Loving this... "My favourite animal" by Lara Lee

My Favourite Animal (5 min. version) from Lara Lee on Vimeo.

I love this... three different children are heard describing their favourite animal, and then Lara Lee draws the animal according to what they say, so that the creature "grows itself" in a completely unexpected way.

Lee's execution is marvellous... and very entertaining.

Lovely!

Tx

Loving... Justice League on my iPad

My friend Steven (aka "@myopicaardvark") is a huge comicbook fan... he gets all animated about them in the same way I do about music. When DC Comics took their decision to reboot 52 comics... I took the opportunity to start following a storyline.

The storyline I decided to follow was Justice League... I have followed their stories previously in graphic novels borrowed from Library or in the animated TV series... and kind of like the whole "team dynamic" thing... that and I love Wonder Woman but feel a bit odd buying her storyline. Oh and by buying into the JLA I get Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Flash AND Wonder Woman.

In essence, I love a good story and the work Geoff Johns and Jim Lee have undertaken impresses me... albeit I don't think everyone is as enamoured as I am... but then I am new to this. The artwork is vivid and the storyline intriguing.

What has enabled me to start this journey, apart from the DC reboot, is my iPad.

I'm buying the comics for my iPad... I am not buying physical media. This is another way the iPad comes into its own... the comic looks fab and is designed to be read either page by page or frame by frame... which I like. I also like that I can download the comic... once I've bought it... to my iPhone, iPad AND Dayna's iPhone too. She's coming along with me on this journey.

Whilst I am not convinced that the iPad is future of magazine publishing... well not yet, anyway... I do see a very healthy future for comicbooks. The iPad is wonderfully visual and comics are wonderfully visual too... this is a part of publishing that the Kindle can't touch yet... especially the grayscale e-Ink versions.

Tx

Loving this... Sentiment Analysis of the Bible

Thanks to notcot #43,852 for the heads-up to this fantastic infographic :: A Sentiment Analysis of the Bible :: arranged chronologically (top) and by book (above).

According to the post on OpenBible.info... "Sentiment Analysis" involves algorithmically determining if a piece of text is positive (“I like cheese”) or negative (“I hate cheese”)... in essence black symbolises positive sentiment and red symbolises negative sentiment.

I don't get the math behind it... the graphic "arranged by book" uses a moving average of 5 verses on either side whereas "the chronological visualisation" uses a moving average of 150 verses on either side... but I like the way it looks... I have a real soft spot for fab infographics and hope to create my own in due course... for work and the like.

What's more... I love the fact OpenBible.info is giving away full size versions of the graphics for free. I really fancy the chronological visualisation on my wall in my wee computer room... and am grateful for their generousity.

Anyway... check out the article and download the full size versions.

Tx

Loving this mix by Tom Honey aka Good Weather for an Airstrike for Futuresequence

Mix - Good Weather for an Airstrike by Futuresequence on Mixcloud

Another quality mix for Futuresequence from one of my fave ambient post-rock artists of late... Tom Honey aka Good Weather for an Airstrike.

This mix is something special indeed... with firm favourites Lowercase Noises, Umber, GWFAA himself and The Echelon Effect represented along with some new (to me) sounds and artists.

Take time out and listen... just wish I could get an offline copy?!?

Tx

Tracklisting

01. Inachus - Escape
02. Devin Townsend Project - Fly
03. Lowercase Noises - Migratory Patterns
04. Animal Hospital - A Safe Place
05. Jesu - Farewell
06. Ben Woods - No Word From Above
07. Moshimoss - Slow Days It Was Super
08. Good Weather For An Airstrike - Aurora
09. Chihei Hatakeyama - Morning Arrive On The Island
10. Puffin On My Side - Faded Distance
11. Sufjan Stevens - Alanson, Crooked River
12. The Echelon Effect - Your First Light My Eventide
13. Caspian - Epochs In Dmaj
14. Umber - Tomorrow We'll Throw Out Some Old Shoes
15. Roncatto Braathen - May Grace Be With You...
16. Mazzy Star - Into Dust
17.The Ivoryton Piano Factory - Whispering Spirits

Wilderthorn is taking requests for songs

I really like this... musician Jon Bilbrough aka Wilderthorn is taking requests for songs... he'll film the best requests (he's aiming to do ten over a period of twenty weeks) and put them out via www.wilderthorn.com and his youtube channel.

I've submitted a few songs that came to mind... such as "You still believe in me" by the Beach Boys (from Pet Sounds) and "Fix you" by Coldplay (from X&Y)... and you should too.

Simply send in your song request to info@wilderthorn.com ... Jon will choose the best and record his version for your delectation. 

Tx

The Carlsberg Bikers ad made me think

I am grateful to my friend Trucker Frank (that's his real name... on his birth certificate... he's like Prince but taller) for sending through this video.

It made me think of all the times we expect people to join us... in whatever it is we want them to join us in... e.g. a church gathering or some other established setting. Think about it... look how daunted the folks are when they are expected to join the group. This is based on their assessment of the situation and their pre-judgement of the group they are expected to join.

Yes... I know its an advert and one for a beer... but it made me think and I welcome that!

Tx

Longboarding: DREAM by Benjamin Dowie

I love this video that my friend Jonathan gave me the heads-up to. Its just so well shot.

Enjoy

Tx

Robert's response to my open letter of apology to my prog loving friend

My friend Robert (pictured) sent me this email in response to my "open letter of apology to my prog loving friend". Enjoy.

Tx

-------------------------

Hi Thomas

Read your "Open letter" on your blog and I'd just like to say welcome to the church of Prog :-). You are of course, right that there are only two types of music, that which you like and that which you don't. And even then it changes. I love Marillion's Brave or Pink Floyd's the Wall (two albums you much check out) but it isn't every day that I can sustain the concentration to listen to them properly. And as concept albums, they demand attention to the detail that goes in (when recording Brave, instead of just having electronic silence by pulling the faders down between songs, they went out and recorded the dawn breaking and things like that).

But anyway, on to stuff to check out. If you're having a King Crimson moment, then listen to the albums leading up to "Red", "Larks Tongues in Aspic" and "Starless and Bible Black". The Fripp/Bruford/Wetton/Muir line up was fantastic. And the modern Tool stuff is very good, I think I gave you "Lateralus". The rest of their output is worth a listen.

In the Yes/Genesis style, there's the up to date bands like Spock Beard who are worth a listen to and Dream Theater which is a bit heavier. And the people who followed them in the 80s like Marillion, IQ and Pallas.

But most of all, check out Morrow.com. Prog radio.

Anyway, hope you're well and having fun. I'm currently listening to "Ten to Eleven" which you linked on your blog. It's pretty good. I like specific parts of ambient music and this is appealing. I'll give you a call at some point.

Take care, Robert

p.s. Entertainingly, I've actually seen Fugazi in concert. In France in 1995 or there about.

Loving... "mnk" by eomac

I got a lovely surprise on Friday night... Invisible Agent sent through their latest release for a wee preview and I was mightily impressed with the quality of it. I still am after a number of relistens.

My listening habits are quite cyclical - lately i have been listening to passionate progressive rock... powerful post rock... deliciously droning ambient electronic soundscapes... and some fresh folky acoustic sounds. Oh and Björk.

I'm a fan of upbeat enthusiastic techno-inspired breakbeats... but wasn't really listening at the moment with any intention. I love Orbital, for example, but need to search them out... they are not on my iPhone for immediate listen while commuting.

This has changed, however, with the inclusion of "mnk" by eomac. It is truly a wonderful EP that brings together a number of ideas to create a vivid and powerful artistic expression and subsequent impression on me as the listener.

The EP opens with the title track "mnk" which features a wonderfully dark off-tuned synth intro/backing, skittery beats that dance through the mind, a deep and dub-steppy bassline, disjointed vocal samples and an off-kilter synth melody. All these parts come together really nicely to form a lovely audio collage that is almost jaunty, dare I say it.

"bashy" is proudly dub-steppy in feel... with a skippy beat, a deep bassline, quirky sounds that remind me of Herbie Hancock's fusion explorations and repetitive vocal samples that bring a celebratory joyful feeling to this track.



Track three of four is "texx" is another upbeat and joyful number... beats are skippy and the bass is, once more, deep but more prominent. Disparate sounds come together to create the melody... especially one refrain that can only be described as "sci-fi" in nature.

The last track "medieval massive" starts with skittering beats and a disjointed synth refrain before it is complemented by further synths and beats to create a wonderfully immersive soundscape... a soundscape that slows to a halt as the track ends.

There is no way to avoid the infectious upbeatness of this EP. This is goodtime music... unashamedly jiggy and jaunty with a depth of sound and all the hallmarks of technical proficiency.

I would recommend this EP to folks wanting an injection of up and would suggest playing it over good headphones or on a big hifi... there is so much that could be missed if you listen to it on the "standard" headphones that you received with your player of choice.

I have embedded a player below to let you have a wee listen.

Recommended. $2.99 on Bandcamp.

Tx

Photos from a wee trip to Peebles

We took a wee trip to Peebles today... a nice wee leisurely drive down from Motherwell. The weather was glorious for this time of year and remarkably it stayed dry all day.

As always... I took my camera and have included some of my fave shots. The rest can be found here.

Tx