6/30/08

July 12, 2008 AFRODISIAC


July 12, 2008 AFRODISIAC

At Sonotheque... 1444 w chicago. this should be beautiful.

Get your Afro groove on with DJ TopDonn as he spins lush African beats and rhythms.

A truly memorable night of world music that pushes the envelope on diverse urban entertainment.

Featuring the best in African rhythms including: Kwaito, Ndombolo, Makossa, Coupe-Decalle, Zouk & Kompa!

Hosted by: Aurelien PV

9pm-3am
$10 cover

Links to African music:
http://www.geocities.com/fbessem/frames/framemus.html
http://www.radioafrica.com.au/
http://www.sternsmusic.com/
http://www.myspace.com/analogafrica
http://likembe.blogspot.com/
http://matsuli.blogspot.com/
http://analogafrica.blogspot.com/
http://www.myspace.com/africabeat
http://www.voanews.com/english/africa/blog/
http://www.musicvideos.the-real-africa.com/
http://awesometapesfromafrica.blogspot.com/
http://zulurose.podomatic.com/
http://www.bolingo.org/audio/africa/congo/disco/45/african45/african_45.htm
http://www.africanmusiciansprofiles.com/
http://bolingo.org/audio/africa/congo/disco/
http://biochem.chem.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~endo/africa.html
http://www.soundwayrecords.com/

Kwaito:

Kwaito is a music genre that emerged in Johannesburg, South Africa in the early 1990s. It is based on house music beats, but typically at a slower tempo and containing melodic and percussive African samples which are looped, deep basslines and often vocals, generally male, shouted or chanted rather than sung or rapped. More recently, Kwaito artists like Zola have rapped their lyrics in a hip-hop style, while others such as BOP and Oskido have sped up their beats and toned down the male chants to create a softer form of Kwaito or african house. Other prominent kwaito artists include Arthur, Mandoza and Mzekezeke. Kwaito's lyrics are usually in indigenous South African languages or in English, although several languages can be found in the same song. The name Kwaito itself is derived from the Afrikaans word Kwaai, meaning "angry", a word that has acquired a "cool" connotation.

Ndombolo:

The fast soukous music currently dominating dance floors in central, eastern and western Africa is called soukous ndombolo, performed by Awilo Longomba, Aurlus Mabele, Koffi Olomide and groups like Extra Musica, Wenge Musica among others.

The hip-swinging, booty-shaking dance to the fast pace of soukous ndombolo has come under criticism amid charges that it is obscene. There have been attempts to ban it in Mali, Cameroon and Kenya. After an attempt to ban it from state radio and television in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2000, it became even more popular. In February, 2005 ndombolo music videos in the DR Congo were censored for indecency, and video clips by Koffi Olomide, JB M'Piana and Werrason were banned from the airwaves.

Makossa:

Makossa is a type of music which is most popular in urban areas in Cameroon. It is similar to soukous, except it includes strong bass rhythm and a prominent horn section. It originated from a type of Duala dance called kossa, with significant influences from jazz, ambasse bey, Latin music, highlife and rumba. While the makossa style began in the 1950's, the first recordings were not seen until a decade later. Artists such as Eboa Lotin, Misse Ngoh and especially Manu Dibango popularized the style outside of Cameroon in the later 1960s. Makassi is a lighter style of makossa. Sam Fan Thomas developed and popularised this variation in the mid-1980s and made makossa potentially more marketable.

The two musicians largely credited with modernising makossa are Manu Dibango and Emmanuel Nelle Eyoum. Eyoum start using the term 'kossa, kossa' in his songs with his group "Los Calvinos". But it was Emmanuel 'Manu' Dibango which popularised it to the world with his song "Soul Makossa" which came out in the early '70s with the famous chant 'mamase mamasa mamakossa', which was later used by Michael Jackson in "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" and Rihanna in "Don't Stop The Music" ('ma ma se, ma ma sa, ma ma coo sa').

Coupe-Decalle:

Coupe-Decalle, a dance phenomenon born in Paris in 2002, saw its origins emminating from the Ivory Coast. Artists like Joe Pappi and Douk Saga are true originators of the form, with its reliance on Congolese rhythms. Coupe-Decalle, like Jazz, soul and funk, has its own particular dances going under the names Orudencia, Farot-Farot, the Leapfrog, Sentiement, Moko, Konami, Foula Fouka and Festiboulance.

Zouk:

Zouk is a style of rhythmic music originating from Guadeloupe and Martinique. It has its roots in kompa music from Haiti, cadence music from Dominica, as popularised by Grammacks and Exile One. Zouk means "party" in the local creole of French with English and African influences, all three of which contribute the sound. In Europe it is particularly popular in France, while on the African islands of Cape Verde they have developed their own type of zouk.

Kompa:

Kompa (sometimes written Compas Direct, konpa direk, konpa or compa) is a musical genre as well as a dance that originates from Haïti. It was first explicitly named «Compas Direct» by Nemours Jean-Baptiste on a recording released in 1955. The name derives from compas, the Spanish word meaning rhythm or tone. It involves mostly medium-to-fast tempo beats with an emphasis on electric guitars, synthesizers, and either a solo alto saxophone, a horn section or the synthesizer equivalent. Unlike zouk, the lyrics are mostly in Haitian Creole, and it has a faster rhythm than zouk.

6/27/08

flooded london



Some designers at De Zeen have posted the future of london afflicted by rising sea levels.

6/26/08

What is Public Media Institute?


Many of you who know about Lumpen and our space the Co-Prosperity Sphere don't know that the parent .Org of many of our other projects like Select Media Festival and Version is the non profit arts organization, Public Media Institute. In this year of the Weird Turning Pro, the PMI website is now up. Everything you wanted to know about PMI is now in a sweet little infoblurby website. From the site:
Public Media Institute is a non-profit community-based grass roots arts and culture organization based in Chicago established in 2001. Our mission is to promote art, technology and social activism in order to transform people - socially and intellectually – through the production of festivals, events, exhibitions, community projects, artifacts and other media.

Programming includes two international annual arts festivals, Version and Select Media Festival and Proximity Magazine, the international arts and culture journal that debuted at in April, 2008

Public Media Institute also produces artifacts and showcases emerging and established artists and cultural workers, in the communities that they live in. Public Media Institute is committed to engaging the questions of our youth and residents of our communities through education, activism, events and media. Our projects address the conditions in the participants’ lives and the networks that connect everyone globally.

INFOPORN - SMF7 coming to Chicago



Announcing the Seventh Annual Select Media Festival: INFOPORN
Deadline for submission: September 1, 2008

>start>>>>
Heartbeats. Beverages. Products and byproducts. Things we make, and things that make us. Seconds, minutes, millenia. From the mundane to the majestic, it can all be documented, diagnosed, understood, dispersed. Right?

Graphs, charts, and maps record data, keep history, and document our existence. Sometimes, they provide visual and aesthetic stimuli too. Select Media 7: INFOPORN will be a visual explosion of these points and paths, these executions and exercises and maps. We want to put these moments on display, to measure them out out. We want to understand and appreciate; be enraged, enlightened, amazed by them. We want to feast.


WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR!

INFOPORN EXHIBITION
all media formats

Send your greatest hits or make something new. Use color, shape, form, sound. Use marbles or twigs. Use a computer, a camera, a crayon. The data is the art and you are the simple stenographer. Measure it. Record it. Jot it down, plot it out, pass it out, and capture it. Let us see it, let us relate to it, let us celebrate or begin to understand it.

A SUBJECTIVE ATLAS OF CHICAGO
all media formats

Document the thing that has the greatest effect on your existence in Chicago. Realign existing info, or imagine new ways of navigating the city. Maps political or personal, realism or utopia, rollerblades or red tape, online or inline: it's all legit. Draw conclusions if you want, but they are not necessary. A publication/project will be created and released/exhibited at the festival.

>>>

Deadline!
September 1, 2008

Send PDFs, posters, boxes of dirt, publications, CDs, DVDs, cassette tapes, crayon boxes, maps in bottles, urls, ftp sites, etc. to:

Select Media Festival 7
960 W 31st Street
Chicago Il 60608

or email smfinfoporn@gmail.com
http://www.selectmediafestival.org

other contact info::

ph: 773.837.0145

smfinfoporn(at)gmail.com
Edmar
Gregory Calvert

//////

6. Call for Work! Bridgeport All-Stars!

Do you live in Bridgeport, the community of the future? Are you an artist or cultural worker that makes stuff? Then send us an email at edmarlumpen (at) gmail.com We are seeking fresh work to check out made by inhabitants from the 'Port for possible inclusion in a group show that will open on August 8, 2008 at the Co-Prosperity Sphere. http://www.lumpen.com/CPS/about.html

We want to see your work by July 1, 2008 So get your shit together.

The Bridgeport All Stars exhibition will showcase the fantastic array of work made by the secret stars of the overground art scene bubbling forth from the Southside. Please send us a website url , sample jpegs and whatever. Show is curated by the C-PS welcoming committee.

6/25/08

obama meet up



Join us on Saturday June 28, 2008 for Artists for Change (Unite for Change) @ The Co-Prosperity Sphere

This event is about bringing all types of artists together to unite and make a difference. We want all artists to unite and use their creative powers and gain an overwhelming support for Barack Obama. You'll gather -- not just with Obama supporters, but with anyone who's tired of the politics of the past and ready for something new -- to discuss our common vision for the future. And you'll start planning how to build this movement across the country in the weeks and months ahead. So, come join us for a brief (but hearty) presentation and discussion about supporting Barack Obama.

Please RSVP @ http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/4gldk

Once again, your attendance is much appreciated.

6/23/08

Many reasons why McCain Sucks


Start freaking out..
John McCain has long been a major player in a radical militaristic group driven by an ideology of global expansionism and dominance attained through perpetual, pre-emptive, unilateral, multiple wars. The credo of this group is “the end justifies the means,” and the end of establishing the United States as the world’s sole superpower justifies, in its estimation, anything from military control over the information on the Internet to the use of genocidal biological weapons. Over its two terms, the George W. Bush administration has planted the seeds for this geopolitical master plan, and now appears to be counting on the McCain administration, if one comes to power, to nurture it.


Link Global research

6/21/08

Feasibility Study: Indulging Anxiety


Feasibility Study: Indulging Anxiety from Ryan Fedyk on Vimeo.

Feasibility Study is an illustration of a man's anxious emotional struggle the day after he loses his job. The goal was to make more of an emotional landscape than a concrete narrative. This was my Masters thesis project at the Glasgow School of Art
by Ryan Fedyk

Chicago neighborhood map



You will notice i am geeking out at strange maps.
more research for an upcoming select media festival themed INFOPORN

Not many people know that the epithet Windy City was bestowed on Chicago not for meteorological but political reasons – apparently, Chicago politicians at one time were known for the windiness of their speeches. Its Latin motto – Urbs in horto; the city in the garden – reflects its spaciousness, as it sprawls out in all directions save that of Lake Michigan, on the shore of which it was founded.

Another nickname, the Second City, belies the fact that it is now the third-largest US city, after New York and Los Angeles, with almost 3 million in Chicago proper and almost 10 million in its metro area, dubbed ‘Chicagoland’. The Indian term at the origin of the city’s name, shikaakwa, means ’striped skunk’, by the way.

Neighbourhood-wise, the branches of the Chicago River divide the city in North, West and South Side. Sociologists have further divided the city in anything from 77 up to over 200 different neighbourhoods. This map chops up Chicago into 91 ‘hoods, which obviously leaves out many of the 200-plus in the most detailed overview. But the typography, whereby the name of each ‘hood fills out its assigned space as fully as possible, is pretty cool nevertheless.

This map was suggested to me by Jez Robinson, who found it here at orkposters, who designed (and sell) the map.

Everybody Is Against Everybody...


(click to enlarge map) From Strange maps:

‘Everybody Is Against Everybody – Somebody Has To Be For Them’: the message behind this Amnesty International poster is ultimately a pessimistic one – war is so endemic to the human condition that we can’t hope to eradicate, only to alleviate it.

That rather hobbesian world view is underscored by this world map composed of soldiers, warriors and fighters of every colour, creed and continent, a veritable United Nations of War, all placed as geographically correct as possible: from loinclothed tribes armed with long sticks or bows and arrows make up much of South America, while the north of the continent is lined with belligerents in Pilgrim dress, Revolution-era garb, Civil War uniform and even the Ku-Klux Klan costume. And so on for each continent, mutatis mutandis.

read more


China As an Island


China has land borders with 14 other countries – a world record*. And yet you should not think of China as particularly well-integrated with its neighbours. In fact, as shown in this dramatic map, you should rather consider China to be an island.

That stark image can be found illustrating this article on John Mauldin’s Outside the Box, a blog at Investors Insight, which is a website dedicated to ‘Financial Intelligence for the Informed Investor’. On his blog, Mr Mauldin hebdomadally profiles one of the many articles he reads each week, to challenge and stimulate investors to ‘think outside the box’. What follows is a very brief summary of the article he recently highlighted: ‘The Geopolitics of China’, taken from a series of Geopolitical Monographs by Stratfor.

from strange maps!

One Day = $720 Million



Video link thanks Philip Von Zweck

6/20/08

Americans Lose in Wiretap immunity

It's pretty amazing that the lame duck prez wins his court case regarding whether or not the phone companies can be prosecuted for illegally handing info to the feds. The Democrats capitulated. Turns out the telcos have immunity and we are facing a permanent overhaul of the wiretap laws. If and when it passes we will all lose even more civil liberties.
WASHINGTON — After months of wrangling, Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress struck a deal on Thursday to overhaul the rules on the government’s wiretapping powers and provide what amounts to legal immunity to the phone companies that took part in President Bush’s program of eavesdropping without warrants after the Sept. 11 attacks.
....

The lawsuits will be dismissed,” Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri, the No. 2 Republican in the House, predicted with confidence.

The proposal — particularly the immunity provision — represents a major victory for the White House after months of dispute.

“I think the White House got a better deal than even they had hoped to get,” said Senator Christopher S. Bond, Republican of Missouri, who led the negotiations.

The White House immediately endorsed the proposal, which is likely to be voted on in the House on Friday and in the Senate next week.


6/19/08

Congress set to vote on telecom spying immunity TOMORROW -- write to your rep NOW!

thanks again boing boing for alerting us to the nw spying laws



After weeks of empty rhetoric about coming to a "compromise" on new spying laws, the House of Representatives is set to vote on telecom immunity tomorrow. The bill is HR 6304 and contains the exact same blanket immunity provisions, only with a few cosmetic changes so that political spin doctors can claim that it actually provides meaningful court review.

Whether or not Congress decides to offer immunity for telecoms that cooperated in warrantless spying programs is a key part of the broader battle over the Bush Administration's legal doctrine of unchecked executive power.

If you live in the US, please visit stopthespying.org, find your Representative's phone number in Washington D.C., and tell them to oppose immunity for lawbreaking telecoms!

Hello Pics



We print these hello pics in Lumpen magazine. As I continue to find images from various computer hard drives I will update the various sets... Enjoy!! Send you pics to me at ed(at) lumpen (dot) com for possible inclusion in the next Hello page

6/18/08

How to Nap



Scott Beale of Laughing Squid says:

Boston.com has posted an excellent graphic on “How to Nap” in their “Ideas” section.

US General Accuses Bush Administration of War Crimes

photo

Abu Ghraib 37 (2005), by artist Fernando Botero

Woohoo! Finally one of our military guys is saying what we have all been sayin' for the past 5 years!

Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba (now retired) served as the deputy commanding general for support for the Third Army for ten months in Kuwait during the early days of the Iraq occupation. In a statement released today, he bluntly accuses the Bush administration of war crimes and lays down a challenge for prosecution.

Link: Truthout

Call for Work: The Bridgeport All Stars




Do you live in Bridgeport, the community of the future? Are you an artist or cultural worker that makes stuff? Then send us an email at edmarlumpen (at) gmail.com We are seeking fresh work to check out made by inhabitants from the 'Port for possible inclusion in a group show that will open on August 23, 2008 (NEW DATE!!))) at the Co-Prosperity Sphere. http://www.lumpen.com/CPS/about.html

The Bridgeport All Stars exhibition will showcase the fantastic array of work made by the secret stars of the overground art scene bubbling forth from the Southside. Please send us a website url , sample jpegs and whatever. Show is curated by the C-PS welcoming committee.

Thunderhorse Video Collective (and friends) at Hyde park Art Center

Reuben Kincaid Artists' Thunderhorse Video collective will be setting up their space adventure ride at the Hyde PArk Art Center this Saturday as part of the Clothesline:Movememnt festival @ Hyde Park Art Center

View the promotional video below or right here:

Party Planet Promo VHS

And Michael Perkins and Pure Magical Love is The Capricorn will be performing !
come in the evening. stay for the magic. then go back north around 10pm to see the show in Bridgeport with Adam farcus at 32nd place and Morgan >> visit: http://www.secondbedroomproject.blogspot.com/

Details:
June 21, 3pm - 10pm
Clothesline: Movement @ Hyde Park Art Center
5020 S. Cornell

On the day of the summer solstice and the International Day of Music HPAC is hosting the third clothesline event and its shaping up to be the best and most exciting of all.
http://www.hydeparkart.org/exhibitions/2008/06/clothesline.php



psycheographic TRIP in Manchester



TRIP begins this June 19 in Manchester. billed as a A PSYCHOGEOGRAPHIC SERIES OF EVENTS AND PHENOMENA including…
  • Neogeography
  • Deep topography
  • Urban interventions
  • Locative media
  • Collaborative Mapping

Psychogeography is word you may not have heard before. Even if you have, you may not be quite sure what the word means. Is it to do with psychology? Or has it more to do with geography? Is it a combination of the two, and if so, how do they fit together?

Over the past century, psychogeography has played an increasingly important part in the radical re-thinking of urban space. From the Situationists who were active in Paris during the 1968 riots, to major London novelists of the 1990s like Iain Sinclair and Peter Ackroyd, to many of today’s leading urban designers, psychogeographic experiments continue to produce unusual and provocative approaches to the city.

And anyone can do it.

For the first time in the UK, TRIP brings together psychogeographers from all over the world, to show new work, exchange ideas, and create new energies.

TRIP explores the many and various directions in which artists, performers, writers and theorists are taking psychogeography in the twenty first century. TRIP is a new event, combining an art festival and a conference, alongside a parallel programme of fringe activities. Activities are taking place at various venues in Manchester, including URBIS, Green Room, the Royal Exchange Theatre, and Manchester Metropolitan University. TRIP’s academic conference is organised by Manchester Metropolitian University and takes place at the John Dalton Building, Oxford Road. Its programme of papers includes several speakers who will produce artworks or performances for the public.

obama art



made of tacks! woo hoo!
Link

6/17/08

First gay couple married in Cali



Actor George Takei, 71, and Brad Altman, 54, were the first couple to ever receive their marriage license in the City of West Hollywood. Takei and Altman will have a wedding ceremony in September in the Democracy Room of the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.

The couple have been together for 21 years and were invited to be part of the ribbon-cutting ceremony inviting the couples into West Hollywood Park to receive their license. Many couples even went on to have wedding services performed in the park under wedding gazebos, surrounded by music, flowers and passed decorated cupcakes.

found photos



I just re-discovered the flickr account and have been uploading tons of pics.
Notably this one from a party at Version >03 at buddY with Dearraindrop getting swarmed by a bunch of naked guys. The lead dude in the band (who's name i forgot) kept calling people "faggot", so Joe Proulx organized this little message for them. It was the first time i had to stop people from dancing because the floors seemed to be caving in.
here ya go>>

6/16/08

Reverse Graffiti Project



On April 15, 2008 in San Francisco, Green Works brought together an English reverse graffiti artist and a critically acclaimed documentary filmmaker, to create an environmentally friendly work of art and a film about a philosophy of clean.

San Francisco’s Broadway tunnel is a highly traveled thoroughfare in the heart of the city. Over 20,000 cars, trucks, and motorized vehicles pass through it per day. Its walls are caked with dirt and soot, and lined with patches of paint covered graffiti from days gone by. It set the perfect canvas to create a beautiful work of art showcasing the talents of reverse graffiti artist “Moose”, and the power of Green Works plant based cleaner.
Link

Mall of Misfortune


I think we’re alone now: on a Sunday, when shopping centres are usually bustling, the largest mall in the world is empty. Philip Gostelow for The National

The people who work at the South China Mall, in the muggy, factory-filled city of Dongguan, have the honor of passing each day in the biggest shopping mall on the face of the planet. In theory, it’s a glorious place: a seven-million-square-foot retail-and-entertainment behemoth in the heart of China’s southern Pearl River Delta, the wealthiest region in a nation that boasts the world’s biggest population and its fastest-growing major economy. The mall is part of China’s new arsenal of superlatives: the world’s largest airport terminal, the highest train track, the golf resort with the most holes.

The employees of this giant mall could, if they wanted, spend their breaks driving bumper cars, browsing for house-wares, strolling along a Venetian canal, petting fake herons in an indoor rain forest, or gazing at an eighty-five-foot replica of the Arc de Triomphe – all, of course, without leaving the premises. They could also picnic next to the bell tower of St Mark’s Square in Venice, soak up the ambience of San Francisco, or take a ride on the mall’s indoor-outdoor roller coaster, a 553-meter flying railway known as Kuayue Shi Kong, or “Moving Through Time and Space”.

As it happens, it’s just those things – time and space – that give so much trouble to the workers here. They have too much of both. On a recent Friday afternoon, an amusement-park employee, slouched in a forsaken ticket booth, tried to kill time by making origami. Another worker slept, with perfect impunity, on a table. In front of the haunted house attraction, one attendant was doing hand-stands while two others looked blankly on.

There was nothing else to do, because the South China Mall, which opened with great fanfare in 2005, is not just the world’s largest. With fewer than a dozen stores scattered through a space designed to house 1,500, it is also the world’s emptiest – a dusty, decrepit complex of buildings marked peeling paint, dead light bulbs, and dismembered mannequins.
Link: The National

Next month 101 publishers will be coming out with this awesome book that will contribute a lot to understanding the future of Chinese malls like the one described above.:
The Chinese Dream: A Society under Construction.

Dreaming is not Chinese. By 2020 four hundred million farmers will be living in new cities. The urban middle-class will have doubled in size. The world’s biggest pool of one-child consumers will be out shopping. To accommodate these shifts the equivalent of a brand new Eurozone, or 400 mega-cities, is mushrooming in the Chinese countryside. There is barely time to sleep, let alone dream about the future. The Chinese Dream maps what urban China will probably be like in the year 2020, and investigates what alternative scenarios are feasible. It presents both the hopes and hazards China faces. Ignoring star-projects and focusing instead on the new forms of urban reality China is fast producing through countless anonymous development projects, it asks what landscape will result from the largest migration in human history? And what kind of society will emerge with such flash-urbanization? At the same time that a global energy crisis looms and China’s wealth gap is rapidly widening, we question whether China is inevitably reconstructing the American Dream. Through diagrams, facts, essays and interviews the Dynamic City Foundation (DCF) has sketched alternative routes, a conceptual leapfrog in urbanization: a new dream which transcends the current market-driven reality and lands in city forms as yet unseen.

Combining a conceptual approach with in-depth analyses, the Dynamic City Foundation looks to tackle the big questions facing China’s cities of today, and sketches routes into their futures.

Burj Dubai construction



http://www.flickr.com/photos/87504328@N00/405790364/in/photostream/

nike swooshed



from rebelart
www.rebelart.net/diary/wp-database/uploads/2008/award1.jpg

The Bubble

How homeowners' missed mortgage payments set off widespread problems and woke up the Fed. By Zachary A. Goldfarb and Alec Klein • The Washington Post Monday, June 16, 2008; Page A01

Barack on father's day



Barack addressed the congregation at the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago, IL on June 15, 2008.

Website of the Day: Torture and the American Psyche

Torture and the American Psyche

Solve, Chicago street artist murdered

From the upset blog:

Prominent renegade Chicago street artist, Solve, was one of four homicides registered in Chicago this weekend, raising even more the already large number of violent crimes and shootings in the city this year.

Only twenty-five (or 24) years old, Solve, A.K.A. Brendan Scanlon, was found with multiple stab wounds to the chest at 3032 W. Palmer Blvd. at 2:40 a.m.

A suspect has been charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing of Brendan Scanlon

The murder Of Brendan Scanlon delivers a overwhelmingly saddening blow to the art and graffiti community of Chicago. Solve was a major influence and participant in the emerging and struggling Chicago street art scene in a city with one of the strongest anti-graffiti laws and tactics in the United States.

This rise in violence in Chicago continues to grow.
Over the past few months, Chicago has seen an increase in gun violence. In the month of April 2008 alone, approximately 40 people were shot and 12 people died in Chicago. Most of the killings happened in just one weekend, where 36 people were shot and 9 were murdered. Most of the shootings were from stolen guns and assault weapons. The majority of the shooters were young men who were under 21 years of age.

Mayor Daley blames the availability of guns for contributing to the violence. Reports are that the police in the city will soon be armed with assault rifles, so that they can match the firepower of the street gangs.

Brandon will be surely missed and never forgotten for his dedication to his artwork and his unselfish acts of sharing them.
R.I.Power Brandon 'Solve' Scanlon.




T.V. placed on Chicago blue line by Solve 2/ 13/ 2008

Video Interview

www.middlemindproject.com/solve
flickr.com/photos/solve
Interview with Solve on Gapers Block.

6/15/08

Will the GOP sink now?



Two recent articles about the state of the GOP worth reading.

High noon for the Republican Party: Why the G.O.P. must die
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/07/0082094
This is the cover story in Harper's. you 'prolly got to subscribe.

LUKE MITCHELL: We seem today to be involved in a kind of trench war, in which the two sides battle in election after election over just a few inches of ground-say, Ohio and Florida with no real long-term results other than the further degradation of democracy. How did we reach this impasse?

KEVIN BAKER: Well, obviously the two-party system has always had problems. The founders thought the entire notion of having political parties was a bad idea, at least at first. They worried that parties would come to care more about themselves than the state, maybe even invite other countries in, other kings in.

MCCONNELL: Unfortunately, it's not easy to run a republic without some kind of party system. It's inevitable that a nation is going to have different class and sectional interests, and parties allow those factions to channel their disagreements relatively peacefully. This is especially true in a democracy that is, at least in theory, answerable to large groups of people.

KEVIN PHILLIPS: The problem today, though, is entrenchment and atrophy. The Democrats and the Republicans are now among the oldest parties in the world. Their origins bear no relation to much of anything today, and as a result they are mostly interested in the people who give them money.


AND>>>>

FOCUS | The Fall of Conservatism
http://www.truthout.org/article/the-fall-conservatism
George Packer writes for The New Yorker: "The era of American politics that has been dying before our eyes was born in 1966. That January, a twenty-seven-year-old editorial writer for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat named Patrick Buchanan went to work for Richard Nixon, who was just beginning the most improbable political comeback in American history. Having served as Vice-President in the Eisenhower Administration, Nixon had lost the Presidency by a whisker to John F. Kennedy, in 1960, and had been humiliated in a 1962 bid for the California governorship. But he saw that he could propel himself back to power on the strength of a new feeling among Americans who, appalled by the chaos of the cities, the moral heedlessness of the young, and the insults to national pride in Vietnam, were ready to blame it all on the liberalism of President Lyndon B. Johnson. Right-wing populism was bubbling up from below; it needed to be guided by a leader who understood its resentments because he felt them, too."

Happy Fathers Day fathers



Hope the grillin' is good

6/13/08

Called "#1 event this weekend" in Chicago



We'll be turning the AC on this weekend for the Sociometry Fair at the Co-Prosperity Sphere. So come dry off and keep cool while you dig the sociometry happening this June 13 and 14.

and looky here: from About.com.. about.com????
  • Sociometry Fair runs Friday and Saturday. Quite possibly the "it" event of the weekend."
  • Time Out pimps it
  • The Chicago Reader pimps it
  • WBEZ's 848 program pimps it too.
  • Time lapse of Simi Valley fires from 2005


    Firestorm from powrslave on Vimeo.

    Shot with 3 cameras over a period of 28 hours during September 28-29th 2005. Firestorm shows a a unique look at the Simi Valley fire which consumed 25,000 acres. Look for Mars, Orion & the Moon rising in the distance...

    No Wave New York book











    Boing boing reports:
    No Wave is a new photo and oral history book documenting the highly-influential art-punk scene in New York City from 1976-1980. The book was put together by Sonic Youth guitarist Thurston Moore and indie rock journalist Byron Coley. NYC's KS Art gallery is holding an exhibition tied to the show of photos, paintings, sculptures, and ephemera from that seminal scene. The three photos above are by Laura Levine who kindly sent them to me as a sneak preview. Top right, DNA (1981); bottom left, Alan Vega (1983); bottom right, Glenn Branca (1981). Click for bigger images. The opening party is tomorrow, Friday, June 13, from 6 to 8pm. Teenage Jesus and the Jerks and Information will perform at the Knitting Factory across the street. The gallery show runs until July 10. From the book description:

    This is the first book to visually chronicle the collision of art and punk in the New York underground of 1976 to 1980. This in-depth look at punk rock, new wave, experimental music, and the avant-garde art movement of the 70s and 80s focuses on the true architects No Wave from James Chance to Lydia Lunch to Glenn Branca, as well as the luminaries that intersected the scene, such as David Byrne, Debbie Harry, Brian Eno, Iggy Pop, and Richard Hell. This rarely documented scene was the creative stomping ground of young artists and filmmakers from Jean-Michel Basquiat to Jim Jarmusch, as well as the musical genesis for the post-punk explosions of Sonic Youth. Thurston Moore and Byron Coley have selected 150 unforgettable images, most of which have never been published previously, and compiled hundreds of hours of personal interviews to create an oral history of the movement, providing a never-before-seen exploration and celebration of No Wave.

    Now when will Weasel Walters release the Chicago No-Wave book?

    Friday the 13th


    Just realized its Friday the 13th.

    Sorry here is some wikipedia crap. Friday the 13th is considered a day of bad luck in English-, French- and Portuguese-speaking countries around the world, as well as in Austria, Germany, Estonia, Finland, The Netherlands, Belgium, Republic of Ireland, Poland, Bulgaria, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, and the Philippines.

    Similar superstitions exist in some other traditions. In Greece, Romania and Spanish-speaking countries, for example, it is Tuesday the 13th that is considered unlucky. In Italy, it is Friday the 17th.

    Mc Cain Green Screen Challenge

    Sitting here bored at Kaplan's and laughed my ass off watching Colbert Reports' new green screen challenge.

    6/11/08

    the future and the fight against climate change



    Our friend Annet Dekker from the Virtueel Platform in the Netherlands sent out a recent interview to the nettime list about Tiffany Holmes' recent work Visual Foreign Correspondents. Tiffany is a professor at the Art Institute in Chicago.
    The fight against climate change takes effect through creative design and green consumerism...

    "What are the future possibilities to reduce GHG emissions that cause climate change in a multilateral framework?" In the light of this question, posed by the Globalised Crystal Ball (a discussion organised by De Balie, Amsterdam), non-profit organisation Visual Foreign Correspondents asked artist Tiffany Holmes to reflect on the issue by means of a video that will be screened on various urban screens in Amsterdam.
    you will have to click the "read more" link to access the interview

    Anyone who is interested in "taking action" and solving our
    environmental problems please visit Tiffany's website http://worldoffset.org

    Aspen one of the best art mags ever


    I love ubuweb
    just found Aspen

    Aspen was conceived by Phyllis Johnson, a former editor for Women's Wear Daily and Advertising Age. While wintering in Aspen, Colorado, she got the idea for a multimedia magazine, designed by artists, that would showcase “culture along with play.” So in the winter of 1965, she published her first issue. “We wanted to get away from the bound magazine format, which is really quite restrictive,” said Johnson.
    -from the Aspen electronic version. They are very modest... I think most arty art mags were inspired by these guys.

    i once had the pleasure of seeing these in person at a local Fluxus collectors home. Talk about fetish item! Peep some nice images from Aspen 7 The Gay Atomic Coloring book by Eduardo Paolozzi





    http://www.ubu.com/aspen/aspen7/gayAtomic.html

    Walter Burley Griffin



    Bibliodyssey, the beautiful blog of rare finds online has a post about Walter Burley Griffin who i swear built an art deco incinerator on Kedzie near 45th st.. gonna go look...

    http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/2008/03/walter-burley-griffin.html
    Walter Burley Griffin (1876-1937) was a Chicago architect with a background in landscape design. He is closely associated with the Prairie School, a uniquely American style of architecture that favoured horizontal lines (reflecting prairies) and whose most famous practitioner was Frank Lloyd Wright.

    1965 the Most Important Year



    Probably being blogged everywhere: Check out and listen to this WFMU broadcast:

    This 1965 production was part of a series written and produced by Bert Tenzer. You'll hear the unmistakable voice of Mason Adams as the father of the Jacoby family. Each of the albums uses a mystery-drama concept to conceal the identity of the product being advertised, which is revealed with much fanfare near the end.

    It's one of the most unique forms of advertising ever employed. Dealers were given a stack of these records, and customers could take them home and listen to them. In exchange for brining the record back to the store, the customer would receive a discount coupon for the product advertised. I've only come across three of them in my travels, but it's possible that more exist. Information on Tenzer and the records themselves is scarce, although this one turns up fairly frequently at record shows.

    6/10/08

    Proximity Magazine interview on Bad At Sports



    Rachael and Ed Marszewski do an interview on Bad At Sports about the art and culture magazine, Proximity.

    Listen here:

    New work by Leah Evans at C-PS this friday

    Sociometry Fair 2008 June 13th & 14th



    Sociometry Fair 2008 June 13th & 14th
    Co-Prosperity Sphere 3219-21 South Morgan St. Chicago, Illinois USA!

    Official Announcement attached at bottom of message
    See <http://www.sociometry.com for final schedule, images from Sociometry Fair 2004 Las Vegas, and current reports.

    Since 1996 The Sociometry Fair has followed the same quadrennial schedual as the summer Olympics and the Presidential nominating conventions. Sociometry Fair 2008 is fourth in the series. Active IS agents present their previous four years of research on free standing tri-fold displays and moving pictures.

    Listen to our 15 seconds of fame on Chicago Public Radio's "Three to See" segment of Eight Forty-Eight this Thursday!


    SOCIOMETRY FAIR 08 SCHEDUAL

    Friday June 13th!

    4:00pm : Exhibit opens
    Donations for space and talent after 7pm.
    $9.95 ($4.95 student) FREE with is special agent card!!

    9:00pm : One-(Wo)Man-Bands
    Disposable Thumbs (Chicago) <http://www.myspace.com/disposablethumbs
    Jakuta and Carl (Baltimore) <http://www.myspace.com/jakutaandcarl
    US Girls (Chicago) <http://www.myspace.com/usgirlsss
    The Wood Knots (Chicago) <http://thewoodknots.com
    Laura Mariposa (Chicago) <http://www.myspace.com/lauramariposamusic
    Rakehell (San Francisco) <http://www.oddocs.com

    Saturday June 14th!

    12:00 Noon : Rally against Reality
    At Haymarket Square Lake and Desplains st.
    PRO (Denver/SanFrancisco) Come in costume -- with noise makers.

    2:00pm : Exhibit opens : Family Fun with floating balloons and an official Fair Mascot!
    Donations for space and talent after 7pm.
    $9.95 ($4.95 student) FREE with is special agent card!!

    9:00pm : Screening
    Christian Roth <http://www.crackles.de
    Chelsea Knight <http://www.chelseaknight.com
    Edward Salem
    Christophe Ritenour <http://www.myspace.com/krosszone>
    The Yes Men <http://www/> ttp://www.theyesmen.org>
    Melinda Stone <http://www.howtohomestead.org>
    Jay Critchley <http://www.jaycritchley.com>
    PJ Raval <http://www.unraval.com>
    Vin Comparetto <http://www.losscollector.com>

    6/7/08

    Yippie ! 1968

    On our 1968 research journey we came across this awesome newsreel video>
    The Chicago branch was a New Left film production and distribution group that was headquartered at 2770 North Lincoln ave. Their films including coverage of Chicago '68 are: Summer '68 and Yippie.

    the Seed and Lumpen 1968

    Our dear bud and Lumpen Guardian Jerry B. gave us a dozen or so underground magazines from the 6o's and 70s. Here are copies of the Chicago Seed that are really fantastic. It was one of our inspirations when we started Lumpen magazine a long time ago. It is virtually impossible to find anything about the Seed online.

















    We reprinted this Outlaws of AmeriKa illustration card set in the Lumpen 1968 issue that we did back in 1996. It was published a few months before the 1996 Democratic National Convention came to back to Chicago. The media kept making comparisons to what happened back at the '68 convention and their side of the story was bumming us out. So we responded with our own series of pre-convention issues of Lumpen magazine to mobilize the community and were involved with some action. We printed the counter convention guide and were involved with posting images of the convention site off of the lumpen.com site. Pre gooogle maps i guess..

    We hated Clinton back then. Some people forget that most lefties and radical hated the Clinton for pushing the neoliberal agenda down the world's throat. Now he's looked at as a saint of sorts in comparison with the Bush era. I still think he sucks.

    Anyway we were part of organizing and booking the (poorly named) Festival of Life in Grant Park with a group of yippies from New York. What a coincidence. We had two days and 26 bands lay in the Grant Park bandshell. No one really came by. Maybe afew hundred a day. But man it was awesome seeing the Flying Luttenbachers perform there.

    During convention week the cops busted the anarchist convention that happened to coincide with the Democratic National Convention. The cops actually raided lofts and scared the shit out of everyone. But it didn't stop the 1,000 or so anarchists from marching through Wicker Park all the way to convention in an illegal unpermitted march..

    That year the CPD created the first ever Protest Pit. It was a designated fenced in area that was "given" to protesters to allow them to exercise their right of "free speech." Diamond Jack and I pied Abbie Hoffman's kid Andrew Hoffman because he was such a punk and totally flaked in helping us organize the Festival of Life. In that time the prototype of indymedia was created. It was called Countermedia. They had a panel truck and everything to roam around in equipped with video cameras. We would go to hot spots take stories and post everything on the Internet using the Netscape browser.... ah those were the days..



    After getting these Seeds I searched for the Lumpen 1968 issue in the archives. It was great to see.. For some reason we are working on another 1968 issue. I guess it to coincide with the 40 year anniversary. We will reprint some of the great stuff lumpens wrote back in the '96 1968 issue and include some reference points for readers to investigate this amazing period of activity for themselves.

    i hope to get all this stuffed scanned and mad into pdfs..

    World Naked Bike Ride Chicago

    This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

    Midwest Radical Culture Corridor tonite at InCUBATE


    The MRCC hit Chicago last nite and they are drifting thru town.
    Check out their blog for more details..

    Saturday, June 7, 2008
    7 PM
    FREE

    Art of, with, as, for, in...AND Revolution. Art and Revolution!
    MRCC/Continental Drift presents Gerald Raunig with Dan S. Wang at InCUBATE

    InCUBATE
    2129 North Rockwell
    Chicago, Illinois
    U.S.A.

    http://www.incubate-chicago.org/


    Gerald Raunig is a theoretician of art and social action who is now gaining an English-speaking readership. His book Art and Revolution: Transversal Activism in the Long Twentieth Century was published by Semiotext(e) in an English translation last year, and in recent months his articles have been published in Artforum, including a meditation on the meaning of "the breach" in this month's special issue on May of ¹68.

    Raunig¹s ideas continue in the tracks of Antonio Negri and other radical thinkers, are informed by first hand experience in the activist milieu of the contemporary Viennese and European left, and are especially relevant to those who work on the politicized cultural front. He has worked with and engaged in ongoing exchanges with Gene Ray, Brian Holmes, WochenKlausur, and others familiar to people working in the Chicago scene for a number of years now. Wang, who first met Raunig in 2005 and has been intrigued by his ideas ever since, begins the evening with some questions for him, using his book as a starting point. From there, they will touch on and compare practical experiences in art and activism, and continue to open up the conversation to include
    questions and ideas from the audience. Please join us!

    Gerald Raunig is the co-ordinator of the transnational, multi-lingual research projects republicart and transform, the work of which has been disseminated as books and online through the eipcp.net website. Gerald Raunig also serves EIPCP (European Institute for Progressive Cultural Policies) as a lead administrator. He lives and works in Vienna. This will be his first appearance in Chicago.

    Dan S. Wang is an artist and writer. He was a co-founder of Mess Hall, works with Red76, writes about new Black art, is lately obsessed with the Chinese language, and for years has devoted labor to a range of activist projects.

    The Midwest Radical Culture Corridor is a place, a network, and a state of being.

    Continental Drift is an ongoing, multi-form research project and experimental seminar devoted to the impossible task of articulating the immense geopolitical and economic shifts which took place between 1989 and 2001, the effects of which are still being played out in the emerging bodies of governance and in the rise of new social and identity constructions. The question of What now? is precisely at the core of its study.

    For ten days this June, Continental Drift travels the MRCC. For more info on Continental Drift, see http://brianholmes.wordpress.com/.

    Haunted House for rent



    Music Editor Patt Wrenn forwarded this house for rent post from craig's list :


    $1200 / 3br - 3 Bed, 3 Bath Home For Rent In Lincoln Park (Chicago, IL)
    Reply to: hous-709156037@craigslist.org
    Date: 2008-06-05, 6:17PM CDT

    Hi, I have a three bedroom, three bathroom vintage house, recently rehabbed, available for rent immediately. The building was passed down to me by my great uncle when he passed. The previous tenants disappeared without a trace before their lease was up, so it is available for immediate move-in.

    The house has central air (the building is known to have cold drafts that flow through the main hallway, as well as the bedrooms, from time to time, which are probably a result of the architecture and might even help you save on your electric bill). It also features long hallways reminscent of an old hotel, luxurious bathrooms and part of the house is still furnished with furniture dating back to the 1920s. There is even an old black and white television set in the living area that serves as great deco (you may want to leave it unplugged, though, as it has a short circuit and has been known to turn on in the middle of the night).

    Having said that, I am required by law to inform you that previous tenants have reported "disturbances" in the house. Some have reported strange noises, and some, believe it or not, reported things moving by themselves. One family, whose child ran away, even blamed it on the house. However, I have shown this home many times, and even spent one night in it, and I can attest that apart from a few strange sounds, creaking noises and mysterious drafts, there is nothing spooky about this place at all, no roaches, rodents or creepy crawlies anyway. In fact, for $1,200.00 it's an absolute deal for this area (similiar homes in this area rent for about $3,000.00). If you'd like to set up an appointment or see more photos, please email the above. Due to my schedule, I'm currently only able to show it after 9 p.m. on Friday evenings, and perhaps early on Sunday mornings. Rent is month to month and requires a one month security deposit. Pets are welcome.