Been listing to Revolved lately, a mashup of the Beatles Revolver album. I know there’s a bunch of Beatles mashups out there now, DJ Dangermouse’s Grey Album and The Beastles two name a couple. Revolved is done right, matched tempos, beats and rhythms with songs from The Cure, Madonna, Jimi Hendrix and even Glenn Miller.
DJ Spooky is friggin’ brilliant, let it be said. He kicked off Rhythm Science, a lecture last night on art history, philosophy, hiphop and remix culture, by invoking the gift economy. He handed out free mix CDs to everyone in the audience. He then proceded to pull out a personal stash of records that are obviously the tools of his trade and shared them with everyone in the audience. Not for keeps, but show and tell like, letting everyone fondle and caress each piece of vinyl before passing it on to his and her neighbor.
And then the lecture started. Here’s some notes I picked up along the way.
-the culture of copy
-information ecology
-the source code is human expression mediated by human interpretation
-the Beats of the 50’s gave birth to the beats of the 21st century
-fuckitall.com
-discourse of the nation state
-Internet inheriting the remixing from the streets (the first network)
-the artist as font, moveable to different compositions
-Spooky is a French lit and philosophy major
-dialectics of sound
-streetlights as controls of the original network, the streets
-music is liquid architecture
-copyright as it is written and as it is lived is diverging
-electronic music is the folk music of the 21st century, everyone knows and plays each other’s music
-Birth of a Nation was the first film to play in the White House
And then there was the other reason he was here. This free lecture proceeds a $40 a head gig he’s doing this weekend at Yerba Buena in San Francisco. Spooky uses the 1915 silent KKK propaganda film The Birth of a Nation as source material for video on 3 giant screens and an accompanying composition he created. Too rich for my blood right now, but I’d love to hear report backs.
UPDATE: Some pix I took. Steve Rhodes has more.
I love that so many people I know are so damn creative. Makes living kind of easy sometimes. Brilliant and creative Renegade made this quirkly funny and fast paced cooking video with her dog Dexter. Check it and smile.
Been thinking a lot about Webzine lately. Some ideas:
-500-1000 people
-2 days over a weekend
-in San Francisco, though East Bay is not out of the question
-July, August or September 2005
-not Labor Day weekened +/- 3 weeks
-increase diversity in race, gender participation
-one room with panels & speakers, so no conflict in choosing which one to attend
-lounge w/comfy couches, tea, coffee, snacks to encourage schmoozing/connecting/networking
-“masters” area where knowledge experts of varying disciplines can casually engage with interested attendees. possibly open signup list.
-encourage participation by all attendees
-host brainstorming session mid-April, let me know if you want in
Oh, and if you just dropped in and have no idea what I’m talking about, we’re getting the band back together. The Webzine band that is. The band that is a conference, party and expo for independent publishing on the Internet. Just as relevant today as it was then.
What a week! SXSW Interactive in Austin is just what I needed. I hadn’t planned on going until Scott pulled me in, like the good friend he is. It was a Webzine reunion of sorts, with at least a dozen people there who were panelists and speakers at years past. Seeing all these fine folks again has got me thinkng it just might be time for another Webzine in San Francisco. 5 years seems about right.
Some takeaways from SXSW:
– met lots o’ cool brilliant people who I can’t wait to collaborate with in the future
– wordpress is the shit, as is its creator
– lots of panels got me hot, but it’s all mush right now
– discovered the awesome culinary power of Las Manitas
– parties, parties, Bruce Sterling, parties, cheap beer, parties and after-parties
– dude, I could have so been on that panel!
– vowing not to pay for admission next year (kinda goes with above)
– discovered the joy of using an RSS reader, where the fuck have I been??
– podcasting – ready to receive, yo!
– running into ex-SF peeps living in Austin who weren’t at SXSW. hi Clay, hi Cathy!
– smooches
– Flickr continues to rock ass
– will remember not to forget the data cable for my digital camera next time so I can play in the realtime photo stream
– blogging can be fun, gonna make it a point to do it more often
– human beings are a fun species
– I can’t believe Austin is in Texas
– Flavor Fav was not there, but damn it would have been cool to see him interview Ana Marie Cox about ass fucking. He always knew what time it was.
Hot pr0n action in the Turning Pink to Green: The Online Business of Pleasure panel discussion. Halcyon goes from content editor to being content with his new sweetie. Fleshbot John talks about the ins and outs of reviewing interesting porn made real by the digital world. Amelia talks affiliate programs and zinester beginnings. Ethics touched on and laid bare throughout. Click on (if you’re over 18 of course).
Read More “SXSW: Turning Pink to Green”
Notes from the How to Leverage Decentralized Social Networks panel this morning. Click on, yo.
Read More “SXSW: How to Leverage Decentralized Social Networks”
Notes from How to Create Activist Technology panel. Good shit, read on.
Read More “SXSW: How to Create Activist Technology”
Here are notes I took from the Future of Broadband Wireless Networks: Public or Private? panel that interested me this morning at SXSW. I’m exploring the idea of how this could happen in San Francisco, specifically to provide Internet access (and computers) to underserved/poor communities in the city.
Read More “SXSW: Future of Wireless Networks panel”
A memorable quote from the second full day of SXSW:
“we don’t have to lock our balls in someone elses vice. or nipples.” —Marc Canter, Open Source Infrastructure panel
Too tired to talk about all the cool shit that transpired today. Check Technorati SXSW tag page for other blogs telling sorted SXSW stories.
