(NY Exclusive) What to Hear This Weekend: UnSilent Night

This Saturday grab your boombox and head down to Greenwich Village’s Washington Square Park at 6:45 pm to take part in composer Phillip Kline’s civilian orchestra UnSilent Night.

UnSilent night, first debuting in 1992, has become a cult tradition. Attendees are handed out cassette tapes that each have a “voice in the piece.” Your tape may include the bells to the score while your neighbors tape will include only the piano. This creates a symphony of infinite players and runs street long as the processions is moved from its starting place eastward towards Tompkins Square Park.

Last year over 1000 people attended. To register email boombox@mindspring.com. If you don’t own this anachronistic piece of musical machinery, head down anyways. They have a number for loan that you can use or just go and enjoy the music. Those with ipods with speakers can download the mp3 from (myspace.com/unsilentnight) to participate.

Date and Time: Saturday, December 15

Washington Square Park at 6:45 pm

Background Info: Phil Kline was raised in Akron, Ohio. He graduated from Columbia University with a degree in English Literature before embarking on a musical career. A figure in the downtown New York rock scene in the 1980s he has also produced and curated a number of unique events. He has been reviewed by CNN, NPR, The London Guardian, and many others, and his cd ZIPPO SONGS was named "Best of the Year" by The New York Times, Newsday, Time Out, and Gramophone.

UnSilent Night also takes place in: Baltimore, Charleston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Diego, and San Francisco, as well as Canada (Alberta, Saskatchewan and Vancouver), Germany (Berlin), the UK (Middlesborough), Australia (Sydney), and the Yukon.

(NY Exclusive) What to See This Weekend: 11 Spring Street

The Nolita building at 11 Spring Street on the corner of Elizabeth, otherwise known as "that abandoned building with all the graffiti covering it", was sold earlier in the year to Elias Cummings (real name). The new developers, no doubt sensing the foreboding outrage of downtown artsy-fartsy activist-types, pre-emptively striked and contacted the Wooster Collective, a society of downtown artsy-fartsy types. The relationship has spawned an exhibit decicadted to the celebration of the buildings ever-changing street art.


The project took seven weeks and has remained incredibaly purist. More than 45 graffitti and street artists ranging from the known to the emerging to the “who the ?” have created artwork on the 300,000 square feet of interior and the exterior walls. Elias Cummings even put up money to pay for the flights of artists in Europe and Asia. Additional funding from brands or sponsors was not used and no profit will be made from the event so that nothing that will take away from the art and the creativity of the artists.


The space will be opened to the public this weekend. As renovations begin on the building the walls will be covered in sheet rock and the art underneath will be preserved creating an “art time capsule” for future generations to enjoy.


Dates and Times:

Friday, December 15th: From 11am to 5pmSaturday, December 16th: From 11am to 5pmSunday, December 17th: From 11am to 5pm
On Sunday, December 17th at 3pm there will be a panel discussion with many of the artists attending.
To know if you go:

It’s "B.Y.O.B.B" -- Bring Your Own Boom Box. Music is being provided Soundlab using a wireless transmitter that can be received by anyone with a boom box.

TourFilter: Never Miss Your Favorite Band Again

I love Donovan Frakenrieter, a Jack Johnson-esque surfer-singer songwriter. Apparently, as I just learned five minutes ago while browsing the net, he has a concert in town tonight. As in this very moment, as I sit home alone listening to him in my apartment, he is rocking out to a crowd of fans.

I’m trying not to be too hard on myself. We all know the pain of missing a great performance. You are innocently on your way to work when you overhear someone talking about the phenomenal concert your favorite band played last night; a concert that came complete with a set list that included rare songs, never before heard songs and a series on encores. It’s enough to make you want to take the day off, go home and lie in bed all day listening to that well worn album and hating yourself for not keeping up on the latest tour dates.

But really, who has time to keep track of all the concerts going on daily? You itunes song list has so many artists on it would take contstant 24-7 monitoring to keep track of tour dates. Sure you could constanlty check all the major venues, but seeing as they only list there own shows, it would still take an enormous amount of time. But don’t feel all defeated just yet, Tour Filter (http://www.tourfilter.com/) is an amazing new service that tracks concerts in a number of cities, ensuring that you’ll never have to endure the anguish of missing another concert again.

The site is easy to use and free. Just sign up for an account, pick your city, and then create a list of all the bands and artist you would want to see live. Based on your choices, similar artists are generated and it only takes a simple click to add them to your roster. Twice a day, Tourfilter crawls through live music venue listings for each city and looks for the bands on your list.
When it comes across something on you "watch list," you receive an email.

While the cities tracked are limited, it does include the major markets internationally in which the sheer number of venues can be overwhelming. For those who live in areas that are not covered, the site offers additional content. Users can listen to MP3 and RealAudio songs of bands that have upcoming shows and browse recent music blog listings, which a reorganized by band. Plus, if you’re traveling to say Dublin, it’s an easy way to find out if Bono will be playing while you are there.

Attention Paris Hilton: This is What Talent Looks Like

Joshua Radin, whose mellow acoustic songs harken the talents of Nick Drake and Elliot Smith, is finally getting attention. But not for the right reasons. Google his name and the list of pages all lead you to a recent Paris Hilton encounter, in which he witnessed her vomiting all over the stage during her performance after a Jay-Z concert in Vegas.

Radin had sat next to the Grey Goose swigging pop-princess all night and recalls how she ignored him. According to his MySpace page "She never once said hello, nor even looked in my direction." But she isn't known for recognizing, nor possessing, talent. My bet is that a few months from now, he'll be much harder to ignore. With the recent release of a new alblum overflowing with his soft voice and love-torn lyrics, this modern troubadour is sure to quickly top the charts and amass hordes of adoring fans.

His album "We Were Here," released by Columbia records and produced by Chris Holmes, is pure poetry. An ode to falling in and out of love, each song is an intense and soul-twisting exploration of the pain, ecstasy and insecurity of relationships. Delivered in Radin's pitch-perfect, delicate voice, they are much more elegant than whiny and far more compelling than cliche.

A few of the highlights include the cello infused "Sundrenched World," which investigates the insecurities, pain and ecstasy of relationships with lyrics such as "I close up my mouth/ When you're around now/ Suffocating in doubt I can't make a sound." On the track "Paperweight" he is joined in a beautiful duet with Schuyler Fisk singing "you want the sunrise to go back to bed / i want to make you laugh / mess up my bed with me / kick off the covers / i'm waiting / every word you say i think/ i should write down/ i don't want to forget /come daylight " is the perfect love song to listen to on a lazy morning in bed with a new significant other.

By far, my favorite song and the catalyst to his career is "Winter." It is on his first alblum First Between 3rd and 4th, which was independantly produced. Radin wrote it three years ago, while he was living in New York. After playing it at a club in the West Village he passed it along to Scrub's star and former school mate Zach Braff who used in on the television show. His songs have since been featured several times on Scrubs and also been heard on Grey's Anatomy.

Despite the mass exposure these shows have provided him, the number of reviews have been sparse. The venerable Rolling Stone awarded him four stars, but other have been less impressed with the number one complaint being the lack of variation. The tracks retain a consistent slow-paced acoustic vibe and Joshua's vocal range and melodies do tend to travel a similar path. The one exception is "Somebody Else's Life," which speed the tempo up slightly. Yet, listened to in their own right, each track is hauntingly beautiful, with the lyrics by far being the strongest aspect of the alblum.

Put him in a mix, shuffle it up and each time one of his tracks come on, lose yourself in them. Just be sure to have a box of Kleenex and some Ben and Jerry's nearby.

Check him out at: http://www.joshuaradin.com/
If you like him try: Joe Purdy, Duncan Sheik, Teddy Geiger, John Mayer, Howie Day, The Shins.

Toasting Art: The Coolest Thing Since Sliced Bread

White, wheat, rye, cinnamon raisin, Italian, organic, French, smothered with fruit flavored jelly, lovingly wrapped in peanut butter or swimming in cream cheese; toast has always offered up a variety of artful formulas to create the perfect slice. But there are several even more innovative ways to make you daily bread a masterpiece.

New Zealand’s Toastman Maurice Bennet has been creating works of art using toast and “flame as a paintbrush,” for several years and has been featured in lad-mags such as Maxim and FHM. Works include celebrity portraits such as Elvis, imitations of famous works of art, beer bottles and renditions of ancient Maori panel carvings. He toasts thousands of pieces to different shades and places them together to create shade and light.

Lennie Payne uses a blowtorch and scrapping tools to create his toast portraits. He flattens and then lacquered to keep the moisture out so the bread stays dry and wont rot or turn moldy. This is done after the bread is toasted. It is stuck onto a base with some silicon adhesive and voila. He makes mostly portraits and does some religious work as well.

Interested in making your own toast art? Targets new toaster (http://www.target.com/, $34.99) takes a new spin on pop art with a new toaster that imprints shapes such as smiley faces, flowers and hearts on your bread. Could mornings be any merrier?

Or if you're having an elegant dinner, Minale Maeda's Table Manners Collection (http://www.minale-maeda.com/) makes an intricate design that looks classy. It comes with a matching plate, but mixing it up with different table ware keeps things visually interesting and fresh.

Antony Micallef

Antony Micallef recently had an exhibition "It's A Wonderful World", Oct. 6-28, at London's Lazarides Gallery. Since winning 2nd prize in the B.P. Portrait Awards in 2000, his work, an edgy mix of graffiti, graphic art and bubblegum pop, has been highly received with sold out shows and mentions in such prestigious publications as the New York Times. He continues to accrue fans and can list several A-lisers such as Jude Law, R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe and Brit bad-boy Robbie Williams as clients.

Starting Sept. 2008 and ending March 2010, his pieces will be exhibited as a part of the British museums world tour through Europe and Asia. Micallef's work fits perfectly with the show's function and goal to show the symbiotic nature of the art between the two continents. He is highly influenced by his travels in Japan and it's pop culture. In an interview with Scene 360 he says "“My senses had been heavily immersed in fluffy pink, Japanese cartoon characters, neon cities and shit ‘J-pop.’"

This Asian aesthetic is applied to American and British icons such as McDonalds, Gucci, MTV and Disney. These familiar brands and logos are posited amongst eerily disturbing figures of angels and devils, weaponry and anthropomorphic animals. While the logo's themselves are banal and have been used ad nauseum in contemporary art, its Micallef's way of blending these other elements that create an image that is simultaneously disturbing and attractive. Thrown together on a faceless figure, they represent how we, as a collective society, identify who we are as individuals. I could be this person, you could be this person: it is pop culture in neon; it is the perfect expression of his message: how corporate consumerism is so despised by society and yet so seductitive.

Ben Austin and Godfrey Barker comment about its mission, “Fifty years on, artists see the consumer culture very differently. They smell malaise. They see global multi-nationals eating us up — Coke, Nike, Texaco, those all-pervasive brand names from which nobody can escape. They see life packaged from your shoes to your DVDs to your pop idols to your holiday in Ibiza. After death and taxes, they see brand names as the biggest facts of life. (…) Everyone does. We are all alienated consumers. We despise the thing we love. We accept the consumer gods as integral to our lives, but we resent them. At the same time we can’t imagine what we'd do without them. They validate us, they give us status, define us, make us feel we belong. (…) Perverse Pop is saying: Coke, Big Macs, Marlboros, Levis, Reeboks, they have become the new global Big Brother. They follow you wherever you go. They fuck you up; they tell you what to do. They stifle individuality with pre-packaged lifestyles. (…) Nobody knows. But artists are now fighting for identity, space and air. Art is emerging as the strongest protest against the uniform cultural scene. (…) It’s a lonely and packaged world. Fact and fiction are blurred. News is entertainment. Time Magazine found in 1962 that the average American was exposed to 1600 ads and brand names a day. What escape now? There are 77 channels on the telly, the universe is at the end of a mouse-click, Big Macs are on sale in 200 countries — and just who are you?”

Brief Bio: London based artist Antony Micallef studied Fine Arts at the University of Plymouth, and currently lives and works as an artist and graphic designer in Brighton, UK.