No smooth way to say this, and perhaps we are too good at giving the appearance of success, but war, economy and all things considered, Engram/Burnlab is seriously looking for paying work right now. Interior design, exhibit design, graphics large and small... All the pro bono projects and lectures are glamorous, but tax day is putting major hurt on the operation here. Consider this a rare and humble plea, and an offer of high quality design services for you and yours. You have things to be designed - I want to design things for you. I need your money. You need our services. Everyone wins. Write to: mike@engramdesign.com

The Dia:Beacon
Call it the anti-Bilbao, New York's highly acclaimed Dia Center opens the doors to the new home of its permanent collection in the sleepy Hudson valley town of Beacon, New York on May 18th. Situated between the Storm King Art Center and the sprawling MASS MoCA, Dia:Beacon will house a stunning array of work from what the NY Times calls "the Dia generation", including Richard Serra, Donald Judd, Andy Warhol and Michael Heizer. The building itself is a 300,000 sq. ft. former printing factory donated by International Paper, and received a very modest renovation with a great deal of input from the artists themselves.

Token suckers.

Not smooth.
Japanese electronics giant Sony has taken an extraordinary step to cash in on the war in Iraq by patenting the term "Shock and Awe" for a computer game. It is among a swarm of companies scrambling to commercially exploit the war in Iraq, which has killed more than 5,000 soldiers and civilians in the space of three weeks.

illustrator, graffiti artist, "bimbosculptor" ?? barcelona-visiting, berlin-based boris hoppek�s website is worth taking a look at..refreshing

"In case of emergency, when you find yourself in a scene, possibly involving a biologic or chemical agent (1), you should try to protect your airway. Our consumer neckwear may be important when moments count in an emergency"

Speaking of the future, after giving only a handful of interviews over the last 20 years William Gibson now has a Blog. The protagonist of his latest novel Pattern Recognition is a freelance trendspotter with an allergy to corporate logos.

A cool site that reminds me home much cooler the future used to be.

New message from the other Mike from Michigan, now living in New York. Stupid White Men was back at #1 on the NY Times bestseller list last week, and Mike has been asked back to network TV. Love Mike. We need more Mikes.

Friendster at work: Check out DJ Loveless' web radio program. Anyone with pictures of Nick Cave and Morrissey on her home page gets an automatic link here at Burnlab.

Fun with monsters and more, form ANARTIST(E)zine. Very nice!

Because you need more distractions in your life.
Mike Servito got me into Friendster a coupled days ago. This is a really well designed service that connects you with your friends, and their friends, and their friends' friends. With detailed profiles and the ability to search people based on interest criteria, it collapses the time involved to create a network of like-minded freaks dramatically. If you're not sure your real world friends are on the service, you can search for their e-mail address. Security seems to be very good, but I have to wonder about the fallout if this collective data were to fall into the hands of the CIA or an advertising agency....

EngramDesign.com and Burnlab.net have had very heavy traffic the past 24 hours or so from AvantGo users: apparently a PDA-based web service. This is the first I've heard of it, and am just curious about the origin of the increased traffic. The only three things I can think of are 1) something to do with the above post, 2) a project for Invisible Records I'll talk about later, and 3) Richard Perle is preparing to sue me for blaming him for yesterday's snowstorm. Drop me a note: Mike@Burnlab.net

Could it snow any bloody more in New York today?
Somehow this is Richard Perle's fault.

And so it begins. URB Magazine recently released their 9th annual Next 100 list, featuring a handful of talent from the Burnlab extended family, including Magda, Matthew Dear and Dinky. Way to go! It promises to be huge year for all three.

Graphic designer Steven R. Gilmore has a new site (new to me at least). Gilmore's groundbreaking work for Skinny Puppy and other Nettwerk Records artists in the late 80s placed him in league with the likes of Vaughan Oliver (Pixies, etc.) and Peter Saville (New Order, etc.). Check out the extraordinary With Love card collection, and his work for the Holy Body Tattoo dance company.

+ Some of Steven's demented art bookmarks:
Mark Ryden
Camille Rose Garcia
Merry Karnowsky Gallery

Short term nostalgia, research, any reason... a few old Burnlab favorites always worth a revisit to maintain humility:
Jennifer Sterling
[+ISM]
Reverend Yohan
Golan
Droog
Williams+Tsien
Mark Romanek

Off the screen and into your hands: Mike and Mike (a.k.a. WWFT) present One, "a Book+CD-Rom containing interactive versions of Designgraphik, TrueisTrue, and Submethod from 1998-2002."

Dutch electro master I-F's site cybernetic-broadcasting is back online and streaming electronic 56k love. You can tune in using Winamp, iTunes or Real here.

Honda: "the cog ad"
Deus ex machina! Beauty.
Thanks to Kris via Eric at Core77.

This is a good start.

Growing up in Detroit, everyone made cracks about the master manipulator and career thief (I mean politician) that was Mayor Colman Young. But I gotta tell ya, nothing prepared me for Chicago and the viscious, blatent and down right hilarious political thuggism (word I heard on CNN) under the Mayor Daley regiem. This guy does whatever he wants whenever he wants, and he proved it last night when he sent dozens of bulldozers to destroy the runway of Meigs Field without any public debate or even notice- (This link choosen because of the great picture on the right). I don't really have an opinion on whether this is good or bad, but damn is it crooked.

For all you NYC dwellers, my roommate Atomly will be performing at Open Air this Friday. Go check out some grade-A
laptop techno, jungle and Midwest hardcore.

Information Clearinghouse provides uncensored and hard to find news about the war. This article written by a UK journalist traveling with US Marines is so explicitly detailed and horrific, I couldn't finish it in one sitting. (Please try to look past the sensationalist headline.) How many days are we into this? And its already this bad? So much evil at the top. Let the cowards in Washington and Baghdad tear each other apart with their bare hands at a UN sanctioned smack-down, and leave everyone else out it. If Bush, Hussein and all their psychopathic henchmen, from Uday to Cheney, aren't strung up side-by-side for tomato lobbing at a Hague tribunal after this mess is over, we have indeed fallen to one of the lowest points of human history.

I never really truly believed in evil until now. Thank you Mr. Bush for destroying the integrity of the country I love and cherish, and quite possibly bringing decades of terrorism and hatred upon us. Enjoy your last days in prison, while we're still getting attacked with poison gas, hijacked airplanes and god-knows-what years from now and Wolfowitz, Perle and Rummy scratch their chins muttering, "Well.. that didn't work as planned..." No shit. Even 41 thought it was a terrible idea. How did a handful of delusional and amoral 'conservative thinkers' (who aren't even liked by most republicans) get to decide the fate of the world in the first place? This country's political system has been corrupted in a way that makes Enron look like an honest mistake and Richard Nixon look like a pretty good fella.

Here's one foreign policy suggestion: Stop giving people reasons to hate us.

If anyone hasn't seen the Fontline special reports on the origins of the war in Iraq, please turn off the CNN and do so. PBS even has entire streaming programs online. PBS is definitely one thing I love about this country. (I'm sure its on the administration's hit list.)

*sigh*

meanwhile...



Our new friend Will [top left, foreground] served as official paparazzi for Ghostly International during the Winter Music Conference. "For your awe and horror, the definitive collection of Miami photos."

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.

The decision has been made in regards to the new World Trade Center, and of course America showed its arrogance by selecting the tallest out of all the proposals. Not that the 1776 foot structure by Daniel Libeskind would make a bad WTC, I just prefered the verticle cityoffered up by SOM SANAA. I'll leave it to all you architects to debate the actual merits of the decision.

On the homefront, I started working today as the press intern at Thrill Jockey records. Home to acts like Tortoise and Mouse on Mars, I am thrilled (no pun intended) to be working with a label that has had such a massive influence on my musical taste. At the same time, I'm a bit disgruntled at the age of 27 to be an intern. The search for paying employment continues.

This Friday at Halcyon (our neighborhood coffeehouse/bar/record store/news stand/nightclub/vintage furniture store) Ben Neill brings his "mutantrumpet" for what promises to be a rare multimedia experience. Halcyon is located at 227 Smith Street. The show starts at 8pm and is free as always.

Coming to you live from Brooklyn, electronic music innovator and producer Ben Neill will be appearing with his talented multi-media collaborators for a special performance, celebrating the release of his latest CD Automotive, from Six Degrees Records. Ben Neill has played with every avant-garde electronic musician from the legendary John Cage and Robert Moog to DJ Spooky.

Ben will be playing his "mutantrumpet," the hybrid electro-acoustic instrument he created that allows him to play a traditional instrument while manipulating interactive audio and video projections. Joining Ben for his night of audio-visual alchemy at halcyon will be his production partner Eric Calvi and video artist Bill Jones. Ben's mutantrumpet will be "remixing" Jones' experimental video screens at the same time they are doing live mixes of the tracks from Automotive. The album was created from extrapolations of the funky beats created for the high-profile Volkswagen advertising campaigns that Ben has been scoring for the last two years. Bill Jones' one-man show of video work will be opening at NYC's prestigious Sandra Gering Gallery on March 20.

this weekend in barcelona is the 3rd edition of the zeppelin sonic art festival, a weekend devoted to the exploration of sound through music, featuring an homage to erik satie, composer and founder of the "musique d�amueblement" (furniture music) movement, as well as a lecture and performance by musician/author david toop

Politics and design + fear and humor (as spotted by Eric at Core77): The eerily cool airline style graphic icons of the Department of Homeland Security have been cleverly spoofed here and here, with really not much effort required.

This has been out a little over a year, but anyone longing new material from the likes of Front 242, Bigod 20 and Nitzer Ebb are encouraged to check out Terence Fixmer's 'Muscle Machine'. + I highly recommend shopping at Forced Exposure for a great selection of electro, EBM and all sorts of geeky and somewhat obscure titles in-stock. (Good selection of indie rock too, if that's your thing.)

For our New York readers still on the fence about swinging by 59 Canal Saturday night, word has it that out-of-town guests will include a certain record mogul from Ann Arbor and a certain robot from from San Fran.

Dinky is in Chile, but Magda holds down the fort at 59 Canal this Saturday.
Be there or be square.

+ This is also the semi-official going away party for our mate Oliver (gracious host of the legendary DMH events last year), who packs up for Berlin next week.

Oh look, Burnlab V3.2 is only a couple days later than planned... a new personal record in punctuality. (The day I actually do anything I said I'd do on-time will be the day George Bush gives Saddam Hussein a big kiss on the mouth... with tongue of course.) Preoccupation with time is the enemy of quality - ask Peter Saville. (Not that I'm Peter Saville by any means.)

Anyway, please enjoy the new look, featuring more wood-grain and bubble wrap than ever. RADIO.BURNLAB is of course a couple more days off... but it will be so good! [hit REFRESH now, if this doesn't make any sense.]
cheers

a few sites very worth checking out if you feel like feeling that heartwrenching feeling where you question if you are actually as talented as you think yourself to be (courtesy of binah): valyard, the self-touted leader in "flash link storage", bases it�s claim on links such as: bionic systems and tetsoo production, both technoid graphics/animation fantasies.....check out the very timely-ly 80�s visomat inc......if you�re feeling at all debile as to the state of your selfimage and/or creative output, stay away

Brand new UNTITLED poster: fourth installment in the Gangs of Williamsburg series. Download it right here, print it and tack it up to have the hippest cubicle this side of Eight Mile Rd... whichever side that may be. [11x17"/300 dpi]

[Preemptive apology for unilateral political rant.]

No doubt Saddam Hussein is a psychotic tyrant and is almost certainly hiding something, but just as disturbing is the fact that our unelected king wants war so badly that he can already taste the blood. Despite the administration's plan for world peace based on intimidation and presentation of such compelling evidence as aluminum tubes and video of trucks actually being driven (I myself have been guilty of both), the rest of the civilized world has finally grown the balls to stand up to the thick-necked schoolyard bully our government has sadly become. It's no longer just embarrassing. It's downright criminal when thousands, or millions of lives are at stake.

Dear Mr. President, before you throw yourself on the floor kicking and screaming because some silly Frenchman said that this planet isn't yours to do with as you will, consider this: One single piece of reasonable evidence is all that is needed to justify your bloodlust, ridiculous vendetta in the name of your father, and inexcusable desire to control the resources of a part of the world you have no business in anyway. Even the overblown "evidence" presented thus far is flimsy at best. Come on. If you're going to lie, give us something good. No doubt there is real evidence buried somewhere on the outskirts of Bagdad. At least wait for that before you drag us all into armageddon.

There's still nothing like good simple Chinese wisdom:
"Only when we go along the line of political settlement can we truly live up to the trust and hope the international community places in the Security Council." - Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan

[End of rant.]

Thanks Jaron for the D.A.M. link. Shame shame on me for missing the Design Show.

Art night in Detroit - Dirty at the MONA and the member's invitational at the Detroit Artist's Market featuring a few Burnlab co-conspirators...

Burnlab v3.2 is dangerously close to launching. A big part of the redesign is the long awaited introduction of RADI0.BURNLAB, which will be a comprehensive portal to the best of underground streaming media and much of the music discussed here in the LAB REP0RT. One tasty link I recently came across, via the Electro Alliance, is a superb web radio program by Water Lilly. Go on, get your robot fix.

Deliciously dark new material from Suction Records. This is all I'm asking for. (Okay, this and somebody send G.W. back to the ranch before he starts WWIII, please.)

"Press Release: Hello. Suction Records presents "13", a three-track 7" single, marking the debut release by Tinfoil Teakettle. This is suction013. Tinfoil Teakettle is a collaboration between Gregory De Rocher and Jason Amm, aka Suction Records' full-time robot music composers, Lowfish and Solvent. This release is plagued by a curse, influenced by nightmares, and sounds like a modern take on the raw, morbid Electronic Body Music sound of early Skinny Puppy or Dive. The distorted vocal stylings of the EBM-masters have been reinterpreted with an icy vocoder snarl, signalling strange new directions for both EBM and modern electro."

Listen to samples here.

"Let me guess, you must be an architect...": from the New York Times. "severe." "stern." "out of control." More talk about Libeskind's swanky glasses than his WTC proposal lately. Hm. So what do my broken 1950s flea market bought frames say?

This week I was up at the Rhode Island School of Design talking to my buddy Ryan's exhibit design class. The furniture department there will be showing at the Milan Furniture Fair this spring, and this unique course is responsible for RISD's booth - taking it from concept through fabrication, to set-up in Italy, and hopefully safe return to Providence. Used to seeing companies spend millions of dollars on exhibits, watching a booth go up for twenty-five hundred bucks is pretty darn impressive. The basic concept of pixelated milk crates for the stand was developed by grad student Andrew Coates, who's Topo Bench was recently Featured in the 2002 ID Magazine Review.

After a year of development, our good friends at Core77 have launched Coroflot version two. Coroflot is recognized as the number one design portfolio, employment and industry resource center on the web. The new site is both lovely and packed with info.

+ Watch for a refresh of Burnlab next week.

moby and dj shadow are in a bar...moby, being the good christian that he is, says to dj shadow "hey, don�t be so glum chum.cheer your music up a bit." dj shadow, being the master of samples that he is, says to moby "well as long as we�re being honest, you know it�s a lot more interesting when you don�t just use one vocal sample over and over again".....ok, wait i don�t have a punchline to this, but if the two of those dudes working things out sounds interesting: rjd2

I just recieved my copy of This Is A Magazine's Compendium #1. It's stunningly beautiful. Over 200 oversized pages filled with amazing words and pictures by 30 artists from around the world.



If you don't have yours yet, I suggest you get on it before they run out. It's available in the U.S. at Vacant, 43 Mercer St. @ Grand, Soho NYC, or puchase online.

a few years ago, as a response to the inaccessibility of the high-profile fashions shows in barcelona, CIRCUIT was born as an underground alternative...a mix of fashion, art, and music, circuit hits version 7 this coming weekend, with guest-city reykjavic providing artists,designers and djs for the installations, fashion shows, and (spanish prerequesite) parties held throughout the city. (possible highlight: video projections on/in mies van de rohe�s barcelona pavillion)

Mark Romanek - acclaimed director of One Hour Photo and ground breaking music videos such as Nine Inch Nails' Closer [hello Witkin] and David Bowie's Jump They Say [hello Goddard] - has completed a new video for Johnny Cash.

"The Man in Black" covers Hurt, the Trent Reznor penned anthem of regret with even greater gut-wrenching sorrow and tear-jerking effect than the original. Yes, I'm such a Goth sap this song still makes me teary-eyed every time. The track can be found on the recent album The Man Comes Around.

Now that Cash has shown two of my favorite contemporary songwriters [Reznor and Nick Cave] who the real prince of anguish is by adapting their own work, one wonders what eyeliner wearing student of misery he'll set his sights on next...

I just received two beautiful copies of Textfield Magazine 1.01 in the mail yesterday. Log on and buy yourself a copy, or run to the magazine rack of your favorite design book store before all 1000 are gone.

This is just sick.
0-120mph in four seconds, 420 foot vertical drop twisting 270�...
opening at Cedar Point this spring.

Just in: some yet-to-be-confirmed schedule shuffling for the Winter Music Conference in Miami. Apparently Adult. will now be playing live on Friday 3/21 with Miss Kittin and the Hacker, Memory Systems is moved to Saturday, 3/22, and Peaches and The Rapture are scheduled for Thursday 3/20 [the date originally scheduled for Adult. + Memory Systems.] I have little doubt this may change again, but it will most certainly be a week of great music.



You can now order Dinky's brand new Black Cabaret LP right from Dinkyland.net. Miss Dinky has recently been played by John Peel himself on BBC radio, and has been asked to perform at Sonar 03. The final installment of the Dinky vs. Magda show this past Saturday at 59 Canal was extra spot-on superb and bit harder than usual. The first Saturday of the month will be a sorely missed night of digital decadence in NYC, but there may just be a solution in the works...

Moved into this warehouse loft on the Southside of Chicago about two weeks ago. For those who aren't familiar, the southside is like the most ghetto parts of Detroit, only with a lot more people walking about which makes it both more and less scary at the same time. As for the loft, 10,000 square feet of raw industrial inconvenience (gas leaks/bad wiring/no cable). Note the plastic hanging from the ceiling of my bedroom. Yes, it helps lock in the warmth from the two space heaters needed to keep my bed at a livable temperature. But- I wake up every morning screaming "Oh no, I'm still at the rave!!!"

Going to start exploring the cultural side of Chicago next weekend at the Illegal Art Exhibit with a special seminar featuring DJ Spooky and Mark Hosler of Negativand. That same weekend I'll get my first taste of a real underground Chicago throwdown with my absolute favorite jak- Traxx and uncle Gigolo- Tommie Sunshine. Hope its better than the insipid house music all the clubs are peddling around here.

BTW: I'm looking for employment at the moment- so anyone with friends, friends of friends or long lost acquantances that could help, please hit me up.

if you�re interested in practicing a bit of spanish while checking out the design forefront take a look from time to time at binah, where,as "guapo" ("good looking" in spanish...explain later) i�ll be attempting to give my opinion on things en espa�ol para la gente del mundo...check it out.i was suprised to see through a view of central and south america that the entire world is doing some crazy incredible designwork...

Who says C-Span 2 is a waste of a cable channel. I caught a little bit of a commitee meeting discussing the current state of radio ownership and the soul-sucking monopoly conglomerates like Clear Channel hold over the airwaves. Most suprising was the inclusion of former Simple Machine owner and Tsunami member Jenny Toomey on the panel that also included Don Henley and Clear Channel CEO Lowrey Mays. Senators John McCain and Trent Lott were asking a bunch of serious questions regarding the loss of localism and competition in the radio market. They were also being pretty hard on Clear Channel in regard to allegations that the media giant forces acts to use Clear Channel's concert division for their tours or face declining radio play on Clear Channel station. There was also extensive talk about the current payola system. I wish I could be a bit more optimistic that any of this will lead to better radio programming, but at least it was nice to see it being discussed.

You keep asking yourself, "What am I to do in this post-Electroclash world?" It's okay. We understand. Really. Please allow us to light the way...



This Saturday in a yet-to-be-fully-gentrified corner of Williamsburg, the Twisted Ones [note: not these Twsited Ones], the Mighty Robot AV Squad and the Happy Birthday Hideout crew provide not only ridiculous names, but what is sure to be a legendary show. Things kick off with a live performance by Ian MacKaye's favorite analogue synth band and Ersatz recording artists Tamion 12 Inch at the still blurry-eyed hour of 8pm. Where the hell can it go from there? Also on the bill are The Black Eyes, Crimson Sweet, The Lost Sounds, and Measles Mumps & Rubella. Plus, walking electro encyclopedia Dan Selzer teams up with Mike Simonetti on the turntables. Write to johnfitz100@yahoo.com or just send me an e-mail for details.

Mr. Selzer will also regress into "Decadanse" (*cough*... what's with the corny names, New York?) at Ivy South tonight, playing "New Wave, sleazy euro-trash, italo-disco, electro-funk, early house and techno and all types of old dance records with drum machines and robots singing about getting down and getting it on."

For those heading down to the Miami Winter Music Conference, our good friend Nix from Memory Systems / Form Records informs me that MemSys will be playing with Adult. Thursday, March 20th at the Polish American Club, produced by Poplife. Repeat: Adult. + Memory Systems in Miami. Definitely two bands that can peel away the skin and stick a fork in the hype, with intelligence and good old art school punk attitude. Forget everything you know about both groups to date: this is not your father's electro-pop. Watch for a brand new MemSys 7" on the way very soon.

By the way, tickets aren't on sale yet, but you can view Adult.'s Anxiety Always tour schedule here. Mark April 26th at the Bowery Ballroom. (I repeat: "Yay!") For our west coast friends, that 5/6 and 5/7 in LA and SF, respectably. It's a big, big year for Ersatz Audio, with a flurry of new releases over the next few weeks. Be sure to pick up the superb debut EP from Goudron, a.k.a. Ron Zakrin. The ride only gets darker from here on out, but that's the way we like it.

Not exactly late breaking news, but have you seen the beautiful site for Dadaphonic? This is a lovely piece of design for [mainly] the lovely music of The Cranes, designed by the lovely lads at the Cuban Council. [I'm cranking Forever in the lab right now, which is why it came to mind...]

a little late for xmas, i know, but.....bugpops: the perfect gift for...valentine�s day? by the way- nice one mike and engram. how about a cricket pop to celebrate?

Filed under "stuff that can only happen in Detroit": This past Sunday night was the Rock 'N' Bowl Showdown at the legendary Garden Bowl, the oldest active bowling alley in the United States. Sixteen Detroit area bands competed for bowling supremacy. Despite my contributions as cheerleader and a valiant effort on the lanes by Liz Copeland, Team Adult. was eliminated in the first round. Hopefully Adam and Nicola will stop weeping and be able to move on any day now. On a brighter note, Adult.'s much anticipated first proper album is completed and set for an April release, followed immediately by a four week North American tour. (Yay!)

I guess it's official now, as Brian Kritzman and I spent all day Saturday doing "pre-demolition" work on the site: Engram [Burnlab's commercial design division] has been engaged to design the management offices for the 2003 Detroit Electronic Music Festival. The project is being led by Dave Pinter, and is located in the former studio of Kevin Saunderson and later Dan Bell. Countless techno classics were recorded on this very site, including the pivotal 1989 release Big Fun.

Gnod is an interesting website. It presents a visual way of organizing relationships between music artists and their listeners. For example, this search shows what bands listeners of Fischerspooner are likely to listen to, and clicking on any one of the other artists (say, Depeche Mode) will re-arrange the links and cause new band names to 'emerge' (I couldn't help myself). Sort of reminds me of the early experiments done by Plumb Design with their visual thesaurus.

Jam Master Jay, who was tragically shot in October 2002, is being remembered by Adidas. On 1/21 (Jay�s birthday) Adidas released their Jam Master Jay Ultra Star tribute sneaker which are being sold at Adidas stores in New York, California, Tokyo and online. The shoe is based on the Originals Superstar model that Run-DMC made famous in the '80s. 100% of the proceeds will be donated to Jay's Scratch DJ Academy. Only 5,000 pairs were made, therefore purchases are being limited to one per person.

Thanks for the party list - it brings back alternating vivid and blurry memories. Anyone remember a '93 warehouse party in Oak Park?
Fantastic performace and CD release Friday night by Windsor music collective Thinkbox at the Detroit Contemporary. The highlights were Chris Mcnamara's multimedia work followed by Steve Roy's mix. They'll be playing next at Milk Cafe in Windsor on Feb 1st.

Just confirmed early this morning, I'll be in flying into Detroit Saturday for a marathon meeting about a certain music festival, and will definitely be at Untitled that evening. See all you Motown kids there.

On a related note: [pulled from the Detroit Luv discussion boards] our man Mike Servito has somehow managed to recall just about every great techno party to happen in Detroit from '92 on. I vaguely remember being at most of the early ones, but couldn't recite details like Mike does to save my life. This is a document of historical significance for certain. Apologies for the nostalgia to our non-Detroit readership. You may want to memorize this info and use it to impress people at parties in Berlin or somewhere...

92 boo! at the bankle
92 cindy's cat at the bankle
93 project x weekend (industry/1217 griswold/1515 broadway)
93 amphoteric in hamtramck (jeff mills bangin!!!/1st bust in detroit)
93 oksid (new center area)
93 skylab parties at the bankle
93 ruba at the bankle (complete with skate videos and ramps in the basement)
93 hard +8 party at the bankle (boomer/ jetstream/ mr. hawtin)
93 bent fabric parties (eastern market)
93 hardest +8 party at roma hall detroit (rich/ john/ boomer)
93 juice at 1315 broadway� (the best party ever!)
94 fresh at hastings (carl craig/poorboy party!)
94 heaven & hell at 1315 broadway
94 spastik at the packard
94 lost at 1217 griswold
95 berlin -� i� was somewhere in the warehouse district? rockin my wjlb wizard tee!!!!� (mills/hood/huck/jeffrey o/bmg)
95 solo at hastings (todd sines live!/claude/dwynn)
95 switch at hastings ( a place called bliss/himadre/khan/acid pimp/bmg)
95 safari at hastings (jajo /eric haupt)
95 jak is bak ("the bomb!"� we froze our asses off!)
96 minimal (dan bell/robert hood)
97 syst3m anniversary at st. andrews� (everyone!!!!)
98 syst3m electro party at st. andrews� (i-f /soul oddity/ectomorph)
98 weird science (fuckin locals! gabe john plaslaiko kemp geiger servito saco ken hinchman guerin gonzales!!!!!)
98 aqua (again...too fucked up to remember where i was and what i was on.) geiger bumpin some hip hop!!!!
99 can you dance to my beat w/ farina/carter/plaslaiko� ( way too fucked up to remember where this was.� thanks to deans trees!!!!)

Liz has been busy busy this week. Her year-end lists are up at Audio Interference.
...and coming up this weekend:

Signal > the next phase
DJ fun with Liz Copeland and Clark Warner
Friday, January 24th at Buddha Lounge, 21633 Eight Mile Rd., Detroit
Doors at 9pm / $5 / 21+

Weekly Album Spotlight
Sunday nights/Monday mornings at 1 a.m.
January 27th: Richie Hawtin & Sven V�th: The Sound of the Third Season
Listen to arguably the nation's best public radio station at WDET Online.

(b.t.w., thanks for the flury of great posts Chad! You rock.)

speaking of rocket-like skyscrapers,gaudi, and barcelona, check out in-progress photos of jean nouvel�s torre agbar...the reknowned french architect has gotten some (well deserved?) flack about it�s shape (one spanish article was titled "nouvel y su pene gigante":"nouvel and his gigantic penis"). nouvel claims it was inspired by the as-of-yet unbuilt nave of gaudi�s sagrada familia church in barcelona, and by the shapes of monserrat, chain of serrated rock formations near the catalunian capital. one may like or dislike it�s connotations, but the building further states nouvel�s vision of progressive,bold,varied architecture, exemplified in his institute du monde arabe in paris, his music and conference center in luzern, and le monolithe in morat

Dead Spaniard to build on WTC site?

From the NY Times:

NEW YORK (AP) -- Decades before the World Trade Center was conceived, a revolutionary architect drew plans for a rocket-like skyscraper to be built on that very site. Now, a movement is growing to include his ideas in the redevelopment. Antoni Gaudi, whose architecture changed the face of Barcelona, Spain, in the early 1900s, sketched a design in 1908 for a New York hotel that was never built. It is not known why Gaudi's plans were never realized. The drawing called for a cluster of steel and concrete parabolic towers at varying heights surrounding a central tower that would stand 1,048 feet tall, according to Paul Laffoley, the Boston architect leading the effort to give the concept a second chance.

``It's like resurrecting something that should have existed in the past,'' Laffoley said.

He intends to enter the design in the international memorial competition that begins this spring. The agency in charge of rebuilding the site says a plan for the memorial will be chosen by Sept. 11 of this year, the second anniversary of the attacks that killed nearly 2,800 people. Inside the tip of the main tower would be a sphere of empty space and then a 412-foot cavern where each victim would be commemorated. Gaudi had wanted to fill that space with slots for each U.S. president, leaving enough room to last until the year 3000.

Art historians, architects and Gaudi enthusiasts are behind the effort to push the plans for inclusion in the master redevelopment scheme. Barcelona artist Marc Mascort i Boix will discuss the idea of reviving the sketches during a panel Thursday in New York. Laffoley insists that Gaudi's design would cut through the political and territorial wrangling involved in rebuilding the site by drawing on its storied past.

``It's 77 years since Gaudi died -- a lot of the other proposals are literal ego trips, but here is a way that everyone can be involved in a historical project from around the world,'' Laffoley said.

Found in the ARCHINECT discussion forums:
Fabulous furniture and industrial design portfolio of Olivier Blaser. Great navigation and great work.

Our friend Ian Szydlowski has launched the prototype version of Kidnapped Society, a superb new underground culture e-zine rich with editorial and media content, covering politics to music. This is an immediate Burnlab bookmark. Of particular note is an exclusive archived DJ set from Gigolo Records artist Traxx. (Ian is also the designer and webmaster of Dinkyland.)

in a weird follow-up to supposedly unrelated lab_reports from december 11(one mentioning new hip hop and one the death of stereolab�s mary hansen) check out what may be the last recording of mary (along with bandmate laetitia sadier) on the new album from hip hop artist common: electric circus, including allstar production and guests (q-tip,jay dee, ?uestlove,erykah badu, prince,etc)..........while researching the above info i came across the latest in the red hot series: red hot + riot:the music of fela kuti which pays tribute to the originator of afrobeat (a combination of funk and traditional african music) and political visionary in nigeria in the 70�s and 80�s, who died in �97 of aids.

Much thanks, Dave. It's going to be an intense four months for all involved, but people can look forward to what will surely be a world class festival - far beyond previous years in terms of both scope and quality, if all goes as planned. Plus, I think we're all excited to have Carl back.

Here's your official word here and here, Mr. Doyle.

[UPDATE]: Okay, no official word in the media yet, but I'll just say we are very happy and that booking tickets to Detroit for memorial weekend is not at all a bad idea.

DEMF::. . :: ... .
Watch the local Detroit news this morning for details.
Update right here this afternoon.
transmission out:::..:.:: ::. . .

Thanks for the good cheer gents. Yes, now 31 and I missed my personal deadline for getting a tattoo. Not sure if I'm off the hook or not...

For those following our design geek version of reality TV, the ComputerLove.net Survivor contest is down to five participants, with another to drop soon. No roses here, but all in good fun.

NYC fans of funked-up dark electro and minimal techno have two must stops this Saturday: Memory Systems' Nix Perry is mixing video live at Red and Black in Williamsburg and Magda battles Todd Sines on the turntables at Chinatown afterhours institution 59 Canal.

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag herr Doyle. Now that the whirlwind has died down, I�ll be sure to start working on tattoo ideas. I�m pretty confident I can come up with something just slightly more fabulous than this:



On to other fashion business: For San Francisco denizens, be sure to check out the reception for CCAC�s new show �Dress As" this Saturday evening from 5-7. �Dress As� is a highly interpretive fashion exhibit made up of original pieces of conceptually based clothing, accessories, and objects that relate to the body and getting dressed created by the students of "Conceptual Design," a class at California College of Arts and Crafts.

just returning from an amazing three weeks of beaches,volcanoes,jungle,monkeys,more beaches, and more monkeys in costa rica, where i had a chance to clear up the doubt mike had as to the "chicas" behind binah (november 27th post), which turned out to be chiefly one chico, marco kelso (kl3r), who showed me the beaches of the pacific coast while staying in a house straight out of miami vice....check out his work at his day job doing promotional postcards with mae, or his work included in "latino", a recently released compilation of latin american graphic design, edited by the excellent die gestalten, and put costa rica in the travel plans