this is way too good...



courtesy of failblog.org

New blog for work and amsterdam

Hi there all!

I know there are many of you back in the US that are still checking this blog. If it weren't for facebook, you would probably think i am dead. such is not the case. i was consumed by work, and then moved, switched to a new project, and am still trying to keep all of my balls that i am juggling in life off the ground. as you can imagine, this does not always work for me and this ball of a blogsite dropped for a bit.

I have just created a new blogsite that is really for my work and for events here in the city of Amsterdam. over the past several months, I continue to get invites to openings, parties, events, etc. that are great to connect others to. in fact, this has become kind of a thing for me and i am becoming known for doing this. so i decided that rather than fill up people's email boxes, that it would be best for me to create another blog (dear lord) that i can put all of this information that i receive from people asking me to put it out to my network. yay!

here is the site: embellish amsterdam

it will inevitably become linked to my website, so that will be fun and i will let you know when that happens. what is great about this is that people are really contributing and making a community out of this! it is really exciting to see the art community underground really wanting more connectivity, and those outside the community, wanting to be a part of it! I hope you check it at least once just to get an idea of what is going on here all the time and what i end up spending my days and nights doing and who i am connected with.

thanks for your support and for putting up with my lack of posting!

ps - here is the site that i was working on with mediamatic that i posted ages ago...
travel.mediamatic.net
if you want to travel, look no further - this is becoming the best site to use for just such a situation!

this is the new project that i am working on at the moment with the infamous Mediamatic - great project, great people and more to come.... i am writing the actual trips that people will be subscribing to and taking! just finished working on Naples and onto Budapest... check it out, join the Mediamatic website and become a fan!

http://www.mediamatic.net/index.php?lang=en

Mediamatic Travel

Trips to the cultural underground

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  Nile River Cruise

Next year Mediamatic will release the new 2009 Mediamatic Travel Guide. Mediamatic will help you travel the world and see the best contemporary art while you do it. Mediamatic will facilitate trips to the cultural scene in the less accessible places of the world.

The travel agency will operate from Mediamatic’s new location on the Vijzelstraat and facilitates real trips. It has an international website where locals can introduce themselves to you. All participating artists and travellers will help with providing content and keeping the website up to date. This way Mediamatic travel does not only work for Dutch travellers, but will become a global sensor network for cultural development.

The printed travel guide will show that there is more than pyramids, the big five, old temples, camels and folklore. Contemporary art is around the world. And around the world there are people who want to share it with you.

The international network will become the start of the first DIY travel agency in the world. The site will be compiled and edited by travels and artists together. Travellers can make their own dates with artists and cultural institutions. Unlike a normal travel site, Mediamatic Travel is focussed on discovering, promoting and financially supporting artistic destinations.

Sustainability

The travel agency and the website are based on the idea that cultural groups and individual artists who will receive the travellers will receive a decent salary. This seems obvious, but somehow is still far from common practice in cultural travel.

With Mediamatic Travel we would like to contact a broad audience and make them aware of the contemporary cultural production in post-conflict areas, politically or economically sensitive areas or developing nations. We would like to stimulate and support this production. Furthermore, Mediamatic Travel will aim for worldwide cultural engagement. We envision the development of a sustainable model, which will be a self-renewing digital network for international cultural exchange.

Destinations

The unconfirmed list of destinations: Cairo, Damascus, Novosibirsk, Tbilisi, Beirut, Durban, Dubai, Nairobi, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Budapest, Mexico City, Gaza, Istanbul, Tirana, Prague, Kyoto, Rio, Cape Town, Iran, Argentina, Naples

Partizan Publik

Mediamatic Travel is being developed in collaboration with Partizan Publik

Girlfriend Experience follow up

Here are the pictures from the Girlfriend Experience that took place on Friday and Saturday evenings in Nova Gorica, Slovenia for the pixxelpoint New Media Festival last weekend -
http://picasaweb.google.com/aliwats/TheGirlfriendExperienceDoesSlovenia#

the 'experience' went very well! Thanks to all of you that helped spread the word and came to play while we were online! The Dutch Embassy in Slovenia (our sponsor) and the people curating and putting the festival on were very happy as well. It was really fun to see the people there figure out that they could mess with their friends in the room through the avatars! I am sure that we will do the experience again this next year and I will keep you posted so that you can play too!


Check out the other works that were featured at this as well....

The exhibition, distributed between Nova Gorica and Mostovna, is the result of a difficult process of selection of the more than 110 applications arrived this year; a selection that should take into account not just the quality of the proposals, but also their ability to embody the suggested theme in a different way, and to integrate effectively the projects shown by the invited artists. The exhibition consists of 30 works by 30 different artists. Among them, etoy’s Mission Eternity project, described as a “digital cult of the dead”; the network of meditating computers set up by the German artists Ute Hörner & Mathias Antlfinger; the Empathy Box by the Italian collective Io/cose, which helps building a spiritual community based on the sharing of pain; the anti-institutional, new media rituality suggested by Otherehto; Martin Conrads and Ingo Gerken’s conceptual work, an
interrogation on the ritual use of communication technologies; and then Gazira Babeli and Patrick Lichty’s video-installation 7UP, a research on the meaning of an avatar life, and Janez Jansˇa’s remake of Koyaanisqatsi, which uses Google Earth as a source. The video screening, situated in the Galerija Tir in Mostovna, collects all the videos on show at the festival, putting together some brand new works with recent “classics” such as Negativland’s The Mashin’ of the Christ (2004) and Eddo Stern’s Deathstar (2004) , an exploration of the relationship between religion and violence.

'The Girlfriend Experience' is coming to Slovenia!

Martin Butler's project 'The Girlfriend Experience' has been invited to the For God's Sake/Pixxelpoint Festival in Nova Gorica, Slovenia this Friday and Saturday!!! The G-F Experience is produced in partnership with Mediamatic and is sponsored for the festival in Slovenia by the Dutch Embassy!

Click on the Mediamatic link here for all the information you need to watch it from the comfort of your own computer! This is going to be big, and we have emailed and notified people from all over the world to log on Friday and Saturday to 'play' with the avatars that will be performing for this event!

yes, please take a couple of minutes out of your day (you know, a break from checking the Superficial or bbc - whatever time-wasters you usually check when you need a mental break from work...) and play on the Girlfriend Experience!

Martin has invited me to work production for this event and I am very honored and excited to have been brought along on this excursion! Check it out and there will be little updates along the way of the trip, the festival and other new, if not cheeky, developments!

Shoes garage sale for another week

The sale at the Shoes Garage is going on for another week! If you haven't had the chance to come by and check out what we have, come by this week! We still have many models left and want you to give them good homes!
Thanks and see you this week!

the turkey that ate thanksgiving

i hope your Thanksgiving was amazing and spectacular! ben and geraldine were kind enough to host a large Thanksgiving feast at their home this year and we had the great pleasure of having this feast with 15+ people, most of whim were enjoying their first Thanksgiving!

here is the turkey that caused the household to shake..
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10 kilo!!!!! seriously almost broke my bike
and this is the end result

and then more of the festivities...

a note to the idiots that stole my computer

I must say that while your breaking into the house on 19 november was remarkable considering the fact that you broke in from the BACK which is not accessible from the street, stealing my computer was really irritating. the fact that you didn't take much else is great, but showed me that you are indeed ameteurs. and shame on you for taking my friend's cufflinks - those were special to him. not that you care, considering the fact that you are heartless and lame. thanks for making my week difficult. if i find you, i am under strict instructions to harm you in the bollocks - don't think i won't.

new opportunities

At the risk of exploiting friends, colleagues and others that check this site, I am looking for some part-time or full-time work to supplement the business I am operating... While dealing art and working in the art industry is my passion and will remain a life-long ambition/endeavour, monetarily, I am needing some other work to enable survival and other facets of life for the time being. If there are any in the community here in Amsterdam that know of anything that could work, I am more then happy to hear of it and chase it down. thank you thank you and thank you for your help and understading in this matter.

In the meantime, I will keep the updates and word-on-the-street coming at you a few times a week :) Because God forbid we miss something that could turn out to be interesting and entertaining... thanks!

my brother is a rock star

http://vimeo.com/1367285

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AntERR4lt90

for some reason i can't embed this.... but it is super cool. our friend katherine is the star and the video is great...

enjoy!

NEW gallery premiere in Amsterdam 8 november

my friend Justin is is hosting the grand premiere of his new gallery on the Lauriergracht here in Amsterdam tomorrow night! please come out - fabulous work and a good partie with all of the beautiful people...

TEN HAAF PROJECTS

Bruce Gilden ‘’Coney Island’’

November 8th –December 31st 2008

Opening reception and book signing by Bruce Gilden: Saturday the 8^th of November 5-8 pm.

www.tenhaafprojects.com

Ten Haaf Project is pleased to announce the exhibition ‘’Coney Island’’ by Bruce Gilden. The New York based Magnum photographer Gilden is known for his dynamic way of documenting city life, of the eccentric and the unusual that inhabit the city.

His close ups, often with a flash give the viewer a sense not looking at a picture, but being part of the picture themselves. In Bruce Gilden his own words: ‘’ I am known for taking pictures very close, and the older I get, the closer I get.’’

The pictures on display in the gallery are from Gilden his body of work: ‘Coney Island’’ All images are shot at the famous beach in New York, between 1968 and 1986. Coney Island was one of the first places Gilden went to photograph, and a place where he still goes.

From its heyday in the early 20^th century when every New Yorker went the celebrate summer to the 70ties where the poor that could not escape New York went to relax, Coney Island has changed. Also today Coney Island is changing rapidly.

The photos on display in the gallery are also shown in the book: ‘’Coney Island’’ available in the gallery.

Bruce Gilden was born in 1946 In Brooklyn. Since 1971 he has been exhibiting in numerous museums and galleries worldwide. Gilden has received numerous grants and awards for his work including three National Endowments for the Arts fellowships (1980, 1984 and 1992), a Villa Medici’s Hors les Murs (1995), New York State Foundation for the Arts Grant (1979, 1992 and 2000), the European Award for Photography (1996) and a Japan Foundation Fellowship (1999).

Ten Haaf Projects
Laurierstraat 248
1016 PT Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Tel: 020-4285885
info@tenhaafprojects.com

Gallery hours: Wednesday- Saturday 12-6 pm, and by appointment
Download the digital invitation here

OBAMA WON!!!!
see the way things went down here
and the Bruce Springsteen song has never been truer... I am very proud of the country I come from today - we managed to elect the first African-American President in US history and just having him in office will change the face of relations and influence for the US the world over. in a good way. Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. President-elect! Thoughts and prayers are with you now more than ever - you are going to need it ;)

EDIT: to all of my chicagoans - i hope you had the time of your life last night! could there have been a more exciting time to be in chicago other than this? well, maybe the world fair of 1893, cubs winning the world series in 1908, the fire (not good) or perhaps that time radiohead played for free in grant park in 2003... either way, i am really really jealous and hope you enjoyed the sweetness of the victory to it's fullest ;)

Election Night!!!

Alrighty friends, compatriates and celeb-junkies!

Election Night is here! On the European continent, it is now almost 8pm and there is a buzz of people all over the city looking for the bar or house or screen-only-used-for-video-games-on -a-regular-basis that they intend on gluing themselves to until 3 or 4 in the morning. In this way, we can do our small part to rally support for all of you in the US that are fulfilling your American rights and duties. Update to come tomorrow on who the winner of tonight's major decision will be! Complete with pictures and hopefully some videos ;)

In the meantime, I have updated the picasa pictures and there will be more coming of Halloween and some times out with friends from other corners of Europe!

here are some live feed sites for you...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2008/nov/04/uselections2008-twitter
http://www.ustream.tv/
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/cnn/cnns_election_night_plans_99141.asp

have a great night, happy voting and GO OBAMA!!!!

on a lighter note...

I have to briefly pay homage of the only celebrity blog that i follow.... mr. www.thesuperficial.com, you have saved me from many a too-serious moment with great and much-needed laughter at the expense of celebrites that enjoy exploiting themselves. everyone that enjoys sarcasm with a side of crass, please check out this site. i promise you will thank me for it later.

today's post complements the post I just made about the elections... some things are just too good to pass up. please excuse the language, but anyone who makes americans look this ignorant can be spoken of in no other tone. so we'll let it slide this time.

'Heidi & Spencer, Goddammit...

More: 2008 election , Heidi Montag , sarah palin , Spencer Pratt

Before everyone births a walrus, I've been avoiding these two like the plague. That said, I've been bombarded with e-mails today alerting me to Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt's latest, and most shitass, photo shoot yet. In an obvious effort to get my attention, the Douche Twins posed in Sarah Palin shirts while holding a shotgun, six-pack and Harry Browne's book "You Can Profit From a Monetary Crisis." This, of course, comes extremely close to meeting condition #2 of my criteria for post-worthiness:

However, to show that I'm not an unreasonable man and for the sake of journalist integrity, I will make the following exceptions in allowing you on this site:
1. Heidi wears a bikini.
2. Heidi covers her topless chest in maple syrup while stumping for Sarah Palin at a Klan rally.

Granted, there's no Aunt Jemima or Klansmen, these two asshats couldn't be more gay for Sarah Palin if they started throwing Bibles at poor people. Anyway, to all my conservative readers, feel free to thank Heidi & Spencer for officially costing you the election. In fact, you can pinpoint the exact moment John McCain loses in these pictures: Right when someone forgot to load the gun. Smooth.

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Update on VOTING!

this just in...

It is NOT too late to register to vote in some states!

You still have time to register to vote in:
Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, , Illinois (military voters only), Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin (military voters only)

The deadline for Guam is today October 24th!

And if you were already registered to vote in a state, it may still be possible to request a ballot. Check OVF's State Specific Voter Information: https://www.overseasvotefoundation.org/state-voter-information-directory
See the same pages for options to send your forms or ballot to your election office too.

For those of you who just received your ballots and want to return them as quickly as possible, go to https://www.overseasvotefoundation.org/overseas/ExpressYourVote.htm
to take advantage of "Express Your Vote" to FedEx your ballot home at a reduced rate from Europe -- and at no cost at all in some regions.

courtesy of marina.... thanks for the info! Sadly, most of the people that I have talked to here in Amsterdam have shirked their responsibilities and chosen not to cast their votes. If you are one of the darlings that DID vote, comment and let your beautiful voice be heard! perhaps it will serve as an encouragement to others for action in the future... at the very least, it will encourage me ;) thanks friends!

it's official - harry potter books are crack

so i have been sick for a couple of days (coming off a long couple of weeks :) ) and my friend's house that I am staying at has all of the Harry Potter books. i needed something brainless and entertaining to nurse my sickiness and i didn't feel like rotting all day in front of the tv - so i chose Harry Potter. I love the movies, and this is my first stab at reading the books. I tell ya, they are crack! I seriously can't put them down! i know this has been the plight of many a reader before my time with these terrifically popular and mildly controversial books, but seriously... at this point, i need to get through the rest of them as fast as possible so that i can be done and become more addicted to answering emails (yes, in the wake of the Harry Potter adddiction, quicker responses have waned). they are really great though, and i relish the idea that i will havve read the final two before they come out on the silver screen. in other news, projects are coming, proposals are being written and exhibitions are being created. but this is way more interesting for the moment. now, to find a new series for the next time i fall ill... any suggestions?

this is all her fault, by the way... thanks a lot, ms. rowling!

salmon salad

As many of you know, my greatest love in this city resides at a place called 'Puccini' - a sweet little cafe behind the University of Amsterdam and just before you hit the Waterlooplein market. The salad served at this place is one of the best meals I have ever had in my life. Seriously - no exaggeration. This salad has been the 'reset' button for many a moment in my life here in Amsterdam. When you come out to visit, please please please make sure that we go there to expereince this culinary wonder. If you are not able to make it out here for whatever reason, here are the main components:

baby field greens
1 small quartered tomato
1 quartered hard-boiled egg
4 sun-dried tomatoes
2 halved artichoke hearts
handful of seed mix (pinenuts, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds)
2 blanched asparagus spears
filet of smoked or fresh (but cooked) salmon
dallop of creme frâiche/dill/pepper/salt/paprika mix

Toss the lettuce, SDT and seed ingredients with a simple white wine vinagrette (dallop of whole-grain mustard, bit of honey, salt, pepper; mix together and add 2 Tbsp of white wine vinegar. then add 2-3 Tbsp of olive oil while stirring all the other ingredients). Around the edges of the salad, place the artichokes, tomatoes and eggs. Place the salmon atop the salad, with the asparagus spears crossed over it. Finish with the dallop of creme frâiche mixture and a bit of ground pepper. (can you tell I have had this a couple of times?)

ENJOY!!!

Presenting...

As promised, here is the cast of the oh-so-talented people that were involved in the 'Geboeid' production that is now going to tour Holland and beyond...

Suzanne Marx - Senior coreographer and Director. More coming from her soon... very lovely woman that had the vision for this piece and surrounded herself with very talented people to pull it all off beautifully!

Francis Sinceretti - Dancer in the role of the Shiek - part of the Nationale Balletacademie and the Nationale Ballet in Holland. Classical background and was hemmed into the 'hip-hop' fold very well

Martin Tint Barnes - Dancer in the role of the 'Love interest' - from Manchester, England, has been here in Holland for 2 years and is with the ISH dance company - amazing perforrmance and the first queation I got from people was 'how does he do that with his body?'... seriously, watch for this guy...

Sarita Keilman - Dancer in the role of the 'Turkish girl' - recently graduated from dance academy here in Holland and is very soon coming out to LA to fulfill a scholarship with the Millenium Dance Studio! I will be contacting some of you soon to hook up with her out in Cali! Extremely talented girl - watch for her as well...

Martin Buter - Assistant Director and Advising - my dear, dear friend that really helped bring polish to the show and can visualize and insert powerful emotion into an already good performance, thereby making it magical. It was great working with him and I sincerely hope there will be more of that to come.

Streamer/DJ Alec Smart (Gary Shepherd) - Very talented DJ that mixed the music for the show, held it together and applied that push to turn it into a great preformance. He does other shows, parties, all kinds of projects - great man to have on your side.

Maximillian Erhardt - Harpist - another darling friend that brought the blending of the classical with the 'hip-hop' feel and made it WORK. From Germany, he is in his final year that the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and will be a world-famous harpist before you know it.

Rosa Ana - Rap and Song - this girl is fabulous - wrote the raps that glued the whole show together. Like other rap divas, she owned the story and made it come alive with edginess and glamour. More coming from her very soon as well...

Kirsten Schötteldreier - Soprano - a sweet woman from Germany, she has performed in operas here in Holland, Germany and Italy. She is pursuing more productions like this and was very kind to work with.

And Beyond... - Yoland and Brigitte - Costumes - These girls have a great place in the middle of the red light district and made innovative costumes that worked really well for the show. Check out their stuff @ www.andbeyond.nl

Overall, it was a lovely production, very privilaged to have worked with these people and I wish them all the best in their upcoming endeavors. They are going to tour around Holland and I am hoping to join them, but we will see if that ends up materializing.... More to come (of course)
pictures of the production will be on picasa soon...

'Geboeid' premiering TONIGHT!!!

Of all weeks that I should be blogging...

Here is reason for hiatus - I have been working as production manager ('production bitch' has become the affectionate term - long stroy involving Britney Spears...) for a show that is opening TONIGHT at Podium Mozaïek

for a hip-hop and classical dance and music blend called 'Geboeid'. I am very very proud to be a part of this production - everyone involved is fabulously talented and we have had a really great time working on this. It is the story of a young Turkish girl that finds herself torn between the hip-hop life and boy that she loves and the obligations of family and culture. Beautiful... I will list the first and last names of the lovely people that involved tomorrow for you so that you can follow their careers ;) Martin Butler and Maximillian Ehrhardt are my dear friends that got me involved in this and it has been really wonderful working with them!!! I think I adore them even more, if that was possible!

Show starts at 9pm tonight and Saturday - come out and see it!

Overseas Voting - DO IT NOW!!!

For all of the lovely Americans overseas that need to vote before it is too late (like tomorrow), here is some info that can help you get this done... the ladies at the American Women's Cllub Amsterdam pointed me to all of this info - thanks Ruth!

First, the deadline for us to register for the absentee is SUNDAY!!! Take a couple of minutes and do this NOW if you haven't already...

- For the registration and write-in https://fawco.overseasvotefoundation.org/overseas/FwabStart.htm
or https://www.overseasvotefoundation.org/overseas/home.htm
After you fill this in, you still have to MAIL IT IN... you can find the office that you need to send it into on the assitance guidelines site below...

- Voting assistance guidelines (if you need a notary or anything like that...) http://www.fvap.gov/for-voting-assistance-officers/vote-guide/index.html

Also, I heard the US Consolate is doing something on tomorrow or Monday (you would have to call them...) to help people if you feel that you need the extra bit of help.
I am not the most politically-active person on the planet, but i think we can all agree that this is pretty important...
Good luck and happy voting!

ps - for a good laugh, check out Leo DiCaprio's youtube commercial trying to get people to vote...

silly celebs...