I think I've almost managed to get the DNA Lounge popup webcast window to resize the video when you resize the window. (Unsurprisingly, the only way that worked portably was to use tables.) Does it work for you? This seems to resize properly in both Firefox and Safari. It mostly works in Opera: it resizes properly, but there's a scrollbar and the bottom text is off the bottom of the screen. I'm not sure how to fix that.

What does it do in IE? Does the video resize, and is there a green box around it?

Previously.

DNA Lounge update, wherein the War on Fun gets some more press.

Several new books have arrived in the mail this week.

First of all, there are two great books, by friends of mine, that I read in manuscript, and for which I provided a blurb. The first is Sonic Warfare: Sound, Affect, and the Ecology of Fear, by Steve Goodman (aka the DJ and producer kode9), and coming out shortly from MIT Press (as part of the same series as my book on Whitehead):

The second is Capitalist Realism, by Mark Fisher (aka k-punk), which is available now from Zero Books:

Zero Books has also just published two more worthwhile volumes. One is the brilliant One-Dimensional Woman, by Nina Power (aka infinite thought). The other, edited by Mark Fisher, is called The Resistible Demise of Michael Jackson; it’s a collection of essays responding to Jackson’s death, and it includes an essay of mine (a smoothed-out version of something that initially appeared here in blog form), together with many smart essays, deeper than mine, by many people whose work I highly respect, including Joshua Clover, Mark Sinker, Geeta Dayal, Ian Penman, David Stubbs, Owen Hatherley, Dominc Fox, Reid Kane, and Alex Williams — to mention only people whom I have met before, or heard speak before, or whose work I have encountered in the blogosphere (I hope I haven’t missed anyone; there are lots of interesting articles in the volume by people I do not know at all).

I hope this doesn’t sound like in-group blog cronyism — the real point, I think, is that, in spite of everything, the blogosphere really has worked, for me and for many other people, as a stimulus to thought.

I also just received in the mail my copy of Les différents modes d’existence by Étienne Souriau — a book that has been out of print for years, and is now once more available thanks to the interest of Bruno Latour and Isabelle Stengers, who provide a lengthy joint introduction. (For now, this is only in French. I have been looking forward to this book ever since I read an earlier article on it by Latour, also only in French for now, but forthcoming in English translation in The Speculative Turn).

• I think the speakers on my laptop just died…? #
• Thanksgiving! Not the day you want your fancy remote meat thermometer to die. Oh wells. Guess we do this the old-fashioned way… #

Are suburban communities viable post crunch?  To many, the answer is a resounding NO!  under any and all circumstances.  They see them, ala James Kunstler, as a gross misallocation of societal resources, that will inevitably devolve into a vast blight upon the national landscape as high energy prices and economic collapse run their course.  Given this preordained failure, the question these people (see the comments here for a sense of the sentiment) ask is:  how do we repurpose all of these broken suburbs (or in a moralistic tone: how do we provide salvation to suburbia's damned soul)?  

So, given this starting point, it's little wonder that efforts to answer this question (like Reburbia) dive headfirst into the fantastical -- from the conversion of ex-homes into purification systems for city waste water to the use of homes as business offices for start-up companies.

I start with the view that a suburban town is a community and not just type of architecture.  People/families live their lives in these towns.  So, as a community, it's ability to survive/thrive is a function of its adaptability.   If the future is going to be as tough as we think it is, then the question of suburbia really becomes:  are suburban communities adaptable enough to thrive in the future (as in:  becoming resilient communities).   Given the advantages of the suburban landscape (land, surface area, security, etc.) has over rural/urban in many revival scenarios (post crunch), the only existential threat to these communities appears to be the from the global financial system -- aka a foreclosure tsunami that decimates communities faster than they can reconfigure/change.  I think that problem is solvable.

What do you think?

Felissimo in New York is hosting a Japan Brand pop-up shop during the holidays (until December 24), and it’s been getting some coverage on a bunch of NYC-based blogs, including JoshSpear.com and Spoon & Tamago.

Pictured above is a bicycle designed by Gelman, made of lacquer, silver plating, and gold leaf. It was created for his “Gelman’s Masterpieces” exhibition earlier this year at the Kakitsubata gallery in Nakameguro. I was actually given the chance the take it for a spin after the show was over, but I chickened out — was just too nervous that I might crash it or something.

Excite Japan has a piece up (in Japanese) that covers a new office/apartment building called The Soho, designed by the king of Tokyo retail space design, Masamichi Katayama (Wonderwall) — the article is photo-heavy. Via Dezain.net.

The Comme des Garcons brand has opened a new concept store in Omotesando Hills called Trading Museum. As noted in this Wallpaper piece,”the space features eight expansive display cabinets on loan from London?s Victoria & Albert Museum.” Via Dezain.net.