Category: The Dork Report

Wow. Renaissance looks amazing. I have a friend who will lose his mind when we sees this.

Metallica (one of the last holdouts, following Madonna) finally puts itself up on iTunes (link no longer online).

Thousand-year-old medieval book of psalms (no longer online: cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/07/25/ireland.psalms.ap) discovered in an Irish bog, with this eerie twist:

“The book was found open to a page describing, in Latin script, Psalm 83, in which God hears complaints of other nations’ attempts to wipe out the name of Israel.”

medieval book of psalms

The sky is falling in the movie biz: Disney lays off 600 and Warner Bros. 400.

A panel of “experts” pick the 50 Films to See Before You Die (no longer online) for Film4, coincidentally what Film4 has been able to license for broadcast. (guest submission from Andrea)

What are those crazy IconFactory kids up to? Day 1: read the riot act by the WC3. Day 2: installing a port-a-potty. Day 3: waving goodbye to archaic HTML and, um, something to do with Optimus Prime? I smell a redesign, at least…

After albums ranging from the critically acclaimed to the insanely popular, Moby’s latest, Hotel, was dull, dull, dull. But turns out the Little Idiot (no longer online: thelittleidiot.com) still has some fire in him yet, judging by his blog (the poor boy should take his iBook to the Soho Apple Store to get his SHIFT key fixed):

one of the big differences between liberal disdain for conservatives and conservative disdain for liberals is that liberal disdain for conservatives tends to be issue oriented and conservative disdain for liberals tends to be jingoistic. when liberals complain about conservatives it’s usually focussed on things that conservatives have done while in power. when conservatives complain about liberals it’s usually (based on listening to rush limbaugh and bill o’reilly, etc) focussed on jingoistic slogans (‘they hate life’, ‘they love saddam hussein’, etc) that have nothing to do with any of the serious issues with which we’re confronted.”

Moby

Wonderfully cheesy Snakes on a Plane Flash banners (no longer online: comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=15662).

Famous logos rockin’ it Web 2.0 style. Gradients galore… “BoeingBoeing”… tee-hee! (spotted on Daring Fireball)

Daring Fireball interviews an exclusive insider source on Zune (no longer online: comingzune.com), Microsoft’s iPod/iTunes clone/killer.

Cut the cord with Apple’s new wireless Mightly Mouse (no longer online: apple.com/mightymouse).

Monopoly goes plastic, baby. I guess product placement and cross-brand synergy are also “moving with the times.” (guest submission from Dave)

Details on the Lost Comic-Con panel, basically one giant surreal tease, crashed by a fictional character (no longer online: rachelblake.com). (guest submission from Not-a-Clone Andrea)

It’s the 20th Anniversary of Real World Records:

• Big Blue Ball, a near-mythical Peter Gabriel album in the works since 1992, is finally nearing completion.
• Attention DJs (or at least folks who like to play with GarageBand): remix “Shock the Monkey” and win a… um, some electronic thingie. (no longer online: realworldremixed.com)
• Peter writes about the label and the studio in The Independent:”The first release on Real World was Passion – the soundtrack for the film The Last Temptation of Christ. It was also the first time I had recorded with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and perhaps the most extraordinary sessions to this day were when we were in the attic studio, which had a raised balcony at the back. The Indian violinist L Shankar stood up on the balcony and Nusrat was standing just behind the desk on the main floor. I think everyone had hairs standing on the backs of their necks as the music started. Both of them took the melody and made it their own. It was like tennis when you think the rally can’t get any better but each player raises their game and it just goes up and up. Amazingly emotional: it was India and Pakistan working together for a film about Christ”
• At the time of Live 8, Peter Gabriel righly pointed out no one had asked hardly any non-western musicians to participate. Live 8 at Eden: Africa Calling, a new live album culled from the Live 8 event put together by Gabriel and Youssou N’Dour.

Hopefully the The Dork Report isn’t in danger of becoming The Hoff Report, but… The Hoff on Broadway! (guest submission from The Halk) (no longer online: celebrityweek.com/news/show_news.asp?id=712)

More wild Apple speculation: eBooks alongside a full-screen iPod and movie downloads? (spotted on MacRumors)

More details on K-9 and Sarah Jane Smith‘s return to TV, with pictures! (spotted on Outpost Gallifrey)

Kottke highlights an Independent cover graphic that briliantly illustrates international reaction to the war.

Nutjob UN Ambassador John Bolton performs some pretty brutal calculus on the relative worth of Lebanese vs. Israeli citizens’ lives. What a bastard.

Everything about Rhino Records’ new Digital Store seems great: out-of-print albums that would otherwise be unavailable, a huge catalog of music videos, and hand-picked discounted mini-compilations. But they commit some of the biggest music sins of digital music sales (some of which are admittedly just the pet peeves of a music snob):

• alphabetizing solo artists by their first names, and any band whose name begins with “The” under “T”
• supports only the extremely unpopular Windows Media DRM, excluding Linux, Macs, iPods, etc.
• no reviews, credits, liner notes, or even original release dates

The Electronic Frontier Foundation provides new FAQs (Frequently Awkward Questions) for the entertainment industry. (spotted on BigO)

The IconFactory posted a cryptic message on their homepage Friday… what could they be up to?

An astonishing case of a feral child recovered in Ukraine (no longer online: telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2006/07/17/ftdog17.xml) is the ultimate test of the nature vs. nurture issue: (spotted on Boing Boing): “Experts agree that unless a child learns to speak by the age of five, the brain misses its window of opportunity to acquire language, a defining characteristic of being human.”

The most craptacular lyrics (no longer online: thephoenix.com/article_ektid14634.aspx) of all time, with a strong showing by 70s prog groups on page 2. Nice! (guest submission from Andrea. A-N-D-R-E-A! Ding ding dang ding ding ding don ding don dang!)

Wikipedia is far broader than I had imagined… and I had imagined it pretty broad. There are whole entries for bad prog rock (no longer online) albums (hi, Tales From Topographic Oceans!) and even particular songs, including Genesis’ “Supper’s Ready.”

New Line Cinema partners with Zenescope Entertainment to create comic books based on Final Destination (no longer online: zenescope.com/bookpages/final01.htm) and Se7en (no longer online: zenescope.com/images/bookart/se7engluttony.jpg). Watch the Se7en comic book trailer (no longer online: zenescope.com/7trailer.wmv), with motion graphics type set in… dear god… Arial. (spotted on Comic Book Resources)

McFarlane reveals the Lost action figures. The Shannon figure is surprising and yet, not surprising at all.

J.J. Abrams, creator of my crack (no longer online: lost-tv.com), cashes in (no longer online: eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,19513,00.html).

This will not be interesting to anybody who’s never heard of Grant Morrison, but whoa, this is a crazy weird pairing if I ever heard of one. (no longer online: comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=7900)

“If you use that font again, I swear I will fucking snap.” (spotted on Design Observer)

Why I’m a Mac User, reason no. 3,727. (spotted on Pogue’s Posts)

Hey Onion, say it ain’t so! (guest submission from Free Agent Andrea)

Our love is like a katamari. Except for the days when your distant & disapproving father/king rains hellfire down on you for failing him. (guest submission from Dave)

Speaking of, hey, there’s a new one for PSP, Me & My Katamari!

The Observer picks the 50 Most Influential Albums. Mind, “influential” is not necessarily the same as “best,” or even “most successful.” It’s not surprising The Beatles are represented by Sgt. Pepper’s, Pink Floyd by Dark Side of the Moon, and Miles Davis by Kind of Blue. However, the music snob in me wants to argue with Radiohead’s The Bends (certainly good, but isn’t OK Computer practically sublime?), Massive Attack’s Blue Lines (dated to my ears, while their subsequent Protection was a quantum leap and truly defined the trip-hop genre), and Talking Head’s Fear of Music (surely eclipsed by Remain in Light, one of the most adventurous albums ever made by a rock/pop band). Also, I feel compelled to point out that although they are utterly and completely correct for identifying Eno’s Discreet Music for its massive influence (another album that defined a genre), it’s wrong to say it influenced Bowie’s Low and Heroes; Eno co-wrote and co-produced those albums! (guest submission from Andrea)

Planning on going before the camera? Pre-censor yourself with Ironic Sans pre-pixelated t-shirts (no longer online: cafepress.com/ironicsans).

Anonymous no more: CNN profiles the Google logo designer.

Daredevil‘s real-world analog (no longer online: people.aol.com/people/article/0,26334,1212568,00.html). (spotted on Fortean Times)

I’ll bet either one of my kitties wish they had two faces, just to they could eat more. (spotted on Fortean Times)

Update to The Dork Report for July 13: Webmonkey is dunions. (spotted on Daring Fireball)

Georgia! It’s a font! Hooray fonts! (spotted on Daring Fireball)

ThinkSecret spills more beans: August 7 may bring an iTunes movie rental service and a spit-polished iPod Nano 2.0.

There’s always room for more Hoff: (guest submission from The Halk)

• Wax On Wax Hoff [no longer online: waxhoff.com]
• Pac Hoff
• Hoff Invaders

Nifty music community site Last.fm gets a glossy redesign. The Last.fm item in my sidebar isn’t accurate as it doesn’t include my iPod, only what I listen to on my computer.

The Design Observer reports: the 2006 National Design Award honorees refused the invitation to the White House.

Bob and weave in front of the new Spider-Man 3 lenticular poster. (guest submission from Spider-Girl Andrea)

Mr. T. keeps it real. (guest submission from Fool Pitier Andrea)

• Update to the previous Dork Report: check out Joseph Arthur’s new independent label Lonely Astronaut’s official site.
• ThinkSecret throws some cold water on Apple fans’ iPipe dreams.
• A slew of exciting new trailers: Michel Gondry’s The Science of Sleep, Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige, and Pedro Almodovar’s Volver.