Burnlab.net is now on Google+

A brief reminder that this blog is still alive and kicking over on Google+.

Here's to an iconoclast who made the world more extraordinary.

"Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

Moving Day

Since spring of 2000, Burnlab.net has been everything from a platform for experimentation, a place to showcase work of friends and artists I admire, a travel log and notebook, and in 2002 became a full-fledged group blog often updated several times a day by myself and a diverse group of conspirators with unique perspectives and weird and wonderful things to share.

As you've noticed over the past two or three years, updates have been thin here. I mainly attribute it to being spread out over a range social media platforms that provide more instant (albeit more ephemeral) publishing options.

In an effort to consolidate various outlets, my Google+ feed had become the official successor to this blog you're reading now. Google+ combines the instant publishing ease and community benefits of social networks with the ability to do the more thoughtful long-form writing and formatting Blogger is well suited for. Since Blogger is also owned by Google, I hope the two will be integrated at a future date.

We're still unpacking and painting the walls, and might even still put some special posts up here, but head on over to the new digs for all future Burnlab bloggery.

Thanks for eleven great years, and here's to eleven more.
-Mike

Maker Faire Detroit: Interview with Bethany Shorb of Cyberoptix Tie Lab

MAKE magazine interviews the most bad-ass entrepreneur [also, my fiancé and muse] in the city of the future.

This is my my new favorite band.

I need to be less lazy and blog more. Here's a recent tweet.

Believing Democrats and Republicans represent poles of political thought is like McDonald's & Burger King representing the spectrum of food.

Brainwashed.com 2010 Readers Poll + my top five singles of 2010

I didn't know they were missing, but I think I found my bat wings this year, based on the music here.

The venerable Brainwashed.com has pretty much the choice list of awesome musick in 2010. If you're into this sort of thing. Lots [lots!] of the usual suspects, but also a ton of names I'm now anxious to check out: Brainwashed.com 2010 Readers Poll

The legendary Legendary Pink Dots seemed to come out of nowhere with perhaps their best album in a decade. [Not "nowhere" exactly, as they've been continually making music for thirty years now.] Russian Roulette is as captivating and brilliantly constructed as the best of anything you've heard all year:



Very nice to see one of the most exciting new artists, Zola Jesus take three of the top five single spots. Night wasn't one, but it's on my top five:

ZOLA JESUS "NIGHT" MUSIC VIDEO from FUTURE PRIMITIVE FILMS on Vimeo.

I didn't see one of my other favorites of 2010, Matthew Dear's Black City or the murderously great single You Put a Smell on Me make the Brainwashed readership crossover, but it was right near the top my list, so here it is:



Yet another track on my personal top five that didn't make the cut [probably because it just came out] is Ms. Lauren Flax & Lauren Dillard's first single from their CREEP project, Days. Here's a great clip of our friend Thalia Marvos talking to Warren Fischer about the video for The Creators Project:



Last but certainly not least, Marc Houle put out a wicked album in 2010 that inspired the neologism/my current made-up genre of choice "warlockhaüs". Fair to say that I haven't been thrilled with Minus' direction over the past few years, but they've been blowing my mind lately and I'm loving it. Sweet might be my favorite track of the year:



Happy 2011 everyone!

I told a nice man named Josh in New Orleans I would blog more this year. We'll see how it goes.