Unreliable information since 1972
We’ve got a new guy starting at work next week. He’s going to inherit my old machine, and I’ve just spent the afternoon setting up my delightful new 20″ iMac. It’s Friday, and we’re all out of here shortly for a pint sitting in the sun my the river.
It’s a rough old life.
Is on again this year. I went last year, it was ace. Details here: http://www.channel4.com/life/microsites/T/taste/london.html
ewa and I are planning on going. Anyone else fancy it? Should we try and all pick the same day and time? My preference is for either the Friday evening or Saturday afternoon slot…
Is a bloody good film. I couldn’t stop thinking of a quote from Alan Moore as I was watching it:
“We parade with the magicians on the endless plazas of the sun and watch them trail gem-warted fingers through six-thousand degrees centigrade degrees of photosphere. We walk there at their side, become them are them. Are at last our true and only selves. We flourish, we ignite. And as with each, so with us all. So with our culture and our world where information brinks its saturation threshold, and we all look up in that white moment when the sky unwraps, and the unfiltered truth of us rains blazing down; a searing holy deluge where those parts of us we’ve not yet turned to gold are utterly devoured, are made incinerate.”
That’s Moore talking about heaven. About glory. About the ultimate human achievement. And that’s what the film is about. And Sunshine isn’t perfect, but I love the theme, and I really, really enjoyed it. Seriously, go see it.
I’m going to get back on top of this, honest – here’s the ultra-high-speed version of the last two weeks, and I’ll try and get this week’s up on Friday. The books this time are from Budgie, and Marysia, and thank you both very much.
Book: Convergence Culture
Convergence Culture is broadly, about the impact new media is having on old – the fight to keep details of shows secret, the way corporations cope with fan-fiction (or indeed, fan film), the challenges of storytelling across multiple media. Each capter of the book takes a single media property as a leading example – Survior, American Idol, Star Wars, The Matrix, and so on. Jenkins is one of my favourite media thinkers, because he unashamedly comes at things from a background that is both academic and fan, and his work is very accessible because of it. If you’ve got the slightest interest in the future of the creative economy, he is one of the thinkers you ought to be reading.
Album: Acoustica
This is an album of classical music covers of the music of The Aphex Twin. It’s actually very good indeed, if a little hard to describe. The general result is a slightly softened version of Richard James’ stuff – it reminds me slightly of Squarepusher’s ep “Budakhan Mindphone”.
Book: The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
Modern era retelling of classic fairytales, with particular emphasis on subverting the traditional role of women within those tales. Lovely, lovely prose, with a sly wit. Recommended.
Album: Weapons of Grass Destruction
Well, they started out doing bluegrass/rock covers of classic heavy rock. They’ve since started combining that with original material. I like ’em, but I’ve got a terrible finger-in-the-ear too-rah-lay streak that I can’t seem to do anything about, and this plays into it nicely. Anyway, this is more the same from them, with some particularly fine covers on this one: “Mein Teil” (originally by Rammstein) stands out in particular…
(Obviously, this is Mademoiselle Fifi again,)
I’ve noticed that the happier I am with a shot, the harder I find it to talk about it. And I’m pretty bloody happy with this one. I would perhaps have liked to bring the details on her face out a bit more, bit it’s go all the essential things I wanted from the shot. I hope you like it.
When stealing cars at 6am, please have the decency to get the job done and drive off as fast as humanly possible, rather than waking the entire fucking neighbourhood with the alarm. This is especially important with an alarm that sounds for a while, then cuts out for a couple of seconds, then sounds again, because repeatedly tormenting those in nearby houses with that “aaah, finally, I can go back to sleep” feeling is the very definition of “cruel and unusual”.
We are already at the point of the year where it is sufficiently hot that my main PC shuts down through overheating if it’s asked to do much graphics work. Last year, it managed OK unless it was doing 3D stuff, like playing games. I could bear that. This year, it now packs up when trying work with Photoshop.
Fuck.
I’ve got Photoshop for the Mac now, so I can work with that, but what I don’t seem to have is any good software for browsing RAW files. iPhoto seems to believe that I don’t need another RAW editor, despite the fact that it’s own RAW tools are pitifully bloody inadequate. Anything I instruct it to open in Photoshop, it converts to a jpeg, first. As if I was done working with the RAW. Which I fucking wasn’t.
a) can anyone tell me if there’s a setting I’m missing?
b) if I’m not, can anyone recommend me a free RAW browser for the Mac?
We are already at the point of the year where it is sufficiently hot that my main PC shuts down through overheating if it’s asked to do much graphics work. Last year, it managed OK unless it was doing 3D stuff, like playing games. I could bear that. This year, it now packs up when trying work with Photoshop.
Fuck.
I’ve got Photoshop for the Mac now, so I can work with that, but what I don’t seem to have is any good software for browsing RAW files. iPhoto seems to believe that I don’t need another RAW editor, despite the fact that it’s own RAW tools are pitifully bloody inadequate. Anything I instruct it to open in Photoshop, it converts to a jpeg, first. As if I was done working with the RAW. Which I fucking wasn’t.
a) can anyone tell me if there’s a setting I’m missing?
b) if I’m not, can anyone recommend me a free RAW browser for the Mac?
More from that late night London walk. The title is taken from the name of the bridge to Hell in Norse myth – this is, of course, Blackfriars bridge, where God’s banker, Roberto Calvi was murdered by a Black Lodge of secretive Masons.
(More from White Mischief to come when time permits, but I had this one ready….)
