Robot Action Boy

according to this article there’s a slight possibility that nick cave will play at a rock festival here in taiwan later this summer. the cynic in me thinks it more likely that someone horribly boring like the white stripes will come instead(who apparently are also under consideration). but i’m still keeping my fingers crossed.

a few days ago i got the special edition of the new twink album toy box in the mail. the special edition comes in a small cardboard box, with a small comic book, and instead of a single cd there are three individual small cds in their own separate cardboard sleeves. i really loved the first twink release, but this one may even be better. twink is working with quite a few different people on this release among them playsoundz who have an excellent series of lo-fi electronic releases that i highly reccomend. my favourite track on the new twink release is not enough crayons for everyone from the welcome to the jingle disc. this disc also contains a metallica cover, which is interesting but not a favourite of mine.

the one drawback for this release was that the postage was 6 bucks to taiwan, when the cost of sending was a little over 3 bucks. i somehow doubt the envelope and bubblewrap really added up to 3 bucks. but most companies tend to overcharge for postage independant or not.

made to love magic. a new album of rarities and outtakes by nick drake. for some reason you have to sign up to be able to listen to sound samples. i’m suspicious of things like this as it seems like it’s just an excuse to send you a bunch of spam. regardless, i’m pretty psyched about this new album. discovering nick drake was like discovering music that i always wanted to hear, but didn’t know existed. via scrubbles.

what happens when people share their personal photos through peer to peer networks? well, you get sites like this of course. why people would want to share some of these photos is beyond me, but at least we get to be amused or repulsed depending on the photo. via in4mador.

the art of keren richter. i like the whimsical nature of her work. it makes me think of illustrations in children’s books. interesting to take a look at some of her notebook sketches to see how her style has developed from a slightly rougher drawing style into the smoother lines of her silkscreen and painting work. via beware of pug.

yesterday i went to moca to see the new show there digital sublime(more on the show can be found here).

my favourite piece in the show was noisedrome by wang fu jui. a video and sound installation(a still is pictured above). the work made me think of stan brakhage, and is the kind of abstract work that i can sit in front of for hours.

another piece by atsuhiro ito involved flashing flourescent lights. i closed my eyes as they flashed to see if it would have any effect like brion gysin’s dream machine. but it didn’t seem to really. it reminded me of a show i’d gone to in seattle years ago where the audience wore special glasses that flashed light onto your closed eyelids to create images along with the music played. this piece didn’t seem to be designed for that purpose, but it was worth a shot.

in the screening room they were showing short films. one was an animated version of a dali painting, another showed people attending various art events. one had a giant screen where people would hold a sort of joystick that looked something like an oversized ice cream cone, and by carrying it around could then change the image on the screen(move it closer, invert it, alter it’s texture).

one thing i like about moca is that usually there aren’t groups of screaming kids on field trips(unlike the fine arts museum), but that doesn’t mean the audience here is that much better. eventhough the tickets state no cell phones and not to talk loudly, some of the patrons i saw in attendance flat out felt like this didn’t apply to them.

the illustrated book of sexual records. basically a look at the strange and wonderful world of sex throughout the ages. including sexual boasts found in the bible as well as in islam. it’s a shame there aren’t more books discussing the rampant sex in the bible. via in4mador.

the art of kenjione tanigami. ths site is all in japanese, but if you click around you can find some fascinating work.

sunday is for splurging. today i picked up:

• the skywalk is gone dvd
  

• venus 69 – valvola & dj spectra
  

• lulu double cd
  

• goodbye dragon inn/the missing dvd
  

• sex and the city season 5 dvd

season 5 of sex and the city hasn’t even aired here yet*, but the dvd is already out. this show is really popular here, and so the dvds are unfortunately rather pricey.

the other dvds i bought were bundled together for one price. goodbye dragon inn & the missing is a double set by taiwanese director tsai ming-liang. dragon inn played at the last golden horse film festival, but i’ve not heard of the missing before so i’m not sure what it is. the packaging on this is pretty nice as the slip case the discs come in is one of those pictures that changes depending on how you look at it(like those old jesus postcards). so sometimes it shows the cover of the missing other times the cover for goodbye dragon inn. bundled together with this was yet another tsai ming-liang film the skywalk is gone. i think this is the sequel to his film what time is it there? which i have yet to see. all these dvds have english subtitles which is a good thing. a lot of times taiwanese films released in taiwan will have no english subs.

valvola & dj spectra are on the shado records label. this time out they are working with a lot of different bands, among them the japanese band plus-tech squeeze box. one track has a sample of someone speaking mandarin too.

lulu is an old taiwanese singer. i’ve heard that some of her stuff is discoy sounding, but so far i haven’t heard anything disco sounding on this comp.

while picking up these things, i noticed that superfriends has been released on dvd in taiwan. now is this something i really need or something that i’d just like to see because of nostalgia?

to round off my shopping spree, i stopped by a stationary shop on the way home to pick up some classic cat stuff for my friend regina in germany, who is crazy for that kind of stuff.

*upon closer inspection, i realize this season has aired here(though the dvd is uncensored unlike when they aired the show). for some reason i was thinking this was the final season of the show, but alas it is not.

apparently, the bus drivers up in nei hu have more on their minds than taking passengers from point a to point b…