Strangely enough, when I read this page yesterday about The Unicorns expanding their tour (still not including Nashville.. even though they are making up past cancelled dates) I somehow completely missed the story above it. It appears that The Cure, The Rapture, Interpol, Mogwai, and a rotating cast of others (Cursive, Muse, Auf Der Maur, etc) will be playing somewhere in Nashville on July 28th. More information must be obtained about this Curiosa mini-festival, and tickets must be procured.

This whole semester, Madrid has been interning with us.. working on some secret projects that he was nice enough to share with us from time to time. Fortunately, the biggest project has launched - so go check the fresh new goods at Asterik Studio - powered by a custom backend by Michael Madrid. The new works on the site are great, and it will be cool for them to have a way to add new work quickly and efficently.. Asterik has always brought the goods.

So, the Secret Machines album comes out next week. For those of you that legally downloaded it early, do you have any interest in actually buying the disc now? That goes for everyone - if you were to acquire a disc (legally) prior to it's release in digital format, what would make you want to get the actual disc?

In the tradition of Hale links, here is the first volume of Holland supplied links:
Keystone IP - you could use whatismyip.com but this is the hot new thing.

New digs from Holland Design himself.

The Dual Group - lovely splash page.. lots of little entrancing videos.

Mentary - art projects, random links, and more. Entertaining.

Ascii Farts - this site is offensive and completely ridiculous in every way. I've seen it before and it's still entrancing.

Fly Guy - another link I've seen thats worth revisiting.

And two classic Engrish shots: Bell Bear and Peopie.

And even though I sent these to him, I'll count them anyway. The world's best mailbox: Shot 1, Shot 2. And if that wasn't enough crazy mailbox action for ya, here is more.

After reading this article, this article, and his own personal message I have to raise quite the eyebrow over all this "controversy" regarding Michael Moore's new film Fahrenheit 9/11. I've come to realize that the man is a little too radical to serve himself, or his purposes, any good and most people either don't bother to question him (as I myself have been known to do) or just hate him and refuse to listen him. As with anyone with an agenda, it's good to try and take in both sides of the story. His new film is probably pretty dramatic and intense, but I've got to wonder if he made it in an attempt to just oust Bush or to actually show how skewed alot of this countries government is (being run by a rather small group of wealthy families, lack of press coverage for upcoming issues rather than just covering whatever the latest spin is, etc). Fortunately there are a few people trying to keep him in check with films of their own.

As a supplement to that, I'm not hating on Mr. Moore - I think he does alot of good in terms of raising issues that alot of times don't get covered, but I've realized he could go about it alot more tactfully and find himself being alot more effective.

The idea behind Light: Tools is pretty great. Obscure your television screen so much that it becomes dynamic art. Check out some examples here. Be a nice party trick.

New design up at Absenter - very clean, nice color choices, large legible text.. very nice.

For those of you who haven't upgraded to iTunes 4.5 on your Mac yet, you might want to hold off and download FairTunes. Apparently the upgrade cripples programs such as that from allowing you to strip the DRM from your purchased music.

Hopefully the new Sony iPod rival won't see the light of day in the US - as it is bigger, heavier, and from the looks of it, all around clunkier than the iPod. I'm really perplexed as to why no other company can come close to the simplicity of the iPod interface? I think Sony can give Apple a run for their money if they play their cards right, but this certainly isn't the right card.. not at all...

Loads of great posters / design from The Small Stakes. I love seeing stuff that's so inspiring, but I hate seeing stuff that makes me feel like my stuff is so uninspired.

It's an unofficial fansite, but Richard Kelly (dot net) has some informative news. The most interesting tidbit would be the new poster for the upcoming Donnie Darko re-release.

Please allow me to snag some Slatch links. 1) The NES Controller Belt Buckles... absolutely ridiculous, but I know that some people will love them.

2) Fantastic article here about the return of Andy Kaufman - just as he promised 20 years ago. I think it's probably that whole "the spirit of Kaufman lives by people remembering him" kind of schmaltzy crap.. but I want to believe that he's either not really dead, or will rise from the grave like a comedy zombie.

I'm going to say that Delta Inc is probably the coolest thing I'll see all day. This video would have been cool enough by itself, but the whole selected portfolio is great. Thank you Baby Fat.

I hadn't been to Obey Giant in awhile, and now that I've returned.. I find alot of tasty treats. The Nixon, Lenin, Mao triple threat are amazing - not only for subject matter but for the sheer amount of detail in the prints. The other propaganda posters with actual messages (This Is Your God, More Militerry Less SKools, the Crest) are cool, but not as insanely amazing. The Mr. Spray is impressive just due to the fact that it's cool to see him do a different style and pull it off (unlike these that I was disappointed in). All and all, Shepard Fairey remains at the top of my screenprinters / artists chart.

Random slew of links for browsing pleasure:
Satellites mistaken for stars - nice portfolio. Particularly enjoy the image swapping for each piece and random placement on the menu. Nice subtle sound design too.

By Default - this one is probably making the rounds at the moment, but that's okay.. loads of great work.

Biggles - odd object design.. the grass centered table is probably my favorite.

I am tempted to order a shirt from Minor Industries (per the suggestion of Crown Dozen) but not knowing what kind of shirt it is (American Apparel, Haynes, etc).. I am hesitant. I purchased a shirt from Threadless once and it fits so terribly I never wear it... the fit is essential!

Kind of a funny YayHooray thread here.. mostly because Daniel responds to the guys request for a KNI style icon.

Check the trash at Limonade for a rather hefty gallery of impressive vector illustrations. They all have a very odd realistic quality to them.. as if parts of the photo were still there, just rather subtle.

New nine inch nails site up and running. Very nice, simplistic, dirtified, typewriter style layout. Loads and loads of videos to view. Thanks Chris.

I added a bunch of headers up into the rotation last night. Maybe they are good, maybe they are not.. either way, they exist.