Category: Art & Culture

I mentioned last week that I went to huge NerdFest which doubled as my friend MJ’s housewarming party. At some point that afternoon, I looked up and noticed that six guests, laptops open, were sitting in a circle passing CD’s and DVD’s back and forth while loading up their harddrives with new media of every conceivable variety, all in the great sharing spirit of the web. As one guest named Alex told me, there is nothing even remotely illegal about this. So long as no was charged admission for entry (no one was), a ticket price for participation (they were not), copying media provided by the rightful owner amongst friends is as clean as a linen napkin.

Several of us then thought this would make a good party theme. The name “Media Swap” was tossed about and stuck.

When I find time, I’m going to host the next “Media Swap.” You can beat me to it if you like by following these simple guidelines.

Kevin’s Thoughts on How to Host a Media Swap

1. Invite 3-6 friends over. Any less and the swap pool is too incestuous. Too many more and it becomes choatic and loud.

2. Swap participants should be midway between best friends and total strangers. You want enough diversity in the room so everyone is getting exposed to a range of music, film, links whataveyou. But you don’t want the group to be so disparate that you spend the entire first hour explaining what klezmer or who Mira Nair is.

3. Everyone should bring a laptop of relatively new vintage with updated music and DVD copying software. Anyone who does not have a laptop should bring a handful of blank CDs and DVDs.

4. Everyone should bring a half-dozen pieces of media (either CDs, DVDs, interesting web sites, links or RSS feeds).

5. Everyone should bring a notebook and pen to jot down who gave them what. It’s bad manners to gank someone’s media and not thank them later.

6. Generally, media swaps start on their own. Someone opens a laptop, someone else get snoopy and looks over their shoulders and off we swap. If everyone’s sitting around wondering what to do, get kindergarden on their asses. Make everyone stand up, say their name and do show-and-tell on what they brought. Then let them pair off and start swapping.

7. Try and get at least one piece of media from everybody. You’re here to get exposed to new things and this ain’t the friggin grade school cafeteria. Be cooler than thou on your own time.

8. Swaps can finish quickly or slowly depending on what everybody brought. Figure 5 swappers, with 6 pieces each, a swap will last an hour.

9. As the host, supply food and drink. This is tiring business which needs replenishment.

10. After swap protocol depends on your swappers. Some might want to throw on earphone right away and start media-gorging. Others want to wait until later. As the host, check the pulse of the room. If the crowd is ready for other amusement, suggest and provide in the form of a board game, a movie, a route to go walking. Remember, the reason they are Media Swapping in the first place is a lust for new things and a 21st century short attention span.

Seen at today’s Power to the Peaceful Festival in Golden Gate Park.

The good folks from Bedrock Music

A DJ collective called < ahref="http://www.tribalsouls.net/home.html">Tribal Souls putting down some serious grooves.

Refuse and Resist distributing some excellent literature on protecting oneself from the slimy tendrils of the American Police State.

Indy Bay: An independent media collective and online presence.

California’s Swing State Initiative to get the vote out for John Kerry in the state’s where it counts.

San Francisco Clean City Coalition who gave me a really cool biodegradable garbage bag for my kitchen.

Miles and miles of hippie chicks in long skirts. I wish Suzan wasn’t at work.

Former NPR Morning Edition host Bob Edwards will host his own show on XM Satellite Radio every morning at 8 AM. Though I’m waiting a few years for the next generation of XM (where you can download from it to your Ipod), this is a big step for XM, a reach towards traditional radio and NPR listeners and not simply music wonks looking for, say, an all-klezmer station and Buddy Guy basement tapes.

Writer par excellance (and Gen. Text contributor) Meghan Daum just launched her website and wrote a very funny article about it (via The Elegant Variation).

Fresh Yarn: The Online Salon for Personal Essays features 6 real-life stories by writers, performers and filmmkaers. My friend Pamela Holm is in this new one. Looks neat.

I happen to be obssesed with series finales. I’m sure you are as well. I absolutely must know how every television series ends even if I’ve never seen a single episode of it (like “St. Elsewhere.” Something about a snow globe, right?). I’m sure you have the same problem.

Enter TV Tome, the Idiot Boxes answer to the IMDB. They log every television show you’ve ever even or even thought of (“It’s Your Move” is a long forgotten favorite). I’ve now wasted untold hours wondering exactly what happened to “Gimmie a Break” and when “L.A. Law” when off the rails. It’s been time blissfully, frivolously well spent.

Suzan and I took a drive northward today that evolved into a treasure hunt for some of the area’s better art work. We visited Florence Ave. in Sebastopol, where found-object sculptor Patrick Amiot had installed his pieces on the lawns of his neighbors. In front of his house is an enormous jukebox with Elvis Presley crooning on top. The whole thing is made of scrap metal and coffee cans.

On a tip from Bay Area Backroads (where we first heard about Patrick’s work), we also took in the Quicksilver Mining Co., a gallery specializing in Northern California artists. Their upcoming show features Monty Monty an assemblage artist who makes vehicles, animals and devices out of vintage antiques and collectibles. Isn’t this stuff great?

Suzan has informally banned me from buying anymore three dimensional as we’re practically out of shelf space but I see this sort of thing and drool. It reminds me of what beauty there is in everything, so long as you have an eye for how it all hangs together.

Ishle Park rocked the muthafriggin’ house! MJM and Jason invited me at the last minute to see her read and sign books at Galeria De La Raza. She read maybe 8 poems of astounding beauty and literary zest and even sang a few Korean folk songs which worked with the poems instead of sounding like an I’m-the-evening’s-entertainment-so-I-can-do-what-I-want indulgence. The crowd there heavily drew from the sponsoring organizations, The Kearny Street Workshop and Locas Arts, revealing the considerable depth and power of the Asian-American arts community in San Francisco, something I knew existed but didn’t now to that impressive extent.

Man, I need to get back to writing poems.

Does anyone know of a good magazine about documentary film? Not just for the makers of but those who like to watch as well?

Avenue Q is a dippy, corny little musical my mom and I went to last night. It had been years since I’d seen a show on Broadway and, puppets? I’m always down for puppets.

Avenue Q is about a street in a forgotten part of Manhattan and everyone, puppets, monsters, and humans alike who lives on it. Everyone is in their mid to late 20’s trying to figure out like. The puppeteers are visible as as actors on stage. Their facial expressions mimic those of their puppet friends.

It’s creative and clever as hell and lots of fun. It ain’t much of a musicial if you care about stuff like that (I don’t). The songs are bland and barely necessary. You’ll learn nothing about life you didn’t know after one semester in college. But the puppets, man! God bless those puppets. And mega dap to Rick Lyon, the genius who designed them all.

Oh and there’s a character named Gary Coleman. Who is Gary Coleman in the story. Played by someone who is not Gary Coleman. Don’t ask.