george's Blog

Not breaking news, but still worth checking out, Google have released a series of 'artist themes' for the personalised iGoogle pages.

Some legit names have contributed, including Airside, Nigo, Jeff Koons and John Maeda.

Although some of the others are a little questionable, Lance Armstrong, Jackie Chan and Coldplay!?

Enough of this Guitar Hero nonsense - Rez, the infamously tricky to acquire but critically acclaimed PS2 "synaesthetic shooter" is now out on Xbox Live Arcade in glorious High Definition.

Originally released on Dreamcast, then later in very limited fashion on the PS2 (original copies of the game are still selling for upwards of £40 on eBay), there's now no excuse not to get a piece of the sonic-shooter in your life.

Check out a video of the gameplay and some more screenshots.

Via 1UP.com

This one slipped under my radar at the end of last year, apparently some equally enterprising & macabre chap has been chopping the heads off movie posters in the Shoreditch area:

He's been posting records of his all work up on his Flickr page. Anyone sighted these out in the wild?

More self assembly entertainment, this time in the form of a cut-out and keep Optimus Prime. Fully transformable, fully articulated. Believe.

1st Ave Machine transcends the boundary between imagination and reality in the new CG/live action music video for the track "Ted" by Chris Clark of Warp Records.

A surreal and striking close up inspection of insects that are oddly familiar but have morphed into something barely recognizable, the video is an examination of evolution in a world of possibility. Praying mantises and grasshoppers have developed improved sensory devices resembling antennae. Cockroaches have multiple pulsating thoraxes. Pinchers, stingers and other defense mechanisms have evolved into something totally unclassifiable.

Watch it.

[dexigner]

Shiny new mix from the ninja DJ, grab it from zshare. 48 minutes of classic hip-hop, spanning from 1979 to the present day.

Readymechs are free, flatpack toys for you to print and build. They are designed to fit on an 8.5"x11" page and printed with any printer. You'll need double-sided tape, thick matte paper, and 10-15 minutes for build time.

"Liberation" is a collaboration album by Talib Kweli & Madlib, released as a free download on Rappcats. Grab it now [.zip].

Some might say Nigo could wipe his arse on anything and sell it for $300, but this might be taking it too far. Anyone confirm this is genuine!? Hopefully it is, because I want it.

Video for J Dilla's "Won't Do" from his posthumosly released album, The Shining. Directed by Mazik Saevitz, featuring: John Yancey, Common, Will.I.AM, Black Thought, Talib Kweli, Karriem Riggins and Frank N Dank.

Interview with Diplo over at Ableton, where he talks music and technology. There's more Diplo over here.

Here's a product every girl should want to get her hands on. The concept is simple: The OhMiBod pulsates to the rhythm and volume of a song on your iPod. Attach the included splitter to an MP3 player's headphone jack, plug in headphones, run another cord to the 7-inch, um, unit, and bliss out.

Legendary daredevil motorcycle stuntman Robert Craig, "Evel" Knievel has filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Kanye West, claiming the Chicago rapper tarnished his image in the video for the hit single, "Touch The Sky."

The lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court, accuses Kanye West of trademark infringement and unauthorized use of the Evel Knievel image by using vulgar, sexual and racially questionable content. Roc-A-Fella Records and‚ "Touch the Sky" video director Chris Milk are also named as defendants in the lawsuit. Knievel, 68, claims the video disgraced him and accuses Kanye West of ripping his image apart. The video, which stars actress Pamela Anderson Lee, features Kanye West as a fictional stuntman named‚ "Evel Kanyevel" attempting to jump a canyon. Evel Knievel's lawyer Richard Fee claims the video is a recreation of Knievel's failed attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon in Western Wyoming in 1974.

Full story over at AllHipHop.com

According to the BBC, Birds living in cities are performing a type of "avian rap" while their rural counterparts are sticking to more traditional sounds, a study shows.

The South Bank Centre is illuminated this Christmas with light displays by David Batchelor.

PSP Rhythm is the homebrew drum machine for the PSP. Anyone who hasn't already updated their firmware to play Vice City Stories, might want to have a play with this.

Just a nice little curiosity, apparently Japanese eye tests are done using these non-verbal charts [google translation]. You're asked to say where the gap in the perimeter of the circles is, instead of reading out a letter. Just thought that was pretty neat, bit more of an elegant design than the alphabet charts we're used to.

Specialten.tv, from the Specialten folk, has gone live. Lots of tasty motion picture goodness in a pared-down interface. There are a load of gems up there, including an interview with Jim Jarmusch and a couple of recent Zero 7 videos.

If this tickles your fancy, you might also consider taking a peek at neave.tv.

One for the London Protein people, keep an eye out for tiny hand painted people hiding in toilets, parks, gutters, tube trains ...

Or to put it another way, Chromo fabrics no longer a thing of the future? The talented folk at Philips Research have created Photonic Textiles, flexible LED panels which can be embedded in fabrics and used to display text, images and even video.

More pictures after the jump...

Check out this amazing french laser/video projection, Video Projection Monumentale.

Artist Thomas Keeley, creator of some uniquely subversive and surreal works of art, talks life, art and inspirations in an interview over at Woosta.

Colour Vision is an installation by Alexander Wiethoff that changes colour according to the posture & movement of visitors.

A little gem from the archives, De La Soul keeping it strictly Dan Stuckie on the 3ft High and Rising Press Kit video. Watch out for appearances from KRS-One, DMC, Big Daddy Kane and others...

Is The New by LeisureArts is a diagram which shows everytime the phrase "is the new" was used by various sources in 2005, creating a very simple zeitgeist of 2005.