Dive into the archives.
- More musikids: PS 22 Chorus
Image: Gillian LaubA couple weeks ago, my friend Josh instructed me to educate myself on something called the PS 22 Chorus. He sent me the link to their blog and said, ‘It’s a worth a blog post, at the very least, if not a drastic career change.’ Last night, I finally did and, man alive, he was not wrong.
First a little background:
PS 22 is an elementary school in Staten Island NY. The chorus is made up of 5th graders between 10 and 11 years old. It meets twice a week during school hours to practice, and performs throughout the year at school functions, local events, and on special requests. (FYI: my birthday = January 7)
The project is overseen by a teacher called Gregg Breinberg who, I think you will agree, is doing a good job. Here is some more info on him from a feature NPR ran a while ago:
“He is not like any other music teacher,” Maimouna Faye says. “He really works with us. He helps us get it right. He doesn’t yell at us. He is really nice. I am going to miss it.”
Breinberg describes himself as “nontraditional and intense.” He says he’s extremely passionate about the music.
“[If] I don’t feel that they are giving 100 percent, yes, I will get intense with them, and I will say, ‘This isn’t fair. I am working so hard for you, I am trying to do my best for you — you have to come through for me,’ ” Breinberg says.
But Breinberg is also a goofball. He’s eccentric and emotional. He’s been known to weep at performances and show the boys in the chorus that it’s fine to cry and show emotion and be themselves.
“What is so wonderful about these kids,” Breinberg says, “they are in this environment that we have created together, that allows them to express themselves and totally be wacky and silly and not worry that they will be made fun of — to be able to sing a solo, make a mistake, and know that it is a safe place and a place they can go to and express themselves.”
Gabriel Vasquez says being in the chorus has allowed him to do something that he often doesn’t have a place for: “letting out your emotions and everything, showing your feelings and letting it all out.”
Now, remember that last line when you watch these clips. In my experience you need to view these at least 20 times to fully grasp the emotions unleashed in these kids. Also their dance moves.
Here we go:
Lisztomania by Pheonix
Just dance by Ladi Ga Ga
Don’t stop believing by Journey
For a sense of how the performances come together, Here’s a short feature from NPR’s All Things Considered:
OK, so I hope that makes your day the way it made mine. I believe that children are the future. Teach them well, record them, and put it on Youtube.
PS 22 Chorus’s Blog
PS 22 Chorus’s Youtube ChannelPopularity: 1% [?]
- Absolutely
Source: www.thetruth.com
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- Domus Interview 2.02: Bruce Sterling
Image: Robert ScobleIn January I started a new interview series for Domus China. The series will be similar to the one I did with Domus last year, but the theme is different.
This one is focused on the future of architecture and urban life, specifically how developments in technology, ecology, and politics will alter the way cities work. The hope is that, by focusing on current innovation and learning from efforts in other fields, architects can get slightly ahead of the curve and take a more active approach to change.
For the February issue, I talked to the sci-fi writer and opinion machine Bruce Sterling. We talked about the changing status of architecture in a more digital world, the global impact of Chinese manufacturing, and the need to study the past to imagine the future. It was a good conversation I thought, so I’m gonna post it here.
Some quotables:
The digital revolution is about 25 years old, and now it’s like a big, grown-up girl with some serious personal problems. It’s not like five year old child who is carrying futurity on her back.
The difficulty of trying to build a skyscraper palace for Google is that Google is not going to live that long.
Thirty years ago the poor were in rags, now the poor dress in Chinese clothing. Clothing now is so cheap and so well made, and that’s entirely due to Chinese advances. They are clothing the planet and really alleviating a lot of suffering.
It took me quite a while to realize that the things that were important were not necessarily interesting.
I tend to look at technology as techno-social developments over a period of time. They’re not progress and when they pass from our radar that does not mean that they lose their consequence, it merely means that we stopped talking about them in a particular tone of voice.
You can’t understand by merely looking at the present day. In order to see what’s happening you have to go back twice as far you intend to jump forward. That is the rule.
If you’re interested, I posted a few interviews from last year’s series, which was about architectural collaboration: Michael Rock, Jennifer Sigler, Mark Wigley. The whole series will be available in a book called Who is Architecture? that should be hitting your local lavatory in the fall.
And now…
Futuretalk with Bruce Sterling
Brendan McGetrick: The purpose of this interview series is to try to get a sense of what the future of urban life will be so that architects might get slightly ahead of the curve. In your writing you’ve envisioned possible communities of the future, so to begin could you talk a little about your interest in architecture and how it informs you work?
Bruce Sterling: Well, I’m interested in creative disciplines of all kinds, and I must say that the things that I appreciate most about architecture are things like parametric architecture - computer-generated practice. I’m really more into network culture and this very large transition that has happened through many disciplines - different professions, different nations, different situations. Architects are very expressive about their theories and their ways of approaching the world and I’ve derived a lot of benefits from listening to them.
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- Tokyo Skydrive
I don’t know much about the this film, apart from the fact that it takes place in Tokyo and is awesome. It was made by a champion who goes by the name cat2525jp. He’s got lots more good shit on his youtube channel and on his blog. Check it out.
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- Truly madly deeply Limey
This clip comes courtesy of Puma and their Hard Chorus ad campaign. The performers are supporters of the English soccer club Tottenham. The song is Asian karaoke classic ‘Truly madly deeply’ by Savage Garden. The effect is funny, threatening, sad, touching, and English as fuck.
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- Mix: Don’t get aggravated
Don’t get aggravated: a mix, a message. Cool out music for the cold weather featuring The Art of Noise, Al Green, Frankie Beverly & Maze, Marcia Griffiths, Aretha Franklin, Barry White, The Shins, Bon Iver, Bootsy Collins, Janet Jackson, New Birth, Bonobo, Sade, D’Angelo, Maxwell, Aaliyah, The Isley Brothers, Roberta Flack, Donnie Hathaway, and Stevie Wonder.
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right-click + save link as (mac) / save target as (windows)Popularity: 1% [?]
- Border Controlicon
Another reason to visit The Ukraine. Via English Russia
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- Strip Club Etiquette with Disco Rick
Today is Superbowl Sunday in America, and in a few hours the New Orleans Saints will be squaring off with the Indianapolis Colts down in sunny Miami. I’m in frosty, indifferent-to-football Beijing, but I didn’t want this great day to go by unacknowledged, so I want to pass on some wisdom that I found buried in local Superbowl news coverage. It’s a piece from the Miami New Times and the headline goes a little something like this: Super Bowl Strip Club Debauchery: Disco Rick Teaches You How to Politely Make it Rain.
An interview follows with Ricky “Disco Rick” Taylor, whom the paper describes as “formerly the leader of the pioneering Miami hip-hop group The Dogs. These days, he’s the ‘talent manager’ (read: stripper-wrangler) at the colossal King of Diamonds club in Miami Gardens, which caters to pro athletes and rappers, and features a basketball court and barbershop on premises.”
The grimey (and over 30) will remember Disco Rick’s classic “Wiggle Wiggle”:
So that’s his strip club credentials established right there as far as I’m concerned. Anyway, after the break you can read the full rundown of Disco Rick’s advice for enjoying what he himself describes as “the biggest weekend in strip club history in South Florida.” But here are some highlights:
“Do not come to the strip club if your baby mama’s dancing. That never ends well. We’re gonna throw you out and her out.”
“If you’re a customer and money falls on your head, just throw it to the ground. Or, to be courteous, throw it towards the dancers. If you put it in your pocket, I’ll cut the music.”
“If you got invited to the White House, would you light up a joint inside? So why would you light one up when you’re invited into my house? Nuh-huh. No fucking way. I’ll cut off the music.”
“Baked chicken, mashed potatoes, beans, and corn. Those are the things we can’t mess up. Meatloaf, if available.”
“We want you to behave like you was out with your parents.”
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- More Keys
In the last couple days some beautiful people have sent me some beautiful music, none of which I’d heard before, all of which should’ve been on my piano mix… To quote Shakespeare, what’s done is done, and there’s no unmixing what’s already mixed, but I want to pass these jams on as a sort of encore.
Jelly Roll Morton - Dead man blues (Courtesy of Giulio AKA the Italian stallion)
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right-click + save link as (mac) / save target as (windows)Chilly Gonzales & 50 Cent - Many men (Courtesy of Niek AKA Dutch Schultz)
DOWNLOADGonzales (again) - Oregano (Courtesy of Aura AKA the Venezuelan Sarah Palin)
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- It’s Nathan Myhrvold’s world - you’re just visiting
Every once in a while I’ll be checking out Wikipedia, just click-click-clicking my way down the rabbit hole and stumble onto something that is truly amazing. Today was just such a day. Today I discovered an extremely doin it man named Nathan whose wikipedia entry impressed me/shamed me so thoroughly that I have to share it with you.
Nathan Myhrvold (born 1959 in Seattle, Washington), formerly Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft, is co-founder of Intellectual Ventures, which is seeking to build a large invention portfolio. He personally holds more than 18 U.S. patents and has applied for more than 100. His company is accumulating patents in software.[1][2]
There’s the basics: 18 patents, 100 applied, Microsoft CTO, etc.
Myhrvold attended Mirman School, [3] and began college at age 14.[4] He studied mathematics, geophysics, and space physics at UCLA (BSc, Masters). At Princeton he earned a master’s degree in mathematical economics and completed a PhD in theoretical and mathematical physics by age 23. He also attended Santa Monica College. For one year, he held a postdoctoral fellowship at Cambridge working under Stephen Hawking, studying cosmology, quantum field theory in curved space time and quantum theories of gravitation, but left to co-found a computer startup in Oakland, California. The company, Dynamical Systems Research Inc., sought to produce Mondrian, a clone of IBM’s TopView multitasking environment for DOS. Microsoft purchased DSR in 1986 and Myhrvold worked there for 13 years. At Microsoft he founded Microsoft Research in 1991.[5]
Educational and early professional life. Studied under Hawking. Nice. Hobbies?
Myhrvold is a prize-winning nature and wildlife photographer[6]. He is also involved with paleontological research on expeditions with the Museum of the Rockies. His work has appeared in scientific journals including Science, Nature, Paleobiology and the Physical Review, as well as Fortune, Time, National Geographic Traveler and Slate.
Cool…
He and Peter Rinearson helped Bill Gates write The Road Ahead, a book about the future that reached No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list in 1995 and 1996.
Yup…
Myhrvold has contributed $1 million to the SETI Foundation for the development of the Allen Telescope Array, planned to be the world’s most powerful radio telescope.
And to top it off…
In addition to his business and scientific interests, he is a master French chef who has finished first and second in the world championship of barbecue in Memphis, Tennessee. He also works as an assistant chef at one of Seattle’s leading French restaurants.
Awesome dude, that’s all I’m saying. I realize it’s Wikipedia, but it seems fairly thoroughly referenced, and so I think you’ve got to give it up to this power nerd.
Here’s a piece partially on him written by Malcolm Gladwell for the New Yorker.
Here’s his talk from TED entitled “A Life of Fascinations” Be prepared though. In Gladwell’s words, “He is gregarious, enthusiastic, and nerdy on an epic scale.”
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- Help Haiti, Support Art
My friend Josh just hipped me to a beautiful little project on MagCloud. It’s called Onè Respe, and it collects the work of several very good photographers to provide a reminder of what has been (temporarily) lost in the Haitian earthquake.
Several photographers, including the iconic photojournalist Mary Ellen Mark, have donated photographs to help create this special fund-raising collection of captivating images to benefit the people of Haiti. The title Haiti: Onè Respe comes from a traditional Haitian greeting meaning “honor and respect.”
Since MagCloud has generously offered to pay for the printing costs, your purchase price will be donated in full to the American Red Cross
International Response Fund for Haiti relief.Photographs by: Chet Gordon, Kari Hartmann, Mary Ellen Mark, Peter Pereira, Lindsay Stark. Edited by Lane Hartwell and Michael Biven
It’s only $12 and all proceeds go to the American Red Cross International Response Fund for Haiti relief. Plus you get a beautiful little book out of deal. Here’s a few sample spreads…
See more and BUY IT here.
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- New Mix: Keys
Just made a new mix for the new year. It’s called Keys Open Doors - music from across time and space tied together by a common thread of piano. Lots of good stuff on here… soul, some hip hop, r&b, salsa, some Lilith Fair type of songs, minimalist classical, old school house, UK hardcore, all sorts… It’s the second in the Instrumentalist series. First horns, now piano. Hope you enjoy…
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right-click + ’save target as’ (windows) / ’save link as’ (mac)Tracks
Donnie Hathaway - A song for you
Bruce Springsteen - New York city serenade
Mobb Deep w/ Lil Kim - Quite storm
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane - The symphony
El Gran Combo - Yo soy la muerte
Willie Colón - Calle luna calle sol
Alicia Keys - No one
Mary J Blige - For the record (I love you)
Eddie Henderson - Inside you
Reuben Wilson - We’re in love
Joni Mitchell - River
Fiona Apple - Love ridden
Philip Glass - Metamorphosis 2
Anja Lechner & Vassilis Tsabropoulos - Trois Morceaux aprés des hymnes byzantins II
Bill Withers - Liza
Prince Phillip Mitchell - If we can’t be lovers
Humberto Santacruz - Me has robado el corazón
Humberto Santacruz - Ay no se puede
Thom Yorke - The eraser
Atlas Sound - Walkabout
Ce Ce Rogers - Someday
Sterling Void - It’s allright
Liquid - Sweet harmony
Liquid - LiquidPopularity: 3% [?]
- The champ is gone.
Willie Mitchell, one of the greatest music producers of all time, died yesterday. I hate to start to the new year on a somber note, but considering how much pleasure I’ve taken from this man’s music, it would be borderline sociopathic for me to let this slide. I wish I had the time to get all the way into it, but for now (I hope) it suffices to say that I would not be the man I am today had I not come into contact with the comforting challenge of Willie’s music. Since I first heard it as a young music nerd growing up, the sound that he generated as producer/arranger for Hi Records, has been (and will always be) a path to growth - emotional and sensual (+ spiritual, even visual). It is, in my opinion, the greatest soul music ever made.
Willie Mitchell - Groovin
For a few details on his passing and what he was getting up to recently, check this article. Better though is this interview from a very years ago. Best, is just to enjoy his amazing body of work, so let’s do it. Rest in peace Willie. Can’t thank you enough…
OV Wright - Motherless child
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right-click + ’save target as’ (windows) / ’save link as’ (mac)OV Wright - Let’s straighten it out
DOWNLOADAnn Peebles - I can’t stand the rain
DOWNLOADAnn Peebles - I’m gonna tear your playhouse down
DOWNLOADSyl Johnson - That’s just my luck
DOWNLOADSyl Johnson - I hate I walked away
DOWNLOADAl Green - Love and happiness
DOWNLOADAl Green - Simply Beautiful
DOWNLOADLast, here’s a nice little playlist put together by a Dutch music lover called spruitenpraat
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- Happy New Year
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- Super Scientifical 4: Space is the place
Image: X Prize FoundationThe American Museum of Natural History just released an amazing short film called “The Known Universe”. It was directed by Carter Emmart for the Visions of the Cosmos exhibition that just opened at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City.
It starts out over Mt Everest and then pulls away, Powers of Ten-style, into deep space 9.
Here’s some more info provided by the AMoNH, and if you’re a space nerd like myself, I strongly encourage you to click the links provided…
The structure of The Known Universe is based on precise, scientifically-accurate observations and research. The Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History maintains the Digital Universe Atlas, the world’s most complete four-dimensional map of the universe. The Digital Universe started nearly a decade ago. It is continually updated and is the primary resource for production of the Museum’s Space Shows such as the current Journey to the Stars, and is used in live, real-time renderings for Virtual Tours of the Universe, a public program held on the first Tuesday of every month. Last year, some 30,000 people downloaded the Digital Universe to their personal computers, and the Digital Universe will soon be updated with a more accurate and user-friendly software interface. Digital Universe is licensed to many other planetariums and theaters world-wide.
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