New York City based Aerial Theatre troupe Suspended Cirque announces their return to Brooklyn’s Galapagos Art Space with their newest show, URBANOPOLIS.

My wife Michelle Dortignac and her four über-talented collaborators (Joshua Dean, Ben Franklin, Angela Jones, and Kristin Olness) have done it again!

Actually, I should say that they WILL be doing it again for three upcoming shows at the Galapagos Art Space on August 14, 15, and 16.

Their all-new performance entitled URBANOPOLIS, is inspired by the dramatic and unique qualities of the Galapagos Art Space — the audience sits on several large steel islands, surrounded by water on almost all sides.

The performance takes place above, around, below, among the audience — no part of the performance space is left unexplored, and the audience is an integral part of the entertainment. The show’s format of short performance sections divided by mini-intermissions allows the audience to mingle and explore the unique water-filled theater space.

Visit the Suspended Cirque Website for more information, bios, images, and news.

Suspended Cirque is:
Joshua Dean, Ben Franklin, Michelle Dortignac, Kristin Olness, and Angela Jones.

Special guest Leenya Rideout; and as always, DJ Uri Attia

An online press release can be seen here:
URBANOPOLIS: Aerialists Spark an Evolution of Cirque in New Show at Galapagos Art Space

No, this is not about the beloved NYC rock-opera musical. It’s about the differences (and benefits) of access vs. ownership; and a look at just what will have value when so much is available for free.

Kevin Kelly over at KK.ORG has just posted a very interesting essay on this topic, called Better Than Owning: Access is better than ownership. Take a few minutes and read it. Here’s an excerpt:

Very likely, in the near future, I won’t “own” any music, or books, or movies. Instead I will have immediate access to all music, all books, all movies using an always-on service, via a subscription fee or tax. I won’t buy – as in make a decision to own — any individual music or books because I can simply request to see or hear them on demand from the stream of ALL. I may pay for them in bulk but I won’t own them. The request to enjoy a work is thus separated from the more complicated choice of whether I want to “own” it. I can consume a movie, music or book without having to decide or follow up on ownership.

For many people this type of instant universal access is better than owning. No responsibility of care, backing up, sorting, cataloging, cleaning, or storage. As they gain in public accessibility, books, music and movies are headed to become social goods even though they might not be paid by taxes. It’s not hard to imagine most other intangible goods becoming social goods as well. Games, education, and health info are also headed in that direction.

In fact, take a few more minutes and read this piece posted by Kevin Kelly in January, 2008: Better Than Free. Here’s an excerpt:

The internet is a copy machine. At its most foundational level, it copies every action, every character, every thought we make while we ride upon it…

…Every bit of data ever produced on any computer is copied somewhere. The digital economy is thus run on a river of copies. Unlike the mass-produced reproductions of the machine age, these copies are not just cheap, they are free.

When copies are super abundant, they become worthless.
When copies are super abundant, stuff which can’t be copied becomes scarce and valuable.

When copies are free, you need to sell things which can not be copied.

Well, what can’t be copied?

And finally, if you’ve got 43 minutes to invest in getting a glimpse of the future of the Internet, watch this Kevin Kelly presentation at Web and Where 2.0+ in February 2008.
(The presentation is about ~23 min. and the Q&A, the other 20 min.)

Kevin Kelly’s “Web 3.0″
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J132shgIiuY[/youtube]

Whoa!

There’s an article in the NY Times today about the meat storage box at the famous Peter Luger Steak House in Brooklyn.

It’s a 2,000-square-foot industrial walk-in cooler (located below the restaurant’s kitchen) packed with 30,000 pounds of raw, aging meat. Read the article for more info if you like words.

But if a 360 degree panoramic photo of all that meat is more to your liking, then check this out!

Vegetarians beware.

Say no more!

It’s… Monty Python’s Flying Circus!

No it isn’t.

Yes it is!

Can you believe this? I couldn’t! So I took a few pictures.

I actually bought gas for $1.89/gallon tonight in Fort Lee, NJ, on my way home from a client’s house. I’ve just become numb to the price of gasoline lately, and hadn’t really noticed the prices falling. I cannot remember the last time I saw gas for under two dollars per gallon.

I did a quick Internet search, and found that the highest price in my area of New York City was $4.41/gallon on 7/16/2008; that was only 4 months ago. (The highest price in the Fort Lee, NJ area was $4.01/gallon on 7/6/2008.)

Today I got 12.217 gallons for only $23.20, that would have cost about $50 four months ago.

The Fuel Gauge Report website has more information about gas prices, including this chart of the:

12 Month Average For Regular Unleaded

Has every state now gone blue?

No, there are still a few red states left. But what the above map does show, is the levels of flu activity in each state (as of today, November 11, 2008); lighter blue for minimal flu activity, and darker blue for raised levels of flu activity.

Google (that’s right, the search engine) has just launched a new service called Google Flu Trends. Google has observed that certain search terms are good indicators of flu activity. Google Flu Trends uses Google search data to estimate flu activity up to two weeks faster than traditional flu surveillance systems managed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Of course, not every person who searches for “flu” or “flu symptoms” is actually sick. But trends do develop amongst the millions of searches done each day. It makes sense when you think about it; people might do a search themselves before they actually end up at their doctor’s office where their case of the Flu gets reported.

By making flu estimates available each day, Google Flu Trends may provide an early-warning system for outbreaks of influenza, and may enable public health officials to better respond to seasonal epidemics and pandemics.

Learn more about Google Flu Trends here.

If you love music, but don’t know about SomaFM yet, you’re really missing something special.

Based in a warehouse in San Francisco, SomaFM broadcasts 14 unique channels of listener-supported, commercial-free, underground/alternative radio.

But SomaFM isn’t a station that you listen to on a regular radio. They stream their music over the Internet, and you listen on your computer. (More about how to do that in a minute.)

SomaFM’s founder Rusty Hodge started the station in 1999 with one channel, and they now broadcast 14 unique channels of music, 24 hours a day. SomaFM’s commercial-free streams are listened to in over 200 countries around the world!

Listening to SomaFM gives you access to music and formats that aren’t available on commercial radio, or formats that are “not being done right” as Rusty puts it.

To listen to SomaFM you use a music (or media) player program on your computer. Mac (and Windows) users can use iTunes. Winamp for Windows plays both aacPlus and MP3 streams. Windows Media Player users can get the Orban aacPlus plugin to hear aacPlus feeds right in Windows Media player.

Just go the SomaFM listen page, to see the different music channels, and get links to the different players and streams.

Here are the 14 fabulous channels they have:

1. Groove Salad: A nicely chilled plate of ambient beats and grooves. (My favorite!)
2. Secret Agent: The soundtrack for your stylish, mysterious, dangerous life. For Spies and PIs too!
3. Drone Zone: Served best chilled, safe with most medications. Atmospheric textures with minimal beats.
4. Indie Pop Rocks!: New and your favorite classic indie pop tracks.
5. cliqhop idm: Blips’n'beeps backed mostly w/beats. Intelligent Dance Music.
6. Beat Blender: A late night blend of deep-house and downtempo chill.
7. Tag’s Trip: Progressive house / trance. Tip top tunes.
8. Illinois Street Lounge: Classic bachelor pad, playful exotica and vintage music of tomorrow.
9. Space Station Soma: Tune in, turn on, space out. Spaced-out ambient and mid-tempo electronica.
10. Doomed: Dark music for tortured souls
11. Boot Liquor: Americana Roots music for Cowhands, Cowpokes and Cowtippers
12. Lush: Sensuous and mellow vocals, mostly female, with an electronic influence.
13. Digitalis: Digitally affected analog rock with a DIY mentality.
14. Sonic Universe: NuJazz + avant-garde EuroJazz. Transcending the world of jazz with experimental takes on tradition.

SomaFM is the soundtrack to my day here at TheoreticalKen. For example, Groove Salad, Secret Agent and Illinois Street Lounge are medium/up-tempo energy, great for listening during the day. Space Station Soma, and Drone Zone are great for those quiet post-midnight working hours!

But try ‘em all! You’ll hear an amazing diversity of music, artists and genres!

How exciting! My wife Michelle’s Unnata Aerial Yoga class was written up in the NY Times “Thursday Styles” section this past Thursday! You can see a copy of the print article over on the Aerial Yoga website. Or if you like, you can read the article on the NY Times website.

As I have mentioned before, the Aerial Yoga class is now in its new location on Bedford Ave. in Williamsburg, and was recently featured on NBC’s First Look NY. In fact, Michelle’s segment on First Look NY was syndicated, and played in the little TVs in the back of NYC Taxi Cabs for about two weeks! Many people called to say that they saw Michelle in their Taxi Cab!

FYI: Tonight (Sunday Oct. 12, 2008), Michelle is doing an Aerial Acrobatic performance at the Zipper Theatre on 37th St. (b’twn 8th and 9th Aves) at 7PM. Come on down for an exciting evening of mixed aerial performances by some of New York City’s leading aerial acrobatic performers!

It’s been a busy week over at my wife Michelle’s Aerial Yoga class! Last night was the grand opening party at the new home of Unnata Aerial Yoga. And tonight, Unnata Aerial Yoga was featured on NBC’s 1stLook NY, on channel 4 at 7:30PM here in New York City.

As I mentioned in June, Michelle moved the class over to a great new space on Bedford Avenue, in the heart of Williamsburgh, Brooklyn. Last night we finally had a house-warming party to introduce the space to everyone. Since Aerial Yoga is a hybrid of traditional yoga and aerial acrobatic training, the evening featured two aerial acrobatic performances (by Michelle, and Angela Jones), one on-the-ground dance performance (by Ede Thurrell), and lots of Unnata Aerial Yoga demonstrations.

The Aerial Yoga TV piece was taped in August, and was featured this evening on NBC’s 1stLook NY, a half-hour life/styles program produced by LXTV.com. The theme of tonight’s program was “Back to School” — different classes for adults to partake in now that the kiddies are all back in school. Aerial Yoga was one of the super-interesting classes available in the New York area that were featured on the show. Also included were: Skydiving and SCUBA diving lessons, Sushi making and Sake tasting, cooking and bar tending lessons, and more. How fun!

You can see the Unnata Aerial Yoga segment on NBC’s “1stLook NY” website, and of course it’s on the Unnata Aerial Yoga website too.

Park Slope, Brooklyn, residents should note that according to the NYC Department of Sanitation, the temporary suspension of Street Cleaning/Alternate Side Parking (ASP) Regulations will end on Monday July 14th, 2008.

The no-parking window (during which the street is cleaned) has been reduced from 3 hours to 1.5 hours, so ASP parking rules were temporarily suspended in May to allow for the replacement of the street parking signs in Park Slope. The work is complete, and the ASP regulations will go back into effect on Monday July 14th, 2008. Read the signs on your street for day/time changes.

Boerum Hill, Carroll Gardens and Gowanus streets have Street Cleaning/ASP Regulations temporarily suspended as of July 7, 2008 for the same reason.

More information about Street Cleaning/ASP Regulations in Sections of Brooklyn here.