NotPopCulture

So this place is no longer called No Target. There are a few reasons why I've abandoned the old name, none of which are particularly interesting. Perhaps the biggest thing for me was how insane it felt for the title of the blog to be different from the URL address. Look! They're now the same.

These are exciting times. Honest.

Building a Webpage that Sucks?

So I'm trying to learn how to use Adobe Dreamweaver, while also trying not to let myself become completely ignorant of the code underneath it. It feels fun and exciting to have something new and completely alien to play around with, and even the few babysteps I've taken in the past couple of hours toward becoming less rubbish feel quite satisfying.

Almost me, except I have a rickety wooden chair instead of a cool one with wheels

I guess the dream is to one day have the power to create odd conceptual sites like MONO*Crafts. Although possibly not, as it's also a contender for Worst Web Site of 2009 on webpagesthatsuck.com

Yeah, I'll steer clear of the Flash for now.

Art Brut - DC Comics & Chocolate Milkshakes

And to think I ever doubted they'd make a second album. Brilliant stuff.

Fire Alert debut, err, "thing"

We got the name Fire Alert from some fire evacuation instructions we stole from a bar, on the night my brother, James McInerney and I decided we should have a go playing some music together. The wise principles contained within ("DO NOT TAKE PERSONAL RISKS OR PUT LIVES IN DANGER!") formed the basis of the first song we wrote. It's not a very good name for a band, but I'd rather have a crap name with some significance to it than spend months trying to think of something that's sufficiently "cool" but which is totally meaningless.

(While we're on the subject of bands with hip names, I'm pleased to see Internet Forever getting recognition from the likes of the Observer and VICE. They deserve it, and I've been slightly obsessed with the twee but undoubtedly great 'Break Bones' for a while now.)

Anyway, we got drunk, made up songs til the small hours of the morning, and pissed off the people living in the flat below. Thanks to the wonders of the iPhone, we were able to record it, and sure enough, most of it was a mess. Yet among the fluffed notes, dodgy lyrics and hesitant improvisations, there were a few minutes that stood out as sounding surprisingly 'finished'. (Or at least, slightly more than half-finished.)

A week later we took some video, and what you see below is what happened when the two were put together. I'm playing the bass notes.

Tetris Friends

It's been mighty quiet round these parts lately- partly because my life's been consumed by this brilliantly designed Tetris site. It's hugely worth creating a profile, so that your performance is tracked in the many games you're sure to end up playing.

Possibly the greatest videogame ever made.

I've been playing the two-player battle mode mostly, which thanks to an excellent match-making system means it doesn't take long before you start playing against people of a similar ability to yourself.

Terrifyingly addictive.