Last minute heads up New York City: Bethany and I will be in the Big Apple tomorrow through Tuesday. (Woo!)

For those in NYC tonight, birthday boy Derek Plaslaiko is DJing at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum garden party from 6-9pm, and then Marc Houle plays at The Bunker.

Saturday night, we get to see The Hacker (two weeks in in a row!) He will be playing with Smash TV and our gracious host Cowboy Mark at Limelight... er, Avalon. See Bethany's supremely eeeevil flyer for details.

Our only other plans are eating properly, hitting the AngloMania exhibit, and kicking back in CT. Please drop us a note - we'd love to see all our friends.

I just saw video clip that made me as excited as only a 10-year old can be: a 285 mph rocket powered semi-truck. God bless America

This is Electronic Body Music.



New to iTunes this week:

One of my favorites for '06, Perspects' Peopleskills LP - BUY

Motor's absolute monster of a single, Black Powder/Punkture - BUY



Also check out Motor's endlessly entertaining (and nicely designed) game, and the video for Black Powder at their official site.

+ Ian Clark is now officially the last man on MySpace. Show some love.

Uh oh - so now i'm just youtubeing™, but is that Dave Navarro, Eric Avery and Ice-T playing along to "Head Like A Hole on-stage at Lollapalooza 1991? Hellz fuckin' yeeeah beeyocth it it!

You can have your WIlliamsburg. I'll roll Cauhenga to Silverlake.



www.boysandgirlsguide.com

per the last post about willamsburg....i just watched Serpico and it seems NYC hasn't changed much since the 70's...Frank Serpico, after meeting people at a party who introduce themselves as an accountant who is really an actor etc, says "how come all your friends are on their way to being somebody else?"

Fresh off the SUCIT Tour with Solvent, Ectomorph comes home to Ann Arbor for a free show Thursday night.

Thursday 6.29.06
Audio Thursdays presents
Ectomorph LIVE
+ DJs Carlos Souffront and Scott Brandon
PJ's: 102 S. First Street at Huron, Ann Arbor MI
10pm | 21+ | everyone is "on the list!"



Friday night Thinkbox performs at The Art Gallery of Windsor, in conjunction with their current exhibit.

Friday 6.30.06
Thinkbox LIVE
AGW: 401 Riverside Drive West, Windsor Ontario
8pm | all ages | $3 museum admission


Also, a preemptive very happy birthday to two of our favorite Burnlabbers: Derek Plaslaiko 6.29 and Lynnel Herrera 6.30. I wish I was in NYC for the certain madness this weekend...

Deck! The makers of the Hipster Handbook made a sitcom based on being a hipster in Willamsburg. Too Hip To Be Spared

My former freelance studio mate Creatino just launched his web site for Ninja Tune artist ZerodB...before starting as a graphic and web designer Franz(Creatino) studied artificial intelligence...nice combo

"Treat your mother right", sing it Mr T!! Hey T, while you're at it, why don't you lay down some advice on fashion design? Oh and T? Say thanks to Jeff for showing off those moves...

Philip Beesley is a Toronto-based architect and sculptor who creates extraordinary cybernetic systems.



"Implant Matrix is an interactive geotextile that could be used for reinforcing landscapes and buildings of the future. The matrix is capable of mechanical empathy. A network of mechanisms react to human occupants as erotic prey."

The matrix is comprised of a lightweight structural system with sensors, shape-memory alloy wire actuators and distributed microprocessors.





Cybele and Reflexive Membranes pictured above.

Read more about Beesley's work at BLDGBLOG. [Thanks Geoff!]

This past weekend in Chicago was quite excellent. After making superb time (4 hours flat!) and mistaking AM pulse-static for experimental music (yeah... art fags...), it was a pleasure, as always, to see Adam and Alex of Kill Friday night, and quite a treat to see The Hacker. As Bethany noted, we have never heard a dj who's track selection was so in line with our own tastes. There was a Neon Judgement/Terrence Fixmer/Nitzer Ebb segment that had us busting some utterly ridiculous industrial stomp/ballroom S&M moves. Alex was kind enough to introduce us to Monsieur Amato, who was very enjoyable to talk with, until one of the humorless, 'roided-out bouncers in a black mock turtleneck (I guess these guys are everywhere at downtown Chicago bars) rudely butted in and decided it was time for everyone to go. They even tried to kick out Kill's manager Marlon several times. Other than the security goons, a great night. (Huge thanks to Marlon for taking care of us!)

Good and hung over Saturday, we made our way up to Pick Me Up Cafe on North Clark for strong coffee and killer Eggs Benedict. Usually the term "funky" is a big turn-off for me, but Pick Me Up is funky in the good way (read: "weird.") While I had a meager two shot Red Eye, Bethany opted for The Zombie, which consists of two cups of organic coffee + four shots of espresso + steamed milk and whipped cream in one gargantuan mug. Properly callorized and caffeinated, it was off to Wicker Park. After supplementing our antioxidants with a blueberry smoothie from Earwax, my favorite haunt in all of Chicago, Ms. Toybreaker scored a used a;GRUMH LP at Reckless Records, and an excellent book on circuit-bending from Quimby's. Very pleased with our purchases, it was time top start drinking again, so we settled into an outdoor cafe on Damen. It turned out that A Flock of Seagulls(!) was about to perform at a street fair directly across from us. I swear Chicago is a never-ending John Hughes film...

Next stop was the legendary Metro to see our friend Scott Mason's band Office. They were opening for The Fiery Furnaces (which we, to be honest, could not get into at all.) Office was great as always though, and it was fabulous to catch up with Mr. Mason. We were seriously floored hearing the number of records Office was selling on iTunes... without a record contract mind you. It made us wonder why anyone with a unique, quality product would even need to be signed in the age of digital, but I guess, with the exception of finding that rare label you feel at home with, most people are flat-out too lazy or just not interested in taking on the full time job of self-promotion required to get your work out there.

From there we zagged back to Wicker Park to visit our friend Josh Eustis, who was DJ'ing at Del Toro, a very swanky and nicely designed Spanish-themed tapas bar/lounge on Damen. After catching up with Josh (and a few more cocktails to the likes of Kraftwerk and Daft Punk) we ended the night by doing what all good Goths in Chicago do... we met up with friends at NEO. The Chicago Goth scene isn't nearly as pretty as New York, but it's certainly not City Club (thank god!) The Ladytron and Acid Horse selections were enough to keep us from hanging the DJ during the trancier moments, but nonetheless, we took in some good people watching and didn't press our stay. (Thank you very much to JV for the crash pad and hanging out Saturday night!)

Yummy brunch and a lazy Sunday drive home... ahh. Now back to work!

Recent studies have shown the many benefits of coffee, such as countering liver damage from alcohol consumption, increasing short term memory, speeding up metabolism, improving reaction time, and possibly preventing Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, but few know that coffee is packed with potent antioxidants (many, many times more than fruits and vegetables) which reduce risk of heart disease and cancer, and caffeine appears to stimulate the part of the brain that regulates sexual arousal. Drink up!

Speaking of Audi's LeMans car, check out the story of Winding Road magazine's cover this month, created by Todd Osborn with 20,000 Legos.

Audi just won 24 Hours of Lemans race in France with their new diesel-engined racecar, the first ever diesel to win a major race. Using diesel technology inables the car to reach peak horsepower at lower rpms...The result, which a friend witnessed, was that the car basically only made a whistling noise while the other cars screamed past. The other amazing thing was that he said that the engine´s torque was so high that the tires literally ripped the asphalt from the track...and the engineers actually had to decrease the potential acceleration because the drivers couldn´t handle physically handle it and got what is called a "red out" from blood rushing to the head. the professional drivers admitted that the car was so powerful in acceleration and breaking that they had to learn how to drive again...leave it to the Germans

For those in Chicago this weekend (including Toybreaker and I, in about six hours):
Kill Memory Crash and The Hacker TONIGHT at Spy Bar. Free cover before midnight, and open bar until 11pm!

This Saturday night, Office performs at The Metro with Fiery Furnaces and Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, and Josh Eustis of Telefon DJs at del Toro (Damen just below North Ave.)

For those in Detoit:
Rob Theakston's going away party tonight, with Patrick Russell, Mike Servito, and master Rob himself at Proof, and the Dorkwave Toasterama Saturday night.

Minimal Wave dot org is now shipping The Lost Tapes, a compilation of rare and unreleased tracks from the European tape scene (1981-1986), with an emphasis on Belgium. The LP is limited to 500 numbered copies with insert, on 180 gram vinyl. Artists include Absolute Body Control, Stratis, Portion Control, Linear Movement, The Neon Judgement and many more. An essential collection of near-impossible to find work by EBM, minimal synth, new wave, cold wave, minimal electronik, post punk, synthpunk, etc. pioneers.

i just gave in and watched ridley scott's last effort "the kingdom of heaven"...years have gone by begging the question of what happened to the man who revolutionized cinema, and then did it again..first "aliens" and then "blade runner", then "weakly" followed up with the vastly unappreciated (and more importantly the only reason not to despise tom cruise) "legend"? he and his bro tony, who responded with the masterpieces of "true romance" and "crimson tide", must have some congenital deficiency which involves brilliance leading to.....???

Dethlab is busy busy preparing three very different events, three weekends in a row this summer.



First, we are extremely pleased to bring our Canadian-built robot friend Solvent back to Detroit July 21st - this time for a live show, with featured guest DJ Mr. Brendan M. Gillen of Ectomorph. An evening of infectious electro-pop goodness as only Solvent can create.

Solvent and Ectomorph are wrapping up their whirlwind SUCIT tour this weekend:
June 22 (tonight!): Love, New York City
June 23: Lava, Philadelphia
June 24: The View, Cleveland

Hopefully Solvent and BMG get some good rest, and don't hate each other after spending a month in a van together.

Bethany and I have been invited to curate a four hour segment of the LINK Festival at the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit. LINK is a 36 hour festival of art and music July 29th-30th. Our program, titled Machines That Feel, will feature media and installation artists, DJs and live bands, including the work of Phoenix Perry, and the debut live performance of electronic-shoegaze-pop project 800 Beloved. We haven't finalized the program yet, and are indeed still open to proposals from artists and performers. I'd explain more, but I think Machines That Feel describes exactly what we're looking for.

Then on Friday, August 4th, Dethlab teams up with Spectral Sound: mashing Vault and Sex & Sedition for one monstrous affair. Unfortunately we can't give you any details quite yet, but we will be trading blood for oil...

Lots of news for busy bodies today.

First up, this Saturday is Dorkwave's summer kick off:

LES INFANTS TERRIBLES TOASTERAMA
Featuring the sounds of The Dorkwave Soundsystem & The Back to Basics Egg + Muffin Toaster



Saturday 6.24.06
Corktown Tavern, Detroit
10pm-late | 18+ | FREE

This is probably the whackiest idea since Lobsterfest.
Bring your own bread.

dorkwave.com
MyDorkspace.com
Back to Basics
HOLLA!




Synth freaks unite and salivate. Matrixsynth is a frequently updated blog packed with photos, videos and all sorts of goodies; covering everything from vintage modular beasties, to fun new devices, to quirky DIY projects and items of community interest.

Thanks to Matrixsynth for linking up Burnlab and my new poster design for Solvent! (More on that a little later.)




Bethany has been getting some much deserved attention from the blogosphere today for her latest series of silkscreened neck ties, with features in both the venerable MAKE Magazine and DIY Happy. New Cyberoptix goods will be available next week at The Cranbrook Art Museum Store and Pure Detroit DesignLab. (Oh look... a picture of us playing records in the DesignLab article.)

If the fashion making, pixel pushing, and record playing isn't enough, I came home today with a literal armload of horrible old electronic children's toys in need of circuit bending. When my lovely partner's time allows, items such as "Little Smart Light'n'Smile Farm" will likely join the arsenal of misfit toys. If anyone in interested, there are still plenty of gems left at the Salvation Army thrift shop in Oak Park, Michigan - an impressively sized and not overpicked location. My friend Erick scored a handful of classic Nintendo games in a Nintendo brand leatherette carrying case(!) and Alex picked up the accompanying LP to the animated 1972 film adaptation of Charlotte's Web, including a pop-up Zuckerman's farm in the gatefold. Score!!!

you've seen it here first: main man richie hawtin sporting a P Boys sticker at a Sonar after...the fire is spreading

Flash In The Can Goes To Hollywood.THEE rich media festival. October 5-7
The clock is ticking on those super early bird tickets.
G_munk will be there. How cool is that.

On Friday, June 23, weekly Detroit development e-newsletter and Web site Model D celebrates its first anniversary with a party at Campus Martius Park. Details, which include Liz Copeland and Clark Warner on the bill, here. It also marks the start of Fourth Fridays in Detroit.

A real blue light special at the former Kmart headquarters in suburban Detroit as the discount retailer's art collection is sold off. Six showings are planned per month through September.

"The gallery contains a wide variety of works such as oils, watercolors, photography, posters, prints, tapestries, and sculptures and even a 15th-Century Chinese Ming Dynasty watercolor on silk. Works of art by artists such as Vasarely, Deperthes, Leger, Loewy, Alvar, Agam, Trova, Bolotowsky, Mayhew, Summers and Zavaro, to name a few, are among the many artists that are featured. There is also a rare Picasso tapestry on display that will be sold on a bid process."

313:
Detroit soda bottler Faygo has a great new hometown ad campaign.

This one is hands down my favorite.
[Thanks, Linder... PhotoShop master.]


blood on the wall:
Huge thanks to Kill Memory Crash, Stevo and everyone who came out to this weekend's installment of Sex & Sedition. Bethany has a full recap here with lots of pictures and goodies.


flesh and bone:
Adam and Alex perform live this Friday in Chicago with The Hacker. More info here.

* note: Friday's show is at Spy Bar, not Soundbar as previously posted.

646 N. Franklin St., Chicago, IL
10pm | $10 adv./$20 door | 21+

Reader Rob Buse forwarded this beautiful project: SoniColumn is an interactive sound installation that can be played by a person's touch. Part of artist Jin-Yo Mok's MusicBox Project, it seeks to reproduce "the happy experience with a small toy which was not sublime nor mysterious, but simple and easy."

More of Jin-Yo Mok's work here.

Newsweek's design issue hit the web this week, featuring the magazine's annual Design Dozen, plus 12 must see exhibits, books and media, and more.

MoCo Loco recpas NeoCon 2006, including a very nice booth for sustainability consultancy and product developer Tricycle, and Rem D. Koolhaas' (that would be Remmy Junior) line of architectural shoes, United Nude. (Bethany owns a pair of UN's Eamz, and claims they are extremely comfortable.)

After a year sabbatical and the most recent thirty six hour drinking and smoking binge, I have returned to the world of full time blogging.

Attention design nerds: to celebrate 11 years on the internets, Core77 and Fila present the Blu Fom sneaker. Limited to 300 pair and hand crafted in Italy, these are the ultimate accessory to all the foam dust still in your lungs from college.

Not here but now

Amnesty International has launched what I think might be one of the most high impact ad campaigns I have ever seen. The design is stunning and concept inescapable. As we all know, we never see things like child soldiers and Chinese human rights abuse on the streets of midtown. With a series of clever ads that has changed. Design problem solving at its finest.

Burnlab's favorite records of 2006, so far:

Casiotone For the Painfully Alone - Etiquette

Owen Ashworth quit film school in 1997 after he realized that song-making was a far more cost-effective means of storytelling than film-making. We're quite glad he did, and very seriously put him in the same league as Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave and Stephin Merritt. For his third LP, Ashworth expands his sound beyond the basic one man and a Casio schtick that has been hugely effective. The single Young Shields cuts to the heart of hipster culture in a way that leaves you feeling both raw and warm at the same time. Tin-can vocals, dirty, circuit-bent synths, an array of classical instrumentation and raw emotion blend with infectious melodies that are nothing short of arresting.

Perspects - Peopleskills

Three years in the making, the Peopleskills Complex (including the Peopleskills LP and two EPs) is Detroit electro pioneer Ian Clark's opus. Sometimes referencing his early work as Le Car (with Adam Miller of Adult.), sometimes referencing Belgian EBM and proto-industrial, and introducing new elements that are purely Perspects, Clark delivers a fully realized body of work that is pure pleasure and finely crafted from start to finish. The atmospheric interludes and hard rocking dancefloor gems work seamlessly in what will be remembered as one of the most important electronic works of the decade, if not the genre as a whole.

Magas - May I Meet My Accuser

Magas returns for his second full length LP with a vendetta. Take Friends Forever and turn everything up to 11, then run it all though a distortion pedal, and you're about half way there. Jim Magas' "sonic rudeness" is countered by his skillful songwriting and ability to create catchy pop hooks from the screaming vintage ARP and drum machines that help make his unique definition of electronic motor punk. This is music William Gibson and Neal Stephenson could have never even imagined.

The Nice Device - Let The Nightlife Down

Not because I designed the cover art... I wouldn't have done it if it wasn't such an amazing record. The Nice Device stand head and shoulders above the sometimes incestuous sounding Detroit rock scene, delivering a mature and energetic album of pop gems that you can't shake out of your head if you try. But why would you? It's incredibly rare for a band to deliver hard driving rock anthems and delicate electro ballads with such natural ease... sometimes within one song. This is a band bigger than any city or genre can hold. Sit back, enjoy, and rock the fuck out.

Most anticipated record of 2006:

Motor - Klunk

Former Paisley Park sound designer Bryan Black has been making music under various guises for nearly two decades. Last year's X Lover release on DJ Hell's Gigolo label blurred the lines between industrial, disco and electro as never before. Hot on its heels, Mr. Black and partner Mr. No present Klunk on the legendary Mute label: possibly the gnarziest techno LP ever created, in the same league as Alter Ego and T. Raumschmire. Motor is unapologetically and simultaneously a throwback to early electronic body music and the most modern of techno music. This is music to sweat to.

The last rabbit I put in handcuffs died from a strained heart. No, I didn't mean bunny.

Marius, I would be shocked if there was a single Burnlab reader who's main criteria for bed shopping didn't involve compatibility with handcuffs. (Although I prefer ad-hoc solutions like stockings and neck ties.)

Just sayin'...

(You're still a perv.)

I know what this looks like, but this image is really only two clicks away from we-make-money-not-art's del.icio.us feed. Anyway, the original hi-res version is here, along with some other impressive and cheesy shots... You know you wanna.

Yesterday I rescued a lost dog, took a disco nap and had a dream about ski jumps, saw a lot of old friends at the Magas show, and told my girlfriend how much I love her. It was mostly a good day. I offended some good friends with a truthful but poorly worded e-mail. I feel bad about that. Tonight we see our friends from Chicago and rock the Metal-Zone on the new Audion track. I'm excited about that.

I just saw that Passion Boys posted a new blog of a "best of" of comments on their page...hilarious..two of my faves:

"what is a typical day in the life of the passion boys?
is it all just fast cars and laszlo's mom? or do you sometimes just drink coffee in the morning thinking 'i wonder what miklos is going to eat next?'"

"I just wanted to write and tell you guys that I appreciate your music. I am a funk style dancer and this is the type of music that I really enjoy dancing to and practicing to."

classic

The 2006 Sonar Festival begins today in Barcelona. Our friends at Spectral/Ghostly family have a showcase this Saturday at SonarPub, featuring live sets from Spectral artists Bodycode and Audion, plus a DJ set from maestro Ryan Elliott.

If you're not fortunate enough to be summering in Spain, Ghostly's bad boys Kill Memory Crash will be our special guest DJ's this Saturday night for the fifth installment of Sex & Sedition at OSLO. You can get a bit of your Audion fix, as we'll be playing a very sleazed-up version of Mouth to Mouth, a.k.a. "the bees song", a.k.a. the "it" track from DEMF weekend. If it's good enough for Hawtin, it's good enough for Dethlab... it just needs a lot more distortion. ;)

The Rat Lemur is awesome! Found some more info via Just a Little Guy.

"This is the most bondage fetish gremlin bat looking west-village leather-freak of a lemur I've ever seen... and believe me I've seen a perved out lemur or two in my day."

More cute little fuzzies with excellent commentary here.

Meet the Aye-aye aka "Rat Lemur". The ideal pet for any Dorkwaver.

I'm growing more and more fascinated with Scientology by the moment.

[re: previous post] We have been talking about the Philip Treacy exhibit for a couple weeks here, but very worthy of a re-post.

Ms. Toybreaker and I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Treacy at the opening (and I immediately thought of you, Chad.) Needless to say, he was most charming and dapper. When he asked if we were a band, we were too star-struck to come up with anything more clever than "uh... sort of." Smooth. He was also reportedly too busy smoking out back with the architecture students to be bothered with press photos. We like him! ;)

Dabrye's outfuckingstanding Two/Three was released yesterday. It's really good. The latest Ghostly podcast featuresa mega-mix from Dabbles himself doing a sneak peek of the album.

Also, Dave Siska does one hell of a job covering the history of Larry Heard over at Sonic Sunset. Those who disagree with early house music need not click the above link.

The good and bad sides of car design, the first is a gorgeous collaboration between Ross Lovegrove and Swarovsky Crystal, the second an attempt by Zaha Hadid at a car, ouch. She should have known better after Philipe Stark and his amazingly bad plywood and "Toto la toto" cars.

Odd Dots and Kevin McHugh tonight

Odd Dots (aka Rob) will be playing tonight at Happy Ending Lounge in NYC with Kevin McHugh around 12! He makes techno full of strange twists and turns that I quite like.

Magas record release party at CAID this Friday!

I Want To Hurt presents:
Magas
Glass Candy
Chromatics
Genders

Friday, June 16th
10pm | $8 | all ages
Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit
5141 Rosa Parks Blvd., Detroit MI

Picking up where FRIENDS FOREVER left off, MAY I MEET MY ACCUSER, showcases a harder, more rough-hewn sound. Spraying a layer of sizzling hi-hats atop the thunderous roar of an old ARP, Magas has created a defiant new style of electronic motor-punk.

Best conspiracy theory of 2006:Dan Treacy of the TV Personalities is secretly behind the Arctic Monkeys. Should this prove to be true, I'd crap ice cream.

66 days left until this year's edition of the Woodward Dream Cruise.

God is a Darwinist.

Space Invader is invading Vienna, and he lives next door to me. What miracles...

Burnlab supports the the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus.

Although the tree octopus is not officially listed on the Endangered Species List, we feel that it should be added since its numbers are at a critically low level for its breeding needs. The reasons for this dire situation include: decimation of habitat by logging and suburban encroachment; building of roads that cut off access to the water which it needs for spawning; predation by foreign species such as house cats; and booming populations of its natural predators, including the bald eagle and sasquatch.

We feel fine

We Feel Fine by Jonathan Harris and Sepandar Kanvar is a visualization of how the internet community feels. The program scours across blogs for phrases containing "I feel" and parses them into a field for analysis from many different angles. Brilliant!

Via Future feeder

your first of several reminders this week:

SEX & SEDITION V:
DETHLAB vs. KILL MEMORY CRASH (Ghostly Intl.) w/ STEVO

This Saturday, June 17.06
OSLO: 1456 Woodward, Detroit MI
$7 | 18+ | 10pm

We're working on a new FX set-up, including the return of this nasty thing and other toys that have no business in a DJ booth.



Listen to a Kill Memory Crash DJ set here (RealPlayer format) + rumor has it there will be a gimp...

Jon Moshier got fired from WDET. That is absolute bullshit.

A beautiful DIY music video using Fernand Leger's experimental short film Ballet Mechanique and the music of Casiotone For The Painfully Alone.

+ this site dedicated to George Antheil's original Ballet Mechanique score, which was envisioned for 16 player pianos playing four separate parts, four bass drums, three xylophones, a tam-tam, seven electric bells, a siren, three different-sized airplane propellers, and two human-played pianos. The composition would never successfully be performed as intended until 1999: 75 years after being written.

Ikea's new store opened in Canton last week.

This is greatly amusing/the great rock'n'roll swindle?: Toybreaker and myself featured next to Derrick May and The Orb in Real Detroit Weekly's DEMF recap.

The full page here. (Although not everyone agrees, I think Matt, Rich and Ryan all looked great sporting longer hair.)

Hi there! Is your Friday going a bit slow? Well here's a few good time wasters courtesy of your old pals at YouTube!

"Go Ninja, go ninja GO!!"

"You're a Loser!!"

"I Want Holeyfield!!"

Here in Deutschland where the World Cup is about to kick off with USA ranking 6th, and upon the news of the death of some powerful Al Quaeda dude, God dammit i think it's time for some Lee Greenwood. Stand up everybody

If you didn't get enough at the DEMF, get your bat dance on with Dethlab vs. Kill Memory Crash and our good friend Stevo at OSLO next Saturday.



Clicky for big flyer, and huge thanks to Mike Stewart for the photography.

On the matter of we must schedule a trip to New York NOW...

'Tis the season for artful subversive fashion: AngloMania: Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion. May 3, 2006 - September 4, 2006, presented by The Costume Institute, Metropolitan Museum of Art. The reviews are already flying around the internets: Sex and the Brits: An ode to irony. Westwood, Galliano, McQueen..."Honors go to the two British milliners Treacy and Jones, the latter offering a raven's feather headdress worn with Galliano's Dior gown, with crows cawing on the soundtrack." Images of the opening night "party of the year" from Style.com.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.

Word of the day: hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia

+ Party it up in Hell.

Gloves are hot. For some reason this makes me think of Dorkwave.... probably the guy with the broom.

Speaking of, Dorkwave takes Chicago this Thursday:


DORKWAVE SOUNDSYSTEM @ SMARTBAR

3730 North Clark St., Chicago, IL
Thursday 6.8.06
$5 | 21+ | 10pm-4am

dorkwave.com | mydorkspace.com

Not new, but I just found it [for Andy]: The Modern Compendium of Miniature Automata

We were busy last week, but no excuse for missing this: 35 ft. tall Damien Hirst bronze installed at Royal Academy of Arts in London. Nice.

Also... run, don't walk, to the Philip Treacy exhibit at Cranbrook. (We must borrow some of those hats for photo shoots...)

Ok here's the SINGLE MOST INTERESTING piece of information I've heard this year. There's a company called Alexa which archives the internet. Now this isn't new information to me or most of you. But did you know there was a way to view what other sites people who visit a site also go to see? I didn't know this. I guess Windows users have had this option for awhile now, but it's never been native in a Mac browser. There's an extension for Firefox however called A9. This is crack people. I've been to so many sites I like to see what else connects to them. Finally, a way to look the reverse way of links. This might not be new to some of you, but I found it very interesting. Everything connecting to Burnlab is architectural. Interesting no?

Also, I am reading this cool book called Emergence, The connected lives of ants, brains, cities and software by Steven Johnson that I found this info in. I started it last night and am now 124 pages in by mid day even with Rob here most of the day. I'll finish it tonight. This is the Di Vinci Code for nerds. Highly recommened. As some of you might of noticed, I am very interested in Emergent Systems Theory and this is the first book I've ever enountered that's connected so many various books and ideas.


Yesterday I also went to Chelsea and saw a few new shows. Two to note are the Jonathan Weiner show at The Jonathan Levine Gallery.

and the Josiah McElheny show at Andrea Rosen Gallery

Daft Punk is playing at your house: a soundboard recording of their life-altering set from last month's Coachella festival. (I have to imagine, even better than the broadcast Ms. Toybreaker and the late night laser cutting team at Cranbrook received from my cell phone.) Get it while it's hot, good robots.

[thanks T. Sunshine]

Also opening tonight with WHEN PHILIP MET ISABELLA, is an exhibition highlighting Gary Griffin's Career at Cranbrook Academy of Art. Cranbrook Art Museum honors retiring Academy of Art Metalsmith-in-Residence Gary Griffin with the exhibition Critical Mass. Celebrating 22 years leading the Metalsmithing Department, Critical Mass also chronicles the careers of 121 students who studied under Griffin from 1985 through 2005, showcasing the influence of this master metalsmith on the young artists he led. Curated by 1992 Academy of Art metalsmithing graduate Ben Wearley, the exhibition opens June 3 and runs through Oct. 15.

Two great music events in Detroit tonight:



First, a record release party for The Nice Device's debut LP Let the Nightlife Down at the Magic Bag in Ferndale. (A sentiment and body of work I apprecited enough to happily design the album art.) If you're not familiar, imagine a bit of Postal Service, a bit of Ladytron, and a healthy dose of Detroit rock. More info at LISTD.

Also tonight, kindly maniac and player of fine records Ryan Elliott presents the June edition of Vault, featuring special guest DJ Richard Fearless of Death in Vegas at OSLO. More info at LISTD.



+ the lush and seedy music video for the Death in Vegas/Adult. collaboration Hands Around My Throat from 2002's brillinat but schizophrenic Scorpio Rising LP.

WHEN PHILIP MET ISABELLA - Philip Treacy's Hats for Isabella Blow. Saturday, June 3, through Sunday, August 27, 2006

Friday, June 2, 6:00-8:00pm - ArtMembers' Opening Reception at Cranbrook Art Museum

Saturday, June 3, 4:00pm, Artist's Talk: Philip Treacy (deSalle Auditorium)

(In my not so humble opinion, I think this will be one of the most intriguing exhibitions at the museum all year.)

Cranbrook Art Museum presents an exhibition of extraordinary hats that the Irish designer Philip Treacy made for his friend and muse, Isabella Blow. The exhibition, When Philip Met Isabella -- Philip Treacy's Hats for Isabella Blow, draws on work from the private collections of both Treacy and Blow.

Since their first meeting on a fashion shoot in 1989 when Treacy was a student at the Royal College of Art, Blow has been his staunchest supporter and a constant source of inspiration. After leaving the RCA, he lived and worked from the basement of her London house for three years. Many of his most surreal and sculptural hats have been made for her. "Issy never says: 'You've gone too far,'" says Treacy. "She always says: 'You haven't gone far enough.'"

More about the exhibition:
Milliner's muse (abc.net.au)
Eccentric British style icon Isabella Blow has helped make Irish milliner Philip Treacy a household name by stepping out in his outrageous hats for more than a decade...

Who's who (vogue.co.uk)
A self-confessed eccentric and champion of many of this generation's fashion stars, the career path of Isabella Blow is a true inspiration; from a little girl trying on her mother's hats, she has grown to be one of the industry's most respected stylists...

Blow by Blow(observer.guardian.co.uk)
Isabella Blow, style queen and promotor of fledgling designers including Alexander McQueen, has been a walking billboard for years. Now she's getting her own exhibition at the Design Museum...

When Philip Met Isabella (BBC Radio 4 - Audio Presentation)
The Design Museum is presenting an exhibition of the hats that Philip Treacy has made for his friend and muse Isabella Blow. They talk about their extraordinary relationship and of course hats...

Big Bossa, yet another project from the sickly fertile (ferile?) mind that brought you Max Van Schlanger and Barry Styles