Sheenscreen

http://www.youtube.com/sheenscreen
My (now ex-)colleague Sheena, for some unknown reason, left the beautiful climate and friendly people of Scotland behind last month for a volunteering stint in a remote area of Guatemala. She's working at a community centre in San Marcos La Laguna doing various things including video production and gun-running for the local mafia. (And why not?)

Luckily she's been posting her exploits on YouTube for us all... muchos gracias!

Justice

Here's a link to the incredible new animated video for Justice's forthcoming single 'D.A.N.C.E.' It's a surprisingly frothy pop single, but I'm guessing those French wizards will have some delciously dirrrrty remixes up their sleeves for us bass-fiends...

http://www.dailymotion.com/featured/video/x1upou_justice-dance

Elective

Tomorrow is of course Scottish parliamentary election day... you were remembering, weren't you? Luckily I have taken it upon myself to come round and beat with a wet slipper any of you who don't get out and vote.

Unfortunately the stupidly complex voting system has put a lot of people off, as has the bizarre and vast range of candidates. Luckily there's a website that I've found that makes everything very simple...

http://www.holyrood2007.net/

You can put in your postcode to find out all about the candidates who are standing in your area, as well as see a 'virtual ballot paper' - an exact replica of what you'll be faced with tomorrow. Nicely done, sir!

<rant>
Why is it that this simple use of a bit of technology has to be left to Edinburgh University (of all people!)? And why has it not been publicised at all? I had to dig through mountains of websites which all said 'contact your local return officer for more information'. This is the 21st Century!
</rant>

Let's hope the Parliament and councils get their act together, webwise, for 2011...

Cylindrical

It's amazing to think that sound has been around for over 100 years. We now take for granted every-day noises like birds coughing, cars squeaking and Terence Trent D'Arby...

Some of the earliest sound recordings were made using Edison's mechanical cylinder phonograph. Now, thanks to the magic of the Interweb, the University of California, Santa Barbara is making available it's huge archives of early sound recordings.

Spanning the period from the late nineteenth century to the late 1920s (when gramophone records finally killed off the cylinder) the archive contains thousands of recordings, available in streaming format or to download. If you don't know where to start you can also listen to a hand-picked selection via the streamed 'radio' channel.

Personally, I think that this is the sort of thing that the internet was invented for - making available on-demand small yet fascinating pieces of history. Surely it'll only be a matter of time before broadcasters such as the BBC follow suit and make their archives available in this way...?


http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/index.php

Yo La La! French Hip Hop podcast

http://www.yolala.org/
In the list of obscure musical genres, French hip-hop has to be by far the most interesting (sorry, Bolivian grind-core fans). This monthly English-language podcast serves as a gentle introduction, kept nice and smooth by the deeply, deeply sinister and sleazy presenter...

File under : "I have no idea what they're saying, but listening to it helps make me feel superior"

Thou Shalt Always Kill

OK, this track does smack somewhat of the classic gimmicky, novelty, list-of-things single (c.f.The Sunscreen Song (Class of '99), It's The End Of The World And We Know It and - oooh, controversial - Losing My Edge)

But nevertheless, it does have a certain zeitgeisty charm to it. The video really makes the song, I feel - it's quirky at just the right pitch and superbly put together. Enjoy.




Courtesy of the irresistable Headphonesex and Music Like Dirt

Don't Give Up

"Give me a reason to stay constantly ignored

I don’t think I can

Give me an angle that I haven’t tried before

Not from where I stand

A guarantee for being honestly compared

Could not be found

You want to live when life is sickeningly unfair

Stick around"

I am... The Whitest Boy Alive...