Badge Collection

This particular collection includes badges from Shinky Shonky (thanks Boogaloo Stu!), Tate Modern, Gym Class Magazine, A.P.C., Parra, the Southbank Centre and more. See a larger version over on [flickr].

Looking back over the last 10 years of popular culture on Planet Earth and first decade of a brand spanking new millennium is a task. The first question must be where were you on NYE when the calendar clicked round to 2000? I was on a couch on Wood Green watching the crowds gather round the Thames on the telly so the only way was up, really. Did you worry that the Millennium bug would gnaw it’s way through the internet and demolish your geocities page? Or maybe you joined one of the many end-of-the-world cults that proliferated at the time. Most likely you were unconscious on a ferry somewhere or something… how should I know!

Anyhoo, how to sum up a decade that seemed to be obsessed with rehashing former decades over and over again. Think about the many and varied versions of the 1980s that have proliferated since the turn of the decade. There was the neon bright love-heart shaped lipstick 80s of the the early millennia, championed by The Face and bands like Pleasure and Zoot Woman, then there was the Siouxsie and the Banchees electro goth 80s revival a few years later and the Herb Ritzy boys with undercuts 80s that lingers today (to mention but a few 80s instances). 1990s Rave came and went in a furry of surprisingly acid-free 4-boys-with-guitars type bands that were about as ‘house-y’ as a ukulele. The 1970s sci-fi revival looks to hot on the heels of this latest global financial crisis. And what about that then. Suddenly we were all wealthier than we ever though we could be, jetting around the world on our budget airlines with fists full of glittery credit cards before some wonky wannabe business men calling themselves politicians got too greedy and ruined all our fun. And I’m not even going to mention 7-11, sorry 9/11… oops I just did.

Moving swiftly on Linefeed is going to attempt to help put the last 10 years to bed with series of reviews to mark the end of the naughties and the beginning of the twenty-tens. Wish us luck and stay tuned, methinks it’s going to be a bumpy ride…

Preliminary work on the next edition of LineRead is well underway. I’ve been posting a view screen grabs via Twitter [img.ly/bojkowski]. You can also see them below. LineRead #1 is still available via MagCloud [magcloud.com] (or email me if you are outside the US, UK or Canada and would like a copy). More information and previews are available via the Press Publish website [presspublish.info].

The Pentagram

It’s not often Linefeed gets excited by an iPhone app but we’ll make an except for Eliss [toucheliss.com], the brainchild of Steph Thirion [trsp.net]. Not only is it the near perfect iPhone app in terms of taking the unique aspects provided by the medium and creating something engaging, addictive and fun but Eliss has also been opening doors for the game geek gal. According to her Tumblog [stephthirion.tumblr.com] she’s “being invited at all the cool parties and Hef has been insisting that I spend a few days at the mansion”. Putting aside the words of Kristen Schaal, i.e. “Hugh Hefner is dead. If he was still alive he’d be like a million years old”, it’s ace to see someone create an app that looks sophisticated and well thought out, receiving such high praise for their cleverness. Steph has a number of similarly intriguing projects on here site you might like to check out including this short story told with intereactive type [trsp.net/dd].

Lyra Pencils

The humble pencil further commodified. Lyra [lyra.de] invent pencils (and erasers and pencil sharpeners) to covet. And yes, I have just swallowed a dictionary. Thank you for asking.

I think I might start adding random bits of artwork from magazines to linefeed. What do you reckon? As a start, here’s a pretty exclsuive first look type thingy of the December edition of ‘Sup magazine [supmag.com]. You can read more about ‘Sup in a forthcoming edition of Grafik [grafikmagazine.co.uk] where I’ve done a bit of a review. Art Direction is by An Art Service [anartservice.com]. Is nice cover, huh.

Television can be a spooky sort of a place sometimes, though not always on purpose. You know those times when you might be watching the news or a doco or something vaguely factual and a really quite strange thing appears or occurs, and is presented in a most casual and blasé manner, and you have to stop and go ‘What the freak was that about’ before it’s gone again in a flash. There have been rare exceptions though when a TV show has been conjured up that succeeds in it’s mission to send prickles up your spine. Or just to slightly freak you out a bit. Below is a handful of programmes we reckon do just that. Dim the lights and grab a cushion for these worrisome televisual presentations…

Thriller [iMDB]
Where do you go once you’ve created one of the most well loved British television shows that helped define the lives and style of a decade? Well, if it’s the 70s and budgets ain’t what they used to be you could recede into the shadows and find comfort in the dark. Which is just what Brian Clemens did when The Avengers and The New Avengers came to an end and he decided to launch a new series called ‘Thriller‘. Part supernatural spook fest, part crime thriller, the series ran for seven seasons and was made up of individual tales featuring different actors each time. Several of the UK’s acting royalty cut their teeth on Thriller such as Helen Mirren (A Coffin for the Bride), Dennis Waterman (The Eyes Have It), Brian Blessed (A Midsummer Nightmare), Bob Hoskins (Kill Two Birds) and Hayley Mills (Only a Scream Away). It has to be said though that the thing that makes Thriller spooky today is mostly due to it’s dated production values which make you think the actors have been left alone on a haunted soundstage with only a few oddly lit and wobbly props for company.

Riget aka The Kingdom [iMDB]
Antichrist wasn’t Lars Von Tier’s first foray into the occult. Riget or The Kingdom, as it was renamed for English speaking audiences, has become one of the best known Danish television shows ever (how many of those can you name?). The series was set in a hospital built upon once ancient and mystical ‘bleaching’ grounds. So far, so Danish version of a Stephen King novel. Of course, being Von Tier the series only adhered to it’s own unique conventions, ie each episode would start out quite jovial, even comedic, before it’s slow decent into the hidden places with the hospital and the eerie occult and supernatural goings on inhabiting them, thereby lulling you into a false sense of security as Von Tier will do. The series spiked the interest of Stephen King and his attempt at an American version called ‘Kingdom Hospital’ fell rather flat. Maybe they should have mimicked Von Tier’s monologue played during the end credits which always when the director would advise viewers to “Always take the good with the evil.”

Wild Palms [iMDB]
Wild Palms is curious mix of dark meditations on future tech, celebrity cults in L.A. (just don’t mention Scientology) and some of the most witty and cutting dialogue you’ll find on telly. A possible precursor to Richard Kelly’s similarly curious, ‘Southland Tales‘, Wild Palms aired as a mini-series produced by superlative conspiracy theorist, Oliver Stone. The story is loosely based on a graphic novel that was scattered throughout Details magazine in the early 90s and devised by Bruce Wagner. Clips don’t do justice to the sense of high anxiety that permeates the series and nowhere will you find a vision of the future so full of the modern ghosts of virtual reality. Also, it’s probably the only place you’ll find Kim Cattrall convincing as an actress. Second Life has nothing on this. It also contains one of my all time fave quotes ,“I think I have a case of mood poisoning. It must be something I hate.”

Publications featured in the October (just made it, huh) edition of this monthly video podcast type thingy include Martha Stewart Halloween [marthastewart.com] / Time [time.com] / It’s Nice That [itsnicethat.com] / Lifelounge [lifelounge.com] / Arena Hommes Plus (surely one of the last remaining magazines that doesn’t have a website) / Fantastic Man & The Gentlewoman [fantasticman.com] / Interview 40th Anniversary [interviewmagazine.com].

BTW Feel free to syndicate me!

More logos from my childhood here. This is one I challenge every school child in Melbourne not to recognise. This stencilled version of the Cleanaway ‘fading’ logo adorns massive blue bins (the kind trucks have to lift up over their heads) the state (and possibly) the country wide. Given that, according to a recent Sydney Morning Herald article, Australians are some of the most wasteful people on the planet garbage-wise, it makes sense that a rubbish collection business should hold such prominence. It helps too that the logo hasn’t changed for decades either.