At least one co-habitee is starting as she means to go on. Happy day.

My musical listening history is dotted with artists who went from being the next great inspiration to just having one early album as the defining moment in their career. The mark of the true artist is not one of a discrete act of creation, but of development and ascendency. The Kleptones had that one great album, A Night at the Hip-Hopera, an exercise at once both thematically complete and diversely eclectic. This was an album so popular it was stolen from the hi-fi while it was playing at our house parties. What marks them out is that they have built on this success with each subsequent release.

Their latest work, Uptime / Downtime, scoops up a great armful of my most favourite tunes for a hug that delights as much as it surprises with a continuation of the double album concept of 24 Hours. As my friend Joe would say, so retro, so future... to a point where the vital feeling I had when I first listened to these old friends is recaptured in these multi-layered self-referential slices of pop (culture). The Kleptones are successful at recycling the inherently disposable into something greater than the sum of their parts; making the tunes that really meant something into genre and time-spanning dancefloor fillers, whether that floor is a club or your own front room.

Good day out yesterday. I travelled to Silverstone for a work related meeting and visted the Porsche Experience Centre; it has a great collection of historic cars on display and I also had the opportunity to take out a 911 with one of the instructors. The 911 is an amazing car, not nearly as intimidating to drive as I assumed it to be, even with driver aids switched off. Perhaps I'm stuck in my ways but I think you need a manual box to properly enjoy a car like this but can certainly see how it would be a good fit with the Panamera. Gear changes are super smooth and responsive and I can see how under normal driving conditions it would make for a more relaxing journey. However, this is a 911 and I want to physically swap the cogs to feel as involved as possible.

(download)

Click here to download:

Porsche_Experience_Centre_tags.zip (1015 KB)

Two amazing things available through the magic of the web that are cheering me up at the moment are Spotify and Quake Live.

Spotify is a cross-platform music player that streams tunes to your computer from its own servers. You type in an artist's name and back comes a list of all the tracks they have in their system. A double-click later and you're listening to a track of your choosing. You can create and share playlists and share links to tracks provided the person you're sharing with has signed up too. The free version is punctuated by advertising messages but paid accounts are available. I'd be happy to hand Spotify details of my entire iTunes library and, provided they achieved an 80% plus match to tunes I already had then I'd sign up. One day we'll have consistently fast data connections everywhere and local file storage will be a quaint relic of a bygone era.

Quake Live is essentially Quake 3 but accessible through your web browser. It's only available on Windows / Explorer / Firefox setups at the moment. I cannot believe the original game came out in 1999. Given I remember Wolfenstein and Doom when they first came out I feel old. Still, mulitplayer Quake is fantastic and I like this pure pick up and play version with persistent statistics.

Isn't it great that these things are essentially free?

I was playing the beautiful looking Mirror's Edge the other day and was struck by the way in which the first person perspective was very similar to that used in the Kathryn Bigelow directed Strange Days. I haven't seen this film since it came out so don't clearly recall it. Has anyone else made that link?

While on the subject of Kathryn Bigelow I notice, having been quiet for a few years, she has a new film coming out called 'The Hurt Locker'. I think this gives credence to the theory that Hollywood is running out of film titles. Hmm.

Thinking about Directors I haven't heard from for a while but whose films I liked I noticed on the credits of the last Battlestar Galactica episode The Oath that John Dahl took the credit. Surely not the Director of The Last Seduction and other contemporary noir films?

I would never admit to having any enthusiasm for anything automotive but (very) secretly would love to hoon around on the Dakar Rally. Honestly, who wouldn't? Competing wouldn't be an option as I'd spend too much picnicking, taking photos, getting lost, etc. Click on the photo below for more amazing pictures.

Photo: Red Bull Photofiles

3 original comments:

Is it true they’re actually holding it in South America this time round?
Comment by Joe — 25 January, 2009 @ 2:27 pm

Yes it is! I think it finished a few days ago. Wanna be my co-driver next time?
Comment by Mark — 25 January, 2009 @ 9:24 pm

Mate – I have the perfect solution for you – check out http://www.theadventurists.com/ – they started with the Mongol Rally, driving form London to Ulan Bataar in cars with less than a 1.0 engine! They now ‘organise’ the rickshaw run across India and are planning an event in South America too :)
Comment by CharlieO — 1 February, 2009 @ 10:52 am

I loved this game when I first played it ten years ago as the silent Gordon Freeman wandering the Black Mesa Research Facility. Martin, you thought it was pretty good too as I remember? Proves that Physics PhD's can mix it up with the best of them. It's interesting to read that a team of dedicated people have re-created the game using the Source engine. I'll look forward to revisiting it.

3 original comments:

I recently installed windows on my mac for the solo purpose of playing the hl sequels. The original is the best, probably – especially given what a quantum leap (no pun intended) it was for storytelling in those sort of games.
Comment by Martin Austwick — 20 November, 2008 @ 3:24 pm

Half-Life itself didn’t grab me, but Counter Strike… my god.
Comment by handolio — 23 November, 2008 @ 10:42 am

Agreed. That was my first foray into online gaming and it was extremely satisfying.
Comment by Mark — 26 November, 2008 @ 6:06 pm

Been a little busy so no posts recently. Not short of ideas for things I want to write about, but they always seem to drift past when I'm without web access and the desire to catch them fades by the time I sit down. For me blogging is an immediate activity and not one that should be laboured over.

Inside The Kingfisher Reserve at Wakehurst Place

Anyhoo, I spent the last warm day of the year out at Wakehurst Place a couple of weeks back; Joe and Rose documented the event. More recentIy I went to the wedding of two lovely friends of mine, Sarah and Justin, in the beautiful Shropshire countryside. Two nice things to have done as the nights start to close in.

Amanita muscaria growing at Wakehurst Place

2 original comments:

Mushroom Identification time!
Red and white mushroom: Amanita Muscaria (or fly agaric) – heavily psychedelic, but not deadly.
Grouped mushrooms (taken from below): Sulphur Tufts – inedible/mildly poisonous
Red Mushrooms: unsure, but likely to be ‘Sickeners’ – causing vomiting
Other mushroom: An anamita, but I’m unsure of the exact species; either a Blusher, Tawny Grisette, or Panther Cap – the former two are edible, but the latter is heavily psychedelic, and has been reported to be fatal.
If eaten by dogs (who are strangely attracted to them), they can cause ‘brain death’ within minutes!
Cheers, and before I forget….
REQUIEME!
Mike
Comment by Wilkins — 2 November, 2008 @ 8:35 pm

The indomitable Michael Wilkins knocks it out the court with mushroom identification from the Wakehurst Place flickr set linked to in my post above. Mike, I’m thinking we set up some kind of mobile service where people can message in photos of ’shrooms they find while out walking and you can identify them, strictly for information purposes. We’ll get legal advice, really good public liability insurance and maybe base the operation out of a former Eastern-bloc state just to be sure… whadaya say?
Comment by Mark — 12 January, 2009 @ 5:37 pm