Twice In One Week

I went into town twice this week, the most frequency I’ve been in Central London since the before times. Both for good reasons tho.

SandboxVR

On Wednesday I went SandboxVR in Holborn. And experienced their ‘holodeck’. VR googles, headphones, haptic vest and full MoCap tracking gear. SandboxVR was super fun.

We played the first game built for the technology platform and it was extremely well done. A typical ‘shoot the zombies as they come in waves’ set up. There is also some integration with a large set of fans in the room to give you an immersive experience at peak parts of play.

I enjoyed the Put you hand on the someones shoulder to heal them game mechanic, which really speaks to how robust the realtime mocap is.

There’s currently only two of these places in the UK, and at £35-50 quid per person is a little pricy. However, the experience is amazing, and worth the money.

Presumably, everything will continue to improve along with the rest of the post-game-engine consumer tech in the coming years. I thought the Pico (G2/G3? not sure they have obscured the branding) headset was a little heavy after one round 30mins. Maybe I just need to work on my upper back and neck muscles if i’m going to be spending time in the metaverse? Anyways, thanks BV and Ed had a great time.

A Wheel of Small Gods

The other occasion for being in town was on Friday was for the launch of ‘Delicious’ Brian Wilkins’, occult poetry book A Wheel of Small Gods.

Created in three years of ritual, A Wheel of Small Gods is gateway to working with the 36 Decan Spirits of the Egyptian Zodiac . Rooted in tradition and profoundly experimental, the book offers to restore to readers the healing magic that is their birthright through art and inspiration. These 41 poems and talismans offer nothing less than the secret of magic: you can change your life.

I met Brian for coffee and some lunch, then we spent the day together. Chatting, plotting, etc whilst doing the classic occult bookshop tour. Culminating with his book signing/reading at Watkins. DB gave a short talk about the 3 year long ritual involved in creating the pieces, and his collaboration with artist Brennen Reece who produced the woodcuts for the book, and accompanying oracle card deck. It is always a real privilege to hear a poet read their poems for an audience.

After the reading the soupers in attendance went for drinks in soho, where we raised a glass in memory for the must missed Eriol. Great fun.

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In other news, its Eve’s birthday this weekend, hence the clip show podcast yesterday. We had family over yesterday, and then low drinks with a few friends in the evening.

I made a cake:

We are about to head into Wimbledon for fancy ‘nordic Japanese fusion’ at Sticks’n’Sushi. Nice.

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Photo 365

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

• I’m still smashing out the life / labour todolist
• Built a big spreadsheet for Novara
• Did a bunch of forecasting for Novara
• Had two calls about a ‘plan’ someone has
• Wrote 600 total words a day, every day, on across two projects this week
• Played VR LOL

Terminal Access

Much activity in the friend-o-sphere this week. Both are music related. One gets a mention here, the other below.

The band MACHIAVELLIAN ART’s debut album Indoctrination Sounds is up for pre-order on bandcamp via Riot Season Records. I have yet to see John and co tear shit up live, but I can’t wait for the day.

A Maximalist blowout of Sax-honking Noise Rock, Doom Metal, Hardcore Punk, and Shoegaze, with Industrial Noise, Howls, Paranoid Rambles, and pure Disdain for oneself and the rest of you layered on top.

Dipping the Stacks

State of the Windows: How many layers of UI inconsistencies are in Windows 11? – NTDEV

It’s 2023, and Windows 11 is finally a mature operating system that most people would be happy to use.

The Honest Broker | Ted Gioia | Substack

If it happened at Barnes & Noble, it could happen anywhere.

TikTok helps UK book sales hit record levels, Publishers Association says – BBC News

“The sheer volume of sales we saw in that one year on the back of the TikTok activity far exceeded the combined sales we’ve seen for those titles over their lifetime before that”

The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI

We’re about to drown in a sea of pedestrian takes. An explosion of noise that will drown out any signal.

The ‘Tumblrification’ of Social Media

“The popular theory is that all the most toxic people left Tumblr because there wasn’t porn there anymore and went elsewhere“

Reading

How to Read a Book by M.J. Adler and Ignition!: An informal history of liquid rocket propellants are still both on deck but were sat aside this week.

Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act: A Way of Being is one of the best books about creativity I’ve ever read. It certainly is the book on the subject for our/my generation. I love that all his book promotion, speaking in public more than he ever has, has cause a huge shit storm about him, his work and what a ‘producer; is.

I managed to read half of the paper back publication of Anna Greenspan’s year 2000 PHD thesis Capitalism’s Transcendental Time Machine. It’s so amazing that lots of people from the CCRU extended universe are getting nice/clean new paperback editions. The introduction is by Wassim & and the Terra0 boys. I attended a 0x salon on the book on Wednesday.

Music

zexulo.xyz Spotify Playlist

Kanoo – Deleted Years

The boys from Instrumental/Math/Rock/Emo/Roll/Tech/Melodic band Kanoo finally put their first album out – Deleted Years. Drummer Ed Broad was the drummer in some of my bands when we were kids, but today he’s at the top of his game. Hell they are all at the top of their game.T

The album includes some new to me tracks and old favourites like F# Infinity (below)

As a unit, Kanoo display incredible musicianship on every single track. Hope you discover them and check the album out.

Remember Kids: