Freshly back from the Veuve Clicquot Los Angeles launch of the Globalight designed by Karim Rashid ~ and many a glass of bubbly later, i'm excited to share some fun pics of the Globalight up close and personal with you! As for the event ~ it was held at the W in Westwood, and it really brought me back to freshman year of college days... it was Thurs, so all the frat parties were in full swing, although driving over, it seems like one had a bit of a disaster quite early, with 3 fire engines and 4 cop cars and a sidewalks' worth of overdressed college kids anxiously waiting... and when we arrived at the party on the terrace of the W, it seems like much of the same crowd had overflowed... from the girl manning the door list to the many guests we asked about what they thought of the Globalight and the party... the crowd was a very clueless LA mix of so called actors, musicians, real estate agents, male models, and even biochem profs ~ all who seemed taken aback by being asked what they thought of the event, and quickly came to explain that a friend of a friend brought them or fwded them an invite... the best rumor of the night - (heard second/third hand) apparently word from the guy who represented the product - the Globalight will be produced with speakers built in soon, and a special stand, so you can simply tilt the Globalight itself to pour it... i guess we will wait and see!

Also, in the main bar downstairs, we saw a crew setting lights in the backroom in the lounge before popping up to the Veuve party... and stopping by on the way down, we found it was because Sunsilk was shooting a documentary on DJ Tatiana ~ a model turned international DJ, who not only is the music director for Bebe, but also runs her own music studio now...

See pics of all the maddness on the next page, including a youtube vid of DJ Tatiana and her Sunsilk winning vid...

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Tags: events - luxury - music - party - veuve clicquot

ARGH, does anyone else still get the Portal song stuck in their head? If not, feel free to see the video after the jump and see if it buries itself in there for you too. Game play, addictive music, the awesomeness of portals to pop in and out of... put that all aside. Kotaku pointed out this insightful analysis (and imagery!) over at Game-ism... where he (with the enlightening assistance of his wife) visually analyzes GlaDOS in Portal, and as even you can see in the images, she's pretty much tied up and hanging upside down taunting you endless throughout the game... until you "free" her... and he ventures into theories that you are being trained to accomplish her assisted suicide?

The second time I played through I turned the director commentary on, and got confirmation by way of a description of the things they attempted to make GlaDOS look like as they were making the game. What turned the light bulb on was the line "Botticelli's Venus hanging upside down, but we decided to go with something else and use some feminine lines within the structure." I'm paraphrasing; it's late and I don't feel like booting up the game again to get the quote exactly right. The spirit is there in the paraphrase, though, because I think they went for something much more sinister than a Venus.

In a follow up post, he even completely dissects the SONG lyrics! Using this to further back up the assisted suicide concept. I feel silly, but beyond gameplay, its fascinating to see the artists rendering of how he views her, as well as reading all of this analysis of what is so easy to just play and ignore.

Portal ending credits and closing song by Jonathan Coulton embedded after the jump for your viewing pleasure.

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Tags: art - music - video - video game

"Love Is In The Air" ~ Carlos Aires cut vinyl record silhouettes. This recycling/reshaping of vinyl is possibly one of the most amusing things i've seen with vinyl in a while! More images and close ups after the jump!

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Tags: art - music

Secret: after CES, i kind of wanted to love the Zune. Well i got curious enough to want to play with one at least... they've been doing great things with the arts community (i really do love those crazy Zune Arts animations - and their artist collaborations for Zune designs are fun), they've been supporters of NOTCOT with advertising, and the packaging/design details/UI were intriguing... i really do like the font they use on their main interface, and the way it glows as you scroll around! But sadly, much like the ratings option they give you... i'm going to have to rate the experience so far with a 'broken-heart'... i'm not even sure what that means? Is it that i no longer love the song? Basically i'm completely behind on posts today b/c i had to delve into the painful world of windows - which for this Zune i actually tried to give a second chance. I blew through one dell xp laptop, and had to move on to a tiny sony vista machine before i was able to even get it to let me play a song. Anyhow, more on all of that below... but while i spent ages installing, etc, i fell in love with the design details and packaging... particularly the Zune Premium Headphones. See many pics of the packaging and headphone details ~ as well as the CES Zune section with all the artists pieces up after the jump!!!

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Tags: gifts - mp3 - music - shopping - technology

Turn that gorgeous iPod Nano or Shuffle plastic box that you probably kept (if you're into nice packaging) ~ but had little to use it for ~ into a speaker! With Japanese Bird-Electron's nearly DIY speaker system that recycles your ipod packaging into your portable speaker system.. For americans check out Audiocubes that has it in stock for $40. The Japanese site, All About, has (what i think is) a review of the speaker over in their men's style section. Lots of pictures, including one of it installed in a water bottle after the jump! So if you don't have an ipod box, there are lots of other options to get creative with! via Acquire.

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Tags: gifts - ipod - mp3 - music - shopping - technology

I think this is one of my favorite pictures from CES. Just something so fun about that glow. This was actually a backlit display on a concrete little table on their big grassy courtyard with little concrete stools all around it (you'll see more of the Belkin booth soon). But i just love how this picture blacks out the insanity surrounding it. Anyhow, the Belkin Rockstar is a super splitter of sorts ~ only it doesn't split, it actually has a chip inside to make sure the sound quality isn't dropping with each added connection. And most interesting thing is you can have TWO INPUTS... so yes, you can put two ipods together and live dj! While also having a few other people listening in, or hooking up some speakers... targeted at the 12-17 set, but world of opportunities here... imagine daisy chaining a few together? More images after the jump!

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Tags: accessories - Belkin - gifts - ipod - mp3 - music - shopping - technology

Awdio ~ they stream music live from trendy hot spots around the globe ~ (even the colette store is listed)... interesting concept. You can experience the full beta thanks to techcrunch ~ use the invite code TechCrunch (case sensitive)... bugs they need to fix? My last name is AW, (yes like in AWdio, why didn't i think of that url first?) but they dont allow you to have two letter last name entries! So i am now Jean Notcot. Streaming some of the feeds now and its pretty fun to work to!

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Tags: music

Gift Guide Day 3 is all about some musical gadgetry that can accompany the mp3 players/ipods that we all have... as well as a fun mini guitar amp, portable mp3 dj device launching in feb, and more! As usual ~ you can view all the gift guides to date on one page!

Tags: audio - gift guide - gifts - guitar - ipod - mp3 - music - shopping - technology

Guitar + Vox + OhMiBod = Vibrator responding to the sounds of the guitar. Ever have those days where it you're holding two objects and it suddenly *clicks* that they're meant to be put together? Well a box of toys showed up from OhMiBod and the VOX AmPlug came on the same day, and it suddenly dawned on me that together they could be the perfect combo gift and only ~$100! [There's a quick video if below if you don't know what i mean.]

Ok ok, hear me out. The VOX AmPlug is perfect for electric guitarists who want to hear that beautiful full bodied sound through headphones. The OhMiBod and the more attractive and enticing new Gspot vibrate to the music connected through a headphone cable... Connect the two together ~ and its an interesting way to seriously touch someone through the music you PLAY.

We all know girls can't resist a musician (yes, yes, protest if you must, but we all know its pretty hard?) ~ this would take that love of musician and his music to a whole new level. Also, if he is the worst guitar player ever maybe this would be a nice gift for his poor girlfriend. And for all those groupies you can even plug in more than one... Come to think of it... this *could* work out nicely for those gamer guys too, hook it up to the output of your XBOX/PC/etc and every shot you take (or when you get shot) in a shooter game will have a whole new effect?

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Tags: gifts - guitar - ipod - mp3 - music - shopping - technology - toys - video

There have been quite a few questions about what the music on the NOTCOT Gift Guide is... so here's the deal. The musical masterminds of Burst Labs (remember we wrote about their sweet flash music browsing nav?) have put together some Naughty + Nice twists on holiday classics which they've shared with our gift guide... read more about it on their blog post:

Favorites from the Naughty side :
* a Fela Kuti inspired version of Good King Wenceslas
* Joy To The World at a bar mitzvah?!
* trip hop and dub flavored O Come O Come Emmanuel
* our take on the New Year’s Eve standard Auld Lang Syne is sprinkled with more cabaret fairy dust than Michael Jeter dipped in powdered sugar

The Nice selections of Christmas music include :
* The Brightest Of Stars, a bouquet of warm and gooey spiritual Christmas sauce featuring members of The Farewell Circuit
* God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen has a gruff male vocal and an acoustic backing band
* It Came Upon A Midnight Clear features a confident but relaxed female singer

Tags: music

Everyone's doing it ~ so here's our gift guide too. Since i've never tried doing this before ~ and apparently i got a bit ambitious in my initial mockup... ours are a bunch of collages, with hand written notes, an exclusive playlist from Burst Labs' "Naughty or Nice", and you can click on any image to go read more... oh, and did i mention i'm apparently going to try to do one of these every day for 31 one days? Weekends too! It's 5am, and i think i just got it all set up... so here we go with day 31 in the countdown (which means we will be ending Dec 21)... so take a peek at our first sponsor Charles & Marie... we have a line up of great sponsors (all friends of NOTCOT with products we love)... and mixed in between will be just some random themes of products we think would make fun gifts (or things we want).

Tags: gift guide - gifts - music - shopping

The Discover interface of Burst Labs is mesmerizingly brilliant ~ and there's a melody for every mood you could possibly feel or imagine, and truly one of the most refreshing flashy user experiences i've encountered recently. Burst Labs is the latest brainchild of The Burst Collective: which Compose + Produces Music, Licenses Music, Records Music, and now gives you an incredible multi sensory experience to browse this ambient digital music space. Odds are you've already heard their music and didn't even realize it... (the list of shows has too many that i'm sure you know to even figure out which to tell you about). So the next project i do that needs a soundtrack, sound clip, or if i were to play some music here on NOTCOT, i'll definitely be looking at Burst Labs.

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Tags: music - UX

.org #3909 just opened my eyes to Take Away Shows by french Blogotheque and i can't stop watching them... and they also create an urge to up and move to Paris... because can YOU imagine walking down the street and having the Shins just playing there in the middle of Montmartre? There is something so magical about their ability to bring bands and their music back to the people and the real world through these walks, impromptu jam sessions, etc. Currently watching Arcade Fire playing in an elevator. Wow.

"You meet a band. You take them outside, in the streets, and ask them to play there, shoot the movie in one unique shot, whatever happens. Those are the Take-Away Shows, the weekly Video podcast from french weblog La Blogothèque."

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Tags: music - video

Giveaway! Sponsored by Cornerstone Promotions: Win a 4 gig Nano, a pair of Nike+ shoes, and the iPod sport kit.

As for the exciting new release behind this contest ~ Aesop Rock has done a pretty sweet original composition for the Nike+Original Run Series (this is the 3rd, the first two being LCD Soundsystem and Crystal Method). Also if you haven't checked out the Nike+ site lately, go look, i'm impressed with how much they worked in new ways of motivation (beautiful design, great use of social and tech) ~ they have everything from widgets to track your progress, to special workout compilations like this one! (see below for the sweet cover art, and clips to listen)... anyhow, this seemed like a good enough reason to help get us all out and about and away from our screens more.

How do you win? Email me your 3 (or more) favorite workout songs at contest@notcot.com and a winner will be picked on Wednesday, March 28th.

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Tags: ipod - music - shoes - technology

Remember when beck's latest album had the DIY sticker album art? Well he had some great stickers from my favorite artist, Genevieve Gaukler, and now from the folks at Jeremeyville have a limited edition Sketchel, featuring art from Beck and Gaukler. "After many emails and calls between Sydney, Paris and LA, Beck, Genevieve and the Sketchel crew arrived at this limited edition shoulder bag which is available at the online store. Genevieve created a design specifically for this project, incorporating her iconic black figures into a Beck landscape on a heavy canvas that is housed within the bag front flap."

Tags: art - bag - music - shopping