For some reason I got inspired to check out my old wall of CDs for some "new" (old) music to listen to at the office this morning. What I found was my collection of SPK albums which span dark German Industrial to strange politically slated 80s pop.

Gold and Poison is the later but quite enjoyable. Sheer Naked Aggression is my favorite track by far and quite timely given our political climate and the US' imperial aspirations.

— IMDB

LightPole has just launched their new location aware Mobile Discovery publishing system and consumer focused mobile application. Avantgarde worked with LightPole to develop their phone user interface and consumer/publisher website design.

The LightPole service makes publishing geo-contextual content as easy as blogging. Through LightPole, publishers can reach mobile users, leveraging the publishing tools already in place. No advanced programming or heavy IT investments are required. Distribution can be supported by ads, subscriptions, transactions, or other models. Mobile phone users can select channels of geo-contextual content, post comments and annotations, and record their own Points of Interest.

The LightPole service already supports hundreds of models of mobile phones, including Blackberry, Motorola, Nokia, and most phones from leading carries such as AT&T, Sprint/Nextel and T-Mobile as well as the Blackberry on Verizon. LightPole continues to add support for new phones all the time.

Consumers can download the LightPole mobile browser from LightPole's content partners' sites: MappyHour (a community driven site of over 43,000 Happy Hour spots around the world) or HotSpotr (a community driven site with over 6000 entries showing which cafes have free WiFi ) or sign up for the private beta at www.lightpole.net.

LightPole also published a Yelp! mobile channel which allows users to search and view Yelp! reviews with the LightPole mobile browser. You can get Yelp! on your mobile phone by entering in your mobile phone number below:

The guys over at Rocket World have just released a limited edition set archival giclee prints depicting Titus on scooter night patrol. They are printed 17' x 22" acid free fine matte art paper. Each print is numbered and signed from an edition of 100 pcs.

Titus is part of Rocket World's Insurgents Wilderness Gruppo (IWG).

Last weekend Swayzak celebrated 10 years in the techno business with a packed out gig at Watergate club in !K7's hometown of Berlin. And this week they return with their 5th studio album Some Other Country.

Swayzak's new opus sounds mature and full. They have always loved their echo pedal, but in their tenth year of existence their dub-techno attains a new, compositional dimension and features vocals from Richard Davis (kitty-yo, Punkt) and Berlin producer and Panorama Bar resident DJ Cassy. And so James Taylor and David "Brun" Brown deliver what is their most expressive album to date. Yes, Swayzak are back, and how! Check the microsite for Some Other Country.

Just ran into Smashing Magazine today. Doug my business partner in LightPole sent over a link and the resources here are pretty amazing. I especially like the article on Free Icons.

They have a lot resources for graphics, programing, design process and UI development.

A model displays shoes by Italian designer Gianni Calignano in Rome's Auditorium hall.

Ran into a nice photo essay on the BBC this afternoon and thought I would put up a shot from Gianni Calignano's collection.

Took a cab on IPhone day, a week and some odd days ago, and the driver was playing this album. I have been listening to it ever since.

Alphaville's 1984 debut, Forever Young, deserves to be viewed as a classic synth pop album. There's no doubting that Germans are behind the crystalline Teutonic textures and massive beats that permeate the album, but vocalist Marian Gold's impressive ability to handle a Bryan Ferry croon and many impassioned high passages meant the album would have worldwide appeal. Indeed both "Big in Japan" and the touching, sad change-of-pace "Forever Young" raced up the charts in multiple continents. Borrowing inspiration from Roxy Music's detached theatricality and Kraftwerk's beats and rhythms, Gold and company hit upon a magic formula that produced here an album's worth of impossibly catchy tunes that could almost serve as pure definitions for the synth pop genre. The hits race straight for one's cranium and embed themselves upon impact. "Big in Japan" feels like a more serious cousin to Murray Head's "One Night in Bangkok," as a slow-pounding beat spars with Gold's desperate voice. "Forever Young," a stark, epic song that would become essential for every post-1984 high school graduation, drips sadness and never fails to cause a listener to nostalgically reflect on life and loss. Outside of these hits, the remainder of the songs rarely falter, mixing emotion, theater, and of course electronics into a potent, addictive wave of synth euphoria. It's likely every fan could pick his own favorite of the other should-have-been-hits, but "Fallen Angel" deserves special mention. It begins with spooky, funny warbling and icy keyboards, and then explodes and transforms into a startling, romantic epiphany at the chorus. If its lyrics are a bit goofy or juvenile, it only adds to the heartfelt love the song expresses. Alphaville stick firmly to their synths and sequencers on Forever Young, but they keep things interesting by incorporating motifs from funk, Broadway, Brazilian jazz, and even hip-hop. Even when the band takes itself too seriously, the songs' catchy drive and consistently smart production cover any thematic holes. Forever Young is a technically perfect and emotionally compelling slice of 1980s electronic pop/rock music. It's also a wonderfully fun ride from start to finish.

— Tim DiGravina, allmusic

Just ran into this interesting review of the design aspects of the Timbuk2 retails store written for a design class out of Stanford.

"When I first embarked on my research for this project I was looking a for a few specific things. I was trying to discover what were the human factors behind design. How was the object culturally appropriate? What does it say about the user and what does it reveal about their status? What I began to see was how a company chooses to market themselves. How they companies position themselves in the market. It seemed to be a complex formula about perceived value, price points, and target market. I thought to myself that the world of merchandise was a sterile formula applied universally to a baseless market, that was successful for a handful of well financed companies. However, In the midst of my research I found a company that was above that influence. A creatively unique brand, with a story and product to match. That company is Timbuk2."

- Check out Ten things 2007 for a full read.

I purchased my IPhone on Friday night from Apple Store after waiting 3 hours in line at the ATT store. ATT ran out of the 8Gb phone so I jumped in a cab went to the Apple store at Stockton and Market and only waited for 15 minutes. The guys at Apple really have their act in order. But activation is not happening. Yesterday at 1:15PM, I went into ITunes to add a new line to my existing at&t account and activate my phone. The system told me they needed more time to activate my account and that at&t would email me when they were finished setting up my account. It is now almost 24 hours later and I am still waiting for the confirmation email. at&t is closed for the weekend and so I am stuck with a very expensive piece of jewlery that does nothing but let me dial 911.

Our take, "Throwing tons of money at all the influentials in the world won’t work if the product itself doesn’t meet a genuine unmet need. The brand experience has to be a reflection of the personal creativity of the user in order for a product to translate from a small circle to mass consumption."

Read more on this blog: Bernaise Source

Please go visit Taken By Trees. Victoria Bergsman has four of her upcoming tracks from her new album up for listening. The album is going to be released in Europe on June 18th. The site also has a cool simple message board and a fun "Find the Story Telling Tree" page. Find the story telling tree and listen to her magical voice.