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Bond 23 with Sam Mendes
Interesting news on the next Bond movie - character-driven director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Revolutionary Road) will be in charge of the as-yet-untitled Bond 23. Let's hope he strikes a nice balence between the overlong Casino Royale and the over-compressed Quantum of Solace.
6th Jan 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
The Lost Supper
what is it about big US TV shows and Da Vinci's Last Supper? Battlestar Galactica and The Sopranos both offered up versions - and now Lost has popped up with two versions for fans to pore over. probably doesn't mean much at all, but has got me in the mood for the last Losts - should all be starting at the end of Jan
6th Jan 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Contra Band
Vampire Weekend are streaming the whole of their new album Contra over on their MySpace page
5th Jan 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
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Ad Nauseum: Mini Cooper
Not an actual TV ad this time, just a clever ad installation to advertise the Mini Cooper, post-Christmas.
4th Jan 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
2010! New Decade! New Stuff!
yup, another random set of arbitrarily assigned numbers has rolled over and so it's time to look forwards and get excited about some new stuff...
Gil Scott Heron - I'm New Here as you'll see from the video above, the mighty Gil Scott Heron is back with an excellent set of new songs for XL (including a Smog cover on the title track!). Voice like a mountain.
Midlake - The Courage Of Others More melancholia, stripped-down, low-key folkrock from the Midlakers. Think this is going to find its way into a lot of chimp top tens at the end of the year.
Peter Gabriel - Scratch My Back can't wait to hear what he's done with Paul Simon's Boy In The Bubble
Herbert - One One/One Pig/One Club A trilogy of new albums from the Accidentalista - one's a solo effort ("hot like a house on fire!"), one's made up from a pig and one's from a night in a club - think it's going to be 3/3 for this lot, and he's also producing albums for Eska, Rowdy Superstar and Barbara Panther
Vampire Weekend - Contra more songs about punctuation and fonts? who could resist?
Beach House - Teen Dream nice'n'woozy Flaming Lipsy rock
Washed Out - not sure what's coming out when exactly, but this Polaroidy valium pop is great
Nurse Jackie BBC2, Monday 4 Jan - Edie Falco returns as a junkie nurse, looks v good
Glee E4 11 Jan - v campy high school musical, but it's a lot of fun too. Don't! Stop! Beleeeeiving!
3rd Jan 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: Steve Mason - All Come Down
simple lo-fi stylings for this video from Steve Mason's new album. the ex-Beta Band/King Biscuit Time/Black Affair dude has hooked up w Richard X this time. MPFree here more studio action here
2nd Jan 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Frozen
hope this doesn't put the chimp snow team off...
23rd Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: Wishing On A Star
Great early trip hop video, notable for highlighting some classic Bristolian skate spots.
#CSF
#Music
#PromoPromo
#Skateboarding
22nd Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Google Office
No, not another Microsoft bashing project - just a sneak peek inside one of Google's offices. All the cliches are there - scooters, snack bars, crash zones etc etc. Looks totally fun.
22nd Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Adidas Death Star
I'm not quite sure what Adidas and Star Wars have in common, but check out the Adidas Death Star - a Google Maps mash-up that lets you destroy your friends houses with the Death Star.
22nd Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Rage Against Five Live
just in case you missed it this week, here's Christmas number one stars Rage Against The Machine sticking it to the man (around 9mins in for the good bit)
22nd Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: Metal on Metal
Nice slice of Battle Royale style ping pong horror in this promo for Metal on Metal. Promo by The Glue Society.
21st Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
RIP: Brittany Murphy
RIP Brittany Murphy. Dead at 32 from a cardiac arrest.
20th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Panic Attack!
Great news for the maker of this low-buget retro robot invasion short - Hollywood have signed him up for a big-budget remake.
If you're interested in making your own low-budget movie, check out Wired's How-To Wiki.
18th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Ad Nauseum: Adidas Originals
You might have caught this star-studded Adidas Originals campaign on TV this year - a well planned campaign that started with invites going out with a teaser clip, followed by the party/ad itself and even ending up with a Simpsons parody (below). All run through their website, Facebook and Youtube page.
Great concept, great photography and great direction - by Nima Nourizadeh, through Partizan.
Final ad above. You can probably dig out a more legit copy of the final clip on the Adidas website, or see it on the Partizan site.
P.S. Check out Beckham's hole in one too.
18th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
RATM V X Factor
this one's going to run and run! really hoping RATM make it to number one now
17th Dec 2009 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Non Frusciante
It's official. Guitar hero John Frusciante won't be returning for the Chili Peppers 10th album, and has officially left the band. According to his website, he left 12 months ago while the band took a hiatus.
The Empyreum still ranks as one of my albums of the year. Read the review here.
17th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: The Pinkmountaintops
Forgot to post this when it debuted, but check out this slick promo from The Pinkmountaintops for their track Execution.
Directed by Shira Blustein.
17th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Entourage The Movie
The TV show is still going strong, with possibly the best season yet just finishing - but already there's talk of a post-season movie - Sex In The City style.
17th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Shark Patterns
No, not another spoof shark attack. This one's some actual data, acquired by tagging great whites with GPS tags. Turns out swimming from Alcatraz to San Francisco wouldn't be a good idea after all.
17th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Morrissey's Words
Morrissey has politely written a letter to fan site True To You, rounding up the events of 2009 - which included a collapse in Swindon, a bottle throwing and both a great new album and B-sides compilation, the latter of which he resolutely apologises for. I liked it.
17th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Spencer Grug's Moonface
Wolf man Spencer Krug has added another project to his Wolf Parade / Sunset Rubdown personalities, with solo project Moonface releasing the Dreamland EP: marimba and shit-drums.
The one man band has a one track EP out on a one sided 12" in January, but you can download it now here. Krug's following Radiohead's pay-what-you-will model for the track, which clocks in at 20 mins and is available as a high-quality Flac download.
17th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Trailer Park: Robin Hood
Not sure about you, but I have a pretty specific idea of a what a Robin Hood movie made by Ridley Scott/ Russell Crowe might look like.
Here it is.
16th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Websites of the Year
Creative Review have a run down of fancy websites featured in the FWA Site of the Year competition.
16th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Men's Health Issues
Gawker noticed a few similarities with the strap-lines on the cover of a recent copy of Men's Health, so they did a bit of checking. Turns out it's not that uncommon at all. In a response to Daily Finance, the publishing house essentially said "If it ain't broke...".
Don't even mention the rotating cast of buff black and white cover-stars.
16th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Biggest Big Pictures of 2009 (UPDATE: and the 00s)
Here's part 1 of 3 from The Big Picture's photo round-up of 2009.
UPDATE: If that's not enough, here's the whole 00s.
#CSF
#CurrentAffairs
#Photography
15th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Ad Nauseum: Google Out of Office
Clever clip pulling together the many assets of Google, in a National-centric way.
15th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Goo.gl
Google has thrown it's hat in the URL-shortening arena - launching goo.gl
While all these bitly / tr.im etc services are pretty handy, they have all seemed a little shaky in terms of a business model - promoting concerns about millions of lost links if one went bust...
15th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Killing In The Name of Christmas
Somewhat surprisingly, the campaign to secure the Christmas #1 spot for Rage Against The Machine is working. They're currently at #2, with only 10% to make up in order to topple current leader Joe from X-Factor.
Not sure I like anyone telling me what to buy though. "@£&% you, I won't do what you tell me!"
#CSF
#CurrentAffairs
#Music
#Stupido
15th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Mr Beaks' top 100 movies of the decade
Mr Beaks of AICN has been running through his top 100 movies of the decade. Here's the final 25. Some interesting choices (good and bad), but Songs From The Second Floor sounds particularly interesting.
15th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Tiger Tweets
Real time mapping of mentions of Tiger Woods on Twitter...
#CSF
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#Websites
15th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Oscilloscope Laboratories
Aint it cool have a great interview up with Beastie Boy MCA. They touch on his health issues (recovering well), but the main drive of the article is about his blossoming film production and distribution company - Oscilloscope Laboratories.
The company produced the Gunnin' For That #1 Spot documentary, but have also had lot of success with their distribution, notably with The Messenger with Ben Foster and Woody Harrelson.
Their approach mirrors that of the indie record label, pushing more interesting projects than the majors, using innovative techniques. Check out their Circle of Trust program, which gets you their next ten upcoming release DVDs (ahead of time), plus a 50% discount on their back catalogue for $150.
14th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
gPhone 2.1
Google seem to be stepping up their mobile phone business, with Google Voice finding its feet in the US and the company now releasing its own unlocked, network-free handset - allegedly in January 2010.
The company has unofficially confirmed that it has given out handsets to its employees - which are built by HTC and are running a pumped up, unreleased version of Google's own Android operating system.
Meanwhile, Apple seems to be lining up to by VOIP provider iCall, which would give them a Google Voice of their own.
14th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Lou Zoom
Lou Reed has launched a music-unrelated iPhone app, which seems to be a little short-sghted.
14th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
X Factor Insider
Here's some great insight into the money-making skills of genius producer Simon Cowell. Before last year's X-Factor winner recorded her hit cover of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, Cowell bought the rights to the song, meaning he benefitted (to the tune of $250,000 a day) from Alexandra's version at number one, as well as Cohen's original and Jeff Buckley's cover - both of which zoomed back into the top 10. Genius.
Remember that when you're buying the first Joe McElderry single.
14th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
X Factor Week By Week Results
just in case you're interested - here's how the voting went down
14th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Invasion of Privacy
It's not just you that's been compromised by Facebook's recent change in privacy settings. Chief Facebooker Mark Zuckerberg's wasted-in-Tahoe photoset popped up, and Valleywag spread the word....
#CSF
#CurrentAffairs
#Tech
#Websites
11th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Conchords Grounded
To coincide with their new website, Twitter feed, Flickr group and Facebook page, the Flight of the Conchords have announced that there will not be another series of the HBO show.... basically, because it's too much work.
"While the characters Bret and Jemaine will no longer be around, the real Bret and Jemaine will continue to exist."
Hopefully that doesn't mean it's the absolute end however. I Told You I was Freaky is sitting high in my best of 2009 list.
11th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Star Wars Hoodies
Can't say I'm a big Ecko fan, but my 10 year old self would have loved these Star Wars hoodies. Boba Fett in particular.
11th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Lynch talks Return of the Jedi
Interesting info coming through from a recent David Lynch event, where he talks about being offered the Director's chair on Return of the Jedi.
Very interesting, if a little revisionist. For one thing, he was a big shot director back then who had Elephant Man in the can and Dune on the horizon. If that hadn't been a turkey (and thank god it wasn't ROTJ), who knows where he'd be now.
10th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Jimmy Fallon As Neil Young Covering The Fresh Prince Theme
it shouldn't work, but it does...
10th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
iTunes Album of the Year: the Invisible
Good news for our friends at Accidental Records, iTunes has names The Invisible's debut album as their album of the year.
9th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Monster Waves
It might not be Bodhi's dream of the 40 year storm, but 40ft waves are pounding Hawaii following some extreme weather - and the surfers are out.
The BBC have video.
9th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
A Merry Lytle Chrismas
Jason Lytle has knocked out a piano-only Xmas Album, available for free on his bandcamp page...
9th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Promo Promo: Vampire Weekend - Cousins
Nice low-budget promo up for the new Vampire Weekend track, Cousins.
Directed by Garth Jennings of Hammer & Tongs. Check out his rough mock-up from the pitch below.
8th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet
Not just for directions: Sharks on Google Maps
Check out this school of sharks spotted on Google Maps while cruising around Bondi Beach. Zoom in for the gory detail...
8th Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet