Eurobad '74

Via Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing: "Welcome to EUROBAD '74, an exhibition of Europe's worst interiors of 1974."

I'm surprised I wasn't scarred for life as a child. My mother instructed the decorators with a vague 'something floral for the living room and something warm for the hall'. This was interpreted as large brown daisies in the living room and bright orange & gold wallpaper in the hall. I had blocked it from memory until now...

Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics
Via Martin G: "Technonerds go to movies strictly for entertainment, and of course, the most entertaining part comes after the movie when they can dissect, criticize, and argue the merits of every detail. However, when supposedly serious scenes totally disregard the laws of physics in blatantly obvious ways it's enough to make us retch. The motion picture industry has failed to police itself against the evils of bad physics. This page is provided as a public service in hopes of improving this deplorable matter. The minds of our children and their ability to master vectors are (shudder) at stake."

Chelfyn will love this!

Music downloads to get their own chart
"The single is also the most popular track on the iTunes site in the UK, which launched earlier this month and has sold 450,000 songs so far, compared with 500,000 CD singles over the period."

So downloads and single sales are almost neck & neck. How exciting!

New Zealand Artists are Top of the Pops

Via the NZ Herald: If you're in the UK then tune into Top of the Pops this Saturday to catch three Kiwi artists. Our favourite singer/songwriter Bic Runga, young NZ rockers Zed (visit their Zedquarters), and Ben Lummis (our very own New Zealand Idol!) will be on this week's show.

You can also catch the funky beats of our very own homeboy Scribe on UK TV: "the rapper is making sure New Zealand hip-hop is still standing the **** up overseas. His Not Many single is the sound behind a TV ad in Britain for that most dangerous of beverages . . . Ribena. The ad features comical LA cops freakin' out to his beats."

Rrrrrrockin!

F3ll0wsh1p of teh R1ng
"[later, in Bag End]
Gandalf: "Give teh ringz0r to Frodo"
Bilbo: "Sif! It r precious!"
Gandalf: "STFU NOOB!!!"
Bilbo: "ok"
Gandalf has logged on as admin
Bilbo has been kicked from The Shire "

Flipside


From Justin Sane:
"I'm making my first NZ TV appearance tomorrow on Flipside to talk about the good work that AngelCare have been doing for drug education and harm reduction at New Zealand dance parties and beyond. Flipside have gone and made a cracking article that interviews some of the Angels as well as myself and Jarra from UPFM and will be the main article on the show this Wednesday. Hopefully it comes across as positive for the scene and for the Angels as they continue to recruit people across the country. As most of you know the last Nitro we ran raised almost $2000 for the cause which paid for 17 of Auckland's Angels to have first aid training... a very good cause indeed!

So if you manage to get chance to watch it - Tomorrow - TV2 - 5PM - Flipside :)"

Flipside is a cool news programme aimed at New Zealand teens. It's interactive so you can text or email in your thoughts on news stories, and the show is also webcast daily from their site. You can catch it weekdays from 17.00 on TV2 or online at: http://flipside.nzoom.com/ I'll be setting my video for tomorrow then!

Update 1/7/04:
View the video on Flipside's website. Justin is the guy speaking at the end.

Happy Fricken birthday

As it's my birthday on the 5th July I've decided to hijack Fricken Prophecy on Friday as my birthday partee: Fricken Productions Presents: PROPHECY - 2nd July @ Galatos. It's a heaven or hell theme but as Chelfyn kindly pointed out I'll a bit too old to do the innocent angel thing. Hell for leather it is then.

Listen to an Interview with Banga Matt



I had UK DJ/Producer Banga Matt from Arktik Records in on my Twisted Radio show today. Matt's first release was in 1999 on Karim's label Do Not Bend Recordings, a track called co-produced with Karim "Let it Hit on", co-produced with him. He founded Arktik Records in May 2000 and has just set up a new label called Skectha Traxx to focus on the techno side of things.

Hear an interview with Banga Matt.mp3 [3.0 MB]

Screeches of hate


"Face-crushing guitars, head-pounding drums, bass so low it'll make you vacate your bowels, and vocals so scorching, so extreme, they can't be human. They're not. This death metal outfit with a parrot for a singer takes your head off with two stabs to the throat..."

Want to know how it really is in the music biz?

[Via Skrufff]: The Problem With Music


Skrufff is a weekly e-zine that is well worth subscribing to if you're into sex, drugs, music or politics. It makes for good Friday reading as it's an eclectic mix.

Why Microsoft should get out of DRM


Via Boing Boing: This is a great speech against Digital Rights Management systems (DRM) given to Microsoft, by Cory Doctorow from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He puts forward a convincing argument that DRM systems don't work, are bad for society, bad for business, and bad for artists.

Which is why at TMet Recordings we sign tracks non-exclusively and trust people not to fileshare. When you can buy tracks at a good price, and know that the money is going straight to the artist why would you pirate?

Kiwi Bungy Japan

It started in Vanuatu, via the Oxford University Dangerous Sports club before being popularised by New Zealand's Dr Adrenaline, AJ Hackett. Now Kiwi Bungy is spreading across the world. A group of enterprising bungy freaks have just set up 3 sites for Kiwi Bungy Japan.

Another strange Kiwi activity I can highly recommend is Zorbing. A Zorb is a large plastic ball that you are strapped into and rolled down a hill (the Dry Zorb). Or you attempt to stand up in the Zorb with a bucket of cold water while you are rolled down a hill (the Wet Zorb). It's very like being in the spin cycle of a washing machine and a lot of fun.
[N.B. Filming from inside a Dry Zorb with a hangover is not recommended.]

For NZ adrenaline junkies:
http://www.ajhackett.com
http://www.blokart.com
http://www.kiwiinmotion.co.nz
http://www.shotoverjet.co.nz
http://www.skyjump.co.nz
http://www.zorb.com
http://www.nzone.biz
http://www.4vertigo.com

Happy New Year Aotearoa
Today is Matariki , the Maori New Year.

Rave Against the Machine

"Inspiringly beautiful low budget documentary on the club scene in Bosnia during the war. All shot on miniDVCAM and edited in Final Cut Pro 3. Brilliantly paced and both touching and funny." itsallelectric.com is also a great site for young film makers.

One of the few things I regret in my life was not going to Bosnia with Desert Storm, a hardcore group of ravers, that used to put parties on at the frontline during the Bosnian war. It's hard to imagine shooting someone you were raving with the night before, and it was amazing how many soldiers had left their posts the next day.

"James describes the events of the evening: "We started playing on the move and we had thousands of people following us through the streets in two foot snow and minus ten degrees. We played one techno record with a chorus that went 'Get going to the beat of a Drum BANG!' and all the soldiers fired their AK-47's in the air 'kakakakaka' and it was such a fucking buzz it was incredible. We played the same record about ten times. At one point a policeman came up to tell us to turn the volume up , but to turn off some of our lights as we were attracting shellfire. The frontline was only ten kilometres away."

Respect.

Yuuuummmmmmmmmmmmm.....
The First Multi-Room Digital Music System. Salsa in the Kitchen, Funk in the bathroom, punk in the playroom.

Oh my God! There's an axe in my head

This site claims to be the The Web's #1 Axe In My Head Page with 102 TRANSLATIONS NOW AVAILABLE.

Some people have too much time on their hands. Here is the 1st known mention of Axe in my head from 1994. Ah...vintage internet. Note the name of the newsgroup.

Kiwi Design For the Masses

Thanks to For the Masses for helping spread the word about TMet's groovy tunes. It's a great site "Promoting the very best in New Zealand Design to the world. Updated daily by designers & web developers from across the country."

Speed Mating


Bookies are offering odds that newlywed J-Lo will be divorced within a year. It doesn't bode well for a girl whose last divorce lasted longer than her last marriage. Maybe it's a new concept in Speed Dating...Speed Mating.

Cand-i Ravers
"'Flash-mobbers' do the rush-hour waltz as new craze of mobile clubbing moves into Britain. "I quite like the idea of dancing outside Burger King," said Ben Cummins, as he prepared to listen to a tape of Bulgarian wedding music."

Memes. Don't you just love em?

Bush/Zombie Reagan - The Republican dream


"Difficult times call for great leaders -- men of vision, strength and courage. Men like George W. Bush and the shambling, reanimated corpse of Ronald Reagan. Welcome to the official Web site of Bush/Zombie Reagan 2004, Inc., home of the new Republican presidential ticket! "

Zombiecurious
Having recently watched Shaun of the Dead I've been wondering a few things. Like if zombies take over, how long till the electricity fails?

A&R Friday
What a fabulous Friday. A late and leisurely breakfast followed by the news that Lync has sold his first track to San Francisco. I have an uncanny feeling that Lync's Little Red Car is going to be a hit. Not a bad start for the debut release from a young Kiwi 8 year old. (Want to hear it?).

I had a lot of fun on our radio show this week. We played some new tracks fresh in from Si-Fi, Baxter's newest hard dance stomper (to be named), and some hard dance from Dark Desire a young UK producer that Justin Sane found on the net. Then the lovely Javed Haider (the New Zealand winner of last year's Heineken Found at Thirst competition) brought in his new house track. Chelfyn and I were stoked to get so many great tracks in one day, and our weekly playlist is now around the 80% Kiwi music mark!



It's such a buzz giving new tracks their very first airplay, and being able to find out what listeners think through MSN. [Use studio@twisted.co.nz to add the Twisted Studio to your MSN list]. The TMet Drive beaming live from Auckland to Australia and beyond! I had a good chat with Fury in Melbourne, who sent me pictures of him raving with Lee Haslam and inadvertantly flashed my tits at the world when I changed my top. It was only when I was down to my bra that I remembered the webcam...

After handing over to Chaos & Mayhem we headed up K'Rd to the Covert Theatre to catch the Barbie is Dead 'Femprov' show. The Covert is New Zealand's only live comedy theatre and well worth supporting. It's intimate and relaxed with a strange bar bell ritual by a man in a bowler hat. Barbie is Dead is guffaw guaranteed. My favourite storyline (using a Canadian style of montage improv) was the prostitue with Tourettes. The show runs Thursday - Saturday from 8 p.m. until the 26th June so catch it if you can!


[Read the Herald review].

We popped back into the Twisted studios on the way back to say hello to Ali Storm, a young British DJ who's been in Auckland 6 months. Then it was home for dinner and an old movie, curled up in front of a roaring fire with Chelfyn and the kits. It doesn't get much better than that.

LIVE Dub & Downbeat, Saturday 12th June from 12 - 2.00 p.m.


If you're stuck for anything to do tomorrow lunchtime then why not rock on down to Aotea Square? Between 12.00 & 2.00 p.m. you can catch some live Dub & Downbeat with button pushing, knob twisting madness from the laptop blended with dubbed out sax, vocals and percussion. This live action is brought to you from andy qroniq, Maya, and A-Spark (one of this year's Heinekin Thirst finalists). Why not check them out and have a browse thru the markets while you're there!!

Shaun of the Dead


If you loved Spaced and Black Books you will love Shaun of the Dead described as: "A romantic comedy. With zombies." The opening scene of Londonders sleepwalking their way through life is more chilling than the zombie scenes. There's plenty of laugh out loud moments (the record box scene), great dialogue and pop culture references, to make this a classic. The funniest film I've seen in ages.

Listen to HOT Kiwi music!


And don't forget to tell your friends about TMet Recordings' new releases. Pluggity pluggity plug. Come on - think of the starving musos :)

Riff Raff in Hamilton


Hamilton City Council, who came up with the immortal tag line for their city 'Much more than you'd expect' are erecting a statue of Rocky Horror show character Riff Raff to honour Richard O'Brien, the former Hamilton boy who created the iconic 1970s stage and screen trannyfest. Now they can change the tagline to 'Hamilton - even more than you'd expect!'

Word for the Week: Furkid

It may sound like a Bristolian describing their weekend, but a Furkid is the new name for a pet treated as though it were one's child. Other popular words at Wordspy include:

Retrosexual (ret.roh.SEK.shoo.ul) n. A man with an undeveloped aesthetic sense who spends as little time and money as possible on his appearance and lifestyle. Also: retro-sexual.

Heteroflexible (het.ur.oh.FLEKS.uh.bul) n. A heterosexual person who is open to relationships with people of the same sex. —adj. Also: hetero-flexible, heteroflex. —heteroflexibility n.

Mucus Trooper (MYOO.kus troo.pur) n. An employee with a cold or the flu who insists on showing up for work.—mucus troop v.

No more Muffins please!

It had to happen. After years of bare Britney midriffs the 'sexy librarian' look is becoming de rigeur: More girls push for modest fashion. So we may be about to see the end of the 'Muffin' - a lovely term for the wodge of fat that rises over the waistband of hipsters worn a size too small.

Shrek 2

Thumbs up to Andrew Adamson the Kiwi director of Shrek 2. He's now working on the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe which starts filming up the road in Westiewood, around July. Shrek 2 had the best action sequences I've seen in a while and Puss in Boots with the police planted catnip was sublime. One thing that kept distracting me was Jennifer Saunders' Fairy Godmother. I kept expecting her to scream "more Bolly dahling!" at any time.

Update: Director Andrew Adamson on Shrek 2 and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Next summer we will mostly be wearing black...

...if it's from dark Dunedin design house NOM D. I've just got back from their Summer 2005 collection preview at 4:20. The mini Moet freebies went down a treat, but at $35 a pop we followed with a glass of good old Kiwi Chardonnay. It was easy to spot the striking Don't Shoot pieces from their current collection, and Bridget Saunders snapping away for the Sunday Star Times 'About Town' pages.

Nom D's video projected collection stayed with a backbone of black, shot through with electric blue, aqua, silver and grey. The clothes were as cleverly put together as ever, and I love being able to wear the same piece a number of different ways. They were eminantly wearable, some extremely covetable, though as a child of the 80s I'll never wear stonewash again.