The art of Black Flag
Care of Invisible Oranges, a mini-documentary on the visual image and iconography of the seminal SoCal hardcore band.
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Hello, world. I’m MacDara Conroy, and this is my blog.
Date: September 2013
Some warts-and-all documentaries take viewers deeper into the world of Troma than most would ever want to go
Didn't realise Lloyd Kaufman was such a slavedriver but it doesn't surprise me; you don't churn out zero-budget productions the way Troma does without sacrifice, whether voluntary or not. #link
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How to take great urban photos
Some good tips here. But really, once you've got composition down, lighting is everything. See also: The Guardian's photography masterclass. #link
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Only One Cure For Pain: Morphine and Mark Sandman, 14 Years Gone
I remember it was a big deal on the Watt List when Sandman died. #link
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Clip joint: wrestlers who act
They Live is a stone cold classic. #link
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Reggie Watts on death metal
And specifically the new Exhumed album, which is really quite good. Also, Watts really gets it. #link
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The full list of the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition is here (of course it is, Wikipedia). And that's why I love TNG/DS9-era Star Trek. #video
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Hatred of Music: The Economics of Promotion
Ian Maleney outlines what it takes to put on a gig in Ireland these days. #link
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A guide to the Universal Studios monster movies, 1923-1955
This is also a reminder to get back into the new Blu-ray collection of the Universal horror classics. #link
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BuiltDublin
"A love letter to architecture and public space in Dublin, Ireland." #link
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Music Appreciation: Drone
BoingBoing breaks it down so I don't have to. A good introduction, because it was mine, is Brian Eno's Ambient 4: On Land. #link
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How to write the first draft of a novel in 30 days
The Guardian's supplement for last year's NaNoWriMo. Good tips for any writing project, though. #link
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Light in the dark
My friend Dáire Lynch is an amazing artist; you can see for yourself in the video above (filmed by another friend of mine, John Mulvaney) that gives you just a glimpse of his work and working methods.
Dáire’s currently running a FundIt campaign to support a new project which involves painting portraits of musicians that mean a lot to him. He’s let me in on a couple of the names he’s already lined up, and it’s really gearing up to be something special.
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Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipes for baked meatballs with burnt aubergine, plus lentil, bulgur and aubergine pilaf
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Go long, journalism. Go long. Just not every day.
In other words, there's a place for long-form writing, but let's be realistic about it. #link
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A complete list of movies and TV shows streaming on Netflix UK
Handy to have this in one place. #link
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Useful JavaScript Libraries and jQuery Plugins
Filed here for future reference. #link
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Pulling The Veil From The Mysteries: Ben Wheatley Talks A Field In England
The director discusses his mesmerising latest work, which I reviewed this summer. The soundtrack plays an integral role in the film: one of the main musical motifs is a song variously referred to as 'Baloo, My Babe' or 'Lady Anne Bothwell's Lament'. #link
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Why I’m happy to pay more for Kindle versions of books
He might be happy, but I'm not. What he sees as a utility premium I see as stuff that should be taken as a given when it comes to digital media. Believing you're getting better value in paying more for something you 'don't have to carry around' is exactly what publishers want you to think. At the end of the day you're still paying over the odds straight into the company's profits since they don't have to spend as much on printing, shipping, etc. And what's more, writers' royalty agreements certainly don't give them a bigger share of that profit pie (at least not yet). #link
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BLDGBLOG: Caves of Nottingham
I've seen a little bit of it; it's a pretty amazing system. #link
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Online passwords: keep it complicated
In the wake of the Mat hack, I've shored up my defences, as it were: 1Password with a stronger master password inspired by that XKCD comic using the Diceware passphrase technique. #link
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The WWE's Difficult Men
The Masked Man on WWE's latest David vs Goliath angle, and how villains are "supposed to make you mad". It would be easier to take if WWE Creative were committed to their heels as figures of hate, and their faces as paragons of virtue. It was two weeks before they settled on Randy Orton being an all-out bad guy; meanwhile he still gets cheers from objectifying women and hopeless dudebros. And the lack of internal logic has hampered the angle from the start. Why not just fire Daniel Bryan, if the company's willing to fire anyone who comes to his aid? How could they forget the Big Show has an 'iron-clad contract', then hastily retcon it so now he's 'broke'? Wouldn't it have been better to have the McMahons make people's lives a misery -- putting them in handicap matches, etc -- instead of threatening their careers, so the entire face roster (minus the injured Cena and Sheamus, lucky them) wouldn't look like completely spineless wusses by not standing up for their comrade? They fucked it up, end of story. #link
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Jonathan Frakes talks William Riker, playing trombone with Phish, and more
Dude is a legend -- and this is a wonderful, revealing interview. #link
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Spotflux
Ostensibly an app to protect digital privacy, but really it's a way of breaking through bullshit regional restrictions imposed by the movie and TV industries, etc. I'm happy enough with Tunnelbear myself. #link
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You Won’t Need a Driver’s License by 2040
I certainly hope so, although the US is already ahead of us in certain automotive technologies: automatic gears, for instance. #link
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Chai-Wallah
Print-and-play prototype of a fast-paced trading game by former Twitter engineer Rael Dornfest. #link
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A Guide to Meditation for the Rest of Us
Filed for future reference; I need to learn to chill out more in my downtime. #link
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Why is the second Indiana Jones movie so dark?
"The darkness Lucas brought to Indiana Jones solved a nagging problem of success. Let's call it The Empire Strikes Back Problem. With Raiders, as with Star Wars, Lucas had created something almost everyone loved. Now he had to deliver the same product in a slightly different package." #link
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Michael Gira interviewed, movies reviewed and more
In early August I had the good fortune to do an interview with Swans leader Michael Gira for Thumped ahead of the band’s shows in Ireland. I attended the Dublin gig and it was incredible, as expected. And though I didn’t meet Gira after the show as I had to dash for the last bus home, he was nothing short of a pleasure to deal with on the line, and I’ll make a point of saying hello next time he or the band passes through town.
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Weeknotes #616-626
If you’re reading this on my site, you should be seeing my brand new design (if you’re in a feed reader, click through to have a look in your browser). It’s been seven years since the last redesign, not counting the odd minor update here and there; even this one is just an evolution from what came before, rather than a complete change. The single-column layout is the most obvious switch, aside from the updated logo, and moving my status info to the About page.
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