Georgia Guidestones will lead us into a brave new world after the apocalypse. But don't worry the bombs will be environmentally friendly.

Sumi Ink @ The Smell in LA

I always feel a bit David Lynchy when poking around outdoor malls in LA's Chinatown.  This was the case when I visited my friends, Luke and Sarah from Lucky Dragons (music) and Sumi Ink Club (visual art) in their Chinatown studio.  The idea behind Sumi Ink is to create collaborative drawings (like the mural above for the LA club The Smell).  

Many of the drawings are done for charity -- Luke and Sarah are super-inclined towards using art as a way of bringing people together.  A single drawing can involve over 40 different artists.   It's not exactly a Warhol "factory" but Sumi Ink is producing massive amounts of art.  In May, they'll have a show in Berlin at the new gallery, Golden Parachutes.   To learn more, visit their website.   You can also head to Chinatown and draw with them.

Lucky Dragons in the stream.

Luke in the studio

Cut-Ups from Matti Niinimäki on Vimeo.

A new video with old footage of William Burroughs on the history of cutups and montage.  Burrough's cutups anticipated the creation of sample-based hiphop / DJ culture.   More on cutups here.

America can look really bland from the side of the highway, but it's always good to know there's something wild behind the corporate facade.  Huff Post now reports that a Great Horned Owl (an "adaptable bird" with a 4-foot wingspan) has made its home comfortably in a Arkansas Home Depot store.  Full story here + more sweet owl love here.

Tinariwen formed in 1982 in the Sahara desert between Mali, Algeria and Libya.  They are Tuareg nomads and you can hear it in the music -- the wailing desert, electric drones that withstand time and heat.  Their style is Tishoumaren ("music of the unemployed") and their name, Tinariwen, means "empty places."  Tinariwen are said to be the first to play this traditional music  -- now called "desert blues" -- on electric guitars.    Whatever you call it, it's rebel music -- sung in French and Tamashek to support Tuareg freedom from the government of Mali.  We caught them backstage at Coachella (photos above and below); you can catch them tonight at LPR in New York. 

Matadjem Yinmixan in the stream below.

Magnetic Movie from Semiconductor on Vimeo.
Video by the in-house artists at N.A.S.A.  Story via VST. 
Science here from Wikipedia.  The band is here.

Know what's good for you NY!!  Head to Glasslands tomorrow to party with Dutty Artz and Maluka.

Uproot Andy in the stream.

Breathe Owl Breathe - Boat from Weston Currie on Vimeo.

This band is not only very good but is smart enought to have the word "owl" in it's name.  Good look. 

Kyocera announces a new design for green phones powered by kinetic energy.  More on it from Inhabitat.

Guess what gang? The DIM MAK and Ed Banger joints are not dead. In fact, they still live and even throw and good party. Yesterday, as I crept through the warm Los Angeles night like a wolf, I encountered what was to be one of my best evenings of 2009.

DJ BUSY B held up 400 enchanted fans in LA's Cinespace with two turntables and a microphone last night. The Ed Banger artist had special guest DJ Mehdi, SoMe and Gaspard to complete the solid gold bill.  When Daft Punk's Thomas Bangalter appeared, the whole joint suddenly time warped to Berlin circa 2002 and magic shit hit the awesome fan. Cinespace had an infectious, lovable and pleasant energy to it. People laughed and drank; complete strangers struck up conversation with me, noting my dynamite attire. Man, you sure don't get that in New York. I will admit I've always hated a bit on Los Angele's but the city and its neon-clad citizens did nothing but warmly welcome me.

More on the party from Stereogum here.

On the day that Pitchfork decimates the "frat-rap" of one Asher Roth, we present to you the self described "weed edge/Hare Krishna hard core/art rap/freak folk" of Brooklyn's own Das Racist.  Though there may be an "Asher Roth, what a clown" spat in a prior Das Racist track, this is not an article about beef.  Or, if it is, it's about White Castle's "tiny-ass hamburgers," one of many food references in the Das Racist oeuvre.

Das Racist is Victor Vazquez (also a member of Boy Crisis) and Himanshu Kumar. This track is entitled "Rainbow In The Dark" and it was produced by J-LA, recorded by Patrick Wimberly from Chairlift.  "Das Racist is the new Kool G Rap/peep us at the Grammys/we'd like to thank GChat."

According to a recent piece in the Times: "Planet Earth is the new Barry White. . . I love making out when planet earth is in the background ... it’s so natural."   Happy earth day, people!  Keep it turning!!  Facts on earth day here from Huffington post.

In the Shade with Stuart Bogie from Green Owl on Vimeo.

In anticipation of the new Star Trek movie, 25 top artists were commissioned to remix the Starship Enterprise.  All the ships here.

On other Trek-art horizons, LPR exhibited Devorah Sperbe's portrait of Spok made out of thread spools.  More of those here.

       
hot

Amy Winehouse brand ethanol

I'm about to leave scalding-hot / oh god the planet is melting and so am I, Los Angeles, and I gotta let y'all know a bit more about Coachella.  Mainly, I'm talking about clean energy golf carts -- another project that was curated by Global Inheritance.

Amy, who was supposed to play Coachella, didn't make it into the US, but her renewable energy golf cart did.

As a way to celebrate clean, green energy, the folks at Coachella put together an art installation with renewable energy golf carts.   The golf cart, both a staple of music festivals and of the golf paradise that is the Coachella valley, was the perfect platform to show off new sustainable technology.  Working with local technicians, artists, and a few Cal Tech mad geniuses, Coachella designed golf carts in the vein of musicians, and matched up those musicians with a particular sustainable technology.  For Amy Winehouse, it was (snicker, snicker) ethanol.  M.I.A.'s cart was solar-paneled and the Yeah Yeah Yeah's was wind-powered.

The M.I.A. solar-powered cart with tribal golf gear.

Wind-powered golf cart.  These actually work, too.