Showing posts with label favourite new blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label favourite new blog. Show all posts

Friday, July 04, 2008

It’s good to be an alien

Rudy Rucker has a blog!


Yep.. Rucker, mathematician and the greatest living Sci-Fi (science fiction/speculative fiction/cyber-punk) author (and 2nd greatest all-time behind Philip K Dick) has his own blog. It's a super-fun read.

Rucker is probably best-known for his -Ware tetralogy:

Cobb Anderson created the "boppers," sentient robots that overthrew their human overlords. But now Cobb is just an aging alcoholic waiting to die, and the big boppers are threatening to absorb all of the little boppers--and eventually every human--into a giant, melded consciousness. Some of the little boppers aren't too keen on the idea, and a full-scale robot revolt is underway on the moon (where the boppers live). Meanwhile, bopper Ralph Numbers wants to give Cobb immortality by letting a big bopper slice up his brain and tape his "software." It seems like a good idea to Cobb.

"Delightfully irreverant. . . This is science fiction as it should be." (reviews via Amazon.com)



Humans created the sentient robot "boppers," but now it's the boppers who have started creating humans. Clones and DNA-splicing have spawned the meatbop, a human body infused with the software (the mind and personality) of a bopper. The meatbops are interested in propagating down on Earth, but that might not be so good for humanity (the boppers have a nasty habit of enslaving humans, actually). When a couple of (reasonably) innocent humans get tangled up in the bopper's machinations on the moon, it's time to drag out the stored mind of bopper-creator Cobb Anderson and see if he can help.

"A genius. . .A cult hero among discriminating cyberpunkers" (reviews via Amazon.com)



In Wetware the chip mold virus destroyed the sentient robots called boppers. But the virus itself has spawned a new life form called moldies. The moldies are beings made out of a sort of malleable plastic called imoplex. Humans and moldies live in an almost-amicable truce, but radicals (and not-so-radicals) on each side wouldn't hesitate to use--or destroy--those on the other. When a moldie called Monique becomes ensnared in a grand plot that seems to be either the work of anti-moldie humans or anti-human moldies, everyone becomes involved in an effort to either save or destroy the Earth.

In hip, staccato language, the master of cyberpunk (e.g., The Hacker and the Ants, Avon, 1994) merges California surfer culture with a tale of 21st-century artificial plastic and mold lifeforms. The intertwined lives of Heritagist fanatic anti-Moldies, the Moldies' inventors, human "cheeseballs" who have sex with Moldies, and isolationist Moldies on the Moon enliven this fast-paced tale of kidnapping and alien takeover. (reviews via Amazon.com)



Philip K. Dick Award-winner Rucker concludes his satirical SF "Ware" tetralogy with Phil Gottner's discovery that his father has apparently been swallowed whole by a "wowo," a multidimensional holographic toy. This is the first event in a series that will change his life, and Earth, forever. Phil breaks up with his girlfriend to follow exotic Moon-born Yoke Star-Mydol to Tonga, where she meets a group of aliensDMetamartians from MetamarsDliving deep underwater in the Tonga Trench. It turns out that Yoke's mother, Darla, and a woman named Tempest Plenty were also swallowed by a multidimensional creature on the Moon several months ago. The Metamartians explain that the hungry entity is really their god, Om, who reaches into three-dimensional space to capture humans for study. The gift of an "alla" from Om and the aliens allows Yoke to create anything she can visualize using "realware," based on the advanced science of direct matter control. Soon enough, the secret of the alla spreads to others on Earth and predictable problems ensue. Meanwhile, Phil is captured by Om and reunited with his father, as well as with Darla and Tempest Plenty, somewhere in the fourth dimension. Rucker's cheerful ingenuity with biotech gadgetry and applied mathematics is in direct contrast to the book's [endearingly] simplistic plot and resolution. (reviews via Amazon.com)



I love these books so much; I'll recommend them to anyone.

Also: Rudy Rucker's home page.

Monday, June 23, 2008

The Audio Foundation (again)

Four years ago I posted about the fledgling Audio Foundation website.

Four years on and they're still going strong, true to their mission to "support, promote and preserve innovative audio culture in NZ". What's even better is that they've recently relaunched with a new a vastly superior website.

Check out the seht page; there's audio and everything. I am committed to regularly uploading new tunes and sketches on an ongoing basis. Sweet.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Shaolin from Africa, we apply the massacre

More goodness from Awesome Tapes From Africa: the other day I ran across this. Straight outta Ghana, Black Monkz are celebrated for being West Africa's best and truest English-language hip-hop crew, and they may also possibly be the most ardent followers of the Wu Tang Clan in the entire continent.



These guys are seriously awesome. Supposedly, the Black Monkz have so much respect and admiration for Wu Tang they held a Ghanaian-style funeral for Ol' Dirty Bastard when he passed away. And in their recordings I can hear distinct echoes of the MC-styles of -- at the very least -- Method Man, Ghostface Killah, and GZA The Genius. Check Monk Funk Classic:
Black Monkz - Classic Instrumentals (2.64 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using the handy little embedded player below)




I'd quite like to be able to soup up the audio on these tracks sometime; keep an eye out and I'll post if I upload any re-mastered mp3s.

Black Monkz are also well into some Deep Black [Ghanian] Consciousness, as demonstrated in this track and video:

Monday, May 26, 2008

The horse, the man, and his son?

One of the cool things about the shops in Newtown is that as a general rule, they make a bit more of an effort with the ethnic diversity of their showroom dummies. I particularly enjoyed this little hybrid/multi-cultural family in a Riddiford St window:




Especially the accidental pseudo-religious effect produced by my phone camera when trying to deal with the blow-out from the from-above lighting. Sorry about the crappy photos.

Tilahun Gessesse with the Walias Band - Untitled wailing Ethio-funk classic (14.4 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using the handy little embedded player below)





Awesome Tapes from Africa is not exactly my Favourite New Blog; more like a perennial favourite for a long time now. If I had time I'd possibly start one in kind: "Awesome Tapes from Newtown", or something.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Flex yourself and muscle me in like we're in this together

I really like this song.

The JPS Experience - Flex (5.64 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using the handy little embedded player below)





I found it on KiwiTapes.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

My new favourite blog: Shirley the Great

Shirley The Great: Shirley Shirley bo Burley, Banana Fana mo Murley, Fee fi fo Furley, Shirrrleeeee!!

Two sample posts:

Chillax
Oh sweet baby Jesus, I think my cafeteria cooks with laxatives... (ouch)

Fork You
omg, I'm so hungover that I almost started eating my lunch with a pen.


I bleeve my work here is done.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

My new favourite blog: Robyns Secret Passage

Robyn lives in Auckland at the base of a volcano:


(that's not a volcano per se, just some lovely swirly lanterns.)
"Sometimes I talk about internetty and pop culturey and writerly things, like at the National Young Writers Festival, The Great Blend and Radio NZ National.

You can see my photos at Flickr, and I even have an IMDB profile."

Robyn's stuff is fast and streetwise and funny, and if you have the chance I recommend you browse the archives -- just be careful you don't lose an afternoon in there.

...

Robyn has graciously accepted my invitation to join my Drinking Buddies over there on the right.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

My new favourite blog: College Dating Diary

College Dating Diary:
"I am writing this blog not only to drain some of the sexual aggression I'm building up from all these sucky dates, but to amuse whoever happens upon this. My dating history is varied and those boys who've been the braves souls to take me on have ended up anywhere from jail to rehab to gay bars to fatherhood.

After a particularly brutal blow from a guy I really liked, I can't stand to keep it all in anymore. Welcome to the circus that is my dating life!"




It's hilarious and quite often, NSFW.

It was very quiet for quite awhile, but suddenly there's life again!

Thursday, October 04, 2007

My new favourite blog: Eavesdroppers

Eavesdroppers is not fiction. These are real snippets of conversations heard by this blog's contributors. We do not use names of those quoted to protect their privacy. If you see something you said and feel that you need to receive credit for it, feel free to claim it. We know who you are. However, we're not trying to offend anyone, just to quote those things that brighten our days...

Their favorite posts:
Cue Nirvana.

Four days, definitely.

Frankly, it stinks. [Pun intended.]

He's taught you so much, though!

I met them in Philadelphia.

Off to write my obituary...

Wrong Answer.

Yes, we sell stuff for that.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

My new favourite blog: Corporate-Alien Blog

George Lunt's Corporate-Alien Blog:

Favourite two recent posts:
Malevolent extra-terrestrials and alien corporations are trying to poison us through substandard pharmeceuticals.Emotional propaganda used to encourage people to observe seatbelt laws is analogous to campaigns used by Hitler to "get his people to let him make important decisions for them".

The blog actually just seems to be a wrapper/index for the Corporate/Aliens site.

Blog author George Lunt also writes Lunt's World.

Alien Logo

Friday, September 14, 2007

My new favourite blog: Things I Find

Things I Find... is a blog about finding stuff (mostly writing, and pictures, on bits of paper):

Yeah, I do realise that this is not an earth-shatteringly original concept (Found magazine; Dirty Found magazine.)

Blog author James Aaron Lindsey also writes OCD-MAN.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

My favourite new blog: 100 word

100 word blog: "with the short of attention in mind" -- great concept, posts of no more than 100 words. For example, where he kinda pwns Che's toasted-sandwich post.

toasted sandwich


Good stuff.

My favourite new blog: Kyle Chapman

Hee hee.. (former-)New Zealand National Front dude Kyle Chapman (wikipedia; scoop).

(thanks, 100word blog).

Didya notice how the first two photos of last politicle [sic] campaign look like before & after examples of one of those creepy Stalin-era "erasing history" photo alterations?

Kyle is currently campaigning to become mayor of Christchurch.
(updated 2007-09-14)