundfiles. They slow the load time, and in any case, your taste in music is repellent

+ JavaScript abuse: Just before the site loads, some insipid dialogue box pops up, that you have to click on to enter the site. What in shit is that all about? You’re not clever, you know. And usually it’s something wRiTtEN LikE tHIs. If you’re doing stuff like that, you have just confirmed that your Blog is the equivalent to a Scandinavian black metal band: all ‘style’, no substance.
Even worse is when you leave the site, and another dialogue box pops up. I’m leaving your site. Let go of my hand now, and fuck off.

Lastly, my personal fave,
+ Spelling, grammar, and a lack thereof:

*exhales* Ahhh, all better now!
So send me links to blogs that don’t make me want to disconnect my Internet! Cos at this point, it really can’t get much worse

Sdtrk: ‘Que sera sera’, from the ‘Katamari damacy’ sdtrk

So I see my Other Favourite Jean-Luc Godard Film, Weekend, is finally out on DVD! Of course, this is the sort of thing that gets released when I’m on the dole. I was waiting about three years for this to come out back when I had a job, and now, it’s finally out. *shrugs* Guess I’ll just have to go commit a petty crime!

And does anyone out there want or need a Gmail account? Between myself & Shi-chan, we’ve got about 80 invites. 😐
Leave a comment, or hit me squarely at pulsedemon [at] gmail [dot] com