Archive for the ‘Journalism’ Category

BLDGBLOG

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

In other words, forget academic rigor. Never take the appropriate next step. Talk about Chinese urban design, the European space program, the landscape in the films of Alfred Hitchcock in the span of three sentences – because it’s fun, and the juxtapositions might take you somewhere. Most importantly, follow your lines of interest. Finally, I want to reiterate that BLDGBLOG is fundamentally about following, and not being ashamed by, your own enthusiasms, whether or not they are rigorous and appropriate for the academic mores of the day, or even interesting for your family and friends. – Geoff Manaugh

High Houses are proposed as part of the reconstruction of Sarajevo after the siege of the city that lasted from 1992 though late 1995.


BLDGBLOG (pronounced “building blog”… maybe) is written by Geoff Manaugh, it’s subject matter is “architectural conjecture, urban speculation and landscape futures.” Read by millions since its launch in 2004, BLDGBLOG is a leading voice and uniquely futuristic vision, offering and enthusiastic, idea-filled guide to what lies ahead in our built and technological environments. With stunning images and original content, BLDGBLOG is part conceptual travelogue, part manifesto and part sci-fi novel. Under the guise of writing his blog about architecture, Manaugh has crafted a tribute to the world-transforming power of the imagination itself. Along the way, he incorporates some of the most ambitious minds of our time involving everything from urban design to climatology, music, astronomy and pop culture. On reading the blog you start to interrogate everything you take for granted about the environments we create for ourselves.

Arctic glacial core samples


Geoff Manaugh has provided the reader with an excursion into a new world – part digital fantasy, part reality at the intersection of art, technology, design and pure ideas. The blog is personal, idiosyncratic and, best of all, incredibly interesting. It uses architecture as a lens for delving into related aspects of society and takes enjoyable turns into the stretches of imagination. It’s an urban fantasy made from the remainders of a very large equation. The modus operandi of his work – the fervid linking between seemingly disparate realms of emotion, experience and academic discipline feels appropriate for our densely networked, accelerating, neurotically twittering era…

BLDGBLOG.blogspot.com

BLDGBLOG on Twitter

Test Pressing

Monday, March 8th, 2010

YuppiE


In the eighteen months since its inception, testpressing.org has become the go-to archive for cherry-picked music and interviews best described as Balearic in the broadest sense. Whether it’s eclectic mixes from seasoned professionals or photocopied features from long since recycled magazines (Ibiza vibes in mixmag ’93 anyone?) that draw you in, Test Pressing is the net’s ultimate musical curiosity shop.

Wither me testings


Particular gems are the old magazine scans which crop up on the pages of test pressing. An article from The Face in 1985 reports on ‘E’, taking stories from The Ranch, a gay club in Dallas, Texas where you could apparently get the drug over the counter for $20 plus $1.23 sales tax. Also worth checking out is their ‘Producers Series’ which focuses on a different notable music producer. Have a look at the Brian Eno and Andrew Weatherall selections to get an idea. They compile a mix of the producers work for your aural pleasure – it’s wonderful, have a listen. Joins the dots between Bill Withers and acid house. Thanks to Dog for the heads-up.

Cuemix Magazine

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

PDF magazines are a promotional tool used by companies and collectives in a similar way that ‘zines led the way of underground media in the latter half of the 20th century. PDF mags are usually independent ventures showcasing international creativity and culture. Most downloadable magazines like this are art and design based in their content (such as the fantastic photography magazine Romka, which you can read all about and download their inaugural four issues here). For some online magazines there appears to be very little editorial control for the scope and quality of work displayed. There is often an interesting mix of splendid effort and mediocrity. This can not be said however of our featured magazine this week – Cuemix.

Cosmic Mole

Cuemix is a magazine both for and about DJs. There is a sublime mix of excellent writing, colorful layouts, and good content. What initially caught my eye was interviews in the current issue with one of electronic music’s more eccentric characters The Mole – a highlight of Burlington Project’s Red Box residency at We Love… Space 2009.

Baldelli

The above is a photo of Danielle Baldelli who along with Marco Dionogi has mixed and compiled the fantastic “Cosmic Disco? Nah… Cosmic Rock!” album for Eskimo Recordings. He is from before the age when genres were rigid and terms like house meant cool (in the ’80s) or a genre (in the ’90s), his DJ sets knew no boundaries. He pitched down disco records as far as they would go and gave birth to the slow chugging Balearic sound.

All in all it’s a great read and one we can’t recommend enough, download that latest issue here. Incidentally, The Mole provided one of the best interviews this summer (also interviews with Busy P, Riton and PBR Streetgang and performances from Busy P, Ben Korbel, Hot Chip, Paul Woolford and Felix Da Housecat) check it out below…

Cuemix Magazine – Archive

Eskimo Recordings

PDF-mags.com

Secret Societies – Hare Club

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

In what may (or may not) become a regular feature, Douglas Keane has taken time from his busy job as an arthropod taxidermist to supply his insights into one of the world’s little known secret societies.

With Christmas fresh in my mind my thoughts travel from here to Easter celebrations. Religious traditions take root from events long since passed, the bringing of gifts by the three Kings to newly born Jesus for example. Also natural events, such as the solstice which lends itself to Pagan traditions must be considered. No passed event, natural or religious, that I could think of explain the tradition of a rabbit bringing eggs, chocolate or otherwise, to children on the anniversary of Jesus’ resurrection. That was until I learnt about the Hare Club.

The Hare Club, which throughout history has taken many different names, is a highly secretive and powerful “club” which predates the Freemasons by over a thousand years. Now concerned with matters of big business and government, the Hare Club, at its core, dates back to just after the time of Jesus Christ and in some ways owes its creation to his actions. However whispered and covert any talk of the Hare Club may be, its traditions and effects can be seen across the world today.

Lazer imaging reveals the truth

Lazer imaging reveals the truth


In its infancy the Hare Club was set up for one purpose, to keep a secret alive that the Catholic Church tried desperately to hide. This secret, the story of St Peter, remains the core of the Hare Club and explains the hitherto unexplainable easter traditions. St Peter was a close friend of Jesus and Prince of the Apostles; he was also the first pope. This much the church never tried to cover up, the FULL truth is a little harder to discover. Dan Brown who undoubtably took inspiration from the Hare Club for his book The Da Vinci Code clearly did not know how deep this warren went. We can find answers in the painting of the last supper, Leonardo Da Vinci being a prominent Hare Club member. The first clue appears in what many believe to be a loaf of bread sitting between Jesus and St Peter, on closer inspection this loaf is clearly not bread but infect an egg, an easter egg. The next clue comes in the form of a slightly obscured rabbit positioned on the table in a direct line with Jesus’ gaze and the easter egg, out of place clearly as the last supper consisted of bread and wine. Another clue which remains today is the odd shape and size of the Pope’s hat (the Triregnum). Who needs such a tall hat? All clues leading inexorably towards one of the best kept secrets of all time. St Peter, the first pope and Prince of the Apostles was in fact… A RABBIT, Peter Rabbit. Jesus knew that no human could speak for all Christianity without any acts of corruption, and that rabbits were pure, tolerant, and incorruptible and so inaugurated the only rabbit he could trust, his close friend, and some say lover, Peter. Although hard to believe, evidence presents itself in all walks of life, from the tradition of giving eater eggs practised by millions world wide, a clue left by Da Vinci to the true identity of the rabbit at the last supper to the works of the great philosophers Potter, Stone and Parker.

Pope hat later used to disguise ears

Pope hat later used to disguise ears

Expletive Undeleted

Friday, December 4th, 2009

Smith3000 is a fantastic journalistic foray into the mind and experiences of a Mancunian reporter. The Expletive Undeleted section is essentially a collection of longer and reworked versions of pieces the anonymous author has published elsewhere. There is another segment called Hip Replacement for focussing on “dusty old records that no one really bought in the first place, and barely anyone remembers or cares about…” We would beg to differ on that. Who doesn’t know that gap in your life that only a Butthole Surfers record can fill? His article about putting on parties in an old mansion house north of Leeds called The Ministry of Shite (you can see what they did there) is particularly evocative.

Agent Smith

Agent Smith


The main point however, is to draw your attention to a recent interview conducted by Smith3000 with none other than Mark E Smith of the Fall. If you look hard enough you can probably find one of their songs on our office listening archive. I’ll let Expletive Undeleted take it from here…

MARK E SMITH of the Fall is talking to me, eyeball to eyeball, giving me a few pointers about how I might like to approach our interview:

“Is he an idiot like Oasis? Or is he friendly like New Order? Or is he reclusive like Morrissey?” he whines in a fey, airhead manner, before snapping back into reality and fixing me with a surprisingly steely and clear-eyed gaze. “Say what you want. But watch your back.”

MES doesn’t have much time for the people others might regard as his contemporaries. If you see Manchester as one big happy musical family, Smith is the surly step-child in the corner, loudly singing off-key and out of time, spoiling it for everyone. Loving the fact that he is spoiling it for everyone.

The last time I interviewed him we ended up sitting on a bench in a graveyard, drinking cans of cheap lager and arguing about patriarchy in Yorkshire. This time we’re lounging around the bar of Manchester’s Malmaison hotel, still drinking lager but it’s more expensive now and it comes in glasses. Smith seems equally at home, either way.

A well-read, working class lad from grimey Salford relocated to leafy Prestwich, Smith was fired up if not directly influenced by the energy and DIY ethic of punk rock at the end of the Seventies.

Harnessing the mesmerising repetition of krautrock, the emotive thump of northern soul and the cut-up, disorientating prose of William Burroughs, Smith and an ever-changing cast of supporting players have been creating a weirdly absorbing, constantly evolving and very Mancunian kind of rock’n’roll ever since.

Read more…

The following video you simply could not make up. Excellent viewing, especially if you are a Fall fan supporting a lower league English football team.

Smith3000