Global Labels

I've been curious lately about the origins of the products and items I use every day. For example, the clothing I wear. I don't know whether I'll keep track every day, but this morning, I did a quick global inventory of the clothes I'm wearing. And the results were intriguing:

• Boxers -- made in Cambodia using fabric from China (Fruit of the Loom)
  
• T-shirt -- made in Haiti (Hanes)
  
• Khakis -- made in Jordan (Gap)
  
• Shirt -- made in China (Uniqlo)
  
• Jacket -- made in the United States (Hart, Schaffner & Marx)
  
• Shoes -- made in China (Vans)
  

Where are the clothes you wear from? It's an interesting question.

Loping Toward a Psychogeography

I've never been to Manchester, but were I there this weekend, I'd check out the Manchester Mental Mapping Workshop run by Davide Fasic of the Nottingham Psychogeographical Unit. It's part of the Territories Reimagined: International Perspectives festival, and it takes place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, June 21, at Urbis, Cathedral Gardens, Manchester M4 3BG.

Come and draw your mental map of Manchester. Maybe you won't remember where things are, but know how to get there. You've got a mental picture of the place, your personal map of the city. Nothing compared to the O&S: no grids, no proportions, no miles to the inch. Mental maps are a fluid collection of areas, paths and landmarks; gaps and blurs abound. Buildings and streets are shrouded in emotions, the city changes according to the observer and the sum of all observations is its aura.

Shades of Will Self's recent book, the event also reminded me of a project I learned about at NYU ITP's spring show: World Mappings.

What do the places you love and remember look like inside your head? When I dream of the town in which I was born, sometimes there are entire neighborhoods that don't actually exist.

Andy Warhol's Time Capsules

The staff of the Andy Warhol Museum is currently in the process of opening and cataloguing each of Warhol's more than 600 time capsules. I wasn't aware that Warhol kept time capsules, but it appears that it was a standard practice of his.

"Now I just drop everything into the same-size brown cardboard boxes that have a color patch on the side for the month of the year. I really hate nostalgia, though, so deep down I hope they all get lost and I never have to look at them again." -- The Philosophy of Andy Warhol

This is a short list of some of the items they've found recently:

• 121 torn pieces of US 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 dollar bill edges
  
• Fan letter and nude photograph of Lance Loud, age 16ish
  
• Gift box sent to Warhol from a fan containing a doll and several handmade doll outfits
  
• Note of well wishes from Allen Ginsberg on a list of chanting mantras from the New School
  
• Necklace of Gumby figures crafted by Billy Boy
  
• A collection of stationery, menus, napkins, and brochures stolen from hotels around the world
  
• Photographic negatives of Campbell's soup cans and Coke bottles used as source material for artworks
  
• A selection from several hundred get well cards sent to Warhol following the 1968 shooting
  
• A postcard from Valerie Solanas criticizing Warhol for misspelling her name
  
• Two doggie sweaters for Andy's dachshunds, Amos and Archie
  
• A bag containing approximately 20 spools of wig tape
  
• One of Warhol's silver and black wigs
  
• Invoices from Stephen Sprouse's clothing store totaling $70,000.00
  
• A selection of kinky newspapers and magazines
  

And here's a sample capsule.

Grassroots Use of Technology

This looks like an interesting conference:

When: Saturday, June 28th - All Day (8:30am to 6pm)
Where: University of Massachusetts Lowell - Wannalancit Building, 600 Suffolk Street, Lowell, MA

Highlights of the day:

* Keynote Speaker, Nick Jehlen of Action Mil draw lessons from his recent work on the Winter Soldier campaign organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War.
* Non-profit Internet Starter Kit: Take Your Website to the Next Level with These Free Online Tools
* Online Mentoring: Innovative Uses of Technology in Creating and Managing Mentor-Mentee Relationships
* You Can't Get What You Want Until You Know What You Need: Choosing the Right Software
* Making the Most Out of the Organizers' Database
* The Untapped Power of Social Networks for Grassroots Action
* Getting the Clicks: e-Campaigning in Communities with Few Computers
* Managing Your Website with Today's Tools
* Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Roadmap
* HAVA Great Idea? (HAVA stands for Help America Vote Act)
* Facebook to Phone Trees: Multi-Generational Outreach Strategies
* Organizing the Organic Internet
* Helping Your Computer System Grow Up
* Keeping it Simple: technology tools that won't make you want to rip your hair out.
* Collaborative eLearning
* The Point: A Web-Tool for Collective Action
* Managing & Recruiting Tech volunteers
* Strategies for shaping the media/tech future: Policy, funding & organizing
* Open Media Boston: Building a News Portal with Drupal

Lowell is a beautiful, historic city that still remembers its working-class roots The intersection of rivers and canals make it a wonderful place to be on an early summer day. So join us for some engaging connections and some rock-solid knowledge sharing.

If any Media Dieticians go, consider submitting a report! (Or blogging it yourself.)

Two Music Stores in Wisconsin

• Geo. R. Breber Music Company
  
• Ward-Brodt Music Company
  

Reeds in My Saxophone Case

While in California recently, I bought a new box of alto saxophone reeds because I wanted new reeds to play my sax. So this afternoon, I cleaned out my saxophone case. I kept all of the reeds still in boxes but threw away used and loose reeds in order to make sure I wasn't reusing old reeds. It's been awhile since I've played my sax. Here are the reeds that were in my case:

• La Voz Med.
  
• La Voz M Hard
  
• La Voz M Soft
  
• Marca 3
  
• Marca 3 1/2
  
• Olivieri 3
  
• Rico Royal 3
  
• Rico Royal 5
  
• Roy J. Maier 3
  
• Vandoren 3
  

If you play a reed instrument, what kind of reeds do you use?

Products I Love XXV

At work, I just got a FreeAgent Go external hard drive from Seagate. It's the sexiest hard drive I've ever seen. Cost effective at $85 for 160GB -- it goes up to 250GB for $130 -- the drive is a sumptious chocolate brown and about as big as a wallet.

Memory is cheap. And it'll get cheaper.

On Europa

Last night, I went to a punk-rock show at Europa, a venue in Greenpoint that walks the line between European dance club and music club. The catalyst was a Rocks Off show featuring the Bouncing Souls. I hadn't gone to a punk show for awhile, and I hadn't gone to Europa, so this was the trigger I needed to step out.

Only thing was, I bought the ticket months ago. And when the show rolled around, it wasn't that convenient -- I was leaving the next day for a trip -- and while I bought only one ticket thinking C. wouldn't be into it, I would've preferred going with friends. So I lingered until I realized that one of the opening acts, Tim Barry, was the Tim Barry who fronted Avail.

So I hauled my sorry arse out of my productivity-ridden, rainy-day apartment and into the streets to catch the set by Barry, as well as the tail end of the set by Gaslight Anthem. I bought the new Gaslight Anthem 7-inch, as well as Barry's LP, and I was pleased to see a booth for Microcosm Publishing, from which I bought several zines.

Truth be told, I left soon after the Bouncing Souls started, but I'm sure they played a solid show. Barry makes me miss Joe Kendrick, so hello, man. Not sure I need Jersey core, but that Tim Barry's all right.

On the Physics of the Impossible

Friday night, C. and I took in a talk by the theoretical physicist Michio Kaku. It was held at the Community Church of New York under the auspices of the Open Center, and it was basically a book signing you paid to go to. Tickets cost $20. The book cost extra.

Kaku, cofounder of string field theory, has a new book out that looks at the scientific underpinnings of concepts like invisibility, teleportation, ray guns, telepathy and mind reading, starships, robots, and time travel.

The talk was heavy on the jokes and use of video -- Kaku hosted a BBC TV show scheduled to hit the states next year -- and light on the science, but there were still some interesting bits. Not only did Kaku hold up some solid examples stemming from actual scientific research, but he walked through various levels of impossibility and types of civilizations that might or might not be more or less likely to embrace potential possibiities.

Part of me wants to think that Kaku has moved from representing a pop scientist to being a new age geek, which possesses a different degree of credulity. But another part of me wants to see the talks behind the talk to better understand the science behind the speculation.

This is popsci, not scifi, and that's an important difference.

On People Movers

I flew into SFO today. Tom and I rode the people mover to the rental car center after I claimed my suitcase.



Watch this while listening to the song by Servotron. It'll be a kick!

(If the video's not ready now, it will be soon.)

On Beatiful Losers

Last week, thanks to the generosity of Shane Gill and Pitch Control PR, C. and I took in a screening of Beautiful Losers, a wonderful doc about the art scene surrounding the Alleged Gallery in New York.

No, that's not it. Beautiful Losers is a film about a group of artists, some of whom had some connection with Alleged, a gallery I never had the pleasure of visiting, but which was quite important, even inspiring a book. No, that's not quite right, the movie is about a group of artists who participated in a traveling exhibition show (with accompanying catalog) that captured the ideas and ideals of a small part of a generation.

No, that's wrong, too. Beautiful Losers is a film about art. Period. Yes, it's about skateboarding (Ed Templeton) and stencils (Shepard Fairey), love (Mike McGee) and loss (Margaret Kilgallen), New York (Stephen Powers) and LA (where much of the art found its largest audience). It's about record covers and suburbia, friendship and community, self-exploration and -discovery.

Some parts work better than others. Overall, the movie is an excellent documentation of a specific time in art, blending past and present well. At times, the film feels long, and some parts -- such as those including Harmony Korine -- feel somewhat out of place. But if you're into the kind of art featured in Giant Robot and Juxtapoz magazines -- and even if you're not -- it's a must see.

The movie makes me want to carry a Sharpie at all times. That's not a bad thing.

List of Three Men

• Mass Giorgini
  
• Kevin Army
  
• Bill Stephenson