The Null Device
2005/5/11
Penguin (the publishers) are having an audiobook remix contest (Flash required, unfortunately). They provide a few samples from 30 audiobooks (including Alice In Wonderland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Kerouac's On the Road, several James Bond novels and the most recent Nick Hornby) for downloading, and allow participants to upload their entries, where they will be made available for streaming. The handful of entries presently uploaded vary from quite decent ("Spot's Urban Dub Mix") to boring arrangements of loops with samples spread over the top. Unfortunately, though, it's only open to UK residents.
Hmmm... I can imagine a few approaches that could work... the Dracula samples could lend themselves to Dr. Mabuse-style euro-synthpop (or, obviously, anything describable as "goth"), Casino Royale could work with a sleazy cocktail lounge sound, and Moby Dick could be done with crackly blues loops and a Korg M1 synth preset.
(via bOING bOING) ¶ 0
The Guardian's piece on glam/funk-rock band El Presidente compares them to the Scissor Sisters. Funny, I'd say they're more like Electric Six, or at least how you'd imagine the Six would be if their stage presence matched their music.
(via Sweeping the Nation) ¶ 0
A tutorial on how to make isometric pixel art, à la the pixelicious Eboy.com. It's pitched at beginners, though has some useful hints. From what I gathered, Eboy's system is somewhat more sophisticated, with modular libraries of elements (buildings, street scenes and so on) that they can plug together, and possibly some sort of Common Lisp-based compositing engine, but this should work.
(I was thinking that someone should do an Eboy-style streetscape of Brunswick Street. Perhaps, once I figure out the forking-into-infinite-numbers-of-parallel-universes trick, I'll do it.)