Soccer Balls Suddenly Interesting

This series of photos from an Adidas factory has shown me that soccer ball manufacturing is far more complex than I would have guessed.

Mix Tapes Reborn

Any serious music fan has made at least a few inspired compilations over the years. Back in the day, that meant tape, baby. This device will convert your old dusty cassettes to mp3 files. It also does the reverse, but not much call for that, I imagine.

"Wrong"

This blog does nothing more than document the incorrect use of quotation marks. I approve.

Yacht Spotting

Yachtspotter is a somewhat creepy, yet interesting website devoted to tracking the global migration of supersized boats.

Confession: my wife and I found ourselves becoming increasingly interested in the boating world (particularly sailboats) this past summer, during our daily walks on the Port Dalhousie pier.

Robert Wyatt

If you're not hip to the magic of Robert Wyatt, this recent Guardian Unlimited blog post is a nice little primer.

Wheelchair-bound, heavily bearded and gifted with an unforgettable voice of pure innocence and wisdom - there's nobody else like him.

Magic

Put me down on the list of people who think Brendan O'Brien is the wrong guy to be producing Bruce Springsteen. "Magic" is a good record, but a more spacious and breathing production approach would have made it a really good record. Listen to this thing back to back with "Darkness on the Edge of Town" and the problem becomes painfully obvious.

Fanboys

A website dedicated solely to the ownership of New Order's "Blue Monday" 12 inch single.

Want a vinyl rip? Proceed.

George Clooney

Just wanted to mention that Mr. George Clooney is doing something noteworthy. He's building a career around good movies made for adults. The guy's elevating himself by choosing to work with genuinely talented people (Soderbergh, Coens etc) while also developing his own high quality projects. Not too many ambitious art-minded men like him floating around the industry.

I realize it's a bit ridiculous to be praising a wealthy celebrity, but as a film fan, I appreciate was he's doing.

Creepy Puppets

Erik Sanko, musician turned self-taught puppeteer, is collaborating with the Kronos Quartet at BAM's Next Wave Festival. This sounds like a perfect match. Village Voice story here.

Here's a clip from Sanko's previous work, "The Fortune Teller."