Suggested gift, Dominick Dunne’s – Too Much Money.

By JANET MASLIN
Published: December 13, 2009

Excerpt:
When Dominick Dunne died on Aug. 26, an online guest book was set up so well wishers could leave condolence messages for his family. The site assured visitors “that the tears of millions of loyal readers were dried by a sudden wind.” The gust was said to be caused by “the collective sigh of rich and famous bullies on multiple continents” because Mr. Dunne’s nonpareil society-crime reporting and his glaringly fact-based fiction would bedevil them no longer. Not so fast, globe-trotting bullies. Mr. Dunne left behind one last, stinging roman à clef. And he most assuredly used it to settle scores.

“Too Much Money” pits his autobiographical character, Gus Bailey, against the New York nouveau riche types of its title. And it keeps Gus constantly aghast at their gall. It commemorates Mr. Dunne’s favorite obsessions — crime, wealth, status, backbiting and power — into a story with a distinctly valedictory flavor, to the point where some of it unfolds at New York’s most elite funeral home. And it includes a line that can serve as Mr. Dunne’s own epitaph, delivered by Gus as a slap to the book’s most moneyed and graceless social climber. She has just made a donation large enough to get her name plastered onto New York’s most important library. Reminding her that libraries exist not just as sites for cocktail parties but as places to house books, Gus tells her: “I don’t have to buy my way in.”

More from the New York Times article

Still Settling the Score, Even Beyond the Grave

RAW Comedy – Registrations now open for 2010 National Heats

Who’s going to be the greatest unknown Daredevil of Funny?

The Evel Knievel of the mic?

RAW Comedy is the Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s annual hunt for Australia’s as yet undiscovered wit – it’s the country’s biggest, largest, fattest, most prestigious open mic competition. It gets under way for 2010 in January, with heats held across the nation.
There will be razzle-dazzle displays of blatant idiocy cloaked in heroicism as contestants willing and able to make the bravest of comedy leaps get to battle it out for the crown of 2010 RAW Comedy Winner at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in April.

Anyone who has earned less than $500 from performing comedy is eligible to try their luck. Five minutes of new, original comedy material is all it takes - stand-up, sketch, double and triple acts, musical comedy are all welcome. Would be comic geniuses wishing to swap the bread-line for a punch-line can register at: www.rawcomedy.com.au

Those who want to witness the witticism of contestants with crash-proof nerves of steel as they take part in RAW Comedy heats, can find venues and dates on the website.

Heats will be held in Melbourne, Sydney, Darwin, Hobart, Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Newcastle, Canberra, Geelong, Wollongong and Byron Bay.

60×60 is collaborating with ICMC (International Computer Music Conference 2010)

Vox Novus is inviting composers to submit recorded works 60 seconds or less in length to be included in its eighth annual 60×60 project!

60 compositions will be selected to be played continuously in a one-hour concert.

For this special event we are looking for 360 works for 6 one hour performances at Stony Brook University and New York City: 360 degrees of 60×60.

We are also have an International Mix and a microtonal mix (the UnTwelve Mix) I also have venues for another UK Mix, Midwest Mix, Canada Mix, and Pacific Rim Mix. (if we get enough submissions. get it? if you submit.there is a possibility of 12 different mixes. that is 720 slots with a great chance of multiple performances around the globe and the possibility of a multimedia collaboration with video or dance that are getting press reviews and attending audiences in the thousands.)

ICMC has an online submission process.
http://music.oc.cct.lsu.edu/author/submit.php
check the 60×60 box and then upload your ZIP file containing your submission form (PDF) and sound file (AIFF) (I know it says MP3 is allowed but don’t do that for 60×60 submissions)

you can get the submission form here:
http://www.VoxNovus.com/60×60/Call.htm

The idea is to activate the entire community of electro-acoustic music.

Robert Voisey
RobVoisey@VoxNovus.com
60×60 Director
Living Music Foundation Vice President
Founder of Vox Novus
http://www.VoxNovus.com

> Submissions must be uploaded by December 31st, 2009.

Wildlife rescuers #Melbourne Xmas Card, cute as!

Fibreculture Journal 15 – Remix launched. Good reading that will keep you busy for a while. #fb #in

The Fibreculture Journal is a peer reviewed international journal that encourages critical and speculative interventions in the debate and discussions concerning information and communication technologies and their policy frameworks, network cultures and their informational logic, new media forms and their deployment, and the possibilities of socio-technical invention and sustainability. The Fibreculture Journal encourages submissions that extend research into critical and investigative networked theories, knowledges and practices.
—

What Now? : The Imprecise and Disagreeable Aesthetics of Remix

http://journal.fibreculture.org/issue15/

It became a minor phenomenon during 2007. By September 2009 it was a virus out of control. Described in Wired as a ‘popular internet meme’ (Wortham, 2008), the obsessive serial mash-up of a key sequence from Oliver Hirschbiegel’s 2004 film of the last days of Adolf Hitler, Der Untergang (The Downfall), is suggestive of the cultural logic of the contemporary formation known as remix. Remix culture is comprised of what could loosely be termed amateurs and professionals engaged in the practice of creatively re-using found material. The distinction is useful in identifying the aesthetic and material differences between dedicated intermedia remix artists (Negativland, Martin Arnold, Craig Baldwin, Soda_Jerk), artists who incorporate elements of remix into a broader audiovisual practice (Philip Brophy, Candice Breitz, Christian Marclay, John Zorn) and the vernacular audio-visual mash-up/remake/dub/scratch aesthetics associated with a broad range of online practices. The domestication of audio-visual literacies in the digital age has meant that the processes of sampling, editing and compositing – once the province of dedicated adepts – have become second nature for a generation weaned on computers and digital technology. Audio-visual remix attests to a utilitarian competence in ‘writing’ for the communications paradigm of the internet and networked conditions that Gregory L. Ulmer famously termed ‘electracy’; a concept that prioritises the notion of the ‘remake’ and the use of found material (Ulmer, 1989, 1994, 2005, Tofts, 1996). As well, this pervasive cultural competence (in Chomsky’s linguistic sense of the term) attests to the dramatic distribution of the material means of production into the hands of consumers.

Oooh in for a treat. The great journalist Chris Masters will present Investigative Journalism: Why we need it. #Melbourne

I’ve always been a fan of Chris Masters. The dude has integrity and he was always willing in my under-grad years to lend advise and inspire wannabe journos like myself.

Investigative Journalism:
Why we need it.
Why it is endangered.
Fri 11 December, 2009
Iwaki Auditorium, ABC Southbank, Melbourne
Meeting 6.45 for 7.00 pm start
Guest Speaker 8.00pm
Click here for more on Chris Masters

French stencil artist Blek the Rat in #Melbourne.

French stencil artist Blek the Rat is in town and an exhibition of his work  has opened  at Metro Gallery on High St, Armadale. On display are a dozen of his iconic life size stencils like the famous “The Man who walks through Walls” and many smaller works and prints. Xavier Prou started stenciling after a visit to New York where he was inspired by early forms of graffiti.

Back in Paris he sprayed stencils of rats as an art student in the early 1980s which set off the stencil art in France. Many of the early French artists like Jef Aerosol, Miss Tic and others soon got in trouble with the police under president Jacques Chirac’s hardline approach. The French scene subsequently died, just to have its renaissance almost 20 years later as part of the world-wide stencil art movement. (Melbourne’s stencil artists deserve some credit in being instrumental in getting the movement started.)

Prices for a large work average around $24,000 and in case you can’t afford one you can still buy one of his rats on a tiny cheap canvas for $7500. Blek’s stencil work is simple, rather primitive and badly executed. The materials used of minor quality. But so be it.
Blek the Rat has been hugely influential and is a true pioneer. If you want to find out more about him visit his Blek website and read Amelia Swan’s enlightening article on Artshub.

Oppose proposed new Victorian laws. Write to politicians today before new law is passed. #Youthlaw needs your help!

On Tuesday 8th December the Upper House of Victorian Parliament will debate and vote on proposed new laws that give invasive powers for police which will impact on the everyday life of tens of thousands of Victorians.  On 26 November (2009) the Government and the Opposition members in the  Lower House of Parliament passed the proposed laws despite acknowledging they breach fundamental human rights.

Youthlaw seeks your urgent support to oppose this proposed law and request voting be deferred until  politicians properly investigate and consult with community rather than rush it through Parliament.

The proposed ‘Summary Offences and Weapons Control Amendment’ Bill introduces new ‘move on powers’ for police that enable them to order any one to move away from public spaces even if they haven’t committed any crime. Interstate experience indicates these laws will target young people in particular.

The Bill also allows the police to conduct random searches including strip searches of children under 18 in certain circumstances. Similar proposed legislation in WA has been sent off for investigation by an upper house Committee due to the public uproar about the impact of these invasive powers on the community.

If you don’t want laws that have proven to be ineffective, unfairly target young people and create unnecessary conflict between community groups and police then please send an email such as the one below, to the Government by Tuesday 8th December 2009.

SUGGESTED EMAIL MESSAGE
I AM WRITING TO URGE YOU TO OPPOSE THE ‘SUMMARY OFFENCES AND WEAPONS CONTROL AMENDMENT ACT’ BILL OR AT LEAST DEFER PASSING THE BILL UNTIL THERE HAS BEEN A PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS SUCH A LAW. THE INVESTIGATION SHOULD PARTICULARLY ENABLE CONSULTATION OF YOUNG PEOPLE, HOMELESS PEOPLE AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLE WHO ARE MOST LIKELY TO BE EFFECTED BY THESE LAWS.

Please email to:

john.brumby@parliament.vic.gov.au
Premier, Leader of the government, ALP
ted.baillieu@parliament.vic.gov.au
Leader of the Opposition, Liberal party
rob.hulls@parliament.vic.gov.au
Attorney General, ALP
bob.cameron@parliament.vic.gov.au
Minister for Police and Emergency Services, ALP
peter.ryan@parliament.vic.gov.au
Leader of the National party
sue.pennicuik@parliament.vic.gov.au
Greens, Australian Whip

Please forward to all your friends and networks.
Please email me if you are interested in further information about this issue.
Tiffany Overall
Youthlaw

Green Earth video call-out. #environment #climate change #filmmakers #Brisbane

Green Earth Group Inc. is asking filmmakers of all backgrounds and levels of experience to get out there and start shooting short films for
the Green Earth Festival. Brisbane, Australia

Deadline: 31 January 2010

Find out more at http://greenearthfestival.net/info/video-zone.html

#Geek in Residence. Grant opportunities for Australian geeks and technologists.

Geek in Residence brings the expertise of technically confident artists and creative technicians together with a host organisation.

Deadline: 9 December, 2009.

Check out the details at http://artsdigitalera.com/gir