SPINAL TAP releases New Short Film exclusively On iTunes

In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the cult classic film “This is Spinal Tap”, Shorts International and INgrooves have released SPINAL TAP‘s new short film, “Stonehenge: ‘Tis A Magic Place”. The film is available to download exclusively from iTunes for $1.99.

The seven-minute short marks iTunes‘ first original film, where SPINAL TAP, having put Stonehenge on the map in their legendary song about the world heritage site, pay their first visit to the monument. As if drawn by some primal, magnetic force, Nigel Tufnel, David St. Hubbins and Derek Smalls set out on a pilgrimage to this ancient site. The silent song of these mysterious lithic Sirens inspires the distinguished artistes to make a trans-generational house-call.

iTunes is featuring “Stonehenge: ‘Tis A Magic Place” alongside the original “This is Spinal Tap” film, available digitally in HD for the first time, as well as all three of the band’s albums including their new “Back from the Dead”.

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SYDNEYtwestival 2009 Tweet.Meet.Give

Saturday, September 12 is the date!

Hello, Sydney! Welcome to another round of Twestival; this time it’s for your favourite Australian charity.

Cities around the world are banding together in a new way, raising funds for local charities, and the call-out to nominate Australian charities starts now!

Earlier this year, SYDNEYtwestival raised a total of $1485. It was an amazing night, which resulted from the inspired effort of the many volunteers and supporters.  Plus, nearly a 100 people who turned up to make the night such a success.  So, now it’s time to do it all over again …

Nominations for a charity are open now and a vote will be held on Sunday, 30th August.

More info from SYDNEYtwestival

Melbourne browncoats host Global Charity Event for Equality Now. August 30th

As part of the global “Can’t Stop the Serenity” event, Melbourne brown coats are screening Joss Whedon’s “Serenity” and “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” at the VCA Federation Hall in Southbank. 234 St Kilda Road, Sunday August 30, 2009. Doors open 11.30 am.

Tickets: $15 pre-paid or $20 at the door.

All proceeds are being donated to Equality Now, a international human rights advocacy group.

Website: www.melbournebrowncoats.com

Global Charity Event “Can’t Stop the Serenity” returns to Melbourne on 30 August

For the 4^th year, fans of popular television and film writer/director Joss Whedon are gathering worldwide to raise money for Equality Now, a charity dedicated to promoting the human rights of beleaguered women and girls.

Tens of thousands of fans, geeks and gamers around the world will participate in “Can’t Stop the Serenity” fund-raising events to benefit charity organisation Equality Now.  Over $250,000 has been raised since 2006, and this year we’re aiming to add another $150,000 to that total.   On Sunday, 30 August it will be time for Melbourne fans to join in.

Melbourne’s event features a screening of cult sci-fi film Serenity and web sensation Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, as well the opportunity to win some extremely awesome prizes in the live auction, raffle and costume competition. Prizes include items signed by Serenity cast and creative team. It will be held at VCA Federation Hall (Victorian College of the Arts, 234 St Kilda Road, Southbank) from 12-4pm (Doors open at 11:30am). Tickets are $15 advance online (plus booking fees) or $20 at the door (cash only).  Don’t miss out on this fantastic opportunity to celebrate the works of Joss Whedon and raise money for a vital cause – Equality Now.

The story of Firefly and Serenity is an interesting case in popular culture. The Television series Firefly experienced a short run from September to December of 2002, before being cancelled mid-season due to low ratings and artistic disagreements with its creator, Joss Whedon.  Not content with the show’s release on DVD in 2004, fans known as Browncoats grew in number across the globe, thriving on any content related to Firefly and bolstering DVD sales enough to merit creation of a movie epilogue to the series in 2005: Serenity.

Most fan stories usually end there, but inspired by Whedon’s passion for the underdog and his fiery post on Whedonesque.com in response to the senseless “honor killing” of young Du’a Khalil, his fans continue to go above and beyond to focus their enthusiasm and community into a force for good.

In 2009, Melbourne is among the 50+ cities that are holding a public screening of Serenity to raise funds and awareness for Equality Now. The entire net proceeds go to charity, and no one is paid for their time, including this year’s Global Organizer, Anne Barringer. Anne and her Global Team bring it all together by coordinating participating cities across the US, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia.

Melbourne Event Website: http://www.melbournebrowncoats.com

Global Event Website: http://www.CantStopTheSerenity.com

Equality Now: http://www.EqualityNow.org

Serenity: http://www.universalpictures.com.au/title/serenity/

Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog: http://www.drhorrible.com

The Super Human symposium mixing Science and Art

The Super Human symposium, exhibition and masterclass, alongside an exciting range of partner events, are guaranteed to get you thinking!

Inspired by the 150th publication anniversary of The Origin of Species, Darwin’s evolutionary treatise, Super Human: Revolution of the Species turns the spotlight on collaborations between artists and scientists and the impact these investigations have on what it means to be human, now and into the future.

Super Human: Revolution of the Species…..where great ideas come in from the cold!

31 August: deadline for masterclass applications
30 September: deadline for Early Bird registration

Visit http://www.superhuman.org.au for more info.

Radiobots, fusing art with Technology

Matthew Gardiner is renown for his work that fuses art with technology, working across such areas as robotics, origami, computer programming, interactivity technology and projection. In collaboration with composer David Young, Matthew is developing a network of multiple Radiobots.

1-20 September
Shepparton Arts Gallery
Eastbank Centre, 70 Welsford Street, Shepparton, Victoria, Australia

Check out the details at  http://www.aphids.net/features/Radiobots_Shepparton

Kick Like a Girl. Women and AFL

Kick Like a Girl is a part of research project being undertaken by Lisa Gye at Swinburne University, which examines the roles that women play in the support, maintenance and advancement of AFL football in Australia. The high levels of participation by women in AFL football are well documented. As well as being passionate supporters of the game at every level, women now occupy roles which have, until recently, been dominated by men – as media commentators, umpires, coaches, club administrators and AFL commissioners.

Website: Kick Like a Girl

Footy Freak News

http://justfortheaflofit.blogspot.com/

Jen Jewel Brown endeavors to go where no other football writer has gone before – to lift the clods and check whether or not the worms really have been burned.

Software Freedom Day 2009

A world wide celebration of Free and Open Source Software and the community behind it.

Talks:
* Beginning programming with Python, Minh Nguyen
* GIMP, Andrew Thornton
*  How to move to open source, Daniel Jitnah
* OpenOffice, Jessica Smith
*  Introduction to distributed version control with Mercurial,
Duana Stanley
*  Demo/workshop: Installing Linux on your netbook, Wen Lin (BYO
netbook!)
*  How to back up using Clonezilla, Wen Lin
*  Build your own website with Drupal, Simon Hobbs

Workshops:
* Introduction to WordPress, Kathy Reid
* Advanced WordPress, Kathy Reid
* Hands-on hardware hacking (Arduinos), Andy Gelme (limited
places, may be a small cost for hardware)
* Inkscape, Donna Benjamin

–
Software Freedom Day 2009        http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/melb

11am – 4pm, Saturday 19 September
Melbourne PC Club Rooms, 2nd Floor, Chadstone Place, Chadstone
Shopping Centre. (See Map at http://luv.asn.au/sfd)

A bespoke season of film dedicated to Marc Jacobs at ACMI

Drag queens, porn stars, washed-up rock stars, A-list fashion personnel and D-list celebrities - Marc Jacobs has a coterie of followers that hang onto him tightly, despite his insistence that he’s not cool. The designer who brought grunge to the catwalk is celebrating 25 years in the fashion biz, and continues to successfully operate mostly on intuition, Moxie soft drink and a dose of self-induced terror.

To applaud the man behind the superbrand ACMI has hooked up with Melbourne Spring Fashion Week 2009 to weave together Marc Jacobs on Film,  dedicated to the designer’s career, creations and collaborations. The season kicks off with the Australian premiere of Marc Jacobs & Louis Vuitton. Director Loïc Prigent turns his camera lens towards the designer extraordinaire and Creative Director of luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton just in time for the birth of the handbag to beat all handbags – made up entirely of earlier Vuitton handbags!

The four screenings of this film will be introduced by festival guest Bryanboy who came to notoriety for his cybermusings on all things fashion. The internationally-adored superblogger is here to brag about the ‘BB Bag’ created in his honour for the Fall 2008-09 Collection by Marc Jacobs.

Saturday 29 August – Sunday 6 September 2009
Full $13 Concession $10
3 Session Package: Full $30 Concession $24

Full film program at ACMI.

Trace at Artspace. Post colonial cluster fcuk.

29 August – 03 October 2009
TRACE: Displaced (Post-Colonial-Cluster-Fuck)
TRACE COLLECTIVE: PHIL BABOT, LEE HASSALL, EDDIE LADD, TONY SCHWENSEN, ANDRÉ STITT

Located in a domestic terraced house in Cardiff, TRACE has presented live works and resulting ‘trace’ installations by a wide range of major international practitioners for almost a decade. According to TRACE: ‘the seemingly left-over or discarded matter from performance activity is offered up for contemplation and reflection in relation to contemporary artists’ exploration and research. In bringing together these discrete elements one becomes aware of a certain unity of practice; a living archive centred on process, events and experiences — traces that embody that fragile quality where the object itself is imbued with the performance that created it.’ With this in mind, the collective also creates regular exhibitions of its archive-based documentations, residues and partial objects created through the process of performance art.

For TRACE: Displaced at Artspace, the TRACE Collective will build a suspended floor structure — a scaled replication of the floor area of TRACE in Cardiff. During each day of the initial, public live aspect of the project, the artists will engage in an ongoing dialogue with the installation, navigating its physicality and making interventions upon its structure. Collective activity will include the dismantling of a number of classic Australian-built Torana cars combined with accumulative documentary videos of live work created in and around Sydney during the TRACE residency at Artspace. References to locations and conditions in and around Old South Wales are displaced and relocated to New South Wales, with the intent of creating multi-layered investigations which reference departure and arrival though post-colonial-scouring-cluster-fuck.

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