Xmas from Hell

For your listening pleasure, the esteemed DJ Hell provides a fantastic 3-hour live set for your ho-ho-holiday. Simply click here (Real Player required). Thanks as always to Christoph for the scoop.

Build your own barcode on-line

People are wondering about a commercial that's being played in theaters before The Return of the King movie for a too-good-to-be-true robot called the NS-5, and their website, iRobotNow.com. A quick check of the WHOIS registry reveals that the site is registered to Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. It's probably just a stealth marketing campaign for I, Robot, Fox's new movie based on the Isaac Asimov novel that is due out next year (the references to the Three Laws are a dead giveaway). Thanks to Gizmodo for the scoop.

Now research robot reportage with the click of a button. I finally managed to get the site's search feature re-indexed and working properly.

Feeling a little ho, ho, ho, hum? Get your glitch on tonight by stopping by the Hemlock Tavern to see Programmer extraordinaire Kit Clayton as he drops digital dub science, followed up by SF's own Gold Chains rocking the mic. Get more info here.

shit.

Election results

Mayor
Gavin Newsom 118,651 52.57%
Matt Gonzalez 107,030 47.43%



You're a Post-Punk. You know 70s punk was cool, but it was mostly just a stepping stone for the greater intellectualism of what would come after. The 80s were amazing. You quite possibly have huge hair, and may wear lots of black. Snare drums need reverb. Lots and lots of reverb.

You Know Yer Indie. Let's Sub-Categorize.
brought to you by Quizilla (Thanks to Mr. Goodman)

How Indie are you?

Just launched! Bush in 30 Seconds, a political TV ad contest to help find the most creative, clear and memorable ideas for ads that tell the truth about George Bush's policies. You don't have to be trained in the art of filmaking to participate, you just need to be ready, willing, and able to turn your clever ideas into a real 30 second ad.

And speaking of politics, if you're in San Francisco, don't forget to get out there and vote tomorrow, Tuesday, December 9th! Go Matt!

Cybrid, 2002. Photo by Bitboy

Head out this Friday to the new and improved Up & Down club and groove to Electro, Ghetto-tech, minimal techno, tech-house as Tokyo Electric goes head to head with Audio (a.k.a Cybrid). It's NOT to be missed.

Friday, Dec 5th - Tokyo Electric vs. Audio
10pm to 2am
21+ w/ID - $8
Up & Down Club
1151 Folsom (between 7th & 8th)

With:
Julian Destrukt (Tokyo Electric)
Caltrop (The Clap, E.D.M)
Seraphim (Sister SF, Bad Kitty)
Audioel (Cybrid, Zero)
Dave Aju (Context, Circus Company)
Bloom (Freerange SF)

Good grief, is the holiday weekend really over? I hope yours was as good as mine, I spent low-key style, in the Northern California countryside with friends and family. I also had a chance to catch up on some long overdue reading. Already highly suspicious of our fairly-elected leader – oh, assuming I lost most of you there I meant our President in a tongue-in-cheek way – anyhow, I had the privilege of being further enlightened by Al Franken’s genius piece of political satire, Lies And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them. It was provocative and funny but mostly a well-researched, infuriatingly frustrating look at Bush, Bush’s cabinet and the lying reporters who knowingly distort the truth before the American public. I consider it a must-read for anyone who claims to care about this country, regardless of their political affiliations – as one Amazon reviewer put it, “Read it and enjoy being an American again”.

On the car trip home, I also started listening to Michael Moore’s Dude, Where’s My Country?, which is beginning to paint even a darker, more sinister picture of the current American political landscape. And finally, I was able to crack two great design books, Problem Solved!, a designer’s look at contemporary advertising, and The Art of Looking Sideways (pictured above), a fantastic book (and value at under $30) from Phaidon Press that, as on the Amazon website states, is an absolutely extraordinary and inexhaustible "guide to visual awareness," a virtually indescribable concoction of anecdotes, quotes, images, and bizarre facts that offers a wonderfully twisted vision of the chaos of modern life. Worth checking out.

Thankful for German Techno



Just a little over a month after Ellen Allein graced us with her amazing set at Mezzanine, you've got another chance to experience some of the most extraordinary, sophisticated in electronic music available today right here in our very own San Francisco. All you have to do is get over to Club Six tonight and see Michael Mayer from Cologne-based label Kompakt. Opening for Michael are our very own Broker/Dealer and their unique brand of electronic syncopations.

Not convinced? Check out this excellent SF Weekly article, and Mayer's refreshingly genuine comment, "it's serious, not ironic," affirms Mayer. "We still stand behind our history. We don't think it's wrong if we used to listen to Pet Shop Boys. We think it's great music, so there's no reason to transform it to the club universe in an ironic way." After two-plus years of tired clich� and oh-so-clever irony on the dance floor, Mayer's genuine love of the genre and masterful skills could make this the year's premiere San Francisco nightclub performance.

Regretably, I'm out of town for the holiday weekend, so I'm relying on you, faithful robots, to get out there and send a message that San Francisco is ready to rock, Kompakt style. Tickets are available at Blasthaus, and thanks as always to Christoph for the tip.


Also, don't forget the weird and wonderful TAMALA 2010 opens this weekend at the Castro Theater and is not to be missed!

Get a life, people. I mean, really!

Playlistism, Aubrey explained, is discrimination based not on race, sex or religion, but on someone's terrible taste in music, as revealed by their iTunes music library.

...Sounds entirely reasonable to me.

Weekend plans?

Friday get down to the sounds of Hollertronix at Club Six where you'll hear them deftly combine dirty South hip hop beats, electro, and '80s tunes all into one mix.

Saturday, head over to see Mute/Kompakt recording artist T. Raumschmiere, plus Ghost Orchids, Tussle (scroll down for details). Or if you're looking for something more sedate, but equally heavy join Dave Eggers and Ben Ehrenreich join Vollmann at a book release party and reading for their abridged version of William T. Vollmann's 7-volume, 3298-page opus, Rising Up and Rising Down at Cellspace on Bryant St.

Our President's State of the Union address, courtesy of Warp records. Thanks to Mr D. for the link.

The San Francisco Sushi Finder.

Ghost Orchids, New Year's Eve 2002 - Photo by Bitboy

Head out to San Francisco's Bottom of the Hill this Saturday, 11/22 and catch brilliant Berlin punk-glam-techno by Mr. Kittin. That would be none other than Mute/Kompakt recording artist T. Raumschmiere, plus Ghost Orchids, Tussle and special guest DJ Chris Orr. This is an incredible bill, and probably the last chance to catch Ghost Orchids until next year. More information can be found here. Only $12 bucks, doors open at 8pm. Thanks to Christoph for the tip.

Doing grown up things this weekend. House hunting, realtors, mortgages. Ugh.

Carnegie Mellon University has put together a Robot Hall of Fame, inducting two real and two fictional robots as the first honorees: NASA's Sojourner robot, GM's Unimate assembly line robotic arm, R2-D2, and the HAL 9000 from Stanley Kubrick's 2001. Thanks to Gizmodo and Slashdot for the info.

For those of you who missed Friday evening with Ellen Allien and Ritchie Hawtin, you missed one of the best shows in months. But don't worry, you can catch a couple of glimpses of the lovely and talented Ms. Allien here. Just be warned, there's a small sound loop that plays in the background, so if you're goofing off at work you may want to turn your speakers down.

Don't forget, Ellen Allien tonight at Mezzanine. If you're in LA, she'll be at The Echo on Saturday.

Pictures and detailed commentary on the new Prada store in Tokyo, from ARCH'IT.

Well, I just got word that the aforementioned Re-Volt and The Clap shows at Amnesia were canceled due to some licensing issues, so apologies to any Robots who ventured out to find out the event was canceled.

However, I do have some exciting news. Mark your calendars for November 20th, when San Francisco will play host to a special Ghostly International event. More details to come. Stay tuned.

Party like a rock star

Slash and Deborah Harry, photo by BitBoy

Several robots reported an unusual sighting Thursday night - a massive white stretch limo crammed with 12 legends of rock on a barbaric rampage through the bars, clubs and streets of San Francisco. Indeed, this hell on wheels was none other than a twisted celebration of Axl Rose's birthday, otherwise known as Paradise City Tour - Part Mutha F*ckin' II. Celebrities who came out to wish the wiry metal star a happy birthday include Slash, Deborah Harry, Madonna, Joan Jett, Tina Turner, Duff McKagen, Nikki Sixx, Jam Master J, Pat Benetar, Pink, Justin Timberlake and more. After meeting up with the tour at SF's newest trendy watering hole, Fluid, I managed to finagle my way onto the limo and partake in the debauchery, as well as snap some great pictures, which I will post more of soon.

And, if you’re looking to party like a rock star yourself, our friends at Re-Volt and The Clap have an evening of techno and electro that will rock your body. Just head over to the newly painted Amnesia tonight and Sunday night and tell them BitBoy sent ya. Cover is a Measly $3 on Saturday, and FREE on Sunday! Also, check out Smoking Gun design & code. They're the the mad geniuses behind all the great flyer artwork for Re-Volt, The Clap, Tokyo Electric and more. Nice work!


Also, Sacramento area robots. Don't forget tonight, and every first Saturday of the month is Vicious at Old Ironsides. Tonight, you can partake in their ghoulish Disco Bloodbath and get reduced admission of just $1 when you show up in your favorite sick and twisted costume. Check out clublipstick.net for more information.

Robot Report from the Future

Ah, the not-so-good ‘ol days. Remember when you actually had separate computers at work and at home? Or when “mobility” was defined by carrying around a “laptop” which in some instances included a power supply, keyboard and 17” flat panel screen? No wonder bad backs were so commonplace in the first half of the 21st century.

Of course, that all changed when Antelope Modular Computing launched their Computing Core halcyon days of late 2002. Despite all the haters who said it'd never come out, the Antelope MCC arrived on the scene and revolutionized the entire computing industry. For those of you who have a hard time remembering the days of yore, the MCC was about the size of a deck of cards and was a full fledged 1GHz computer with 256MB of RAM and a 10 or 15GB hard drive (substantial horsepower for its time) that ran a full version of Windows XP (before the mass exodus to Linux and Unix based operating systems, like Mac OS X, windows was the dominant OS in the marketplace). The revolutionary idea sparked by the MMC was that users would simply pop the MMC into a wide variety of docking stations with a screen and keyboard if you want to use it like a desktop, or into a smaller PDA-type shell if you need something more portable. The rest, is of course, history.

More about the Antelope Modular Computing MMC can be found here or here.

A pumpkin carving robot? You bet. From BoingBoing.

Electrical engineers Sigurd Wagner and Stephanie Lacour at Princeton University have developed a kind of connector incorporating broad metal strips that, unlike wires, can stretch up to twice their length and still conduct electricity. They think it will be ideal for use in robot skin. More here.

For your listening pleasure, DJ Hell's Tokyo set (Real Audio required). As always, thanks to Christoph for the link.

Satellite photography of the raging Southern California fires here.

Kung-fu robots and a new Siouxsie site, from Mr. D.

Don't forget to buy your tickets for Richie Hawtin and Ellen Allien at Mezzanine SF on November 7th. You can buy tickets at Blasthaus via Paypal here.

Casey and Toula, April 2003. Photo by Bitboy

Nobody can ever accuse Fischerspooner of not having a good sense of humor. The performance art troupe has finally unveiled news about the long-awaited follow up to their 3 year old debut album #1 -- providing an easy target to electro-bashing critics, here is just one of many news snippets found about their upcoming release, titled "#2":

Fischerspooner #2 on the Way
by Bernardo Rondeau

New York DJ Larry Tee may have proclaimed the belated demise of Electroclash this summer by re-titling the genre's namesake showcase the "Electronic Outsider Music" Festival, and even shutting down the movement's dance party night Berliniamsburg . Numanoids fear not, for the scene's torchbeares Fischerspooner show no signs of shelving their synths and eyeliner anytime soon. Word has it that Casey Spooner and Warren Fischer have finished recording much of the follow-up to last year's dually reviled/revered #1 and will soon unleash another wave of Kabuki-clad, Eurowave transgression on the world.

Song titles such as "SS Stone," "Los Angeles," "Reverb," "Squirm" and "Downup" may suggest business as usual but the men machine have been speaking of the unfinished LP as a "digital AOR Seventies record" and even name-dropping the bloated carcass that reigned over that decade: Pink Floyd . While art-students and academics may fear the second coming of the double-album that dare not speak its name ( The Wall ), Fischerspooner would never turn their feather-and-sequin shoulders to the gallery owners that first nestled them like bejeweled babes in a silken cradle.

Fischerspooner are talking of a collaboration with raven-haired critic, novelist and cinemaniac Susan Sontag on the forthcoming disc. And if you can't tell your Sontag from your Maytag, chances are the prospect of a Girls Gone Wild -ish video for first-single, "Never Young," will be the clincher. Regardless, with a sudden void for aggressively bad-taste left after the demise of Siegfried and Roy , there may be hope still for future generations of spectacle-seekers. Fischerspooner, the 21st Century--or at least an enormous laser-lit, dry-ice stage on the Vegas strip--is all yours.

Here's another article, at Rolling Stone.

The charming and ever robo-friendly, Cat is waking up from a long nap and has decided to come out and play this weekend. She's going to be spinning her latest electro beats Saturday night at the Arrow in San Francisco. Should be a fun time for all.

Nano velcro. Cool.

Put away your fancy laptops and synthesizers, that's so 2003 retro 80's. Instead, bust out your gameboy. There's an entire community who are not only composing 8-bit tunes using the chipset embedded in Nintendo's pocket-sized player, they're even performing live with them - by this robot's standards, there's nothing more hardcore then performing live with a gameboy or two. Check out some of the links here or here. Of special interest is the 8bitpeoples.com site, where they have downloadable MP3s of 2 brilliant Depeche Mode megamixes, all composed on, you guessed it. Rock on, Mario. Thanks to Robot Peter for the links.

Attn: Robots. Looking for cool nightlife options in Vancouver, B.C., any suggestions? E-mail me.

Apple releases iTunes for Windows.

Deutsche Amerikanische Freundschaft is in full effect here at iRobotnik thanks to Christoph. Whenever he sends a music tip I always check it out right away cause it's sure to be good - his latest recomendation is no exception. Germany's Generation Aldi (on Dekathlon) gets the BitBoy bleep of approval for their synsonic-teutonic sounds. Check out the MP3s on their site.

If you're in the mood for something a little more mixed up, check out the links on fellow robot Spooner's site blentwell.com, which is 'devoted to the elimination of wack compilations through the administration of blend education'. Good stuff.

Sometimes owning an Apple gives you that great feeling of reaching into the pocket of a jacket you haven't worn all season and finding a fistful of cash. Here's just one example - this article explains how Apple is adding support for DVD+R and DVD+RW into the Macintosh operating system with Panther, the new version of Mac OS X that ships next week. Normally support for a new type of format would mean having to buy a new drive, but I just checked my new G5's System Profiler to find that Apple shipped the G5 with a Sony DW-U10A internal drive, which just happens to be the FIRST combination drive which supports DVD+RW, DVD+R, DVD-RW and DVD-R formats. So voila! Instant upgrade. Yet another reason to love Apple.

Okay, NikeGround is indeed an elaborate (very elaborate) hoax pulled off by media performance group 0100101110101101.ORG .

YARTHN
(yet another reason to hate Nike)
This is not a joke. Nikeground.com describes how one of Vienna’s best known squares, Karlsplatz will now be renamed Nikeplatz and will prominently bear the Nike swoosh logo. Thanks to Mike for spotting this disturbing trend.

Electro-raunch diva Peaches will be performing live 10.24 at Bimbo's in SF. More information as it becomes available.

Photo by Bitboy, May 2003

Faithful Robots: Our favorite DJ and Turbo Records poster-boy Tiga has bestowed the gift of free streaming music. Partake in his generosity here or here (RealAudio Required):

Tracklisting:

Tiga Mix
1. Headman/Manhead, Love & Music Faberge Records
2. Tom Tom Club, Wordy Rappinghood Sire
3. Star You Star Me, Antidis (Freestyle Man Thirsty Monk Remix) Mood Music
4. Groof, Miami Is Nice White Leather Acetate
5. Da Fresh, Back 4 Ya Weaked France
6. M.A.N.D.Y., Don't Stop Get Physical
7. Tiga, Hot In Herre (a cappella) Skint
8. Tiga, Hot In Herre !K7
9. The White Stripes, Seven Inch Army Bootleg - Touched By The Hands of Z
10. The Faint, Your Retro Career Melted (Ursula 1000 Remix) Astralwerks
11. The Warlocks, Shake The Dope Out (Kiki & Silversurfer remix) City Rockers
12. Joakim, Come Into My Kitchen (Basement Dub) Versatile
13. Miss Kittin & The Hacker, The Beach Mental Groove
14. Drama Society, Teorema Turbo recordings
15. Groof, Azid Life White Leather Records
16. Goldfrapp, Strict Machine (Ewan Pearson Strippedmachine) Mute
17. Tiga, Burning Down Turbo Recordings

Oh, and for you poor, poor dears who are having trouble finding the Fitness' album, Call Me for Together, never fear, you can find it here.

If you happen to find yourself in the fine capital city of Sacramento, word in the burg is that the deckest of deck choices for electro-entertainment is none other than club Vicious, which happens the first Saturday of the month (thanks to Shaun for the tip). Across the pond, if you happen to be lucky enough to be in Barcelona, consider yourself even more lucky if you can make it by Club Access All Areas to partake in wicked beats being thrown down by the femme-fatales also known as Robots in Disguise.

Closer to home, Friday night Club Dirrty at the new Paradise Lounge will be playing host to a live performance by The Lovemakers and The Vue. Saturday marks the beginning of SF Open Studios where you can wander the myriad galleries, studios, and and garages of local artists wanting to showcase their work for the public, and consume more free cheap wine and cubed cheese than you can shake a cocktail toothpick at. More info can be found here. Finally, I don’t know too much about this event on Sunday, but with a name like 'Realistic 1983' can it really be bad? Head over to Milk in the Haight and find out for yourself. You’ll enjoy the sounds of DJs Peanut Butter Wolf and Sweet Steve as they pay respect to 20 years of DJ culture with a night of vintage beats.

Fun animations at the much-hyped new Napster site.

Holy wayback machine! Don't adjust your sets, if you saw a weird version of iRobtnik today it's because somehow Blogger f*cked up and published an ancient version of my design template. I managed to manually wrangle it back to normal, but I still don't know how it happened.

In spite of the unbelievable reality that Conan the Barbarian is now Calih-fornyuh’s new Governor-elect, my day turned out great thanks to Sam Valenti and the fine folks over at Ghostly International. They sent me a cool schwag pack full of CDs and stickers, including the latest not-yet-released album from 24 year old electro-funk prodigy Matthew Dear called “Leave Luck to Heaven” (bonus props to anyone who can tell me what the title is in reference to). Anyhow, if you see any of these characters around town:

You can bet that BitBoy was responsible for it!

Also, as previously mentioned, expect big things from Seattle’s “The Fitness”. I’m trying to pull some strings to get a San Francisco show booked. Stay tuned for details.

Oops!

The most ghetto fabulous WiFi HiFi yet: an old school boom box called the Bass-Station that's been refitted with 802.11b, a 120GB hard drive, and an MP3 decoder, and that is controlled using a web browser. Besides being able to play MP3s, it can also stream audio to other devices in its local area network, double as a file-server for file-sharing. Sure to come in handy for our next breakdancing battle. Thanks to Damon and Gizmodo for the fressshhh link.

Ich liebe Berlin!
San Francisco is being invaded by Berliners (and we're so happy!). Ellen Alien will be in San Francisco at Mezzanine, November 7th along with T. Raumschmeire to promote her album, Berlinette, and touring Ritchie Hawtin (a.k.a. Plastikman). You can see some limited details about the tour here. More details to come as soon as I hear more. Thanks to Nix and Mr. D for the info.

October's newest electro beats are available for your listening pleasure at Daniel Miller's Radio Eins. Thanks to Mr. D for the reminder.

Choices, choices. Your friendly neighborhood robot is having a real hard time choosing between this Friday night's options to officially endorse, so I'll just leave it up to you. Both are sure to be kick ass events, but I've got it on good authority that Tokyo Electric will be pumping out some serious non-stop robot love that is NOT to be missed. Of course, the fun doesn't stop on Friday, it just gets better with RE-VOLT and THE CLAP on Saturday and Sunday:

Friday October 3rd
TOKYO ELECTRIC $5 (9-3:00am) Paradise Lounge (in soma) 308 11th Street DJs: Teflonjacket, John Weir, Julian Destruckt, Raf One
More info.

Saturday October 4th
RE-VOLT $3-$5 depending on your mood (free before 10:30) Amnesia (in the mission) 853 Valencia DJs: KEN - Q Ki, Forest Green, Chris Burfine
More info.

Sunday October 5th Since you still haven't had enough, or maybe you haven't had any...
THE CLAP (free all night long 8-12:00pm) Amnesia (in the mission) 853 Valencia DJs: John Hoppin Actual Jakshun, Caltrop and Luck
More info.

Also, if you're craving some new tunes from The Faint, try satiating your appetite with the sounds of Seattle's The Fitness, who are currently rocking my world.

More reasons to vote Camejo on October 7th from the San Francisco Examiner, and The Contra Costa Times.

There's so much going on this Friday you'd need to clone yourself to see it all, of course there's Tactility SF's Masquerade fashion show, which will undoubtedly have dreadfully sucky music, but great fashion worth sacrificing for by SF designers such as Silver Lucy designs, RedThreds and more. Then there's Tokyo Electric at the Paradise Lounge. But the deck choice has to be Jenny and Omar at 330 Ritch with guest DJ Mira from Ladytron. Mira will spin her favorite records from Ladytron's upcoming Softcore Jukebox compilation including Wire, The Fall, Codec & Flexor and two new tracks from Ladytron.

An apt tribute to the late Robert Palmer, check out the new video from DJ Hell's upcoming album 'NY Muscle'. This link is to the original German page, and this link is to the google translated English version. Thanks to Christoph for the link.

Watch Tiga's new Hot in Herre Video.

I usually don't mix politics and robotics, but after watching last night's California gubernatorial recall election debate, I have to encourage you to get out there and vote on October 7th, and furthermore vote for the only candidate who seems to have the vision and intelligence to lead California into a new era of prosperity. That's none other than Green Party candidate Peter Camejo. Check out his website and where he stands on California's important issues.

Autumn is finally upon us and with it comes a back-to-basics attitude and a renewed devotion to bringing you, my fellow robots regular site updates and the best in electro-happenings. Not to say that my summer was uneventful, in fact it was so jam packed I hardly had time to touch my keyboard. Here's my summer in a nutshell, rather than me blather on about it check out the photographic evidence for yourself:

- Summer in Berlin (and Frankfurt) Photos | Soundtrack
- Tokyo Photos | Soundtrack
- Grand Cayman Islands Photos | Soundtrack
- Burning Man Photos | Soundtrack
- New York (Tokion Creativity Now) Photos | Soundtrack

Kicking off the fall concert series was none other than the venerable Fischerspooner at the Fillmore, which was a fun affair as to be expected. They played 2 new songs that I remember which were a promising precursor to a new album. Here are a few events you should also be aware of depending on your geographical locale:

Monday 9.29 - Check out new Minimal Monday at the Hush Hush lounge for minimal techno & electro. Cover is FREE!
Friday 10.3 - Tokyo Electric takes over the Paradise Lounge for a night of Electro, Italo Disco and New Wave.
November 28 - TAMALA 2010, A Punk Kitty in Space. Details as the date approaches!

Proof that hip-hop has reached its lowest moment.

Q: What kind of movies do Pirates prefer?
A: Ones that are rated, "Arrrrrr".

September 19th is the official Talk Like A Pirate Day. Thanks to Mike for the link.

Can you believe Communication Arts Magazine actually picked my little project to be featured in their Interactive Annual? You can see the online version here, or check the September/October 2003 issue on pages 100 & 101.

If you're heading to the Playa this week, make sure to check out our small and highly synthetic as-to-be-named camp at Burning Man. We should be located near camp boombox.

The coolest website I've seen in a long time belongs to French electropop duo M83.

Following in the footsteps of the now defunct Williamsburg electroclash mecca, Luxx, this Friday will be the last hurrah for San Francisco's Club Fake. Since I won't be there, go party like it's 1984, or 1999, or whatever the catchphrase de jour is and help Omar, Jenny, Nako and the rest of the Fakers bring the place to it's knees one last time.

Oh, and if you're wondering about the aforementioned Soviet show, word has it that they'll still be performing on 8.22, just at the new Dirty Club at the Paradise Lounge.

Play 20 Questions with an A.I. Obviously the A.I. dosen't know me very well. Here's my results:

You were thinking of a robot. (duh!)

Does it break if dropped? You said Unknown, I say Yes.
Is it a common household object? You said Yes, I say No.
Is it found in a bathroom? You said Probably, I say No.
Is it straight? You said Irrelevant, I say No.
Is it comforting? You said Yes, I say No.
Can you open it? You said Doubtful, I say Probably.
Do you know any songs about it? You said Yes, I say Doubtful.
Can you buy it at a store? You said Probably, I say No.
Do you use it in your home? You said Yes, I say No.

Uncommon Knowledge about a robot: (assumptions by the A.I.)
Do you use it at night? I say No. (what a bore!)
Would you use it in the dark? I say No.
Is it pleasurable? I say No. (ahem)
Can you make sounds with it ? I say Doubtful.
Does it come in specific sizes? I say No.
Have you seen one in real life? I say No.
Do you use it in public? I say No.
Does it make music? I say No. (we all know better!)
Does it play music? I say No.
Does it go in your mouth? I say Probably. (oh behave!)

and finally...Do you love it? I say No.

Oh, the sad state of A.I.

Sorry about the brief site outage. Everything should be back to normal now.

It's no secret that I'm a huge Depeche Mode devotee from way back, and although the synth community might dismiss my comments this a blasphemous rumor, I'm here to proclaim that the German trio Camouflage, with their superb album Sensor, has surpassed anything the mode has released since the Violator-era.

Sensor oozes with superb production and charismatic vocals. It's a well-balanced electronic work of art, beautiful and warm, yet hauntingly melancholy. It's been three weeks since I put it in the CD changer and it seems to get better everytime I listen to it. If you're looking to step off the dancefloor, and enjoy some great "listening" music, check out Sensor.

Lots of fun to be had, getting closer my fellow robots. Here's just a sampling:

Human League - 8/19
Don't you want them? If the answer is yes, you'll have to drive to The Edge in Palo Alto to see the Human League, at their only San Francisco Bay Area appearance.

Soviet - 8/22
Catch electro sensation Soviet at what I believe is their first Bay Area appearance, at Club Fake.

Burning Man - 8/25 through 9/1
The party on the playa will be Beyond Belief. Will you be there?

Fischerspooner - 9/15 and 9/16
Casey, Warren, Lizzie and the rest of the gang return to the Fillmore for the 2nd leg of their US tour. Rumor has it that they'll be performing some of the new material from their upcoming new album.

Tommie Sunshine - Bouncing off Satellites
As mentioned previously, if you've got an XM satellite radio receiver then tune in to 'On The Move' at 10:00 pm EST to hear Tommie's new radio show, Tommie Sunshine's Revolution.

Ooh-la-la.

Design your own dreamy creation using the Pixel Punks dollmaker. Thanks to Allen for the link.

Forget about the Segway. I want one of these.

So while researching tomorrow's trip to Tokyo, I stumbled across this well executed kooky, fun site that captures the energy and general wackyness of navigating the streets of Shibuya and Harajuku with its unending seas of urban trendoids, fashion boys, hyper-cute schoolgirls clad in anime-animal graphics and your garden variety uber cool tokyo kids. It's a fun detour, check it out.

And even though I won't be there, you should head over to the oft-mentioned new Paradise lounge this Friday, July 25th for the cit-tay's newest party, "The Dirty Club". DJ's Solar, Fletcher, Jenny, Omar and others are kicking it off with a bang by presenting a live show by The Vanashing, plus lots of electro-luv spun on the tables. A measly $6 gets you all this and more. Take pictures for me!

Sucking my bandwidth, as usual is the world's best online radio station. That would be none other than The C-B-S by robotdjx broadcasting live from the VIEWLEXX Tower in the Netherlands. Highly, highly recommended!

Friday night plan part deux: well, due to unfortunate, unforeseen circumstances the festivities at stimulus have been canceled, but will re-emerge bigger and better at a later date. Don't fret though, there's still a fine night of electro-love in store for SF robots at Club Fake tonight. Straight from the frozen north, Swedish sensations The Sounds will switch roles for a night, from rock 'n' roll stars to DJs and rock the spot until you drop. Be sure to check it out!

Friday night plan: Get over to the plush new Paradise lounge (11th and Folsom) tonight for stimulus, Friday 7/18 for a wild time shaking your booty to the sounds of SF's very own electro-DJ Cuemark. He'll be spinning his very own brand of electro, italo disco, ebm, and pulsing beats, plus a very special set hand selected by yours truly from the BitBoy sound archives. It's a show that's not to be missed!

Robots in search of Friday night activity should look no further than the Tokyo Electric one year anniversary party. Treat yourself to a live performance by electrofunk duo Cybrid, plus more insanity. Cover is only 5 bucks, and it's at the plush, newly remodeled Paradise Lounge on 11th and Folsom.

Check out this four+ hour 57.7MB MP3 file, it's a killer archive of Magda's and Richie Hawtin's set at PS1 in New York on 7/5, for your listening pleasure. Link courtesy of Michael Doyle.

If you can, head down to a Clean Well-Lighted Place For Books (601 Van Ness Ave.) tonight at 7pm for a free reading by Dave Eggers elebrating the paperback release of his first novel, You Shall Know Our Velocity.

Kraftwerk's new Tour De France video. Thanks to Karl Zeiss for the link.

Origami. The word is Japanese, literally meaning to fold (oru) paper (kami). Vancouver's Joseph Wu has evolved the ancient art to it's next stage and shares it with us on his well-designed website (link from Newstoday).

I'm just back from a super fun holiday in Germany, most of which was spent in Berlin. I had a great time, saw some incredible sights, met some fantastic people and had a chance to sample a little debauchery, Deutche-style. Once I sift through the photos I took, I'll post some here along with more trip details.

Check out my latest project for Sony. Just click here then click on "Interactive Demo" in the upper right corner. Thanks to Damon, Deanna, Lindsay, Awny, Andre, Josh, Kris and Gustavo for all your help! I couldn't have done it without you.

This just in: in honor of the Tour De France Centennial, robo-rock godfathers Kraftwerk have announced the release of "Tour De France 2003". The new single will feature one or more new versions of the 1983 classic which according to Kraftwerk's statements are much more than a remix. A faithful robot from Spain passed on this link to an MP3 where you can hear a preview of one of the mixes courtesy of a Spanish radio station.

Drool.

New sounds from the Hacker.

Following their run in the Top 10 most downloaded albums on the new Apple Music Store Fischerspooner have been confirmed to be part of the keynote presentation at this year's MacWorld Creative Pro Expo at the Jakob Javits Centre NYC on July 16th. More details as I get them.

Summer in Berlin
I'll be in Berlin over the fourth-of-July weekend, and I'm already overwhelmed trying to fit in as much art, architektur, kultur and musik as I can. I've never been to Berlin before, so I'm looking for suggestions. I'm already planning to spend plenty of time at the Bauhaus Museum of Design, and will probably go by the Vitra Design Museum as well. I'm also planning a tour of Daniel Liebeskind architecture. But I've got no clue about the bustling Berlin music scene. Any ideas how a traveling robot might best spend his evenings into the wee morning hours? E-mail me or use the comments link below.

The man behind the dark sunglasses, and one-man opening act on the Fischerspooner tour, DJ/producer Tommie Sunshine has left his native Chicago for the electro-epicenter of Brooklyn. Word on the street is he's going to bounce his signature beats into space and then back again this month as he starts his new new show on XM Satellite Radio - maybe a compelling reason to finally spring for one of those shiny contraptions.

Two shows to mark on your calendar, SF live electro-duo Cybrid will perfrom Live @ Punch Gallery (155 10th St.) on Saturday, June 21st, then again at CFDC Fashion Show on Saturday, July 12th. Check the Cybrid web site for more details.

If you weren't at Further Goes Electro last night, you missed a great night of music, dancing and general debauchery courtesy of DJ Unknown and John Selway (aka Memory Boy). As usual, Selway got the crowd pumped with a variety of obscure tracks and some great industrial floor pounders that elevated the temperature in the basement to what had to be at least 90-degrees. Thanks to Jenny and Omar and the Blasthaus crew for putting it all together.



In other news, if you've been putting off seeing the fantastic one-man show at theater Artaud, R. Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of the Universe, don't wait any longer! The show is in its final weeks of production. Ron Campbell does an amazing job of playing the brilliant scientist, inventor and humanist. It's an inspired piece of work that everyone should experience - well worth the price of admission! Get more information here.

If you missed Volsoc's amazing live performance, you can stream the full show here, or download it in its entirety as an 80.5MB 64kbps MP3 here.

Looking for some, er, 'live' music tonight? You can catch Larry Tee's NYC girlies of Avenue D performing their dirty, gritty, raw version of Electrosleaze. It's all happening at Robot, at San Francisco's *space550, if that's your bag. Presented by Beatbox events and NU Wave Hookers.

However, if you happen to be in NYC over the weekend, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT miss Ghostly International's Idol Tryouts release event at Pianos. You'll be able to catch some of electro's best acts including Dabyre, Kill Memory Crash, and More...(sigh, pout). Oh well, at least we have John Selway tomorrow.

As promised, here's the scoop on this Saturday night's big event.



Blasthaus and Jenny & Omar from Club Fake team up to bring you Further Goes Electro, a night with two of New York's finest electro DJs, John Selway (Memory Boy) and Fischerspooner's DJ Unknown.

If you don't know John Selway, he's been making waves globally with his unmatched knowledge and unique interpretations of electro, obscure 80's electronica, robot-disco, new-wave and Italo-disco. Combine this with an exclusive set by DJ Unknown, the official Fischerspooner DJ, and you've got a New York style electro event not to be missed! More event information can be found here.

I'm back with lots of exciting news, so let's get right to it, shall we? First off, mark your calendars next weekend (I believe it will be the 7th) for a mind-blowing evening with DJ Unknown, and superstar Ghostly International artist John Selway. More to follow as Jenny and Omar disseminate details.



Also, Depeche Mode fans should keep August 18th open as DM front man David Gahan makes his way through San Francisco with an evening at the Warfiled theater. More information can be found here, although tickets aren't on sale yet. A few interesting albums to note, Robots in search of fresh beats should check out the first release on Daniel Miller’s Credible Sexy Units label, Vic Twenty - a charming and slightly retro sounding EP of classic electro sounds, or as their press release states, "Vic Twenty draw us into a pastoral electronic world where the future has not yet turned to shit". Also, make sure to give a listen to Goldfrapp's new album Black Cherry. Fantastic hooks and great production value. And if you can find it, make sure to pick up Vive La Fete, Nuit Blanche for their unique brand of Belgian robo-love (thanks to Orac UK and Charles for the tips).



Last, in art news, if you have a chance, make sure to head over to the Castro Theater to catch one if not all of the CREMASTER films by all-American art star Matthew Barney (CREMASTER refers to the muscle that raises and lowers the male reproductive system). The films are a beautiful and complex bounty of images that are densely layered and cleverly interconnected - if you're looking for strong narrative, look elsewhere, but if you're hungry for a visual treat you'll leave feeling satisfied. More info can be found here.

Tomorrow night enjoy a rare live webcast of unreleased material and never to be released material by Volsoc. It's live from midnight to 3 a.m. here.

I’m still here, just on a short hiatus. Regularly scheduled updates will resume shortly. Until then, check out the beautiful new This is a Magazine Issue 9: The Revolver Issue. Oh so worthy.