One of my heros in physical computing is Remo Saraceni, best known for the Walking Piano (you know – the one Tom Hanks played in the movie Big)
Here’s a very cool movie about him, featuring his amazing decked-out 80s pimping pad:
He has a suitably retro site here: http://www.walkingpiano.com where you can check out some of his other great stuff like the Interactive Bottle Ball, Body Print and Jumping Fointains. Nice nice nice.
One of the major sources for discovering music, when we were growing up had always been TV shows. In South Africa we had Pop Shop, in the UK, Top of the Pops. If you got on TV you were guaranteed a rush of sales the next day and a surge in demand for live appearances. Today, it’s YouTube. If I’m looking for a track, especially an oldie, I’m more likely to head for YouTube to check it out, before heading to ther iTunes store. When hanging around with mates, YouTube too is often the place music invariably gets played and new things are discovered. In the old days we used to go over to mates houses and watch VHS tapes of those shows).
The shortsightedness and greed of the record companies and artists (like Prince, see here and here) is definitely not in the spirit of the joy of music and what it represents. Ye olde record industry be gone with you I say! Be gone!
In a side note, I saw an interview with Depeche Mode the other day, where they recounted how they. lugging their heavy synths, took the Tube to their first Top of the Pops appearance. Ah, the age of innocence.
Depeche Mode, Somebody, complete with VHS tape fatigue:
A lot of people have been asking for my super-maxi single re-edit of Flash in the Pan’s Midnight Man, that I did for the Midnight Men party. So here we go, all delicious 14 minutes of it:
(Ctrl/Right click to download – 33mb)
1980s disco gem Mai Tai – “History” with top notch motion tracking effects.