Cool Folks in Boston

In the whirlwind of networking and stress and calling in favors that is planning a last minute tour, I've found a diamond in the rough of the internet. Mr. Moss sent me a bunch of links of Boston venues, one of which is a little place in Jamaica Plains called the Whitehaus, who seem to have some pretty rad stuff going on. They're a venue/record label/artists collective-type thing, with lots of cool music that you can get for free or cheap, and a very friendly-looking kitty cat named Red. I miss my cat... Ethel, if you're reading this, I'll be back in CT in March. Don't pee on my stuff while I'm gone.

They recently re-posted a comp called the Whitehaus Family Sampler: Vol. 1 that is really quite great. Lots of lovely folky stuff with pretty voices and glockenspeils and stuff; the types of songs you would want/expect to hear at a living room house show that was also a vegan potluck and a bike repair workshop, or something. I've been listenening to it all morning.

Sewing Machines is gonna be playing their Hoot (short for Hootenany) on March 6, which sounds like it's gonna be an awesome time. So if you're in Boston then (or any other time) you should totes czech this place out. They do good things.

Also, they already linked to FFR from their website, which was sweet of them.

deeplocal + Encyclopedia Destructica

My friend JonBro who just finished working on a dope book with Encyclopedia Destructica sent me this link about a cool old/new media residency program in Pittsburgh.

"Pittsburgh-based tech start-up deeplocal and artist collective Encyclopedia Destructica are now accepting applications by artists for the Old and New Media Residency. This 3 month corporate artist residency program was created to assist artists in producing, showing, and supporting new projects. The residency is sponsored by Encyclopedia Destructica, a Pittsburgh based group of working artists, and deeplocal, a Pittsburgh technology and design studio founded by artists, designers, and technologists. It represents a unique collaboration between a corporation and a working artist group. Applications are being accepted now through February 15th online at http://www.deeplocal.com/residency. Residencies begin on April 1st, 2009 and will last for 3 months."

Future Thinking

Space Collective Could be one of my new favorite websites.

"Where forward thinking terrestrials share ideas and information about the state of the species, their planet and the universe, living the lives of science fiction."

Future music from the past.

Tangerine Dream-Ricochet

Kraftwerk-Radioactivity

Design Rulez.

I found this artist's page through MAKE's blog. La Chanh Nguyen's work has a healthy dose of Scandinavian design, but also a quirky pseudo practical slant. My personal favorites are the Moss Carpet and the Anti Mosquitos Fan. The future is gonna be sweet!

Q/A about The Future

Ray Kurzweil (of Kurzweil synthesizers fame) on The Singularity.

regime change

About 12 hours from now, we're going to be closing the book on one of the scariest chapters in American history. Nobody's expecting things to get better over night and blah blah blah, but it's hard not to feel at least a little hopeful now that we have a genuinely intelligent and open-minded president for the first time in... well, a long time.

So in honor of this momentous occasion, the good folks at Vosotros put together a compilation called ¡Yes We Puede! Posted last week on the (really quite awesome) Creative Commons blog, this CC-licensed comp features a bunch of LA bands and artists covering patriotic tunes in the public domain, and contains by far the trippiest version of "Swanee River" that I've ever heard (courtesy of Mooey Moobau).

On a related note, at the bequest of Moveon.org, DJ Z-Trip just put out his second Obama-themed, CC-licensed mixtape, Victory Lap: The Obama Mix Part 2. Seems only fitting, since we know the O Man is down with the cause.

Here's to patriotism being cool again!