Adam 'Ad Rock' Horovitz, Michael 'Mike D' Diamond and Adam 'MCA' Yauch of The Beastie Boys. Mark Mainz/Getty Images "I'm totally numb," Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys said bluntly, in his only interview following the death on May 4th of his bandmate Adam Yauch. Sitting in the New York office of the Beasties' publicist, only 10 days after Yauch's passing, Horovitz fondly recalled their lifetime together in punk, hip-hop and hijinks. He also struggled to describe his feelings after his friend's death and admitted that healing was slow in coming. "My wife is like, 'I want to make sure you're getting it out.' But then I'm walking the dog and I'll start crying on the street." Horovitz shook his head wearily. "It's pretty fucking ... Continue reading →
Michael 'Mike D' Diamond, Adam 'MCA' Yauch and Adam 'Ad Rock' Horovitz of The Beastie Boys. Matthew Peyton/Getty Images "He had us fooled in the most beautiful way," Michael Diamond said of Adam Yauch, his friend and fellow Beastie Boy for more than 30 years, describing the latter's "incredible optimism" during his three-year battle with cancer. "I believed, up to last week, that Adam was somehow coming back," Diamond confessed, in a long, frank interview after Yauch's death on May 4th. "But I wouldn't trade that optimism for anything," he added quickly, sitting in the kitchen of his Brooklyn home, only six blocks from the house where Yauch grew up. "Because the other option is no fun." Did Yauch always have a fighter's spirit?He had ... Continue reading →
Philosophising about sex…Alain de Botton. Photograph: Geraint Lewis / Rex Features Like Salt'n'Pepa, Alain de Botton wants to talk about sex. Whether he likes to talk about all the good things and the bad things that may be, I can't say for certain, because what De Botton (pictured) really likes to do is to philosophise about sex and for some of us less philosophical types, it can be a little tricky to understand what, exactly, he is saying at all.Last week, an email arrived: "Philosopher Alain de Botton to launch a new kind of porn," screamed the subject line. Thrilled, I swiftly clicked on the email. Disappointed, I saw there were no photos. Only, it transpired, a manifesto of sorts in which De Botton philosophically ... Continue reading →
Yesterday's Google doodle of the Moog synthesiser gave us all a chance to have a little tinkle on the pre programmed ivories and proved that musical talent only lies within a select few of the Mixmag staff. But YouTube musician Brett Domino made more than good use of the doddle, layering tracks to create a rather impressive version of Daft Punk's 'Aerodynamic'. Watch the video below and head over to Mashable for more great Goolge Moog recordings. Continue reading →
28 Dec 2011: Stuart Jeffries: The Big Ideas: Kittler, who died this year, suggested we weren't masters of our technological domain, but rather that we were its pawns Continue reading →