Dossier Z | Radiohead

Three new Radiohead re-issues are being released in August. [exclaim]

Radiohead (or Ed O'brien and Phil Selway?) are releasing a track, which marks drummer Phil Selway's debut of recorded vocal, for a charity album for Oxfam. [nme]

And Thom Yorke has expressed interest in contributing music to the Twilight sequel. [exclaim] They did music for the end credits of the first...

Check out the winners of Aniboom's Radiohead animation contest. [aniboom] Fantastic!

And to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Radiohead's OK Computer the blog Stereogum asked some of their favorite musicians to participate in a song-by-song covers compilation. [stereogum]

Following the death of Britain's last World War One veteran of the trenches, Radiohead released a tribute using Harry Patch's own words describing his experience. [cbc] [nyt] [bbc] It's available for download from their web site for 1 pound, with all proceeds going to the Royal British Legion. [waste]

Harry Patch (In memory of)

I am the only one that got through
The others died where ever they fell
It was an ambush
They came up from all sides
Give your leaders each a gun and then let them fight it out themselves
I've seen devils coming up from the ground
I've seen hell upon this earth
The next will be chemical but they will never learn

And after reports that Thom Yorke said the band were unlikely to release full albums again, and only do EP and singles [guardian.uk], a mysterious song was leaked on the internet. [ChartAttack]

useless mental tidbits | Crowd Psychology at Sasquatch 2009

This fellow starts his own dance party. Amazing video!

Conspiracy Analyst | Orwell vs. Huxley

Stuart McMillen of Recombinant Records in Australia has written/drawn an excellent comic strip describing the differences in fears between George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, and compares today's society to see if we are closer to one or the other.

I have to agree with the conclusion that we are closer to Huxley's vision where "the truth is hidden from us by being drowned in a sea of irrelevance."

As Huxley remarked in "Brave New World Revisited" the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions."

(I'm doing my part.)

It's fantastic, check it out: [recombinantrecords]

(Oh, and I was turned onto this by the ever-inspiring Jason Kottke.)

toob'd | Mad Men

The third season of the television show Mad Men will begin tonight, Sunday August 16, at 10:00pm eastern, on AMC (American Movie Channel). [buzzSugar]

You can watch the first episode of the second season streaming on the web. [amc]

If you have not seen this show, we encourage you to watch it. Don't just take our word for it: You know it has to be good, because even Sesame Street will be doing a parody this year. [tvSquad] There have already been some casting suggestions made... [jezebel]

Some interesting articles... also known as "a wander through the hype-scape"... on General Topics and the Writing. [nyt] [nyt] [slate] [ffc] Costume Design. [slate] Character Study. [slate]

And Jason Kottke loves the show too... [kottke] ...he's the one that pointed us in the direction of these next two posts: And for more information check out Vanity Fair's excellent overview of the show. [vanityfair] And check out the Wall Street Journal coverage about the women writers behind the show. [wsj]

"Behind the smooth-talking, chain-smoking, misogynist advertising executives on "Mad Men" is a group of women writers, a rarity in Hollywood television. Seven of the nine members of the writing team are women. Women directed five of the 13 episodes in the third season. The writers, led by the show's creator Matthew Weiner, are drawing on their experiences and perspectives to create the show's heady mix: a world where the men are in control and the women are more complex than they seem, or than the male characters realize."

When you're ready: go Mad Men yourself! [amc]

(And you might not get this one, but: the Vancouver Sun had a report about a man that stole a dead baby's identity being at risk of losing the assets aquired under that identity through the Civil Forfeiture Act. [VanSun] )

(And from the related-but-unrelated file: here's a brief history of the bikini.)

Doomed by History | Woodstock

The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, nowadays simply known by the seminal moniker of "Woodstock", ran from August 15-17, 1969. It is considered one of the greatest moments in music history, and an event that either defined a generation or marked where the 60s-era ideals reached the high-water mark and began to decline.

Let's review. As usual, here's the wikipedia article to start on. [wikipedia]

Some of the media to coincide with the anniversary. Television. [nyt] Book. [nyt]

And there will be events as well. If you happen to be in Vancouver, there is the annual Summer of Love festival along West 4th Avenue. [kits.ca] [SoL] This year there is also KitsFest, an event down the hill at Kits Beach. [kits.ca] [KF] [VanSun] One of my favourite things about Hippy Days (sorry: "West 4th Ave Summer of Love") is the live music at several different stages, whcih this year will include a stage outside of Zulu Music. [BeyondRobson]

The most interesting thing I've ran across is the fact the couple hugging under the blanket on the original Woodstock album cover is still together. [nydailynews]

useless mental tidbits | Step One to Holodeck...

headspace | Moon Landing... 2009...?

Crazy Artist | Kseniya Simonova

Good Rawkin' | Populous (with a video by Stuard O'Keeffe)

Populous (man overboard) music video from stuart on Vimeo.

Interlude | Twin Bricks (Twin Peaks in LEGO)

pong'd | First-Person Shooter Disease

Crazy Musician | KJ Sawka

Good Rawkin' | Mink DeVille

R.I.P. Willy DeVille: 1953-2009.

headspace | Molecular Visualizations of DNA