In the back of Carlos Owens' southern Alaska yard, an 18-foot-tall steel robot is taking shape in the dim light of the winter afternoons.

Brilliant! The Fox Blocker, get one for everyone on your holiday shopping list! [Thanks, Doyle]

These dudes shred. [thanks, Doyle]

Shopping for the Daft Punk fan on your list, but mystified about what to get them since the beloved French robots seem to be in hiatus not producing new records these days? Never fear, there’s always the Interstella 5555 Daft Punk action figure sets – collect ‘em all! [thanks, TeflonJacket]

The kooky Anti-Drum Machine guy was out again all day on Sunday in front of Amoeba records on Sunset in LA. He's the leader of the "Society for the Rehumanization of American Music". He was a nice enough guy, he even let me take his picture with my phone (which baffled him), even after showing him my bagful of synthetic delights. If you've got something to say about his anti-rhythm box position, he invites you to contact him directly at (323) 732-6160. He has no e-mail.

Blip-pop hits the mainstream. Today, NPR's "The World" featured Poland's Gameboyzz Orchestra Project. As they reported, "Think of it as Donkey Kong meets Norman Cook...or maybe Tetris takes on Kraftwerk". You can listen to the story here.

Robot Matchmaking Service?
The Audioscrobbler plugin sits quitely as you listen to iTunes, builds a profile of your musical tastes and sends it to the Audioscrobbler server, which updates your profile. Your profile page shows listening statistics, and the system automatically matches you to others with similar music tastes. [thanks, Josh]

L.A. Robots, don't miss this Saturday's performance by Swayzak with XLR8R Artist of the Year, Matthew Dear at the swanky Avalon Hollywood. Look under "Club Nights" on their site for details.

Wow. This is brilliant. Too bad it's not for real. Sigh. [Thanks, Doyle]

The question is, how will these kids rebel? By shopping at the Gap and wearing Dockers?

Ringo spins and John breakdances in DJ Danger Mouse's brilliant follow up the the Grey Album, the Grey Video. [courtesy Waxy.org]

Hey electrobots, your quiet week can all come to a racous end by heading down to the LBC for Training Bra. Join the electroboobie gals and get your raunch on to LA's most perverted band, Punk Bunny. I will not be attending, but don't let that stop you from fluffing up your cottontails and getting busy on the dancefloor.

Hope all you Robots had a thrilling turkey day weekend. To start your gears turning with regard to holiday gadgets, our friends at Pocket Lint have posted a review of the ingenious I.TECH virtual keyboard - such a cool idea, and it seems to actually work.

You've seen the Sandwich, now you can own the trucker hat.

There are also a number of celebrities who have mysteriously revealed their presence through the now famous breaded ooey-gooey medium:
Howard Stern
Wesley Snipes
Ray Charles

If you're bored this Thanksgiving weekend, you should try rasterbating. Really! It's super cool - just upload your photograph to the Rasterbator and they send it back to you as a series of PDF documents that, when pieced together, are a huge version of your image. [thanks Apartment Therapy]

I ran into Ryan from Broker/Dealer at Ellen Allien Saturday night. He was there to promote his upcoming POP show happening December 4th at RX Gallery. He'll be spinning the latest sounds collected from his recent Ghostly tour, as well as selections from special guest DJ Tony Watson (wax/mekanic) and a live performance by Rollmottle. If you're in SF make a point of supporting local, live electronic music and checking out POP.

A $28,000 grilled cheese sandwich? Jesus. Doyle reminds us that Florida is a red state.

John Kerry is back and he's not backing down. Good for him! This may not be over yet!

Super cool Mac enthusiast from Japan turns his G4 cube into a G5 style mini-tower.

T-minus three days. San Francisco, are you ready?

Another one of those great McFashion ads. I just can't get enough!

With political events of late, it's been tough to get optimistic about the future again. Thankfully an interesting new Magazine came to me which might help.

According to their marketing materials, PLENTY is a magazine for savvy, environmentally conscious consumers who are aware that we live in a world of finite resources, that the planet is a fragile system in delicate balance between the natural and the manmade, and that there are limits to how much we can extract from our surroundings without doing irreparable harm. We believe that the technologies are in place to make a transition from a world of potential scarcity to a world of plenty. Our editorial focus lies at the intersection of concern for the environment with quality of life: food, home, design, architecture, cars, clothing, travel, outdoor recreation, leisure, accentuating the transition to and practice of a more organic, eco-friendly, sustainable lifestyle. 

Looks like it will be a good read that will fuel my eco-geek desires.

I've been so busy this week, I almost forgot to comment on Sunday's spectacular The Faint show at LA's Mayan theater. TV on the Radio opened up, and performed a great sounding set.

By the time The Faint went on the crowd was pumped and ready, and within seconds the whole bottom floor became a hot, sweaty mass of bodies moshing in unison to their electro-rock anthems.

Not very robotic, I know, but it was tons of fun and a great performance.



Of course, there's always one in every crowd.

Get your post-riot grrrl groove on with Le Tigre (plus Lesbians on Extacy and Robosapien) playing two shows, one tonight and one tomorrow night. Both are at the El Rey.

Doc's Kraftwerk Animal Adventure [via Burnlab].

If you haven't figured it out yet, I like robots and electronic music. A lot. Put a robot dancing to electronic music, and well, my head is likely to explode. That's practically what happened when checking out this new Citroen ad. The only thing better than the dancing robot would have been if it were actually doing "the robot". Here's more about the ad. [via Gizmodo]

What do I think about the Japanese Ronald McDonald turned fashionista? I'm lovin it (sorry).

This is the best shirt...ever. Unfortunately, it's not available for guys. If you're a girl, or you know a girl you can order one from Krudmart. [Thanks Josh Rubin for the link]

Elite Designers Against Ikea. Pretty funny, even though it's likely an Ikea ad.

This Sunday & Monday: The Faint w/ TV on the Radio and Beep Beep @ The Mayan. Yeah! See you there.

This Metro Times article [via Burnlab] makes me long for Berlin again, it's such an amazing, vibrant city. You can literally feel the creative energy in the air. I've never felt so full of possibility as I did when I was in Berlin.

Photo taken last year outside Berlin's pre-eminent electronic music store, Hard Wax. Even if you can see the sign (outlined in red) you have to find your way through the courtyard and up a couple flights of decrepit stairs to get to the store, but once you do you'll be in electro-techno heaven.

I don't think I'm overstating matters when I say that this may be the coolest, weirdest thing ever. It's a very rare 1990’s "Frequency" wristwatch from Seiko, with built in metronome and drum machine! The Keyborad Museum has a brief write up with more information. Best of all, it can be yours if you're high bidder (currently 155 British Pounds). Thanks to Musicthing for the link.

Sorry everybody.

Adobe launches Proxy, a downloadable design magazine.

250 scientists from eight nations agree, global warming is heating the Arctic almost twice as fast as the rest of the planet in a thaw that threatens millions of livelihoods and could wipe out polar bears by 2100.

I suppose as long as the two words "ghetto" and "fabulous" are used together in popular culture, photo shoots with busty hoochies outside my loft will be a regular occurrence.

For the ultimate in, um, iPod fashion, you can now skin your pod in a Comme des Garcons suit. The metal and leather case has been made exclusively for Colette in Paris and the temporary colette store in Tokyo. It can be yours for only 440 Euro.

SF Robots - See the Tokyo Electricians battle in 30 min sets back to back all night long, tonight at Tokyo Electric.

Michael Moore on 17 reasons not to slit your wrists [via Protein and Doyle]

Last night's show with Tiga was amazing. In contrast to his San Francisco appearances, this show was definitely more of a production.

The venue, Key Club was completely decked out with hi-tech lighting, and the DJ booth was set up in the middle of a completely empty stage, which was a little strange, especially when you consider some of the dingy warehouses and bars most of the events in SF take place. Nonetheless, Tiga had LA burning down, down, down, down, down. In addition to having the whole crowd bumping, fellow electro artist Matt Sims (of Mt. Sims) was in the audience with his throng of peeps, gettin down.

The set was prefaced by a live performance by Shiny Toy Guns, complete with lingere and legwarmer clad dancing girls. Nice.

Tonight, head to Long Beach if you can to catch Tommie Sunshine at Training Bra.

Six Ways to Take Your Mind Off the Election Disaster - a.k.a BitBoy's LA picks for the weekend and beyond:

Thursday - Tiga at Key Club
Friday - Training Bra in the LBC
Saturday - The Incredibles with the teaser trailer for Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith
Sunday - Colder w/Home Video & Tussle @ The Echo
Monday - Jimmy Edgar at Monroe's (FREE!)
Tuesday - Jimmy Edgar with Diplo at The Echo

Tiga at Club Fake San Francisco, March 2003

List in descending Avg IQ by State, and who that state voted for.

Redneck Nation

On a lighter note, what do the iPod guy, A white suited b-boy with a giant boombox, 3 china dolls, 2 snow princesses, Rick James and Condoleeza Rice all have in common? Check out the pictures from the Halloween Boom Boom Block Party to find out [thanks Damon].

Not my values. Not my President.

AAARRGH! How can this be? Please say it's not true. Who are these people who claim to support this presidential candidate because of his 'moral issues'? Hmmm, let's see - lying to the American people and the world to justify his invasion of a country that never attacked us, responsible for the death of over 100,000 Iraqi citizens (profoundly immoral), destroying the environment for corporate greed and profits (profoundly immoral), giving the richest Americans huge tax breaks while continuing to stick it to the poor (profoundly immoral). I simply cannot relate to a people who value blind faith over facts. I love this country, but I have never felt so alienated, so disenfranchised and so full of contempt for my supposed country mates. Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, shame on us. Get ready for the nightmare to begin all over again.

In case you're unsure of where your polling place is, simply use the helpful lookup utility at mypollingplace.com.

Calling all robots to get out there and VOTE tomorrow. If you're with me in supporting John Kerry, you can send your friends and family a voting reminder through the John Kerry website. Go JFK!

Spinalcat is MIT thesis project using a set of disk-jockey turntables and paper ‘records’ that can be printed or drawn. One of the many cool parts is the optical scanner used is nothing more than the CueCat barcode scanner, widely distributed as a free giveaway.

iDressed up for Halloween last night. Yes, that's me as your favorite digital music player ad.

This just in from the Fischerspooner camp:
Fischerspooner are putting the finishing touches on their second album in NYC with French producer Mirwais. So far the band have collaborated on tracks with David Byrne, Linda Perry, Susan Sontag and Tony Hoffer although the final track listing for the album remains undecided. The album is tentatively titled 'Odyssey', is being mixed in London with Mark 'Spike' Stent and Stephen Fitzmaurice and will be released via Capitol and EMI worldwide next Spring.

Add one more item to my wishlist - the LooP.Ph light sleeper. It's an electroluminescent textile bedding with integrated alarm that simulates a natural dawn to ease you into your day. Seems like it would be really easy to make this with some EL wire and a simple timer.

LA Robots:

More party planning goodness for your spook-tacular weekend,

Thursday night see the sold out Interpol show at the Wiltern, then head over to the aforementioned DFA show at The Echo, or head to the Beauty Bar where Carlos from Interpol will be reinterpreting his Les Infants Terribles/Dorkpol appearance, spinning his favorite beats.


Interpol at the Filmore SF, Feb 2003

Saturday night head to Key Club for the Gigolo Records Halloween Party with Zombie Nation, Mount Sims, Crossover and DJ Unknown. Maybe you'll even hear DJ Unknown throw down his Bush-bashing acid techno burner (thanks Kevin McFancy).

Also, next Friday November 5th, catch Tommie Sunshine on the decks at Training Bra, the LBC's monthy electro party.

Thanks to DJ Saintpatrick for the tips.

SF Robots:

Friday night don't miss the Remix Hotel Afterparty at RX Gallery, featuring Ghostly International artist Matthew Dear and Telefon Tel Aviv from Domino.

Then Sunday head to Studio Z on Folsom St. for Tokyo Electric's Halloween bash, for a night of electro beats plus a live performance from Metropolis Records Artist 'Fixmer/McCarthy' (NITZER EBB Frontman Douglas McCarthy and Gigolo Records artist Terrence Fixmer).

Proving once again that Thursday is the night to go out in LA, head down to The Echo on the 28th to catch James Murphy from DFA/LCD Soundsystem and get down to his unique blend of hard techno, sprawling space rock, hipster pop and squealing 909 jams. Tickets are $17 at the door.

Continuing with our Thursday night theme, on the fourth choose from seeing our favorite Canadian, Tiga at Key Club, or head back to The Echo for VHS or BETA along with Telephone from P-town.

Mr. Robot?

Last night's Metro Area show in LA was fantastic. Morgan Geist was throwing down old school robotic love and the crowd went wild. If you're in San Francsico, make sure to see the Metro Area DJs tonight at Kelly's Mission Rock as part of the Blasthaus 9th Anniversary celebration - it's not to be missed!

Some fisheye lens fun from the opening night party at Rachel Ward's Terminal Five exhibit at JFK, before it was closed down.

I know, I know. I said more updates soon, but since early September I've traveling quite a bit, but now I'm finally getting some time to start enjoying what LA has to offer. Here's a few upcoming notable events:
- Tonight: Metro Area DJs at the Conga Room on Wilshire
- November 4th: Tiga at Key Club

Download. Print. Post. Repeat.

On temporary hiatus; back soon; new city; new robot love.

4 million personal robots will be sold in 2006.

Join Tokyo Electric on the dance floor for this Friday for a live performance by Miguel Fierro, better known to the electronic music world as Single Cell Orchestra. He's been producing everything from lush, emotion driven tracks such as "Knock out drops" to dance floor driving breakbeat and techno tracks for labels such as World Electric, Astralwerks, Reflective as well as Si Beggs' own Noodles imprint. More info at tokyoelectric.com.

Tokyo Electric
Friday, August 6th
Luna Lounge
1192 Folsom
10pm-3am 21

Not to brag or anything, but I got an award in this (page 75). For this. Yay!

O'reilly's new Make Magazine looks like Readymade for gadget freaks and geeks. I can't wait!

"The people who are into us are smart."

A whole lotta EmPeeThrees.

Ah, Farnsworth house, how I love thee.

Not exactly new, but extremely cool. Also not new, 30 seconds of Fischerspooner's latest song "Just Let Go" from the show Nip/Tuck.

Ruth La Ferla of the NY Times encourages you to take a look around — you’ll soon see it’s not just fellow iRobotnikers that are obsessed with robots, it’s all of society, from the robomates of The Stepford Wives to the latest embellishments by Muccia Prada.

Once again, robots - we're way ahead of the curve.

George Lucas has announced that the next Star Wars film will be called Revenge of the Sith.

Issue 6 of Spain's Fake is dedicated to all you wonderful fashion whores.

If you ever wondered what it would sound like if Stereo Total and Vive La Fête had offspring, then check out Auto. Auto is a french electro band. I like them. You might too.

Also, check out WordCount™ from Fabrica. It's a beautiful interactive presentation of the 86,800 most frequently used English words. See where your favorite vocabulary words rank.

It's shaping up to be a good weekend, robots. In addition to Saturday night's The Fitness/Scissor Sisters show at Slims, you can check out DMX Krew and others on Friday night live at Cafe Du Nord:

DMX Krew - Live & DJ ( REphLEx / Ghostly, Intl) / Safety Scissors - DJ (Poptronix / Plug Research) / UFO - DJ (Compression)

More info here.

Bikes Against Bush, Part II
Recent site updates provide a follow-up to my previous post about using wireless technology and bicycles to protest the 2004 Republican National Convention in NYC. Make sure to check out the video.

BitBoy has passed away?

Lots of buzz about this guy Moose today...maybe you've seen links elsewhere. If not check out Symbollix for his work. Basically he's been creating corporate graffiti by cleaning surfaces in the UK. It's brilliant but the authorities are also keen to put an end to it. I'm sure the sentence will involve removing his work......errr. Love the stuff for hype. Genius. [Blatantly ripped off from Dave Pinter, fellow Burnlab consipirator]

More information about Friday, July 30th at Mezzanine with Miss Kittin and Ghostly Int'l Art and Artifice 2004AD tour at Mezzanine. Get your tickets thru Blasthaus.

TDK is big pimpin' with these "Bit Club" minidiscs. Join the club exclusively at Audiocubes.com.

SF expatriate and video artist extraordinaire, Phoenix Perry (of Reline and Memory Systems fame) has created what looks to be a stunning new work of art along with Arnold Steiner and Brian Jackson with their new video, Draw Down. Draw Down explores the relationship between man, machine, environment and the culture of greed. If you're in NYC this Thursday, July 15th you can must catch the premiere of Draw Down as part of the NYC Film and Video Festival followed by a performance by 'Nix herself. More info can be found here. No information yet as to whether a left-coast premiere is on the horizon.

As if we needed another reason to prove Europeans have their shit together when it comes to design.

Also, if you're planning on going to either the Scissor Sisters/The Fitness show at Slim's on July 24th, or Miss Kittin, Dabrye, Midwest Product and Matthew Dear show at Mezzanine on July 30th, you should buy tickets ASAP, they're selling out fast and WILL be sold out by the time the shows roll around. You can get Scissor Sisters tickets at Tickets.com, and Mezzanine tickets are available at Blasthaus.com.

A new low? Definitely not in this city, so if you’re in a mood 2 sing u should check out Peaches Christ's Purple Rain Sing-Along this Friday at the Landmark Bridge theater. Admission comes with a complimentary goodie bag and Peaches hosts an "'80s slut pageant" beforehand to get everyone in the mood.

Not me, but if you had known me at when I was ten...

Yes, you read right. Soft robots.

What if you combined your desire to declutter with a love of eBay and auctioned off everything you owned? Everything. And then, having very little left of your material life, what if you then travelled around to visit the people who had bought your stuff? And the people were in places like Japan and Australia?

Go to allmylifeforsale.com.

John Freyer, of Iowa City, Iowa, did just this, starting in 2000, and has managed to empty out his apartment completely (he has even sold his domain name). I love the idea, and think that the material part of it becomes less interesting very quickly. It is the web of connection that holds infinitely more possibilities. [from apartmenttherapy.com]

Yet another story you didn't really hear about from the American media: On the eve of Bush's recent visit to Ireland, Irish Press Corps journalist Carole Coleman was granted an unmediated interview with GW, and got him audibly ticked off when she asked him pointed questions and his stock answers failed to satisfy her. You can listen to an MP3 stream of the interview here.

Vladcik performs his very popular techno-ballad, Elektronik Supersonik.

Don't forget, Tokyo Electric this Friday.

The Fitness' eCard.