Let’s give Radiohead credit for trying. As they point out on their blog, for a modern rock band touring is highly inefficient - 125,000lb / 55,000kg of Sound, Lighting, Video, Band Gear, Office and Catering equipment needs to be moved between every show. They have looked into alternative methods of transportation such as rail but that didn’t work out. They have managed to find a way for their truck drivers to cool their cabs while they sleep without running their diesel engines all night which helps. What they seem to have overlooked is the geographical position of where their shows are taking place.

An article in Billboard points this out - Adding fuel to the fire is Radiohead’s self-stated intention of making its summer tour as environmentally friendly as possible. According to one fan post, “One-third of the concert-goers that night were driving around in circles, burning fossil fuels all the while. This is your save the Earth tour … and yet you play in the middle of nowhere with no public transportation leading there. You owe us!”

And from another, “If you gave even one tiny llama turd about environmental impact, you would never have scheduled a show at a venue 40 miles away from downtown D.C., nowhere near public transportation of any kind.”

Here in the Northwest the band is skipping Portland and Seattle to play the White River Amphitheatre which is located in Auburn, Washington, on the Muckleshoot Indian Reservation 15 miles northeast of Tacoma and 35 miles southeast of Seattle. So for Portlanders or folks from say Idaho, Montana and even Washington, it means jumping in the car and driving for hours not to mention that gas is now $4 a gallon….time for a rethink I reckon.

Here’s one of those moments where modern culture and history collide very nicely. The modern part being the simple viral nature of YouTube, an email from my friend Maf who is traveling around his birthplace, Wales and the old Llanfrynach Church organ. And like anything to do with UK history it comes with a simple tale. This one is about gaining access to the church - “Here’s a little video of the old pump organ in the church next door to my Brothers house in Cowbridge, Wales, UK (yes near England). To get into the Church you must got to the pub across the road and ask at the bar for the key. It feels impolite to ask for the key without getting a drink. I think a lot of people may be drunk when they visit the Church… awesome.”

Find more at Maf and Tara’s blog.

Click image to play movie

Southwest Airlines shot a timelapse movie of their latest aircraft, Illinois One, being built and painted. It took 26 different people over 3 shifts for 6 days to paint and took 93 gallons of paint, including primer and 10 different colors to complete.

Here’s a message from SqueakeClean, who’s in the Nemo circle of friends one way or the other, talking up his crazy fun times working with Kanye West on the Glow in the Dark Tour. From Sam in his own words:

“Hey all!
I just spent the last month orchestrating Kanye West’s Glow In The Dark Tour. It was one of the most inspiring creative endeavors I’ve ever been a part of, as Kanye is a very inspiring person to work with. He is SO PASSIONATE about making everything he does great in a time when there is a great deal of mediocrity in mainstream music. Seeing his crazy HUGE vision come together for this tour from inception to reality was unreal.

Kanye first asked me to do a remix of his song “Flashing Lights” for a video styled after an old school horror flick. He loved the cinematic qualities I added to the music and asked me to orchestrate his tour. As we developed the sound for Glow In The Dark and he began to figure out how it was an epic space story/adventure, we began to realize it had a strong Star Wars aesthetic. At all times, we had two screens of Star Wars Episodes 4-6 playing on the TV’s at the studio. What I ended up doing was redoing almost all of the songs somewhere between John Williams’ Star Wars score and Vangelis’ Blade Runner score, and also doing segues between most of the songs as well. This means big orchestra, brass, woodwinds, timpani, and tons of synths to help Kanye tell his space adventure story. I also ended up bringing in Skywalker sound (the people who did all the sound design for the Star Wars movies) to do sound fx for the show to enhance the experience for the audience, and we mixed the show in surround sound so it is really like going to see a sci-fi movie in the theater. Kanye had the most amazing people build his set and he even got Jim Henson to build him an alien! Kanye figured out this crazy way for all of his songs to tell this amazing story which takes place mostly in his spaceship and on an alien planet, where all of the songs (along with some dialogue) tell the story.
It’s an amazing show!! Go check it out!!! Glow In The Dark!! Coming to a galaxy near you…”

Glow In The Dark Tour is coming to Portland.
6/3/08 Portland, OR Rose Garden

Here’s the link to Kanye’s blog (which is really cool), where he posted some stuff about our work together…

Peace!!
Sam

Check these out:
Squeakeclean website
Squeakeclean MySpace
Squeakeclean T-shirts

I signed up for Dopplr recently. Here’s the blurb from their ‘About’ page.

Dopplr lets you share your future travel plans privately with friends and colleagues. The service then highlights coincidence, for example, telling you that three people you know will be in Paris when you will be there too. You can use Dopplr on your personal computer and mobile phone. It links with online calendars and social networks.

The service has attracted a following among business travellers around the globe. Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia recently named Dopplr his “favorite non-wiki website” in The New York Times Sunday Magazine: “You put in your travel schedule and link to your friends. It allows you to see where everyone is. I love it.”

Their blog will keep you updated with their updates. An iCal/Google calendar feature looks quite handy.

Pop star/rapper, Daft Punk masher, Kanye West will be your pilot today. Well ok not really but if you want to “Fly away with Kanye!” as his web site proclaims then you can. The rappers company, West Brands, has struck a deal with Travelocity to offer online travel services via KanyeTravel.com.