Blade Runner: The Final Cut is Ridley Scott's definitive director’s cut and plays at the Landmark in Los Angeles this Friday.

Engadget visited the Robot Museum in Nagoya, Japan. From the pictures, it doesn't seem as interesting as one would hope but you can have a look for yourself.

Always having an incredible sense of style, it's no surprise that Duran Duran is promoting their new album on men.style.com. At 45 years, Nick Rhodes still looks awesome and remains my favorite member of the band. Some classic Duran is featured below, in their NSFW video, The Chauffer directed by Ian Emes. This moody black-and-white video is the only one from the album Rio in which the band do not appear at all, and is said to have been inspired in part by Charlotte Rampling's "Dance of the Seven Veils" in the film The Night Porter and the photography of Helmut Newton.

Have a great weekend, robots!

I'm eagerly awaiting the release of the Pacemaker portable DJ device from Tonium. I've been waiting for a device like this; with so many kids DJing in bedrooms all across the globe it's not hard to imagine that this or something like it will become the new iPod for the creative set. It's been getting great pre-release press which indicates it lives up to expectations. At over 500 euros, it won't be a toy for everyone, but if you look at some of the DJ endorsements in their video section, I bet you'll see one in use soon at a nightclub near you.

Check out this cool demo for the TENORI-ON musical interface. Reminds me a little of a low-res JazzMutant Lemur.

I know I'm a little late to the party with this post, but Volvo's recently announced ReCharge concept is a Hybrid that actually looks like a car I would love to drive (I once heard the Prius described as the orthopedic shoe of automotive design, a sentiment I agree with).

The all-wheel drive propulsion will be provided courtesy of wheel motors at all four corners with sufficient capacity for 62 miles of electric driving. Once the battery state of charge dips to thirty percent, a 1.6L four cylinder flex-fuel engine bolted to a generator starts up to re-charge the battery. The ReCharge can also be plugged in to replenish the battery energy.

More at AutoBlog Green.

My weekend in San Francisco was a blast. As evidenced by all the skinny ties and asymetrical haircuts at the Rickshaw Stop, my fellow robots are keeping the irobotnik spirit alive and well. Aside from the Il Flagranti show, and seeing good friends, one of the high points of my weekend was a visit to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts to see the Dark Matters show, a group exhibition of hi-tech installations, photography, video and conceptual projects that uncover the unexpected, the invisible and the hidden.

Two works that I found especially memorable were the internet-eavesdropping installation Listening Post (videos) by Ben Rubin and Mark Hansen and the beautiful collection of photographs in the Library of Dust exhibit by David Maisel.

In Library of Dust, each photograph shows a greatly eroded canister of cremated human remains found in the storage room of an old mental institution in Salem, Oregon.

If you're in SF, I highly recommend checking out the show which runs until 11/11/07.

TONIGHT, robiatches. The prodigal robot (that's me) returns to rock it in San Francisco. Be there.


Rickshaw Stop (155 Fell) $10

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...Sony Rolly.

Summer's almost over—but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy summer's favorite sport: The Hipster Olympics!

[Via swissmiss]

Pitchfork has infiltrated the robot pyramid and bring us a view from inside the vessel Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo use to make tens of thousands of people all jump in unison and gyrate their hips in some grand, cosmic harmony.

Wonderfully bizzare, Japan's Gimmie Gimmie Octopus will leave you scratching your head. Yes, it was a real show, around the same time Sid and Marty Kroft were producing their own brand of American psychedelia.

According to an official report, the US has lost track of about 190,000 weapons issued to Iraqi security forces since the 2003 invasion, some of which will have ended up in the hands of insurgents. Among the missing items are:
- 110,000 AK-47s
- 80,000 pistols
- 135,000 bits of armor
Read the whole article here.

Jenny Holzer's twitters.

Daft Punk Alive Los Angeles
As I previously effused, last night’s Daft Punk concert was less of a show, and more of a religious experience. The robots came not to befriend, but to dominate, and humble Angelinos were all to eager to submit to their overwhelming force. Without a doubt, this was the most dazzling stadium spectacle I have ever witnessed (the robots played their sold-out show at the Los Angeles Sports arena with a 17,000 seat capacity. Considering the general admission floor was packed too, I’d estimate there were 25,000 in attendance). Energy radiated from the crowd–they were good and warmed up by two extended Kavinsky DJ sets, and a live performance by Ratatat that was fantastic.

Kavinsky

Ratatat

When the Robots finally emerged, the sultry crowd literally exploded with excitement. As Guy and Thomas emerged atop the LED flanked black pyramid (with the vocoded ROBOT-HUMAN-ROBOT-HUMAN playing) the cheers of the crowd were almost loud enough to drown out the Sports Arena’s state-of-the-art audio system.

The stage set was beautiful and awe inspiring, consisting the pyramid surrounded by what must have been millions of super bright LEDs, and a Buckminster Fulleresque light grid that displayed shifting colors and patterns that pulsated with the music.



After nearly two hours of continual rocking, and one encore set, I left sweaty, exhausted and a bigger Daft Punk fan than ever. Thanks for rocking Los Angeles guys! Le concert était très bon!

My God! That was an amazing concert!

Today's time waste: Victorian costume drama slapping.

Daft punk is playing in my town, but if you weren't lucky enough to score tickets to the robots' sold-out Los Angeles performance this Saturday night, I'd suggest taking advantage of the lovely summer weather and joining a few thousand Angelinos under the stars at the hollywood forever cemetery as Cinespia screens Dario Argento's Suspiria.
Suspiria is one of the most visually stunning horror movies ever made. Creepy, mind-bendingly beautiful cinematography and a fantastic ghoulish score by goblin add to this dream-like fantasy, underscored by genuine suspense. when a young dance student enrolls in a prestigious school in the black forest of Austria, she accidentally uncovers the mystery of the school's dark secret: an ancient coven of witches. Bring blankets, drinks and picnic dinner, DJ jun spins before and after the screening.

A yellow spot on the horizon slowly approaches the coast. People have gatherd and watch in amazement as a giant yellow Rubber Duck approaches. The spectators are greeted by the duck, which slowly nods its head. The Rubber Duck knows no frontiers, it doesn't discriminate people and doesn't have a political connotation. The friendly, floating Rubber Duck has healing properties: it can relief mondial tensions as well as define them. The rubber duck is soft, friendly and suitable for all ages!

The always insightful Michael Bierut has published another worhtwhile article, Everything I Know About Design I Learned from The Sopranos.

The article is chock full of truisms, including this nugget:

On commitment:"I came home one day, shot her four times. Twice in the head. Killed her aunt, too. I didn't know she was there. And the mailman. At that point, I had to fully commit."

I heard this back in design school, and I still forget it every now and then: if you're going to make something big, make it really big. If you're going to make it simple, make it really simple. Or really small, or really fancy. If you're going after a project, if you're trying to win a competition, if you're serious about getting the job done, don't bother unless you're willing to fully commit.

Demonstrate your patriotism this 4th of July by joining MSNBC's Keith Olberman and demanding the resignation of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.
---------
It is nearly July 4th, Mr. Bush, the commemoration of the moment we Americans decided that rather than live under a King who made up the laws, or erased them, or ignored them—or commuted the sentences of those rightly convicted under them—we would force our independence, and regain our sacred freedoms.

We of this time—and our leaders in Congress, of both parties—must now live up to those standards which echo through our history: Pressure, negotiate, impeach—get you, Mr. Bush, and Mr. Cheney, two men who are now perilous to our Democracy, away from its helm.

For you, Mr. Bush, and for Mr. Cheney, there is a lesser task. You need merely achieve a very low threshold indeed. Display just that iota of patriotism which Richard Nixon showed, on August 9th, 1974.

Resign.
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Make your own!

Keempa has this really fascinating story up about the practice of hiding old text adventure games on some of the records released in the 70s and 80s.

Most of these hidden games were written for the Sinclair Spectrum home computer, which is probably why I never experienced the Thompson Twins game first hand. To play the game you had to record the proper section of the record onto a tape and then use a tape recorder to load the game into the computer.

[via Kotaku]

Losanjealous comments on last Sunday's LCD Soundsystem show.

We are the cyclists.

Hmmm. An idea for Burning Man 2008 perhaps?

It was only a matter of time before the original got knocked off. Shame. Lame.

With the notable exception of Apple's WWDC announcements, which you can read at myriad other sites, the one thing that caught my eye today was this beautiful italian commemorative edition of Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea designed by Paolo Orsacchini. It's printed on waterproof paper and enclosed in a clear pouch filled with real sea water. Collectors can either bust it out of its original packaging, dry it under the sun, and enjoy a classic read, or they can preserve this limited piece in all its designed glory. Unfortunately the links over at Core77 didn't work properly, hopefully they'll fix them soon so we can all find out more information.

And if you were wondering, yes, last night's LCD Soundsystem show at the El Rey was uh-mayz-ing...possibly even legendary. Aside from James Murphy's ability to completely rock it while recovering from a nasty cold, I've never, ever seen an LA audience so into it. I don't think there was a single person who wasn't chanting screaming along with LCD's well-known mantras. Yeah, yeah, yeah, ya-ya yeah yeah yeah!

Ah, what would we ever do without all those enterprising young hackers out there? The latest goodness unleashed upon the world is MySpaceMP3.org, a site whose simple purpose is to let you put in a My Space artist and download all the songs listed on their page as MP3 files. The bit rate and sample rate of the downloads is hardly stellar, at 96k and 22,500Hz (same quality is listening on the artist's page), but if you really want a song and if you can ignore the site's popunder ads, this might just be for you.