July 2008
WatchLykke Li - “Breaking It Up”
I absolutely love this video.
“Dur dur dur dur dur I’m friends with a guy who’s a sandwich!...”
– Fake Merlin Mann
Hamlet (Facebook News Feed Edition). →
Brilliant.
What Would Don Draper Do? →
This is genius. (Via Nick.)
“Mark Ronson In Studio”, a 2-minute...
Yes Man →
This is the trailer for “Yes Man”, presumably — very loosely — based on the book of the same name by Danny Wallace.
It’s no surprise that they’ve made the book into a film; it’s an excellent read, and perfect comedy film fodder. (I’m surprised it took this long.) It’s also no surprise that the film does not look very good. For a start, the book is by a...
Pandemic 2 →
I’m a big fan of casual flash games, and this is one of the best I’ve played recently. The game description: “Evolve your disease, infect the world and exterminate 6.3 billion people.” Unsurprisingly, killing the human race is an extremely fun way to kill a few hours.
I’ve also linked to this game on Kongregate, where I’ve been playing it, because they have a...
Well worth the wait →
Stephen Fry’s Dork Talk column — about the only thing worth reading in the Guardian, most of the time — is back. It’s pretty much just a standard fare article about the iPhone, but it’s worth reading just for Fry’s writing. I think I learn a new word every time I read something of his. This time: ineluctable.
Custom Themes
Custom Themes has been running a little over a month now, and is currently home to 82 themes. I know for a fact it’s the most complete directory (I checked), and the most usable (I checked), as well as the highest quality one overall (again, I checked). It’s the third Google result for “tumblr themes” at the moment, and number 2 is inactive, and the first is truly awful...
Lelia - Mettle
Björk’s former touring...
Jaguar Love - Vagabond Ballroom
Famewhores
The web is in a sorry fucking state when people are writing articles on how to become web famous without the aid of any talent. I’ve seen two in the last week, both written by Julia Fucking Allison. I don’t think I’ve mentioned Julia Allison here before, because I haven’t cared enough to feed that particular beast until now, but here’s my official stance on Julia...
Political videos meet Google speech-to-text... →
The subject matter here is of zero interest to me — the U.S. elections — but the technology, and the concept is interesting. In a nutshell: Google are using speech-to-text software to automatically transcribe all the videos from politicians’ Youtube channels. Which means every word from every video in their channels is searchable (given time for Google to analyse and index it). That includes...
Tumblr MP3 Player →
One of the most frequently mentioned gripes with Tumblr’s audio post functionality is the lack of a continuous playlist of audio posts. Various people have attempted to hack workarounds (myself included, with limited success), but none come close to what Dan Kantor has managed.
In his post he introduces the Streampad-powered Tumblr MP3 player, and it couldn’t be easier to get up and...
Ways to Lose at Tony Hawk's Pro Skater →
After launching off the vert ramp, your board achieves sufficient velocity to enter a low earth orbit. Trapped in space, forever falling, you rack up a score modifier that ranks in the trillions, but you fail to stick the landing after your frozen corpse disintegrates upon re-entry.
Santogold - “Icarus”
Some new...
Bon Iver Daytrotter Session →
So good, unsurprisingly.
HARD Summer Festival →
This just started in Los Angeles. I kind of wish I was there — N.E.R.D., MSTRKRFT, Spank Rock, LA Riots, Bloody Beetroots and A-Trak on the same bill is a recipe for something amazing. (Site has autoplaying music, and the control is right at the bottom.)
Me and My Girls - David Carr →
If you’re anything like me, you spend most of your weekend reading. So if you’re anything like me, make sure this excerpt from David Carr’s book about his days as a junkie makes it on to your reading list. (via Kottke)
Sebastien Tellier - “Divine”
Off the...
Top Ranking →
Top Ranking is a new 75-minute mix from Diplo and Santogold, featuring a number of unreleased stuff from both. The tracklist is here on Wikipedia, and looks absolutely amazing. Pick this up ASAP.
“The reason why I say “Apple products” is I always say: What’s the point of...”
– Christian Lander on the hypocrisy of people that like Apple products. (via Joe Clark)
Mamihlapinatapai →
I was reminded of this word recently (possibly by someone else’s tumblelog, but I don’t recall). It means “a look shared by two people with each wishing that the other will initiate something that both desire but which neither one wants to start” in Yaghan, one of the indigenous languages of Tierre del Fuego. It’s also listed in the Guiness Book of World Records as...
Sigur Rós - “Illgressi (Them Jeans...
Parenthetical Girls - “A Song For...
OneTakeNewYork →
Here’s a tumblelog worth keeping an eye on.
One Take New York makes video documents of bands we love playing a song they love somewhere in New York City — in one take, of course. We are one cameraperson and one sound recordist and one very tall fellow who pitches in as producer and director.
Air France - “Collapsing At Your...
Why I Still Use Windows Despite the Peer Pressure →
As a Mac user, I’m in a definite minority. I still rock OS X, and I’m pretty happy with that. Why haven’t I switched to Windows? Plenty of reasons, not least of which being that I’m just too smart to switch to Windows. That’s right, I’m too smart for Windows.
Tell me something: Is that the stupidest fucking thing you’ve ever read? Because I’m...
Daddy and the Husband - “Nipples Like...
Late of the Pier - Heartbeat
Quirky Nomads Podcast →
A couple of weeks ago, I was e-mailed by a podcaster that had read one of my blog entries and wanted to read it on their podcast. Naturally, I was more than happy submit to that (they didn’t even need to ask, really), and then I promptly forgot about it.
Today, to my absolute delight, I got another e-mail with a link to the podcast episode. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, not...
Up and Then Down →
The New Yorker article that’s packed full of things you don’t need to know about elevators, that I mentioned yesterday. (Thanks, Yaffa.)
The door-close rain dance
Inevitably, people start getting impatient and hitting the door-close button after about 4 seconds. It doesn’t do anything, but the doors close a second or two later regardless, so people think they’ve affected the outcome, and they push the door-close button again the next time. If they push the button too soon, and the elevator waits a few more seconds before closing the doors, the people...
WatchHello, Nick here. Jared and I cannot agree on the merits of Axe. Disappointing, because when he’s not around I’ve been dousing his bedsheets in it.
This is the first episode of Nick Douglas’s new sketch show. Generally speaking, I find most sketch shows disappointing; they rely on cheap laughs and easy gags — and that’s not really a complaint, more a comment on the inherent...
Greenskeepers - “Bedtime”
Who I...