Babybook: special Facebook just for people with babies.

Great news everybody! They are making a special Facebook just for people with babies!

I'll whip up a fake logo to go with this post soon. Maybe.

Quickie insomniac scribble

Probably won't be anywhere the internet so: Happy 1. Mai tomorrow everybody!

Used universe

DIE 7. BERLIN BIENNALE FINDET VOM 27. APRIL BIS ZUM 1. JULI 2012 STATT.

The seventh Berlin Biennale opened last night at KW. All I have to say about the show I have already said in an email to a friend:
"liked was the hippie Mate beer and the brutal Juarez stuff.
Otherwise show was massively underwhelming...
It was 'art' half-assedly mimicking half-ass politics.
would've preferred a Sanrio retrospective."

The icelandic sagas

FOUND in a box in the garage After having been misplaced for 6 years

euGoogleizer: art in the age of the (virtual) obliteration of meaning.

GOING THROUGH OLD EMAILS I FOUND A CONCEPT FOR AN ART SHOW I HAD INTENDED TO CURATE BACK IN 2005 BUT NEVER DID, here is the basic idea as described in a letter to a friend:

" euGoogleizer: art in the age of the (virtual) obliteration of meaning.

what I would ask the artists to do is pick a word that is/represents something that is meaningful to them- let's use an easy example: your mother's name. Chances are that the first thing that pops into your head when you hear that word is your mother's face. The goal here is to overexpose yourself to other images adn information and to redefine the meaning of that which formerly meant something else to you. Hmm,it doesn't have to be that personal either... heck, you could use "glass" if you wanted. I think all that I'm trying to do is have people acknowledge the effects of technology on our structures on languange adn meaning and how that might affect our artwork and references. It may or may bot be the case that meaning is even changed within ourselves when it comes to meaningful mediums of communication (like your mother's name or a photograph of your family) but I think it is safe to say that the vitrual world, which we spend so much time inhabiting and carry around with us in our thoughts as well, is undeniable affected by the millions of possible meanings.
For example, my name is MY NAME HERE and I can recall the shock of going to the grocery store when I moved here at age 18 and saw a brand of wine called "MY NAME HERE" My name was on a lable and a cork and it had nothing to do with me unles I chose to buy and drink it. If I do a google image search for my name I usually have go through 11 pages of images from (FAMOUS MOVIE DIRECTOR WHO SHARES 2/3 OF MY NAMES)'s films before I find an image of myself.
It's wierd. As another example, there is pretty much one image/person that comes to mind when one hears the name "Kate Moss" but as I pointed out a few months ago there are 36 Kate Mosses with profiles in Myspace.com alone. Some of them are actually names Kate Moss also.
If you will recall "euGoogleizer" is what Derek Zoolander refers to himself after he gives a eulogy.
So, that's that. Make works of art in the age of the (virtual) obliteration of meaning."

UPDATE: WHY I POSTED THIS with google goggles search this concept could be upped a notch since it searches not just for words but visual /photographic digital information... And you get weird results- for example I took a photo of a local woman (latter image.) with her pet pigs and ran it through google goggles and see the results:

Two movies from 2009 that I just got around to watching NOW but wish I would've watched earlier:

(500) Days of Summer
And
AWAY WE GO.

Both were/are pretty great.

BY THE WAY If the blog is looking a bit , ahem, bland it is because I am using the blogger app for iPhone (but on the iPad at x2 size) pretty ghetto but it does the trick and is still easier than trying to go through safari- (plus I see no viable foto option in safari - and how else would I upload this crazy stone skeleton from the Norwich Cathedral without that?!?)

Moving to Berlin

While helping a friend research for useful info about how to move to berlin i came across this helpful "welcome to Berlin" pamphlet in English for those who have just moved to Berlin and are getting started with the beurocratic (sp?) marathon I would recommend you start here: http://www.berlin.de/imperia/md/content/lb-integration-migration/publikationen/willkommen/welcome_englisch_08.pdf?start&ts=1222177141&file=welcome_englisch_08.pdf
They didn't have this when I moved here so consider yourselves lucky!
;(

A very scary Easter

Yea. Made
This between church and brunch thismorning

What happens when an artist messes around with Google Goggles?

With google goggles you can take a picture of something and it will search... For related content,
So naturally I started taking pictures of things around the room (embroidered pillows, my foot, my face) and getting some strange results - especially for my face:

plack banthers

"refuested" : read further

I came across the word "refuested" on page 6 of Tom McCarthy's book "c" which sent me on a wild google goose chase before realizing that (on page 7) it was explained to be a typo on the part of one of the characters...
Nevertheless you get some damn interesting search results for "refuested" - all of which are also spelling errors across the globe.

See what happens when you read this newfangled literature?

this is the original ART WAR by used universe image cobbled together without photoshop from the cover of a 1978 kids book called 'STAR WARS the mystery of the rebellious robot'.

UPDATE SINCE Yesterday's POST: LINK TO AN ARTICLE ON THE ISSUE WHICH I HAVEN NOT READ YET HERE
END UPDATE
____

UNbeamtet. on the topics of :Germany, Deutschland, Lehrer and Lehererinenenenenen

Just a little impromptu thought-for-the-day here, but an important one, I think:

My German teacher told me that teachers in Germany - who were usually "beamtet" are now being phased out as beamter... so that, basically, whereas before a teaching position was a very good-paying government job (with excellent benefits and a generous retirement plan) which you could not get fired from, it will now just be lesser paid contractual work...
The reasons, she said, were: to save money.
But... really, guys, -teachers? I thought Germany was smarter than this...
Why not buy-out the legions of letter-writers and stamp stampers clogging the whole bureaucratic system? Why not think long term an sent those unnecessary dinosaurs to an early retirement and streamline this ancient machine with technology which would make it thousands of time quicker, cheaper and more efficient? And, above all:
WHY NOT REPLACE PEOPLE WHO CAN BE REPLACED WITH MACHINES WITH MACHINES AND CONTINUE TO PAY TEACHERS A DECENT WAGE?

Uhmm... yea, so
I say: BOOoooo!
One of the tragedies of America is - of course - low teacher pay, and I don't think many people would dispute that - and low pay can translate to crabby, burnt-out people... that should never be the case when it comes to education. On the other hand, being beamtet (well-paid and un-fireable) can lead to sloppy work... so there clearly needs to be a balance, but really- of all things to cut corners on - this should not be one.

Think about it... and then get your priorities straight, Deutschland!

NOTE: This entire post is based on a casual conversation I had, there are no articles to cite and I make no claims to any facts...

Ladies and Gentleman,

USED UNIVERSE
(if I didn't already post it?)
anyhow, it is my foto blog.

What is the song in KONY 2012?
Long story but I actually came across the KONY 2012 video because of the song I can't stop by Flux Pavilion which i had posted to facebook and then a friend simply commented "KONY 2012"


(at around 25 mintues in) there is a song:

finally learned how to create a GIF a few weeks back... yea, they are creepy/

Brief review I wrote about Jim Henson's the Storyteller series which apparently just came out on DVD. :

The Storyteller: Darker side of the Muppets is well worthwhile.
The Storyteller series - most of which I saw as a child when they aired in the last half of the Jim Henson Hour (when they aired in 1989-ish) are amazing, mysterious and quite unique - there really isn't anything else quite like them as far as I can tell.
I would imagine that almost anyone describing the segments would use the term 'dark' but perhaps that is the first term which comes to mind since they just seem so extremely UN-Disney to our 2012 eyes.
The Storyteller stories are bleak, and sometimes even borderline brutal, indeed - but they are nevertheless visually stunning and the intriguing situations in which the characters often find themselves in are not at all typical, predictable old good-vs.-evil fluff.
In short, watching these as a child never quite gave me nightmares but they did make me thing and the stories have stuck with me ever since.
Never seen it?
It is pretty gooood

study for
prophet machine # 4 performed feb. 7, 2012 at eschschloraque
coreographed by patrick faurot

"Faurot's work shifts between theater and dance, the abstract and the mundane,
the esoteric realms of the sacred and the hard rationalism of mathematics. It
searches for contemporary performative method of narrative and expressiohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifn in
order to build new resonant meanings, necessitated by the dearth created in the
contemporary scene by the philosophical and aesthetic deconstruction following
post-modernism and the usurpation of art for mass consumer culture. In this way,
the contemporary aim of Faurot's work is primary -- that from the ruins of dance and
theater, new work can be conceived and performed that utilizes traditional theories
and techniques but adapts them to have significance today. His artistic investigation
is influenced by his experiences as a mathematician and musician, his travels through
South America and Eastern Europe, the avant garde of Berlin's underground, and the
many painters, sculptors, dancers, and madmen he has encountered throughout the
world ."
there will probably be much better photos here at eriko khalesi's blog

UPDATE TO THE BELOW POST - GEMA themselves did respond to my "GEMA SEEMS to block artists own websites," but according to them: "@GEMAdialog "No, actually we don’t," " via twitter in their defence with a link to:
THIS INFO
regarding a sort of mexican standoff that has been going on since 2009 between them and youtube, or, in their own words:
"GEMA's negotiations with YouTube

GEMA has been negotiating unsuccessfully with YouTube over a new licensing contract for music use in Germany since April 2009.

After contract negotiations with YouTube broke off in May 2010, GEMA and seven other music author societies formed an alliance together.

A legal action was filed at the end of 2010 and delivered to YouTube in April. Twelve music works that should be blocked are listed in the legal action.

YouTube is now blending an announcement in for blocked videos asserting that GEMA has refused to grant the rights to these videos. However, this is not true – the fact is, YouTube has simply not acquired the rights for that particular video up until this point in time. You can find a detailed explanation of our viewpoint on these matters on our blog.

The chronology of these events are detailed in the press releases on this subject:..."

of interest is that its not us its them sort of thing they do with the statement: "YouTube is now blending an announcement in for blocked videos asserting that GEMA has refused to grant the rights to these videos. However, this is not true – the fact is, YouTube has simply not acquired the rights for that particular video up until this point in time."

SO: Going back to my original beef with these beurocrats: Does this mean that - according to GEMA - YouTube would have to get rights to every video ever - even live concert footage posted by the artist themselves before it was visible in Germany?...

BTW: I also noticed that ALL the videos on the official youtube site of popular metal band MASTODON (who just played Berlin a few days ago) are blocked...

GEMA MUST DIE

HOW am I supposed to fall in love with a band and go see them on tour and buy their music if this organization is BLOCKING the BAND's OWN YOUTUBE CHANNEL?
sorry, staves.
http://www.youtube.com/user/thestaves
DEAR GEMA, WIE BESCHEUERT SEID HIR DENN?
GEMA
GEMA NEEDS TO EITHER go away or at the very least wake up to the unintended consequesnces of their actions...
If for no other reason than the fact that it blocks videos posted by the artists OWN youtube site...
Yesterday a friend recommended the band the Staves and send me a link to a video that the band had uploaded ON THEIR OWN YOUTUBE SITE which was subsequently blocked by the misguided do-googer pseudo government organisation GEMA.

GEMA decrees on its site: "Whoever wants to playback or perform music in public in Germany will become, as a rule by doing this, a customer of GEMA."
So, by default, anyone who makes or hears music is automatically a customer and therefore beholden to their rules?

ALSO of NOTE: "GEMA is a legally authorized collecting society – and is in close contact with legislators."
gema muss sterben, WAR ON GEMA GEMA ORGINAZATION NEEDS TO $%#&ing DIE; OR: I FRACKING HATE GEMA

USED UNIVERSE art kitchen
this is your kitchen full of art on iPad.
berlin 2012

I bought The Fantastic Mr. Fox in the UK on DVD which featured "FREE DIGITAL DOWNLOAD" for iTunes, PC, etc. but as it turns out when I retuned to Germany I was not able to get/register the free digital download because it was good only for the UK and Ireland iTunes store... so even though i purchased and own it... there is a stupid loophole... whatever. But the the film industry probably shouldn't wonder why people are still illegally downloading movies if something like this happens, that is I try to be legit but am cut off by liscensing bullcrap. yadda yadda.

YEAR OF THE DRAGON TEMPORARY TATOO
 
 
really great temporary tatoos found at the .55 sent store.

 
just doom it.

whiskey and doom metal nights TBA...

berlin

USED UNIVERSE
THE BEGINNING IS NIGH
Microsoft Paint
2011