Primer

Scifi of the loop-time kind. Low budget and lots of talking and I think it's really good but need to watch it again when my mind is actually working.

Tin Cup Prophette - "Liar and the Thief"

Sometimes near triphoppy, and her voice sounds so familiar... or is it the way she sings?

• 80 Days - "Too much of you and I waste away"...
• Until the Dust Settles - triphop
• All Is Lost - instrumental, and softslow 

Flaming Lips - "The Terror"

The beginning is very Flaming Lips, and nice, but it becomes a bit unhinged towards the end. "You Are Alone," for example, keeps on droning.

9-eyes

http://9-eyes.com/

Boy Robot - "Last In Paradise"

A lot more vanilla and plonky soundscapism than "Live in Vanilla".

Ok enough, but not something to be repeatedly listened to.

Shpongle - "Museum Of Consciousness"

As nice as ever, perhaps a bit more filmscore tinted than previous albums?

Still great while coding.

Leningrad

Heard while walking to some other stage, an interesting, busy enough sound.

Not for quiet or messy days though.

Woodkid - "Golden Age"

Discovered at Sziget. Album just as amazing.

(turns out it has been suggested by Pandora, an aeon or two ago.)

Dezsö Kosztolányi - "Skylark"

Short tale of two parents whose only daughter, ugly and unmarried forever, leaves them for a week, suddenly making them break out of their habits and austere existence.

I should reread the end. I'm not sure I grasp everything, but it was a wonderful read.

Brain improvement

Richard Restak:

On a very basic level, you are what you remember — your very identity depends on all of the events, people and places you can recall. Improving your memory will help you develop a quicker, more accurate retrieval of information that will increase your intelligence. Sharpening your short-term or “working” memory requires concentration. For instance, study four unrelated words for 15 seconds, then set an alarm for five minutes. Pay attention to another activity until the alarm sounds. Then try to remember the words. As you get better, change and add to the number of words and increase the amount of time. You can do similar exercises with numbers, visual designs, spoken words or even try to recount the scenes of a television show you just watched.

When you do these exercises your brain will require extra oxygen, blood and glucose. Just as with physical exercise, this can tire you out. Many “tricks” to sharpen your recall use memory pegs, systems to attach an association or meaning to what you desire to remember. There are visual and story memory systems, some dating back to Ancient Rome. One of these systems is called “the memory palace,” in which you associate the things you want to remember with vivid mental pictures, which you then imaginatively place in a familiar setting such as your living room. Later, you can “tour” in your mind the living room to observe the remembered objects in their familiar places. This technique can be so effective it is often used by memory contest champions.

Shturmovshchina

Shturmovshchina is the practice of working frantically just before a deadline, having not done anything for the last month. The first element means storm or assault, the second is a derogatory suffix.

 Shturmovschina originated in the Soviet Union. Factories would be given targets and quotas and other such rot by the state. However, they often weren't given any tools or raw materials. So they would sit around with their feet up and their tools down waiting until the necessaries arrived, and it was only when the deadline was knocking at the door and the gulag beckoned that they would panic, grab whatever was to hand, and do a really shoddy, half-arsed heap of work.

source (of course) : http://blog.inkyfool.com/2011/07/shturmovshchina.html

Shane Jones - "Light Boxes"

Incredibly amazing little novella of a town trying to free itself from the grasp of February.

Written in that estranged style halfway between prose/poetry and madness.

Parov Stelar - "Princess"

triphop, strings, looped vocal... cool!

• Milla's Dream - evocative
• Nobody's FOol (feat Cleo Panthe) - very poppy, catchy
• Silent Shuffle (feat Jerry Di) - jazzy, ring-a-ding!
• This Game (feat Anduze) - ugh, blerghy
• Requiem for Annie - piano, scratch effect, nice

Zorita - "Amor Y Muerte"

Accordeons, slowly increasing rhythms, life and death... Tom Waits, if he could sing a tad better and had more of a Spanish temperament.

Awesome.

• Weeping Willow (Waltz Macabre) - good start
• The Clyster of the World - fast, contains sex and cocaine so you know it's good
• Lost At Sea - "oh Amsterdam you're a bitch built on rotting poles". Ain't it so.
• Señor Presidente - trumpets, that special one, and in that particular minor chord
• Don't Forget To Breathe - dark, swampy
• Dance Me To The End Of Love - yes, the very one. In an E-powered roma version. 

Hunter S. Thompson - "Kingdom of Fear"

Amazing read of rants and columns. I keep being amazed by how much about politics he knows. And he says so: once you get sucked inside...

Dubravka Ugrešić - "Baba Yaga Laid an Egg"

The first few pages were amazing. Then it diverted from what I expected, and things became different.. but still good.

I think that honestly I wasn't much in the mood to enjoy it to its true depth. Particularly the last part, basically facts on Baba Yaga, could not hold my attention.

But still nice enough.

NTK

Have I never quoted NTK here before? 'tis about time...

"It's still the anti-changelog to our lives."

Shannon and the Clams - "I Wanna Go Home" and "Sleep Talk"

I can't find their latest albums "Dreams in the Rathouse" on grooveshark yet.

It's raw and very '60s, but much, much rough. More punk. More grunge.

Karsu - "Confessions"

Sleepy, nightclub, dreamy.

• Crime - swinging, about self-defense, somehow reminded me of Chicago
• Gesi Baglari - err... oh? Persian? nice
• Something on the Rocks - sad, hints of French chanson (Ne Me Quitte Pas, to be precise. It isn't, but there's strong hints.)
• Cok Uzaklarda - no idea what it's about, but maudlin and beautiful

Tarot - Virgo and her wish for death

(I have no idea how to tag this.)

The Hermit card is linked to Virgo, who has her own problems with the loneliness that perfection brings. The Virgo longs to be whole, unsullied by humanity. At some point, she will have to face the fact that the quest for perfection is a secret death wish. Being whole, being sealed and purified and perfect, soaked in bleach and boiled to sterility, is the opposite of life. To breathe is to sully oneself. It’s kind of the point.