Sometimes it seems like nothing at all has changed in the 25+ years since I was 6 years old...

One day, My six year old son, Lucas heard me playing one of their (Adult.'s) songs. "What is that?!" he asked excitedly "It sounds like robots!!!" A few seconds later, three year old son, Nolan came in to hear what his big brother was all beside himself about. "Robots?" he charges in the room asking. Again at the at the top of his lungs he belts "ROBOTS?!"

I could hang out with this kid all day long. Read 6 year old Lucas' brilliant interview with Adult. here.

More than just nostalgia, Atarti's Adventure was a darn fine game. Now you can play it online.

Feeling blue? Lester at yeahtotally.net has the right combination of pep and musical goodies to turn your frown upside down. Check it out.

Word on the street is that Ladytron is close to releasing their new album 'Light& Magic'. If you're in the UK, you can hear them play on the Boutique Stages at the upcoming Reading Festival on Friday, August 23rd at 4.50 p.m., or at Leeds Festival on Saturday, August 24th at 4.20 p.m.

So I’ve taken the plunge and purchased the new Apple PowerMac. It arrived last Friday and despite rumors and conspiracy theories that the new PowerMacs are nothing more than a fancied-up, redressed Quicksilver boxes (since when did the Quicksilver models become the pariahs of the Mac world?) , I’m satisfied with it’s overall performance, especially considering I only have 256MB of RAM at the moment. It doesn’t seem overwhelmingly faster than my dual 450 MHz box I use at work, but then again, I’ve always been impressed with the sheer muscle and performance of that machine (especially considering it’s nearly 2 years old). Right now I’m knee deep in digitizing my entire music collection using iTunes 3 (1861 songs, and 10.67GB so far) so I can really take advantage of the Slim Devices controller I purchased a few months back. I’ve been testing it and the Slim Server running under OS X and I have to tell you, it’s beyond sweeeet. I’m gleefully looking forward to having every song I’ve ever loved at my fingertips.

Dasboot.org is an interesting collection of art, architecture and design with a rather annoying penchant for irritating sound effects.

After relentless pestering by friends and readers of this very log, and seemingly endless procrastination for no particular reason other than I always forgot to look for it at the video store, I finally rented and watched Slava Tsukerman's 1982 cult classic Liquid Sky. While not by any stretch of the imagination can it be considered a "good" movie, it was certainly chock full of great 80's New Wave visuals, and features Adrian's fabulous rendition of "Me and My Rhythm Box" which would, almost twenty years later, be resurected and revived by Adult. on their album Resuscitation. Although Tsukerman's inane dialog and the actors' equally dry delivery make Liquid Sky tortuous to watch at times, overall it's worthwhile campy fun that paints a vivid and unforgettable (albeit completely distorted) image of New York's New Wave scene in the early eighties.

Sony has introduced their first all-in-one bookshelf stereo system with a built in 20GB hard drive for storing music. While not quite as cool as the Slim Devices concept, it's "no computer needed" aspect is appealing. You can check it out in the NY Times review here.

There's a great deal going on over at Travelzoo - a special on rooms at The Paramount, an Ian Schrager hotel for less than $75 per night! Click here for details, or simply contact The Paramount and and mention the Travelzoo Top 20.

Happy Independence Day! And I can think of no better way to celebrate it than with some oh-so exciting news from Kraftwerk. According to reliable sources, the famous German electronica pioneers will stage a rare performance in Paris this September as part of the festival the Villette Numérique (September the 25 and 26). Also performing, Jacques Lu Cont (Les Rhythms Digital), LFO and François K (DH).

You may already know Blythe. However, chances are you don't know Sydney Chase and friends. Start with any of the albums and let yourself get sucked in to the drama.

Latest obsession: Crafts(?!)

Yes, you read it correctly. As horrifying as it may seem, I've been bitten by the craft bug. I've always been a fan of get crafty, but with the recent release of Ready Made magazine my friends and relatives are one step closer to getting coffee tables made from recycled computer cases, or crocheted skulls this holiday season.

For the sake of humanity, I'd better find a new hobby, soon.

Pong, done in Swedish 3-D style here.

NYC Bloggers has a very cool site. It's a collective map and listing of all (1049 so far) the bloggers in NYC, orgainzed by subway stop. I love it! So who's going to put together sfbloggers.com? The only problem would be there's no way we could organize by BART/MUNI's poorly fragmented and limited coverage area.

Even though he hasn't yet launched his new site, Michael over at burnlab has been thoughtful enough to update us with some great photos, including what looks to have been yet another astonishing Fischerspooner spectacle.

With regard to updates, let's just write all of June off, shall we? I've been so busy moving (something I passionately hate) that updates have become nothing more than a fond memory. Hopefully, once my new DSL line is in I'll be inspired to make up for it in July.

A little Star Wars oragami to start your Friday off right.

Interesting article in the New York Times about a robot talent show in Brooklyn where artists and engineers highlighted the creative potential of machines. Most impressive was the autonomous Roving Walter Walter built by two Belgian artists from MXHz.org:

It darted around the floor as if it were R2-D2, sampling sounds from the room that were meant to inspire its own audio stream. On Saturday it would emit only a low repetitive growl. But Guy van Belle, one of its creators, refused to tinker with its algorithms, saying the robot knew best.

"We have to allow our autonomous robots to make their own decisions, whether the humans like it or not," he said.

The Parisian Asphalt Initiative is a non-profit organization dedicated to raising the money to completely pave the nation of France with blacktop, increasing Europe's parking a thousandfold. Interested? Learn more, here.

A bad week for security devices. Seems that black felt-tip markers and Jell-o can be a hacker's best friend.

Two words: Ha, ha.

Technology buffs have cracked music publishing giant Sony Music's elaborate disc copy-protection technology with a decidedly low-tech method: scribbling around the rim of a disk with a felt-tip marker.

Full story here.

Fun pictures of Miss Kittin, Golden Boy and other assorted characters from Electropop at Tonimolkerei, Zürich, March '02 here.

Tonight.

Ishkur has attempted what mere mortals such as myself have only contemplated in dreams – to create a complete categorization and what looks to be the beginnings of an etymology for all the various genres and sub-genres of electronic music. Although by no means is it perfect or complete, it’s quite a good start for an overwhelmingly ambitious project. Check out his well done Guide to Electronic Music (requires Flash 5).

So yesterday, I finally went to go see Spider-Man. I didn't have very high expectations, which I suppose was good, because I ended up being pleasantly surprised and really enjoying it. I mean, it certainly wasn't a life changing event, but it was fun, and Tobey Maguire did a great job as Peter Parker. All in all, it was $9 well spent.

January 2001 interview with Caroline Herve, a.k.a. Miss Kittin here.

What would my name be if I were a cyborg?

B.I.T.B.O.Y.: Biomechanical Individual Trained for Battle and Online Yardwork

Get your own cyborg name, and many other neat time wasting doodads here.

Eugene rocks!

Ladytron is coming to SF! And maybe a city near you:

Ladytron
Ladytron DJ Team
10 (fri) | San Francisco, CA | Club Fake @ The Cat Club

Apparently I am out of the loop, as there is new Blognsob code available. Who knew?