Mark Allen, who runs Machine, the best artspace I know of in North America, sent the following emergency email yesterday to supporters. Arthur folks may recall that White Rainbow’s all-day “vibrational healing chamber” was situated at Machine during the ArthurBall festival in early 2006. Arthur regulars like Nance Klehm, Molly Frances and the Center for Tactical Magic–and others I’m forgetting at the moment–have been involved in workshops or programs at Machine.
Here’s the letter:
Just in time for the holidays*, it’s the International Institute for Species Exploration’s 2008 “Top Ten New Species” list. So how did the the Arizona State Universty-based Institute come up with this year’s list, including the understandably vexed-looking Mindoro stripe-faced fruit bat pictured above?
An international committee of experts, chaired by Dr. Janine Caira of the University of Connecticut selected the Top 10 New Species. These species were selected from the thousands of species described in calendar year 2007. Nominations were invited through the IISE Web site and generated by IISE staff and committee members themselves. The Caira Committee had complete freedom in making its choices and developing its own criteria from unique attributes of or surprising facts about the species to peculiar names.
Check the IISE’s site for full profiles of this year’s list. They’re also taking nominations for 2009, so let ’em know if you’ve seen heretofore unseen fauna creeping in your yard or undiscovered fungi flowering in your garden. We’re only half kidding about this. Number 7 on this year’s list, a mushroom we now know as Xerocomus silwoodensis, was discovered popping up on the lawn outside a British biology classroom:
This new mushroom species was discovered on Silwood Campus, a campus of Imperial College, London, although it is also found elsewhere (two additional sites in England and one each in Spain and Italy). The discovery of a new species in one of the most intensely studied floras in the world and on the campus of a leading education center for biologists illustrates how poorly species are known.
*IISE actually announced the list back in May, but what the hey. Tis the season for top tens. (via Discover)
Check out the new December 2008 issue of Arthur (download here as a PDF) for “American Beauties,” an expanded photo essay from Eddie Dean and Leon Kagarsie’s Pure Country. Full details for tonight’s show after the jump.
August 27, 2006 – Sunday New York Times
Long, Strange Trip for a Hypnotic Film
By JAMES GADDY
It took 38 years, but Ira Cohen’s cult film, “The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda,” which was first screened in 1968 at the high point of the psychedelic hippie head rush, is now commercially available. Given the close calls, the long absences and his chaotic archival system, Mr. Cohen, 71, is a little surprised himself.
“It didn’t really involve patience,” he said in his apartment on West 106th Street in Manhattan, surrounded by books stacked waist high. “It was just reality.”
In 1961 Mr. Cohen built a room in his New York loft lined with large panels of Mylar plastic, a sort of bendable mirror that causes images to crackle and swirl in hypnotic, sometimes beautiful patterns. After a few years experimenting with the technique in photographs, he invited his friends from the downtown scene — like Beverly Grant, Vali Myers and Tony Conrad — to make a film.
::: NY EYE & EAR: Record Fair and Music Fest :::
== December 12 & 13 ==
. Presented by The Pendu Organization (www.pendu.org) .
-A Benefit for Showpaper-
WWW.NYEYEANDEAR.COM
2 Days! 36 bands & 30+ record labels celebrate NYC DIY!
From Yes! Magazine, Summer 1997:
Money: Print your Own!
Beyond Greed and Scarcity
by Bernard LietaerFew people have worked in and on the money system in as many different capacities as Bernard Lietaer. He spent five years at the Central Bank in Belgium, where his first project was the design and implementation of the single European currency system. He was president of Belgium’s Electronic Payment System, and has developed technologies for multinational corporations to use in managing multiple currency environments.
He has helped developing countries improve their hard currency earnings and taught international finance at the University of Louvain, in his native Belgium.
Bernard Lietaer was also the general manager and currency trader for one of the largest and most successful offshore currency funds.
He is currently a fellow at the Center for Sustainable Resources at the University of California at Berkeley.
YES!editor Sarah van Gelder talked to Bernard about the possibilities for a new kind of currency better suited to building community and sustainability. He can be reached to discuss this topic via an Internet conference at: http://www.transaction.net/money/
SARAH : Why do you put so much hope into the development of alternative currencies?
BERNARD : Money is like an iron ring we’ve put through our noses. We’ve forgotten that we designed it, and it’s now leading us around. I think it’s time to figure out where we want to go – in my opinion toward sustainability and community – and then design a money system that gets us there.
From Machine Project (Arthur’s favorite artspace in America)….
Dear Friends,
We love pizza, don’t get us wrong, but sometimes we wish we could get other favorite things to show up at our doors on demand, too. Like our friend Joshua Beckman. Reading us a poem.
Luckily Joshua is our December Artist in Residence, and in the spirit of giving this holiday season he and Machine Poet Laureate Anthony McCann are offering free door-to-door poetry deliveries at certain times throughout the month. The first installment of the Poetry Delivery Service will be this Sunday, December 7th between the hours of 1-5pm. Deliveries will be made exclusively on foot to homes or other locations within a 1 mile radius of Machine Project. If you want to order a pizza first and time it so that they arrive at the same time, then have a pizza / poetry party, even better!
Joshua will be in residence at Machine for all of December, presenting events like a lecture on pie theory, working with us on a soldering workshop, and more.
More info and the number of the Poetry Phone request line here:
http://machineproject.com/events/2008/12/05/poetrydeliveryservice
love,
Machinep.s. Fry-B-Q is coming up on December 14th!! And this time, there’s pie.
Arthur Magazine 