Music is a funny thing. As with most forms of media these days, because of digitization and ease of sharing, we lovers of all forms of media are left to face the deluge. How do we face such a torrent of culture, particularly of the audible form, in a way that gives us the most bang for our time spent looking?
If you are like me and interested in indie/dance/hip-hop/neo-folk… you know what I mean… this can be an extremely difficult task. Recently I have been addicted to a number of music sources. The first, The Hype Machine, I mentioned a few weeks ago HERE. I have also been big into the “Indie Rock Playlists” that show up each month on the torrent tracker sites. I find ‘em HERE. Lastly, muxtape.com… Really cool concept that I saw HERE on the Brilliance. I echo all that Benjamin said. Design. Design. Design. I’ll add one thing; its also such a great concept because a mixtape is the acme, the apex of what you are listening to… No filler. You know… those songs you LOVE. And here you get hundreds of them. I am already planning a muxtape party. Genius.
Here is mine. It’s a work in progress.
So this startingbloc fellowship that concluded last week at Columbia University was pretty wild. In a ridiculously over-simplified single sentence, the group focuses mainly on social business, or business that exists not only to make money but also to bring about some kind of positive social change. You hear the term “triple bottom line” often, which refers to a company’s desire to address its financial bottom line (i.e. make money) along with an environmental bottom line and a human rights based bottom line.
American Apparel is a great example of a social business. They produce in LA and make a point to pay decent wages. (As an aside, producing in LA doesn’t ensure good wages as most of these sewers are illegal immigrants and have very little recourse when they are being paid peanuts. As a result, “Made in USA” can be a little deceptive.) They also have a very progressive environmental policy. Until very recently they have produced a small portion of their clothing with organic cotton. The clothes probably sold pretty poorly as they were that ugly off-white organic color and were usually (at least in the Philly stores) hidden somewhere in the back near the dressing rooms. OK, so the big news; within the last month, they have started selling organic clothes (and in particular their flagship 2001 t-shirt) in colors other than ugly off-white organic. This is great as no other retailer or wholesaler (AA is both) is offering such environmentally sustainable, while at the same time wearable, clothing.
But that’s not the whole story (and this is where the starting bloc tie-in comes). One of the big lessons that I learned from this Starting Bloc fellowship is that if you want to introduce a “socially better” product into the marketplace, it not only has to be the same or better than already existing similar products, but it must also be priced the same or less than those already existing products. Honestly, your “fair trade” t-shirt/diamond/chocolate/whatever that was made in a clean factory, where workers are given healthcare, get 2 weeks vacation, yadda, yadda, yadda, but is priced $0.20 more than an equivalent product will either forever exist in a extremely niche market and never make it to the big-time or tank so badly you won’t know what hit you. It’s crazy but true. And THAT’S what is cool about what AA is doing. The key is that the organic shirts are not only identical in feel and fit (the colors are different than pre-existing shirts, which could potentially be a big issue, but I imagine that they will start replacing the pre-existing colors with organic fabrics… aaaaanyway…) but they are also priced exactly the same as the other non-organic 2001 shirts.
This is huge (HUGE!) for the progressively minded manufacturing sector and for consumers who are looking to buy more responsibly.
My hat goes off to you Dov Charney. Bravo.
Usually you have to download 30 remixes to get one that is half-decent. OK, I’ve got 2 that have been (somewhat) time-tested.
The first is Gonzalez’s remix of Feist’s “I Feel It All”. Not much to say here except… pretty awesome. I know next to nothing about Gonzalez. Here is his Hype Machine page. Take a look. The Brilliance covered it here.
The second is Jay-Z’s “Roc Boyz” (MikeLove’s Nigerian Gangster remix) with Fela. Get it here on The Fader. I’ve been addicted to this for WEEKS. I like it a lot more than the original… which is a rare place for a remix to take, especially when the original is as god-awefully good as it is.
Thank God we are alive when we are. (Or not, I guess, depending on where you live and how much money you make. So, thank God we are alive when we are, at least moderately well-off and have access to the internet.) These Koolhaas and Foster designs for sustainable cities in the United Arab Emirates are wild. Foster’s would open in ‘09 (Soon, no?) and Koolhaas’ in ‘12. Read about them in the links above from inhabitat.com; but here’s a little eye-candy for ya’…
Koolhaas:
Foster:
And speaking of Architecture… for all of yous in Philly… Tomorrow, open and free to the public…
Being the image-heavy site that this is, I have got to tip my hat to heyokay.com. Really funny stuff. It only has been up for a few months, so you can click through the archives pretty quickly. From the About:
Hey! I’m a 26 year old information specialist that lives in Austin. Hey Okay is where I post my collection of pictures that I’ve gathered from various places. A lot of the pictures were found online, others were found in magazines, books, movies, junk stores, garage sales, and in the alley behind my old apartment. I plan on posting at least one image a day on Hey Okay, maybe two or more if I can get around to it.
With Fidel out and Raul in I am getting big into Fidel retrospective pieces. This showed up in the NYTimes a few weeks ago and I finally got around to watching it. Really cool. The early ’60s in Cuba must have been just the strangest time. The US isn’t quite sure what to do with this guy. Cuba is still full of hope and optimism. This photoessay is great. Watch for the picture of Fidel sitting in the frontseat of the car, looking into the backseat with that ak-47 tucked into the backside of the chair. HERE.
