THE DAMAGE REPORT inspiration board (paper pills against writers' block)
oh writers write best when they suffer or starve, this is ground zero in the east european writing guide or so they tell you but it's never really that simple and if i snapshot my life right now, i should be writing like salman rushdie possessed on acid, which is so not the case. focus or flow. so, following on the blueprint f words of creation, i reached back to interior designer land and covered my floor with books and magazines that are jackhammers of inspiration. above: neuromancer, the book that started it all, data flow, a design/concept work on infographics and a previous issue of wonder alt mag coilhouse. more after the break.
Read more
zoa malakai, banished
After thirty years of possession and refurbishing content on a biological ego shell, Zoa Malakai has left the building in a mirror image. With inverted black social holos under each eye, the mirror image knocked in the mirror once and understood it was left in the remainders of a screen of a boy brutally haunted by nightmares of his own fictitious and imaginative chihdhood abuse turned into a resonant altar and all the resonant glowstick sigils and acid-induced cum/blood vibrations couldn't free him through a thousand years worth of mind silk. Zoa Malakai batted an eyelash and left the building through the inverted door the Freemasons left for him, never to return in this lifetime. The fear of recognizing IT tore through the unconscious and the fading vibrations of the 8bit fractal acid, echoing within the mind of the Romanian workers tearing open the Freemasonry wall under the pretense of renovation, never to return, revealing yet another mechanism of magick, similar to how decadence, dysentery and frustration is known as the mechamothermind of Tlazoltéotl, goddess of the golden filth. Gods of death thereby acts as quasidivine psychic filters of the unconscious mind, reveal how the black box works and it will work for you. As long as you realize the filter is bigger than you and you are operating a much bigger mechanism you would comprehend in a daze of egotistic self-illusion and self-delusion. Zoa Malakai is one death filter of safety through sickness and hereby proclaimed, banished it is.
all in the name of 55
The pros and cons of Deus Ex: Human Revolution
I'm a cyberpunk and proud of it, even though I've always been the outsider in every single subculture I've managed to disrupt. I've grown up with Neuromancer, wrote my MA diploma in postmodern cyberpunk SF and I've always worked along the neon-coloured cultural gridlines that made people aware of biotech, the fusion of man and machine and all that stuff. I'm sinking my teeth into anything cyberpunkish with sweet agony and pulsing organs. Deus Ex: Human Revolution left me with broken canines and burst tear ducts with seeping coolant the color of Cherenkov sadness.
I've spent long days playing the press copy I've gotten from PlayOn Hungary to see the game others heralded as the best game of 2011 and the latest and greatest in cyberpunk. Verdict, it's tragically mediocre, a one-night stand gone stale, an equivalent of a fuck turned so boring you decided to watch TV and set up shopping lists inside your head while getting something of a blowjob simile. Don't get me wrong, it's got great aspects to it. In fact, it's got amazing aspects to it. But at the end of the day, it's just another game in the long line of high concept low realization shooters by cyberpunk wannabes. Or maybe it was all very different in the design documents at first. Trust me, I don't bulge with glee when I write this. (Watch out, a thousand spoilers inside!)
Read more
Portal: No Escape (Portal fanfilm by Dan Trachtenberg)
A woman wakes up in a room with no memory of who she is or how she got there... This is a short set in the world of the Portal video games created by Valve Software. Recommended viewing in HD in FULLSCREEN with sound UP...
Escape from City 17 part 2
The sequel for 2009 Half-Life 2 fanfilm Escape from City 17 is nothing short of awesome. Showing off a dozen ways the story could develop into (and the inclusion of Julia Tourianski brings us a lot of drama and future tension, a great plot choice), this is a great reel to boost Kickstarter projects and investor pitches and the like. This is a MUST.
A story about the connection that grows between two people during the battle for city 17. Made in the same gritty guerrilla style as the original, it was made on a $250 budget, previously owned/donated software, time, and an HVX200 camera. (...) Escape From City 17 Part One was created as a long form spec commercial for Ian and David's commercial demo reel. They completed the second short in their spare time and want to thank everyone that enjoyed the first.
Mondo magazin: 48 oldalnyi archívum a Damage Reportból
Aki csak most bújt volna be a gép elé a hőguta és a neogóbi elől: több mint három éve írok hosszabb-rövidebb anyagokat a manga/anime-kultúrára ráhajlott MONDO magazinnak, egy éve rövideket már nem, sokat és vérhabosat ellenben igen: ebből kaptok négy hónapnyi archívumot. A 2010 szeptembere és decembere közötti anyagban találhattok vendégírásokat Vadbaracktól meg Razortől, sminkrovatot Kassai Balázs és Fehérvári Orsi támogatásával, ezeket leszámítva pedig a szokásos gonzót, lemezkritikát, sorozat- és képregényajánlókat, cikkeket divatjövőről, játékokról meg mindenről, ami egy tinimagazinba belefér, a sokak által várt Szex, szerelem, gyengédség-analógia egyelőre kimaradt, de a 2girls1cupon meg angolnapornón nevelkedett fiataloknak nyilván több kell, azt meg nem fizetik meg. Marad a kultúra.
Katt ezeket.
Mondo, 2010. szeptember: The Damage Report 007
Mondo, 2010. október: The Damage Report 008
Mondo, 2010. november: The Damage Report 009
Mondo, 2010. december: The Damage Report 010
Danny Macaskill's factory trials riding video
Industrial Revolutions is the amazing new film from street trials riding star Danny Macaskill. Filmed and edited for Channel 4 's documentary Concrete Circus.
Industrial Revolutions sees Danny take his incredible bike skills into an industrial train yard and some derelict buildings.' Filmed in the beautiful Scottish countryside Danny Macaskill's latest film was directed by Stu Thomson (Cut Media/MTBcut) for Channel 4's documentary Concrete Circus.
Music is 'The Wolves' by Ben Howard courtesy of Universal Island Records.
UCF: Abstract Messiah, the trailer
Laszlo Kovacs and his crew of cyberpunk die-hards is still on the case. Following up on his 2006 movie UCF: Toronto Cybercide (reviewed that in the London issue of The Dose mag, last page if you're looking) here's a new one entitled UCF: Abstract Messiah. Life hasn't changed a bit so I'm still expecting the package to turn up in my mailbox (although the Hungarian postal service has a 50-50% chance of either delivering your stuff or making it disappear beyond a shabby-stinky veil of bad bureaucracy and an untraceable in-land logistics route), until that, do check out the project's trailer, Facebook page and hey, here's some more.
THE DAMAGE REPORT: looking for contacts in Asian countries
日本の連絡先を探して！한국어 연락처를 찾고! 寻找中国的接触！Needing data and experience on how Big Pharma tries evading traditional Asian medicine and treatments by pushing "fashionable" pharmaceuticals to the Eastern markets. Yes, that's urgent.
who needs a google music beta invite?
Got three Google Music beta invites here. Service is apparently US-based (although I had no trouble testing that in Europe). Upload your favourite tracks to the Google cloud and stream it back to your authorized gear. Very much beta so half the time it behaves like it's on glue and vodka but all the basic necessities are there. Just don't blame me when the dev guys decide to narrow the geo scope and you have your shit deleted overnight. Place your comments under this post and will pick randomly out of you lot (this offer is also out on G+). ROCK!
UPDATE: All invites sent, story over.
the pre-Sziget video voltage bouquet
Originally heralded as video bukkake but then you would have hulkhogan your way into morality. Voltage bouquet sounds more posh. So here's a tour video of Skrillex (thx Sinred!) whose anthem Kill Everybody has quickly become our summer household item and clearly looks like a contestant to anything Headhunterz has done in the past twelve months.
RAGE, slated for release in North America on October 4th, features intense first-person shooter action, breakneck vehicle combat, an expansive world to explore and jaw-dropping graphics powered by id's revolutionary id Tech 5 technology. Set in the not-too-distant future after an asteroid impacts Earth, you emerge into a vast wasteland to discover humanity working to rebuild itself against such forces as bandit gangs, mutants, and more. Obviously reads a lot like Fallout to me.
A release date for the gesture-based adventure game Trauma has been announced: the triple-nominated 2010 IGF finalist will be available to purchase for 5 Euros starting this August 8th. Windows, Mac and Linux users can try the game online for free at traumagame.com, and you can also buy Trauma from Steam (both Windows and Mac) on launch day. (via kotaku)
BlueDanube Films: Eric Roberts in Hungarian dark urban thriller Lord of the Block
This just came in via @Dawe_, our courier of fast cars, fast conspiracy theories and news of importance. BlueDanube Films (apparently based in Budapest, Hungary, so I gotta make some exclusive backstage shots and interviews while I'm still in the city!), a relatively new film company that plans to create micro-budget films (the PRlog mentions 500K-1M euro budgets, is that actually considered micro?) is now working on Lord of the Block (see stuff below) that features Eric "Maroni survives fall, walks away with broken knees" Roberts, script's worked on by Balazs Lovas (Run to Ground) and Gabor Krigler (Born Loser). Curious to hear more about that one, stay vigilant, brothers! (via prlog)
“Lord of the Block” is a dark urban mythic thriller about a disaffected young man’s discovery of a man-like creature living in his apartment building. The creature/man named “Artur” seems to be able to control the emotions of the apartment inhabitants, feeding off of their negative emotions. Although initially entranced by Artur’s abilities, and the fact that Artur wants the young man, Tomi, to become Artur’s apprentice, Tomi finds himself in a battle against the “Lord of the Block”, and the darkness that he stands for.
the mad angelspit gig: 2011, budapest
When relaunching this blog, I said I regret keeping silent about people and acts of ROCK but whatever escapades of AWESOME, chaos, amazingness, bravado, weirdness or fuckery you end up doing, you always have to do it with the strongest spine and the biggest discretion to be able to walk away with your head high. So there's another black box story. What remains in the action logs? Tuesday night, covered in the stage sweat of Valerie, Amelia, Zoog and Matt. Called up on stage. Ending up with a new name Zoog Von Rock granted me, a few autographed memories of sonic RIOT, a whole lot of ideas we exchanged over early morning espresso Hennessy shots, my book concept and the product design itself fleshed out much much more, Zoog completely dumbfounded over the magnificence of Anker Klub's hummus, Sinred Estee and me cutting bike polo plastic sheets at 4am in front of my old university turned into a party place, an action-filled night with Sinred, Estee, Fiction, Lady Aisa, Zeck, Surreal Catharsis, Jinx, Moggio and Typhus - you all fucking ROCK and you have all contributed to this night NOT turning into a disaster. THANK YOU. One achievement unlocked. (PS: Below, that's Esteee's mixtape of the videos she made that night. Yes, we know there's no bass. Look grateful. I still have problems hearing three days later.)
free online artificial intelligence course at stanford
A free, online version of "Introduction to Artificial Intelligence", taught by Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig. A syllabus and more information about the Stanford course is available here. You can sign up here to receive more information about the online version when it becomes available.
So what do we do when we have a shitload of time on our hands and we're busy working on our book about aspects of our global collective future, we sign up for an AI course just to be sure we didn't get anything wrong. This comes from our friends at techn0ccult.
toyota prius x parlee: concept bike with a mind-powered shifter
Toyota reached out to Parlee Cycles and Deeplocal to build an aero-road bike imbued with the same forward-thinking that went into the design of the Prius. Benefitting from a monocoque carbon-fiber frame, built-in smartphone dock, countless wind-tunnel-tested aerodynamic tweaks and its unprecedented mind-powered shifter, the PXP concept bike has emerged as a purpose-built machine that blends the simple with the complex to become a better and more efficient version of itself. To get a look at John Watson's coverage of the build, go to http://www.toyotapriusprojects.com/#/011
Link comes from mr. minimalgeek! Is it just me or the market still hasn't been flooded with the Emotiv EPOC and other neural headsets to turn our lives into an endless bat country of brainwaves and nibbana?
grant morrison: supergods
Grant Morrison, my favourite shapeshifter (who turned from comics writer extraordinaire to chaos magician to a ROCKSTAR) has just claimed another place on my shelves. So far it's been only his hypersigil series of The Invisibles and its flipside, The Filth, now it's all gone to a book, an especially good one. SUPERGODS is basically a 300-page peek into the evolution of superheroes, their impact on culture, religion and the global sub- and superconscious. There'll be a review soon here (I know I promised to review Bukkake Brawl for JunkDNA, so I'm jumping on that one first) but if you're interested to see what you're about to invest in, check this legal 80-page teaser on Scribd below. And while you're at it, check his Pop Magic! treatise and his (btw quite amazing) drug-crazed presentation at Richard Metzger's Disinfo.
SUPERGODS by Grant Morrison, Excerpt
the damage diary: 2011 so far
Dearest readers of doom, rock, popcultural occultism and flesh flowers, planetdamage.com is back.
Life here at the moment is nothing less than a bubbling cauldron of possibilities and all the time not spent blogging and hunting for stuff was well spent with ladies and lads of ROCK. I had to realize that although I made a promise a few years ago about hiding my personal life (my what? mind you, that's something you'll do sooner or later if your online tulpa is fleshed out well enough), I've also been silent about things I should have posted, said or shown earlier. Or at all. The bubbling cauldron (and the chairleg of truth) will henceforth bring you amazing stuff I've been working on (or thinking about) during these long months. Or in other words: It is time to write. Again. To motivate. And to find like-minded zeitgeist runners. (Great motivation also comes from the blog of Amelia Arsenic, I've been using inspiration boards ever since she posted a few of those. Among others.)
So here's a list of things that happened to me this year (without breaking NDAs or incriminating multiple entities of ROCK, which unfortunately makes this otherwise lengthy list quite short):
Moreover, a list of awesome things to happen in the near future:
Thanks to all of you who kept me young and alive. Now we can go break reality one more time.
Always,
The Damage
weekend sf short film: PRISM
This one comes from Riplakoidase, CorridorDigital's short film about how a lab prototype gets stolen with fairly good action, Halflife2ish drone soldier vocoders and some nice light effects done with HitFilm.
cars will be grown, not manufactured
Weekend in the PDHQ, growing quite fond of anything that helps with dropping down the 40 centigrades to anything less than 40. I'm posting this with all my organs from waist down in the fridge. I've had worse. Source comes from Dawe_ (and yes, that's a Dezeen post) whose love for naga jolokia is only surpassed by his love for weird cars, especially something like this - one that's grown and it produces its own fuel from algae. And with a virus (or a bad system update) it could basically assimilate you for a tire and a better windshield. Come to think about, I know people whose only use in life could be a transfiguration into a better windshield. While you're thinking whether you're that kind of person or not (if you're reading this, you're probably not and I'm not diplomatically nice about that either), grab a coffee and expect the PD comeback soonish! (via dezeen)
életem legdrágább kávéja
Sikerült elfogyasztanom életem legdrágább kávéját, egyúttal büntetőszámlát (orange card mostantól) kapnom azért a BKV-tól (karmaszagú, hogy ez a QR-kódért jött), mert kávéfogyasztó vagyok, más kultúrákban ez respectful lenne, tudom, menjek oda, a három kortynyi kihágásértékű presszókávéból meg majd a magyar alter írjon sramliszagú seggrázóst. A kopi luwak ezek után már csak kisebbfajta katarzis lesz, a konklúzió pedig nyilván csak annyi, hogy
personal note: the best of both worlds (and nyan shuffle)
Hello, fellow readers, friends, haters and everybody else who just popped in to hide from the rain SUN death. A brief non-automatic note from The Damage: it is summer, people wear significantly less clothes in the asphalt jungle and they smile more. AND I took up biking. So halving my time online has never been easier. I'd like to finish that book of mine the soonest (about cyberpunk, pop culture, the future and other random things of high intensity), so I killed my habit of posting the half-drafts, ergo: even less content. (That's another thing that everybody's writing a book nowadays but hey. Age of whatever is coming.) Child of Eden got released on June 17th: one of the best IPs Japanese cyberpunk ever produced. (EVER.) Consequently: even less content. I think I also started to diversify my channels, so I post a lot of things on Facebook and Twitter as well - follow me on either or both platforms. No promises this time: writing will always be good but as long as I'm not getting any inspiration, motivation or a tinge of ROCK SUCCESS out of whatever I've been doing, I'm trying something else to take my brain off the hook and keep myself relatively sane.
Sealing all this with a great summer drum'n'bass track by Child of Eden soundtrack producer virtual idoru band Genki Rockets (the Sunrise remix on the Heavenly Star EP). (I also gave much thought about completely redesigning the blog. Still looking for a Hilariously Huge and Powerful Coffeemug of ROCK to kickstart that whole project.) But I'm away to fuckoffery, far from the interwebs. I might also take up nyan shuffling, its level of disturbing reality on so many levels is unparalleled. Thank you. This was and always will be as long as I don't forget to pay the domain fees planetdamage.com.