Benrik’s “Situationist” iPhone App

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on March 11, 2011 by admin in Technology

Part guerrilla theatre, part social object, the new iPhone app called “Situationist” could change your life.

As a terminal punk with a lifelong love of experimental theater, culture jamming, and relative disregard for social convention, how could I not love the new iPhone app Situationist? Or at least the idea behind it anyway – I don’t own an iPhone, and have previously explained why I probably won’t. The concept behind the app is awesome though;  a little like guerilla theater meets social object. In the developers’ own words:  It alerts members to each others’ proximity and gets them to interact in random “situations”. These situations vary from the friendly “Hug me for 5 seconds exactly” or “Compliment me on my haircut”, to the subversive “Help me rouse everyone around us into revolutionary fervour and storm the nearest TV station”. The developers are Benrik, which is a portmanteau of Ben Carey and Henrik Delehag, who are performance artists, world remodelers, and culture jammers themselves. And if you’re wondering if the app is in reference to the international socio-political art revolutionaries of the 50′s and 60′s known as Situationist International (whom we’ve discussed before) the answer is a definitive “yes”. I love the added layer of irony that in order to engage in this anti-capitalist inspired activity, you have to have purchased an iPhone. Benrik’s previous adventures have included things like their “This Diary Will Change Your Life” series, the best of which has been compiled in the book This Book Will Change Your Life. We’ve included a few examples from the 2005 diary below to demonstrate just how much the diary could change your life. Of course, the Situationist app itself could be pretty life-changing, but as we said, it has that little iPhone barrier to ease of consumption. Learn more about Benrik on their site . There’s much more to them than an iPhone app and some cult books.

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Have A Nice Day

[ Comments Off ]Posted on March 10, 2011 by admin in Health & Wellness

It’s easier than you think.


The content of this article is partially derived from
a book and a personal development site I’m working on

Did you have a good day today? Or a bad day? If you had a “good” day, there’s a fair chance that you didn’t even notice it. But if you had a bad day, you may even still be thinking about it. The interesting thing about good and bad days though, is that there’s really no such thing. As a recovering addict, I consider myself to be something of an expert on good and bad days. For a long time, I had plenty of both, and often on the same day! Some days would start horribly – perhaps because of a brain-splitting hangover – and then I’d dig into the day’s activities, and things would be okay. And then later, I’d meet up with friends for drinks (and perhaps more), and things would get really GREAT for a while. A few years ago, I decided to step off that little merry-go-round though, and since then, have sort of made it a goal to have a lot of good days. I’m getting better at it, and ironically one of the biggest reasons is that I’m becoming more and more convinced that there’s no such thing. Let me explain. Think of two of your friends. There’s a good chance that you have one that is a little more easygoing and doesn’t get stressed out easily, and one that seems to flip out at the most minor frustration. Now put them both in a similar scenario. They wake up late one morning because their alarm doesn’t go off. They immediately try to call work to explain why they’re late, and drop their cell phone, sending the battery skidding across the kitchen floor. In the ensuing frantic moments, as they fumble to put the phone back together, they spill coffee on themselves as they rush to get dressed. And then, just for good measure, let’s say shortly after that, they get in their car and it doesn’t start. At this point, there are two distinct reactions a person could be having. On one hand, a person might be well into a frustrated rage or panic that will take hours to subside. On the other hand, a person may have started laughing at the absurdity of it all around the point where the coffee was spilled. Which one of these people is more like you? If you’re inclined to experience the scenario I described as the beginning of a “bad day”, I’d urge you to re-examine things. First of all, on a simple, scientific, and rational basis. Books like Why Sh*t Happens: The Science of a Really Bad Day and Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long both use narrative scenarios to support their explanations for what is really going on when you’re “having a bad day”. The former focuses a lot on the physical science behind things, the latter, more on the brain and cognition. The fact is, we have so many cognitive biases to choose from, that we may as well do just that – choose them! I needed a refresher in this recently, and ran across two audio books that I’ve found useful. I sort of half-listen to them while I work. One was recommended by a long-time friend. A very motivated, practical guy who – as well as being a lawyer – runs a martial arts studio, and is acknowledged worldwide for his mastery of the style of Japanese swordsmanship to which he has devoted much if his study. The book is Deepak Chopra’s The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success. I’ve focused on the audio version. A key concept that Chopra emphasizes which I find useful is that we tend to place ourselves in an object-oriented reality, forgetting that we are literally, physically continuous with our physical reality, and that all the divisions we create are largely arbitrary. Remaining more aware of this helps me feel less at odds with things and events around me. I mean crikey. I’M PART OF THEM! He also talks about our perception of time, and the benefits of operating in the present. Along the same lines, I grudgingly gave Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now (again, the audio version) a whirl. As long as you don’t find his diction or occasional meanderings into slightly woo-woo realms of thought, he offers some remarkable and simple insights into the absurdity of some of our common perceptions of time and and expectations of ourselves and reality. He reminded me that I don’t have an ego, an ego has me. But the fact is, it doesn’t need to be this complicated. We don’t need to wade through hundreds of pages of books and hours of audio. Because there are simple tools to achieving a more present-centered and acceptable life. One of them – the “serenity prayer” – gets a bad rap because of its religious overtones, so I’m going to share a deconstructed version below. This single tool has prevented more bad days than I can count, because it reminds me of the two most essential elements of having a good day: living in the present, and working with or accepting events instead of battling them. Let’s have a little fun with this. My deconstruction is below. Read the rest of this entry »

You Are Listening To Los Angeles

[ Comments Off ]Posted on March 9, 2011 by admin in Music

The delightfully strange intersection of crime and ambient music.

Have you been lamenting that there’s no way to combine your favorite police scanner channel with some nice ambient music? Of course you haven’t. But you would have been, if you had known in advance just how cool it would sound. In any case, this problem you didn’t even know you had has been solved with the brilliant website mashup You Are Listening To Los Angeles, which is simply a picture of Los Angeles, and the simultaneous streams of ambient music from SoundCloud.com and police radio chatter from Los Angeles. On the surface, this may not sound terribly appealing, but it is in fact amazingly pleasant to listen to. Especially if – like me – you enjoy the brilliant audio work in movies like THX 1138 or Blade Runner, or if you’ve ever enjoyed music by the likes of Bill Nelson or Byrne & Eno. There’s something about the filtering of certain kinds of radio transmissions, combined with their blips and static cutoffs, that make them quite musical. And when layered randomly with certain ambient music, you suddenly have an ever-evolving, and strangely soothing background music. I’ve been listening to it randomly while I work, and  eventually got curious about how well it would work with different sources, so I tried some of my own ambient music (embedded below, or you can buy it here) combined with various emergency scanner streams from RadioReference.com. And it seems to work well with just about any stream you pick, provided the music is genuinely “ambient” enough. I chose my tune On The Eve from a benefit CD I did back in 2003, and it worked pretty well with the Chicago Police stream. But who knows if it ever will again. Which is sort of the beauty of this. You Are Listening To Los Angeles was created by Eric Eberhardt , and as of this writing the site says he’ll be adding feeds from other cities soon. If you’re reading Eric, feel free to include the tune below… Read the rest of this entry »

Greetings From Guantanamobama Bay

[ Comments Off ]Posted on March 8, 2011 by admin in Politics

Would you like to buy a lovely waterfront hideaway near Biraq Obamastan?

I can’t tell you how happy I am about President Obama’s recent u-turn on Guantanamo. It helped drive the last nail in the coffin of a peculiar naivete I had nurtured for a couple of years. It was fun being all starry-eyed for a while, but in my heart I knew it was all too good to be true. One of candidate Obama’s most clever and inspiring lines on the campaign trail – that “cynicism is a sorry kind of wisdom” – rings pretty hollow these days. In fact, my cynism is serving me quite well right about now, thank you very much. I need it to stave off the heartbreaking dissapointment I’ve been feeling because of candidate Obama’s bizarre transformation into president Obama.  Recently, in response to the Rolling Stone piece about Psy Ops and politicians, we jokingly asked if indeed maybe American politicians were being brainwashed. As I lightheartedly pondered the topic, I remembered a joke I made with a friend when President Obama started sustaining Bush era policies. We agreed that “they” (you know, the Illuminati or whoever they are) must have taken him aside right after the inauguration, waterboarded him, and threatened him with the tragic demise of his family or something if he didn’t do exactly as they said. How else to explain the bizarrely Bushy behavior that our smiling, confident, man of change and hope was suddenly exhibiting? The cognitive dissonance was overwhelming for a while. I found myself making up all sorts of weird excuses for the president’s neocon-ish behavior. One was based on the fact that he and I are the same age. I’d ponder how we’d actually have a lot in common, and how I’d say to myself “Wow. Okay, imagine putting those presidential shoes on at our age. What a burden! What a challenge!” And, well…what a joke! The truth is that although we’re the same age, while he was entering Harvard with dreams of politics, I was pursuing recording contracts with my post punk synthpop, and generally detesting Harvard graduates and the values they commonly espoused. Who was I kidding? And while on balance I have to say – especially in light of the clusterfuck he walked into – that he’s certainly not a bad president, I could comfortably say the same of Reagan, Bush Sr, and Clinton. The fact is I just have incredible buyer remorse. But in the end, I’m thankful, because Barack Obama’s presidency has been part of a great lesson for me, especially in light of the recent civil uprisings around the world. And that lesson is that change won’t come from some guy in Washington, it will come from people like you and me, whenever we get off our asses and make it happen. And one final thought for you if you’re still a rabid supporter of Barack Obama. Go read these remarks of his from November 2007, or this ethics agenda from the same period, and tell me you still have faith in the man. Because if you do, I have some beautiful waterfront property in Cuba I’d like to sell you.

Tropfest Short Film Festival 2011

[ Comments Off ]Posted on March 7, 2011 by admin in Popular Media

Our coverage of the world’s largest short film festival is two weeks late and a film short.

It’s a testament to my short attention span that I didn’t mention this year’s Tropfest short film festival winner a few weeks ago. This was especially shortsighted, given the combination of my obsession with short film and the fact that I ranted about Australia’s Blue Tongue Film shorts just three days before Tropfest announced this year’s winner, Animal Beatbox (also below). Ah well, “a week late and a film short”, as they say. If you haven’t heard of Australia’s Tropfest, don’t feel badly. In spite of laying claim to being the world’s largest short film festival, it seems to get remarkably little press in the states. Tropfest was created nineteen years ago by John Polson as an informal short film screening for cast, crew and friends at the Tropicana Cafe in Sydney. 200 people showed up the first year, and it’s been growing ever since. Past celebrity judges include names like John Woo, Samuel L Jackson, Baz Luhrmann, Keanu Reeves, Ewan McGregor, and Jane Campion, and as of this year, the festival attracts a live national audience of more than 150,000 people on a single night. One little thing that makes Tropfest unique and helps keep the films fresh is that there’s Tropfest Signature Item each year, an item that must be referenced in the film somehow. This year’s TSI was “Key” which explains why the festival graphic here is a pile of silhouetted keys. Below are two of my favorite winners of the last few years – Marry Me from 2008, and Be My Brother from 2009 – followed by this year’s winner, mentioned above. I have to say, I love that one of the promotional pieces (also below) dredged up the old Hitchcock quote “The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder“.  See more winners and 2011 finalists on Tropfest’s YouTube Channel.

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