Velvet Underground 3D Death Chase

Here's a hilarious short piece by The Guardian's Alex Petridis on a new Velvet Underground computer game . Just what were were waiting for...

"It's iconoclastic, irreverent fun, but whether it is any less preposterous or damaging to the Velvets' legacy than Lou Reed's recent live shows - which featured a man doing tai-chi moves to a funk version of All Tomorrow's Parties - is surely a moot point."

Stranger Than Fiction

 Chuck Palahniuk, author of disturbing parables for our times such as Survivor, Choke and the incomparable Fight Club, has a new book of non fiction titled stranger than fiction nuff said!

Techgnostic

Those who have read Erik Davis' excellent work of tech-culture analysis Techgnosis, should try oput his terrific web site which features a whole bunch of interesting stuff including the full text of his recent Wire piece on the Sun City Girls, pieces on Rhillip K Dick (including Davis' involvement on the forthcoming Richard Linklater adaptation of A Scanner Darkly) and a raft of assorted meditations on things current. Pretty cool.

Ice cold in...Lofoten!

News from the
Brainwashed site that Steve Stapleton (twisted brain behind Nurse With Wound) will be marooned with Colin Potter on an island off the coast of Norway to partake in a sound art experiment! The pair will make a sound art piece based on the environment (located well into the arctic circle apparently) which will be broadcast on the local radio station Lofotradioen (104.4fm pop pickers). The final piece will be issued later as an NWW album.

Klingon language workshop at Cannes

Thanks to Stuart for this...
"Earthlings: Ugly Bags of Mostly Water," is a documentary on Klingon-speakers debuting in Cannes. In conjunction with the release, the Klingon Language Institute is holding a workshop/confernece at Cannes for interested parties.
KLI members featured in the film include Dr d'Armond Speers, a linguist who spoke only in Klingon to his son until age three and a half, and Rich Yampbell, composer of Klingon national anthem taHaj wo.
I have nothing to add...

Blows against the empire

Big it up for Cory Doctorow (SF writer and BoingBoing blogger) who has taken it upon himself to challenge the insulting copyright infringement message now preceeding movies at UK cinemas. Cory takes a picture (with flash) each time he see's one. A small but worthy blow against the empire, perhaps someone could organise a flash mob for this...

Moogtastic!

I went to a lecture by Dr Robert Moog yesterday, as part the left field Tryptich music festival. As a fan of early electronic music, I could hardly pass up the opportunity to hear the man who changed the way so much music sounded. Bob is 70 now but he's still a charming and entertaining speaker, if prone to a faltering delivery. He spoke for an hour about how he came to start experimenting with circuits and eventually started making instruments. Along the way there were demonstrations of blooping and tweeting on a MiniMoog some fine examples of electronic music (ranging from Stockhausen to Wendy Carlos) and a splendid gallery of Moog album covers, you had to love it.

After Bob came Jean Jacques Perrey, another luminary of the electronic music scene. Famous for his work with Gershon Kingsley and about a million adverts and cheesy listening compilations JJP may have started out as a pioneer of tape looping and splicing but has ended up better known as a purveyor of rather twee novelty music. Unfortunatley he played up to this by behaving like someone's embarrasing old grandad. If his delivery in English wasn't eccentric enough he insisted on communicating with a small, fluffy elephant toy in a manner that only a two year old might find lovable and left the rest of us squirming uncomfortably and smiling through gritted teeth. His contribution was mercifully brief and he finished by playing a wobbly Moog solo along with his most famous piece EVA.

My advice is stick with Dr Bob.

The Scotsman has a not very helpful review of the Edinburgh version of this (you'll have to register to get at it).

There's also a rather spiffy book out about the whole Moog phenomenon.