TITLEOFMAGAZINE

What more can you say?

Might be the worst best movie since The Room.

“Driven by passion.”

Birdemic: Shock And Terror Official Theatrical Trailer from Severin Films on Vimeo.

Who cares if he has been arrested or not? Google AdSense tells me Adam Gadhan has bad skin. That’s the real story.

The Guardian has an interesting article on Paul Davies, chair of the SETI Post Detection Task Group. The guy who decides what to if/when aliens contact our humble planet.

Jon Ronson writes:

Seti scientists also [fill their time] by putting protocols in place for what to do on the day a bleep is definitively heard. It is extremely likely they will be the ones to hear it: they’re the ones with the dishes. Should the protocols be followed, they’ll know not to call the media or some government figure. They’ll call the chair of the Post-Detection Task Group. Which is Paul.

The article makes a few other fascinating points such as why Davies would never reveal the location of a signal from another civilization– because then anyone from the US Military to 4Chan could respond with their own independent message from humanity.

I hope you are not hungover. Here’s a fantastic, shocking, and disturbing documentary on Walter J. Freeman–who performed the first lobotomy. Here’s a brief clip and you can watch the entire documentary via PBS. Its quite fascinating but definitely not for a weak stomach.

Tonight I got from MacHeist five apps for $19.99 which is lower than any of the apps individually. One stands out though: Flow. Flow does what I always wanted from a FTP client: I can edit the files and see the updates in a split screen browser as I save it. Sure there are plenty of editors out there from Pico to Dreamweaver but none made working with WordPress themes or dynamic server content this easy. At $19.99 its a steal for the next 5 days as it comes with MacJournal and a few other useful applications.

I’ll probably be sticking with Coda by Panic for my flat XHTML/HTML5/CSS work but for modifying WordPress themes or any dynamic PHP driven content, Flow wins.

NOAH is an Arco (get it? Noah’s Arco!) designed by E. Kevin Schopfer AIA, RIBA is a self contained scifi futury type building designed to survive hurricanes, float, and be as self-sufficient as possible. Oh, and its in the Mississippi river in New Orleans.

Arcology was popularized by Paolo Soleri and his work with Arcosanti in the American southwest. It’s also a staple of a healthy science fiction diet.

I’m not sure if this is real work, spec work, or imaginary work. Most architects I have worked with tend to think “if this can be done in 3D on a computer, it can be done in real life.” As its obvious this project has a large scope.

The architect Schopfer’s firm’s website, which like all architecture firm websites is a poorly designed monstrosity, contains sparse information. No date for completion or date of initiation is given. He has worked on some prominent projects such as the Roswell UFO museum and the World Trade Center. He also seems to be into yachts, which could be important for a giant hulking floating city.

There are a few problems with this:

1. It’s going to be expensive and New Orleans, the state of Missisippi don’t have that kind of money.
2. There are many empty buildings and spaces in New Orleans.
3. It blocks and sharply contrasts any of the French Quarter architecture.
4. It’s ridiculous.

Though it would be cool.

BDD Büro Destruct Designer an application for Adobe Air (Windows, Mac, Linux) or iPhone/iPod Touch creates abstract grid based designs inspired by modern Swiss design of the 1960’s. In just a few clicks create pleasing color combination, grid layout, and shapes. Great inspiration for poster, logo, and illustrative design. The desktop version is free and the iPod version is available for the introductory price of $0.99 USD.

Here, while I learn Flash, you go and read some Freddy Exley.

Mel Zerman, a former Harper & Row executive remembers:

In 1971 my wife and I were visiting upstate New York. I insisted we go to Watertown and look up Fred. It was a Saturday night. We went to a bar. It was the only place in town. There was no time when Fred wasn’t drinking heavily and when you went there, you understood why. There is nothing else to do in Watertown except drink.

Time still has their 1968 review of A Fan’s Notes online, if you’d care to peruse.  The Exley Wikipedia article is fairly well fleshed out as well.

Just months shy of 30 years ago, John Foxx released his groundbreaking album Metamatic. After a hiatus from the mid-1980’s until 1998 he disappeared from the music radar. These videos are from his recent album Tiny Colour Movies. For this album Foxx scored several almost forgotten home videos from the collection of Arnold Weizcs-Bryant of Baltimore. The effect is haunting.

Underwater Automobiles

As Foxx explains in the liner notes:

. . . Robert Rouncefield acquired an underwater super 8mm camera from his parents on his 17th birthday in 1972. He and his friends would often swim in the lakes near his home in Montana. One part of a lake was used to dump old automobiles. They would be disposed of by simply letting off the brakes and allowing them to roll quietly down a slight incline into the lake. Swimming there one summer, Rouncefield discovered what resembled an underwater car-park and decided to film it. He also took his girlfriend along and persuaded her to swim underwater. This juxtaposition produces a strange and beautiful film – the submerged cars, the classically beautiful young swimmer, the moving light from the sunlit surface. The rich colour of the super 8mm film and its grain lend the brief sequences a luscious, impressionistic appearance . . .

Smokescreen

As Foxx explains in the liner notes:

Several short sequences made by an unknown film student in the 1950’s and discovered in the film school vaults. All depict a man in a suit walking through a series of smoke laden rooms. This was the first film that Arnold obtained and the one that began his collection. “This particular film is very dear to me,” he says. “Because it precipitated my understanding of what film actually is. I was looking for stock footage in the school film library when I found an unlabelled canister. I was curious about pieces of unknown film even then, so took it to the viewing room. I saw these marvelouslly lit sequences which seemed to have a very definite story, yet there is no explanation or development or resolution. We can have no idea what the filmmaker had in mind. Because of this lack of resolution, they seem strangely suspended. You begin to make connections, you feel compelled to write a story. But there is none. There can be none. The effect is tantalising, like a damaged and incomplete fragment of memory.”