You may remember James from The Iraq War: A Historiography of Wikipedia Changelogs, his twelve-volume set of all changes to the Wikipedia article on the Iraq War from December 2004 to November 2009. Or as the chap who archived his first two years of twittering to a hardback book entitled My Life in Tweets. Maybe from one his many speaking engagements and/or consistently enjoyable ever growing number of projects…

His latest is Where the F**k Was I?, a beautiful looking book of 202 maps based on his iPhone tracked movements over the past year. In his explanation of the book he writes something so sweet that I started thinking about my phone with the same sad pang that I get when I think about the little dead Mars Rover, Spirit:

(Other aspects of the device’s place-making I enjoy: I love its hunger for new places, the inquisitive sensor blooming in new areas of the city, the way it stripes the streets of Sydney and Udaipur; new to me, new to the machine. It is opening its eyes and looking around, walking the streets beside me with the same surprise.)

Not as surprised as she’ll be when I wipe her little mind come September and replace her with the 5. What James is tapping into, literally, is the opportunity for these little Roy Batty’s to have a final monologue before we retire them.

Splendid.

James was also kind enough to let me play with his Robot Flaneur while he was still building it. A constant stream of the easily recognisable unfamiliar – a delightful tour of the city during a weekend that I was a little more stranded at my desk than usual. Now it has nine cities to get lost in and if you have a second screen please take advantage of it while you work/play.

Maybe make sure your phone can see the screen too.

*My latest phone is named Greta. After a ship I named for a screenplay who was in turn named after Garbo. And the clearwing butterfly (if the thing ever gets made, you’ll see why).

David Comes To Life, a rock opera, by Fucked Up is by far the best thing I’ve listened to this year.

Here’s a slice of why:

If this was a perfect world every time you press play on that video a ripple would crash across YouTube and eradicate everything else, suck the air from the lungs of every idiot product placement humping piece of worthless shit and leave them flopping on your keyboard like fish at the end of a Faith No More video.

It also taps into the same happy place I get taken to every time I hear this:

The Pitchfork review of David Comes To Life is well worth a read:

The story of David Comes to Life is fairly complicated and, at points, heavily meta. It concerns a factory worker named David Eliade who falls in love with a woman named Veronica Boisson. They conspire to build a bomb together and death, destruction, and redemption follow; along the way, the story’s narrator does battle with David for control of the plot.

Tricky narrative, concept album, Thatcherite Britain and music that leaves you bruised.

Fuck. Yeah.

I was watching THE PARALLAX VIEW for the first time in years the other night and while it’s never going to get out from under the shadow of ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN it’s still a little treat of a movie. And while Warren Beatty carries the movie well it was this scene that jumped out at me:

Anthony Zerbe beating a chimp at Pong.

Kinda makes RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES even more unnecessary.

It’s a tiny scene and Zerbe is uncredited, but you’ll know his face from a bunch of classic* movies (including the KISS one) and this has to be one of the best career summaries ever:

He is famous for playing over a dozen roles in which his character exploded.

That’s a weekend of entertainment right there.

*Your mileage may vary

Very cute video posted on Reddit this evening that captures the moment a boyfriend gets off a plane to surprise his girlfriend on her birthday. At one point she asks, “Why is this happening?” as she cries into his chest in a complete state of happy shock.

This is what happened in the Reddit comments:

Star Wars is a goddamn virus.

That video just tipped over 100k views by the way.

This is interesting.

3%: A Brazilian sci fi drama series pilot

We are looking for a TV network to support the whole 13 episode season.

The series follows the struggle of a group of characters trying to get selected as part of 3% approved to go to ‘That side’. The plot takes place in a world where all people, upon reaching age 20 can enroll in a selective process where 3% are accepted to transfer to a better world full of opportunities and the promise of a decent life. The selection process is cruel, filled with tension, and composed of extreme situations of stress, fear and moral dilemmas.

Part two and three. Hit the CC button for English subs.