#The Yes Men. #Age of Stupid. Climate Action Week in New York.

If you live in New York, please visit http://newyorkbigevent.com/ to sign up for some GIANT, extremely FUN, potentially WORLD-FIXING shenanigans on MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21. (Even if you don’t, you can sign up to participate in The Yes Men’s  “digital fun squad” by clicking the option on your profile.)

Everyone who shows up Monday morning will get a FREE GIFT you can SHOCK your friends with for years. Even just a few minutes Monday morning will help. Sign up now! http://newyorkbigevent.com/

The Yes Men can’t tell you much about what they”ll be doing, as the element of surprise here are crucial. But they can tell you that it’ll be huge and absurdly fun, and when a hundred world honchos meet the next morning to discuss climate change at the UN, you may have helped set the tone for progress.

Then, that evening (Monday, Sept. 21), we’ll unwind from the action by dressing up in our very best, er, suits and heading to the global mega-premiere of climate blockbuster The Age of Stupid (http://www.ageofstupid.net/). (LA Times: “Think An Inconvenient Truth, but with a personality”)

The premiere will be linked by satellite to 444 cinemas across America and 300 more worldwide,with special guests Kofi Annan, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke (singing live), Gillian Anderson, Heather Graham, Moby, James Hansen, Mary Robinson, and the film’s star Pete Postlethwaite.

The Sept. 21 events (http://newyorkbigevent.com/ and Age of Stupid premiere) are part of Climate Action Week in New York. A good way to warm up is to join an “international photo opportunity” coordinated by Oxfam on Sunday afternoon, Sept. 20 in Central Park: the Human Countdown.

Broome, Australia has the Power to Cease the Dolphin Killings in Taiji, Japan. Here is our letter.

Why write a letter to Broome councillors?

Broome is the sister city to Taiji in Japan. Taiji is a quiet coastal village that use to harbour a terrible secret. Now exposed in Louie Psiyohos’ film The Cove, more than 23,000 dolphins are killed during the ‘cull’ in Taiji each year. It is imperative that something happen to stop the killing season before it begins in September. This is a call out to exert political pressure on Taiji, and to help inform the people of Japan they are eating contaminated dolphin meat.

Australians, if you wish to show your encouragement towards Broome suspending their ties with Taiji, Japan until the dolphin killing stops, please let the Shire of Broome know your support so they can take the appropriate action. Apart from sending emails, you can sign the petition or donate to this campaign.

Here is a list of councillor names and email addresses, with an example letter attached.

Please address the email with :

Dear Councillors,..

councillor.campbell@broome.wa.gov.au
shirepresident@broome.wn.com.au
roebuckbayep@broome.com.au
eo.kacc@westnet.com.au
councillor.mitchell@broome.wa.gov.au
councillor.albert@broome.wa.gov.au
albert@garnduwa.com.au
mick.albert@ausport.gov.au
councillor.wevers@broome.wa.gov.au
nikwevers@bigpond.com
councillor.foy@broome.wa.gov.au
councillor.lander@broome.wa.gov.au
cocos@iinet.net.au
councillor.matsumoto@broome.wa.gov.au
ematsumoto@westnet.com.au
shire@broome.wa.gov.au
chris@arthousebroome.com

The following example/ letter has been drafted by Alex Burns and Rosie Cross

For more information, visit the Sea Shepherd site.

perverscite festival in montreal. demonstrating queer activism and gay pride

This year’s Pervers/Cité – Montreal’s 3rd Annual “Underside of Pride” – will be taking place from August 6 to 16, 2009 throughout the city of Montreal.

As Divers/cite becomes more and more corporate and less and less accountable to the history it represents, there is a growing need for a community response to the depoliticization of Pride.

Once again, a coalition of radical queer individuals and groups wants to organize a series of events, workshops, panel discussions, and actions to coincide with Divers/cite. The aim of this year`s series is to address issues normally pushed to the margins by the mainstream gay agenda.

http://www.perverscite.org/

Renew Newcastle THIRTY SIX PROJECTS and counting

Renew Newcastle will be celebrating the launch of their THIRTY SIXTH separate project in the 22nd formerly empty spaces that they’ve taken over in the Newcastle (Australia) CBD.

Set to launch another series of art and creative projects which have opened in Newcastle; a collection of events over two days will celebrate the talent and hard work of the artists involved in cleaning up vacant shops to use for a range of creative projects.

The events, all held in the Newcastle CBD, include art exhibition openings, shop opening parties, a walking tour of the new projects, and a rare open studio show by visual artists, all designed to show-off the diversity of Newcastle’s creative talent.

The guided tour of the new projects on Saturday 15 August, 2009 introduces 15 new projects in 12 new properties in the Hunter St Mall area and will begin at 3pm at the Biami Mara Indigenous Art Gallery, Shop 3, 200 Hunter St Mall.

The group of new creative projects which you can visit on the day includes: an indigenous art gallery; a landscape photography gallery; a zine shop; the headquarters and display space for Newcastle Fashion Week; a tea house art gallery; a dance costuming workshop; a retail gallery selling locally made, hand made art, clothing, jewellery and household objects; the newly reinvented gallery space of the ARThive collective; and the individual working studios of 7 visual artists.

The walking tour has become a “don’t miss” event, with large numbers of local visitors joining in on the guided tour of new and existing sites around the Hunter St Mall area. The tour is presented by Renew Newcastle founder, some time ABC TV presenter, and This Is Not Art festival founder Marcus Westbury.

Please come along, say hi and help the RN crew celebrate!

Renew Newcastle News.

Renew Newcastle on ABC TV’s Sunday Arts

LAST DAY to bid for the SquatSpace couch at charity auction online

While it’s hard to fathom why we would be involved in a show that is more about giving kudos and advertising to IKEA (!?), we have used the opportunity to criticise the hidden social issues surrounding  IKEA.

And for some reason, that seems to be a bit unsaleable!

So our couch design for the IKEA HOME PROJECT is in its last day at the online auction, and it’s currently going for the crazy low price of $289!  With all proceeds going to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal! Act now!

About our design:
Looking at the planned obsolescence of an IKEA couch, it has FREE TO A GOOD HOME painted large onto its surface, with added drawings of what the homes of ten people who encounter it on its life cycle might look like, from the home of a Swedish designer, thru to a Chinese factory worker, ship worker, IKEA store worker, onwards towards the vagrant that uses it as a home, and the home of a council worker who disposes of it.

With such raw labour and social equity issues exposed right under the nose of IKEA, this couch belongs in the foyer of trade unions, Labor politicians, Greens politicians, politically progressive design agencies, or just your place, dear fan of SquatSpace’s activities.

Remember, all proceed go to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal, and right now the couch is bidding at below basic cost price!

Bid here! or here: http://www.graysonline.com/Lot.aspx?id=3844086

The Happiness Realization Party of Japan Introduces Its New President

Ryuho Okawa, Leader of the Religious Organization Happy Science, Becomes President of the Party

TOKYO–(Marketwire – July 30, 2009) – The Happiness Realization Party of Japan, formed May 27th this year, announced that it held an executive committee meeting on July 22nd and appointed Ryuho Okawa, the founder of both Happy Science and the Happiness Realization Party (HRP), as their new president. Okawa will run in the next general election as the party’s first ranking candidate of the Tokyo Proportional Representation bloc.

In May this year, Okawa decided to launch the HRP in his aim to bring forth substantial change in Japan’s political scene. At his public seminar held in Tokyo on July 22nd, Okawa himself announced that he has decided to run in the election as the president of the HRP in order to strengthen the party’s unification and the ability to hold the reins of government. He stated, “The HRP is building its policies based on where we would like the country to stand 20 to 30 years from now. The people of the nation may not understand us immediately but I plan to say what needs to be said.”

Since the late 1980s, Okawa had voiced countless suggestions directly and indirectly to politicians in Japan from his intention to nurture Japan to become an independent and more reliable country. His decision to establish HRP and run as president was made to enable this effort to yield a more direct and concrete result through the party’s involvement in politics.

The HRP has 345 candidates in all constituencies and Proportional Representation Blocs in Japan and is currently the largest political party within the country. The party says it aims to be the primary party of Japan through the next general election.

While Ryuho Okawa will be responsible for the policy makings of the party, Kyoko Okawa, his wife and former party leader has taken the position of Chief Advertising Officer of the party and will run as the first ranking candidate of the Tohoku (North-Eastern) Proportional Representation bloc.

For more information see www.hr-party.info

Editor’s note: Ok this definitely caught my eye. Snappy title, don’t you think? GG

Chinese hack into film festival site

CHINESE hackers have attacked the Melbourne International Film Festival website in an intensifying campaign against the screening of a documentary about exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer.

The sabotage comes as festival organisers confirmed federal and state police had been called in, private security guards were being hired to protect film-goers and festival staff, four Chinese-language films had been withdrawn and a long-term Hong Kong-based sponsor had pulled out of the event.

The hackers broke into the festival’s website early yesterday, just hours after Premier John Brumby officially opened the 2009 festival at the Arts Centre.

The hackers replaced festival information with the Chinese flag and anti-Kadeer slogans and were last night continuing to disrupt the site by spamming.

“We like film but we hate Rebiya Kadeer,” one message says and calls for an apology to the Chinese people.

More from The Age

GG note: The controversial “Ten conditions of Love” is Sold Out at the Festival.

Beijing pressures Melbourne International Film Festival to dump documentary

Excerpt: THE Chinese Government has demanded that the Melbourne International Film Festival dump a documentary about an exiled minority leader whom they label a terrorist and blame for instigating this month’s ethnic riots in Xinjiang, which left more than 180 people dead.

The Australian film about millionaire Uighur businesswoman and grandmother Rebiya Kadeer, who was once feted by the Chinese Government as an example of ethnic harmony in China, is scheduled to premiere on August 8.

Festival director Richard Moore said the Chinese consulate in Melbourne phoned him late on Friday after the festival’s full program was published in The Age, insisting that the documentary, The 10 Conditions of Love, be withdrawn.

The consular official, Ms Chen, who is believed to be the new Melbourne cultural attache, demanded that Mr Moore justify his decision to include the film. She also castigated him for allowing Ms Kadeer to be a guest of the festival. Ms Kadeer is due in Melbourne next month to speak at the premiere.

More from The Age

Melbourne Indymedia is back

Ahh see you do learn things from Twitter.!!  Thanks to @goonanism I just learnt that Indymedia Melbourne is back and as alternative as ever.Not sure who is on the collective this time round, but usually lots of technospunks willing to share skills and be noice.

Indymedia is a collective of grassroots media-makers providing a platform for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate coverage of struggles and movements working for social, environmental and economic justice. Everyone is a witness. Everyone is a journalist.

http://indymedia.org.au/melbourne

Street Art revolution in Iran

Check out the following sites to get a taste of street art revolution in Iran

Sources:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/irangraffiti/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinxit/sets/72157611086130133/
http://www.famouswhendead.com.au/

Also in July FamousWhen Dead Art Gallery Melbourne presents Ralf Kempken a new body hand-cut screens for his second solo show titled Now Screening. Ralf is exploring the process of perception: “As we rely on our perceptions to make sense of our world we realise that we can exert control to adjust the perceptive process. But by doing so we find that the perceptive process is open to illusion – and delusion. What are we really seeing? Seeing is not an act of perception but one of creation.”

If you haven’t seen Ralf’s recent works at ArtMelbourne, C3 art space or SmithGallery do not miss this amazing showcase. Exhibition opens Friday, 17 July and runs to 2 August. Preview Thursday, 16 July 6 – 7 pm.

FWD
207 Victoria Street
West Melbourne 3003 Australia
Check website for gallery opening hours.
Gallery: http://www.famouswhendead.com.au/