Extra Future 2010 Retrospective: Kreskin

I made a bunch of weird stuff in 2010, and I’m going to spend the new few days or weeks telling you about them with short posts about each one. Up first is Kreskin, a project it took about 12 hours to spit out and another 12 to make usable.

Kreskin (Cat. No. EF-027)

Kreskin plays the Wikipedia Band Name Game for you, rolling up a band name, album title, and cover art, and showing it to you. Every album it generates is persistent, meaning you can pass it around to your friends. It’s really fun, and I find once you generate one, you tend to stick around for at least a few more. Recent favorites include: GAMA ENERGY, INC. – in his own, and Brain Sponge – more of it.

Kreskin was featured on Buzzfeed which got it a pretty good amount of traffic which, sadly, didn’t last. There is a track listing for each album, but it is experimental and generally not super good. To date Kreskin date has created 6,867 albums by request. It is available, day or night, via the URL http://kreskin.extrafuture.com.

My 2010 In Music, According To Last.fm

It was a pretty predictable year.

Most Played Artists

  1. They Might Be Giants
  2. Yasunori Mitsuda
  3. The Smashing Pumpkins
  4. R.E.M.
  5. Weep

Most Played Songs

  1. Weep – Right Here, Right Now
  2. Misfits – I Turned Into a Martian
  3. Weep – Let Me
  4. Weep – Snow Scenery AND Weep & Weep – Calm Down (tie)
  5. Weep – When I’m Wrong

Based on the most played songs list you might’ve guessed that my favorite album this year is Worn Thin, by Weep. Honorable mention goes to the Zola Jesus EP, Stridulum. Based on the most played artists list you might’ve guessed that I didn’t have much time for new music this year. I’m convinced that needs to change in 2011. There is nothing sadder than a man with almost no favorite bands who haven’t broken up or descended into self-parody.

Bruce Sterling’s State of the World 2010

Sterling is, as always, a funny-but-teriffying doom-prophet, but without the thin hope for mankind that Bill had in his heart.

Okay, you’ve treated your future as an “unpredictable lurching thing…” and now you’re all morose about that… You and your generation CREATED that situation! Ever heard of “disruptive innovation,” “disintermediation,” “offshoring,” “small pieces loosely joined,” “de-monetization,” “plug and play,” “the network as a platform”? Of course you’ve heard of all that crap, because you’ve been tub-thumping it your entire adult life, but what the hell did you think that was all about?

There is much more at the link.