January 2008
Temporarily Phoneless →
For the past year or so, I’ve been using a free Sprint Ambassador cellphone. That service ends today, and since I owe Sprint money on my normal Sprint account (which I couldn’t afford to pay last February or so), and can’t afford the deposit I’ll undoubtedly have to pay, I can’t just get it turned back on right now. So as of probably tomorrow, I’m phoneless.
However, I do have a GrandCentral...
All These Worlds Are Yours I →
All These Worlds Are Yours I is another generative Flash piece. Very simple, but I like it — it produces extremely iconic images.
And yes, before anyone says it, I was definitely thinking of that sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey, even though the title is taken from 2010: The Year We Make Contact.
You think you’re having all the fun / You know me, I hate everyone — Nine Inch Nails
And sometimes late at night / When I’m bathed in the firelight / The moon comes callin’ a ghostly white / And I recall…
All the concrete dreams in my mind’s eye / All the joy I see through these architect’s eyes… — David Bowie
I’m only going to Twitter in song lyrics from now on.
Mistaken For Strangers →
Mistaken For Strangers[2]
Image detail.
This series of 16 prints utilizes Perlin noise (similar to my flow field animations) to set the size, color, transparency and rotation of almost 40,000 rounded rectangles. (The title has no relation to the process — it’s just a song by The National that I’m really digging on these days.)
I’ll be displaying and selling each of the 16 prints in this...
You Said You’d Wait Until The End Of The World →
Disabled spy satellite threatens Earth - Yahoo! News
The satellite, which no longer can be controlled, could contain hazardous materials, and it is unknown where on the planet it might come down, they said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the information is classified as secret.
This is how one of my favorite movies begins.
Fuck Planet Earth →
I don’t know why this is so funny. It’s completely retarded. But it’s awesome.
Sometimes You Just Want The Night To Be Over. →
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the nature of depression, following Heath Ledger’s death. (Though now it appears that he may not have killed himself after all, which makes me deeply regret my earlier comments, though they were made out of a heartfelt anger that someone as talented as Ledger, with a small child, would take his own life.)
Tonight I watched an excellent film called...
links for 2008-01-26 →
Lifestudies: A diary of a rock ‘n’ roll divorce: Music: mensvogue.com
Sad story by Dean Wareham (formerly of Luna) detailing his affair with bassist Britta Phillips, his subsequent divorce and re-marriage to Britta. I don’t know the guy, but I hope it works out.
(tags: music biographical article)
Lifestudies: A diary of a rock 'n' roll divorce:... →
Sad story by Dean Wareham (formerly of Luna) detailing his affair with bassist Britta Phillips, his subsequent divorce and re-marriage to Britta. I don’t know the guy, but I hope it works out.
Holy Shit. →
The Monte Carlo is on fire. I can see the smoke from my house. But it looks like it might be almost out, based on the live news footage.
How is the outside of the Monte Carlo burning? Isn’t it, like, concrete? I don’t mean to sound daft, but I don’t understand what could be fueling the fire. According to the news, it’s not burning inside, but just on the facade. Hmm. I dunno.
links for 2008-01-25 →
Last Exit to Nowhere
Awesome t-shirt site of fictional movie companies. I want the ‘Overlook Hotel’ shirt. Pity they’re priced in expensive British money.
(tags: tshirts design movies funny cool)
Mysterious, doughy blob clogs sewer →
SunJournal.com - Mysterious, doughy blob clogs sewer
LEWISTON - A 50- to 60-foot doughy mass is clogging a sewer line under the city’s main drag, and crews have been unable to budge it.
“We’re not sure exactly what it is,” Public Services Director David Jones said Wednesday. “We’re just trying to get rid of it. We want it to stop clogging up our pipe.”
What is it with the sewers in Maine?...
Last Exit to Nowhere →
Awesome t-shirt site of fictional movie companies. I want the ‘Overlook Hotel’ shirt. Pity they’re priced in expensive British money.
Cool Tool: Pacsafe Travelsafe →
links for 2008-01-24 →
Cool Tool: Pacsafe Travelsafe
(tags: tools travel cool)
Not In This World (Or The Next One) →
All right. A few of you asked, so here’s the extremely rough demo I recorded for this song. It’ll probably end up being about a half-step higher and with more arrangement — this is just me getting it down on disk. So don’t expect great singing or high fidelity.
Not In This World (Or The Next One)
Music + lyrics by Joshua Ellis
I’m a good soldier
I march like they tell me
My feet fall in time...
If I Ran Obama’s Campaign, Part III →
If I Ran Obama’s Campaign, Part II →
If I Ran Obama’s Campaign →
links for 2008-01-23 →
Superheroes in Real Life - City Pages (Minneapolis/St. Paul)
I’m torn between admiration and contempt.
(tags: superheroes weird comics)
White Whine
A tumblelog of white people whining. Hilarious. “My chiropractor has the worst selection of magazines in his waiting room; I mean, thanks, but I already read November’s issue of Golf…back in November!”
(tags: funny white-people-are-dumb)
White Whine →
A tumblelog of white people whining. Hilarious. âMy chiropractor has the worst selection of magazines in his waiting room; I mean, thanks, but I already read Novemberâs issue of Golfâ¦back in November!â
Appalled to hear about Heath Ledger. Silly little shit.
You Stupid Fuck →
Heath Ledger is dead of a drug overdose. Naked and dead (according to Warren) in Mary-Kate Olsen’s apartment. (Apparently this wasn’t true, at least the Mary-Kate Olsen part.)
This is appalling. Not only did Ledger always strike me as a bright, honest guy, but he was also one of the very few actors of his generation who struck me as having infinite potential. Even in lighthearted stuff like A...
Jesus. →
I took a break from my other projects tonight and wrote the saddest song I’ve ever written. Not melancholy, but just plain heartbreakingly sad. I didn’t even mean to write something like this. It just came out.
It’s called “Not In This World Or The Next One”. It’s about a soldier in Iraq, singing a song in his head to his wife as he’s dying in combat, telling her he loves her and he’s not afraid...
Superheroes in Real Life - City Pages... →
I’m torn between admiration and contempt.
Bands Playing At Coachella 2008 That I Would... →
The Verve
The National
Múm
Portishead
M.I.A.
Hot Chip
Roger Waters
Spiritualized
Metric
Les Savy Fav
…and a lot of bands I might just beat you up for.
Making Me Happy Right Now… →
…Toots and the Maytals doing “(Take Me Home) Country Roads” by John Denver.
This makes me really happy.
Cloverfield Spoiler →
I went to see Cloverfield last night, and I managed to get a pretty good picture of the monster with my cell phone cam. (Warning: total spoiler.)
Really scary.
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes! →
I have an art show at First Friday February 1st. Go to http://www.zenarchery.com/?p=182 for more details
Generative Art Show @ February First Friday →
Thanks to Jennifer and Brian Henry, I’ll be having my first art show EVER at First Friday, February 1st. I’ll be displaying and selling prints of various generative pieces like Jellyfish, and I’ll also be projecting video of the pieces being generated, probably with my music as well.
I’ll be at the outdoor festival grounds at the corner of Casino Center and Colorado, right near the Funkhouse. So...
Jellyfish Updated →
I updated the Jellyfish piece — changed the dimensions to make it wider than taller, and added some cool random blurry background circles in shades of blue and green.
Also, I should probably explain what the hell this actually is: it’s a Flash app that uses Actionscript to algorithmically generate the “jellyfish”. There are separate functions (heavy on the trig) that create the “bell” and the...
links for 2008-01-17 →
Amy at the Club - CollegeHumor video
Cruel and funny and absolutely on the mark
(tags: humor drunken-skank video)
Amy at the Club - CollegeHumor video →
Cruel and funny and absolutely on the mark
links for 2008-01-16 →
Garbage Truck House
Mmmmm. I want one.
(tags: nomadism portable-housing cool)
You Thing Rike Jellyfish Now →
Jellyfish 1. Coded in Actionscript 2.0, mostly using the drawing functions. I am rather proud of this.
First of a series.
(Nerdy detailed explanation: This does a bunch of random point generation, then does Bezier curves to do the tentacles, triangles to do the fringing, a half-circle to do the bell, which is duplicated and set as a mask, and then randomly copies a couple of circle and cross...
Bored. Bored. Bored. Broke. Bored.
MacBook Air: Not Massively Impressed, In General →
So the MacBook Air debuted today. Aside from the multitouch trackpad and the 802.11n, I’m not really very excited by this.
Why? Because I don’t care how thin it is. After a certain threshhold, thin doesn’t matter. My MacBook Pro is plenty thin at, what, 1.5″ wide?
The Air has one USB port, no FireWire, a relatively small hard drive, a relatively slow CPU, no Ethernet (not that I use Ethernet)....
Garbage Truck House →
Mmmmm. I want one.
links for 2008-01-15 →
Vegas, Baby: Last Night I Boned An AVN Award Nominee
Heh. I know the sideshow people she took pictures of.
(tags: porn journalism)
Another Random Thought Of The Day →
In wake of the Gizmodo thing from CES, I keep seeing comments saying “They just should have secured their IR ports. It’s a security lesson.”
Well, know what? When I walk up to you on the street and slap your teeth out of your head, and then kick you in the stomach hard with my steel-toe boots, and then piss on your wounds…well, fuck you, because you should have had bodyguards. It’s a security...
Random Thought Of The Day →
HA HA BRITISH PEOPLE INVENTED TEA BUT COULDN’T FIGURE OUT HOW TO MAKE IT ICED HA HA BRITISH PEOPLE ARE DUMB AND DON’T HAVE ICE CUBES HA HA HA.
I refuse to explain this.
My Goal For 2008 →
Flying Humans, Hoping to Land With No Chute - New York Times
My goal for 2008 is to lose enough weight and get into enough shape that I can start BASE jumping, learning how to do it, so that I can make a wingsuit jump, in the next five years.
No, I’m not kidding.
Here’s the thing: I don’t need to weight train or anything like that. I’m muscular as fuck. My calves are big around as most...
Vegas, Baby: Last Night I Boned An AVN Award... →
Heh. I know the sideshow people she took pictures of.
links for 2008-01-12 →
American Psycho - Romantic Comedy - CollegeHumor video
Trailer remixes are old news, but this is pretty funny.
(tags: movie funny parody)
Tank Chair
If I ever end up crippled, I’m gonna get me one of these.
(tags: wheelchair badass charles-xavier-can-kiss-my-treaded-ass)
Apple - Trailers - He Was a Quiet Man - Trailer
This looks like it might be good. And holy shit, Christian Slater looks...
More Random Thoughts Of The Day →
The more social networks come into being, and the more people talk about what it all means, the more I want to chuck all my fucking computers into a bin and go live in the woods. I don’t want to talk to you, I don’t want to be your Magic Special Interwubbie Friend, and I don’t give a burning rat’s ass about your pictures from that party where you got drunk and made out with your BFF. I only use...
Random Thought Of The Day →
I think whatever it is the rest of you are hearing in The Arcade Fire, I’m hearing in The National. The only track off that last AF album I really like is “(Antichrist Television Blues)”, and even that feels too affected, too preciously Springsteen-ish without the naturality of Springsteen. No dynamics. Same problem I had with Sam’s Town, quite frankly: Brandon always sounds like he’s singing to a...