As part of the Wire 25 celebrations, Hex Out Tapes and Electra are holding workshops and performances every Sunday at Toynbee Studios.

From what I have heard, people are choosing 3 tapes from a table and then improvising on top. Which is also recorded at the same time. The tapes have been made by ex Leopard Leg and other musicians, check myspace.com/hexouttapes.

Georges Perec | On the Difficulty of Imagining an Ideal City

I wouldn't love to live in America but sometimes I would

I'd love to live on the Boulevard St-Germain but sometimes I wouldn't

I wouldn't like to live on a coral reef but sometimes I would

I wouldn't like to live in the East but sometimes I would

I love living in France but sometimes I don't

I'd love to live in Greenland but not for too long

I'd love to live to a hundred but sometimes I wouldn't

I wouldnt like to live in Issoudun but sometimes I would

I wouldn't like to live on a junk yard but sometimes I would

I wouldn't like to live in a ksar but sometimes I would

I'd have loved to go in a lunar module but it's a bit late

I wouldn't like to live in a monastery but sometimes I would

I wouldn't like to live at the Hotel Negresco but sometimes I would

I wouldn't like to live in the open air but sometimes I would

I love living in Paris but sometimes I don't

I wouldn't like to live in Quebec but sometimes I would

I wouldn't like to live by my own resources but sometimes I would

I wouldn't like to live in a submarine but sometimes I would

I wouldn't like to live with Ursula Andress but sometimes I would

I wouldn't like to live in a village but sometimes I would

I wouldn't like to live in a wigwam but sometimes I would

I'd love to live in Xanadu but not for ever

I wouldn't like to live in the Yonne but sometimes I would

I wouldn't like us all to live in Zanzibar but sometimes I would.

* First published in the Quinzaine Litteraire in August 1981.

various leisure activities

I went to Cargo for Khaela. It was worth it for the way she moves.
I'm not sure how many times she repeated the phrase "you know when you want something but you know you can't have it?" (She was explaining her songs)

In between songs she talked about writing songs, how to write songs about boys mainly. It was something like a crash course. She told us to use a piece of trash to begin with, a water bottle for instance. She sung "Hey Boy" to her water bottle.

By the way, this is "Hey Boy", in an exclusive interview over at Khaela's blog:


In a short interview with Khaela, "Hey Boy" explains himself:
"I'm out there making a personal, intimate connection y'know."

London noise mapping.

The London Road Traffice Noise Map does what you'd expect, and is "just one element of the Government's much wider national ambient noise strategy."

It's interactive! Check out whether your area is quiet, or loud!
This is an example of a quiet area:


And this is an example of a loud area:


And here is my future home, safely nestled within the "Quiet suburb, conversation at home. Large electrical transformers at 100 ft" zone, according to a descriptive companion to the colour-coded dBs.:

helvetica the film.

Helvetica Birthday Cake

I finally saw it today! After months of waiting and fawning over mpegs on the website. I was all alone, in cinema 2 of the ICA. It was a Press preview for the DVD launch, and nobody turned up (apart from me.)

It was so good. A balanced combination of historical document, design theory and visual essay. A great tale of Western Europe's recovery from WWII, US corporate appropriation and the pendulum of taste. Now I have to write about it for Plan B so I'll post some more thoughts here soon.

One big surprise: The visual identity of Rotterdam came up! It turns out that a member of Experimental Jetset grew up there, and Wim Crouwel designed the all-encompassing Helvetica-heavy scheme. And this stamp:

(From David McFarline's stamp collection)

unfolding icosahedron

matlab generated.

Elmo (and Chris Brown) on signage.

stop motion in excess.

meadows.

This girl Sarah takes the greatest photographs of her friends. Shutters behind eyelids.

lilypad.

At This Happened yesterday I heard Massimo Banzi rapid-talk about Arduino and conjured up new projects.
Today I saw the lilypad. (I am in love.)

Gapcasts.

Thanks to TED, I know that Hans Rosling can eat swords as well as he can enthuse about healthcare. He talks in other places too, and Hans Rosling's 2nd Gapcast is 4 minutes on urbanization. Clips from his talk feature in "A Slum Insight."

A Slum Insight was made by Gapminder, UN-Habitat and ITC in 2006 for the UN Habitat conference World Urban Forum III , Vancouver, Canada. The film was directed by Filmfront Stockholm and the graphic profile was made by Züt.