Think you have what it takes to be a designer? EDUN LIVE, Bono and Ali Hewson’s ethical t-shirt clothing line, has been assisting and increasing employment and trade in South and East Africa since their company began in 2005. Every EDUN t-shirt produced is made from 100% African organic cotton. Now, you have a chance to join the<a href=”http://www.edun-live.com/mgrow.aspx” Grow to Sew </a> movement by showcasing your artistic talent and supporting a good cause.

EDUN LIVE is looking for ‘green-themed’ entries that will make their blank cotton tees pop with color and creativity. The winning design will be printed and sold at the VIRGIN MOBILE FESTIVAL, held in Baltimore, MD on August 9th & 10th. The winner will also receive an EDUN LIVE wardrobe valued at $1000, and 10% of the proceeds of all t-shirts will go directly to EDUN LIVE’s initiatives in Africa.

The contest closes on July 24th, so get your creative gears grinding and enter your designs here.

In the dark recesses of the late 90s and early 2000s, a tremor ran through the music industry as more material made its way to the web. Amidst the uncertainty, people questioned what would happen to the music and if creativity would die along this new avenue.

What could not be foreseen was the way the internet and the digitization of media would open the door to a more democratic way of making and experiencing music. Through its floodgates have come (sometimes questionably) talented stars such as Souljah Boy and venues such as MySpace and iTunes.

Fast-forward to 2008 and the ever-talented, ever-ingenious, self-acclaimed analog girl Erykah Badu, has also appropriated the digital world to her own ends. Looking for a remix to her latest non-album single, “Real Thang,” Badu has launched an internet-based remix contest open to any creative body with beats on the mind.

Proving the fast-pace of the web and the ability of its plethora of users to turn out a quick download, you can find a number of remixes to the track already up on the paean to self-promotion, YouTube. The remixes are diverse with sounds that range from dub with 80s Barrington Levy samples, to spacey electronic tracks to a mellowed out Madlib groove (remixers, breathe — Madlib produced the original track and cannot be a part of the contest). Don’t feel limited to “urban” types of sounds either — creativity is key so if you think you can make “Real Thang” rock, literally, go for it.

Sound good? Then plug in and get it poppin’.

For “Real Thang” vocals, grand- and runner-up prizes and more information on the contest, click here.

Deadline for entry: July 31.

A whimsical fantasyland of wooden beams and hanging glass canopies, Frank Gehry’s first project in the UK is about to become reality. Having been selected by the Serpentine Gallery to participate in an innovative architectural program, Gehry was given 6 months to design, construct and erect a temporary summer Pavilion in London’s Hyde Park. Following in the footsteps of Rem Koolhaas and Oscar Niemeyer, Gehry’s Pavilion is ninth in the Serpentine’s series as well as being his first UK project.

To describe the structure as conceptual is somewhat of an understatement. Held up by 4 steel columns, the pavilion is a scintillating labyrinth of overlapping glass panes and protruding wooden beams. But despite the convoluted aesthetic of the Pavilion, there is an undeniable functionality embedded in Gehry’s concoction. Described as an “urban street”, the pavilion will serve as a promenade linking the park to the Serpentine Gallery itself.

And whilst the placement of timber catapults and steel planks may seem to some absurd, wooden benches are scattered around the pavilion making it an attractive space for aimless wandering and self-reflection.

More here.

Take your average front man during a band’s period of creative hiatus. Damon Albarn is not that guy. Instead of focusing the pursuits of his off-time on reality variety shows or eco-friendly clothing labels, this lead vocalist of the legendary Britpop band Blur has worked as main man behind the Gorillaz, and the Danger Mouse collaboration The Good, the Bad, and the Queen.

In 2002, he co-founded the Honest Jons Record label which Entertainment Weekly refers to as “the hippest world-music label going.” Their Lincoln Center musical revue promises a swift education in contemporary black music with Cadi Staton performing (remember “Young Hearts Run Free”?) alongside Simone White, Tony Allen, the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, and many others.

More info here.

Saturday, July 12th
8PM
Avery Fisher Hall
Part of the Lincoln Center Festival 2008

“Primordial Punk,” reads their mission statement, “represents what’s been missing from the cultural dialogue of beauty. It calls upon the talents of professional artists to challenge, confront, rearrange, and revisualize the standard against which AFRICAN-AMERICAN beauty is measure.” What better way to celebrate a new aesthetic for beauty than with some funky pictures and a party?

The Pictures: The 1st-ever BLACK PUNK PIN-UP CALENDAR 2 Primo Pin-Ups, Tamar-kali, Imani Coppola, Sylvia Gordon, MilitiA, DJ Reborn, dj.shErOck, Ife Mora, Nneka Bennett, ninja.bot.body.rock, Josiane, Lesley J, and Bailey Davis. Each model was styled after song lyrics written by a Black rock artist or band. The Calendar ships out in October with proceeds benefiting the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls and the Black Rock Coalition. But until then, we can satiate our punk pin-up cravings by sinking our teeth into…

The Party: Primordial Punk’s 1st Annual Debutante Ball runs in conjunction with the 4th Annual Afro-Punk Fest in Brooklyn. The event will feature 4 hot numbers by our loves, Brown Girls Burlesque with live accompaniment by Mackie Riverside & the Street Pushers, live sets by Apollo Heights, Betty Black, Chewing Pics and Sweetie, DJ Tjade on decks, and live painting by Fly Lady Di. Information will be on-hand to pre-order the Black Punk Pin-Up Calendar for $10.

Debutante Ball Launch Party
Friday, July 11th
Galapagos @ 10PM
70 North 6th Street in Williamsburg
FREE and open to the public

The visual artist INSA lays down a stack with his latest exhibit “Dirty Cash.” Set in London’s Flawless Gallery “Dirty Cash” is an ode to INSA’s raunchy style of artwork. With vulumptuos curves, dripping paint and roots in the art of graffiti INSA places himself in a category all his own. The exhibit will be open through the month of July. For more information click here.

Here’s one for all you DIY photogs, lomos and designers out there: the Lomographic Society International is partnering with the tee-shirt company Threadless on a contest to design some gear inspired by Lomo’s 10 Golden Rules of Photography.

Rule 1: Take your camera everywhere you go
Rule 2: Use it any time — day or night
Rule 3: Lomography is not an interference in your life but part of it
Rule 4: Try the shot from the hip
Rule 5: Approach the objects of your lomographic desire as close as possible
Rule 6: Don’t think
Rule 7: Be fast
Rule 8: You don’t have to know beforehand what you captured on film
Rule 9: Afterwards either
Rule 10: Don’t worry about any rules

Known for supplying the recent resurgence in plastic, “toy” cameras like the Diana, the Holga and the Lomo — cheap-bodied, high-saturated, medium-format relics of the American 50s to 70s, Soviet Russia and good Commuists worldwide — the Lomographic Society was founded in Vienna in the early 90s by a couple of guys who accidentally rediscovered the magic aesthetic of these cameras. The society’s guerrilla style and rules of irreverence quickly outgrowing its supply, Lomo expanded to Berlin a few years later and held simultaneous inaugural exhibitions in New York and Moscow.

Watch out of your design wins! Besides the 2,000 Dollars in prize cash, you could also gain a heap of Lomo camera tricks. With those in your pocket, you’ll soon find yourself in a vast global network of street photogs and creatives who will nod knowingly every time you snap off a little plastic shot.

More on Lomographic here and on the contest here.

BabyStone – the soulful mash-up of Ms. Novena Carmel and Itai- croon the stage with a gathering of beautiful eccentricity. The sound captures a Jazz, Afro-Funk, Caribbean sensation that caters to cultural enthusiasts. Marcus Brock had the chance to sit down with lead singer, Ms. Novena Carmel. This retro-fitted chanteuse is no stranger to the grittiness of the soul and funk being that her father is Sly, of the revered band Sly and the Family Stone. But, even without the distinction she’s a show stopper! BabyStone’s syncopated rhythms and intuitive - yet fun- lyrical dynamics need be positioned on anyone’s playlist.

If you’re in the Los Angeles area, don’t forget to check out the Record Release Show at Temple Bar tonight. For more info, click here

Trace: How did you and Itai start working together?

Novena Carmel: Itai and I started working together a couple of years ago. He had a track he was producing and when I sang for him, we vibed. Eventually, we had enough material for a show. We didn’t even have a band yet, but I was like – let’s book a date! We then got a band together, booked a date, and rehearsed about five times before our first show.

T: Was the use of live musicians in your band on purpose or a routed intention?

NC: The band was on purpose because we like a BIG sound. I like a real sound, there’s a lot of “fake jewelry” out there so to speak, but BabyStone won’t turn your neck green! We are influenced by funk, soul, and Afro-Beat. So, the use of live sounds and music is very important to us. We are now looking to performing an acoustic set as well in future shows and albums. Itai loves Brazilian music and I have family there so we want to incorporate more of those sounds into our music, like in “Can I Be.”

Me, personally, my vocals will always be soulful but I have a yearning to do some wild, electronic beats. Our live album is many live instruments, similar to a live show but I also want to perform to synthetic sounds like keyboards and talk boxes. Just weirdness, not only sincere heart-to-heart beats. Our next recording will probably have those types of sounds, not completely out there, but different.

T: Some artists try and shy away from their parents’ music – does some of that sound/feel resonate in your music? How has that inspired BabyStone?

NC: As an artist I’m inspired by a lot of modern artists and those that have come before me. One of my favorite genres is the funk/soul of the time period when Sly & the Family Stone was writing their biggest hits. The sound is so influential and amazing to me that there’s no way I could shy away from it. It’s funky, it’s in your face and it’s timeless. That’s a lot of what BabyStone is or at least hopes to be.

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Guillermo Scott Herren (aka. Prefuse 73), an Atlanta artist of Catalan and Irish/ Cuban descent currently working in Spain, composes vaguely jazzy experimental hip hop tracks so beguiling they emit a strange sense of déjà vu. I remember the first album Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives with a story of my own, sitting on the roof of a college apartment during the slowly cooling early autumn, Prefuse slinking through the living room from the outdoors, in an oversized sweatshirt and bare feet. Something in the way Herren produces allows his music to feel both fresh and comfortable at the same time.

Prefuse 73 comes off much lighter than hip hop studies by similar artists Madlib, Danger Mouse and GirlTalk; almost Ibiza beachy at certain points. But make no mistake. His subtle musical repertoire makes for compositions far more far more substantive than the average gamine + electronica = eargasmic construction of comparable lounge and house. His music bares striking similarities to the speckled collages adorning his album covers: a classily psychedelic mix of harmony, texture, and balance.

Herren’s fourth album under the moniker Prefuse 73, Preparations, has a slightly more orchestral feel than his earlier work as he lends his classically trained instrumental ear to the P73 alias. The merger makes him a wise choice for the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Whitney Live series. The series showcases a new pairing of cutting-edge performers each weekend in addition to “pay-what-you-wish” Friday admission to the museum itself. Prefuse will play as part this June’s Wordless Music series with “adventuresome chamber music from the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME)” and Jad Abumrad (Host of WNYC’s RadioLab) appearing as the MC.

Friday June 20

Whitney Museum

945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street
New York, NY 10021

For more info, click here