Thursday, December 21, 2006

Bianca Ryan - America's Got Talent - Christmas

I know it's a little bit weird...
It might be the fact that she's from the world's musical capital, it might be due to David Hasselhoff being in the jury, or it might even be the Christmas spirit-- I just can't help acknowledging her talent: An 11-year old girl from Philly won "America's Got Talent" in August-- her name is Bianca Ryan. Check out the following videos (in temporal order) and have a Merry Merry Christmas.



Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Mos Def's Tru3 Magic Coming Soon

Mos Def's new album has been advanced and supposedly it will still appear in 2006 (Dec 29th).

Watch his interview with Al Gore at myspace and listen to some tracks of Tru3 Magic on mosdefmusic.com.

(Actually this quick post serves also as a test for the new blogspot format-- finally including tags)

Monday, December 18, 2006

"Mein Blog" -- Berlin Märkisches Viertel Worldwide

Lovin' the "Visitor - Geo Map Overlay" that google analytics gave me today.
MV (Märkisches Viertel) is with me.

This reminds me of two things I've been wanting to post for a long time (sorry, for German speakers only):
  1. There is a great comedian from Berlin (originally from MV) called Fil and his partner Sharkey. Whenever you're in Berlin, try to catch one of their shows. They're incredibly funny.
  2. Sido, the MV rapper who was big with his MV track "Mein Block" some time ago, has taken off his mask and released his new LP. It's not really my kind of music, but it's nevertheless interesting to follow his development. Watch him at the show of Berlin's own Kurt Krömer (a link by Janna).

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Gilles @ Paris (thanks, Steffi) and Neurotree

Just two titbits:
Gilles Peterson is finally gonna come to Paris on February 1st, 2007. Screw the exam on February 3rd...

Neuroscientists spend a lotta time in front of the computer anyway, so they engage in weird activities, such as the Neurotree, a scientific pedigree that answers who was educated by whom.
Not for nothing it's called Doktorvater/-mutter ("doctor father/mother") in German.

I guess Paul Broca must be something like the neuroscientific pendant to biblical Adam.
Or who can find a more historical neuroscientist?

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Old School /New School: Newcleus - Jam on it!

Recently, I've been to this Old School Detroit Techno concert and I really didn't feel the music. I think to enjoy it to the full extent, you must had stored feelings in it back in the days.

It's funny how music acts as a repository of emotions. And the retrieval of these feelings is usually as immediate as the one related to olfactory stimuli-- which, as you know, doesn't have to take the subcortical detour.

So I myself stored feelings in OldSkool Rap music. Although I am not old enough to have really savored this track when it came out, I sure loved it back in the nineties:
Newcleus - Jam on it (1984).
Check out the incredibly cool video (.mov - ca. 25mb)

There was also a cool remake by Mos Def in 2001 to which you can listen here. His new album Tru3 Magic, by the way, has been delayed once more and is supposed to be released on January 9th, 2007.

Sunday, December 10, 2006

DJ Mehdi - Somebody is a Lucky Boy

It's a pity that blogspot doesn't support tagging of blog entries, cause then it would be easier to connect posts that belong together-- like this one that's in a row with previous posts on the topic of Chromeo.
To sum up I hope you did check out the gorgeous Needy Girl track and the respective video.

Now there is a friend of Chromeo based in Paris who goes by the name of DJ Mehdi and who has just released his new album Lucky Boy.
There are two nice videos: The one from the first single "I am somebody" even features Dave from Chromeo in the final scence.



And there is a second one, a fan video called "I is sumbuddy":

Monday, December 04, 2006

CiteULike Social Academia Online

Recently, there has been a hot post on well-formed-data.net on Social Tools for Academic Papers. I wanted to wait for a couple of days to check out the service myself, but I really think it's a useful tool for everybody having to do with scientific publications: In line with Mo's decision, I registered at CiteULike, a private online academic library with a nice social networking component. You can match your academic consume profile with those of others to get ideas of what to read next.
I don't want to repeat Mo's contemplations-- I just wanted to add that it's a neat service with a handy simplicity but still lots of power.

Monday, November 27, 2006

Finally! -- Gilles Peterson Podcast

I was complaining about it a week ago, and I was telling you about Gilles's new website earlier today, and while browsing this very website I found it: The Gilles Peterson podcast. Incredible! As far as I heard till now, in the first episode he is sharing some thoughts and discoveries, he is chatting about Brownswood recordings, the new label he has set up (and after Talkin' Loud in the 80s and 90s his second), and--of course--he is playing great music.

Definitely a must (the xml link to subscribe to it is still missing though)!

Furthermore, you can also find all 6 episodes of the Gilles in Brasil Podcast I told you about earlier without having to access the creepy sponsor website.

---
Ah yeah, and the Gilles Peterson (Henrik Schwarz, Jazzanova, and Ben Westbeech) Berlin gig on Dec 14 is gonna take place in the Bohannon Club in Mitte.

Sunday, November 26, 2006

The Roots Touring Europe - Questlove's Video Diary

"Tell me what music artists you like, and I'll tell you who you are."

In my eyes--and ears--it's a very significant fact to know the "musical profile" of somebody. It carries a precision that pretends to carry objectivity--although it's in fact merely of subjective character.

NB: That's why I consider last.fm, a service to automatically share your playlists, to be a lot more private, but also more honest, than social platforms like myspace, facebook, etc.

Anyways, you do know by now that I admire Gilles Peterson (who by the way just launched his new website), but also Questlove from the Roots is one of the guys that cannot do anything wrong.
The Roots are currently touring Europe, and Questlove is furnishing his tourblog with a gorgeous video diary. Especially his adventurous chase of the Pussycat Dolls in the Cologne hotel lobby is an interesting piece of art.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Paris Can's Professional 1 and 2 (a link by Steven) plus New Simpsons Movie Trailer

Astonishing, funny, tricky, skillful, less commercial than the DC basketball ad, extremely cool, and--very importantly--from Paris...
Without further ado, check out Paris can's professional one and two (see also below-- you can skip the first minute).



---
Plus, I already told you about the Simpsons movie. As I saw on NUMBlog today, there is a new and nicer trailer out:

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

well-formed-data.net -- Sharing is Caring

It's late but I have to tell you about this:
Mo has officially launched his blog well-formed-data.net.
On this platform he will share "thoughts, discoveries and experiments" as well as "information or reviews of things [he] discover[s]. Sharing is caring!"
He is working on the future of the internet, or better, on the--oh so important--aspect of information visualization, and, believe you me, he's got some gorgeous ideas up his sleeve.
I already told you about some older work of his, but also this new gadget on the visualization of web-feed information is not only extremely smart but also beautiful.
That's why well-formed-data.net will be in my steady link list on the right-- g'night.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Gilles Peterson in Brasil Podcast

Honestly for years now I have been waiting for a podcast of BBC's Worldwideshow that is hosted by the ambassador of acoustic pleasure, Gilles Peterson (I already told you about him and his amazing radio show a while ago-- btw, it recently changed airtime and can now be heard live on Thursday mornings from 2-4am London Time).

Unfortunately, BBC hasn't yet managed to set up a podcast, but I recently discovered that some (supposedly not even) Brazilian drink named Brahma has recently sponsored a six episode podcast series of "Gilles Peterson in Brasil" which can be downloaded from the website (also via iTunes).
Check out especially the gorgeous TicTac Improvisation in episode 6 and the introduction movie on the website...
---
Addendum 19 11 06: Good news for all readers in Tokyo and Berlin-- Gilles is gonna play Berlin on December 14, and Tokyo on New Year's Eve, December 31. All tour dates can be found at http://www.myspace.com/gillespeterson

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Defari Interview: "Rap is Grown Man Sport"

"Straight outta the City of Angels to Trier, Germany..."
Defari from the Dilated Peoples posse talks about his influences, his new album "Street Music", his new project "The Likwit Junkies" (together with DJ Babu), and the importance of live shows.
Check out the very sympathetic interview (skillfully conducted by the YNC) that can be found on this page (you gotta click "Video 1: Interview anschauen")
Rap definitely is grown man sport...

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Googling, the Jerry Blossom Anthem, and Your Musical Skills

Part 1: What was the verb again for "googling yourself"? I forgot-- but that's exactly what I did.
Interestingly, the first entry that doesn't refer to this blog leads to a website by the School of Music at the University of Leeds, England, that contains the transcription of a tiny tune called Jerry Blossom.
It turns out it's an adorable ditty with 2 stanzas à 8 bars.
Since it's dead easy to play, I am awaiting your recordings. Maybe someday I will upload my classical guitar version...


Part 2: To get more neuroscientific-- I recently read on Science Blogs, Channel Brain and Behavior (feed) about this easy and fun procedure to test your musical skills. It takes about 6 minutes to finish and afterwards you can compare your results with those of others on this post.

--
Test of Musical Skills Part 2: Can somebody please explain to me what "Change sides down the middle Allemand" means?

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Old Posts Revisited - Pandora and Google Suggest

More than a year ago, I mentioned Pandora and google suggest in a post.
Just as an update: Pandora has become completely free of charge (back then one could listen for 5 hours, if I remember correctly), and at least for me the choice of music based on the Music Genome Project is working well.
A light version of google suggest, in turn, has been integrated as the default search engine into Mozilla Firefox 2.

Monday, November 06, 2006

Stewie Griffin for American President

Now that the marathon for US-American presidency has begun, I am proposing Stewie Griffin, the incredibly well designed baby character from The Family Guy, as a possible successor of George W. Bush.
After, in my eyes, a mediocre start in the first season, Family Guy has risen to become one of the funniest and most biting (cartoon) series on TV. It relies on the same concept as The Simpsons by portraying the everyday life of a 'normal' white family. The Griffin's home, however, can be precisely localized in the north-eastern part of the USA (ie. the fictional town of Quahog). Coincidently, this appears to be the region of the country where the Democrats recruit their politicians, pointing to a possible candidature of Stewie-- although his political orientation is rather unclear/undemocratic.
In case you have too much time, you can watch Family Guy episodes online at allfg.org. Watch out especially for guest appearances by George W. Bush like this one, this georgeous (sic!) one, or this one.

Month's Senseless Post: Fridge w/o Light

I can't think of anything meaningful to post right now, so just this:

I am the one who possesses the world's only fridge without a light-- and by that I mean by construction and not just because it's broken...
It's just the thing Albino Neutrino would buy to torture dancer/singer Leo Sayer, as can be seen in this blog entry.

Monday, October 30, 2006

Muji Miniature Paris Pride

I just wanted to show you what a nice toy I bought at Muji's: A simplified wooden miniature version of Paris. Soon, I will buy the London package in order to mix both cities. However, I don't like their interpretation of the Milennium Wheel (I will show it, then). "Muji", as I inquired, by the way means "good things without a logo"

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Post #101: Missed Post #100

I just noticed that I have missed to announce the 100th post of this blog. So this blog has now officially >100 posts, which, on ebay, would be awarded with a turquoise star.

Anyways, since this blog has a big Simpsons fan component to it: I discovered that on July 27, 2007, a Simpsons movie will come out. Who would've thought? The, honestly not very revealing, teaser can be found here in the Apple trailer database.

Xdrive Virtual Hard Disk

Hi guys n' gals, guns n' roses,

I discovered something interesting on the web:
xdrive, a free web-based hard disk on which you can store up to 5GB of data.

The best thing: you can easily share your files with others. To be precise, sharing files n' folders with other xdrive users is very handy (you can decide whether they are allowed to download, upload, edit, delete, etc. files) and limitless. Non-xdrive users can download shared files for up to 7 days.
So I can put some interesting documents or photos or projects or anything on my virtual hard disk, and you can access them (if you're member).

It has a lot of gadgets to automatically back-up folders or iTunes playlists or whatever, I haven't tried yet.
It works fine with WinXP and Firefox and it's supposed to do so also with OS X and Safari, but I haven't tested it.

Who's in(terested)?

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Frankreich Allemagne -- Karambolage

There is a great TV show on arte, the French-German collaboration channel, called Karambolage. It's on every Sunday and it contains 15 minutes of documentary splits on cultural differences (sometimes indifferences) between the German and the French, entre la France et l'Allemagne. With a lot of esprit, the well-reported stories from everyday life depict the special relationship between France and Germany in a very striking manner.
You can watch the last four shows online, either dubbed in French or dubbed in German.
--
Watch for example the emission from October 1 and enjoy the very interesting attempt to give the French an understanding of the debatable German "Du bist Deutschland" campaign from winter 2005.

Post #98: Trois Liens (L'Un De Mo)

Just three links, I wanted to feature :
1) mamagoto from Tokyo has a new website, presenting her nice design and illustration work.
2) among them the website of the weltraumquartett, Stanislav Lom's Stuttgart-based breakbeat/electronica combo (including session recordings)
3) And, a link by Mo, there are two really nice ads for a Sony colorTV. They, including their making-ofs, can be watched here : Bouncy Balls San Francisco and Paint Fireworks Glasgow (watch your bandwidth).

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

I Updated the SundaySoothinMusic Playlist

Well, I mainly linked the respective myspace.com or official pages, where you can listen to more tunes from the artists. However, noteworthy are the links to more info on Bilitis and Coffy, as well as the page by Les Nubians, where you can listen to the original version of Makeda.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Jerry Blossom Guestmix "SundaySoothinMusic"

I'd like to announce once more the nice and growing webradioshow that goes by the cosy name of sonntagnachmittag ("sunday afternoon", I already told you about it a while ago), and which is mainly based in Trier, Germany.
It was my honor to make a guestmix for the guys. So from today on and for the next couple of weeks or so you can listen to Jerry Blossom's Guestmix "SundaySoothinMusic", a diverse cut throughout the genres: 80 minutes streaming 24/7, going from Funk to Minimal, from Softporn Soundtracks to NuJazz, and from HipHop to Nirvana.
Ah yeah... and the best thing is: I had to talk in-between for legal matters...

Playlist:
01. Commodores - Easy
02. Francis Lai - Melissa
03. Unknown Artist - Come As You Are
04. King Britt - Philadelphia Experiment (Charlie Dark Main Mix)
05. Ellen Allien & Apparat - Turbo Dreams
06. DJ Mitsu the Beats - Rendezvous (feat. Mark de Clive-Lowe)
07. Roy Ayers - Coffy Is The Color
08. The Real Thing - It's the Real Thing
09. War - You Got the Power
10. Gang Do Tagarela - Melo Da Tagarela (Rapper's Delight)
11. Sugarhill Gang - Rapper's Delight
12. Lou Rawls - You'll Never Find Another Love Like Me
13. Angie Stone - Wish I Didn't Miss You
14. OJays - Backstabbers
15. Les Nubians - Makeda (DJ Spinna Remix)
16. DJ Mitsu the Beats - Do Right (feat. Rich Medina)
17. Steve Spacek - Dollar (prod. by J Dilla)
18. The Roots - In the Music
19. DJ Koze - Is Mir Egal (Adolf Noise Remix)
20. Gnarls Barkley - Who Cares
21. Nirvana - Come As You Are
22. Soil & Pimp Sessions - First Lady

Feel free to comment on it.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Going More Official: jerryblossom.de

Hi guys,
I hope you had a great Friday 13th. I sure did.
Today, I noticed a woman dropping something while crossing a big street in the heart of the 5e arrondissement. I waited for the next green phase of the traffic light, because for some reason I was curious what she might've lost, and I found... her VISA Card. I followed her and gave it back with a smile. Since she hadn't noticed yet, she was heavily surprised. That was fun.
I will curse my honesty when I am running out of money at the end of the month...

Listen, another thing: I just wanted to let you know that I am going more official.
I registered the domain jerryblossom.de, and I am thinking about slightly changing the premise of my blogging (as well as extending the website): Less internet pearls, more useless thoughts... Paris gives me a whole lotta them. Stay tuned...

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Space Invaders at High Blogging Frequency

It's a kinda old movement but here in Paris I happen to stumble over a lot of 'em -- so I remembered: Space Invaders. They are sympathetic pixely characters that, skillfully attached, prettyfy every urban area.
On the website you can - literally - find many examples from all over the world, and you can buy gadgets (two years ago or so you were still be able to order tiles to help spreading them) such as maps (e.g. of Paris) of where to discover them.
Find a lovely Space Invader in your city today...

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Gnarls Biggie Mashup

I have mentioned Gnarls Barkley twice already in earlier posts (One and Two) but they still keep coming up. In any case, their popularity is also heavily related to the internet.
Now I found this nice mashup-hybrid version of Gnarls Barkley beats and (R.I.P.) Biggie Smalls raps (whom I have also mentioned twice on this blog, by the way: One and Two), yielding Gnarls Biggie. I don't wanna embed another video, but there is also... ah what the heck...

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Rischtisch Geil - Might've Missed It (a link by Mo)

Feels like being back in Berlin listening to these guys: Icke und Er - Richtig Geil!

Get this video and more at MySpace.com

Monday, October 09, 2006

See You in the Future

I am not an expert, but looking at recent internet developments as well as my own personal needs, I do seem to detect an obvious direction.

The everlasting growth of the internet, my own urge to check mails as often as possible with at best the most handy and mobile devices, as well as the popularity of social web2.0 applications and platforms such as facebook.com (or its new German counterpart studivz.net), del.icio.us, lijit (former outfoxed), and what-have-ya, lead me to conclude that a second (virtual) reality slash cyberspace, as it has been described for example in Neal Stephenson's great book "Snow Crash", is just a matter of time.

---
Addendum: You can even see the first glimpses - Second Life. I haven't tried it yet, but if one of you has, tell me/us about it... From what I can see from Second Life it's still a long way to go...

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Paris Poplocking

In the tradition of Elsewhere, I found this video of a poplocking battle (download as better quality .wmv) that seems to have taken place in Paris. It's pretty long (7min30s), but enjoy in any case the first couple of minutes.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

If That's not an Omen: Chromeo on Tour

I like to think it's an omen:
I just moved to the city in which Chromeo is playing one of their three upcoming concerts next week,
but...
the other two concerts are in the two cities in which I used to lived last;
so people in Montreal and Berlin watch out and visit their sets.
(For details about Chromeo check this post of mine)

oct. 7 2006 11:00
Fractal (Chromeo DJ Set...with A-Trizzy!) Montreal
oct. 12 2006 10:00
Bus Palladium (DJ Mehdi Release Party! -- Chromeo DJ Set) Paris
oct. 21 2006 10:00
103 Club (Dave 1 DJ Set) Berlin

I suppose a new Chromeo album is about to drop, by the way.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Too Good to Be True: allsimps allfutus (a link by Steve)

Oh man.

You guys already know that I am a huge Simpsons fan from two former posts: The human Simpsons intro and the real Simpsons house.
Now there is the ultimate link:
Watch all Simpsons episodes of all seasons online at allsimps.com. And as if this wouldn't have been enough, you can do the same with Futurama at allfutus.com. And, if you like them, even more series such as Southpark, Family Guy, and American Dad at dailyepisodes.com.

Thank you, internet!

Monday, September 25, 2006

Trois Etapes de Déménagement

Two days until I will change cities again.
Since I moved some 15 times in the last 6 years or so, I suppose I recognize a pattern which I call the three steps of relocation:

1) "I don't have too many things to pack and move anyway."
2) "Crap! It's more than I thought. It doesn't fit into the car/luggage/etc."
3) "Oh well, it finally does fit, and I am ready to move."

I hope this principle is still valid... Wish me luck.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Grumpy Post III: New Kandel 2012

Ok, forget about it: The 5th edition of Kandel's Principles of Neural Science has been officially postponed until October 2007. Originally it was announced for September 2004, and I have been waiting for it ever since (see for example post 1 and post 2). I am expecting it to come out when I am retiring, i.e. in 80 years or so.
I don't wanna be impolite and I admire Eric(h) Kandel a lot, but he should take care that it won't have to be published postmortem...

--
Addendum:
I saw an interview with him on TV the other day. He is awesome and in very good shape. Go for it, Eric...

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Just three things (trois trucs):

1) It's weird what just happened in Montreal. It doesn't buy you anything being considered one of the world's safest cities. Once they explode, you can do nothing against crazy individuals.

2) But I am in Paris right now, and I found something that somehow extends the google maps post from a couple of weeks ago: Paris en 3D. It's pretty cool, but be careful since it needs a lot of your system's resources.

3) There has been a nice refresh of ichi.one's Homecookin' site. As far as I can see it you can now download all old mixes (and there is the new #27). Plus a couple of months ago, ichi.one asked to send spontaneous photos of one's DJ corner without making any arrangements or cleaning the set. Her is the beautiful gallery of DJ corners from the Homecookin' community.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Ebay Kills Collection Values

I have understood something:
Large parts of the monetary and ideological value of collector items used to stem from the fact that they were hard to get and that they were usually associated with a story of acquisition.

Ebay - in the first place - tried to connect collectors and to provide a platform to trade collector items. However, it thus also killed this important hard-to-get part of the individual value. And since difficulty of acquisition (and thus emotional value) and pecuniary value are closely linked, it destroyed most of the impetus to collect things.
Paradoxical, isn't it?

...and so I can't get rid of my nice Spiderman comic collection... thanks, ebay!

Sunday, September 03, 2006

Der meiste senseless Pfosten überhaupt… (Google Translate)


Heute fand ich eine 50 EUR Rechnung auf dem Fußboden vor dem trainstation. Nizza, ey?!

Old post nicely translated into German by google translate.

Friday, September 01, 2006

FYI -- Tape Nostalgia Update

A year ago I posted this link to a collection of photos of old audio tapes. This link has been dead for a while but resurrected recently in the form of a handy searchable database called tapedeck.org.

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Freakin' Funny Dave Chappelle Clip

Check out Dave Chappelle's great persiflage on Tupac Shakur's postmortem hype.

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Modern Times -- Digital Times


Every day, digital data can be stored on smaller and smaller media.
Some day, one will be able to carry around one's life in audiovisual data on a storage medium no larger than a stamp.

A friend of mine digitized an old VHS tape I had into 40 gigs of movie files. Now it fits on my mobile harddisk -- which is bigger and twice as heavy as the VHS tape... When exactly does future start?

Monday, August 21, 2006

Tatsuya Ishida is just brilliant...

Check out today's ingenious sinfest strip:

Putting Things Together II -- The Roots

As I wrote, I consider Gnarls Barkley's 'crazy' tune one of the hottest tracks of this summer.
On one of the most original blogs on the web, the news section of the Okayplayer website, they mentioned this live recording of the Roots performing 'crazy' feat. Cee-Lo. Which brings me to the thing I wanted to mention in the first place: The Roots are about to drop their new album next Tuesday.
Their/Questlove's level of sophistication can be guessed by looking at the last three album titles, all inspired by intricate topics in science:
  1. Phrenology (2002): The idea in the 19th century that one can determine complex personality traits of a person by measuring the shape of his/her skull. The funny part about Phrenology is that although its stupidity has been recognized, recent neuroimaging techniques have induced a more modern version of Phrenology: During the 1990s many scientists prematurely ascribed brain functions to anatomical regions that showed red and yellow blobs of activity under certain experimental conditions (for aficionados: cf. Kosik KS (2003) Beyond phrenology, at last. NatureRevNeurosci).
  2. Tipping point (2004): The term from sociology that "refers to that dramatic moment when something unique becomes common", which -- at a high level of abstraction -- has been and can be applied in many other fields (e.g., economics, psychology)
  3. Game Theory (August 29, 2006): The scientific field in between mathematics and economics that tries to capture situations in which one or more players try to maximize their returns, often involving uncertainty ("whether I will like the new album?") and assuming rationality ("I will buy it anyways..."). Interestingly, game theoretical considerations have also been used in neuroscientific contexts.
Hence, it's up to you to interpret this sequence of titles, or to predict the next one for 2008. Is it going to be Paradigm Shift or Embodied Cognition? We'll see...

Friday, August 18, 2006

Most senseless post ever...


Today I found a 50 EUR bill on the floor in front of the trainstation. Nice, ey?!

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Four Your Information

I just wanted to let you know that I now completely dipped into the world of the internet, and my personality is going to merge with the world wide web by using the following services:
  1. del.icio.us -- save, classify/tag and share your bookmarks online. Perfect if you are working on several computers. Plus there is a nice Firefox extension for it
  2. basecamp -- a web-based tool that lets you manage and track projects. There is a free version for a limited number of participants.
  3. jajah.com -- web-activated telephony (in contrast to VoIP services like Skype), free calls (max. 1h/day) between existing telephone numbers that are both registered as jajah users.
  4. google cal -- schedule your dates online and loose yet another great part of your privacy to google. Still a handy service with iCal compatibility and nice features, e.g. share your calendars with others. Here you can find the calendar notifier plugin for Firefox, and a German manual of how to install it (which is not too complicated, though). There also seems to be evidence that google is planning to add a ToDo feature to the calendar which would be a useful extension.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

New Urban Music Blog

There is a nice music blog by a German guy called Matthias which covers topics in the NuJazz, Electro, Broken Beat sphere. There are nice reviews, tour dates, and other information.
The blog is called New Urban Music Blog, short NUMBlog, and it's so hi-quality that I will add it to my permalinks on the right side. The most recent post, for example, contains a link to the official download of Mark De Clive-Lowe's nice first album "Six Degrees".

Monday, August 14, 2006

Awesome Treadmill Choreography (a link by Chris)

It somehow felt like the amateur videos that can be found on the Chromeo website (cf. this post) when I watched this ingenious dance for a couple of treadmills and four weird guys. Especially the ice-skating-like movements are gorgeous...


Thursday, August 10, 2006

Google Maps Flight Sim (a link by Fric)

Now that's a really cool application using google maps. It's an example of the Web2.0 trend of mashing-up, recycling, sampling, etc. - however you might call it.
As you might easily find out, the guy who is responsible for this is called Marc Caswell-Daniels, a British designer and developer.

By the way, the space bar let's you shoot at stuff...

Monday, August 07, 2006

Sleep 'n' Eat

In my eyes, the decision about whether sleeping or eating is the nicer activity is confounded by the fact that a bed is a much more likable object than a table.

But what about eating in bed?...

Worldwide Eurocentric

When you're reading this, you have been captured...

As long as this blog doesn't have 25.000 hits per day, I can use the service offered by ClustrMaps for free: Showing the geographical distribution of readers. As I already know from google analytics the few readers of this blog are mainly from Western Europe and Northern America, but some hits are also from more exotic countries, such as e.g. South Africa...

Let's wait and see.

Locations of visitors to this page

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Montréal and NYC Photoblog

I rediscovered a nice website (you always meet twice in life): a beautiful Montreal-based photoblog by a guy named Julien Romagnac. He does experiments with different types of technique and equipment and mainly focuses on urban environments or landscapes and cityscapes.
Most of the pictures are really gorgeous (some even a little bit tacky) and he knows how to capture very special moments. Check for example his "Independence day"-style photo of the Montreal olympic stadium or his series of the Daniel McAllister: number one and number two.

---

And through a link on this website I came to know this other photoblog called cornershots.com. A guy called Jimmie Yoo takes fancy long-time exposure pictures of corners and other urban realities in NYC -- using the not too bad Canon EOS 5D digital SLR cam.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Ask questions, demand answers... Loose Change

Boom...
Tonight after coming home from work, I faintly remembered having read about an internet documentary called "Loose Change". I just wanted to skip through it to get an idea... and it totally blew my mind.
I mean, I have read and heard about the theories behind 9/11. I've discussed them as well as the event itself for hours and hours. Nevertheless, this well-made documentary honestly adds some new dimensions.
I do know that there is an intrinsic level of suspiciousness one should have against (or for) conspiracy theories. However, this documentary is special. It has an unagitated and concise style, covering a lot of details in a very well-sourced way. Watch it.

Even if 99% of it might turn out to be purely coincidental...
Ask questions, demand answers.

Monday, July 31, 2006

Music Post Number 2

And if this input weren't enough:
The guys on the radio and supposedly even themselves (that is, CeeLo and Danger Mouse) say the track would be dead. I disagree - it's fresh and alive as on its first day: Gnarls Barkley - Crazy.

1st Birthday - Musicpost

Whomever of you guys I never told about Chromeo should check out their music, their style and their website. They are of origin Montrealais, and they're just phenomenal. You have to listen especially to their anthem "Needy Girl", and watch the corresponding video (Audio/Video section on chromeo.net).
Dave 1, one of the two Chromeo guys, is the bigger brother of DJ A-Trak, the rocket DJ who, by the way, just released his new website. Check out the trivia behind Chromeo and A-Trak that's available on the web.

P.S.: Chromeo has never been absent in all of my playlists, but it got recently reinforced when I got my hands and ears on the hot Bloc Party Remix of Needy Girl ...and also check the track with Little Brother (their website) in the media section of A-Trak's website.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Turntable

Check out this spectrum:

Yesterday, I saw this 13.000 EUR record player in reality, and today, I found this paper version on the web.

Zzzit.

Monday, July 10, 2006

Random Thoughts, also on Marriage

The soccer worldcup is over.
I visited a room in the Netherlands (12 hrs train ride, 1 hr visit).
My life's going nuts - rollercoaster style (check out the link).

Now the less personal, more common-interest thought that I developed in several conversations during the last week or so:

I came to realize that the marriage between humans is a very sophisticated invention:
Its binary fashion ("yes" vs. "no") tries to condense something that is not at all binary but rather multi-dimensional, namely a love relationship.

The culturally specified relationship is optimally binary. Hence, living in a relationship can be seen as a reduction of complexities, a shortening in dimensions.

Until you reach the one dimension - and eternal one-ness.

by the way:
binary for "yes" in ASCII: 011110010110010101110011
binary for "no" in ASCII: 0110111001101111
(marriage for robots)

---

UPDATE (11/7): Oh no. I didn't mean to imply that I am planning to marry. Au contraire.
But, in fact, the whole discussion came up because one of my colleagues is going to marry soon.

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Short Notice: Soil&Pimp@Berlin

Oh boy, Germany lost against Italy, but the good mood will stay.

Supporters in this quest are the gorgeous Soil&Pimp Sessions who will be playing Berlin next Tuesday.

All who can gotta be there.

Monday, July 03, 2006

Bronzed Patient Tan Today

Just a tiny observation:
Nowadays everybody is suffering for a bronzed appearance. With very few exceptions, a suntan is obligatory when one is trying to look good.
However, back in the days noble paleness used to be hip. Why so? Because it demonstrated that one doesn't have to work, and thus indicated richness.
The funny part: That's at least partially what the suntan craze is all about.
And it results from a change in the way of working: Back in the days people used to work on the fields/directly under the sun, and paleness showed the absence of the need to work. Then labor shifted and today most people sit in offices all day long. Thus, pallor is the color of the employee, while the free time adventurer, who has enough money to can live his life without the constraint of labor, is bronzed.

---

Addendum: I just noticed that in wikipedia's entry on suntan the same observation has been made. Although now I cannot claim to be the originator of this observation it certainly underlines its validity.

For further reading: The history of suntanning (and skincancer)

Friday, June 30, 2006

I've got a - theory...

My theory is the following: Germany is in a happy mood not only because of the soccer worldcup and the German team playing well, but also because of the weather. At least in Berlin there has been no single rainy day since the worldcup started. However, there have been some not so nice cloudy and windy days that noone seems to care about.
And I think it's because of the weather report. They always forecast sunny days, even if it's not true. Thus people won't be annoyed already on the day before, ...

...and Germany can win the cup.

Monday, June 26, 2006

Grumpy Post II

I already mentioned it a couple of posts ago; now, again, Kandel's fifth edition of the neuroscience bible Principles of Neural Science has been delayed by three months. Now it is more than a year late. I will have finished my studies before his opus will appear. However, I am still looking forward to it, meanwhile using Neuroscience for Kids and - even better - Mr. Split Brainy instead.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Night Post from Florence - Science Nutshell

It's just some late night words from Florence, where I am attending a huge conference.

Scientists tend to be funny. At least they try hard - to be or not to be. Fake moustaches on parties in fancy locations ("do you remember back in Florence 2006... with the beards... those were the days..."), stiff socializing during the coffee breaks and harsh competition at the cold buffet.
Then, in between the conferences, they do some more or less sophisticated research. The better you are, the easier you get pizza at the buffet, and the bigger your fake beard at the party.

Forget interest and enthusiasm; that's the real reason why you try to be good in the science community.

Friday, June 02, 2006

Anotherlazysundayafternoon

For a long time I wanted to tell you two or three readers about a nice podcast of a friend of mine, which is called Sonntagnachmittag, and which is - supposedly - released every other sunday afternoon. "Couch-Caballeros Christian, Charles and Ingo" feed your ears with Jazz, HipHop, IndieRock and whatever you need on Sunday afternoon.

By the way, Ingo, one of the DJs, is also responsible for the infamous art-n-text-mag INK. The first issue can be found at ink-ist-gut.de.
Very recently, a gorgeous second issue has been released. I will tell you when exclusive pictures are available on the net. Or just order your own copy (strictly limited).

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Posting Duty

Crap.
Now this blog got linked on another website. Although it's just a teeny-tiny link on the bottom of der-mo.net, I am in the duty of regularly updating this page.

At the moment I can only think of two nice URLs, one of them a piece of work by the guy who runs der-mo.net: A nicely visualized overview over the Fluxus art movement that he did as part of his studies. Available are further information (in German) as well as a browser version, and a PC (.exe) and a Mac standalone (.zip).

A second page consists of nice little cartoons drawn by Miki and Steven, when they visited us in Berlin last week. I suppose they are also entertaining without having attended the episodes.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

One

I know, I should be finishing the talk for tomorrow. Nevertheless, Brickfilms re-appeared in my perception. An I remembered the gorgeous version of Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" as a LEGO stoptrick animation movie, a so-called brickfilm.

Regarding this topic, also check out the new Enkaku post.

Friday, April 28, 2006

Neuro WM 2006: Soccer Fans and Neurons

Nice passage on neural coherence and oscillations, stolen from the Pascal Fries' labpage at the FC Donders Centre Nijmegen, NL:

"Imagine ten thousand soccer fans in a stadium. Before the game begins, neighboring fans might talk to each other. They might all have the same names of the players and trainers in their mouths. But as long as they all talk independently, their voices blend into a uniform, smooth noise. Then the game starts and the fans of the two teams start chanting the names of their team's hero. Now, suddenly, one can understand them from a distance. And at the same time, one can tell them into groups and it is clear who belongs to which team.
Neurons in our brain might behave just like soccer fans: Groups of neurons that work together, might “chant” together to state their grouping relationships and to make their voices heard by other neurons. Indeed, it turns out that when studying the activity of multiple neurons simultaneously, one finds that most neurons oscillate in synchrony with others: They send out action potentials together, then pause together for a while and repeat this cycle again and again..."

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Just Two Nerdy Links...

...I stole from a London-based research lab's website:

Brains4Zombies.com: There are not too many pages on the web that I consider funny, but this is one of them. Especially if you are familiar with brains -- and amazon.

The Phrasebook for Overseas Travel: Become familiar with important English, French, Spanish, and German phrases that are useful in everyday life (that's, of course, the funny part)

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Bob Ross Painting, Trash?


I didn't have a TV in the past five years. However, every now and then, I did have access to one. In my new flat, I have got no fast internet connection, a quickly approaching deadline -- and my own telly.

I never consciously remembered him, but a couple of days ago he re-appeared to me: Bob Ross, the painter. Over the years when I had the chance to access a TV, mainly at night, I enjoyed watching his extremely relaxing show The Joy of Painting, his kitschy way of painting landscapes and his soothing voice telling the viewer that now he is painting "pretty little trees" and "happy little clouds". Unfortunately, he died in 1995, but he left hundreds of episodes of his TV show.

Three observations:
1) For some reason, on the English Wikipedia entry on Bob Ross many of the links refer to German websites, even a German discussion board for Bob Ross fans. Maybe Bob Ross exhibits the David Hasselhoff effect, that is, being a famous star (actor and singer) in Germany, thus coining the picture of the USA, without being known in America. Confer to the English Wikipedia entry on David Hasselhoff and its German version.
2) The name of the German TV station currently airing Bob Ross (BR) is Bayern alpha, bearing the same acronym (BR)
3) Wikipedia has it! BR Inc. is planning a Bob Ross video game for Nintendo's next generation video game console.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Piled Higher and Deeper (a link by Raymundo)

Jorge G. Cham, a mechanical engineer who is now a Robotics Instructor (?) at Caltech after having finished his PhD at Stanford University, which, by the way, for some reason bears the lofty German sentence "Die Luft der Freiheit weht" ("the wind of freedom blows") in its official seal.

During his time at Stanford Jorge started drawing a regular "comic strip about life (or the lack thereof) in grad school", which he called "Piled Higher and Deeper (PhD)". It quickly became and is still popular not only among grad students.

Here you can read the most recent comic strip.

Analytics Google Empire

I know, I know... I haven't been updating. Unfortunately, I moved to a new apartment with (imagine!) dial-up internet (good ol' 56K). Furthermore, I have to submit my thesis by the end of the month. Nevertheless, I will keep on using this mediocre webblog as my tiny digital mouthpiece.

To come to the point, I managed to get a google analytics account and to embed a counter on this site. Leaving all discussions about privacy (especially with regard to google) aside, the statistics for my blog speak for themselves: the site has approximately one hit per day; the percentage of returning visitors is almost zero; hence I can conclude that all users visit this page accidentally. Furthermore, these lost souls come from illustrious cities such as Stuhr, Luft, Sindelfingen, and Ostfildern, Germany.
Highlight of the month is one visitor from... (drum roll) ... Brooklyn, NYC, USA.

Welcome, fancy visitor.
You won't come back anyway...

Thursday, March 30, 2006

Etnemreneaint and Siecnce (initiated by Steve)

Seemingly in 2003 an internet meme started to spread about the readibility of texts containing scrambled letters. The "original" paragraph goes like this:

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

This phenomenon has now reoccurred to me, and I looked up the facts behind it. Two nice pages provide further insight. Whoever might be interested, have a look at Matt Davis's website and the Urban Legends Reference Page (by the way in general an interesting website). In sum, this phenomenon can be observed in several languages. However, it is a gross simplification, and--as always in science--the claim depends on several more factors. It is siltl vrey itesrentnig.

Sunday, March 26, 2006

50th Post - Grumpy Post

Such a crap... the publication date of the newest (5th) edition of Eric Kandel's Principles of Neural Science has been delayed yet another time. After September 2005 and March 2006 it is now supposed to appear on June 30, 2006.
Actually it is okay to wait, since I can totally understand that it takes a while to write a second bible.

Thursday, March 23, 2006

HomeCookin' - Acoustic Gourmet Ichi.One

Another exquisite page on the web I didn't tell (most of) you about:

Supposedly a Belgian guy called Ichi.One, a rare groove, vinyl, all in all music fanatic, regularly puts his mixes online. His HomeCookin' mixes can be downloaded approximately once a month, and they are anabolics for all your Ipods and MP3 players.

The official catch phrase is: "If you like your music flavoured a bit eclectic and with a nice groove, then maybe you should taste some HomeCookin'..."

And in the words of Tony Allen, best known for being the drummer with Fela Kuti: "You gotta have a tongue for the taste, it's the kinda food you don't waste, food for your mind and your belly..."
and
"HomeCookin' is the best my friend, cause once you've had it you won't be hungry again. Cause it will nourish you deep within ya soul, you won't be eatin' junk food no mo'!"

Word!

Today, the chef recommends #24.

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Lacquer, Gondry,Time Lapse, LA2NYC

I love time lapse videos. I really do, and I think everybody does.
In any case, here is a really nice one (quicktime), directed by Michel Gondry, who is the director of the great movie Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind and Dave Chappelle's Block Party.
It is the music video of a track called Behind by a french artist named Lacquer, and it contains a car drive in a convertible from LA to NYC in 5 minutes. On his page there are also Real Player versions of the clip. Check it out.

Friday, March 17, 2006

Will Wright on Spore (a link by Boris)

Wow.

I mean, I have never been into computer games much. Since the last Monkey Island version (Escape from Monkey Island in 2000), I haven't played any. Nevertheless, this one seems attractive to me.
At the Games Developers Conference on March 11, 2006, Will Wright, the original designer of SimCity and The Sims, presented his newest baby, which is currently being developed by EA and expected for late 2006, Spore. A procedurally programmed r/evolutionary computer game in which you "start off as a bacterium, and end up as a galactic god". Hitty hot.

Sources: Wikipedia, the (boring) official website, and - most importantly - his talk at the GDC including gameplay, also compressed on googlevideo. It's one hour of a fascinating guy talking about an extraordinary computergame.

By the way, I discovered that Lucas Arts made the soundtracks to their classic games public. So you can download .mp3 files with high resolution covers of all Monkey Islands, Grim Fandango, Sam&Max, even Zak McKracken. Definitely fingerlickin' for collectors.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Springfield, Nevada (a hint by Steve)

In Las Vegas, they built an original version of the Simpsons house. Pretty cool, huh?
There are even Quicktime VR videos of the ground floor. And if you want to build one yourself, here is the blueprint. Just a couple of pictures you can see here.

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Relating Posts - Spoken Word on HipHop

One: I mentioned the True Lies video on GNN two posts ago. The excellent spoken word artist bringing this statement is Taalam Acey.

Two: With Jay Dee's tragic death, the hiphop thing lost one of its good guys. Moreover, rap is an extraordinarily self-referential artform and hiphop is constantly redefining. Again and again the question is (and has to be) asked "where is hiphop going?".

Three: A couple of weeks ago we went to visit Dave Chappelle's Block Party, and we noticed that the Dead Prez were somehow exposed in that movie. To me, they are not on a par with artists like Mos Def and Common, and I wish I would've seen more entertaining Mos Def and less Dead Prez. Anyhow, they were good for a change, and the movie was a blast.

Bringing it all together: Dead Prez have one very good LP called Let's Get Free (2000) with the single It's Bigger Than Hip Hop. Taalam Acey now took the pumping beat from that single in order to make a critical review of the hiphop situation (before Dilla's death, though): Check out When the Smoke Clearz from 2002.

Friday, March 10, 2006

Urgent Update - "Real" Simpsons

How cool's that? I mean, I don't wanna watch a whole Simpsons episode with real characters, but the intro part is pretty cool. Check it out:

GNN - Guerilla News Network (a link by Seba)

I haven't checked it out to the full extent yet, but what I saw from the guerilla news network - gnn, a politically motivated news and activist forum supposedly based in Canada, seems to be pretty cool. One piece I watched is the video comment True Lies by Taalam Acey, which comes straight to the point after starting off with the soothing sentence "there's nothin' mo' romantic than phantasy..."

Supplement: Now, I surfed their website a little bit more. They really are an independent Canadian news source that is a little bit less radical but also a little bit more entertaining than for example indymedia.org. To what I could see, their mission to combine journalistic content with music video style seems to work out and doesn't get cheesy. Check out their video S-11 Redux including classic scenes from the media after 9-11, as for example GWB's "either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists".

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Multitouch Interaction

Nice, this goes without much of a comment:
Multitouch display presentation by Jeff Han at NYU. What's the name of that Spielberg movie with Tom Cruise where they foresee murder and the agent is playing with this multitouch display, which he doesn't even have to touch? I think it starts with M... crap, I don't remember, and I am too lazy to look it up. Anyways. Draw your attention not only to the flashy technical side of the multitouch display, but also to the nice applications they are showing.

Monday, February 27, 2006

Another Dead HipHop Hero - Biggie

I not only discovered the youtube video service, but also this nice freestyle video: enjoy the unique style of 17-year-old Notorious B.I.G. (he was killed on march 9, 1997, at the age of 24).

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Zoomquilt - rediscovered

Now, to manage the transition from sad to entertaining, check out the fascinating Zoomquilt, a piece of internetart that perfectly uses all the advantages of its medium.

Monday, February 20, 2006

Jay Dee Tribute on WorldWide

Listen to this week's Jay Dee tribute on Gilles Peterson's WorldWideShow (BBC Radio 1), including some nice remembrance shout outs and stories by Jazzy Jeff and many others. Man, it definitely is tragic.

By the way, Gilles Peterson's WorldWideShow every Sunday night (European time) is probably the best regular radioshow throughout the world (at least in my eyes 'n' ears). In one of the next posts, I will give you some more nice webradios.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Jay Dee - Rest in Peace

The day before yesterday, on Feb 10, Jay Dee (a/k/a J Dilla, born James Yancey), one of the most brilliant HipHop producers unfortunately passed away because of kidney complications, three days after his 32nd birthday. He has created an exclusive style of beat making including ingeniously drawling drums. A couple of days ago he released his new album Donuts on Stones Throw Records. May he rest in peace.

(Okayplayer.com offers several possibilities of remembrance and 3030 radio has a tribute live stream of Jay Dee tracks)

Friday, February 10, 2006

56th Berlin International Film Festival - Block Party

Nice: yesterday the 56th Berlin International Film Festival (a/k/a Berlinale) started. Although I do know next to nothing about most of the freaky cineastic movies they'll show, there is one flic I really wanna see:
Dave Chappelle's Block Party directed by Michel Gondry.
Michel Gondry has been a director of music-related videos (Bjork, Massive Attack etc.), before he shot the cinema oeuvre Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, starring Jim Carrey and definitely located in upper regions of my "StillToWatch" Chart.
Anyways, the story is that David Chappelle threw (i.e. financed) the optimal party slash concert, since he had received big money for his TV show. The place and line-up was kept secret, and the tickets were free. It must've been a real happening since America's Finest performed: Common, Mos Def, The Roots, Jill Scott, Dead Prez, Kool G. Rap, just to name a few.
I am gonna watch it and tell you how it was.

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

MIT World Open Material Part II

There is even more great MIT material available online, which I forgot to mention in the last post: a lot of recent and high quality lecture streams can be found at http://mitworld.mit.edu/. Very fascinating: Nicolas Negroponte, the founder of the MIT Media Lab, introduces his ambitious "OneLaptopPerChild" project. More information on this idea can be found at: http://laptop.media.mit.edu/.

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Stanford on iTunes

After thisweekinscience podcasts, the teaching company audio lectures, and MIT's open course ware program, Stanford University went iTunes: "University-related audio content", that is, loads of faculty and guest lectures (e.g. philosopher Dan Dennett on intelligent design), interviews, book reviews, discussions, and even music can be downloaded via iTunes. If you got too much time, or a long way to work...

Monday, January 23, 2006

FCB: FamiCom Band

Actually, I am not quite sure what's up with these guys, but as far as I can tell, they are friggin' funny. Since I cannot read Japanese, I don't know enough, but they seem to replay classic video games with live band and some weirdo actors. Check out their video section, and as some special recommendations: Punch-out and elevator action (at least this one I used to play back in the days).

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Phone Prank Deluxe (a link by Steven)

Hilarious:
Y'all (should) know Bart's telephone pranks with Moe the bartender.
Two guys from London did a supersized version of these pranks at Heathrow and Gatwick airport, pretending to be chauffeurs looking for lost passengers. Wow - loads of time and energy for two minutes of laughter...

Saturday, January 07, 2006

Dangerous Question

Wow. Time's flyin'...

Anyways: EDGE, a foundation to foster work at disciplinary borders, offers some sort of internet journal every couple of weeks. In the current issue it features a fascinating article: Dozens of interesting people (mainly scientists) were asked "What is your dangerous idea?". Very interesting ideas, e.g. about the self-awareness of the internet by Terry Sejnowski and many other mind-boogling thoughts by stunning characters. Check it out.