PLANET PEOPLE

New Planet People Site

2008-08-27T13:55:00.000-07:00

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

IMG

2008-08-22T11:59:00.000-07:00

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)

2008-08-20T12:20:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-19T15:40:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-19T15:02:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-15T19:20:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-09T18:31:00.000-07:00

via Maghen, Wells

you know community shorts?

2008-08-08T16:30:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-08T10:05:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-08-07T14:42:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-01T23:29:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-01T15:06:00.000-07:00

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.

YouTube as a Subject

2008-07-29T14:34:00.000-07:00

by Constant Dullaart

Im going to have to call you back

2008-07-29T14:27:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I work in Buenos Aires Argentina at a production company that makes TV commercials. We are working on a new campaign, for which I have been put in charge of buying some stock footage. We are buying stock footage from a company in Santa Monica. The world of advertising is a very interesting one. Stress levels are high. And even in the midst of an earthquake, we were managing a technical crisis. Below is a string of emails that took place today between me and the representative of the image bank in Santa Monica:

Ana,

I really need to speak with you. The post production people are having some technical difficulties with the video you sent us and it is not a problem with the codec. Please email me when you get this or call for me at the office 54 11 4854 90XX.

Thank you

Russ Finkelstein

At that point, Ana called me. We spoke for about 10 seconds, then she said, "Im going to have to call you back, we are having an earthquake-" then we were cut off.

I couldn't believe it. Then the correspondence continued:

Hi Russ -

Sorry about that. We just had what seems to be a 5.8 earthquake. My phone is down for the moment. Can you tell me in detail what seems to be happening, what have you tried? do you hear any sound? or see anything?

~Ana

Ana,

im sorry to hear about the earthquake. I hope everyone is okay.

Im not quite sure what the technical problem is that they are having at the post production house with the video you sent us, but I wanted to put you in direct contact with the person in charge over there. His name is Fabian and his email adress is xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

Please contact him directly.

Thank You

Russ Finkelstein

Thanks Russ -

Everyone seems to be ok - kind of shaken up, but ok. It was a pretty big one, 5.8 which is causing phone problems in the city.

I will email Fabian right now.

Thanks,

Ana

And from there the technical problem we were having with the video was able to be solved when Ana and Fabian spoke via email. Thank god for that. Its comforting to know that even in the middle of an earthquake, people are on their blackberries troubleshooting technical problems with stock footage of cheetahs. Once I had closed the deal I then called my parents to make sure everything was okay.

In case you are interested, below is a commercial we produced here.

New PP Muxtape

2008-07-28T14:23:00.000-07:00

I recently put up all new songs on the Planet People Muxtape page.

Track List:
1.) R. Stevie Moore - Schoolgirl
2.) Plastic Burtrand - Ça plane pour moi
3.) The Vaselines - Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam
4.) David Bowie - In the Heat of the Morning
5.) The Elegants - Little Start
6.) Willie Colón - Ah-Ah/Oh-No
7.) Spacemen 3 - I Love You
8.) Sam & Dave - This Is Your World
9.) King Tubby - Real Gone Dub
10.) Claudette & The Corporation- Skinhead a Bash Them
11.) Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood - Some Velvet Morning
12.) The Gaylettes - Lonely Feeling

The Lonely Twenties/ Walking Through Fear

2008-07-25T01:22:00.000-07:00

FEAR + BEER = ?²

Last night I was walking home from a bar with my friend, we'll call her...'Beth.' She had one too many cocktails, and then it happened, the alcohol induced outpour of self-doubt, vulnerability and admittance of wavering confidence. Perfectly natural I think, healthy even.

We are all balls of powerful chemicals that dictate every aspect of our lives. They're subject to ever changing variables, and even if you get them to work correctly with one another, tomorrow is another day. Russ and I once called this the tea pot effect. We are tea pots full of water, over a flame which is always changing size. You can't control the flame, and you can't control how much water you have, you can only decide how and when to let out the steam. Of course, if you don't remove the lid, what is normally a gentle trickle of warm air, it transforms into a violent scream of furious air, racing from the boiling water below.

Many times we don't know the steam is mounting. Other times we don't know how to lift the lid, or how long to hold it open, or that we ever needed to at all. Because of our fast paced lives, and our attempt at appearing confident and in control, we neglect the powerful chemicals in our bodies, allowing them to metastasize and manifest into a meriod of physical and emotional hardships, in this case, drunken outpours.

When Josh and I lived together, a frequent topic of conversation was the lonely twenties. A decade of limbo and uncertainty. We've left the nest, and are on a long, lonely voyage to piece together a nest of our own. The concept of home is subject to rental leases, roommates and a usually inadequate income. Our friends are changing and moving on, our families are growing older, and we have plenty of time to ponder the unknown. Will we be successful? Who will we share our lives with? Will we like who we become? Everything seems possible and impossible. We are forced to confront sobering questions all on our own. Chemicals, daily challenges and big questions are all managed in a clumsy juggling act that we learn as we go.

What's more, these universal factors are compounded by our American dream. American teenagers leave the nest at 18 for college, and with the exception of an image tarnishing stint at mom and dad's, are expected to go off on our own to make something of ourselves. At a younger age than most children in the world, we are expected to spread our wings and find our nest. Perhaps, this is what gives us our ingenuity, our leadership, our entrepreneurialism. It is also however, commonly credited as the cause for the break down of the American family. We are encouraged to achieve our dreams and passions, allowing nothing to stand in our way. Extended family are brushed off as an obligatory annoyance, and within the immediate family, our self-interests force us to grow apart and resent the burden that we impose on one another. When traditionally, the stresses of daily life are evenly dispersed amongst grandmas, aunts, uncles and cousins, the weight is focused on a singular family unit, and more times than not, shatters the marriage and subsequently the previous notion of the family.

All of these factors define the twenty-something experience. We are successors to the most industrious generation in American history, and yet face challenges no other generation on Earth has had to consider. We're at an age of self discovery, questionable acts of promiscuity, excitement and fun. Lots of pressure, lots of reward. Sometimes it's all a little too much, and a few more drunken outpours from all of us is maybe just what we need to relieve the steam and stay sane.

100th Post!

2008-07-24T20:00:00.000-07:00

This is the 100th post on Planet People. Monumental! You've got Independence Day, May Day and now, 100th Post Day... If this were China it'd be called "100th Post of the People." North Korea might call it "The Supreme People's 100th Post." I've gotten a lot of exciting feedback pertaining to this exciting day, though I must admit my surprise when Time Magazine contacted us for a cover feature.

Cool right! China was also generous enough to show us their support with a staged water show.

So beautiful! But I don't know, It's no coincidence the Olympics are coming up, and I think they're trying to butter us up to come out and cover the games. I'm with Spielberg though, there is no excuse for mass-displacement and a less than proactive role in Darfur. Sorry China, we'll be sitting this one out. Olympics or not, 2008 is rounding up to be an exciting year of posts, and we look forward 100 more!

Rolling & Spinning

2008-07-24T15:17:00.000-07:00

Echo Park, LA

Eiffel Tower, Paris

Forgotten Lost Taco

2008-07-23T17:10:00.000-07:00

I realized today I had forgot to include Lost Taco in my links page. Whoops, sorry Josh. Then it got me thinking. I spend a decent amount of time on this blog exposing the quirky nuances of my friends, yet have neglected to touch on perhaps the most neurotic and noteworthy of them all, ex-roommate, Josh Malmuth. Josh, for starters, is the most widely impersonated guy I know. Everyone has a Josh voice. "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh..." You know the drill. So much so, Felipe proudly boasts of being the world authority on Josh impersonations. (Look forward to an explanation of this bizarre expertise from Felipe himself in the near future.) Josh owes this honor not only to the unique pitch of his voice, but also to the strict set of standards by which he unapologetically leads his life.

Josh and I lived together in LA for about three months before Josh moved to New York. In those short harmonious months, I was afforded an intimate glance into Josh's world of preferences, tastes and proficiencies. One, being his self-proclaimed sophistication in culinary critique. Dare I say..."foody?" To his credit, Josh introduced me to the city's best carne asada, Phở and taco trucks. The latter of which would be the hardest for Josh to leave. In fact, Josh's taco truck separation anxiety was so profound, it inspired Josh to launch the very popular Lost Taco blog.

"I recently moved from Los Angeles to New York, so this is a fairly emotional issue for me. I can't believe that there aren't any good tacos in this city. It just doesn't seem possible. Somewhere in New York there's a delicious stranded taco, waiting to be found. If you can help, let me know."

-Losttaco.com

Sorry for the negligence Josh.

What About That Internet Personae?

2008-07-22T16:57:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, Russ published a post about his internet persona. If you're not familiar I encourage you to read it. The gist is an awareness of one's presence online as it pertains to romance, professional life and general self-interest. How do we balance who we really are, and how we are represented online to an expanding audience? Our ability to censor ourselves slips from our grasp everyday we keep our Myspace and Facebook profiles alive. Photos of us are tagged and shared without our discretion. Our interests, educational background, age, place of residence and network of friends are all public domain.

After Russ' insightful post, I couldn't help but take this more seriously. Perhaps because Russ, more than anyone, has sacrificed his public image for laughs. Before online communities, almost nothing was off limits. Public nudity, outrageous outfits and social self-sabotage were all fair game. Nude/incriminating photos were freely shared amongst friends, and why shouldn't they be?

Well ladies and gentlemen, the pendulum has shifted. We can no longer rely on the honor system to conceal our more vulnerable moments, and with the internet as our audience, future employers, girlfriends/boyfriends and grandparents are in the front row.

For instance, Facebook just alerted me that my name was tagged on a photo Felipe took:

This photo takes on a new dimension when my little cousins search for cousin Andrew, and find me with a pissing clown. My cover is blown when the pretty jewish girl who raises money for Africa I was trying to impress finds out I'm just a jokester. But what's the alternative? De-tag and lose face? Or worse, censor my real life experiences to save myself the trouble of damage control after the fact? Oh brother.

Well Russ, you've planted the seed of self-consciousness. I used to never care about my internet personae, do I now? I'd like to think not, but ever since your post it's been in the back of my mind. Today when I saw this photo of myself, ironically with the two of us in it, I couldn't help but feel a bit concerned. Now, Liz has the photo saved to her desktop, and god knows who else is rolling around laughing at our expense.

Even Sam, a famous self-effacer, drunkenly mumbled "Russ...don't make a movie" as you filmed him trying to take his pants off with his shoes on in his kitchen. Would Sam have ever said that before he thought it might come back to haunt him on the internet?

So many uncertainties, so little online forgiveness. I guess the real question is, how far a reach does our Facebook/Myspace account have in our day to day life? The fear of course, is finding out.

Goldfrapp rips off Norman Greenbaum

2008-07-20T22:59:00.000-07:00

Goldfrapp sucks

Norman Greenbaum rules

Download Time: Trina

2008-07-20T17:17:00.000-07:00

Trina (Katrina Laverne Taylor) is a rapper from my home town of Miami. Her debut record Da Baddest Bitch came out in 2000 and went gold. She's put out three records since then. Trina is maybe the raunchiest female rapper I have ever heard. "Look Back At Me" from her new record Still Da Baddest falls nothing short of crude and uncomfortably vulgar, if you're into that sort of thing. Killer Mike does the male accompaniment in a de-tuned bedroom voice.

Download Time: Trina - Look back At Me (Dirty)

Musca domestica

2008-07-18T19:08:00.001-07:00

Summer is here and the house fly has arrived, one of the few downsides to the season of fun. What this means for most of the world is a slight annoyance and an intensified diligence in kitchen sanitation. They buzz, we swat and life goes on as usual, especially in southern California where we don't have a candle to hold to the rest of the world's bug problems. But for Felipe Lima, it's so much more.

Felipe's world was rocked Wednesday morning when he awoke to flies buzzing tyrannically around our kitchen. He woke me up, as usual, this time in an episode of panic. He had removed all of the screens in the apartment, taken all of our plants outside, done his damnedest to exterminate the invaders with his compressed oxygen dust cleaner and, to my dismay, fastened a gallon ziplock bag half filled with water above our front door. I suggested that perhaps the root of our fly problem was our open door policy during the day. This suggestion was met with outrage. Closing the door during day light hours was not on the table for discussion, nor did it have any relevance to the problem at hand. The flies in Felipe's view were indicative of a greater issue. He would hear nothing of it.

It's been a few days, the bag is still there, and so are the flies. I wanted to be wrong, and for a second I thought I might be, but the bag has proven no match for the determination of the little guys. Sorry Fil.

The house fly as we know it today has been buzzing around for 65 million years. It's survived ice ages, mass extinctions and countless swats from elephant tusks, horse tails and hands alike. Modern inventions like the fly swatter haven't quelled the issue, and god knows if anything ever will.

Look, if you squint you can see a fly to the right of the mammoth buzzing around causing a scene. They even say that Abraham Lincoln's favorite songs was "Shoo Fly Don't Bother Me," which is as relevant then as it is now.

We'll keep the bag for now, maybe it's working its magic as we speak and I'm too blind to see. Maybe Felipe has stumbled onto a solution to the world's oldest annoyance and his genius has gone unappreciated. Like Socrates or Galileo before him, his findings have been denounced by a world not yet ready for the scope of his discovery.

Maybe, Felipe was never meant for this cruel unforgiving world.

Planet Person @ 120fps

2008-07-18T13:57:00.000-07:00

Planet Person @ 120fps from Felipe Lima on Vimeo.

And as a special bonus for my Planet Peoples:

'Temporary Secretary', Paul McCartney

Lemonade Weblog.

2008-07-17T18:01:00.000-07:00

That's kinda cute, aint it?

Yes, it's true. Lemonade has a web-log.
How does one spell "WEBLOG" anyway?

LEMONADEHASABLOGSPOT

....and here's our...
MUXTAPE

Mostly friend's groups and friendly groups.
wooooooot.