that veiled gazette #369

blogging is hard...

it's been a long time since the last digest... a lot of current events have passed, scandals, debates, triumphs, miseries... i'm not going to touch on most of them... but only share with you the fragments i collected in the meantime... just things i dragged into the ever-over-flowing folder of "blog ideas" on the bookmark bar... blogging has been a weird fit for my current efforts, and there has been much talk and some action on quitting the internet around me... BUT, i feel the flame hasn't died quite yet... and we'll see where this shrouded deer leads us next.

quality performance art...

ART, FASHION : fascinating article about faking a vermeer... old pal's art on boing boing video... dj ripley has been posting a lot of great jamaican fashion from her trip there. here, here, here, here, and here. flower mandalas and other decent new-agey art. speaking of new-agey (old-agey?) this celtic talismanic jewelry reminded me of calder's contour drawings of animals. this guys design is supercolorcleanskillz. subway mind fuck art. did you know that motorcycles used to look WAY cooler? here's good billboard mod. and more book sculpture.. this time a face. the results of this camera art are boring, but the idea is good. more pretty art on basic sounds... also, van gogh didn't cut off his ear... it was gauguin!

MUSIC: flute-boxing. daichi-boxing. woman-boxing. competition-boxing. music of colombia via geko jones. love this guy's tabla style. blue daisy sounds like flying lotus, burial and a nice hum. great new mellowish dubstep artists here, here, and here. afro punk interview. LOVED this 10 essential wiley tunes article. poppy music blog. lovin' this old school jam. wendy carlos interview (if you don't know about her, you need to read up...) a bonus for those who actually read these digests, i picked my favorite brian eno tracks off his first four pop albums and put them here. old buddy from college's remix site, remixin. skweee... get hip. oh, and can someone please toss me khalid's secret eq chart?... yeah, thanks.

90 degree angles get old quick...

ARCHITECTURE, ECO, DIY: holy shit, dangerous tea house! splendid, extensive collection of beautiful and bizarre houses... including the one above... great inspiration there for designing or remodeling buildings (both of which i've been doing recently)... i've posted before about art made with books, including shelves, but here's a cool upside-down book shelf design... LED lights can now do pretty much every color... some interesting eco work... saw it on the colbert report... ceiling porn. bottles and cob. laundry water greywater system. other bizarre houses and furnishings chronicled in dornob magazine.

one of many real angels...

SEX: i continue to be interested in finding a way to fit sex into this blog. i enjoy it being mostly family friendly... but there's something to the eroticism of brian's blog that helps counterpoint the brutal truths and mystic bliss. apparently obsession with sex goes back some ways. anyway, as erotica goes, mod fetish tends to be more artful and interesting than most, but is mostly just photos of naked women... i guess there's just a big part of me that would rather be naked at burning man... and that's about all the sexual openness i can muster for the moment.

ALEXANDRIA IS OPEN, GREATSITE, TECHNOLOGY : the pirate bay just got sold, but that's o.k. because google is the new pirate bay. it's a silly issue, because pirates buy more music than non-pirates. this is a nice collection of rainbow design tutorials, (including how to make lines like in the picture above). good source of high res photojournalism is the boston globe's big picture and the wall street journals photo journal. I always enjoy looking up words on the online etymological dictionary (try magic!), but the urban dictionary is indispensable for slang (try hyphy!) dig the voting process. yeah, yeah, change the internet forever... and phones. i'm up in the air about internet privacy issues, but this tool seems to make it simple to stalk. oh, and if you're going to waste time playing video games, this one helps map proteins...

BABYLON, POLITICS : the g20 is in pittsburgh soon, and that fucks with me... mostly because i have some outspoken anarchist youth using my first floor to feed people and have meetings, and cops love to fuck with innocents. grr. obama - he releases some important secrets, blocks other important secrets. i could do a whole post just on how complex my feelings are about obama and the new senate... among the issues are the "two" wars... the cronyism going on that he campaigned against, and the fact that the soldiers are still being told to "hunt people for jesus". (of course the bush era version of this was far weirder... really, really weird.) after 5 years, portugal's drug decriminalization has produced some seriously positive results. did you know that as many people are making their living from blogging as are from being lawyers? old bomb scars. face transplant successful (warning, graphic images) here. old castes in newly revealed maps... constant police brutality. how will the newspapers survive? there's no huffington post without the new york times, so can the grey lady stay alive by being a non-profit? REX84... yuck. and google beware.

WEIRD, SUFI: plants can recognize genetically identical cuttings... i'm a big fan of rumi... and never heard him weigh in on hallaj until reading this poem. great zen motivational poster from the great mojo1000. weird water properties. weirder other substances, including the ferro-fluids in the video above. earliest bible online for free. gurdjieff's long gone, but a movement technique not unlike his exists(youtube)... tap the wisdom of the crowd. it appears having religion is good for your health... remote viewing experiment - hey, you don't have to convince me. mentalist whoops master chess players(youtube). remember, death is milliseconds away.

seriously...

HUMOR: stephen colbert in iraq... i had profoundly mixed feelings about the whole thing, partially because apparently conservatives don't realize stephen colbert is joking (seriously!) laura and i were hurting from laughter watching this old snl thing. this may not be funny to some, but a lot of people got weirded out when amazon dropped all of it's search results for gay and lesbian books, but it may have just been one lone hacker making a "point" facial hair contestants. mark twain motivational posters. funny silhouettes. married to the sea.

VIDEO: parkour (first 7 seconds AMAZINGZOMGWTFAWESOMESOX)... free running... speed stacking... psychedelic yoooooouuuutube... and now witness a baby give a fiery sermon. it's not what you say, but how you say it, apparently:

PERSONAL, POINTSOFPROCESS: mixing dirty was named as a tie for mix of the year. I've got a brand new deejay night, which i'm gonna call "The Garden of Earthly Delights". Way more details (and previews of the gorgeous flyers i made) coming. as i've been blogging less, i've mostly been tossing little tidbits on facebook. i post compelling images in an album called "incarnations", and some art in an album called "art i like" Some links that probably aren't here are here on facebook. maybe i'd have more time to blog if i had a monkey babysitter. but seriously... kids are awesome. i love my son... he's such a joy... and we're having another in february. but then that's enough. two will do... i'm travelling now to take him to see his 6 grandparents... which is why i have the leisure to blog. pittsburgh too hot! i-man haffi cool out, up on the mountain top...

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mokobe - politique

i want that t-shirt... i'll send twenty smashing african albums to anyone who buys one for me. anyway, here's a track: (mp3)Mokobé (feat. Manu Chao, Amadou et Mariam, Tiken Jah Fakoly & Fou Malade) - "politique" from "mon afrique". it features a sample from this equally beautiful (but not for the club) kora track: (mp3)toumani diabate - "mankoman djan" from "djelika" (which is a great album to play for your parents...)

the mokobé track is hot and beautiful. according to (early internet holdover) babelfish translation, the lyrics are:

"Barrels of petrol barrels of blood C' is us the puppets with the eyes of the powerful ones One repeats that with the children looks at and learns Blows of machetes in the camps d' innocent Démocrathie of the black a band with costumes One is artisants between the hammer and l' anvil Exile without house in l' north coming from the south and considering qu' the hunger is stronger qu' the pigeons qu' one plucks policy aims at bleuf in your mouth your model c' political bulge is bush you speak in l' wind you spit on people you us ments knowingly you n' ace aucuns politicking feelings aya refrain! Politics means blood Politics means shout Politics means human being Politics means fools That' S why my friend is year obviousness Politics means violence Why my friend is year obviousness Politics means violence J' m' does not address to the d' chiefs; state But to the fathers who you are We let us be your children for qu' l' humanity thrives Are honest the world of tomorrow With each one of us l' must; to build owes l' to undergo to include/understand people hello d' access your neighbor l' future In a world or the balls have more d' influence qu' a bulletin d' vote Qu' is not necessary; one s' vautre have Politique kill' S One dreams all d' a peace One dreams all of peace 2007 We want only things clear and clear Mokobé, sick Fu, Tinder and Mariam, Tiken Jah Fakoli Manu Chao We want that peace, for everyone!"

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a smattering of stuffs

image above by limkis

so it's been really cold here in pittsburgh. we've been really busy, and really cold. but things are good overall and i now have moment to blog:

of the many sites i read to keep up with the election, the huffington post remains the most relevant. apparently, i'm not the only one who thinks so. for the record, fivethirtyeight.com ended up being pretty much exactly right about the election, though (head poll analyst and founder) nate silver may have under-shot the democrats majority in congress (looking close to 60, folks!!!), i'll definitely be checking back with nate in two years.

well, bush definitely is trying some dirty tricks on the way out, and we haven't even gotten to the pardons yet... luckily obama has had a team of lawyers researching which of bushes executive orders can be overturned by the incoming president rapidly, including some environmental laws, stem-cell research policy and reproductive rights. for those (like me) not turned off by obama's religion, this is a fascinating interview with him on the subject from 2004... good interview with obama's "brain trust" here. many of them have recently recieved cabinet positions. if you only read one thing related to the election, read the yinsurgent's brilliant "joe the plumber and the american pipe dream" analysis you won't find anywhere else, gaurunteed.

a few new amazing technologies caught my eye: a new windpipe grown from stem-cells was successfully transplanted into a mother of two. a new software can make duplicate keys from photos, even satellite photos... hide your keys! mulitcolr allows you to search for images by up to ten colors at once... a related nice site is this one from google and life magazine, featuring milions of archived photos from life. writerhymes has built-in rhyme suggestion for aspiring emcees. oh, and i want to make one of these shrink-plastic rings.

rob simpson broke down the cost of the iraq war to intelligable units, like "we could buy every human on the planet a 4gb ipod!". speaking of war, james brett thinks the war in afghanistan can be won with pomegranates.

in green news, there is always upcycling... also check out this fridge without electricity. if you need more green news you can always check treehugger.

in music, i've been digging the watcha clan, some of the latin stuff off this lomaximo site, and someone pointed me to infinite livez, but i haven't heard much yet. i've been playing with this 30-piece band recently. i owe some uploads related to that. also, this seems like a good resource for mastering information, courtesy of the dutty bredren.

in art, i've been math obsessed (save for my new black and white painting matthu stull has been bugging me to do for five years!)... i really like these impossible fractals. the site is stupid but i'm interested in illusionary motion like this counter-rotational spiral.

in news of the weird, this gentleman insists he's not a douchebag, this 6,000,000 pound mansion has fallen to artist squatters, "sticks" entered into toy hall of fame, and this is a really weird outfit.

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weird dj oppurtunity

i just got contacted by a pal george for a great dj assignment. i'm to do 9-10 minutes of music for a fashion show by lialia for genart's 14th annual fresh faces of fashion show...

they are inspired by sophia loren, monica vitti (pictured), claudia cardinale, and anouk aimee, spanish/italian summer nightlife and fellini films of the 60s and 70s, all with a modern twist...

i'm on it.

any suggestions for tunes? i'm looking at you, frank...

UPDATE: it's done. i used ableton to mix it super-tight. (also because my new vestax pdx-3000s and traktor scratch aren't in yet...) i'm pretty happy with it, considering how tight the schedule was for this assignment. (basically 36 hours!)

the tracklist is as such:

nino rota - la dolce vita
trentemoller - vamp
junesex - a finger or two
matthew herbert - gang of boys
flanger - how long is the wrong way
bukkador & fishbeck - decade
metro area - miura
smith n hack - strength and inspiration
riz ortoliani - tiffany sequence m.8
riz ortoliani - una sull' altra
gino soccio - dancer
la lupe - fever (sinden remix)
pete rodriguez - i like it like that (aaron jerome remix)
gotan project - diferente
gritos de guerra - buleria

if you want to hear it, i may send you a link... ask. i want to wait until i work out the rights with the designers before i just post it. anyway, wish them luck... some people get hella famous from winning this show.

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more wild hair

my first post about wild hair remains one of the most popular posts on here, oddly (i think it's the image i link to, but who knows...) anyway, i saw these bizarre animal hairstyles and couldn't resist. they're really elaborate and awesome. above is the giraffe and below is the lion, but the others are cool, too.



UPDATE: credit, nagi noda

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sierra leone haute couture

my friend damian pointed me to his friend vanessa's blog (vanessa without borders), where she has a small but awesome collection of fashion shots from her recent travels to sierra leone. notice the black sabbath t-shirt above... the quote from this photo is "Can't you just see this guy on the Lower East Side?". i could.

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geeking out

i've haven't been blogging for a minute because i have been geeking out... working on this, my new macbook:


it's a bit of cognitive dissonance for me, as i have issues with the environmental impacts of computers, but i assuage my guilt by buying refurbished and from small retailers. also, what work one does with a computer has the potential to offset the (very real) harm done during the manufacturing process. not that i'm sure i accomplish that, but it is a goal.

in more light news, i found some great little thingies to spruce up leopard:

interfacelift has great collections of icons including the samurai set and black set used above. you can switch the (stark and cold) icons that come with leopard with a nice little app called candybar. interface also has wallpapers, including the steven miller photo above. i usually make my own, but i don't have any for this wide aspect ratio yet. i might try to upload some of my images to that site. it seems like a nice piece of free audience/advertising.

i have some more exciting music and food posts coming this week, if i can stop geeking out!

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shelving ideas

weird, customizable, folding shelves, from thirty cool shelving ideas... some are more expensive than others but a lot of them could be done on the cheap, or could spark ideas. i'm a fan of the rainbow book arrangement, and am about to do that with our bookshelves, if laura's down.

via freshome via boingboing, boingboing being basically the best blog ever, except mine and yours. freshome seems a bit bourgeois, but has, again, interesting ideas that could be done on the cheap... i like this light technique... it would be pretty easy to do with a stencil.

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wild hair!

some of the wildest hairstyles ever! much weirder stuff after the break... hard to pick favorites. wow, imagine if people all took this kind of time for hair...

i also went through a period of looking at super long hair...

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