Activitystory: blog— travel posts, favorite albums in 2009; sounds— forfora, duotones; projects— lps, wire, self portraits, kind of, films watched in 2009; photos— favorites, prague, iceland, feed; runs, maps (nyc!), & records; links; songs; tweets; books; facebook; everything— archive, feed; get at me.

This sounds terrible

The Beer-Every-Mile SF Half Marathon: 13 Beers in 13 Miles « Exercising While Intoxicated.

via Mefi.

#boxsetofmylife

Rosetta’s Pictures of 21 Lutetia, an asteroid discovered in 1852

Lutetia — and Saturn!! – The Planetary Society Blog | The Planetary Society. More here.

via MeFi.

Un-balanced “Granny Knot”

Ian’s Shoelace Site – Slipping Shoelace Knots, Crooked Bows.

It’s going to take me a while to process this, but I think it may help me finally tie my shoes properly.

via Anti-mega.

YouTube – DieHard Battery vs. Gary Numan

YouTube – DieHard Battery vs. Gary Numan.

Where do the little men sleep?

Der Mensch als Industriepalast from Henning Lederer on Vimeo.

After Fritz Kahn, via MeFi.

Dear Whoever Wrote that Hokum about Art

A nice response to the “Art or Hokum?” editorial that ran in the Post-Standard on the eve of Yoko Ono’s initial show at the Everson. The tone of the Post Standard piece is hilarious– the frequency of “mockingly verbatim” quotes from the museum reeks of the hackery that is now only (well, mostly) evidenced in user comments posted to the Post-Standard on stories dealing with politics or race.

Lennon, from the Hotel Syracuse.

Unsubscribe

I just unsubscribed to a blog called Minimal, which was outpacing the majority blogs I follow with a decidedly non-minimal posting frequency.

Can’t wait for this album

Kathryn Calder – “Slip Away”.

Now, watch her run:

Submitted without comment

rockthatfont.com. via mefi.

The no-excuse headlight

Bicycling Street Smarts, Chapter 8: Riding in Rain and Darkness.

Logorama

TOTALLY deserved that Oscar.

Vintage Record Jumbles

I was looking for some files on an older hard drive and I found a few of my Record Jumbles from 2005. Sound quality varies, and there is a charming amount of surface noise on these. Since I’ve been doing so many mixes in the last bunch of years all from within my computer, it’s nice to hear some spontenaety and human error. Also, totally weird record selection on most of these. Enjoy!

April 18, 2005
April 25, 2005
May 2, 2005
May 9, 2005
January 22, 2007 (Drawn completely from records found on the street in Brooklyn)

Former bass destroyed

YouTube – My Generation live in Lyon, Feb 15 2007.

In late 2006, I sold my Mexican Fender Starburst Jazz Bass to an artist in New York. He didn’t care that I didn’t have an amp for him to test it on, and told me he needed it for an art installation in Lyon about the Who. He neglected to mention that the bass would be destroyed– he must not have known that I’d have given him a discount for that.

Incidentally, the artist, Christoph Draeger, created a series of works about disasters like plane crashes. One of his works features a plane crash that happened in the early 60s about a block from my apartment, where he bought the bass from me.

FYI their mascot is an albino ice gorilla named Al.

That’s the full text of the best email I’ve ever received, which came from Richard, yesterday, regarding the Syracuse Crunch game we attended.

Memorize Now

This is backwards computing.

P Tron’s Mix for The Human Boy Max

My sister asked me to provide a soundtrack for my nephew Max’s “robot dance party” 6th birthday party. He’s a Kraftwerk fan, so I used kraftwerkiness as a theme. Some awkward edits to avoid cursing, and a few obvious crowd-pleasers for the adults, but I’ve had fun listening to it for the last few weeks.

P Tron’s Mix for The Human Boy Max

I assumed a new identity for this mix: P Tron, a robot from space. That was probably the best part.

I’m told that the party consisted of listening to these jams and disassembling machinery including a broken DVD player and an old busted credit card machine from my mom’s library. And games and robot costumes. Sounds like a good time was had by all… wish I could have joined them.

Ha!

Prtty Shtty: An Open Letter to James Cameron From Papyrus.

Goodness knows I’ve worked hard the past 26 years to make a name for myself. And it’s felt great coming to the aid of New Age spa owners, suburban party planners, and young couples looking to save money by making their own wedding invitations.

Mmmm.

YouTube – Pepperoni Pizza Sings in New TABASCOR Sauce TV Ad.

Favorite Albums of 2009

Lots of terrific albums this year– my top three were definitely:
You Will Never Know Why – Sweet Trip
Actor – St. Vincent
Moondagger – Deastro

The rest, in no particular order:
Face Control – Handsome Furs
Two Dancers – Wild Beasts
A Certain Distance – Lusine
Telekinesis – Telekinesis
Eating Us – Black Moth Super Rainbow
Leaves in the Gutter EP – Superchunk
Bat For Lashes – Two Suns
Good Evening – Nite Jewel
Landscapes – Ducktails
In Prism – Polvo
Middle Cyclone – Neko Case
Still Night, Still Light – Au Revoir Simone
My Maudlin Career – Camera Obscura
Ashes Grammar – A Sunny Day in Glasgow
Ohio (OH) – Lambchop & Live at Merge XX (best show I’ve attended in years)
Bitte Orca – Dirty Projectors
Choral – Mountains
Art Brut vs Satan – Art Brut
Further Complications – Jarvis Cocker
Post-Nothing – Japandroids

Honorable mention to Major Lazer, The Field, AC Newman, The Clientele and CFCF.

Stuff released last year that should have made my 2008 list:
Temper – Benoit Pioulard
Magic Monday – Michna
No Way Down EP – Air France
Re-arrange Us – Mates of State

What were your favorites? I may editorialize on these a bit later, but I wanted to get the list posted before new years.