In this video my friend Noah came over and showed me his latest DIY project. He installed an in-line Hydrogen-On-Demand system into his Jeep Cherokee. It apparently increases his miles per gallon and claims that he is spending less time at the pump, effectively saving money. After some anticipated curiosity on my part, he finally came over and showed me his hydrogen cell contraption. Upon first glance I thought “nice science fair project” but when the engine started and the reaction occurred - “watch out Flux Capacitor.” I take no responsibility for this information and I am not claiming it is correct. I am only relating to you what my friend Noah was up to.
Saturday night 5/3/2008, I was pulled out to Oakland to see Dj Harvey instead of my usual round to the monthly Kontrol party. I can not be more glad at the turn of events. I witnessed the best underground Disco set I have ever seen in my life and I have seen great ones from Andre Hachett and Maurice Fulton. Although I like Disco for its wide spectrum of funky styles I usually get a little tired of it after a half hour - the vocals drive me a little nuts. This night however changed my opinion of Disco but it’s also because Harvey has a rare deep and underground vintage disco track arsenal that only him and a few dj’s on the planet own.
I saw Harvey once before in 2000 but I didn’t like it. On this night however, the stars were aligned and he came down with the phenomenal disco force that only a well strapped dj veteran like him can. Let’s have a reality check here. Dj Harvey is old school - I don’t know his true age but you can read his Wikipedia entry and get an idea of how far his dj career goes - He is no spring chicken - he is more like the wise owl - check out his greying beard. As a dj for 14 years myself, I was impressed by every selection he made. I recognized 2 songs all night - 4 hours.
Description: Funk-Rock with a Disco kiss on it. A deep blend of washed out guitars, funky-tribally drums rhythms, wet high hats, psychedelic drone strings, far away sounds, dance friendly rock and just the right amount of Vocals. It is one of the most eclectic sounds I have ever heard yet, under the umbrella of Disco.
The show was small, it was one of those events that drew true disco music lovers - only those who knew were there, about 100 strong which Harvey kept dancing for 5 hours straight. I myself got lucky and met a great dancer on that dance floor. We danced till sweaty - two and a half hours straight before we finally took a water break What a lucky guy her boyfriend must be - he was not there. Too bad for him, on that night Harvey made her and I connect body moves to the underground Disco Beat Check out his site and learn more about Harvey: http://www.harveysarcasticdisco.com/
Thanks to organizations like the National Snow and Ice Data Center we are able get images like these. That still probably wont get you to sell your car and start consuming less. We will just have to learn the hard way.
According the the NSIDA in an article released on March 25th 2008, a 5,282 square mile ice shelf has begun to collapse. The catalyst for this reaction was the initial collapse of a 41 x 2.5 mile smaller ice shelf named Wilkins that started disintegrating into the sea. Check out the animation here.
It is hard to tell what the impact of this ice shelf melting will be in the next coming months. The last huge ice shelf break happened in January 2002 when a region named “Larsen B”, the size of Rhode Island, started to break away and completely melt within 30 days. Wilkins is roughly the size of Northern Ireland.
In the same days as the press release mentioned, Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change delivered a speech to the Environmental Committee.
“Now there’s enough evidence to show that there is accelerated melting of some of these large bodies of ice; west Antarctic ice-sheet, the Greenland ice-sheet…I think we need some coordinated actions that would put a price on carbon”
I do not mean to be a pessimist, but I still do not think anyone is listening even when the guy who is delivering the news looks at you like this:
When I made this movie in September 2006 I had different goals in mind. I wanted to work at Current TV, Al Gore and Joel Hyatt’s maven viewer created content TV network. I wanted to work at Current so much that I decided to make a movie and show them I had what it took. I had no idea that two years later this movie would inspire a journalism education program at an Oakland high school. Check out the original version in case you haven’t seen it yet.
With only 30 days left until the deadline of a contest that Current TV was running called, Seeds of Tolerance, I embarked on this project. The prize was 100,000 dollars - I was in for the ride of my life.
I picked this topic because I myself am an immigrant to the good ole U.S.A. and I felt it was my duty to explore this topic closely. I am so happy that I did.
I quit my job (I got it back when I returned), borrowed the equipment, secured the funding, and flew off to New Orleans with only two contacts upon arrival, a friends friend who lent me his floor to sleep on and Christian Roselund who ran Indymedia in the area and whom I met through email correspondence.
Blood, Sweat and Tears is the best way that I can explain these 30 days. Sourcing, shooting, directing, and editing. I was a one man show. I went up to scared immigrant strangers on the street, this is how I met all the subjects in my movie. My time in New Orleans was very short so every minute on the field was worth gold. I met heroes and downtrodden people. Then entire experience felt somewhat apocalyptic. Certain people will always stick out in my mind.
9 hours of footage later, I had to teach myself how to edit video. This took about 2 hours thanks to my audio editing skills. I’m not kidding. I am a natural at this. I boiled all the content down to 11 minutes to meet the contest requirements. I can easily make a 40 minute movie with the footage.
I did not win the $100,000 but out of approximately 380 entries, 8 movies were picked, 6 finalists, and 2 for television. This movie was picked for television - I got paid. Not much money, but the reward today is bigger than anything I could have possibly imagined back then.
Tomorrow, I will be giving a speech after the screening of my movie at Unity High School in Oakland, California. This website has all the details: http://www.unityhigh.org/gulfcoasttrip08
The aim of the fundraiser is to send a group of students to New Orleans and make 2 documentaries about this topic. You are all of course welcome to help out.
This is a much deeper story because it involves everything from the Detroit techno music label Underground Resistance and an old school Dj friend from back in the Ann Arbor days. However, you will have to ask me in person about this if you really want to find out more.
Credits and thank you’s:
Eddie & Johnny & Larry for letting me crash in your places, and Kieran Walsh for hooking that up.
Alex Outhred for funding
Gregory Kellet and Ian Kellet for the Camera and the tips - good juju!
Elsa Wenzel for support and research help
“CESAR” for putting up with me in his editing suite.
Christian Roselund, Ed Holub, Eva San Martin, Luz Molina, Jorge Lopez, Damion, Claire Didier, Lamar LeBlanc, Albert at Common Ground, and the immigrants themselves who put themselves at risk to help me make this film.
Thanks to Cornelius Harris for passing it on and thanks to Daniel Zarazua for inspiring the youth to take further action.
This is nothing but shameless promotion. I have not been writing for a while. My excuse? bad women and hard work. Nuff said, right?
My least favorite holiday of all time is coming up. Valentines Day! Boo. I am one of those Valentine day haters, along with a few others. I was offered to dj an Anti-Valentines Drink the pain away party at the Argus Lounge, located at 3187 Mission St at Valencia in the lovely city of San Francisco of course. My Dj Buddies:Tau G and Saiman will be sharing the decks with me. $4 Fernet Shots!!!
The music? Hateful love songs a la techno electro booty shake redemption. Yes. I should have started the promotion like three weeks ago, but like I said, bad women and hard work. To those girls out there who have been kicking my heart around like Diego Maradona kicks a soccer ball lately, I dedicate this to you. ha ha ha ha haaaaaa.
I will be back with more quirks, news, and ridiculous opinions soon. My day job has been squeezing every drop of my time. I woke up this morning dreaming about funnel pages, user experience and email subject lines. The first word I said this morning coming out of a deep dream was “conversion.” Yes folks, that is how crazy I am becoming. Marketing to your minds.
I will be attending one of my other favorite Anti Valentines day events in San Francisco earlier in the night however. The massive pillow fight. Here is a video from last years Valentines day pillow fight extraordinaire:
What a lucky guy her boyfriend must be - he was not there. Too bad for him, on that night Harvey made her and I connect body moves to the underground Disco Beat 
