About
Tumblelog byChristopher Clay, founder of Soup.io.
hello@c3o.org / Twitter: c3o
wonder/marvel/learn
Startupwiki (2009–)
LIF (2008)
Soup.io (2007–) ♥
Netznetz (2007–2008)
Metalab (2006–) ♥
CanvasPaint (2006)
Design portfolio (2005)
Textcounter.org (2003)
PS: If I write about events, that's cause I'm inviting you to come along. Get in touch!
LIF (2008)
Soup.io (2007–) ♥
Netznetz (2007–2008)
Metalab (2006–) ♥
CanvasPaint (2006)
Design portfolio (2005)
Textcounter.org (2003)
PS: If I write about events, that's cause I'm inviting you to come along. Get in touch!
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June 25 2009
This is the ultimate movie for all those who make their own lives hard. For tormented artists suffering from the human condition. For those who react more than they act. Those who constantly doubt or even loathe themselves, who overanalyze, who set themselves up for failure by holding themselves to unreachably high standards, and who wallow in regret and depression.
Not only is that what the main character does: The movie itself (or if you prefer, director Charlie Kaufman [Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind]) does, too.
It's a massive, sprawling, layered, complex, symbolic, wonderful mess of a movie, and it uses the possibilities of the medium to the last drop.
bestposts
June 23 2009
The Most Serene Republic – ...and the Ever Expanding Universe
Despite the melodramatic title, this is easily the most accessible album so far from this brilliant Ontario-based seven-piece band.
They combine octave-spanning vocal melodies like, say, The Shins with intensely multilayered arrangements like their label mates Broken Social Scene (from orchestral instruments to the occasional drum machine), complex beats and frequent mid-song changes in rhythm, and largely undecipherable, stream-of-consciousness lyrics, mostly sung in male-female duets.
For me their songs have the perfect amount of complexity and depth: It's hard to really grasp them on first listen, but once you've given them a few spins, you discover all the neat little intricacies and they actually become really catchy and memorable – and that point is reached much quicker on this album than on Underwater Cinematographer, Phages or Population.
This is a wonderful album, best played on the highest fidelity audio equipment you have, and one that I expect to grow on me even more over the next days.
bestposts
June 20 2009
"With a traveling companion the world smiles upon you."
Two people coping with loneliness in different ways: Rei has retreated into introspection deep enough to cause psychological problems, while truck driver Takatoshi has set up a boastful facade of self-confidence, even though his CB radio is his only lifeline to the world. Both strive for freedom, but are ultimately unsure of how to handle it, drifting rather aimlessly through life.
We see these characters meet in a roadside minimart, and slowly get to know them over the course of a spontaneous roadtrip, listening in on discussions ranging from the trivial to the most intimate, and watching them slowly open up to each other. A task not without setbacks: Rei has difficulties accepting Takatoshi's affection, having a hard time imagining that someone might actually like her just the way she is. (Which, umm, reminds me of someone. Several people, in fact.)
bestposts
June 19 2009
Circled the Austrian parliament tonight in support of tolerance and diversity with 3499 of my closest friends. Admittedly vague issues, but still a refreshing (and, frankly, beautiful) signal against recent right-wing electoral succ- and excesses. (Photo by Tom Schaffer)
bestposts
Reposted by
fin
fin
June 17 2009
Aug
8
Patrick Wolf & Cranes
21:00
Abbazia di Santa Maria, Sesto al Regena, Italy
This sounds like it could be the most amazing concert ever: Patrick on piano plus Cranes, a dream pop band from the Nineties, unplugged – in an ancient basilica in rural Italy, roughly two-thirds of the way between Villach and Venice.
I have no idea yet how exactly I'm going to get there, but I am so going.
bestposts
May 28 2009
Because it was recorded on Universal Music's dime, Patrick's fourth album has the production values of a major label release: Pristine sound, gospel choirs, string sections: No expenses were spared here. But when it didn't end up sounding "conventional enough" for Universal, Patrick ended his major label experiment ("I was like, ‘thank you, thank you!’ – it was such a compliment", he says), asked fans to invest in finishing it through Bandstocks, and is now releasing The Bachelor on his own on June 1st.
It's the dark half of what was originally planned to be a double disc release: war, fear, regret, tragic love, bachelorism, suicide, hard times and hard lessons are the topics of the 13 songs – and yet there's an upbeat tone to several of them, with more than a glimmer of hope shining through even the darkest lyrics.
Musically, it spans all genres he has touched on so far: There's the complex electro pop that dominated his debut ("Count of Casualty" is actually built around a beat he made on an Atari at 16), the broody poetic folk from #2, the pop hooks that made #3 popular, and collaborator Alec Empire even introduces some new "digital hardcore" elements.
It took me a little to get used to the slickness of the sounds, but when I found myself unable to stop humming the melodies for days after listening, any doubts were removed: Yes, it's a bit more disjointed, with a little less fantasy and a little more gloss than before, but ultimately it's yet another brilliant record by the artist I've listened to more than any other for the last years. And despite his incredible journey so far he luckily has no plans of slowing down, as he tells us on the final track:
"Fearless, 15 / First came that dream, to be seen / To know love, the world and all its stages / Now 25, made it alive and what a life I have known / Not gonna stop, never fully grown / ... / I'll seize the day / Make life as traveler / Work as messenger / With my pain and my pleasure / ... / Start my traveling now"
Video and audio over at the emo soup
It's the dark half of what was originally planned to be a double disc release: war, fear, regret, tragic love, bachelorism, suicide, hard times and hard lessons are the topics of the 13 songs – and yet there's an upbeat tone to several of them, with more than a glimmer of hope shining through even the darkest lyrics.
Musically, it spans all genres he has touched on so far: There's the complex electro pop that dominated his debut ("Count of Casualty" is actually built around a beat he made on an Atari at 16), the broody poetic folk from #2, the pop hooks that made #3 popular, and collaborator Alec Empire even introduces some new "digital hardcore" elements.
It took me a little to get used to the slickness of the sounds, but when I found myself unable to stop humming the melodies for days after listening, any doubts were removed: Yes, it's a bit more disjointed, with a little less fantasy and a little more gloss than before, but ultimately it's yet another brilliant record by the artist I've listened to more than any other for the last years. And despite his incredible journey so far he luckily has no plans of slowing down, as he tells us on the final track:
"Fearless, 15 / First came that dream, to be seen / To know love, the world and all its stages / Now 25, made it alive and what a life I have known / Not gonna stop, never fully grown / ... / I'll seize the day / Make life as traveler / Work as messenger / With my pain and my pleasure / ... / Start my traveling now"
Video and audio over at the emo soup
bestposts
Reposted by
mistress
mistress
May 23 2009
Play fullscreen
Green Go – Ghosts Of The Future
Absolutely loving this right now: The fact that there are two drummers, those synths, the nerdy lyrics, that lone person dancing in the front row... but most of all how much fun they're obviously having.
I promise to learn an instrument if someone will let me play in a band this (unabashedly un-)cool.
[Maybe I'm liking this more than usual because of the contrast to yesterday's testosterone fest, although that was lots of fun as well after a few disinhibiting beers. This is just so much more my kind of thing.]
@heather: Am I seeing things, or is the singer wearing this pattern on his shirt?!
bestposts
Reposted by
A ShouldDo list
- Foster better informed citizenry. First step: Improve online news? Initial exploratory work in progress.
- Improve online communication tools: Mailing lists, forums, wikis: So much to improve with each of those. Maybe build on the Wave protocol? Can software can recreate the effect of a competent moderator in a face to face discussion? First step: ?
- Improve learning materials: more interactivity, more visualization, more collaboration, intuitive devices (multi-touch tablets, probably). First step: ?
- Support creative, active people
- Hacker stipends: YCombinator for people who do stuff, commercial or not. Grassroots Grundeinkommen. The basic income house. First step: Get rich?
- Bring ambitious people together
- Establish programming & web tech as core competency for journalists, politicians, ..., everyone. Because in those jobs, you just need to be able to effectively use, but also flexibly build and customize, tools for information retrieval, visualization & communication. First step: Courses @ Metalab?
- Radically simplify computing user interfaces. First step: Standardize (some aspects of) web UI? Some sort of seal of approval for cloud services with OpenID login, Atom & AtomPub APIs, oAuth?, standard UI patterns, standard i18n patterns,... "Regular people can use these tools in any combination!"
- Reform election laws: Less influence of geographic location, abolish hurdles, Condorcet, etc. First step: Start a campaign?
- Liberal/libertarian political activism: Next step: Because of the incompetence of actors at the Austrian political party level, escalate to EU level or focus on cross-party projects.
- Integration/local community building: Free pies, or something.
- Upbringing and education are probably the greatest points of leverage... think about those some more.
- Everything requires: Money to survive, other people and the ability to motivate them, more discipline, stable sleep cycle, more delegation,...
- See also here (German)
bestposts
May 22 2009
May 13 2009
Train is a serious board game by Brenda Brathwaite, specifically designed to not be replayable, that can make people cry. Click through and you'll understand why.
bestposts
Reposted by
May 11 2009
“ The skillful management of attention is the sine qua non of the good life and the key to improving virtually every aspect of your experience, from mood to productivity to relationships. ”— Salon.com Books | Why can't we concentrate?
Note to self: Pay more attention to what you pay attention to.
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Reposted by
May 04 2009
Hackathon @ Metalab May 20-22
In Vienna? Got unfinished side projects? New ideas you can't seem to get around to? Here's your excuse for an all-out geek-out to make something cool.
In Vienna? Got unfinished side projects? New ideas you can't seem to get around to? Here's your excuse for an all-out geek-out to make something cool.
bestposts
Reposted by
April 26 2009
My euprofiler results. Apart from your own country, you can also compare your matches across all European parties. The top match for me is the Dutch D66, followed by the Swedish Piratpartiet (although that's a misrepresentation because they hold no opinion on most issues).
Shame the JuLis (former Liberales Studentenforum, now named and branded like the German FDP-associated, but independent JuLis) aren't included yet – they will be on the ballot thanks to MEP Karin Resetarits' support. The LIF will not be. (People's Front of Judea, anyone?)
Shame the JuLis (former Liberales Studentenforum, now named and branded like the German FDP-associated, but independent JuLis) aren't included yet – they will be on the ballot thanks to MEP Karin Resetarits' support. The LIF will not be. (People's Front of Judea, anyone?)
bestposts
April 25 2009
“ I'm not a capitalist, I am a creativist. I want to make money so that I can create things. Suddenly all these people have come along who want to create things so they can make money. ”— Eddie Izzard via Are you a capitalist or a creativist?
bestposts
Reposted from
catarino
catarinoApril 21 2009
Just found this screenshot of Gigsampler, my first Rails project in 2005, and part of my diploma thesis: Get an instant playlist of music by bands who'll soon play in your city (on a website, as podcast or in various playlist formats).
Never launched this, and I still miss it. Podbop came along just when I was about to finish it, but doesn't cover Vienna in any meaningful way. Last.fm has all the data these days, but doesn't have the simplicity/focus or the city podcasts, so I almost never go to shows by bands I don't know well yet. Meh.
Never launched this, and I still miss it. Podbop came along just when I was about to finish it, but doesn't cover Vienna in any meaningful way. Last.fm has all the data these days, but doesn't have the simplicity/focus or the city podcasts, so I almost never go to shows by bands I don't know well yet. Meh.
bestposts
Reposted by fin
fin
April 19 2009
Black Moth Super Rainbow sound like a lonely child wandering the woods on a mild autumn evening in the Seventies, listening to mostly static on a pocket radio while pondering space exploration and feeling nostalgic for the future.
Born on a day the sun didn't rise
Twin of myself
(Eating Us is out in May, some live videos over at the emo soup)
Born on a day the sun didn't rise
Twin of myself
(Eating Us is out in May, some live videos over at the emo soup)
bestposts
April 18 2009
“ Blog like nobody's watching; overshare like you've never been hurt; tweet like nobody's listening. ”— @gingeranyhow via Heather_R
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Reposted by
April 16 2009
“ Technologically we now have [six billion billionaires] on Spaceship Earth who are entirely unaware of their good fortune. Unbeknownst to [us our] legacy is being held in probate by general ignorance, fear, selfishness, and a myriad of paralyzing professional, licensing, zoning, building laws and the like, as bureaucratically maintained by the incumbent power structures. ”— Buckminster Fuller: Critical Path
bestposts
The other day @sushimako, @mau and I tried to come up with rules for a board game using @oneup's little plastic pixel soldiers.
Our result after an hour or two was a 3-player game where two people team up to attack the motorcade of a passing VIP with their armies, although it ended up being based mostly on die luck rather than any real strategy... still fun.
Our result after an hour or two was a 3-player game where two people team up to attack the motorcade of a passing VIP with their armies, although it ended up being based mostly on die luck rather than any real strategy... still fun.
bestposts
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April 07 2009
Love, sex, drugs and music in the Argentine desert: A slow picture about growing up in the middle of nowhere.
The beautiful, atmospheric cinematography and reliance on improv rather than a full script echo the work of Harmony Korine (Gummo) and Gus van Sant (Paranoid Park). But most of all I loved the prominent soundtrack, which brilliantly juxtaposes an eclectic selection of international indie artists (The Violent Femmes, Kimya Dawson, Stereo Total) with the life of an Argentine teenager.
The beautiful, atmospheric cinematography and reliance on improv rather than a full script echo the work of Harmony Korine (Gummo) and Gus van Sant (Paranoid Park). But most of all I loved the prominent soundtrack, which brilliantly juxtaposes an eclectic selection of international indie artists (The Violent Femmes, Kimya Dawson, Stereo Total) with the life of an Argentine teenager.
bestposts
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