Etherea record store, NYC

When played enough times, songs will become forever bonded to a particular place and time in your life. Bel Biv Devoe’s Poison reminds me of my parents’ home (it was the radio, not them ha). Giorgio Moroder’s The Chase reminds me of my first NYC apartment. Nico’s These Days takes me back to Johannesburg. And now I think I’ve solidified a song for my first month in Helsinki - California Dreamin’ by The Mamas and The Papas. It’s my emotional artillery to stave off the cold…

If you’re in luckier weather in Los Angeles, the New Media Caucus is hosting an exhibit called “@” at Sci-Arc this week that includes a participatory L.A. version of my Post-it Notes for Neighbors project. It coincides with the College Art Association Annual Conference, which looks like a neat gathering about the visual arts and includes a screening of The Cool School, a PBS documentary about how a few renegade artists built the L.A. art scene from scratch.

New Media Caucus Reception for the Exhibition “@”
With live cinema by Be Johnny and Potter-Belmar Labs
Thursday February 26 9:30 pm
SCI-Arc: 960 East 3rd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013

Big thanks to xtine for helping arrange the gallery show!

Charles and Ray Eames got even more awesome with this video/music mashup - my friend’s band played live to the Eames’ classic Powers of Ten video. Wait for the coordinated rock-out session during the zoom back to Earth ha, sweeeet.

James made a new mix called Kylmä Musiikki (Finnish for “Cold Music”) that’s really good music to pass out to. Check out the tracklist full of soft and heartbreaking classics from Brian Eno, Oval and DJ Shadow, and download it here!

Labor Day is around the corner and made me wonder what I was doing Labor Days of yore - banging on keyboards! Here’s a flyer I made when I played synth in The Sems and we performed at Pianos in NYC. A night of proletariat good times for the working class.

Sign in Diepsloot in Johannesburg

PSAs just got a little more media savvy. Recognizing the extent and accessibility of cell phone use in India, the BBC World Service Trust launched an HIV prevention campaign via humorous cell phone ring tones. Now your phone can belt out an acapella chorus of “condom condom condom!” Which contacts would you assign that ring to? Maybe not Mom… And what other health messages could we turn into ring tones… how about “fat kid fat kid fat kid!”

Reminds me of other services via mobile technology like Wireless Amber Alerts that send out depressing but powerful text messages on missing children in your area. Seems like there’s a lot more we can do with this kind of set-up, including neighborhood-centric text messages between residents, public transportation text messages on changes with your local line, government text messages on free flu shot services, etc.

NYC’s 311 service has definitely made it easier for citizens to report pot holes, complain about noise, and collectively improve the lay of the land. After choking on gnarly fried chicken vapors in our Red Antenna office (the vent from Popeye’s Chicken shoots out by our window) we called 311 and a health inspector came out the next week. City services in action! Of course he came out during the hour when the smell disappeared, but now I sit in fried chicken vapors knowing the City works, sort of… This is just the beginning…

Hey kids, it’s collage time again! And Men In Hats is now a series… Words from Pocket Calculator by Kraftwerk.

Hey kids, it’s collage time! Here’s a new one I made last night. Words from Punkrocker by TeddyBears featuring Iggy Pop.

I’m excited to head out to Johannesburg next week to be a part of Global Studio for the third year! While I was getting my Masters degree in urban planning at Columbia University, I had the opportunity to participate in the program, where international interdisciplinary students, academics, and professionals come together to collaborate on community-based projects. Informed by the UN Millennium Development Goals, the program promotes forms of education and practice that will benefit under-served communities and facilitate bottom-up, collaborative partnerships. I love the program so much that I’m a bonafide lifer and help guide work and develop materials as a Project Associate.

While the month-long program has moved to different cities each year in the past, this year we’ll be returning to Johannesburg, South Africa again to continue various projects on housing, the environment, the arts, and information. We’ll be continuing our collaborative work with residents in Diepsloot (“DEEP-sloot”), a northern township that is one of the fastest growing areas in the City. There are around 100,000 residents, many live in shacks, and access to basic services like sewage and running water are limited. After talking with residents, community groups, and local government last year, a team developed around the topic of information. There is a strong local desire to improve information-sharing within the community.

Last year we conducted a community survey to learn more about how people currently get their information and how they would like to receive information. Based on 225 responses, 88% of people read newspapers, 84% own radios, and both mediums were wanted as news sources at the local scale. Since then, local resident Bongani Baloyi formed a non-profit organization called Diepsloot Community News that seeks to be an umbrella organization for local communication. The creation of DCN was instigated by an incident in June 2007 when a child went missing in Diepsloot. While she was found safely two days later only a few blocks from her home, the episode brought to light the lack of comprehensive communication infrastructure in Diepsloot.

This is where we are as we begin our program this year. There’s a lot of potential in many mediums, including a newspaper, radio station, SMS cell phone technology, and community chalkboards. Project development will really take more shape once we’re on the ground collaborating with Diepsloot Community News and discussing needs and interests with community members. It will also depend on the skills of the team, whose backgrounds will mostly be in architecture and urban planning. In the end, we hope to learn a lot from the people in Diepsloot and help them develop a better information-sharing system to facilitate transparency and harness the great amount of local knowledge and resources within the community.

Favorite Song No. 76: ‘The Chase’ by Giorgio Moroder. Who would have thought italo disco’s hottest track would be paired with a sweaty chase through chicken coups? From the soundtrack to the 1978 film Midnight Express, ‘The Chase’ provides a driving electro beat and sparkling synth melody as one man runs from the po and struggles for freedom in a Turkish prison. And… it works! Who doesn’t love sweaty prison disco?

The song secured Giorgio Moroder as the king of synth (with Vangelis a close second) and he went on to make the moody soundtrack for Scarface. Unfortunately, his italo disco sound became more corn-fed over time and he gave us ’80s anthems ‘Flashdance’ and ‘Take my Breath Away.’ But that is kind of awesome too.

Fun fact: 43 days after Midnight Express played at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival, the U.S. and Turkey entered formal negotiations for the exchange of prisoners. Oh, the power of entertainment…

When we were going to college in Ann Arbor, James and I and other friends would often drive to Detroit to go to techno parties on shady streets. One time we drove back with a shattered hole for a passenger window. Good old Detroit! These days the renovated waterfront and downtown are increasingly populated by mothers and kids and couples on dates. It’s an unfamiliar and exciting sight, partially due to the help of Project for Public Spaces. Now the City needs to aim for that happy medium between dangerous & creative and safe & sterile…

Paying homage to his hometown and the citizens that  invented techno, James has made the ultimate Detroit techno mix called Detroit All-City Classic. ‘Sharivari,’ ‘Night Drive Through Babylon,’ ‘Alleys of Your Mind,’ and other thumping classics from the last three decades will make you nod your head hard. Download it for free and read his soulful commentary about America’s former murder capital and “the muscular arm of the American underground.”

Image above by James from his site.