Cousin Silas - Uncertainty

I got an email this morning from Cousin Silas ::

Thomas,

All being well, the album Uncertainty, should be ready for downloading on the 7th August. It’s on the Just Not Normal Net Label, complete with artwork by Jesus Olmo, and there are (surprise surprise) two tracks in and amongst the 13 that are ‘dedicated’ to you due to the fact that both these tracks were directly inspired by your photos.

One is the Chimney & Ladder jobby, and other is Strathclyde Park Loch 2…

Make of them what you will my friend. A healthy mix of dark and light, calm and unsettling.

Hope you and yours are well.

D

I am so stoked by this... and can't wait until the 7th August. Here's the pics Cousin Silas refers to in his note:


Chimneys (136/365)


Strathclyde Park Loch #2

Made my day!

this is cool :: My Birthday Movie by Danny Roberts

I thought this was fascinating. Here's the info from the YouTube page:

For My 24 birthday i thought, it was better to give than receive. So i made you all this video. This was my first time experimenting with my own version of Walt Disney's Mulitplane Camera. I hope you like it.

I did... nice job! More details here.

(via notcot #23,448 with thanks)

COCKSURE - Banks, battles, and the psychology of overconfidence

Since the beginning of the financial crisis, there have been two principal explanations for why so many banks made such disastrous decisions. The first is structural. Regulators did not regulate. Institutions failed to function as they should. Rules and guidelines were either inadequate or ignored. The second explanation is that Wall Street was incompetent, that the traders and investors didn’t know enough, that they made extravagant bets without understanding the consequences. But the first wave of postmortems on the crash suggests a third possibility: that the roots of Wall Street’s crisis were not structural or cognitive so much as they were psychological.../

COCKSURE - Banks, battles, and the psychology of overconfidence by Malcolm Gladwell

This article in the New Yorker is on the theme of what Malcolm Gladwell spoke on when he was in Glasgow recently. Well worth a read.

(via a tweet from swissmiss)

This is cool :: Charles & Ray Eames and the Polaroid SX70

I am quickly becoming obsessed with Polaroid cameras... and the SX70 is a daddy of them all. Check this out:



(via a tweet from PolaPremium)

My 9th Polaroid :: Olly (200/365)

My 9th Polaroid :: Olly (200/365), originally uploaded by Headphonaught.

Sleeve Art at the Motherwell Heritage Centre

I checked out the Sleeve Art exhibition at the Motherwell Heritage Centre... and I was inspired & disappointed in almost equal measure. Here's the context of the exhibit:



I was encouraged by the albums I already acknowledge as beautiful pieces of art...

• The Beatles' "Revolver"
• Love's "Forever Changes"
• King Crimson's "In the court of the Crimson King"
• Led Zeppelin's "Physical Graffiti"
• OMD's "Architecture & Morality"

and inspired to see covers that I hadn't seen before or not acknowledged as art...

• John Coltrane's "Coltrane plays the blues"
• The Drifters' "I'll take you where the music's playing"
• Bob Dylan's "Bringing it all back home"
• Vanilla Fudge
• John Lennon & the Plastic Ono Band's "Live peace in Toronto 1969"
• Dada
• Derek & the Dominos' "Layla"
• Emerson, Lake & Palmer's "Pictures at an exhibition"
• Kraftwerk
• Bette Midler
• Junior Melvin's "Police & Thieves"
• Talking Heads' "More songs about buildings and food"
• Art of noise's "In no sense? nonsense!"
• Joy Division's "Closer"

I was, however, disappointed not to see more from Factory Records... albeit... Peter Saville was represented twice with OMD & Joy Division. There was none of Ben Drury's work for Mo' Wax or even Roger Dean's work for Yes. I would have thought some Designers Republic work (say for Warp Records) would have been included too. Its as if the curator has stopped in the eighties... as if music now isn't good enough.

Whilst this exhibition opened me up to new ideas... it also disappointed me because my classics weren't represented.

All in... it was an interesting exhibit and one that I do appreciate could expand exponentially.

Please check out my pics on flickr.

Some thoughts :: compassion AND compliance

When I consider faith... that is, my faith in Jesus... I am struck by the thought that we need compassion and compliance. Not just to live compassionate and compliant lives... as in to display all the attributes of someone who is compassionate and compliant... but to BE the compassion and compliance that I believe is necessary to live a life of love in Jesus' name. Let me explain.

The compassion bit is easy to grasp... I am to love God and love our neighbour. I am to love because God first loved us. He loved me so much that He sent Jesus to become the new way to a life lived in all its fullness.

My faith is founded on compassion - love for God / love for the other... if I do not speak/act/think/live in love then I fall short of all that God intends for me.

Compassion is easy to grasp... but not so easy to be. Loving those who do not love us is counter-intuitive... and, at times, very hard to do.

As for compliance... that's not so easy to grasp for me. Compliance is about conforming in accordance with the will of someone or something outwith ourselves.

Conforming isn't a positive attribute for me... certainly not as straightforward as caring for someone or something. I don't do conformity very well and yet... ironically... I subscribe / conform to patterns of thought on a regular basis.

Maybe its the anti-establishment / DIY ethos of punk that has its influence here... but my initial thoughts on conformity & conforming are that of revulsion - following the herd... going with the follow... uniformity... sheep... you get where I am coming from.

But I believe I must seek... in all I do... to "be like Christ". I must conform to Him & HIs teaching. This should be the one & only judgement on my life - am I living like Him?

I don't believe we should be conformed to any other standard than this... especially someone else's view of what being "like Christ" means. This goes as far as saying I am not bound to the Law of the Old Testament but am bound to the grace that comes in Jesus. I am not held to the legalism of the Pharisees but to the grace of the New Testament.

So, please, let's remove the judgement that comes with exclusivity & seek to discern what this means to ourselves... to me. I want to use the teaching & life of Christ to connect people... not use it to divide people as the Law did... and does to this day. In this way, conforming holds an appeal... I want to be like my Lord... especially when I consider His compassion to the other.

If I don't show compassion & love then can I say I am being like Him?

Thing is... compliance isn't just about conforming... it is also about cooperation. Its about working with something in obedience as well as being "forced" to do something.

I must be obedient to the teachings of Jesus & the leading of His Holy Spirit. In doing so, I work with them... I cooperate with them in the greater plan that is the Kingdom of God.

My faith isn't based on what I do but on God's love & compassion... but in this... I am transformed & seek to embody this transformation in what I do. I will seek to be like Christ... be obedient to Him & work with Him for the Kingdom.

I can't be obedient & seek to cooperate with Him without compassion... they are not mutually exclusive but go hand-in-hand. Its all about my thought AND deed... faith AND works... compassion AND compliance.

In the end, I can't love without obeying as much as I can't obey without loving.

This is way cool :: Roche Limit - My Friend Ship

I love art that is created with tools that are easily attainable for free or at a low cost... think Polaroid which was once a cheap and easily sourced product or even the Lomo cameras that are now fetishized but were once "junk".

That's why I am excited about this video by Roche Limit aka Dave Righton... because it was made using Google's Sketchup - this is free software from Google used with tremendous effect to create a powerfully unique & inspiring video... to compliment what is a fab song.

More details available at 99dollarmusicvideos.com. Nice!

(via BoingBoing)

U*P*D*A*T*E
Here's an interview Dave Righton that provides more background ::



Inspiring.

this is way cool :: insanely twisted shadow planet

I saw this on offworld.com and was very impressed. It is a trailer for the upcoming game Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet and is visually stunning. It grabbed my attention almost instantly.

I recommend reading up on the project via Michel Gagne's blog... his posts provide an insight into the creation of the game.

Can't wait for the game to drop... albeit... its on formats that I don't have - PC & XBOX.

I like this song :: The Tease ft. Megan Wyler :: "I'm Not Invisible"

Its familiar... and from an advert... but I like it.