Since we released Canta Lechuza from Helado Negro last week, we've received questions from all over the world inquiring about the owl on the artwork. The owl. Elementary school teacher Clarisa Uton from Idaho wrote in, "Dear AK, Canta Lechuza is a lovely album, but why is Roberto [of Helado Negro] taking a bath with the owl? Is that what the kids are doing these days?" And Paul Frank, a tea-shop proprietor asked, "I'm curious about the owl. How could I not be? Clearly, it represents something important. A totem perhaps? But what does it mean? My wife thinks it's meaningless, but I feel it has some importance. Please settle this debate between my life partner and me."
 

We're afraid, Clarisa and Paul and world, that we cannot answer those questions or settle any debates. To do so would mean delving deep into the layered mind of Roberto Carlos Lange (aka Helado Negro), a feat we dare not attempt for fear of never returning. 
 

But what we can do is offer an opportunity to wear the owl. Longtime Roberto collaborator David Ellis has designed a gorgeous and minimalistic take on The Owl, which you can see in greater detail here. It's $14. It may not offer answers, but it will offer style and slight protection from the elements. These days, that's all one can expect from a t-shirt.
 

That is, unless you buy the shirt and the MP3 version of the album for $19. The t-shirt will arrive via mail, the MP3 via your email within 30 minutes of purchase. Both will enlighten, but we make no guarantees. Click here to give it a shot.

On display this Saturday in Brooklyn is a collaborative video and live performance from artist Nene Humphrey. Roberto Lange, aka Helado Negro and Epstein, worked extensively with Nene on the music composition, partnering also with songwriter and performer Julie DeLano and cinematographer Christopher Keohane.
 

In what began as a meditation on the loss of her husband, Nene Humphrey layers sound, film and live performance in the piece she is calling Circling the Center. Images of electrical circuit boards, animated MRI's, braiding weaving patterns and a 19th century papier maiche brain model are layered with the sounds of rats serenading each other in a neuroscience lab, human breathing, a metronome and the chanted directions for crafting Victorian mourning braids, creating a film projected on a large scrim. Three women behind and in front of the scrim perform an original vocal dance piece at selected intervals.