Andres Montano

NEW HOME

2010-05-12T14:10:00.000-07:00

hollah!

Love Your Ghosts Tattoo

2010-04-29T22:33:00.000-07:00

A while back a friend asked me to design them a chest piece with the phrase "love your ghosts". They liked the way I used Compendium in a vinyl piece I did so I thought i would have some fun with it.

Life is our Honeymoon.

2010-04-21T22:34:00.000-07:00

TURNING27

2010-03-19T17:28:00.000-07:00

Stationery for sale at Minted.com

2010-03-17T15:43:00.000-07:00

Every so often when I have some free time and want to mess about, I throw in some designs at Minted.com's design challenges. The challenge was broken up into 3 categories: Women's, Men's, and children's. Side Street, a women's stationery design, was voted a winner and Old Stamps, a men's stationery design, selected an "editor's pick". Go buy ;\

Junia and Andres

2010-03-09T00:49:00.001-08:00

Working out some of the small "day-of" details for our big day.

Wedding Invitation: Crafty Kids

2010-02-28T22:00:00.000-08:00

Knowing I was going to be designing my own wedding invitation soon, I thought I would get warmed up with a color palette and style.

Best of the Year Project: 2009

2010-01-30T15:54:00.000-08:00

Every December for the past 5 years I've made a "Best of 2009" mix cd. I create a list of my top 15 albums of the year, my top tracks of the year, and lastly a list of my top 15 movies of the year. It's something I very much enjoy doing. The act of editing is something more of us should practice in ALL aspects of our lives and this exercise has proven to be the perfect way to end the years so far.
I usually make an edition of somewhere between 10 and 15 and hand them out to friends and family. Each year I create a new cd-holder construction and book style.

If you are interested to know what any of my past years' lists have been (2004-2009), just ask! I'd be happy to share.

Best of 2009 Albums (updated)
1. Washed Out - Life of Leisure
2. Atlas Sound - Logos
3. Bibio - Ambivalence Avenue
4. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - s/t
5. Moderat - Moderat
6. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
7. Mayer Hawthorne - A Strange Arrangement
8. The Radio Dept. - David Ep
9. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest (don't even ask how I forgot about this one)
10. The Dead Sea - s/t
11. Kings of Convenience - Declaration of Dependance
12. Junior Boys - Begone Dull Care
13. A Sunny Day in Glasgow - Ashes Grammar
14. Neon Indian - Psychic Chasms
15. The Drums - The Drums ep
16. Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport

The Andres Montano Blog.

2010-01-30T14:44:00.001-08:00

As my wedding date gets close and closer, things begin to get more and more in focus and at the same time, more chaotic. Thoughts about our future as motivating individuals as well as an evolving couple, start to gain substance and importance. How do we push ourselves, and each other, to grow and become better at what we love to do? We both know this is the key to happiness: Junia (juniaisabel.blogspot.com) with her writing, Andres with his design.
My first step is to start blogging again.
My main goal for this year is to start documenting my growth and my life in more accessible ways. This, in turn, may open up more doors, motivating myself as an individual (and as a direct result, helping my relationship evolve in better directions).
Sounds Like You and Me is now officially the Andres Montano style and portfolio blog. I will document new projects and inspirations that push me as a designer.
All that being said. Here's to 2010. The year we all do we love to do.

Thug Love, Popote card

2008-08-26T22:03:00.001-07:00

Here's the latest Popote card. Junia and I have always loved graffiti and the art style that it is. Neither of us are good at writing so we got our friend Franky to write a few things for us. Here's the first of hopefully many graffiti inspired ideas for Popote.

New Popote card

2008-08-20T19:50:00.000-07:00

Since I'm spending most of my free creative time thinking about Popote, I figure I'll post our new stuff on here since we don't have a blog for the co. yet. Things are definitely going slower than I'd hoped but I guess that's to be expected when the medium we're using is readily available when I want it to be. One day Junia and I will get our own machine and we can get really crazy.

I've been wanting to do some designs celebrating my love for the 8-bit era. We decided to go with a "love" card because nothing is cooler than 8-bit romance! These cards are a little tough to put together since it's two colors that are actually registered. We put down the brown layer then the blue layer carefully on top.

If you dig it, we're selling them for $4.50 at our Etsy shop!

Dance Dance Dance

2008-08-20T13:17:00.000-07:00

I got a quick minute to post. I just had a few minutes to eat some lunch and decided to catch up on my La Blogotheque podcasts. I hadn't watched any in a few weeks and these two made me forget I was eating or sitting or moving or being. I hadn't heard much Lykke Li stuff but I'm totally sold after seeing this. Bon Iver is almost to the point of getting played out but these Bon Iver Take Away Shows re-newed that spark that was first there months ago.

Ironically, I'm about to leave my apartment and head straight to where the Lykke Li video was shot! I need to register Popote as our business name at City Hall.

So if you use iTunes, subscribing to the La Blogotheque podcasts is a good move. Especially when you have a newer generation iPod nano and are in between books and have nothing to do on the bus.

SPLIT SERIES LYKKE LI & EL PERRO DEL MAR- DANCE DANCE DANCE
by lablogotheque

#93.1 - BON IVER - Lump Sum
by lablogotheque

mis fotos

2008-07-30T13:39:00.000-07:00

I finally uploaded half the Diana pics Junia and I have taken over the last few months! I'll soon be using some of these as backgrounds for some vinyl pieces I'll be selling through Popote (which I still haven't posted about..don't ask me why). Popote is our new company in which we will be designing, making, and selling greeting cards, home decals, and various other items using vinyl as the "print" medium. cool huh? anyways, gotta love the lomography cameras. These are all shot with the Diana F+ using either kodak black and white or Fuji color, 120 medium format film.

I took these shots on the plane ride back from San Diego! Junia was feeling kinda sick and I was sitting there with the camera in my lap like a tonto tourist who has never seen clouds!

GOTTA love the nasty Mariachi's! these guys were humping EVERYONE. These are at a 90th birthday party in Imperial Beach.

I have more up on my flickr.

Poster for last post!

2008-07-21T20:49:00.000-07:00

What's up! I've been suuuper duper busy with things! I haven't had any time to spare for Soundslikeyouandme :( In any case! I found the poster for the Ellen Allien and Modeselektor show in Sept. (i know i know...pretty ugly, but the show's gonna rock!) See you there!

Ellen Allien + Modeselektor

2008-07-13T12:54:00.000-07:00

Those of you in SF!
Make sure you purchase your tix to one of the coolest shows of the year. On Friday Sept 5th, bpitchcontrol-ers, Berlin-based Ellen Allien and Modeselektor are playing at Mighty. Get your tix soon cause this is a definite sell-out show. I've been waiting for a show to make me this excited for a while- now all I have to do is wait 2 months. They don't have a flyer for the show yet, but keep on the lookout for one here.

Here's a quick mix of the two to get your mouth watering. then you will HUNGER!

here's the Muxtape if you wanna try it out.

BTW! stay tuned for the next 8-Trck Engineer. I'm working on my super summer 80's mix. s'gonn' be hot!
I love the new Ellen Allien album art. I have it as my desktop background! The color palette and the simplicity of it just turn me on. totally turn me on. Unfortunately the album isn't quite as bursting as the art. I put one of the good tracks as the last song on the mix.

Muxtape

2008-07-07T09:39:00.000-07:00

Something that's been missing from all of our jumps to a more digital and "connected" life is the craft of mixtaping. It's something I've been really trying to bring with 8-Trck Engineer. Someone else has been thinking about it and they come out with Muxtape. Muxtape started in March of this year and it's a place for users to create mixtapes in a super simple way without going through a ton of loops. All you need is 12 songs to upload and your set. I love the minimal and bright colors which make it feel very 8-bit and non-intimidating. They even get musicians and celebs to post up some mixes which I think I'd be pretty interested in listening to.

I think I'll give Muxtape a try with my 8-Trck's and see how it all works out. I'll make sure to include the link beside the next 8-Trck so you can check it out.

If you decide the same, send me your link!

8-Trck Engineer Ep.09, The Wonder Years

2008-07-02T14:14:00.000-07:00

This mix is inspired by my high school years. Every track on this mix was heard countless times throughout my middle school and high school career. I'm not sure if any of you have tried doing this but it's pretty freekin hard. The problem is I still like tons of the music I liked back then and trying to choose the right songs to make this list work was pretty tough. I'm going to say this is like the inch tall nipple-tip of the mile deep ice-burg. I had to choose the most important ones as well as the ones I can still stand listening to...the timless ones.

Some honorable mentions? : Air, Black Heart Procession, Broadcast, International Noise Conspiracy, The Murder City Devils, Pedro the Lion, Pinback, Sunny Day Real Estate, Weezer.

What are some stand out tracks of your highschool years?

8-Trck Engineer Ep. 09, The Wonder Years

Os Gemeos at Deitch

2008-07-02T11:08:00.000-07:00

If your in NY before August 9th check out the new Os Gemeos show at Deitch Gallery called Too Far Too Close. Os Gemeos are some bro's from Brazil that are pretty unstoppable right now. From all the low-brow/street and urban art in the last few years, Os Gemeos have been my favorite. I love the scale they work in, their color palette and their character style. They seems to keep it feeling Latin American without any cultural cliches, which I love. Deitch Gallery is an awesome spot for them because it's sooooo open and high. When I was in NY I had to stop in for the Jim Isermann show. The gallery layout is one of the best I've been in, especially for larger installations.

Check out The World's Best Ever for more photos.

Here's an Os Gemeos you can go stare at in case you can't leave SF like me :( (It's on Market St)

Let it flow

2008-06-25T20:46:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone! So after weeks of hearing my girlfriend Junia say "Dude 2 mixes a week is too much" and weeks of me saying "Junia! NO!"- I've finally accepted her advice and will now only be posting one 8-Trck Engineer episode per week. That way those of you who actually listen to it at work or while you do your dishes or read through your Google reader blog subscriptions or where ever you may be when you listen to these mixes- you can take your time with them and really soak the music in!

MediaMaster

2008-06-24T09:57:00.001-07:00

I've changed all the past 8-Trck ep's to MediaMaster's radio because FileFactory isn't working out very well for me. It's a temporary upload service like rapidshare and megaupload which means that after a few weeks songs start to disappear! After a bit of searching I found Media Master which is an actual music storage service built so you can store your music and listen to it anywhere from any computer. So far it seems to be a pretty solid service. You can even upload your playlist from itunes directly! pretty nice uh?

here's the recap.

8-Trck Engineer ep 03 My Swedish Sigh

ep 04 The Human Inspired

ep 05 The Coming Of Age

ep 06 Donde Esta Chula Juana?

ep 07 The New Radio

ep 08 SummerSundaySleep

you can link to any of these on the archive list to the right.

8-Trck(x2.5) Engineer Ep.08, SummerSundaySleep

2008-06-23T12:31:00.000-07:00

I couldn't contain this episode of 8-Trck to 8 tracks. I had to multiple it by 2.5 and I have the number needed for this playlist to be the most enjoyable and also have the most impact.
Wired|Listening Post posted about an article in the Times titled :"Does Music Have the Power to Send Us to Sleep?: A recent experiment in Japan tested the power of music to send us into a deep slumber."
I absolutely love reading about Music and it's neurological power. The experiment took place in Japan where Dr Takuro Endo filled 1,500 people into a theatre. He then seduced them for three hours of carefully chosen music ranging from Chopin and Tchaikovsky to folk singer Mary Hopkins and Japanese tenor Masafumi Akikawa. I would have loved to be in that audience!
I took a Classical appreciation class in college and remember sometimes it was like a battle for my life to stay awake. I would have been an experience to sit among 1500 other people and collectively fall asleep.

After reading both the blog post and the Times article about Dr Takuro Endo and his experiment with music and sleep, I took up Wired's challenge and created my best 8-Trck Engineer episode yet. Except it's 20 tracks of pure mellow bliss for your summertime sunday nap needs! I hope you press play and open a new window and read those articles. It's great stuff. After reading go lay down and take a nap.

8-Trck Engineer Ep. 08, SummerSundaySleep

I know I could have gone all Brian Eno and Fennesz on you guys but I tried to keep this away from just another slumber inducing ambient mix. Hope you liked it

Trck list:

1. Lullatone - Bedroom Bossa Band (frm 2006: Plays Pajama Pop Pour Vous)

2. This Is A Process Of A Still Life - Constantly Under Surveillance (frm 2005: Light)

3. Bibio - Maroon Lagoon (2006: Hand Cranked)

4. Casino Versus Japan - Marilyn Set Me Free (2004: Hitori + Kaiso)

5. Daedelus - Quiet Now (2002: Invention)

6. Boom Bip - Last Walk Around Mirror Lake, Boards of Canada remix (2004: Corymb)

7. Guitar - Red & White (2006: Tokyo)

8. Epic45 - The Stars In Autumn (2007: May Your Heart Be the Map)

9. Tycho - Send and Receive (2006: Past is Prologue)

10. The Cinematic Orchestra - Everyday (2002: Everyday)

11. Balmorhea - Greyish Tapering Ash (2008 Rivers Arms)

12. Denzel & Huhn - New Kerwe (2007: Paraport)

13. Phonem - Currents (220V Offshore) (2000: Hydroelectric)

14. El Perro Del Mar - Inner Island (2008: From The Vallery to The Stars)

15. F.S. Blumm - Lilli (2006: Summer Kling)

16. Vincent Gallo - I Wrote This Song for the Girl Paris Hilton (2001: When)

17. M83 - Sister (part 2) (2007: Digital Shades Vol. 1)

18. Library Tapes - Skiss Av Trad (2007: Hostluft)

19. Eluvium - Indoor Swimming At The Space Station (2007: Copia)

20. Stars Of The Lid - That Finger On Your Temple if the Barrel of My Raygun (2007: And Their Refinement of the Decline)

Super Crew

2008-06-22T18:41:00.000-07:00

Alrightalrightalright.. I'm in no way some advocate or pusher of MTV or Randy Jackson. But if you grew up hip hop in any way, watched early or recent B-Boy movies, or at least even appreciate dancing, you need to watch ABDC. If MTV ever had ONE reason in the last 10 years to watch it, America's Best Dance Crew is the reason.

Super Crew is the reason I'm breaking my nerd silence of science and music blogging. Just watch this performance and tell me you didn't say "alright that was fuckin rad."

Win some Lose some

2008-06-20T12:57:00.000-07:00

Aniboom announced the 3 "Golden Ticket" winners for the Radiohead video competition. I'm disappointed mine wasn't a winner but I'm not surprised at all. I made my video knowing not much would happen with it. Check out the semi-finalists and golden ticket winners here. I'd say there is maybe 2 worth a Radiohead tag. I seriously don't know how some of those pieces were chosen over hundreds of better videos. When you check out the forums there is only 1 out of 25 comments that are positive about the whole contest.

The one other Radiohead contest for In Rainbows turned out to be sort of a joke towards the fans. I'm talking about the Nude Remix contest. Thom said in an interview with NPR: "This was quite a difficult task for everybody that entered, as Nude is in 6/8 timing, and 63bpm. Most music that's played in clubs is around 120bpm and usually 4/4 timing. It's pretty difficult to seamlessly mix a waltz beat into a DJ set. This resulted in lots of generic entries consisting of a typical 4/4 beat, but with arbitrary clips from "Nude" thrown in so that they qualified for the contest. Thom Yorke joked at the ridiculousness of it in an interview for NPR radio, hinting that they set the competition to find out how people would approach such a challenging task."

Let's see what happens with the Aniboom video contest.
click below to check it out.

8-Trck Engineer Ep.07, The New Radio

2008-06-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

With the past few 8-Trck's I've been constructing the mix in response to some kind of current event.

This 8-Trck episode doesn't have a theme though.

Well... I guess it does. The theme is great new music you need to check out. This is all music that's been released in the past few months that's been on heavy heavy rotation in my auditory life.

There should be something for everyone in this episode because no matter what side of the planet your on, there is music being released that will speak to you. Sometimes you just have to wade through the boring-but-strong current of life to find those special things that excite you. Here's to the new radio; press play and walk away.

1. No Age, Cappo - Nouns

2. This Is Ivy League, London Bridges - This is Ivy League

3. Fleet Foxes, Blue Ridge Mountains - s/t

4. Animal Collective, Street Flash - Water Curses Ep

5. Jamie Lidell, Green Light - Jim

6. The Kills, Last Day of Magic - Midnight Boom

7. Cut Copy, Strangers In The Wind - In Ghost Colours

8. The Black Ghosts, Repetition Kills You (ft. Damon Albarn) - s/t

songs are here.

The Minted.com Challenge

2008-06-17T10:18:00.000-07:00

I've entered the 2nd Minted.com design contest. This time it's for Holiday photo cards for newly weds. If you've come across this post, help me and my friends start our business (more on this soon) with that prize money! Just register with your email and name (they won't sell your email so don't worry) and just find my designs and vote! (vote here)

8-Trck Engineer Ep.06, Donde Esta ChulaJuana?

2008-06-13T08:11:00.000-07:00

Junia and I are flying down to Chula Vista to visit our families for the weekend. I was going to finally post some new indie stuff, but I think I'll save that for when I get back. I've got the urge to get a little Nortechno on your ass.

This is an 8-trck Nortec and Nortec affiliated mix.

This should make my one-hour plane ride pretty smooth.

To those of you who stumble across this, Enjoy.

My feet will experience Unknown Pleasures.

2008-06-09T19:28:00.000-07:00

Well. probably not. I'd put these up on my wall before I walked on those beautiful inserts with my sweaty feet. I ran into these on the Wired blogs. Turns out this is a custom pair on display at Ran in Manchester. But godamn would I like a pair of these bad-larry's.

8-Trck Engineer Ep.05, The Coming of Age

2008-06-08T21:55:00.000-07:00

I've created this 8-Trck Engineer as if I was creating the soundtrack of my float and fly through space. Past stars and planets, through gas clouds and planet rings. This is dedicated to the progress we Humans are making in becoming a Space-faring species. Press play then read. Then if you love space honk your horn...or just leave a comment

8-Trck Engineer, ep 05: The Coming of Age

download the mix here.

if you have any questions about any of the music, leave a comment and I'll comment back!

There's this great sense of wonder going on with all the action between Humans and Space. There's always been action, I bet, but not in the mainstream media. First there's the new Phoenix Space probe and it's Mars landing. Then there's the new amazing(!) NASA Spitzer Space Telescope galaxy panorama. And as I type this, I'm watching Discovery Channel's "When We Left Earth" series.

If you were one of those neo-nature geeks that was glued to Discovery Channel every Sunday for "Planet Earth" then your probably one of these neo-space lovers excited about this new series. from NASA: When We Left Earth is the story of mankind’s greatest adventure, leaving the earth and living in space. For the first time this series has digitally re-mastered the original film and audio recordings from NASA’s vault, including and all the key on-board footage filmed by the astronauts themselves. For DC's series trailer click here.

If you haven't seen NASA's Spitzer's pics then eventually you will. "This is the highest-resolution, largest, most sensitive infrared picture ever taken of our Milky Way," said Sean Carey of NASA's Spitzer Science Center. From Sciencedaily.com: Because Earth sits inside our dusty, flat, disk-shaped Milky Way, we have an edge-on view of our galactic home. We see the Milky Way as a blurry, narrow band of light that stretches almost completely across the sky. With Spitzer's dust-piercing infrared eyes, astronomers peered 60,000 light-years away into this fuzzy band, called the galactic plane, and saw all the way to the other side of the galaxy.

White Glove Tracking

2008-06-04T01:23:00.001-07:00

I've started checking out DVblog.com and have come across this.
From whiteglovetracking.com:

On May 4th, 2007, we asked internet users to help isolate Michael Jackson's white glove in all 10,060 frames of his nationally televised landmark performance of Billy Jean. 72 hours later 125,000 gloves had been located. wgt_data_v1.txt (listed below) is the culmination of data collected. It is released here for all to download and use as an input into any digital system. Just as the data was gathered collectively it is our hope that it will be visualized collectively. Please email links to your apps, video, source code, and/or screen shots to evan[at]eyebeam[dot]org. Work will be exhibited in an online gallery and depending on popularity and interest potentially in a forthcoming physical gallery exhibition as well. Huge thanks to everyone that contributed to the data collection.

There's some very cool techniques used in there. My favorites are Tim Knapen's Giant Glove, and Jung-Hoon Seo's Slinky.

This is getting crazy...(in a good way)

2008-06-03T21:17:00.000-07:00

There a quite a few "artists for Obama" groups coming up. Upperplayground and FIFTY24SF have their crew of dope artists. This Abe Obama...or Barack O-Lincoln, is scary! Ron English will probably be painting controversial pieces like this till he dies. I'm surprised McDonald's hasn't already had him assassinated. I'm looking forward to a Sam Flores "Obama" piece!

Also, my main man ISO50 (check out Tycho's music down in the "The Human Inspired" mix down below.)has done an amazing piece for Obama. ISO50's poster is awesome because it's totally inspired by Aaron Douglass' work during the Harlem Renaissance in the 1930's. Douglas's paintings combine very strong graphical imagery with really nice color palettes- but at the same time were always very strong in controversial racial themes.

Our Videotape

2008-06-03T00:50:00.000-07:00

FINISHED! Alright everyone. Remember weeks ago when I posted a Radiohead video submitted to the Aniboom Radiohead video competition? I said it inspired me to make my own. Well I did and here it finally is.

This is my submission for a "Golden Ticket" in the video contest. It's not animated yet, but the point of winning the contest is to get $10,000 to finish the video. I would collaborate with someone who could rotoscope this video in grayscale. Don't get me wrong, I like it now, but I don't think I'll feel satisfied till I see it in rotoscope. If your not sure what "rotoscope" is, check this out. If you've ever seen Waking Life or A Scanner Darkly, then you've seen it before.

Please go to Aniboom and rate the video! It would help me out! and please comment here to let me know what you think. I love criticism.

Watch more cool animation and creative cartoons at aniBoom

8-Trck Engineer Ep.04, The Human Inspired

2008-06-01T22:01:00.000-07:00

OK so here’s my two part answer to the question "What does it mean to be human?" discussed in the previous post.

A. What we are is the brain. The simplest, yet most complex, answer is that to be human is to have what we all have in common, our brain. Everything we think we are, see we are, feel we are or hear we are, is all coming from one place. Don’t mistake that for an idea that our senses make us human; it’s what’s piecing it all together. We could have purple skin, guys could have vaginas, girls could have penises, and our eyes could be attached to tube-like membranes sticking out from our necks… But we would still call ourselves humans so long as that’s the way we always were. Only humans can experience abstract external stimuli as (emotional, creative, physical) inspiration.

B. 8-Trck Engineer ep. 04, The Human Inspired

There are countless ways to answer this question using this format, but I wanted to keep this at a level of “I’d-like-to-play-you-some-music-you-haven’t-heard-yet. So don’t ask in some Spiccoli voice “Hey bud, where’s Beethoven? Where’s Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd?” Yada yada yada. I’ve answered this question this way in the hopes that any person can come along and listen, enjoy, then think about making their own mix. “What is it to be human?” is practically a rhetorical question. It has no answer other than what you feel is the answer.

This is a collection of 8 songs- put together spontaneously and without too much thought other than I know each one of these songs reminds me of what I am in this existence. It’s 8-Trck Engineer episode 04.

Pedal, Sump, Pedal, 2008, Staubgold Records. This piano duo from Sydney just released this album of improvised piano awesomeness. Some of the tracks are brilliantly unnerving, and some are just brilliantly moving like Sump. Staubgold says this: “What are they thinking? These guys are doing a record of acoustic piano music in this day and age! And let me tell you something, my prejudice was totally crushed within the first minute of listening to this CD. Just when I was thinking two grand pianos, four hands have nothing to say in this 21st century...”

The Radio Dept., What Will Give?, Pet Grief, 2006, Labrador. I have a feeling The Radio Dept is going to move me just as much when I’m 85-years-old. This is timeless timeless timeless music for us emotional pop lovers. They’re just friends school friends from Sweden that create wonderful music only Humans can create.

Tycho, Past Is Prologue, Past Is Prologue, 2006, Merck. Tycho, aka graphic designer ISO50, aka Scott Hansen, is from San Francisco! What!what! This guy is amazing. His beats are bliss and his design is dope. This song just KILLS me. I don’t know why, but it does. He needs to play more sets here in SF, that’s all I need to say. Bring back Beats and Boardgames!

M83, Teen Angst, Before The Dawn Heals Us, 2005, EMI France. I could have chosen any M83 song and it would have fit well in this mix. M83 has an extremely unique sound that has this quality about it that really makes you feel human. I feel like M83 is emotion in music form. It’s raw, LOUD, chaotic and intense but beautiful, balanced, and calming. One of my all-time favorite bands.

Tristeza, Balabaristas, A Colores, 2005, Better Looking. Another all time favs. The Album Leaf and Tristeza both hold special places in my heart. You can hear every stroke and touch of their fingers playing. Tristeza’s guitar and bass are almost unmatched by anyone in this genre. They tried playing with a stand in guitar player last tour and he couldn’t hang. It would hard to hear their live set being messed up, but at the same time it reinforced the complexity and strenuous rhythms they use.

Epic45, England Fallen Over, England Fallen Over EP, 2005, Make Mine Music. A highly inspirational band for me. If you like this song, just seriously by everything Epic45 has done. It’s really all that good. Hopefully your listening to this mix with headphones or good speakers cause this track uses GREAT channel techniques. I LOVE this band.

Radiohead, Weird Fishes/Apreggi, In Rainbows, 2007, self released. Another all-time fav for me. Shouldn’t have to say much about this song or band other than Brilliant.

DJ Shadow, Blood On The Motorway, The Private Press, 2002, MCA. I know I know. This song is a little old. But I BET you forgot about it. I BET you forgot how amazing it is. Well Junia (my girlfriend, Tonteria) DIDN’T! Honestly I forgot this song within the depths of my hard drive, but she called it out. If only Shadow could go back to this! He gave us a little taste with the live set release he did with Cut Chemist.

"What does it mean to be human?"

2008-06-01T21:46:00.000-07:00

Wired.com is covering cool parts and discussions of the World Science Festival in NY.

On Saturday night a panel of physicists, anthropologists, and any other –ist profession in the field of science came together to form a panel to discuss the question “What does it mean to be humn?”

Below is Wired’s post:

“A star-studded panel of scientists gathered to discuss those heady themes last night at the World Science Festival in New York City. Here are their answers in convenient nutshell form:
Marvin Minsky, artificial intelligence pioneer: We do something other species can't: We remember. We have cultures, ways of transmitting information.

Daniel Dannett, cognitive scientist: We are the first species that represents our reasons, and can reason with each other. "The planet has grown a nervous system," he said.

Renee Reijo Pera, embryologist: We're uniquely human from the moment that egg and sperm fuse. A "human program" begins before the brain even begins to form.

Patricia Churchland, neuroethicist: The structure of how the human brain is arranged intrigues me. Are there unique brain structures? As far as we can understand, it's our size that is unique. What we don't find are other unique structures. There may be certain types of human-specific cells -- but as for what that means, we don't know. It's important not only to focus on us, to compare our biology and behavior to other animals.

Jim Gates, physicist: We are blessed with the ability to know our mother. We are conscious of more than our selves. And just as a child sees a mother, the species' vision clears and sees mother universe. We are getting glimmers of how we are related to space and time. We can ask, what am I? What is this place? And how am I related to it?

Nikolas Rose, sociologist: Language and representation. We are the kind of creatures that ask those questions of ourselves. And we believe science can help answer. We've become creatures that think of ourselves as essentially biological -- and I think we're more than biological creatures. I'm not sure biology has answers.

Ian Tattersall, anthropologist: It's not "what is human," but what is unique: our extraordinary form of symbolic cognition.   

Francis Collins, geneticist: What does the genome tell us? There's surprisingly little genetic difference between human and chimpanzee. Yet clearly we're different. There's brain size and language. A language-related gene, FoxP2, evolved most rapidly in the last few million years. How did we develop empathy? Appreciate our mortality? And we should admit that there are areas that might not submit to material analysis: beauty, inspiration. We shouldn't dismiss these as epiphenomenal froth.   

Harold Varmus, physiologist: Intrigued by our ability to generate hypotheses and make measurements.   

Paul Nurse, cell biologist: Is excited about the ability of science to answer this question.   Antonio Damasio, neuroscientist: The critical unique factor is language. Creativity. The religious and scientific impulse. And our social organization, which has developed to a prodigious degree. We have a record of history, moral behavior, economics, political and social institutions. We're probably unique in our ability to investigate the future, imagine outcomes, and display images in our minds. I like to think of a generator of diversity in the frontal lobe -- and those initials are G-O-D.

Science has been kickin ass since the Enlightenment!

2008-05-29T01:15:00.000-07:00

I seriously wish I could be in NY at this festival. After tasting an event like this at this years Yuri's Night, this 5 day event looks AWESOME. Colbert and Theoretical Physicist, Brian Green, talk it out. I'll be posting a few things in the next few days about event coverage, ESPECIALLY! this: On Saturday, May 31, neurologist and author Oliver Sacks will join neuroscientist Mark Tramo and the Abyssinian Baptist Church Choir in the World Science Festival Event Music and the Brain, an exploration of the power of music to inspire and uplift, and as an effective tool in the therapeutic process.

"Political Science"

2008-05-29T00:37:00.000-07:00

After reading an article today titled "Political Science" from the online magazine Science News, I stopped and thought about San Francisco. Usually when talks about the developments of a green city come up, especially New York, it's hard not to stop for a second and compare things with San Francisco.

The article talks about recent statements made by NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg made this morning at the first World Science Summit(watch the Cobert video). Bloomberg was speaking in front of over 100 leading Scientists about the complicated relationship that science has with politics.

"He pointed, for instance, to the fact that fully a half-century ago, scientists were already linking smoking with cancer. By the 1970s, science had also begun predicting that increased carbon-dioxide emissions from fossil-fuel burning would warm the climate “with the potentially catastrophic consequences that are playing out now, all over the world.” Yet society fought anti-smoking campaigns as vehemently as the Bush administration has fought regulations to slow climate change.

And the reason? “Far too often,” the mayor contends, “it's because of what I call ‘political science’ - the willingness [of governments] to disregard or suppress scientific findings when they don't conform to a pre-determined political agenda.”

This isn't news, but I'm extremely happy to hear that it's being talked about in NY as I write this, by people who might actually be able to do something about it. In much the same way Bloomberg made great changes in public smoking laws in New York (acc. to the article, smoking is down 20% from 2002), he also took it into his own hands to create change with NY's carbon emissions.

"Bloomberg had city agencies measure New York’s carbon footprint. And it was huge: some 58 million metric tons of CO2 per year – and growing. Last October, in response to the findings, he signed an executive order forcing city agencies to cut their CO2 emissions 30 percent by 2017. To make the necessary changes, he said, “we've committed 10 percent of our annual energy costs – equal to roughly $80 million a year.”...He's also instructed city cabbies to convert to hybrid vehicles or similarly high-fuel-economy cars within four years. That’s a big change considering New York’s is the biggest taxi fleet in the world."

That's pretty awesome progress. Imagine what a statement it would be to have a NY with all hybrid cabs?

Come on Gavin Newsom! We gotta catch up! So far, our only outlet (as far as I know) is the new SF company Green Cab that, so far, has only like, 5 cabs! Knowing this city, we don't NEED our mayor to make these changes. Green Cab will catch on pretty quick.

8-Trck Engineer Ep.03, my swedish sigh

2008-05-28T20:40:00.000-07:00

In celebration for the new track by The Radio Dept, this 8-Trck Engineer is strictly Swedish. Over the last 2 weeks I got a hold of the new Action Biker and an older album by The Bridal Shop. I realized that I keep running into these Swedish albums and then a few days ago I get the new Radio Dept track and then I just couldn't stop myself. I had to share my Swedish friends with all of you. My Swedish sigh begins as a burst of electric air but as I exhale it calms to barely a few night-time piano strokes. Enjoy.

trck-1. The Knife, Forrest Families... the album Silent Shout was on EVERYONE's top lists for 2006. I was no exception. This album is one of the freshest electronic album in a while. it felt super dark but sometimes made you feel slightly uncomfortable, but had amazing hooks and use of vocals that picked you right up from it's intense imagination. It didn't try to make anyone happy and seemed to exist within the genre without the support of the genre itself.
trck-2. The Legends, Play it For Today... this is from The Legend's last release in 2006 Facts and Figures. Where previously they had this great british pop shoegaze sound, the now have a euro pop shoegaze electronic sound. That seems like a pretty good evolution right? Well, they made the jump extremely well and I'm looking forward to see what else they come up with.
trck-3. The Bridal Shop, From Seas... from 2007's From Seas, this song is a great hint at the 7 track album that really hasn't received much attention, or at least as much as it should have by people who love this genre. You like old New Order? You like the airy vocals and modest-pop? you like the Bridal Shop.
trck-4. The Radio Dept, Feddie and the Tojan Horse... What can I say? this band is track for track pure enjoyment. They seriously make me feel special when I'm listening to them. Does that sound stupid? fuck it. I'm excited about this song because it's off their new album scheduled for September. CAN'T WAIT.
trck-5. Action Biker, Love for Sure... This is Sarah Nyberg Pergament's little solo music. This is off 2008's Hesperian Puisto, Action Biker's first official album release. This album better catch on here in the States. If it doesn't I'll be really surprised. Maybe I should write to Pitchfork and tip em off... nah. they suck.
trck-6. Jens Lekman, I'm Leaving You Because I Don't Love You... One of my favorite songs of 2007! This album, Night Falls Over Kortedala was on rotation for MONTHS here at home and at work. This album was impossible not to like.
trck-7. Jose Gonzalez, Cycling Trivialities... Another top 2007. This is off Jose's second full length, In Our Nature. You need to own both albums if you already don't. Seriously
trck-8. El Perro Del Mar, From the Valley to the Stars... This song is off of Sarah Assbring's 2008's From the Valley to the Stars. This also is a great hint as to the rest of the album. I love the feel of this album as it is completely connected to the name. I would love to be laying at the bottom of a beautiful valley looking up watching the stars. El Perro Del Mar is hard to catagorize because conceptual-folk-pop doesn't do her justice. I'll just say I'm a fan and keep it at that.

8-Trck Engineer Ep.02: It Will Never Die.

2008-05-23T01:24:00.000-07:00

Seriously. Rock and roll will never end. Take a few minutes and listen to this quick mix and you'll know what I'm talking about. THIS IS FRESH and this is 50 years old!

For my girlfriend Junia's upcoming 25th Birthday party I've been neck-high with Rock and Rockabilly music from the 50's and 60's. I've been wading through tons of songs finding good ones for all those Guys and Gals to boogie to this weekend. I'm not much of a Rockabilly myself, but I do really enjoy old rock and roll just like the next music lover. Actually, when I was talking with my dad recently playing him 2007's Little Barrie he said "you haven't changed! You know what your FIRST tape was from Music Trader? You were in elementary school!" "No, I don't remember, what was it?" "your first tape was the Stray Cats!"

Shit! I was cool back then too! Enjoy. You can download the full mix (song-by-song..sorry still figuring it out) by clicking riiiigggghhttt....here!

8-Trck Engineer: May 23rd 2008

It will never die Rockabilly Mix

FileFactory.com

It will never fail.

2008-05-22T23:55:00.000-07:00

Frank Lloyd Wright said "Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you." These limited edition Spirograph prints are intense! They are the work of Greig Anderson aka Effektive, a 26-year-old designer in Glasgow. I came across them on ISO50's blog. Scott Hansen (aka ISO50) has been on my RSS for a bit now and it's one of the few blogs I actually go to almost everyday not only because I love his design but because he shares some amazing stuff like these prints!

8-Trck Engineer Ep.01

2008-05-21T00:07:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in almost a week... I've been thinking about how I want to post music and was gathering my thoughts. I've also been busy job hunting and party-planning for my girlfriends 25th birthday party.

The way I was posting music before was somewhat akin to a pirate ship. There's a lot of music blogs out there that are posting albums everyday. I'm not going to lie, I do get some music that way. But after doing it myself I started feeling the moral weight getting heavier and heavier. Granted, only like 3 people even downloaded the albums I posted (why is that?), I'm still changing it up.

Instead of uploading full albums from current artists I'm listening to, I'm going to become....wait for it.....

The 8-Trck Engineer!

twice a week I will be hosting an 8 track mix. So for the 3 or 4 of you out there that come across this blog, maybe you'll look forward to some new music, maybe some old music and maybe some different music. I'm going to get back on this blog-of-a-horse and cover some new and interesting things going on in my world. Leave me some comments yo!

8-Trck Engineer, May 21st 2008

The Mutual Electricity mix

FileFactory.com

1. Apparat - Arcadia (boys noize remix)- Boys Noize have been really busy the past year. They've been on top of the best remixs from Justice to Feist. The original song from the album Walls was in my top 5 songs of 2007. HIGHLY recommend Apparat.

2. Feist - My Moon My Man (boys noize remix)- Thought these two tracks needed to be friends. Feist's vocals always kill. I really liked this remix. I'd like to hear more good electronic Feist songs.

3. Hercules & Love Affair - This is the single from the new album put out by New York DJ Andy Butler under DFA Records. Antony Hegarty (of the awesome Antony & the Johnsons) guests on this track.

4. Caribou - She's The One (Hot Chip Remix)- Caribou's Andorra was one of my top albums of 2007. Throw in a remix from Hot Chip? Can't beat it. This track has been playing since I got it last month.

5. Gablé - Puree Hiphop (7 Guitars with a Cloud of Milk)- Honestly...I don't know who Gable is. I just got this track from Bleep's latest comp and I LOVE IT... I LOVE THIS TRACK. I'm going to research these guys or guy or girl right now. bye.

6. Four Tet - Ribbons - Off his new 2008 4 track "Ringer" album. This is not the Four Tet everyone's used to and you can only love him more for it.

7. Flying Lotus - Parisian Goldfish - Flying Lotus has been coming up the last year. This is off 2008's Los Angeles - a perfect album for when your in the mood for head-bobbing to non-intrusive beats.

8. Junior Boys - No Kinda Man - This is an exclusive track for Body Language Six, a mix cd for Get Physical's series. Anything JB puts out I jump on... JB makes me feel good.

all artists links are to myspace.

Blu u blow my MIND

2008-05-12T23:16:00.000-07:00

My theory is this: Vision, as one of our senses, is pretty much predominant in everyday life. We use all our senses, but our vision uses the most brain power in our every day activities (driving our cars, walking through streets, reading our books and newspapers). When you think about how much we rely on our vision for everything, I think we sell ourselves short when it comes to new visual experiences. I'm not talking about some blockbuster movie or drama though- those are people doing people things maybe just with different settings or ideas. I'm talking about experiences that are truly new to our senses. They might be minute and mundane enough for us not to even notice, or huge and significant enough to make us stop and involuntarily drop our jaws.

I can tell you the last time a visual experience made me tear (don't laugh jerk)... I was with my girlfriend Junia (her blog Tonteria) watching the movie Sunshine on opening night (check out the video down below after READING THE REST!). The visuals and sound in some of the scenes that focus on the Sun are amazing on a huge screen. One scene made me seriously tear-up, I was so in awe. I honestly had a fuckin tear go DOWN MY CHEECK! I didn't cry, I just...I don't know, emotionally leaked. I'd never experienced that. The heaviness of the movies' concept just crashed down on me when I saw that awesomely CG rendered Sun, almost as if I was in that movie. Back to my point. My theory. My theory is simple- we often forget the power of new visual experience simply because we live visually. It's over-stimuli. Too many people's problem is that they are so used to not fully appreciating something because of the amount of crap there is in this world. I know people that just have this serious mental block from appreciating something new so much so that it never even reaches the point of whether they can judge if they like it or not. If they've never seen it, it's not for them. "Eh..I don't know what that is, what's over there"

We need to stop sometimes and let that new experience at least have a chance at affecting us. SO! When I come across new audio/visual pieces that really let me experience something fresh I can't help but share it.

That being said, I wanted to share this insane video from Blu, titled MUTO. This was made in Buenos Aires but Blu has some amazing wall pieces all over the damn planet. Check out his nice website. This piece is going to set a bar...I don't know what bar, but it is. Bombers, taggers, designers, video makers, and illustrators ALL OVER THE WORLD....... WATCH

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

here's the trailer to Danny Boyle's Sunshine......jerk.

dude you heard the man...

2008-05-08T18:56:00.000-07:00

...whatcho mama say?

Deadly Avenger - Blood & Blossoms

2008-05-07T11:57:00.000-07:00

Imagine this. Ambient sounds slowly pulsing, add piano and strings over it till it reaches the height of a classical crescendo, the climax keeps going all the while the strings get a little more potent, stabbing out of the background, then the piano and strings go it alone until it's just the strings stabbing, then the retro synth beat starts. It almost scares you how it jumps in out of no where, almost as if you were at a classical recital and then some break-dancing kid jumps on stage with his ghetto-blaster jamming some eighties freestyle beat while he starts shuffling around the orchestra. That's the title track, Blood & Blossoms, off Deadly Avenger's last album. There's a lot of twists like that in this album, and if you like beats and instrumental music, seriously give this a try. My only advice is not to skip any of it, cause like I said, there are tons of nice and very fresh twists that might not happen till half way through a song- and most of those twists are enough to make you grin and think "damn, you sly Mr. Avenger..." If you like it buy it. click on sendspace for the album DL

myspace

sendspace

What all good music needs to do.

2008-05-05T11:04:00.001-07:00

I listen to a lot of music, but I can't say all of it really inspires me. Being inspired by music is probably the purest form of inspiration you can experience. There's nothing but your brain and sound. The fact that this simple relationship can be so complex and so meaningful says something about the power of sound and music. The sad thing is that this relationship isn't true for everyone; but for those who this is, music can be extremely powerful. Powerful enough to immediately change our moods or make us cry from just the sheer emotional force that music carries within in it- rather, I should say the sheer emotional force that our brains interpret from the sounds. Music has no emotionality, it's just vibrating air waves. Our brain is what assembles the music, and since every brain reacts differently to each of the different senses we have, we can kind of say that we all interpret music different from one another. This is why some people listen to tons and tons of music, don't listen to music at all, or just listen to crap. Just kidding. But really, my brain processes Celine Dion and Jack Johnson in a similar way it makes me cringe like when I accidentally take a drink from some old lumpy milk. On the other hand, when I hear the right music, I swear I can feel all the positive neurological firings going off in my skull. My brain fuckin lights up! Among my top inspirational music (in no part. order) are Radiohead, Epic45, (early)New Order, Apparat, The Album Leaf, M83, Explosions In The Sky, and Four Tet. There a more of course, but these are a few off the top of my head.

On to current events...

As most of you know Radiohead is having a remix contest for Nude (www.radioheadremix.com), which for the most part has been very successful. However, did you know that Radiohead is in the middle of a video contest too? Aniboom is hosting a music video contest for songs off of In Rainbows. I believe you can still submit. I got a few days to myself this week, so let's see if I can come up with something. Radiohead has always gave my creative mind a little jumpstart when it needed one. Check out flight404's amazing video for Weird Fishes: Apreggi. Shit, I know it'll be hard competing against videos like this, but that's not the point. This video is inspiring me to create my own regardless of a contest. so lookout.

Weird Fishes: Arpeggi from flight404 on Vimeo.

THE FUTURE

2008-05-01T22:17:00.000-07:00

How awesome would it be if all your friends carried this around? come on it's only 100 bucks! We could run into each other walking down Haight and exchange some playlists. This is the miShare. It let's you transfer music, video, photos, anything you've got on your ipod, to another ipod. It only takes about 10 seconds a song which ain't bad at all.

M83 - Saturdays = Youth

2008-05-01T21:04:00.000-07:00

If you could plug a speaker into my highschool life, it would sound like the new M83, Saturdays = Youth. I'm not sure if that's the case because (a) of all the things I've read and heard regarding Anthony Gonzales' attempts at manifesting this feeling of nostalgia, specifically to the 80's, (b) I've watched the video to "Graveyard Girl" too many times, or (c) this album really just does accomplish what it set out to do- make you feel like an emotional teenager. You would hear Andres sitting in his room making mix tapes solely using songs from The Cure and New Order. You would hear Andres at shows thinking he has some connection with a cute girl across the room because they keep making eye contact. You would hear the red lights of a weekend party and you would hear the fire of a bonfire at Imperial Beach. Although I didn't go through highschool in the 80s, I went through highschool an 80's kid. Every weekend I'd go to Music Trader to look for an 80's New Wave compilation I didn't already have. On the weekends I'd watch eighties movies with Junia, the 80's movie trivia master. She can literally see .5 seconds of a movie from the 80s and tell you exactly what it is.

Saturdays = Youth brings all your teen drama back but it brings it back in the same heaviness that you felt it when you were 17. The best part is that this isn't a "throwback" record. This is new and this is purely M83 as no one else could have made a record like this. Saturdays = Youth does differs from M83's wall-of-emotion-wall-of-sound from the albums before by taking the same layers they've always used and re-arranges them to let a little air through and which means the album is a little more accessible. Anyone can like this album, which is a first for M83.

The first track everyone heard off this album was Couleurs, as it was released months before the album and now after listening to this album for a few weeks, I feel it was a brilliant move. I loved the song but was a little uncomfortable with the idea that M83 was not going to be my electronic equivalent to shoegaze anymore. TOTALLY WRONG, in-fact that track creates the perfect break from what otherwise would have been an album with too strong a focus. That track blends and blurs it enough so all the...couleurs (if you will) create an overall beautiful piece of art. If you like this album, go buy it and support them on their tour. They play here in SF on May 21st. Enjoy.

M83 Myspace
Sendspace

Save The Date!

2008-05-01T00:03:00.000-07:00

Alright, so a few weeks ago I took part in a "Save the Date Challenge" held by Minted.com. The 1st place prize is 1000 dollars and a I'm feeling slightly confident. Slightly. There's some really good designs. There's some not so good ones either, and hopefully voters will place mine in the first category. I called mine "Spring Theory." A kind of play off the title "String Theory." I wanted to make it light with very thin accent lines that would curve into the picture. There's a slight antiqueness added to the lower portion where the text goes, but I'm not so sure people will see that. The couple pictured wanted something that went well with their outdoor garden theme wedding with bright colors. I was kinda tripping myself over my color palette and I think I could have come up with something better. I guess Yuri's Night sucked some of the creativity out of me (I had to submit this a few days after the event). In any case, it makes me feel a little more confident that I can design wedding stationary. This business is lacking a lot of design and is totally over-priced everywhere. That's a great combination to dive into. So I'm confident in my design, but doubtful that I'll win anything. But it's been fun feeling this anticipation and I'm going to look forward to future design challenges. REGISTER AND VOTE! REGISTER AND VOTE!

check out the submissions here: www.minted.com

Foals - Antidotes

2008-04-29T11:40:00.001-07:00

I already know "Red Socks Pugie," a song off the Foals album, Antidotes, is going to be in my top 10 songs of 2008. This album is an evolved sound that kinda started in the early 2000s with groups like Les Savy Fav, Liars, Hot Hot Heat, and Red Light Sting. Antidotes, however, sounds more skilled and precise. Antidotes makes me want...no no, need to move. The past week I've been riding my buses around SF and probably looking like a retard cause I can't sit still. My legs can't not move. I know this album has been circulating through the blogs, but for you guys that missed it, check this out, and if you like, go buy it please. I would say that if your up here in SF go see them on May 22. But I won't. Because I know it won't be any fun since they're playing at Popscene. Shows at Popscene are like "Hey let's see how many indie kids we can fit into a space the size of my apartment, then have Foals play and see how stupid they all look cause they can't move, but need to move because the music is so good."...or something like that. I realize Foals has a mean reputation for house shows and even freakin' bedroom shows, but I'd rather they feel my energy when it's not being suffocated by all the skinny legs-in-skinny jeans at a Popscene show. So, DL the album, and like I said, go buy it if you like it. They're playing down in SD too.

Foals, Antidoes

(US) Sub Pop, 2008

Myspace

Sendspace

Babasonicos - Mucho, 2008

2008-04-28T01:35:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while I hear some good Rock En Espanol. I'm not exposed to it as much as I'd like to be so when I hear something good, I get hooked on it for a while. I thought I'd post this album even though the quality of this makes it sound like it was recorded in the 80s with Soda Stereo or something. But maybe it kinda adds to the overall feel of it. Take it or leave it, I think the album is worth listening to regardless of the quality. Maybe it'll make you go buy it if you like it. Better yet, for those of you who are down in San Diego, Babasonicos is playing on May 28 and in Tijuana in the same week. Babasonicos is from Buenos Aires and are pretty straight forward. They play the same instruments as everyone else, have catchy hooks, vocally sound pretty similar to other bands...you get the idea. But the thing is, it sounds totally fresh to me. They give me that same feeling that The Stills gave me in 2003 even though there were bands in the few years prior that had similar formulas. Babasonicos have been around since the early 1990s, but this is the first album I've heard. Damn am I late on this one. The album's got me enough to where I think I'm going to listen to the earlier albums and enough to wish they were playing up here in SF, cause I'd definitely go. If any wants to recommend some similar sounds, please do.

myspace

sendspace

Yuri's Night April 12th, 2008

2008-04-27T23:39:00.000-07:00

What the F is Yuri’s Night!?

I know, I know. This was only it’s 2nd year as a large scale event here in the Bay Area. Basically what it is, is a celebration for science, particularly issues dealing with new technologies, the history and future, and our current relationship with, outer space. The idea began by paying homage Yuri Gagarin. “Yuri Gagarin was the first human to go into space on April 12th, 1961. The US Space Shuttle first launched on April 12th, 1981. Yuri's Night is like the St Patricks Day or Cinco de Mayo for space. It is one day when all the world can come together and celebrate the power and beauty of space and what it means for each of us” -http://www.yurisnight.net/2008/. When you think about it, that’s a pretty amazing feat. I would say “hell fuckin yeah I’ll be the first member of our species, in the history of our species on Earth, to go into outer space!” I’d probably piss my pants just from the idea that I am ONE human amidst the uncountable humans that have lived since the beginning of the modern human 200000 years ago, to leave this planet. Think about it!
So Yuri’s Night is held on April 12th and is over 90 parties held in over 30 countries around the world. Check this out to get an idea. Here in the Bay Area, we’re lucky enough to have the biggest and best party. Some places throw their parties in a local bar, in the university Science Club meeting room, or in some dude’s basement. But here! We get to go to the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View. The event is 2pm to 2am and is held in a huge NASA hangar. This year some good people played like Tipper, Lusine, Tycho, Amon Tobin. At a quick glance the event might look like a Burningman but for science and electronic music lovers. There are plenty of science hippies there, but there are also many people just plain into science and good music…you know like Junia and I. So getting to my point.
This year I had the opportunity to create two works for Yuri’s Night. This came about because I ran into a friend who happened to be this year’s art curator. I offered vinyl signage or help and he asked me to do an installation for some wall space in a VIP tent. Awesome. I had 2 days to get back to him with one and when I did they approved it and asked if I could do another one. Hell yes! So here are my two pieces.

“Where is the Science?” is on 72x48 canvas. (following is very informal writing and probably has tons of grammatical errors.) There is a little boy, dreaming about himself, dreaming about scientific issues and ideas VERY relevant to today and our future. This A to B to C is there to create a disconnection. The idea is that our education and youth are still very disconnected to these ideas.
Let me tell you what those scientific ideas are, starting with the top left:

"Helloooo Kyotooo": This is in reference to the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol is an agreement made under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Countries that ratify this protocol commit to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases, or engage in emissions trading if they maintain or increase emissions of these gases. As of December 2007, the US and Kazakhstan are the only signatory nations not to have ratified the act. WEAK! we suck!

"Big bang big crunch big mac attack!" This one is just a playful juxtaposition. The big bang, most people know about. The Big Crunch is a theory of what happened before the big bang...or if you want to put it, what will happen when all the universes finally collapse...which would then cause another Big Bang...etc etc. BUT! do people even know about these theories? I'm sure many people might just read "Big Mac Attack!" and laugh it off. I like the idea of a huge astronomical idea being lost by our obsession with fast food.

"Where is the ScienceDebate2008?" This one is super relevant. It’s basically a call....a plea!... to the 2008 presidential Candidates to have a scientific debate.. something they are all afraid to do. But as we can see, with all these important issues, the public needs to get in on scientific issues. Let’s hope Hillary and Obama have the huevos.

"hamburger with "Invincible Defense Technology".. IDT, is not really a technology. It's basically a form of yoga. BUT, theoretically if practiced in large groups or communities, the theory is that it decreases crime and murder, etc etc. I guess there are supposed to be some military training on this sometime this year. It's very interesting. People bounce around sitting yoga-style-legs-crossed, but all together. They say if 1% of the population in an area does it, great things can happen.

"Large Hadron Collider" This is a new physics instrument that is supposed to be used this year! after using it, it might have profound affects on the theories of the Big Bang and how our Universe began. ... those wired tubes you see are worm holes which are related to talks of the expanding universe.

"Moon 2008, 2050" This is a play on the ideas of space travel and it's relationship with Defense in the US. Check this out.. Robert Walker, a former congressman and a member of the Presidential Commission on the Implementation of the United States Space Exploration Policy said "Having a U.S. presence on the moon at least gives us the chance to keep an eye on the standard of conduct," Walker says. "And that's pretty damned important. In military terms, the moon can be seen as the ultimate high ground. A nation could set up hard-to-defeat microwave or laser weapons platforms aimed at in-orbit satellites or, in the best sci-fi tradition, to launch large rocks at the Earth with "mass drivers”.... INSANE.

"Robots and Earth as Art" This is my dive into science and art. This one is more based on my feelings toward how the masses view science and the awesome awesome awesome universe we live in. People believe because you don't believe in GOD or religion that you can't appreciate who and where we are. I feel it's the complete OPPOSITE. How can you appreciate the crazy wonders in our universe if you give one idea credit for the reality that we live in and then shut them out by not exploring and questioning the mind-blowing ideas that arise in our lives. Also, I feel it brings the whole piece together in it's purpose. Art is my means to get these questions out to people who might not normally see them.

"Use the Matrix" This one is a Stem Cell Research reference. There is this new miracle powder called "The Extrocellular Matrix" that they are going to start testing this year on Troops coming home who have lost limbs. One man used it on his finger after losing an inch of it by a blade, after like 4 weeks, his finger grew back.. Stem Cells are the damn future of medicine.

"the Lambs" This is a little reference to another artist piece. Aaron Koblin used the internet and Amazon's new Mechanical Turk to get 10000 "sheep facing left" drawn by people around the world. This new internet phenomenon shows the power of connectivity. People got paid 2 cents per sheep drawing. Corporations will use this thing for MASSIVE information and data cases.

"Pluto and Eris" This refers to the debate over "What is a Planet?" Pluto was all fine and dandy, then comes along bigger Eris (Xena was the original name wanted by Michael Brown, discoverer). Pluto in the end, was demoted as a planet and is now a Dwarf Planet along with Eris. This is important because we will keep finding "planets" or just things larger than Pluto beyond it's orbit and it's important we know what to do with them...so to speak.

"Science does not know it's debt to imagination" a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson. This ties everything together.. I mean, this little boy could just have some crazy imagination and is dreaming up all this stuff. Science does not push forward when there is no imagination and each of those ideas drawn are perfect examples.

”I Get My Energy From Somewhere Else” is vinyl on 34x34 plywood. Whenever I think about “the energy crisis” and global warming, I immediately start thinking about our children. What do they think of all this? If most of the adults in this country don’t see the seriousness in an issue like this, what about these kids? If everyone put, like, just ONE hour of their life into reading about what might happen in our own life time due to global warming, I think things would change real quick. Kids aren’t like that though. They get their energy from somewhere else. They don’t need us to point a gun to their head and say “YOUR CITIES WILL BE UNDER WATER IN LESS THAN 50 YEARS!” They get their energy from somewhere else.

Thanks to Laughing Squid for some of these pics below

Ultimate nerd alert

2008-04-25T09:24:00.000-07:00

Alright everyone. So, Andres is a gamer. Well, I’m definitely not as bad as I used to be (thank J for that), but I still keep up with video game news and releases. Your probably like “ahhh Andres, you’re a nerd!” and I’m probably “Fuck off! Have some balls and be one too!”
I know most of you…maybe all of you, aren’t into video games, but I’m going to write about some none-the-less. Apart from being completely blown away by 2007’s Bioshock,

I’ve finally started, (and by started I mean put in only about 20 hours) the game Mass Effect.

Some of you may have seen or heard the whole “Lesbian sex- Fox news scandal” with this game. Ridiculous. Some self-help writer said this game had porn and should be pulled from shelves blahblahblah. Thing is, she never played it. She heard about some kind of sex scene and Fox news blew it up…go fig. The sex scene is less than what you’d see on a primetime Fox tv show so I don’t know what they be bitching about. But, this game IS for adults. I mean, even if there was a porno sex scene, kids wouldn’t make it .5 of the way there to see it. They’d be bored out of their freakin minds.
But this isn’t why I’m writing about this game.
This has to be one of best sci-fi experiences I’ve ever had. This game isn’t a game. This is a fuckin interactive novel. There’s more reading in this game than the past few novels I’ve read this year. Junia walks by and keeps asking “what the hell are you playing? Your not even playing anything…” And she’s right. For every hour of play there only like 5-10 minutes of space-gunner-blaster-lazer action. But people! That’s the beauty of video games today! This is an art-medium! Just like a well written novel or directed movie, video games are SEE REE US.
You play a space marine a number of years after humans have colonized near-by space. We’ve already been in one war against our first alien contact and now we’ve joined the galactic community of space-faring races. Keep in mind that all technology, races, dates, military and governments…EVERYTHING, is explained in-depth and completely believable. They put serious technological, physical, astrophysical, biological, etcetc, research time in. So the story goes, I’m a marine, but my character, my personality, is entirely up to me by way of choosing the way I converse with other characters in the game. After about 20 hours of playing you start to see the effects of whether you were a dick or a nice guy up to that point.
Anyways! This game is so awesome because it completely re-enforces the fact that our galaxy, especially our Earth, are just tiny pebbles in a river of rocks. This game makes me think about our place and our future here on Earth. It also makes me think about how awesome video games are. So go try a few if you haven’t in a while. They aren’t really for kids anymore you know.

FIRST POST! EVERRRRR!

2008-04-25T01:34:00.000-07:00

I'm not really sure why I'm choosing this as my first blog, but I'm in a good state right now with this on and felt like you guys might like this. But first, let me just say, I'm not a music critic nor do I really aspire to be one.

Music: This is what I'm listening to right now.. 1:35AM. Just started my blog and this is exactly what's playing. This album, for the past few weeks, has been my "I'm-up-late-and-need-to-play-something-good-but-calm-and-beautiful-and-let-me-shut-my-eyes-not-cause-I'm-tired-but-cause-the-music-sucks-my-eyelids-closed-because-it's-so-good" album. This is definitely something you can relax too.

This Balmorhea's Rivers Arms (Western Vinyl, Feb. 2008)

This is music without percussion, without a lot of layers, and without a lot of complex instruments. This is piano, violin, guitar. Maybe a few other timbres, but it consistently stays minimal and beautiful. This is what I need to be listening to when I'm peacefully walking half-pace, alone, and in the middle of a wilderness 1,000 miles long, not worried about a single single single thing. I'm not going into this much further, but if you like minimal and hints of classical and music that makes your head just sort of sway with piano keys, then listen to this. you can DL the album on my link below.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/rentg2

so this is the internets?

2008-04-25T01:18:00.000-07:00

So here I am. Finally. Sorta. I'm not totally here yet. But here I am. I've finally decided to start one of these blogs. Junia and I were talking and she convinced me (don't tell her that). But she was right. I love to share things with other people and I love to take in what other people share with me. It's a great cycle to allow yourself to be in...always. I feel like this is what makes me a good person. At the root of all things that is me and what I strive to be, someone who can always appreciate new things shared and discovered and then can't wait for others to be apart of that new connection... That to me is a sign of a good person. And..AND.. these new connections between people aren't there for "cool points" or for personal acclaim. These drives to share and receive need to be honest and need to demonstrate the love of things. Cause that's what I got! I got the love of things!

This blog is going to be that. Music.Design.Art.etcetetc. things I feel others might appreciate. I might not post every day, but when I do post, be sure it'll be something worth posting about.