Alexander Stuart

This is a truly mindblowing development from a group of extremely talented and visionary people at the Tangible Media Group at the MIT Media Lab - a " Dynamic Shape Display " called inFORM that allows remote participants, using video conferencing technology, to physically manipulate real objects in an entirely different space - even on an entirely different continent. Cool music, too! How long before we can virtually shake hands? Here's more information about inFORM from the Tangible Media Group's own webpage: inFORM Daniel Leithinger, Sean Follmer, Alex Olwal, Akimitsu Hogge, Hiroshi Ishii / 2013 inFORM is a Dynamic Shape Display that can render 3D content physically, so users can interact with digital information in a tangible way. inFORM can also interact with the physical world around it, for example moving objects on the table’s surface. Remote participants in a video conference can be displayed physically, allowing for a strong sense

Of all the tributes to, and stories about, Lou Reed over the past week, this is one of the most fascinating - even though it doesn't directly concern Reed himself, but rather Herbie Flowers , the legendary British bass player who created the immortal bass line that opens Reed's massive solo hit, Walk On The Wild Side. When I first heard Walk On The Wild Side, it seemed the ultimate late night New York song: a transgender story (which apparently radio stations in the 1970s and since didn't even pick up on, despite the line, " Shaved his legs and then he was a she ") featuring characters from Andy Warhol's Factory , which sounded as if it had been recorded at about 1 am in some smoky lowdown basement hangout in the East Village. The video above reveals the immense influence of Herbie Flowers - who had worked with David Bowie , who produced Walk On The Wild Side and the Lou Reed album it came from, Transformer , on Bowie's own classic breakout s

Very sad to learn from the New York Times that music LEGEND Lou Reed has died at 71, survived by his wife, the equally extraordinary Laurie Anderson. He was so fabulous in concert. Just astonishing music: Sweet Jane , I'm Waiting For The Man , Heroin , Walk On The Wild Side ...and the whole Bowie -produced Transformer album ( Perfect Day is sublime, too)...he is and was a genius. I remember his double album (in the days of double albums) Metal Machine Music - four sides of guitar feedback/white noise, reputedly released to fulfill his contract with RCA Records (they had Bowie and Lou, how I loved them even if he didn't). The New York Times article about his death is here: Courtesy New York Times October 27 2013.

Photograph Copyright  ©  2013 A lexander Chow-Stuart. Just another staggeringly beautiful evening on the beach. Life is perfect, enjoy every moment.

The wonders of sohu.com , China's biggest entertainment web portal. Earlier this week, I had the great privilege and pleasure of being interviewed by Amber Chen on the topic of Hollywood screenwriting, for China's biggest entertainment web portal, sohu.com (they have the Chinese rights to Breaking Bad and House of Cards , just to give a sense of their scale). Our interview wound up stretching over two sessions over two days, and covered a lot of ground - from the nuts and bolts of script development to how the Hollywood studios have changed since 2008, which saw both the conclusion of the Writer's Guild strike of late 2007 and the beginning of the worldwide economic meltdown, known in the US as the Great Recession , not to mention a rapidly changing landscape of entertainment distribution platforms, including streaming and downloads. Chinese movie star Zhao Wei's immensely successful directorial debut, So Young. For me, it was also a chance to discus