Black Rain from Semiconductor on Vimeo.

Black rain, twin satellites, solar missions, heliocentric imagers, passing planets seen as background stars.  This and more NASA art projects from our heroes at Semiconductor Films.  Obligatory Sun Ra stream below.

Man when are we going to learn not to fuck with Southeast Asia? U.S. citizen John William Yettaw went on a spiritual retreat, to Myanmar in a effort to speak with Aung San Suu Kyi.  Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi has been on house arrest for 13 years and Yettaw, fashioned in, wait for it… flippers he made with sandals and wood (that’s on some MacGyver shit B), swam to escape when he was caught on Aung San Suu Kyi's property. Myanmar authorities imprisoned poor John William Yettaw where he faces 5 five years for entering a restricted zone and immigration offenses. Moreover, Aung San Suu Kyi was hit with bogus charges by Myanmar militant group, Junta and thrown in the notorious Insein prison, where many of the country's 2,100 political prisoners face torture and death.

Turns out Mr. Yettaw was pushed to the edge (in addition to a nonsense, bloody and psychological straining war) we he lost his teenage son two years ago. Man, what a bummer for everyone. Makes us wonder what we have planned to alleviate the tragedies of war for our current active soldiers. What with the suicide and post traumatic stress syndrome being the highest it has in any of our past wars. Just had a friend shoot himself in the head in the home where his wife and two-year old lived, after coming home from Iraq. Think I’ll go sort this out with a bottle of Goose now… Sheesh.

If you want to join my cumbersome state, read the article here

Geko just passed me a stream of his weekly radio broadcast: MOGLO on KEXP and also on 91.5 in NYC on the 4th Thursday of every month after Afropop Worldwide.  Grab our dancing shoes and head south:

Some people have more time on their hands than me... And some of them make me smile. Having a bad day? Just slap some shit with Vince, before you know it the Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo gang will join! Now that's a party, eh Vince?

Like Fiume Nights at NYU with a Red One.

What ever happened to super fresh stage names? Kid's these days just don't know the power of a fresh stage name. In a effort to show you how much a stage name can help you stack, we'll unveil the surnames of some prominent musicians. Pay close attention gang, and be open to a fresh name for yourself that may come along. These artist did not have fresh names (as I am sure you don't either) until they let the fresh kick them in the ass. Now check it.

William Jonathan Drayton Jr. turned super fresh when he became Flavor Flav.

Eric Marlon Bishop Jr. is Jamie Foxx.

John Anthony Gillis is White Stripes front man/overall fresh dude Jack White

Curtis James Jackson III is 50 cent, who was fresh in 2005.

Peter Lewis Kingston Wentz III is Pete Wentz. In some cases you can do some arranging with your real name in order to get a fresh name.

Inga Fung Marchand wave the magic fresh wand and you get Foxy Brown.

James Todd Smith would have trouble getting bootay but LL Cool J is so fresh ladies can't resist.

Faheem Rasheed Najm does not sound fresh, even if you said it with Auto-Tunes. T-Pain, however; fresh.

Jonathan Mortimer Smith, WHAT! is Lil Jon, YEA!

So you see gang, it doesn't take much to be famous for a day, year or a decade. Just a little freshning up. 

The quote from Staff Benda Bilili's myspace: "We're all handicapped people, ain't we?"   And it's partly true -- we are all handicapped (especially after dancing till 4 in Ft. Greene last night) but "everybody" can't play that Congo gutter-funk like SBB.   As you'll see in the video above, SBB are paraplegic musicians that rule Kinshasa with music and homemade wheelchair-cruisers.   Their story is almost too much to handle, but it works cause SBB's music is just so damn sweet.    They're in Paris in July, and hopefully in the US sometime soon.  Grab the new album Très Très Fort at an iTunes near you.

Piotr Orlov aka Rasberry Jones, doing it right with his new TREEHOUSE party in Ft. Greene at the legendary bar, Frank's Lounge.   We'll see you there.

ANDY BETA, RASBERRY JONES, TREEBOY + THOMAS BULLOK
9PM-2AM // FRANK'S LOUNGE (UPSTAIRS) // FT GREENE, BROOKLYN

Search over 10,000 flickr creative commons images by color combinationz.   Soundtrack here.

Anyone who has a va-JJ knows it has mad power. Some sistahs in Kenya are getting hip to the idea of cutting off sexual intercourse from their husbands as a means to end war and violence. The Women’s Development Organization encouraged other women to participate in this strike. The participating women in Kenya posed the strike to their husbands, asking to end the violence or forget getting any pum pum for at least a week. This however, has created some shady lawsuits. One husband filed suit saying, the strike caused physical and mental strain.

Although the strike is a great idea, there could be negative consequences. For example, should the participating women fear any repercussions from their husbands? How will this effect assault cases and rape in the country? In a place facing such an unstable environment, you never know how drastic change (i.e. no pum pum) can contribute to those tensions. Green Owl loves non-violent solutions and we hope The Women’s Development Organization finds the peace their looking for with their efforts.

Read more here

Floating gardens help farmers deal with increased flooding.

Last week at CARE's national advocacy conference in Washington, DC, Green Owl's Wills Glasspiegel sat down with Seema Gaikwad (advocacy coordinator, CARE Bangladesh) to talk about CARE's work to fight the negative effects of climate change on impoverished farmers in Bangladesh.   Seema spoke about increased flooding in Bangladesh and how the world's poor are the people most affected by climate change (even though, by in large, they aren't the ones causing the problem).   In the video clip below, Ms. Gaikwad talk about floating gardens, one solution that CARE has found to help farmers in Bangladesh adapt to increased flooding.

More amazing videos of Nina Simone compiled by the good folks at Arthur Mag here.  Thanks to Bill Bragin for the tip.  Bill brings that Nina Simone spirit to Lincoln Center Out of Doors this summer with BRC Orchestra's tribute to Four Women: Eartha Kitt, Odetta, Miriam Makeba and Abbey Lincoln.

It looks as if another country is having a Governor of California election circa 2003 (remember the porn star and Gary Coleman). Registration for presidency of Iran was completed Saturday and there were a few characters that stood out from this political engagement too. Some included were a cowboy, a Saddam Hussein look-a-like and a 12 year old boy.

The sad truth to this story is the dark impressions this world makes on children. At 12 years old, you should still be resisting baths and learning how to curse while playing kick ball. But alas, the deep, painful and ongoing conflicts in the Middle East have exasperated some innocence of childhood. The 12 year old boy declared his plan to lease Hawaii to Jews as an effort to alleviate conflict in Gaza. What the what? Meanwhile, we have kids here in the states taking shot guns to school. Does this make anyone want to turn off the toxic news station? Being a bi-racial kid has had its haunting and mind numbing  consequences but this is an example of ancestral imprints and how the circle of life isn’t always a Disney movie.

Read the full article here.

Tom Olivier (original photograph here)

If the pope listened to Electric Tickle Machine, what would his favorite song be?
"Part of me" (streaming below).  It's nice for me to think there's a little tiny bit of him that wonders if he should jump ship.

Where is your music most indigenous in NY?
We cut our teeth in downtown Manhattan at places like the Cake Shop but we're playing more shows in Brooklyn.  Thanks to the subways, indigenous is portable.

When I say, sustainability, you say....
Education, community and personal accountability.  No more participatory fascism.

Who's the most compelling guest star to ever grace the stage with ETM?
Andrew W.K. introduced the band at Santos Party House -- he said the night was sponsored by Pizza Hut and I'm about 90% sure he was kidding (we weren't offered pizza).  After the show, he came up to me and said "well, people seemed to really enthusiastic about you guys."  I took that as a compliment.

Do you mind being an acronym?
No, glad people would talk about us enough to merit one.

What are your plans for the future?
We've just finished recording our first LP and we get the masters back today.  The album will be available digitally in the next few weeks. We're working on a bunch of new material and planning to hit the road in august.  I'd like to record another album and play Japan by the end of the year.

How does the city inform your mongrel punkrock swagger?
I appreciate my Gotham filter -- all the paranoia, sensory overload and depravity that comes with it.

How is ETM related to Bruce Springstein?
My parents saw him play in the Village back in his early days and they still managed to procreate.  I'm not ultra-familiar with his music but I did see him teabag America at the Superbowl.  You'd think that'd be more offensive than a nipple, but who am I to try to pin rationale to the Puritan stronghold.

What are the three most pressing environmental concerns facing your planet?
Lack of clean water, dependency on oil, ecological preservation.

Where is the cleanest energy?
There's good juju everywhere.  It's just a matter of sharpening the hedge-clippers and being a good neighbor.  I'm working on it.

Who's a better role model and why: Tony Danza or Lou Reed?
Lou Reed.  I prefer my apples eaten.

What's the most obscure piece of "world music" in your collection?
Dinowalrus

Who's the boss?
Roy Orbison

Electric Tickle Machine play Piano's on 5/19.   Tracks streaming below.

The music world is full of bad haircuts and emo-channeled-hipster tendencies, so one should appreciate the political convictions of musicians if there to keep the planet from suffocating. The We Support Solar Campaign is a UK group geared at making Feed-in tariffs to help support solar power and lower carbon emissions.

According to the campaigns website, a “A Feed-in Tariff (FIT) provides a long-term financial incentive for people to invest in renewable energy… electricity companies are obligated by governments to buy renewable electricity at above market rates.” Wow that’s pretty swell. The queen catalyst in this eco-friendly creative venture is Lilly Allen, who built a solar powered recording studio. Lilly Allen may be a drunk but this makes her a green drunk, which deserves a hearty 589 owls.

The green cherry on cool-kid cake is London punk trio, Klaxons, are in the process of recording their new album in Allen’s solar powered lab. You know, everything does happen for a reason. For example, the Klaxons initial second album was rejected by their label, making this solar powered record a great possibility.

Read more about this story from the original NME artilce here!