a softer world

I've been reading a softer world for some time now. not every day, just when it pops into my head i like to open the page and hit back again and again until I get to a strip I've read before.

It's like a cross between a web comic and post secret but it's darker and more twisted and sometimes as beautiful. A Softer World is the brainchild of Emily Horne and Joey Comeau. Emily takes the photos and Joey does the writing. Topics are everything that goes on in your head. It's at turns beautiful, funny, witty and poignant and sometimes all of the above. Sometimes it also has zombies.

a warm glow

Call me crazy but even knowing that playing compressed digital audio through one of these isn't gonna push it a whole hell of a lot there is something about the Glow: Amp One that makes me want one. While valve amps do have a more distinctive sound I feel that their legendary "warmth" is a bit of a myth. Sure, play a guitar through one of them it sounds amazing, but an iPod...I wouldn't be so sure.

For me it was always the smell of a warm valve amp that was so distinctive. For years my Dad had this same battered old amp that would be lugged from gig to gig. I can remember him changing the valves several times through my childhood and my being fascinated peeking through the grille of the amp to see the tubes glowing.

Perhaps that's why the diminutive bookshelf USB Amp One has me rubbing my knees with childish excitement.

Over the last few years i've accrued some great old tech and given i'm moving to another city soon I'm looking forward to shedding some of my old stuff and kitting my prospective abode out with a housewarming gift or two. I think I may have found one here for $488 at Glow Audio.

Purporting to be equal parts style and substance the Amp One, at least on paper seems to deliver. Using point to point wiring and hand-wound amp transformers Glow Audio's aim is to take the complexity of modern day amps back to older days whilst offering DAC and a USB port as well as the ubiquious auxhilliary in on the back. I gotta say I admire the aesthetic of their workmanship greatly. Needless to say the proof shall be in the listening.

Glow Audio via BLTD

The Last Of The Living

From New Zealand comes what looks to be a fairly rock solid adition to the zom-com genre. These Antipodeans and their Zombies! It's no Fido but I look forward to it.

A highly contagious virus has transformed almost every human into flesh-eating zombies. Now it’s up to three bickering, video playing friends, Morgan, Ash and unreformed rock’n’roller Johnny with their pick of well-appointed houses to occupy and free rein at the local Pak-N-Save, to save the world.

The film is about to premiere at the New Zealand International Film Festival so reviews should start to creep out soon.




Via Twitch

Clarity and Sound

Found on the Apple store and garnering praise web-wide are these fetishistically well designed FH007 speakers from Ferguson Hill. Featuring a design aesthetic that compliments both the white and aluminium iMacs as well as some serious specs these speakers will blend into your room while still being eye-catchingly gorgeous.

From the Apple site: The FHOO7 System is a mini version of the acclaimed FHOO1, FHOO2 & FHOO3 combined system, developed for a wider consumer market. It has been designed to work with all Hi-Fi music player formats. Competitively priced, it should be noted that no compromises were made in the R&D process, the sound and build quality are of the standard expected from a Ferguson Hill product.


System Specification

Two Horn speakers 8 Ohm Horn H 43cm W 27cm D 18cm
Two Bass speakers 8 Ohm Bass Sphere 20 cm diameter
Integrated Amplifier 14 cm cubed, Bi-amped class A/B, 16 Watts times four into 8 Ohms
Frequency response 75Hz - 20KHz +/- 5dB

The speakers retail for €499 and can be complimented with a similarly specced and well designed sub-woofer also from the Apple store.

My City Screams

According to the nice folk over at cinematical Apple have posted the second trailer for the upcoming frank Miller adaptation of Will Eisner's "The Spirit". I'll add some links later but for now enjoy the trailer.

Writer-director Frank Miller described the main character:
“The character has a terrifying side to him. This is a man who’s died and come back to life. So it twists into fantasy. And of course there are tons of women in it. There have to be — it’s The Spirit. They’re all in love with him, and he’s in love with all of them. You might say he’s a bit of a slut."

The film series will not begin with an origin story, but will instead open with the adventures of The Spirit already having begun.[4] The film will be more contemporary than the '40s and '50s era of the strip and will aim for a "timeless feel."

The protagonist will be involved in a love triangle with Sand Saref and Ellen Dolan, the daughter of Central City's Police Commissioner Dolan. The controversial character Ebony White will not appear in the film.

Via: Cinematical

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Another Watchmen post. The Internet Movie Poster Awards site has just posted 7 new high resolution posters for the upcoming adaptation of the Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons graphic novel Watchmen. Click through to the IMPA for the full set.

Watchmen is a twelve-issue comic book limited series written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons. Originally published by DC Comics as a monthly limited series from 1986 to 1987, it was later republished as a trade paperback, which popularized the "graphic novel" format. To date, Watchmen remains the only graphic novel to win a Hugo Award, and is also the only graphic novel to appear on Time Magazine's 2005 list of "the 100 best English-language novels" published since the founding of the magazine in 1923.

Originally, Moore and Gibbons had enough plot for only six issues, so they compensated "by interspersing the more plot-driven issues with issues that gave kind of a biographical portrait of one of the main characters." During the process, Gibbons had a great deal of autonomy in developing the visual look of Watchmen and inserted details that Moore admits he did not notice until later, as Watchmen was written to be read and fully understood only after several readings.[from wikipedia]

via IMPA

post-apocalyptic antipodean zombie love!

NSFW: May contain swearing and zombies!



I Love Sarah Jane by Spencer Stusser

Jimbo is 13. All he can think about is one girl, Sarah Jane. And no matter what stands in his way - bullies, violence, chaos, zombies - nothing is going to stop him from finding a way into her world.

It's been around for a couple of months and doing the rounds of festivals the world over. It's also available on iTunes, though not in Ireland. Spencer Stusser's teenage love'story "I Love Sarah Jane" is one of the best short stories I've seen in quite some time and has garnered a slew of awards worldwide to prove it. At just under 12 minutes it should fit into your coffee break but it's definitely NSFW as it has some realistic dialogue and some of the best effects i've seen in a zombie flick. Hats off to Mr Stusser.

Via /Film

hori smoku!

A major influence for the last couple of years and someone whose tattoo flash I'd wear (and whose Rum is fantastic), Sailor Jerry collins is the subject of this soon to be released documentary:



Hori Smoku, a Japanification of "Holy Smoke" is not yet available but one would imagine shall show up here soon!

society in decline

Every time I see an image of an old sign like those that fill the flickr group Society In Decline I'm reminded of William Gibson's short storyThe Gernsback Continuum and the many things that lead me to the style of work that i do. I'm also reminded I'm due a holiday. The last one being 8 or so years ago to Arizona. Check out the full set on Flickr and tell me you don't end up with an urge to take a roadtrip.

I suppose it started in London, in that bogus Greek taverna in Battersea Park Road, with lunch on Cohen's corporate tab. Dead steam-table food and it took them thirty minutes to find an ice bucket for the retsina.Cohen works for Barris-Watford, who publish big, trendy "trade" paperbacks: illustrated histories of the neon sign, the pinball machine, the windup toys of Occupied Japan." - William Gibson: The Gernsback Continuum

original post via: retro thing

re:[location]

something like this would be nice:



In the words of the proud owners of this renovation featured on Apartment Therapy San Francisco recently:

"That location was originally supposed to be a gas fireplace; instead, we bought a used server rack for $100, flush-mounted it in a custom-built alcove, and installed a flat screen TV (on a swing-arm) along the adjacent wall. The rack has been a standard for decades, so to fill the extra space, we've been acquiring and rewiring old laboratory equipment to give the rack an interactive, Dr. Strangelove-in-the-Batcave feel."

Check out the full tour on ATSF. The entire place is done up with objects salvaged from labs, aircraft, factories, shipyards and even a morgue. Detail even extends to the garden.

via unplugged

who watches the watchmen?

The whole world shall. I saw the trailer for the LONG awaited movie adaptation and was reminded by miss jess wink of something i had forgotten i possessed :-)

now with 50% more awesome - free!

This is the poster for my Gypsy Hotel Zombie ball. Thanks to Missy who sent me a high-res of her as The Bride of Frankenstein so i could spend 6 hours painting over it. The date's wrong btw. New date to be announce.