Some Christmas Music

Sam Billen is a local musician from Lawrence, KS.  He, along with Josh Atkinson,  just completed a new recording of Christmas music entitled A Word of Encouragement.  It is pretty much just a labor of love.  You can listen to it below and even download it for free.  Enjoy!  Have a blessed Advent season.

iPhone Subway Song

This video by the band Atomic Tom was recorded live on a train between Manhattan and Brooklyn in one take using only their iPhones for instruments and cameras.  Pretty incredible.  The song is kind of catchy too.

The Underbelly Project

Deep beneath the streets of New York City in a long-abandoned subway station is an art exhibit featuring the work of some of the world’s best known street artists.  It is called the Underbelly Project.  Outside of the artists who created the work, few have seen this art show.  Its location is a well-guarded secret.  The art cannot be purchased.  The public cannot even view it.  It is hidden deep within the city’s infrastructure.  The only people who might chance upon it are urban explorers and employees of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The project was the idea of two street artists named Workhorse and PAC.  The space, discovered by PAC, was an abandoned station, about the size of a football field, that was never completed.  No tracks were ever laid.  There was no electricity.  Getting there required waiting until an active station was empty in the wee hours of the morning and then sneaking into the dark, uncharted territories of the subway tunnels.  Special ladders were built to help get in and out of the isolated space.  These structures were destroyed after the last art was completed.

Because of the secretive and potentially illegal nature of the project, Workhouse and PAC were very careful about which artists were invited to create works.  One at a time, they would guide each chosen artist into the remote space in the middle of the night.  The artists had four hours to complete their work.  They worked by camping lantern.  When the batteries gave out, there was total darkness.  When their work was completed, they then had to clandestinely return to the outside world without being detected.

Over an 18 month period, 103 international artists created works in the subterranean space—mostly painting and grafitti work but also some installation and sculpture.  Among the artists were names well-known in the street art world like Ron English and Swoon.  Banksy was invited to participate but declined as he was promoting his film “Exit Through the Gift Shop” and felt it was too dangerous for him to attempt at the time.

Below are a few images of the work now hidden away in the Underbelly Project, plus a video of a cool light sculpture piece called “The Shadow Machine.”   These works are probably slowing decaying away in the dark, humid space, perhaps never to be seen again by human eyes.  This is work that truly has nothing to do with the art world or market.  Workhorse has described it as “an eternal show with no crowd.”