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"Sonar Death Ray" [mp3 removed]. Plucky minimal beats, with death ray.
Two videos from art is for the people (Ludwig Schwarz):
Untitled (Zombies), 2005. I can't stop laughing at this but I could never explain it.
Black Pepper, 2002 (watch it all the way to the end)
John Parker, "Man and Machine" [8.8 MB .mp4]
Originally produced for mutaforma's collective intelligence online project, which involved a lot of remixing of found materials. I like Parker's the best of the videos I saw. His was the only one that seemed to be thinking about the scale of the medium and grabbing the viewer/listener with some kind of strange, immediate emotional experience.
I posted the Parker and Schwarz vids because I like them, and because my Guitar Solo and Drum Machine videos are lonely and wanted a school to hang out with. I've been turning over a vain satirical post about the new Pollocks being artist/musician/video artists who work on a micro-scale.
Installation shots from my show with Saskia Jorda (who did the sculpture installation on the right in the top photo) at And/Or Gallery in Dallas. More here. Big ups to Paul Slocum and Lauren Gray for the installation, which included Paul's DVD bootlegs of my animated GIFs, shown very effectively on the TVs, I was told by eyewitnesses.
Supreme Court Update
You can follow the efforts to derail the "inevitable" appointment of Samuel Alito, the religious right's man, on this Kos thread. [Update: more recent developments here, but the first link has phone numbers, etc.] Please take a minute to look at the list and see where your Senators stand on this and who might be wavering and in need of a supportive call (the key words are "vote no on cloture"). Clinton and Schumer will vote "no"--meaning they want the nomination to stay open to debate. Menendez is wavering. His staff got an earful from me this morning. 202-224-4744. Keep hitting redial and you'll get through.
Update: A Kos commenter counts 67 for cloture and 22 against. Estimates on the ultimate vote (Alito's appointment as opposed to closing the debate) are 59 for Alito to 41 against, and since a simple majority carries it, that means we get an angry God Squadder on the Supreme Court. I think it's worth expressing your opinion right up until last minute, but that's just me, obviously.
Final tally on the cloture vote.
Just saw the Senate confirmed that pig. Knew it was coming but my stomach flipped over, slightly, at the news. Does anyone reading this blog give a shit? I know a lot of my progressive friends went all soft and cynical after the 2004 election.
Some Georgetown Law students turning their backs on Alberto "Torture and Surveillance" Gonzales, US Attorney General, at his recent appearance at their school:
If you're in the North Texas vicinity, please go check out my show with Saskia Jorda at And/Or Gallery, opening tonight. Below is the preview from the Dallas Observer:
Oompa Loompas--but which version?Local visionaries inaugurate their own gallery
By Sam Machkovech
If you have ever found yourself bored with Dallas arts, then you've obviously never seen the work of local musicians and artists Paul Slocum and Lauren Gray. Whether turning ancient computers and videogame systems into musical instruments while performing as the band Tree Wave or helming the print(f) digital arts series, this hometown duo has little trouble turning its fascination with technology and the archaic into compelling, artistic statements about society. Truly, this fascination is far-reaching—so much so that Slocum and Gray have opened their own art space, the And/Or Gallery, 4221 Bryan St., Suite B. Thankfully, the duo knows better than to glorify its own material in the space, instead choosing to spotlight two out-of-town artists for the gallery's debut exhibit. New York's Tom Moody, a former local who was once involved with the MAC, will present bizarre print media creations that look like the DNA of Oompa Loompas, and former Southside on Lamar resident artist Saskia Jorda will have minimalist found-item sculptures on display. In addition, video jockey Jeremy Johnson will be on hand to pump out pixelated software art on the And/Or walls. The gallery opens at 6 p.m. Entry is free. Call 214-824-2442. Saturdays. Continues through Feb. 28
And/Or Gallery, 4221 Bryan St, Suite B , Dallas
Are you going to let those creepy religious right-wingers dictate the direction of this country? Samuel Alito is their boy, and they want him on the Supreme Court. We have netroots now, we can stop this thing, by pressuring weak Senators to change their votes. I copied this from Steve Gilliard's page. I hate those e-petitions but I signed Kerry's supporting an Alito filibuster. I called my senators last week and will call them again on Monday. Let's keep up the pressure, make a Republican cry next week.
WE CAN STOP ALITO THIS WEEKEND
http://www.democrats.com/we
-can-stop-alito The last two days have been amazing.
Early Thursday afternoon, we broke the news that Senator John Kerry would lead a filibuster against Judge Sam Alito if he could get 41 Senators to sustain the filibuster. Three hours later, CNN confirmed our story.
Naturally, the White House freaked out and told Senator Bill Frist to schedule a cloture vote as quickly as possible - Monday at 4:30 p.m. - to prevent Democrats from uniting behind Kerry.
Then the White House called its media whores at the NY Times (David Kirkpatrick), AP (Jesse Holland), Pentagon Post (Charles Babington), CNN (Miles O'Brien), and MSNBC (Chris Matthews) and told them to trash John Kerry for daring to challenge the will of Emperor Bush, and to repeat over and over that Democrats did not have enough votes to stop Alito.
But even as Karl Rove was doing his dirty work, progressive activists like you were calling your Senators urging them to support John Kerry's filibuster.
And one by one, Democratic Senators began to turn around.
At the start of the day, only Dick Durbin and Debbie Stabenow supported Kerry and Kennedy. Just before noon, Hillary Clinton's office called to say she supported us. Then Harry Reid came on board, along with Barbara Boxer, Russ Feingold, Ron Wyden, Chris Dodd, and (I think) Chuck Schumer.
Most importantly, we even picked up Dianne Feinstein, who just yesterday said she opposed a filibuster.
That's 12 votes for a filibuster - and exactly 12 more votes than we had two days ago!
I believe we really can stop Alito by Monday at 4:30 p.m. - but here's what we must do.
1. Ignore the media whores. Karl Rove is feeding them lies as he always does, and they are swallowing those lies as they always do. The only media that matters is the media we are creating right here by calling each Senator and getting a YES or NO statement from them.
2. Wake up the sleeping bloggers. Where are the biggest blogs, including DailyKos.com, TalkingPointsMemo.com, CrooksandLiars.com, and AmericaBlog.com? (Complaining about how Democrats played last week won't cut it -we're in the Super Bowl and we can win this damn game if we get Democrats to play their best game on Monday - and hopefully the rest of this coming week.) Thanks to Agonist, BobGeiger, The Democratic Daily, DemocraticUnderground, Eschaton, Firedoglake, MakeThemAccountable, Mark Crispin Miller, PoliticalWire, Vichy Democrats and everyone else who's plugging this.
3. Keep calling the Senators who are undecided or opposed to a filibuster. You can call their DC office all weekend and leave polite but firm voicemails urging the Senators to support Kerry's filibuster. When offices open on Monday 9 a.m. ET, make another round of calls. Let's shut down the Capitol switchboard on Monday!
4. Call the DNC (202-863-8000) and the DSCC (202-224-2447) and tell them your 2006 contributions will depend on the success of the Alito filibuster. Tell them they need to get every Democratic Senator on board.
5. Call talk shows like Air America, C-SPAN, etc. and talk about what we're doing on this blog and how we're killing ourselves to stop Alito - and how we can win if everyone who cares about the future of our Democracy joins us.
6. Keep hope alive - because American Democracy is worth it!!!