While I’m away at another music festival this weekend–that being Wanderlust near Lake Tahoe–I’m eager to hear about experiences at the Bicycle Music Fest in SF taking place day and night this Saturday. A non-profit project of the SF Parks Trust, the self-proclaimed world’s largest 100% bicycle-powered music fest is to include a 2,000 watt pedal-powered PA system and 15 bands on “bike-haulable” stages. With likeminded organizations from the SF Bike Coalition to the volunteer-run repair shop Bike Kitchen, this won’t be just your average cruiser con boombox.
Thanks to David Pescovitz (he of BoingBoing and Institute for the Future) for the reminder.
Worth Riding >> Bicycle Music Festival
Out Side Art Block Party Benefit
I recommend visiting the culture collective The Skeleton, whose art and music coverage is the brainchild of Monikka Delazerda, a young developer I had the pleasure of interviewing at a Ruby workshop for Mashable. It’s hosting a family-friendly benefit this Sunday that will include Plant*SF public greening and (knock on wood) fries by Fritz.
Guerrero Gallery Looks Good with No. Five
Boulder-based pal Micah Baldwin turned me on to Guerrero Gallery’s “Weight Perception Show” that opened this week at Andrew Guerrero’s 19th Street space. Artist Andrew Schoultz curated the gallery’s fifth show (and now to work by a few of the participating artists, including Ben Venom, Casey Jex Smith, Glen Baldridge, Harley Lafarrah Eaves, Kevin Taylor, Laurie Steelink, N. Dash, Shelter Serra, Thomas Øvlisen, Vanessa Blaikie, and Kyle Ranson).
Your Chance to Be Playa Famous >> WDYDWYD?
I’m regularly struck by San Franciscan Tony Deifell’s idea for a worldwide community art project intended to answer the question “why do you do what you do?” (and not just because he presented it at Ignite Bay Area but because it includes crowdsourced combinations of motivation, images and ideas). Through Monday, respondents can join the likes of Gloria Steinem and Harvard Business School students in answering the easy (or incredibly challenging) question for a chance to be included in an exhibition on Burning Man’s prehistoric lake bed.
I won’t paraphrase Deifell’s reason for starting the project. In his own words:
I was in my office late one night in 1999 not wanting to be bothered. The phone rang, and I wanted to ignore it . . . but I felt compelled to answer. Before I could start, a child’s voice blurted, “Why do you do what you do?”
It was the last thing I had expected to hear. more
New Jewish Filmmaking Project at Castro Theatre
I’m intrigued by Half-Remembered Stories, a multimedia exhibit exploring Jewish heritage that’s launching in partnership between local production company Citizen Film and the SF Jewish Film Festival. The latter is turning 30 this year and celebrating by presenting 50 shorts and 11 multimedia collages by artists 15 to 25 years old around “half-remembered” aspects of their cultural history. Think a Zombie day of Antonement, a great-grandmother’s infidelities, and time travel with a Moroccan sage and you’ll get some insight into Saturday afternoon’s programming at the Castro Theatre.
Welcome Design Bureau
As ALARM Press introduces its newest magazine title at Chicago’s Glessner House Museum tonight, I’ll be scouring the book for work including a white Moleskine for Yoox, graphic hand printed stockings, and Joshua Tree’s most compelling rentals. Style arbiters and creative pros take note: Design Bureau is “dedicated to delivering honest global dialogue on design from diverse disciplines” and will be offering both a print magazine (covering packaging, products, travel, architecture, et al) and The Intelligencer, an e-newsletter that promises weekly inspiration.
This Consonant Brought to you by Daily Drop Cap
oodness I love typographer Jessica Hische’s Daily Drop Cap project (“an illustrative initial everyday”). You just wait until the “S” and “F” come out. And should you be at all concerned, the work is under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
TechnoCRAFT at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Tinkers and creators alike, get thee (and thine children) to YBCA’s current show celebrating “hackers, modders, fabbers, tweakers, and design in the age of individuality.” fuseproject founder Yves Béhar curated the TechnoCRAFT exhibit about transitions from mass production to crowdsourced, modular and blueprint projects–and while it could do without a large sneaker self-selection display that acts as an overly large ad for PUMA–the other examples of new forms of user involvement are fantastic. Think consumer-designed labels for Jones Soda, pick your own fabric tarpaulin swatch bags from Frietag, and lamps from recycled material that you can trim any way you like.
SFAI and Levi’s on Sustainable Sculpture
Local historians and anthropologists, stand aside (for the quarter at least): students at the San Francisco Art Institution will be receiving instruction from Levi Strauss & Co. resident historian Lynn Downey starting today. A sustainable sculpture studio at SFAI will focus on design and recycled denim as part of the two organizations’ Fashioning the Future undertaking. Talks by a product development director and social sustainability expert from Levi’s are to precede students’ final projects – which are supposed to be zero impact – and their being exhibited at the denim giant’s headquarters in the fall.
Beauty by Design >> Marian Bantjes for TED
My oh my I’d like this designer to put me on her Valentine’s list.
IMOW
