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The new project from Christopher Poole has a lot to live up to. Poole created 4chan, the controversial anonymous message boards known for proliferating popular ‘memes’ (Lolcats, Rickrolling). 

Poole introduced his new project, ‘Canv.as’ at SXSW. It comes across as a polished, safe-for-work, version of 4chan. It’s clearly tailored towards creating and editing memes (there is significantly less text) and provides mechanisms for rating and remixing content. Perhaps ‘moot’ is cynically trying to make a 4chan clone that appeals more to advertisers, or 4chan’s concept into the 2010’s. We’ll see as the site grows, it’s currently in beta.

Sam Chaplin

From first viewing of the trailer for this feature film, by Quentin Dupiex, I believed it safe to assume it was a parody. I proceeded, with caution, to watch the whole film and was initially surprised at a profound introduction about life, this is a real film. A film about a tyre called Robert, who for no reason kills people. The film is somewhat post modern in the way an audience in the film are made to watch ‘the film of Robert’ through binoculars, opposed to the way we view this film, moving image on screen. If you wish to laugh, yet still be scared by a possessed tyre, for no reason, this is your film. 7.

Joe Burt. 

This film is undeniably targeted at unashamed geeks and dorks, it’s no wonder the film has faced Tharsh reviews from haute critics. The film is crammed full of nerdy reference, from Star Trek to Titanic it’s sure to convene a laugh. However, despite a few well thought out gags the film is missing the charm of the couple’s previous work, the film fails to reach the standard Pegg and Frost set with Spaced, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. I was hoping for something a bit different, it feels like the pair are playing it safe and only catering to one audience. A delightfully funny sci-fi comedy, but you might not get it.

7

Max Speelman

Star.me is a new site currently in closed beta. The idea is that you share and receive ‘stars’ from your friends. These are meant to bring about a nostalgia for the ‘gold star’ rewards given to children. 

At SXSW Ze Frank (creator of Star.me) spoke about messiness and fun being missing from current crop of social networks. Whilst it is easy to miss the DIY craziness of MySpace, Star.me might be too late. Although beautifully crafted in HTML5, it feels like it should have been a cute add-on to an existing social network, rather than standing alone.

Sam Chaplin

A charming and immersive story, based in a uniquely beautiful world of deep intricacies that bring the destitute city of machines to life, with a hand-drawn visual style that will entice you from the moment you start the game.  Your protagonist never utters a single word, and yet you still feel a sublime connection.  The puzzles are expertly crafted, and present an actual challenge, something rarely found in games nowadays.  Besides some slight interface issues, and the occasional point where the game attempts to be something other than a point-and-click, this is a perfect revival of the old-school. 9

http://machinarium.net/demo/

The 3DS launched a few days ago to the anticipation of…uh no one really. Nintendo alienated its hardcore fans after catering to the casual market with the Wii and the original DS, and the casual market which proved so successful for Nintendo have all moved to other products like the iPad. A pitiful array of launch titles further adds to the bleakness of the 3DS launch. There have also been mass reports of hardware failure with estimates reaching a whopping 53% failure rate. As for me I’ll be waiting for the inevitable re-design, somewhat a tradition for Nintendo handhelds now. 

Max Speelman

The best things in life are said to occur in threes. Jackass 3D is the best utilisation of the stereoscopic third dimension in a film. The latest film installment from their spin-off TV show illustrates the bond between the group, showing a group of friends playing pranks on each other. Steve-O’s recent straight edge approach to life was shared by the entire cast and crew, providing a uniquely hilarious innocence not seen before, which contrasts to the more hardcore flourishes of stunts in the previous films. The 3rd film really is the complete package, with dangerous stunts and explicit public displays that make the audience cringe, yet leave them begging for more. 9.

Joe Burt. 

Facebook has a new feature. ‘Questions’ allows users to quiz their friends and the wider Facebook-using public. Unlike ‘Yahoo Answers’, ‘Facebook Questions’ are less open-ended and more like polls, with answers limited to preset multiple choices.

Whilst I’m sure the creators envisioned kooky ice cream shops being able to find out their customers’ favourite flavour, what we actually get most of the time are polls about pop culture, usually with a biased range of choices.

At the moment, ‘Questions’ are little more than ‘like’ pages with a touch of interactivity. Not really something you want clogging up your news feed.

Sam Chaplin

Hundreds of thousands of people descended upon the streets of London yesterday in opposition of Public sector cuts and Corporate Tax evasion. Anarchists, Socialists, Union members and incalculable amounts of other walks of life and political ideology marched together in solidarity. It was awe inspiring to see so many people collectively standing up to the wrongs being forced on us by an illegitimate government. With this being my first demonstration it was eye opening to see how skewed a picture mainstream media presents, over half the coverage I saw was of violent demonstration and public disorder, I spent the whole day in London and the most violent thing I saw was someone hugging someone.

Max Speelman

A DSi-only cartridge (a rarity in and of itself) containing nothing but a repetition of auto-playing trailers, presenting games like Scribblenauts, New Super Mario Bros., Flipnote Studio, and other high-profile DS games.  The thought of such an item brings forth the notions of a rare, yet mundane and worthless promotional item; but ebay seller qualitydisc has decided to stick a price on this…rare and desirable heirloom: the auction starts at $399.95.

Happy bidding, I guess.

“Brevity is the soul of wit,” wrote Shakespeare. With brevity being the basis of Twitter, one could assume that it would be full of wit, a ‘wit-tank’. Many of the most popular twitterers are comedians, tweeting jokes. Whilst the 140 character limit might impede comedians who specialise in drawn out routines (Stewart Lee is notably absent), most are forced to consider each word, stripping out filler and getting to the soul of the joke. Circuit regulars Gary Delaney and Tony Cowards in particular owe their growing live popularity to the popularity of their twitter feeds. Just be sure to block Cheggers.

Sam Chaplin

From original film scores (One Hour Photo, The Social Network), to Nine Inch Nails, to video games (Quake, Doom), to his own independent record label (The Null Corporation), Trent Reznor has indisputably built a name for himself. His latest project, with his wife Mariqueen Maandig and previous collaborate Atticus Ross, How To Destroy Angels is an experimental and industrial sounding band. This eponymous debut EP release, free download from their website, focuses around engaging rhythms in each track, with vocals and melodies that rarely vacate from your thoughts. I’m engrossed in this EP, constantly and eagerly awaiting their album, speculated for release in autumn 2011. 9

http://howtodestroyangels.com/

Joe Burt.

After being suggested countless amounts of times I gave into the hype and watched this film. I expected a gritty, low budget flick. The whole affair is a bombardment on the senses. Disorienting wide angle shots, an assault of colour and nonsensical dialogue result in confusion and boredom. The plot goes on and on with the characters taking ever increasing amounts of hard drugs and finding themselves in ever more wild situations, this repeats several times and becomes additionally tiresome each time. A romp through heavy drug use littered with a repetitive plot and melodramatic “humour”. Sorry to offend any of this over glorified films cult following.

4

Max Speelman 

Live at the LPAC, Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, was Alan Carr on Monday 21st of March for one of many warm up gigs around the country. His support act, Josh Widdecombe, was brilliant at audience interaction, but it seemed he relied on that at the start for quite a while and ran out of time for his actual set. Carr, on the other hand, was equally balanced with his jokes, which had you in tears, to audience interaction that flowed perfectly into his set. Carr ended the night with a Q&A session, which was something I’ve personally never experienced with comedians, but the intimacy of the LPAC ensured it was a success with the audience. 

Joe Burt.

Vicious, vehement, and vexed. OFWGKTA are a group of rappers from L.A who range from 17 to 23. There is a huge buzz surrounding the group at the moment, they’re performing  across the US, getting played on the radio and appearing on shows such as Jimmy Fallon.  OFWGKTA are composed of those hyper-intelligent, nihilistic, indignant teenagers and it’s from this which comes their aggressive, self-referential lyrics. Their live performances are chaotic exhibitions of energy with members of the group darting round the stage and the audience moving like they’re at a Metal concert, not a rap show. Generating hype across the whole music industry, they are definitely something to keep your eye on.

Max Speelman

Even though I am completely out of my depths with ‘this type’ of music, and the current bands similar to Chinese Sky Candy, their EP, Dead Animals Everywhere currently free from their Bandcamp site, has taken hold of me and won’t let go. Their passion for experimenting with sound manipulation is a major selling point, evident from the first track, and constant through the album. His voice is unlike any I’ve heard before. It seems weak and wobbly but grows on you to be powerful, especially in the track Sober. Many other tracks feature very unusual instruments that stereotypically wouldn’t blend together well, but in this album work like bricks and mortar building a strong EP for audience anticipations of a future album. 8

http://chineseskycandy.bandcamp.com/

Joe Burt.

While traversing the desert of local music cluttered by generic “-core” bands and talentless attempts of image and popularity it can be rather refreshing to happen upon the oasis that is good old Rock ‘n Roll.  Hallow Bullets get it exactly right with chunky riffs, epic solos and songs that just compel you to nod your head. The reason they stand out so much is their individuality, rock and roll seems to have lost its cool amongst the younger generation who instead favour ridiculous tunings, copy cat songs and uninspired lyrics. Keeping Rock ‘n Roll alive.

From Modern-Classical to Post-Rock to Hometronica to Intelligent Dance, Erased Tapes Records have a reputation for discovering innovative new artists and have released a second collection of songs. The album, originally released 03/01/2010, was free of charge in celebration for their third birthday, and features artists such as Ólafur Arnalds, Rival Consoles, Codes In The Clouds and Peter Broderick, all very unique with their own personal styles. The album flows beautifully, breaking you in with 1985, a track designed for dance to a peaceful middle section with Ljósið. The album gradually gets louder until the trance like finale track And It’s Alright (Nils Frahm RMX), which truly ends the album perfectly. 

You will not be disappointed with this compilation of extraordinary artists. 9

http://www.erasedtapes.com/

Joe Burt.

It’s become trendy lately for developers to release downloadable content on the day of their game’s launch; I’m looking at you Bioware. By doing this you’re limiting the amount of people that are going to access this content which could easily be included on the disc. These sometimes come bundled with the game, a reward of sorts for buying a new copy, a measure emplaced in an effort to try and stifle used game sales. By doing morally ambiguous acts such as this Developers and Publishers are demarcating the amount of content you receive. It’s comparable to buying a sandwich and then being asked if you’d like to buy the filling for an extra £10.

Max Speelman

So, Bon Jovi thinks the times, they are a -changing.  “Kids today have missed the whole experience of putting the headphones on, turning it up to 10, holding the jacket, closing their eyes and getting lost in an album; and the beauty of taking your allowance money and making a decision based on the jacket, not knowing what the record sounded like, and looking at a couple of still pictures and imagining it.”

To be honest, we still do this…except we turn it up to 11, and now the risk of wasting money on a bad band with a good jacket is no more, thanks to online sources giving you a preview before purchase. With the aftershock of napster (a game-changer that he failed to mention), and the looming shadow of the pirate bay (we’re all guilty of using it) overhead, the music industry was already killed and left without value.  The likes of iTunes and Spotify are picking up the pieces.

Way to bite the smaller hand that feeds you, Bon Jovi.

Jason England