Happy Halloween!

(Matt wearing "Aw Shoot" tie by Cyberoptix)

Communique Opening Party

This Wednesday will be the grand opening of COMMUNIQUE, a brand new gallery and performance space on Michigan Avenue in Detroit. Co-operated by Detronik and Quiet Down Press, the space will focus on new media and experimental digital arts.

For the grand opening, they have put together a 12 hour Halloween party (7PM-7AM) with a broad range of DJs and live performances.



Wednesday October 31st 2007, 7PM-7AM
COMMUNIQUE
2015 Michigan Ave., Detroit
Tickets available at Slow's BBQ 2138 Michigan Ave, Detroit
Pre-sale $10 / $15 at the door / $35 without a costume

Beverages provided by Black Lotus Brewing Co, Clawson MI
Hourdevours 7PM-Midnight
Complimentary bagels & coffee at 6:30AM

Set times TBA (but Dethlab will be playing just before Goudron around 10PM probably.)

More info at Quiet Down Press

Control

Control: amazing.
See it.

Ghostly + DFA Halloween Bash

If there's one Halloween party to go to in New York this year, it's the Ghostly + DFA Halloween Bash this Wednesday at Studio B.



Two of our favorite labels get together for the first time to put some mid-week party in your life!

Red Sox Sweep World Series

Breaking: Red Sox Sweep World Series

It wasn't the Tigers or the Yankees, but I'm always happy to see any American League team win the series - or at least on of the original 16.

Farewell Servito

Just about all of Detroit came out for Mike Servito's going away party at Northern Lights Lounge last night. It was a very impressive mid-week turnout for a city that's been awfully sleepy the past year or so and a clear sign of how much Mike is loved and will be missed.

There's one more chance to catch Swervo before he ships off to NYC next week: at the always excellent Interdimensional Transmissions Annual Samhain Party this Saturday at the Bohemian National Home.




Mike will be playing along with Carlos Souffront, Patrick Russell and BMG until the wee hours. Decor by Infinite Dimensions (with some help from Team Burnlab.)

Oral Fixation: Burnlab 3AM Hash

For this edition of our regularly irregular food column, we'd like to present Burnlab's signature 3AM hash recipe. Take Burnlab Hash with two Advil and two multi-vitamins to cure your ills... and it's vegetarian to boot!

After being out much too late on a school night, you're starving and need some good solid food before going to bed. Food really helps with the hangover. Don't be lazy and go to White Castle. Cook. You'll thank yourself in the morning.

First off, boil up some red skin fingerling potatoes (or whatever potatoes you have handy.) Chop them up and put them in a skillet with some butter, one tablespoon of chopped artichoke hearts, two tablespoons of aoli, plus some gorgonzola cheese, fresh green onions and rosemary from the garden. Simmer for about five minutes, turning regularly.

Next, poach two eggs in boiling water with balsamic vinegar. Lay the poached eggs over the hash on a plate and top with fresh crushed white pepper and garlic infused hot sauce. (A mimosa is highly recommended with this dish... improvisations such as rum and Orangina will do in a pinch, but we always suggest a high quality vodka and fresh squeezed orange juice.)

If this doesn't put you to rest with sweet dreams and a happy tummy, you're either too wasted to appreciate it or... too wasted to appreciate it. You'll tank us in the morning though.

Empire

Woah...

Doing it Right

Designing responsibly is a necessity. We need to do it and we should want to do it - and if we're really good designers, we do it by instinct. (Remember Gestalt from Design Theory 221?) Unfortunately too much eco design spends a lot of time trying to look eco: be it awkwardly styled alternative fuel cars, cliched use of chip-board textures and Pantone 361, or whiffs of new aginess that seems to be more about self-congratulation than actual solutions. These cliches turn a lot of people off and will cause a backlash simply by their aesthetics.

There are a whole lot of people out there doing responsible design right though, and we like to point them out here whenever we stumble across them. Here are three old favorites:

Tesla Motors builds a purely electric car that gets from 0-60mph in less than four seconds, and looks fantastic doing it.

Good Magazine tackles big issues and presents them in a way that isn't all angsty, hippified or doom-and-gloom. The design is sharp and inviting. The writing is smart and friendly. It makes you think, and makes you feel good about it.

Morphosis (as mentioned last week) has designed some of the largest and most innovative sustainable buildings in the country, while not compromising their brash industrial aesthetic one bit. Thom Mayne seems to take joy in this perceived contradiction. Me too.

Bacon

Flay on bacon. (For Alex and Rob and Bethany.)

"The slowest car we've ever built"

Audi's beautiful new R8 advert.

"We wanted to make a film which made the process of constructing an R8 as beautiful as the car itself," explains Richard McGrann [of BBH.] The effect captures the workers' movement through time -- each frame measures a point in time compressed into one shot. Filming took place over eight days in Germany, with each frame requiring a minimum of 20 different shots and four layers to achieve the unique visual effect.

Related: R8 on the Nurburgring

[via GermanCarBlog]

Sexual Selection & Creativity

David Byrne on contemporary art and the new ICA Boston.
Pretty spot on.

[via Archinect]

Douglas McCarthy interview

Great video interview with Douglas McCarthy on everything from new Nitzer Ebb to the state of the music industry. [Thanks Dennis Donohue!]

Repost, but also see Fixmer/McCarthy performing Join in the Chant earlier this year in London. Amazing.

Don and Sherri video

The video for Matthew Dear's latest single Don and Sherri was relased today. Co-directed by Judy Wellfare and Jeremy Hollister, we are told that the video layers were not superimposed in post, but created with multiple projection surfaces.

I feel a little dizzy now.

Moz

Morrissey is tonight at the Royal Oak Music Theater. We're beyond giddy.

Also, Bethany and I figured out our halloween costume last night. The only problem is that people may not know we're in costume.

U.S. Army Orders $8.8M Worth of iRobots

That's a lot of Roombas.

A Few Creative Men

"You can't hanlde a bigger logo."

Cyberoptix on Computerlove... and The Stein Man

Cyberoptix Tie Lab feature on Computerluv.
Clicky for details and brand new designs and photos.

Forever's gonna start tonight...
Speaking of Cyberoptix Tie Lab, Bethany just filled a huge order for Jim Steinman - which we're still trying to wrap our heads around. Wowzers.

Steinman is, of course, one of the most prolific songwriters/producers ever, penning massive hits for Meatloaf and Bonnie Tyler. He aslo produced several songs for the Sisters of Mercy's seminal LP Floodland.

Two of my favorite Jim Steinman works below:

The Most Beneficial Technology

Bruce Sterling on "the most beneficial technology": freedom of information.

2nd Quote of the Day

"At a time in which the media give the public everything it wants and desires, maybe art should adopt a much more aggressive attitude towards the public. I myself am very much inclined to take this position."
-Thom Mayne