For our last episode of 2008, we head to Union Square in downtown San Francisco to check out the offices of the Green Dentist, Nammy Patel. In all aspects of their business, the Green Dentistry strives to be sustainable. From patient care, to interior design, to dental equipment, their common-sense approach to sustainability is a model for green businesses of all types.

This week, we’re in Richmond, California visiting Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park. Park Ranger Naomi Torres gives us an inside look at the past, present, and future of this iconic park in the East Bay.

In this episode, we get the inside scoop from Carrie Ellett, National Program Director for Girls For A Change, a national organization that empowers girls to create social change in their own community. Started in the Bay Area, they are quickly expanding to cities all across America with their National Tour. Check it out and click here to find out how to help!

I got a chance to join more than 1000 volunteers on Hands On Bay Area’s Be The Change Day. There were 22 projects to choose from and I was lucky enough to do invasive plant removal at the San Francisco Zoo.

I stayed away from the Tiger cages, wielding a rake just in case. I was in high demand for my wheelbarrowing skills as we transferred ice plant into a huge compost dumpster. There were a lot of cool people and if you’re in the bay area and want to volunteer, you should definitely check out HOBA’s programs.

After taking my camera to the Silicon Valley EV Rally at Palo Alto High School this weekend, I was inspired to put together a super-short song and video. The valley is a hub for greentech innovation and the owners/inventors were cool folks who would let you ride in their creations. Thanks to the folks at Electroportal.com for letting me ride a sweet bike that improves your pedal speed. Another environmental rap for your ears:

If you are in San Francisco this weekend and you want to see some real underground rappers throw a party, check out the Universal Figures reunion show at the Red Devil Lounge on Saturday night. I got a chance to see them a few times during their hay, and they have some great lyricists including Bucc Rogerz, who has a dope song with Kool Keith on his myspace page. I’ll be in LA and unfortunately I can’t make it.

Jon and F.A.B.

Yesterday, I got a chance to see MC Hammer, Chamillionaire, and Mistah F.A.B. talk about internet music entrepreneurship at the AlwaysOn conference at Stanford. The panel, moderated by Quincy D. Jones, III, was an opportunity to get advice and pick the brain of successful rappers who have used the Internet to build musical networks. Here are some tidbits from the session:

Own your content
Chamillionaire, whose success on the Internet came as a result of mixtapes and ringtones, explained that when he negotiated his first contract, he wouldn’t even talk to a major label unless he had ownership over all of his cyber-entities. Had he backed down, he would have lost big on his record-breaking ringtone sales of “Ridin’ Dirty”. But even with this autonomy, Universal has required him to remove his songs from Myspace. Strange request when you consider Myspace is where his young fans go first to visit him online. Cham pointed out that die-hard fans are starved for content and prolific artists who put out tons of mixtapes (such as Lil Wayne) are well-rewarded when their actual albums hit the stores (1 Million copies of The Carter III in the first week).

Make friends with a true geek
Mistah F.A.B. spoke of the need for any entrepreneurial MC to make sure that they have an “MC CPU”, or a geeky buddy with a laptop on his chain who can pimp out your myspace (or Facebook page for the “grown and sexy” people). “Fabby Davis Junior” pointed to the interaction with the fans as the most important piece to Internet success, citing the Ghost Riding Grannie fan video that has gone “totally viral” on Youtube. F.A.B. claimed that you could find anything on Youtube, from Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech to some footage of him in bed sleeping while he had “the dream”. In other words, F.A.B. was one hilarious panelist.

Never give up
MC Hammer, whose well-documented financial woes might make him seem an unlikely digital entrepreneur, got interested in web video after he was unable to find any of his old music videos on Youtube. Despite his past monetary transgressions, Hammer is the first person from the hip-hop community to go straight to a silicon valley venture capitalist to start his company. His latest venture, Dancejam, seeks to be the Youtube of dance videos.

The discussion went long and they cut the Q&A session, so I was never able to ask my Debbie Downer questions like: Why is there such a paucity of politics in your lyrics? Would you be willing to post a few songs under a Creative Commons license? Which of you dudes showed up in the streched hummer out front?