Marquis De Sound at Don’t Look Gallery

For one night only the Marquis De Sound do a 2 rare 2-piece sets at the wonderful Don’t Look Gallery (Sydney). DLG who have produced the Sound Of Failure concerts for the past 2 years…will take half of the door charge ($10/$5 concession) to go towards this gem of a gallery and the events that they put on.

MySpace Music profile for Marquis De Sound. Download Marquis De Sound Experimental / Regional Mexican / Emotronic music singles, watch music videos, listen to free streaming mp3s, & read Marquis De Sound’s blog.

Event:
Sunday June 28, 2009
start 6pm
Don’t Look Gallery
419 New Canterbury Rd, Sydney

Brumby cancels CONNEX & Yarra Trams contract

CONNEX has been dumped as Melbourne’s train operator, while Yarra Trams has lost its contract to run the city’s trams.

In a major shock, both transport operators were dumped with French group Keolis to run Melbourne’s trams while Hong Kong’s MTR will run trains.

Premier John Brumby announced the decision this morning, and the companies will take over operations from December.

More from the Herald Sun.

The Erotic Object: Surrealist Sculpture from MoMA

Meret Oppenheim. Object. 1936. Fur-covered cup, saucer, and spoon, cup 4 3/8″ (10.9 cm) in diameter; saucer 9 3/8″ (23.7 cm) in diameter; spoon 8″ (20.2 cm) long, overall height 2 7/8″ (7.3 cm). Purchase. © 2009 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/Pro Litteris, Zurich

Exhibiton runs from: June 24, 2009–January 4, 2010

Surrealist artists, writers, and poets placed persistent emphasis on the power of the imagination to transform the everyday. Beginning in the early 1930s, the production of elliptically erotic, sexually charged objects and sculptures became central to their concerns. This exhibition features some of the most notorious works, including Salvador Dalí’s bread-and-inkwell-crowned Retrospective Bust of a Woman (1933) and Meret Oppenheim’s fur-lined teacup (1936).

The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53 Street  New York, NY 10019
Tel (212) 708-9400
email:info@moma.org

Bill Gates funds circumcision project

Microsoft founder Bill Gates has injected $50 million into a programme to circumcise up to 650,000 men in Swaziland and Zambia.

The goal of the project is to curb the transmission of HIV in two of the AIDS hotspots of the world, as circumcision has been shown to more than halve the risk of men becoming infected.

Funded for five years through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the programme is the first to massively scale up provision of circumcision by fully trained medical practitioners.

Source: New Scientist

Long Live Whoever

IF you didn’t know where to look, you might never notice the 100-square-foot storefront gallery on East 88th Street near Second Avenue, (new York) even though it has been there for a decade. In the window lies a diminutive homemade coffin bearing an enormous artillery shell and a tombstone inscribed with the word ‘Whoever.’ The walls of the space, which is called Gallery 221, are papered with scores of laminated obituaries, which have been clipped from The Economist magazine.

‘They’re precise,’ said Michael Brod, the gallery’s owner and the creator of the installation. ‘I like the uniformity of them. To be able to encapsulate a life in a thousand words, and to do such an eloquent job, it’s very democratic.’

Mr. Brod, a tall, dark-haired 67-year-old, was until last spring a man of high finance on Wall Street. In the early 1980s, he left his life as a potter and a poet in California after receiving a phone call from his weeping father in New York, whose fifth wife had just died.

Mr. Brod had not set eyes on the man since his parents separated when he was an infant, yet he traveled east to see him. Seduced by the life of Wall Street, Mr. Brod spent 10 years at his father’s stock brokerage firm. Art was relegated to Plan B.

During that time, father and son shared an office, seated at opposite ends of a long walnut conference table. Mr. Brod also discovered that he, like his father, was good at finance, and in 1986, his father handed him the reins of the firm. He left in 1992 to work first at a brokerage company, then as an independent consultant.

‘What I liked about Wall Street,’ Mr. Brod said, ‘was that it’s full of manic-depressives. There are a lot of artists who are manic-depressive. And there’s a lot of creative people in Wall Street.’

It was not the downward spiral of the economy that drove Mr. Brod a year ago to go back to work full time at the gallery he owned and where he had occasionally worked in the evening. Instead, it was a recent birthday, along with his growing collection of obituaries and a desire to lead a life that seemed to have more value than one devoted to crunching numbers.

‘The point of the Street wasn’t me trying to get rich,’ Mr. Brod said. ‘It was me trying to figure out who I was.’

The other day, Mr. Brod stood at the window of the gallery, assembling the words of a poem in crisp, adhesive letters on the glass in preparation for the opening of his funereal installation on May 12.

‘Whoever on the road,’ the poem reads. ‘Whoever still traveling. Whoever says whatever. Whoever is dead. Long live whoever.’

http://www.whoeveremerges.com/
Gallery 221
Upper East Side
221 East 81 Street, New York
USA

Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival

The Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival is the longest running documentary film festival in the US. The Festival takes place each November at the American Museum of Natural History. The Mead showcases far-reaching international documentaries and a range of non-narrative films and videos. The Festival seeks works that showcase the diversity of non-fiction storytelling including: animation, indigenous media, experimental and essay films, as well as hybrid works. The Festival seeks works made within the last 3 years and that is of any length.

Send in your submissions http://www.amnh.org/programs/mead/submit/

Deadline has been extended til June 26th, 2009 so hurry!

More information on Margaret Mead from Wikipedia

Random Acts of Elevator Music

Appearing spontaneously in elevators throughout Melbourne’s CBD, Random Acts of Elevator Music enlighten the consciousness of office workers with live muzaktronica. Dressed in suits, their portable studio hidden in briefcases, who knows where these undercover sonic redesigners will next strike. …

Source: http://www.akm.net.au/cityfreqs/blog/?cat=1

Callout for Street Artists – Melbourne

CityLink in partnership with Moonee Valley City Council is inviting proposals from experienced stencil/street artists to create a painted artwork on the internal tunnel walls of a major infrastructure crossing over Moonee Ponds Creek that responds to and reflects the Moonee Ponds Creek natural environment and urban setting.

For information regarding the project please download a brief from http://www.citylink.com.au/1399.jsp

All email inquiries: liz.mcgrath@transurban.com

Volunteer Book Narrators wanted – Melbourne

Are you an articulate, avid reader with superior powers of concentration? Then Vision Australia needs you.

They are seeking volunteers to narrate a range of books for their library service, which turns print into sound for people who are blind or have low vision.

Their national library produces audio books in a wide variety of genres, including novels, biographies and histories.

Having a background in theatre or radio would be an advantage, but such experience is not essential. What is vital, however, is that volunteers are able to record during business hours at Vision Australia Kooyong, Melbourne.

To apply, send a CV and/or short (2-3mins) voice recording in either tape, CD or mp3 format either by email or by post.

As the nation’s largest provider of blindness and low vision services, Vision Australia is committed to delivering exceptional and efficient services that open up exciting possibilities for people who are blind or have low vision.

Phone: 1300 84 74 66
Email: info@visionaustralia.org

Blushing Toms – Melbourne

Blushing Toms is an emerging online lifestyle store for women who love women. They are looking for artists who’s work shows an appreciation for the female form and feminine strength.

They are particularly interested in sourcing works that appeal to the ‘lesbian aesthetic’ which they see as being represented by any or all of the following:

· Women Identified
· Portraying strong females
· Unique, independently produced
· Feminist
· Living outside the patriarchy
· Iconic lesbian imagery

They are open to submissions from artisans from all different walks of life and in different forms of media. Currently they are focusing their search on finding:

- Tattoo designers / Illustrators: Existing designs or new collaborations.
- Photographers
- Painters
- Jewellery makers
- Sculpturists
- Accessory designers
- T-Shirt makers / designers

Whist these are the lines being launched if you have any work in other mediums that you believe would suit their aesthetic they would love to hear from you.

Initially looking to purchase most work on consignment.

If you have any work that may fit this description they’d love to hear from you!
So please contact them with some samples and a bit of information about yourself.

More info … artists@blushingtoms.com

Blushing Toms Website