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Any Colour You Like…

Any Color You Like #1
Originally uploaded by DanielKHC

This picture is amazing.

Ministry of Information, Communications and The Arts. Singapore (MICA).

Rogue Status x Alien Work Shop V.2

We’ve seen the first Rogue Status x Alien Work Shop skate decks a few months back; now we have a another collaboration skateboard deck that is available now. It features Rogue’s infamous gun print all over the bottom of the deck. Cop now before this one’s sold out just like the last one!

Info:  Cubicle Gangster

Via CJL

Cure for HIV?

ScienceDaily (Oct. 21, 2007) — With the latest advances in treatment, doctors have discovered that they can successfully neutralise the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The so-called ‘combination therapy’ prevents HIV from mutating and spreading, allowing patients to rebuild their immune system to the same levels as the rest of the population.

To date, it represents the most significant treatment for patients suffering from HIV.

Professor Jens Lundgren from the University of Copenhagen, together with other members of the research group EuroSIDA, have conducted a study, which demonstrates that the immune system of all HIV-infected patients can be restored and normalised. The only stipulation is that patients begin and continue to follow their course of treatment.

HIV attacks the body’s ability to counteract viruses

Viruses are small organisms that have no independent metabolism. Consequently, when they enter the body they attack living cells and adopt their metabolism. The influenza virus occupies cells in the nose, throat and lungs; the mumps attaches itself to the salivary glands of the ear; while the Polio virus plays on the intestinal tract, blood and salivary glands. In all these instances, our immune system attacks and eliminates the invading virus.

HIV is so deadly because the virus attaches itself to a crucial part of the immune system itself: to the so-called CD4+T lymphocytes, which are white blood corpuscles that help the immune system to fight infections. The Hi-virus forms and invades new CD4+T-lymphocytes. Slowly but surely, the number of healthy CD4+T lymphocytes in the blood fall, while HIV relentlessly weakens the body’s ability to defend itself from infection. Finally, the immune system erodes to such an extent that the infected patient is diagnosed with AIDS. The Hi-virus mutates constantly as it forms and this is why, scientists face a constant battle to find a cure or a vaccine.

Combination therapy knocks out HIV

Combination therapy prevents the virus from forming and mutating in human beings. When the virus is halted in its progress, the number of healthy CD4+T cells begins to rise and patients, who would otherwise die from HIV, can now survive. The immune system is rejuvenated and is apparently able to normalise itself, providing that the combination therapy is maintained. The moment the immune system begins to improve, the HIV-infected patient can no longer be said to be suffering from an HIV infection or disease, already declining in strength.

Via Skeet Skeet

M.I.A. Record Signing – Nov. 11 in San Diego

Get your copy of Kala signed! M.I.A. will be signing copies of her new record "Kala" at the following locations:

MIAMI, FL
10/29 @ 6:30pm
UNCLE SAMS
1141 WASHINGTON AVE
ATLANTA, GA

10/31 @ 6:30pm
CRIMINAL RECORDS
466 MORELAND AVE
DALLAS, TX

11/4 @ 4pm
GOOD RECORDS
1808 LOWER GREENVILLE AVE
SAN DIEGO, CA

11/11 @ 4pm
LOU’S
434 NORTH COAST HIGHWAY 101
ENCINITAS, CA

11/16 @ 6pm
EASY STREET
20 MERCER STREET

SEATTLE, WA

Everything in the music industry is up! (except those plastic discs)

At a speech last week I was asked a question that has come up every day since the Radiohead (and Madonna, NIN, Prince, etc, etc) announcement: What’s going to happen to the music industry?

To which I answered "Which music industry?" You don’t mean just the one that sells CDs, do you? Because it’s a big mistake to equate the major labels and their plastic disc business with the industry as a whole. Indeed, when you stand back and look at all of music, things don’t look so bad at all.

Indeed, it appears that every single part of the music industry except the sale of compact discs is up.

• Concerts and merchandise: UP (+4%)
• Digital tracks: UP (+46%)
• Ringtones: UP (+86% last year, but probably just single-digit percent this year)
• Licensing for commercials, TV shows, movies and videogames: UP (Warner Music saw licensing grow by about $20 million over the past year)
• Even vinyl singles (think DJs): UP (more than doubled in the UK)
• And, if you include the iPod in the music industry, as I’d argue a fair-minded analysis would: UP, UP, UP! (+31% this year)

Only CDs are down (-18%). They’re around 60% of the industry not including the MP3 players, but just around 25% if you do include them.

So the problem with the music labels is not that music is an industry in decline, but that they have a too-narrow view of what business they’re in. Madonna’s switch from a label to a concert promoter should be a clue. This quote from an excellent article (it’s worth reading it all) in Entertainment Weekly says it all:

”Soon a lot of these companies won’t define themselves as record companies,” says Steve Greenberg, the former head of Columbia Records who now runs the independent record company S-Curve. ”They’ll define themselves as artist development companies. If you’re involved in an entire career with an artist, then everyone’s interests can be aligned."

I think most music will soon be free, as artists give away the product as marketing for their performances and licensing, and as a celebrity accelerant that creates more opportunities to make money than just from the sale of a record.

And for those who say that this avenue is only available to artists at the head of the curve, such as Madonna and Radiohead, I’d point out that the other group poorly served by the labels are those at the bottom of the curve, the many thousands of bands who fall below the radar of the hit-driven majors. I’d argue that they, too, have nothing to lose by letting their music go free, nothing to lose but the prospect of becoming indentured to companies stuck in last century’s model of monetizing music.

Via Longtail

City budget woes and how your local street festival may not happen

This could be the end (maybe temporary end) of your local street festival, maybe even make your block party a bit more costly. It also could mean changes for major festivals like Sunset Junction.

Yesterday, Karen Sisson, the Los Angeles City Administrative Officer (she’s in charge of the money), told City Council that due to an increasing amount of financial concerns, they should "freeze all new spending and end the politically popular practice of granting permit-fee waivers for groups’ special events," according the Daily News today.

"I liken it to when you plan to make an addition to your home, but the bonus you were counting on didn’t come through," City Administrative Officer Karen Sisson said. "So you put off the project until you have the money."

Sisson said the city is still grappling with a structural deficit that could mean a $215 million shortfall next year. It also faces the potential loss of an existing telephone-users tax that brings in about $270 million a year.

"I know in a budget our size that $270 million doesn’t sound like a lot of money," Sisson told City Council members. "But when you look at the proportion of our money devoted to public service – that’s two-thirds of the budget. A $270 million cut will be noticeable in other service areas and that is the choices we will be looking at."

In addition to banning permit-fee waivers, which do away with the cost of providing traffic control at special events, other new programs that could be cut are "City Attorney’s Office’s gang-prosecutor program, expense accounts, fuel purchases, homeless shelters, various anti-gang programs, new police and fire stations and workers’ compensation attorneys."

However, making it harder to conduct a block party can be detrimental to crime prevention. City officials and police hail neighborhood watches, a form of community policing, as one of the most important elements in fighting crime. In fact, the LAPD saying goes like this: "Policing is 75% community, 25% police." Block parties have proved to be one of the ways of solidifying and empowering a neighborhood watch to be successful. Cut support of this small, yet important neighborhood aspect, and the consequences could be a hundred times more costly.

Via LAist

I Want the New Sidekick Slide

‘The Sidekick Slide is the midrange Sidekick, at $199, and it has a smaller screen than the Sidekick "Luxury" LX. I couldn’t tell so from the stuffy stock photos, but having held it and played with it, I do believe it has the best build quality of any sidekick. Motorola hardware plus Danger OS? Yes, please. It’s also smaller. The keyboard’s round buttons aren’t so bad to type on, but they’re not as easy to peg as the full-sized LX keyboard, and they’re lined with velvecron, that fuzzyish paint for gadgets. Sidekick loyalists might not like the sliding screen, but I think it’s tops.’

Via Gizmodo

Cake at The Orpheum (LA) – November 30th

Cake’s Unlimited Sunshine Festival

Orpheum Theatre, Los Angeles, CA
Fri, Nov 30, 2007 07:00 PM

Tickets: $35.50 (via Ticketmaster)

Kanye West to Launch Jewelry Line with Takashi Murakami

After his much blogged-about victory over 50 Cent last month, Kanye West is taking the next logical step for a hip-hop star on the rise: he’s branching out into bling. Kanye will be collaborating with Takashi Murakami, the celebrated Warhol-esque Japanese designer of Louis Vuitton fame. Kanye and Murakami have worked together before: Murakami designed the rapper’s latest album cover, Graduation (pictured). The planned jewelry line, which has no release date yet, will feature huge Manga-style necklace pendants with rare colored diamonds. Kanye debuted a prototype necklace at the Givenchy show during New York Fashion Week last month, as reported by WWD. The rapper noted that there’s still work to do on the prototype: “The eyes are not perfectly done. Murakami cringes when he sees the eyes.”