Soory for the lack of posts - Blogger has been down all day.

Two quick things:

1) Ms. Toybreaker and I just went to the premiere of Dave McKean's MirrorMask. Wow! Go see this movie now. I was expecting nothing more than eye candy (which it more than delivered on), but its actually a GREAT film. Instant cult classic on the level of Nightmare Before Christmas and The Dark Crystal.

2) Our dear Mike Servito kicks off METL, his new monthly at Oslo, with very special guest Keith Kemp TONIGHT. Swervo and the Kempinator. It'll be awesome. Come on down, Detroiters. Only $5, and Oslo events are now 18+.

"Waaarrriors, come out to plaaaay..."

For those who may have been too young to experience The Warriors phenomenon in its heyday, here is a great article on the cultural impact of film, which mentions last year's halloween party in Brooklyn.

Rockstar Games is releasing a Warriors video game on Oct. 18th, a special edition DVD will be released next week, and word has it that a new film version is in the works, directed by Tony Scott.

It's a good time to be a warrior.

tomorrow (thursday) night is TEKKO4 in the jewel of barcelona that is the MAXALOT gallery (followed by visits to berlin and toronto). i have to start appreciating these things because it looks like my barcelona days may be coming to an end for now (corporate money and security is calling). more on that soon

Last year's best halloween party is spreading from coast to coast for 2005, and we are quite pleased to be hosting the Detroit edition...



Dethlab presents Sex & Sedition II: Warriors Halloween, featuring Jimmy Edgar's Creepy Autograph at OSLO Friday, Oct. 28th.

Come with a group of friends as a gang with your own unique look and gang name.

Full details at Detroitluv.com

Three of Burnlab's most beloved Wednesday night at Oslo in Detroit:
Ellen Allien
Audion
Mike Servito
Oslo (you know where its at by now, right?)
Wednesday, Sept. 28
21+ | 9pm | $15
Brought to you by our dearest at Spectral Sound.

Matt and Ellen will be in LA on October 3rd at Avalon.
Our comrade most recently moved to La-La land, Mr. Gibby MOC Miller will be turning the ripe old age of 28, so buy him soda and share a slow dance.

URB Loves Threadless is now live.

How hot would it be if someone from Burnlab got the most votes!?

You have 3 weeks to submit a design, or simply judge the work of others.

I am hereby declaring this DIY or DIE week on Burnlab.
That being said - and before I say anything else
I would like to present you - the content seeking reader with this

Crimethinc's DIY guide II



This rugged little urban pirate handbook includes practical information and tips on tons of different projects, tasks and adventures: dismantling capitalism, forearm guards, software piracy, diy spelling and grammar, travelling on trains, backpacking, evasion communiqué #2.25, herbal gynecology, how to abort, sewing, diy oil change, quarter pipe, records, cd's and zines, book publishing contacts, postal jubilation, cook it yourself, wheat flour egg noodles, intro to plaster, black and white photography, safety pin tattoos.

It comes free with any order from their website - and its totally worth buying anything there just to get your hands on it. They used to have it up as a PDF. If i can find it when I get home - I'll upload it for everyone. Or you know - you could just Do It Yourself and search for it.

This is awesome: A Miniature Gate in Hot Pursuit of a Miniature Central Park

[thanks Kenda!]

Speaking of DIY-
This guy made a balloon bass.

recordings

The balloon bass is a musical instrument comprised of one round balloon and two skinny (twisting) balloons. It is made by using one non-inflated skinny balloon as a string and the other skinny balloon to create a resonator that connects the string to the round balloon. The balloon bass is a three-and-one-half octave instrument.

For the DIY in us all, here's a book about building electronic instruments called "Electronic Projects for Musicians." It shows you step by easy step how to build a preamp, compressor, ring modulator, phase shifter, talkbox and 22 other accessories. !

Look out honey, 'cause I'm using technology.

Theory and Techniques of Electronic Music draft by Miller Puckette.

That dude wrote Max/MSP. C'mon - Click Click.

Its probably the coolest thing I've read since this months issue of Vice on why we should kill off the baby boomers.

Tomorrow.

mmmm...rabbits...mike, you ok?

rabbits make me think of a series of classic books by JOHN UPDIKE featuring a character called rabbit angstrom. i admit to only having read RABBIT IS RICH but if reviewers such as MARTIN AMIS pull any weight theres nothing to fear in reading any of the other books in the series.

Ann Arbor's electro-art-punks Ectomorph in this week's Metro Times.

"Maybe women have a way of talking to the machines, creating a dialogue that's both synthetic and organic," Sherman says. Gillen says: "Electronic music should be totally organic, with human ideas given a voice through machines. Ectomorph is all about people applying electronics to real time performance. It's like playing the tuba or cello. I'm not into standing in front of crowd turning a knob or typing on a keyboard. What can be more boring than that?"

Giant pink bunny. [Details here.]

Rabbit.

The things one finds wandering in a landscape: familiar things and utterly unknown, like a flower one has never seen before, or, as Columbus discovered, an inexplicable continent; and then, behind a hill, as if knitted by giant grandmothers, lies this vast rabbit, to make you feel as small as a daisy.

The toilet-paper-pink creature lies on its back: a rabbit-mountain like Gulliver in Lilliput. Happy you feel as you climb up along its ears, almost falling into its cavernous mouth, to the belly-summit and look out over the pink woolen landscape of the rabbit's body, a country dropped from the sky; ears and limbs sneaking into the distance; from its side flowing heart, liver and intestines.

Happily in love you step down the decaying corpse, through the wound, now small like a maggot, over woolen kidney and bowel.

Happy you leave like the larva that gets its wings from an innocent carcass at the roadside.

Such is the happiness which made this rabbit.

I love the rabbit the rabbit loves me.

Achtung Detroit: This is your three day warning.

"Audio Warfare Machinery"
photo courtesy Allert Aalders of Team Raumschmiere.

rob, please...i love you like a mother. wait. um. but seriously if you want to forgive me check out this track by GORILLAZ with MF DOOM. i hate that it is so good. it kills all hate. hate between pop and hip hop, hate between mother and son. check it. i never thought a pop artist could make a good crossover track...especially not an english artist!. not fair. where did we go wrong? this is like led zeppelin and rolling stones all over again.

You are correct, sir. And for that, I shall kill you last when I go on my rampage.

sorry to be a nerd rob but its actually egon SCHIELE. i wouldnt have mentioned but hes one of my favorites, although, so you dont hate me, i do like the rachels album too. kiss kiss

I would agree with Sen. Glazer's book choice. Almost anyone who spent their teenage years awkwardly stumbling through the 90s will love this book. I can't count the times I've given it as a gift.

There was a soundtrack recorded by Tracker for the graphic novel that was released a year or so ago, but I prefer listening to Rachels' The Sea and The Bells and Music For Egon Schele instead.

Eat some mashed potatoes and mac & cheese, Yuss.

being recently broke-as-fuck ive finally succumbed to edonkey...but, a surprise came when i mistakenly downloaded a track featuring MF DOOM by GORILLAZ "november has come". damon albarn hasnt done anything this good since the early days of BLUR, a surprising mix of alt pop and hip hop. hip pop?

It's a rainy day here in LA (yes it happens) and the timing couldn't be better since I've been needing a good dose of melancholy since reading the amazing graphic novel Blankets last night. A long distance high school romance that takes place in the winter (approx 1993) between rural Wisconson and Michigan's Upper Pennensula — sigh.


Perfect music to accompnay this sense of fridgid warmth? How about Mick Harvey of the Bad Seed's new solo album, One Man's Treasure. Not as firey as his three decades of work with Nick cave, but equally austere while covering Lee Hazelwood, Tim Buckley and Jeffrey Lee Pierce of The Gun Club.


And if my melancholy starts to approach wallowing, I'll just pop on Dimension Mix, with Beck, Sterolab and others covering the childrens songs of Bruce Haack and Esther Nelson. Far better than that awful Scooby Doo cover my Tanya Donelly.

Time sucker: flash-based police sketch generator.

Thanks BitBoy.
Here's mine.
Spooky.

update: We already have a wanted poster gallery at the studio.
ADD designers...

besides LA MERCE festival in barcelona this weekend its also fashion weekend, including CIRCUIT 12, the bi-annual alternative fashion festival, this thursday and friday. CIRCUIT started off six years ago as a student-y response to the bigger catwalks in barcelona but has steadily grown and is now, if not a direct rival, definitely stealing some of the bigger shows thunder.

Dorkwave + Interpol this Sunday in Ann Arbor.

(As to not mislead anyone, at this time Carlos D is not scheduled to DJ... but it should be be quite a shindig nonetheless!)

Sweet thought from John Maeda.

BCN:

Merce Cultural Festival Week:
Many happenings in the city... like this one:

Saturday, Sept. 24
Comerc, 36

dj's contra la fam

Djs:
DJ2D2 (Fat Products)
FEDERICO AUBELE (ESL Music)
ALEX MURRAY-LESLIE (Chicks on Speed-DJ set)
TREMOLO (Producciones Animadas / Scanner FM)
PABLO BOLIVAR (Regular)
SAMANTHA C. WALDRAM (Zenbooking.com)
KOSMOS (Palace Recordings)
IANA HIMNIA (DJs Contra la Fam)
CRISTIAN VOGEL (Nofuture)
JAVIER VERDES (Verdes Records)
CHRIS VOGADO (Zero dB/Ninja Tune/Fluid Ounce)

Visuals:
PIXEL BIRDS
STENCIL VOICES
ONE EYE SHUT

Tour Dates for the Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto string of concerts in Europe have been announced. Anyone who can sneak in and record them for me will be greatly rewarded.

In a case of life imitating art, I'd like to take my hat off to the Bush family for emulating the antics of my all time favorite prime time soap opera, Dallas. They're EXACTLY like the Ewing clan, only dumber. And there's a tranvestite acting as a former first lady instead of sweet Miss Ellie.

Caught a few of the OFF ICMC performances the other week.

Standouts:

Lovely performance by electroliving + autonomia.

Beautiful visuals by epy's Leo Lass (depart).

I recommend checking out some of the projects on the depart site.
Inspiring mind.

BCN:

This Tuesday (Sept. 20) beginning at 20.00h- rojo magazine presents the newest issue- mabu.

Cafe Del Sol
(Placa del Sol, 1)

Artwork by:

Denise Yummi Hamano, Point Point, Holly Wales, David Von Bassewitz, Studio Sughi, Gregori Saavedra i Sunye, Victor Castillo, Elinor Harari, Stefanie Rocknak, Frank Kalero, No Domain, TvBoy, Nofun, Yomar Augusto, Raquel Sacristan, Neasden Control Centre, Fupete and Gerjka, Tofer, Boris Hoppek, Carolina Melis, Sergi Olle, Carolina Morano, Pedro Cuevas, Leonor Feijo, Thomas Dashuber, Tweak, Georg Molterer, Richard Stow, Melania, Albert Bertolín.

Guest artists of the night:

Fakenice (this is me) _Background Music Selector
Alex Beltran _Outdoor Video Selecto

The tortuga 5 is the first panoramic pinhole camera (with 5 pinholes) in the world to be produced in small series.

Sweet.

You heard it here first.

Grade school kids re-interpret DEVO.

High school kids re-interpret DJ Shadow

"In the Winter and Spring of 2005, I started the Shadow Percussion Project, where I attempted to adapt a few tracks off DJ Shadow's remarkable album Endtroducing for a live performance group. By mid-February I had arranged both Building Steam with a Grain of Salt and Changeling for Percussion Quintet. Eager to hear what these arrangements sounded like, I brought the music to the Minnetonka High School Percussion Ensemble, an extracurricular music program that I instruct. The students responded to the music positively, even though it was extremely challenging. After a few months of intense rehearsal, the students performed both tracks for a live audience on Monday, May 16 2005...."

(Thanks Andy)

Lobster blood is a clear fluid. When the animal is boiled, the blood turns to an opaque whitish gel. It has no discernible flavor and is perfectly safe to eat.

Also, one of the classiest gents in Ann Arbor, The Bang!'s Jeremy Wheeler, has donated a limited edition 1" button designed exclusively for the evening. You know how to get ahold of one.

From this week's Real Detroit:

Saturday is another installment of Les Infants Terribles at Corktown Tavern with lobsters rockin' all over the place. What that means is... I have no idea. You really can't predict anymore. Another case of "you gotta see it to believe it." The freakshow is free so you have no excuses!

Heh.

If you're in PDX, SF or NYC do not miss this rare opportunity to see Frankfurt artist Isolee. Sadly, no shows are planned for Los Angeles.

16.9.2005 |US| Portland, Holocene
17.9.2005 |US| San Francisco, Blasthaus
20.9.2005 |US| New York, APT

being a recent convert to the mecca that is IMDB i came upon what should be an amazing film: CHE, current goldenboy steven soderberghs take on the legendary revolutionary, post "motorcycle diaries", with one of our best actors benicio del toro playing one of our best revolutionaries...please hollywood, do not fuck this up.

with all the talk of what should prove to be a monstrous movie, "king kong", i beg everyone who loved "the lord of the rings" trilogy to see where their director PETER JACKSONstarted from: HEAVENLY CREATURES. i may not have remembered it so well but tony saracino made me watch it at least five times one summer back when he lived above what is now jonny o space...

Our friends and soon to be pop superstars Office have soft launched a new website and released their debut LP, Q&A.

tomorrow (thursday) night is the latest inauguration of work in what is becoming the most diverse and must-see gallery in barcelona IGUAPOP. this month features the warholian work of TXARLEY BROWN (pronounced through a basques ear as "charlie brown"), better known (in barcelona) through his djing.

to give an idea of IGUAPOPs range, their last major exhibition was of french grafitti maestra MISS VANs paintings and her new line for up-and-coming italian label FORNARINA. street art is invading the pocketbook.

Robosaurus

[thanks Steph]

Bethany, myself and a couple friends from the studio were fortunate enough to catch a preview screening of Tim Burton's Corpse Bride Monday evening. (Score 25 goth points each.) Not nearly as epic as Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride is very much its own film and no less captivating for its design, cinematography, musical score and exceptionally well crafted and original story. More intimate and dare I say darker than its predecessor, Corpse Bride opens in New York, Los Angles and Toronto this Friday, and nationally on September 23rd.

This post is dedicated to the awesome Fred Thomas

americans being stripped of their arms and property by the police, without even so much as an excuse (the second and fourth amendments do not have exceptions for "health reasons").

(thanx sneak)

Spend a few moments on Archinect.com's disaster relief page for current info on relief efforts, programs such as Adopt an Architect, and other ways to help rebuild lives and communities.

More from the no beauty without danger and perfectly respectable adults behaving extraordinarily badly files: this weekend was host to an impromptu burnlab urban exploration expedition to the National Theater. Uncharacteristic of this group, *every* reasonable rule set up to help ensure the safety of life, limb and overall health of said explorers was broken. (don't ask.) Aside from one hell of a bruise, we all escaped unscathed and with some fine photos and ephemera!

The lone survivor of Detroit's original Theater District, the neo-baroque/art-nouveau National Theater was Designed by Albert Kahn and opened September 16, 1911. Its facade is rich with terra-cotta Pewabic tiles and although tattered to shreds, the original red velvet curtain still hangs above the splintered stage. The National began with silent films, vaudeville and burlesque acts and finished with adult films, finally closing its doors under the name of the Palace in 1975. The last assessment in 2002 values the theater at $616,600.00 and increasing every year. Quite a bargain!







[73 more here.]

Oh honey, we're ridiculous.

Pas/Cal is always a ton of fun, but was extra exceptional this past Saturday night. + Pitchfork has an update on the forthcoming LP.

just finished the book i mentioned below and seriously recommend to everyone. steve jobs - visionary as much as ego-maniac - is a man that will most probably be more known in the future than now.

i am halfway thru the surprisingly riveting iCon Steve Jobs : The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business, an account of the man and how and why he made macs the apple of our eyes (sorry for the pun...i couldnt resist)

after reading SPUTNIK SWEETHEART, HARUKI MURAKAMI has officially become one of my favorite writers...

what has to be one of the greatest album openers, the boo radleys "everythings alright forever" s SPANIARD. shoegazer mixed with texmex guitars and horns...brilliant,original,untouched

This weekend in Detroit:

Our dearly demented friends at The Undercover Eskimo Collective invite you to the release party for their CD May I Sample Your Warez? this Friday night at Oslo.

"Very Nice to Fuck You: a CD release party featuring live electronick trash punk by Stevie + the Underground Eskimo Deejay Squad playin' slutty records like it ain't no thang. The new compilation will be availiable to purchase for $5. Suggested costumes include robot prostitutes, Dolly leather daddies, circuit fucks, trannie aliens, etc. etc."

Oslo
1456 Woodward Ave., Detroit
10pm - close | 21+ | $5



Saturday is the 28th annual Dally in the Alley, Detroit's favorite block party. The Dally features four music stages, exceptional people watching, and over 100 beer, food and merchandise vendors unique to the Cass Corridor, the city's historic artist community.

Forest Ave. and Hancock Ave., between 2nd and 3rd St., Detroit
11am - 11pm | all ages | free



Saturday evening our good friends and secret lovers, the ever witty and dapper Pas/Cal perform at the Magic Stick with Slumber Party, Hard Place and WeRDJ.

"Since its inception Pas/Cal has fervently sought to spread the word according to its peculiar pop gospel. Two EPs on Le Grand Magistery and a handful of appearances on compilations have showcased to the world the band's mixture of sinister and sweet, perversity and prudence - all dressed up in deceptively catchy and meticulously arranged tunes with hooks that would make Johnny Marr jealous and turn Serge Gainsbourg's head. Accompany this with a penchant for colorful outfits and unique stage performances known to include actors, props and special effects and you have the complete Pas/Cal picture."

Magic Stick
4120-4140 Woodward Ave., Detroit
doors at 9pm | 18+

Next Saturday...

Top 10 under-reported news stories of the past year.

[Thanks Tommie]

just listening to princes gorgeous "purple rain" and thought of all that is dorkwave/dethlab in opening of "computer blue":

"wendy?"
"yes lisa"
"is the water warm enough?"
"yes lisa"
"shall we begin?"
"yes lisa"

p.s.. anyone who hasnt listened to that album in awhile needs to listen to it asap. seriously. it makes me wonder what we are supposedly doing with music since then

per an article in a local barcelona magazine it seems that the revolutionary ROBERT MOOG is a goner. if you have not already seen it try to find MOOG the movie, an amazing (if sometimes condescending) look into electronic music pioneer number one. his view of electronic music as a knowledge of electric charges behaviour as they pass through conductors is something to be heard and seen from the man himself. after seeing the movie in nyc last year i was left with the question of what his invention might have become if he had not used a traditional keyboard as its interface, a decision he was convinced to make by a classic pianist friend. nevertheless, artists from stevie wonder to stereolab found his invention something special...

also, for fans of the history of rock, WAITING FOR THE SUN by barney hoskyns chronicles los angeles and its rise from early black beginnings through jazz and r&b to the surf sound of the beach boys to the pop-rock of the byrds followed by the post-manson rock of the doors followed by the folk rock of joni mitchell and crosby stills nash and young and then....(i have to read more)

oh, and as a response to the ipod nano...my only response comes from speaking spanish and knowing that the word for dwarf is "enano". kinda rough if thats the names source

displaced designers - a Katrina relief project started by The Chopping Block guys - a great design company in nyc that some of my former Cranbrook classmates were and still are involved with.

A resource for those in the creative industry recently displaced by the on-going situation in New Orleans and the surrounding region ... We wish to help by offering these people a space from which to earn a living, to re-establish self-sufficience... to get back on their feet.

Speaking of ten million watts: real life death rays and more fun stuff The Man doesn't want you to know.

remember: everything on the internet is true.

tonight: Ten million watts, they keep us going alright.

So I had this dream where I was at the top of a mountain and all of the Bush administration was about to open the Ark of the Covenant, just like in Raiders of the Lost Ark and all of their faces melted and they combusted.

Oh if dreams could only come true.

More extraordinary design, art and musings from the aforementioned Alyce Santoro a.k.a. Alyce B. Obvious.

[And on the matter of it being a small world, I couldn't help noticing my friend Thomas in Alyce's links section, who will be performing at the Delancey in NYC on Tuesday.]

more awesome, wearable weirdness:



Sonic Fabric, (as seen in BPM and the New York Times), is a 50-50 blend of cotton and cassette tape, is the brainchild of Alyce Santoro, a Brooklyn-based conceptual artist. Sonic Fabric can be purchased at Flirt and 3r Living in Park Slope. (and yes, it is playable!)

Engineering Richard Serra and wearable wallpaper from Metropolis Magazine.

All I'll say on the matter is that I'm fond of Method products.

Now back to important things: How to live with 2,000 bats.

"Particularly in the summer, the bats will come in and of course the smell comes in and the droppings as well, so that's a bit of a problem."

per chads post, i think if we leave karim rashid alone long enough he will do the job for us, character assassination-wise at least. i dont think there were many designers with any decency who still liked him and those few should defect post haste to our side.

photonic textiles...



At the upcoming Internationale Funkausstellung 2005 in Berlin, Philips Research will show prototypes of its photonic textiles - fabrics that contain lighting systems and can therefore serve as displays. The researchers have managed to integrate flexible arrays of multicolored LEDs into fabrics without compromising the softness of the cloth. [via - we make money not art]

hi-rez images of the technology used in the research and the products themselves.

Zombies are cool.



Chad: "assignate"?