Happy Valentines Day my people! As you may have noticed we’re working on a new look, there are still A LOT of kinks to be worked out. So just tell us if you like it, love it, hate it, want the old look back or just to f*ck-off.

But first, this song is for all tha ladies out there. Have a good one.

[MP3]: Otis Redding  ”I’ve Been Loving You Too Long”

Being an engineer and having a love for art, I’ve always been inspired by the kinetic sculptor, Theo Jansen. Working on the beaches of the Netherlands, Jensen constructs large sculptures that resemble skeletons of animals which are able to walk using the power of the wind. My favorite piece, Animaris Rhinoceros, is at the end of the video. Simply amazing.

“I love the Power Glove…it’s so bad.” Fucking awesome – AND a Power Pad! Too bad that shit used to eat up all your super punches in Mike Tyson’s Punch Out!!

Don’t forget Ghosthustler will be in NYC from July 12th through the 17th.

This is kind of silly, but a must-have for all you White Stripes fans out there. The limited edition (3,333 will be made) 512MB USB flash drives have removable hats and each one is loaded with the new album, Icky Thump.

Sure beats the old concert T-shirt.

We went undercover at the 2007 MacWorld Expo to get these exclusive photos of the new iPhone. Looks pretty snazzy, especially the detachable phone/mp3 player interface

Steve Jobs will be announcing the details of the new phone today. Rumors are flying that it will be available through Cingular.

UPDATE: Apple’s website now has all the details.

This blog is going to be a little different – a bit off the beat and path. Kinda what Borat looks like dancing. What am I babbling on about? A little time consumer that I have been involved in – it’s called Gears of War. For those who happen to have had their heads stuck in places that often haunt me in the darkness of night, it is a video game for the Xbox 360. Yeah, I still play video games. Yes, I have a wife. Any other mundane, irrelevant questions? No? Good.

The game is a violent, visceral thrill. Running around as part of what little remains of the human forces trying to save what little is left of the planet from a horde of FUGLY SOBs called the Locust Horde. And if they are ugly, they are at least 3 times as ornery. This is NOT a game for the young’uns. This is big people fun here. There are guns, guts, glory, gratuitous grossness, and an overall middle finger prominently displayed for politicians, slack-jawed parents, and whiny ninnies who have nothing better to do than to complain about America’s laziness and moral decay. I have a good time playing Gears of War and I recommend it. Why? The game is gorgeous – if you want to see what “next generation” graphics look like, take a gander. When you have tactfully picked your jaw up off the floor and wiped away the drool, try picking up the controller. *shakes head* I said pick up the controller after you wipe off the drool. The control scheme is tight and intuitive – left analog stick moves you around, right analog sticks lets you look around, right trigger does what, class? It shoots – it is called a trigger after all. The movement is fluid; the intensity ramped up. I play quite a few games, and I was violently violated more than once so far. It is dirty, mischievous fun…like watching your sister’s hot friends when they come to sleep over. Plus it relieves stress.

Life is pretty hectic as it is. We have lives, loved ones, responsibilities, occupations – we can all use some distraction every now and again. Some people have alcohol…some people have porn…I have killing monsters that are trying to kill me and anyone else within their reach. It keeps me happy – it keeps me level. And I think all of us need that. Where we find it is up to our own idiosyncratic nuances. Sometimes, I get that from music (I am planning on writing something about one of my new faves, Cobra Starship, soon). As I have recently gotten a device that allows me to listen to mp3s, I feel able to spend more time with music. And I have missed that. But when I get home after a hard day, I fire up the 360, grab my Lancer assault rifle with the chainsaw (yep, there’s a chainsaw ON on the gun!), and forget that I have a responsibility to be morally upstanding. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

I’ve been wanting to get a Holga medium format camera for some time and finally splurged the whopping $22.99 on a 120N at Adorama. I was always intruigued with Holga‘s lo-fi design and almost surreal feel to the photos produced by them, with their distinct vignetting, light leaks, soft focus, distortion, and blur. These effects can be attributed to the camera’s cheap construction and inexpensive plastic meniscus lens which projects the entire circle of light onto the film.

I loaded my first roll of 120 color film (ISO 100) without too many issues, making sure my exposures were set to 12 and was off shooting. I shot the first half of the roll while it was cloudy outside and the other half on a really bright day in the Financial District. After struggling in the dark room to get the film rewound by hand for what seemed like forever, I dropped off the film to be processed. Six of the negatives that came back were very faint and could barely be made out, while the other six came back looking pretty good and with barely any light leaks. The fast shutter speed of the Holga coupled with the fast film I had in the camera made for poor low light shooting.

The resulting pictures from my first roll are above and after the jump. I learned a couple of lessons from my first roll too: (1) always tape the back of the camera (don’t trust the clips), otherwise it will fall off and expose your film and (2) Holga is at it’s best on bright sunny days. I was pretty happy with the results, most notably the color saturation and out of focus edges. All of these images were scanned as negatives and inverted.

If anyone has any tips or tricks, please leave them in the comments section. Check out a lot more Holga pics over on Flickr.

The New York Times reported today that DaimlerChrysler is planning on introducing the Smart car to the U.S. market starting in 2008.

“The German-American carmaker is calculating that with stubbornly high gasoline prices, mounting concerns about global warming, and waning interest in sport-utility vehicles, consumers in the United States will welcome a car that is no larger than a good-sized riding mower.”

The car is going to be marketed to drivers in overcrowded cities like New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, and San Francisco. The model that’s going to be hitting the streets is called the “Fortwo” a two-seater that fits on top of a regulation pool table and advertised in Britain as getting approximately 46 miles to the gallon in the city and 69 miles to the gallon on the highway. I’d certainly rather see these cars buzzing around the city on my daily commute rather than the monsterous Hummer, Hummer Jr. , and their counterparts.

I purchased a friend of mine the Decemberists Picturesque double LP for Christmas and even though I don’t particularly care for the Decemberists, I wanted the album for myself. It just felt really good having something in my hands. The packaging, the booklet, the extra songs on the album. It’s something that we’re all losing out on in this digital age of ours. You can’t compare tearing open a new LP, putting it on, and sitting down and reading the liner notes to downloading an album from iTunes. The sound quality is much warmer than digital too and there’s something about the record hiss that appeals to me.

I’ve been contemplating about going vinyl for some time now and finally decided that it’s time. I’m starting my own vinyl collection. I just need some help. I’m basically clueless about record players or “turntables” and didn’t even know what a stylus was until I looked it up on Wikipedia. I know… it’s sad and embarrassing. Can you blame me? I grew up in the age of mixtapes and CDs! Not a good enough excuse is it? So, I know there are some of you out there that know a lot more about stereo equipment than I do. So how about a few suggestions on getting started with a record player? Not super expensive though, just something I can use in my apartment to play records. I was thinking about getting this one. Any help is greatly appreciated.

I swore I wouldn’t write about it, but Christian (aka Beaker) made me do it.

Mobiblu DAH 1500-i, the world’s smallest mp3 player, now available at Walmart.