marks.dk
Make it swing
Apple call the iPad magical and might be right. I’m quite sure, however, that Paul Lemere is absolutely spot on when he decribes The Swinger as magical:
“The Swinger is a bit of python code that takes any song and makes it swing. It does this be taking each beat and time-stretching the first half of each beat while time-shrinking the second half. It has quite a magical effect. “
— via The Swinger « Music Machinery.
The Daily What
The Dark Side of The Moon feat. lasers and a smoke machine:
/via The Daily What
New music video from Trentemøller
This is the music video to “Sycamore Feeling” (iTunes), taken from Trentemøller’s upcoming album, “Into The Great Wide Yonder” which will be out in May this year. Marie Fisker – who also performed at both TEDxCopenhagen and Copenhagen Twestival – is featured on vocals.
She wrote a bit about the video on Facebook:
The new video from Trentemøller is written and directed by the Danish video artist Jesper Just, and it shows a woman who moves through an abandoned house in an isolated and smoke-filled town. The video is shot in the ghost town Centralia, PA, which is known for the mine fire that has burned underneath the city since 1962 [Centralia on Wikipedia]
The female role is played by the actress Diana Wagner, as well as the well-known New York drag performer, Princess Diandra, and the fragmented construction makes it terrifyingly difficult to tell the two actors apart.
Given Trentemøller’s recent remixes of both Bruce Springsteen, Lars and The Hands of Light and Franz Ferdinand as well as his “Harbour Boat Trips” remix album (iTunes), it’s not that surprising he’s exploring the indie sound a bit more. It’s difficult to evaluate the whole album based on one song, but I truly hope he doesn’t deviate too much from the sound on “The Last Resort” (iTunes) – one of the best electronica albums ever made.
Also, I’m sorry for Soundvenue’s sorry excuse of a flash player, but it’s the best I could find for now.
Update, March 6: As Dennis rightfully point out in the comments, the video is now up on YouTube, so I’ve changed Soundvenue’s ridiculous player and replaced it with YouTube’s.
OK, here we Go again
OK Go have made a new music video that is perhaps then most creative I’ve ever seen. It’s bound to be just as famous as the other one, so be one of the cool kids and watch it while it’s not mainstream yet (uuuhh):
/via Oliver Reichenstein
Death of the file system
This week I read two blog posts that deal with the same issue: The metaphorical concept of files in operating systems. And why they suck.
David Shoemaker and John Perry wrote the posts I refer to, and you owe it to yourself to read them.
In short, John Perry wrote about horizontal vs. vertical organizers. He is a horizontal organizer that likes to have everything on the table at once. That way he gains an overview with everything in sight. Vertical organizers can file anything in a cabinet and take it out when they need it again. A terrible method, if you ask me – I tend to be horizontally organized as well.
But my operating system of choice disagrees with me. The desktop metaphor seems to derive from vertical organizers’ idea of filing documents in folders and cabinets. It is directly converted to how Windows, Linux (in general) and OS X handle information. Now, Google has released a beta version of Chrome OS that hopefully kicks off the end of the regime of OSs being structured for the horizontally-focused. With Chrome OS, documents are stored in Google Docs, pictures in Picasa, emails in Gmail etc.
Obviously, the “items” (text documents, pictures and emails) are still stored in a database, but for the user, the real strength comes in archiving these items with metadata wrapped around them. No need to scan for the right email – just search for it. No need to figure out in which document you wrote about “football” – just search for it. Want to find your dad in a picture? The face recognition makes sure you can search for it (well, at least that’s how it should/will be).
David Shoemaker points out that within OS X, the developers form Apple have a slight disagreement on how to approach files vs. items. iTunes and iPhoto treats what you put into them as items that you can manage, whereas iWork handles documents and files.
Today, I’ve wiped my hard disk and reinstalled OS X. I do this every now and then to clean out all the junk I tend to gather. It’s also a way for me to rethink how I work with my computer and which apps are essential to me. One thing I noticed this time, is that I need something like iTunes/iPhoto for my pdf-files. Previously, I’ve used Evernote, but it’s unstable and slow, so I’m looking for something that can help sort my documents horizontally, not vertically. Papers looks interesting, but is there anything better out there?
It’s a small step towards a new way of working with information, and I can’t wait for Apple to start treating textual information as items, not documents.
Distortion Festival Copenhagen 2009
As a service to a couple of the nice people who asked on Twitter, here’s a list of things to see and do during Distortion next week:
Wednesday:
Block Party: “Pisserenden” is always fun. If the sun is shining, expect lots of people dancing in the streets! Ezi Cut and Phase 5 will play hip hop beats.
The über-hipsters will probably be in Krystalgade at Wood Wood’s party (Vibskov is playing).
Silkegade seems to have the best line-up: Atle, Tolstrup, von Baden, Lulu Rouge and Daniel San are all playing.
Club Clash: Don’t know any of the bands playing at the Club Clash at Charlottenborg Kunsthal, so attend at your own risk, or find a private party to crash.
Thursday:
Block Party: Kasper Bjørke is playing in Skt. Hans Gade, and there will be lots of happenings around Skt. Hans Torv that day. Don’t forget to run by Track Bike Shop in Ryesgade to watch some fixie polo. If you’re in for the weird, Je M’Apelle Mads is playing at Blågårdsgade.
Club Clash: One of the best Ibiza-DJs – Carl Craig – is playing at Korsgadehallen. Expect hard chicago techno at its best! M.A.N.D.Y plays as well – nice German house of the popular kind. Denmark is represented by Martinez & Fredski, Tomboy, Djuna Barnes, Tolstrup and Trentemøller. Proably the best Club Clash this year!
Friday:
Block Party: Reggae at Sdr. Boulevard from 1 o’clock or rock at Sort Kaffe & Vinyl in Skydebanegade – your choice. From 7PM a Eco-parade is taking place with lots of Ellerter (!) going from Axeltorv through Skydebanegade and Sdr. Boulevard until Enghave Plads is reached where Ladybox plays.
Club Clash:
Enghavevej 80 will host Ellen Allien from already legendary German label, Bpitch. Don’t miss it! There will be lots of other stages as well with DJs of every kind and genre.
Saturday:
No block party, but dinner from 17-22 (don’t know where, but close to water as there will be a submarine and a boat).
Club Clash:
German Super DJs Supermayer (Kompakt-label owner Michael Mayer and Superpitcher), Tim Sweeney (US techno), Troels Abrahamsen (electrorock), When Saints Go Machine (rock), Rune RK (lots of calabria-house), Jean von Baden (NASA-house), Filur (hipster-house), Waqar, Kim Kemi, Copyfokking (Knippelsuppe-electro!), DØD and DJ Er Du Dum Eller Hvad? (don’t know them, but the name “Are You Stupid Or What?” sounds terrific).
Huge party, but entrance fee of 160 kr. and a million people might prove hard to overcome…
Sunday:
Lying in the grass on Islands Brygge from 2pm – 10pm. A bus with leftovers from the parties will come and serve drinks.
Skyphone live in Nantes
One of my teachers at Copenhagen Business School is playing in a band called “Skyphone” and they make wonderful “clicktronica”, as I like to call it.
Have listen to one of their live recordings from Nantes:
SOY Festival #6 – Skyphone from Anousonne Savanchomkeo on Vimeo.