Bike Boulevards

watch this short video on bicycle boulevards. traffic calming should be a much greater focus in the US.

electro SWING

love it! samples for you to hear.

parov stelar: matilda

caravan palace: brotherswing and cafe de la danse ..LOVE them

chinese man: artichaut

free the robots: jazzhole

dunkelbunt: cinnamon girl

g-swing: sing sing sing

kormac: scratch marchin


and getting ever so slightly off topic. here's birdy nam nam.

100 Abandoned houses

100 Abandoned houses, a project by Kevin Bauman... From his website:

The abandoned houses project began innocently enough roughly ten years ago. I actually began photographing abandonment in Detroit in the mid 90’s as a creative outlet, and as a way of satisfying my curiosity with the state of my home town. I had always found it to be amazing, depressing, and perplexing that a once great city could find itself in such great distress, all the while surrounded by such affluence.

Brush Park, on the outskirts of Detroit’s entertainment district was always an area of interest to me. For as long as I can remember the area, housing large houses and mansions, sat largely abandoned just a stones throw away from the Fox Theater, and not far from Wayne State University, the Masonic Theater, and even the central business district. How could an area that was obviously once a wealthy enclave in the city become an example of the downfall of American cities?

For years the area had signs advertising the redevelopment that was about to take place. It finally began to happen, with the construction of the new ballpark for the Tigers, and Ford Field for the Lions. New condos, and town homes began to appear amidst the rubble of burned out mansions turned apartments. Some of the houses were so large they became “loft condos”. As the entertainment district flourished, and Brush Park began to transform into something new, I realized the other approximately 135 square miles of Detroit was largely ignored. The excitement about Detroit’s “rebirth” took center stage, while much of the rest of the city was becoming largely abandoned. Even Brush Park itself was still largely abandoned, but with the remaining tenants of Brush Park buildings being pushed out, and many of the old houses torn down, I moved on to other areas, where Detroiters were attempting to make a life among abandoned and burned out houses. Often times, the neighborhoods were almost completely abandoned. In these neighborhoods I encountered concerned citizens, packs of wild dogs, 20 foot high piles of toilets, and houses with the facades torn off, filled with garbage.

As the number of images grew, and a documentary style emerged, I switched from mostly black and white, to color, and decided to name the series 100 Abandoned Houses. 100 seemed like a lot, although the number of abandoned houses in Detroit is more like 12,000. Encompassing an area of over 138 square miles, Detroit has enough room to hold the land mass of San Francisco, Boston, and Manhattan Island, yet the population has fallen from close to 2 million citizens, to most likely less than 800,000. With such a dramatic decline, the abandoned house problem is not likely to go away any time soon.

Girls

Note to self.

girls is playing at The Loft in La Jolla December 4th at 9pm. Buy tickets.

Music Links

Just added a bunch of music blog links, in part because I've been really needing to organize that shit, and in part bc hypeFM put up a few that were worth noting for a couple of you guys :)

check them out on the side, there are gems in there.

AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!

royksopp + karen (theknife) + remix = ear and brain orgasm happening!!!!

turn up the volume.

Royksopp- Tricky Tricky (Volatile Tidy Tidy Remix)

Vela Creations

This has got to be one of the most inspiring things i've seen in awhile. while there are smaller scale things you can do in large numbers as a renter to lessen your impacts on "the grid" (environmentally speaking), this couple has taken this to an "extreme" by going to a simple lifestyle "off the grid."

they built their own house, and are now building their 2nd, by hand from simple materials. gardens, of course, a roof that channels rainwater to save for months in tanks, chickens, and a an awesome method of potty training their baby to minimize diaper and water waste.

they've also blogged most of their progress in their life projects, thanks to today's technology, so you can see their photos on flickr and read about their creations on their website.

in my near future, of "owning" or building a house of my own, i am dying to incorporate projects such as these (wind turbine, solar power, rainwater collecting for garden use, etc). these people are an example of how simple life could be.