The Impossible mission is NOT to re-build Polaroid Integral film but (with the help of strategic partners) to develop a new product with new characteristics, consisting of new optimised components, produced with a streamlined modern setup. An innovative and fresh analog material, sold under a new brand name...

Find Polaroid cameras and film at Polapremium (previously unsaleable.com). Read more here, and here (PDF).

Mac fanaticism, I totally don't get it.

Is it just me, or does this toy nun have a face like a sex doll? Interesting.

Here are two American icons that are either gone or soon to be gone. Sure everybody dies, a fact made all to clear to me this year. But an icon like Chevy? It's as American as Apple Pie and the girl next door. I am Canadian, and very proud of it, but it made me a little sad this morning to think of a world without Chevrolet. I do however believe in a free market system, and bailouts never sit well with me. A government bailout is anti-capitalist, and I think the Senate did the right thing. In reality General Motors and Chrysler brought this on themselves, ultimately they where never capable of responding to market demands. I've never driven an American front wheel drive that I liked, nor have I driven an American made manual transmission that I liked either. The one thing they were good at: making large V8 automatic vehicles. The market hasn't demanded this sort of vehicle for decades, no surprise the trouble they are in. Then there is styling, or the American lack there of. They haven't made a truly beautiful vehicle in decades either.

Rest in peace Bettie Page, you will be missed. You too Chevrolet, even though your cars looked and drove like ass.

Words cannot describe this kind of awesomeness.

Ken Block

If you're like me and can't stand using iTunes, give Winamp a spin, they have come a long way in there portable device support. I use it exclusively, and like it. F**k Apple, do you hear me Jobs? F**k Apple.

Yesterday I received my copy of Irata's self titled debut album. I'm impressed, very impressed. Not only are they good musicians writing good music, they are doing a great job of self promoting. Go to their site to see what I mean, you can stream the whole album from the site. Order a copy of the CD and you'll get with it two stickers a small pin and personal service, all for 10 bucks, including shipping. Pretty damn awesome.

They are a progressive instrumental three piece. I've always dug instrumental, it's something hard to do well, tell a story without words. With track titles like Infinite 8, Clown Rehab, Baby's Breath and Drunken Dwarf, these are interesting stories, well told in a sonic landscape I've never experienced before.

If you like music, check them out here.

Little top really. My wife got these out of the in-laws basement this past weekend, she originally brought them home from a visit to her grandparents in England during her childhood, belonging to her father when he was a child. Fascinating that they used to make toys out of lead.

When I saw these along with a whole bunch of lead animals, something really appealed to me about the clowns. I had to photograph them, and try to capture them in the big top under the spot light.

The others can be found here.

xdrtb.org

Remember my last post? The one about The Library of Congress posting rights free historical photos on Flickr? Well, it turns out that there is a project called The Commons that Flickr piloted with LOC back in February. Since then The Powerhouse Museum, and The Brooklyn Museum have joined The Commons.

What is the Commons? Flickr says:

The key goals of The Commons on Flickr are to firstly show you hidden treasures in the world's public photography archives, and secondly to show how your input and knowledge can help make these collections even richer.

Awesome. Like I really needed another reason to spend more time on Flickr.

Now, back to the headline that probably got you reading this in the first place. The Library of Congress has a Flickr Account, check it out here, for some pretty awesome early century (mostly) rights free photographs. If you follow the "Persistant URL" found in the comments of each photo, you'll find a link to the archival TIFF file, very print worthy. Of course, they are just cool to browse too.

One of my favourites:
Mine Rescuer

Check it out here, and my gallery is at rdmillar.photoshop.com. Enjoy, that is, if you haven't already.

stuff

It's about time some of these corporate knobs wake up and use technology to their advantage. Would I be blogging about these books otherwise? I think not. Considering I don't understand the "cult", I'll be giving the PDF a glance. If I like it, I'll buy the paper version, as many, many others will do.

Update: So I snatched The Cult of Mac and had a look over the weekend, I'm not really any closer in understanding Macheads. To me, it's no different than any other brand fanaticism, something I just cannot relate too. I guess I understand it in the way that I just don't get any sort of product obsession, whether it be Harleys, Star Trek, Croc's or whatever.

I would like to applaud both the author, Leander Kahney and No Starch, for their forward thinking. However, having skimmed the book, I won't be buying a copy, which, in reality, is no different than going to a bookstore and skimming the print version, and making a purchasing decision based on the content in it's entirety. Only this way, there is virtually no cost involved for myself or the publisher.

via Torrentfreak