Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Os Gemeos is Blowing UP!

Just when I got excited about my Os Gemeos spotting by Coney Island I see this on the NY Mag web site. I guess Deitch Projects and the Haring Foundation reproduced a 1982 Haring mural at Houston and Bowery, but in July, the same organization had the twin Brazilian artists paint over it. Here's the nymag link. 


Monday, July 27, 2009

Between Two Ferns

Zach Galifianakis interviews celebrities on his web show "Between Two Ferns." Check out this segment with Mad Men's Jon Hamm.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Governors Island

Governors Island is blowing up this summer -- Erykah Badu, B 52s, Mos Def, Lupe Fiasco, Buckethead and a bunch of Turntable on the Hudson events are scheduled through September at the new Water Taxi Beach location there.

Take the 1 train to South Ferry Station for a lovely island experience. I'm heading there tomorrow. 

POOLS..POOLS...DUMPSTER POOLS

Dumpster Pools are making a splash in the Gowanus area of Brooklyn! Artist Jocko Weyland heard another artist in Athens, Georgia made dumpster pools and decided to give it a go at a parking lot in Brooklyn. Working as a test case for design team Macro Sea, a company trying to reinvigorate American strip malls as community spots for the people here are articles, videos and links about this project. I'M IN LOVE!

POOLS!

Thanks to Kfir for this AMAZING tip.


For article with more information published July 18 (pools aren't open to public yet ) visit Green Earth web site

Artist Kelly Loudenberg took video of the pools being constructed. Watch that here on Babel Gum !

Os Gemeos

I was treated to a surprise at Coney Island music festival yesterday when wandering around the area I spotted a mural by Brazilian graffiti artist Os Gemeos.

Click the mural link for close ups but if you want video check it!

While on the subject, my DR artist buddy Carlos told me to scope out Brazilian artist Romero Britto .

He's a neo--pop artist currently living in Miami, FL. Here's his web site. 

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

High Line Park

It's a wonderful promenade but old people. people on skate/surf boards, and young kids may fall on the uneven surface. 

It's beautiful at night but even more dangerous then for misteps. 

But the flower pots in the railway tracks were a great idea and there are wooden sun chaize lounges to sit outside in your bathing suit with a view of the water -- even if you would never ever swim in that water.

The park needs to allow for dogs and it would be cool to have street musicians play music (one man bands) hip hop break dancers (hard because of the slanted floor design) 

But one HUGE PERK... The architecture that surrounds the area. I want to do more research but at one point you look from left to right and it looks like a study in contemporary buildings famous around the globe.

In fact, I saw several art classes filled with young students, mostly girls, sitting on benches and sketching city street views. What a cool new park that has potential to get so much cooler if the people living in the almost constructed buildings that cut directly into the park doesn't stand in the way.. Soon to see.... 

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Hall Monitor

18 year old Detroit native Kyle Hall played the Sunday best party at BRKLYN YARD last Sunday. The energy was amazing at the space and the teen prodigy looked like he was having a blast. 

There are tons of events scheduled for weekends through september at this unique spot on Carrol St. Take the F, mix a drink and enjoy the canal. Wow. 

And friendship..for everyone

OMG Always Sunny in Philadelphia is back with new episodes in September! Here's a link to the you tube clip with the promo of people singing DAYMAN!... notice Of Montreal is in it for a quick second.  

Friday, July 10, 2009

Take it to the streets

I went into a shop called Urbanix on Sheinken Street in Tel Aviv and the woman at the counter was an industrial designer trying to move to Berlin! She gave me a list of the best of the best of her opinion of Israeli street artists: 


Klone - known for his horses by Dizengoff Center

Yochai Matos 

Yael Omer

Yonatan Menashe 

Omer Gal 

Ohad Elimelech

Junkyard 7

Adam Sher

Shai Yehezkelli

Tamar Moshkovitz

Keren Shpilsher

Ido Shemi 

Trance Music at its Best

Nobody does trance music quite like the Israelis - that may be because so many of them party in Goa and come back to tell about it. But here's a short list of the best:

Infected Mushroom
X-Dream
Chakra 
Astrix 
Skazi 

The Key. To

TheKey.to   

was an alternative eco and environmental event in Berlin held the same weekend as the Bread and Butter fashion conference. 

As part of the weekend I went to the event Fashion ReLoaded where I traded clothes, put stencils on t-shirts and hoodies and designed my own yellow polka dotted headband with a new friend i met from greece (shout out Marylu) 

I was interviewed by Berlin Fashion Week people but it seems since it was in English they didn't use it. Still cool to watch some of these videos though. 

As for actual purchases - I made none, I'm super poor. BUT: 
I want these sandals soo badly i'm an idiot for not getting them when I could have for 60 Euro (90 dollars). Now they're $150 online. Damn it.  Po Zu organic hemp and coconut material shoes! 
 
But the Key. To is really cool and includes a variety of companies and brands. One of the most interesting to me is 

Rambler Street Wear: Homeless teens design their clothing in their own style and name. Rambler has shirts from teens in London, Amsterdam and Sao Paulo. 

I also like Pants to Poverty - A british company that makes ethical underwear in an attempt to creatively eradicate poverty. 

Media SREEEEEE

Two wonderful but "underdeveloped" neighborhoods in Berlin - Kreuzberg and Friedrichstein - house the city's punks, artists, squatters and night owls. Families have moved into gentrified Mitte but these two areas are havens for the culture and atmosphere the city is known for. 

Yet a development plan called Media Spree is currently in affect to knock down the nightclubs and squats that give the area it's charm to build concrete and brick palaces for industry.

The first sign of this new development plan is a performance venue o2 World. Financed by a right wing rich American business man that thinks homosexuality should be outlawed in every state, this new venue built on the water violates terms of moving the Berlin wall and putting up a road billboard that keeps people up at night with its bright beaming lights. 

Over the next five years, the squats in the area will be torn down and hideous but important commercial buildings will be put in their place. Go to Berlin now if you want to hit famous riverside bars like BAR 25 and Kiki Blofield before it's too late. 

Ouch I've Got a Blu Blu

Blublu.org created this video of their street art in stop motion animated form. Here is the 7  minute movie on You Tube..it's pretty sick in action! 

Groovin' at Fusion

Fusion Music Festival happened in Larz Airfield, a former soviet airplane hanger space about 2 hours outside of Berlin, June 25 - 28. The festival is known as Germany's Burning Man, as a parallel to Burning Man that happens at the end of every August in the desert of Nevada. 

That means Fusion brought crazy costumes, stimulants, 5 days of non-stop music, dancing and partying. There was only positivity in the air (except when we found out Michael Jackson died = sadness) as we camped, drank and danced away all anxieties. 

At most European festivals, the music is secondary to the attractions. At Fusion all of the cuisine was vegetarian ( as much for animal rights as less of a worry about food poisoning), there was a cabaret area, a theater and a KINO showing new movies (Genuis Boy, Waltz With Bashir, Berlin Calling) along with 16 stages of music.

The festival is known for electronic music and so is Germany in general but there was everything on offer here from dancey American Ratatat to Israel's female reggae funk group Habanot Nechama. 

Other highlights included the Swedish duo Lur and Pupkulies and Rebecca 

My favorite things about the festival: Tickets were cheap. 60 Euro or around $95 dollars for a five day festival including camping and non-stop music. 55 Euro is you bought your ticket in advance and automatic 5 euro back for returning a bag of trash before leaving the grounds.

The food was cheap and you could bring in whatever you wanted - glass, cans, beer, wine ANYTHING from the outside. Bringing your own stuff was not only enouraged -- there was a shuttle bus to the local grocery store everyday all day if you wanted to buy anything. 

That shuttle bus also went to a nearby lake. .. I actually think it went to more than one lake where you could shake off the shakes by diving into water, canoeing and playing on nearby swings. 

There was no advertising at all for the festival. Every year it grows and grows but not a single flier or poster is created for the event. There are no major brands (besides on noticeable one which is an alcoholic energy beverage) and there's no corporate sponsorship. 

I went with my Aussie friend Timmy and his Israeli friend Alon. Once there we met up with Irish Jane, Canadian Evan and Germans Lisa and Bella. At first I arrived on the grounds with no tent - just my sleeping bag and a baby pool. After a minor freak out and a beer run, Timmy found me sitting on my own by the entrance and we had a tent and a crew! 

After a shaking start - the entire festival was amazing. We filled up the paddling pool with water and had a mini pool jam in the center of the festival. I forgot about a lot of the music but each stage was innovative. One had boxes of running water with different colored lights, another was in the middle of the forest, another was an ewok village beach party. The sun didn't come out until the last two days of the festival making me doubt European summer but the entire event was a success. 

Count down: 49 weeks until next year's Fusion which will be June 24 - 27. I will get there by Schtephans bus from Ostbanhof directly to the festy for 10 euro. Amazing!

Project Vanilla Hugs and Teddy Bears

I arrived in Berlin, the city of my dreams, on June 20 to stay at an organized couch surfing and travelers spot called Project Volunteering. 

Click the link to see the web site and mission statement but basically this spot is a project run by couch surfing ambassadors that hosts anywhere from 3-13 people, including families and kids, at any given time. There's a dorm room where 6-7 people sleep on mattresses and a separate main room for travelers passing through to either have a mattress, the couch or space for their own sleeping bag. Visitors are encouraged to give donations for coffee and laundry but generally everyone shares in cooking and cleaning and there's communal BEER too :) 

I found this option the perfect way to see Berlin. Beyond not having to spend money for a hostel , Project Volunteering was an organized squat in a city of squats. The international community lacked native Berliners but that's how the streets of Berlin look too - filled with artists, writers and creative people from across the globe interacting and sharing ideas. 

It is interesting how romantic and exciting I find the idea of squats and how much I wanted my own bed and privacy after 15 days of living in one. The exchange of ideas, trying new foods and learning new languages was amazing..the waiting for the bathroom, squeezing into the kitchen to find my apple juice was gone and waking up at 5am to the sound of 15 people thrashing and turning at night was not. Not bad, not weird, just different in a way that I came to appreciate having a door. 

As for anyone traveling in Berlin I highly recommend this spot as your place to stay.  Jake, a theater artist from Oakland, CA was my official host but I became quick friends with Timmy, an Aussie native who lives and works as a pub crawl leader in the summer and travels in the winter to spots like thailand and brazil. There is also Emma, a big boned swedish make up artist and jewelry designer who goes to famous night clubs and BDSM spots.... the list of characters goes on and on. 

As for the location.. you couldn't ask for a better neighborhood.  
Project Volunteering is located at 
146 Schonhauser Allee

That's right on the U2 Line at the stop Eberswalder StraBe, two blocks from Mauer Park. 

End of an Era

My facebook profile has finally run out of space in the 'About me' section This is the area I previously kept track of all the live music I've seen. I'm moving that information here to allow for updates from my previous travels to two music festivals and my upcoming summer of music in NYC. 

LIVE MUSIC WITNESSED SUMMER 06': !!!, The Juan Maclean, Son Volt, Lady Sovereign/The Streets, Broken Social Scene, Scissor Sisters, Openheimer/Hot Chip , Pharcyde/ Super natural/Talib Kweli/Cee-lo/ The Roots, Gnarles Barkley, Ratatat Live Music Fall 06: Zuby Nehty, Uz Jsme Doma, Plastic People of the Universe, Cabruera, James Brown, Balkan Beat Box,Gypsy, Arrested Development, Mad Finger

Live Music Spring 2007: Andreas Kapsalis Trio, El Clandestino, Houses in Motion, Ok Go, TV on the Radio, Girl Talk (2) , Lotus, Dahlak Braitwaite/Rafael Casal, The Coup, Afrikabambaata and Zulu Nation, Jose Gonzalez, Peter, Bjorn and John/ Fujiya & Miyagi, !!!, Houses in Motion, Clyde Stubbufield (Original Funky Drummer)
Live Music Summer 2007: !!! , Lily Allen, parts of the Brooklyn Hip Hop festival, Cloud Cult, Warm Up: week 2, El Michels Affair, Warm Up: week 3, Les Savy Fav, Rakim/Cypress Hill/ Public Enemy/Wu Tang/ Rage Against The Machine, T & T

Fall 2007: Girl Talk, Illinois/ The Hold Steady/Old 97's, M.Ward, Busdriver, Escort, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, The Perceptionists, Angelique Kidjo, Diplo/Justice, Wayne Shorter Quartet, Elbow, The Spazmatics, M.I.A. Summer 2008: Heloise and the Savior Faire, Skream/ Banga, E- 40, Dynamic, Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue/ Allen Toussaint, The Herbaliser, Radiohead, Little Brother, Regina Spektor, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Jack Johnson, !!!, Zion I, Hot Tub (2) , Ziggy Marley, Michael Franti and Spearhead

Fall 08: My Morning Jacket, Aesop Rock, Antibalas, Foals, Hot Chip, Amon Tobin, Goldfrapp, Mike Relm, TV on the Radio, CSS, Justice, Shiny Toy Guns, Hollywood Holt, Kid Cuti, Sex with no Hands, Barrington Levy, Sharon Little, Jerry Douglas Band, Diana Krall and Robert Plant, Tea Leaf Green, Emmylou Harris, Iron & Wine, Shugoo Tokumaru, Faunts, Tobacco, Women, Takka Takka, Marnie Stern, School of Seven Bells, Menahan Street Band, The Budos Band, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Girl Talk

Winter 09: Sun Ra/Jim Jones, Budos Band, Phenomenal Hand Clap Band/Apes and Androids, DJ Klever/LA Riots, Soshana Bean, Lissy Trullie, Menahan Street Band/Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Grizzly Bear, Bus Driver, Otis Grove/Charlie Hunter Trio, Trevor Jackson, Chin Chin/Budos Band
Spring 2009: Joshua Bell, Hot Tub/ Ting Tings, Naughty By Nature, Paul Kalkbrenner, Switch, People Under the Stairs, Los Campesinos, The Black Keys, Franz Ferdinand, Leonard Cohen, Beirut, Girl Talk, Paul Mccartney, Bajofondo, Genghis Tron, The Crystal Method, The Bloody Beetroots, Thievery Corporation, M.I.A, The Chemical Brothers DJ Set, MSTRKRFT,Mexican Institute of Sound, Friendly Fires, Okkervil River, Lykke Li, Busy P, Peter Bjorn and John, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, My Bloody Valentine, The Cure, Public Enemy. The Orb, The Kills, Groove Armada DJ Set, Etienne De Crecy, Fischerspooner