In the season final of Brandon Jennings‘ “Under the Armour” series, he arrives in New York City as part of the “Are You From Here?” tour. Jennings, alongside Kemba Walker, Derrick Williams and Greivis Vasquez hoop across Brooklyn, including a matchup with Sebastian Telfair and Lance Stephenson at Lincoln High School in Coney Island. In between games, Brandon spends some time in the lab with Ryan Leslie and stops by Hot 97.

For her new work, artist Eve Sussman and her company the Rufus Corporation traveled to Central Asia in 2008. Over two years she recorded 3,000 filmic fragments that are the material for nearly infinite patterns of “whiteonwhite:algorithmicnoir,” which is on view at the Cristin Tierney Gallery.

“I never in a million years thought I would create an algorithmic film,” Sussman says. “It was an organic process. At first we thought it was a tool. We have different versions of the algorithm.”

The method was inspired by the dismal, looming Soviet architecture common to the region located near the Baltic Sea and the way of life in a small town that served as her home base — a planned, numbered city where the streets have no name, and are identified only by number. The film is shot in both black and white and color film. Her cast includes American actor Jeff Wood and local actors. The footage draws from over 80 voiceovers and 100 musical loops to create a body that serves as the ongoing source for material about post-Soviet existence.

The main character is a quirky scientist, who works as a geophysicist code writer. He is employed in a numeric-based city where an insurmountable challenge looms in the horizon. The film has the mood of mid-century science fiction work. “The edit is driven by the voice over. The numbered system in town added into creating narratives,” she says. She calls the computerized program that creates the form the “serendipity machine.” She and her collaborators wrote the text, translated it into Russian, and then back to English. In some clips, the language is Russian with English subtitles. The effect is sparse, yet wrought with tension.

Despite the variables, the film maintains a fluid narrative that draws viewers into a cohesive story that quickly becomes mesmerizing. Hours pass by as the film continues to meander with machine-driven plot twists. The landscape provides an intimate glimpse into a remote place, but in many ways, has identifiable characteristics of modern day society.

Brooklyn-based Sussman has a long history of making complex, conceptually driven film with her company the Rufus Corporation including “89 Seconds at Alcázar,” “The Rape of the Sabine Women” and the 2009 installation “Yuri’s Office.” “I would say similarities have to do with a suggested narrative without spoon-feeding the story,” she says.

MoMa, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Margulies Collection and Fundación La Caixa have collected her work. This is her first foray into working on a computer-coded film. “It’s a beginning of another way to work,” she says. “We have our own language for this film.”

The exhibition also features a photo series by Simon Lee created during the production “When the future throws a shadow over the land” and a three-screen work, “Wintergarden,” by Sussman and Simon Lee.

Brooklyn-based indie-rock darlings Widowspeak captivated the hearts of fans and critics alike with their eponymous debut album this past summer. Here, the band plucks its minimalist sound through Brooklyn.

Love and girls—what else is there to sing about? For Brooklyn’s the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, the joy and melancholy of relationships gained and lost weave throughout walls of guitars and twinkling harmonies. Following an impressive shoegazing debut LP, the band members—singer/guitarist Kip Berman, keyboardist/singer Peggy Wang, bassist Alex Naidus, drummer Kurt Feldman and guitarist Christoph Hochheim—enlisted studio heavyweights Alan Moulder and Flood to help them produce, yep, more songs about girls and love on their crisp, radio-ready sophomore album, Belong (Slumberland). Here, Naidus completes our easy questionnaire, revealing his earliest musical obsession and which season of Friday Night Lights really makes him bawl.

Life + Times: What’s the first album you ever bought?
Alex Naidus: Megadeth’s Countdown to Extinction. I was 13 and mighty confused.

L+T: What can you recall of your earliest musical memory?
AN: I remember my mom singing “Love Me Do” around the house a lot. My dad is a Stones guy, so he’d kind of snicker.

L+T: What music do you first remember meaning something significant in your life?
AN: Nirvana, definitely. In fifth grade a bunch of eighth-graders did a lip-synced version of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” at a talent show, all dressed up like the video. My little mind was blown. After Kurt Cobain died, I used to write “KC 67-94″ at the top of each page of my notebook or homework assignments.

L+T: What is the most beautiful sound you can think of?
AN: *Swish*

LT: What movie always makes you cry?
AN: I don’t really re-watch a lot of movies. I will say that large swathes of Friday Night Lights (season three, specifically) have made me weep openly. So emo.

L+T: What’s something people might not know about your album, Belong?
AN: What sounds like the drumstick count-in at the beginning of “Heaven’s Gonna Happen Now” is actually Peggy hitting one of Flood’s U2-related Grammys. Wishful thinking.

L+T: Alan Moulder and Flood aren’t an obvious choice for an indie band from Brooklyn. Aside from being fans of their work, what made you realize they were a proper fit for the group and, specifically, this album?
AN: Being fans of their work (and their breadth of work—not just Smashing Pumpkins, but Depeche Mode and the Associates, too) was the impetus, and we knew we wanted to explore bigger, lusher, stranger sounds. We were all really nervous about the logistical reality of working with any producer, let alone legendary guys like Alan and Flood, but they made us feel immediately comfortable around them and (maybe more importantly) with ourselves.

L+T: Let’s say girls didn’t exist. What would you write songs about?
AN: Dudes, definitely.

L+T: Have you ever been in love?
AN: Totally. It’s a really subtle, settling warmth until the person you love leaves. Then it feels like physical disembowelment. Good shit.

L+T: In the Pains biopic, who plays each band member?
AN: Kip: Justine Frischmann
Alex: Bill Murray
Peggy: James Iha
Kurt: Gary Numan
Christoph: Shannyn Sossamon

L+T: Complete the following sentence: “Being from Brooklyn means I can always…”
AN: Make people in Japan think I’m cooler than I really am.

L+T: It’s a rock & roll dinner party. You can invite three rock stars, alive or dead. Who do you invite?
AN: RZA, Charlie Watts and Joey Ramone.

L+T: What song do you wish you’d written?
AN: Archers of Loaf’s “Web in Front.” It’s super short but still anthemic and catchy, also somehow clever and weird. It has endless replay-ability.

L+T: What’s the last lie you told?
AN: “Cool, I’m excited!”

L+T: Tell me a secret.
AN:Everything’s gonna be okay.

Life+Times: How do you guys feel about the fact that as a new band, you sometimes play in front of more critics than actual fans?
Tom McClung: It fucking sucks.
Ellery Roberts: Yeah, that’s why we used to play a monthly residency. The first three of them were like parties—our friends came down. It was pretty fun. And then, as slightly the bullshit bubble of hype started forming around us, there was sort of a mass exodus from London to Manchester. On the train every Saturday would be all these record guys and all these press guys.
TM: And the worst part was that people expected us to be impressed that they were there. Someone would come up to me and go like, ‘That’s Geoff Travis from Rough Trade over there. That’s the guy who signed The Smiths. And it’s just like… he didn’t move during the gig. He just stood there like *folds arms*, ‘Fantastic.’ He didn’t like it, did he?

L+T: In general, what do you think people take away from you guys? Fans do “WU” chants at your shows. Not to mention, you’re a pretty young band to be traveling around the world.
TM: I think the one thing I’ve found in common with all of the fans I’ve spoken to is that they all feel like they have a sense of belonging to what we do. I don’t know if that’s exclusive to us, but it just feels like a different kind of thing. And I like meeting all of these people. It’s good—I don’t want to be a total dick.

L+T: Another thing I noticed about seeing you perform at The Mercury Lounge is that you guys seem to genuinely enjoy playing. For instance, after the shoegazing scene, a lot of bands seemed almost indifferent to play. So, it was like, ‘Why the fuck did I pay to go see you?’
ER: Well, I think the reason we do it is because we enjoy making music, we enjoy playing.
TM: It feels good to prove yourself every time. It feels like you have to prove yourself to these people. If you don’t play well, they’re gonna go, ‘Well, that was a shit show.’ And not a good kind of shit show. Making yourself wanna play better as well so you can go back and write better stuff—some bands don’t want to be bands.
ER: It’s like the “letting go” stage. You can play to a point, but then there’s a wall and if you just let go, it becomes more than just about playing a song. And that’s the bit that excites me.

As creative firm Hayes + Hayes, London-born, Brooklyn-based twin brothers Adam and Nick Hayes have art directed campaigns for top brands, but their biggest project is the one most dear to them. Here, the brothers discuss Dark Age Book 01: Dominion, their first graphic novel offering, seven years in the making.

New York vs. L.A. Brooklyn hosts Compton. Meet rapper Kendrick Lamar.

Within the last couple of weeks, the New York City Department of Education closed Open Road Park, a sanctuary for area skateboarders in Lower East Side, Manhattan. Yet on a summery weekend just this past May, Santigold, her fiancé Trouble Andrew, and Brian Deka Paupaw on behalf of Hoods To Woods Foundation and in tandem with Billy Rohan of Open Road, brought about the construction park’s first mini ramp. In documenting the process, Life + Times also shows you what local skaters are now missing.

Hours before Erykah Badu hops onstage for a performance with My Morning Jacket at the regal, Baroque Louisville Palace theatre, Life + Times finds the Neo-soul pioneer in a chatty mood backstage.

Later in the evening, her image will be broadcast to millions as part of VEVO and American Express’ unique “UNSTAGED” series, in which performers are paired with acclaimed filmmakers—in this case, Oscar-nominated director Todd Haynes, who follows past collaborations such as John Legend, The Roots, and Spike Lee—for an unscripted, live-streaming experience.

Though here, with only her dressing-room mirror to impress, Ms. Badu is exquisite in appearance—her arms and hands are covered with jewelry, a mix of both precious metals, plastics, and plane pendants, and her voluminous ‘fro is straightened down far past her shoulders, calling attention to her piercing eyes.

And yet, like a well-worn traveler, her clothes are weathered, her jeans even tattered. Those travels—her last album, 2010’s New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh), her videography as a director, her inspirations—are the topics of conversation. And when asked as to how the My Morning Jacket collaboration came about, she credits an unspoken unity—being part of the same “tribe,” she says. When asked to explain, she ascribes that unity to a common dislike—of showering. Erykah being… well, you know.

L+T: How’s your non-profit organization B.L.I.N.D. coming along?
Erykah Badu: It’s great. It’s good. You know, our agenda changes every year depending on what the city’s [Erykah’s hometown of Dallas] need is. Right now, we’re doing a DJ camp and a production camp. We’re teaching youth from age 14 to 18 how to use Serato.

L+T: Very cool.
EB: Yeah. And the same age group is learning to use the [Akai] MPC-3000.

L+T: Talk to me a little about your jewelry—the planes.
EB: My jewelry, the planes—it’s the “FLY” line. After I did “Window Seat,” I saw these planes by my girl friend Melody Ehsani. She makes a lot of my stuff, and this is one of the freshest things I’ve seen her do. And we’re doing a line together called “Mothership.” And some of my other pieces came from a street vendor from New Orleans, Dr. Foots.

L+T: So, do you tend to pick up jewelry from your travels? You don’t go to Harry Winston—that kind of thing?
EB: No, I’ve never done that. I just got different taste. There’s nothing wrong with that. I just like these hand-made things.

L+T: What’s your pre-show ritual? What do you do? Do you just mellow out?
EB: It depends. What you have to understand is that I’m a performance artist, 14 years, eight months out of a year. And I make a record when I can. And so, I make a bulk of my money, you know, performing and creating onstage. It’s therapy for me, so the ritual is onstage more than before. It’s therapy. I just look forward to it. I just make sure I’m clean in my heart before I go up there. You know what I mean?