the USED UNIVERSE creature mascot comes to you with an important consumer alert: beware of impulse buys - especially when it comes to surprise LEGO men

just minding my own business on the treadmill at the gym last night flipping between the Fog of war (NOTE: such a great documentary!~ hadn't seen it since it came out) and South Park dubbed in German when suddenly beth ditto of Portland-based band the gossip was on a french television show called n’ est pas couché where they had previously been discussing the burka ban. she did well. I think the lag in automatic translation created a lot of communication difficulties, this was a sort of roundtable talk show and it seemed like a lot of the panelists didn't have the greatest sense of humour, nevertheless she really held her own and I was impressed. the gym was closing so I didn't get a chance to catch the end but I just found it online.

USED UNIVERSE "Hop To" featuring ENIAC´s 8-bit composition from used universe on Vimeo.

USED UNIVERSE "Hop To" featuring ENIAC´s 8-bit composition
This is a hommage to Nintendo music video I made for the song HOp TO which is one song in a series of 8-Bit music compositions created by NYC-based musician ENIAC ( you can download them all for free HERE: http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/71289

the USED UNIVERSE mascot / creature takes a look at the packaging of the knife's new CD / album called TOMORROW, IN A YEAR - a collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock. we aren't too stoked about the packaging. it doesn't smell like anything.

I did not go to MELT! Festival this year, which is probably all for the best since last year was so fun and amazing that it couldn't possibly be repeated. I only write this because after seeing a video of (the knife / Fever Ray)KARIN DREIJER ANDERSEN's acceptance speech at the Swedish music awards which is totally amazing which some house guests had mentioned a few months ago but Death just posted on facebook) I then came across a video that was shot of the FEVER RAY melt show we were at and completely blown away by:

Fever Ray tar emot pris för Årets Dans på P3 Guld

POSTER READING: "Apparently, I believe whether it fits into my worldview or not."
On and off between three and five AM this morning ю and I got into a discussion. I had a book in hand with certain evidence and eyewitness accounts, and she had the internet on her side, laptop in lap, refuting every shred of credibility I could toss out.
The discussion topic: crop circles.
ю had never heard of the phenomenon before, so I think my first mistake was to explain them as "formations that people make in fields and then claim that they were made by aliens." That was the off the cuff definition I provided, but I realized throughout out back-and-forth that I actually do believe that many crop circle formations are simply too complex to have been created by humans, especially by bored country bumpkins.
So, I learned that - to quote an X-Files poster I had when I was 15 - "I want to believe" and I DO actually believe that some crop circles are NOT made by humans, which ALSO means -by default - that I believe that they are created by aliens, WHICH is COMPLETELY IRRATIONAL although I would otherwise consider myself a rational human being... so, the crop circle issue was the exception to my rule. I roll my eyes when people talk about miracles of religion or ghosts or magic or superstition... but I, apparently, firmly and unshakingly believe in aliens. Based on... nothing. I do not believe the stories told during interviews with Midwestern housewives who claim to have been abducted and probed, and I do not believe anything really happened at Area 51. So, I believe in aliens based on nothing... based on no evidence whatsoever.

Oh, and we also discovered the German term "Kornkreis Kunde".

just went from many many weeks more or less ofline to just now several solid hours back fully online and... the thing is:
things are always changing, but are they changing more now than usual? How do we measure that? More people + more industry + more needs
and more pressures on every imaginable system will inevitably seem like chaos... but you look out the window and everything seems dandy.
you turn on the computer or check the mail and that is when it suddenly seems like all hell breaks loose.

Wampa vs. Rancor
Report written from the perspective of a 10-year old: If the Wampa fought the Rancor, well, there would be a lot of problems. First off the Rancor lives in desert climates and the Wampa lives in sub-zero climates and the Rancor is 5 meters tall and the Wampa is only maybe half that. They are both moody, vicious beasts and the fight would be evenly matched in that way- but I am still not cure who I would put my money on. The Rancor is probably a lot slower that the Wampa but with the natural height and strength and size advantages he appears to be the safe bet- but that Wampa is sly, bitter, cold... who knows.

History repeats itself.
Much to my horror I just found out that in the 25th anniversary edition of E.T. The Extra-terrestrial Steven Spielberg made all the same mistakes
that George Lucas did when he added scenes to the original three Star Wars films, namely: he took somethign great, perfect and holy
and stuck shiny plastic CGI rhinestones on it. I still think this is perhaps one of the greatest films of all time, but I would also be
in support of a public bonfire to burn of all DVD copies featuring the added CGI scenes.

Codes for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for Game Boy ADVANCE
as collected by yours truly
(I hope they are in the right order by level - but I cannot guarantee it as I scriibled them all over an index card
8XDD, TXDK, JP1J, GXG5, GXDG, 5P1H, FXXV, OP1Z, XRNQ, XPP*, 9*4D, 9*N1, XNP6, CX7R,CKB6, X*HK, FQF*, O*TK, 4H9R, 8QZ0, 7XBP, 7NBN enjoy!

Post Titled: Out of the airlock.
I started watching the 2nd season of Heroes, a show about people discovering that they have supernatural powers and
some sort of company out to get them. I didn't bother to watch the first season. With the exception of the constant "Why is Spock being so EVIL?" and "Awh... teenage mutant love" the show is just so-so, cardboard American
sitcom-level dialogue which tries its damndest to be meaningful. But, like that southern vampire show with that girl from the Piano,
it is something to have on in the background when you are drawing.
Back in January (at that point never having seen the show and not really knowing anything about it other than my description above- apparently that is all you need to know anyhow) I saw a girl (perhaps 11 or 12 years old) at LAX in a big black Heroes hooded sweatshirt. I stared at the logo on the front and then smiled at her . I don't even know why I did it but she actually smiled back. I guess I somehow related to it as if in the early 90s I was
walking around an airport in a SeaQuest DSV hoodie - had they existed.
Maybe Heroes is cool if you are in 5th grade, or maybe she was fearlessly outing herself as a nerd.... OR maybe one of her parents had
something to do with the studio or production of the show so they just have tons of hats and shirts with movie logos on them just laying
around the house and she grabbed the nearest one...
Since then I have shamelessly sewn a patch featuring the emblem of the Rebel Alliance which I bought last summer at Midtown Comics in Manhattan,
one of my favorite places on earth (the comic book store, not Manhattan itself) onto a bag which I use almost daily thus outing myself as a sort of dork... although I susperct that maybe only other dorks would pick up on it OR dudes over 30 or children in elementary school. In that way maybe it is like a secret language. I'd imagine that if I went around wearing a Star Trek pin (which i would never do) that it would be much more recognizable, but the Rebel Alliance patch... I'd wager that an average person on the street would have trouble identifying it out of context.

Who knows, maybe that girl in the Heroes sweatshirt actually has superpowers and I gave off the impression that I secretly knew that and secretly have superpowers myself
therefore I smiled at a complete stranger who smiled back- (how often does that happen? Once a year?) Having never seen the show myself
I didn't know... well, it is fine. It is better than all that:
On Hypermoronic Trash
I have recently re-encountered the world of children's televison programming (I.e. Disney XD and to some extent Nickelodeon)
only to be horrified at how astonishingly dumb the shows are. The humour even seems to be a step down from That 70s show, which I have only seen once
or twice but was nevertheless also amazed at how purely DUMB it was.
I'm not entirely sure what I was watching recently but... it was obnoxious crap.
Also, the style of the cartoons is particularly annoying- it is as if half the shows took Dexter's Labratory
as their visual role model: these THick black lines outlining everything and less and less effort going into any scenic details.
All that Schizo hyper-aware dialogue.
For example: a line of dialogue spoken very quickly in the show Kim Possible went something like "Hey princess we're the good guys and we're here to
save you BLAH BLAH BLAH." The show points out that it isn't doing anythign original and makes it tongue in cheek by defining it literally as "BLAH BLAH BLAH".
Spongebob and its very Wren and Stimpiness is so strange that it seems like and exception to the rule. It is somehow quite clever...
also what I did find somewhat tolerable and even charming at moments was iCarly, but even that gets really close
to the line. What is up with adolescents and teenagers AND the adults on these shows acting completely idiotic in these shows... watching my elementary-age cousins watch these
shows was interesting as well. There is one particulary bad one about twins on a boat, (further research turned up the title
"The Suite Life Of Zack And Cody"), - all the while my cousins hardly
react at all to the show as they watch it. The laugh track laughs but the kids sitting on the couch don't even crack so much as a smile episode after episode. So... if it isn't funny or entertaining... why do they watch?
These programs aren't even wince-worthy. Just came across a blog post denouncing them in further detail. thanks screwattack.com and poster called Timmy_the_Juggling_Man. Thank you, TImmy. Never seen Hannah Montana but that is at the top of the list.
I can't help but wonder if me writing such a post as this is just like your grandpa shouting "turn down that blasted rock n' roll music!" or your parents hating hip-hop. forever.
but it isn't really. because there is quality to rock and roll and rap music, there is thought put into it... I would almost prefer that Disney channel play Tim and Eric or Tim and Eric-esque material, horricially absurd nonsense rather than dumb bratty creepy crap. Tim and ERic is at least entertaining, which is also a cardinal sin of these shows: a mega-company like Disney pumps millions of dollars, man hours, energy, brain-power, resources, etc. into this stuff that isn't even worth making or watching and ultimately it fails to entertain...
My mother had a very effective method for dealing with bad waste-of-time television: she would come over, turn off the television saying "This is trash. Go play outside." In light of these truly shite Disney sitcoms I'd say that her type of totalitarian media filter methodology is not only needed but once again perhaps entirely necessary.

Dealing with digital loss.
My cousins had made an interesting point years ago: as technology progresses
and evolves you have to keep shuffling all the archived data from one medium to
another. I.e. I used to burn all of my difital fotos to CD, but over time CDs
degrade (unless you buy those gold-plated ones guaranteed for x hundreds of years-
I suppose). I took this into account but recently it is starting to affect.
I went back to view short digital movies which I'd shot and burned to CD in 2005
and lo-and-behold, the files are all corruped- POOF! Digital oblivion.

Just yesterday I thoguht my i.Beat sweez FM (an MP3 / Radio / audio recording device
made by Trekstor which is super cheap and super reliable) had dumped all my audio re-
cordings from the past year. I plugged the device in and searched the contents for hours-
nada. This was tough, there were dozens- maybe a hundred - little recordings which I had
taken and forgotten about, but then when I went back and listened to them I realized just
how well they painted an audio collage of my experience of the time between Summer 2009
and the present. Just little snippets. POOF! GONE! -I thought.
However when I plugged the device in today they were all right back where they were supposed to be...
what the heck happend I'll never know.
Digital loss is a virutal loss, but it can really trigger your nostalgia and feelings of real loss on par with losing an iPod or your hardrive dies... such a 21st century malady.

Used Universe Stormtrooper Desert

USED UNIVERSE "ZIS IS EET" from used universe on Vimeo.

USED UNIVERSE: ZIS IS EET (No Codec Jeremy Blake)
I have been trying various methods to imitate the motion color field work of Jeremy Blake (R.I.P.) because I really love them.
Thus far I've had the most sucesss in utilizing abrupt, inexplicable and unforeseen technical glitches I've encountered while using digital media.
I.E. this video was created entirely from Michael Jackson's documentary "THIS IS IT".

 
NOTE: since first posting this I finally bothered to seek out the image of the game mentioned on the radio... might be a different game? or in German is it just spun differently?) THey both have BP on them... *hurm* anyhow, back to the ORIGINAL POST:
As Bill Radke reported on the July 7, 2010 edition of the radio programme Marketplace: "A 1970s board game has surfaced called "BP Offshore Oil Strike." It had the official BP logo right on it. "
coincidentally back in February I had fotographed what seems to be the same (German version of the game! In German it is called "Öl für uns alle" (Oil for us all). A friend and I were poking around one of the many Turkish junkshops of the Berlin neighbourhood of Neukoelln when we came across it and we thought it was simply - well, hilarious and a bit creepy and she ended up buying it for a euro or two- practically brand new!
british petrolium oil spill gulf coast bp oil disaster oel fuer uns alle deutsches brettspiel aus der 70ziger 70iger 60-iger 70-iger