Tuesday 16 December 2008

Artistic...

I admit I have not been nearly satisfactory in keeping my commitment to the blog.. Most of my writing in the past few weeks has been for college papers, and I am in the midst of finals, therefore not too keen on doing more writing for the blog.

I tried to come up with an acceptable compromise between avoiding more writing and making a blog post. I know, at first this seems an almost contradictory task. A possible solution was to post cool pictures, but it is now too cold to go out and actually take photos. Still, my admirable ingenuity (!) (yes, thank you) paired with the Drawing I class I took this semester, aided me out of this rather difficult situation.

Thus, this week’s post consists of a few of my art attempts this semester:

The first couple are sketches of nude models we did in class. I know my anatomy is a bit more creative than required, which certainly shows in my naked man. His thigh is somewhat delicate to support his nicely-rounded belly. But what are a few inches here and there anyway?

The third drawing is me attempting to portray myself as a drama-queen. I end up with a crooked mouth and looking a bit like a cartoon woman.

Not to give the wrong impression though, I am quite affectionate towards my drawings. Taking a drawing class my final year was a spontaneous decision accompanied by a smirk from a professor in a more “serious” discipline. Now, I see scribbling and getting covered in charcoal as a cool balance tool, so very glad i did it :)

Wednesday 10 December 2008

Technologic

What product have you used lately that is truly innovative? Hmm, tough question. I was asked this recently in a job interview and it had me pretty stumped. I mean an iPod is pretty cool, but its more innovative marketing than innovative design. Similarly I like my macbook, but at the end of the day its just a laptop. After a brief awkward silence I had my answer; last.fm and pandora.com. These two websites have changed the way I experience new music. Gone are the days of trawling the internet and magazines for new bands and artists. Now all I need to do is sit back and listen. For free! Both sites will recommend and play music for you based on your existing tastes. For instance if you like Gotan Project, then last.fm will recommend you try listening to Zero 7 or Theivery Corporation. More than just recommending the music, the site will play them back to you as a constant audio stream.

A huge community has sprung up around last.fm, and the site today has a wealth of information about artists and music. It can now even recommend live music events based on your listening preferences. The site is also open to software developers, who have written all kinds of cool applications to analyse your music taste. If you haven't used last.fm, give it a try, and add us as a friend :) http://www.last.fm/user/itsInotIhipIhop.


listening habits
http://www.diametunim.com/muse/


breakdown by artist
http://lastgraph3.aeracode.org

music taste breakdown by country
http://lastfm.net76.net/?user=itsInotIhipIhop


Daft Punk, Technologic, www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtdWHFwmd2o