Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Photolog pt. VII - Rural Street Art - Fleury-Les-Aubrais Graffiti

I don't know why but I recently enjoyed these pieces of rural street art in the at least a little bit picturesque village of Fleury-Les-Aubrais. Got no clue why... maybe because rural street art is almost an oxymoron--I might wanna call it rurban art: rural art with urban influences.

Monday, May 28, 2007

Neuroscience Videos - Pacman Bonobos and Boxing Brains

Everybody is interested in the brain, because everybody has one.

Recently, I stumbled over two both interesting and entertaining videos from the realm of understandable neuroscience:

--Steven brought this 25 minute TED talk by Susan Savage-Rumbaugh to my attention. Of course the filming is very selective, choosing the brighter moments of her Bonobo cohort, but I consider it a fascinating approach to try to embed non-human primates into--appropriate--human environments and to see how far their abilities go.



--This violent National Geographic animation gives an explanation for the legendary one-punch knockout with reference to cerebral trauma. Remark the dramatic voice and the scary burping sound effects when the brain hits the skull. Mortal Kombat neurology.

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Kepos/Polis - The De-Cosumption Diaries

In the 'whereabouts of mankind' series, I stumbled over a nice fresh blog called Kepos/Polis - The De-Consumption Diaries.
It's about a self experiment in which the author's aim is to "use easily accessible information to help [...] decide what to buy/support and what not, as well as how to change [...] behaviour for the good of de-consumption."
He or she is gonna do so with one constraint that's as plausible as necessary: No ideologies!
I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes and grows.

Monday, May 21, 2007

French Rap : Hocus Pocus - HipHop?

Has HipHop been back all the time and it was just my negligence?
Check out this intelligent track simply called "HipHop" by the French crew Hocus Pocus featuring The Procussions, an LA-based rap combo that is signed to Rawkus.

Hip Hop? feat The Procussions

Sunday, May 20, 2007

GP's Worldwide Festival Going Truly Worldwide

Almost every day there is an update on the official website of the Worldwide Festival, and most recently it has been revealed that there gonna be three (!) WWFs this year:
  • 3 days in Shanghai, May 31-June 2, 2007
  • 3 days in Sète, Southern France, July 12-14, 2007
  • a WWF in London this October 2007
Next year there will be nine, the year after 27 and so forth. Slowly the WWF will take over the world.
Kudos to Gilles Peterson!

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Heavy Rotation Daytrade - Manual last.fm

Jus' quickly: I decided to introduce something like a manual last.fm section just below the blogroll. These are tracks I consider interesting at the moment and that are on heavy rotation on my different soundsystems. I try to add them as .mp3 files as long as they are freely available on the net--if not, I'll give links to the myspace pages.

Check out the contagious new Roisin Murphy track Overpowered to be officially released on July 1st.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Sarkomence - Phonological Nicolas Sarkozy Wordplay

Yes, there has been a lot of anti-Sarkozy movement going on ever since his election a week ago.
I don't like the ridiculous Nazi-Sarkozy wordplays that are (not only) much too easy, but there is one I really dig: Sarkomence -
Especially funny, cause at the moment I am heavily working on phonological processing, and Sarkomence's phonological equivalent (for all you non-French speakers) would be "ça recommence" ("It's starting again").
It's been used in combination with all kinds of negative concepts, such as the "Etat Flic" ("Cop State"), etc.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Understandable Neuroscience--Le Cerveau à Tous les Niveaux/The Brain from Top to Bottom

In the posting series of Understandable Neuroscience (you might remember the Art&Brain lectures, Pinky and Brain's Neuroanatomy song, or the Mouse Drug Party), I disovered a fascinating website constructed by--beloved--McGill University called Le Cerveau à Tous les Niveaux / The Brain from Top to Bottom.
It is available in English and in French (Montréal!) and it has these gorgeous options of adjusting your level of expertise (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced) and the level of explanation (Molecular, Cellular, Cerebral, Psychological, Social). It neatly sheds light on phenomena such as memory, the senses, pain, movement, sleep, language, emotions, mental disorders, (sexy) consciousness, and many more (see site plan).
Great stuff! Truly "Brain and Mind', extremely comprehensive and comprehensible--plus nicely flash animated.

Friday, May 11, 2007

Photolog pt. VI - X-Large FR-EE 1974 - Berlin

X-Large FR-EE 1974 -
Mobile Photos @ Berlin 2006

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Nicolas Sarkozy a/k/a Kaiser Soze Goin' Street-Style Santa Claus

It's one hour before the results will be published, but I guess there's just no way around: Nicolas Sarkozy, also known as Kaiser Soze, will be the next French president. Here's a video of him voting today. Pay attention to the scene when he wants to shake the hand of some other guy in front of dozens of photographers, the other guy doesn't notice it, and Sarko/Soze goes street style in Neuilly-sur-Seine: "ey! ho hoo".



--
Addendum 8:02pm: So now it's official--Kaiser Soze b/eats the Little Red Riding Hood (quote Antoine)
Vive la France !

Ink.Mail @ Berlin Available Online

Ink just moved to Berlin and decided to make his irregularly published ink.mail newsletter inkmail available online at http://inkmail.blogspot.com/. Just as the two issues of his ink magazine, ink.mail will contain lotsa observations and contemplations. Even though the language is (still) German, he will be added to the blogroll (for all ye German readers out there).

Saturday, May 05, 2007

GP's Worldwide Festival 2007 - 1st Lineup

Oooh yes. Second good news of the day:
The lineup for this year's Worldwide Festival starts to be compiled and published.
On July 12-14, 2007, in Southern France, there will be at least Questlove, Sebastien Tellier, Jazzanova, RJD2, DJ Mitsu the Beats, Âme, and Simbad.
I'm sure Gilles Peterson invited some great additional acts - so they'll show up as special guests. I'll definitely be there.

Chromeo - Fancy Footwork, coming soon

Great news:
Chromeo, the guys I mentioned several times before, will release their new album Fancy Footwork, soon.
Release dates seem to be: Canada - May 8, Australia - May 18, Europe - June 18, UK - July 3, USA - July 24.
So I gotta use my Canada connections to get it earlier.
Plus, they will be on the road: a small tour in Europe in May (London, Barcelona, etc.), North America after.
Check out their myspace site for a preview track and also a gorgeous Feist remix.

Friday, May 04, 2007

May 2007 - Beatboxing Kitchen (link by Francois)

Nice- April 2007 brought as many hits as never as well as as many posts as never.
Here's a new "video rigolo" discovered by Francois. Not much to comment on--jus' keep klickin'.


--
Added comment: Incredible, isn't it? We were discussing if it's dubbed. What do you think?
It reminds me of Matthew Herbert's Plat du Jour album that was produced exclusively with sounds from a kitchen. Furthermore, I met a "culinary decorator" a couple of days ago who told me that she loves kitchens. What is it about them? I don't even have one...

Added comment 2: In this respect, check out this most amazing video by Matthew Herbert and Big Band. Great guy!