So a few days ago we got the chance to kick with ?uestlove at NBC studios as per more work on "The Electro Wars". The shoot went well and involved much of what you would expect sitting down with coolest of the cool....lots and lots of music knowledge.
We ranted on about everything from Afrojack to Afrika Bambaata, how electro and hip hop are the beacons of music (and their resemblance to trees) and how difficult it was to remember Paul Van Dyke's name.
After we got to watch him cut up some video tracks for a segment on Jimmy Fallon's late night show called "Remix the Clips". Here's a look at how that segment turned out.
If we learned one thing from ?uestlove it's this....awesomeness comes in many forms, and it usually rocks a dope afro and gold shades.
You know how you fall in love (yes, that thing) with someone and all of sudden you become one of those people that feel compelled to write song lyrics to him/her? You do? Good. Move on to Fig1. If not, scroll down to Fig. 3
Fig. 1 - sharing song lyrics and mixtapes (remember those?) is the awesomely cheesy, John Hughes kinda way to tell someone you love them. So when you find that person, don't scare them off with weird song lyric choices.
Exhibit A - The Police "Every Breath You Take"
the classic pseudo stalker song that, despite being really well written (and sexified thanks to Sting and his hair in all it's black and white chromatic flare) is absolutely the WRONG SONG to text song lyrics from. It makes all the classic mistakes. Watching, stalking, waiting... is he a a NARC? Stalker? My uncle Pedro? Who knows. All we know is, don't text "I'll be watching you" and expect a reply that doesn't involve a restraining order.
Exhibit B - Billy Ocean "Get into my Car"
Didn't mom tell you not to ride with strangers???? Seriously Billy? She's in your dreams (first red flag) and you want her in your car (second red flag). You know who else did this don't cha?.... Jeffrey Dahmer. I'm just saying. Moving on.
Exhibit C - R, Kelly "You Remind me of Something"
OK...seriously? A Jeep?? I want to wax it? Need I say anymore?
Fig. 2 - So, that place. Love. It's awesome sure, but it's also scary. But you're here and you should be wary of how you express it. So listen to Sinatra or Smokey Robinson or even Hall n Oates for fuck sakes, at least those guys let it be known. I love you and I'm not going to kill you. And that means a lot. Unless...
Fig. 3 - You probably live in your mom's basement, World of Warcraft is real, every woman you've ever known is foldable and/or every man you've known miraculously lives 3000 miles from you but, you know, "we're getting married" (...to Donny Wahlberg circa 1989. Yeah, we remember).
OK kids. Go out there and love someone... verbally.
Today is a strange one. Nothing has really sat in place (am I the only one who feels like this?)
Anyway, for whatever I was checking out Joe Iurato's website (http://www.joeiurato.com/), who's an amazing artist that will be showcasing at our next Factory B event August 7th. Anyway, he has music on his page. As many other art/photography pages I've visited in the recent days and weeks tend to have. Something to spice it up I guess. I have no issue with having music on your page, but I thought, if I was an artist and had a website, what music would I want to have on my page???
....Rick James.
Exactly. You're already thinking about the awesomeness. The prospect of having Rick introduced on a splash page to your favorite street artist and/or wedding photographer is probably the most amazing thing I've thought up today (I had 2 other genius ideas today, I'll share later). It would give any and all websites new flavor, especially when someone's trying to be taken serious and yet all you can think of is Rick James (as played by Dave Chappelle) screaming at Charlie Murphy "DARKNESS!!"
It's the new form of art projection.... create dazzling art work and move them to the tunes of slap happy bass. It's called Boogie Art. A winning combo. Now you're gonna go and try it and tell me the website isn't, even if only incrementally, better.
Because most people don't know diddly about Nikola Tesla (who?) and because i was having a conversation about him with a friend the other day (but seriously, who's Nikola Tesla?) and because the only thing people may know about him is that David Bowie played him in the movie "The Prestige" (he must be awesome) and was deemed a wacko and genius.
In any event, Tesla was a genius who got little to no recognition for soooooo many accomplishments in his life, beyond those you'd even imagine. I hope someone makes a movie on Nikola Tesla soon, and I hope it's not Michael Bay.... Tesla doesn't need exploding ninjas in his life story. So, for now, here's this:
So we've been busy with a bunch of projects, namely Factory B and The Electro Wars. We just acquired a few more artists for the August 7th event and I have to say, we're proud to have them on.
This will be short, just wanted to dust off the old blog and get back to work. So today we confirmed artists Fumero (from NY), Adrian "Viajero" Roman, who is all sorts of awesome, Graham Franciose, an artist from Massachusetts (hope we spelled that correctly) and photographer Darnell Scott (who has some friends with interesting lighting fixtures).
More on each of these amazing amazingly creative people. But tomorrow morning, we'll be dropping some interesting news. Stay tuned and start spreading this blog around and about becos phase 2 of factory b 2.0 kicks off now.
Btw, in case you were asking, the artwork to the left will be featured at the next showcase. That's Leigh Cooney from Toronto....he likes oddball things and oddball people....like this self portrait..... looks just like him.
