Ex Machinae started as a solo project for its singer, songwriter and composer Phil Petrie. Petrie and his wife moved to New York in 2005 to pursue similar goals. “Anna [his wife] is an opera singer and I always wanted to do this,” he says gesturing at the musical equipment that currently fills his living room and impromptu band practice space, “so we figured that New York had to be the place to do that,” says Petrie.

The first album released under Ex Machina, meaning of the machine, was the culmination of a year of Petrie messing around with mixing boards and various instruments and music software called Meditations Vol. 1. “I released it online, made tee shirts on cafe press, built a website, even minted and pressed CDs, I think I sold two,” says Petrie.

“Then I messed around for another year, this time throwing in lyrics because that’s what I really wanted to do. I did the synths on my own, programmed the drums, and the guitar. Mixed it, mastered it and released it as Adjustment. Most of the songs that we’re playing live are from that CD,” explains Petrie.

In the Marshalltown, Iowa school district band begins in 5th grade, which is when Petrie first picked up the saxophone and where his musical passion began.
“Jazz was acceptable and what made my parents and the community happy so that’s what I did because it is was easy to get rewarded for it,” says Petrie. However, his musical influences and passions always lie with industrial bands. “Some of the first used CDs my parents bought for me were Filter, Short Bus, The Downward Spiral, My Life with the Thrill Kill Cult, that kind of stuff,” he says.
He continued with brass in high school, participating in every form of after school band available to him and continued it through his college career where he majored in music education and saxophone. However, he eventually realized that he would not be truly satisfied teaching music, what he really wanted to do was make it. This realization eventually lead him to New York and two home studio albums.

With the songs written, a newer band name, a CD released and a website made it was time to recruit members to perform live. The first core member and keyboardist ended up being a friend from Petrie’s childhood; a high school band mate from Marshalltown named Mark Hallam.
Hallam started learning piano at age five and, like Petrie, joined the brass section of his elementary school’s band in fifth grade. Eventually, after high school, he bought himself a nice keyboard and joined a funk jam band for a while. He’d later spend some time in Minneapolis, with no music involved before finances sent him back to Iowa.
Then a series of setbacks struck, the keyboard was eventually sold to help make rent and 2 and half years ago, having no better options, he moved out to New York. “I was getting kicked out of my place in Iowa and had maybe 3 dollars to my name. A few friends were moving two New York in a couple of days and invited me to come along, I didn’t really have much direction at the time so I decided what the hell,” he explains.

In New York Hammal continued his 13-year streak of restaurant jobs and also reconnected with Petrie and, through Petrie, music.

The spot of guitarist was significantly more volatile. Ex Machinae’s first guitarist, Ashwynn Beckett, ran out of money and had to move back home to Texas. The second guitarist moved on to another band. Bassist Scott Bayer’s friend in music Tony III finally filled that gap.

“He and I, we played a whole song together before we ever spoke,” says Tony III, “I was jamming on ‘Sweet Child’O Mine’ and he walked in, picked up the bass and joined in. Then, somebody came in and sat down at the drums. Somebody else came in and grabbed the microphone and sang the song. We did the whole damn song and then he came up to me and said, ‘Hi, I’m Scott, nice to meet you.’ We’ve been playing ever since.”

Like the other members of the band, Barley discovered music early. “In 3rd grade I wanted to play the drums, so I went to Mr. Montpellier the band teacher with my friend Glenn Adams, who was a redheaded prankster. And just as I was about to open my mouth and tell him what I wanted to play Glenn Adams told him that I wanted to play tuba, which, Mr. Montpellier got really excited about because no one ever comes in and wants to play tuba. So, I started playing the tuba in third grade.”

Barley later picked up the bass, then jumped on a motorcycle and headed to Boston to do the starving artist thing for 2 years in a small apartment with Tony who had just dropped out of the Berkley School of Music for personal reasons.

Tony, who went to school for business and music before his father’s death forced him to drop out, has been playing guitar since he was six. “My grandparents said, ‘look, we’ll get you a cheap guitar and lessons and if you stick with them we’ll get you a better guitar. I stuck with it and over the course of about two years I first got a better guitar, then a great guitar that was too big for me and finally ended up with this guitar over here,” he says gesturing to the case leaning against Petrie’s wall, “I’ve had it since I was 8, 30 freaking years.”

Since getting a stable line up Ex Machinae has been doing regular gigs, when they can get them. They’ve been making friends with local acts and bookers and have been focused on getting the word out about the band. Last summer they recorded a live studio EP in the basement of Petrie’s old Astoria apartment. The band’s current focus is simply on increasing their fan base and getting more people to hear and enjoy their music.

However, with such a crowded local music scene it is hard for any new band to get gigs on good nights where people will come out to see you.to be a band in New York City is to be a fish in a pond the size of the city itself. Barley says, “New York is a handicap in that way. If you were in Buffalo there’s like one club and everyone goes to that club every weekend so whoever’s playing is exposed to the whole town. In New York there are so many places to go on any given night.”

Tony has been handling promotion, simply because he loves it. “I’m a natural salesman,” he says, “, that’s how I’ve kept my [freight shipping] business alive for 10 years. If you need to sell ice to an Eskimo, I can do it.” Tony sets goals for himself and helps with the bands gigs. When Petrie mentions a local band he likes and would like to perform with Tony takes a note.

The band has taken a different meaning in each of the band member’s lives. For Barley, who has a 3-year-old daughter, it is something of an escape. “I get to not be a dad, I get to be just one of the guys for a few hours. For a few hours during the week, I get to play rock star,” he says. Tony agrees, “that’s what my daughter says, Daddy is going to go be a rock star for a few hours.” For Tony, who’s been doing music on the side all his life the band is an outlet, “I have to be playing guitar, whether other people are listening or not, because I am a musician and that’s just the criteria.” [MORE]

Petrie and his wife have cut down on things and live as simply as possible to afford themselves the free time to pursue their ambitions. They do a lot of their own cooking and bake their own bread. Their financial situation is stable but “if we missed a paycheck we’d have to make some shitty decisions,” he says, and, “I can’t imagine what I’d do with myself if this couldn’t work out anymore.”

The band doesn’t look like it’s going to be making any money soon but that is not the goal for these guys, they do it because it adds something to their lives. The money they do make at gigs will get put back into the band; they are currently saving up to start merchandising because, for small bands, that is where the money is.

Hallam says, “I’m not looking for money out of it, I’m just glad to be in a type of band that I’ve always wanted to be in, and, if it happens to make money in the future, then so be it.”

Image from Roberto's website

Sitting at a table inside the Meatpacking District’s SoHo House, dressed in a tee shirt, black jacket and baseball cap (“New York Cubans”) and carrying a binder filled with in progress screenplays and DVD screeners, Roberto Monticello looks every part the director, which he is. He has directed and written dozens of plays and movies.He has also spent time searching for escaped Nazis in South America, once coming across a village in Paraguay called “New Germany” where most of the inhabitants happened to be blonde haired and blue eyed.

In between his films, Roberto has fought for human rights all over the world, working with multiple groups. “My title is troubleshooter for human rights groups,” says Roberto.

Roberto’s troubleshooting days began in his native Cuba where he was arrested, at the age of 16, for protesting the government’s crackdown on homosexual artists. “I happen to be the most straight person you could ever meet,” Roberto says. “But, I had gay friends and I protested their arrests, and they arrested me and put me in a rehabilitation camp at the other end of the island.” While awaiting transfer from the camp to a prison facility for adults Roberto made his escape, swimming across Cuba, to the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay.

While imprisoned in Cuba, Amnesty International adopted Roberto as a prisoner of conscience. The organization helped send him to Spain from Guantanamo Bay. In Spain he established himself as an artist and writer, directing over 50 plays and writing 19, he also began his freelance “troubleshooter” career in earnest. “When I came out of Cuba [Amnesty International] offered me a job,” says Roberto, “but I didn’t want to work full time because I wanted to make films…so I became a freelancer.”

Throughout his freelance career he has worked with Amnesty International, the Red Cross, UNICEF and the UN. He has helped defend Native Indian populations in South America, filmed human rights abuses in Soviet occupied Afghanistan, and worked as a refugee camp director in Ethiopia during that country’s widespread famine. Most recently he received the Queens International Film Festival’s Film Humanitarian Award for his work with the Red Cross in Darfur.

“I’ve seen the worst of humanity,” says Roberto, who has the scars to prove it.

“My body has taken a beating,”he says, patting his torso. During his freelance humanitarian career he has been “beat up” on dozens of occasions, knifed twice and shot three times.

He was first shot in Guatemala while documenting the slaughter of the region’s native people by the Guatemalan military. He was also shot during one of his frequent personal trips to deliver medicine to Cuba. “At 2 o’clock in the morning a plane started shooting at the boat. We never knew who was shooting. No one ever took credit for it, of course,” he explains.

Most recently he was woundedwhileworking for the Red Cross in Darfur. “August 28, 2007 was the last time I got shot. They airlifted me to a hospital in London, right? And, I’m in the hospital, in London, and I’m going into surgery, and I say ‘Listen, take the bullets out quick! I need to get back to New York for Fashion Week.’”

When he isn’t traveling with humanitarian organizations or film crews Roberto makes his home in the Meatpacking District and takes advantage of the location whenever he can.  “I come back and I immediately start going to clubs. I’m single now so I try to go out all the time.”

Roberto moved from Spain to New York over 20 years ago, when his interests completely shifted to filmmaking. He has lived in the Meatpacking District for over a decade now. “I moved here and my friends said ‘What are you doing there!?’” Roberto says, smiling. “It was rough. People used to get mugged but I wanted to stay in the Village and this was the cheapest place at the time.”

His taste for adventure, politics and humanity extends to life in New York City, where locals and SoHo House regulars affectionately refer to him as “mayor”. “I saw Jeffry open, I saw Pastis open, I became friends with everybody that was around. So, I know basically all the owners and managers of every club and restaurant in the area. So, people started calling me the ‘mayor’ because wherever I go people recognize me, you know what I’m saying?” Roberto was one of the first members of SoHo House, where his reputation earned him an honorary membership. “I realized I live right across the street, so I started using it as my main office,” Roberto explains as a waitress walks by and asks him how he’s doing.

Roberto pauses to contemplate his career. “I’m 48 now and I started when I was 20 and now…” his voice trails off as he pauses to think on the scope of what he just said. “One day I will need to slow down…Every time I get beat, or shot or knifed I feel it, I do not recover as fast as I used to.” He does not seem to be planning on slowing down anytime soon though.

In January,Roberto will be traveling to Iran with members from the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to try to free students jailed during protests earlier this year. “We have a list of 89 people who disappeared in Iran and we are going to try to use the weight of the Geneva Convention to get them out,” he says, adding, “if they’re still alive.”  After Iran, Roberto plans to go to Somalia to document the refugee camps there. “And then I come back to New York and I’m hoping to do a comedy,” he says laughing heartily. “Well, not really a comedy, but, you know, a regular film.”

One of the “regular” films he hopes to possibly start work on when he returns is a feature about the Cuban singer La Lupe.  It is one of three features that he hopes to film in Cuba as part of his ongoing personal mission to change the U.S.’s stance on Cuba. “Everybody is concerned, ‘Oh, Iran! Iraq! Oh Afghanistan!’ you know what I mean? Nobody’s talking about Cuba, man,” he says. “My goal is to end the U.S. embargo and travel ban in Cuba because it doesn’t affect the Cuban government, it affects the poor people in Cuba. It is cruel and it makes no sense.”

For years now Roberto has done what he can to help people hurt by the embargo.He personally transports boatloads of medicine, donated anonymously by doctors, to the Santiago hospital where he was born, usually multiple times a year.

His desire to help the Cuban people eventually led to his collaboration with journalist, documentarian, and outspoken opponent of the travel ban, JimRyerson. Together the two worked on“Looking For Cuba” a documentary that focuses on the effects of the embargo and travel ban, with Roberto as its main subject.

“Looking For Cuba” began as a documentary about what Jim had personally experienced when he decided to visit Cuba, in 1999. His visit led him to realize that the Cuba that seems to be portrayed in US media is a myth and he wanted to show the “real” Cuba. While working on the film Ryerson did some writing protesting the misrepresentation of Cuba and against the trade embargo and travel ban. Roberto ended up reading some of Jim’s articles and contacted him. “We decided to meet at the Havana film festival and have been friends ever since,” says Ryerson.

With Roberto onboard, the documentary ended up changing tracks from an American journalist’s view of Cuba to Roberto’s story, according to Ryerson. “I often tell [Roberto] that he hijacked my documentary,” he jokes. Ryerson’s company, Traveling Man Productions, also produced “Carnaval De Cuba” a documentary about the Carnaval holiday and religion in Cuba directed by Roberto with Ryerson acting as director of photography.

Despite his dissident status, the Cuban government does not pose itself as much of anobstacle for Roberto’s missions in Cuba. They allow him to freely bring his shipments to the hospital and to shoot his films, though with some supervision. “They tolerate me for two reasons, because I bring humanitarian aid with me and because I bring money in the form of the film projects.” Roberto explains.

While Cuba has allowed Roberto mostly unhindered travel it was the United States that arrested him for the second time.He was charged with illegally traveling to Cuba several years ago. According to Ryerson, his missions were seen as “trading with the enemy.”  The Treasury department froze his bank account and he was threatened with the loss of his passport, though he was a Cuban national.

“But, Roberto is a very special person and ‘You can’t go there’ was not something that someone was going to tell him. He said ‘You can’t keep me from going to my homeland.’” says Ryerson. Or, as Roberto puts it, “After you’ve been shot three times you don’t worry so much about warnings.”

On a 13th street wall, a redcoat stands aiming his rifle at an amorphous cloud of words and color. He appears to be at war with an abstract enemy composed entirely of graffiti. The graffiti appears to be winning. It crawls up his gun, distorting and dissolving the barrel in a miasma of colors, blotches, and letters. In fact, he himself appears to be dripping. The reds, blacks, and whites that give him shape, structure, and existence, run down the wall, threatening to lose all form. The soldier seems to be slowly transitioning from a character in a mural to a random assortment of lines and colors that most would see as graffiti.

The redcoat’s struggle against the encroaching graffiti is today mirrored in the city’s fight to paint over, sandblast and erase the graffiti present along the Highline above him. However, unlike the redcoat, the city is winning. On the buildings along the Highline, it is the decades old graffiti that is being dissolved, overtaken by a new clean grey sheen.

The battle along the Highline is simply the newest in a decades old war between glamour and grit in New York City. Seth Carnes, also known as [sic] is a multimedia concept artist. His Highline “iheart” mural, which he put up “to show love and respect for some of the murals, graffiti and street art created up on the Highline” was, along with the pieces he references, one of the casualties of the repainting. He links the city’s actions to current massive gentrification, describing it as part of “a movement to create a clean sense of nostalgia and history while wiping away signs of a gritty past.” Though, in a neighborhood where trucks still deliver cow carcasses to be cut up, in factories below hotels and parks designed by superstar architects, in the early morning before the European clothing boutiques open, it seems that grit is likely to put up a fight.

Part of the renovation and development of the Highline involved the City Affairs Unit, as part of Mayor Bloomberg’s Graffiti Free NYC program, privately contacting 20 owners whose buildings straddle the Highline and offering remove the faded graffiti that adorned their walls free of charge. 18 of the owners, some of whom were not aware of the program, accepted the offer. As it stands most of the buildings with facades straddling the currently completed half of the Highline have been repainted. The fate of the “public art” on walls along the uncompleted half of the project remains to be determined.

The CAU’s website describes graffiti as a “quality of life” issue and describes its mission, carried out through collaboration with several city agencies, as “a citywide effort to combat graffiti” in order to “keep New York beautiful.”

An amendment passed by City Council to the “Graffiti Free” bill in September was designed to expedite graffiti removal throughout the city by removing the need for a property owner to fill out a graffiti removal request. Instead, owners will be notified that their walls have been targeted for repainting and will be given 35 days to decide if they’d rather do it themselves or keep the graffiti. Manhattan Burrow President Scott T. Singer, in his approval of the bill said that “As New Yorkers, we know how important it is to preserve the unique character of our local neighborhoods.”

Seth Carnes says that graffiti is “part of the original grit of the Meatpacking District much like it was in SoHo”, which would make it a part of the neighborhood’s character. He adds that the creation of the Highline Park “froze the living part of the graffiti up there.” In its frozen state he believes that it is no longer graffiti, but rather signs of the area’s history, some of which deserves to be preserved as “art” for the public to enjoy.

Jake Dobkin, an urban photographer who chronicles New York City street art at Streetsy.com, joins Seth Carnes in mourning the loss of decades of street art, some by artists who are no longer around. “I’m not saying everything along the line is great, but some of the pieces are beautiful and worth saving,” he says.

Dobkin is particularly concerned about the future of the REVS/COST white roller mural on 23^rd street, a potential target of Graffiti Free NYC along the currently uncompleted second half of the Highline.  It is one of the few remaining pieces that arose from the collaboration between artists REVS and COST which is discussed in most books dealing with the history of street art and graffiti and seen as an important development in street art.

The aerial battle above may be mostly over, but grit seems to still be putting up a fight below. Walking, biking or jogging north along Hudson River Park gives a clear view of the battle. The mostly glass Standard Hotel stands in stark contrast to the much more practical red bricks of the meatpacking plants below it. While the hotel and the Highline look clean and modern, the walls and chimneys of the old factories bear the names and tags of people with cans of spray paint and no fear of heights. The base of the tower currently being built at 450 W 14, the building that the Highline passes through after the Standard, currently declares in stark white across its highest windows that “GOD IS L^ove” , the construction company’s ad on the side covers up big blue bubble letters of other taggers.

The center of the Meatpacking District is also filled with examples of street art. Just down the street from the redcoat there is a giant pastiche mural by British artist D*Face sits next to plastered grayscale portraits of New Yorkers by Hugh Leeman. Further down the street is a giant Madonna pin up splattered with electric pink paint shares a wall with a “space invader” made out of pieces of tile.

The bigger pieces in the area may have more in common with the stores and restaurants that have been moving into the area since the ‘90s than with the graffiti that covers the height of Highline touching buildings. Much of it is by visiting European designers and all of it is recognizable by name by people “in the know”. Though they were put up on abandoned buildings like traditional street art, the Madonna piece, by French artist Mr. Brainwash, and D*Face pieces also promote the artists’ respective gallery shows. Bloomberg and the City Council may be fighting to get graffiti off the streets but a lot of modern street artists are finding their way off the street and into nearby Chelsea’s art galleries. When asked why he thinks street art seems to be “hip” at the moment, Joke Dobkin replies “graffiti will always be hip to some people and wack to others. I can’t generalize how New Yorkers feel about it, I can only say it means something to me.”

Photo by Albert Depas. Via the Highline Blog.

On a brisk Tuesday night four men gather in front of a bench on the Highline just south of the looming Standard hotel. Armed with telescopes brought from home, they are here to participate in one of humanity’s oldest pastimes, looking up.

At one point, they invite a cadre of people dressed for a night out to have a look at Jupiter, prompting someone to ask “how much?” The men assure them that the sky is free to look at.

The men are members of New York’s Amateur Astronomy Association, whose members number in the hundreds and which has recently added Tuesday nights on the Highline to its list of regularly scheduled observation sessions.

Joe Delfausse, peering through his telescope’s eye piece, turns a few knobs to refocus his image as a young couple passes by. Satisfied with his adjustments, he calls out to them, “Do you want to see Jupiter?” The young man, looking particularly busy gives a terse “No” and keeps walking but his female companion stops. “Yea! I want to see Jupiter,” she says, as if this is an opportunity she does not want to pass up. Joe waves her over, points out where to look and how to adjust the focus. “See those three smaller dots to the right?” he asks. “Those are its moons,” he explains.

Inviting strangers to stop and see the stars is nothing new to Joe. His New York sky watching days began ten years ago when, per his wife’s suggestion, he set up his telescope on a corner in Brooklyn’s Park Slope. He invited all passers by to have a look becoming, as a 2005 New York Times article called him, “the [neighborhood’s] man with the telescope”. “It’s a social thing for me,” he explains.

Club president, Richard Rosenberg is set up just a few feet south of Joe with his electronic tracking enabled high power telescope. “My Jupiter is bigger than his,” he quips at one point when Joe’s telescope seems to be getting all the attention. With his higher power it is possible to see faint brown lines on the planet’s surface. Rich explains that coming out on the Highline was initially Joe’s idea some time in late August. Rich is a fan of the location, saying, “It’s nice, fairly dark and the people are really nice.” He explains that they only made it “official” with the Highline recently, “They said we never needed their permission but were happy we told them about it.”

Several German tourists stop by and try out each of the three telescopes. One of the women in the group explains that she had read about the observation on line. To the delight of the amateur astronomers she is the first of many. “Like, 80 percent of the people so far knew about it,” Joe tells Rich excitedly, “We really have to make sure that we have people out here now.”

The astronomer and the journalism student. Photo by Albert Depas.

The one association member without a telescope tonight is Jordan Kuschner. Armed, instead, with binoculars and a starchart he hunts for new constellations. “My goal is to learn at least one new constellation a night,” he says while scanning the sky west of Vega for the constellation Draco.

Most people who get asked if they “want a look?” stop and have one. Few people seem to be too busy to pass up the opportunity to see what these men with telescopes in the middle of a trendy Manhattan neighborhood are looking at and to ask questions. Everyone who stops by is surprised to be able to see the moons and to find out that the bright object which they can see with their naked eye is not a star but Jupiter. Joe explains several times throughout the night how the light reflecting off Jupiter works the same way as the sunlight that reflects off of our own moon. One woman waxes poetical about how lucky “they” are on Jupiter to be able to see three moons at night. After explaining that Jupiter has more than the three moons seen through his telescope, Joe agrees but adds that it would be “very cold” on Jupiter.

One of the organizations goals is to “introduce people to the wonders of astronomy” despite New York’s light pollution through these observation sessions. One of the most exceptionally happy passers by tonight is Karen Trevino who works for National Park Services and explains to Joe that she wants to try getting cities to turn down light pollution. She tells Joe, “it’s great; what you’re doing out here.”

Jordan is a self proclaimed optimist when it comes to star gazing in the city. “I was standing on a corner a few months ago, looking up, and a woman driving by asks ‘What’re you looking at?’’ he recounts amusedly. “‘The Summer Triangle’ I told her, and she said ‘You mean you can see anything out here!?’” Jordan has succeeded in finding Draco tonight and now scans for signs of Hercules. He laughs. “Yes, you can. You really can.”

Amanda Raposo(right) and Jessica Mason(left), Came up with Baby's First Home during a Christmas Party.

Amanda Raposo is so busy that, unlike most New York University sophomores, she has yet to look at her fall registration. “People have been telling me to get on it,” she says. “I just haven’t had the time.” She hopes social work classes do not fill up.
Sitting down for an interview in Washington Square Park, Amanda is dressed down for the warm weather, has her backpack slung across her back, and is wearing that slightly rushed look on her face indicative of a busy day not yet over.
Amanda, who attends NYU’s Silver School of Social Work, looks the typical student. However, the list of things on her mind which are more important than figuring out her academic schedule make her anything but.
This list includes a trip to Thailand that she has just finalized, where she and fellow classmates will be collaborating on a book with the Thai Royal Foundation.
Schoolwork and final projects have begun to pile up as the year ends. But most prominent on her mind these days is organizing and developing the summer pilot programs for Baby’s First Home, the first private shelter for teen mothers in New York City where Amanda is cofounder and start-up director.
Baby’s First Home was first conceived during a conversation at a Christmas party in 2007. Since then, the number of founders and organizers, all like-minded young women, has grown impressively. The group hopes to launch their pilot program this summer, which is why Amanda had spent the day in between classes and networking with local organizations.  
Like the conversation that lead to Baby’s First Home, Amanda’s current path seems to have been born through coincidence. She had wanted to go to school in the city, despite her parents’ initial concerns. So, while her mother was setting up tours at nice upstate colleges, Amanda tried to find a tour at NYU. The only tour available at the time happened to be one at the School of Social Work. “I visited with my mom and loved it,” says Amanda, “At that point it was too late for early admission but it was definitely my first choice.”
Despite her enthusiasm, Amanda did have doubts about a school with such a specific role. Her exposure to charitable work before college involved being a student leader for Free the Children, which raised enough funds to build a school in Kenya her senior year. Ultimately, she says, coming to the School of Social Work “turned out to be the best choice I could have made.”

Nick Jensen, a classmate, describes Amanda as possessing “what is referred to as the ‘golden triangle of connecting.’” He describes Amanda’s elements of the triangle as “very intelligent”, “very emphatic”, “socially vivacious” and possessing of a good heart.
Nick and Amanda met in the Advanced Social Entrepreneurship class. Members of the class will be flying out to Japan on May 12 and will eventually meet up with Professor Ellen McGrath in Northern Thailand where they will be touring the site of the most successful drug eradication project in the world, run by the Thai Royal Foundation. Each student will then be responsible for writing a chapter for a book on the concept of empowerment. According to Nick Amanda’s will deal with women.
McGrath says that she “was impressed by Amanda from day 1.” Amanda used the skills from this class and others to help develop Baby’s First Home and Prof. McGrath is astounded by the progress that the program has made.
Amanda first became aware of the problems facing teen mothers while working for 1st Step (Services to Empower Parents) at Bellevue Hospital, where her job involves helping young mothers find the resources they need. Her first reaction to the experience was “not initially positive.” Amanda grew frustrated with mothers she was trying to help not following up on the leads and resources she pointed them toward. One resource was particularly hard to find. “There is no shelter for teen moms in New York City,” explains Amanda.
She realized that this was not the fault of the people she was trying to help but rather the fault of the social position they found themselves in. Lacking time and money the teen mothers could not pursue the resources while also caring for their children.
Then came the 2007 School of Social Work Christmas Party. There, Amanda met, current Reynolds scholar, Jessica Mason. Jessica had also encountered the problems faced by teen mothers in the city. They discussed their mutual frustrations. Amanda told Jessica about her goal of one day opening a shelter using the building her father, a real estate developer, had promised to give her. Jessica explained all the resources that were available to them right now and asked Amanda why they shouldn’t start a shelter right now. “I didn’t have an answer to that,” says Amanda, “so, we shook hands.”
They spent winter break researching and organizing like minded girls and are currently looking to launch a pilot program with the Queens Health Coalition this summer.
Dr. Dina Rosenfeld, the dean of undergraduate studies at the School of Social Work has been “very supportive” says Amanda. She has helped the group behind Baby’s First Home reach out to contacts that could help them and calls the project “ambitious and special.”
Amanda admits that when she and Jessica first shook hands, they had no idea what they were getting themselves into.
“I’ll forget about school work while working on Baby’s First Home,” Amanda admits, “it tends to pile up, but I can usually handle it.”

Andrea Lynn Kaplan shows off her homemade steampunk outfit

Andrea Lynn Kaplan’s outfit suggests that she may not be from around here. Her long black skirt, looking like something from a century ago, was sewn from a tapestry fabric. A flower brooch with a stamen made of watch innards decorates her corset top.
She wears a miniature top hat covered in pennies and keyboard keys, fingerless studded gloves and an armband consisting of a soundcard and panic button. However, the first thing curious passers by ask about is the wooden box with protruding valves and gauges and a clock center that is strapped to her back.
“Oh, that’s my time machine,” Kaplan explains.
When a passing man asks if her outfit is steampunk she smiles and says, “Yep.”
“Five years ago there’s no way someone would have recognized it,” Kaplan says.

The steampunk aesthetic combines the styles and technology of the Victorian age with elements of modern science fiction, adventure, and fantasy genres. Intricate, ornamental, anti industrial and universally applicable in nature, steampunk has found its popularity among various niche communities.
It is being applied to everything from clothing and gadget modifications to artistic reinterpretations of Star Wars and classic myths. Some see it as a return to the elaborate custom designs of the Victorian era. Some view it as a backlash against the norms of mass production and others just think it looks cool.

Kaplan, a 27 year old graphic designer from Manhattan, was introduced to the style two years ago by a sculptor friend. She describes steampunk as “things that couldn’t possibly work in the real world but when they’re made you want them to.”
“Once you know what it is you can find it everywhere,” she explains, citing Joss Whedon’s, wild west meets outer space series, Firefly, and Hayao Miyazaki’s modern fairy tale Howl’s Moving Castle as sharing the anachronistic aesthetics of steampunk.
Kaplan, however, “never really took to the literature.” Instead she found herself impressed by the music and style of groups such as, Dr. Steel, Abney Park and the Dresden Dolls. A graphic designer by trade, she is a fan of “the art part, I like making things to wear and using it as a creative outlet.”

The Time Machine

The Steampunk Laboratory, not to be confused with the similarly named Steampunk Lab, is a monthly workshop run out of the Columbus Idea Foundry by Alex R. Bandar. The workshop teaches interested students real world techniques like welding, soldering and electrical etching in the form of steampunk themed construction projects.
Bandar came across Jake Von Slatt’s Steampunk Workshop blog while on an “art quest” and was very impressed by Von Slatt’s typewriter based keyboard modifications. After browsing the site, Bandar decided to try out the galvanized etching technique that Von Slatt used to customize an iPod. Von Slatt shares the process that goes into all of his projects on his blog. Bandar encountered issues and e-mailed Jake about them. Jake responded with the solutions he had found and Bandar realized that steampunk could become a great learning and teaching opportunity.

He explains that in the pre-Industrial age of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, “if you wanted to make something you had to figure out how to make it yourself, and then invent the tools you needed to make it.” He sees the rise of websites like Instructables.com and MAKEzine as a reemergence of the drive for invention with the added benefit of being able to share one’s inventions with the world.

Mike Perschon is a comparative literature PhD candidate at the University of Alberta who shares the research for his dissertation on the steampunk aesthetic on his Steampunk Scholar blog. He believes that the growing popularity of steampunk as an aesthetic style can be attributed to “its Victorian approach to visual style” and the necessarily higher degree of “artifice and craftsmanship” that goes into it.
“One need only look at the difference between their home computer and the Steampunked ‘difference engines’ which Steampunk makers like Jake von Slatt and Datamancer have produced to see what I mean,” explains Perschon.
He also laments the overlooked nature of what he believes to be the “heart of the culture” the artistic steampunk reinterpratations of myths and popular books and movies that are growing popular among communities of online artists.

Writer, creative commons advocate and co-editor of BoingBoing.com, Cory Doctorow recently wrote an article for MAKEzines latest steampunk themed issue. In the article he explained how he sees steampunk as a way of lashing out against “the mechanization of human creativity.” Quoting Steampunk Magazine’s motto of “Love the Machine, Hate the Factory,” Doctrow envisions a world of desktop artisans, united through the internet, helping each other out and sharing their work with the world.

Perschon describes steampunk as a “grassroots culture.” He sees the lack of “canonical” works as allowing for a level of “creativity and agency” that other fan cultures do not.
The self made nature seems to be a necessary part of the definition of the style.“Putting a sticker picturing gears and brass-work onto your Ipod doesn’t make it Steampunk. Doing what Von Slatt did, by actually engraving his, does,” says Perschon.
Kaplan, the time machine wearing graphic designer, responding to a recent MTV News profile on the style and fears of imminent commercialization explains that, “There is more to steampunk than a pair of brass goggles.”

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department uses Youtube to share unsolved crimes with the public

A detective from a county police department in North Carolina called David Christopher Moss and asked if he could see him at the station to talk about a YouTube video.

According to Moss, the videoshows him approaching a man who appeared to be soliciting a prostitute from a parked van. Moss, who says he was dressed in khakis and a T-shirt at the time, identifies himself as a police officer to scare the would-be John away. The video was uploaded sometime in June to Moss’ YouTube channel where he shares pranks and sketches.

Sometime later, police in Gaston County, NC, received a call from someone who had come across the video and thought that it might interest them. Moss received the phone call on Dec. 1. After carefully reviewing the video, the department had decided to charge Moss with impersonating an officer. He has a trial date in May.

Moss’ case is an example of a growing trend in policing and anonymous tips. Police departments across the nation have been discovering YouTube’s potential as a source of evidence. Now, many departments are exploring new ways in which to use this modern resource.

Departments do not spend time monitoring the web but if tips come in pointing them in the direction of some video that may help make a case “we would be glad to use them” says Officer Jay Rivera of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Arrests attributed to tipsters pointing police in the direction of an online video seem to be on the rise.

In January police with the Summit County Sheriff’s Department in Ohio were able to identify five brawl participants thanks to a tip that lead them to an online video of the fight, according to an official press release.

John Morris, the general counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology says there are no significant legal concerns for law enforcement using anonymously posted online videos. He said publicly posted video becomes “fair game” for authorities to view and use. He also explains that websites cannot be held liable for content posted on them under Section 230 of the U.S.C.

Amateur filmmaker Keith Haskel, who videotaped notorious mash-up street artist Poster Boy for his online mini documentary, “Spending Time with Poster Boy”, agrees with this notion. “I think that when you post something online you’re aware of the consequences, it’s a public forum, anyone…friends, enemies, police is going to be able to see it,” he explains.

Aware of these possible consequences, Haskel offered to completely blur Poster Boy’s face and mask his voice before uploading the video. The street artist, whose face is concealed behind a bandana and who provides voice over in the video declined the offer.

“With Poster Boy that’s his thing,” says Keith “he has no other choice, he does what he does.” The New York Post, which links to Haskel’s video in a Poster Boy article, believes that YouTube videos of the artist will play a significant role in the prosecution of Henry Matyjewicz who was arrested and accused of being the star of Haskel’s and other Poster Boy videos in February and is currently awaiting trial.

Tired of simply observing, many departments across the nation have started their own YouTube channels.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s YouTube channel has been around since mid 2008. It was proposed by the officer in charge of the department’s video sessions as a way of targeting a new audience.

“We were having issues with school violence,” explains Officer Jay Rivera, “and realized that we needed a way to communicate with high school aged people.”

The channel features, among other things, public service videos targeted specifically at youth violence. It is also a way for the department to share press conferences, information about important arrests and videos from “bait cars” that are uploaded in hopes of deterring would be car-thieves. The channel also shares surveillance footage from unsolved robberies and burglaries.

The Indianapolis police department created their personal channel more recently. IndyUnsolved is aimed at sharing surveillance footage and photographs with the public in hopes that they will help spark tips and lead to more solved crimes. It is part of a department initiative to clear unsolved crimes through cooperation with citizens which also includes similar videos being made available “on demand” through local television channels.

“We’d seen it done elsewhere and thought it was a great way to get information out to the younger generation,” said Indianapolis Sergeant Matthew Mount.

Both channels, which share videos made, edited and uploaded by department members, have received significant hits and positive feedback from communities and media. “It’s too soon to tell if it’s lead to any arrests yet,” says Rivera. “No cases have been made yet that can be linked directly to tips from people who saw YouTube videos.”

Rivera hopes that by getting the information out there eventually a video will “trigger someone, [they’ll] see one of our surveillance videos and say ‘hey I go to class with that person’ and call in.”

John Morris, whose organization is “a leading proponent of ‘e-government’” approves of the new methods, stating, “I applaud any effort by any government body to expand its use of the Internet to communicate with citizens.”