round-up

Here's another random collection of links and things for a Sunday evening.

House - here's something from the Arena blog about the death of house music, a phenomenon confirmed by Dino, our resident expert, but who also pointed out that vinyl's enjoying a resurgence.

Creative Generalism - the Fallon planning blog has got some interesting stuff about the University of Colorado's family of degrees about innovation.

Twittererings - thoughts on twitter from Liz Henry, Kathy Sierra (via rodcorp) and JamesB.

Steven Johnson on the positive effect of kids on city living  and thinking from Richard Rogers on cities and suburbs (both via city of sound)

A brilliant report on an encounter between Craigslist and some Masters Of The Universe. A welcome reminder that not everything wants to be (or has to be) monetised. Via plasticbag. That's what I'm liking about this new round of web fun. Bubble 1.0 was business plan first, idea second. Bubble 2.0 is idea first, business plan maybe.

David's written some smart thoughts about Thomas L. Friedman's NY Times editorial about the Creative Consumer. (And he's kindly attached a pdf of the original for those without a subscription, thanks Dave)

A splendid way to start an impromptu gaming network with your wifi DS - badges. (via blackbeltjones)

Whenever I hear one of those huge motorbikes roar past ridiculously loudly it's obvious to me that there goes a rider who's afraid of speed. Otherwise why would they be expending that energy on sound when it could be directed to the road? A US think-tank expands the same point and suggests that only 1% of a car's energy is directed to ferrying the driver from A to B. As The Truth About Cars points out, this has serious implications for the future of car design.

This motorway map of the UK is just cool.

Comments

[martin]

Hey

Mike Pickering and Graeme Park are dead for sure. And thank god - enough bloated bores playing glossily mixed repetitive beats already.

But house music? House music has just been reborn!

Untethered by the weight of history (ibiza, e's etc) - which noone seems reference or care about any more - it's exploding.

The youth culture around making and dancing to noisy electronic music at or about 120 bpms is more vibrant now than I can remember it being for 15 years.

Like a lot of other things, the internet is playing a huge role. Which is why I've got to adjust the vinyl comment too.

Vinyl is selling, but it's largely a heritage business. The people who are making and consuming the music that is changing stuff are almost exclusively working with mp3s, very freely exchanged via blogs, often not commercially released.

Two of the best of these are http://www.acid-girls.com/blog/ and http://skulljuice.blogspot.com/.

Worth checking out - something very fresh is going on out there.

[avin]

Thanks for linking to my post about UofC's degree in innovation, definitely an interesting program to keep an eye on. I think the pressure is on UofC to define this as a viable program that translates into true value for the companies that hire Innovation Grads, and if they do I'm sure other schools will follow suit with their own degrees in innovation.

[grumblemouse]

I agree with Martin - house music is not dead, its just that people don't want to be listening to Paul Oakenfold or Graeme Park anymore. These guys have been playing a certain style since the 80's which whilst admirable and probably goes down very well in a room full of American kids who grew up dreaming of escaping to Machester isn't really going to cut it when there are people like Erol Alkan, Justice and Simian Mobile Disco destroying the club scene. People may label it 'neu rave' but its just house, some of its a little more electro and some has some sirens but house none the less.

Its great that trainer companies are re releasing old classics but if this is meant to celebrate the best of music from late 80's and 90's then I still don't understand why you'd have Paul Oakenfold - Teens of Thailand and Young Turks have been putting on huge parties filled with young kids dancing to Ratpack, Slipmatt and DJ Luck & MC Neat - they love it. Surely Puma could have sprung for a re union of Top Buzz which would have fitted into the whole 80's / 90's vibe but surely be more aligned with what kids are listening to today like the Klaxons etc.

Anyway Skull Juice are amazing but nothing beats the mighty Fluokids.

http://fluokids.blogspot.com/

[Dino]

In my opinion, House Music is not "noisy electronic music at or about 120 bpms" Martin. If that is your definition, then anything is House Music as long as it is electronic and played at that tempo. Some of the artists you mentioned have really nothing to do with real House music.

Regarding the vinyl comment, I totally agree that vinyl is heritage at this point; in fact, the article that I had pointed out was actually about vinyl sales of rock music.

[pat]

House music has always been easy to hate. As a fan of house music, I've often been on the receiving end of snobbery from those who play guitars. I guess house music prides itself on its ability to polarize, so there's often a tendancy for people to get a little melodramatic... and saying that house is 'dead' just tightens their grip on house music against the rock kids.

House is not dead, it has - like every music genre - evolved: people are no longer making the same house music as they were in the early 90s nor are we listening to hip-hop a la 1986 or rock n roll circa 1957.