Archive for November, 2005

Having a hard time finding a way to spend your money? The Paul Lips Robot & Space Toy Collection goes up for auction in London next week. Some of them are expected to go for more than the price of a car.

To make room for a new expansion, the LA County Museum of Art will be tearing down a parking garage that contains a large collection of murals painted in October 2000 by husband and wife team Barry McGee and Margaret Kilgallen. LACMA officials say that all of the garage art has been photographed for the archives, no plans have been made to preserve any part of the actual structure.

Some great woodcuts of musicians and monsters from Nathalie Roland. Her stuff and many, many other rockin items for sale at Poketo, your DIY/emerging artists online superstore.

Some crazy Berliners are putting movies on the subway. With a Macmini, a projector, and a battery inside a suitcase suction-cupped to the outside of a subway train, the Moving Canvas projects movies onto the train tunnel walls as the train moves. Checkout a movie of what it’s like on the train.

Ever lose yer phone and have to email everybody you know and ask ‘em for their numbers? Yo Tom, I’m talking to you. A San Jose outfit has come out with Cellstix that plug right into your phone like a usb drive and lets you sync your contacts to your computer or another phone. They cost $40, about the same as a USB data cable.

The final matches of The ComBots Cup and Robot Fighting League’s 2005 National Championships will take place on Sunday 12-8 at Fort Mason in San Francisco. Robots will bash it out in our specially-built bulletproof robot fighting arena - so you can watch the carnage up close and personal.

Looking like something from Waterworld, the Thames Estuary Army Forts were built in 1942 as anti-aircraft batteries to defend the coast of Kent, England. They were decommisioned in 1955 and except for being used as pirate radio stations in the 60s and 70s, they’ve sat abandonded. A dude in Herne Bay, Kent will take you to ‘em in his rubber boat for

Photos of the fire at 16th and Shotwell when propane tanks at a Hertz Equipment Rental exploded. News report with video.

A tiny storefront at 14th & Guerrero in SF, Needles and Pens is a dense concentration of ‘zines, DIY and art. Right now great little drawings from Jeremy Taylor and Allyson Mellberg are up on the walls in the latest show, Potato Sweat, ’til 11/15.

Beware of buying CDs from Sony. If you put the latest CD, Z (which is actually really good), from the band My Morning Jacket into your computer, the CD could immediately install malware onto your Windows machine. And if that’s not bad enough, the music on the CD you just bought can’t be played on your iPod– and not because Sony wants to thwart filesharing of the songs, but because they’re in a pissing match with Apple. Apparently this was done without the bands consent too. More from the East Bay Express and The Register.

Sony bounced 250,000 superballs down the hills of Leavenworth Street in San Francisco for their new TV ad.