July 8, 2011
Jean-Yves Prieur (b.1964), aka Kid Loco is a French electronic musician, DJ, remixer and producer. His style has been compared to Air and Dimitri from Paris. His best-known album is ‘A Grand Love Story’ (1997), and he has also compiled and mixed a DJ mix album for the ‘Another Late Night’ series on Azuli Records.
He has worked with Jarvis Cocker (of Pulp), with Italian band The Transistors (Maurizio Mansueti and Luca Cirillo) and Glasgow bands A Band Called Quinn and Mogwai, and produced the album ‘Too Late To Die Young’ by the British group, Departure Lounge.
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July 8, 2011
Dr. Octagon was a fictional character created by American rapper Keith Thornton, better known as Kool Keith. First appearing on Thornton’s 1996 debut solo album, ‘Dr. Octagonecologyst,’ Dr. Octagon is an extraterrestrial time traveling gynecologist and surgeon from the planet Jupiter. Thornton performed and released three albums under the alias. The character was murdered by another of his characters, Dr. Dooom on Thornton’s 1999 album ‘First Come, First Served,’ and was briefly revived before once again being killed on Thornton’s 2008 album ‘Dr. Dooom 2,’ in response to the release of ‘The Return of Dr. Octagon,’ an album largely produced without Thornton’s involvement.
In Dr. Octagonecologyst, Dr. Octagon is described as having yellow eyes, green skin, and a pink-and-white Afro. Further tracks detail a list of services offered by Octagon, who claims to treat chimpanzee acne and moosebumps, and relocate saliva glands. Octagon is described as being incompetent, as many of his surgery patients die as he conducts his rounds. He often engages in sexual intercourse with female patients and nurses. Octagon’s uncle, Mr. Gerbik, is described as being half shark, having the skin of an alligator, and is 208 years old.
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July 8, 2011
Moody Street Irregulars (subtitled ‘A Jack Kerouac Newsletter’) was an American publication dedicated to the history and the cultural influences of Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation. Edited and published by Joy Walsh, it featured articles, memoirs, reviews and poetry. Published from Clarence Center, New York, it had a run of 28 issues from Winter 1978 to 1992. The title of the publication derives from the Baker Street Irregulars, a group of street urchins often employed by Sherlock Holmes in the novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
The magazine’s approach is indicated by the contents of issue number 9 (1981), a special ‘Vanity of Duluoz’ (Kerouac’s semi-autobiographical novel) issue including essays and articles by Gregory Stephenson, John Clellon Holmes, Carolyn Cassady, plus an interview with William S. Burroughs by Jennie Skerl. Issue number 11 (Spring/Summer 1982) was a special ‘French Connection’ issue, featuring articles and essays about Kerouac, his French-Canadian ancestry and his popularity in Quebec.
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July 6, 2011
The EcoSphere is sealed blown-glass miniature aquarium produced by Ecosphere Associates, Inc., of Tucson, Arizona, United States. Spherical or ovoid, the aquaria range from roughly baseball-size to soccer-ball-size. They are sold worldwide as scientific novelties and decorative objects. The spheres are populated by tiny red-pink shrimp, which swim energetically around the aquarium, eat the brown bacterial and algal scum on the glass, consume the filamentous green algae which sometimes forms a globular pillow in the water, and perch on a fragment of coral.
Each EcoSphere is a materially closed ecological systems which is self-sustaining over a period of years. At room temperature, and with only low inputs of light, the algae produce oxygen which supports the shrimp and bacteria. Bacteria break down the shrimps’ wastes. The breakdown products provide nutrients to the algae and bacteria upon which the shrimp feed. The manufacturer states that shrimp live in the EcoSphere for an average of 2 to 3 years, and are known to live over 10 years.
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July 5, 2011
Granny Takes a Trip was a boutique opened in 1966 in Chelsea, London. The shop remained open until the mid-70s and has been called the ‘first psychedelic boutique in the ‘Swinging London’ in the 1960s.” It was also the name of a Purple Gang song of the 1960s named after the store and banned by the BBC.
The boutique was the brainchild of two young Londoners, Nigel Waymouth and Sheila Cohen, who were looking for an outlet for Cohen’s ever-increasing collection of antique clothes. By the spring of 1966 the shop had achieved worldwide renown. They paved the way for many of the designer boutiques that followed, such as Mr. Freedom, Alkasura, Let It Rock, and later the more ambitious enterprises of Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood and Paul Smith.
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July 5, 2011
The Maschinenmensch [muh-sheen-en-mench] (German: ‘machine-human’) from ‘Metropolis,’ is a gynoid played by German actress Brigitte Helm in both her robotic and human incarnations. The haunting blank face and pronounced female curves have been the subject of disgust and fascination alike. The Maschinenmensch has many names given her through the years : Parody, Ultima, Machina, Futura, and Robotrix. The Maschinenmensch’s back story is detailed in Thea von Harbou’s original 1927 novel. It is described as a very delicate, but faceless, transparent figure made of crystal flesh with silver bones and its eyes filled with an expression of calm madness. Futura is perfectly obedient and the ideal agent-provocateur, able to become any woman and tempt men to their doom.
The memorable transformation scene was an early miracle of special effects, using a series of matte cutouts of the robot’s silhouette and a number of circular neon lights. All effects were filmed directly into the camera rather than edited separately. As a result the film had to be rewound and exposed many tens of times over to include the plates showing the heart and circulatory systems as well as cuts between the robot form and Maria showing her gradual transformation. The Maschinenmensch is an archetypal example of the Frankenstein complex, where artificial creations turn against their creator and go on a rampage. Artificial beings with a malevolent nature were a popular theme at the time. Original designs by Ralph McQuarrie for C-3PO in Star Wars were largely based on the Maschinenmensch, albeit in a male version. The design was later refined, but retains clear Art Deco influences.
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July 5, 2011
Christopher Mercer (b. 1985), more commonly known as Rusko, is an English dubstep record producer and DJ. He made his production debut in 2006 on Dub Police with the song ‘SNES Dub.’
Steering away from the darker side of Dubstep, Rusko brought an upbeat sound to the scene that appealed to many outside the community. Rusko’s extremely successful hit ‘Cockney Thug’ has appeared on various DJ sets and mixes.
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July 4, 2011
Since the 1970s, cuteness, in Japanese the noun kawaisa (literally, ‘lovability,’ ‘cuteness’ or ‘adorableness’), has become a prominent aspect of Japanese popular culture, entertainment, clothing, food, toys, personal appearance, behavior, and mannerisms. The term kawaii has taken on the secondary meanings of ‘cool,’ ‘groovy,’ ‘charming,’ ‘non-threatening.’ As a cultural phenomenon, cuteness is increasingly accepted in Japan as a part of Japanese culture and national identity.
Japanese women who perform cute behaviors that could be viewed as forced or fake are called ‘burikko’ and this is considered a gender performance. In Japan, cuteness is expected of men and women. There is a trend of men shaving their legs to mimic the ‘asexual’ look. The original definition of kawaii came from Lady Murasaki’s ‘The Tale of Genji’ where it referred to pitiable qualities. During the Shogunate period under the ideology of neo-Confucianism, women came to be included under the term kawaii as the perception of women from being animalistic was replaced with the conception of women as docile.
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July 4, 2011
The Sea organ is an architectural object located in Croatia and an experimental musical instrument which plays music by way of sea waves and tubes located underneath a set of large marble steps. The waves create somewhat random but harmonic sounds.
The device was made by the architect Nikola Bašić as part of the project to redesign the new city coast (Nova riva), and the site was opened to the public in 2005. Chaotic reconstruction work undertaken in an attempt to repair the devastation suffered by the city of Zadar in the Second World War turned much of the sea front into an unbroken, monotonous concrete wall. The Sea Organ has drawn tourists and locals alike.
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July 4, 2011
Redshirt is a term for a stock character in fiction who dies soon after being introduced. The term originated with fans of Star Trek, from the red shirts worn by Starfleet security officers who frequently die during episodes.
In many episodes of Star Trek, red-uniformed security officers and engineers accompanying the main characters on landing parties quickly die.
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July 4, 2011
The Principle of Evil Marksmanship (also known as the Stormtrooper Effect) states that enemy marksmen in action films are often very bad shots and almost never harm the main characters. They are generally only capable of hitting a target if the target is either of no value to the plot or if their death will advance said plot. The term first appeared in film critic Roger Ebert’s 1980 book ‘Little Movie Glossary.’
The theme is commonly seen in cowboy films, action films, martial arts films, and comics, and is often a source of mockery by critics, satirists, and fans. Ebert often uses the term in his reviews. Imperial Stormtroopers in the original Star Wars trilogy possessed overwhelming numbers and firepower.
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July 4, 2011
Indie electronic (also called indietronica) is a music genre that combines indie, electronica, rock and pop music. Typical instruments used in indietronica music are electronic keyboard, synthesizer, sampler and drum machine.
Indie electronic began in the early ’90s with bands like Stereolab and Disco Inferno, took off in the new millennium as the new digital technology developed, with acts including Broadcast from the UK, Justice from France, Lali Puna from Germany and The Postal Service, and Ratatat from the US, mixing a variety of indie sounds with electronic music, largely produced on small independent labels.
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