Happy holidays! This is Nick Hollins writing to you, host of the UFO podcast. If you're a new reader, these letters include UFO news, music and curated releases.
This issue we have a free commemorative mint for 2023. Something for everyone who's here and early with UFO.
We find ourselves at the end of a long journey, the end of the beginning of the story. Honestly it's been a troubling and heartbreaking year. With wars and horrifying violence. Sending love to all people and for peace.
With love for our friend Kevin Mendoza who passed away in November.
Kevin was an amazing musician and artist who put great energy into supporting those around him and establishing spaces for creativity. He was kind, generous and visionary. An electric person to hang with. Along with his partners they opened Jaiyen Resort in 2018, an eco retreat space for artists on the waterfront in Koh Yao Noi in Thailand.
He founded WEN Tokyo artists residency and NFT gallery in 2022 with a mission to unite innovators to build the future. When I went to the ETH Tokyo hackathon with Ivano Salonia in April this year, we had the chance to spend a week with Kevin. We hadn't seen each other in-person since 2019 before the pandemic lockdowns, and first got to know each other during an impromptu trip to AfrikaBurn.
Meeting on the street outside a gallery in Harajuku for a crypto art party, Kevin was introducing us to friends in the local artists scene which was cool meeting them. They taught us that Tokyo trains end around midnight, so people tend to stay out all night and get food and be out until the trains come back around 5am.
Catching up with Kevin, he told us about WEN Tokyo which was built on what used to be a hotel in the city. Creating a gallery and residency hosting artists including Ben Kovach, Emily Xie, DeeKay, Matt DesLauriers, Cath Simard, Reuben Wu, Clément Morin, Shavonne Wong and Rik Oostenbroek.
Ivano was meeting Kevin for the first time, and we told him about what's happening with UFO and talked ideas for collaborative projects in the future. I am appreciative we had this time to meet again after a few years.
Sending much love to Kevin's partner, Shela.
Rest in peace to our friend.
Back in April, we flew in to participate in the ETH Tokyo hackathon and explore ideas in onchain music, arts, media, web3 social and communities. Unexpectedly we won a Lens Top 10 Prize for a project playing with live streaming and content ideas for an onchain radio network.
After 10 days in Japan it was time to announce what UFO was doing.
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Quietly this was always the plan. We think a collective signal for the counterculture is an intriguing idea. Something we find worthwhile and optimistic for the future.
Sure enough, people are resonating with it. A network of creators, labels and collectives from around the world is coming together with backgrounds in pirate radio, DIY music scenes, activism, festivals, arts, crypto and publishing.
Still Here with Alex Guy is live with two episodes — Helena Gagern and wijuwiju.eth
UFO 50 will feature the announcement for two new podcast series coming in early 2024.
Plus you're invited to the /ufo channel on Farcaster.
Latest podcasts
UFO 46 Reimagining Content Collecting with Mint & Bello — Adam Levy
Still Here 02 Fulfilling The Internet's Purpose with Crypto — wijuwiju.eth
FM TOUR: AMSTERDAM
tour.ufo.fm is now live for all FM TOUR collectors. This is an experiment from UFO.
8889 tickets for the FM TOUR were minted on Base during Onchain Summer. Within 3 days 7500+ unique wallets had FM TOUR tickets. The mysterious drop had gone far and wide and now these collectors might be an initializing audience for exclusive content and broadcasting.
The first FM TOUR party was in Amsterdam in November. We set up cameras, lights and music gear and invited local artists to DJ — mayo, Boogie Mind, ALE
It was the official after party of MET AMS and FM TOUR collectors had early door list.
The first FM TOUR videos are now live in a members-only channel on Bonfire.
We intend to host more parties next year. Tune into the mystery tour.
Teen Daze — Swimming
Matthew Chaim — Wild (with Reo Cragun)
the park — Settling
UFO is an onchain radio network. A club for music, arts and ideas. Subscribe to be in the loop.
