My Death Space

I have capitulated and joined MySpace. I always use it to check out bands but decided to finally bite the bullet and register. However I hope that I don't end up at MyDeathSpace in the very near future.

There is something deeply creepy about the idea of MySpace becoming a communal condolence book. In response to this, I pledge to leave all my internet passwords to my family so that they can trawl the web deleting my profile from various sites and vanquish me from the collective memory of the web if the worst happens. Read Momus' advice on comitting MySpaceside.

Or is that the point? We now leave a digital trace where once we would leave stacks of old photos or items of sentimental value. Now we leave lists of our likes, favourite music and homevideos for anyone to browse. One of the key factors in the success of MySpace is the ability to customise your homepage however you wish without needing to know html (although most kids do these days). Everyone can pretend to be an 'individual' in the communal gene pool of the internet, project the personality they would like others to see without the complications of real-world interaction in social situations. It's like personal marketing for the online generation. The idea that someone really has over a hundred friends is stretching things somewhat.

Any friends out there?...

Update: Just logged into former darling-of-the-internet social site Friendster again and noticed that they have overhauled the site (added video, customisable html settings, etc) in a bid to stave off the exodus to MySpace.

Lyricism

Check out the lyrics to Who's a Terrorist Now by Scully. Ingenious.

"In Trafalgar Square I get lairier
In the designated riot area"

Nearly as good as rhyming 'Tesco' with 'Al Fresco' in LDN by Lily Allen

As we all know, Ken is a big supporter of this sort of behaviour.

Super Squeezy

I watched Super Size Me again last night (because I am a cheapskate and it came free in the Guardian on Saturday) and the theme is followed up in an article in today's G2 previewing a new book from Eric Schlosser (he of Fast Food Nation fame).

It just serves to underline the effort we put into not pissing off companies for the sake of our jobs and short-term pay-off (the spokesperson for the food group consortium is a highlight in SSM) at the expense of our health. Someone's description in Super Size Me of the toxic environment is dead right (no pun intended).

I particularly like the revelation in today's G2 article that a focus group of kids came up with the idea of the squeezy tomato ketchup bottle. Genius. The companies literally pay them peanuts (or burgers) for their opinions and ideas, then pocket the billions that are earned from said idea and effectively help to accelerate their way to a (very large) grave... That's capitalist progress for you.

Ice Blink

Go and see Ice Blink at Cell: it's brilliant (you have until the 30th so hurry!). Simon Faithfull made a two month 'epic' visit to the Antarctic with the British Antarctic and documented the journey. The drawings made on a Palm Pilot are really nice and lo-fi and were emailed to subscribers with the geo-tagged coordinates of where they were drawn. The video's installled in the storage containers do an excellent job of conveying something of the disorientating nature of the environment. Walking down the steps between them was like being on deck of a ship with the constant humming coming from within.

Layla Curtis is doing a similar thing at the moment but she also has a much nicer website - very slickly executed but beware... major flashification if you don't have broadband!

Maybe signature Antarctic pieces are the new Neon pieces in the artworld?

The Guardian has more pictures of his voyage here. Apparently he is the half-cousin of Marianne Faithfull as well, which is quite rock.

The only problem is that when you go up Cambridge Heath Road on a Sunday afternoon there is absolutely nowhere to have a little something to eat around there afterwards. And don't say Broadway Market or The Approach because I didn't fancy a bankruptingly small portion of well-arranged frites. Just a nice cup of tea and place to sit down for a think would have sufficed.

Update: Everyones's at it. Antarctica's the new global adventurer's South America... or something...

Chicken Cottage

Chicken Cottage
Originally uploaded by d m.

This morning in Tooting Bec.

The police can afford to buy three attack helicopters costing £3 million pounds each to aid in the fight against terror but still prefer the comfort of a twin berth?

No word from the officers as to why they had cornered off three blocks and installed a caravan to watch one man eating some crispy wings in Chicken Cottage.

Update: It looks like it was this. So no need for Blue Thunder to come out just yet.

Watching Over You

Watching Over You
Originally uploaded by d m.

I think the inclusion of a woman's eyes instead of a man's is designed to make us all feel safe and snug in a maternal-type way. I think it's one of the scariest posters I've seen for a while. Although advertising a non-event website doesn't seem like the best use of public money to prevent terrorism (or 'much, much more' - what does that mean?) Plus, I like the way that there is no doubt that parliament is doing the watching. Maybe we should give them some more powers to do this? Then we could all sleep safe at night...

The Cabinet Office says the diminutively-named Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill will "...allow the Government to deliver reform of outdated or over-complicated legislation more quickly". To me, that sounds like 'push things through Parliament quicker if we want to'. As with ID cards there is a campaign to bring the Bill's problems to the fore which will hopefully have some effect. Sadly, it just seems to be the direction things are going in general.

38, 38, 38...

38, 38, 38...
Originally uploaded by d m.

What is it with the no.38? You can't see this in the picture but there were four bendy-bus 38's in a row. That's a bus tail-back of over 72 metres! (don't get me started on bendy buses... that's for another post) What do they do, breed around Hackney Downs or something?

Whenever you are waiting for a bus, no matter where in London, a no.38 will pass you. Only when you are wanting to get another route, however.