Litwack.org

Acquisitions tomorrow

geoffrey — Fri, 16 May 2008 21:38:22 +0000

Hey, should I buy a house in Queens?
Awesome Fallout 3 concept art, via BoingBoing Gadgets. I’ve posted about Fallout before - it’s one of my most anticipated PS3 titles - but now there’s this whole steampunk thread which seems to be growing in popularity since 1974 or whenever The Difference Engine came out (okay, 1990). My take: steampunk is total reactionary bullshit. But Fallout is still going to be rad.
I’m totally buying one of these utilikeys.
Poem: Sweeney among the Nightingales.
Song: Sebastien Tellier, Look. We talked about Eurovision already. This is a solid album. I think there’s an Air connection?

Go get married if you’ve been waiting, right?

geoffrey — Fri, 16 May 2008 07:33:28 +0000

Unaired 30 Rock pilot with Rachel Dratch as Jenna, torrent. I just love television so much.
Insane auction results from Sotheby’s - Takashi Murakami’s My Lonesome Cowboy sold for FIFTEEN POINT ONE MILLION DOLLARS. It’s part of an EDITION! What the fuck, anonymous bidder?!
Song: John Otway & The Wild Will Barrett, Really Free. Kind of like a Buzzcocks song sung by an older Sid from Skins with a little noodle-y wah-wah-wah tossed in.
Destroy the binary

Custom

geoffrey — Thu, 15 May 2008 08:50:42 +0000

Andy Baio: Whitburn Pop Project analysis part 1: awesome
Sic Transit Gloria Laptopi: Ivan Krstić on the end days of the One Laptop Per Child project and an appeal for the creation of an Open Learning Foundation.
Boullée in North Dakota: Pruned on an American pyramid.
Professional artists interpret kids’ drawings (thanks George!)
Song: Studio, No Comply, the Yearbook 1 version.

Not much

geoffrey — Wed, 14 May 2008 05:04:05 +0000

Amazing reconceptualization of the US dollar and other currencies. Maybe a little bit unfair - does the world really only see us launching missiles and burning crosses? But striking.
Best news story evs: “They told the suspicious working girls they were people of restricted growth working with a traveling circus, and as State law does not allow those with disabilities to be discriminated against they had no right to refuse them.”
Chip Kidd is a big comic book nerd
Song: Plastic Bertrand, Ca Plane Pour Moi - love it!! Wooo eee wooo oooo

Quickly

geoffrey — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:14:40 +0000

Pentagram on the interactive exhibitions they created for the Detroit Institute of Arts.
FontStruct - make fonts online - looks interesting! via Kottke
Crazy building cover - is that Beverly Hills??
Josh Kopelman on Lifecycle Messaging - dovetails with the Wired article on SuperMemo.
Song of the day: Robyn, Who’s That Girl. Great pop single. She’s backed by The Knife!

It’s already morning

geoffrey — Sun, 11 May 2008 05:03:35 +0000

Totally fun story of the week: an interview with the staff of Yujin’s planning department. Yujin is a Japanese company that makes toys in little plastic bubbles you get out of vending machines (in Japan).
Song of the day: Daliah Lavi, Vielleicht schon Morgen, the source vocal for Jürgen Paape’s So Weit Wie Noch Nie, which you know from Erlend Oye’s deathless DJ Kicks volume. (Sendspace link via ILM)
Amazing video from 1997 of Kaws putting up the bus shelter pieces that made him famous - he replaced the MTA locks with his own! (via SlamXhype)

Finally finished my polish, with mah partner

geoffrey — Fri, 09 May 2008 04:28:24 +0000

Slow internet news day plus I’m running on not much sleep and shitty Chinese food. Emynd’s “Rock Creek Park” remix is keeping me going, however - COP THAT BOUNCE
Speaking of music, crazy sampling potential in tonight’s Grey’s Anatomy. I’m going to sample the shit out of that episode. (You don’t like my lifestyle, fuck you)
Movies: War, Inc…I don’t know, man. Either too much Brazil or not nearly enough. Mark Leyner co-wrote, interestingly.
Video games: I still don’t have GTA4 - tomorrow, tomorrow - but is it sad that I know the most open, immersive environment ever created is only going to be a warm-up for the time commitment I’m going to make to Etrian Odyssey II? Etrian Odyssey 1 was like…learning a real-world trade. Like instead of playing that game, I could have acquired the entire skill set of an apprentice lithographer or shoemaker or something. It was totally worth it, no regrets.
Dream kitchen:

“Alis, can you pass me that amphora of water?”

Quiet day

geoffrey — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:41:32 +0000

Words cannot express how much I’m looking forward to the Mother 3 translation

maybe a screenshot will do it

She’s Got Claws

geoffrey — Wed, 07 May 2008 01:03:18 +0000

As I write this, Obama has North Carolina and Indiana is still up for grabs. Dude, NOVEMBER. NOVEMBER.
Olinda update: How the design evolved
You know you’re in the nerdy part of town when…
If you’re looking for a free online eBay sniping tool, I hear Blazing Bid is solid. The founder frequents a message board I read. Ciao bene, eSnipe!
Song of the day: The Monks (Nice Legs, Shame About Her Face) & John Ford, I Can Do Anything You Like, a superficially racist…disco…dub…fiesta. If only all novelty songs were so bugged out. If you are very hip you may have previously downloaded this from Dream Chimney.

Bad luck

geoffrey — Mon, 05 May 2008 20:58:27 +0000

Architecture: Inside The World’s First Billion-Dollar Home. Actually $2bn. I sort of like the exterior - well, I like that it’s not some Romanesque monstrosity one logarithm too large - but the interior looks like a midrange hotel, and that’s because it was built by “Perkins + Will and Hirsch Bedner Associates, the designers behind the Mandarin Oriental.” The owner is Mukesh Ambani, whose net worth is ~$43bn, which means this residence is around 4.5% of his fortune. In that light he almost seems house-poor. (Link via Kottke.)
Infographics: Rad NYT biological cell chart of an average American’s spending, with hotspots for increase in costs over the past year, lead by fuel obvs.
Television: So are you watching The Office? Did you see the last one, with Dwight’s org chart? This scene:

NBC posted a PDF of the actual chart. It’s kind of priceless. Your viral marketing is working, NBC!
Song of the day: Del Shannon, Hey Little Girl. Kind of creepy, right? It has the same general tone as Runaway, but there’s something sinister about it. “I’ll replace each broken part that’s gone.”
LATE BREAKING: NEW NIN ALBUM “THE SLIP” OUT TODAY, and FREE!

Never not blogging

geoffrey — Sun, 04 May 2008 18:08:32 +0000

Games: Snatcher Pilot DS: The Snatcher demo disc ported to Nintendo DS - quite an achievement. Snatcher’s an old cyberpunk game by Hideo Kojima of Metal Gear Solid. You’re going to need a NintendoDS flash card to play. Via Insert Credit.
Jules Guerin: The Chateaux of Touraine: Four pages with images from this incredible 1906 book of illustrations: one, two, three, four. Via the Comics Journal’s Journalista blog.
Have you ever entered into an agreement without a contract? Song of the day: Method Man and Mary J. Blige, You’re All I Need To Get By (You Don’t Need A Ring To Be My Wife)
Journal-Inc: Grocery bag alternatives. Boy, I like the Porter one.
Late update: NEW DARK KNIGHT TRAILER!!

I should be polishing

geoffrey — Sat, 03 May 2008 18:13:20 +0000

Schulze & Webb: Olinda. A “prototype digital radio that has your social network built in, showing you the stations your friends are listening to.” Made for the BBC. The design language is sort of Kindle-y, which Philippe Starck doesn’t like but I do. I like these objects that look like props from 1980s telecom-produced videos about the future. UPDATE: the HTC Diamond shows off a Reiser + Umemoto-esque intensive/contextual mesh.
NYT: Suiting Up Iron Man [link has autoplay audio] Aaron McBride of ILM narrates a slideshow that shows how this

was done.
The World’s Hardest Game isn’t that hard. Much easier than I Wanna Be The Guy. Harder than You Have To Burn The Rope.
Song of the day: The Tony Rich Project - Nobody Knows Boyz II Men were on tour and in the studio in 1996, making room for The Tony Rich Project to come in at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. This is an important, personal song for me, as I know it is for other members of my generation.