As producer Liz Bowie posted last Monday, we're back! But before coming back we had a meeting about what Spark's second season would be like. One of the ideas we came up with was keeping the blog a place that you can come back to everyday. We'll be doing this by posting updates on items were working on, tasks we'd like your help with, contests, what will be in the show and...what will not.

That brings me to this post... Gutter Links. When brainstorming for stories we scan through a lot of websites and throw a lot of internet spaghetti against the story wall - some of it sticks and some of it doesn't. Gutter Links is what falls to the floor - stuff that doesn't quite feel like a full story but is still interesting and worth checking it out. By posting it, it keeps all our random thoughts somewhere we can check back on and potentially re-work later. Maybe you'll see where we can go with these tidbits of web and you can re-pitch it to us.

Here's what was thrown in the gutter this week:

Nora
:: I've heard of ways of tracking where your food comes from, but this is tracking the provenance of your clothing.
:: Tool for lazy bloggers (I should use this!)
::This may be too speculative, but I've been thinking about cyborg chic, given the new Janelle Monae album.

Chris
:: I saw the latest Radiohead video and then the making of it, then I read about the first feature film to use a "tapeless" system premiering at TIFF '08 - What direction is video going?
:: First there were Cargo Cults, now a documentary called Disneylandia. How is the third world synthesizing Western pop culture?
:: Lo-fi regression: cameras, instruments, and how we listen to music. When will vintage internet be in?

Liz
:: Sneaky teens in the UK are using Google Earth to find homes with pools for a summer dip.
::Touch screen computers at food pantries let people choose what they want to eat, instead of accepting pre-prepared charity food boxes.
::Gotta give credit to Dan Misener for finding this one: A washing machine that uses a single cup of water to wash a load.