Machotaildrop is a highly visual and fantastical journey about an amateur skateboarder, Walter Rhum, who realizes his dream of turning pro and riding for the world’s greatest skateboard company… Machotaildrop. Set in an anachronistic time and place, Machotaildrop is the greatest skateboard company of its day and the regal and grand sport of skateboarding has been thriving for many generations. Walter’s journey serves as a window through which we discover the dark underbelly of what appears at first to be a benign skateboard company.

Unique indie game idea, The Unfinished Swan looks wonderful.

The Unfinished Swan – Tech Demo 9/2008 from Ian Dallas on Vimeo.

The Times Online say ‘British people wishing to help the victims of the Haiti earthquake are being advised by the UK government to donate money to the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal.

Donors can call the DEC’s dedicated Haiti Earthquake appeal line which is open 24 hours a day on 0370 6060 900, or go to the website and follow the simple instructions.

Donations can also be sent to the DEC by post, with a cheque made payable to DEC Haiti Earthquake and addressed to DEC Haiti Earthquake, PO Box 999, London, EC3A 3AA.

Donations can also be made on the High Street, by calling into any bank or post office and quoting Freepay 1449, or at branches of any of the DEC’s member charities. The DEC is composed of 13 major UK aid agencies: Action Aid, British Red Cross, CAFOD, Care International UK, Christian Aid, Concern Worldwide, Help the Aged, Islamic Relief, Merlin, Oxfam, Save the Children, Tearfund and World Vision.’

A Short introduction to the marvelous work of Letman:

He is cuckoo about letters, he loves them, so far is certain. He is also one of those fellows who can read a chunky novel in a couple of hours, but that’s a different story.

His designs are transparent, leaving room to breathe. Them letters got things to say, they are so clear it tickles your eye and make you blink. What is this colourful craft ? Letman’s letters are curious. His handmade style fits the boundries of typography like a universe on itself by lashing out to illustration, grafitti and graphic design.

Letters are free entities to him. They are clear and cunning. Together they stand strong.

YS.

The Flaming Lips; Stardeath And White Dwarfs With Henry Rollins and Peaches cover Dark Side Of The Moon. Success. It’s a Syd Barret style shining-diamond [what do I even mean by that?].

From the opening : Henry Rollins calmly reciting “I’ve been mad for years” - to the last notes of a stellar brainmashed “Eclipse”, the Lip’s version is a new venture. Songs embedded in our psyche – and as familiar a pop culture moment as The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper– are new and different. And it’s proof as such, that a great album is not just about such songwriting, but also about the sound, the treatment and the approach given to the material. If you’re expecting a version where you can predict every drum roll and guitar lick give up now. As a fan of both bands though, this “DSOTM” is an essential listen even if just once – for fans of either.

The strength of “Dark Side” is, and always was, the timelessness of the themes within it ; song titles betray the core lyrical obsessions, Time, Money, Breathing, Death, Us And Them – the things that drive human beings.

Sonically, this album is clearly a labour of love. As a treatment, this will definitely alienate a few of the more slavish Floyd fans who believe The Holy Canon should NOT be touched: they are zealots who miss the spirit of their beloved band – it would be fair to say that this re-imagining is both respectful and original. A remake that has validity and integrity. Genius. How wonderful to have sat here listening to this recording while watching the snow fall and the sky turn black.

Wired magazine have fascinating video clips from the 2010 CES [consumer electronics show]  of a superb working example of the evolving 3D printing technology. The basic 3D-printer shown – MakerBot’s Cupcake CNC – is priced at the low $750.00.

100 artists offer their interpretations of the ’80s He-Man action figure and cartoon series at the American Gallery 1988. This looks fantastic and much like the brilliant Lost Underground Art exhibition in 2009 – paintings, sculptures and designer toys based on JJ. Abram’s iconic show –  looks equally inventive.

Britain is unusually warm for its latitude because of the Gulf stream. This week, however, the gulfstream is absent in Greenland. This is what Britain currently looks like without the Gulf stream.

Adidas has launched a range of men’s trainers in the US that transform into a branded virtual world held in front of a computers web-cam.

The five different trainers will enable Adidas to introduce three games developed by game developer xForm into the virtual neighborhood. The games will include a skateboard game, where the trainer acts as the controller to navigate the virtual city’s alleys, along with a Star Wars themed game and music based game.

Robert Kirby, the musical arranger best known for his work with Nick Drake has died. His arrangements and plush sound scapes complemented Nick Drake’s beautiful and often elaborate songs.

Robert Bruce Kirby, musical arranger and orchestrator, born 16 April 1948; died 3 October 2009.

Last Monday Alberta Cross released their incredible debut LP, ‘Broken Side of Time’ and, with it, were the first band ever to use ‘Augmented Reality’ technology within their album artwork.

Lead vocalist Petter Stakee commented

“The album is pretty haunting in itself, we wanted the videos to show it and put that across” Stakee continues “Brantely and I talked about ideas to match the video with the music so he went to Salt On Sea in California, which looks like a ghost town that’s been blown up by a nuclear bomb to shoot the videos. It was on old posh Hollywood star’s getaway, they all bought houses there, and one night the whole place sunk into the sand because of a chemical reaction… Some of the old shit like old cars, houses, broken vinyl records are still there, half buried”

The content of each marker/code will be changed regularly and Alberta Cross will be uploading special videos, competitions and other content throughout the year, which will only be available to those who own the album artwork.
‘Broken Side of Time’ was released last Monday through Ark Recordings and

New York artist Tara Donovan creates art from rolls of tape, pieces of pencil, Styrofoam cups, paper plates, napkins. Her sculptural works evoke thoughts of nature. A perfect example is the ‘Untitled’ cloud formation she created in 2003 from Styrofoam cups and glue.

This September, the first monograph of her work was published by visual book press, Monacelli Press [now owned by Random House].

Did You Know 4.0?” has now been created for the Economist’s Media Convergence forum in October:

The original ‘Shift Happens‘ presentation by Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod, and Jeff Brenman was turned into a video and uploaded to YouTube in June 2007. The video was then remixed and became a serious YouTube hit called ‘Did You Know?‘ and attracted over 6.5m views.

Created by my lovely colleagues and creative companions, Gap’s 1969 campaign site – to celebrate the heritage of Gap – taps into Gap’s authenticity, their rich back story and communicates Gap’s love for denim. Beautifully executed and developed by the also super talented technical team.