Geek Out Culture // Current

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5 hours ago

Amazing Cube Painting.

Don't deny that you tapped that toe of yours... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlNqHm3GhEA

Nettle
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New Website Aims To Be An iTunes For Poetry

The new website PoetrySpeaks is aiming to serve as a social networking hub and online marketplace for poets. Visitors are greeted... more

atomiclegion
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Windows told me to use Linux (cool video)

http://www.osgui.com/videos.html?task=videodirectlink&id=195

osgui
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A Single Man Movie Trailer (Tom Ford Teams with Mad Men’s Production Designer)

When Harvey Weinstein picked up the $2 million rights to A Single Man, he’s said to have personally guaranteed director (and former Gucci creative director) Tom Ford an Oscar for Best Director or Best Picture. And though a statuette for either category seems unlikely given ’09’s ’stiff competition, especially in light of the Coen Bros.’ fantastic A Serious Man, a nom(s) remains quite possible. Critical response and hip international buzz is equally strong. Today, the official trailer has surfaced, and oddly enough, its classy use of repetitive-as-to-be-thrilling music and imagery sans plot is similar to the ballsy trailer for the Coens’ opus. And not unlike the recent poster (below) for A Single Man, its trailer playfully or curiously omits the lead character’s sexual preference.

Ford adapted the screenplay alongside David Scearce (his first screenplay credit as well) from the same-named 1964 novel by the late, provocative British author Christopher Isherwood. Like the novel, the main character as played to “breakout” notices by Colin Firth (Bridget Jones franchise), is a gay college professor whose BF (Matthew Goode aka Ozymandias in Watchmen) passes away in front of him; the plot follows a day in a life of masked grief throughout a Southern California set in the 1960s. The film is said to be sprinkled with time-specific details like the theatrical run of Psycho and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Julianne Moore, who is a natural compliment for Ford’s style, stars as a London friend and neighbor of Firth’s character, though the marketing clearly implies a less platonic relationship.

Early reviews haven’t specifically compared the film to a style exercise—in contrast, the containment of dark emotions is really the underlying theme—but similarities to the obsessively precise, period aesthetic of Mad Men have been noted by several. There is actually a direct connection: A Single Man’s production designer Dan Bishop has worked as Mad Men’s PD for all three seasons, all of which are set in the early ’60s. Fun fact: Man Mad’s Don Draper, actor Jon Hamm, has an uncredited voice role in the film.

http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/11/07/a-single-man-movie-trailer-tom-ford-teams-with-mad-mens-production-designer/When Harvey Weinstein picked up the $2 million rights to A Single Man, he’s said to have personally guaranteed director (and... more

atomiclegion
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The Waters of Mars - Phil Ford interview

RADIO FREE SKARO have alerted us to their new podcast which includes an interview with The Waters of Mars writer, PHIL FORD. They... more

atomiclegion
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1 day ago

New Doctor Who Story: DREAMLAND - Broadcast details + synopses

Described as "Doctor Who meets a Fifties monster B-movie", Dreamland, a new six-part animated adventure,... more

atomiclegion
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1 day ago

High-Tech Home: Amazing Futuristic Furniture (PHOTOS, POLL)

We're used to "smartphones", but what about smart chairs that can move, morph, play, light-up, and even rebuild... more

atomiclegion
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1 day ago

Tagging Reality

New smartphone apps could change the way we see the world. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agywuau0RHQ&feature=sub

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Pixies’ Powerful Doolittle Tour Blends Surreal Sonics, Visuals

After celebrating the 20th anniversary of its pop-punk classic Doolittle with thankful fans across the pond, the legendary Pixies has returned to America to share its noisy love of surreal sonics and eye-candy visuals. That deafening blast you hear is thousands of Pixies monkeys gone to heaven.

Not that the quartet is being met only by longtime fans. After fracturing in the early ’90s upon the release of blistering full-lengths like Doolittle and Surfer Rosa, the Pixies — guitarist and shrieker Black Francis, bassist and vocalist Kim Deal, guitarist Joey Santiago and drummer David Lovering — are more popular than ever. And judging by the joyous crowd that sold out Wednesday night’s rowdy set at the Hollywood Palladium, the first stop on the U.S. leg of the Pixies’ Doolittle tour that wraps Dec. 1, die-hard fans and new adopters alike have spent time since the band’s 2004 reunion memorizing its brilliant songs and esoteric B-sides.

Doolittle was always the artiest of the band’s releases, from the biblical estrangement of the record’s lyricism to the dark and suggestive sleeve art from graphic designer Vaughan Oliver and photographer Simon Larbalestier (exhaustively collected in the Pixies’ recently released mega-box Minotaur).

That spirit was celebrated before the concert with a screening of Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali’s infamous 1928 surrealist short Un Chien Andalou (mashed at right with the Pixies’ “Debaser”). The film was met with cheers that escalated into howls once its ending bled into the groovy boogie of the B-side “Dancing the Manta Ray.”

By the time the Pixies had galloped through rarely performed B-sides like the sinister “Bailey’s Walk” and the spastic “Weird at My School,” the crowd was ready for the A-list.

Francis and crew didn’t disappoint, quickly blazing through Doolittle’s abrasive opener “Debaser,” whose Andalou-inspired surrealist lyrics about “slicing up eyeballs” matched perfectly with the banned silent-film clips of the 1920s compilation Forbidden Images, which was projected on a massive screen behind them. The synesthetic merge brought a measure of high-end live production the band never received in its earlier, less appreciated life. Spearheaded by the Pixies’ trusty lighting designer Myles Mangino and Paul Normandale, and complemented by 11 new films from Judy Jacobs, Tom Winkler, Brent Felix and Melinda Tupling, the viz added eye-candy dimension to Doolittle’s deranged sonics.

The hybrid hits kept on coming. The screen bled red to the Pixies’ jagged dirge “I Bleed” (pictured above). During the twisted love song “Hey,” key phrases came to life in Tom Winkler’s hand-drawn animations. A rousing rendition of “Monkey Gone to Heaven” mashed Oliver and Larbalestier’s photography into the song’s performance, drawing hoots and screams from an ignited audience shouting “God is 7!” at the top of its lungs.

Things turned stranger during the split-screen video accompanying the band’s hit single “Here Comes Your Man,” where four digital Pixies bobbed happily behind their real-time counterparts on the stage. The goofy reel was an odd backdrop for a song the Pixies once seriously disliked, and hardly ever played live back when they were tearing into each other during the late ’80s. But the cognitive dissonance did nothing to erase the show’s momentum.

In fact, by the time the band landed on Doolittle’s galvanized closer “Gouge Away,” the audience’s love had amplified to the breaking point. Its unrelenting applause and shouts brought the Pixies out for two encores, to play remaining Doolittle-era B-sides like the hypnotic “Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf)” and epic “Into the White,” as well as Come On Pilgrim and Surfer Rosa winners like “Isla de Encanta” and “Gigantic.”

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2009/11/pixies-anniversary-doolittle-tour-bleeds-surreal-sonics-viz/After celebrating the 20th anniversary of its pop-punk classic Doolittle with thankful fans across the pond, the legendary Pixies... more