planetdamage.com: newsflash
Hello. I am Damage, gonzo journalist, catalyst and an explorer of weird and futurologistic. I also know how to time travel. Yesterday a Chomolungma sized bouncer asked me to ID myself or get shot in the face on the premises (of a 2000+ indietronic party but hey, this is Eastern Europe, anything can happen here) - which irrevocably means I look half my age. (I do.) And as in certain districts of filthy and fuckery-filled Budapest I am still better known as Too Much Coffee Man, caffeine, as it turns out, only makes me look younger. And I visit Skins parties because teenagers doze off pathetically after three beers and I can steal complete endocrine systems using only a pen, a lighter and a depleted phone battery. And nobody will ever notice.
This blog you found is infinitely funnier when I take a godly effort to write anything here and not just repost stuff about off-world and off-beat technology, underground music, heatwaves of any kind and tits. You receive this message because all my godly (and often ungodly) effort goes into finishing the new issue of The Dose, an underground magazine about great music, nice-to-collect info and cyberpunk. Which we denounced a long time ago but sum it up in one word and you get back to neon lights and Asian girls with a server room equivalent of a decent vibrator. I have a team behind me to finish up this magazine. We now all scream blood and listen to Dutch hardstyle in order to be able to wrap everything up. Which is hard. It is 40 centigrades in the shades here. All the parapluies made out of endocrine systems cannot save us. Mental note: no need to buy kitchen grills. Fling the shit outside on the asphalt, snap, instant steak. So we are busy.
I am also working on a book, on the lookout to sell rights to two animated series, doing groundwork for stuff you'll see later on this year (better to work on it than talk about it) and taking extreme steps to expand the mind of Too Much Coffee Man because this one isn't big enough anymore.
So hello, readers. This is the mind of a gonzo journalist who stopped aging. We will be back with you on the interwebs shortly.
18 days: grant morrison and mukesh singh takes on the mahabharata
Morrison: For the 18 Days version, we took the Mahabharata’s descriptions of vimanas and astras very literally as accounts of ancient advanced technology and created a vision of the battle at Kurukshetra which combines traditional images of the Mahabharata with a kind of Vedic sci-fi approach which adds a new freshness and modernity to the story. This version is less about trying to create a historically-accurate representation of conflict in ancient India and more about emphasising a timeless, universal and mythic vision that has as much to say about the world we live in today as it does about the past. (read the interview with grant morrison and check out singh's artwork at newsarama.com)
wicked lasers spyder iii: the deadly laser pointer
Extremely dangerous is an understatement to the power of 1W of laser power. It will blind permanently and instantly and set fire quickly to skin and other body parts, use with extreme caution and only when using the included eye protection. Customers will be required to completely read and agree to our Class IV Laser Hazard Acknowledgment Form. (wickedlasers.com, via dvice)
predator made of spare parts
Reader Guram from the Republic of Georgia spotted this statue at a...veterinary/pet convention. "It's like a hybrid of Terminator/Predator made from machine parts," writes Guram. It's also like a hybrid of win and more win. Just look at that inventive bicycle change use! (via kotaku)
katamari nouveau by kate elizabeth
If Katamari Damacy was art nouveau, it would look like this. Artist Kate Elizabeth, an New Orleans-based illustrator, created this stunning piece. (on kate-elizabeth.tumblr.com via kotaku) Here's a Katamari Damacy video for those of you who are unaware of what this is all about:
the raven: cyberpunk parkour short in los angeles
Summary: Chris Black possesses a power that could lead to the destruction of the current regime, and they will stop at nothing to destroy him. The chase is on as Chris runs for his life in this sci-fi thriller set in an alternate and futuristic Los Angeles. Directed by Ricardo de Montreuil.
Light traces of both parkour and cyberpunk, title is for clicks only. But click you should. Awesome production, great visuals. theravenfilm.com, sent in by oizys, thx!
azureus rising
Azureus Rising is the proof of concept for an all new feature film trilogy. Azureus is the story of a young man who after escaping death and enduring a life changing journey - matures into a heroic freedom fighter. (azureusrising.com as recommended by Riplakoidase - thx!)
le wednesday: discipline, lust and human furniture (nsfw)
The surrealistic paintings of Tetsuya Ishida (1973-2005) explore the dark side of modern life. (via pinktentacle)
A combination of steel, LEDs, solar electronics and a sick mind are all Randy Polumbo needed to craft these perverted lamps which are ideal for any bachelor pad. Invite a bunch of your lady friends over and see how many of them can sit on it simultaneously. (via gearfuse)
Exactly what you think it is. (via mademoiselle javel)
new mortal kombat movie in the works, teaser here
An extensive, almost 8-minute teaser arrived yesterday sporting a beefy, bloody, battered and bruised pantheon of Mortal Kombat fighters - Jax Briggs, Sonya Blade, Reptile, Scorpion, Baraka and Johnny Cage are all there making a move (or a sneer), extra kudos going out to Lateef Crowder for being an extra ugly and extra evil Baraka. According to IMDB, this movie has been in production hell for 13 years, so it's high time we get something snarly and dark out of it, something that really matches the grittiness of the original storyline. Via everything on the internet in the past 24 hours.
friday #musicmonday: francky ride - trem
Grey and black blueprint minimal techno by Francky Ride, released on Valiza Tools. Enjoy.
vw kai-nalu: electric concept car
Christened as the Kai-Nalu, this one somewhat reminds one of an Onyx. Inspired by the Mediterranean waves crashing off rocks near Ferriol’s residence, the car boasts a flowing glass upper section. The car uses two elements in its construction, and flaunts some highly stylized wheels too, bound to grab loads of attention. (more concept images via greenlaunches.com)
second trailer for new cyberpunk anime exaella released
Andrew Oudot, mastermind behind a new and relatively obscure SF/cyberpunk anime Exaella has just released a second trailer for his project, revealing more black and green and film grain, a mysterious girl, someone with a weird helmet that apparently came straight from Hellgate:London and HUDs with lots of kanjis thrown in to make sure we are in the future and humanity will suddenly ditch English as a universal intermediary language to switch to Japanese. Which I personally wouldn't mind but anyway. I'm sure the trailer will end up on YouTube, but for the time being you can watch it @ andrewoudot.com and if you need more (but hilariously scarce) info on the project, check out a previous infopost on PlanetDamage.
the damage report 004: nejlonharisnyás-asszony-szaga volt a jövőnek, el is múlt
Egyes gazdasági elemzők az új ázsiai kistigrist olyan nemzet kloákájából várják, akik egészen addig nem voltak hajlandóak kilépni az űrbe, amíg nem tudták legyártani a zérógében is harapható erjesztett, csípős káposztát. Ami felmelegítve, előre szólok, olyan ízű és illatú, mint egy régóta hanyagolt jómellű negyvenes felsővezető asszony. Nejlonharisnyában. Dél-Koreáról beszélünk, egyértelműen: parkolókamerás KIA, Wonderful Days, kimcsifagylalt, tévében közvetített Starcraft-meccsek, Seo Taiji, örökwifi meg az Oldboy, ebből pár Red Bull után már össze is rakhattuk, miért a szöuli popkulturális holdudvar az új Tokió. Rövid válasz: mert kellően messze van.
A májusi Mondóban megjelent cikkem arról, hogy savat köpök Korea teljességéről, nem alszok, de sikeresen kitiltatom magam onnan, hogy soha ne láthassak embereket, akik a kimcsinek külön hűtőt vesznek és zergekre kapcsolnak át, ha túlságosan sokáig tartják az ujjukat a távkapcsolón. Style over substance meg vicces kulcsszavak, szevasztok.
hypersigil hvk 31
h+ magazine is on hiatus
Friends, h+ magazine is going on an extended hiatus due to the desire of the Publishers to spend more time and resources on other projects. Editor-in-chief R.U. Sirius can be contacted at... (h+ blog, via @klintron)
pretty, reckless and opaque
Make Me Wanna Die by The Pretty Reckless. Forms a perfect mashup with Australian rainforest minimal techno project Zen Paradox's The Opaque Stillness off their album Numinosum. Update: any ambient track off Numinosum.
life dress: the fifth element reiterated
The Life Dress is a glowing dress made out of dragon skin, LEDs, wires, and Arduino hardware that models the life and death of cells. It is squishy. I imagine Milla Jovovich wearing it out with Bruce Willis, killing aliens. (elizabeth's life dress, via gizmodo)
web 3.0 - kate ray's documentary on the future of the web
Information overload is a harsh reality for all of us. How do we find what we are looking for amongst the ever growing mass of information? How do we filter out the junk and get to the stuff we really need/want to see. Even if we do at times successfully filter the information around us down to the really important stuff, we still find it to be an overwhelming amount.
In a short 15 minute documentary titled Web 3.0 NYU Journalism/Psychology major Kate Ray explores the future of this information explosion. Ray’s documentary is not an earth shattering piece of work, but it is definitely worth your 15 minutes. Check out the video after the break. (via singularityhub)
VR veteran FSK1138 talks new low-tech lifestyle
Electronic musician and artist Donald Baynes, aka FSK1138, spent 10-12 hours a day exploring 3D virtual worlds in 1996 and 97. But now he spends less than 3 hours a week online. He spent an hour of his weekly Internet time chatting with me from a park to tell me why he decided to unplug. (via technoccult)
Fellow arcane mindwarpers @technoccult released this some time ago, an interesting tidbit about how addicted we all are. Addiction is quite a strange concept that kept stabbing me in the face during the past weeks and we've worked our way into the chapter of our book we want to release this year or next year, whenever we wrap it up and have a book company or releaser or an evil gnome of fulfilling wishes ready. But still. Cyborgs on our own, reaching functional status with a tool, any tool, how can we ever get unaddicted the symbiotic nature of humanness? Must drink another coffee now to drench the morose aftertaste.
planck: audiosurf meets auditorium
Planck is an upcoming music-based experiment which looks to play out in a similar fashion to Audiosurf, but with different core elements. Enemies litter your path, and destroying enough of them unlocks a new instrument for the current song. The game doesn't use your own music - rather, it pieces together a specifically-created soundtrack in a Auditorium-esque manner. (shadegrowngames.com, via indiegames)
the prince and his katamari in bronze
Nine pounds and eight inches of an amazing, everlasting version of Katamari Damacy's Prince carrying the weight of his world, created as Mark 'everfalling' Ellis's Academy of Art University Sculpture 1 class project. (flickr, via wired)
a delicious, worksafe bukkake
. In its purest sense, bukkake means something like "splash" or "slosh", and this is a dish of cold udon over which broth is splashed. (via kotaku)