The Swedish boys of Lo-Fi-Fnk are bringing the electro funk frenzy to Highline Ballroom this Saturday, March 1st. Spinning tasty synth-pop tracks from their 2006 Moshi Moshi release, Boylife, and beyond, Leo Drougge and August Hellsing know how to keep an attractive crowd hot on their toes. Also on the lineup are Canadian indie dance rockers The Cansecos, Boston’s beatmaker Sluttt (a.k.a. Red Foxx), Finger On The Pulse DJs and the Fluokids straight from France. Put on your brightest neon duds and hightail it to the Highline Ballroom for this GBH and Big Stereo sponsored megabash!

Highline Ballroom, 431 W. 16^th St., Doors 11:30 p.m. $10. 18+ with I.D.

Watching the Youtube video of Mos Def’s frustrated reaction to the absence of mainstream media coverage of the Jena 6 rally last September, I was thinking about the effectiveness of this relatively new media in getting the message out there. With its egalitarian, easy-access technology, Youtube is slowly revolutionizing the ways visual information is distributed, and people are beginning to use it effectively as a political tool. A case in point, the Jena rally clearly demonstrated just how closely the success of grassroots activism is intertwined with the support of the media. To have a voice means that you have to find a way to be heard - or nobody will listen.

To find out more about getting your voice out there, go check out the Fifth Annual NYC Grassroots Media Conference at Hunter College CUNY, hosted by the NYC Grassroots Media Coalition (NYCGMC). The conference theme – Speaking Truth to Power: MEDIA JUSTICE IN OUR COMMUNITIES – invites media makers and community organizers to discuss the idea of “Media Justice”, and to explore ways to implement it. Media justice activists will address a range of related issues, including under-representation, lack of access, racial bias, the connections between media justice and visual literacy, and the role of the arts, and complimentary strategies for making change on the streets of NYC. To register and find out more, click here.

Sunday March 2nd, 2008 9am–6pm
Hunter College, North Building, 68th Street and Lexington Ave. (Enter from street or directly from 6 train.)

If you miss the panels, you could still catch participants to network and build at the AFTER PARTY.

Mo’s Caribbean Bar and Grill
1454 2nd Ave. at 76th St.
6pm (1⁄2 off drinks after 7pm)

The Bronx Museum of the Arts Teen Council will be honoring acclaimed photographer, Jamel Shabazz, this Sunday March 2^nd. Shabazz’s work will be celebrated with an exhibition of some of his most compelling images along with those from the Museum’s permanent collection. While most will describe his photographs as visually appealing representations of street culture, Shabazz feels that they are more than just pretty pictures, he believes that “they represent a kind of social activism inspiring youth through unique portrayals of their peers and neighborhoods.” The exhibit will be running until July 27^th, giving you ample time to experience the world through Shabazz’ lens.

Francophiles and foreign-film buffs get a treat this weekend with the start of Rendezvous with French Cinema, a week long event at the IFC debuting 15 of the newest French films in America. Throughout the week, the IFC will premiere a range of films covering love, war, and the situations that take us from one pole to the other.

The festival kicks off with French box-office hit, A Secret. Based on a novel by Phillipe Grimbert that will also be released in the United States this year, the film explores the effects of the many secrets a Jewish family was forced to keep on the eve, and in the wake of World War II.

Given the popularity of Persepolis, you might want to check out Fear in the Dark, an animated film in the same stylistic vein, developed by six of France’s top comic book artists. Each artists’ idea is woven into a dreamlike story taking you through the realms of science fiction, horror, and the fantastic.

One movie I’m checking for is Ain’t Scared, a drama set in the housing projects outside of Paris. Ain’t Scared is one day in the emotional life of a group of youth trying to express deep feelings for each other, when they’re accustomed to maintaining a hard, protective front. The director, who also grew up in les cités (as the housing projects are called), gives audiences a chance to see a gentler side of Paris’ urban youth that is rare in the media.

A bonus during the week is a preview screening of Love Songs, which will start its official run at the IFC March 21.

The directors of all the films will also be in attendance - a cherry on top for those who like to find out the director’s perspective on making the film, or the significance of the color green. All films in French with English subtitles.

Festival runs February 29-March 6 atthe IFC. For tickets and further information, visit IFC.

There’s really not much to say, except that I’m beyond excited to see what the dudes will come up with for this new season of Human Giant. What kind of crazy shit could they possibly do? What limits could they push? Thank the heavens that MTV has realized how amazing this show is, and pretty much lets them do what they want (which is usually insane). The clip below leaked a few weeks ago, and is just a taste of what you can expect from the new season. Check it:

The phenomena that Apple has created with the iPod continues to spread in its many forms, as it finds its way into the homes, studios, and pockets of technology freaks, and us simple ones looking for a way to have our music 24/7.
Anyone who has dropped their slick device down the stairs or in the street, knows a little protection can go a long way. Tinbot is bringing some artistic expression to the iPod case by combining fresh artists, a chic tin design, and a neoprene lining. Featuring artists like Jock, Mad, Sket One, Christopher Lee, and 7Sleepr, my favorite case is coming from the well-known Parra who is also a co-owner of the clothing line Rockwell.

Check out the site and grab one that tickles your iPod fancy before they sale out like the first generation of Tinbot cases. $30 a pop. For the artist who wants to do it themselves, they offer custom packages that will be available on their site soon.

Thanks to PAN for bringin’ this new video to my attention… “It Girl” & TRACE lovely Zoe Kravitz stars in Jay-Z’s new video for the track “I Know” featuring Pharrel. Pretty slick video production following the trend of mini-films that focus on a character instead of the artist themselves (think Kanye’s new vid for Flashing Lights, Common’s vid for I Want You). This is a fresh way of getting the music out there without the same video reproducing itself over and over again - I mean how many times have we seen the cars, the girls and the clothes? So it’s nice to see heavyweights taking on these little narratives, giving their songs more power visually, and giving up-and-coming actors a chance to flex their chops, at least a little.

In the hills overlooking the beaches of Rio de Janeiro, a war is going on. Violence has long been harbored in the alleys, and beneath the palms of the favelas. Gangs and drug lords enforce law and order more than the police, who often enter the favelas shooting or ready to shoot. Either way, the fights, the rivalries, and the gunshots always give way to the blood of the young, the innocent and the damned.

City Of Men, a new film by the team behind City Of God, explores the ties that bind friendship, fatherhood, community, and survival in a world that is unsentimental about self-discovery, and is the nemesis to self-preservation. Two friends, Acerola (Douglas Silva) and Laranjinha (Darlan Cunha) realize this the hard way in the months leading up to their 18th birthdays. Acerola has a two-year-old son to raise. Used to his freedom, he feels tied down by his marriage and fatherhood; for Laranjinha, the problem isn’t being a father, it is not having one. While the duo tries to solve their problems, a gang war destabilizes the structure of the drug world around them . When the head drug lord in the community, Laranjinha’s cousin Madrugadão (Jonathan Haagensen), loses his ground to his former partner, the two friends are torn apart in the ensuing conflict. When the dust settles, they find themselves on opposite sides of the war wondering which will be stronger - the pull of friendship or the code of the streets.

Some viewers may remember Silva and Cunha from City Of God, where, at the age of 11, they were cast as the young versions of L’il Dice and File-com-Fritas. They have played Acerola and Laranjinha since City Of God on a television series in Brazil, also called City Of Men. Their real lives almost mirror those of their characters, with the exception that their talent for acting opened a world of opportunity for them that could lead to a life beyond the favela.

Beautiful and dusty, languid and fervent, City Of Men picks up where City Of God left off, showing how the tidal wave of a violent and conflicted past breaks across the doorsteps of today. City Of Men explores not only how drugs and violence shape and constrain the daily lives of the people in the favelas, but also what life is like for the 90% who are not directly involved in the drug or gang world until they fall victim to it.

Opens Friday, February 29 at the Angelika Film Center in New York. For tickets and showtimes, visit Angelika’s website. For more on City of Men, click here.

Lately, I’ve really been jockin’ Talib Kweli, and have been moved (yet again) by his conscious flo, inspired from his revolutionary stance and pumped by the powerful culture he embraces and strengthens. I’ve been pulling out old classics from the Black Star album, Reflection Eternal, The Beautiful Struggle - each with tracks that helped to mold me as an MC, a person, and a part of the hip hop movement itself. Although the last 2 albums he released kind of slid past me, and I never got the chance to cop them, last week I randomly came across the video that recently came out for the track “Hostile Gospel” (Deliver Us) from his newest project Eardrum. Watch it for yourself, but I have to say, I’m getting some of those goosebumps that Talib was giving me back in 2000. The video was shot in Lagos and directed by Andrew Dosunmu.

In the streets of New York, it’s easy to overlook the many tatted up walls of Gotham. But for French photographer Le Bijoutier, street art has been worth paying attention to. In his latest photo installation This Means Nothing, that opened this past weekend at powerHouse, he presents a collection of photos that capture the sarcasm, absurdity, poignance, and downright creativity of some of New York’s most infamous vandals. Le Bijoutier focuses his lens on the works of those that have expanded the fat marker and aerosol can definition of street art to include stencil, wheat paste, sticker, painting, chalk, and sculpture. Witness the glyphs of Bast, Faile, and Neck Face in all of their pre-gallery grime.