Can a better fantasy help us create a better reality? That is one of the head-scratching philosophical questions posited by the organizers of "Park Life: The New Utopia," a group show opening this weekend at the multifunctional Subliminal Projects gallery space in Los Angeles.

With a nod to the wishful thinking of present and past cultures imagining a better state of reality, the mixed media collection "offers multiple representations of utopias from a diverse group of creatives: artists, designers, writers, musicians, publishers and other visionaries who are currently reshaping our culture."

The show, which is curated by locally-based creative firm Studio Number One, includes contributions from Shepard and Amanda Fairey, Jesselisa Moretti, Ernesto Yerena, Marissa Textor, Adrianne Read, Jeremy Kaplan, Nicholas Bowers and dozens of additional artists. Running from June 27th to July 25th, the exhibition is the second installment of Studio Number One's Park Life series, an annual multi-view event that aims to examine concepts and movements within contemporary culture from the perspectives of many diverse artists.

"Today, we see evolutions in technology and human interaction on a daily basis, leading us down an inevitable path of change and progress. 'The New Utopia' is the imagined endgame of this progress, a place that may or may not be perfect, but is always moving in that direction."

Opening reception for the event will take place on Saturday, June 27th, from 8-11pm.
[06.22.2009]

We completely slept on this week's update of the notebook, then suddenly remembered that BICYCLE ART IV kicks off this week at the Altered Esthetics gallery in Minneapolis. The exhibition will be available in the gallery beginning Thursday, June 04th, and will runs until June 27th.

The opening reception for the group show, which as the name implies is a celebration of bicycles in art, will be held Friday, June 5th, from 7-10pm at the gallery. This year organizers plan to outdo the success of the 2008 show, which saw "100 new works of sculpture, painting, photography, custom-built bikes and interactive installation art" displayed during the exhibition.

Housed in the Q'arma Building, which like a number of buildings in the Northeast Minneapolis houses several studios, the Altered Esthetics gallery was begun as a counterpoint to the fact that, as the space's curators put it, "contemporary success stories for offbeat artists such as those of Shepherd Fairey and Banksy are few and far between."

Indeed, community seems to be as much of an impetus for opening the non-profit and volunteer-run space as the art itself, with a nod to networking in the arrangement of Bike Art IV. The event promises to "feature a variety of awesome ways to get engaged with other artists and cyclists in communities from here to Patagonia."

To get an idea for the variety of work presented, visit the Altered Esthetics site where all previous Bicycle Art exhibits are available to view online. If you miss the opening reception this Friday (our fault, we know, short notice) but plan to be in the Twin Cities in a few weeks, keep in mind that the 2009 festivities will wind down with a "rolling Art Exhibit and Bicycle Caravan" in the area's 80th Annual Northeast Parade on Tuesday, June 23rd. Yeah, Tuesday, what a day for a parade!
[06.03.2009]

Tomorrow marks the official start of the 2009 EUROPEAN CYCLE MESSENGER CHAMPIONSHIPS, being held from 28 May - 01 June in Berlin, Germany.

This will be the 14th edition of the summit and a return to origins of sorts; the ECMC has been bringing together international riders since 1993 when the event kicked off in the formerly divided city.

Hosted by the Berlin Bike Messenger Association, this year's event boasts "what could possibly be the most exciting racecourse ever seen at an international event." That may sound boisterous, but not when the venue is taken into account -- at more than a kilometer in length, the recently closed Tempelhof Airport terminal will offer a stunning backdrop for bike racing.

The largest building in the world at the time of its completion, the Tempelhof building was an icon of Nazi Germany's swelling ambition in the early 1940s; this weekend it and the legendary airfield it guards will fittingly welcome a new breed of brash warrior. The hard-surface course for the 2009 race, "a once-off, staggering, spine-tingling, nerve-jangling, goose-pimpling" amalgamation of both one-way and two-way traffic zones, with a few steps and a short walk thrown in for good measure, will include "steep climbs/descents, hairpin turns, [and] tunnels." Qualifying heats for the main event will take place on Saturday, with second-round qualifying to be held before the finals on Monday.

If straight-up bike races aren't your thing (though, to be fair, a messenger race can hardly be compared to a stuffy crit or countryside tour), spread out throughout the ECMC's program are plenty of social events and fun rides. Case in point is this evening's post-registration meet-and-greet on the IC Berlin roof terrace, followed by a leisurely bike tour. Friday night sees the goofily-named Rockin World Welcome Party at Michelberger Hotel, Saturday and Sunday both have fan-friendly events, DJs, bands, dancing and general party vibes at Festsaal Kreuzberg and TAPE Club, respectively, and Monday night closes out the weekend with the ECMC 2009 Awards Ceremony and Party at Edelweiss.

Also on the ticket for Saturday the Go! Courier Cup team race, which aims to either honor or humiliate (depending on who you ask) dispatchers and messenger operators. The event, which pits teams of riders against each other, will foster an atmosphere of both comradery and frustration: "Points will be deducted for profanity and tantrums." Further wonderment can be had with the Cargo Race, an exposition on wheeled exertion specially designed for the large haulers. "Whether you like it or not, you will feel tired at the end of this race," organizers promise, adding a bit of challenge and potential mystery by pointing out that "the maximum of wheels in use on your conveyance is unlimited." Centipede-Bike, anyone?

And as with any cycling competition, there will be tete-a-tete races of all sorts, with both flatland and uphill sprints outdoors and the decade-old and now classic Goldsprints taking place indoors.

Berlin 2009 promises not only pain, but also plenty of iconic irony as well. With the explosion of hipster track bike culture there are bound to be plenty of tight-pantsed, facially-pierced, over-inked throwdowns for the menu of fixed gear events scheduled for the weekend; skids, trackstands, backward circles and more than a few elephant-leg ballet moves in the "best trick" category await.

"Non-messengers are as always tolerated at this event," says the ECMC website, and two of the weekend's most laid-back events -- Foot Down and Bike Polo -- offer a chance for even the cardiovascular-challenged to get in on the action. Casual riders are advised to plan on a few scrapes and bruises to result from such activities, and are additionally advised to "leave the excessive posing to the professionals, thanks."
[05.27.2009]

The SUONI PER IL POPOLO Festival, touted as North America's largest and most diverse leftfield music gathering, has announced a final lineup for its ninth annual edition. The monthlong event goes down in Montreal (hence the name, which is Francais for Sounds For The People Festival), from Wednesday, June 3rd to Tuesday, June 30th.

Confirmed for the 2009 extravaganza, which is being held at Casa Del Popolo, which is usually referred to as "the venue those Godspeed You! Black Emperor dudes run," and La Sala Rossa, "a historic Montreal building built by the left-wing Jewish community in 1932" where Eleanor Roosevelt was once a guest, will feature dozens of artists comprising "an eclectic variety of music genres such as avant folk, experimental electronics, free jazz and improv, loud rock, musique actuelle, noise/drone/freedom, pop, psych rock, punk, and twentieth century avant garde."

Just to hit the high spots, sets are slated for TV on the Radio, Six Organs of Admittance, Stars Like Fleas, Novi Sad, Magik Markers, one of the guys from Matmos, Paul Metzger, Mika Miko, Sir Richard Bishop, Oaxacan, the Dead Science, Tom Carter from Charalambides, the Climax Golden Twins, Canadian punk icons Nomeansno, raver kingpin Jay Reatard, Swans/Angels of Light frontman Michael Gira, and a load of free jazz and experimental artists that we haven't heard of.

As a bonus, "this year's edition will also feature a specially programmed series entitled Next Stop Freedom: Legends of the Canadian Underground that will feature performances by Gerard Van Herk, one half of Montreal heroes Deja Voodo, and Bloodshot Bill, the pairing of Veda Hille & Christof Migone, noise wavemakers Knurl and Corpusse, and provocateur John Oswald." Don't ask us, that is a direct quote.

Festival tickets have been on sale since April 22, 2009, though readers of our news blurbs have known that for a while. Tickets are available at the festival office and at various locations around Montreal, though passes for the entire event are only available through the office.
[05.18.2009]

Later this month the storied UK city of Manchester will play host to FUTURESONIC 2009 and the Social Technologies Summit, a three day event mixing multiple formats of entertainment and education. 2009 marks the 14th year of the festival, which will take place from the 13th to the 16th of May.

"Featuring world premieres of astonishing artworks, an explosive city-wide music programme, and visionary thinkers from around the world," the festival dabbles in experience of sight, sound, thought and body. Divided into four distinct categories of Art, Music, Ideas and EVNTS, the gathering "occupies the orbits of art, performance, music, design and digital culture." If that sounds a bit grandiose, it isn't; since being founded by Drew Hemment in 1995, Futuresonic organizers have put together projects on five continents, both through live music performances and the commissioning of "unique one-off projects and artist collaborations, with a special emphasis on projects using emerging technologies."

"More ambitious and relevant than ever," the themes for the 2009 art program "include society, technology and the city plus this year Environment 2.0." What that means is dozens of experimental artists from around the world composing work in a variety of formats. The majority of the art installations scheduled for Futuresonic fall into the category of either World Premiere or UK Premiere, and many were commissioned specifically for the festival. For example, the multi-day event "Biotagging Manchester" is explained as "a participatory project to discover and map Manchester's urban wildlife in new ways. People will move along a straight line through Manchester, traversing a range of microclimates, including cooler and warmer areas of the city." As part of a different event, there will also be something called Bubble Racing.

"The Social Technologies Summit is the leading international conference that brings together 500 opinion formers, futurologists, artists, researchers and technologists to explore the latest upgrade affecting today's digital culture." When visitors have had their brains thoroughly fried by pondering the future of human existence, they can head off to any number of venues to catch any number of music events. Musicians scheduled to appear in Manchester this month include Philip Glass, Ariel Pink, Murcof, Antipop Consortium, Marnie Stern, Daedelus, Icy Deamons, Crystal Antlers, and enough DJs to keep the methamphetamine market booming.

The 2009 running of Futuresonic is so stacked with activity - there will be some 300 artists and 100 events spread across 30 venues - that it is expected to draw upwards of 50,000 visitors and has been nominated for a Lever Arts Prize. All of Futuresonic's art exhibitions and events are free, and tickets for individual music events are now available via the festival website. Also available are Delegate Passes, which range in price from £150 to £30; that's a bit steep, but also includes access to all main festival event and the Social Technologies Summit. It should also be noted that 2009 is the final year for the name Futuresonic, which will be retired and replaced with Futureeverything, a name more in keeping with the broad scale of the festival.
[05.04.2009]

The Mid-City Arts gallery space, located in the central Los Angeles neighborhood of the same name, will be launching the first solo exhibition of Daniel Ramos, the man many hail as the most infamous graffiti artist in the city's long history of urban art. The show, titled "Resurrection," will open this weekend with a special appearance by the artist.

Ramos, who is better known by his street handle Chaka, became a household name within the guerilla art community when he was nabbed by police in 1991 and subsequently villainized by conservative media as a miscreant. At the time Ramos was at the center of a high-profile graffiti crackdown, and was just 18 years old when arrested and charged with four dozen counts of vandalism and trespassing, and linked to half a million dollars in property damage. By the time Ramos was arrested, his Chaka tags had appeared in more than 10,000 locations throughout California, and he quickly became both notorious and legendary for his prolificacy.

As the press release from Mid City Arts points out, "at the height of his notoriety Chaka was demonized by mainstream media and culture as being little more than a prolific vandal. At the same time he was celebrated by street artists who admired the ability of a teenager from the projects to literally make his mark on the vast, glitzy LA cityscape in such a ubiquitous manner."

Ramos, who will be on hand for the show's launch, represents a benchmark in the history of American graffiti and urban art, which is the focus of Los Angeles' 33third art store, which in turn opened the Mid-City Arts space. Chaka's legendary craft fits nicely into the folds of the gallery's repertoire, which in general caters to modern art with an urban, graffiti-style flavor. The opening reception for "Resurrection" will take place this Saturday, from 7-9pm, and will feature several pieces of new art as well as a limited number of signed posters and works available for sale.

BONUS: Video teaser.
[04.20.2009]

On Wednesday of this week the MIGRATING FORMS FESTIVAL will host an inaugural run of events to supplant the now defunct New York Underground Film Festival.

The new event, which is likewise being hosted at Anthology Film Archives in New York and will run until April 19, grew out of the NYUFF (see previous Field Notes below) after that event ended a successful 15-year run last spring. Migrating Forms is helmed by many of the NYUFF organizers and, like its predecessor, will continue to focus on new experimental film and video projects.

The series' opening night, on Wednesday, April 15th, will include an 8pm World Premiere of director Owen Land's film Dialogues, and the closing ceremonies on Sunday, April 19th, will feature an 8pm World Premiere of The Earth Is Young by Michael Gitlin. In between there will be more than a dozen feature-length films on offer, along with some four dozen shorts and a series of special programs with additional discussions and film screenings. Tickets for the festival are available online via Brown Paper Tickets for $8 (until midnight the night before the screening) and at the Anthology Film Archives box office for $10.
[04.13.2009]

The locally based Leaf Label will be sending several emissaries to the 2009 FUSELEEDS FESTIVAL, taking place in the UK's central university city between Saturday, April 25th, and Saturday, May 2nd.

The week-long event, which incorporates venues ranging from the Leeds City Museum to area churches and the West Yorkshire Playhouse, is a new iteration of the multimedia festival begun in 2006 and hailed by The Guardian as a gathering "where the classical avant garde cheerfully rubs shoulders with jazz, rock and electronica." Building on its established format of commissioning new work, the 2009 festival features commissioned works and UK debuts by a number of influential and groundbreaking artists, one of which is "Fusillage," a new audio installation that "celebrates the UKs bell ringing tradition and brings it bang up to date with new bell peals written by leading composer Gavin Bryars and French multi-instrumentalist Colleen."

Not to be outdone, Efterklang will perform their album Parades in its entirety with the Britten Sinfonia at the new Leeds Academy. The performance will be the first of its kind in the UK, and only the second time ever - Danish collective ran through the acclaimed 2007 album with orchestral accompaniment once before, last fall in Copenhagen.

While both Colleen and Efterklang represent for the Leaf Label (along with A Hawk And A Hacksaw and Nancy Elizabeth, who will be performing with The Acorn), the wider festival program features more than 30 events and incorporates a host of artits and performers, primarily in thought-provoking collaborations. Included in the Fuse Leeds program are events as varied as "Spanish Bombs: A tropical tribute to The Clash" and "Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals."

Designed to "explore the boundaries of visual art, architecture and composition," three such musical works will be rendered by the musical theater ensemble Psappha, who will perform works by toy designer Paul Farrington, London architecture group Amenity Space, and composer Leafcutter John. The performance is billed as inspirational ode to "the creative approach" of influential Romanian-born Greek architect and composer Iannis Xenakis, who is the subject of the BBC documentary Something Rich and Strange: The Life and Music of Iannis Xenakis, which will be screened as well.

Tickets for the entire schedule are now on sale from the main festival box office at the West Yorkshire Playhouse and online via www.fuseleeds.org.uk.
[04.06.2009]

Limited to an edition of just 500 signed and numbered copies, Gooseberries, a new collection of lithographs by Los Angeles-based photographer and artist Sterling Andrews, aims to "revive the wonderful experience of opening a brand new record to revel in artist photos and liner notes" while celebrating the state of Californian indie rock.

Andrews, who operates under the nom d'art Shutterface, conceived the project as a means of "[paying] respect to the process of creation." Considering that she lives and works in Los Angeles, arriving at the triumviral union of art, photography and music was perhaps a natural outcome for Andrews, who in addition to photography vents creative gasses by singing in the bands Love Grenades and Eagle Winged Palace.

Packaged in a theme-appropriate (and hand-painted) gatefold LP jacket and focusing on musicians from the Golden State, the portraits are each one-of-a-kind and measure 11-inches square. Along with the individual lithographs, which were shot in Andrews' home studio "in self-created whimsical and bizarre environments," Gooseberries also contains "a DVD of time-lapse videos documenting Sterling's painting process during the shoots" as well as interviews with the musicians involved. Andrews says that fifteen different artists were photographed for the book, though the final collection was stripped down to an even dozen images.

"It's like reading a storybook and seeing the pictures and when the pictures make sense to what you're reading - it's kind of like she creates a world with her photographs," testify the Los Angeles-based duo Great Northern of the book project, who appear alongside Silversun Pickups, Rogue Wave, Earlimart, the Happy Hollows, Afternoons, Rademacher, the Henry Clay People, the Pity Party, Death to Anders, Le Switch, and One Trick Pony.

Gooseberries will be available through Eenie Meenie Records beginning April 4th, and will have an official launch on April 2nd with a gathering at the Center for the Arts in Eagle Rock where, in addition to live sets from some of the bands featured in the book, "attendees can wander down a corridor of backdrops" and of course view the lithographs themselves. For those who find themselves outside of the Los Angeles area, a making-of style video conveys some of the project's finer points.
[03.23.2009]

The ultra-green Minnesota collective Cloud Cult, which includes not only the highly-touted band of musicians but also two live painters on tour, has finished up work on No One Said It Would Be Easy, a sort of auto-documentary film about the band. While the official release date for the DVD isn't until April 21st, the band have been offering a pre-sale package of the film since March 11th that includes "some 8x7 limited edition gallery wrapped prints on canvas" for early birds.

The film, which was compiled between the recording of, and touring for, the band's most recent album, Feel Good Ghosts, and their work tastefully shilling for Esurance, an environmentally minded insurance company, is the product of "many years of planning and numerous months of work," according to the band, "The documentary film, directed by innovative independent filmmaker John Burgess, will cover the bands 10+ years in existence and includes live shows/tour footage, personal interviews of band members and fans." There are also plans for a Cloud Cult EP to be released along with the DVD, and as a taste the band recently released the a trailer for the film.

Though the film and EP will be available everywhere next month, this weekend Cloud Cult will be treating their local fans to a screening of No One Said It Would Be Easy at 5pm on Sunday (March 22nd) at The Varsity Theater in Minneapolis. The screening will also be a chance for fans to pick up the DVD before it is available from retailers.

Afterwards the band will head out on a series of short tours, beginning on March 27th in Madison, Wisconsin. The tours include an April stop at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in California, and a July date at the 10,000 Lakes Festival in their home state. The group has been playing select dates throughout the winter, including a performance at the St. Olaf Nobel Peace Prize Conference, and had been scheduled for a slot at the Langerado Festival before that event was cancelled due to lack of ticket sales.
[03.16.2009]

"Confesiones de una Mascara," the latest event at the Anno Domini Gallery in San Jose, California, opened with an artist's reception on March 6th as part of the South First Fridays series.

Translated to "Confessions of a Mask," the show is a solo exhibition by Mexico City-based artist Edgar Flores, the 28-year old visual artist, illustrator and muralist "discovered his love for graffiti at an early age which ultimately led him to pursue a career in graphic design." Flores, working under the name Saner, "uses everyday life and their roots to create magic beings with popular pre-hispanic reminiscences beside images influenced by the aesthetics of Mexican masks."

Though Flores' work--which includes everything from sticker art to Coca-Cola apparel and urban murals--has previously been presented in group shows around the world, from Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands to Canada and his native Mexico, "Confesiones de una Mascara" marks the first solo exhibition of Saner works.

The Anno Domini show will run until April 18th.
[03.09.2009]

"Post-Future," a new major retrospective exhibition beginning March 7th at the Subliminal Projects gallery in Los Angeles, revisits the iconic work of graphic design legend John Van Hamersveld. The show, which will run for four weeks, examines Van Hamersveld's body of work from all angles, both in a historical context, as the classic emblems of psychedelic pop culture, as well as from the vantage point of today's rapidly shifting art aesthetics. Though Van Hamersveld began his rise to fame half a century ago, at the solo retrospective the designer's vast portfolio will be represented not as a collection of relics from another era but as an assemblage of continually evolving pieces of social commentary.

The idea of perpetual relevance will be brought to life by presenting many of the artist's classic works "juxtaposed with re-imaginings of those images, recent retro-styled pieces and a never-before-seen series of drawings connecting past and present. Through the show, Van Hamersveld creates a lens through which the past can be seen and the future can be sourced, where imagery melts into a pool that is both the source and the destination of creativity."

Grand statements on the weight of Van Hamersveld's art may seem like lofty hogwash to the uninitiated, but when considering the Rockwellian scope of his influence it is the notion of overstatement that seems outlandish. Along with cover art for a host of seminal albums like the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour and The Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street (which is to say nothing of the album covers for Jefferson Airplane, Blondie, Kiss, the Grateful Dead, and others), Van Hamersveld created the now-legendary poster for the 1964 surf film The Endless Summer, a universally known illustration of Jimmy Hendrix, the early 1990s redesign of Fatburger, the official poster (and a 360-foot gargantuan mural) for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, as well as scores of illustrations for venerable magazines like Esquire and Rolling Stone.

The eponymous show in Los Angeles is an in living color precursor to the publication of Post-Future a "retro-contempo-future-spective" book of Van Hamersveld's classic images that, "like an acid trip in ink on the paper of space and time... are as futuristic as they are vintage." The book, published by Santa Monica Press, is scheduled for release this fall. The Subliminal Projects exhibition will run until April 4th, and opens with an artist reception from 8- 11pm on March 6th.
[03.02.2009]

Organized to commemorate two decades of the seminal label, which began in 1989 in the North Carolina college town of Chapel Hill "with a handful of 4-track recordings, a couple of cassette tapes, and some hand-stuffed 7-inch vinyl," the scale of the MERGE 20th ANNIVERSARY schedule has all the signs of an epic undertaking.

First there was SCORE!, a subscription-only box set with a line-up of contributors featuring The Shins, Ryan Adams, Bright Eyes, Broken Social Scene, Death Cab For Cutie, The National, the New Pornographers and others. The subscription deadline for the one-time project was January 11th, and subscribers will begin receiving their stream of wares in March, several weeks ahead of the official release. The haul on the aptly-named SCORE! includes "14 compilations curated by the likes of Peter Buck, Amy Poehler, David Byrne, Miranda July and Jonathan Lethem, the SCORE! Covers album of non-Merge artists playing their favorite tracks from the Merge catalogue, a remix collection featuring reinterpretations of Merge classics, the MRG discography cover art book, and bonuses including a full-length Scharpling & Wurster CD, Superchunk's digital-only live bootleg The Clambakes Vol 4.: Sur La Bouche--Live in Montreal 1993, and more."

Along with donating all proceeds from SCORE! to Oxfam and other specific charitable causes handpicked by the curators, the folks at Merge have also officially announced the XX Merge Festival, "five days of music by Merge artists past and present in the summer heat of sunny North Carolina" to mark their anniversary. Specifics on the festival, which has been confirmed to run July 22-26, are still being released.
[02.23.2009]

With a stated intent to "encourage conversations amongst artists, curators, writers and art lovers alike," the 2009 TEXAS BIENNIAL hopes to expand on the success of the previous two festivals by combining the previous years' format of an open-submission group show with an expanded section for four solo shows awarded to the artists with the strongest works from the North, South, East, and West of the state. With the festival billed as an independent survey of contemporary art in Texas, organizers hope that the four solo exhibits will "solidify the geographical weight of each region."

As in past years participants in the Biennial's group exhibition are slected based on the merit of original works presented during the call for entries in April and May of 2008. The selections are made by artistic peer groups, and as the event organizers put it, the open submission process leaves the awards "to majority rule" of group selections. This year the main draw among the selection team is Michael Duncan, a writer and Editor for Art in America magazine who will also serve as curator for both the group and solo exhibitions.

The 2009 Texas Biennial, which runs from March 6th to April 11th, will find room for the additional solo shows as the result of an organizational restructuring deemed essential for providing the event with "direction, voice, and sustainability" for the future. Part of the new game plan includes the participation of local Austin galleries and museums, which will house the solo shows of the top four regional artists. The group exhibition will be held at the Women and Their Work Art Space and the Mexican American Cultural Center's new gallery space.
[02.16.2009]

Citing "the simple and possibly self-defeating notion" to post their products online as free downloads, the operators of the fledgling label of the same name have opened the TEAM LOVE LIBRARY, a collection of "an endless abundance of MP3s" that is open to the public during all hours for free downloading.

In the age of free or pay-your-conscience releases offered by artists as large as Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails, this announcement is hardly groundbreaking. But it is a fresh take on logistical battles between file sharing and artist livelihood, and a continuation of one label's longtime plan. In the front office of Team Love, which was co-founded by indie child star Conor Oberst, there remained that original idea to post free music, the seed for what they saw in 2003 as "a good detour around the wreckage of the music industry and a way to avoid getting bogged down in the number one topic of discussion and distraction: piracy, illegal downloads, P2P networks and so on."

"Five years later and the debate still drones in the background, and we've decided to reshape our policy in a different direction," the label said of the year-end launch of the Library. According to the announcement, "each month (or so)" the downloads on offer will be rotated between selections, "featuring different Team Love albums as well as exclusive content such as unreleased songs, live or remixed versions of TL favorites."

Although it works like the traditional stuffy book repository, the label's library dispenses with the harsh discipline and regulation. As they explain, "anything you take from the library is yours to keep. You will not be notified if you fail to return something on time, and you will not lose your library privileges if you share selections with friends."

To begin checking out titles from the label's stacks, simply head over to the circulation desk and sign up for a library card.
[02.02.2009]

"What is music?" That's the question tackled in the new documentary The Heart is a Drum Machine, which will premiere the first week of February at the Phoenix Art Museum, as part of their ongoing No Festival Required series.

The ambitious film, from ZU33 Pictures and the creators of the Moog documentary, "explores music's role in shaping human history, the profound connection people have had to music throughout human history, how it has shaped our experiences and its involvement in our daily lives."

The documentary includes a wide range of notable and influential musicians including George Clinton, John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jimmy Eat World guitarist (and Phoenix native) Jim Adkins, Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse, Britt Daniel of Spoon, Kimya Dawson, Jimmy Tamborello of DNTEL/Postal Service, The Silversun Pickups, and dozens of others plus contributions from music historians and writers such as Kurt Loder and Nic Harcourt, celebrity types Elijah Wood, Jason Schwartzman, and Fairuza Balk, and even a few scientists. The score for the film was composed by The Flaming Lips' Steven Drozd and includes a Drozd cover of Elton John's "Rocket Man" with vocals from Maynard James Keenan.

The premiere, on February 6th at 8pm, will be followed by a cocktail party and reception lubricated by Caduceus Wine, the vinyard of Tool frontman Maynard, and soundtracked by a DJ set from actress Juliette Lewis.
[01.19.2009]

Beginning with an opening reception on January 8th, the Mixed Greens Gallery will be hosting a solo art exhibition, "FOLLOW THE NOSEBLEEDS," a selection of work from the Mark Mulroney. The show marks a homecoming of sorts for the artist, a UC Santa Barbara-educated MFA recipient who mounted his first solo show at the space in 2004 before going on to participate in solo and group shows at galleries around the United States.

The show, which will be running through February 7th, consist of collage, drawing, painting, sound, and sculpture works "as varied as large-scale ink drawings of religious figures, Rembrandt etchings, cowboys and nude women; paintings with familiar compositions inspired by a Kodak manual on how to take a good picture; books and pamphlets containing sketches and musings; and even Dolly Parton, ready to tell their fortunes."

The gallery, located at 531 West 26th Street in New York City, currently represents some two-dozen emerging and established artists. To facilitate the show, Mulroney re-imagines" the gallery as "a more intimate, studio-like space [divided] with constructions, furniture, and partitions all made of cardboard." That last bit, the cardboard construction, is a nod to Mulroney's past and "the haunted houses he built with his brothers as a child." Also factoring into Mulroney's viewpoint, from which "mixed media and diverse content inspire active participation by the viewer," are Mulroney's "formative experiences as an alter boy, his love of Polaroid pictures, and his grandmother's wish to attend as many Padres' games as possible." The premise of the venue's reconstruction, according to Mulroney, is to "expose the viewer to a fascinating, interconnected universe of religious and scatological thought."

The opening reception for "Follow the Nosebleeds" will be held from 6-8pm on January 8th, when the gallery returns to operation after a holiday season closure.
[01.07.2009]

Beginning with an opening reception on January 8th, Gallery 1988:LA will be mounting a group art show, "UNDER THE INFLUENCE," an officially sanctioned art tribute to the Beastie Boys.

The show, which will be running through January 29th, is "an all-original collection of works inspired by the music of Beastie Boys, with participating artists from all over the country, including Alex Pardee (SF), Axis (L.A.), Dave Flores (Santa Barbara), Jason D'Aquino (NY), Plush artist Jen Rarey (KC), Le Merde (Portland), Mark Brown (Idaho), Matt Dangler (NJ), Mear One (L.A.), Scott Schiedly (FL), Tristan Eaton (NY) and literally dozens more."

The event's opening reception will be held from 7-10pm on January 8th, with a portion of the show's proceeds donated to Gramercy Housing Group, a Los Angeles-based organization providing stable home environments for at-risk young families.
[12.17.2008]

Organized by Manhattan performance space The Tank and the artist collective 8bitpeoples, the third annual BLIP FESTIVAL will take place during the first week of December this year at The Bell House (149 7th Street) in Brooklyn.

With some three-dozen musicians and visual artists "occupying the international low-res cutting edge," the four-day event highlights the expropriation of archaic video game and computer systems - from the original Nintendo (think "Duck Hunt" and "Super Mario Bros.") and Game Boy to the Commodore 64 and Atari ST - to create "original, low-res, high-impact electronic music and visuals."

Reformat The Planet, a documentary on the inaugural 2006 festival, was assembled by a crew of "chipmusic" (as the genre is called) documentarians at 2 Player Productions and screened at the 2007 South By Southwest film festival. This year's running of the Blip Festival, which kicks off on December 4th, is expected to make improvements on the successful 2007 event, which included participating audio and visual artists from not only the United States but also the UK, Japan, Argentina, and across Scandinavia and Europe.
[11.17.2008]

Dutch street poet and guerrilla artist Laser 3.14's latest project "The Gospel According to Brian O'Blivion" will have a short run from November 8th to the 13th at The Chiellerie in Amsterdam.

Constructed as the artist's vision on "the interrelatedness between humanity and omnipotence of technology," the show will combine Laser 3.14's subversive political and philosophical texts and art with the audio constructions of local ambient composer Pieter Nooten, who designed his audio art specifically for the exhibition and will be familiar to fans of the venerable 4AD record label, which released the "fragile songs and dreamlike soundscapes" of Sleeps With The Fishes, a collaborative album with Michael Brook, a decade ago.

Curated by the "anthropologists in art" team of Blaton & Rypson, the program examines the cyclical, often deconstructing symbiosis between mankind and the technologies it creates. "Already, our cosmology of truths has been supplanted by an amorphous and infinite number of hyper-realities and truisms," Laser 3.14 muses. "What of our organic autonomy? Will we transmorph into neo-anthropomorphic techno-beings?"

The exhibition is the latest in a series of public works by the artist, who recently completed the ominous black and white short film Cadence, and was the subject of a 2006 LAS feature. "The Gospel According to Brian O'Blivion" opens on Sunday, November 8th, at 5pm and will be available for viewing four afternoon hours daily. A short video trailer for the event is also online.
[11.07.2008]

Details have been announced for the 2008 Fun Fun Fun Fest, taking place at Waterloo Park in Austin, Texas, on November 8th and 9th. According to organizers of the event, "the theory behind Fun Fun Fun Fest was to create a fall festival experience that supported emerging artists, the creative class, local business, and bands we just love to see play, regardless of genre or MTV airplay." Whatever their reasons, for the past few years they have succeeded in assembling an ever-expanding lineup of top-notch artists for the two-day festival, which now spans four stages, making the Texas capital the place to be in November as well as March, when it plays host to the massive (and also ever-expanding) South By Southwest music/film/media festival.

Earlier this year, festival promoters announced the weekend's initial line up, which includes a one-off reunion of the legendary Dead Milkmen, as well as sets from classic outfits like Bad Brains, Scared of Chaka and Bouncing Souls. But don't think the 3xF-Fest lineup caters only to the fuddy-duddies, as there will also be jams by new geniuses like Deerhoof, Atmosphere, Clipse, The Black Heart Procession, et cetera. And of course what festival lineup would be complete without the over-rated: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Minus the Bear, and the comedy act Tim & Eric's Awesome Show will be on hand as well. Speaking of laughable, along with the extensive musical lineup, this year the festival will incorporate several comedic acts, with the Coldtowne and Altercation Punk Rock comedy hours already on the bill, as well as comic rapper Dragonboy Suede. More updates for the festival will be released throughout the month of October.

Tickets for the event, which "are priced to accommodate fans of all shapes and sizes," are available throughout several Austin-area retail outlets and, since it is 2008, they are to be had online as well. In truth, two-day passes are really only available at two price points - Regular ($59.99) and Student ($50.99) - along with the applicable service charges. But, considering the ticket prices for similarly star-studded festivals, not to mention all the oil money flowing into the Lone Star state these days, $30 per day isn't half bad when you scroll through the list of performers. The complete lineup looks a little something like this:

Stage 1: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, The National, Atmosphere, Minus The Bear, The Black Heart Procession, St Vincent, Black Angels, And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, Deerhoof, Rival Schools, Islands, The Annuals, Bishop Allen, Centro-matic, Frightened Rabbit, Spinto Band, Parts and Labor, Colourmusic, Experimental Dental School, 27, Til We're Blue or Destroy, Paul Green's School of Rock, Ume, Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears

Stage 2: Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Neil Hamburger, Tim Fite, Magnetic Morning (members of Swervedriver and Interpol), Kevin Seconds, the Cynics, Ugly Beats, Walter Schreifels, Pepi Ginsberg, James Petralli, El Paso Hot Button, The Revival Tour (with members of Hot Water Music, Against Me!, Lucero and Avail), Coldtowne Comedy Hour, Altercation Punk Rock Comedy hour, Matt Beardan, Chris Fairbanks, Dragonboy Suede, Golden Arm Trio, Grampall Jookabox, Spot & Albert

Stage 3: Bad Brains, ALL, Dead Milkmen, Adolescents, Integrity, Bouncing Souls, Swingin Utters, DOA, Killdozer, Cromags, Scared of Chaka, Young Widows, Leftover Crack, Trash Talk, World Burns to Death, Krumbums, Mammoth Grinder, Cute Lepers, Bitter End, High Tension Wires, Born to Lose, Camp X-Ray, Municipal Waste

Stage 4: Clipse, Z-trip, Dan Deacon, Grupo Fantasma, Kool Keith/Dr. Octagon, Octopus Project, Dengue Fever, Brownout!, Franki Chan, Toxic Avenger, Hawnay Troof, Starlynx/bigface, Richard Henry, YACHT, J*davey, Zeale and Phranchyze, Terp2it, Shane Tyson

If any of the acts included in the festival lineup are unfamiliar, the event organizers have put together a page of streaming audio to clear up any mysteries. To get a feel for the event, there is also a recap montage video from the 2007 festival.
[10.27.2008]

A musical spoof of the 2000 presidential elections, BALLOTS, will have a limited four-night run this week at the Bartell Theatre in Madison, Wisconsin.

Set at the fictional Everglades High during the year 1986, the playhouse parody pits the characters of "Geoff," a popular figure amongst the school's jocks (played by Jeremy Sonkin), and the prominent nerd "Alex" (played by Jeffery White) against each other in a campaign for the senior class presidency.

Madison native and University of Minnesota Theatre Arts graduate Anthony Lamarr, who is producing Ballots, describes the affair as "a little romance, drama, politics, and some great 80's clichés all combined into one phenomenal show." Although it draws inspiration from and parallels to the 2000 Bush v. Gore debacle in Florida, the production sounds more like Freaks & Geeks meets The Daily Show, with the two main characters forming a behind-the-scenes friendship while their diametrically opposed and influential peer groups turn the election process into "a mess of emotions and controversy."

Dana Pellebon, who directed the highest grossing play in the history of Madison's decades-old experimental Broom Street Theater, will be directing the performances, which will run for four nights, with shows on Wednesday and Thursday October 22-23 at 7:30pm; Friday, October 24th at 9:00am, 12:30pm and 8:00pm; and Saturday, October 25th at 3:00pm and 8:00pm. All tickets are $15 general admission and available at online or at the theater box office.
[10.15.2008]

The 2008 running of the INTERNATIONAL LIVE LOOPING FESTIVAL, the 7th annual edition of the event, will kick off on Wednesday in Santa Cruz, California. The opening night, at Union Grove Music, will include a free performance and demonstration clinic from guitarist Bill Walker as well as new equipment demos by technical reps from gear companies like Roland and Looperlative.

On Thursday night the festival will venture 30 miles down to the coast for a "Best of" event at and sponsored by San Jose's Anno Domini Gallery, with half-hour sets from an international collective of artists hailing from the US and Canada as well as Japan and countries in Europe. The rest of the festival will be held at Pearl Alley Studios back in Santa Cruz, with an opening concert on Friday night, "Noon to Midnight" concerts on Saturday and Sunday, and a total of 55 loopers from eight countries performing over the six-day event. A 1pm Loopers Luncheon at the Walnut Street Cafe on Monday, October 20th, to close things out.
[10.13.2008]

"Lite-Brite, Lite-Brite, Turn on the magical shining light!" So goes the advertising jingle for the simplistic plastic timewaster introduced in 1967 by the Hasbro toy company. By that time Kihachiro Onitsuka had been making athletic shoes under the Onitsuka Tiger name for nearly twenty years, but it would be another four decades before the companies would collide head-on. Next week the shoe company Asics (to which Onitsuka Tiger was renamed in 1977) will try their hand at temporary immortality when the company plugs in "The World's Largest Lite-Brite" for the benefit of officials from the Guinness Book of World Records.

Construction of the device - which consists of more than 300,000 original-sized Lite-Brite pegs, measures 11-foot tall by 15-foot wide and took four months to complete - is part of a marketing tie-in for the company's ugly-ass Gel-Lyte III shoe, from its Sportstyle collection. Following the illumination at Splashlight Studios in New York City on October 7th, the marketing firm UG Strategies will be dragging it around the country, with stops at the Voodoo Music Experience in New Orleans, Art Basel in Miami, and the Winter X Games in Aspen, "as well as college campuses and designer footwear boutiques."
[10.03.2008]

Originating in the twin college towns of Champaign-Urbana, former home of the LAS main office, and running from September 17th to the 20th, the 2008 PYGMALION MUSIC FESTIVAL is the Little Festival That Could. At $50 for a weekend pass, this out of the way festival stacks up against all comers for the budget-minded, and for those music lovers with time constraints tickets to individual shows are available at varying prices, from $5 to $25.

If you're wondering where exactly Champaign-Urbana is (and yes, some do refer to it as Chambana, you're not that clever), "it's about 2 hours south of Chicago, 2 hours north of St. Louis (actually 3, but who's counting?) and 2 hours west of Indianapolis. It's accessed by three different interstates and a municipal airport with a little fountain in a manmade pond out front." You'll know you're there when you see a big, white bubble-topped dome rising above the million miles of yellowing corn.

Now in its fourth year, the oddly named event has made use of the momentum built in previous years, greatly expanding its lineup while centralizing event locations, which had previously been spread out across a wide area. "We made a conscious decision to keep it centrally located to one area," says Pygmalion mastermind Seth Fein of the festival's move to a compact area in Urbana that is now called the Krannert Center Entertainment District. While running through fewer venues, there are oodles of bands on the bill for 2008, including a sizeable portion of local tastemakers Polyvinyl Records' roster. The acts range from the legendary (Yo La Tengo) to the local (Headlights, New Ruins, Angie Heaton, et cetera), from the faux-evil (Murder By Death) to the under-rated (Times New Viking) to the Pitchforked (Titus Andronicus) to the extraneously punctuated and thoroughly hair-gelled (Thunderbirds Are Now!). All told there are more than five dozen acts confirmed for the weekend, and who knows, there might even be a hay ride.
[09.01.2008]

Although its mysterious and unnamed "financial backer" pulled out at the last minute, F YEAH FEST 5 will not be denied. Festival organizers, faced with pulling the plug or trudging ahead on their own, elected to "take the financial hit" and are now "well over $15k in debt" by their own accounting. Their loss could be your gain.

The 2008 festival comes on the heels of the F Yeah Tour, a 27-day cross-country drive in a Bluebird bus converted to run on vegetable oil that went off almost without a hitch. "The plan was to do 28 shows in 27 days with 26 people in the bus. We only missed one show. Only one person went jail. And there was only one trip to the hospital." That sounds like a success to us!

Not counting the litany of "pre-fest" events with yawners like Insane Clown Posse and Strike Anywhere (and The Melvins, who are always tight), the official festival kicks off at 4pm on Saturday, August 30th, at the EchoPlex & Jensen Rec Center in Los Angeles. Day one features musical performances by dozens of artists, including No Age, Fucked Up, Two Gallants, Glass Candy, High Places, David Dondero, Crystal Antlers, War Tapes and others. In addition to bands, there will also be a comedy show with Josh Fadem, Matt Braugner, Jonah Ray, and "a dozen more comics" to be announced, as well as an art display showcasing the work of 25+ artists. The event is all-ages and will set you back $16 at the door, and there will also be a taco eating contest.

For all of that, Day Two is where the real bonanza lies, with the LA Scavenger Hunt 08, a city-wide search game. From "a sixteen year old punk kid with a Limp Wrist shirt" to "a middle-aged architect," the scavenger hunt open to any and all comers in the form of teams made up of 2 to 5 people. Hijinks begin at 2pm at the Echo Park Lake and end elsewhere in Echo Park at 7pm. The hunt is all-ages, open to the public, and is made up of 100 items, each worth points. The team with the most points at 7:00pm wins the grand prize - $2,500 in prizes, $500 in cash and
the largest bottle of whiskey known to man."

The weekend activities culminate with a "secret" Sunday night performance by Dan Deacon at an undisclosed location.

One last note from the organizers: "Please do not try to bring in outside alcohol to the festival. I know, I know, drinks are expensive at the bar but still man, you can't bring in a tall can." Unless, of course, you have some of those cargo shorts with super huge pockets, or a flask of high-proof grain alcohol. Also, "no dogs. If you have a pet raccoon then it's totally cool."
[08.18.2008]

Taking place August 15-17, the 2008 LOWLANDS FESTIVAL promises to be a thoroughly entertaining weekend. The festival takes place outside the town of Biddinghuizen, an hour Northeast of Amsterdam, and is centered around seven large campsites, each complete with "toilets, hot showers and running water, supermarkets, a police station, a camping store, a First Aid stand, cash registers, lockers and a 24-hour pub." Hot showers and round-the-clock Jägerbombs should be enough to offset an on-site cop shop.

With its awkward full name of "A Campingflight To Lowlands Paradise," the three-day event is touted as a "progressive outdoor festival that focuses on alternative music," but organizers are quick to point out that the program schedule also includes stand-up comedy, film screenings, visual arts displays (a giant carrot rocket, anyone?), literature readings and theatre performances. As organizers rhetorically put it: "Listening to the hottest bands while enjoying an even spicier Indian curry? Receiving a much-needed brain massage after still not understanding the plot to that great movie you just saw? Having your hairy fashion statement trimmed while knowing you're about to dance the night away?" Priceless.

Like any festival there are a few lame ducks (Steve Aoki and The Presidents of the USA to name two), but music lovers will be treated to doses of Black Kids, Diplo, the potentially volatile Sex Pistols, Simian Mobile Disco, The National, Tunng, N*E*R*D, The Flaming Lips, Sigur Rós, a Henry Rollins spoken word performance, MGMT, The Roots, The Breeders, Ane Brun, Iron & Wine, Los Campesinos!, Santogold, Tricky, Hercules And Love Affair, No Age, and the NSFW acts Holy Fuck, Fuck Buttons, and Fucked Up, along with dozens of others.

Tickets for the 2008 festival, which hopes to capitalize on the momentum of previous years featuring the likes of Sonic Youth, LCD Soundsystem, Arcade Fire, Grandaddy and others, are officially sold out, but with plenty of warm Dutch smiles and the bales of hydroponic chronic that are sure to be in circulation the vibe may be relaxed enough for stragglers to slip through quietly tucked away in a crate of glow sticks and hackey-sacks, or at least score an ticket outside the gates. And with ticketholders offered the potential for "your own little hobbit-house built from weatherproof plywood all ready and furnished for your arrival," how could anything go wrong?
[08.07.2008]

Next week will kick off INSIDERS, OUTSIDERS & THE MIDDLE, a group art exhibition sponsored by Japanese magazine Giant Robot and housed at Scion's Installation Gallery in Los Angeles, California. For the event the automaker cum art curator's 4500 square foot gallery will be house work collected to celebrate the divergence of modern art in popular culture, "as well as the gray areas" that fill the void between experimental, commercial, and traditional gallery art. As the show's title suggests, participating artists are segmented into three categories:

Insiders: Defined as "artists who work so hard in front of their computers that they don't leave their chairs long enough to hang their pieces on walls," these creative types generally eschew galleries and exhibits in favor of a non-stop workload creating designs for magazines (both online and print), merchandise, and other consumerist forms of pop culture. Aside from British artist Adrian Johnson, the Insiders are, like the duo behind ZariganiWorks, all from Japan.

Outsiders: Having seen a surge of popularity with the advent of the Internet, these street artists, like the Parisian Space Invader, are predominantly street artist who wage a never-ending battle to post their work, first against municipal cleanup crews and now, increasingly, against voracious collectors who seek out their illicit art. This increasingly populated niche of renegade artists has begun to make the crossover into mainstream and commercial art, publishing photo books and print collections or, like Tokyo-based graffiti legend Kami, transitioning from the streets to art galleries.

The Middle: Again populated by Japanese artists, with a lone American, Ed Trask (who is also the drummer for the punk band Avail), this group of artists shows no obvious signs of correlation other than their universal disregard for the conventional meanings and boundaries of art. These creative types "belie the image of the stationary artist and pose the question of how they will co-exist in a restrained gallery setting," landing somewhere between The Insiders and The Outsiders.

The event's opening reception takes place from 7 to 10pm on August 2nd at the Scion Installation LA Gallery, with free valet parking and an open bar, and the exhibition will run until August 23rd. To see a collection of images from the installation, click here.
[07.28.2008]

Although the truly hardcore set out Monday on a 260+ mile ride from Paris, there is still time for stragglers to make plans for the 2008 EUROPEAN CYCLE MESSENGER CHAMPIONSHIPS taking place this weekend in the Netherlands.

Hosted by the Technical University Eindhoven, the campus of which also doubles as a free campground for registered participants, the 2008 ECMC is a three-day gathering (four if you count Thursday's bike ride and Riverside party) stuffed with events for the bikecentric. And what better place for it - with more than 16 million people, the Netherlands has over 18 million bicycles. Although a semi-official event for bike messengers, the event is nothing if not laid back - while organizers were encouraging visitors to register before the 15th to save 10 Euros on the registration fee, the prodding was of a practical nature: They'd "rather you spend that cash on beer instead."

Along with the qualifying heats on Friday and Saturday and the main race on Sunday, the weekend has more than enough sporting events for non-messengers, including sprints, fixed-gear skids, and roller races sponsored by the trademark-infringing RollaPaluza. Oh, and there'll be plenty of parties, along with some "fundamentals" instructional programs.

Those attendees with Timbuk2 bags but no skills needn't fret; items on the non-competition program include a trip to the Designhuis Bicycle exhibition, a bike film show, and bike polo with the hilariously named FUCCIT (that's an acronym) crew.

Before you head for Eindhoven, be sure to download and print a spoke card, and afterward if you've yet to quench your bike thirst there's a post-event event, the Millportpoloco IV, "a weekend of courier mayhem brought to you by Westcoast Messengers Glasgow." Yeah, as in Scotland. And you thought the ride from Paris sounded tough!
[07.21.2008]


"The Summer's Greenest Festival" is how organizers are describing the ROTHBURY FESTIVAL, which takes place the weekend of July 4th at the "one-of-a-kind" Double JJ Ranch in Michigan. While promoting recycling and handing out canvas tote bags have become "green" operating standards in recent years within the culture of music and arts festival organizing, under an add-on "eco"-facade most large-scale summer events operate much as they did decades ago. Beyond setting up a few solar panels or maybe some displays on wind turbines, few events truly latch on to the mantle of being green, but this festival on the Eastern shores of Lake Michigan, with its tag-line of "a huge party with a purpose," claims to have cast itself from a different mold.

The party aspect or Rothbury's motto is attributable to the festival's host venue, a sort of down-home nature resort with on-site "trails, forests, fields, lakes, beach fronts, lodging, bars and eateries." The purpose of which they speak is in the July event's ground-up structure of "environmentally sustainable music and camping" aimed at combining the hula-hooping and bong-ripping of traditional warm weather gatherings with the progressive thinking and problem-solving that even energy conservatives know is long overdue for becoming part of the global consciousness.

Presented by Madison House and AEG Live, the musical lineup for Rothbury has a predictably "festival" styled air with the usual emphasis on noodly jam bands. But for every outdoor summer concert tour staple - Keller Williams, Medeski Martin & Wood, Yonder Mountain String Band, Dave Matthews Band, 311, Primus - there is a crop of respectable former indies gone major (The Black Keys, Modest Mouse), a batch of something else (Sage Francis, Crystal Method, Gogol Bordello, Snoop Dogg. Thievery Corporation) and a small but decent list of underground bands (Diplo, Flosstradamus, The Juan MacLean and Of Montreal). The lineup already numbers dozens of artists, and organizers plan to announce additional acts as well.

Music is the low-hanging fruit for summer entertainment, but the Rothbury Festival also offers an internal event it refers to as Think Tank. Modeled after corporate and political strategy groups, this communal-style brainstorming conference tackles daunting, large-scale subjects like the 2008 theme of Energy Independence. Bringing together experts and notables from various fields - researchers, writers, politicians, executives, youth leaders, academics, entertainers - the event will serve as a roundtable to "share ideas about how to lessen our ecological and carbon footprint" and develop solutions "geared toward corporations, individuals and government." Of the luminaries involved in the Think Tank are Dr. Stephen H. Schneider, an Environmental Studies academic at Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment; Dr. Eban Goodstein, a Professor of Economics and director of the Global Warming initiative Focus the Nation; Winona LaDuke, a Native American writer and founding director of Native Harvest; and L. Hunter Lovins, the founder of Natural Capitalism Solutions.

Festival organizers have also partnered with Black Rock Solar and the RE:VOLVE clothing label to create the Solar Schools Program, which is committed to donating a minimum of $50,000 worth of solar power to Shelby High School in Shelby, Michigan.

Beyond the headline events of the music program and the Think Tank, the organizers of Rothbury also make promises of Circus and Theatre performances "integrated into the fabric" of the festival, and a number of distinct areas on the event grounds for those of differing tastes. Located "within a dome environment with a chill out bar and lounge area," the "Tripolee" is billed as "a 3-hour show featuring global DJ's, live musicians, performers, and visual projection artists" and heralded as "a fantastical interactive experience." There is also on-site lodging in the form of Good Life cabins, a series of Etown radio broadcasts recorded live at the festival, yoga, cabaret, and several different energy fairs.
[06.02.2008]

GIRLS ROCK PHILLY - For the second year in a row this nonprofit Philadelphia-based organization is hosting a girls-only, week-long summer day camp for "junior rockers" between the ages of 9 and 17.

The camp will be held from August 4th to the 9th on the campus of Girard College in Philadelphia, and hopes to expand on the success of 2007, which saw girls converging to hone their instrumental prowess, learn how to write songs, form makeshift bands and perform a set at week's end. According to the organizers, last year the camp even "fostered a new band known as Oak Oak Okay, who have continued to perform around the city."

The event's director, Beth Warshaw-Duncan, credits the first camp as being "a tremendous success" with many of last year's participants returning for 2008. She also adds that "the Girls Rock Camp Alliance has 14 sister camps serving over 1500 girls this summer, and we're proud to be part of a movement that has clearly struck a chord."

While most of the girls participating last year were from the area around Philadelphia, the camp is open to girls from anywhere, and Girls Rock Philly also provided scholarships & partial financial assistance for half of last year's campers.

GRP is now accepting camper and volunteer applications for the 2008 summer camp session. For more information and to submit an application, visit the event's website or call 215-789-4879.
[04.30.2008]


On May 15th Brooklyn-based lensman PETER BESTE, the documentary photographer noted for his image collections on the Houston rap scene and London's grime explosion, along with commercial works for record labels and trade magazines, will publish a series of images from his extensive portfolio of portraits from within the darker corners of Scandinavian music.

Aptly titled True Norwegian Black Metal, the volume will be published by Vice Books and is touted as "a photographic narrative that explores black metal from a truly visceral perspective." Beste has been involved in the metal scene for years, and after shooting several Norwegian acts for promotional photos and magazine spreads he began assembling collections of images which, taken out of their musical context, proved quite remarkable. The more Beste worked within the genre the more able he was to extensively document it and, having "earned the respect and trust of this impenetrable, suspicious and often elitist community," the larger his collection grew. After eight years the photographer had become a de facto authority on an unassumingly large musical subculture, a genre that had spawned a micro-economy worth millions of dollars and secured for itself an edgy, if somewhat frightening, mainstream reputation.

Realizing the unique nature of the images, which captured striking faces and looming poses from imposing, often ghoulish figures, Beste packaged collections in limited editions - there is a 2005 series of 3000 released in Japan, which was issued in "a large dictionary sized cardboard box which unfolds into an upside down cross" - and set off an ouroboros that would see heavy-metal magazines doing stories on his collection of images that were originally shot for heavy-metal magazines.

After the better part of a decade Beste's coverage of the "unique subculture in the context of Norway's magical landscape, mythological background, and strong sense of culture" was extensive and the American documentary photographer's perspective of the obscure niche began to circulate in underground media. His photos were featured in Arktip No.0038 and memorialized on a limited edition shirt print (a heavy metal rite of passage one would assume). Earlier this month, MTV's Headbangers Ball Blog posted a podcast interview with Beste.


Beste's image for Arktip No.0038

To put his work in context, Vice paints the backdrop of Beste's images not as the Myspace-driven multimediaplex of 2008, but the emergence of metal in Norway a decade ago: "In the early-mid 1990's, members of this extremist underground committed murder, burned down medieval wooden churches, and desecrated graveyards. What started as juvenile frenzy came to symbolize the start of a war against Christianity, a return to the worship of the ancient Norse gods, and the complete rejection of mainstream society."

Though it certainly sounds evil, Scandinavian hard rock isn't as scary as Vice's True Norwegian Black Metal marketing makes it out to be - "a subculture and musical genre that is often violent, misunderstood and shrouded in secrecy." It is certainly fascinating to look at however, and the music's practitioners (and fans) look foreboding in Beste's snapshots. The photographer also produced a five-part documentary short film for VBS.TV earlier this year on Gaahl, one of the scene's iconic staples, and his band Gorgorot. The multimedia is entertaining, but Beste's still images, which will be presented in a series of gallery showings beginning in May, are truly captivating.

To celebrate the launch of the Vice collection of Beste's Norwegian metal portraits, the Steven Kasher Gallery on West 23rd Street in New York will be mounting a selection of images from the 216 page photobook, with the show's opening night reception scheduled for May 9th, from 6-8pm. The show promises to be a collection of "intense and remarkable photographs of unparalleled artistic integrity." There are plans for London, Stockholm, Oslo, Berlin, and Los Angeles showings of Beste's work from True Norwegian Black Metal to follow.
[04.15.2008]


"Lost in Translation" is the subtitle of this weekend's interactive GRADUATE LEVEL GRAFFITI art installation in Texas. For one night only a group of Austin artists will play host to an exhibit/experiment created and attended by contemporaries from around the world.

Sponsored by the City of Austin through its Cultural Arts Division and supported by third parties like Cantanker art magazine and the design agency Dreamhaus Media, the show is part gallery exhibition, part activist party, and part new media experiment.

Funding for the event came in the form of grants from the Texas Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts, but although the gathering will have traditional physical art on display it won't be an academic snooze fest. In fact, Graduate Level Graffiti should be notable not only for its gallery offerings but for its fairly lofty artistic goals as well. "During the event, artists, musicians, performers, and poets from around the world will perform and interact with audience members in an effort to recreate the drama of an essential human truth; our persistent attempt to communicate our experiences through art to each other."

The high aspirations of the installation are no doubt tied to the gravity of the situation that organizers hope to draw attention to. Concerned with "significant funding cuts for arts-related programming" on national and local levels, Graduate-Level Graffiti hopes to showcase the obvious value of art in the way that it engages mankind and at the same time secure funding for underserved artists and arts organizations. The show will donate 20-percent of all proceeds to charitable art groups, and for a green touch the show's ticketing agent and "official green business" partner, In Ticketing, will plant a tree in honor of each ticket sold.

At the event, which will take place at the Asian American Cultural Center in Austin this Sunday (April 13th) from 5pm to 9pm, a group of nearly two dozen artists, musicians, performers, and poets will descend upon the crowd for a multi-level interactive art installation. Participating artists hail from the local community as well from around the globe - video artist Alison Williams is from South Africa, "classical Indian dancer and font designer Jui Mhatre hails from India, collage artist Dariusz calls Poland home - and all will be presenting work focused on the theme of translation.

Beyond simply hosting an installation, "Lost In Translation" aims to document the experience of experiencing art. While organic and synthetic art, presented in audio, visual, and performance mediums, will be presented to the audience for their consideration, there will be a pan-interactive experience in the form of a forthcoming documentary film, which will be made at the installation as the audience views the pre-created work. "Each audience member will be required to participate in some way," explains an email from Sean Gaulager, the event's Marketing Director and participating artist. Because any notion of "art" must have a concept, Gaulager goes on to qualify that explanation by adding that participants "will receive personalized instructions on how to do so." As the audience goes about doing the tasks that they've been assigned, their actions will form a process to in turn be recorded by photographers and filmmakers. The result will be a sort of sandwiched performance - art, experience, document - that should thoroughly blur the boundaries between artist and audience.
[04.07.2008]


CONFRONTING CRUELTY - The last week of April will see a number of leading figures in the campaign for animal rights meeting at the Public Library of Salt Lake City for a three-day conference. The unprecedented gathering of activists, legal experts and scholars is aimed at increasing legal penalties for cruelty to companion animals, addressing the systematic abuse of animals in laboratories and on fur farms, drawing attention to the widespread effects of climate change, confronting pet overpopulation, and the spread of "eco-terrorism" propaganda.

Along with a one-day film festival with screenings of Behind the Mask (a documentary on the Animal Liberation Front and other activists), 45 Days (full title: 45 Days: The Life and Death of a Broiler Chicken), Chattel (focuses on animal cruelty at "research" laboratories), and several other films, this year's event features a host of notable speakers, among them Christine Garcia, a longtime vegan and animal rights activist who founded the The Animal Law Office and serves as their lead legal counsel; Peter Young, an activist who after being listed for seven years on the FBI's wanted list was sentenced to a two year federal prison sentence for actions and planning to release thousands of animals from mink fur farms across the Midwest; Luke Glowacki, who does research in the fields of evolutionary biology, environmental ethics, and cognitive science, has also focused his career on human rights theory and "the relationship and obligations humans may have to nonhumans"; Rob Hutton, an activist and animal rights investigator who has extensively documented the plight of animals used for "entertainment" by the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus; Rhonda Kamper, who became an animal rights activist as a result of her own husband's torturing of the family dog, Henry, two years ago and, appalled to find that animal torture was punishable only as a misdemeanor, Kamper co-founded Help Us Help Them and helped pass legislation that would become known as "Henry's Law" and make a first offense felony provision part of Utah state law; Will Potter, founder of GreenIsTheNewRed.com, is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist documenting the "Green Scare" tactic of translating national fears over the War on Terrorism into propaganda against animal rights and environmental activists labeled as "eco-terrorists"; Jeremy Beckham, a student involved with the Primate Freedom Project who previously shamed Baylor University for its use of live bears as mascots.

For those unable to attend the conference, donations to help organize, promote, and effect change for animal rights are accepted any time.
[03.31.2008]


For a decade and a half the NEW YORK UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL has been hosting an annual cinema event "created to showcase films that weren't being supported anywhere else" that, in the words of former festival director Ed Halter, evolved into "an anti-institutional institution." As always, the 2008 running will continue NYUFF's tradition of bringing a wide selection of documentaries, short films, features, and experimental work to the Anthology Film Archives in Manhattan.

The festival, which runs from Wednesday, April 2nd, until Tuesday, April 8th, will play host to a everything from the experimental 16mm short collage 4 Films in 5 Minutes to the hour long feature The Golden Age of Fish (which will be having its New York premiere) and the much-publicized documentary Heavy Metal in Baghdad, the latter of which focuses on the Iraqi band Acrassicauda, its members forced by the American-led war to flee their native country and live as refugees, first in Syria and now Turkey.

As for the minds behind the lenses, dozens of directors will be represented at the 15th and final NYUFF, from prolific experimental filmmaker James Fotopoulos to independent Serbian feature director Zelimir Zilnik to the group behind the live-action comedy/film project Found Footage Festival.

While the official closing night of the festival is Sunday, April 6th, there will be re-runs of selected films on April 7th and 8th. To boot, there will be a series of special events running throughout the festival, including "Tube Time," a battle of web-video connoisseurs -- that comes with the warning: "this competition is not for the faint of heart, seriously, shit is like American Gladiators. Definitely NSFW." -- and "NYUFF is Enough," a three-night retrospective of highlights from each of the festival's 15 years. And for those of you lamenting the end of NYUFF (more on that here), take solace in the fact that many of the festival's primary architects have moved on to form Migrating Forms, a new festival in the making that hopes to "addresses the present condition of film and video arts-filmmakers [who] are exploring new technologies while re-inventing and re-contextualizing traditional practices."
[03.24.2008]


EARTH HOUR - Flip the switch on Saturday!

Begun as a single-city project in 2007 by a group of activists in Australia, this low-sacrifice and high-impact statement by consumers has spread to 24 cities around the globe in the space of a year. This year's project will take place at 8pm on March 29th and will include participation from an estimated 6.6 billion people.

Frustrated with the lack of industry and municipal investment in renewable energy sources, the Australian branch of the World Wildlife Fund partnered with the city of Sydney to organize a massive one-hour action to address the need for electricity conservation and long-term solutions to curbing carbon emissions, a large portion of which come from coal-fired power plants. With a stated goal of reducing carbon emissions by 5% through a reduction in electricity consumption, organizers registered pre-event pledges from more than 68,000 individuals and 2,200 businesses to participate. Afterward, the utility company EnergyAustralia reported a more than 10% decrease in energy consumption during the hour-long event, and a random poll indicated that more than half of the city's population - some 2.2 million people - participated.

With the impact of electricity conservation well documented and the strong public reaction to such an obvious and simple organized effort, the Earth Hour concept has been officially adopted by two dozen cities around the world, including population centers in Australia and Fiji in the Far East, the United Arab Emirates and Israel in the Middle East, Denmark and Romania in Europe, and more than a dozen cities in the United States and Canada.

Earth Hour is a simple project - turn off all non-essential lights for one hour - and participation is by no means limited to residents of the officially listed cities. Individuals are encouraged to register their intended participation online.
[03.24.2008]


PINK PROJECT - Having had his eyes opened to the dire situations of people in places around the globe, Hollywood mega-star Brad Pitt has become an active humanitarian worthy of complimenting his partner, activist, United Nations refugee ambassador, and mega-star in her own right, Angelina Jolie. Although Pitt and Jolie have made highly-publicized trips to some of the world's most shady corners, it was literally their own neighborhood that prompted one of Pitt's latest aid campaigns.

Dumbfounded and disgusted by the lack of meaningful progress in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans, where he and Jolie live part-time with their four children, Pitt formed Make It Right, a relief effort aimed at picking up where the United States government failed miserably. While there has been some speculation that Pitt may run for mayor of the "Big Easy," his current focus in NoLa is the volunteer-run and donation-driven project centered on the perpetually unfinished post-Katrina rebuilding efforts.

The Pink Project, which couples the design skills of the Los Angeles-based design firm Graft Laboratories with Pitt's public persona, is a direct response to the continued failures of FEMA, which have now been piling up for several years after Hurricane Katrina. The idea came to Pitt while shooting in his sometimes hometown for the film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with director David Fincher. Representing homes wiped by Katrina and yet to be replaced, the project's pink structures, illuminated at night, were in place for a month this winter as a unique combination of campaign promotion and art installation. But rather than see the bright home-like shapes become an everyday part of the landscape, Make It Right removed them on January 6th and began the next phase of the project - constructing the actual homes that the pinks had been serving as placeholders for. The new houses, which will be mold-free and anchored to sturdy foundations, also have the added benefit of focusing on sustainability and energy efficiency for the residents of the 9th Ward, providing solutions to a number of problems while also satisfying the basic need for simple shelter. The iconic pink boxes may be gone, but its not too late to participate, as the project continues into the construction phase with the houses being built entirely on funding from Make It Right's ongoing donation campaign.

To get a better idea of the scope and inner workings of the Make It Right reconstruction effort, as well as what the pink project looked like on the ground in New Orleans, visit the website and while you're there take a short helicopter flyover tour of the area.
[02.18.2008]

NOISE POP - The 16th edition of the six-day Noise Pop Festival gets its ball rolling with an opening night party open exclusively to festival badge-holders and invited guests on February 26th at the Rickshaw Stop, the cozy Fell Street venue that SF Weekly likens to "being in Katie Holmes' vagina. The hipper, Pieces of April version, of course." On the bill for the enjoyment of the fully-dedicated badged patrons will be Mika Miko and Zion I's DJ Amp Live, as well as an open bar and sushi provided by Blowfish. To wrap things up nearly a week later the Noise Pop powers that be have lined up none other than the freshest slab of certified web-buzzed beef, She & Him. The closing show, at the Great American Music Hall on Sunday, March 2nd, will mark the "world premiere" of the duo which, incase you've been living under a rock, is the new musical project from Merge recording artist M. Ward and cinematic it-girl Zooey Deschanel.

So, what's happening on the intervening four days, you ask? Lots, way more than we can cram into this space. With the list of performers breaking into the triple digits, citing them all would be silly. Some of the higher profile musical players include A Place To Bury Strangers, British Sea Power, Cursive, Film School, Holy Fuck, the Magnetic Fields, the Mountain Goats, and the Walkmen.

Along with the staple music performances, the annual Noise Pop Film Festival will also be presenting screenings of independent films like Heckler; What We Do Is Secret; Wesley Willis' Joy Rides; Such Hawks, Such Hounds; You Weren't There: A History of Chicago Punk 1977-1984; and Nick's World of Synthesizers & Toy Punks. Each screening will be followed by Q&A sessions with the films' directors and producers, including Rodger Grossman, Jello Biafra, Christina Tillman and others.

Wednesday sees Party HARHAR Hardy co-sponsoring a night of comedy at 12 Galaxies with Comedians of Comedy veteran and writer/comedian Dragon Boy Suede headlining, supported by author Beth Lisick, host of the queer-centric K'vetch open mic Tara Jepsen, comedians Bucky Sinister, Kevin Munroe and Ali Wong, and tunes from Dr. Abacus The night will be emceed Anthony Bedard of comedy record label Talent Moat. Thursday night will bring a bit more of the funny into the fray with a live sketch comedy special from Human Giant, the three-man laugh crew from MTV who have also produced some chuckles for indie favorites like Tapes'n Tapes, Ted Leo, and Devendra Banhart. This event is co-presented by SF Sketchfest and goes down at Mezzanine on Jessie Street.

Also on the program for Thursday night is "Noise From Other Rooms," from the Rebel Reading Series, presented by the McSweeney's offshoot Wholphin, described as "a revealing evening of words and cultural ephemera."

Not to be skipped, the festival's visual arts program, this year entitled "Pop't Art" and sponsored by the art-savvy folks at Scion, will run with the heading "Sights of Sounds: Works of art from the music community" from its opening reception on Wednesday night (7-10pm) through March 25th at the Park Life Store on Clement Street. Following in the footsteps of last year's debut, the collection will featuring original works from musicians like Wesley Willis, Alissa Anderson of Vetiver, Terri Lowenthal and Simone Rubi of Rubies, photographers Alex Tehrani, Jim Jocoy, Peter Ellenby, and Andrew Paynter, as well as posters from Terrence Ryan's Tuffy alias, and a handful of illustrators for the exclusive online audiohouse Daytrotter. The visual arts display will be capped by a special "Wish Tree" installation by Yoko Ono.

Whew. Once you've caught your breath, hopeful Noise Poppers should cruise over to the festival's online store where all-inclusive badges can be had for $175, and those with hot cash burning holes in their pockets can also nab t-shirts, posters, and various other consumer unnecessities (yeah, we just made that up) from the festival, as well as goods from last fall's Noise Pop curated Treasure Island Festival.
[02.11.2008]


Richie Hawtin and the team at his German label MINUS Multimedia GmbH have teamed up to announce an "Environmental Awareness Initiative" aimed at minimizing the ecological impact of their products. Hawtin, in co-operation with Berlin-based Atmosfair, has been offsetting all of the carbon emissions from air travel associated with his touring, and his label is following suit as well by buying carbon credits to counter the pollution of flights made by Minus employees. The label's website at http://www.m-nus.com/ proudly displays the carbon offset to date, with 185.92 tons being being the total for 2007.

As Hawtin explains, "Carbon Offsetting is the concept of buying carbon credits against one's CO2 emissions to become carbon neutral. These carbon offsets are then used to contribute toward Atmosfair's various environmentally conscious worldwide projects that adhere to the internationally accepted Gold Standard certification rules."

As the vehicle for Hawtin's career, Minus has owned up to the environmental impact of manufacturing vinyl records and compact discs and begun packaging all 2007 Minus/Plus 8 vinyl and compact disc releases in either sustainable FSC-certified papers, biodegradable corn stock, and/or a combination of recycled papers, as well as issuing a new packaging design for compact discs that contains no plastics. For the release of it's EXPANSION | contraction compilation the label issued a limited edition, custom printed 1GB USB-card containing the physical release's 9 tracks in WAV and MP3 formats, along with two special bonus tracks: "The Eel" by Tractile and Ambivalent's "Lowlights."
[12.21.2007]


This weekend the 2007 running of the Live Arts and Philly Fringe Festival kicks off with a schedule of diverse and anticipated productions. The festival's opening weekend will treat eventgoers to performances of Flamingo/Winnebago, "a theatrical road trip through the American West making stops at New Mexican pueblos, the Wigwam Motel, Route 66, the Las Vegas Monorail, and Korean Karaoke" by Thaddeus Phillips and the Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental; Gatz, "an office drama that unfolds around a complete reading of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby" from New York's Elevator Repair Service; "a trio of mustachioed pizza chefs delivering an assortment of dildos... [and] a drunken bride-to-be twirling in a dress made of Twizzlers candy and inviting onlookers to autograph her bare bottom" called BATCH: An American Bachelor/ette Party Spectacle; the "radical spin on Sophocles' story of 'Antigone'" that "touches on themes of divine will, self-determination, ritual, and artifice" called An·'tis·a·lon; a Taste The Truth blind taste testing by Pravda Vodka, and a host of other events.

The festival runs until September 15th and features latenight cabaret every night, "sizzlin' and sleazin' you silly with the likes of Madi Distefano, Lee Etzold,Greg Giovanni, King Britt, Le Chat Lunatique, and Animus," as well as experimental performance art like Rammed Earth, a "manipulation of the walls and ceilings of the National Showroom" by NYC-based choreographer Tere O'Connor, Cynthia Hopkins and Gloria Deluxe's multimedia musical extravaganza Must Don't Whip 'Um, and No Dice, the Nature Theater of Oklahoma's transformation of the gutted interior of a former Rite Aid into "a melodramatic arena of orally-generated theater."

To order tickets, visit the Live Arts boxoffice, and to receive a copy of the festival guide in the mail, send an email to a href="mailto:janice@livearts-fringe.org">janice@livearts-fringe.org or call 215-413-9006 and dial extention 16. Additionally, Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe a href="http://www.livearts-fringe.org/donate">memberships are available for $60, and include discounts on all festival tickets, Philadelphia restaurants, museums, and shops, and even free tickets for friends and invitations to special events.
[08.31.2007]

CLIMATE CAMP - Run on renewable energy and built on the principle of Do It Yourself, the Camp for Climate Action is an English activist/retreat centered around "low-impact living, debates, learning skills, and high-impact direct action" aimed at raising awareness of and curbing contributions to climate change. The event is operated by consensus, rather than by a staff or crew, and is set up to provide more than 80 workshops on sustainable living topics ranging from home composting to young people's rights.

Last year the event took place on a field in Yorkshire for 10 days, but the 2007 event, running from August 14th to the 21st, will be held at London's Heathrow Airport. The location of the 2007 camp is a direct response to aviation's direct impact on global warming. Although this year's event will continue to utilize direct action en mass in an attempt to "disrupt the activities of the airport and the aviation industry, in the interests of public safety, there will be no attempt to blockade runways."

Organizers (or, citing their somewhat anarchist bent, perhaps just the person updating the website) recommend bringing the usual camping items - tent, sleeping bag, personal hygiene items, recycled toiletpaper, bottle opener, bug repellent, solar lights - and leaving your vehicle (and, sadly, your dog) at home.

For those North Americans interested in participating but unwilling (it would sort of defeat the purpose, especially this year) to fly to Europe, there will be two camps in the United States during the same dates, one west of Portland, Oregon, at the mouth of the Columbia River, and the other in the progressive Appalachian college town of Asheville, North Carolina.
[07.16.2007]


LIVE EARTH - Simply put, this 24-hour concert series, organized by Live 8 producer Kevin Wall, former US vice-president and climate crusader Al Gore, and the Alliance for Climate Protection, is directed at "inspiring behavioral changes" to combat global warming.

Taking place on 07/07/07, the series is comprised of festivals spread across seven continents that will bring together more than 100 music artists and 2 billion people in hopes of triggering a global movement to solve the climate crisis. Events will take place at Giants Stadium in New York, USA; Wembley Stadium in London, UK; Aussie Stadium in Sydney, Australia; Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Maropeng at the Cradle of Humankind in Johannesburg, South Africa; Makuhari Messe in Tokyo, Japan; the Steps of the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai, China; and HSH Nordbank Arena in Hamburg, Germany, and will be broadcast live by MSN.

Leading up to the series people anywhere in the world can bid on festival tickets, travel packages, and other special pre-event items at the eBay Live Earth auction. For post-event items like signed memorabilia from the concerts, check back to the eBay auction site after Thursday, July 12. Funds from the eBay auctions will go to benefit The Alliance for Climate Protection, so don't be shy about shelling out some cash!

And before you hop online and make plans to fly to some far-flung location, be sure to calculate your personal carbon footprint and find out how to cut down on your climate-changing habits.
[06.28.2007]


LAW & JUSTICE RALLY - Supporters of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee will join with protesters from the American Civil Liberties Union, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the American chapter of Amnesty International next Tuesday, June 26th, for a "Day of Action to Restore Law and Justice" rally in Washington's Upper Senate Park. For transporation options via bus, visit this website for details of departure times.
[06.20.2007]


The geothermal island of Iceland is turning 63 this year, and to celebrate the occasion (what 63-year old doesn't like to get drunk?) the environmentally friendly Reyka Vodka and the tourism board at Iceland Naturally have teamed up on a sweet contest that will fly 1 lucky winner and 9 friends (that's 10 peeps in all - enter here) to Iceland for 3 days and 2 nights at the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, as well as passes to the celebrated Iceland Airwaves Music Festival, which this year features Bloc Party, Of Montreal, !!!, Múm, and the newly confirmed Bonde de Role and Annuals and others over the weekend of from October 17th to the 21st.

This contest runs until August 31st and anyone who is at least 21 years of age is eligible to win this trip, which is valued at $10,000. If you do happen to win and have trouble coming up with a list of 9 friends, don't hesitate to drop LAS a line and we'll provide you with as many smart, semi-attractive, highly entertaining bodies that you might need.

Enter here.
[06.19.2007]


The 2007 running of the Portable Film Festival has sent out a call for entries. Material can be submitted for the festival until midnight (USA PST) on Friday, June 8th. As the organizers of the Australia-based festival put it, "whatever your nationality, age, skill level or background, the Portable Film Festival has a category to enter and an award to chase."

Centered on the short film format and using the evolving "web2.0" as its platform, the festival has dispensed with the stuffy, old-world idea of screening films in brick and mortar theaters; the venue is instead portable, video-capable electronic devices like iPods, tablet PCs, portable gaming consoles like the Sony PSP, and high-end mobile phones.

While anyone with a portable device (okay, or a plain old desktop computer) and a broadband connection can literally take the festival with them once it officially opens, the Portable Film Festival crew knows the value of a good old fashioned human get together. The five-person team (four guys and a girl) stages events in each of Australia's capital cities, including screenings (maybe they aren't so stuffy and old-world after all), parties, and their series of industry forums, the Portable Film Festival Symposium.

For 2007 the festival will be awarding more than $15,000 worth of prizes and awards to the best works in each of four categories:

.: Short Film
.: Music Video
.: Look At Me
.: First Hand Capture

For anyone interested in submitting a film for festival consideration, more information can be found here, along with detailed rules and guidelines for each of the four categories here. If you'd simply like to know when the festival opens and be kept up to speed on the latest developments, you can sign up for the event's newsletter here and cruise the website for other information.
[06.01.2007]


A call for entries for the 2007 Bicycle Film Festival has gone out, and the entry deadline has been extended to March 1st. More information on submitting a film to the festival can be found here, and for more information on the festival, listen in to an MP3 of a BBC interview with creator Brendt Barbur.

The traveling event, which takes place in cities around the globe, has also announced that the first dates for this year's circuit will take place in New York from May 16th to the 20th.

According to festival organizers, last year more than 35,000 people attended events in New York, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Chicago, London, San Francisco, Sydney, Tokyo, and Milan.
[02.15.2007]


All unsigned DJs, emcees, producers and bands should head on over and register at bestmusiconcampus.com and get a chance to join the ranks of Definitive Jux (registration began Tuesday Nov. 28, ends Dec. 14).

It was only a matter of time before American Idol-esque projects hit cyberspace.

In mid-December, the powers that be behind the website will choose 25 promising entrants and from there the college audience will vote (begins Dec. 19, ends Jan. 19) and help determine the group or individual who'll win a deal with Def Jux, which includes a digital EP deal (okay, it's digital, but it's Def Jux - c'mon!), a video premiere on mtvU and mentoring from Mr. Lif. Lest any dropouts get the wrong idea, only unsigned hip hop solo artist or group with at least one member enrolled at an accredited college or university are eligible.
[12.05.2006]


Handmade Bicycles - With the ever-increasing spiral of fuel prices around the world the mainstream media coverage of alternative transportation has focused on the cutting-edge, big-business technologies like hybrid engines and hydrogen fuel cells. But there is also a growing movement in the direction of green personal mobility options, and where gadgets like the Segway highlight the fact that unconventional can sometimes mean impractical, a burgeoning group of bicycle artisans is stepping up to the plate with new takes on the traditional pedal-powered transport. Last month 86 of the premier frame builders from North America converged on San Jose, California for the North American Handmade Bicycle Show, turning the city by the bay into a two-wheeled mecca for those hoping make a move toward zero emissions without sacrificing their personal style.

With custom made bicycles, as with any high-end product, there is a focus on not only function but also form. Many of the bikes still hold the traditional double-triangle design form at their core, but as builders like Craig Calfee are taking even the most mundane elements in a new direction. Calfee's company, Calfee Design, has already made its mark as a producer of carbon fiber frames and the Santa Cruz builder put that experience to good use building the world's first sustainably-harvested frame, the aptly-named Bamboo Bike.

Standard bicycles, much like standard cars, are often not up to the task of moving us around along with the things we accumulate and use every day, and Massachusetts-based fabricator Mike Flanigan, known as "Ant Bike Mike," understands that problem. Flanigan's solution is the Frontaloadontome, a carryall delivery bike that fuses the mobility of a bicycle with the cargo simplicity of a cart. Flanigan's Alternative Needs Transportation specializes in delivery bikes but also delivers comfortable cruisers with antique chic like the Light Roadster.

From the eccentricities of imported Japanese bamboo tubing to the practicality of delivery bikes and the zip of bikes by boutique builders like Somerville, Massachusetts-based Independent Fabrications and Vanilla Cycles, run by Sacha White out of bike-centric Portland, Oregon, high-end bikes are breathing new life into a bicycle industry overrun with bulk retailers. Thanks to the convergence of international turmoil and peak oil with events like the North American Handmade Bicycle Show, the stagnation that reigned over the bike industry just a few years ago seems unlikely to return soon.
[05.08.2006]


Freecycle: Have you ever wondered what you should do with that old lawnmower, now that you have a new one? Is your basement, garage or attic full of stuff that works but isn't used anymore? Don't have time for a garage sale? Or maybe you're looking for a new dishwasher, laptop or pair of cowboy boots, but just don't have the time or money to buy one? Whatever you need or need to get rid of, this email-based waste reduction program is perfect and, best of all, it is completely free! With over 3,000 participating communities and a membership rapidly approaching 2 million, this revolutionary program is truly "changing the world one gift at a time."
[01.16.2006]


RIVERKEEPER - With a mission to safeguard the ecological integrity of the Hudson River system (which feeds the New York City drinking water supply), Riverkeeper has investigated and prosecuted more than 300 environmental lawbreakers in the past quarter century. With a powerful and dedicated staff including Chief Prosecuting Attorney Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and board of directors member John McEnroe, Riverkeeper is fighting to keep the Hudson River, its tributaries and its entire watershed area - "from the Adirondack Headwaters to New York Harbor" - free of pollutants.

If you're interested in supporting Riverkeeper, why not make use of the commericalist Holiday Season and give an Eco Gift that is good for giver, givee, and the environment at large?!
[12.01.2005]


Emerging Green Builders: This grassroots organization of architects, planners, designers, builders and professionals is "intent on promoting the integration of future leaders into the green building movement." Through design contests focusing on environmental impact and efficiency, networking between industry and academic resources and organizational information for local EGB programs, this highly focused offshoot of the Green Builder's Coalition is working to blend the green of environment with the green of industry.
[07.24.2005]


People Powered Machines: Nearly every American, at some point, has had their snuggly Saturday morning hangover treatment disrupted by the obnoxious din of a lawnmower. Nothing ruins a perfectly serene moment quite the way the pocket Hercules of noise and air pollution that is a gas-powered lawnmower does. In fact, the detrimental effects of lawnmowers has been well documented; the United States' Environmental Protection Agency lists the emissions of key smog-forming particulates from a single lawnmower as equal to that of more than 40 modern passenger cars. To put it another way, running a Toro for an hour creates the same amount of air pollution as driving your Subaru 350 miles or so, roughly the distance from Chicago to Cleveland. Multiply that by the nearly 90 million small engines spread across just the United States and the problem is clear. The air, however, is not.

The solution? One of those old push mowers that Beaver Cleaver used to use, an efficient and quiet cylinder of rotating blades that is nothing but goodness. Not only does a human-powered mower eliminate the sheer tonnage of air pollution given off during backyard grooming sessions every summer, but it also tones the user's triceps, quadriceps and hamstrings. To top it all off, the cut from the mechanically simplistic push mower is cleaner than that of a gas mower - which breaks the blades of grass rather than cutting them - giving your grass a reason to stay green and infusing you with a healthy glow.
[05.02.2005]


Hybrid Cars: By now the novelty of a vehicle that doesn't slurp petroleum non-stop should have worn off. After all, the lines for the newest versions of hybrid cars - from the zippy Toyota Prius to the grandfatherly Honda Insight - far outreach those for Hummers. This all-inclusive website provides information on individual models as well as statistics on gas mileage, environmental impact and cutting edge technology.

With Honda's recent push into the market lead with gas/electric versions of its highly popular Civic and Accord models and other manufacturers following suit, the typically older, more educated, and more affluent hybrid driver will soon find plenty of company in line for a vehicle.

The success of the hybrid, fueled in part by perpetually increasing prices at the pump and an increased awareness in the public of environmental issues, has quickly spilled over from the compact import market into the SUV and light truck market. There will be more than 100,000 hybrids sold this year and with Lexus, Ford, Dodge and several makes of General Motors cars and trucks scheduled for launch within the next three years, more than two million fuel-efficient cars will be roaming the streets by 2008.
[03.29.2005]


Restoration Timber: Citing sources like old barns, abandoned schools, textile and paper mills, factories, warehouses and condemned homes, this California and New York-based company stockpiles exquisite, aged-to-perfection wood flooring, beams, siding, cabinetry and furniture for re-use.

Aside from fulfilling the credo "reduce, recycle, reuse" all around, reclaimed wood offers several advantages over newly harvested timber. For starters, it looks better. Over their lengthy lifetimes (most were made before the turn of the last century), wooden elements in houses, public and commercial buildings weather naturally, rich in grain and beautiful in color. Additionally, the trees of old-growth forests, which were used to manufacture early American wood products, were themselves hundreds of years old. The trees were allowed to grow and strengthen through the wonders of nature, providing far more stability than the more pliable, fast-growing trees used in today's commercial lumber mills.

While many of us lack the heart or muscle to cut down and mill a tree on our own, the lumbermen who felled America's old growth forests more than a century ago lacked neither. Don't let their toil and the work of nature go to waste.
[03.15.2005]


Sea Turtle Restoration Project: Through a strategy broad in scope and the work of professional conservationists and dedicated volunteers, this group is working to provide enduring protection for the world's endangered sea turtle populations.

The STRP addresses all of the contributing factors to sea turtle endangerment, working with local and international groups to not only outline protection plans but to also provide economic alternatives for communities whose livelihood depends on industries detrimental to sea turtles. The group also focuses heavily on education, with campaigns like their Turtles and Trade Program, which educates the public about the effects of international trade and economic globalization. STRP has furthered its educational reach with campaigns focused on mercury levels in seafood as well as the production of the documentary film Last Journey for the Leatherback?.
[03.01.2005]


Cedar Works: If you hate splinters, want to avoid dangerous, cancer-inducing chemicals and love to have fun outdoors, this environmentally sound wooden playground equipment manufacturer may be the perfect match for you.

What makes Cedar Works' swing and play sets so special? The company utilizes the light, soft, coarse grained wood of Thuja occidentalis, or Northern White Cedar as it is commonly known. Northern White Cedar is rot-resistant and, as a result, has commonly been used for fence posts and saunas. But it also provides excellent material for play sets that are sturdy and long-lasting and, thanks to the structure of the wood, is also as close to splinter-proof as you can get.

As an added bonus, CedarDesigner, the company's web-based design program, lets customers design their own playground sets custom-tailored to their needs. Utilizing precision cut materials, most Cedar Works sets can be assembled in the duration of a couple afternoon beers by even the challenged tool handler and, with a few in-the-field retrofits, can be used to yank a 350 small block engine in a pinch.
[02.22.2005]


UNITED FOR PEACE & JUSTICE - United for Peace and Justice is a coalition of more than 750 local and national groups throughout the United States who have joined together to oppose our government's policy of permanent warfare and empire-building.

United for Peace and Justice welcomes the participation of any and all national, regional and local groups who share our goals and wish to work with others, and in fact LAS Magazine is proud to be a Member Group of the organization. In the spirit of recruitment, we're asking any and all organizations to become a Member Group and help spread the word for this truly worthy cause.
[02.03.2005]


Real Goods: Since their inception in the late 1970s, the sustainable-living home supplier and renewable energy pioneers at Real Goods have been proving the feasability of commercial success with eco-friendly products.

Founded in the hippie and artist mecca of Mendocino County, California, Real Goods put itself on the map by becoming the first supplier to the public of solar energy systems. The company's groundbreaking strides have continued ever since under the foresight of founder John Schaeffer, realizing a steady profit increase from a few thousand dollars to more than $20 million over only a twenty year span. Schaeffer continued pushing for new approaches to business, instituting a then relatively unheard of direct public stock offering to his customers in 1991.

Since going public, Real Goods has expanded its scope to include not only the sale of environmentally sound products - from solar panels and garden composters to greywater recycling systems and non-toxic household cleaners - but also the dissimenation of sustainable living techniques and information through its own Institute For Solar Living.
[02.02.2005]


ELECTION PROTECTION 2004 - With America's younger generations having grown up with the victories of Women's Suffrage and the Civil Rights movement already won and its older generations sliding into political complacency, the struggle for a true democracy was one not garnernering much attention before the winter of 2000. But in November of that year many of us witnessed the disenfranchisement of millions of voting citizens, primarily and disproportionately minority voters. By January of 2001 it seemed that real change was on the horizon for the national voting system, but shortly thereafter complacency once again set in and the issue seems to have been forgotten by most.

But not everyone has forgotten. Working Assets, in conjunction with numerous other national civil rights organizations, has put together the Election Protection Volunteer program in an effort to ensure a nonpartisan force for democracy on election day, educating voters about their rights, monitoring the polls and ensuring that every vote gets counted. Visit ElectionProtectionVolunteer.org to find out what you can do to help and to sign up to volunteer on November 2nd.
[08.18.2004]


Ecological Footprint: We live in one of the most massively inefficient societies in history. The average ecological footprint for Americans is 24 - that's the number of acres required to sustain a person's lifestyle. Even as a vegetarian bicyclists who recycles incessantly, conserves resources and consumes hyper-consciously, in America your footprint is 14 acres. There is a finite amount of biologically useful land worldwide, and right now it equates to less than 5 acres per person. We are consuming ourselves to death.

Why should you be worried? Excessive energy and resource consumption in the United States has led to massive deforestation and pollution. The planet on which we live is a wholly functioning organism: once certain elements are destroyed or contaminated, there are micro-reactions that extend into the greater ecosystem. Once natural resources in the United States are threatened or eliminated, the consumptive eye turns toward the rest of the world. American corporations and consumers are the number one force behind behind the rapid expansion of deforestation, pollution and ecological destruction in the Western Hemisphere. To preserve American forests, we decimate timber areas in Canada and South America.
[08.16.2004]


A private, non-profit international network with sections in 18 countries, DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS delivers emergency aid to victims of armed conflict, epidemics, and natural and man-made disasters, and to others who lack health care due to social or geographical isolation.

While it is better known as Doctors Without Borders in the United States, the organization's worldwide name is Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF. MSF was founded in 1971 by a small group of French doctors who believed that all people have the right to medical care regardless of race,religion, creed or political affiliation, and that the needs of these people supersede respect for national borders. It was the first non-governmental organization to both provide emergency medical assistance and publicly bear witness to the plight of the populations they served.

The importance of an organization such as MSF has been greatly underscored by the humanitarian disasters that Western military and political actions (or lack thereof) have wrought in isolated areas such as Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea and Sudan. Now, more than ever, it is imperative that medical care be proliferated beyond the sphere of Western political and military usefulness. Support Doctors Without Borders.
[07.05.2004]


Return of the Wolf: A "trophic cascade" is the term that biologists use to explain the domino effect that individual variables often have on the larger picture of an ecosystem. The term has traditionally been used in well-documented cases of change in aquatic ecosystems, where food chains are generally more distinguishable and the influence of variable components is more clearly documented The reintroduction of the gray wolf to Yellowstone Park in the mid 1990s has sparked a tropic cascade of its own, however, and the implications have biologists howling.

After higher-level predators were removed from the natural environment of the American west (wolves were on the brink of extinction by 1880) by wholesale slaughter there was a noticeable shift in the balance of previously healthy ecosystems. Without the checks-and-balances that nature had previously provided, other animals such as elk and deer began decimating the populations of other flora and fauna, completely indirectly. Unchecked, these large herbivores threw the delicate environment off balance by over grazing, their expanding numbers ravaging both meadows and forested areas. Native species of plants, from the picturesque aspen, willow and cottonwood trees to the delicate grasses and flowers such as Indian Paintbrush, were either trampled or grazed down to bare earth.

The loss of the wolves and other predators set off a chain reaction that continues to devastate the immediate and greater biosphere. Without the diversity of plant life to support the various components, the ecosystem began to break down. Just one element of the broader picture, saplings were destroyed, allowing invasive trees to populate forested areas, which in turn drove smaller mammals such as beaver out. Without the contribution of the beaver dams to the health of the river systems, water quality changed and erosion increased, driving off many species of predatory birds and fish which lead, in turn, to the decimation of many more plant species.

Although the balance of the greater Yellowstone ecosystem has been seriously compromised, the decade since the reintroduction of the gray wolf has resulted in a noticeable return to normalcy. Thanks to the canine hunters, elk populations have returned to more traditional grazing and calving grounds, many dwindling tree species have been given a chance to recover, and the dominos have begun to replace themselves. The reintroduction of the gray wolf to Yellowstone has provided a key example of the interdependency of both small and large scale ecosystems and a crucial document to the importance of conservation.
[07.05.2004]


A confederation of 12 organizations working together in more than 100 countries, OXFAM INTERNATIONAL aims to find lasting solutions to poverty, suffering and injustice around the world.

With many of the causes of poverty global in nature, members of Oxfam International believe they can achieve greater impact in addressing issues of poverty by their collective efforts. To achieve the maximum impact, Oxfams link up their work on development programs, humanitarian response, lobbying for policy changes at national and global level. Our popular campaigns and communications work is aimed at mobilizing public opinion for change. Support Oxfam International today.
[06.01.2004]


Wild Aid: Direct Action and Direct Results: While substantial scientific data clearly states the direness of many animal and plant species' population numbers, the illegal wildlife trade - estimated to be worth $6 billion a year - continues unchecked in large portions of Asia, Africa and South America. While weak or un-enforceable legislation often pacifies the public, traffickers in the pelts of exotic bears, cats and even trees push many organisms near extinction. Only the illegal trades in drugs and arms are thought to be more profitable than the illegal wildlife trade.

Wild Aid provides direct protection for wildlife in danger through innovative solutions to conservation threats that are credible, efficient, cost-effective, and deliver direct and measurable results. The organization, founded only a few years ago through collaboration between amateur and professional conservationists from a variety of fields, is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Vladivostok, Phnom Penh, Bangkok, London, Washington, D.C., and New York City. The efficiency of multiple locations is only part of what goes into achieving Wild Aid's five goals: to decimate the illegal wildlife trade in our lifetimes , to bring wildlife conservation to the top of the international agenda , to effectively and affordably protect wilderness areas, to ensure that endangered species populations rebound, and to enable people and wildlife to survive together.

The group's frontline programs address the entire trade cycle, from poaching to smuggling to consumption, rather than carrying out additional research to simply reproduced established results. Wild Aid reduces poaching by protecting parks and helping local communities find economic alternatives to poaching. The organization retrains former poachers, rebels and military men, fighting the illegal trade through specialized wildlife police units, lowering demand for wildlife products by raising awareness and changing consumer behavior.
[06.01.2004]


The WORLD WEEK FOR ANIMALS IN LABORATORIES aims to draw attention to the torturing of live animals known as vivisection, animal experimentation which intrinsically involves the incarceration of animals (which itself causes intense psychological distress) and the subsequent poisoning, mutilation, disease and killing of those individuals. It is arguably the most brutal and most severe form of systematic, genocidal-scale violence in the modern world. IF YOU CANNOT STOMACH THE PICTURES YOU SHOULD NOT BE SUPPORTING VIVISECTION. Educate yourselves about the practices that your daily routines support.

World Week for Animals in Laboratories (WWAIL) is an annual event designed to expose the plight of animals used for testing and research. WWAIL seeks to arouse concern for animal in laboratories as well as educate the public about the scientific, moral, and economic objections to animal experimentation, also known as vivisection. Participate in WWAIL.
[05.03.2004]


Stop Waste: Bring Back Hemp: Before the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which pushed hemp out of the marketplace and made it that much easier to ban outright, hemp products (industrial/fiber, food, and medicines) were standard fare in the United States. After WWII the Dupont chemical company (who wanted to secure market space for their new product, nylon), Samuel Hearst and major timber companies (who wanted to promote tree-based paper) and other emerging business tycoons joined up with the U.S. government to push the cannabis plant into the underground. Not surprisingly, the director of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (Harry Angslinger), was related to a man named Andrew Mellon, who was both a banker for Dupont and Secretary of the Treasury for the US government. Surprise!

Why should you be worried? Regardless of your stance on marijuana (which comes from a cannabis cousin but is not the same as hemp), the whole plant can be used commercially. Easily renewable and requiring far fewer resources than wood pulp or even soy, virtually the entire plant can be converted into useful products. Back in February of 1938, Popular Mechanics magazine called hemp the billion dollar crop with 25000 uses. Hemp provides a exceptionally nutritional seed and seed oil (both edible and industrial uses), as well as a variety of versatile fibers. The cannabis plant has proved vital to the survival of industry and economy during times of hardship in the past, and virtually every environmental study from the past few decades has forecasted dire agricultural/social conditions in the future.
(Also check out www.hempreport.com, www.cannabis.com/ and www.abouthemp.com.
[04.20.2004]


CHINA: KILLER STATE - In 2003 there were 1146 reported state-sanctioned executions around the world. Of those, 726 were carried out in China, more than twice the rest of the world combined. Those numbers only reflect official executions; a government official suggested last month that the Chinese government executes more than 10,000 individuals each year. Learn more from Amnesty International, and join the China Debate.
[04.12.2004]


NRDC Mercury Report: In their March newsletter the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) reported on yet another environmental atrocity put forward by the Bush administration. According to the report, Bush's newest proposal allows commercial industries to increase the levels of mercury output by nearly 700%, a complete reversal from a Clinton administration plan to reduce mercury emissions by 90% before 2007. The main source of mercury is the nation's 1100+ coal-fired power plants whose emissions, through a process similar to acid rain, pollute our water sources. 

Why should you be worried? Seventeen states already restrict fishing because of mercury contamination in every lake or stream within their borders, and the FDA recently issued strict warnings to pregnant women and nursing mothers against eating more than two servings of fish per week because of high levels of mercury in fish. Mercury contamination is known to cause mental retardation, learning disabilities and attention disorders.
[04.05.2004]