NextAid

NextAid, LIFEbeat, The Loud Minority, Dubspot,
Turntables on the Hudson, CityDeep, and Mixology
Present BEATS BUILD HOPE
At Miami’s Shore Club
During the 25th Annual Winter Music Conference
Friday, March 26, 2010

LOS ANGELES, CA – NextAid, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit harnessing the power of dance music to affect change in the lives of orphaned and vulnerable children in Africa, returns to the 25th annual Winter Music Conference (WMC) in Miami with a mega-benefit, “Beats Build Hope,” at the Shore Club on Friday, March 26, 2010. Partnering with LIFEbeat, The Loud Minority, CityDeep, Turntables on the Hudson, Dubspot, and Mixology, this official WMC event will run from 8:00pm Friday night to 6:00am Saturday morning and employ NextAid’s mantra of using the beats of our generation to provide hope for the next. Over twenty top international DJs have agreed to graciously donate their time and talent such as The Crystal Method (DJ Set), DJ Rap, and Mark Farina. Tickets for the fundraiser cost $15 pre-sale through Want Tickets or $20 at the door (FREE for WMC badge holders). The funds raised at Beats Build Hope will directly benefit NextAid, SOIL (Haiti), LIFEbeat and Green Wave. All four nonprofits are engaged in worthy causes, which help communities in need around the world (see additional details below). The Shore Club is located at 1901 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach, FL 33139. For more information please visit http://nextaid.org/beatsbuildhope and http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=299847426894&ref=ts. To purchase tickets: http://www.wantickets.com/EventDetail.aspx?e_id=103663.

A two-hour VIP Industry Mixer hosted by Mixology will precede the main event from 6:00 – 8:00pm in the Red Room of the Shore Club featuring Mark Lewis. Admission to the VIP Mixer will cost $40 (in advance or at the door). VIP attendees will gain early access to the whole event, as well as complimentary food, and a Love Fatigues canvas bag filled with t-shirts, CDs, and other goodies. The entire 12-hour benefit is an Official WMC event, as such, admission is FREE for those wearing a WMC badge. NextAid kindly requests that attendees consider making a minimum donation of $10, as this is a fundraiser and all talent have donated their time for free. Sponsors for this night of unforgettable beats include industry heavyweights Fusicology, Love Fatigues, M-Audio, and San Francisco lovEvolution .

Beats Build Hope will take over the Shore Club with 3 areas of music: on the Terrace, in the Red Room and Poolside. The musical styles will range from deep and tech house to Afro-Latin, broken beat, electro and drum-n-bass. The amazing lineup includes The Crystal Method (DJ Set), DJ Rap, Mark Farina, Heather, Colette, Ultra Naté, Andy Caldwell, Gene Farris, D:Fuse, Jazzanova, Anané, Chuck Love, Jay-J, Michael Anthony, Marissa Guzman (vocals), Adam Gibbons, Kervyn Mark, Brent Crampton, DJ Kamala and a very special appearance by the Queen of House Music, Barbara Tucker. The CityDeep Lounge – setting up shop in the Red Room – will feature Halo, Jamie Thinnes, and Luke McKeehan as well as South Africa’s Black Coffee and Culoe de Song. Out on the Terrace find Turntables on the Hudson with Nickodemus, DJ G OV, OBaH, Wiseacre, Jeremy Sole +Amon (percussion).

The evening is made possible with promotional support from AfrodesiaMP3, Agency Sounds, APT Entertainment, Electronic Music Alliance, Green Galactic, Groove Cruise, Morgan’s Hotel Group, The Melting Pot, The MML, Nitevibe, Outloud Agency Group, Roots Media, and suppperclub.

Dubspot will be conducting music and technology educational workshops from 12noon – 6:00pm with partners Native Instruments, M-Audio, Pioneer, Rane/Serato, Mono Cases and Ableton. Find more information at http://www.dubspot.com.

Beneficiaries:

NextAid
NextAid’s mission is to improve the lives of children and youth in Africa by promoting and implementing sustainable solutions. NextAid raises awareness for, and partners with, community-based projects and grassroots organizations in Africa and believes that an integrated approach is the best formula for establishing real and lasting change.

NextAid’s current priority project is the building of an ecological facility in Nairobi: The Kawangware Vision Center. NextAid has partnered with the inspiring community-based organization to build a “green” workshop and multipurpose facility for their youth programs and micro-business that strive to get youth off the streets by offering economic and performance activities, such as constructing gift bags to sell to the safari tourism industry. The profits enable the youth to support themselves, as well as, the vulnerable and orphaned children in the community. To learn more please visit www.nextaid.org.

LIFEbeat
LIFEbeat is dedicated to reaching America’s youth with the message of HIV/AIDS prevention. LIFEbeat mobilizes the talents and resources of the music industry to raise awareness and to provide support to the AIDS community.

LIFEBeat’s Outreach Programs and PSAs connect with approximately 70,000 young people in New York each year to raise awareness. Its Hearts and Voices Program provides live music and entertainment to patients in HIV/AIDS treatment facilities throughout the New York metro area every week. To learn more please visit http://www.lifebeat.org.

Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihood (SOIL)
Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihood (SOIL) believes that the path to sustainability is through transformation, of both disempowered peoples and discarded materials, turning apathy and pollution into valuable resources. They are empowering communities, building the soil and nourishing the grassroots in Haiti. SOIL attempts to nurture collective creativity through developing collaborative relationships between community organizations in Haiti and international academics and activists. Funds will go towards earthquake rebuilding efforts in Haiti. To learn more please visit http://oursoil.org.

Green Wave
Green Wave is a dynamic, environmental nonprofit organization founded and run by “Green Girl” guru, Janine Johnson, dedicated to establishing precedents for change and redefining activism. Green Wave’s mission is to inspire waves of change by creating living examples focused on living consciously, peacefully and harmoniously with the environment and with each other for the well being of our planet. Green Wave has partnered with NextAid to raise funds for the Green Wave Sanctuary in Kawangware, Kenya.

The Green Wave Sanctuary will be an earth-friendly, safe and loving facility fulfilling early childhood development needs (day-care, enrichment activities and health and nutrition programs) for orphaned and vulnerable children in the Kawangware community. To learn more please visit http://www.greenwaveent.org.

Partners and Sponsors:

The Loud Minority
The Loud Minority is a Miami-based, music-related lifestyle marketing and event company. Drawing on extensive experience working with progressive companies, brands, artists and publications, The Loud Minority helps clients big and small impact the cultural landscape. The company is built on a rich network of adaptive resources and partnerships, and designs a personalized hands-on approach to actualizing concepts. They are constantly pursuing fresh ideas in the fields of art, music, design, food and fashion. To learn more please visit http://theloudminority.net.

Love Fatigues
Love Fatigues is a humanitarian organization determined to bring our world together through its love camouflage clothing. Love Fatigues seeks to revolutionize camouflage fashion with infused images of Love and Peace, as opposed to traditional military camouflage patterns. The company’s innovative line of eco-friendly love camouflage clothing gives people a choice of a camouflage that offers a positive message. Love Fatigues is driven to empower individuals to make a choice and give new meaning to camouflage and change what it represents. Love Fatigues is an active supporter of a number of charities that promote love, awareness and progress for humankind around the globe. To learn more please visit http://lovefatigues.com.

San Francisco lovEvolution
San Francisco LovEvolution exists to produce a celebration of the highest forms of electronic music culture and technology, in the belief that dance promotes peace, love, unity and respect. Dance music has always had a special ability to bring people together in the shared beauty of a universal vibe.

The purpose of this organization is to serve the electronic dance music community by organizing public events, presenting electronic art forms, generating funds to support artistic development, advancing music education and production, as well as the right to dance and educating the public regarding the rights and contributions of our community. To learn more please visit http://www.sflovevolution.org.

CityDeep Music
Since its debut in 2004, CityDeep Music has enlisted some of the finest events and producers that represent dance music today and into the future. CityDeep is a label dedicated to urban dance music that ranges anywhere from deep house to AfroBeat, and souland techy rhythms. Join Halo and guest DJs/producers from around the world for vinyl and digital releases, weekly radio shows/podcasts and events – Mature Music for the Deeply Minded. To learn more please visit http://citydeepmusic.com.

Dubspot
Dubspot is an innovative electronic music production and DJ institute in New York City. As one of the first Ableton Certified Training Centers in the world, Dubspot has become the premier music school for both experienced and aspiring artists alike. Most importantly, Dubspot is a growing community of musicians, DJs, visual artists, audio technology professionals, industry veteran producers, and enthusiasts of all genres who all have one thing in common — a passion for music. They partnered with NextAid in 2009 to release Funk Aid for Africa, a charitable compilation mixed and compiled by DJ OBaH, with 100% of the proceeds benefiting children in Africa. To learn more please visit https://www.dubspot.com.

Turntables on the Hudson
When Nickodemus and Mariano started the Turntables on the Hudson (TOTH) parties in 1998 it was one of the first late night outdoor events in NYC. With the addition of Groove Collective founding member Nappy G on percussion, the party became an adventurous, young, free-spirited community known for its eclectic musical blend.

In the past ten years TOTH took its beats from parking garages, lofts and boats to residencies at renowned NYC clubs and venues like The Frying Pan, Opaline, Shelter, The Brooklyn Loft, Cielo, Element, Hiro Ballroom, SOB’s, and Spiegelworld. After ten years, the TOTH parties are now taking place Fridays at the Water Taxi Beach in Long Island City overlooking Manhattan and the East River. To learn more please visit http://turntablesonthehudson.com.

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For more information, photos or interviews, please contact Green Galactic’s Lynn Hasty at 213-840-1201 or lynn@greengalactic.com.

event details:

Friday March 26, 2010
6:00pm – Sat. 6:00am

BEATS BUILD HOPE
A Benefit for NextAid, LIFEBeat, SOIL (Haiti), and Green Wave
Presented by NextAid, LIFEbeat, The Loud Minority, Dubspot, Turntables on the Hudson, CityDeep, and Mixology

The Shore Club
1901 Collins Avenue
Miami Beach, FL 33139

Over twenty top international DJs have graciously donated their time and talent to raise funds for communities in need around the world!

Poolside Entertainment:
The Crystal Method (DJ Set), DJ Rap, Mark Farina, Heather, Colette, Ultra Naté, Andy Caldwell, Gene Farris, D:Fuse, Jazzanova, Anané, Chuck Love, Jay-J, Michael Anthony, Marissa Guzman, Adam Gibbons, Kervyn Mark, Brent Crampton, DJ Kamala
Special Appearance by The Queen of House Music – Barbara Tucker

in the Red Room:
The CityDeep Lounge with Halo, Jamie Thinnes, and Luke McKeehan as well as South Africa’s Black Coffee and Culoe de Song

on the Terrace:
Turntables on the Hudson with Nickodemus, DJ G OV, OBaH, Wiseacre, Jeremy Sole +Amon (percussion)

Main event – 8:00pm – 6:00am
$15 pre-sale / $20 door
Free with WMC Badge

VIP mixer – 6:00 – 8:00pm
Mixology VIP Mixer in the Red Room with Mark Lewis
$40 pre-sale & at door
Free with WMC Badge

Purchase Tickets: http://www.wantickets.com/EventDetail.aspx?e_id=103663

Beats Build Hope is an OFFICIAL WMC EVENT
NextAid kindly requests that attendees consider making a minimum donation of $10, as this is a fundraiser and all talent have donated their time for free

SPONSORS:
Love Fatigues / Fusicology / M-Audio / San Francisco lovEvolution

PROMOTIONAL SUPPORT:
APT Entertainment, AfrodesiaMP3.com, Agency Sounds, Nitevibe, Nordic Trax, Rootz Media, Supperclub, The Groove Cruise, The Melting Pot Global, The Outloud Agency Group, Green Galactic, The MML, Traxsource, Wantickets.com, Morgans Hotel Group, and Winter Music Conference

event page – http://nextaid.org/beatsbuildhope
Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=299847426894&ref=ts

Palette Recordings "Nothing But Love Songs"

John Tejada’s label, Palette Recordings, is proud to present its first digital-only compilation, Nothing But Love Songs, featuring a dozen exclusive new songs from the label’s talent. While firmly rooted in techno, the cohesive compilation incorporates experimental, dub, and glitch passages as it cycles through layers of sonic abstraction. The compilation begins with a track by Palette All-Stars (comprised of John Tejada, Arian Leviste, Justin Maxwell and Josh Humphrey), and also features solo material by Tejada as well as Maxwell, Humphrey, and Dave Hughes. Collaborations abound with all the Palette artists including Tejada’s 19-year collaborator Arian Leviste.

For Immediate Release: February 8, 2010

LOS ANGELES, CA – John Tejada’s label, Palette Recordings, is proud to present its first digital-only compilation, Nothing But Love Songs, featuring a dozen exclusive new songs from the label’s talent. While firmly rooted in techno, the cohesive compilation incorporates experimental, dub, and glitch passages as it cycles through layers of sonic abstraction. The compilation begins with a track by Palette All-Stars (comprised of John Tejada, Arian Leviste, Justin Maxwell and Josh Humphrey), and also features solo material by Tejada as well as Maxwell, Humphrey, and Dave Hughes. Collaborations abound with all the Palette artists including Tejada’s 19-year collaborator Arian Leviste. Find the compilation exclusively on Beatport for the first four weeks. In March, Nothing But Love Songs will also be available through additional digital outlets. To purchase or listen to samples of each track please visit https://www.beatport.com/en-US/html/content/release/detail/218460/Nothing%20But%20Love%20Songs.

The LA-based artists (with the exception of Maxwell who relocated a bit north in recent years) emphasize synthesis and hardware sound design, showcasing various methods throughout the compilation. Tejada and Leviste continue their “M Track” series, which focuses on live hardware modular synth workouts. Justin Maxwell once again proves he is the ultimate mad scientist following up on the sound of his last single “The Windey Man.” Josh Humphrey contributes a strange list of instruments to his work with Tejada including a Swarmatron Synthesizer, which was used exclusively in “YZZ.” And he contributes his first solo work, “P.O.L.R.,” to the compilation. Dave Hughes also contributes his polished sound to the mix.

Nothing But Love Songs track listing:
01.) Palette All-Stars (John Tejada, Arian Leviste, Justin Maxwell and Josh Humphrey) – “Action Section”
02.) Justin Maxwell – “Pocket Dial”
03.) John Tejada & Josh Humphrey – “YZZ”
04.) John Tejada & Justin Maxwell – “Crock Divider”
05.) John Tejada & Arian Leviste – “M Track 7”
06). John Tejada – “On The Double”
07.) Dave Hughes – “Listen To This Sound”
08.) John Tejada & Josh Humphrey – “Tern Style”
09.) John Tejada – “Vanguard”
10.) John Tejada & Arian Leviste – “M Track 6”
11.) Dave Hughes – “Paranoid”
12.) Josh Humphrey – “P.O.L.R.”

Palette Recordings was started by John Tejada in the fall of 1996. Over sixty releases later it is one of the most respected techno labels in the world. Palette became an exclusive outlet for Tejada to release his most prized music. Normally associated with his peers in techno from Detroit, Europe and elsewhere, Tejada has embraced electronic music as a personal frontier, expanding on his resume as a techno recording artist as producer, remixer, DJ, and label owner. Known for crafting a brand of subtle, musical techno, his recorded output ranges across tempo and genre lines, from chilled out affairs with spacious arrangements to pulsating, densely layered, deeply energetic tracks that work magnificently in the hands of DJs as well as on the home stereo. To learn more about Palette Recordings please visit http://www.paletterecordings.com.

Tejada is also in two-man band called I’m Not A Gun with classical guitarist Takeshi Nishimoto producing what Wired Magazine tried to identify as, “Post-rock? Chill-core? Tech-jazz?” A student of the classical tradition, Nishimoto has studied with some of the world’s premiere guitar players and counts jazz guitar legend Phil Upchurch as his mentor. Tejada plays drums and electronics in the band. The duo’s music is an organic combination of captured acoustic performances and experimental electronic compositions. They have four albums under their belt – Everything At Once (2003), Our Lives on Wednesdays (2004), We Think As Instruments (2006), and Mirror (2008) – their 5th album, Solace, is due in May 2010 from Berlin’s City Center Offices.

For more information, images or to set up interviews please contact Green Galactic’s Lynn Hasty at 213-840-1201 or lynn@greengalactic.com.

NextAid and Make-Up Designory
With Help from DJ Rap, Colette, Samantha James and Eve Falcon
Launch New Promo Campaign For
MUD Cares Palette of Eye Colors
To Fund Construction & Education for Red Rhino Orphanage Project in Kenya

LOS ANGELES, CA – Believing that everyone deserves a beautiful future, the nation’s leading make-up educational institute, Make-Up Designory (MUD), created the MUD Cares Palette of Eye Colors to benefit NextAid and one of its partners in Africa, the Red Rhino Orphanage Project (RROP). 100% of the sales from the limited-edition four-color eye shadow palette are being generously donated to NextAid to help RROP build a foundation for a better tomorrow. Once the specially commissioned palettes sell out the funds will provide construction of orphans’ homes in a poverty-stricken town 25 miles southeast of Nairobi, Kenya. Each of these eco-friendly structures will provide long-term shelter, food and medical needs for some of the most vulnerable orphans in the area. NextAid has increased efforts to sell the remaining palettes with the launch of an extensive online promotional campaign with the help of lovely superstars Colette, DJ Rap, Eve Falcon, and Samantha James. To help spread beauty from the inside out, purchase the palette online at http://shop.mudshop.com/mud-cares-palette or MUD retail stores located in Burbank and SoHo.

The MUD Cares Palette, retailing for $25.00, is a quad of eye shadows developed and created by Make-Up Designory. The four colors were hand-selected by members of NextAid to bring out the natural beauty of every skin tone. Stay grounded with Spanish Gold and Dulce de Leche, create a warm glow with Cashmere, or visualize a better world with vibrant Moss. The powders are soft and finely milled with just a touch of sheen. The shades work for most skin tones and complexions.

By selling only 1,000 palettes, MUD will raise $25,000 to fund the final construction and initial operations of two homes expected to house 16 children at Red Rhino Orphanage Project. Each of the timber-framed sustainable structures will provide basic necessities including medical supplies for rescued children, children at risk, and orphans in a safe, encouraging and healthy environment. The project also funds the children’s educational pursuits, from elementary school through secondary and university or trade school.

NextAid co-founder and director, Lauren Segal-Avenna explains, “The children Red Rhino Orphanage Project is caring for are some of the saddest cases in the region. These are kids that have absolutely nowhere else to go. These were once babies who were literally left on door steps, trash heaps… totally abandoned.”

In late 2009, four incredible talents from DJ culture came together for a MUD makeover and photo shoot at MUD’s Burbank studio to help NextAid spread the word to their combined global fan-bases. Los Angeles-based DJs and artists Colette, DJ Rap, Eve Falcon, and Samantha James, all generous supporters of NextAid, freed up their busy schedules and volunteered their time. Look for the NextAid/MUD web-banners featuring the four DJ beauties splashed around the internet this spring. Visit MUD’s blog to see the behind-the-scenes photo shoot http://www.mudblog.net/blog/make-up_designory_nextaid_building_a_foundation_for_a_better_tomorrow.

About RROP:
The Red Rhino Orphanage Project’s mission is to house and educate some of the most unfortunate children in Kenya, enabling them to become contributing members of society and leaders of the next generation. RROP is committed to providing the children it serves with a sanctuary from the immediate and pressing dangers of life, housing, food and medical needs. The orphanage will work in partnership with the surrounding community in ways that foster local commerce and positively impact the environment. The project also funds the children’s educational pursuits, from elementary school through secondary and university or trade school. Additionally, RROP sponsors the locally run rescued baby home Springs of Hope in the nearby town of Machakos. The completion of the homes will allow the overflow of older children from Springs of Hope to move to the newer RROP facilities. For more information on RROP please visit http://www.rrop.org.

About Colette:
With her disarming doe eyes and a heartwarming demeanor, Om Records’ Colette possesses the unmistakable voice of post-millennial house music. Her sweet-but-sultry, classically trained voice highlights any beat that flows behind it, making the former choirgirl-cum-Chicago-house-siren a mainstay in the global dance music scene. In the late 90s, Colette started the SuperJane troupe with fellow Chicagoan DJs Dayhota, Lady D and Heather, paving the way for women seeking equal time behind the decks as their male counterparts. In 2007, Colette released Push, the highly anticipated follow up album to her critically acclaimed Billboard Magazine No. 1 charting debut album Hypnotized. Inspired by her house music upbringing in the birth place of the beat, Push harks back to the days where electro, house, hip hop and freestyle music ruled the airwaves and does something few seem to do these days: create a complete album of hits that will grab anyone with a love for good music. Despite international acclaim, Colette continues to stay grounded in the Windy City with her monthly residency at the Metro/Smart Bar. For more on Colette please visit http://www.djcolette.com.

About DJ Rap:
Over her 15-year career, DJ Rap has moved effortlessly between genres, staking her claim on various styles within the electronic spectrum, while simultaneously pushing the limits of rock and pop. The First Lady of Drum ʻnʼ Bass and the undisputed Queen of the Turntables, her music has infiltrated club systems and car stereos worldwide, and her numerous forays into video game and motion picture soundtracks have solidified her pedigree as one of dance musicʼs most successful and prolific artists. In February 2010, DJ Rap will release Synthesis (Ministry of Sound), a brand new studio album that weaves together a full compliment of synthetic textures and organic moods, and paints a lucid picture of her journey as a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Also, check out Metasyn, the spankin’ new by-product of DJ Rap and fresh up ‘n’ comer Chemical Hero dishing out a brand new drum&bass sound that is unlike anything this side of the moon. Learn more about DJ Rap here http://www.djrap.com.

About Eve Falcon:
Anyone watching E! Entertainment Television over the past year has no doubt seen internationally renowned DJ, producer and vocalist Eve Falcon heating up the decks on the channel’s “12 Sexiest Hollywood Jobs.” Known for her impeccably programmed DJ sets that transcend genre pigeonholing, Eve Falcon has once again brought her flair for music on a fresh new production with renowned DJ and producer DJ Rap. The result is the banging progressive house tune “Good Times,” a peak time floor-filler with uplifting vocals courtesy of Eve herself. The tune is slated for release on DJ Rap’s Impropa Talent imprint in the coming months. Also, Eve’s newest mix, “Bloom,” continues to raise eyebrows and garner accolades as another flawless audio journey. A perfect example of Eve’s unique signature style and energy, the mix has been described as “…sweet beats and smooth transitions make Falcon’s mixes long lived pleasures” – http://www.evefalcon.com.

About Samantha James:
Songwriter and performer Samantha James has spent the past seven years honing her estimable skills as a modern-day singer/songwriter within the dance/electronic/soul genre. Her sultry style, vocal cadences, and international rhythms are largely influenced by such artists as Sade, Basia, Amel Larrieux, Bebel Gilberto and Morcheeba. On her debut album Rise for San Francisco based indie label Om Records, Samantha teamed up with producer and co-writer Sebastian Arocha Morton (ROCAsound) who states, “talented, beautiful, passionate, and dedicated… Samantha James is the real thing – as both recording artist and stage performer. She is a welcome and beautiful new face in the world of dance-electronic music.” The soulful songstress, much to the pleasure of her adoring fans, is in the process of completing her highly-anticipated second album, with the first single due to be released in February – myspace.com/sammyjmusic.

About Make-Up Designory:
Founded in 1997, Make-Up Designory (MUD) is a private, post-secondary institution that provides rigorous training in the field of make-up artistry for film, television, fashion, and retail. At their two thriving campuses in Los Angeles and New York, students from around the world gain expertise in beauty make-up artistry, hairstyling, character make-up, special make-up effects, portfolio development and more. In addition, MUD develops and markets a line of professional-quality make-up products and precision tools, which are supported by expert tips and tested in challenging, real-life situations. MUD products are available through select retailers in the United States, Asia, and Europe, as well as online. For more information about MUD products, please visit: www.mudshop.com, or to learn more about the school, please visit www.mud.edu.

About NextAid:
NextAid’s mission is to improve the lives of children and youth in Africa by promoting and implementing sustainable solutions. NextAid raises awareness for, and partners with, community-based projects and grassroots organizations in Africa and believes that an integrated approach is the best formula for establishing real and lasting change. Through music events and public education initiatives, NextAid provides empowering opportunities for concerned individuals to make a difference – learn more at www.nextaid.org.

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For more information, photos or interviews, please contact Green Galactic’s Lynn Hasty at 213-840-1201 or lynn[at]greengalactic.com.

Photo credit Aaron Gautchi

When Lucent Dossier Experience started their new artist residency in the heart of Hollywood last month, they were presented with an unusual challenge: the h.wood space they now inhabit on Wednesday nights is a series of small, den-like chambers without a large, conventional stage. While this could have been a liability, the inventive troupe rose to the occasion by reconfiguring their show, conceptually transforming h.wood’s labyrinth of rooms into a modern day cabinet of human curiosities. Wednesdays through December 23, 2009, Lucent Dossier Experience opens h.wood’s doors every week at 8:00 p.m. with the troupe’s tantalizing performances from 9:00 p.m. to midnight, and DJs/dancing continuing until 2:00 a.m. The residency runs through December, culminating with their Orphan’s Ball on December 23rd which benefits Cuddle The World, Lucent’s charity project for disadvantaged children.For Immediate Release: December 6, 2009

Lucent Dossier Experience Transforms h.wood
Into a Modern Day Cabinet of Human Curiosities
With Performances On Wednesdays
Running Through December 23rd 2009

LOS ANGELES, CA – When Lucent Dossier Experience started their new artist residency in the heart of Hollywood last month, they were presented with an unusual challenge: the h.wood space they now inhabit on Wednesday nights is a series of small, den-like chambers without a large, conventional stage. While this could have been a liability, the inventive troupe rose to the occasion by reconfiguring their show, conceptually transforming h.wood’s labyrinth of rooms into a modern day cabinet of human curiosities. Wednesdays through December 23, 2009, Lucent Dossier Experience opens h.wood’s doors every week at 8:00 p.m. with the troupe’s tantalizing performances from 9:00 p.m. to midnight, and DJs/dancing continuing until 2:00 a.m. The residency runs through December, culminating with their Orphan’s Ball on December 23rd which benefits Cuddle The World, Lucent’s charity project for disadvantaged children. Admission to Lucent Dossier Experience is $15 on Wednesday nights. h.wood (formerly the Stork Lounge) is located at 1738 N. Orange, Los Angeles, CA 90028. Valet parking is available at the venue and self-parking is in the Hollywood + Highland Center complex (rates are $2 for 4 hours with validation, easy entrance to the parking on Orange or Highland). For information on the venue please call 323-871-2262 or visit www.thehwood.com. For more information on the event and to purchase advance tickets, please visit www.lucentdossier.com.

Historically, curiosity cabinets (aka wunderkammer or cabinets of wonder) were eclectic collections of artifacts including natural specimens, religious artifacts, art works, fantastical imaginary beings, historical relics, and other exotica. These rooms of wonder emerged in the sixteenth century and are considered the precursors to museums. They originally provided a retreat for contemplation and a view into strange new worlds with menageries of preserved fish, feathers, curious shells, stuffed reptiles, coins, coral, minerals, horns, tusks, skeletons, clocks, and a fascinating assortment of man-made objects. Often, the displays would contain a mix of fact and fiction, including mythical creatures. The Lucent Dossier Experience h.wood residency arouses a sense of awe similar to the static curiosity cabinets of yesteryear, but here the exotic specimen are in human form and operate in four dimensions (i.e., three dimensional physical space + the performative element of time.

The industrial vintage h.wood space, in the heart of Hollywood, with its two floors of dark nooks and crannies, perfectly houses Lucent Dossier Experience’s otherworldly spectacle into modern day wonder rooms. The club’s distressed leather couches, antique bookshelves, and old fashioned portraits echo the aristocratic library feel of the original wunderkammer.

Until Christmas, on Wednesday nights, Lucent Dossier Experience activates the h.wood maze of rooms into an exotic display of ethereal seductions with aerial artistry, soulful belly dancers, sleek other-worldy creatures, astral readings, decadent rose water foot baths, gypsies offering soul cleansing herbal elixirs, a post portal post office, temporary tribal tattoo parlor, and impish pranksters — all in fantastical haute couture costumes and makeup. Overhead, luminous aerial performers share the rafters with the antique chandeliers. A menagerie of exotic creatures add magic and mayhem including bizarre and alluring burlesque dancers, a bearded lady, spoken word poets, clowns, contortionists, elves, singers, jugglers, stilt walkers, and a sword swallower in a theatrical spectacle of feathers, chains, and lace.

Lucent Dossier loosely translates to a “collection of glowing light.” In the new residency, the interactive troupe provides a curious twist on the conventional, creating an experience that’s like stepping into a fractured Lewis Carroll dream. The result is a weird and wonderful funhouse where the performers activate the boho chic space, mixing with the local Hollywood flora and fauna, transforming Wednesday nights into a realm of new possibilities.

“All the different elements — the performers, the music, the space, the audience, and chance — come into play to create a very fluid, surrealistic wonderland where no two evenings are ever the same,” says Creative Director Dream Rockwell, “And we encourage guests to dress up in their finery, transform into exotic creatures, express themselves, and become part of the experience.”

A different DJ is featured each week along with live musical elements mixed in (that might including sitar, violins, drums, keyboards, guitar, vocals, or bass). On December 9th, Venice-based DJ, composer, and dance floor messiah KRADDY (founding member of the Glitch Mob) will hit the decks with a futuristic fusion of dubstep, hip hop, dance hall, and crunk all bumping together with his signature style of edits and remixes that make his sound super danceable and unique.

“The music is such an important part of the experience. We come from a very organized, and yet still underground, art and music scene. The sounds that came out of our scene 5-6 years ago are what’s being cultivated into the mainstream now,” says Rockwell, “The music makers, DJs, and producers around us are cutting edge and we are thrilled to be able to feature them. Many of them are now touring worldwide but they’re all still our friends. It’s great to have them come down and create musical magic for a night.”

DJs for December 16th and December 23rd TBD.

On December 16th, as a special treat, visual artist Jocelyn Marsh will show her work in collaboration with Lucent Dossier Experience, further enhancing that evening’s cabinet of curiosities. For ten years, Marsh has been collecting bones, insects, metal boxes, and various other interesting items — bringing them together into whimsical assemblages. She lives in Los Angeles with her cat skeleton, Whiskers. For more information on Marsh and her work, see: jocelynmarsh.com

The weekly residency will culminate with an Orphan’s Ball on December 23rd benefiting Cuddle The World. This Christmas Eve Eve-nt, a time to dance and celebrate with extended family, features a toy drive and other surprises. Guests are encouraged to bring something cuddly (new or gently used) for Lucent Dossier Experience to distribute at an orphanage this Spring when the troupe hits the road.

Cuddle the World is Lucent Dossier Experience’s non-profit organization that brings inspiration in the form of inter-active performance, musical instruments, clown noses, costumes, and fairy wings as well as sparks of love and security, in the form of teddy bears and snuggle blankets, to orphans around the globe. These children are in conditions where they receive very basic care but nothing more.

“We believe that we can help inspire these kids to think more creatively when they are dumped into the world at age 16 or 18 so that they will be able to make better choices for their lives as they are forced to fend for themselves with little or no support,” says Rockwell, “It’s the greatest project I have ever been a part of. I just love to see the little kids’ faces light up and know that what we are doing is worth every bit of time, money, and effort we have put into it.

Rockwell, in partnership with Shrine, a Pasadena-based artist, originally founded the troupe in December 2004 to nourish her love of the avant-garde in the form of dance, performance, music, and costuming. Now, five years later, the critically acclaimed Los Angeles-based tribe of inspiring artists has been featured in television commercials, print advertisements, music videos, and large-scale, live productions such as Coachella here in the US, Summer Sonic in Japan, and Electric Picnic in Ireland. Their h.wood residency follows up their hugely successful year-long run of sold-out shows at The Edison in downtown Los Angeles, which ran from April 2008 through April 2009. Also included in the group’s impressive resume is a photo spread in Italian Vogue (as captured by Steven Meisel); shows at top clubs throughout Los Angeles; and performances on MTV and at the official Grammy® Awards Party.

# # #

For more information, photos, or to arrange interviews, please contact Green Galactic’s Lynn Hasty at 213-840-1201 or lynn@greengalactic.com.

Event Details:

Lucent Dossier Experience
- weekly artist residency -

h.wood
1738 N. Orange
Los Angeles, CA 90028
323-871-2262
www.thehwood.com

8:00pm – 2:00am
- Doors: 8:00pm
- DJ & dancing all night
- Shows: 9:00pm – 12midnight

Admission $15
- Join their mailing list for discounts

- Valet parking available at the venue
- Self parking in Hollywood + Highland complex – $2 for 4 hours with validation

www.lucentdossier.com

Proceeds from all three gifts support NextAid’s work to create sustainable solutions for African children orphaned by AIDS. For more information on NextAid, please visit http://www.nextaid.org.For Immediate Release: December 1, 2009

Los Angeles Humanitarian Organization NextAid
Offers Three Green, Philanthropic Holiday Gift Giving Options
Benefitting African Children in Need

Funk Aid for Africa CD • MUD Cares Eye Shadow • “Send a Child to School”

LOS ANGELES, CA – Los Angeles-based humanitarian organization NextAid offers three “green” holiday giving options that benefit African children in need. All three philanthropic gifts are perfect for those who want their holiday giving to mean a bit more:
1.) Funk Aid for Africa, a critically acclaimed CD mix of funky goodness released by Dubspot
2.) MUD Cares Palette of Eye Colors – earthy eye shadows by Make-Up Designory (MUD)
3.) NextAid’s “Send a Child to School” program

Proceeds from all three gifts support NextAid’s work to create sustainable solutions for African children orphaned by AIDS. For more information on NextAid, please visit http://www.nextaid.org.

Details on NextAid’s three philanthropic/green gift giving options …

Funk Aid For Africa CD:
Funk Aid for Africa is a compilation created to raise funds for African children affected by AIDS by harnessing the positive power of music. It’s a funky soul vitamin for your body, mind and spirit – seamlessly blended into a super tight and tasty collage of dubbed out dancehall, reggae, funk, and afro-beat by DJ OBaH. All those involved, from DJ OBaH to the artists (like J Boogie and The Pimps of Joytown) who wrote the tracks, and Dubspot Records who generously produced/released the CD, have donated their time, skill and compositions. All proceeds from the sale of this compilation are going towards the construction of a “green” sports facility at NextAid’s environmental community center in Dennilton, South Africa. The complex serves as a beacon of hope in a community devastated by AIDS and poverty. The CD is priced between $10 – 12 (depending on site purchased from.)
http://www.funkaid.com/ (info/buy)
http://www.dancetracksdigital.com/search/release.php?x=release_info&release_id=46108 (preview/buy)
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=312426116&s=143441 (buy)
http://www.amazon.com/Funk-Aid-For-Africa/dp/B002BLA9PW (buy)

MUD Cares Palette Eye Shadow:
MUD Cares Palette ($25.00) is a quad of eye shadows developed and created by Make-Up Designory (MUD). Shades included are Spanish Gold, Cashmere, Dulce de Leche, and Moss. 100% of the proceeds go towards building homes for children in Africa who have been orphaned by AIDS. Each color is soft and finely milled with just a touch of sheen and the palette works for most skin tones and complexions. The sales of this specially-commissioned eye shadow will fund the final construction and initial operations of two children’s homes in a poverty-stricken town located 25 miles southeast of Nairobi. Each of these eco-friendly homes will provide long-term shelter, food and medical needs for 16 local orphans. The project also funds the children’s educational pursuits, from elementary school through secondary and university or trade school.
http://shop.mudshop.com/mud-cares-palette (info/buy)
http://www.mudblog.net/blog/make-up_designory_nextaid_building_a_foundation_for_a_better_tomorrow

NextAid’s “Send a Child to School” with goGogetters campaign:
A $75 donation to NextAid will assist in sending a child to school for a year. NextAid is working with a well-respected South African organization, loveLife, to be the beneficiary of NextAid’s “Send a Child to School” (aka goGogetters) campaign. goGogetters is a loveLife program that supports the many grandmothers (gogos) who have been dedicating their senior years to the wellbeing of orphans and vulnerable children. NextAid is raising funds for the schooling needs of some of the most vulnerable children who participate in the goGogetters program. All it takes is $75 to enable one child’s education for a year. This donation will ensure that a child is equipped with a school uniform, shoes and school supplies – all critical to a child’s education, especially as many children drop out of school due to embarrassment when they do not have these items. We all know that education is the ticket to a better future and this program presents an affordable and tangible way to make a difference.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=328589150284 (details)
http://www.nextaid.org/donation.htm (donate)

About NextAid -
NextAid’s mission is to improve the lives of youth in Africa by implementing and advancing sustainable solutions. Through music events and public education initiatives, this Los Angeles-based humanitarian organization raises awareness for and partners with community-based projects and grassroots organizations in Africa. NextAid adheres to a holistic and integrated approach in addressing the spectrum of challenges associated with establishing lasting change. http://www.nextaid.org

NextAid images from the field: http://www.nextaid.org/photogallery.htm

# # #

For more information, photos, or to arrange interviews, please contact Green Galactic’s Lynn Hasty at 213-840-1201 or lynn (at) greengalactic.com.

Create:Fixate Celebrates Its 8th Anniversary
“Infinity”
Saturday, December 5, 2009

LOS ANGELES, CA – Arts organization Create:Fixate will host Infinity, its eight-year anniversary show, on Saturday, December 5, 2009 from 7:00 p.m. – 2:00 a.m. The art exhibit (and beyond), featuring over forty top local artists, DJs, and musicians will fill the Premiere Events Center (PEC) in downtown LA with vibrant artwork and music.  In all, the night will offer work in a plethora of media including painting, photography, sculpture, multimedia, installation, fashion, jewelry, and video projection. Premiere Events Center is located at 613 Imperial Street, Los Angeles, CA 90021. Admission is $15.00 before 10:00 p.m. and $20.00 for the remainder of the night. All ages are welcome. For more information, including a gallery with images of Infinity artists’ works, visit www.createfixate.org. Create:Fixate can be reached by phone at 310-590-7199 for other inquiries.

The evening begins with a preview of the exhibit from 4:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. There is a $5 suggested donation during this period and kids twelve-years old and younger are allowed free entry before seven o’clock. Parents are encouraged to bring the whole family during the preview hours and take advantage of the Kids Kreativity Zone (4 – 7 p.m. only). Overflowing with art supplies, the Zone provides a supervised space where youth can dive into their own expression while parents explore the evening’s exhibit.

Infinity will also feature the work of approximately 30 local artists including Kerianne Connor, whose work combines sculpture, painting, and design, and reflects the experience of a modern generation that has grown up in a world immersed in prominent visual design. Also featured is the work of Dave Lovejoy, an artist and designer fond of ceramics, and maker of things. His artistic direction has always involved an exploration of old, weathered surface textures, whether in clay, wood, or an assemblage of various media. This time, the upstairs loft will feature an audio-visual installation by well-known San Francisco-based DJ/artist Gavin Hardkiss aka Hawke entitled A Collection of Art Inspired by the Hawke Album +++. Hardkiss will also have a proper DJ set on one of two house sound systems in the latter part of the night.

Not to be outdone, the Audio Lab portion of the evening promises to impress with a collection of Los Angeles’ best up and coming musical talent. Some of the aural highlights for December 5th include Healamonster & Tarsier, an electronic production duo who combine elements of dream pop, dub, ambient, and other cinematic forms of music. Philadelphia-based Playloop founder, Justin Paul will be in town to throw down his eclectic mix of various genres as will label-mate, Dave Hughes, an Irish transplant firmly based in L.A. who creates and plays beautiful techno beats. Jeremy Sole’s Musaics juxtaposes elements of Afrobeat, Cumbia, highlife, jazz, dub and experimental beats. As a true music lover, Sole has always found a way to blend these elements together and can be found every Wednesday night on KCRW 89.9 FM and at his weekly night club Afro-Funké where he is a co-founder and resident DJ.

Every Create:Fixate event has a community outreach component. On this occasion, ninth graders at Sun Valley High School in Mrs. Graham’s Health class are learning more than just about their physical health. The students are learning to connect with the world and become aware of their emotional and spiritual well being as well. The world can seem infinite at this stage in a young person’s life and each of our roles might seem insignificant. Since suicide is a leading cause of death amongst teens, Mrs. Graham’s students brainstormed about ‘Reasons to Live.’ Combining mandalas, mixed media and their own raw emotions, they created work around this theme, which will be included in the art exhibit.

Create:Fixate is an arts organization based in Los Angeles completing its 8th year running art/music events that bring together emerging artists and musicians, along with 1500+ art lovers and party goers in a 15,000-square foot downtown warehouse location on a quarterly basis. Founder Michelle Berc curates, produces and hosts these ambitious group art shows that present creative people from around the globe with an emphasis on the local talent of Los Angeles. The production team also includes music coordinator Andrea Giardina, and a core team of volunteers and dedicated advisory board members. Awe-inspiring painters, photographers, sculptors, and multi-media artists exhibit alongside an equally impressive array of Los Angeles’ finest DJs and musicians. Each event’s aural artists are poised to create a soundtrack for the night that transforms this from a simple ‘art show’ into the city’s most anticipated Art Event.

Optical Lounge -

Amy Bernays
Amy Bernays is a painter living and working in Los Angeles, California. By using non-conventional mediums (like spray paint in her ‘stripper’ series), Bernays investigates conventions of beauty, pop culture, and street aesthetic. She graduated with a BA (honors) in Fine Art from Central St Martins, London in 2001. Shortlisted for the Mercury Prize in 2006, Bernays’ work is gaining momentum. Exhibited in galleries in Los Angeles, New York, London and Edinburgh; Bernays is a prolific, persistent and engaging artist.

Anne Carmack
Anne Carmack is a self-taught writer, painter and photographer. Her organic approach to creativity leaves the moment up to fate; this accidentally allows her to have something certain to hold on to when the moment has gone and disappeared, and all that’s left of it is light.

Dave Lovejoy
Dave Lovejoy has been working as an artist and designer since the early 1980’s. A successful career as a graphic designer supported a long and leisurely arts education at several schools, focusing on ceramics. His work has been exhibited in galleries and museums in California and Oregon for over a decade. As a maker of things, his artistic direction has always involved an exploration of old, weathered surface textures, whether in clay, wood, or an assemblage of various media. Lovejoy lives and works in Pasadena, California with his wife, Vera, and teaches monthly workshops in raku-firing techniques.

Debra Murray-Kagan
Debra Murray-Kagan was born into a family of artists and entrepreneurs. She attended the School of Visual Art in New York, and now lives and paints full time in Los Angeles. Her viewpoints change often, as do her paintings, which range from oils to encaustics, from light to dark. She says creating and making art is a way of being human; everyone should be doing it. Murray-Kagan has been working on commissions for corporations and individual collectors.

Ashleigh Sumner
Ashleigh Sumner has always found creative inspiration in the movement, lines, and rhythm of pulsating cities. Through bold, abstract expression, Sumner attempts to imbue the implied visual textures of densely populated urban landscapes with the raw, gritty textures of industrial areas. The combination of these elements is intended to evoke a powerful sense of unrestrained vitality to the viewer. With a palette knife Sumner applies several layers of bold color by scraping paint across wood panels or canvas. She then incorporates strong accents of black through out the piece. Finally, resin is used in the process to render added depth and to convey a modern, veneered surface.

Gavin Hardkiss aka Hawke
“A Collection of Art Inspired By The Hawke Album +++”
Gavin Hardkiss aka Hawke has created a happening of lively art and music inspired by his new album titled +++. As an alternative to having songs remixed, Hardkiss asked visual artists to create paintings, sculptures and mixed media inspired by the album. Those artists will be joining him to create an art event to celebrate the album’s release. Recorded in San Diego and San Francisco between 2004 and 2009, the album was conceived as a creative statement of naive beauty and possibility. “At times I tried to imagine what it would sound like if I was a teenager again making this music alone in my bedroom. Romantic and futurist, confident and vulnerable, sexually charged and childlike, anticipating something big to happen,” says Hardkiss. Participating artists include Felipe Merida, Fernando Apodaca, Handiedan, Duser, Ursula X. Young, Pure Evil, Owen Maigret, Robert Ogden, Evan Venegas, Trina Merry, Gina Bieber, Joslyn Lawrence, Brian Kuhlman, and Araceli Santos de Bieber.

Greg Boudreau
Greg Boudreau creates multi-layered spray paint stencils on frames constructed of salvaged wood. Working from original digital photographs, he processes them on a computer and prints the layers as architectural blueprint plots, then cuts the coordinating stencils by hand. The stencils are sprayed on frames constructed of salvaged shipping pallets; his photographs focus on portraying industrial and urban landscapes and portraiture.

Hagop Belian
Hagop Belian was born in Syria, where he lived until his early teens before moving to the United States. His creative process began while studying at UC Santa Cruz, where he earned a BA in Mathematics. He was pulled by a strong desire to create and began to experiment with different mediums, searching for an outlet to express his passion. His paintings are rooted in the realm of what is felt rather than what is seen and is an exploration of emotions based on reminiscences of the past. It represents rebirth, transformation, truth and change. Currently Belian lives in Venice, CA where he continues to explore his creativity using his intuition and environment as inspiration for his work.

Heidi Spring
Heidi Spring has studied at the Burren College of Art and University College Dublin, holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Illinois Wesleyan University, and a Master of Art in Fine Arts from the University of Brighton, England. A current member of the Catalyst Artists Collective (CAC), Spring produces a variety of work on commission and for exhibitions in the central and western United States and Europe.

Kate Daly
Kate Daly, born and raised in Santa Cruz, CA, recently graduated from Laguna College of Art and Design. Through Daly’s command of oil, she illustrates her personal philosophies. With music as her greatest inspiration, she translates the energy and mood of sound into the movement, or lack thereof, in each piece.

Katie Ryan
Spawn from her artist mother, Ryan’s art filled life began at day one. Growing up, she enrolled in classes and assisted those that her mother taught every summer at the Maitland Art Center in Florida. Ryan earned her BFA in Drawing and Painting from the Ohio State University then upon graduation moved to Los Angeles where she now lives and works in the world famous art colony – The Brewery in downtown Los Angeles. Her paintings represent her internal, microscopic body. They illustrate biomorphic abstractions of both emotional and physical content felt underneath her skin through intuitive techniques and processes with oil paint.

Kerianne Connor
Kerianne Connor is a contemporary abstract artist who graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Art from the School of Art at UCLA in 2005. Her work combines sculpture, painting, and design, blurring the traditional strict separation between the genres of Design and Fine Art. Connor’s work reflects the experience of a modern generation that has grown up in a world immersed in prominent visual design. She subtly compels her viewers to consider this relationship as she seamlessly combines elements of popular and emblematic designs with the fine art of sculpture and painting. Sharp edges, block colors, and calculated rows of stretched strings raised against severed canvases are characteristic of Connor’s current body of work. By representing contemporary landscapes through abstract works, Connor successfully acknowledges the importance of the dialogue and interconnectivity between design, form, and function.

John Chang
Born and raised in Shanghai, China, John Chang is now living and working in Los Angeles. Chang’s works have been widely exhibited, including Kauffman Gallery at Shippensburg University, Porter Square Gallery at Art Institute of Boston, Communication Arts Gallery at University of Wisconsin Parkside and Dana Hall Gallery at Wellesley. Chang’s work has been featured in various publications such as Pasadena Star news and on KTLA. John Chang is a recipient of The Artist-in-Residence grant 2004 from Vermont Studio Center.

Jorge Oswaldo
Jorge Oswaldo produces both handmade designs and digital incarnations, stitching them together into seamless visual hybrids. Oswaldo’s process often begins by creating a simple line drawing and inevitably results in a frenetically arranged, calculated explosion of line and shape. Three dimensional vinyl and hand-painted appliques on multi-layer plexi-glass create a 2 dimensional object in a 3 dimensional plane.

Liz Brizzi
A native of France, born of Italian parents, Brizzi grew up in Los Angeles. Her mixed media collage technique fuses her original photography with colorful acrylic wash layers. She is inspired by urban themes and loves to portray the beauty she captures in the raw and industrial aspects of city life; she began this series of work with landscape paintings of the streets and alleys of downtown Los Angeles, where she resides, but is now broadening the scope of areas she paints to places she has been to in recent travels.

Luis Sanchez
Luis Sanchez works both in figurative and abstract art, colliding the natural and industrial worlds in painting, sculpture, found objects, and shadowboxes. For his paintings, Sanchez has reinvented the ancient process of fresco; he paints on his own recreations of degraded stucco walls remembered from his childhood in Mexico City. His two-dimensional works are often noted for his masterful use of trompe l’oeil, leaving viewers with the impression that he has used photography, collage, or other techniques when he has only used the brush. His work seamlessly combines the past, present and the future. While the medium he uses looks back in time, the work sees into the future.

Matt Donegan
Matt Donegan was born in Flint, Michigan and moved to California when he was eighteen. His photography started at age thirty during underwater explorations on tropical diving trips. His curiosity and passion for travel grew, drawing him further out to Africa, Asia, New Guinea and many other locales. Donegan’s subjects range from architecture to landscapes, seascapes, flora, fauna, and peoples of the world. His images reflect the customs, ways of life, and everyday tools of the cultures he visits, which are all rapidly disappearing from our view.

Michelle Nielsen
Michelle Nielsen is a young Bolivian visual artist educated in San Francisco, Chile and Mexico. Her oil paintings use a combination of narrative figuration and pop influence inspired by fashion and photography. Determined to stay true to her feminine sensibility, imagination and sense of humor, Nielsen’s artwork invites the spectator to enjoy the pleasure of looking.

Michael Pukac
Michael Pukac (poo-khash) is a Long Beach-based artist who focuses on acrylics, utilizing methods that involve layering with metallic and reflective paints. Pukac was born on the Gulf Coast of Alabama and grew up in the swamps. He received a BFA in painting from the Ringling School of Art and Design. Pukac has also co-founded three small nonprofit art organizations as well as produced and curated art events, art walks, and other live performances around the country.

Mykal Aubry – Visions of Origin™
The art of Mykal Aubry invokes peace within the heart and reflects the majesty of being alive. Inspired by the power and the beauty of being human, Aubry’s work speaks to and communes with the Soul of the viewer, using images of the human form, geometric patterns and star formations. After graduating from Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles with a B.F.A Aubry went on to work for Warner Bros. Pictures as an Art Director in feature film advertising. In 2003, he was inspired to create a series of paintings titled, “Light-Seven: Sacred Portraits of the Chakras,” which has been widely exhibited and celebrated throughout California and beyond. Aubry also leads a chakra meditation workshop and ceremony, titled “Origins: A Journey of Empowerment.” It is his highest joy to create images that support and invoke a felt experience of our Inherent Worth.

Nicole Bruckman
Nicole Bruckman was born on April 30, 1978 in Cleveland, Ohio. She received a B.F.A, with a Major in Illustration from the Columbus College of Art and Design in 2000, and continued on to Los Angeles to work further. After graduation Bruckman began work as a freelance illustrator and designer. After deciding to continue to pursue her love for painting, Bruckman began showing with Cannibal Flower, The Hive, Regent Galleries, and The Grind Gallery.

Enchanted by the enchanting, Bruckman pulls raw inspiration from sources such as children’s tales and folklore (the cautionary tales of Struwwelpeter and Hans Christian Andersen as well as fairytales like Alice and Wonderland), National Geographic, and animals to create intriguing environmental fairytales. Some influences include Maxfield Parrish, John Currin, Mark Ryden, Camilla Rose Garcia, and Walton Ford.

Tony Hong
Tony Hong is a Los Angeles based artist who works exclusively in ink. He tries to maximize the potential of this otherwise pared down medium. His current influences are patterns found in nature.

Tracy Sagalow
Tracy Sagalow practices the art of pyrography, or wood burning. Her background in film encourages her to tell stories and create themes in her visual art. Each piece is hand drawn. The drawing is then burned onto pine panels and enhanced with acrylic paints. Sagalow enjoys sharing her vision of the world and its beauty by painting with fire.

Walt Hall
Walt Hall was born and raised in North East Los Angeles. Although he was an active artist from a very young age, he cut his creative teeth in the world of commercial art restoration rather than the traditional art school. Until 2000 his main focus was music and a series of local punk bands that he formed with friends. Since that time he has returned his creative focus to the visual arts. Although painting is his first and foremost creative method he also employs a wide variety of surfaces, forms, objects, mixed media, and enjoys collecting discarded materials for assemblage work. He paints primarily with acrylics and produces work that ranges in size from several square inches to mural sized works on unstretched canvas.

~ Video Projections ~

Andrew Hoeveler
Andrew McIntosh Hoeveler is a freelance motion graphics designer and animator based in Los Angeles. After graduating Northwestern University film school and winning a Student Emmy Award in Animation, Hoeveler moved to Los Angeles in 1997. Clients include a variety of design firms and ad agencies, such as Mattel, DirecTV, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, DDB Needham, and Chiat\Day. Hoeveler draws inspiration from the memories of his childhood, playing amongst the trees and streams of New Hampshire, and is heavily influenced by the dynamic forces at work in nature, and the aesthetics of the human desire to control entropy and the chaos of natural law. Hoeveler enjoys playing with the merger between technology and art, and is currently studying the programming language “Processing” in order to artistically collaborate with his computer.

Andrew Hoeveler will be debuting a new interactive art piece, the Photo Paper Print Projection Booth. This piece merges together the fun of a carnival game, with the science and art of photography at its most basic. The P^4B is, in essence, a large scale camera-like contraption housing both a changeable light source (the “lens”) and a “film plane,” which holds light-sensitive paper. Ghostlike prints are created by the play of light and shadow across the surface of the paper during its 5-minute long exposure.

Museum/ of/ Traffic (M/o/T)
Museum/ of/ Traffic (M/o/T) is a traveling audiovisual production collective promoting expression through digital technologies and audiovisual products. M/o/T was founded in the fall of 2004 in Los Angeles by Manwell H.Hernandez (Art Center College of Design 2003 BFA-Multimedia) and Eddy Vajarakitipongse (Art Center College of Design 2002 BFA-Multimedia).

~ Fashion/Jewelry Designers ~
Brass & Bones/Jessica Seaton
Brass & Bones is designed by artist Jessica Seaton. Each piece is hand sculpted using the lost wax technique, hand polished and set. Some of the materials she incorporates are naturally molted deer antler and fossilized mammoth tusk, sourced by and to benefit the people of Alaska.

Brooke Benson Designs
Brooke Benson is an emerging designer working and living in Venice, CA. After graduating from UCLA with a degree in Theater, her creativity began to extend to other art forms. Her jewelry designs are inspired by her extensive travels throughout Southeast Asia, Nepal and the Middle East. There is a distinct style that is captured in the designs, revealing a uniquely raw yet refined style. Using spiritual symbols, gold, wood and semi-precious stones, her pieces are created to ignite the divine creative energy within each of us and enhance our awareness to the beauty that lies within. Each one of these energetic adornments carries a special essence that is felt by all who wear it. Recently written up in Daily Candy, her creations “blend the earthy with the ethereal.”

Delevo Designs/Deborah Vogt
After graduating from Columbia College, Deborah Vogt became a founding member of The Conjugate Projekt, Transamoeba Studios and The Chicago Art Department, participating in the creation of many collectives, multitudes of events and performance art installations throughout Chicago. She began creating her line of jewelry, Delevo Designs, in the year 2000, traveling to Bali to teach her innovative designs to the master artisans there. Upon landing in Los Angeles she has worked with several high-end designers while continuing to produce and coordinate art galleries and events. Her jewelry is handcrafted, elegant and simple, using fine woods, sterling silver and gold, precious and semi-precious stones, and recycled materials to create universal and distinctive designs.

Soy’-ka Designs
Natalie Sojka found her first elements of inspiration for this line at an antique shop in rural Pennsylvania. After seeing the unique blend of metal shapes and textures she was inspired to produce her current line of jewelry. Her goal with this line is to give her clients something unique, sexy, authentic, and edgy to wear, as well as a conversation starter. All pieces are handmade, one of a kind, and made entirely from recycled materials.

Erik Maes (MAES • Jewelry Design)
From his home studio Erik Maes has built a strong collection of sterling silver rings, pendants, cuffs, belt buckles and earrings utilizing methods and techniques both antiquated and innovative. Having first been exposed to lost-wax casting while studying critical theory in film at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, he has worked to cultivate his expression within jewelry design by pushing the process and developing his own unique, hand-made jewelry. Cast from sculpted wax, carved cuttlebone, and repurposed found objects, the innovation, style, and expert craftsmanship is evident in each piece. This jewelry must be worn to be fully appreciated. One view cannot capture the three dimensional and tactile quality of this beautiful work.

Valerie Dussin aka “Valou”
Created in 2006, the artist’s new line combines her contemporary vision with an edgy urban style to create a ring that is tastefully sexy and powerfully bold. Her unique designs express a culture of individuals who are not afraid to stand out from the crowd.

With over 12 years of design experience, Valou embarks on a journey to share her imagination with the world. After the success of the original “PURE” 3cap design, she continues to challenge the forefront of street fashion, gaining a worldwide clientele and a wide celebrity following.

Victoria Reyna Designs
This designer is a native of Argentina, now residing in the USA. She graduated as an interior designer in Buenos Aires. Her excitement about design takes her to many ways of expression: interior design, landscape design and now jewelry and fashion accessories. The concept of her work is minimalist, contemporary and architectural.

QueenKing Designs
Tonya King is the creator of QueenKing Designs: A line of handmade feather accessories, original, one of a kind, with a 1920’s vintage flair. From the mythological to the classic beauty, these pieces are eternal.

Omnatura
Omnatura is the labor of love of Vivica Menegaz, a graduate of the Pasadena Art Center for Design, who by combining her vision of modern design and aesthetic with the traditional craft of the artisan creates sustainable fashion objects. Omnatura was born in 2005 in Bahia, Brasil from a meeting with a local cooperative of women, helping them to create new designs. This experience led to discover a world of great talent and materials, but also of great poverty and need. Soon Menegaz became familiar with the Bahian artisans and their work, and from a series of collaborations evolved a line of handcrafted jewelry.

In 2009 Omnatura expanded to a collaboration with Pasion Argentina, the first Argentine leather good company to use the principles of Fair Trade.

Audio Lab

Gavin Hardkiss
Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, Gavin Hardkiss now makes his home in San Francisco. During the 1990’s Gavin was one of the originators of San Francisco dance culture with his music labels Hardkiss and Sunburn.

Over the past decade, he has remixed the likes of Led Zeppelin, Elton John and Youssou Ndour and performed alongside Snoop Dogg and The Buena Vista Social Club. He records albums under the guise of Hawke. The latest Hawke album titled +++ was released in October 2009.

Healamonster & Tarsier
Healamonster & Tarsier (H&T) are an electronic production duo whose music is characterized by soft vocals, mid-tempo elastic breakbeats, and a variety of traditional instruments. Their musical style combines elements of dream pop, dub, ambient, and other cinematic forms of music.

Jeremy Sole’s Musaics (Afro-Funke, KCRW)
As a Chicago-born DJ/producer/designer/guitarist/human, Sole has been making beats since the MPC 60 was born, deejaying since rotary crossfaders were the standard, and playing clubs since he was too young to (legally) get in. Since then Sole’s obsession grew to include music from around the world. As Co-Founder and resident deejay of Afro Funke, J.Sole and his partners Rocky Dawuni and Cary Sullivan produce an event that brings a diverse mix of music lovers together each week at the Zanzibar in Santa Monica, blending Afrobeat, Funk, Reggae, Latin and Brazilian. Jeremy has had the honor of sharing the stage and/or the studio with hundreds of his deepest inspirations, including Roy Ayers, Ben Harper, DJ Krush, Lauryn Hill, War, The Meters, Chaka Khan, The Greyboy Allstars, Antibalas, Ray Charles, Jerry Garcia Band and many more. In April 2006, Sole spent a few months making music for Lauryn Hill. The first thing she told him after hearing him DJ was “Have you ever thought about getting into radio? Because THIS is the music that the people need to hear”. Exactly one year later, Anne Litt from KCRW called, asking him that exact same question, and now you can catch J.Sole on 89.9 KCRW every Wednesday from midnight-3am.

Professor LaCroix (TBM)
In sixth grade, young Professor LaCroix deejayed a high-profile spring dance at his middle school. As parents gathered outside at the end of the night, LaCroix ended his set with Billy Idol’s “Mony Mony.” The selection caused an uproar as parents stood helpless outside, listening to their children repeatedly drop the f-bomb at the top of their lungs. The principal told the young DJ that he would never, ever play that song again. The following fall, he did.

Tattoe Joe (Moontribe, South Lake Tahoe)
Tattoe Joe has been sharing his passion for music with Los Angeles and the desert for many years. His productions are flawless and beats are contagious. Currently, he owns a Tattoe shop in South Lake Tahoe and will be making a very special appearance at Create:Fixate’s anniversary show December 5th.

Eduardo Castillo (The Eclectech / VOODOO / LA)
Eduardo Castillo moved to Los Angeles and spent 3 years as the head of the sound design and music department for mun2 television, a Latin music television network owned by NBCUniversal. Simultaneously, Castillo served as the Director of Music and Talent for Palisades Development Group, curating and booking talent for its currently operating boutique properties, the Custom Hotel and Palihouse Hotel in Los Angeles. In the past 3 years Castillo has been influential in the diurnal and nocturnal music scenes of Los Angeles, Miami, and New York with his The Eclectech event brand.

Justin Paul (Playloop/Philly / LA)
Justin Paul is the founder and CEO of the Philadelphia based record label brand Playloop. More than most other electronic music entrepreneurs Justin Paul works feverishly to create a vehicle where several electronic dance music genres can thrive under one roof. In years past, it would be considered uncouth to pair genres ranging from deep house to drum n’ bass, electro, house, indie dance, tech-house and techno on the same label. However, diversity is at the heart of why his Playloop label brand has seen a meteoric rise in business since the release of its critically acclaimed debut label compilation, 2006’s “Playloop Presents Get Into The Loop Vol. 1.” In 2009 Justin Paul has held his own alongside the heavyweight talents of Bassnectar, Crystal Method, Deadmau5, King Britt, MSTRKRFT, Prodigy, Thievery Corporation and more.

Dave Hughes (Playloop/Ireland/Los Angeles)
Dave Hughes played his first Dublin DJ gig at the legendary Kitchen, owned by U2 when he was 16 years old. He would eventually end up working as an assistant audio engineer on U2’s album All That You Can’t Leave Behind in Dublin, 2000. Fast forward, Hughes’ “Let’s Do It EP” was released legendary DJ/producer John Tejada’s Palette Recordings. That same day Playloop Records released his “Messages EP”… all in time for his 29th birthday. Check out Hughes’ new remix of the song “Do You Believe In Angels?” by The Model on Playloop.

Vealchop (Freshcuts)
Collecting vinyl for over ten years and accumulating a very impressive record collection, music is Vealchop’s life. Music is his expression, selections for any session. Systematically arranging mixes, blends, and experimental sound collisions. Collecting, contracting, building, and releasing. The Chopper’s job is to push boundaries and put forth new and unfound music for the ears of curiosity. Explorations through time, space, and sound. Always moving, taking shape and constantly changing. Its not just playing records. He is all about presenting diversity with fluidity. There is really no type of show this vinyl-mastermind can’t adapt to.

Dave Dolphin (Distinct Vibrations)
DJ Dave Dolphin is recognized as one of L.A. and Orange County’s top Club DJ’s. His portfolio features most of the best clubs in L.A. and elsewhere. He has also spun in Bali, Ibiza, Morocco, and Mexico. Dolphin has been essential in the southern California underground dance music scene since 1989. From the 90’s to present day he has worked numerous parties all over LA: underground clubs, raves, desert parties, Burning Man, global gigs and local living rooms.

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For more information, images, and interviews please contact Green Galactic’s Lynn Hasty at 213-840-1201 or lynn (at) greengalactic.com.

graphic design by Rafael Picco - http://rfpgraphics.com

Humanitarian organization NextAid presents its second annual World AIDS Day 2009 benefit event in Los Angeles on Tue. Dec. 1, 2009. The L.A. event is part of NextAid’s multi-date/multi-city fundraising campaign that kicks off in San Francisco on Wed. Nov. 25th and continues across the land until Dec. 31st. The swanky affair will take place at film director Chris Paine’s Marrakesh House located on a scenic hillside in Culver City. Entertainment for the big LA benefit will include Louie Vega, DJ Rap, Turntables on the Hudson with DJ Nickodemus and Nappy G with a Brazilian drum troupe plus Todd Simon on trumpet, Marques Wyatt, and Raul Campos along with comedians Ben Morrison, Ben Gleib, and Whitney Cummings.For Immediate Release: November 10, 2009

NextAid Presents Its Second Annual
“World AIDS Day 2009 Events”
Uniting the Dance Music Community With Fundraisers Across the U.S.
LA’s Kick-Off Event at Marrakesh House in Culver City
Featuring DJs, Comedians, Spirits, Food & Silent Auction
Tuesday, December 1, 2009

LOS ANGELES, CA – Humanitarian organization NextAid presents its second annual World AIDS Day 2009 Events (WAD2009), a multi-date fundraising campaign in cities across the U.S. starting on November 25, 2009 in San Francisco and continuing throughout the entire month of December. Tied into World AIDS Day (WAD), a globally recognized day, which takes place every year on December 1st, NextAid activates the international dance music community to raise funds and awareness for AIDS orphans and other vulnerable children in Africa. The first WAD, established in 1988 by the World Health Organization, was about raising money, increasing awareness, fighting prejudice and improving education, goals that are as relevant as ever in 2009. A portion of the proceeds from each of NextAid’s WAD2009 events will go towards two of its current projects on the ground: the Kawangware Street Children & Youth Project (KSCYP) in Nairobi, Kenya, and the loveLife GoGogetters program in South Africa. For more information on NextAid and all the WAD2009 events please visit http://www.nextaid.org/wad2009.

From its home base of Los Angeles, NextAid will throw a swanky affair on December 1st at film director Chris Paine’s Marrakesh House located on a scenic hillside in Culver City (private address, not to be posted, revealed upon ticket purchase). Entertainment for the big LA benefit will include Louie Vega, DJ Rap, Turntables on the Hudson with DJ Nickodemus and Nappy G with a Brazilian drum troupe plus Todd Simon on trumpet, Marques Wyatt, and Raul Campos along with comedians Ben Morrison, Ben Gleib, and Whitney Cummings. Enjoy ArcheDream For HUMANKIND dancers, an international blacklight mask theater company that communicates universal ideas and emotions to promote understanding and compassion. Honored guests in attendance will include Augustine “Agasto” Githaiga, the co-founder of KSCYP (his first trip to the States!) and Stephan McGuire (founder of Coalition for a Sustainable Africa and a producer on Leonardo DiCaprio’s film The 11th HOUR), who will speak briefly. The evening will also include a silent auction featuring ecological and fair trade products and services, photography of Africa, and work from artists of African descent.

Tickets for NextAid’s LA benefit cost $75 if purchased by 11/20/09, and $100 afterwards and at the door. An open bar featuring cocktails and mixers, plus light food provided by organic and/or local restaurants will be available. Food and beverage sponsors include JETT Vodka, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Kim Crawford Wines, organic juices and functional drinks by Purity Organic, AKBAR cuisine of India, Luna & Larry’s Coconut Bliss, Tia’s Bakery, and The Conservatory for Coffee, Tea & Cocoa. Several NextAid partner organizations will have booths set up on-site including MUD cosmetics [http://shop.mudshop.com/mud-cares-palette], and handmade Kawangware bags from the KSCYP kids [www.africabags.com]. This special NextAid-produced fundraiser will be streamed live on the web thanks to In Soul We Trust. For more information and tickets please visit: http://www.nextaid.org/wad2009/dec01.html.

Additional L.A. event partners include Grace Kim Consulting, Homemade LA, Jeromy Robert Photography, Motion Audio, Space:Loft:Six, and Viceroy Hotel.

Similar fundraisers are happening around the country, starting with San Francisco on November 25th at supperclub with headliners D:FUSE and Sen-Sei. The East Coast kick-off takes place two days later on Friday, November 27th at New York City’s Sullivan Room thanks to Giant Step and Turntables on the Hudson featuring DJ Nickodemus and Nappy G. Additional WAD2009 event/promoter partners include DEEP, Insomniac, Tropical, and Uniting Souls/Free Thinking (all based in LA), as well as loom (Omaha), OM Records (S.F.), Playloop (Philadelphia), Uhuru Afrika (Boston), and House Music Society (Charlotte). The dance music scenes of other cities have also responded to this call for action, totaling over a dozen events confirmed so far throughout the month of December with additional promoters, artists and DJs still joining the effort.

NextAid has partnered with organizations and media partners with deep electronic music and DJ culture roots such as Fusicology, Green Galactic, ReEvolution Marketing, Rhythmism, The MML, URB Magazine, and Wantickets to help with the massive promotional efforts for NextAid’s growing number of WAD2009 events.

The funds raised from the World AIDS Day 2009 campaign of events will go towards two of NextAid’s current projects:
- The Kawangware Street Children & Youth Project (KSCYP) in Nairobi, Kenya – http://www.nextaid.org/kawangware.htm
- The loveLife’s goGogetters program and NextAid’s “Send A Child to School” campaign in South Africa

Locally created and managed, KSCYP strives to get youth off the streets of Kawangware, a slum bordering Nairobi, by providing opportunities for performance activities and economic development. The profits generated for KSCYP help support the youth workers’ basic needs such as food, shelter, medical care and education, while also taking care of the community’s orphaned and vulnerable children. NextAid has joined forces with KSCYP by committing to raise funds for the construction of an eco-friendly, multipurpose facility for the project’s micro-business.

NextAid is also working with the well-respected South African organization, loveLife, to be the beneficiary of NextAid’s “Send a Child to School” campaign. goGogetters is a loveLife program to support the many grandmothers (gogos) who dedicate their old-age years to the wellbeing of orphans and vulnerable children. NextAid is raising funds for the schooling needs of some of the most helpless children who participate in the goGogetters program. All it takes is $75 to fund one child’s education for an entire year. This donation will ensure that school fees are paid and the child is equipped with a school uniform, shoes and school supplies.

NextAid represents the dance music community’s response to AIDS in Africa…

NextAid receives support from a wide range of entertainment industry leaders including some of the most internationally recognized names in dance music, such as Louie Vega, DJ Dan, Miguel Migs, Nickodemus, DJ Rap, OM Records, Dubspot, and URB Magazine. From mega-events like Miami’s annual Winter Music Conference to small clubs and through benefits and other music-related activities, NextAid channels the positive energy on the dance floor across the globe to children in Africa, thus providing an opportunity for this niche demographic to Using the Beats of Our Generation to Provide Hope for the Next. Check out NextAid’s Artists & DJs PSA to learn more: http://www.kyte.tv/ch/335172-nextaid/530357-artistsanddjsfornextaid

About Marrakesh House -
Located on a hillside adjacent to California’s newest State Park, the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook in Culver City, Marrakesh House is one of the most environmentally friendly remodels in Southern California. Documentary filmmaker Chris Paine, director of the acclaimed film Who Killed the Electric Car? purchased the home in 2007 with the aim to transform the original Mid 20th Century Modern home into a model for sustainable living in the 21st century. In the process, Paine has also created a private residence that doubles as venue for art, music and culture in the surrounding community – http://marrakeshhouse.com.

About NextAid -
NextAid’s mission is to improve the lives of youth in Africa by implementing and advancing sustainable solutions. Through music events and public education initiatives, this Los Angeles-based humanitarian organization raises awareness for and partners with community-based projects and grassroots organizations in Africa. NextAid adheres to a holistic and integrated approach in addressing the spectrum of challenges associated with establishing lasting change. NextAid provides empowering opportunities for concerned individuals to make a tangible difference.

The UN estimated that every 14 seconds, an African child loses a parent to AIDS, and every day, more than 6,000 young Africans aged 15 – 24 acquire the HIV virus. After more than two decades of AIDS devastating the continent where life began, only 10% of the 15 million AIDS orphans are receiving any kind of public support. The enormity of the AIDS pandemic demands a response from every corner of society. NextAid believes that focusing on children is the most effective way to impact this crisis and uses the collective energy generated on the dance floor to make a difference.

About World AIDS Day -
World AIDS Day is a day when individuals and organizations from around the world come together to bring attention to the global AIDS epidemic. This year marks the 21st anniversary of World AIDS Day with the theme of “Universal Access and Human Rights.” The human rights approach is comprehensive, tying directly into the response needed for universal access to treatment, prevention, care and support. World AIDS Day is important in reminding people that HIV has not gone away, and that there are many things still to be done. More information can be found at www.worldaidscampaign.org.

According to UNAIDS 2008 estimates, there are 33.2 million people living with HIV, including 2.5 million children. During 2007 some 2.5 million people became newly infected with the virus. Around half of all people who become infected with HIV do so before they are 25 and are killed by AIDS before they are 35. Around 95% of people with HIV and AIDS live in developing nations. But HIV today is a threat to men, women and children on all continents around the world

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Sign up for the NextAid mailing list to stay updated -
http://visitor.constantcontact.com/manage/optin?v=001JXuPjrD-WUudiLFvEMmEjdSdRyVkyRSX

For more information, photos or interviews, please contact Green Galactic’s
Lynn Hasty at 213-840-1201 or lynn@greengalactic.com.

Photo by Phil Holland

After a long summer on the road, the critically acclaimed Lucent Dossier Experience, an otherworldly circus-style spectacle, brings their mystical revelry back to Los Angeles for a brand new weekly artist residency at industrial vintage club space h.wood in the heart of Hollywood. Premiering Wednesday, November 11, 2009, Lucent Dossier Experience’s Gateway 11.11 opens its doors every week at 8:00 p.m. with the troupe’s tantalizing performances from 9:00 p.m. to midnight, and DJs/dancing continuing until 2:00 a.m. Having traveled the high seas and highways, making stops in Tokyo, Korea, Portugal, Central America, England, Ireland, and across the United States over the past two years, this carnival of curiosities returns home to Los Angeles to take up their new residency through the end of 2009, if not beyond. Admission is $15. h.wood (formerly the Stork Lounge) is located at 1738 N. Orange, Los Angeles, CA 90028.For Immediate Release: November 6, 2009

Lucent Dossier Experience Announces “Gateway 11.11″
A Celestial New Artist Residency at h.wood
With Performances Every Wednesday
Premiering November 11, 2009

LOS ANGELES, CA – After a long summer on the road, the critically acclaimed Lucent Dossier Experience, an otherworldly circus-style spectacle, brings their mystical revelry back to Los Angeles for a brand new weekly artist residency at industrial vintage club space h.wood in the heart of Hollywood. Premiering Wednesday, November 11, 2009, Lucent Dossier Experience’s Gateway 11.11 opens its doors every week at 8:00 p.m. with the troupe’s tantalizing performances from 9:00 p.m. to midnight, and DJs/dancing continuing until 2:00 a.m. Having traveled the high seas and highways, making stops in Tokyo, Korea, Portugal, Central America, England, Ireland, and across the United States over the past two years, this carnival of curiosities returns home to Los Angeles to take up their new residency through the end of 2009, if not beyond. Admission is $15. h.wood (formerly the Stork Lounge) is located at 1738 N. Orange, Los Angeles, CA 90028. Valet parking is available at the venue and self-parking is in the Hollywood + Highland Center complex (rates are $2 for 4 hours with validation). For information on the venue please call 323-871-2262 or visit www.thehwood.com. For more information on the event and to purchase advance tickets, please visit www.lucentdossier.com.

Lucent Dossier loosely translates to a “collection of glowing light.” At Gateway 11.11, the interactive troupe provides a curious twist on the conventional, creating an experience that’s like stepping into a lucid Lewis Carroll dream. The result is a weird and wonderful funhouse where the performers activate the boho library chic h.wood club space, transforming Wednesday nights into a realm of new possibilities.

In the nooks and crannies of the club, among the sumptuous leather couches, antique bookshelves, old fashioned portraits, and exposed brick, the Lucent Dossier Experience family creatively breaks down the fourth wall between performer and audience via the ethereal seductions of soulful belly dancers, astral readings, decadent rose water foot baths, gypsies offering soul cleansing herbal elixirs, a post portal post office, and impish pranksters — all in fantastical costumes and makeup. Overhead, luminous aerial silk performers share the rafters with the antique chandeliers. A menagerie of exotic creatures add to the magic and mayhem including burlesque dancers, a bearded lady, spoken word poets, clowns, contortionists, elves, fire eaters, singers, jugglers, stilt walkers, and a sword swallower in a theatrical spectacle of feathers, chains, and lace.

Every Wednesday, a different DJ will be featured along with live musical elements mixed in (including drums, keyboards, guitar, sitar, voice, and bass). On the celestial occasion of 11.11, Pumpkin (Kabinet Theatre, the Wandering Marionettes) will be the featured DJ. The following week, on Wednesday, November 18th, underground house maven Porter Tinsley will grace the decks.

“All the different elements — the performers, the music, chance, and the audience — come into play to create a very fluid, surrealistic wonderland where no two shows are exactly the same,” says Creative Director Dream Rockwell, “And we encourage guests to dress up in their finery, become part of the experience, and express themselves.”

Rockwell, in partnership with Shrine, a Pasadena-based artist, originally founded the troupe in 2004 to nourish her love of dancing, acting, music, and costuming. Now, five years later, the critically acclaimed Los Angeles-based tribe of avant-garde artists has been featured in television commercials, print advertisements, music videos, and large-scale, live productions such as Coachella. Their new h.wood residency follows up their hugely successful year-long run of sold-out shows at The Edison in downtown Los Angeles, which ran from April 2008 through April 2009. Also included in the group’s impressive resume are festivals in Tokyo, Portugal, and Ireland; a photo spread in Italian Vogue (as captured by Steven Meisel); shows at top clubs throughout Los Angeles; and performances on MTV and the official Grammy® Awards after-party

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For more information, photos, or to arrange interviews, please contact Green Galactic’s Lynn Hasty at 213-840-1201 or lynn (at) greengalactic.com.

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Recent media coverage to check out:
http://blogs.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/last-night/lucent-dossier-hwood-opening/
http://www.blackbookmag.com/article/lucent-dossier-experience-to-get-up-close-and-personal-at-hwood/12754

Dubspot

Dubspot and Ableton Present the LA Stop of Their
“Live 8 U.S. Sessions Tour”
Workshops & Panel Discussions Featuring World-Class Artists
At King King in Hollywood
Saturday, Nov. 7 and Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009 (daytime)

LOS ANGELES – Dubspot, New York’s premier DJ and electronic music production institute, announces the Los Angeles stop of their Ableton “Live 8 U.S. Sessions Tour.” This unique series of interactive workshops, Q&As and panel discussions features a diverse pool of world-class artists as well as Dubspot’s top-notch instructors sharing methods for the studio and the stage, centered around the powerful music software Ableton Live 8. Special guest workshop presenters for the Los Angeles weekend include Scientist, Daedelus, Kid Beyond, Justin Boreta, Christopher Willits, Thavius Beck, and Peter Kirn, along with the Dubspot crew. The LA session will be held at King King in Hollywood (6553 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90028; 323-960-5765) on Saturday November 7 (11:00am – 7:00pm) and Sunday November 8 (noon – 8:00pm), 2009. A weekend pass costs $195; a Saturday or Sunday day-pass costs $110. For details and registration please visit www.live8tour.com.

This truly unique educational experience is intended to help both aspiring as well as established artists. Each day is organized into five “sessions” designed to develop a diverse range of production and performance skills, while enhancing creative abilities. Saturday sessions focus on production. Sunday sessions focus on performance. Tour workshops showcase how far-reaching the capabilities of Ableton Live 8 are by covering a wide variety of compositional, programming, mixing, and mastering issues. Topics include drum-programming, instrument and effect rack management, sequencing, automation, creating melody, harmonic awareness, mixing and mastering principles, sound stage management, synth programming, PA/DJ hybrid setups, controllers, live instruments in Ableton, efficient set management, looping, routing, licensing, and much more.

The tour involves pioneers of electronic music, along with new blood, to provide a more complete experience and perspective of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. In addition to the special guests lined up in each city, expert Dubspot instructors will present personally developed production and performance strategies in a dynamic interactive workshop environment.

Los Angeles Live 8 Workshop Sessions –
Instructors & Special Guest Speakers (Affiliations) – Workshop Titles:

• Scientist (legendary remix pioneer) – Producer’s Panel Discussion
• Daedelus (Ninja Tune, Dublab.com) – Programming Strategies & Max Applications
• Kid Beyond (beatboxer/Live looper) – Live Looping & Performance Techniques
• Justin Boreta (Glitch Mob) – Dynamic Beat Creation & Set Manipulation
• Christopher Willits (Ghostly International, Overlap.org) and more TBD – Producer’s Panel Discussion
• Thavius Beck (Big Dada, Mush Records) – Beats & Grooves – Creation & Manipulation
• Irwin (IrwinMusic.com)
• Steve Nalepa (1320 Records, Chapman University Conservatory of Music)
• Peter Kirn (Create Digital Music) – Controlling Live – Performance Controllers
• Jon Margulies (Heatercore, Hobotech) – Automation Techniques – Sound Development
• Daniel Wyatt (Sonica Media Group, Atlantic) – The Art of Mastering – Crisp, Clean Sound
• DJ Kiva (Audios Babylon) – Live PA/DJ Hybrid Sets – Integration & Control
• Barry Cole (Spot Music, Blue Mountain Music Publishing) – My Tracks Are Banging, Now What?

About the special guests in Los Angeles:

Hopeton Brown, aka Scientist, is a Dub legend from Kingston, Jamaica who along with King Tubby developed many studio techniques that are still widely used today. His pioneering collaboration with Tubby and his own remix work has been highly influential in the electronic music field. His name originated from a joke between Tubby and Bunny Lee. Having noticed Brown’s forward thinking ideas and technical aspirations, Tubby remarked, “Damn, this little boy must be a scientist.”

Daedelus (Ninja Tune) is a pioneering experimental music producer and live performer. He is a part of the groups Adventure Time and The Long Lost. He is also a founding DJ at the internet radio station Dublab.com.

Kid Beyond, a singer, beatboxer, songwriter, and Live looper, is a one-man vocal band. He loops and multitracks his voice onstage to create his own live backing tracks – layering his impassioned lyrics over his own beatboxing and vocal instrumentation.

Justin Boreta, of Slidecamp and Glitch Mob fame, is well-known for producing some of the most interesting remixes being done today. Boreta, a self-professed technology geek, has extensive audio production experience with Ableton Live.

Christopher Willits (Ghostly International) has been instrumental in redefining the guitar in the digital age, successfully incorporating custom-built software. Willits engages in solo work, a range of music collaborations, sound installations, and film/video projects. He founded and directs the emerging culture hub Overlap.org.

Thavius Beck (Big Dada, Mush Records) is an electronic musician, producer, MC, and saxophone/bass guitar player. His live hip-hop beat construction has earned him recognition among the electronic music community, eventually leading to a sponsorship relationship with Ableton. Beck’s relationship with Live has grown to the point that he frequently books Ableton Live instructional workshops in many cities while on tour.

Peter Kirn, a composer, musician, media artist, and technology writer, publishes and edits the sites Create Digital Music and Create Digital Motion. He also writes for MAKE, Macworld, Keyboard, and Computer Music (UK), and is the author of Real World Digital Audio, a book on making music with computers.

And the Dubspot team:

Jon Margulies (Heatercore, Hobotech) is a producer, guitarist and leading Ableton Live expert. He is the author of Ableton Live 7 Power! and Ableton Live 8 Power!

Daniel Wyatt (Sonica Media Group, Atlantic) is a Grammy and Emmy-nominated producer/engineer. He has worked with Wax Poetic featuring Norah Jones, Curtis Mayfield, Thievery Corp., the Roots, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Mos Def, Ziggy Marley, and many others.

Artist/producer DJ Kiva is the founder of Adios Babylon Studios and record label. He has released numerous albums and remixed for many soul, broken beat, reggae, and dance music artists.

Barry Cole, a Grammy-nominated soundtrack album producer and music supervisor, and his company Spot Music, have a proven track record in soundtrack A&R, musical score, and music clearance. Cole manages the North America publishing catalogs of such luminaries as Bob Marley, Black Uhuru, Justice, and Grace Jones for Blue Mountain Music Publishing.

Dubspot is a world-class electronic music production and DJ training institute in New York City. As one of the first Ableton Certified Training Centers in the world, Dubspot has become the premier music school for both aspiring and experienced producers and DJs. The Los Angeles event is the third stop in a series of Ableton workshops that Dubspot is presenting in 8 U.S. cities. Next up on the tour is Austin at The Parish Room (214 E. 6th St, Austin, TX – www.theparishroom.com) happening on Nov. 14 – 15. Presenters and performers at the Austin event include Francis Preve (Different Pieces, Fap 7), Christopher Willits (Ghostly International, Overlap.org), Daniel Wyatt (Sonica Media Group, Atlantic), Jon Margulies (Heatercore, Hobotech), Barry Cole (Spot Music & Blue Mountain Music Publishing), and Michael Hatsis (Track Team Audio). For more information on Dubspot, please see: www.dubspot.com

The Live 8 U.S. Sessions Tour represents what Dubspot aspires to bring the public: unique and exciting ways for uniting the electronic music scene and educating the people within it. On each tour stop, a select group of world-class DJs, composers and producers (who have ranged from Richie Hawtin to Scientist) join top-notch Dubspot instructors to present production and performance strategies in a dynamic workshop environment. All is centered around Ableton Live 8, the most powerful music software on the planet. This one-of-a-kind series of events represents everything that is revolutionary about the Dubspot experience and the future of music education.

In Los Angeles, additional evening events are also being planned with various artists from the daytime workshops and panels. Get a taste of everything the tour is, watch the NYC video at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b4B-NG6WD0

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For more information, images, and interviews please contact Green Galactic’s Lynn Hasty at 213-840-1201 or lynn (at) greengalactic.com.

For Immediate Release: February 5, 2009

Create:Fixate Presents
“Wisdom Within Us”
Saturday, March 7, 2009

LOS ANGELES, CA – Arts organization Create:Fixate kicks off the new year with its first event of 2009, “Wisdom Within Us,” on Saturday, March 7, 2009. The event will take place at the Premiere Events Center where two large warehouses filled with vibrant artwork and music will present over 40 top local artists, DJs and musicians. The venue is located at 613 Imperial Street, Los Angeles, CA 90021. The full-blown event runs from 7:00 p.m. – 3:00 a.m. Admission is $15.00 before 10:00 p.m., and $20.00 for the remainder of the night. All ages are welcome. For more information please call 310-590-7199 or visit www.createfixate.org.

The evening begins with a preview of the exhibit from 4:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. There is a $5 suggested donation from 4:00 – 7:00 p.m., and kids twelve-years old and younger are allowed free entry before seven o’clock. Parents are encouraged to bring the whole family during the preview hours and take advantage of the Kids Kreativity Zone (4 – 7 p.m. only). Overflowing with art supplies, the Zone provides a supervised space where youth can dive into their own expression while parents explore the evening’s exhibit.

“Wisdom Within Us” is a theme exploring the convergence of the word and the picture; the text and the vision; the concept and the manifestation. On March 7th, emerging and established visual artists and musicians come together to celebrate language and the images it inspires. Each artist has been asked to choose a meaningful quote to influence the creation of a new art piece to be shown as part of their body of work.

Highlighted artists include Gabriel Rivera whose paintings are modern versions of ancient cave paintings and markings, seeking to communicate yet falling short of being too specific. Rivera has also referred to his paintings as cityscapes roughly depicting the urban metropolis which he’s lived in for his entire life. Michelle Perone is inspired to create atmospheric acrylic paintings that stir emotions and memories, recalling both the movement and stillness, and the interconnectivity that exists between present moments, dreams and spiritual realms. Michael Pukac’s work has been said to be reminiscent of the old masters such as Rubens, Titian, and Rembrandt. However his acrylic and reflective paint lends a fresh edge combining a classic style with a surrealist and contemporary composition that can only be recognized as Neo-Mannerism.

Ever curious how the art at each Create:Fixate show gets made? Spontaneous visions will be free-flowing by live painters Carlos Vera, Hans Haveron, and Michael Pukac, who will WOW crowds by giving them a behind-the-scenes peak at their creative process.

Not to be outdone, the Audio Lab portion of the evening boasts an impressive line-up of the city’s very best DJs and musicians. These are just a small cross-section of all the great musical acts in store March 7th… check out the Audio Lab section below for the full line-up. Globally recognized west coast house DJ legend Steve Loria brings his fascinating style, ranging from deep house to progressive to acid house, to the mix. Paper Magazine describes Irwin of Irwin’s Conspiracy as someone who, “doesn’t just play his electronic (music) – he makes it on the spot, creating all the beats and sounds right in front of you… see it if you dare pussy.” While Vancouver, Canada-transplant Square-1 brings his special blend of hip hop to the night.

Create:Fixate is dedicated to showcasing the work of emerging and mid-career artists in a unique environment. Usually, every three months, Create:Fixate founder Michelle Berc curates, produces and hosts these stunning group art shows that present creative people from around the globe with an emphasis on the local talent of Los Angeles. The production team also includes music coordinator Andrea Giardina, technical producer Andre Freimann, and a core team of volunteers and dedicated advisory board members. Awe-inspiring painters, photographers, sculptors, and multi-media artists exhibit alongside an equally impressive array of Los Angeles’ finest DJs and musicians. Each event’s aural artists are poised to create a soundtrack for the night that transforms this from a simple ‘art show’ into the city’s most anticipated Art Event.

PHFE Management Solutions (PHFE) helps to provide a comprehensive administrative and fiscal structure for Create:Fixate’s nonprofit division. PHFE Management Solutions, also known as Public Health Foundation Enterprises, is a 41-year-old 501(c)3 nonprofit organization providing back office support and management services to other nonprofit organizations.

~ Optical Lounge ~

Angie Jones
Storytelling and self-exploration call Angie Jones to paint. Jones is inspired by traditions in symbols, rooted in nature and fantasy. Dreamy tales filled with beauty, lost innocence, enchantment, struggles, wonder, and despair are the heartbeat of her work. With every painting there is a singular visual story to be told. These are the worlds she wishes to live in. Jones earned her BFA at the Atlanta College of Art in Atlanta (now SCAD), where she studied under noted artists Marcia Cohen and Dana Cibulski, both experts in color theory. For the past 15 years, she has worked on movies like Pan’s Labyrinth, X-Men 2, Stuart Little 2, Scooby Doo 2, Garfield, The Cave, Stealth, Freddy Vs. Jason, Chronicles Of Narnia and many others.

Ashton Trujillo
A 24 year-old Los Angeles native, Ashton Trujillo is a visual artist who utilizes acrylic, wood, light and found objects to execute his works. His carpentry background and affinity for nature are displayed through his explorations of space, texture and color. Pushing the boundaries of traditional two-dimensional art, Ashton’s recent works deliver depth, and probe functional art.

Betsy Ullery
Betsy Ullery paints uniquely organic, feminine shapes that are mixed with brave conceptual undertones. Her work requires more than a simple glance, as she likes the idea of fluidity and blending one recognizable form into another not so recognizable. Ullery’s art reflects her belief that reflection and perception are all shown to us through our subconscious and that our subconscious is governed by nature. Using oils on canvas and wood, Ullery lets the mood of the piece determine her palette.

Christopher Dingle
The art of Christopher Dingle is a meeting of opposites. Whether it is two lovers, two forces, two ideas, or two sides of the artist, Dingle’s paintings are about conflict. A Los Angles based artist, his paintings reflect the influence of his many years designing key art for major motion pictures and advertising.

Daniel Mercadante
Daniel Mercadante was born on October 13, 1984. He now lives and works in Los Angeles. He believes in flow ship and the consilience of creative media. His exhibited works, Routines: Contact Sheets (20” x 30”, Light Jet prints) are assemblies of every frame of individual parts of his continuous video series, Routines.

David Phillips
David Phillips’ paintings fall between the line of pop and avant-garde. The American Abstract Expressionists of the late 1950s and Ed Kienholz also influence his paintings. Phillips is originally from Oklahoma. He now lives in Venice, California, with his studio located in the Marina.

Ela Boyd
Ela Boyd is a California native. She studied at the Art Institute of Boston, Scuola Lorenzo de’ Medici (Art Institute of Florence, Italy) and California College of Arts, San Francisco. Boyd is intrigued by time, space and light as means for measuring the nature of reality in our physical universe. She works artistically with such ephemeral phenomena to create awareness of the limitations of our faculties for knowing, and experiencing, objective truth. We are challenged to discover what makes up the veil that is our own perception. To explore this phenomenological dynamic, Boyd uses ephemera to evoke nostalgia/memory, transparent media to generate space, and video to transfigure our internalized temporal models. She also records, depicts and creates light to offer a visceral experience of a metaphysical shift towards perceptual freedom.

Eric Grimes
Eric Grimes is an artist living in Kansas City, MO. Grimes sees himself as a connoisseur of decay and documents this fascination with large-format, highly detailed photographs. With his work, he hopes to redefine aesthetic guidelines, pushing the boundaries of what typifies beauty. By day, he works in a scientific research facility as an image technologist and microscopist. He also writes critical reviews for the Kansas City-based arts publication, Review, and curates shows at local galleries.

Gabriel Rivera
Gabriel Rivera is a Los Angeles based artist who paints mixed media works predominantly on raw cotton canvas. His works are data driven chaotic surfaces that incorporate numbers, scratched out calculations, writing (sometimes legible, sometimes not) and various forms of iconography. The idea behind most of his paintings is that they are modern versions of ancient cave paintings and markings, seeking to communicate yet falling short of being too specific. Rivera has also often referred to his paintings as cityscapes roughly depicting the urban metropolis which he’s lived in for his entire life.

Hans Haveron
Hans Haveron’s artwork has been lauded by both the street culture audience as well as high street. Bridging the gap between raw and refined, seemingly effortlessly, Hans’ work fuses raw natural elements along with pure beauty to form a striking end statement. His amazing talent has not gone unnoticed, Hans has done work on top-tier Disney films, and most recently the Paul Oakenfold Perfecto campaign.

Jason Hadley
Jason Hadley was born and raised by artists in Norman, Oklahoma. That family connection and the influence of the rusty red Oklahoma soil have followed him to Los Angeles where he works as an artist for the film industry as well as the real world. Hadley creates multimedia works from wood, wax, copper, paint, and found objects, sometimes deconstructing a single piece of equipment like a gas mask and reworking each tiny part into a series of sculptures that comment on the original item. Many of his current pieces feature lights, sound and movement, and have a strong focus on the wax life-casts of his friends, parents and children.

JC Jaress
JC Jaress studied painting for ten years under Art Silva, Marciano Martinez and Deborah Davidson. Jaress’s work has appeared in multiple print publications, as book and CD cover art, on the label of Longoria Winery’s Blues Cuvee 1999 and 2000, and three of his paintings appear in the recently released DreamWorks film, I Love You, Man. An active member of the arts community, Jaress served on the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Art Association for three years and as President and Chairman of the organization from 2001- 02.

Joseph Fernandez
Joseph Fernandez is a sculptor whose work in clay makes the human or animal figure present in gesture. Each piece, though made in the same way with the same techniques, resonates with its own personality. Born in Long Beach and now residing in L.A., he currently works as a bronze caster, fine metal finisher, and large metal sculpture fabricator. He is also attending and working at El Camino Community College. He plans to transfer in spring of next year to study sculpture in Chicago.

Keri Rosebraugh
Keri Rosebraugh attended Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts with honors in Illustration. Her illustrations have been featured in newspapers and magazines worldwide, with clients that include The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Disney Consumer Products, Mattel, Inc., Dreamworks SKG, and Coca Cola, Inc. She has recently served as the president of the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles for two years and has shown her work in numerous group shows including La Luz De Jesus Gallery in Hollywood and The Ecological Art Gallery in Los Angeles. Currently she is concentrating on her fine art pieces and murals for private clients.

Kerianne Connor
Kerianne Connor is a contemporary abstract artist who graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Art from the School of Art at UCLA in 2005. Her work combines sculpture, painting and design, blurring the traditional strict separation between the genres of design and fine art. Connor’s work reflects the experience of a younger generation that has grown up immersed in the prominence of design in their everyday lives. She subtly compels her viewers to consider this relationship as she seamlessly combines elements of popular and emblematic designs with the fine art of sculpture and painting. Sharp edges, block colors, and calculated rows of stretched strings raised against severed canvases are characteristic of Connor’s current body of work. By representing contemporary landscapes through abstract works, Connor successfully acknowledges and brings to the surface for viewers the importance of the dialogue and interconnectivity between design, form, and function.

Liz Brizzi
A native of France and born of Italian parents, Liz Brizzi grew up in Los Angeles. Her individual mixed media technique begins with a collage of her original photography, which she then blends within layers of colorful acrylic washes. She is inspired by urban themes and loves the raw and industrial beauty of city life; her most recent series portrays the streets and alleys of Downtown Los Angeles, where she resides. In a city that is changing and developing rapidly, her artwork captures the disappearing traces of history and the authenticity of a neighborhood in full bloom.

Michael Pukac
Michael Pukac (poo-khash) is currently a Los Angeles-based artist who has painted for over 17 years, focusing in acrylic and mastering a new technique involving reflective layering with metallic and reflective paints. Pukac was born on the Gulf Coast of Alabama and grew up in the swamps. He graduated from the Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, FL, with a BFA focusing on painting. Thereafter, he has made painting a full time gig, traveling the country, making a living off of his fine art, murals and illustrations. In the last 5 years, Pukac has co-founded three small nonprofit art organizations, has hosted and curated art events, art walks, and produced other live performances around the country. He has participated in over three-dozen art shows, starting from the age of 19, with close to a dozen solo exhibitions. These recent endeavors have brought him to Long Beach, CA, where he now resides and continues to show his work and participate in live painting performances throughout Southern California.

Michelle Perone
As a working artist, Michelle Perone has experience drawing realistic images for themed entertainment, animation, television and film. Painting has been her respite, and her way of communicating most authentically to others and herself. Perone is inspired to create atmosphere that stirs emotion and memory, recalling both the movement and stillness, and the interconnectivity that exists between present moments, dreams and spiritual realms. She paints softly – blurring edges, subduing colors, using line with motion, suggesting at the essence and the mystery of form and feeling. Perone is currently working with acrylics on canvas, creating symbolic landscapes and figures, and exploring further the different perceptions they call forth.

Monica Roache
Monica Roache is a multi-media artist from Los Angeles. She received a degree in Art from Cal Arts and is currently working at The Museum of Contemporary Art. Roache’s works ranges from photography to acrylic paintings, drawings and sculptural installation. In this exhibition, she presents new work of organic and intricate ink drawings. Highly associated with filth and poverty, Roache plans to demystify the fear of the roach by producing a line of plush toys inspired by the out casted insect.

Neil Simon Poyuzina
Originally from Watkins Glen, New York, Neil Simon Poyuzina has resided in California since the age of 14. During his third year of college, he decided to pursue the arts regardless of the consequences inherently involved. He left school… his thinking: “if you’re looking for a degree here you won’t find one.” Poyuzina believes that the true source of learning is in the doing of your personal interests. Since then he has produced more than a thousand works, curated many group events, opened a gallery in Downtown LA, and participated in more than 80 group/solo shows.

Robert A.D. Frick
Robert A.D. Frick is known for creating artwork that is totally non-representative at inception and remains so upon completion. Frick prefers to allow the viewer to derive representative imagery from abstractions. As a result, Frick finds most challenging aspect of creating digital art is knowing when to quit. With digital imagery you are able to evolve pieces as long as your imagination will allow, therefore, one of the more difficult aspects is picking a point when which to call a work finished.

As of late, Frick has diverted his attention to a simplified style focused more on color and form in order to allow for various output options such as textile design and metal casting, and less on detail and complexity. He is also a digital artist, by trade, for Digital Domain, in Venice, CA, where he lives. Apart from Create:Fixate, he has also exhibited at Siggraph Art Gallery, LACDA and Cannibal Flower.

Seth Balliett
Based on a foundation of painting and graphic design, Seth Balliett creates unique torn paper/collage portraits using only materials, artifacts and memorabilia specific to the subject, adding depth and significance to each piece. Born in upstate New York, Balliett has been creating, inventing and building his entire life. A BFA graduate of Alfred University, Balliett now resides in Venice, CA.

Treiops Treyfid
Treiops Treyfid strives to create artwork that is bold, unique, of high quality, and speaks to the age in which we live. His materials vary from the exotic to the recycled and always complement his conceptual vision. Whether through sculpture, assemblage, performance, painting or video, Treyfid’s bold and focused concepts are always elegantly and efficiently realized.

Vincent G. Madrid
As an artist, Vincent G. Madrid tends to reach into the collective unconscious to evoke imagery that speaks to the subconscious – the inner workings of the psyche, where the basic truths of the human spirit lie dormant. Being completely self-taught, Madrid has made a commitment to bring an awareness of the beauty that exists in this world as well as bringing a sense of the mystical knowledge that there is more to reality than what we see on the surface.

Walt Hall
Walt Hall was born and raised in North East Los Angeles. Although an active artist from a very young age, he has cut his creative teeth in the world of commercial art restoration rather than the traditional art school. Until 2000 his main focus was music and a series of local punk bands that he formed with friends. Since that time he has returned his creative focus to the visual arts. Although painting is his first and foremost creative method, he also employs a wide variety of surfaces, forms, objects, and mixed media, and enjoys collecting discarded materials for assemblage work. He paints primarily with acrylics and produces work that ranges in size from several square inches to mural-sized works on un-stretched canvas.

Yuki Miyazaki
Born in Kumamoto, Japan, Yuki Miyazaki came to Los Angeles as a girl, deeply interested in continuing her family’s tradition of creating art. Yuki’s paintings have been described as “Eastern pop culture meets classic Western children’s book illustrations.” Recently selected to appear in the Asian and Pacific Islander American Heritage 2008 Calendar and Cultural Guide, she continues to explore her childhood influences with Western culture and expresses them through her paintings.

~ Live Painting ~

Carlos Vera
Carlos Raphael Vera was born in Los Angeles, California on May 3, 1973. He spent his childhood in Los Angeles before he moved to Boston in 1992 to attend the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. After leaving the Museum school Vera spent time in New York City and Louisville, Kentucky before returning to Los Angeles in 1996 to pursue a career in the art world. He began work in the film industry as a conceptual illustrator, which helped further establish his craft. Vera continued to work on many group, as well as solo, art exhibits, which included his live painting shows. He opened an art gallery in North Hollywood in 2000 and in 2001 utilized the gallery as a springboard for a youth based entrepreneurship program in the arts (California Artists for Humanity). Carlos is currently working as a designer, fine artist, and an aggressive live painter.
When asked the question, “What is your inspiration?” Carlos’ answer is…”all of you.”

~ Edible Sculpture ~

Hip Hop Chocolate
Marcus Gray is a 32-year old artist living in Los Angeles. He conceived of a confection that could act as a meditation on the potential of culture. The product consists of a series of chocolate sculptures made in
the shape of various symbols associated with the hip hop culture.

~Video Projection~

Museum/ of/ Traffic (M/o/T)
Museum/ of/ Traffic (M/o/T) is a traveling audiovisual production collective promoting expression through digital technologies and audiovisual products. M/o/T was founded in the fall of 2004 in Los Angeles by Manwell H.Hernandez (Art Center College of Design 2003 BFA-Multimedia) and Eddy Vajarakitipongse (Art Center College of Design 2002 BFA-Multimedia).

M/o/T activities to date include “expanded cinema” performances, impermanent audiovisual installations, digital projections, performance art, “institutional” events, TV commercials and live audiovisual.

Paul Zelevansky
Paul Zelevansky is an artist, writer, and teacher living in Los Angeles. The work presented in Create:Fixate is drawn from his Flash animation website GREAT BLANKNESS (www.greatblankness.com). GREAT BLANKNESS is composed primarily of found material selected from clip art, old text books, puzzles and games, music samples, sound effects, quotations, and video clips both identified and anonymous. Running between 20 seconds and a minute+ in length, these animation loops encourage multiple viewings, repetition serving to extend a joke, reveal the text, build anticipation, or generate unease in order to establish a kinetic link with the content. The collective title of this now five-year project–A GREAT BLANKNESS THAT INSPIRES AWE–refers to a sense of inspiration and surprise before the declarative speech of the stereotype, but this blankness is “great” and expansive to the extent that it seduces the viewer into the oscillating web of meaning that the mix provides.

~ Fashion/Jewelry ~

Billie Shane/Bronze Age Modern
Designer Billie Shane has been thrilled by the idea of discovering beauty in unlikely places since she was young. While growing up in Los Angeles, she could be found plowing through flea markets, antique shops, and even trashcans for hidden treasures. These days, she creates visceral forms inspired by the rich dynamic sculpture and ceramics of the 20th century combined with earthy textures.

Bronze Age Modern is a unisex line of pendants, lariats, bracelets, cuff links, and rings cast in bronze and sterling silver. Many of the necklaces and bracelets are available on both leather and chain.

Brooke Benson Designs
Brooke Benson is an emerging designer working and living in Venice, CA. After graduating from UCLA with a degree in Theater, her creativity began to extend to other art forms. Her jewelry designs are inspired by her extensive travels throughout Southeast Asia, Nepal and the Middle East. There is a distinct style that is captured in the designs, revealing a uniquely raw, but refined, style. Using spiritual symbols, gold, wood and semi-precious stones, her pieces are created to ignite the divine creative energy within each of us and enhance our awareness to the beauty that lies within. Each one of these energetic adornments carries a special essence that is felt by all who wear it. Recently written up in Daily Candy, her creations “blend the earthy with the ethereal.”

Creasol by Soledad Proaño
Soledad’s functional art is mainly characterized by organic, abstract designs (as images that give impressions and feelings, more than the recreation of people or landscapes) and an eye-catching use of color. In the process of making her mosaics, she looks not only for harmony for herself but also for the final recipients of her work. The final objective is to always give some beauty to other people’s lives, and in the pursuing of this objective, she works on every piece until satisfied with it, no matter how long it takes. Although she uses ceramics, glass, mirror, and glass pebbles, most of her mosaics are made from vitreous glass, a material that comes in squares, normally 3/4″ wide, that are carefully shaped to make them fit one next to the other. Each one of her mosaics is one of a kind.

Doe Studio
Doe Studio is the line of Los Angeles-based jewelry designer Susanna Rödder. Her collection is handmade in sterling silver and 14kt gold vermeil. Her pieces are modern and clean, but never exacting. No line is ever straight, no circle perfectly round, no shape symmetrical. Her designs are effortless, elegant, quietly clever. Born and raised in Cologne, Germany, Rödder now lives and works in Hollywood, California.

Sasha Bell
Sasha Bell is a well-versed Canadian silversmith and jewelry designer who has recently returned to this passion full-time since moving to Los Angeles this past year. Her desire to create jewelry and work with precious metals was first piqued at the Kootenay School of the Arts in B.C. Canada, where she completed a 2-year program of small object and jewelry design. She is a popular designer on the well-known Etsy website and sells her jewelry at many stores throughout the US. Her style is both modern and edgy, with an organic feel presented in soft brushed finishes and deep patinas. Through her jewelry design process, she intends to create completely handmade miniature wearable works of art to be treasured by women of all ages.

Victoria Reyna Designs
Victoria Reyna, native of Argentina, earned a Master’s Degree in Interior Design in Buenos Aires. Her excitement about design brought her to many ways of expression: interior design, landscape design, and now jewelry. The concept of her work is minimalist, contemporary and architectural, and her pieces are handmade, one of a kind. For her, beauty is the illusion painted in materials; it is the combination of expressive materials, interesting color palettes and clean sleek lines.

~ Audio Lab ~

Anthony Plamondon
Detroit born and Los Angeles based DJ Anthony Plamondon has been DJing and throwing events since the early eighties. He has deejayed in New York, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Detroit, Las Vegas, and other cities. His musical interests vary from Funkadelic, Bowie, Air, The Pixies, Sufjan Stevens, Deerhunter, Blonde Redhead, Matthew Dear, Four Tet, Moodymann, and Theo Parrish. Plamondon has a residency at Bar 107 and plays regularly with the experimental collective Big Thaw.

AudioMoe
Whether it’s producing original music and remixes or killing it live behind the decks, AudioMoe (AKA Moses Truzman) combines his passion for music and expression to create something truly unique. Born in New York, he was influenced by many styles of music ranging from rock, Latin and hip hop. According to him, “Music has no labels. It’s all just soul music to me.” And with that mindset, he creates music that crosses genres and styles but still hits you in the same place. As for his DJ sets, be prepared to get taken on a journey that touches on funk, hip hop, house and everything else in-between.

Cajami
Cajami is the alias for Michael Callon, a Los Angeles native whose dad was the sound engineer for Funkadelic and founded JDC Records, an early dance and hip hop label and distributor. Cajami was always highly passionate about many different styles of music, but became hooked on electronic and dance music in 2000. At the end of 2002, he started mixing records and now has deejayed at parties and clubs throughout Los Angeles. He started producing music in late 2006 and will be putting out his first release this year through TechnoHop Records.

Irwin’s Conspiracy
Irwin is known for melding the spontaneity of jazz and power of rock with a pulse like hip hop on steroids, though rarely sounding retro. His unique performances have merited four return tours to Europe and praise from the most critical music and art aficionados. All beats are performed live, while other sounds are designed and generated from computer, accessed via theremin, composed and looped on the spot. “Irwin doesn’t just play his electronic (music)- he makes it on the spot, creating all the beats and sounds right in front of you… see it if you dare pussy.” –PaperMag

Love Grenades
Playful, sexy, and eminently danceable, Love Grenades is a new, unifying force in independent music – in its most literal interpretation. The brainchild of 25-year-old mastermind Elizabeth Wight, Love Grenades is the unlikely beat-driven collision of electro-pop, Italo disco and punk that’s winning over Los Angeles audiences. Ever since the band began playing two years ago, Love Grenades has packed L.A.’s hippest venues, including The Echo and Silverlake Lounge. Tracks have been on heavy rotation in local underground dance clubs well before their official releases, in addition to making playlists on radio stations KXLU, KCRW and INDIE103.1. The LA Weekly has called the band “as scorching as they are seductive – a collective soundtrack for making out one-on-one or maxing out with a hundred sweaty strangers on the dance floor.”

Morgan Alexander
Morgan Alexander began building a sonic home in house music in the early nineties. Career highlights include his residency with LIFE, ¬Boston’s largest weekly deep soulful house night, traveling as part of Mountain Dew’s entertainment presence for the 2000 and 2001 X Games, regular features on the West Coast, and hosting “Wednesday Revolutions,” the deep installment of Boston’s revered electronic dance music show on WERS 88.9FM. Morgan cites his influences sure to be found in his record bag ¬as producers prolific in their ability to squeeze soul out of machines.
Spain
Formed in Los Angeles in 1993, Spain released three albums (Blue Moods of Spain, She Haunts My Dreams, I Believe) between 1995 and 2001. A compilation CD, Spirituals: The Best of Spain, was released in 2003. In 2007 Spain founder Josh Haden reformed the band with all-new members Tom Gladders (guitar), Randy Kirk (keyboards, guitar), Matt Mayhall (drums), and Marcel Camargo (guitar). A brand new album is forthcoming produced by Soulsavers’ Rich Machin.

Square-1
Square-1 (Stephan Jacobs) started deejaying in 2000, where he spun his special blend of hip hop at local house parties and clubs in his home town of Vancouver, Canada. Jacobs’ production style was fueled by underground music cultures, which lead him to Los Angeles. Here he made his appearance known in the L.A. underground where he plugged into the Burning Man and club scenes. Square-1 is currently working on his solo album, Hooked on Stephanix, to be released 4/20/09.

Steve Loria

West Coast’s legendary house DJ, Steve Loria is a globally recognized artist traveling all over Europe, the United States, South America and Japan. His fascinating style, ranging from deep house to progressive to acid house, has given him a respected name in the electronic music community. Loria has headlined parties such as Los Angeles’ largest New Year’s party Together as One three years in a row, San Francisco’s Gucci party and legendary By the People parties, Freedom Festival, and furthermore, he was invited to lead the grand opening extravaganza at Las Vegas’ now legendary super club Utopia. Loria was also chosen to be a part of the DUB Tour that traveled across America with other exceptional house talent and friends like Doc Martin, DJ Pierre, Josh Wink, King Britt, and Eddie Amador. Loria has produced and remixed tracks for world-renowned labels such as Plastic City, Stickman, Power Music, and Distant Music.

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For more information, images or to set up interviews please contact Green Galactic’s Lynn Hasty at 213-840-1201 or lynn@greengalactic.com.