One Night Only a Benefit for Haiti
Posted on 16. Feb, 2010 by aleksdegtyarev in Arts, Community
February 21, 2010 7pm-12am
Roger Smith Hotel | 501 Lexington Ave. New York, NY
16th Floor Solarium Gallery
$20 suggested donation
As Social Media Enthusiasts, The Finderz enjoys doing their “Social Good”. We find what’s interesting in the world and on the internet – which includes finding causes we want to support. After the tragedy in Haiti, we want to gather our resources & spread the word about helping out.
Since the Roger Smith Hotel is so socially connected, we’re honored to partner with them in our endeavor to collect unused or unwanted clothing for Haiti. We’ll be distributing donations to the Red Cross, Yele, and other charitable foundations.
Join us for a night of “social good” with a taste of the arts, drinks, & good company!
————
Dee Nuncio
Social Media Adviser & Writer
Half-to-Help has teamed up with the Roger Smith Hotel, Panman Productions, and Action Against Hunger | ACF-USA to bring you our first Haiti relief art show and concert. The benefit will begin at 7pm. Musicians Margot Leverett and the Klezmer Mountain Boys and Charlene Kaye will be performing. Exhibiting artists include Carl Avidano, Lazarus Nazario, and Shawn Taylor. The artists are donating half of the net proceeds from any art sale to support Haiti earthquake survivors via Action Against Hunger | ACF-USA. $20 suggested donation at the door. 100% of suggested donations will go to Action Against Hunger | ACF-USA for Haiti relief.
Live Video Performance collaboration by FreakCast.
Music:
Margot Leverett and the Klezmer Mountain Boys
Artists:
Sponsors:
Action Against Hunger | ACF-USA
Live Video:
Electric Womb (Cycle One)
Posted on 01. Feb, 2010 by aleksdegtyarev in Arts
ELECTRIC WOMB (CYCLE ONE) With help from Panman A.K.A John Knowles & Abi Prince A.K.A Fire Monster FreakCast and Lulu will embark on their next live show venture @ Fresh Long Island. Check it out:
FRESH presents: Electric Womb (Cycle One)
February 4, 2010
@ Toast
Port Jefferson, NY, 11777m
7pm – 11pm
For more Info contact: FreakCast.tv@gmail.com
Electric Womb
By FreakCast and Happymooncake
We may all be living inside of what we refer to as an Electric Womb. This is both a negative as well as a positive space. To explain this we choose the allegory of the internet as one example of an abstraction that is both tangible and intangible at once: an ever evolving fabric, made of fibers, to create and over all expression that maybe as of yet impossible to shoot out from and see from all sides (at least for us). It has been regarded as a “world wide web” in which we live and communicate through, where we garner platitudes of sustenance from and find it evermore difficult to separate our lives away from this space (be it negative or positive.)
New generations are being born into this space every day and they, unlike our generation, may never know through actual experience what it is like without this fabric, this web.
What does this mean for us? This is the first question.
Science tells us that electricity exists. If you type in “electricity” into google the first response in the search will be the wiki entry for electricity.
It states: Electricity (from the New Latin ?lectricus, “amber-like”[a]) is a general term that encompasses a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning and static electricity, but in addition, less familiar concepts, such as the electromagnetic field and electromagnetic induction.
In general usage, the word “electricity” is adequate to refer to a number of physical effects. In scientific usage, however, the term is vague, and these related, but distinct, concepts are better identified by more precise terms:
Electric charge – a property of some subatomic particles, which determines their electromagnetic interactions. Electrically charged matter is influenced by, and produces, electromagnetic fields.
Electric current – a movement or flow of electrically charged particles, typically measured in amperes.
Electric field – an influence produced by an electric charge on other charges in its vicinity.
Electric potential – the capacity of an electric field to do work on an electric charge, typically measured in volts.
Electromagnetism – a fundamental interaction between the magnetic field and the presence and motion of an electric charge.
What is most interesting here could be that science (if science is an entity of knowledge) refers to electricity as a phenomenon. A meditation on this will lead any thinker to several smiling revelations. But that should not be vastly important. The fact remains, the human/animal body has always been induced by this phenomenon which has inevitably connected us to nature. Not to mention the notion of conduction. If the body may be about 60% water than we are perfect vehicles for the movement of this charge. We seem to reside in a space (such could be its property) that by this principle should be magnetized by this charge and so, we have all the capacity to control the fundamental interaction of polarity.
This seems to correspond with the philosophy of magick: the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will. And for whatever reasons the notion of 2012 has everyone talking, thinking outside the box, hypothesizing, people are charged up on this issue. There certainly seems to be a great polarity of how people feel about these impending circumstances. Time keeps on moving and the years keep changing.
In the spirit of communication evolution and the recognition of these circumstances. FreakCast and Happymooncake are prepared to run certain experiments in various spaces reserved for such work. If we recognize our current conditions as an electric womb, then by the laws of nature something must come of it.
A birthing, a miscarriage, an abortion, a spiritual marriage, another greater womb… All possibilities are possible and we would like to investigate and get a greater divined insight into those possibilities.
Pedro Sousa Photography Exhibit in the Roger Smith Lobby Gallery
Posted on 30. Jan, 2010 by aleksdegtyarev in Art at Roger Smith, Arts
The Exhibit is Open: January 4 – March 12, 2010 Roger Smith Hotel Lobby Gallery 501 Lexington Ave. The Opening Party: 2.26.10 Time: 7:30pm @ Roger Smith Solarium Gallery
Last Studio Visit by Marlo Brown
Pedro Sousa and I have an enduring relationship; for a long time he wanted to kill me. His rage towards me wasn’t unwarranted. If you know anything about me, Marlo, you wouldn’t suspect otherwise.
In 2000 we were both attending Stony Brook University. Pedro had a sweet studio on the fourth floor of Staller Art Center. He was sharing the space with several artists and it was no-holds-barred-art-making-central.
Pedro is a photographer, so naturally he kept his tools at his studio space. Why wouldn’t he? It’s not like anyone went back home in those days or took days off from making art-stuff. While other artists prized their brushes and oil paints, Pedro’s payload was about eight cameras and loads of lenses.
On one particular day I remember visiting the collective studio space. A girlfriend of mine hung out with that crew and she probably wanted to see her ex-boyfriend who shared the studio with Pedro. To say I knew these art-folk would be an over statement. I maybe had met some of them once or twice. It’s a good bet I didn’t know anyones’ name. And if Pedro was telling this story, I’m pretty certain he would stress the exclusive nature of those studios. This was a tight knit community to which I wasn’t even worth spitting on. I was a freshman, but i certainly did not regard myself as such.
Back in those days I wasn’t easily impressed. Everything and everyone, that is, besides me, was “pretentious.” Being in a room of older more “established” males was not doing anything positive for my ego. Clearly these were a bunch of pretentious dicks! With a judgment of that caliber I took out a cigarette and lit it.
I almost remember smoking it out the window…
That was it. The rest was related by Pedro in a death threat back to my girlfriend of that time. He accused me of burning down the studio, but in more visceral words than that. To this day no one really knows if the cigarette I was smoking was the cause of the fire. One party believed it was. I believed otherwise.
What’s more, nobody cared for apologies which later morphed into half-excuses. In fact, certain members of that studio still consider me an arsonist and a prick, and I very well maybe a prick. But, I can tell you dear reader, that it was not my intention to create this animosity nor to burn down any studio.
Why am I telling this story here? Well, it’s a testament to Pedro really. He lost the most in that studio and at the same time he was the first to forgive me. After we moved on beyond that mishap, I was able to clearly see that here was a guy that was neither pretentious nor a prick.
Pedro is one of the most driven guys I know. He’s got the skills to rally people for a cause. To get shit done! Straight out of college he opened a gallery in a dead art zone known as Long Island. It is a miracle that his space held out for six years –packing out the house at every opening.
That was almost all Pedro’s work. While others spoke of a vision he executed his. He enabled other artists and himself by having a space to show work. For artists that is a huge deal! Having an art show means that you must produce. If you keep producing your work matures, you build a portfolio worth showing, collectors become interested, etc. Pedro fostered not only this space but its culture as well. He created a community where people could experiment and show those experiments. I was no exception.
Under terms that I would not burn down the gallery Pedro let me into this culture. I felt a belonging and now other people were looking at me as the pretentious dick. It was a great feeling. We were able to pull off all sorts of great events and spectacles: film festivals, experimental video nights, vaudeville art shows and other performances. The space like the people around it were in constant evolution.
When Pedro closed the gallery it was a surprise, but he listed the fact that he was spending too much time doing administrative work and not enough time producing art as a major factor. Sure, now that I am curating both the Solarium Art Gallery and the Lobby Gallery at the Roger Smith Hotel, I can relate. That is why I proposed an art show to Pedro as well as a co-curatorial role.
That is the relevance of community, of friendship, of culture. It is the ability of relation. To be able to relate is far beyond understanding. That is the torch that we carry and pass to each other. Back and forth it goes…
