Salam Pax, apparently a western educated Iraqi architect in his late 20s, who happens to be gay and quite sharp of wit, has been maintaining a detailed and very popular Blog of recent events from his Baghdad home. "Where is Raed?" is an extremely insightful and sharp read. More about Mr. Pax from the BBC.

Tonight our good friends at Core77.com host the first OffSite of 2003 with San Francisco's Design Raw at Remote Lounge (327 Bowery, 6-9pm.) RSVP is required. Don't worry, it's still free and there there will be plenty of Bombay Sapphire, cool Core77 giveaways and designspeak. Full info here.

This Friday in New York will be a Minus vs. Form repeat of last Saturday in Miami. Magda, Troy and Plexus perform at Void in lower Manhattan (16 Mercer at Howard, doors 11:30pm.) This also marks the first NY appearance of Sender Record's Jake Fairley, who will be doing a live electronic set. Over the river at Brooklyn's newest dark-electro disco-dive, Memory Systems will be debuting their new material and live show for the Billburg audience, along with resident DJs Gilles and 31G. (Decadanse at Ivy South, 270 S 5th, between Havemayer and Marcy Ave., doors 10:00pm.) I'll do my best being in two places at once again.

Back in Detroit (Bloomfield Hills actually) The Thinkbox Collective will be doing a special live PA/video performance at the Cranbrook Museum of Art this Friday evening. Relay is inspired by the work of Steve Reich and is part of the Post Digital Painting series. Doors at 7pm, performance at 7:30. Check the Thinkbox site for other upcoming performances.

Miami Winter Music Conference Report

Strange place + great music + dear friends. Over 40 photos, live video clips of Adult. and Memory Systems, and a bit of narration for you. Check it out.

Admittedly an over-simplification, I've always liked the notion that the friendly and rational Mac OS is the natural platform for liberals, while the stuffy and cumbersome Windows operating system is for war-mongering, functionally illiterate and generally evil-doing republicans. Apple CEO Steve Jobs seems to have taken this as a potentially profitable partisan strategy with the addition of former VP Al Gore to Apple Computer's board of directors last week. Really not a dumb move, considering there are about 100 million registered democrats/potential loyal customers in the US. Just to make sure everyone gets Apple's political point, and sense of humor: "Bush Demands Recount in Board Election", from the official Apple news page. You're either with us or against us, right?

I'm back in NYC, and should have the full Miami WMC report up shortly.

well executed variations on visualizing a layered topography over time: the development of manhattan

our friends at JWT can help you turn war anxiety into a tidy profit.

i know i make my living on what he�s belittling but it�s still funny: jonathan ive -head of apple design- in last month�s "the face" on his brief encounter with car design: "for a while he wanted to design cars. but then he went to look at a car design course and noticed that while they were drawing most of the students were making �vroom vroom� noises. this did not seem entirely healthy" -dedicated to mike, and our buddy trevor c.

When life imitates Flash

Meow-mix.
Miss Kittin (a.k.a. vocalist and DJ Caroline Herve from Grenoble) has kitty-whipped up a 1 hour and 18 minute long mix previously exclusive to misskittin.net, now available for download at iRobotnik as a high-quality 192kbps MP3 file. Fire up your T1s, it's a 107.9MB download, but it's well worth the wait. Get it here.

Jon (Blackbx) Ozias, Miss Delia, Magda, Mr. Valenti, myself and a small regiment Burnlab friends and faithful will be reporting from the Miami Winter Music Conference this weekend. The big evening for all the electropunks is undoubtedly the Revolver event Friday night at the SOHO Lounge (175 NE 36th St. in the Miami Design District.) We are of course excited about favorites Adult. and Hell, and are also very much looking forward to hearing the Nag Nag Nag crew from London and New York's own Motherf*cker Justine D. Too much talent for one night. On Saturday, Memory Systems will treat the robot masses to a new live set at Power Studios (3701 NE 2nd Ave.) The no-longer-bald-one and Magda will keep things going into Sunday in classic Minus style. Amazingly enough, I've managed to evade the state of Florida for 31 years, and have little concept what to expect. I suppose the real question regards beach attire: leather jacket or suit and tie?

Right sexy.
(Geeks only, please.)

Jonathan Spooner right here in Brooklyn runs Blentwell.com, an "ongoing document of the evolution of blended music, devoted to the elimination of wack compilations."

Big thanks to our friend Chris at Protein OS for linking up Radio Burnlab. Protein is London's hottest resource for design, music and culture info.

my first reaction was sort of "shit, that�s a bit crude"...but it makes a point. doesn�t it

from the memepool culture desk: wordspy documents the sources of new words.

An Onion classic here.
Dick Cheney's masterwork here.
Uhm...

Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Planet E Records takes the prize for Most Innovative 'Under Construction' Page. Refresh your browser at the end of Carl Craig's intro - there are no less than six different versions, including one with a sock puppet. Who doesn't love sock puppets?

From the Times, A brief history of US involvement in Iraqi leadership.

Check out Washington PR firm the Rendon Group. Here's what John Rendon says about his job: "I am a person who uses communication to meet public policy or corporate policy objectives. In fact, I am an information warrior, and a perception manager. This is probably best described in the words of Hunter S. Thompson, when he wrote 'When things turn weird, the weird turn pro.' "
Yeah, they do a lot of work for the Pentagon.
That's just great.
Now go read PR Watch and Adbusters.

SKAM Records has a lovely, very architectural and practically text-free website. Maybe I'm just a sucker for fluorescent strips.

High Design in Las Vegas? Viva! (from the New York Times)

Michiganders Hugh and Bonnie Fogel packed up their high design boutique in "snooty" Detroit last year and opened Unica Home in an industrial park about a mile off the Vegas strip. The theory is something along the lines of: if the city is growing by 6,000 new residents monthly, some of them must have good taste and a few bucks to spend. Maybe its a combination of the snooty Detroiter and cynical New Yorker in me, but I'd rather take my chances at the craps table than put so much faith in that part of the world. Okay, teasing and squeamishness aside, Unica Home carries some fabulous wares; from an ashtray by artist Yoshitomo Nara, to the design shop requisite Lomo cameras and Starck chairs, to vintage ceramics and art glass. A personal favorite is a set of porcelain teacups by Masahiro Mori.

Hyper-mediocrity? Not even. Slate magazine's Gerald Marzorati blasts Fischerspooner's #1 and proclaims it "the worst album of the year" in a scathing article. Here's a rather lengthy quote:

Fischerspooner's debut album, #1, is bad camp. It is also, in its expensive manufacture and expansive hype, a signal act of bad faith. It is the expression of an exhausted New York art world still clinging (since the '70s!) to notions that self-reflexiveness and any sort of bringing to bear on pop culture the tired critique of postmodernist theory represent bold, original acts of transgression. In sum, #1 is an extraordinarily bad recording - in the interest of expansiveness, a shoo-in for worst album of 2003.

anybody and everybody interested in sonar let me know (chris_daniels_@hotmail.com)...being a barcelona resident i could organize an authentic spanish package weekend, plus a training schedule for the coming months to insure that you hold up under the immense strain of going out like you�ve never gone out before (ask mike, john, and/or tony)...would also like to attempt to organize press passes via burnlab. sonar is an amazing festival and an excellent excuse to see an incredible city

finally had the chance to visit santiago calatrava�s cuidad de las artes y las ciencies (city of the arts and sciences) in valencia, spain, this past weekend...i�m personally not a huge fan of the retro-future anthropomorphic style of the buildings but the scope and scale of the project is definitely impressive.

Reverend Yohan has a few new pieces up at Evil Pupil.
(You're my hero, you sicko.)

From ARCHINECT today: This is pathetic, especially after the insensitive offering they put forth. Viva Danny!

[site update]: As all of our editors stumble into their thirties, the stylish 8pt. light grey text seemed less and less stylish, so the Lab Report is now aged-friendly, featuring huge 10pt. text in a still quite fashionable charcoal. Yeah, yeah, Jakob Nielsen would be proud....

thanks to joshua for the SONAR lineup scoop. just got back from sunny Barcelona, and scoped out a few spots - if anyone is game, we could 'pool and make this a Burnlab tour.

Two great resources Burnlab readers should bookmark right away:

BIG Magazine interactive is loaded with deranged and beautiful content. Go check out the current issue on Chile, and watch for the July edition, featuring a collage called Destroit by our friend Krisana, a.k.a. Poisoned Cat.

Protein OS is brimming with the kind of info you need - from art and design to music and technology. Consider it a much more advanced version of Burnlab from the UK. Protein editor Chris Blohm was good enough to drop us a note about the afore-mentioned Throbbing Gristle anniversary installation at the Architectural Association, London. One aspect of the installation included a scaffolding cage with speakers facing the sky, through which the original 1978 audio was projected.

If you haven't noticed, the Blizzard Mix is up (in all its eclectic glory) over in the Radio.Burnlab department. For those electropunks who can't wait until April, we suggest going over to the link for Electrobleep Radio and checking out their song directory for Adult. ...the last 10 tracks in particular.

+ Hey, thanks for the scoop on the SONAR lineup Josh!

Hurray for Radio Burnlab! I've spent the last 12 hours streaming the SOMA FM Groove Salad channel. But only after digging both of Doyle's mixes. Can't wait to hear what all the conspiritors have to offer.

I just recieved a preview of the Sonar 2003 line-up. It's not posted online yet so I'll just have to list it...
CONCERTS:
BJ�RK (One Little Indian / IS) UNDERWORLD (JBO / UK) MATTHEW HERBERT BIG BAND (Accidental / UK)
OXIDE & NEUTRINO (So Solid / UK) LADYTRON (Telestar / UK) TM RAUMSCHMIERE (Shitkatapult / DE)
FAT TRUCKERS (Gigolo / DE) DAVID GRUBBS (FatCat / US) HELLFISH (Planet Mu / UK)
JAMIE LIDELL (Warp / UK) THE SOFT PINK TRUTH (Sounds Like/ US) SAFETY SCISSORS (Plug Research / US)

DJS:
APHEX TWIN (Warp / UK) ANGEL MOLINA (Minifunk / ES) DJ HELL (Gigolo / DE) JEFF MILLS (Axis / US)
CARL COX (Intec / UK) GILLES PETERSON (Talkin� Loud / UK) METRO AREA (Environ / US)
LAURENT GARNIER (F Comm / FR) MISSTRESS BARBARA (Relentless / CA) DARREN PRICE (Novamute / UK)


SHOWCASES:
ANTICON presents
Jel (US) live Doseone (US) live Sole (US) live Sage Francis (US) live


SMALLTOWN SUPERSOUND presents
Jazzkammer + Sir Dupermann (NO) live Kim Hiorthoy (NO) live Jaga Jazzist (NO) live

FOEHN presents
Strand (ES) live Amherst (ES) djs Polaroide (ES) live

MEGO presents
Tujiko Noriko (JP) live Pita + Tina Frank (AT) live

CREAM presents
Mucho Muchacho (ES) live Jekey (ES) dj

JAZZLAND presents
Bugge Wesseltoft (NO) live Strangefruit (NO) dj

CHEAP presents
Twinnie (AT) live Patrick Pulsinger (AT) live Quehenberger (AT) live

MELODIC presents
Pedro (UK) live David Cooper (UK) dj Minotaur Shock (UK) live

MUTE presents
Komputer (UK) live Mountaineers (UK) live Pole (UK) live Appliance (NL) live

SONIG presents
Niobe (DE) live Lithops aka Jan Werner (DE) live

NATIVE INSTRUMENTS presents
Errorsmith (DE) live Phoenecia (DE) live

TELL�/�LLET presents
Kaptein Kaliber (NO) live Bjorn Torske (NO) dj Uusi Fantasia (NO) live Datarock (NO) live

BENBECULA presents
Christ (UK) live Phase 6 (UK) dj

MUTEK presents
Akufen (CA) live Vincent Lemieux (CA) dj Deadbeat (CA) live


SONARLABS:
Markus Detmer plays STAUBGOLD (DE)
Wojt3k Kucharczyk & Paul Wirkus play MIK.MUSIK (PL)
Gerhard Potuznik plays ANGELIKA KOEHLERMANN (AT)
Miss Kittin plays RADIO CAROLINE (CH)
Philippe Petit plays BIP HOP (FR)
Kenneth James plays AESTHETICS (US)
Russell Haswell plays OR (UK)
Todd Rocker plays CARPARK (US)
Tom Steinle plays TOMLAB (DE)

I'm sick to my stomach that I'm gonna have to miss Patrick Pulsinger live and the Mountaineers (new group on Mute, kinda Will Oldham meets the Beta Band)

But what's really twisting my head around in the Matthew Herbert Big Band.

The official website for the 2003 IDSA National Conference in New York City launched today. (I keep telling people I'm not actually a web designer, but only real web designer believe me.) Anyway, go give it look. It's going to be a truly amazing conference, featuring speakers such as Eva Ziesel, Marcel Wanders, Droog Design co-founder Gijs Bakker, Karim Rashid and a host of others.

More news from Mute, though I'm a day late on this:
Throbbing Gristle + Bernard Tschumi + 25 years + 24 discs = 03.03.03
More info at the Architectural Association, London.
I think we can safely use the term "very Burnlab" to describe this event.
If anyone was there in person, please drop us a note.

As promised, Radio Burnlab launched today [lower-left]. The "blizzard mix" stream still needs some tweaking, but everything else is fully operational. Huge thanks to all the conspirators who contributed to the wealth of high quality online radio and underground audio links, and special thanks to Tee Parham for technical consultation.

Go give it look, and hopefully it becomes a valuable resource in the never-ending search for good new music and information.

Blixa Bargeld is departing Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds to focus on other projects. I believe a quiet screening of Wings of Desire is in order. Full press release from Mute below:

As a member of the very first line up of The Bad Seeds, Bargeld has played alongside and recorded with Cave for almost 20 years.

Bargeld says, "This has been a very difficult decision for me and I have spent a great deal of time thinking about it. My leaving has nothing to do with artistic or personal differences with the band, I just feel it is time to concentrate on other creative areas in my life".

Bargeld's departure will enable him to devote more time to his varied and expanding list of projects and interests outside of The Bad Seeds including fronting Einst�rzende Neubauten and his work in film and theatre.

Nick Cave says, "We have parted as friends and we will miss him dearly".

Mick Harvey, also a founding member of the band, adds "Blixa is irreplaceable, sadly we'll have to learn to get along without him".

The Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds shows currently scheduled for early summer will proceed as planned, but without Bargeld.


On the eve of Radio.Burnlab's launch, I read some extremely unfortunate news about my favorite radio station on Liz's site. WDET FM has suspended its streaming broadcast of music programs to comply with recent record industry rules.

"This decision was incredibly difficult for us," said Caryn Mathes, WDET General Manager. "We have been committed to serving listeners via our web stream, but we are not willing to compromise the programming that makes WDET so attractive to listeners. To continue to stream our music programming would require us to abandon a fundamental philosophy of our organization."

Radio.Burnlab will go online later today regardless, but the loss of music programming for WDET will be blow to our collection streaming audio links. 'DET is still one of the most comprehensive sources for NPR programming, so it will remain in the roster.

I've gone back and forth on this, but Burnlab will indeed take the plunge with original programming. The first pair of two hour mixes come from my own stockpile of dark electronic music and are very high quality (sound quality... aesthetic quality is for you to decide.) If this doesn't bring our server crashing down and lawsuits on our doorstep, mixes from other Burnlab conspirators will follow in regular rotation.
Stay tuned. (*ahem*)

Found this link at NewsToday, aptly titled: "Ask no questions."

Tokyo-based graphic designer Takeshi �Tiger� Hamada runs a beautiful design webzine that contrasts the etched rawness of his drawings with pristine line and pattern work that is jaw-dropping. Check it out at hamada-takeshi.com.

Our partners across the Atlantic continue to squeeze the final bugs out of Computerlove V2. In the meantime, the C'love store is up and running, featuring the winning poster competition entries in all their offset glory.

Crispin Glover (Rivers Edge, Wild at Heart, The Doors, Back to to the Future, "...and I can kick real high, Dave!") looks like the perfectly disturbed leading man in the new film Willard. Drawing its influence from Hamlet and Hitchcock's The Birds and Psycho, the film appears to tow a fine line between brainy black comedy and campy horror flick. The massive ad campaign with extensive use of catch-phrases makes me worry if it might just be Hollywood movie trying too hard for cult status.... We'll see on March 14th.

No doubt that Glover's own film What Is It? is the genuine article, for better or worse. It was shot in 1995, and according the the official Willard site, is currently in post-production. Versions have been screened around the country since 1996. One rather unfavorable review can be found here.

In regard to the WTC competition, I was impressed that Libeskind was able to both maintain his vision and play the politics required to win out in such volatile circumstances. Foster was my first choice, but the former Cranbrook artist-in-residence was a close and worthy second. The revisions to the plan have already taken away some of the most dramatic elements. Hopefully the process will not dilute the design down to mere surface treatments. Since the "bathtub" and circular ramp are gone, hopefully some other interesting elements will come about as the towers themselves are further resolved. In either case, I have trust in Libeskind's sincerity, determination and process, despite whatever conditions will be served up over the next few years.