Kevin Barnes, from the indie band Of Montreal, believes the future of music lies in its packaging. With the advent of downloadable music, most consumers never have the experience of happily unwrapping a CD and poring through its liner notes. Barnes believes that musicians must create objects that extend their “brand” and that reflect the same sensibilities inherent in their music. In his manifesto entitled ” We Will Only Propagate Exceptional Objects,” Barnes delivers the following statement:
We’ve always felt that the packaging was just as important as the music inside of it. We’ve worked within the constraints of conventional album [...]

The Wall Street Journal reports that the fallout surrounding Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang’s withdrawal from the Olympic Games has been met with positive messaging from his sponsors. The athlete, who achieved worldwide fame after he won China’s first gold track and field medal at the 2004 Olympic Games, limped off the track last week complaining of a hamstring injury. Millions of Chinese fans, some of whom had traveled great distances to see their Olympic “hero,” were heartbroken and expressed emotions ranging from anger to sorrow. Liu Xiang’s sponsors, which include heavy-hitters such as Nike and Lenovo, have followed up with [...]

The Guggenheim Museum is offering special edition jewelry that contains actual fragments of Frank Lloyd Wright’s original Guggenheim Museum building in New York. Sold exclusively at the museum store and through their website, the line features earrings, pendants, bracelets, a ring, and even cuff links. Designed by California-based jewelry artist Cara Tilker, the Restoration Rocks collection lets ordinary people own a piece of the original museum building from 1956. The fragments of the structure were set aside during the 2007 restoration process and are mainly lightweight concrete and Gunite. Prices range from the affordable ($125) to the Peggy [...]

The New York Times has a great interactive infographic that visually displays the number of medals that countries won in summer Olympic Games. From the 1896 games in Athens to the current tally of Beijing medal winners, the “map” is an intriguing look at the changing tides of the games and political powers. Who remembers Britain’s impressive haul of 56 gold medals in 1906 or China’s very first one in Los Angeles in 1984?
New York Times: A Map of Olympic Medals

Former CEO and current South Korean president Lee Myung-bak is at the center of a controversial new set of laws aimed at policing the country’s internet space. Once accused by the Korean blogosphere of supporting foreign beef imports, Lee is fighting back with the Justice Ministry to create a Cyber Defamation Law. The law would guard against what Lee dubs “Infodemics”— inaccurate, widely disseminated information that prompts social unrest. Unsurprisingly, the law has begun to generate the type of government backlash you’d come to expect in a country with millions of online citizen journalists.
[via Reuters]

A new take on street fashion blogs, Street Clash is an international style competition between fashionable people around the the world. Photographers and bloggers submit photos of stylish locals in an effort to win the “Most Fashionable City” city award. The winner in 2007 was Tel Aviv and this year’s winner is Munich.
[via iheartberlin]

Best known for their collaborative music project, Gorillaz’s Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn have been commissioned by BBC Sports to create a short animated film for the upcoming Beijing Olympics. Based on the classic Chinese tale, “Journey to the West,” the new story is entitled “Journey to the East” and features a more modern-looking Monkey King, who must travel on a cloud to the newly opened Bird’s Nest.
[via Hypebeast]

There are a ton of ways to track the progress of the upcoming US elections, but Presidential Watch 08 offers a real-time, dynamically changing visual map featuring input from 533 different websites. The linked sites are color-coded based on their political leanings and the results are displayed on a large scatter graph. From liberaloasis.com to blogsofwar.com, voters can easily see where the blogosphere is leaning.
Presidential Watch 08