If you haven’t heard their music already then go get the Dada Life monthly podcast. It is a monthly show where Dada spins and produces a new music set for you to enjoy with all the greatest electronic hits with the truly original Dada spin. Last year this Swedish duo broke the top 100 DJ’s list and they have no where to go but up. They have the freshest sounds, beats and noises. When it comes to Dada, nothing beats their philosophy; ” “We are Dada Life. Destroy dance music and have fun. Don’t look back in the past. Always go forward. Don’t think too much. Always follow the money. Do the Dada. The result? Big tunes, no frills.”

So in other words…. Pump up the Dada!!

When it comes to writing, whether creative or research I can always think of a few places I don’t ever want to be cooped up in: the library or the classroom. As someone who struggles with ADD, I can understand the added benefits that writing on location or just even somewhere you feel comfortable and relaxed can have on the mind. In order for me to focus on a subject and get something done, the emptiness and “hush hushness” of a library or classroom doesn’t have enough stimulation for me to focus. Most would disagree with me and still prefer the library because of its quiet nature. Prof. Olin Bjork a professor of English at Santa Clara University authored the essay “Writing in the Wild” and Bjork comes to some good conclusions about the new age of writing and how we can embrace technology to help us write with more empathy and experience. We have already witness laptops over take desktop computers and the next step is the tablets taking over laptops. All this new technology is what allows us to get our work done anywhere and anytime. While writing in the wild you have an endless supply of material to be inspired by and to jolt your thinking juices. Writing onsite allows people to fully experience the emotion and realness of the situation you are researching or observing. This technology allows all of us to attempt to be a primary source and not just realize new information though others and their secondary accounts. Another interesting fact is that, when you do work in new and innovative environments you make new mental connections which allow you to remember and store the information you are working with. Say for example if you like to write in the park; every time you see a certain type of tree or feature that reminds you of the park, you will be able to pull up that new connection with the material you researched or wrote about. Now teachers can provide more access to stimulation that in turn, help facilitate better and more empathetic writing.

Here is a sweet TED talk on the brain….

When thinking about how our culture has changed and grown, I can’t help but be drawn to YouTube for the answers and clues. Henry Jenkins is a professor of journalism and a specialist in media studies and relations. In his blog post, Nine Propositions Toward a Cultural Theory of YouTube, he makes the point that YouTube will become a new kind of hybrid media space that bring together artists, amateurs, nonprofit, governmental, and educational. This allows users to share videos and information at ease, all while re posting video’s so people who haven’t seen them have a chance to enjoy. Even today, Henry was spot on with the way that YouTube creates a who new set of problems with copyright and other media laws. Even with these violations, YouTube still operates smoothly and for every video taken down because of copyright, you get 10 others that follow the rules and further the enjoyment and education of YouTube users. YouTube became a community were people can feel comfortable sharing and it has a natural filter; the users. YouTube started the trend of up-votes and down-votes for both comments and the videos, which allows us to not see every little uninteresting video. I don’t think Jenkins saw YouTube becoming as “one” with our culture as it has, but the latest generation have embraced the technology and the ability to share things with the world on a whim. It has evolved to one of the biggest and most prolific sharing sites for not only amateurs, but real artists.

Blockhead- The Music Scene (video)

Awesome Sword Dance! (video)

There is nothing I love more than taking a day off and spending 4 or 5 hours hiking and wondering through the wilderness. Some of us (especially in the Bay Area) are lucky enough to live in areas where we can still evade the urban concrete jungle and escape to a remote windy road to drive off some steam- or hike for the view that peers into heaven. Kayla Knight gives us an insightful story about how we can receive inspiration from some of the most usual and unusual places we come in contact with. Everyday we come across things that make an emotional impact on our lives and bring out the best in us. Kayla points out that music, the city, the wilderness, and different eras all makes us think of how we are really small compared to the universe and everything else around us. Another big place for inspiration is the internet. Youtube and other user generated sites have inspired people to try different things and take up tasks that before wouldn’t be possible. I know that when I go to fix something or install something on my BMW I also enjoy watching a video first, to give me a real idea of what is going on and where to start. The things that inspire us help our souls grow and escape from the daily routine that is life.

I hate to say that I sort of pride myself on not being part of Facebook, but I do. I just got into the game too late and now I just don’t care enough to start one up. Even my Mom and Dad have Facebook accounts and actively stock my cousins and other family members. I am lucky, in the sense that I am able to stay in contact with the people I really want to know, but even with them I still miss out on their “Facebook life”. I is hard holding tight and staying unconnected, in a world where social networking is so trendy and praised. I do understand the value of social networking and when Facebook and MySpace were first invented networking was the intention. To create a community for college kids, or to pull musicians and promoters together; the idea was to help people stay connected without all the back stabbing information selling and complete obsessiveness that kids today have with their online persona. In the essay, Why Youth (heart) Social Networking Sites by Danah Boyd, (an American media researcher for Microsoft) the truth comes to light about the new generation of youth growing up with social networking. She has some really insightful points about how stressful if can be for kids to always be under the spotlight and always being connected and competing with other kids. Now not only do you have to dress cool and worry about school, but you need to keep up your online social persona, in order to truly standout and be cool. In your youth, fitting in is important, so following trends is part of the deal. Besides, I guess for some, it is fun and reassuring to always have someone to talk with or interact with. I don’t have a problem with social networking, I’m just not going to get involved.

SouthPark/Facebook (video)

Let’s just start off and say that print and traditional news outlets are dead: a thing of the past. I know it, you know it, and Andrew Keen surly knows it. Keen himself (although not admittedly) is an amateur author who specializes is criticizing the interwebs.  Keen’s first book “The Cult of an Amateur” expresses his personal distaste for user-generated content websites like Reddit, Digg, Youtube, Craigslist and even Wikipedia, because of the fact they are not only amateur, but anonymous. The idea that the Web 2.0 is killing important established industry is a farce and a far cry from the truth. The truth with the music industry and newspapers is that they refused to change with the times and technology. Both record labels and news outlets fought change, instead of embracing it and continuing to profit.

Whatever happened to innovation? I love the new way of doing things: which is using a lawyer and judge to squabble and gain nothing. Instead of record labels and news agencies getting in on the loot, they just stepped aside and watched Apple clean up shop with iTunes and other innovating and new websites take charge in delivering the daily world news.

The biggest crock in Keen’s book is the fact that mainstream media does it better. Wow! What about the fact that mainstream media is controlled by four multinational corporations. That doesn’t bother you to think that back when Keen was growing up, their certainly was more than four companies running our (the US) major media. We need more global and universal sources: less one-sidedness.  Corporations have shareholders, and that is what they are interested in. These are the same major media outlets that refused to cover the real Katrina, the real gulf oil spill, the real occupywallstreet movement and who push propaganda stories about Iran, China and Israel. Major media outlets are just part of the problem, overrun with greed and controlled by special interests.

Keen highlights that popular opinion has supported “slavery, infanticide, George W. Bush’s war in Iraq, Britney Spears” Unfortunately for Keen, he forgot to mention that those were all supported by those major media outlets that do everything so much better…… It’s the major media outlets and corporations that profited and pushed all the wrong popular opinions. In the end, it comes down to one thing: $$$$$

I would argue that without these smaller independent user-generated companies we wouldn’t have the transparency we cherish and the global awareness present today. Reddit, Digg, Youtube all created a community of all kinds of people from all different backgrounds. The very fact that you can participate as an anonymous is what brings everyone together. Of course you get the trolls, who try and ruin it for everyone else, but it also brings out some of the most important and most special people who don’t feel comfortable revealing their secrets along with their identity. This encourages people to come forward and to be honest without fear of the repercussions of catching the wrong eye in the sky.

Reddit and Digg both pull stories from around the world and web and allow user up and down votes to manage content. Craigslist has every item you could imagine for sell in every city, at the click of a button. Youtube can show you your favorite music video or movie trailer or teach you how to play guitar or sew. Where else can you get such specific and diverse information? Google allows you to find anything, anytime. It is the age of technology and more so, the age of information. User-generated websites allow us to get the information,art, music and most importantly knowledge we need, without all the corporate interference and censoring.

The internet has been bad for record labels and CD pressers, but it is mammoth for musicians. Keen should have taken the time to actually interview an artist. Bands don’t make their money off selling CD’s that is pure profit for record labels. Musicians make their money off touring and having people come to their live shows; purchasing tickets and band merchandise. The internet is a free outlet to promote their music. Even though people pirate music and many musicians give their music out for free download, people still go to live concerts and the music industry is still pumping along. The internet has allowed musicians and artists around the world to connect and share.  It is not about being happy that corporations are suffering or they stole from artists; it is the idea that they refuse to embrace change. This kind of uproar arose from the industry in the same way when switching from records, to tapes, to CDs, to mp3 format. I do agree that the internet is full of crap, but so are tons of industry releases. The art and music and literature that we cherish and remember are worthwhile, no matter what format they came to us in. The internet is a place for creativity and innovation; the pros drastically and infinitely outweigh the cons and it is here to stay.

Purple Music Straight Outa Boomstone!

Soundcloud

Magic Pizza Reheat Method

Stop SOPA and Proect IP

Support Free Speech and Innovation

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Art, whether it music, literature or painting, invokes a spiritual connection to our soul that can inspire us entirely through emotion. Jonathan Lethem is a modern writer who is known for being able to bend and blend styles of fiction not because he was obsessed with being original, but because those were the styles that inspired him to do so. Lethem’s essay “The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism explains and defends the idea that we all essentially steal our inspiration from something that catches our eye and sets our heart on fire.

You see this more often with music, when different genres are mixed to create a whole new and inspiring sound for someone else. One must understand that all humans subconsciously store in our brains, everything that influences and stimulates us in a positive way. Any artist will agree and tell you that imitation is the best form of flattery, but the problem today, is that we are bombarded with so much cookie cutter crap that imitation has turned into a money machine; void of any real emotion behind the ambition. Record labels are fixated on their awesome failing formula of so-called success: Find one artist that works, then run out and sign every other artist that sounds similar, with the hopes of being able to reincarnate the original fortune.

Fortunately for us, music is going back to a more grassroots style, by using technology and the internet to create new and original ways to compose, record and most importantly distribute their art. Music is returning to the “open source” style that Lethem refers to and instead of using imitation for monetary gain, once again has become about inspiration and emotion.

Plagiarism is just another necessary form of illumination into the inner soul, which sparks our primitive and creative juices. Even the king of pop himself, Michael Jackson, admitted to lifting the “Billie Jean” bass line from the Hall and Oates song “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)”. Hall told Jackson that he had lifted the bass line from another song himself, and it was “something we all do……”

Just for fun here is Every song you know in 4 cords (video)

In this fast paced world of constantly evolving technology people have found a new more efficient way of receiving their news every day. Growing up, I always remember going outside to the driveway in order to get the paper for my Father, who would browse while sipping his coffee every morning. This morning routine that many American’s shared has now been replaced with online web forums and communities that pool together information and news from all over the planet and consolidate it for people to easily find and enrich themselves. This is the age of technology and now transparency. With the US continuously inching toward a police state and the lack of trust in our own elected officials, American’s are just now understanding and reaping the benefits of a all inclusive, non-bias news source. The Huffington Post is one of these online communities that was created in 2005 in order to provide a non bias information outlet with stories from all around the world. In a world were corporations with special interests control the flow of information, Huffington Post and other sites like Wikileaks or Reddit have successfully gained national attention and power just by allowing the free flow of information. We need these fearless online communities to continue their vigilance and transparency seeking in order to protect us and inform us against the secretive actions of the elite pulling the strings. In order to keep government and corporate excess and power under control, it is absolutely necessary that we continue down the path of transparency and allow the population of the world to continue to use new technology in order to share information and not allow greed to consume our government’s interests and goals.

Support transparency: Get involved and get loud. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/09/wikileaks-assange-transparency_n_820348.html