Big record companies are famous for being greedy and short-sighted, and a great example of this is what happened when online music videos came around. At first, the artists went after them as a means of getting their music in front of the public, generating buzz and fans; free advertising in an online world. The record companies let them do it, and thousands of fans would embed their favorite songs on their pages, exposing still more people to the music. But the record companies always want to be paid for things other people create and distribute, so the lawyers worked out a way to make YouTube pay on a per-play basis for the music. Since it worked out that YouTube only has to pay when the music is streamed on YouTube itself, most record companies refused to allow any music they had under contract to be embedded. This shut the bands out of gaining thousands of new fans by having their songs on all kind of pages, while the record companies themselves aren’t making any noticeable amount of money from the streams (assuming they aren’t just cooking the books to avoid paying the bands their royalties); a loose/loose situation. But after hammering on their record company for weeks, Chicago’s alt rockers OK GO got them to allow this amazing video to be embedded, and I predict it is going to bring them thousands of new fans, mostly mad scientists in training who love rock! For the background on this one, visit DVice.
There is a point at which you have to acknowledge that the machines have a better sense of rhythm than you do… or perhaps just acknowledge our Salty Robot Overlords. The first band is more a Steampunk-inspired group than actual robots, of course…
Just a few fun videos, based on modifying observable reality in non-standard ways. The key for both of these is only partly to use the latest evolution in communications and data processing to achieve the desired result. Having the latest tech is good, but what is critical is using that tech in ways never before tried to go for desired results nobody else thought of before. The embarrassing part is how obvious it all looks once you finally see it in action; why didn’t any of us think of that before?
The first is the MIT FlyFire Project, which lives at the Senseable City Lab site. Now that sensors of all types, from static units like traffic cams and mobile units like cell phones are ubiquitous, privacy is right out the window; but new ways of gathering, displaying, and using data are in our hands. The helicopter-optics project itself combines the emergent behavior of the swarm of drones interacting with the environment with the top-down control imposed by the computer orchestrating the display patterns. Learning to program this combination will be challenging but most worthwhile.
The second video is a glimpse at how David Byrne approaches ways to share an appreciation of music. In this instance, by converting an entire building into a musical instrument, and allowing interested parties to sit at the keyboard and play the building. The subtle layer below that one is the fact that every child or adult who sits at a control panel and wrings music (no mater how pitiful) out of a multi-story structure will never again think of it as a box they might be inside of, or as part of the background. From then on, every building they see will become an instrument they might play, which means an interconnected whole that can be manipulated to achieve a desired result. The more people that have that epiphany, the more minds there are working to build our future; and that is a GOOD thing, trust me on this.
The most important Doctor Who Con of the season has to be Gallifrey One: Blackjack 21 in Los Angeles. Guests include Sarah Sutton, Katey Manning, Georgia Moffett, Debora Watling, Frazier Hines, John Levene, and many, many more.
There are two good general sci-Fi cons in the US this weekend; on the left coast is Condor XVII in San Diego, with Writer GoH CJ Cherryh. The theme is Tripping the Past Fantastic in all its Steampunk glory, with a Mad Science Faire and nominations open for the Mad Scientists Hall of Fame. Out of those already nominated, I have to vote for Nichola Tesla for the Real and for the Fictional, it’s a toss-up between Dr. Emmett Brown and Professor Albert Wickwire (in both cases because of the skill and sheer joy the actors brought to the parts). There are also writers workshops, dealers rooms, anime rooms, the Hogwarts Educational Retreat, lots of live music including the Steam Powered Giraffe, and ever so much more.
Over on the write coast, SheVaCon in Roanoke, VA, has guests covering the spectrum of authors (including Kevin J. and Rebeca M. Anderson), artists, and actors. All aspects of Fandom seem to be covered in the Events section, with Anime Rooms, TV/Movie Viewing Rooms, Game Rooms, Computer Rooms, Fan Groups (a LOT of them), multiple competitive Cosplay events as well as non-competitive, and everything else you would expect. Whichever coast you are on, quality general Sci-Fi Fun is to be had!
If you are down under, Continuum 6: Future Tense looks to be the venue of choice this weekend. The premise for the event is that 2010 was used in so many books, movies, etc. to mean simply The Future, that now that it is here we should celebrate! Their home page describes it as Killer robots are beating down the door while Mutant Hordes gather… your Emotional Inhibitor is on the fritz and your Computer is calling you “Dave”, and again this event has everything a good general Con should have, plus something special. This is the event where they hand out the Chronos Awards, which I find somewhat disturbing. I am not disturbed by the thought of the award, but by the fact that I know none of the nominees in a contest that is pulling together the best authors and stories from an entire subcontinent. Looks like I have some serious reading to do!
Meanwhile the Japanese Art Festival comes alive at the Richmond Adult Community College in Richmond, UK. This is a Non-traditional anime-related event, if you are interested in the subject matter, I urge you not to miss this one; it is a monster!
This one was too much fun, so I had to include it here. The Embed-permitted version is courtesy of Veoh: this is Kirsten Dunst doing a remake of the classic Vapors song Turning Japanese. This one was even filmed in Akihabara! Strangely enough, this video was put together as part of a museum exhibit in London. For some reason the video seems to be blocked on the jstrider.net server, but it plays just fine on JStrider.Info, or you can watch it on YouTube if you are so inclined.
Watch Kirsten Dunst “Turning Japanese” in Music | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
Some things are too funny to avoid. One of those things is the tremendous body of work created by Mitch Ben and the Bonzo Dog Band. This was the place where comedy and music slammed face-first into each other, and each grew a bit in the process. So I thought i should post a few songs here, for those who didn’t know about them. But just before we go there, the best bit of street theater ever; Antwerp is singing scales from The Sound Of Music, and so is Wellington! If your town hasn’t gone there yet, you could still get lucky.