silent type

2003-01-13T08:32:00.000+10:00

Please be informed that I don't update this blog anymore. My new blog is over here.

2001-09-03T18:50:00.000+10:00

I'd often checked out this amazing resource of Jorge Luis Borges information, but it was only today that I realised The Modern World, the umbrella site, is a vast resource centre for not only Borges, but also Samuel Beckett, Umberto Eco, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, James Joyce and Thomas Pynchon, plus their 'what's new' section lists new pages about Philip Glass, Neal Stephenson, and Morton Feldman. How do they say... "indespensible".

2001-08-30T19:35:00.000+10:00

Adrian Miles, lecturer in New Media at RMIT, has devised this video blog, or 'vog'.

2001-08-30T16:40:00.000+10:00

An interesting festival coming up in October, if you're in the Brisbane area, oganised by Multimedia Art Asia Pacific. An international multimedia exploration of the theme of 'excess' ("waste, byproduct, recycling media, minimalism and maximalism").

2001-08-29T14:20:00.000+10:00

An interesting new project, ::fibreculture:: aims to examine the theory, policy, education and arts of Australia's growing media / IT nexus. The archive of their mailing list is here.

2001-08-28T14:47:00.000+10:00

Going straight from 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' to Borges' 'The Aleph' (of which the entire text is online here), was one of those unplanned actions which turn out to reveal some synergetic concepts. In 'One Hundred Years of Solitude', time slowly grinds away in circles, events repeat themselves, and those who notice this (Jose Arcadio Buendia and his wife Ursula) spiral into madness with the weight of the realisation. In 'The Aleph', all time and space exists in one point, simultaneously. This seems to tie in with Borges' fascination with infinite sources in information (most famously, his infinite library of interlocking rooms). What a pity he died in 1986, as I often wonder what he'd think of the Web.

2001-08-27T18:08:00.000+10:00

Usually, when I'm at the Blogger homepage, about to log-in to work on Silent Type, I'll check a few of the recently updated blogs, in the chance that I'll stumble upon a gem. It's rare though, that I'll actually find one. Today however, I found Thinking With My Fingers, Torill Mortensen's blog about MUDs, media studies, and online communications, put together with an analytical edge. Definately worth a look... and yet another Norwegian academic blog I inadvertantly discovered today via the same method, jill/txt is the work of Jill Walker, a researcher in humanistic informatics at the University of Bergen (where I spent a lonely 3 days a few years back).

2001-08-27T13:16:00.000+10:00

Currently playing... Vespertine, at last... and well worth the wait. While the CD's playing, an grey haired, grey suited auditor comes through my workshop, inspecting anything of over $1000 value (my workshop resembles an audio-visual graveyard more than anything). First he compliments me on my Sigg water bottle, then asks if it's Bjork that I'm listening to. "She's very distinctive, isn't she" he comments, "she's like Sam Newman... you either love her or hate her". He then lucidly adds "she's been around for ages hasn't she... she's very hard to age".

2001-08-27T13:14:00.000+10:00

'One Hundred Years of Solitude' brought me some unexpected interactions on public transport. Travelling home from work one night, on an Epping bound train, an old Italian man tells me that he read the Italian version of the book, many years ago. The plot lost him, but the imagery immersed him. A few days later, rushing between platforms at Flinders Street Station, I spy a man a few years younger than I, clutching a copy of the book. I stop to tell him that I'm reading the same book. He'd only just begun, whilst I was about three quarters through. I told him to stick with it through the slow parts, because there's some mind splitting passages buried in there. Like any epic book or film you become immersed in, it's a strange feeling when it's all over.

2001-08-22T15:45:00.000+10:00

Simblog pits social theory against The Sims. Can a struggling artist, living in a squat, survive by selling her oil paintings? click in to find out.

2001-08-20T20:09:00.000+10:00

I visited the Melbourne Museum on Saturday, to view the fantasic Reggae Explosion exhibition. Whilst it takes a small corner of the Bunjilaka Gallery, it was nonetheless an intensive overview of the rise of reggae. From the birth of ska, through bluebeat, soundsystems, rocksteady, reggae, dub, dancehall and ragga. Listening posts were available, playing selections from labels such as Island, Blood & Fire, and On-U Sound. Definately worth a visit. While you're there, it should be mentioned that the Melbourne Museum is the current home of CSIRAC, and if you love Jamaican roots music, you should be listening to Chant Down Babylon on 3PBS.

2001-08-20T14:38:00.000+10:00

Identical twins Dave and Ryan are exploring the notion of their shared genes with some amazing body modification work. Ryan has had Dave's entire right arm grafted to his torso. Dave had a joint removed from one of his fingers, which was then added to one of Ryan's fingers, giving them an eerie appearance of slightly adjusted reality. (via Glider)

2001-08-13T16:03:00.000+10:00

I saw 'Lips of Blood' last night, Jean Rollin's 1973 erotic vampire horror. Whilst not as hallucinogenicaly wonderous as the surrealist queer-horror masterpiece 'Vampyros Lesbos', it still contained a sufficient supply of creepy Euro-horror music, scantily clad female vampires, and that oh-so-French seduction style.

2001-08-09T19:07:00.000+10:00

It's life-affirming to listen to Triple J and hear The Birthday Party's 'Release the Bats'.

2001-08-09T19:04:00.000+10:00

A few suggestion on what to do if you're in Melbourne this weekend... Lazy go head to head with Philip Samartzis at Pony (68 Little Collins Street), also appearing are the Bearded Ladies and Tim Catlin... Saturday night, at the same venue, Letraset, Hagus, Qua, AI Yamamoto, and DJ Beatrix... next Wednesday at The Empress (714 Nicholson Street) features Dworzec, Qua, Pause, AI Yamamoto and DJ Quockenzokker

2001-08-09T16:20:00.000+10:00

Bjork's new single, 'Hidden Place', crawls up the back of your shirt, maybe even beneath your skin, and rolls around the perimeter of your skull. Working with cut-n-paste surgeons Matmos, and domestica house agent Herbert (BTW, read Herbert's fantastic manifesto / personal contract) has further fractured then liquified her 'Homogenic' sound, allowing it to seep in where you least expect it.Wonderful stuff, can't wait for 'Vespertine'.

2001-08-08T20:50:00.000+10:00

So here's list of films I saw at MIFF, with very brief description... Pentridge : Some Ghosts and Memories from the Big House(documentary on Melbourne's infamous Pentridge Prison with obligatory Mark 'Chopper' Read interview). Tokyo Bound : Bondage Mistresses of Japan (behind the scenes look at Tokyo's seething S&M underbelly). Brotherhood of the Wolf (French period-conspiracy-supernatural-horror, with some great Woo-style fight scenes). The Irrefutable Truth About Demons (podgy New Zealand demonology horror... all bark, no bite). Little Otik (Czech "militant surrealist" animator Jan Svankmeyer's gruesome re-telling of an old Czech fairytale). Possible Worlds (Robert Lepage's metaphysical quantum-theory science-fiction romance thriller, beautifully shot, hypnotically paced). Berlin Babylon (amazing Baraka-esque documentary of the rebuilding of my favourite city, Berlin). The video Diary of Ricardo Lopez (disturbing video diary of man who sent letter bomb to Bjork, this one had me in an ethical headspin). Gimme Shelter (The Rolling Stones try jumping aboard the free festival bandwagon, only to walk into a logistical nightmare). Beautiful Cyborg (compilation of Anime footage with crisp live electronic soundtrack performed by Philip Brophy, Darren Verhagen and Frank Tetaz). American Nightmare (documentary on the sociological impacts on 60's/70's American horror films). Atanarjuat the Fast Runner (totally amazing Inuit film, based on old Inuit legend... a truly amazing 3 hour experience). I think that's all.

2001-08-08T20:17:00.000+10:00

I can't beleive I got through a Melbourne International Film Festival minipass (10 films), whilst working full-time, and studying full-time. Phew, I'm exhausted now, but am left seatching for a way to fill in that spare 2 hours I now have every day.

2001-08-06T15:36:00.000+10:00

Google have done it again, there's not only their addictive image search engine, but they've now produced a web-based usenet reader. This may be old news to you, but it's (good) new news to me.

2001-08-03T16:23:00.000+10:00

Poul Anderson RIP.

2001-07-19T16:49:00.000+10:00

Michael Swanwick is working his way through the periodic table, writing short works of science fiction for each element.

2001-06-19T14:21:00.000+10:00

Silent Type keeps disappearing. "The page cannot be found". Hmmm.

2001-06-13T16:50:00.000+10:00

Could Peter Singer be the anti-christ?

2001-05-30T17:07:00.000+10:00

Whilst the Australian Family Association tries to stuff more cotton wool in the ears of The Kids by attempting to ban Eminem from touring Australia, we're sneaking around their bedrooms, looking for traces of drugs instead of treating them like adults, and engaging in rational, open dialogue. Is it any wonder The Kids distrust The Man? Makes it all the more easier to pedal them mass-market consumer-grade angst and aggression. Build up the barriers, then sell them the outlet.

It's just a pity that The Kids see homophobia and misogyny as a viable expression of rebellion. Still, it's safer than getting involved in anti-globalisation protests .

2001-05-30T16:44:00.000+10:00

Blip. Where did it go? Blogspot can't find Silent Type!!!