And flash mobs! Flash mobs in Portugal! At least some people intend to, although I doubt the strings 'Portugal' and 'flash mob' will ever go together. For starters, flash mobs are supposed to be flash, precisely timed. Generally, portuguese people aren't exactly the kind of persons who are on time anywhere. They are supposed to occur in unexpected places, such as... a Toys'R'Us or a carpet shop. And if I was a player I'd put my money on the inclination people might have to arrange for a flash mob appearance on an already highly public place such as a disco. And then, flash mobs are trendy as situationist thinking starts to reemerge thanks to communications technology (which I find ironic), and I wouldn't be surprised to see some flyers and posters advertising a flash meeting, which indeed is all wrong... ¶

As we drift towards the situationist edge, a friend of mine told me about a New York group called The Motherfuckers whose members entered a Toys'R'Us dressed as Santa Claus, ransacked the store giving toys to children there, and in the meantime filmed the events unfolding. The finished tape shows security guards 'stealing' the toys from the children while a bunch of Santas gets arrested. Funny in a devious way, but then again I'm quite a bastard myself... ¶

80s music: here's a few songs I selected for the GTA Vice City MP3 'radio station', it's quite eclectic but always 80s themed: Public Enemy -Gotta Give the Peeps What They Want and Terminator X to the Edge of Panic; Depeche Mode - Personal Jesus; David Holmes - Rip Rip; Marvin Gaye - Inner City Blues; Toots and The Maytals - Funky Kingston; Afrika Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force - Planet Rock; Brian Eno and John Cale - Spinning Away; The Clash - Rock the Casbah, I Fought the Law and The Guns of Brixton; David Bowie - Ashes to Ashes and Under Pressure (with Queen); Fine Young Cannibals - She Drives me Crazy; Interpol - Obstacle 1 (it's 2003 but they do sound a bit like Joy Division); The Smiths - This Charming Man. All appropriate songs to go on a rampage in a fantasy Miami Vice world. ¶

And still in the art world but of an altogether different kind, here's Reality Hacking, which in fact has nothing to do with computers. Some very interesting displays and concepts in public art, and I'd really like to attend one of those events some day. ¶

Since we are in an electronic art mood today: Assembly 2003 took place last weekend. The results are in and you can download entries from Scene.org. I haven't seen anything though, other than the 'wild' (that means, video) winner, which was yet another short flick inspired in Grand Theft Auto games, although not that good, ans surely lacking the finesse of GTA for Real, Jon Stewart's Daily Show tribute to it. ¶

Normally I find it quite unpleasing to start receiveing e-mail from mailing lists I never subscribed, but Jaka.org is an interesting website with a few works of art, and also I'm quite suspicious it was a friend of mine who signed me up as she'd know I'd be interested. I recommend visiting Generator and Typescape - I'm really a sucker for these things. ¶