New Planet People Site

I finally moved PLANET PEOPLE to Wordpress, set your bookmarks and feed readers people. The new address is planetpeoples.com

IMG

Well ladies and gentlemen, Felipe has finally put his tireless internet exploration to good use. Several times on this blog I've talked about Felipe waking me up in the morning with computer-crashing internet art. Multiply times a day, as we sit across from one another in our living room, he sends me links on gchat to images he's found while scouring the internets endless supply of oddities. For years now, Felipe has collected images on his array of hard drives that have laid dormant and unseen, until now. Felipe's hoarded collection of images will see the light of day on IMG, his clever new blog showcasing images from the past and present.

Ppppssss... FFFFOUND, give this guy an account.

Download Time: Sunchips (Ghosts On Tape RMX)

LEMONADE


Lemonade keeps saying they're putting out a record. These things take time I guess, but in the mean time, here is their song "Sunchips" remixed by fellow San Franciscan Ghosts On Tape. I saw Ghosts On Tape perform at a party in San Francisco last weekend and it was stupendous. It was the second time seeing him perform, the first time was interrupted by "loud show A.D.D." that prevented me from caring too much. Fortunately, last weekend I was more receptive.

GHOSTS ON TAPE


Ghosts on tape is a guy named Ryan. He performs with two YAMAHA sequencers synced up to one another, a hard drive and a mixer interface. Beyond that, I have little to no understanding how he does what he does, but what he does is great. Word is, with exception of acapellas and the occasional ubiquitous sample, all the music he sequences in his set is original music.


Download Time: Lemonade - Sunchips (Ghosts On Tape RMX)

Relative Rating Systems for Women/ 1 through 10 for Men

Man's answer to rating potential partners: the 1 through 10 system. It's less crude than adjectives, and it simplifies things. Men use this system all of the time. Sometimes we argue over the distinction between 7's, 8's or 9's, discredit each others 10's, or question the merit of another man's character for the flagrant use of 10. I'm sure it's no surprise that at the end of the day this is what most male conversations come down to. We are simple creatures; we have simple rating systems. For men, it's easier to simplify the complexities of human attractiveness down to a 10 digit scale, than probe our psyches to better understand our compatibility potential with women.

On one hand, you could argue there isn't much to probe. That men are simply attracted to female beauty as it exists on the surface. That once we've fallen to their initial attraction, it's their unique feminine complexities we fall in love with, the complexities we ourselves lack, and undoubtedly will never fully understand. On the other hand, it could be that we lack the insight to understand our own complex emotional makeup, therefore making it impossible for us to pin down what it is we see in these exotic creatures.

Most likely, we all sit somewhere in between. We are not as emotionally complex as women, but we still are unable to wrap our brains around what's going on inside our puny hearts. The trusty 1 through 10 system will have to do for now.

Moving along...

When it comes to romance, men are not the ones shrouded in mystery. What I hope to better understand is the rating system, if any, that women use for men. Chances are there's no unified code that all women agree on. Possibly it's that they're not quite as shallow. Or perhaps any consensus is held up in a political gridlock. The women of the world can't ally themselves closely enough to agree on a code. Women are, on some level, at war with one another. A cold war. Presumably, this is man's fault. Thousands of years of patriarchy has turned women against one another. We've forced women to depend on men for sustenance, therefore they compete with one another other for us, for survival. Doesn't sound so good.

Even if we could get them in a room together, the list of items would surely break down talks. Exposing all of the variables and opening them up to debate could prove disastrous to the delicate balance of female coexistence. What women see in men is something more individual and multifaceted than physical attractiveness quantified by a scale system. It's too personal to be uniformed. It's a case-by-case, all-encompassing emotional connection: strengths, weaknesses, shortcomings, quirks, humor etc. Of course, men fall in love with women based on similar grounds, but for us it's an afterthought. For women, this is the start and finish -- the end all, be all. Their attraction can't be quantified because it's subject to variables that all have the potential to tip the scales. Every woman's list is different. Exposing these to one another and standardizing the whole thing would break the foundation of normalcy as we know it.

Fat guys, skinny guys, nerdy guys, tough guys, hairy guys, hairless guys... for every attribute, flattering or not, there is a beautiful woman out there who loves that! Safe to say this does not go both ways.

Unfortunately, I haven't shed much light on the issue. As a man, there are things I can never fully understand. A female friend said once that women would've never thought about being so complex if men weren't always saying so. That women aren't necessarily complex, just that men don't understand them.

New Mixtape "Beggin" on it's way

I'm finishing up a new mixtape. That, coupled with laziness accounts for my lack of blog posts the last couple weeks. To my diligent readers, my apologies. The new mix is call "Beggin." In a week or so I'll have the hard copy. Felipe and I are going to make sure it looks nice. I think felipe might even make a video to go with it.

The Muslims Live at the Echo

Muslims 'Parasites' from Felipe Lima on Vimeo.

Felipe shot this video of The Muslims playing at the echo a few weeks ago. The video looks and sounds surprisingly good, one for the books.

Felipe is also getting his hands dirty with other video/internet related projects. Check out When She Passes.

Chris w/ Teacup

via Maghen, Wells

you know community shorts?

Hey. In case you read planet people and don't know what community shorts is (doubtful) then here is a little sample. Below is a short film that I made in Argentina with friend Federico Garcia. The music was composed by me and Andrew Miller and we recorded it with two of Dengue Fever (David Rolicke and Ethan Holtzman) who are allstars. You can see more videos of mine and read an article that I wrote about myself here.

Parasites

by The Muslims (or is it just 'Muslims') at the Echo a few weeks ago

Jon is putting out a 7" of this soon. Andrew's doing a remix for it.

What Have I been Doing?

I don't know what the hell I've been doing. Not blogging, I'll tell you that much. I'm coming to the tail end of finishing the second installment of the Planet People Mix tape series. Is it a series now? I guess so, sounds good. I'd like to report back from almost a week of no updates with something good but right now I got nothing.

If you live in LA, I'm DJing tonight at Little Joy in Echo Park with my friend Joel. They have cheap PBR and pool tables.

Elaine Benes as played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus

The reason for this post is not to focus on my unrealistic aspirations to date and hopefully marry Elaine Benes, but to respond to the unanimous disapproval I find in people's reaction to this. Men and Women alike, find this odd and perplexing. Women usually laugh, simultaneously shaking their head in disapproval, while men look puzzled and disagree. Moderates might pause, then agree on a passive level, but no one has ever understood or shared my sentiment.

Several questions come to mind. A: Am I crazy? B: Is Benes/Dreyfus really just average at best? Or C: Is it her presentation on Seinfeld? Maybe, because she is not presented as a sex symbol and all of the cues aren't there, Men don't pick up on it. Has baggy dresses, funny hair and an absence of overt sexiness left her undetected on most men's radar?

I gravitate towards C, but how could this be? There is always the Baywatch constituency, but forget them. What about the rest of us? Do men really need to see a woman dressed in flattering clothes and portrayed in a sexy light to see her inherent qualities? Are we that predictable? A dangerous question maybe, but I would like to believe in this day and age we don't need our hands held through the screening process to that extent. To me, it's plain to see that with Elaine, we have a keeper on our hands, and the diversions of modest dress, funny hair and a tomboyish predisposition are only testaments to that.



As for women, I only understand this phenomenon less. Elaine is feminine, intelligent and breaks the confining female stereotypes portrayed by most Hollywood stars. She's not overly well-dressed or larger than life, takes pride in her intellectual prowess, jokes with the guys/hangs with the girls and is unabashed in her desire to date at her own will, on her own terms. What's the problem?

Upon further consideration, I've come to this: People do not exercise free will. People don't so much have independent preferences, as much as an adherence to popular opinion. Popular opinion is influenced by various contributing factors, and in this case, one of them is the presentation of a character on a TV show. Elaine isn't supposed to be hot, so she isn't. I would argue, if Elaine was written as an object of sexual desire and hung with a pack of vixens instead of 3 neurotic guys, little boys would have Elaine posters on their walls and men would buy magazines with her face on the cover. It has nothing to do with Julia Louis-Dreyfus' beauty or lack there of, but Elaine's presentation on the TV show.

What is most unsettling to me, is the character of Elaine is attractive to me. What does this make me? And more confusing still, my admiration is double pronged. The woman I think is beautiful and electrifying is Julia Louis-Dreyfus, but the woman I am attracted to is Elaine, who is essentially Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David. All her neuroses, preferences and catch phrases are Larry and Jerry, but her beauty, physical comedy and judaism is Julia.

I don't know where I'm going with this, I guess this is an open letter to my friends and strangers who don't share my sentiment. What's the problem people? Why am I alone on this? And Julia, I don't like your new show, what can you do? But I stand behind you, and am jealous of your husband. My roomate had professors who had you in their classes at Northwestern, they said your personality then was not a far cry from Elaine on Seinfeld. There is hope.

No Ice

My friend Jon and I went to an Ice Cube listening party in Hollywood for his new album Raw Footage. Guess what? Ice Cube didn't show up. Obviously Ice Cube hasn't put anything worthwhile out since the early nineties (with the exception of "You Can Do it" from 2003's War & Peace, Vol. 2 which is awesome) but i thought it would be cool to see the guy. No guy. But, WC (Dub C) was there which was marginally cool, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel kinda cool.