Monthly Archive for August, 2007

Thin Air And Solid State Electronics

Published on 25 August 2007 in . 0 Comments

Knowing all too well about my recent obsession with Giorgio Moroder because I’ve covered most of our office with my Giorgio Moo-roder stickers, a colleague of mine was kind enough to send me this video:

Not only is it great because we get to see Moroder in his studio near the height of his career, but we also have a demonstration of him singing through his lovely vocoder. With his awesome mustache in full effect and classic early 80s nerdy newscaster narration, I wish I had this on VHS instead of simply courtesy of YouTube.

Kim Gordon And The Strength Of Street Knowledge

Published on 11 August 2007 in . 2 Comments

I just learned about the death of Tony Wilson and so I’m going through a range of emotions. One of these led me to look for some of his old television clips on YouTube. I found this one of him interviewing Sonic Youth, and although the date is not given, one can easily assume that it’s from the mid-to-late 80s:

The highlight is Kim Gordon on hiphop, “We like it because it isn’t disco, because it comes from the streets, you know, it came from the streets and was brought into the clubs, whereas disco… it was made for the club, whereas rap wasn’t.”

I would try to point out the logical holes in this, but there are so many that I think it would give us all aneurysms. I hope she was high when she said this.

Meanwhile, feminist Thurston Moore adds, “The American disco was a 70s white bitch kind of cocaine thing.” This, of course, is not cool because 70s white bitches are not street. Cocaine, however…

I’m still searching for Tony Wilson television appearances, most specifically old episodes of “So It Goes” (and not, like, the weather from 15 May 1978). If you know where I can watch these punk treasures, please let me know. Alternatively, I’ll also accept videos of Kim Gordon pulling half-baked commentary out of her arse as a worthy substitute.

Mootion Stickness

Published on 6 August 2007 in . 2 Comments

When I first was introduced to Moo MiniCards, I fell in love with them instantly. At last there was a way to give someone my contact information after meeting them without having to resort to a boring corporate business card that says nothing about me and my life. Well, that, and my company doesn’t let me have business cards because I’d probably get jam all over them anyway, and then they’d be sticky in a bad way, unlike sticky in a good way, which is what…

…Moo StickerBooks are!

For only £5 you get 90 high-quality glossy stickers, all bound in a protective book so that they don’t get all fucked up in your bag when you’re toting them about town. In typical Moo fashion, you can either upload photos directly to their web site or have Moo pull them from your Flickr account. Turnaround time for an order is about 10 days, which is really just splendid, but for geeks like me it can start to feel like centuries of waiting. I highly suggest placing an order for several books, because once they arrive, you’ll be so happy that the wait is over you’ll blow through 90 stickers in no time.

So what did I make stickers of for my first batch of books? First up, we have MooTube:

MooTube Stickers

These same 6 stickers repeat for all 15 pages of this book and are taken from my photos of London Underground seat cushion upholstery patterns. Moving left to right on the top row we have the District Line, Circle Line and Northern Line, while on the bottom row there’s the Victoria Line, District Line and Metropolitan Line. Some of these patterns make appearances on other lines, but these are the locations where I snapped them.

My favourite must be the Circle Line. I love its 80s splashes of vibrant neon, which are strangely fashionable again. It’s a shame this pattern is restricted to one of my least frequented lines. I quite like the Northern Line pattern as well, which is partly due to familiarity and partly because it resembles a sawtooth wave. I’d love to feed that fabric through a synthesizer and hear the crazy noise it belches out.

Speaking of synthesizers, the other StickerBook I ordered is a homogeneous pack of 90 that pays homage to one of the greatest electronic innovators of all time. His use of the vocoder on the “From Here to Eternity” album shames Kraftwerk. Ladies and gentlemen, I proudly present…

…Giorgio Moo-roder!!!

Giorgio Moo-roder Stickers (Closer)

The power of his moustache compels you. You will dance and feel good and sexy, from here to eternity, baby.

Overly practical people will ask, “What business use does this all this have?”, because the MiniCards work so nicely as business cards. Thankfully, I think this may have no business use whatsoever and very likely is a 100% life-based fun-increasing tool (sorry, just trying to word it in a way that makes sense to these sad pathological pragmatists).

With three products on offer now, where to for Moo next? I vote for button badges or postcards, but mainly button badges. I’d love to pin Giorgio and my tube patterns to my laptop bag so that I can rock the discothèque during my commute and represent for the Northern Line when I’m up in the club. Please don’t make us wait too long for this wish to come true, Moo!

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