think native

A friend of mine recommended this producer out of Finland who creates beautiful ambient and downtempo electronica - here’s his bio:

“Planet Boelex is an electronic music project originating from Finland, started in 2004, consisting of only one member. Self-taught, learning music by experimenting on computer-based “tracker” softwares. Planet Boelex released the first freely downloadable EP “Sinking in the soup” in Janurary 2005, on one of the oldest netlabels in existence, Monotonik. This five track release shaped the sound of Planet Boelex, which could be defined as soft, melodic electronica, fused with influences from ambient and IDM. Still faithful to the style, continuing with new EP releases on the netlabels Ogredung, Monotonik and Kahvi Collective, all freely downloadable under the Creative Commons -licensing. During the years 2006 and 2007 Planet Boelex has performed live in Finland, Estonia, Italy, Croatia, United Kingdom, Russia, Latvia and Lithuania.”

All his music is free and available to share under the Creative Commons 3 license (attribution and no commercial uses, with no derivative works), so click on over and enjoy!

http://www.boelex.org/

The Moleskine is reputedly (or is that ‘allegedly’) the notebook of choice for artists and writers, counting Picasso, Matisse and Hemingway among its owners. Of course it’s hard to see the real history of the brand through the slightly smokey marketing but that hasn’t stopped them amassing a loyal and creative fanbase.

I came across this group in Flickr, mainly because one of our painfully talented designers at Saint is a contributor (and definitely one of the best).

http://www.flickr.com/groups/moleskinerie/

Proof that we don’t need to leave old ways of creativity behind in order to share and build communities online - it’s dedicated to beautiful examples of Moleskine notebook pages: sketches, collages, in some cases just delighting in the handwritten word in this era of digital type.

Here’s one of my favourites:

And more here from Rob.

Can’t wait for this! Chuck Palahniuk rocks and Choke was a cracking book

For one reason or another, over the weekend I was taken back to my time growing up in Sydney, and in particular that perennial summertime of childhood.

I have no idea why I was remembering all of this, my mind makes full use of its opportunities to meander on Sundays over the papers and a bacon sandwich, but nonetheless I was recalling all the various games we used to play in the playground at school.

We played the same kind of games that kids have been playing, I suspect, since time began; marbles, yo-yos, Top Trumps, toy cars.

But the best games were the ones where everyone could play together. ‘Tag’, ‘British bulldog’, ‘Catch & Kiss (or Kiss Chase if you’re from Blighty)’.

It got me thinking: isn’t the Internet just one big playground? Don’t all the same rules apply?

In the playground, everyone gravitated towards the kids who could tell the best stories, the kids who had stuff to give away, the kids who suggested games that everyone could play together.

And the last thing anyone wanted was for the adults to come to the playground to just ‘hang out’, because the adults always spoiled the fun by trying to make you do things, by always being so serious.

So, what kind of kid are you? Are you the kid who tell funny or entertaining stories? Do you ask your Dad for sweets you can give out to your friends? Or even better, do you come up with games that everyone can play, like this, this, this or this?

Or are you the serious adult trying to control the fun, telling the kids not to sing that song or run so fast, or climb on that? Or worse, interrupting the fun to try and get you to do something?