Big downer to say the least. What the hell?
[from Javier via Archinect]

Our [sometimes disturbingly] close friends at Ghostly International and Atmosphere present a lush audio/video kick-off benefit for the Ann Arbor Film Festival next Tuesday, March 3rd, 9pm at The Necto. A mere five bucks gets you in to see and hear: Kero, Tim Flood, Seth Troxler, Tractile, Aarnio vs. Mi6, James Cotton, Todd Osborn, Sam Valenti version 4, live film by Julie Meitz, and B-Lab's very own Derek Plaslaiko. Information can be found here. (The updated Atmosphere home page is hot - check it out.)

If anyone is still figuring out what they're doing tonight, go see Detroit's tallest musical couple: Liz Copeland and Clark Warner at the Buddha Lounge tonight. I'll be there around 10:30 for the smart music and strong cocktails. Also of note, Liz is doing an album spotlight this Sunday night on Einsturzende Neubauten's new Mute release Perpetuum Mobile. Tune in to (or stream) WDET.

While we're being totally incestuous with links, have you been to Hardac lately? Eans on.

We give a lot of love to architect Wes Jones here, but it should be noted that his old partners still kick some tectonic ass.

Democrats are notoriously bad at framing language. Get some linguistic balls and make this election about "regime change." Imagine how quickly that would stick in people's heads if John Kerry et al. started using the term... and its not like there isn't plenty of evidence to justify wording it in such a manner.

And of course, there's the White House endorsement of amending our society's most sacred document in the form of institutionalized bigotry. At least the administration is consistent in its systematic disregard for every principle the United States was founded on. Some animals are more equal than others apparently.

Frank is too hot.

April 15th-17th is the fourth annual once.twice:festival of sound and video in beautiful Baltimore. This year's lineup includes rustbelt Burnlab regulars Dabrye, Matthew Dear and Jimmy Edgar, plus Canuk Akufen and many more. Our friend Ben in Baltimore recommends a roadtrip.

This brightened my morning... sort of.
[Thanks to Doug Johnson for the link]

If you haven't seen it yet, Matthew Dear in on the cover of Real Detroit. Rolling Stone and The Face can't be far behind.

All 5,201 WTC Memorial Competition entries on view here.

Our good friend Phoenix Perry [of Memory Systems and C-TRL Labs] has a brand new personal site, which will be filling up with all kind of goodness.

You know what you're doing in Detroit Friday night:
Two exhibits opening at the D.A.M., followed by Ghostly international's Music From the Wires For Ears Vol. II, featuring (at long last!) Matthew Dear's live vocal debut. Matt will be interviewed by our very own Liz Copeland on WDET tonight around midnight. What you want to do then is get some rest, fry up some perogies with fresh thyme and garlic in olive oil, shop for vintage dining room chairs, go see the Elliott Earls exhibit at Cranbrook Saturday afternoon... wait... you don't have to do all that, but that's what I'll be doing. Anyway, what you do need to do is go to Untitled Saturday night, because Rolling Stone magazine called it one of the best parties in country, and selling out is the new black. Actually its not. Manipulating popular media to forward an agenda of quality and beauty is the new black. That, and Les Enfants Terribles, the new official Dorkwave night and first Untitled spin-off, which [we're pretty sure] starts March 12th. More than you ever wanted to know about that soon enough. Cheers.

We like the moon.

Ozwald Boateng: sharp.
Nice navigation for the couture collections, and be sure to check out the slick kung fu moves from the Autumn|Winter 03 catwalk show. Good thing for my credit rating that the closest store is in London...
[Thanks to Lyn Carrick for the link]

Clark, he could have been a contender...

Friday fun in Detroit: Mary Pott's beautiful charcoals at DAM, followed by some Ghostly at Magic Stick. Do I smell spring or just burning tires?

Arguably the Detroit area's greatest treasure, Cranbrook celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. Lots of good stuff going on at the art museum, including The Bull and the Wounded Horse: a multi-media exhibit which surveys the work of madman and 2D design dept. chair Elliott Earls, now through March 28th.

Wonderfully disturbed Flash promo at Schematic for Hearts of Darknesses' debut LP Music For Drunk Driving.

This has to be a joke.

A new world of suck coming for Windows users:

A lot of people (like tens of millions of people) have jobs that make them to use the primitive, sloppy, unintuitive, worm-prone and generally mediocre-at-best operating system known the world over as Microsoft Windows - myself included these days. Well its about to suck a lot more since the source code has been leaked.

Nice.

Let the Glimmer Twins get your Monday moving.

being that it is sunday and all, i decided to dig through the jazz collection; for those interested in jazz (and those who always wondered if it might be less boring than it seems) definitely check out rahsaaan roland kirk. the rahsaan part of his name came to him in a dream, as did the idea of playing three horns simultaneously...he played over 40 instruments (several of which he made himself), invented the technique jethro tull became famous for of vocalizing while playing the flute, and happened to be blind. for an introduction check out roland kirk, jazz masters 27 on verve (take a listen to "three for the festival which features three part harmonies all played simulateously, and the jethro tull/flute vocals). also excellent is his "i talk with the spirits" where he focuses on playing flute only...his genius is worth getting to know

London is growing up fast.
(Thanks to Javier via Archinect.)

John Kerry just scored some more points with me after hearing his prep-school garage band The Electras on NPR this morning. Not only did they have a cool name, but sounded great! A copy of their album recently fetched $2500 on eBay, which is a relative deal, all things considered.

Today is the 95th anniversary of the NAACP. Cheers.

Nice work from IDANDA creative magazine.
(Thanks to Paul Hemsworth for the link.)

Not sure if anyone caught this article.Shrinking City Syndrome

The president's proposed boost to the NEA seems bewildering on the surface, but this article from the other end of the media gives some insight to the possible reasoning. Don't be surprised if the American Masters program includes something similar to the Degenerate Art exhibition of 1937. Next up: san serif typefaces to be outlawed. You read it here first.

This article about Al Sharpton is quite interesting. A pawn for the Republican party? Somewhat unlikely, but I wouldn't rule out anything at this point.

Republicans makes me so mad all I can do (short of getting fired) is sit in my new cubicle pop bubble wrap.

Over 250,000 Americans have already signed MoveOn.org's petition for a congressional censure of President Bush for misleading the public and the congress about the motivation for going to war in Iraq. Any defense is pretty thin, as the whole thing was already spelled out in the National Security Strategy, first drafted by Paul Wolfowitz during Bush Senior's administration, and it's generally known that overthrowing the Iraqi government was on Bush's to-do list even before being "elected". Censure is a slap on the wrist for an international criminal of this staure, but it's a start. Be patriot: sign here.

One week down as a Michigan resident again, and adapting well (other than the part about getting up at 7am, and the sun not coming out until April. Okay, that and there's no comparing restaurants to New York whatsoever, which is making me a fairly good cook very quickly.) There is a lot I've been neglecting so here goes:

Kinetic Records would like you to know that there is an all new site up for Luomo. The navigation is pretty clean once you get the hang of it.

First the absurd smoking ban, and now this.
New York: "the city that never sleeps."
(thanks to Benn)

A timely welcome back to the industry.
(thanks to Lyn)

Speaking of "the industry", Toyota is not only #2, but also the most profitable.

Media whore follow up - and this is what happens when you put Johnny Rotten on reality TV.

Don't let Bush get away with the lies that he used to justify his war on Iraq. Join MoveOn.org's campaign to have Bush censured by congress.

Coachella 2004
I will buy tickets for anyone hard-ass enough to roadtrip from the East Coast.*

Radiohead
Kraftwerk
The Cure
Pixies
Wilco
Stereolab
Dizzee Rascal
My Morning Jacket
Flaming Lips
!!!
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
LCD Soundsystem
The Sleepy Jackson
Air
PJ HARVEY
Sage Francis
Death Cab For Cutie
ELECTRIC 6
Sparta

*tickets will not neccesarily be for the Coachella festival. Offer void if accepted.

The Institute of Applied Autonomy and their concept of Contestational Robotics must be seen. The GrafittiWriter robot is excellent. Another great grafitti robot is Hektor, which is cuter but not as political.

I can wholeheartedly recommend the Shulgin show, which I saw last year in Linz. Absurd, kitschy but weirdly appealing.