leesean.netHere are a couple Rotobooth shots from tonight’s Awesome Foundation NYC Party at Babycastles.  Babycastles, an independent video game arcade, were the co-hosts of the party and the recipients of the latest $1000 grant from Awesome NYC.  Rotobooth, a project by fellow ITP alum Mike Kelberman, is an automated photo booth that uploads pictures directly to Flickr.
Below: Awesome Foundation NYC trustees: Catherine White, Jesse Chan-Norris, and myself
I went to DoTank:Brooklyn’s DIY Urban Agriculture Skillshare at the Change You Want To See Gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Carina Molnar of the CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities taught us how to compost with worms in a plastic bin, Aurash Khawarzad of PPS.org showed us how to make seed bombs, and Ted Ullrich demonstrated how to assemble a Windowfarm.
Above: Ted Ullrich introduces DoTank
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’?
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. Â 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“
RIP: A Remix Manifesto filmmaker Brett Gaylor and underground cartoonist/fair-use icon Dan O’Neill in San Francisco, 23 June 2009.
Tonight Creative Commons co-hosted a San Francisco screening of RIP: A Remix Manifest, a documentary about remix and copyright.  The movie features interviews with remix culture pioneers and opinion leaders like Girl Talk, Lawrence Lessig, Gilberto Gil, and Cory Doctorow.  RIP was on my summer viewing list.
I went to check out the screening with Michelle, another Creative Commons (and lurking reader of this blog).  Filmmaker Brett Gaylor did a Q&A after the screening.  He also introduced special guest Dan O’Neill of Air Pirates fame, who was profiled in the documentary.  You can download the film online under a pay-what-you-want model.
After the Q&A came the dance party. DJs Adrian and the Mysterious D and VJs Eclectic Method rocked the house with their mash-up madness.  I haven’t danced that hard in years. Awesome!
