2012 January: 20 tracks you've missed

From party electro to goth, from hardstyle to metal, 20 tracks that stuck in my head for too long this January. Share, rehash, remix and spread these, they are all ROCK CERTIFIED. You gotta do your own clicking and research for these, my super favourites are highlighted, the rest are for you to mine out.

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bookmarks, linkbox, 2012-02-04

Random bits of entertainment fun from all the ten corners of the world. Also known as digging back old stuff from Google Reader, Google Bookmarks and the Chrome Bookmarks. Still looking for a tool to aggregate these three into one feed.

COSPLAY:
dominated by Kotaku

GAMES:

  • RetroBlazer, a very Wolfenstein 3Dish retro style FPS based on the Quake 1 engine (as recommended by Jordan of Section9Gear and TIGSource)
  • Dune Wars, a total conversion for Civilization 4, haven't tried that out but everybody in my FB thread said it's uber amazing! (as recommended by Prezzey)
  • Nitronic Rush level 1 with no boost and no gas - Nitronic Rush is one of the best coffeebreak games of this year, mixing Tron lightcyclism with Daft Punk electro and the whole early nineties Stunts car racing with the neon aesthetics. This gameplay video will twist your mind all the way about how to play this game!
  • And finally there's a voice cast video out for Mass Effect 3! This itself is the only great news as it's far less exciting and motivating than the one done for ME2 - I knew I WANTED TO BUY THE GAME INSTANTLY after seeing that one. This version? On par with a cosmic shrug.

MOVIES/DOCUS:

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Strombo: the William Gibson interview (CBC, 2012)

Cyberpunk original, coiner of the term cyberspace, and science fiction author extraordinaire William Gibson was on the program last night. He had some fascinating things to say - even more than we could fit into the on-air version of his interview. Here's the full, uncut version: (via cbc, george stroumboulopoulos)

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planetdamage: lifesign, 2012 january

I've gone completely prehistoric hunter-gatherer on stray hours of sleep scattered under stones, bushes or cataracts. I am also called Damage Von Rock and this is just a brief lifesign to all of you whom I haven't contacted, met or eaten this year yet. My debut non-fiction book on pop culture and the future as such entitled DAMAGE REPORT is now in phase two, manuscript is finished (during the Facebook-announced EPIC WEEK OF FINISHING STUFF) and is at the publisher. (And yes, I have ideas for a second non-fiction and a fiction book as well.)

The IBS exam period is over, this is the latest book by William Gibson right there with some Bootie mashup Budapest mix CDs I've just gotten from the BP promoter and I guess I need at least two days of non-stop sleep. I sort of actually deserve that. After that it's a lot of extra work to monitor the launch of Damage Report and all the great stuff we plan to surround it with and some extra projects I still don't want to uncover.

As for something quite related: I'm looking for creative/media jobs in London. Here's my infographics references of the past 16 years. And yes, I look like twentysomething, but you gotta deal with that.

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Vakondok 2: hogyan fér el egy bolygó 4096 betűben?

Korábban már lelkesedtem két kört a Vakondok dokufilm demosceneről készített második részéről, most már itt a teljes hosszúságú, másfél órányi változat, egyelőre angol felirat nélkül. Hogyan fér bele egy bolygó 4K-ba, miért szeretjük még mindig a Szimpla monitorokkal meg kiberiádával telezsúfolt oldaltermét és hogyan festi meg az elmúlt évtizedek legizgalmasabb artszubkult művészeti törekvéseit a negyedszáz interjúalany (név szerint: Duckers, VOyager, Bery, BoyC, Xtrium, Maxuser 6000, fei, Hakon, Nagz, Unreal, Ravezed, Slyspy, Küki, Murphy, Borys, NecroPolo, Poison, Pasy, Remage, Sir Garbagetruck, Gargaj, Reptile, SP, Vincenzo, Ziona)? Így. Megnéz, örül, megvásárol. Hol? Lent a link. Sok link.

A Vakondok 2 – Demoscene – Az Algoritmusok Művészete című dokumentumfilm január 13-ától ingyenesen letölthető a film honlapjáról, és megtekinthető Youtube-on is.
A megjelenést követő első héten több mint háromezren töltötték le, vagy nézték meg online a filmet. Ezzel egy időben, a mindössze 150.000 Ft-ból készült dokumentumfilm nemzetközi vetítései is megkezdődtek. A film január 14-én debütált Tokióban, és a következő hónapokban többek között Ausztráliában, Brazíliában, az Egyesült Államokban, Kanadában és Európa szerte, összesen több mint 20 városban kerül bemutatásra. A vetítésekről további információk a www.molemanfilm.com oldalon találhatók. A film a PC World számítógépes magazin februári számának DVD mellékletén is megjelenik, ami egy linket is tartalmazni fog egy, a filmből kimaradt jelenethez.

Letöltés | Előzetes | port.hu | Hivatalos oldal

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THE INVISIBLES: occupy reality 01

(via evencolder)

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HOW TO make your infographics CV (tutorial)

(click here for high-resolution version)

You need to get the message across. Everybody does. And when the whole platform of getting it through becomes a CV, most of the time you don't go McLuhanesquely the medium is the message, you crank your references into two Europass pages (HR people won't read more than two, CEOs won't read more than one if you have the LUCK OF THE GODS) and that just doesn't cut it. Infographics CVs have been around for some time now and I've just done one. It's the very colourful pic above. What's that, what's the concept behind it and how can you make one? Answers below.
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tűrőfa

A ritka magyar posztok egyike. Dawe_ barátom googlewhackelni akarja a magyar interneteket is és valóságtól vörös szemekkel könyörög azért, hogy legyen végre egy darab hit a világban arra, hogy tűrőfa. Ha már ilyen gyorsan teljesítettem a kívánságot, melléteszem a literes kiszerelésű öklözőzsír, a kirfel, telehá, tingal és a ferál fogalmait is. Pépesítem az agyakat a böngészőablakból. Furcsa alkímia ez ma.

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bookmarks, linkbox, 2012-01-04


Rule #1: no politics on the blog. Ever.
So, Hungarian readers might remember this as one of the most iconic press photos released about the Budapest Opera house demonstrations, but I'm posting this here as a memento how the Anonymous Egregore planted itself into the riot layer of a city's subconscious. And the shot itself is amazing.

  • Portal 2 boots: By master prop builder Harrison Krix. Looks amazing but I'd need to have a few minutes jumping around in it to see whether it breaks my ankles into splinters of shrieking intelligence. (Pic above.)
  • Urban Exploring a Russian Rocket Plant: A truly amazing post with even more NUCLEAR ROCK by Lana Saltor, exploring the Energomash Plant. Great HDR overhead! (Pic below.)
  • Glow-y Scorpion Exoskeleton: And finally, a dead captainobviousy giveaway.

Thanks to the linkbox contributors: Dawe_, denemigen, Peter Gelencser.

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William Gibson: Distrust That Particular Flavor (new book in 2012)

William Gibson's new book is available for pre-order on Amazon. Release date? January 3, 2012. Surprised? Probably as much as I was. According to Amazon,

(...) Gibson has been sought out by widely varying publications for his insights into contemporary culture. (...) These essays and articles have never been collected-until now. Some have never appeared in print at all. In addition, Distrust That Particular Flavor includes journalism from small publishers, online sources, and magazines no longer in existence. This volume will be essential reading for any lover of William Gibson's novels. Distrust That Particular Flavor offers readers a privileged view into the mind of a writer whose thinking has shaped not only a generation of writers but our entire culture.

Distrust That Particular Flavor on Amazon, recommended by Kolosthemanwithoutfacebook via newyorktimes.

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2011: the top 10 most read articles on planetdamage.com

Google Analytics has finally turned into something really accessible! Which makes the December wrap-up even more easier! A brutally short overview on the top 10 posts you guys found the most interesting. Which sort of doesn't really coincide with what you could have found interesting. Anyways. Here's the list.
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CULT: 5 hard edge magazines of the alternative culture

Everybody loves selection and top n posts, so here's one for you at the end of the year about alternative culture and underground magazines you could either download freely or get very, very cheap. Treat yourself because they contain great content, we approve of them and think about them dearly. Others approve of our magazine as well and think about it dearly. But we recommend you the others just as well. Come on now, click away!
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damage: in the year 2011 (in retrospective)

2011.dmg

The compulsory closure blog post a.k.a. what happened in 2011? A whole lot of good stuff and you've read the public ones in the August diary post. Still, no word about Skyrim? And all the best music finds? (Because you don't read my monthly music rants in Mondo?) How is that even possible? Worry not. This is the time. Friends, fans, stalkers and haters - this was the year 2011!

  • Can't push this well enough: start with the August diary to sum stuff up from January till the end of July!

  • Earned the name Damage Von Rock from Zoog after assisting Angelspit during their Budapest gig and helping them through hardship and devilry! Meeting Valerie Gentile, Matt James and Amelia Arsenic was amazing and motivating - we've got a coproduction idea to show you in early 2012!
  • Which has nothing to do with my cyberpunk tourism mag The Dose (that would be your first bet which is so off the mark) - but I've made the Paris issue free to download near Xmas.
  • As for work, my debut gonzo non-fiction book manuscript is gaining more weight and form. I know I've promised to wrap it up this year BUT THIS IS A HYDRA. I'm at around 220 letter pages now (which actually means nothing, it's just to reflect a relative length to think about) and I'm really planning to finish this early January.
  • When I wasn't working on the book, I was busy writing for Mondo or doing a load of other freelance jobs like HVG's spec Extra issue on "the future" or two chapters in the Steve Jobs memorial book.
  • And one of the weirdest jobs I've done for Mondo (the J-culture magazine I've been affiliated with for years now) is testing Deus Ex: Human Revolution. In a factory plant. (Like a real cyberpunk boss, baby!)
  • Another autumn term of social & locative media, tech and future trends for finance/business studies BA students at International Business School Hungary! They might be a bit troubled and paranoid now when they look at their smartphones, but hey, noone said The Damage would make you feel safe.
  • Rocking out at my second Giger exhibition in Vienna! Although the 2011 showcase was concentrating on his movie contributions, there was a lot of earlier works - most notably connected to early influences, The Birth Machine and Li. Amazing. (And while I was at it, had to get to Aurin for Public Beta clothes. More neon bikewear!)
  • Managed to hack my brain, body and metabolism. Those of you being around me during the last months of the year, you've seen and experienced the proof. You can really recode the fabric and reach the medically improbable!
  • With the above mentioned greatness comes an equally great amount of trouble, hassle and shit, that's just how life is. I'd really love to thank my friends and everyone around me for coping with it and helping me whenever. You ROCK!


THE BEST MUSIC TO COME ACROSS IN 2011


Click here to get a dauntingly detailed playlist stat done with Last.fm Extra Stats

2011 was clearly a year of change in musical interest: out went hardstyle (although Budapest shuddered in dread when we went for zoneruns listening to Headhunterz's Hard With Style podcast) and back came deathrock/Goth/pop noir, space ambient and dark ambient/ritual music. And I managed to form a heartfelt devotion to Annie Mac's Friday night shows on BBC Radio 1. Clearly fell in love with the pop noir of The Good Natured, flirted with the likes of King Midas Sound and Shackleton, found out that the most interesting things this year were released on Tympanik Audio and most of the great music I've found I also channeled into the Razor Coated Candies video compilations.

The Good Natured - Wolves by The Good Natured

BEST NEW ALBUMS IN 2011

RANDOM STATISTICS TO MAKE YOU FEEL I TELL YOU IMPORTANT STUFF ABOUT MYSELF (BUT I DON'T)








AND FINALLY...
I'd love to send out extra flying kudos and thankyous to my faithful blog readers who've sent me ideas and links and whatnot to keep this blog alive when attention was elsewhere: Dawe_, Honeymooncroon, Jenny Quantum, Kolosthemanwithoutfacebook, Riplakoidase, Tobal and Miss Toyclouds, the DAKINI OF ROCK.

I'm wishing you all a Happy New Year and whatnot. There will be great and amazing things (all of them black and neon and having wheels!) happening in 2012. And I will be responsible for quite a lot of them.

Always,

P.S.:

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what else would they say

Hito koishi
hito mutsukashishi
aki no kure
(Chogo)

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NEUROMANCER: Cast list ideas? (Massive cyberpunk collaboration!)

With the promise of Neuromancer closest to the movie screens (and the eyes of vengeful afficionados) since its inception in 1984, we've taken the liberty of doing a little wishful Gedankenexperiment on the actors and actresses likely to find their to the Neuromancer castlist. Technoccult! Machete Girl! Access to Arasaka! Grinding.be! Quiet Earth! And more!
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occupation wall street hand gestures

(ape lad's flickr, via boingboing)

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THE DOSE: free Xmas download, vive la revolution!

Hello. This is Damage von Rock and based on where you are, this post is hammered out right around the winter solstice. And we have a present for you. Last summer we completed another issue of The Dose, a PDF mag for altculture lovers, cyberpunks, goths, industrialheads, synthpop fans, all the music lovers in electro black. Our main topic was Paris, our approach a tad more mainstream than the past issues on Tokyo, London and Budapest. And after a year of keeping it afloat on the webs of the internet for money, we now give it to you for free. Mostly because it's Xmas. I hate the word but I know everyone expects a bit of free this and free that around this time of the year. So there, take it and read it and share it. Next year brings you a new magazine. It's all I can say for now. (I still have a book to wrap up ATM.)

Merry Bukkake to you all. Because we wouldn't have it any other way.

(Mag includes interviews with Clelia Altair, Punish Yourself, Lukas Zpira, Die Puppe, Foretaste, Miss Kittin, Scan X, Dejobaan Games, Nohno/Kibuka, Blue Stahli, the RJDJ crew, Shiv-R and Black Nail Cabaret. Feature articles on French steampunk, cyberpunk movies, psytrance, Chinese underground music, etc.)

THE DOSE, issue 3 (Paris)

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NEUROMANCER: more details unveiled (games, changes, prequel)

Underground cinema movie gangsters at Quiet Earth have just, no pun intended, unearthed a CD-length TIFF Nexus panel discussion with Vincenzo Natali (writer/director of Neuromancer), Jay Firestone (producer), Francesca Accinelli (director for Canada Media Fund's English Market) and Trevor Fencott (president/CEO of Bedlam Games) about Neuromancer as a film and a game project. If you're interested in the whole discussion, head over to Quiet Earth for all the seventy-something minutes of goodness, if you're short on time, come on in to read the most important facts we've gathered.
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TRAILER: zenith: pkdickian milgram experiments and neurosurgery

In the post-apocalyptic year 2044, the population has been genetically altered to live in a constant state of happiness, but without sorrow, happiness dissipates, leaving only a feeling of never-ending paresthesia. Only pain can make people feel alive.
Jack (Peter Scanavino), a young man and former neurosurgeon, is a peddler of substances that induce pain. A stranger knocks on Jack’s door and hands him a single video tape that Jack’s long lost father, Ed Alexander Crowley (Jason Robards III), left behind. It is the first in a series of 10 tapes in which Ed has documented his life and his pursuit of what he calls the “Grand Conspiracy,” a conspiracy that quite possibly could be the answer to what happened to Jack’s world. (zeniththefilm.com, more about it via wikipedia or surla films on vimeo)

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shame and casual sex

Set in Manhattan, the film follows Brandon (Michael Fassbender), a 30-something corporate executive, as he struggles with sex addiction. He has casual encounters with women he meets on the streets, hardcore sex with prostitutes and masturbates to double-anal videos he stores on his hard drive at work.

Though the NC-17 film is rife with sex—in full-frontal detail—there is little pleasure in it. Instead, Shame captures what it’s really like to live with sex addiction: Brandon is devastatingly lonely and emotionally shut off from the world. That is, until his chartreuse sister (Carey Mulligan) comes to live with him, further complicating his life and exposing his shame. (via boingboing)

And right after this pops up an article on Psychology Today, claiming But "Shame" draws an inaccurate comparison between casual sex--an experience typically outside the context of a romantic relationship--and reckless sex. Under the right circumstances, casual sex can be deeply meaningful and more intimate than the sex in a long-term relationship. Those of us who have casual sex know that its not devoid of emotion, nor does it lead to the unhappiness Brandon suffers. (more about the charms of a casual lover at psychologytoday.com).

Share your thoughts with me on this. Almost at page 200, exhausted and bored.

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tizenkettőhullahét

Az alfahullámosok meg a matt ezoterikus feladatgyűjteménnyel varázslók azt mondják, hogy az ébredés utáni pár perc azért jóizgalmashasznos, mert akkor még más frekvencián rezeg az emberi agy, csak gondolni kell arra, amit akarsz és az megindul feléd. A kávébögre telekinetikáját viszont mindig hétfő reggel nyolckor tartották, úgyhogy arra be sem jártam, nem is megy a sith power pull. Ellenben értetlen arccal nézem a notepadet, félálomban még azt írtam bele, hogy ondóhangon beszélni meg dolgozni kell még Ódin mászóhorgán. Amúgy helló, örülök, hogy itt vagy. (Nem.)

A kéziratot decemberben lezárom, akár tetszik, akár nem, mondjuk én sosem vagyok vele megelégedve, másoktól meg kedvező visszajelzések jönnek, ez valahol így természetes. A kiadóm könyörög, hogy lastminute technikai dolgokat ne írjak bele, mert ez is olyan béta lesz, mint a kibaszott Gmail, úgyhogy próbálok EPOC braincontrollerrel írni, look ma, no hands. Utána, azt hiszem, lesz agyam arra is, hogy értelmes mondatokat írjak ide is és ne printbe irányítsam az összes szikrát. Az év, amúgy, remek volt, készülnek az összesítő posztok meg a statisztikák, harmadik-negyedik héten indul a roham. Ezt pusztán egy kávé után ittam. Érződik is. Írtam. Have a nice day, /b/tards.

(Igen, a kép még mindig Vertigo meg Transmetropolitan.)

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SCI: world's first cell race

It may not seem as exciting as a title fight in Las Vegas, but for the cell biologists participating in the World's First Cell Race there was the same thrill of victory and the agony of defeat as they placed their cells on a special petri dish racetrack.

A line of bone marrow stem cells from the National University of Singapore walked — or whatever cells do — away with the honors traveling at 5.2 microns per minute. That's 0.000204 inches per minute to you and I. (via dvice)

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2011 december 2: the last.fm milestones

Last.FM Milestones

1st track: (19 Sep 2007)
Black Sun Empire - Future Frame
1000th track: (29 Jan 2008)
Appleseed - Dive For You
2000th track: (10 Jul 2008)
Charlotte Sometimes - Ex Girlfriend Syndrome
3000th track: (19 Oct 2008)
The Birthday Massacre - I Think We're Alone Now
5000th track: (25 Dec 2009)
The Future Sound Of London - Ill Flower
6000th track: (28 Mar 2010)
Access to Arasaka - Highway
8000th track: (25 Jul 2010)
Kode9 & the Spaceape - Sine
9000th track: (21 Sep 2010)
YelworC - Lost Futile
10000th track: (21 Nov 2010)
Access to Arasaka - term\echo
11000th track: (11 Jan 2011)
LAShTAL - Prosternations's Ceremony
12000th track: (12 Mar 2011)
Mother Destruction - Hella Roots
13000th track: (07 Aug 2011)
Front Line Assembly - The Chair
14000th track: (04 Oct 2011)
Kidneythieves - Zerospace
Generated on 02 Dec 2011
Get yours here

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PORTRAIT: Korehira Watanabe, the sword maker

As one of Japan's last remaining swordsmiths, Korehira Watanabe has honed his craft for 40 years while attempting to recreate the mythical Koto sword. (more on vimeo)

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TECH: kinect 2 possibly reading lips and emotions

But Kinect 2 might be even more mind-blowing, if a new report at Eurogamer is to be believed. Eurogamer's Wesley Yin-Poole writes that whatever replaces Kinect will be so accurate that it'll be able to read your lips and facial expressions to interpret your emotional state. Higher-resolution capture and a direct connection to a beefier chipset will allow for an exponential increase in capabilities, says an unnamed source. (more via kotaku)

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