DMT: The Spirit Molecule documentary and talk – #Melbourne #psychedelics #dimethyltryptamine #geekgirl

The Spirit Molecule flyer

Undergrowth.org and Entheogenesis Australis –  present the 2010 Spirit Molecule documentary Australian tour, with screenings along the east coast in December followed by talks with the writer/director Mitch Schultz.

The Spirit Molecule documentary
(75 mins, 2010, written & directed by Mitch Schultz)
After over 40 years of dormancy, a new psychedelic revolution has emerged.

At the nexus of this next-generation mystical revival, lies a molecule  naturally produced abundantly throughout the plant and animal  kingdoms. Regarded as the world’s most potent psychoactive compound by  scientists and psychedelic explorers alike, dimethyltryptamine (or  DMT) is also naturally produced in the human brain.

In the early 1990s, Dr. Rick Strassman conducted the first government- sanctioned, human psychedelic research with DMT. Dr. Strassman’s  research serves as the narrative backbone for The Spirit Molecule. A  documentary described as a psychedelic Baraka meets What the Bleep do  We Know, the film presents an intriguing discourse on the science of  the soul, and will undoubtedly open Pandora’s Box. By challenging  current misconceptions about this class of compounds, The Spirit  Molecule unravels fascinating parallels in neurology, quantum physics  and human spirituality.

In stylized scenes reminiscent of Rod Sterling’s Twilight Zone  bookends, Joe Rogan (Fear Factor), alongside an impressive collection  of accomplished minds and a group of Strassman’s own brave psychonauts  shepherd the audience through the great unknowns of the DMT experience… revealing the molecule’s ubiquitous nature, its role in  our culture, evolution and life itself. Stunning visualizations and highly conceptual imagery intuitively weaves a visual landscape, and a  fascinating snapshot of our understanding of consciousness today.

Could Dimethyltryptamine, a simple molecule with a complex name, hold  the key to understanding reality, consciousness and our relationship  to both?

Many who have experienced DMT profess this, and much more…http://undergrowth.org/spiritmoleculetour

With an exclusive 20-minute short film, “Surfing” by Verb Studios (Tim  Parish), narrated by Rak Razam and soundscapes by Buttons Touching,  based on the book Aya: A Shamanic Odyssey

SCREENING: MELBOURNE
Wed December 1st, 9pm to 12pm
CINEMA NOVA P: (03) 9349 5201
380 Lygon Street Carlton VIC 3053

BUY TICKETS here for this event and other Australian screenings:   http://www.showclix.com/

Tickets are AUD $23/20 concession, and advance bookings are essential. http://undergrowth.org/spiritmoleculetour

The Future Writer’s Festival – Nov 12th, 2010 #Melbourne #futurewriters #geekgirl

Future Writers Festival blog http://tinyurl.com/28bqj8f & NMIT Future Writers Festival at Westgarth Books http://tinyurl.com/36zuqdl

The festival will be held at Westgarth Books, 77 High St, Westgarth, Melbourne, Australia on 12 November from 11-5pm.

Love is a Puzzle, These are the Pieces #littledeaths #movie #geekgirl

[www.littledeaths.com](http://www.littledeaths.com)

Some of Australia’s brightest emerging directing talent have come together to collaborate on the eleven-part feature film **Little Deaths**. In the vein of Jim Jarmusch’s **Coffee and Cigarettes** and Robert Altman’s **Short Cuts**, **Little Deaths** is eleven stories about love, loss, music and sex.

In **Little Deaths**, each of the 11 short stories “ written by Giula Sandler “ comments on and adds to the ones that came before and after. As a feature film, the story of the lonely tollbooth operator (Abe Forsythe) provides the thread that joins the interweaving tales. Whilst he imagines the love stories of those who pass through his toll gate, he discovers one of his own to explore and ultimately, the stories help guide him toward true love.

The shorts were directed by Ben Chessell, Sian Davies, Melanie Brunt, Giula Sandler, Chris Benz, Fin Edquist, Jarrah Gurrie, Genevieve Bailey, Geoff Hitchins, James Teh and Toby Angwin. The cast includes Magda Szubanski, Adam Zwar, Alexandra Schepisi, Abe Forsythe and even **Animal Kingdom** director David Michod in one of the leading roles.

**Little Deaths** will begin its exclusive cinema release at Cinema Nova from November 4. #Melbourne.

Plants phone Home – new plant monitoring sticks tell you when they’re thirsty #plants #smarttechnology #geekgirl

DoCoMo (Japan) has announced that it will start selling next year plant monitoring sticks that you insert into the plant pot or garden plot and which then communicate soil moisture and sunlight data back to a website. Experts available with the service will then email customers when they estimate, from the data received, what the watering and harvesting times should be. The sticks are expected to cost around JPY2,000 – JPY3,000 each.

Editors note: Wish they sold them in Australia

(Source: TT commentary from nikkei.com, Oct 8, 2010)

http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20101007D07JSN03.htm

Invisible by Night – Part of the Mortality Exhibition at ACCA #Experimenta #Melbourne #mortality #geekgirl

Sydney artist Lynette Wallworth was commissioned by Experimenta in 2004 and this year is part of Mortality, an exhibition showcasing some of the world’s leading artists who explore life’s journey from the moment of lift-off to the final send-off, which is being presented by Melbourne International Arts Festival and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA). Invisible by Night is an interactive projection that evokes the personal stories of the people interred at Melbourne’s Princes Bridge Morgue (where the Melbourne Visitors Centre now stands) between 1871 and 1888.

runs until – 28 November, 2010
Australian Centre for Contemporary Art
111 Sturt Street, Southbank, VIC
FREE!

Quite Contrary a new show by The Women’s Circus for Melbourne Fringe #geekgirl

The Women’s Circus, as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival, presents the premiere of their latest show, Quite Contrary, directed by Debra Batton.

When a chorus of over 100 women take hold of the circus the lines between backstage, upstage, onstage and downstage become blurred. We all know that the women run the show, let us rub your nose in it! Where flying through the air is part of the daily grind/mind, smiling upside down is a face lift, notions of normal are twisted and difference is celebrated.

Quite contrary is mostly performed & crewed by volunteers. Over 100 women ranging from complete beginners to emerging circus performers volunteer their time and energy, drawn together by their strong ownership and love of the Women’s Circus community. In their day to day lives they are students, mothers, lawyers, health professionals, unemployed, public servants, animators, vet nurses, arts workers , it workers, community workers and much more. But for these 2 weeks their lives go on hold as they transform into aerialists, tumblers, jugglers, musicians, riggers, sound crew, bar staff and just about anything else that is needed to produce a circus show.

There will be a fully licensed Bar and Hot home made food!

Venue: Meat Market, 5 Blackwood St, North Melbourne
Season Dates: 23-26 Sept 2010 & 30 Sept-3 Oct 2010 @ 7.30pm
Times/Notes: Doors Open for pre show drinks and performances at 6.30pm with seating from 7.15pm
Tickets: Conc. $27.00, Full $33.00

Bookings: Festival Tickets: 03 9660 9666 or www.melbournefringe.com.au

THE JULIA MORRIS FILM FESTIVAL – or “JMOFEST” #media #geekgirl

ABOUT THE JULIA MORRIS FILM FESTIVAL
 
After 6 months in LA Julia Morris is returning to Australia to launch her own film festival – After all you are no one in Hollywood without a film festival.
 
The Julia Morris Film Festival – or ‘JMoFest’ for short – invites people to make their very own short film (max 3 min long). It won’t matter if the movie is made on a professional movie camera or on a mobile phone, whether it’s funny, sad, scary or surreal.
 
The only rule is that the film has to feature the Julia mask (or even multiple masks) – which will also be available as a download from www.juliamorris.com. And if someone doesn’t fancy making a movie, they can send in a photo!
 
People will upload their creations onto the worldwide interweb for everyone to admire by the closing date of 31st October 2010. Then Julia will select her favourites for a special screening event in Sydney in December 2010. The overall winner will receive a fabulous prize and an award!
 
For all the competition details, instructions on how to submit videos/pictures and loads of inspirational ideas just go to www.juliamorris.com/jmofest.
 
The only question that remains is, as Julia would say, “Why wouldn’t you?”

IQ2 live debate: #Feminism Has Failed #Melbourne #geekgirl

As Australia assesses the vote for its first female prime minister, Intelligence Squared tackles its most controversial debate yet: Has feminism failed?

After generations of effort, women still bear a disproportionate burden of domestic labour. Women are under-represented in the senior ranks of politics, business and the professions. If the minority government doesn’t hold, Julia Gillard’s prime ministership may be the shortest in our history. What role did her gender play at the ballot box? Statistics show women continue to be denied equal pay for equal work and young women are less likely to identify as feminists than their mothers. What does this say about feminism? Has it failed to mobilise and inspire? Or should feminists be celebrating a deeper victory in which a new generation of young men and women take equality for granted?

Intelligence Squared is a provocative and informative series of live debates on hot-button issues, offering a sometimes fiery, often controversial and always entertaining forum for healthy argument. The format is the traditional Oxford-style debate, with one side proposing and the other opposing a sharply framed motion. Three speakers argue on each side of the motion. After the formal rguments, the debate is thrown open to the floor for moderated questions. The live audience votes both before and after hearing the arguments, so each debate has a clear measure of how far people have actually been swayed.

Intelligence Squared in Melbourne is a project of the St James Ethics Centre and the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas.

More about the speakers:
Virginia Haussegger is a journalist, author and social commentator. Her writing includes a seminal article on feminism and childlessness, and the book Wonder Woman: the myth of “having it all” She currently presents News on ABC TV, Canberra.

Gay Alcorn is a Walkley award-winning journalist who joined The Age in 1989.  She was Washington correspondent from 1999-2002 and was appointed editor of The Sunday Age in 2008.

Stephen Mayne is a Walkley award-winning journalist, shareholder activist and founder of Crikey and the Mayne Report. He has also run as an independent in State and Federal elections.

Jennifer Byrne has 26 years experience in television, radio and print journalism and over this time, has interviewed many world leaders, international thinkers and writers. She is currently presenter of the First Tuesday Book Club on ABC TV.

Monica Dux is a Melbourne writer. She has published widely on women’s issues and co-authored the book The Great Feminist Denial. She is currently working on a book about modern motherhood.

Wendy McCarthy was a founding member and co-convenor of the Women’s Electoral Lobby in 1972. She has been an educator, advocate and social commentator, and a company director for the past forty years.  

Debate date: 22 September 2010
http://tinyurl.com/333mmfq

Games Developers’ Association of Australia calling for GCAP 2010 abstracts #gamers #geekgirl

The GDAA is calling for Abstracts for GCAP 2010

The Game Developers’ Association of Australia has announced that the annual Game Connect Asia Pacific event scheduled will head to the Gold Coast in October. In an event that will be held simultaneously with the EB Games vendor show, Australia’s mini E3, the event will focus on the changing game development ecosystem and Australia’s future role in the global industry.

Game Connect Asia Pacific (GCAP 2010) will focus on the key theme ‘The Player Experience’ and will explore the world of video games from the eyes of the game player, ensuring an interactive, thought provoking and insightful conference program.

As such, this year’s conference will take a holistic view of the development process, exploring how every single line of code, piece of art, business and marketing decision ultimately impacts on our audience. A strong focus will be placed on the rapid iteration of ideas and how every studio is able to create a catalogue of concepts for presentation to the global publishing and game playing audience.

“With such an exciting and thought provoking theme as ‘The Player Experience’ at the very heart of what we’re doing this year, we’re gearing up for a community driven GCAP. This year the industry will come together to dissect the global games industry and look at how, with investment from every discipline in the game making process, we come up with amazing new game concepts and gameplay innovations,” commented GDAA CEO, Antony Reed.

 The GDAA is now putting out a call for the submission of abstracts for inclusion in the GCAP 2010 program.

GCAP 2010 will consist of a number of tracks – programming, art, design, audio, business development and marketing. The conference will also include multiple presentation formats, such as panels and round table discussions, lectures and hands-on workshops.

All keynotes, sessions and workshops will focus on various aspects of the overall player experience. To find out more about GCAP 2010, visit http://www.gcap.com.au/

To submit an abstract, please send to abstracts@gcap.com.au  Submissions close, COB Friday 10 September, 2010

Help get Tasmania’s Sarah Heald to One Movement 2010 #music #stargurl #geekgirl #donate

One Movement 2010 is the Asia-Pacific trade expo for Australian recording artists launching into international markets, and Sarah Heald has been fortunate enough as part a graduate of the JB Seed Management Workshop program, to be selected to represent Tasmanian artists for the first time at the conference.

This is an enormous opportunity for Tasmanian musicians who Sarah has already collaborated with in both formal and informal mentorship, management, promotional and advisory roles (such as Charles Du Cane, All Fires The Fire, Rough Skies Records, The Native Cats, The Paradise Motel and White Woods) under the banner of non-profit consultancy “Behind Every Great Management”.

Prior to her Tasmanian seachangeSarah was employed as an in-house PR at Mushroom Distribution Services, Wall of Sound Recordings (UK), and at Best Est PR (Pulp, Blur, Glastonbury webcast). After relocating to beautiful Tasmania in 2005,  she has actively been involved in events such as MONAFOMA, A Day on The Green, Hobart Fringe Festival, and Falls Festival in event coordination roles, as well as volunteering on the board of Hobart Fringe and the young friends of the Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery (TMAGgots). Many locals will also recognise her from her work at live music venues, in particular North Hobart’s “The Alley Cat Bar”.

The good folk at JB Seed have provided her with a full conference pass and assistance to the value of nearly $1000, however she needs to arrange her own flights, freight, accommodation and per diems during the event and will also be taking unpaid leave to do so. Subsequentlyshe is relying on the broader community, and some of her volunteer hours ‘kharma’ to help have Tasmanian artists have a real presence for trade and export at One Movement.

Please donate.