Big laser pointer, huge projector: L.A.S.E.R. Tag.

Members of the university’s GigSoc were in final rehearsals for a production “loosely adapted” from the Disney film Sister Act, which was to debut at the Black Box Theatre in Galway tomorrow after six months of preparatory work.

But yesterday afternoon, in a letter sent via a Dublin-based solicitor, Disney informed the students that the performance would breach its intellectual property rights and threatened legal proceedings if the play went ahead, according to GigSoc.

He said the play had attracted “fantastic support” from students of NUIG and neighbouring colleges, while there had been “record interest” from the general public. “We are dumbfounded by Disney’s stance towards what is a charitable, non-profit-making society, aimed at promoting safety and integration for the student LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] community. We were just having fun.”

That’s pathetic. Copyright & IP gone horribly wrong. Disney; quick get into court to lobby for another extension of copyright. Think of the unholy damage this production would have done to the marketing potential for Sister Act. Or what possibly could have been the logic behind it? What can possibly be gained from it? Do they think the publicity gained by this will make more people go rent Sister Act? Is Disney just pure evil?

Can you imagine if a recording of this play leaked onto the internet… Sales of the original Sister Act plunging, Whoopi Goldberg unemployed, Disney unable to make anymore hit Nun related movies… the humanity. Irish Times story. Gig Soc homepage.

Yesterday, life for 17-year-old Jenny Ring was sitting a mock exam at St Paul’s college in Greenhills, Dublin city, trying to concentrate on her exams.

But all the while, her thoughts were drifting to the Tate Modern gallery in London where next month one of her paintings will be unveiled at the international Dreams and Reality exhibition.

Irish Examiner story. Doesn’t seem to be anything up about the exhibition at the official tate website yet.

Yep, who would have thought it, Lara Croft in Ireland. (more…)

Every year I try to anaesthetize myself from the cloying sentimentality of Valentine’s Day with this little drawing, which can be printed out and used to cover offensive Valentine’s Day cards. I have also come up some alternative names for Valentine’s Day but Hallmark and the like have been reluctant to take them up, I don’t know why.

· Plastic Shite Day
· Emotional Blackmail Day
· Sap-Fest
· Breeder Bonanza
· Fucker Festival
· Restaurant Exclusion day
· Let’s Just Be Friends Day
· Rejection Day
· Err, Emm I sent that Card as a Joke Day.
· Getting hit repeatedly with a Plank Day
· Crying alone in your own filth Day

The most important drum-break thus far.

This six-second sample from 1969 alone is responsible for the entire musical genre - ‘jungle’, and arguably stakes a place as about as important to hip-hop as James Brown’s ‘Funky Drummer’ break.

Visually stark (boring), this informative video traces the use of the break and its incredible importance in terms of recent musical history (from NWA through jungle, to Squarepusher and investigating copyright implications - even sighting a company providing commercially available sample CDs aimed at advertisement industry, and hence, claiming the sample as its own property) and implications of its recontextualisation in cultural and commercial terms.

Six-seconds of one b-side, responsible for an entire cultural movement, The Amen Break:

MTV are bringing out a high-definition suite of channels, and some kick ass animation has been created for use as station idents. It’s great work. This page has detail and the jump off for a 20 meg or so .mov. (via.)

Tuesday morning kick ass CGI demo. Not new but very cool.

Via digg comes 1984comic.com, a guy making a comic book adaption of 1984 and posting it online as he makes it. Chapters 1 & 2 are online so far.

Graphic Designer Feltron recorded all sorts of random stuff throughout 2006 and has created an Annual Report on his life.

He killed 1 Strawberrry plant, flew 2793 miles, had 859.5 social drinks, and sent 2823 text messages…

Nicely presented in big fonts and bright yellow.

The Feltron 2006 Annual Report.

Via.

The best 150 second film ever.

I saw it a couple of years ago and then it showed up on blogorrah a few days ago.

Hilarious.

Just heard the news that Banksy has launched a free online shop where you can downloaded some pictures of his artwork and graffati. There’s not much of a selection as yet, but hopefully more will follow. Alternatively, visit Pictures on Walls, where you can purchase Banksyesque art at normal people’s prices. On eBay, you can also find canvas prints of Banksy’s work if you search through some of the results. There’s a poster shop on Liffey Street in Dublin though who will print your pictures onto canvas which is a much cheaper option if you can find some of his artwork online.

Banksy has opened an online shop.

Everything in the shop is free. All the images can be downloaded to print or use as a desktop.

Serving suggestion:
Prints look best when done on gloss paper using the company printer ink when everyone else is at lunch.

Banksy Shop.

Loads of Banksy previously @ TCAL.

Spotted some Banksy videos up on YouTube after browsing recently. Here’s the collection and below is “Banksy punking Paris”

It’s actually part of a French tv series called Minuscule. Official site, which has loads to look at.

2006 Award winning photographs from Reuters. Some impressive stuff. (via.)

Stain is a set of a teacups designed to improve through use. This project examines the assumption that use is damaging to a product (For example, scratches on an iPod).

The interior surface of the cup is treated so as to stain more in predetermined places. The more the cups are used, the more the pattern is revealed. Over time they will build up an individual pattern dependent on the users personal way of drinking tea.

Find out more here. (via.)

Go look. Absolute photoshoppage quality. (via.)

i made this stopmotion video for minilogue this summer, this is the short version.
all made on whiteboard so…no undo/redo
the long version will be available on the DVD.

Band website. Artist website.

Photos of street-art from around the world. No Dublin. Probably because it didn’t qualify because of the tagger gobshites ruining every surface. Written on the city.