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PlayStation believe the best games are played as a group. That's why they've set up Game Runners - an experimental project where PlayStation, members of the public and young people from diverse backgrounds come together to create social games.

The project has been developed by PlayStation and Hide & Seek with a team of 8 initial Game Runners who PlayStation have picked to train as game designers and work to make the games relevant.

For those of you down in London this Friday (8th) here are 4 reasons why you should come down to the final Game Runners event:

1. Play a monster sized version of Blocks
2. Between 5.30-6pm you can win a PS3 and PlayStation Move start up kit
3. Watch End of the Line graffiti artists.
4. The whole event is presented by urban street dance queen Kimberlee Jay

Friday 8th October 12 noon - 8.30pm. Elys Yard, The Old Truman Brewery,Hanbury Street London E1.
RSVP at the Facebook event.

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Heritage boot brand Palladium are continuing their quest to explore hidden, forgotten and abandoned places in urban environments. Their latest exploration entitled "Detroit Lives" features Johnny Knoxville, who takes viewers on an "off-the-beaten path" exploration through the city to discover if there's more to Detroit than the scenes of destruction and abandonment that it has become known for.

Once the fourth-largest metropolis in America—some have called Detroit the Death of the American Dream. In this 30 minute 3-episode documentary, Knoxville discovers a DIY paradise full of artists and entrepreneurs who view the abandoned "D" as a raw space where young people can create community and start rebuilding their city from the inside out. A burgeoning class of young people are inspiring each other by using the cities 'disadvantages' as opportunities. His hosts include notable Detroit punk band The Dirtbombs and hip-hop artist Black Milk.

Check it out here.

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Jam on Bread performed his song It's Always Sunny Inside for us in his tent at Indietracks. His new album, which incidentally has the best packaging we've ever seen, is out now on Team Strike Force.  For a comprehensive round-up of everything that happened at Indietracks, keep an eye on Sweeping The Nation.

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After years of war and isolation, Laos is becoming ever more popular with tourists. PARTYNICE's Tomasz Roszkowski recently visited to find out how the burgeoning tourist industry is changing the lives of local people, and sent back this vivid photo essay.




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In my line of blogging, which is entirely voluntary and thus amounts to making a full strength titanium rod for my own back, I have a self-regarding obligation to seek out new bands. At some level this is entirely philanthropic - as our knowledge of the musical universe gets wider it stands to reason that young people will form bands to plug the gaps or utilise the possibilities. John Peel often said that the thing that kept him going on the radio was the idea that in the next mail delivery would be one of the greatest records of all time and he didn't want to miss out on the possibility. Thanks to the international musical relief effort that is the blogosphere and assorted social networking opportunities, this isn't as arduous a task as piling through Myspace after Myspace sounds.

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Photographs by Jezabel Monkhouse.


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You could say that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il has two primary obsessions: maintaining nuclear weapons capability as a means of protecting his “hermit kingdom,” and thwarting pressure from outside forces like from America and the rest of the industrialized world to open his country to modern things like electricity… and he’s obsessed with film. He loves movies. It’s rumored that he has one of the largest private film collections in the world. His favorite film is Gone with the Wind and his favorite actress is Elizabeth Taylor. He’s a film collector and bona fide cinephile, but he’s much more. He’s everything really. He’s a director, a producer, a financier, a costume maker, set designer, screenwriter, cameraman, sound engineer… and he’s also a film theorist.

His masterwork on aesthetics and practice is “On the Art of Cinema” (written and published in the early 1970s). In it he gives himself the humble title, “Genius of the Cinema.” He built an extensive film studio in Pyongyang and when he couldn’t find someone to make his film. He did what any self-respecting eternal leader and great president would do, he kidnapped one. 

Vice founder Shane Smith visits North Korea to try and penetrate the Korean Feature Film Studio, the state-run film production facility west of Pyongyang: a sprawling lot that at its height produced around 40 films a year.



(VIA VICE)