podopolog

The Meaning of Cern and the Race To Power

podp — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:38:49 GMT

A Little XL Terrestrial Analysis of Supercolliders, Toblerone, and The End of The World As We Know Not Better www.xlterrestrials.org/plog ( for full story ) Excerpt: " It hadn’t really hit home what was underneath the surface of the much touted and conjectured Big Bang Genesis, Dark Matter and String theories, what exactly might be at the core of the $10bn (£5.1bn) experiment at Cern, until we read towards the end of one of the UK Guardian’s many intriguing articles that the US also has its own supercollider laboratory (soon to be decommissioned?), and that THE RACE was on. Picture Chicago’s Fermilab, the other multi-billion $ horse shot and sold for glue in a year or 2. Lucky for us global citizens at least the one in Switzerland has a grand “open source” PR campaign and now takes a 27k subatomic victory lap (in both directions no less) on Sept.10th. Of course what exactly should we expect of open source from a project in an underground Swiss bunker which requires eye-scan security clearance, and when not even the secret formula of Toblerone can legally be published on someone’s blog??! Aside from a Military Industrial Complex illogic which we all know is inherently and incestuously bred with dim logical insanity and Mordor junkydom (pic), we should probably still assume that giving westworld scientists too much money is a very very bad idea. Ok, we have to admit we were prone to believe that a team of 6000+ Faustian bargainers spliced together by a pretty unwholesome academia ( abundant with career opportunism, upper-class egos and disembodied head-cooked fantasies… all in a gravy of specialist dismemberment and Reductionism) to build the world’s biggest Machine, namely a Nuclear One, could lead to any number of horrible consequences. But after reading Michio Kaku’s article (one physicist with humanitarian principles we sorta trust), we can more calmly analyze this travesty by purely sociological and psychoanalytic and civilian deductions." cont. at XLT.

the red eye of praha

podp — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 16:41:27 GMT

A short entry from the east block: Praha was/is phenomenal... this image was taken on a rainy nite wondering through the streets of Zizkov, the neighborhood just outside the old town where a friend of mine manages a restaurant called Kure v Hodinach meaning Chicken in the Clock... if ya happen to be in the hood, be sure to ask em where all those great east blok dinner soundtracks came from ; ) ... You can find more arts + praxis tales, and a brief glimpse at what the fuk that war-of-the-worlds tower is all about!?? at: www.xlterrestrials.org/plog

Vote SF Chron Writer CW Nevius Onto the Island of Proto-Fascist Tabloid Think Tanks

podp — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 07:23:42 GMT

From the XLt podopolog: "The San Francisco Chronicle has reached a new pinnacle of professional journalism this week by giving CW Nevius, sports writer and veteran Rotten Tomatoes film reviewer, a new editorial column on the front page. In a brilliant move to rouse the citizens of our great city to NIMBY extremism, Nevius has been given the noble task of investigating one of the Neo-Con Republicrat party’s most beloved problems: getting rid of homeless people. His new creative style of polling should elevate the discussion amongst fans of Survivor, Fox News, and American Idol. " read more at www.xlterrestrials.org/plog

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Future Sex, But Were Afraid To Insert Your Credit Card

podp — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 02:28:44 GMT

This weekend the Viennese group, Monochrom ( think an Austrian arts sector version of the Yes Men) brought together a very weird, wired and sex positive group of speakers to investigate the messy world of pron, the intersection of the porn and tech industries, for the purpose of probing all manner of complex relationships that are shaping human behaviours and social interactions at a very root ( and grotesquely consumer) level. The XL terrestrials were on hand to absorb the mesmerizing results, and are still processing all the data, but already have a couple preview entries (with links) on the subject. www.xlterrestrials.org/plog ( image from Jim Avignon remixed for Pan Optic Radio's show #36 : the ABCs of Disneyweltschmerz, 2001 )

(())(()) the XLT news and praxis letters v.1 + updates (())(())(())

podp — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 09:02:14 GMT

Actions In Solidarity with the People of Burma, Balkan Beat Box, 15 Years Critical Mass, Somart’s Jack Davis Remembered, Naomi Klein Tour, etc. read more here: www.xlterrestrials.org/plog

Naomi Klein’s Latest “Shock Doctrine” Should Wake Anyone Still Asleep In The Fire !

podp — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 00:28:06 GMT

(Stills from Alfonso Cuaron’s clip for “The Shock Doctrine”) Making stops in San Francisco 9/26 and Oakland 9/28, Naomi Klein is on tour with her latest precision analysis “The Shock Doctrine”. Could anyone still sleep through this fire, after absorbing her assessments of free market feeding time in neo-liberal overdrive over the last four decades?! Article with links to Cuaron's film and tour info here: www.xlterrestrials.org/plog

Voice Of Roma events w/ Yuri Yunakov in SF 9/21, SC 9/22, LA 9/23

podp — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 22:00:50 GMT

Voice Of Roma, the organization behind the most important Roma and Balkan music festival on the West Coast brings back Yuri Yunakov & his Romani Wedding Band to play at the Croatian American Cultural Center ( 60 Onondaga St., SF, CA ) on Sept. 21st. Performing for the Herdeljezi Festival in Sebastopol in 2006, Yuri and his ensemble of master musicians in the Bulgarian traditions transformed the house to a celebratory throbbing mass that one rarely has the opportunity to experience outside of an actual Romani wedding. “Romani Routes” is the programming and productions side of VOR, a boundless-energy nonprofit which does heroic work creating unforgettable cultural events in service to human rights struggles, with a focus on the plight of Roma refugees living in Kosovo and throughout Europe. Their fans range from Gogol Bordello to Esma Redzepova to Boban Markovic to the latest European world music sensation Kal, whom VOR brought to the Bay Area years before anyone had ever heard of them. Don’t miss this Friday’s chance to be a part of the Art + Music at its most highly-engaged form! And see Yuri’s full tour schedule, which includes Santa Cruz on 9/22 and Los Angeles 9/23: http://www.voiceofroma.com/kal/yitinerary.htm And since the VOR online shop is still under construction, these events are a great opportunity to pick up very rare CDs that represent the authentic roots of what is becoming the fastest growing wave in world music today, which may remind many of the Asian underground that swept the scenes in the 90s. All benefiting the great causes that VOR has been actively involved with for over a decade. ( story with full links here: www.xlterrestrials.org/plog )

$56 Million and Where’s the Art? It's Dancing in the Dust ! + DQ University News

podp — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 21:41:23 GMT

[ Most recent post from XLterrestrials.org covering Chris Carlsson's series Shaping SF Talks at Counterpulse. At the end of this post you'll read about the DQ University, California's only Tribal College, which is seriously endangered, but also on the verge of catalyzing an exciting DIY base for indigenous struggles and "off-the-grid" sustainable living.This Saturday is a critical Board meeting (Sept.15, 11am ) which I am considering attending to cover for Indybay.org... if anyone is interested in this and/or would like to learn more, please contact me...or see the flyer posted in tribe pics There is also a public benefit show coming up Oct. 13, 2007 at the Intertribal House in Oakland.] $56 Million and Where's the Art? It's Dancing in The Dust ! “One of my very, very first memories is of my parents’ house in Los Angeles. In the late afternoon, the light would come through windows at one end of the house. There were venetian blinds and the blinds would be open so the light would come into the room in bands of light, because there was a lot of dust in the air in the San Fernando Valley in the summertime especially, and in these bands of light there were motes of dust, dancing in the light; and my first musical memory, I think, is watching those particles of dust moving, and reaching way up over my head to the keyboard of this big old upright rosewood Steinway grand that my parents had, and trying to play notes that would accompany this dance of the dust.” – From Michael Tilson Thomas’ Viva Voce, Conversations with Edward Seckerson (Faber & Faber, 1994) That quote from the conductor of the San Francisco Symphony may adequately capture the kernel of where public and private funding goes for the arts: Picture a new Lars Van Trier movie called, “Dancing in the Dust”. Last year the city’s Grants for the Arts program piled on its second largest check of $889,000 to an organization that already has enough assets to operate for another decade without any additional funding ( See Jeff Jones’ article). And this sort of quaint nostalgic drivel above is the same fucking tune you’re going to hear year after year from city bank-rolled art. Nothing against symphonies in general, but if MTT ever utters anything relevant regarding the challenges our society faces today, you can be sure it won’t be at the Davies Symphony Hall, where the specialty is picking the purse strings and pickeling the brains of primarily wealthy and sheltered white morons who apparently like very mediocre classical music to accompany their somnambulism. This week Shaping San Francisco’s Fall/Winter Talks (in collaboration with City Lights, Indpendent Arts and Media and Counterpulse) opened their new season with a revealing panel of art funding veterans and a potent theme of “$56 Million And Where’s The Art?”, and if one kept awake through the sausage-making and number-crunching tales of arts administration and fiscal water-bailing in the 21st century City of Riches (Misappropriated!), one could draw plenty of bleak conclusions and faintly hear the violins from the deck of the Titanic. Certainly this well-chosen panel of sincere and distinguished and dedicated civil Art Org servants had valuable perspective to grasp the matter of where our arts funding is going and where it should go, but we are inclined to suggest that the one overarching theme of connecting artists to money, economics, and business, is the crux of the dilemma rather than the solution. And these organizations are dangerously off course if they are soley focused on grooming the artist to thrive in the marketplace/butchershop culture. One because there is not exactly a lack of Professional arts in the city; Secondly because if in today’s political climate your work is on the pet list of the Irvine foundation you are likely enroute to an established career in irrelevance ( see MTT above). From our experience abundant creativity thrives in and flocks to cities where artists can go and disconnect from the financial torrents as much as possible. It has long been known in European and South American circles that where there is a thriving squat culture, and minimal living expense, there are people taking extraordinary and pioneering journeys into community and self-expression. And much of that feeds down the line into the commercial arts. For better or worse, that genius who locks herself away in the attic to tap a fountain of muses will in a year or two find her ideas exploited by the artworld. From one perspective that’s good because the general public will be enriched by it. But for those who catch those Promethean fires in the wild of real lives, before its essence has been flayed on a gallery wall, it’s the real shit! And for San Francisco this reality has been hemorraging in direct proportion to the inflation of housing and basic living. So here’s a thought for those people who have access to the mega funders and to those who are working on those pioneering ideas of micro-patronage from the neighborhood. Land and properties need to be purchased in the Bay Area and turned into sanctuary spaces in the same way one reconstructs and then protects a marshland like Crissy Field ( well, not exactly like Crissy Field, but we don’t have time to deconstruct That one), so that life returns to it. And not merely as temporary art residencies, but where long-standing artist communities will re-inhabit the culture and replenish it with non-market Art. Until that happens you’re going to very likely bear witness to a symphony of lame ass million dollar dust bowls and an exodus of talent to those places which understand the value of the wild habitats. Sadly such human environments are more endangered than the (non-professional) artists themselves, but they Do exist and can be cultivated everywhere, anytime, here and now. ( Additional material from panel and Q+A will be added , time-allowing… and at some pt. in the distant future Shaping SF /Arts + Media will post the audio online ) Here’s an URGENT footnote, or shall we say, a TRUE SCREAMING SYMPHONY on this theme: Want to know WHERE one such place could exist in the Bay Area???? We will be having an upcoming story about the DQ University, California’s only Tribal College, just outside of Davis. It has recently lost its accreditation (issues of a corrupt board of directors, more research required ) and some former students are currently occupying it and attempting to run their own independent programs, which will legally prevent them from being removed. This situation is urgent and needs your support before real-estate predators force them off this huge piece of land. For NOW read more at DQ’s Myspace… And get involved while the chance is still ripe to create a free zone of creativity and education and art outside the factory culture.

BM analysis part 2: Sandbox Insurrections in the Burning Kingdom

podp — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 22:28:16 GMT

From the upcoming XL Terrestrial BM analysis part 2: "In Baudrilllard's theories on "Simulacres et Simulation", he once wrote with both irony and penetrating perspective that Disneyland was created so that Americans would think that the world they live in is real. Is it possible that the Burning Man festival has upped the game? Now a version of sandbox liberation has been created to give Americans some security that freedom and chaos are only things that can happen in isolated laboratories and controlled experiments, and for those who are the happily jolted/rewarded lab rats their petri dish cultures are now an essential perfume for the reinvigorated marketplace of more vacations at home." coming soon to : www.xlterrestrials.org/plog

Devendra Banhart in SF at the Palace ( on Gira's Young Gods label ?! )

podp — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 20:05:55 GMT

Anyone going to Devendra Banhart's concert 2morrow nite?? I'm still contemplating it. Usually "white folk" affects me like a kind of insidious rash upon the brain and eardrums, and hippie aesthetic, that's a whole nother peeve, but I have to say i'm competely mesmerized by what i've heard. And it seems like an impossible fit that Michael Gira ( formerly Swans and Skin , and now Angels of Light ) would be gushing over this - http://www.younggodrecords.com/prodtype.asp?PT_ID=71 - well yes its his label and he's cashing in big time - but yes i'm starting to agree, it's transporting and loaded with talent. Like Billie Holiday meets Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome?? First heard his voice at a friend's house in Prenzlauerberg, a swedish dj who was studying guitar and all into a wide array of americana music influences, which thru her outsider take looking in and her great collection of oddities began to open up my previous blocks to music from the Heim(lich manuever)-lands. And more recently Rani Singh's documentray " Old Weird America" about the art and music legacy of Harry Smith also re-tuned my senses to find "the jewels in the mouth of the corpse" (John Giorno) BTw: check out Devendra's cover of "Summertime": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0rZI6gEYUc ( note for the hippie-phobic: just close yur eyes and listen to that voice)

Chicken 4 Mayor Fundraiser / Josh Wilson of Indy Arts + Media Explains !

podp — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 23:17:54 GMT

Tonight ! Monday, La Casa Verde, in the Mission at Alabama and 25th street, throws an urgent fundraiser for Chicken John's mayoral Campaign. He's got 24 hours to raise enough money to receive matching funds from the California State Assembly. Apparently he's only $2,700 away... and just imagine Chicken with $100,000 to take on Newsom, and surely you'll get your money's worth of front row seats to top-notch 3-ring political comedy for the entire election season! Festivities begin 6:00pm. Sean Hayes performs at 7pm And read Josh Wilson's Indy Arts + Media highly-informed newsletter plea for Chicken's ART of politics... it's spot-on ! reposted here: http://indybay.org/newsitems/2007/08/27/18444043.php

Turning Green In The American Rear-view Mirror, Burning Man Analyzed From A 10 year Distance

podp — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 22:26:28 GMT

The XL Terrestrials are up to more Zizekian analysis. This time they put the B Man on the XLT couch... read here: www.xlterrestrials.org/plog (note the possibleworlds.org host in Mexico is having some VERY INTERESTING legal issues with YouTube and Google, and as of last night the XLT site was having problems, if you are not able to access the site, please come back again later, it should be up again shortly, and we'll fill you in on that very interesting tale! )

Psychomedia Capital, the sequel + Reclaiming The "F" Word : posters wanted !

podp — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 21:33:45 GMT

Earlier this year the XL Terrestrials project travelled down to SoCal to tour the "Transmigration of Cinema" project, and just a couple weeks ago I had the chance to go back down and get another strange dose of the Psychomedia Capital, Lala land, belly of the propoganda beast, city of the buffed and emaciated angels, highway to hellco, etc etc. With a little more "off-duty" time, I was able to explore parts of the city and culture I hadn't experienced before and found more than a few pleasant surprises and still plenty of anecdotal evidence that huge chunks of culture are being devoured by a dream colony leviathan. But i won't try and get into that here. You can follow more of that tact at www.xlterrestrials.org/plog as it unfolds. Some of the positives: I met with the amazing folks at the Center for the Study of Political Graphics in part for some research for a friend's future stencilarchive.org book with Manic D-press, and saw perhaps some of the Biggest stencils ever from Oaxaca, so large they were archived on 2 sheets of butcher paper, which when laid together made them over 6 ft. tall. The Center has constantly touring political poster shows and currently a call out for posters for an exhibition in 2008 called " Reclaiming the F word- Posters on International Feminism". Submission deadline: Dec.15,2007 ... Spread the word. There's a few other posters (various tthemes) to see in my pics. Other fantastic experiences included the FREE yoga classes at the foot of Runyen park... a bit of socialized (preventitive) healthcare for the ppl ! Why isn't this happening in SF? your town ?? everywhere?? ...ok, there's more ... but for now you can read further at the Xlt site. Poster above isn't from CSPG, but from the Guerrilla Girls who are currently part of the "Wack : Art and Feminist Revolution" show at the LA Moca...put together in part by one of the incredible Journal Of Aesthetics and Protest crew.

Could anyone have communicated the relationship better than the Best-In-Show Bush himself ?

podp — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 21:00:32 GMT

Cartoon from the consistently masterful Steve Bell brush at the Guardian UK a few weeks back ( on “Bush and Blair’s last meeting” )… and THis just in from Democracy Now: Bush: Blair Not My “Poodle” …President Bush has paid tribute to his long-time ally and partner in the Iraq war. In an interview with the British newspaper the Sun, Bush said it was unfair to call Blair a U.S. “poodle”, saying: “He’s bigger than that… Somehow our relationship has been seen as Bush saying to Blair, “jump” and Blair saying, “how high?.” But that’s just not the way it works. It’s a relationship where we say we’re both going to jump together.” Hahahahahahahahahaha! That’s just too good!

the G8 theater

podp — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 08:14:23 GMT

read the XL terrestrial analysis here: www.xlterrestrials.org/plog

Kafana Balkan, Virtual Migrations, and XLT Transmigrations... step right up , the price is light !

podp — Wed, 30 May 2007 04:14:43 GMT

Again so many inputs to process, and the view from inside the latest cycles of psychomedia analysis has put things into a heavy frame... so will have to come back to this entry when words can be shaped to do justice to what all has been illuminated. This image is from our latest Transmigration Of Cinema research at New College. BUT For now coming up strong in the left channel it's the eastern musika that has given the positive signs to move forward and and kick back in the escalating labyrinth, with the right combinations of power and play to find the exits. And now gearing up for the 2nd KAFANA BALKAN event, which will be at the Rickshaw Stop on June 2nd. It's become a whole convergence of meanings from the humanitarian circus project which performs for kids in Kosovo (for which it's a BENEFIT ) , the farewell party for a new and dear friend who will venture with her posse into the heart of one of the most severe urban challenges of these spiralling states...to bring and explore the effects of ART on the community consciousness, and a compa from Cafe Rev will be celebrating a birthday... And last but hardly least is the Brass Menazeri joining us again ( yep the Zeljko/Podski team comin at ya! got yur back !) pumping out an ever tighter grasp and unleashing of those ferocious BALKAN BEATS ! There's plenty of seeds and plenty of room to DANCE in this collaborative mix! Check here for details: tribe.net/kafanabalkan WARNING: COME EARLY! This will sell out ! And in the not-so-distant globalized contextual backround there will be some SOLI being spread to the compas and comrades who will be reporting, acting in, and turning the tides at the G8 crossroads in Heligendamm, which has already begun to heat up. And we'll be spreading some urgent info streams on that front along with the psychomedia deconstructionists at xlterrestrials.org ... more coming soon!

invite> XLTs land on may16th to deconstruct the virtual migrations

podp — Tue, 15 May 2007 09:07:39 GMT

dearest organisms with a spine and songs, the times are playing with yur heads! the ppl are sleeping everywhere while all the info channels and pleasure streams are liquidated into candy + crack + soda dispensers. Soon enough your umbilical cord of dreams would be replaced with the blinky lights of stuffed chickens and gutted spirits and have you dancing by the dim moon thru remote viewers, dancing over the blood-soaked Other, our friends and neighbors who still sing of connection to their core. time to deconstruct the VIRTUAL MIGRATIONs... time to take off yur hoods, spread yur wings, and laugh yur ass off at the jackals who have planned their own obsolescence... And your presence is needed lest the words and imagery and ideas of revolt be the song of too few and too far away, podp and xl terrestrials PLEASE fwd>> to all who still keep awake >> Mayday(s) 2007 Press Release: XL Terrestrials present THE TRANSMIGRATION OF CINEMA May 16, 2007 at New College Theater in San Francisco The XL Terrestrials present “THE TRANSMIGRATION OF CINEMA” May 16, 2007 New College Theater 777 Valencia Street San Francisco 6:30-9pm $5, no one turned away The XL Terrestrials, a team of unlicensed psycho-media analysts and illegitimate art practitioners from San Francisco, Berlin and beyond, present a cinematic, theatrical and ecological examination of movies, mass media, the internet, and You, the human species, in the midst of an epic-scale VIRTUAL MIGRATION. Recently back from their "Psychomedia Capital" tours in SoCal and eastern Europe and Balkan region research expeditions, the XL Terrestrials bring their show to San Francisco with an incredible collection of “no border” cinema in combination with strategies for disengaging the “OS - Spectacle 2.0" in times of war, hypermarkets, and virtual cul de sacs. more here: www.xlterrestrials.org/plog image from Adam Curtis' "The Trap" for the BBC

Pigasus + Polish poster art

podp — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 03:19:56 GMT

[ Note: One of nearly a thousand new Polish art posters at Pigasus Gallery in Berlin. More coming soon ! This bit of genius is from FRANCISZEK STAROWIEYSKI ] Been seeing so much inspiring visual art on the tribes and around the net ...and in the flesh, these days finally gave me a kick in the ass to put up the stuff I was given by my friends at Pigasus Gallery in Berlin a few months back. Well tons more tour/travel pfotos to sort thru as well, but this seems like the best place to start: Polish Poster Art. First time i ever saw these was either at the Guggenheim or the NY MOMA ...a few lifetimes ago. Saw them at a few flea markets in a number of cities since and THen in 2005 stumbled onto a shop/gallery window on Torstrasse that had me transfixed not only by the incredible images, but when i pressed my face to the glass at 3am in the morning I saw a few shelves against the back wall that were full of MUSIKA. I immediately planned my return for the next day and discovered the "polish cultural embassy" therein contained a treasury of polish and various ostblok music amongst the incredible collection of posters. The store-owners were also collaborators ( curators, and a dj ) with the Club der Polnische Versager ( Club of Polish Losers) just down the street , which truly was a consulate of odd eastern artdom, and the friendships and connections continue to unfold and inspire. Just before we headed back for the leftcoast we picked up a cd filled with nearly a thousand 'new' posters with the idea that we may try to set up some exhibition(s) in SF, LA, and/or Seattle and bring the Pigasus compas over for a visit. Currently in the midst of a few other artivist projects and not sure when this can be realized, but I thought i'd place a few selections here for viewing ( more in my tribe images), and maybe some friends who will also fall in love with them and have ideas to make the project come closer to reality. ( get in touch! ) Want to come back and tell a bit about the history of polish poster art, but for now, you can view more and support the Pigasus gallery by purchasing some of this &*(%$#! mindblowing art ... they are limited edition posters, but they are not as expensive as you would think ( well there ARE some incredibly collectable ones for films like Bunuel, Fellini, etc. and the already world-famous poster artists like Stasys, that are sometimes far outside the starving artist economic range and horded by bigger market galleries) ... so check the site: http://www.pigasus-gallery.de And a few xtra notes for now... will try to get the artist names up for the posters asap, though a little difficult to track them all down. And regarding the pfotolog #5 : ...been writing about "Society of Spectacle" theories and this dark but incredibly lucid image for me captures a very complex aspect of the Spectacle's violence against the feminine, the anima, and the beauty of nature... shows it in a secret and inside-out poetic rage and where it is not too late to undo it. Hope to have more on the theme ... and more images... at www.xlterrestrials.org

the lesh-alyser, holy mountain, and flyby tangents in and out of the technosphere

podp — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 01:27:03 GMT

Been awhile since this blog has been activated, but seemed time to refresh topics from the grim Oaxaca incident... though certainly not to pass over the activities which continue there... There are occasional postings regarding the ongoing unrest there at sites like counterpunch.org, indybay.org... and a reportback and fundraiser event will be happening at Station 40 in SF in early Feb. ( site will soon migrate to 3030b.revolt.org, but check indybay calendar and/or Scott's Sf events postings for now. While in the Balkans last year, we encountered an unusually high-bandwidth freeware fiend, who had the most tweaked out linux machine we've ever seen. A "lesh-alyser" program ( see pic above) was some freak tool he had devised just for fun to scan a person's blog and spit out both a text and network analysis on the blogger behind the screen and her/his themes... the text generated was pretty abstract and of some binary tongue that was like some anti-poetry from hell...BUt recombined from all the words that You may have personally and emotionally processed over months made it into sort of man-machine house of mirrors like a Gysin/Burroughsian cut-up. What made this all the more startling a tool was projecting the concept beyond this particular device that he may have spent no more than a few hours creating. In other words various corporations like myspace could have an entire team of employees spending months to analyse its users... Hmmm, for what purpose u might ask??... F8k if we know, what data-mining peeping tom creeps and bots might do or want, but the possibilities are one of the eerie developments that Are occuring in the technosphere... and should remind one ... that anyone leaving truly personal data footprints in the evermore techno-fascist arena should be rethinking what implications that all might have. If you need some orientation to this issue , you might want to checkout the research that Edwin Black did on the relationship between IBM and the Nazis, and not to imply that IBM might have had any anti-semetic or racial agendas ...but just as dark, Black rather describes the trajectory of greed and the Almighty dollar of war profiteers, which does not seem to dissipate in these years of "perpetual war for perpetual peace" ( Gore Vidal). On a warmer and fleshier note, Alejandro Jodorowsky's films just flashed through SF, and brought out all the cult movie and theater ritual freaks under one big happy plush red Castro theater- tent. El Topo and Holy Mountain, while not light playful material to (re-)process, but at least was grabbing hold of some of the deepest of social dysfunctions and providing society with some kind of much needed cinematic orgasmic release. These films from the early 70s had a flavor of revolt inspired by situationism, the pre-co-opted surrealist core, and a wide variety of liberatory struggles, and its own unique vision for body/mind deconstruction. Psychomagic lives! If only this energy could be reconvened for an unconventional march and live theater action on Jan 27, when everyone comes out to either spew out our response to the state of the "union" or launch into our own creative anti-states and pro-euphoria!

((i)) Indymedia Journalist Killed In Oaxaca : In Memoriam ! In Action !

podp — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 16:28:55 GMT

If you have not yet heard this story please read more at nyc.indymedia.org or indybay.org Below is a list of actions to honor the late Brad Will's journalistic courage and help to de-escalate the violence in Mexico! Just this morning DemocracyNow.org reports that the US State dept. will not press Mexico for an investigation of the murder of a US journalist. I mean we already know that the state department has been overstaffed with more than a few spineless and self-interested fucks of late... But this is an OUTRAGE that the journalist profession will not tolerate! And meanwhile the situation in Oaxaca is bound to heat up as the EZLN has made a call in solidarity for roadblocks Nov. 1st and a general strike Nov.20... i'd say the PRI govt. is in DEEP SHIT and will likely have to come to the negotiating table sooner or later, which is what the thousands of striking teachers had been attempting from the very beginning, until the Oaxaca governor decided to respond with violence. A small list of actions below could use your immediate participation and creative amplification. And certainly there's many more ideas and actions awaiting your own personalized and/or collective response: 1. Electronic Blockade of Mexican Embassy and Consulate Websites nyc.indymedia.org/en/2006/10/77972.html ... please note this may alread have been blocked as of oct.30. try it, and then proceed to the next steps. 2. The NYC Indymedia collective has written a press release which includes a demand for an investigation as well as an appeal for the end of state violence against the people of Oaxaca... nyc.indymedia.org/en/2006/10/77958.html spread the word and/or devise a similar call for justice among your communities. 3. The corporate media's coverage of the oppression in Oaxaca ( and indigenous people in total ) has been deplorable and spineless, and their recent coverage now regarding the death of a journalist has been at best a footnote. Recently democracynow.org reported that 2006 was the deadliest year for journalists, already marked by 75 casualties. This is a story that needs to be covered in every media! Send your outrage to whatever media you receive your news, that ignoring this story is unacceptable! Write to some of those rare journalists who publish fairly conscious human reports in mainstream outlets ... perhaps a journalist walkout or day of media silence is an idea waiting to be organized. 4. Protests at a number of Mexican consulates around the world are scheduled. ( check your local indymedia for news, in SF Bay Aea see www.indybay.org ) 5. There's a few banners already around to put on your websites in solidarity, i.e.: the banner on: http://vientos.info/cml/ front page/left column " Brad Will ((i)) " and this one en espanol: http://indybay.org/newsitems/2006/10/29/18324496.php and please distribute the stencil above! and/or create yur own ! 6. The events happening in Oaxaca are urgently needing your attention to de-escalate the violence . follow the breaking news here: www.vientos.info/cml/ or nyc.indymedia.org/en/index.html it's also an important lesson for active comminities everywhere, inform your friends and family. This brief excerpt from San Diego indy email captures the wider relevance: "As you may have heard (no thanks to the mainstream media) one of the most monumental grassroots movements is going on in the capital city of the state of Oaxaca, led by striking teachers ( about 3000 schools were closed ) and supported by broad sectors and a people's assembly... all aimed at bringing down the repressive and corrupt regime of PRI governor Ulisis Ortiz Ruiz." 7. spread this news to any net tribes/lists that are still breathing... and of course beyond the virtual. that's all i got time for now, soli ! ((i)) podska

A Wedge in the Media Warzones: Dropping Knowledge

podp — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 11:09:39 GMT

Context: Dropping Knowledge.org (dk), an international non-profit organization based primarily in Germany ( In the U.S., dk is a project of the Tides Center ), gathers 112 thinkers, artists, writers, scientists, social entrepreneurs, philosophers and humanitarians from around the world on September 9th, 2006 in Berlin to answer 100 questions in an experimental forum. What: Set upon an historically loaded stage, Dropping Knowledge has constructed the world’s largest (non-governmental) roundtable at Bebelplatz in Berlin Mitte (the central district). Less than half a kilometer from the Brandenburg Gate which only 17 years ago was the dividing line between East and West Germany and the east and west political “operating systems” still malfunctioning since WW II, this square, lying between the State Opera house and the Humboldt University, is the infamous location where books were burned during the most reported, documented and referenced fascist regime of modern times. YOU : This “Table of Free Voices” is an unusual technological and social experiment in freedom of expression, which may reveal more about the mass media spectre and informational battlegrounds than actually providing a Penetrating archive of solutions regarding critical global issues. ( The obstacle course that truths and diverse voices must run in order to engage in a functioning global discourse is a massive dilemma as our high-speed society attempts to access, link, and distribute all possible perspectives in today’s collision of worlds.) BUT If these archive innovations here can inspire net users and media-makers to invent new concrete paths and praxis for rippling the databases into The Realtimes, their massive efforts will not be lost. The fact that the organizers have embraced the thriving CopyLeft/Creative Commons movement is a clear sign that they are counting on You to take it further. Spread the light : 672 hours of incredible cultural diversity and engaging viewpoints on some of the most challenging subjects of our times. Participants range from Willem Dafoe, Anuradha Mittal, TThenmozhi Soundarajan, Wim Wenders, Cornel West, Hans-Peter Durr, Bianca Jagger, Palden Gyatso, Bill Joy, and China Keitetsi ... deep worlds , need i say more?! : www.droppingknowledge.org and more fotos coming, but in the meantime check Christina Voigt's inspiring site: http://www.christinavoigt.com/tableoffreevoices.html

ecotopia

podp — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 10:20:22 GMT

The dual nature of gathering at a sustainability conference. 1. The enthusiastic and friendly orgs who meet to redirect the course of the planetary navigation systems 2. Looking deep into (our) dark shadows, the real, the forces that are turning the skies black and backward and shoving the world's resources and lifeforms into their gaping maw. Ecotopia2006.org met this year in the beautiful hills of Slovakia amongst a collective of eco-conscious farmers, who are a sane and tiny island network in the brewing global storm. Many fierce and playful tinkerers from everywhere landed in their fields and together we distributed a bundle of ideas to spread to the four corners. If you are interested to read more about these and other gatherings in europe and/or Everywhere, drop me a line.

letne dielne - summer open academy

podp — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:39:34 GMT

Letne Dielne ( summer open academy ) in Bratislava has 4 more days to go. Already some high-level uploads+downloads- pratcical and theoretical- have occurred since I arrived on Sunday. Pure Data (a popular open source software for sound and visual that is derived from Max, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max/MSP ) presentations reveal a bottomless barrel full of digital creativity for the mathematically-engaged artist. 2 locals, Peter Gonda and Daniel Toth, have been guiding workshops for 4 consecutive days. And Peter showed me a beautiful pure data-designed network map, one of the most sophisticated i have yet seen with all kinds of statistical info and “net logic” as you mouse over the various nodes. Be sure to check http://itchybit.org/ and http://poo.sk/ for their related pure data explorations. And for the full summer academy program check: www.13m3.sk

ost blok > podopolapagos

podp — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 13:38:43 GMT

If you would like to read about the ost blok tour write me a tribe mail and tell me about yur connection to and/or intererest in arts +activism and i will send you some great links. This picture is from a street art group in Transylvania called "The Playground" .

ANOTHER SUSTAINABLE FUTURE EVICTED !!? COMMUNITIES RESPOND !!!

podp — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 21:40:30 GMT

With this week's eviction of the South Central Farm, the City of Los Angeles has clearly displayed its years of abandonment to serve the people and community in favor of "development" and business interests. The impacted communities , mostly campesino farmers and families, together with friends of sustainable futures are determined to confront this latest act of bureaucrat invertebrates ( LA City Council = Phylum Nematoda ) and real-estate leeches (Ralph Horowitz = Hirudinea ). Respond Now to let these LOW-LIFE parasites know that their disregard for poor communities struggling to create intelligent urban culture is unacceptable... But more importantly make them find real solutions and repair the damage ! NOW is the time to be creative. Check the story below and lend your support : http://www.southcentralfarmers.com Just a quick summary of a long and complex story... In the end, property owner Ralph Horowitz stubbornly refused to sell the land back to the city for $16 MILLION, which had been painstakingly raised by a number of sources including the Annenberg Foundation. Zach De La Rocha of Rage Against The Machine, a supporter of the farm, describes LA's day of shame, “This is a betrayal! Horowitz’s children will never have to worry about a bite of food. But for these people, this is how they feed themselves.”