year end list-- it goes like this...

01 ECSR - Primary Colours.

02 Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna

03 Fuck Buttons- Street Horrsing

04 Why? - Alopecia

05 Beach House - Devotion

06 Mount Eerie - Lost Wisdom. (also Dawn and Black Wooden Ceiling Opening also released this year)

07 The Drones - Havilah

08 Shearwater - Rook

09 The Dodo's - Visiter

10 Wale - Mixtape About Nothing (pronounced wah lay)




as to , you know, how much of these i actually paid for, i bought Primary Colours at the launch show on vinyl, bought Rook on vinyl from missing link, and saw Beach House play at the mistletones show, and Mount Eerie play a diy styled show at an artists studio in Brunswick. I'll buy Havilah when it's released on vinyl, and the Wale mixtape was a free download i believe. at least, it was free for me...



As to what was new out of these, i had never listened to before this year-
gang gang dance, fuck buttons, beach house, mount eerie, dodo's and wale. over half.

my brothers drawing

http://www.achtungpanzer.com/panzerjager-hornisse-nashorn-sd-kfz-164.htm

places

i love websites and blogs that are tied to a specific are or region. if they want to make me move there, well then that's perfect. Fecal Face is a website that makes me want to live in San Francisco, with a focus on artists, designers and musicians from this area, that makes San Fran seem like a big Fort Thunder.
At teh moment there is a review/interview of a new photo book named TAG TOWN by Martha Cooper up there which has some brilliant documentary photo's of Tags and street graffiti from NY from the sixties onwards.
Martha says "When trying to shoot their pieces, I spent countless hours standing alone in vacant lots in the South Bronx waiting for trains with freshly painted pieces to come by. Sometimes writers called to tell me that they had a new piece up and which line it was on. Then I would try to shoot it as quickly as possible before it was buffed by transit or painted over by other writers. "

another blog about a PLACE that's a little closer is FITZROYALTY

Electric Car systems

so with the australian governments recent commitment to a reduction of carbon emissions by only 5% by 2020, it's good/(better then nothing) to see that there are businesses around who can see the potential money to be made in alternative energy infrastructure, as opposed to the money to be made from tollways.

http://www.psfk.com/2008/11/electric-car-network-down-under.html
The company Better Place focuses on three areas: The introduction of charging zones for short distance drivers in the metro area; battery switching stations for long journeys; and software aids to automate the service. Australia will serve as a proving ground for their systems in a country with a lower population density then Denmark and Israel which are the other countries so far committed. no doubt Better Place will be looking for a slice of the Federal Governments Green Car Innovation Fund, but hopefully some of the money from the fund will go towards enticing electric vehicle production and research in Australia from companies other then Ford and Holden, because frankly, they don't seem interested.
It would be really nice to see some sort of industry standard system developed for battery exchanges, and charging. As soon as possible really, to speed up takeup and encourage other purchasers besides early adopters. undoubtedly the general public will be wary of engaging in any beta/vhs or HDDVD/bluray battles, where the consumer is always the loser. it would be a remarkable thing for the car manufacturers to come to any agreement, so it's really up to the EU to specify standards that the companies will follow. The 'Better Place' business model must depend on some consistent system, theat manufacturers will be able to utulise, maybe with a licensing fee, so more detail will probably become apparent as they start production.
It looks at the moment like the first mass produced plug -in electric vehicles of the 21st century will be available some time between 2010-2012. BMW is talking of reviving their micro car brand Isetta which produced some incredibly creative design solutions following the second world war (which would undoubtedly not pass crash certifications now). This will enable them to produce micro-city-cars in much the same way the Mini sub brand has let them make front wheel drive small cars. Fiat also plans to revive their Topolino model, as a car below the 500 in size and the Isetta will share a platform with this.

add to these options and the many more which are in the planning stages, the Piaggio MP3 plugin Hybrid. With two front wheels, probably greatly reducing the incidence of highside and lowside cornering accidents, it should appeal to buyers who wouldn't normally consider a scooter or motorbike, as a secondary transport option. available next year, the price will be around that of a small car...

Katie Paterson

Some people just have fascinating minds... Paterson has created lightbulbs that emulate moonlight, and records of frozen ice that play back the sounds of the glaciers they came from, amongst other projects even larger and more complicated. Obviously not someone who builds their entire project the week before a deadline.

"Since graduating from the Slade School of Fine Art last year, Katie Paterson has had solo shows at the Matthew Bown Gallery, R O O M, and Modern Art Oxford, and spent a month ‘moongazing’ in Japan.

Her recent works include Earth-Moon-Earth, the transmission of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata to the moon and back - resulting in fragmented composition being transmitted on a self-playing grand piano and Vatnajökull (the sound of) - a live phone line to an Icelandic glacier. Both works were first presented at Paterson’s MFA degree show in 2007 and restaged at her acclaimed solo show at Modern Art Oxford this year.

Currently exhibiting at Albion, London; forthcoming shows include Tsekh Gallery, Kiev, and Altermodern: Tate Triennial 2009."

http://www.katiepaterson.org/

Katie Paterson @ Yahoo! Video