Donate Your Phone, Save a Life

Hope Phones, a program dedicated to recycling old phones to medical clinics in developing countries, does a great service for both clinics in need and for folks who need to get rid of an unused phone. Leave a comment if you'd like to donate a phone and we'll get collection materials together to send off a box of 50!!

Every cell phone given to community health workers connects distant patients to a medical clinic. A $10 cell phone will give 50 families access to emergency medical care, health information, transport services, and clinic resources.

When your old phone is received by the recycling center, it is given a value. We’ll use this value to purchase appropriate, usable cell phones for community health workers at the medical clinics. The average donated phone in the US will allow us to purchase 2-3 cell phones for clinics.Thanks SwissMiss for the info!

William Shatner, Poet Extraordinaire

To help American audiences understand the nuances of former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin's send-off speech, Conan O'Brian enlisted William Shatner to read the speech verbatim in its "intended" poetic form.

Food Truck 2.0

When you talk to folks in NYC about food trucks, they usually assume you mean one of those big industrial trucks slinging tacos, coffee, ice cream, or dumplings. Over the last two days, I've serendipitously run into the work of filmmakers Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney and their efforts to increase awareness about urban farming and sustainable living! Their food truck is Cheney's 1986 Dodge pickup which they've planted with a variety of heirloom tomatoes, arugula and herbs in the truckbed. Using a solar-powered time-lapse camera mounted on the roof of the truck, they are slowly but surely posting their adventure online. For $20, you can share in the truck farm bounty and a promise to receive a copy of the finished Truck Farm DVD. More than a real way to feed urban dwellers, I love that this project challenges people to think of their own creative and sustainable way to engage in food production and gives a new spin on the idea of an urban farmer. Check out Ellis and Cheney's 2007 documentary film on the industrial food industry, King Corn too!

Mayer Hawthorne - Just Ain't Gonna Work Out

When Peanut Butter Wolf, the man behind LA-based Stones Throw Records, first heard 29-year-old Mayer Hawthorne's music he was confused by what he was listening to...did dude just cover old tunes? Was he just producing some new stuff with a retro feel? Truth was, Hawthorne was not only singing on his tracks but arranged and played all the instruments for his original music. His album drops in September but until then, check this cute b+w video for his single, "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out." The actual single was released as a heart-shaped vinyl featured in the video.

Nicolas Malinowsky is ILL

Part of the Parisian creative collective Ill-Studio, Nicolas Malinowsky is an ill graphic designer with a penchant for the psychedelic. His B+W collage work has an ominous tone and for his first solo exhibition, Death and the Afterlife, he reflects on objects collected at a second-hand shop, unknowingly from the belongings of a single person who had recently passed. He says, "I wanted to honour this man after meeting him in such an odd posthumous way. Knowing that he was a music lover, I worked from both image and music-based elements – I am influenced by the practice of sampling, which combines, reworks or even redefines the legacies left by previous musical generations." An odd posthumous tribute, Malinowsky's work conjures up a certain mysticism and the surrealist works of Rene Magritte and more contemporarily, the Australian art/fashion couple, Perks and Mini. Badass!!

King Britt x Sun Ra @ River-to-River

Philly's own King Britt created a multi-media electronic homage to free jazz philosopher/artist Sun-Ra. Titled after Sun-Ra's ancestral home of Saturn, Saturn Never Sleeps, Sun-Ra: Lectric combines "audio-visual microcomponents...with live musicians of acoustic and electronic inventions" in the downtown night sky setting of the World Financial Center Winter Garden. Best of all, it's FREE! Thanks Jefe!

River-to-River
Tuesday, July 28
220 Vesey Street
9PM

It's FRIDAY!!!

Time for the summer house party danceoff!!

Alain de Botton: The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work

Years ago, a good friend recommended a compact and curious book, The Art of Travel by the British author/thinker Alain de Botton. It took me a couple of years and a trip to Havana to really delve into the book, but it connects the idea that travel and adventure is a basic human yearning and we can visit the various aspects of this fundamental urge to art throughout the ages. A fascinating read that I recommend to anyone. His newest book, The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work takes a similar philosophical approach to exploring the range of occupations we choose and what they do or dont mean to us. Im ordering it today but you can see clips below from his recent conversation at the NYPL! Thanks Nima!

Artist: Katy Horan

Caught Katy Horan's work on MyLoveForYou and was captivated by this Austin-based artist's work! (Texas, what WHAT?!) The above is from her newest series of gouache on paper works featuring faceless ladies in muted lace layers. The below incorporates a kind of grimm brothers fairy tale quality with imagery of women's work -- quilting, caretaking, etc.
When the Horned Maidens Gather

PSFK Snapshot: Brooklyn

"Half guide book, half trends report," the folks over at PSFK launched the second book from their "Snapshot" series highlighting venues and interesting happenings from around our beloved borough. On a secondary note, its interesting that PSFK choose the self-publishing tool/website, Blurb, to publish their series! Cop it here.

Donnis - Watch for it Freestyle

DONNIS - Watch For It Freestyle - Snack Pack Vol. 2 from Motion Family on Vimeo.

Check for the young rapper from the ATL.

Died Young, Stayed Pretty

Check out my friends from Kayrock in the awesome poster art show at 303 Grand opening tonite! It coincides with the opening of the film by the same name documenting the underground indierock poster movement. Deets below.

303Grand is pleased to be the venue for Died Young, Stayed Pretty, a rock poster show for the documentary "Died Young, Stayed Pretty." The art show will be Thursday July 16th from 7p.m.-10 p.m. at 303GRAND (303 Grand St. Brooklyn, NY 11211). The event is sponsored by Giant Robot & Kayrock Screenprinting.

The art show is representative of director Eileen Yaghoobian's film, "Died Young Stayed Young," which takes a candid look at the underground indie-rock poster subculture in North America that was reborn, post-Punk, with the launch of groupie Clayton Hayes’ website Gigposters.com.

The art show at 303GRAND will feature silkscreen masterpieces that are used for advertising rock shows all for sale! The content ranges from hot political issues to lewd, inside jokes. Featured posters include Radiohead, White Stripes, Arcade Fire, The Flaming Lips, The Melvins, Nick Cave, Broken Social Scene, Ween and legends like Bob Dylan and Marianne Faithful.

The Film will be Premiering on July 17th, 9pm at IFC Center in Manhattan!

Street Farmer

I was so inspired by Will Allen's amazing story and vision to transform the way inner city residents consume and think about their food! Green Roofs and Urban Farming is our future!

Story by Elizabeth Royte
Will Allen, a farmer of Bunyonesque proportions, ascended a berm of wood chips and brewer’s mash and gently probed it with a pitchfork. “Look at this,” he said, pleased with the treasure he unearthed. A writhing mass of red worms dangled from his tines. He bent over, raked another section with his fingers and palmed a few beauties.

It was one of those April days in Wisconsin when the weather shifts abruptly from hot to cold, and Allen, dressed in a sleeveless hoodie — his daily uniform down to 20 degrees, below which he adds another sweatshirt — was exactly where he wanted to be. Show Allen a pile of soil, fully composted or still slimy with banana peels, and he’s compelled to scoop some into his melon-size hands. “Creating soil from waste is what I enjoy most,” he said. “Anyone can grow food.”

Like others in the so-called good-food movement, Allen, who is 60, asserts that our industrial food system is depleting soil, poisoning water, gobbling fossil fuels and stuffing us with bad calories. Like others, he advocates eating locally grown food. But to Allen, local doesn’t mean a rolling pasture or even a suburban garden: it means 14 greenhouses crammed onto two acres in a working-class neighborhood on Milwaukee’s northwest side, less than half a mile from the city’s largest public-housing project.

And this is why Allen is so fond of his worms. When you’re producing a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of food in such a small space, soil fertility is everything. Without microbe- and nutrient-rich worm castings (poop, that is), Allen’s Growing Power farm couldn’t provide healthful food to 10,000 urbanites — through his on-farm retail store, in schools and restaurants, at farmers’ markets and in low-cost market baskets delivered to neighborhood pickup points. He couldn’t employ scores of people, some from the nearby housing project; continually train farmers in intensive polyculture; or convert millions of pounds of food waste into a version of black gold.

Read the Full NYTimes Magazine Article Here.

It's My Birthday...

Come celebrate my birthday with fellow Cancer-iran Waajeed this Thursday thanks to our good friend Geology.

Thursday, July 16th...AKALEPSE & GE-OLOGY present "ROTATION".

Please join us as we celebrate the birthdays of WAAJEED (Bling 47 / PPP) and LINYEE (The Kitchen) along with our super special surprise guest DJ from Deviation (hint: UK)...who you definitely don't want to miss during his short stay in NYC.

Playing classics, funk, soul, house and all your favorite dance jams all night long!

Doors: 10pm
2 for 1 well drinks 10pm-12am

$5
Ladies FREE before midnight

**early arrival is strongly suggested**

RIP Dash Snow

Artist, photography, graf writer, and downtowner Dash Snow passed today. His work captured the raw and unfiltered comedy and tragedy of raging downtown NYC through polaroids, collage and his most (in)famous works the Hamster Nest, a "performance" piece where he and his friends basically do a sh!tload of drugs, throw a raging party, and tear up phonebooks, pillows, mattresses, etc. Another creative life claimed by heroine. Our thoughts are with his family and young daughter. Check some of his polaroids here.

Mixed Greens XXX Year Exhibition

Back in 1999, Paige West founded Mixed Greens as a place to support emerging artists. What began as an online-only entity has, over the last decade, organically morphed into a traditional gallery. We’ve pioneered gallery e-commerce, traveled shows, organized panel discussions, hosted events, and produced educational catalogs in an effort to push the boundaries of what a gallery can do. We currently represent 22 artists, but over the years, we’ve worked with over 100 artists at varying stages in their careers, and (call us crazy!) we’ve decided to put them all in one BIG anniversary show. With X, we present a large selection of the many amazing artists with whom we’ve been privileged to work. Their techniques and subject matter vary widely, but all of these artists captured our attention either by their extraordinary use of materials or through their deep examination and investigation of their subjects. There is no theme uniting the 84 participating artists—the only common denominator is Mixed Greens. Some might call it narcissistic. Others nostalgic. We consider it to be a celebration of some of the best artists working today. July 9 - August 14.

Mixed Greens Gallery | 531 West 26th Street
Opening: Today, noon - 6PM

Participating Artists
Noriko Ambe, Chris Ballantyne, Luke Barber-Smith, Rachel Beach, Sonya Blesofsky, Rob Carter, Zoë Charlton & Rick Delaney, Soyeon Cho, Jinkee Choi, Rob Conger, David Coyle, Lisa Coulson, Shoshana Dentz, Andy Diaz Hope, Thomas Doyle, Alessandra Exposito, Ken Fandell, Howard Fonda, Linda Ganjian, Tamara Gayer, Susan Graham, Susan Hamburger, Kimberley Hart, Krista Hoefle, James Hyde, Brian Jobe, Sarah Kabot, Marguerite Kahrl, Kim Keever, Sun K. Kwak, Jim Lee, Drew Leshko, Zane Lewis, Joan Linder, Holly Lynton, Giles Lyon, Virgil Marti, Yumiko Matsui, Christina Mazzalupo, Ryan McGinness, Adia Millett, Mark Mulroney, Russell Nachman, Rob Nadeau, Frank Olive, Coke Wisdom O’Neal, Soner Ön, Stas Orlovski, Eric Payson, Mia Pearlman, Paul Plante, Anne Polashenski, Don Porcella, Amy Pryor, David Rathman, Trevor Reese, Andrew Scott Ross, Laurel Roth, Kammy Roulner, AA Rucci, Carol Salmanson, Jason Severs, Rudy Shepherd, Jean Shin, Alyson Shotz, John Slaby, Joseph Smolinski, Zoe Sonenberg, Amy Stein, Lee Stoetzel, Julianne Swartz, Ann Tarantino, Craig Taylor, Dannielle Tegeder, Mary Temple, Austin Thomas, Leah Tinari, Kako Ueda, Carlo Vialu, Connie Walsh, Daniel Wiener, Dina Weiss, Dirk Westphal

Future Vision Banished to the Past

By NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF

How old does a building have to be before we appreciate its value? And when does its cultural importance trump practical considerations?

Those are the questions that instantly come to mind over the likely destruction of Kisho Kurokawa’s historic Nakagin Capsule Tower.

A rare built example of Japanese Metabolism, a movement whose fantastic urban visions became emblems of the country’s postwar cultural resurgence, the 1972 Capsule Tower is in a decrepit state. Its residents, tired of living in squalid, cramped conditions, voted two years ago to demolish it and are now searching for a developer to replace it with a bigger, more modern tower. That the building is still standing has more to do with the current financial malaise than with an understanding of its historical worth.

Yet for many of us who believe that the way we treat our cultural patrimony is a fair measure of how enlightened we are as a society, the building’s demolition would be a bitter loss. The Capsule Tower is not only gorgeous architecture; like all great buildings, it is the crystallization of a far-reaching cultural ideal. Its existence also stands as a powerful reminder of paths not taken, of the possibility of worlds shaped by different sets of values.

Founded by a loose-knit group of architects at the end of the 1950s, the Metabolist movement sought to create flexible urban models for a rapidly changing society. Floating cities. Cities inspired by oil platforms. Buildings that resembled strands of DNA. Such proposals reflected Japan’s transformation from a rural to a modern society. But they also reflected more universal trends, like social dislocation and the fragmentation of the traditional family, influencing generations of architects from London to Moscow.

Of the five members who made up the group, Kurokawa was the most glamorous. A photo taken in 1958 at a Moscow student conference, when he was just 24, shows him surrounded by fawning girls, signing autographs. Trim and handsome, often outfitted in elegantly tailored suits and a bow tie, he became a regular at Tokyo nightclubs. His Space Capsule Disco, opened in the 1960s, was a hot spot for young creative types.

The Nakagin Capsule Tower was completed as the movement’s influence was beginning to wane. Composed of 140 concrete pods plugged into two interconnected circulation cores, the structure was meant as a kind of bachelor hotel for businessmen working in the swanky Ginza neighborhood of Tokyo.

Inside, each apartment is as compact as a space capsule. A wall of appliances and cabinets is built into one side, including a kitchen stove, a refrigerator, a television and a tape deck. A bathroom unit, about the size of an airplane lavatory, is set into an opposite corner. A big porthole window dominates the far end of the room, with a bed tucked underneath.

Part of the design’s appeal is voyeuristic. The portholes evoke gigantic peepholes. Their enormous size, coupled with the small scale of the rooms, exposes the entire apartment to the city outside. Many of the midlevel units look directly onto an elevated freeway, so you are almost face to face with people in passing cars. (On my first visit there, a tenant told me that during rush hour, drivers stuck in traffic often point or wave at residents.)

But the project’s lasting importance has more to do with its structural innovations, and how they reflect the Metabolists’ views on the evolution of cities. Each of the concrete capsules was assembled in a factory, including details like carpeting and bathroom fixtures. They were then shipped to the site and bolted, one by one, onto the concrete and steel cores that housed the building’s elevators, stairs and mechanical systems.

Read the full article on the NYTimes here!

Happy July 4th!

Jasper Johns, Flags (1968)

Enjoy the fireworks and friends this July 4th weekend!

Weekender July 3 - July 5

HAPPY JULY 4th Weekend! There's a lot going on and its finally warming up here in New York so get your dancing shoes on and get ready to party!

FRIDAY
NYAFF (NYC)
Off the Record (NYC)

SATURDAY
Freaknic NYC 2009 (Brooklyn)
4th of July Campout (New York State)
4th of July in the Sky (NYC)
American Gothic (London)
Texas Heat Music Festival (Houston)

SUNDAY
Oumou Sangare at Summerstage (NYC)
20th Anniversary: Do the Right Thing (Brooklyn)
BLK JKS @ Weeksville Heritage Center (Brooklyn)
Hey Girl Hey (Atlantic City, NJ)


Catch the last weekend of the New York Asian Film Festival. This year's programming has the usual mix of high and low cinema coming out of Asia but the emphasis has been placed on a great selection of Asian gore/zombie/horror films. The NYC premiere of Love Exposure plays tonite at the Japan Society!

6:15PM Showing with the director, Sion Sono in attendance!

‘OFF THE RECORD’ with special guest TKAT

On any other Friday night, you might find David Azzoni (aka TKAT) rocking the decks at Brooklyn’s Black Betty with Monk One, holding down the rhythm section and backup vocals with afro-latin-beat group Chico Mann, or maybe just cruising around Brooklyn on his fixie spreading love.

This Friday, however, you can catch BK’s TKAT as he drops his favorite vinyl selections at OFF THE RECORD. Expect a hot batch of soul, funk, latin, disco, and house hits to keep you dancing all night long.

ABOUT SNACK and CMISH
DJs Snack and Cmish have huge plans and a big goal: They want to make New York City dance on a Friday Night. With their combined passion for spinning choice Boogie, Disco, and House, the upstairs of APT will be transformed into a weekly dance spot dubbed ‘Off The Record’.

Each week, SandC will feature local and emerging DJs from around the country, delivering a taste of a new underground dance scene that is growing, not only within New York, but within major cities throughout the States. By bringing Disco, Funk, and Boogie heat from the 70s and 80s, S&C hope to revive a scene that embraces a pretense-free dance experience in New York City.

SATURDAY
12:04am July 4th to 7pm July 5th
luv technologies presents
Freaknic NYC 2009 Peace Festival
Featuring Airborn Audio(ninjatune), Maluca(mad decent), Os Crunc Tesla Vampirekiller Arc(ekler'o'shock/tigerbeat6), Ninjasonik, Follower feat. Bunny Rabbit, No Surrender, dj Empress, Fisheye,dj Duane, The Baddys, Shock Cinema, Rosetta Stoned, dj Jedi, Rig1, Le Le, Omega Moon, dj Gravy, Anton Glamb, Bridget Barkan, K-Swift, Tigga Calore, Ryan Sawyer, Leif, Zack Shadetek, Spazecrafte, Mindbender, Kiryl Olos, Philistine, Moto, Cobra Attack, Zone 3, Monica Sharp, Devang Shah, NARA, Plasticity feat. Windy Hill Mill, Ver6, Oddfellow, White Knights, Antsy, Forest City Band, Mr. Baby, Mr. Andersonic, First City and dj Otomi

:::hosted by Contessa:::...

It's Free! It's an All ages Outdoor Community Event!!
...at a Private Lot in Williamsburg Brooklyn (255 Mckibbin Street) 342 Maujer Street between Waterbury and Morgan Ave
take the L train...
For more info contact the homie Raedawn Here.

No RSVP...No Snobbery!...Just Peace, Love and Food dude.
Look for the kool-aid with portobello mushrooms and citric acid.

Campout on Queens Farm
Escape the city and channel your inner child with this food-centric overnight camping trip ($80) at Queens Farm. By the time you've worked up an appetite from playing capture the flag, Marlow & Daughters' Tom Mylan will have finished spit-roasting a pig for your dinner. Pitch your tent (available for rent) on the orchard grounds to spend the night, then enjoy Sunday's breakfast of fresh fruit and eggs gathered on the property. 73-50 Little Neck Pkwy., Floral Park; tickets available here

Uno Presents:
4TH OF JULY IN THE SKY
AN INDEPENDENCE DAYTIME ROOFTOP BBQ BOOGIE
with fine summer tunes by new york city's finest, and canada import DJs:
ELI ESCOBAR • (Outside Broadcast)
ROK ONE • (The Bangers)
CONTRA • (M.I.A. / Santigold)
HUGGS
GRANDTHEFT • (Team Canada)
VIETCONG DISCO
RILLY GUILTY
4th of July
2-8PM - BAR 13 - ROOFTOP
35 E. 13th St. and University
Breezy Refreshments & Freedom BBQ ON THE GO

FREE w/ RSVP @ http://unonyc.com or pay at the door
Brought to you by The FADER, Red Bull, Lookout, and Reluxe
Lynnette Astaire presents AMERICAN GOTHIC
9:00- 19:00 / Mayfair / Intersection of New Bond and Clifford, directly across from Louis Vuitton. LONDON

Saturday July 4th 2009, come celebrate American Independence in London as Lynnette Astaire releases her new historical documentary "John Monroe" as part of her latest Public Arts Project "American Gothic."

American Gothic Is a Public Works of Art Project based off my photograph "John Monroe," a visual statement intended to symbolize the alleged affair between John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe. The scene “John” shows the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The original Zapruder footage has been dubbed over with coughs, cell phone rings, and other quirks that indicate that the film has been pirated or "bootlegged." The scene “Monroe” features the footage of Marilyn Monroe’s "Happy Birthday Mr. President" presented in the same manner. “John Monroe” will be produced in DVD form, as a limited edition of 99. The cheap production value is intended to mimic the pirated look of movie theater re-recorded video footage commonly used in bootlegged production methods. These types of movies are commonly sold on the sidewalks and subways of urban areas.

The film sells for £99.99, with an extremely limited production run of 99

TEXAS HEAT Music Festival
2 Day Rock & Dance Fest !! Rain or Shine !!!

Saturday & Sunday :: July 4th & 5th
Doors :: 12 Noon – 10pm

JONES PLAZA :: Downtown Houston

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:: Saturday 7/4 ::
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
The Rapture [dj set]
2020 Soundsystem
Drop The Lime
Hot Pink Delorean

Supporting Artists ::
Ceeplus Bad Knives - Rocky Moon & Bolt - Electric Attitude - The Sour Notes - Grandfather Child - Searching For Signal - Shina Rae - Springfield Riots - Workingirls - Tax The Wolf - Female Demand - Grizzly - DJ Dayta - El Roy Boogie - Suraj K - SDFONE - Page - TDBZ - Kung Fu Pimp - DJ Dan-Knee - G-Wizz - The Call Me Jep - Brad Slack Featuring MC Gremlin - Bloxwerth

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:: Sunday 7/5 ::
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
RJD2
People Under The Stairs
Felix Cartal
Bird Peterson
DJ Mel

Supporting Artists ::
The Button Freak - Satin Hooks - Factory Party - American Sharks - Josh Dupont - DJ Red - Grrrl Parts - Sad Gorilla - Glasnost - The Mathletes - James Reed - Brandon Silva - Alpaca - The Gold Sounds - Ben Wesley - Warbler PL - Bjorn Larsen - Chris Calix - Damon Allen - BMC - Steve Mok - DJ Maximilian

SUNDAY
Oumou Sangare and Les Nubians
Summerstage in Central Park
3PM-7PM

Born to singer Aminata Diakité, Oumou Sangare is a Malian musician known as "The Songbird of Wassoulou.” She writes and composes her songs to bring about social awareness, especially concerning the place of women within society. Since 1990, she has performed at some of the most prestigious venues in the world: the Melbourne Opera, Roskilde festival, Festival d'Essaouira and Opéra de la Monnaie of Brussels. Her 1989 album Moussoulou was an unprecedented West African hit and she has toured with artists such as Baaba Maal, Femi Kuti, and Boukman Eksperyans. Seya (Joy) is Sangare’s first album in six years and for her appearance at Central Park SummerStage she will be performing new songs joined by some very special guests.

Afropunk Festival Celebrates the 20th Anniversary of DO THE RIGHT THING
BAM Cinemetak at 7:30pm

Directed by Spike Lee
With Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis

(1989) 120min

The streets of Bed-Stuy boil in Lee’s tale of tensions running high on the hottest day of the year. Loaded with an amazing supporting cast (including Samuel L. Jackson, Giancarlo Esposito, John Turturro, and Rosie Perez) and music by Public Enemy, Do the Right Thing swings effortlessly from satire to social commentary.

BLK JKS perform at the Weeksville Heritage Center in celebration of the July 5th Emancipation Day. Enslaved African Americans were emancipated on July 4th 1827 but because of threats of violence African Americans in New York celebrate this holiday on the 5th! Come out and hear the first of a 4-part summer salon series at this historic center.
4pm - Lecture
6pm - Show

HEY GIRL HEY: Atlantic City Edition

All Day Pool Party!!!

Music by...
Skeet Skeet
Roxy Cottontail
FIGO
Ca$$idy and Fabiana

TICKETS click here.

The Chelsea Hotel
Cabana Club
111 South Chelsea Ave
Atlantic City, NJ

for bus tickets from New York www.greyhound.com OR you can also take a train from Penn Station for $29 one way

Cubic Zirconia Record Release Party

Tiombe Lockhart's powerhouse voice was featured on the first Platinum Pied Pipers album and now her newest project, Cubic Zirconia is set to launch into outerspace tonite! With their first EP out June 23rd, the crew is throwing an all-star celebration tonite with DJ Assault, Dam Funk, Chico Mann, Head Automatica, Kool Hersh, and Mike 2600. It'll be epic. Don't Sleep.

Cubic Zirconia
Fuck Work Record Release
Thursday, July 2nd
Santo's Party House
$12 Advance Tickets
3AM Open Bar

VIBE Magazine Folds

Its been a rough week for Quincy -- first Michael passed and now Vibe has gone under. Thanks to a late nite taco run at La Esquina last nite, I was informed that Vibe Magazine, founder Quincy Jones' answer to a black Rolling Stone, has folded. Gawker has the full story here. In an interesting twist, NME.com reported today that Quincy Jones has plans to buy back the magazine he started in 1993.

Nas x Damian "Jr Gong" Marley

International Hip-Hop superstar Nas and GRAMMY-winning artist Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley are collaborating on an upcoming release Distant Relatives, an album created by the two artists to celebrate the correlation and deep-rooted connection between reggae music, hip-hop, and Africa. The album features the signature instrumentation and musicianship of Marley with the hard-hitting beats and lyrics of Nas. Throughout the course of their musical careers, the duo has taught each other and always admired one another's styles. Since first meeting in 1996, the two artists have shared a mutual respect and camaraderie that was most recently showcased on "Road to Zion," a standout track from Damian's critically-acclaimed album, Welcome to Jamrock. After having such a positive experience working together, they have now joined forces again for Distant Relatives. Check the below album trailer from Nabil, the music video director behind K'naan's TIA and Kanye's Welcome to Heartbreak.

NAS & DAMIAN "JR GONG" MARLEY DISTANT RELATIVES preview from nabil elderkin on Vimeo.

pretty things

Camille Hempel not only designs jewelry with an androgynous focus but also photographs ugly couches and fixes motorbikes. My kind of gal! I especially like the bear paw and button rings. Above, custom fingerprint wedding bands. Check out her store in Williamsburg (317 Wythe Ave., Brooklyn, NY) or online at http://camillehempel.com.

RIP Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson died today in Los Angeles of cardiac arrest. Words cannot describe the sense of loss and sadness the world feels today. He was 50. Thank you, thank you, thank you Michael Jackson for sharing your gift with the world! Download DJ Ayres' incredible Michael Jackson career mix here.

Michael Jackson - Rock with you

Ciara featuring Missy Elliott - WORK

The FADER posted this great video from Ciara's new album and all i could think about was the voguing balls from Paris is Burning and how much fun this song would be at the club for this weekend's PRIDE celebrations here in NYC. WORK it girls!!

RIP Farah!

After a lengthy and public battle with cancer, Farah Fawcett died today at the age of 66.

Red Stripe Presents...

The nice folks over at Red Stripe put together a quick summer tour featuring Terry Lynn and Johan Hugo! Download the album for FREE here and check them out live in NYC-DC-Miami-Chicago-Austin-LA!

Reading Material

From the TheMoment Blog:Who says print is dead? Koji Suzuki, the Tokyo-based author of smash-hit horror novels like the “The Ring,” has found a new publishing medium: toilet paper. Suzuki has teamed with Hayashi Paper Company, which makes novelty printed paper products for public restrooms, to manufacture rolls of toilet tissue stamped with a nine-chapter horror novella called “Drop.” The story, about a goblin living in a public restroom, places the reader at the center of the tale, and each roll contains several copies of the novella so that you can easily pick up the narrative where you left off. (A friend of mine in Tokyo said it’s so scary, she was frightened to be alone in the bathroom.) A roll of “Drop” costs 210 yen, which, at just over $2, is a fair price for disposable art.

Sa-Ra Creative Partners on KCRW

The interplanetary producing trio of Sa-Ra Creative Partners dropped by Garth Trinidad's show on KCRW in Los Angeles to pick some tunes and preview their new album, Nuclear Evolution: The Age of Love out today on Ubiquity Records. Listen to the guys discuss everything from staying independent in the music industry to making music in the post-Bush age.

Free Iran

Ashkahn is back again. He made these beautiful FREE IRAN posters! Download to your desktop, print it up at your local print shop and circulate amongst friends or buy the T-shirt for $10 here! President Obama called a midday press conference today condemning the Iranian crackdown against demonstrators and declaring the rest of the world "appalled and outraged" by the violence going on there. Read the NYTimes coverage here.