Slowdive & Washed Out Mashup – Space Around the Feel Station
Picked this up on Scott Hansen's blog, who's a San Fran based DJ and designer and has a lot of really nifty stuff on his blog. He loves Washed Out as well and picked up a mashup that Violens did with Slowdive's Souvlaki Space Station and Washed Out's Feel it all Around. As a mashup it's probably not the best thing out there, but I love them both so much and it's great to pick up on their familiar melodies.
It's available on a mixtape that you can find on their website.
Source: http://blog.iso50.com/2010/08/17/slowdive-washed-out-violens/
This entry was written by , posted on August 28, 2010 at 6:33 pm, filed under Food for your ears and tagged iso50, music mashup, slowdive, violens, washed out. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Barbra Streisand – a dance mix by Duck Sauce
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand.
Barbra Streisand.
Barbra Streisand.
You can now dance/ rave/ bob your head with joy, hearing Barbra Streisand's name. Over and over again. Heaps of play time on triple j lately; but damn it's catchy!
Barbra Streisand (Original Mix)
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This is mildly confusing. Is this brand affiliation at work here? Does this now make her... cool, hip and appealing to young folk now? Does listening to this change the way you listen to her old songs? Will she have hipster cred?
This entry was written by , posted on August 23, 2010 at 10:46 pm, filed under Food for your ears. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Manifest (Melbourne Anime Festival) Twitter Overview
Manifest (Melbourne Anime Festival) is currently on this weekend and I set myself a task to suss out what people were thinking about the convention via twitter on the Friday and Saturday. I culled data from the hashtag #manifest and heavy filtering with 'manifest' and this is what I got.
BASIC SUMMARY
471 tweets, including retweets
100 twitter accounts
27283 readership reach
TOP WORDS TWEETED
Not surprisingly, the top five (relevant) tweeted words were:
- Cosplay
- Going
- Awesome
- #anime
- photos
A convention just isn't a convention when people aren't dressed up. Attendees really like to spread the word (going to the con!) and have an affinity to the word awesome to describe something they like.
SENTIMENTS
Majority of tweets lied in either positive or neutral; and stayed consistent between the two days. Sentiments were all manually labelled, considering the majority of the demographic like to be sarcastic and describe failings as a positive thing.
Some of the top keywords surrounding positive sentiments include:
- Cosplay
- Pocky
- Gundam
- #animeidol
- Press
Attendees get really excited over Pocky; and I believe the Gundam is related back to the Pocky one, as explained further down. An #animeidol hashtag started and people seemed to enjoy the event; and a lot of people loved bragging about getting press passes.
The words used in negative sentiments was pretty interesting. To summarise:
- Body odour
- Some people weren't particularly pleased with guest Spike Spencer
- Queues and waits
- Traders
These would be the things the organising committee will probably address for their next show.
MOST RETWEETED IMAGE
The Pocky Gundam via @DYoshii http://yfrog.com/n0v4qtj. It's pretty neat.
TOP TWEETERS
by Frequency
by Impact
3 NOTABLE TWEETS
someone here smells so bad that i'm feeling sick. thanks asshole. #manifest #everyconever - elizabethdanger
---
cosplay photographers are the best people. the press pit at the #manifest cosplay comp is awesome!! xd2 - neilcreek
---
This one is a personal favourite; best cross over tweet between the election and manifest 
The entire Yaoi panel at #manifest seems to have voted for @aussexparty. Probably not a huge surprise. #ausvotes - ctudball
CONCLUSIONS TO MAKE
Whoever thought of the Pocky Gundam deserves a medal, cosplay is probably the most important element to the show and deodorant companies need to take note of this market!
This entry was written by , posted on August 22, 2010 at 6:00 am, filed under Blueprints and tagged gundam, manifest, pocky, sentiments, twitter, twitter analytics. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
An enlightening affair with Local Search Marketing
Two weeks ago, whilst being driven home from work, my friend’s tyre went flat. Unable to unscrew one of the bolts, our first instinct was to search for the nearest auto repair service . We whipped out our internet-enabled iphones, opened up Safari and typed in “auto repair North Sydney” into the Google search bar. Five or so local results turned up at the top of the list. We pinpointed the nearest one on the Google maps feature attached to the local results and gave them a call.
This wasn't an isolated incident of my behaviour; various statistics suggest that 74% of all online searches are local in nature and that between 40%-50% of those searchers are looking for a local merchant to buy from. With search engines like Google being so ubiquitous, it’s not uncommon that we use it as a part of our day-to-day lives to quickly look for goods and services within our vicinity. Recently, I’ve also pinpointed an Adelaide hotel conveniently located close to the Convention Centre for a tradeshow, bought movie tickets on a whim and looked for the nearest takeaway shop to satisfy a massive craving for Thai food. All up, $800 was spent on goods and services, found through 4 local searches. Picture the millions of local searches being conducted now and the transactions being made as a result of it.
It's not surprising that the job at hand may seem daunting being a small business and trying to promote yourself online amongst millions of other websites, as well as compete with your fellow neighbours. That's why it’s so important to take into consideration some basic local search engine marketing and optimisation principles to efficiently and effectively place yourself within search results, without spending your life savings competing with large companies. Search engines have an active interest to ensure that users find what they want; after all, if people can’t, they will move onto other competing search engines. Once they realize users are after local results, the search algorithms adjust accordingly and that’s when the ball is in your court. This is the slingshot you're after a la David vs Goliath.
Some quick notes to improve local search:
- Continue conducting your regular SEO practices for organic search, such as building backlinks, provide meaningful content, maximising your social media presence and being mindful of the keywords that your customers will most likely use in a search and applying them within your listing or website. It may also help that your domain name contains the specific keyword for your service, e.g. plumber, accountant, etc.
- Incorporate the cities that you service into title and meta tags, and your business address into your website body. This is so that search crawlers can identify where your business is located and list you accordingly. You can take another step further and also list specialisations within your service, e.g. water heater repairs, renovations, 24/7 service, etc.
- Utilise local business centres for all the major search engines, such as Google, Bing and TrueLocal. This includes getting yourself listed and having the option to conduct any paid search to gain that extra traction.
- If you are aware that a customer has found you through local search, ask them to drop a review for you. Nothing looks sexier than being rated 4-5 stars and having over twenty positive reviews next to your name That's something money cannot buy.
With mobile computing convenience taking over traditional directories and geolocation platforms pinpointing visited businesses being the hottest trends in the digital space now, one can only wonder how important, yet easily overlooked, a role local search optimisation can play in making a small business stand out from the pack.
This entry was written by , posted on August 21, 2010 at 4:46 pm, filed under Blueprints and tagged bing local search, google local search, local search marketing, local search optimisation, truelocal. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Mana Bar announces drinks on the house for Krome layoffs
What do you do if you own a bar and know a couple of people getting laid off?
Krome studios, one of Australia's largest game development studios, let go of over 100 staff last Thursday, closing down their Adelaide office and shaving off employees in Brisbane and Melbourne. But that did not stop the Mana Bar, a gaming-themed bar in Brisbane, from offering their condolences by posting on facebook that they would be offering drinks on the house for those that got laid off.
A total of 160 reactions (112 likes and 48 comments) was noted for the single status post for a facebook page sporting a bit under 15,000 fans, with nothing but positive sentiments.
Sometimes you don't need a beautiful manly man on a horse (ok, I take it back, we do need a beautiful manly man endorsing a body wash), give away over a hundred of copies of Microsoft Office or scare the beejesus out of everyone on chatroulette to get your idea across.
All it takes is a genuine act of kindness and shout your fellow fallen man a drink.
Kudos to the Mana Bar, and keep your chin held high ex-Krome bros!
This entry was written by , posted on at 1:16 am, filed under Blueprints and tagged krome studios, mana bar. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
French Kissing is Gross (from Freaks & Geeks)
I'm glad Freaks & Geeks never got renewed for another season. There was no way in hell they could create a second season that would've topped the first one. I love how it was left on such a high and promising note, and just left it there. Just made each and every episode available so... cherishable.
What if she puts her tongue too far into my mouth? What if I throw up? What if I throw up all over her? What if I throw up in her mouth?
This entry was written by , posted on August 19, 2010 at 12:31 am, filed under Moving Pictures and tagged freaks and geeks, french kissing, geeks talking. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Are Australian cons ready to talk about cute Miku cosplayers on a live twitter broadcast?
Four to five years ago, Pictochat, an inbuilt chat system on the Nintendo DS where you can IM chat with other nearby people on DSs, was used during the costume play (cosplay) event of Animania, a Japanese Popular Culture event. People anonymously sent feedback and chatted amongst themselves about the entries parading and strutting their stuff on stage. Given the nature of some of these exchanges, it was a good thing it only stayed between the IMers and their tiny double screens.
This entry was written by , posted on August 17, 2010 at 4:03 am, filed under Blueprints and tagged australian cons, censorship, moderation, twitter. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Flying Lotus – Zodiac Shit & Do the Astral Plane
Flying Lotus is Steven Ellison. He's currently signed with Warp records; that alone will summarise what you can expect from his stuff. If you can put a bit of space electro, hip hop and jazz into a blender and turn it into a consumable for your ears, this is what you'll get as a result. His album was brought to my attention via "Do the Astral Plane" and its unique blend of electro, groove and opera elements. But what really got me hooked was "Zodiac Shit"; it's lo-fi electro sound reminiscent of old tvs, it's slow but heavy beat and those darn violin samples which makes this a beautiful yet unsettling 90 seconds.
Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma - 05 - Zodiac Shit
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Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma - 10 - Do The Astral Plane
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This entry was written by , posted on August 16, 2010 at 7:04 pm, filed under Food for your ears. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
notes on using facebook pages effectively (warning: boring stuff)
A facebook page could be one of many online 'faces' of a company (other than their website), and in our case being an online store, could be the first points of contact when customers have a problem or want to leave feedback. After a small explosion of growth on one of my company facebook pages, I developed a set of guidelines and good practices to ensure consistency amongst all our other administrators and, what I found to be, a good way to manage your online presence. Oh, and to also target influencers with engaging assets to act as platforms for conversation.
Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net
This entry was written by , posted on August 6, 2010 at 9:25 am, filed under Blueprints and tagged facebook pages, link attachments, linkedin, old spice, pepsi, statuses, tagging. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Best Coast Boyfriend
This song's getting a few rotations on Triple J and featured on a lot of music blogs. And there's a good reason for that: it's mighty catchy and dreampoppy, reminiscent of a less noisy 80s shoegazer thing combined with a drop of the Cardigans. Combine and picture the following words: teenage yearning, lazy summer, weed & cats, drone. I've an unfortunate gut feeling this is going to be a one-off buzzband, so it' really up to the rest of the album and what they plan to do next; but Boyfriend is currently on a bit of a repeat on my winampz.
Front lady Bethany Cosentino said that listeners can expect the following...
“...songs about summer and the sun and the ocean and being a lazy creep...”
They can be found here as well:
Myspace
Blog
This entry was written by , posted on August 5, 2010 at 12:44 am, filed under Food for your ears, plasmo and tagged best coast, boyfriend, cat and weed, drone, lazy creep, music, summer. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Some favourite SDCC 2010 Toy Exclusives
Comic Con; the last stage boss of all pop culture conventions. And like last stage bosses, they contain a lot of pretty neat stuff, like toy exclusives. Picked out the following from a recent emailout.
Of course, none of these are ever going to reach me, though if I had to pick one, that Fafi noir one looks pretty neat.
This entry was written by , posted on July 6, 2010 at 9:16 pm, filed under plasmo and tagged Crazy Label, Fafi, San Diego Comic Con, Scott Wilkowski, Sucklord. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Some Toy Sale observations
This year's Toy Sale battle amongst the retail giants is epic. Really, really epic. And it helps that it is supported by the release of Toy Story 3 (which, in case you didn't know, is a 90 minute advertisement for the toy industry).
I'm not talking about the prices, which show absolutely beautiful finesse in procurement for toy retailing (and that deserves its own blog entry), but the boundaries they have pushed to be the leader in the pack by:
- Purpose-built catalogue designs
- Adding the internet to their deck of cards
I pay particular attention to Kmart and Big W, with other retailers in the race being Toys R Us and Myer. And I must stress that when it feels that Toys R Us are not on top of their game for what is essentially their specialty, something definitely will be changing in the company over the next few months if they are going to stay alive.
The July school holidays is marked on the calendar of every person who works in the toy industry. Children are going to be out shopping with their parents, and toys need to be around to try to win their hearts. It is also the start of the 6 month stretch towards Christmas, the time of the year the industry champions and relies on for its bread and butter. I am more inclined to believe that Christmas was invented by the toy industry, like how Valentine's Day was invented by the gift industry.
What prompted me to write about this were two things, one Kmart's way and one Big W's way, which will keep them competitive and dominate this year's toy sale. And this plays further testament to the idea that it doesn't take much to make a huge impact.
This entry was written by , posted on July 2, 2010 at 2:26 am, filed under Blueprints and tagged bigw, kmart, linkedin, target, toy sale, toys. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Reach Toothbrush – now with a hole
I noticed this poster on my way to the newsagent. No message has been so bold, so powerful and so want me to purchase a toothbrush. Their product development team mustve been desperate, but whoever is behind this creative probably saved a few jobs. Wow.
This entry was written by , posted on June 17, 2010 at 1:04 am, filed under Blueprints and tagged hole, linkedin, reach, toothbrush. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Four Tet – Sing
Four Tet's Kieran Hebden is quite the eclectic sound mixbag. He has had all sorts of amazing collaborations, a nice roster of albums and a genre reach that makes him a guy you would've touched on at least once in your musical experiences. This track is from his latest album, which brings a whole new meaning to 8 bit sounds.
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This entry was written by , posted on May 27, 2010 at 1:20 pm, filed under Food for your ears and tagged 8bit, four tet, mp3, sing. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Fatboy Slim – Sunset (Bird of Prey)
This song really flew under the radar. Forget Praise You, Right Here Right Now & Weapon of Choice. Actually, maybe not, but this one is quite the gem by Fat Boy Slim. The video starts off a little bit slowly, so if you're feeling a bit impatient, skip ahead a minute.
I like muttering this song in my sleep.
This entry was written by , posted on May 25, 2010 at 5:37 pm, filed under Food for your ears and tagged fatboy slim, sunset, youtube. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
LCD Soundsystem – I can change
So James Murphy, aka LCD Soundsystem, said that he will be stopping at their current album 'Sound of Silver'. They were showing a lot of promise; pulling the plug a bit too early?
James Murphy's studio, from his twitter
Something old, and something new.
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This entry was written by , posted on May 22, 2010 at 3:20 pm, filed under Food for your ears and tagged i can change, LCD Soundsystem, mp3. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Pendulum’s ABC News Remix vs Bill Bailey’s BBC News Rave
My admiration for Perth drum and bass boys Pendulum shot through the roof. This was played as a bit of a gag and promo for Pendulum on Triple J radio: a dance remix of our beloved ABC News opening theme music. I knew something good had to come out of listening to the radio whilst driving out of my way to pick up some paperwork; I literally froze in my car.
Would it be anything like Bill Bailey's BBC News Rave spot?
0:48: THIS IS THE BBC! DO NOT LISTEN TO THE OTHERS! THEY ARE FALSE PROPHETS!
VS
Who does a better remix of their respective news theme?
Source: ABC Breakfast Radio Queensland Blog
This entry was written by , posted on May 21, 2010 at 10:50 am, filed under Food for your ears and tagged abc news, bbc, bill bailey, pendulum, remix. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Quick three things on negotiating
People need to drop this connotation that negotiations are battles, but rather a meeting where two parties have a huge interest in whatever the outcome may be. Each party wants a piece of the pie, it just depends what part of the pie they want.
- Listen to the other side. Before any figures start getting thrown around, make sure you understand what it is the other party wants out of your negotiation. Maybe it is something more pragmatic. Maybe rather than trying to bargain, they are trying to get more out of their money, or vice versa. Suss out their needs and respond accordingly.
- Research. Know what you're talking about and go in there with a bit of a goal. Are you trying to lower the price of supplies you are getting? Get an industry average and back up those figures. Are you trying to increase your prices? Have a value proposal as to why. Most people usually lose out here because they simply don't know what to expect.
- The Theory of Relativity. This is the part where you have the least control over: the type of person you're dealing with on the other side. Are they natural hardballers? These are the type of guys whom you'll need other hardballers backed with a lot of facts. Developed a bad relationship with them? Send your charmer. The guys who try to drain every cent out of you? Well, have to fight fire with fire.And the guys who simply want to work with you and build good, mutual business with you? Don't forget to send that sample pack to their missus.
This entry was written by , posted on May 17, 2010 at 11:10 am, filed under Blueprints and tagged basic points, linkedin, negotiations. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Bill Murray be chill y’all
A few weeks ago I tweeted about a chillwave band (I'm still uncomfortable with using this term, but since it's the only term most people can relate to to describe the genre of music...) under the alias, Chill Murray. I heard about them on triple j when they were talking about their SXSW experience, but hipsterrunnoff has it covered pretty well.
One thing I'm pretty confused about is this: if they are so chill, how come their music is not available? I want to purchase/download it onto my mp3 player and share it with my friends and all, but alas, it's not publicly available other than through a stream through the myspace or muxtape. It is not chill to load a page everytime I want to listen to cool stuff.
And it is pretty clever of them to ride off Bill Murray's awesome branding, because he is the godfather of hipsters. ESPECIALLY with all the little flowers on his beard. Maybe we can expect guys to start wearing flowers in their beards.
The movie which revived Bill Murray's movie career, made Scarlett Johanssen's and gave shoegazer music a new brand and visual representation.
Bill 'Groundhog day, Ghostbusting ass' Murray!
Anyway, irregardless, because "I'm so chill", I'm going to send them some love their way. Also because I have a man-crush on Bill Murray.
N.B. Talking like altbroz and all is a serious craft. I can't keep up.
This entry was written by , posted on May 15, 2010 at 1:40 pm, filed under Food for your ears, plasmo and tagged bill murray, chill murray, chillwave, lost in translation, youtube. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
The Alpha60 Bill Tee
Spotted this neat fella in Angus Black, a little boutique in Fortitude Valley during my recent trip to Brisbane.
Was one step away from getting it until I realised the shirt cut didn't do it for me. Don't you hate it when you come across interesting designs, but poor shirt cuts? T_T
This entry was written by , posted on April 19, 2010 at 2:02 pm, filed under plasmo and tagged alpha60, bill murray, tee. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
find me