Listen, love, and dance in a time of occupation.

lyrics
You, you, you
Are a part of me
The good part, the right part
The part that I like to see, now

Three, three, three
Three enemies
I face three, I face three
I fight three to keep you with me

Got a place, got a place, got a place
I got a place in my heart for you
With the things
That are secret to me

I, I, I can see
I can’t really be
I can’t be, I cant… be
I can’t be without you baby

Occupy me / occupy me / Occupy ME!
I give up, I give up my sovereignty
We are 3 / We are 3 / We are 3

The love, the hate, the love, the hate, the harmony
Dissonance is, dissonance is synthesis
And how I feel is just like this

Featuring special guest bassist Krys VanSlyke

Nicholas DiBiase and I perform an acoustic cover of REM’s “Fall on Me”.

Also check out Scott Korb’s NY Times article “The Right Moves,” about Michael Stipe’s signature moves.

This track is like Monteverdi meets Massive Attack. Opera meets trip hop and makes a hot atmospheric mess. This is my first foray in recording vocals in Italian.

lyrics
Lasciatemi morire,
Lasciatemi morire;
E che volete voi che mi conforte
In così dura sorte,
In così gran martire?
Lasciatemi morire.

Let me die,
Let me die;
And what you would think could comfort me
In such a harsh fate,
In such a great martyrdom?
Let me die.

Video of me giving a Pecha Kucha-style talk at a Purpose.com event in March 2011. I weave together a story that combines design philosophy and movement building with anecdotes and metaphors from capoeira, pop culture, and literary history.

There was a camera glitch halfway through the talk, so please pardon the jump cut. Music by Hepnova.

HEPNOVA is dedicating our cover version of Green Island Serenade (綠島小夜曲) to jailed Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. As a song that was popular in Taiwan, China, and across the Sinosphere, we think it is a poignant symbol of cross-strait solidarity. On the surface, the lyrics are a pop song about a man admiring a silent woman from afar, but it has also been interpreted by many to be a veiled protest against government censorship and oppression.

We hope you enjoy the song, learn it’s meaning, and pass it on.

You can also sign a petition by Change.org or Avaaz.org calling for Ai Weiwei’s release.

The blog started out as an experiment back when I lived in Japan from 2003-2006. It was a way for me to document my experiences and to keep in touch with those around me and friends and family far away. After I moved to NYC, it continued to be a public diary and chronicle of interesting things going on in my life. But with the explosive and ubiquitous rise of Facebook and Twitter (and to some extent Flickr), it was faster and easier for me to share links, photos, and other experiences through those other channels. When I was doing my masters at ITP, this blog became almost exclusively a place for documenting the work I was doing there.

I have certainly worked on music sporadically over the last few years, whether it was collaborating with JC Cassis, the Hepnova tracks Nicholas and I have worked on for transistor troubadour (an album in progress), or even the experimental pieces I composed at ITP.  But I’ve had a lot going on lately since then, working full time at Purpose and taking up capoeira as well.  I’ve always had many different interests and have gone through life exploring them. And I have not been as focused as I now feel like I should have been.  But this is not a blog post about regret, but about moving forward.  Now the various threads of interests are starting to coalesce, and I’ve realized that I should focus and take my musical interests more seriously.

Lots of disparate things have happened, but they all make sense when I look at them together.  They are signs (if you believe in those, and I’m not sure I do, but any how), that music is the way forward.  Nicholas from Hepnova and I talked about 2011 being “the year of music” during our last recording sessions in Phoenix in late December/early January.  Joe and I had grand ambitions to start a band called Welcome Lucky Cat.  We bought ukuleles, which I’ve played around with, and we even did a photo shoot.  As an aside, this performance of Bohemian Rhapsody by Jake Shimabukuro is amazing.  And I love his quote about how if everyone played ukulele, the world would be a better place.  I mean, how can you be sad, even on a depressing rainy day like today with a ukulele.

Anyway,  The band thing with me and Joe didn’t work out, but our collaborations did result in the song Petrosino Square, which I co-wrote with Joe, with musical contributions by Nicholas.  I’ve really been getting into my capoeira training, not just for the physical and mental workouts, but for the opportunity to learn the musical side of the capoeira tradition as well, through learning to play the pandeiro, the berimbau, and learning to sing the capoeira songs.  More recently, I was asked JC Cassis to be in her band, Xelle’s music video, “Party Girl.” Being in rehearsal and on set with the ladies from Xelle and the other fabulous party people in the video, I was inspired by their dedication and passion for their musical métier and they way they treated their work as both art and craft.

That brings us to today.  It’s a grey, rainy, nasty NYC March day.  I haven’t left my apartment, except to take out the trash.  But I’ve finally had a day in to think, and to reflect.  I spent the morning making some breakfast, and catching up on my news and RSS feeds.  I love to spend rainy weekend days in, listening to music, writing, and making my own.  But it has been a long time since I have had this opportunity.  In particular, I was quite moved by James Blake’s “Limit to Your Love”, the part when the sub-bass drops is really amazing.   I was also listening to an NPR interview with James Vincent Morrow earlier today.  The opening to his track, “If I Had a Boat” is hauntingly beautiful.

Ok, I think the rains have washed away my creative block.  Now it’s time to finish the transistor troubadour album.

“Petrosino Square”

Romantic recrudescence
Far from the burning iridescence
Safe from the searchlights of the past
Witnesses no more, but outlaws at last

You start to tense, begin to brace
As I press the revolver to your face
I see you aflame in this love so heady
Like a bomb thrown by Sacco and Vanzetti

When I saw you there in Petrosino Square
Is this paradise or my worst nightmare?
When the workers arise
I look into your eyes, your beautiful lies
Oh your beautiful eyes/lies

Your eyes your lies
Beautiful eyes/lies

Haven’t seen you in awhile and
I’m not sure how to start
Whether to thank or to blame you
For the anarchy in my heart
Your eyes your lies
Beautiful eyes/lies

More new Hepnova tracks on Bandcamp. And even more new music coming soon.

Sue-Shi, former vocalist/percussionist for Hepnova/The Ronald Raygun just published a werewolf-themed erotic novel, Pack of Lies.  Now available as an ebook for only $4.99.  Check it out!

While on the topic of Sue-Shi, check out some of her greatest hits!
Sex Power
Money (That’s What I Want) – Cover
Sexy Friends

Ni Hao You Doin’? – A new Hepnova shirt on Zazzle in collaboration with Joey G.

We were hanging out in Little Italy/Chinatown tonight and Joe came up with this brilliant bilingual pun that celebrates the confluence of cultures in a pizza/scallion pancake slice of Lower Manhattan with classic New York wit and attitude.  Here’s to pasta and to potstickers and to Sino-Italian-American friendship! Ni hao you doin’?

Buy the Ni Hao You Doin’ shirt on Zazzle

Ni Hao You Doin’? by Hepnova in collaboration with Joey G

I’ve just been featured as one of “100 Passionate People” of Taiwanese-America on TaiwaneseAmerican.org! View my profile here.

About the 100 Passionate People Project:

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, and the 2nd week of the month is Taiwanese American Heritage Week. TaiwaneseAmerican.org is pleased to present the profiles of a wide cross-section of everyday Taiwanese Americans who many of you have told us that you find personally inspiring or passionate about what they do. Each day this month, we’ll present about three people, of all ages, generations, and careers until we reach 100 people.

Make no mistake, this is NOT the 100 “most passionate” people, because we know there are many more folks to connect with or hear about who also fit this criteria and deserve to be highlighted, too. With your help, we will find them. This project is just the beginning.

For now, this is a glimpse into the diversity of our community and a collection of their stories and opinions. In the future, we’ll be planning other “100 people” projects based on various themes (i.e. tech, community leaders, moms, etc.) and eventually grow our project into a historical archive chronicling the stories of Americans of Taiwanese heritage.

If you know of someone who you think should be profiled this month or in one of our future projects, please send this link to them: http://bit.ly/cSZvf4

New music for your next ccowboy zombie prom slow dance from Hepnova & JC Cassis

Original version of Again Tonight

More Hepnova Music on Bandcamp

Here’s a new groove for #MusicMonday: an updated version of the Hepnova track You’re For Me with vocals by the fierce and fabulous Ms. JC Cassis.   The original version of You’re For Me was on our eponymous 2009 album and featured vocals by Hepnova co-founder Nicholas Dibiase.

The electric guitar solo (you know, the part where you wonder, “who invited The Edge to this Silk Road hoe down?”) was played by the brilliant Dr. Bob Devine.  And the crazy synth sounds you hear near the end come from the legendary Swedish SidStation.

Here are some reviews we have been getting:

JC calls You’re For me “a down-and-dirty country banger in the style of Johnny Cash.”

Mediocre Student says, “I like JC’s voice. and the pipa at the beginning. it’s like Detroit Chinatown. Your music has kind of a limping, offbeat rhythm which is a nice contrast to the incessant and calculated thrust of the bullshit Gaga house music I’ve been hearing in the Castro.” (*Actually the “pipa” sound is just a really cheap toy nylon string guitar, but also probably made in China, so I guess we are on the right track.)

Prestonism: “RAD to the MAX”

@ToniaMBartz: “GORGEOUS”

@KrysVS: “i would give it a “wow” to a “very wow”

@ClowerPower: “I could picture this on the soundtrack for a Tarantino film!!! ”

@AlexBerger: “A very fun retro feel!”

@JackAlert : “Can’t wait for #MusicMonday! Awesome new @Hepnova mix:… I think I might be in love with @JCCassis“

Photo by James Duncan Davidson.

I gave an updated version of the It’s Cool to be Flat talk at Ignite NYC last night.  I created the presentation with Nicholas DiBiase of Hepnova, and gave a previous version of the talk at ITP30 Pecha Kucha.

You can also download the presentation here: [PDF] [PPT]
UPDATE (11/17/2009): Here are my presentation notes. Hopefully the video will be on YouTube soon.

1. Hi. Iʼm LS. I am a creative technologist, and masters student at ITP, the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU. I developed this talk with Nicholas DiBiase of HEPNOVA Multimedia, who gave a version at Phoenix Design Week last month. This is a manifesto. This is a provocation. Itʼs cool to be flat. Cool like McLuhan. The world is flat. Letʼs embrace it.

2. A specter is haunting the world of the web and visual design. The specter is the gratuitous use of gradients, drop shadows, and faux 3D. This slide is a Wall of Shame. Join me in a holy alliance to exorcise this specter.

3. Welcome to Wankery, Inc. 2.0. Reflections and gradients do not equal instant web 2.0. These visual artifacts are a cheap trompe lʼoeil that dupes clients into paying more for ugly. This slide will be the death of me, one of us will have to go.

4. Design is not a dark art. Art for artʼs sake has its place, but design for design sake forgets the user. As designers, we need to be comfortable with our craft, Itʼs OK, really. Design is about function, not about showing off chops and gadgetry.

5. Design is compressed communication and not decoration. (seems obvious, but maybe those who proliferate gradients and reflections didnʼt get the memo) Good design expresses a lot of information in a short amount of space or time.

6. Simplicity is key. Condense and clarify, it donʼt clutter or complicate. Strip away the unwarranted and the unnecessary. Make positive use of negative space. Silence is negative space in time (pause)

7. Avoid pseudo 3-D effects and embrace flat. Work with rather than fight against with the nature of the 2-D media in which we work, be it print or a computer screen. Work with your constraints, and make use of other techniques, like bold color contrasts, interesting textures, and plenty of negative space,

8. Letʼs rise up in a tidal wave of change to bring flat back to the interwebs. This is restoration, not revolution. Flatness has a long and proud tradition through history and across world cultures, from this Hokusai woodblock print, to Western modern art.

9. From the Ancient Greeks to the Pacific Northwest Indians, flat art is internationally awesome. Artisans and craftspeople have worked with the constraints of the media and materials, and made effective use of bold lines and color contrasts.

10. In the Western Modern art tradition, artists like Mondrian, Matisse, and Kandinsky embraced the flatness of their canvases, through minimal, flat forms, their paintings are in a way, low resolution, high contrast A provocative challenge against the hegemony of traditional perspective.

11. Two more examples. Lichtensteinʼs work is comic book flat, while Calder is seriously simple. Lichtenstein makes the mechanics of the flat page a central element While Calder uses the intensity of his color contrast to take flat reductionism to an emotional extreme.

12. From cartoons to gallery walls. Ren & Stimpy to Murakami. Flat is back to the forefront of pop culture. Flat knows no distinction between the high and the low. Murakamiʼs superflat explores the superficiality of pop culture, but only the shallow know themselves, so thatʼs ok. *Thanks Oscar Wilde.

13. Visual and web designers can take some cues from the modernist architects. A simple ABC from Alvar Aaalto to the Bauhaus to Le Corbusier. Strip away the frivolous And cleanse the degenerate decadence of digital rococo that is rotting away the soul of the internet.

14. Letʼs take it to the bridge with a musical analogy. Hair rock vs. Punk Rock. We want to be punk. Do you want to contort yourself around a polytonal 11th chord with sus 4 flat 2? Or do you want to play a punk rock power chord? Think about it?

15. Here are some memorable and versatile “flat” logos. IBM lconveys the timelessness of Big Blue Chanel takes simplicity and turns it into elegant luxury Ubuntu conveys its values of community and sharing
BP is sinister greenwashing, but aesthetically brilliant And the Wu Tang, is Wu Tang

16. The formula is simple. FLAT is function over ornament. Get rid of the excessive. Elegance is not ornament. The slide speaks for itself. Reflections are the worst kind of vanity.

17. Design is about conveying your values and your vibes. Even without gradients, drop shadows and reflections, you can communicate with bold use of color, line, and contrast. Say more with less.

18. FLAT builds character. Hello Kitty is just a few lines and dots. She doesnʼt even have a mouth, but she is part of a multimillion $$ global empire Their simplicity means that they are accessible and universal, we can project our own meanings onto these characters. These 2 guys below are ODI and AMO, two characters I created last year.

19. This is a challenge to embrace the values of Flatness. This is the DAO of FLAT. Itʼs COOL to be FLAT. Be bold, be iconic, make a statement. Letʼs return to the values of simplicity and clarity in design.

Want to philosophize about flat? Or just tell me that Iʼm wack? Find me on the interwebs at LEESEAN.net or @leesean on Twitter. Thank you!

Here’s a photo by Carlo Demarchis of me presenting last night:

More info

We’re helping an amazing eco-friendly cleaning products company with their online presence and sales – follow them on Twitter @HerbNOrganics

We built the website for the Market on Mill, downtown Tempe’s community market, in less than 24 hours and set up their interactive media. We’re also doing content and photography for them.

We’re bringing a new, amazing music artist, José Alarcon, to the digital world for the first time, handling all production and branding – peep JoseGuitar.com.

Nicholas is getting ready to rock a presentation / workshop on our design philosophy at the groundbreaking Phoenix Design Week event.

Lee-Sean is busy preparing to speak on the same at Pecha Kucha at ITP in New York.

We’re helping a local environmentally-conscious large-format printer and signage company develop compelling promotional content – stay tuned!

We’re working with a major provider of recycled IT service parts and electronics to revamp their Web presence and marketing strategy – watch this space!

We’re producing new music, some foreign tunes with our unique electroacoustic sound! Check out our Bandcamp page for the latest!

And hecka more neat stuff!

What can we do for you? Drop us a line — Services [at] Hepnova [dot] com

Cross-posted from hepnova.com.

The working title of the new collection is Transistor Troubadour.  We are planning on doing some more covers as well as some Hepnova originals and to continue to develop the unique electro-acoustic sound that has emerged in previous Hep tunes like “You’re For Me” and “Again Tonight.”

Check out the new Hepnova tracks on Bandcamp. More tracks in the Transistor Troubadour collection are in the works, so check back often for more music!

Lyrics after the jump:

En la plaza de mi pueblo
Traditional

En la plaza de mi pueblo
dijo el jornalero al amo
“Nuestros hijos nacerán
con el puño levantado”.

Esta tierra que no es mía
esta tierra que es del amo
la riego con mi sudor
la trabajo con mis manos.

Pero dime, compañero,
si estas tierras son del amo
¿por qué nunca lo hemos visto
trabajando en el arado?

Con mi arado abro los surcos
con mi arado escribo yo
páginas sobre la tierra
de miseria y de sudor.

Märk Hur Vår Skugga (Fredmans Epistel #81)
Carl Michael Bellman

Märk hur vår skugga, märk movitz mon frère
Inom ett mörker sig slutar
Hur guld och purpur i skoveln den där
Byts till grus och klutar
Vinkar Karon från sin brusande älv
Och tre gånger sen dödgrävaren själv
Mer du din druva ej kryster
Därför Movitz kom hjälp mig och välv
Gravvård över vår syster

Lillklockan klämtar till storklockans dön
Lövad står kantorn i porten
Och vid de skrålande gossarnas bön
Helgas denna orten
Vägen opp till templets skriftprydda stad
Trampas mellan rosors gulnade blad
Multnande plankor och bårar
Till dess den långa och svartklädda rad
Djupt sig bugar i tårar

Så gick till vila från slagsmål och bal
Grälmakar Lövberg din maka
Där ditåt gräset långhalsig och smal
Hon än glor tillbaka
Hon från Dantobommen skildes idag
Och med henne alla lustiga lag
Vem skall nu flaskan befalla
Torstig var hon och uttorstig är jag
Vi är torstiga alla

The cast and crew of Timberbrit recently shot a music video of “Worst Fantasy,” a song from the opera based on Britney’s “Toxic”

While we are on the subject of Britney, check out Hepnova’s “Hit Me Britney,” a recombinant cover of “…Baby One More Time,” and “Oops!…I Did It Again.”

Whoa!…What’s with the ellipsis abuse?

Jackie O: Half Octopus Half Style Icon

Jackie O by Hepnova

Jackie O tribute on HuffPost

Nicholas DiBiase (@Hepnova) from Hepnova and Noah Dyer (@WealthNetTeam) from WealthNet Partners give a brisk talk about the basics of branding and how it can affect relationships with potential investors. Geared toward the entrepreneur, this video introduces the essential concepts of branding and why they matter to the startup seeking funding.

Stories, examples, and counterexamples along with an amusing skit keep this first salvo in the struggle against bad marketing fresh and entertaining.

This piece was produced for the online educational resource/expertise marketplace Advisor Garage.

This is the fifth in a series of “This is real DIY” experimental documentary videos. Music by Hepnova.

Also check out Best Shots, our best songs from the 1998-2003 “Ronald Raygun” era.

Both albums are DRM-free and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license, so feel free to share mp3s with your friends and strangers and remix to your heart’s content.

More music on Hepnova.com.  Follow us on Twitter: @hepnova.

P.S.  There is also Hepnova music on other music sites online, but Bandcamp is my favorite so far, with a simple, clean interface and support for higher-quality audio.

Cynthia Paulson (@CynLuscious) of Women Rock Radio just played “The Doomed Cool” by Hepnova featuring Sophia Chang AKA 52 Faces.  Since the song hadn’t been released yet to the public, I guess that constitutes a world premier.  Thanks Cynthia for playing the song and for your kind words of praise.  In case you missed it, you can listen to the archive of today’s show here.

Women Rock Radio (Live program stream)

Download “The Doomed Cool”

More HEPNOVA tunes at hepnova.com.

@CynLuscious will be playing a tune by @hepnova featuring Sophia Chang tonight (19 June 2009) at 6pm pst/9pm est

Listen here at Women Rock Radio!

More HEPNOVA tunes at hepnova.com.

Photo: Sophia in Cake City

Get your own Hepnova logo T-shirt on Zazzle.

Photo by Poppa-D’s Evil Alter Ego

Hepnova‘s Nicholas DiBiase mentioned in the Phoenix New Times for his Ignite talk on Food Security.

Video of Nicholas’ Ignite talk coming soon! Stay tuned at the Ignite Phoenix website.

Photo by azchrislee