Category Archives: Transhuman News

Last time Julian Casablancas debuted new solo material in Los Angeles, he played a four-night residency at the Palace Theatre downtown complete with resplendent moving backdrops and costume changes. This time around, he went a little simpler. Casablancas and his new band The Voidz announced Friday night's show at West Hollywood's 500-capacity Roxy Theatre just two days prior, and it sold out in minutes. Needless to say, those in attendance came ready to party.

What you heard (mostly new material) and what you saw (fuzzy-signal televisions, torn leather and black, stringy hair) carried the motif of post-apocalyptic retro-futurismsimilar to Julian's Phrazes for the Young but with a bit more bite. "Ize of the World"one of only two Strokes songs on the setis a good tonal touchstone for the new material. All this made for a pleasant surprise when Julian announced they'd have a go at an "old classic" and the band strung the opening chords of "Take It or Leave It," a song that has proven to retain its power and relevance over the years (the video of The Strokes performing it on Letterman for their network television debut is worth a Google).

Some may say that the golden age of The Strokes is behind us, but regardless of how you feel about the most recent output from the once (and future?) kings of rock, their commander-in-chief has always been more concerned with a different age, and what this new endeavor shows is that Casablancas, unlike so many others, refuses to repeat himself. His tireless pursuit of the Next and the New may not be popular, but he's pushing the ball forward, and for that we should be grateful.

See the original post here:
News : LIVE: Julian Casablancas and The Voidz Showcase New Material at The Roxy

S

Utopia is one of the most loaded words in the English language. Utopia is perfection; utopia is unachievable; utopia is no place. Which is precisely what makes it so interesting. And why this week Gizmodo is taking a look at all things utopian.

Utopian thinking also happens to be the backbone of futurism. Why bother with half-measures? Why aspire to anything less than an ideal society? You may never achieve it on Earth, but that shouldn't stop you from trying, right? It's one of the most dismissive words we have at our disposal, and yet earnest utopian thinking is alive and well. It's a sign that people still have some kind of hope; some degree of faith that things can be better.

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are believed to be a stepping stone to a free-market utopia. Some people think driverless cars are the key to a transportation utopia. Asteroid mining, building cities at sea, the prospect of living forever; these ideas are not new, but they're as popular as ever. And they all spring from this utopian drive to improve things in whatever special way we see as most crucial to our health and happiness on Earth. Sometimes people even advocate leaving Earth to find it.

From technological utopias to architectural ones; from yesterday's utopias to tomorrow's, this week we'll be exploring utopia in its many forms. Don't be surprised if they don't all seem like your idea of heaven; one person's utopia is almost always another person's dystopia.

You can find all of our Utopia Week posts here.

Image: 1975 illustration of a futuristic space colony for NASA by Don Davis

See more here:
It's Utopia Week at Gizmodo