i'm getting tired of the old web design, so i'm playing around with it.

it's kind of boring at the moment, but that's kind of ok, at this point.

update: web design all done. nice and plain. :)

update #2: comments were broken; i have fixed them. you may not have noticed, ha-ha.

i read loads of blogs, like wayne & wax and mudd up, where they have a little flash mp3 player as well as a link to download. i wanted to try it, so i googled this guy:



not bad. i'll see whether i like using it.

last year my friend TradeMark G. of The Evolution Control Committee made a guest appearance at our monthly dj night called Schwarz. i knew it would be memorable, so i grabbed a couple vids. i only got partially through uploading them last year, and somehow never got back to it...

...until now!

i've (slightly) improved the video so that one can actually make out what's going on in them -- many were so dark i thought they were unusable. i've now uploaded them all to youtube.

hopefully the playlist below will contain all eight videos from the night, in chronological order:



thanks again, TradeMark, and thanks to The Librarian for partnering with me at Schwarz for a year!

this will hopefully help me later this year determine a best-of-2009 list. it's by no means comprehensive, and is assuredly missing something vital. feel free to mention additional things in the comments.

electronic, dance & pop:

• Bat for Lashes, Two Suns
• Beastie Boys, Paul's Boutique (remaster)
  
• Björk, Voltaïc
• Gil Mantera's Party Dream, Dreamscape
• KMFDM, Blitz
• J.G. Thirlwell, The Venture Bros.: The Music of JG Thirlwell
• Toy Selectah, The Mex-More EP

electronic, other:

• Atom™, Liedgut*
• Boxcutter, Arecibo Message
• Fever Ray, Fever Ray*
• Mochipet, "Master P on Atari"
• Phaeleh, Fire / Isolate
• Rusuden, Death By Din Sync
• Teef, "The Subsitute"
• Venetian Snares, Filth
• Joker, "Digidesign" / 2000F & J Kamata, "You Don't Know What Love Is"
  

rock & metal:

• Buried Inside, Spoils of Failure
• Maserati / Zombie, split e.p.
• Obscura, Cosmogenesis*
  
• Zu, Carboniferous

* These are definite contenders for top 10.

please note: specifically left off the list: the new MSTRKRFT.

coffee mugs. not a Jose or a Panjit in sight.

in case you can't quite read my blurry photo, it reads:

Did you know? In the 1700's, people rubbed the poison from the Dyeing Frog on parrots to genetically change the color of their feathers.

genetically? is that an appropriate word?

edit: i was skeptical about the use of the word "genetically" on this placard at the aquarium. however, after a little google this morning, i found this:

This is the aptly named dyeing frog, Dendrobates tinctorius, one of the poison-dart frogs. Its skin contains a cocktail of alkaloid poisons. Like many alkaloids, these are mutagens. Applied to the rapidly dividing cells in a growing feather, they cause a local genetic change -- and a colour change in the parrots' feathers.

wow. neat! (though the next sentence says that it was unpleasant for both the birds and the frogs. sad.)

this is indicative of my main complaint about visiting the aquarium yesterday -- often there were interesting things in the tanks, with little-to-no information available. i'll say more later, when i post my pictures.