Morrissey fan and celebrated author Douglas Coupland flies halfway around the world to meet the singer in Rome and records his impressions after 105 minutes spent with him.

... He's 46 and makes no attempt to 'young himself up'. Admirable.

... He doesn't mind being recognised in public but doesn't like the notion that he has to look 'good' or a certain way.

... His head (this is really weird, and I hope it doesn't go outside the boundaries of taste) is enormous. It's like a huge Charlie Brown parade float head. I walked into the bar to meet him and I saw this guy across the room with this massive head and I thought to myself, 'Man, that's one massive head', and it was Morrissey.

This and many more insightful observations in Coupland's exclusive interview for the Guardian UK.

Via burnlab

For your Friday listenting pleasure, LA's very own Matt (a.k.a. "Mount") Sims and his Jewel Hinged Jaw mix. Enjoy!

Sony's New ICFM-1000, aka "The Radio" is an elegant table radio that is far more striking than any fun new products released out of Cupertino. Designed by Hemant Jha at Sony's Santa Monica Design Center with input from yours truly, the ICFM-1000 was a study in adherence to function and simple form, and inspired by the work of Dieter Rams, Henry Kloss and other design pioneers. Surely destined to become a classic.

Finally, the world of Katamari is going portable. Me & My Katamari ($40 Amazon; March 22) brings all the excitement and adventure of Katamari Damarcy to the PSP with a new storyline and several new features including wireless multi-player for up to four people.

Santino was robbed! I'm so angry I could spit. Ugh! On the upside, over 2,700 people have voted on Santino's blog and feel his next venture should be a sitcom with Andre. Andre? Where's Andre?

Friday night started off with a bang thanks to the talented and humorous London electro-pop quintet otherwise known as Hot Chip. In spite of the jet lag, they performed an excellent set at The Echo including several songs from their as-yet-unnamed new album coming out later this year. If you missed the show, you can check out some Real streams of their live sessions at the BBC.

Also, living in LA affords one plenty of opportunities to bump into so-called celebrities, but typically I'm just not interested. Sure, there are some insteresting folks we run into all the time, but this weekend I bumped into a couple who I really admire and consider a creative tour-de-force, not once, but twice both in Santa Monica and in Silverlake. I have to admit, I was a little verklempt! Ladies, gentlemen and autonomous beings I give you Mike and Miranda.

Weekly Pick: The Presets

From Modular People, the same Aussie label that brought you last year's brilliant Bright Like Neon Love from Cut Copy come the electro punk sounds of The Presets. Their new single from their album Beams, Are You The One? has been described as “English Soccer Hoodlum meets Brazilian house music.” A must listen for anyone wanting a ruckus on the dancefloor. In fact, rumor has it that Soulwax have also invited them to play with them in April.

Check out the video for Are You The One? (Quicktime)
Read an interview
Buy from Amazon
See them live in LA on 3/21 at Cinespace

And while you're marking your calendar, don't forget to mark of 5/2 when Ladytron will be performing at the El Rey.

They Love Me Not

Thanks to Jupiter for setting me straight on the aforementioned Lexus Flower. As I had previously posted, Lexus did in fact lease the flower for its PR event at the Chicago Auto Show, however the flower’s origins had nothing to do with Lush Camp’s beautiful but relatively simple bloom. In fact the fully mobile Giant Flower was created by Los Angeles-based Burning Man artists at The Do Lab (a collaboration with Patrick Shearn and Abundant Sugar) and is a remarkable feat of engineering featuring color changing LED's, full robotic articulation capabilities and the ability to mist overheated admirers with a welcoming blast of cool water. There are plenty of gorgeous shots worth checking out at the Burning Man website.

Pictures of the new Saab Aero X concept car, plus VW wants to help you un-pimp your ride.

Radio Activity
In most urban environments a quick scan of the streets or public transit is more likely to reveal throngs of iPod-clad denizens than anyone listening to the radio. In our "mp3streamcasting" world, radio seems to be more and more of an anachronism and less socially relevant than ever before. But not in LA. Sure, LA has it’s share of pod people, but because of it’s overwhelming geographical size and dominant car culture, radio has the potential to be the glue that holds the social fabric in place. Why then does radio in LA suck so badly? In the eighties, before corporate control KROQ was a shining light of independent modern rock. Nowadays, KXLU and KCRW both have their moments, but there is no station dedicated to maintaining a discourse dedicated to music culture.

Enter Dave Conway and Little Radio. Broadcasting from a warehouse here in Downtown LA, Little Radio plays diverse music hosted by authorities from around the world, and the Little Radio warehouse serves as an adhoc gathering space where art and music coincide. Lucinda Michele Knapp just published a great piece on Little Radio in the LA Alternative, and we’d like to extend Dave and his collaborators a warm iRobotnik welcome and the best of luck with Little Radio. I’m sure you’ll be reading about Little Radio quite a bit here in the future. In the meantime, bookmark littleradio.com and look forward to their big website launch on March 1st.

What if Microsoft redesigned the iPod package?

Before the horrible disease, there was the appetite supressing candy. Lose weight with Ayds.

Thank you, SLAVES. [via chris at Burnlab]

This is Acid

A little Wednesday afternoon acid hit for you, with James T. Cotton's bew single Oochie Coo (his first new one since the Dancing Box LP almost two years ago).

UPDATE 2: Not the same flower, yes it's from Burning Man, but it's a fully articulated, LED filled creation from the artists at LA's The Do Lab. UPDATE: Mr. Doyle informs us that it is in fact the same flower (updated from the looks of it). Apparently we now know what Burning Man theme camp props do to make a living.

Lexus rips-off inspired by Lush camp at Burning Man?
You decide...

Lexus ES Giant Flower in Chicago, 2/7/06 (click on "giant flower")

Lush Camp at Burning Man since I've been going (2001-present)

Recommended LA show: Hot Chip at the Echo, 3/3.

Our friends at Vocode have posted their February Electro Showcase mix; a smokin' 56-minute bleep and twitch freak fest by Athens-based DJ Dynamons. Check it out.

Of all the traffic reports and web statistics available to me, this is the only one that makes complete sense.

A sad, sad day. R.I.P Index Magazine, you will be missed.

I’m a big fan of LED technology and an even bigger fan of ITP grad James Clar and LA-based Electric Artist Brian Stotesbery. Both have two new projects worthy of mentioning. First, James Clar has a new proposal to create a building with an 'energy mesh' wrapped around it. This 'energy mesh' has individual nodes that collect the sun's energy during the day and at night gives off a specific color according to the amount of energy collected. Second, you can see some of Brian Stotesbery’s amazing work at the new group show at the Museum of Neon Art in downtown LA. It will feature several of Brian's LED light sculptures, including the interactive artwork, Clover II.

Bit in Japan

Why so few posts lately? I've been a traveling bot, canvasing the cities of SF, Tokyo and Seattle for the past month. Check out a few of my snapshots from the last few weeks.

PS: New design coming soon...stay tuned.

Seamless Computational Couture

Seamless is a fashion event featuring innovative and experimental works in computational apparel design, interactive clothing, and technology-based fashion. Each project [re]interprets the conceptual goal of a seamless relationship between technology and fashion. These are real clothes that inspire and provoke.

You can view a streaming video of the fashion show, which includes Sonic Fabric from Alyce Santoro, and works from Diana Eng of Project Runway fame.

Just a friendly reminder for the new year, see ya in '06. See the whole set here.

Trailer for Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, complete with "Power, Corruption & Lies" soundtrack. Nicely done.

The 11-Year Quest to Create Disappearing Colored Bubbles - Chemical burns, ruined clothes, 11 years, half a million dollars—it's not easy to improve the world's most popular toy. Yet the success of one inventor's quest to dye a simple soap bubble may change the way the world uses color.

Beck's new Hell Yes video features four Sony QRIOs (however, I know for a fact that that there are more than four working QRIOs in the world, as widely reported). Of course, I love the video. Check it out here (requires Real Video or Windows Media). Thanks to WMMNA for the link.

LA artist and all-around nice guy Luke Chueh has teamed up with Kid Robot to produce this customized, limited-edition "Munny". All profits go to Feed the Children, and specifically to benefit children affected by Hurricane Katrina. Only available on eBay.