2009, missing post #10: the matrix still lives in denmark
Do not think you're nothing. Quite a feat for Google Translate, innit? That's the title for Manyar I. Parwani's short film set in the Matrix universe - basically a re-enactment of the scene where Neo meets Morpheus for the first time. Without any working knowledge of Dansk, I can only compliment at the visual quality and the cuts and at that point I'm surely sinking. Good thing is, Parwani's already been working on a new project, Klar Til Optagelse (Ready to Record) - the casting was previously public and it was obviously Quiet Earth who broke the news to the world - about Denmark's biggest public casting endeavour yet. Below is the brief talk about what Parwani felt obligatory to say about the whole process.
2009, missing post #9: dhc meinhof and the shizit
I've sort of grown to like this DHC Meinhof, a Polish digital hardcore band on D-Trash Records, but the nicest I could tell you about them is that they're a shameless rip-off of Atari Teenage Riot. Which is not exactly a bad thing after all - after the tragic departure of Carl Crack you either went for the slightly (or significantly) different stuff of Alec, Hanin and Nic or you've tried to find something more harsh and less professional in the digital hardcore scene. So the Meinhof ends up in a gapfilling position, however bad this sounds. For them. (You don't think so? Oh. Check Will You Ever Learn.)
And if you missed out some comets just like I did, time for you to know - The Shizit has a new album out called The Shizit - downloadable free of charge from archive.org! (Thanks to Gargaj for the then-lifesaving link!)
2009, missing post #8: the shamen
Too bad I found The Shamen only on the very last week of this year (apart from their very, very bad live recordings such as this one) - turns out they have more connections to cyberpunk and my time spent online than I remembered. Hyperreal, one of their 1990 singles, apparently gave birth to hyperreal.org, a long-lived site formed around music, chemistry and rave culture and their Axis Mutatis album (from 1995) actually gave its name to a cyberpunk community site (sort of) that serves a different Japanese site now under the same domain. (For more cyberpunk digital communities, check Project Cyberpunk and its links.)
2009, missing post #7: captain power and the soldiers of the future
It was 1987 and I was an eight-year old kid with an extra schedule in his life, one I took more seriously than brushing the teeth, cleaning the shoes and go to sleep at nine. It was waking up at six to get the best futuristic show available at that time (apart from Aeon Flux, of course): Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future. It is so oldschool you should all play this in the background today, let it seep back to your already exhausted brainmeat. As for the show - you can all grab the episodes on public video sites here and here or you could just order them right at captainpower.com.
2009, missing post #6: darksiders, you're here to destroy the world... again?
Just when I thought I wouldn't need to buy another Xbox360 game before Mass Effect 2.
2009, missing post #5: principles of geometry + antivj
AntiVJ has been working on a new format for French retro-futurist electronic producers Principles of Geometry. Using stereoscopy (technology used in IMAX cinemas to watch visuals with 3D glasses) they produced a 50min long real-time journey through space. An exciting experience and a real visual counterpart to the band's space/epic soundtrack. (via antivj, music at myspace/principlesofgeometry)
2009, missing post #4: seeing science through fiction
You've heard the physicists speculate on parallel universes, space travel, and time travel. Now come and hear a physicist interview the real experts in these subjects: a bestselling science fiction writer and pioneer of virtual reality discuss what you get when you look at science through fiction. Featuring Lee Smolin, Jaron Lanier and Neal Stephenson. (via q2cfestival.com)
2009, missing post #3: alleykatze, directly from dragon age
BioWare has based at least two of the characters in Dragon Age: Origins on real-life attractive women (....) According to Maxim, the two "real life hotties" Alleykatze Alex Stein and Victoria Johnson have "lent their sexy curves to their video game counterparts" in Dragon Age: Origins, giving you something to think about during loading screens or just before bedtime or really whenever you feel like it. And Maxim has exclusive shots of all this real life hottieness. (via maxim via kotaku)
Dig up some more info on Alleykatze on Model Mayhem, MySpace, Zivity or Twitter.
2009, missing post #2: openland, on the verge of the comtemplative sway
Quote, Openland is a reflective docufiction loosely guided by issues surrounding micro states and its derivative definitions, unquote. Directed by Patrick Defasten Doan, music by Andrew Coleman. Through intertwining interviews, meta-narratives, and digital landscapes, Openland unfurls a dialogue between consciousness, individuality, and collectivity. If the two trailers here in this post left you craving for more, do check out some extra footage in Defasten's vimeo stream or bite into his Flickr stream.
DEFASTEN believes in remodernist ideals and the nihilist difference of our alleged unified society. In the future, the alphabet does not exist.
Focusing on digital animation, DEFASTEN delineates parallels within information, space, and the urban landscape at the intersection of digital media practices. This direction reflects an interest in the fragmentation of media, contemporary society, and the post-modern condition.
openland.ca
2009, missing post #1: everything is made of cheese
Beardyman, one of the world's best - if not the outright best - beatboxer on his 2008 Northern tour. (via hardergeneration, on a magical triple-nine date)
on the upcoming warhammer 40000: ultramarines movie
Gapfiller numero obscuro for you on the eve of the new decade (well, almost). This very piece of news has been circulating inside the tabletop scene and the space marine afficionado sects alike: Warhammer 40K is finally getting the movie treatment. The movie entitled ULTRAMARINES (read about the Ultramarines space marine chapter here) is done by Codex Pictures (the ones who did Bionicle) under the guidance of Games Workshop: so far faithfulness to the original source material is one of the most emphasized points of all official statements. According to the newsblips, Ultramarines: The Movie is helmed by a relatively noname director, Martyn Pick - on the other hand, the script is worked on by one of the greatest names in the literary WH40K universe, Dan Abnett.
This direct-to-DVD movie is quite obscure at the moment, the most important things are eventually published on the official movie site, such as the concept art below for the Codex Chapel Entrance. I am not completely won over and after watching the Bionicle trailers, I'd sacrifice half my friends' kidneys in Tibetan incense rituals (or anything to that effect) to get Square Enix/Square into the production chair.
To soothe the hours (days, years) of waiting, here's something relevant to keep you on your toes, a THQ-developed action-RPG entitled Space Marine - with a trailer.
cover galore: the sun always shines on tv
Morten "jósvádájú" Harket és barátai megírták a slágert a huszadik század igazi feng shuijáról, értsd, ha keleti oldalról süt be a nap, nyugati oldalra helyezd a tévét, ha ablakból süt be, ablakkal szemben helyezd, ha lakást tervezel, úgy huzaloztass, aztán csak egyszerhasználatos sláger lett belőle. Egyszerhasználatos. Nincs egy videomegosztón egy olyan felvétel sem, ahol Morten "jósvádájú voltam" Harket jól énekelné ki a kritikus részeket (amúgy tudom a többiek nevét is, olvasok Wikipédiát, volt nemstandard tiniújságból pixeles A-HA plakátom, bekaphatjátok), a feldolgozások pedig még siralmasabbak, az 1985-ös verzió volt a legjobb, mégis összegyűjtöttem egy csokornyivalót (az öt darab), hogy megtudjátok, mit nem szabad. Egy-két kivételtől eltekintve.
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tetsuo the bullet man trailer
Five months ago a couple of sites broke news about the English-speaking sequel of Shinya Tsukamoto's cult classic TETSUO series: here's the trailer for the third installment called BULLET MAN. For more info on Bullet Man, read my previous post.
hardware: fields of the nephilim's carl mccoy cameo (with robot heads)
Look where sifting through endless linkboxes stored in 2009 will get you. British cyberpunk movie Hardware done almost twenty years ago (read CPR's review about it here) features none other than Carl McCoy, frontman and lead singer for one of the best bands that the Goth subculture ever donated to the world - Fields of the Nephilim. McCoy's voice is slightly altered but his eyes and the hat he wears give him away instantly - playing a zonetripper character who's out there in the wasteland, scavening whatever's left for the taking. The movie is hilariously bad but hey, it was the golden nineties, everything was permitted. Below, one of their best tracks, For Her Light off the 1990 album Elizium.
repo men remake comes in 2010 april, features law, whitaker, rza
Humans have extended and improved our lives through highly sophisticated and expensive mechanical organs created by a company called The Union. The dark side of these medical breakthroughs is that if you don’t pay your bill, The Union sends its highly skilled repo men to take back its property…with no concern for your comfort or survival.
Jude Law plays Remy, one of the best organ repo men in the business. But when he suffers a cardiac failure on the job, he awakens to find himself fitted with the company’s top-of-the-line heart-replacement…as well as a hefty debt. But a side effect of the procedure is that his heart’s no longer in the job. When he can’t make the payments, The Union sends its toughest enforcer, Remy’s former partner Jake (Academy Award® winner Forest Whitaker), to track him down.
Now that the hunter has become the hunted, Remy joins Beth (Alice Braga), another debtor who teaches him how to vanish from the system. And as he and Jake embark on a chase across a landscape populated by maniacal friends and foes, one man will become a reluctant champion for thousands on the run. (via quietearth.us)
Darren Lynn Bousman's REPO: THE GENETIC OPERA last year was a sine wave, high with its much-promising cast (from Skinny Puppy's Nivek Ogre to Alexa Vega, Sarah Brightman or even Paris Hilton), its fusion approach and the visuals, low with coherence and the lack of, well, anything to compel opera newbies to give themselves easily to its entirety. Whatever we missed - the cheesy, gory fun -, Miguel Sapochnik will put it back in his Repo Men remake - debuting on the 2nd of April, 2010 - featuring Jude Law, Forest Whitaker and even Master RZA himself!
planetdamage.com's best music finds of 2009
2009 zenei aranymazsolái, részeg éjszaka maradványa ez a töredék is, az ötlet persze tökéletes, miket kezdtünk el hallgatni idén, amik amúgy nem is annyira új anyagok már - földönkívüli civilizációk bódult isteneitől poszt-grunge szennydívákig, hipnotikus brit space-technótól dzsunkatempóra himbálózó dubstepig visz a lista, videoklipekkel megszórva. Az év legjobb anyagai később jönnek, ha egyáltalán.
To all of you who speak English, just click this. Inside: a few bands I came to love in 2009 from Goth to space techno, sprinkled with lots of videos and MySpace links. If the magical harmony of Hungarian vowels do not instantly bestow you the meaning, fear not.
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coilhouse, issue 04
The fourth issue of the love letter to alternative culture is for sale. From the 22nd of December. Fuck you, time zone difference. For a moment I wanted to write "if there was only one mag I would buy, this would be it" and then I had to realize this is just the case. (shop.coilhouse.net and some extra info on that )
mass effect 2: meeting the galaxy's most perilous criminals
Mass Effect has grown something into a household favourite during the past weeks. The sequel is coming in a little bit more than a month's time (26th of January, 2010), until that the fortuituous date, here's some twelve minutes of footage about how the Normandy 2 looks, how you board the Purgatory prison ship to meet Subject Zero and a few glimpses into the new battle system.
ten good habits for learning japanese
image of the harajuku girl comes straight from zonjineko.com
Repetition works. Avoid writing romaji (transliteralized Japanese) from day one. Focus on pronounciation and annotate words with pitches and accents. Use Japanese when you can and do it with common sense and avoid people who encourage you to speak English instead. Repetition always works. These are but a few language learning tips for Japanese by Eido Inoue who runs his wonderful blog Nippon: until Death us do part. If you've learned a few languages in your life or at least tried to with a strong but fading amount of dedication, you'll see the truth behind that: learning languages is actually arduous work, however gratifying and you'll need a few extra steps with Japanese (would need to take extra steps with any Asian language, I had my fair share of battle with Tibetan and Mongolian). If you don't want to go and live in Japan, these same rules apply just as much. Oh. And the basic rule that actually worked quite well with me all these years: if you really want to learn a language and feel like you've progressed a lot: two hours of learning each and every day is a must. More like three, if you can afford that. Watch movies. Real ones, not anime flics - those are just as good to get to the pronounciation right but you'll confuse everyone with the slang you've learned (or just memorized, for that matter). Write your kanji a lot, otherwise they'll just slip past your brains. Get a teacher, a tough one. You won't actually get anywhere with a nice person who'll forgive you your missed classes, unfinished homeworks and stuff without a slap on the wrist. If you wanna be fast and efficient and bulldog about it, do it like you mean it. Hah, sorry, got carried away. Read that article, that's amazing. (Below, that's Hiroko teaching you a few things about job hunting and alike.)
phreak/hacker history comic available as free download
The first two volumes of Wizzywig, Ed Piskor's wonderful graphic memoir of the early days of the BBS/hacking/phreaking scene, have been posted online. (...) Wizzywig is the story of Kevin "Boingthump" Phenicle, a fictional hacker who's part Mitnick, part Poulsen, and part mythological. Boingthump is a preternaturally bright, badly socialized kid who discovers a facility for technology that's egged on by his only pal, "Winston Smith," a would-be Abbie Hoffman who is obsessed with the potential to use Boingthump's discoveries to monkeywrench the machine. (first part of phreak, first part of hacker, via boingboing)
enter the pachinko matrix tv commercials
Pachinko operator Daiichi Shokai is really desperate inventive about enolagaying the pachinko market with their new machine Pachinko Matrix. The past week apparently was all about pachinko on Japanese pop culture sites and although bloggers agree that it's actor Nukumizu Youichi [温水洋一] in both of the ads, opinions vary whether it's really Carrie-Anne Moss before her pregnancy or just a lookalike (we'd go for the lookalike but Western actors actually do shoulder the occasional Japanese commercials for the paychecks). Sculpting noodle bonsai in bullettime is actually one of the best ideas I found in commercials (though it's really been a long time since I watched them at creative agencies and even that didn't take me anywhere), so spare a minute of your precious pre-Christmas time. (And if you need some good intel on pachinko gaming, just found that on Google Answers.)
top 10 science party tricks
Magician/Psychologist Richard Wiseman shows you how to perform 10 (count 'em) science-based stunts. You now have no excuse for awkward pauses in conversation this holiday season. (via boingboing)
photo enhancement in cop shows and movies
My favorite one of these -- I think it was in Enemy of the State? -- was two supercops looking at a satellite image of a terrorist standing on the roof of a building, and one says to the other, "can you rotate the picture so we can see his face?" I was waiting for the other guy to say something like, "sure, I'll just rewrite the fundamental laws of the universe so that cameras from overhead satellites can see around corners," but no, he did it. (via boingboing)
planetdamage webstat for 2009: schwarzenegger is love doll
Az Analytics szerint az olvasóim több mint háromnegyede nem itthonról jut el a posztjaimhoz, ezért köszöntöm Japánt, Brazíliát és a keleti partot, maradok az angolnál. Az előzetest is csak azért, hogy zsírozott anyanyelvi jobbhorog legyen az elmúlt év legszebb keresőkifejezése, amivel rámakadtak, érkezik, figyelj, MIBŐL KÉSZÜL A RÉZ. Az idegrendszer ilyenkor kirobban, mint a neoncső, de ezt is lehet szokni, Zürichben még ott indult folyásnak a jobb szemem, amikor a Google fejlesztői megmutatták, hogy több mint 11 millióan kerestek rá arra, hogy how to make babies. Tényleg. Köszönöm a türelmet.
Hullo, faithful and filthy readers. More than 55K unique visitors and 200K+ pageviews with a 24% bounce rate, by people who mostly speak English, use Firefox and are mostly interested in loose women, edgy futurism and according to the tag statistics, [cyberpunk, parkour, infographics, concept art, fetish] makes them tick. This is the past 50 weeks, almost a year's entirety of planet://damage and I'm thankful to you [yes, YOU] for following the rant. Whenever I log into GoogAnal to check the stats, it's always good to see you haven't lost interest in the flow that's for the most time a tumblr with a separate domain and an archive for proof that there actually was a time when I could write my own sentences and didn't blockquote half the known universe. But I digress.
I take the liberty here to express my sincerest, most heartfelt sympathy to one of my fellow human beings, who, by a blinding misstep of fate, found p://d by asking how to have a blowjob in montreal 2009. The list of funny search keywords and expressions shortened to a handful of pub jokes, with schwarzenegger is love doll being on top. I'm very much thinking about starting a porn blog (adult blog? erotica blog? is it how you PC stamp them these days?), too many hits about love dolls (the second most frequent searchword after my nickname), real doll masks, serial bukkake, slut training, how to make a human sex doll and how to do business with love dolls, which sounds something like an elusive piece of writing Warren Ellis would refer to in a creative stupor on the bottom of a Chinese opium sailboat. And for something completely different, the list of the most read articles of 2009, without the loose women:
14 sec: too short to live, too long to suffer: we released a cyberpunk short movie in June 2009 with film director Tamas Mesmer, a classic and clichéful first-generation story with Japanese hitmen, mutants and some kick-ass musical accompaniment by First Aid 4 Souls and BAAL. Check the movie here with some on-site tweets and photos.
A thesis on Gibson and cyberpunk: part 1: that's a project coming from way back. I was an English major a couple of years ago at the uni and wrote a thesis in 2002 called The representation of the Body in the works of William Gibson, this is the first part of the serialized version. You can find the rest either via the search function or the tags when I have the time to backtrack and retag some fifteen hundred posts.
[HUN] On Hungarian cyberpunk part 1 and part 2: A brief introduction into the Hungarian cyberpunk subculture I had the luck of experiencing it firsthand and developing it later with a few select bloggers and individuals into something completely different. Personal stuff, not that much, recommendations, more like.
[HUN] The seven hardest Thai action movies you haven't seen: Hungarian readers tell me it's fun to read but if you're nowhere near the language, click it anyways, it features seven Thai action movies from Ong-Bak to Raging Phoenix and you're almost as good with the youtube embeds and the titles, Google will tell you the rest.
[HUN] Cyberpunk in Mexico: watching the videos and following the links will be enough for you, this is about two Mexican cyberpunk movies, 2033 and Sleep Dealer and also a few bands from that area, most notably Hocico.
The best iPhone apps part 2: aural LSD and junior bondage: this comes from a time when I was pretty much hooked onto my iPhone and bought all apps that looked even a bit intriguing (and thankfully there were only a few, during the past few months I haven't actually purchased any apps) - this includes Zen Bondage, RjDj and Nine Inch Nails Tap Tap Revenge, to name a few.
[HUN] A post on REZ: I know even Rez HD is an artsy old piece of a console game to use with LSD and shrooms, but even being all straight edge, it is all splendour and love.
[HUN] The book called Death Beat Club: Six years ago I wrote something like a book tasting like bittersweet blogger ego. I posted its highlights and my favourite sections in ten separate parts. Search for death beat club and satanic wisdom shall be yours.
Penfield's Electrode: I love coming across amateur materials that look intriguing and creative enough and I had this great luck finding Penfield's Electrode. Will have a longer post on amateur cyberpunk shorts and I have quite a list - and this will also be mentioned at greater length. Great stuff.
Neuromancer: the translationparty mashup: How to run through cyberpunk's biggest achievement through a Japanese-English-Japanese translation engine and come up with something bloody, garbled and schizophrenic? That's how.