This festival opens this weekend in Osaka. Jona is showing a number of my videos in the screening program. Check it out if you’re in the neighborhood.

http://www.feavs.org

Ken Hollings has an essay on MJ in the new Zero books publication ‘The Resistible Demise of Michael Jackson’, edited by Mark Fisher of Kpunk blog.

Providing an antidote to the mixture of unthinking sentimentality and scurrilous prurience that Jackson usually attracts, this book offers impassioned and informed answers to the urgent questions that Jackson’s death has posed. What was it about Jackson’s music and dancing that appealed to so many people? What does his death mean for popular culture in the era of Web 2.0? And just how resistible was his demise? Was another world ever possible, something perhaps utopian instead of the consensual sentimentality of a world hooked on debt, consumerism and images? The essays in The Resistible Demise Of Michael Jackson consummately demonstrate that writing on popular culture can be both thoughtful and heartfelt. The contributors, who include accomplished music critics as well as renowned theorists, are some of the most astute and eloquent writers on pop today. The collection is made up of new essays written in the wake of Jackson’s death, but also includes Barney Hoskyns’ classicNME piece written at the time of Thriller.

Contributors: Marcello Carlin, Robin Carmody, Joshua Clover, Sam Davies, Geeta Dayal, Tom Ewing, Dominic Fox, Jeremy Gilbert, Owen Hatherley, Charles Holland, Ken Hollings, Barney Hoskyns, Reid Kane, Paul Lester, Suhail Malik, Ian Penman, Chris Roberts, Steven Shaviro, Mark Sinker, David Stubbs, Alex Williams, Evan Calder Williams

http://www.o-books.com/obookssite/book/detail/928

https://youtube.com/watch?v=QAfTV97vdfU

http://www.steim.org/STEIMBLOG/?p=871

the brutal immediacy of the voice, the ability it has to inspire fleeting recollections of forgotten characters

it’s animalistic sonic attack, the elemental nature of a cry

inherently humorous and intimate

both performers began their solo sets with renditions of dada and futurist sound poems from their respective countries, the transportation of voices through epochs… return to the voice, to the first and last gasp, the formless expulsion of air and communication

http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/pitch_perfect/

http://www.thefader.com/articles/2009/6/8/jay-z-d-o-a-death-of-autotune-cdq-sample-source-summer-jam-video-that-s-it

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=95349500794

Wednesday night in Amsterdam, a selection of videos that inspire. Including Biggie Small’s funeral procession, Corey Delaney’s A Current Affair interview, Aum Shinrikyo Anime and John Kilduff’s Let’s Paint TV.

Coming Wednesday (the 27th) it’s time for the second Beam club hosted by De Verdieping. 

This time Special guest Ben Cerveny (one of the inspirational fathers of www.flickr.com) Coralie Vogelaar and Emile Zile will show what truly inspires them in terms of movies, internet, YouTube, documentary fragments or otherwise. 

Doors open at 20:30. Film starts at 21:00. Entrance is free. 

Documentation of the live video and orchestra performance, March 21 at World Music and Dance Center in Rotterdam.

http://www.wmdc.nl/engels/program/content/Archive/2009/1809.php

https://youtube.com/watch?v=spWsixjmKXo

A giant of the Japanese impro scene, Otomo Yoshihide is performing at Steim Amsterdam this Sunday afternoon. The man behind a plethora of solo releases and the phenomenal collaborations I.S.O. and Ground-Zero. Performing solo and duo with Dj Sniff. Tip: get there early it will be packed.

http://www.steim.org

The artist as filter. The artist as curator. The curator curating the artists to curate.

Curated by Marina Fokidis.

Includes selections by Amsterdam-based kunstenaars Linda Wallace, presenting clips of people singing the Divinyls ‘When I Think About You I Touch Myself, Matthieu Laurette’s collection of Artist biopic film trailers continuing on from his exhibition Artist Biopic Cinema at Smart Project Space and Ahmet Ögüt’s recycling of viral video, film and television.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=randomrules09&view=playlists 

http://www.pulse-art.com/newyork/

PULSE PLAY > New York 2009
Random Rules: A Chanel of Artists’ selections from YouTube
Curated by Marina Fokidis

Many believe that since the launch of YouTube in 2005, the history of the moving image has diverted from its canonical route. The website, which makes it possible for anyone who can use a computer to post a video, reaches millions of people daily.

Like no other time before, it is now possible for amateur videos, music videos, film footage, commercials and news segments as well as (in some cases) artists’ videos to be mingled together in a random way, free of any preconceived hierarchy or system. According to Fokidis, the active use of YouTube is a form of curating and “Different people’s ‘playlists’ are transformed into exhibitions and “tagging” becomes a process of random archiving.” For PULSE PLAY>Random Rules, Fokidis has invited several emerging and established artists to create their very own playlists thereby presenting these artists not only as artists, but as curators and as collectors as well. Artists include Andrea Angelidakis, Aids 3D, AVAF, Pablo Leon de la Barra, Erick Beltran, Keren Cyter, Jeremy Deller, Cerith Wyn Evans, Dominique Gonzalez Foerster, Dora Garcia, Rodney Graham, Annika Larsson, Matthieu Laurette, Ingo Niermann, Miltos Manetas, Ahmet Ogut, Angelo Plessas, Lisi Raskin, Linda Wallace.

The selections will be available simultaneously in the video lounge at the Fair and online as a YouTube Channel