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Twenty eight days, six hours, forty two minutes & twelve seconds. That is when the world will end.
I was at a bit of a loose end today and decided to watch Donnie Darko again… I hadn’t watched since it first came out and I’d forgotten what an excellent film it is. What I hadn’t realised (although its obvious when you think about it) is that a whole subculture has developed devoted to the film’s meaning. Writer/ director Richard Kelly’s twisting story of time travel and tangent universes is still very intriguing. The answers are all over the net (try Wikipeadia as a first stop) so I won’t go into all that, but what interests me is the original film site.
http://www.donniedarkofilm.com/
Created by a comany called Hi-ReS, the site is still up and running, counting on the days since the Tangent Universe collapsed (3195, 16 hours and some minutes when I looked today). The site is beautifully constructed. The music fades in and the coolness & weirdness of the film is captured in the angular graphics. Clicking strange flashing red points gives you hints and takes you deeper into the site where all will be revealed….
I have no idea who keeps this wonderful thing going after all these years, it’s truly an amazing thing, I almost wonder if its become self supporting somehow? If you get lost or stuck there are no end of helpful sites that explain in endless detail what to do when.. Sadly though it appears from various forums that the links within the site to Roberta Sparrow’s “Philosophy of Time” book no longer work.. so here it is in another form just in case you need to know what it was all about…
Danish Classic Design Furniture
Came across this site today, the most gorgeous furniture you can imagine….
http://www.deconet.com/decopedia/designer/1421/Peter_Hvidt_&_Orla_M%C3%B8lgaard_Nielsen
Designed by a couple of very talented Danes called Peter Hvidt and Orla Molgaard Nielsen, these pieces to my eyes represent the apex of so called mid-century modern design, sleek, stylish, beautifully proportioned and made “properly” so that they look as good and function as well now as they did 50 years ago.
My partner and I have a number of these wonderful things in our home (the sofa, corner table and coffee table below), but sadly we haven’t the resources to furnish it fully with all this lovely stuff….. so if anyone has any spare pieces knocking about… we’ll gladly take them off your hands!
Peter Hvidt & Orla Mølgaard Nielsen
BP Rebrand Competition
Well would you believe it…. I’ve been shortlisted in the Best Slogan category of the BP rebranding competition organised by Greenpeace… There were so many entries (over 2500) that they have subdivided them into 5 categories. There will also be an overall winner. There are about 60 designs in the Slogans category… so I’m pretty pleased with that.
I submitted two designs (neither of which could be considered as design classics) but it seems that the “please stop” wording on the oily peacock one may have struck a chord….
The rest of the entries are here… so please have a look and chose your vote carefully…..
Neu V David Holmes and the wonders of Spotify
I realise there is hardly anything about music on my blog yet, which to anyone who knows me will be rather surprising.
So as my first music post I’ll start with how wonderful Spotify is and the spooky similarities between David Holmes’s album “The Holy Pictures” from last year, and Neu’s final album “Neu 75″. Although the two records are separated by 34 years they are undeniably linked in terms of sound. Try the first Neu track “ISI” with its lush, rich urgency and then listen to either “I heard Wonders” or “Melanie”….
David Holmes – The Holy Pictures
I would be interested to know if Mr. Holmes openly acknowledges the German Kraut rock sound as an inspiration. Knowing that he has a pretty encyclopedic knowledge of music, I can’t believe he wouldn’t have heard the Neu album before he released his…
Unlike me… Which brings me to the wonder that is Spotify. I like so many different kinds of music that it has not been possible in the past, to buy everything I thought I might like. Now however I can now sit in my living room, happily (sadly?) whiling away a morning following the related artists links, filling in all the gaps in my musical knowledge.. sheer bliss for a music head like me
Other recent “discoveries” of mainly instrumental tunage include (in no particular order)
Etienne Jaumet – Night Music – EP (2009)
65daysofstatic – We Were Exploding Anyway (2010)
Jah Wobble – Radioaxiom: A Dub Transmission (2001)
Steve Hillage – Rainbow Dome Musick (1979)
Terry Riley – Terry Riley: A Rainbow In Curved Air; Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band (1969)
