TURNING27

mis fotos

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.

Ellen Allien + Modeselektor

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.

"Political Science"

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.

THE FUTURE

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.

Yuri's Night April 12th, 2008

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