Monthly Archives for November 2009

November 29th in BROOKLYN – MONO NO AWARE Super 8 & 16mm Film Festival

MONO NO AWARE IS AN INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF EXPANDED CINEMA PERFORMANCES. TAKING ITS NAME FROM THE JAPANESE EXPRESSION MEANING -THE PATHOS OF THINGS-. THE CONCEPT IS TO PRESENT WORK WHICH IS EPHEMERAL IN NATURE WITH AN EMPHASIS ON THE CINEMATIC EXPERIENCE. RECENT ADVANCEMENTS IN TECHNOLOGY HAVE ALTERED THE AUDIENCE EXPERIENCE AND CONNECTIVITY ASSOCIATED WITH THE CINEMA. WEBSITES, TELEVISION, AND EVEN CELL PHONES HAVE BECOME AN EVERYDAY VEHICLE FOR FILM AND VIDEO. ALL OF THE WORK PRESENTED AT MONO NO AWARE CONSISTS OF ONE PART FILM PROJECTION AND ONE PART LIVE PERFORMANCE ELEMENT. 16MM OR SUPER 8MM FILMS ONLY, NO DIGITAL VIDEO. WE BELIEVE THERE IS A MAGIC IN SEEING THE FILM PRINT. THERE IS A PRESENCE A POET HAS READING HIS/HER OWN WRITING. THERE IS A FEELING THAT RESONATES IN YOUR CHEST WHEN YOU SEE A MUSICIAN PERFORM LIVE. EACH MONO NO AWARE PERFORMANCE IS ONE OF A KIND, SOME PARTICIPANTS HAVE GONE SO FAR AS TO DESTROY THE FILM WORK AFTER ITS FIRST RUN AT THE EVENT. WE INVITE YOU TO JOIN US SUNDAY NOVEMBER 29TH AT LUMENHOUSE IN BROOKLYN. THE EVENT IS FREE TO ATTEND. THANK YOU.

Sunday, November 29th 5PM – 11PM
LUMENHOUSE
47 Beaver St. / Brooklyn, NY 11206
F-r-e-e admission!

Read more about the selected films & performances here.

MONSTER INTERVIEW: Dave Tompkins talks to GODZILLA (Arthur, 2004)

Originally published in Arthur No. 10 (May 2004). Illustration by Brian Ralph…

“I COULD USE SOME FLIP-FLOPS”: What if Godzilla was one of us? A slightly testy King of Monsters reflects on his long career in this exclusive interview with Dave Tompkins

Known for his bad sense of direction, Godzilla “King of the Monsters” was recently spotted lumbering around Long Island, insisting to bewildered local officials that he was on “Monster Island” and asking where the hell was Rodan and in general making a big mess. Apparently, the Kaji Eigu legend hadn’t been notified that local mecha-faced rapper MF Doom had transferred the title of God’s former stomping ground to a New York suburb known for its tasteful lawn furniture, cracked toenail polish and a crew of rappers called “the Monster Island Czars.” Confused but flattered, Godzilla was in good spirits when Arthur correspondent Dave Tompkins found him resting comfortably in an orange floral lounger, popping beta capsules in Doom’s backyard. After an unprecedented 50 years in the monster game, Godzilla is happy to finally retire—though he’d still suit-up at a moment’s roar. Under a bruised sky, the bomb-born icon reflected on his career, quoted Public Enemy and marveled at how he nearly had his ass whooped by a moth…

ARTHUR: Godziller, wake up.

Godzilla: I dreamt I was a 400-foot tall black guy having sex with a volcano.

ARTHUR: That was the Dave Chappelle Show…

Godzilla: He was Blackzilla and the volcano was a very active Mount Fuji. My name is everywhere… from Yankees pitchers to Parliament bass players. I can’t be mad at that.

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Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint — Hermann Gorter

gorter
NOVEMBER 26 — HERMANN GORTER
Pioneering Dutch Council Communist, poet.

NOVEMBER 26 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
U.S.: THANKSGIVING. BAHA’I: COVENANT DAY. FESTIVAL OF BIG TALK.

ALSO ON 26 IN HISTORY…
1792 — American anti-slavery and suffragist activist Sarah Grimke born.
1864 — Dutch poet, council communist Hermann Gorter born, Wormerveer.
1883 — Black emancipationist Sojourner Truth dies, Battle Creek, Michigan.
1969 — Military draft lottery established in U.S.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective.

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint — Ba Jin

BA JIN
NOVEMBER 25 — BA JIN
Chinese anarchist, lifelong revolutionist, novelist.
“I am a person always full of contradictions… It was hard to choose whether to devote myself to revolution as a soldier or as a writer.”

NOVEMBER 25 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
Islamic HAJJ begins. USE EVEN IF SEAL IS BROKEN DAY.
FESTIVAL OF SHADOW ECONOMIES. Suriname: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1975).

ALSO ON NOVEMBER 25 IN HISTORY
1904 — Chinese anarchist novelist Ba Jin born, Chengtu, Szechwan, China.
1957 — Radical Mexican muralist Diego Rivera dies, Mexico City, Mexico.
1968 — American socialist novelist, politician Upton Sinclair dies.
1970 — Right-wing gay Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima dies by his own hand.
1974 — British folk-pop composer Nick Drake dies, Tanworth-in-Arden, England.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective.

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint – TOULOUSE-LAUTREC


NOVEMBER 24 — TOULOUSE-LAUTREC
Decadent French society painter, illustrator, anarchist.

NOVEMBER 24 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
FESTIVAL OF SILENCE.     THE WORLD IS A PAPER AIRPLANE DAY.

ALSO ON NOVEMBER 24 IN HISTORY…
1632 — Philosopher Baruch Spinoza born, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
1713 — Satirical novelist Laurence Sterne born, Clonmel, Ireland.
1859 — Evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species published.
1864 — Decadent French artist, anarchist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec born, Albi.
1953 — Joe McCarthy declares Truman Administration “crawling with communists.”
1963 — Jack Ruby shoots alleged JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald on live television.
2005 — “Loisaida” squatter, housing justice activist Carmen Rubio dies, New York City.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective.