Day and Night Digital | Irish Independent

Videos of The Week: Golden Girls gone wrong, Joaquin Phoenix, Freaxx, Obama/Michelle do what???

1. Golden Girls gone wrong
   What would happen if someone tried to channel Windowlicker & the late ’80s U.S. sitcom The Golden Girls into a 3 minute pop promo? It might be something like this music video by Pistol Youth..
   
2. Joaquin Phoenix
   After giving up acting for rap (no, really he has a myspace), Phoenix’ first public performance features him enthusiastically falling off a stage. In a myspace blog he blames the mis-step on “3 days of debauchery in Vegas at my cousins wedding” and a heady mix of “painkillers, champagne & whiskey”.
   
3. Freaxx is right.. (more…)
   

Twitter: get tweeting folks

Last year, the web was all a flutter with Facebook. Before that many were obsessed with Myspace and Bebo but the social networking service that looks like it is going to capture the web zeitgeist this year does a lot more with less. Forget the year of the Ox, 2009 is the year of Twitter goes mainstream.

The hardest thing to convey about Twitter is the point of it. Esssentially, the service is a microblogging platform in which you reply to the question - “What are you doing?” with an update limited to 140 characters, like a text except they’re called tweets ranging from the banal (”cooking dinner - chicken and salad”) to the bacchanalian (”My head hurts after last night.”). You can then “follow” people you admire or are interested in, in much the same way you add friends in Facebook as well as reply to someone’s tweets.

Twitter has become home to many celebrities such as Stephen Fry, Jonathon Ross, Obama, MC Hammer, Britney Spears, Kanye West and Tina Fey with thousands of followers each, replying to their updates and conversing with them on a one-to-one yet public basis. Where Twitter has come into its own is the instantaneous reporting and reaction to world events such as the recent U.S. election debates where users reacted in real-time to the words of McCain and Obama. When that plane crash landed in the Hudson river on January 15th, a Twitter user was the first to report from the scene sending a photo taken on an iPhone to his Twitterstream . Personally, I’ve used the service to share opinions, links of interest, get answers to problems and update my Facebook status. My Twitter followers have taught me loads about technology, software, getting cheap flights and anything else I’ve asked.

The crucial difference with Twitter is that between all the trivialities and opinions, there is a real community there living their lives, sharing opinions and advice with others. It’s been compared to a continuous worldwide conversation. A great unattributed quote explains the service in a nutshell - “Facebook is about people you used to know; Twitter is about people you’d like to know better”. Expect to hear a lot more about the service this year.

Add us on Twitter - twitter.com/dayandnightmag or twitter.com/nialler9

Sites of the week

1. Purpose Games
   Thanks to reader Anna for recommending this site which holds thousands of quiz and trivia games to test your knowledge of Geography, History, Science and more. Addictive stuff.
   http://www.purposegames.com
2. The Perry Bible Fellowship
   The PBF might have stopped publishing their surreal cartoons but a huge archive is available on the site.
   pbfcomics.com
3. Cursebird
   Staying with Twitter, this site tracks, in realtime, people swearing on the service. It even shows the a most popular chart of swear words. Fascinating.
   cursebird.com

Linkage 30th January

1. Monty Python gain from Youtube
   After three years of people uploading Python clips to Youtube, the classic comedy troupe struck back by uploading their own high quality versions. The result: a 23,000% increase in DVD sales on Amazon.
   - via Mashable.
2. Facebookers react to 2FM policy change
   In reaction to 2FM’s decision to cut all non-music talk from daytime shows Nikki Hayes and Rick O’ Shea, a Facebook group is galvanising people to voice their dissatisfaction.
   If It’s Not Broken Don’t Fix It: Keep Rick O’Shea and Nikki Hayes Talking
3. Breaking News!
   According to German scientists, the universe may be a giant hologram..
   New Scientist

Band of Blogs: Aeroplane, Empire of the Sun, Feist & Bon Iver, The BPA

1. Aeroplane Remixes
   If you’re looking for some brilliant remixes, look no further than Belgium’s Aeroplane whose reworkings of MGMT, Sebastien Tellier and Friendly Fires reside in cosmic disco heaven.
   Listen at the Hype Machine
2. Empire of The Sun
   The hype around this Aussie electro-pop collaboration between Pnau’s Nick Littlemore and Luke Steele of The Sleepy Jackson just gets louder.
   Listen at the Hype Machine
3. Feist and Bon Iver
   Tracks from the Red Hot charity compilation Dark is the Night have started to appear online including ‘The Train’, a beautiful acoustic song with Feist and Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie. The album features 31 tracks, mostly original from the likes of Bon Iver, The National, Arcade Fire, Conor Oberst, Cat Power, Grizzly Bear and much more.
   Listen at the Hype Machine
4. The Brighton Port Authority
   The album I Think We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat for Norman Cook’s new project The BPA is out next week and it features guest appearances from David Byrne, Iggy Pop, Dizzee Rascal, Jack Penate and Jamie T.
   myspace.com/thebpa

Twitter: What is it?

This Friday, if you pick up the Day and Night you’ll find my take on that conundrum but I wanted to share with you some responses I received from Twitter users to the question - What the best thing about Twitter?, which hopefully will help you understand a little bit why people are so enamoured with the service.

• muruch - The reason I like Twitter is being able to post & receive updates on my cell phone.
• freemansjournal - best thing about twitter is constant link feed to stuff you’d likely miss otherwise.21st century newswire.
• sweetoblivion26 - that I can pretend I’m ‘friends’ with Stephen Fry, Danny Wallace & Graham Linehan when I am in fact not.
• jeremynicolas - Stephen Fry.

(more…)

Henrietta and Merna can’t sing

Yikes. This is uncomfortable.

Videos of The Week:Razorlight spoof, SFII, Star Wars…

1. Razorlight spoof
   UK comedian Ben Taylor has created a hilarious parody of Johnny Borrell and co. which spoofs their hit ‘America’. The lyrics centre on Borrell’s preoccupation on the war. Sample line: “When the war is this hi-res / it’s difficult to ignore”.
   
2. Shine on, you crazy diamond
   Chris Dane Owens is an artist looking for your attention, judging by this batty sci-fi romantic-fantasy music video shot in the style of a Hollywood blockbuster. Someone should tell him his “androgynous Lord of the Rings elf crossed with Vonda Shepard” is a not a good look this year..
   

(more…)

Sites of the Week

1. Zoom Doggle
   A guy called Jake started a site to chronicle “the dimple pursuit of fun for fun’s sake”. His latest project involves sending 1000 love letters to strangers for the hell of it.
   zoomdoggle.com
2. Cold Spinters
   MP3s, the outdoors, camping. What more do you want from a blog?
   coldsplinters.com
3. My Amazing Fact
   A blog which posts amazing things from the world from photos of Jupiter to images of animal camouflage.
   myamazingfact.blogspot.com

Linkage - 23rd February

1. How much for your band?
   Find out how much your favourite band costs promoters to book for the U.S. College Circuit. 100K for David Gray?? Laugh it up fuzzball. See the full list [How much for your band?]
2. 95% of music downloaded illegally
   According to a IFPI report released last week, 95% of all music downloaded in 2008 was acquired illegally. That amounts to 40 billion songs and a loss of €55 billion in potential revenue. It’s not all bad news as digital sales were up 27% in 2008. Read the full report [Musically.com]
3. State Magazine goes online
   State Magazine (a music publication I’m actively involved in) made the decision to cease print publication last week. The magazine will publish all music reviews, news, interviews and features online from now on. Read the latest digital-only issue - [State]