NewCityMovement

You're New Reac Table

As heard on PRI's The World here is a new musical instrument called the Reactable. Unsurprisingly, Bjork is one of the few people who owns one. [Thanks Doug]

Piotruś I Wilk

"Sergei Prokofiev's fanciful musical tale "Peter and the Wolf" is given new life in this innovative new animated interpretation, which won the 2008 Oscar® for Best Animated Short Film. "Oldies will remember the work from school music lessons," wrote London's OBSERVER, "while those coming to the story for the first time will be delighted with this darkly comic modernization." Originally composed in 1936, the piece famously uses personified instruments in the orchestra to tell the story -- also penned by the composer -- of young Peter and his animal friends the Duck, the Bird, and even a mischievous Cat (represented by an oboe, flute, and clarinet respectively). Peter, himself represented by the string section, becomes an unsuspecting hero and outwits the Wolf (French horns), who's intent on menacing his small Russian village -- not to mention Peter's beloved animal friends. Conceived and directed by award-winning animator Suzie Templeton, this modern-day "Peter & the Wolf" uses stop-frame model animation, puppets, and digital photography to retell the enduring classic story, and features the Philharmonia Orchestra under the direction of Mark Stephenson performing Prokofiev's beloved score.

Mark Stephenson also helmed the Philharmonia Orchestra for the film's live world premiere at London's Royal Albert Hall in September 2006. The Philharmonia was founded in 1945, primarily as a recording orchestra. It is the world's most recorded orchestra with more than 1,000 releases and is comprised of more than 80 musicians giving concerts in London and at its residencies and other venues around the U.K., in addition to touring all over the world."

Free down low dable mix from Pepe Deluxe live at The End here.

Art Crimes Against Humanity 008

Fluorescent tubes may be energy efficient but as most of us know, they are 100% evil. Axis of evil, evil. The effects of these buzzing boxes of death are well documented. Fresh food rots before your very eyes, human skin appears sickly gray or green, big ticket merchandise suddenly turns into dollar store discounts, every bone in ones body says "get out of this torture chamber now!"

Fluorescent lighting may be slowly killing you and your business. Two options exist: 1. Replace them. Go back to energy hogging incandescents, Light Emitting Diodes or color corrected compact fluorescents. 2. Reduce your existing tubes glamour harming rays with polycarbonate gel sleeves or tubes in color correcting warm tones. Your local stage supply store can help you choose a color to match what ever lighting brand you are suffering under currently.

Gay scientists isolate 'Christian' gene. CNN [Thanks Stewf]

Think Of The Children

Is it wrong of me to hate on this? Is sex THE only reason to go out in Utah? Why are women so demeaned, practically turned into pieces of Brazilian BBQ in most club advertising these days? I dare say I'm with Shawn Phillips on the need for an alternative to this... not for religious reasons but simply for the sake of common decency.

See Music

Michal Levy is one to watch. See the animated short film (2:15 minutes) he created to accompany John Coltrane's "Giant Steps". His other design and artwork is great too... very NewCityMovement don't you think?

Too Cute

Friends With You created a new line of toys called Wish Come True. Available now but already sold out. More at FWY, Fickr, StrangeCo.

Weeeekend

Get 'a day in the life' view with this earth rotation time lapse tool at TheirCircularLife.it, then enjoy pretending you're Jackson Pollack. [Thanks Dee!]

NiteLite Exposed

DJ Leo's friend Alexeya was kind enough to take some photos and video at last weeks NiteLite party. You can see the pictures here and the video here.

Jessye Norman, Opera Dynamo

Jessye Norman and conductor Richard Wagner Tannhäuser Karajan perform Tristan with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in 1987.

Also see this amazing performance (costume + set = wow!) by Jessye Norman recorded in Yves Saint's gardens in Marrakech.

Stunning work. [Thanks Rodney]

The New Melodyne Dimension

This crazy German guy invented something called Direct Note Access, a technology that makes the impossible possible. For the first time in audio recording history you can identify and edit individual notes within polyphonic audio material. The unique access that Melodyne affords to pitch, timing, note lengths and other parameters of melodic notes will now also be afforded to individual notes within chords. [Thanks Joe]

Paradise Lost

Abandoned fiberglass resort in Taiwan. [Via Notcot]

Creationism - Get Ya' Dub On

My friend Sam from Randy's Records turned me onto this new Trojan Records remix project by DJ Spooky called Creation Rebel. Even those people without dread locks and who shower regularly will recognize several of these swimmingly deep classic dub/reggae tracks. The only one I don't like so much (oddly enough) is the house remix - track 3 - but seriously... this shit will exercise your bass bins and your brain to no end. Also check out what many refer to as THE essential Trojan dub/reggae collection put out by Spooky in 2006 called In Fine Style.