Podopolog

XLterrestrials ^s. Speed Caravan… and more!

pod — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 13:15:47 +0000

{ Medhi Haddab, the Jimi Hendrix of the Oud }

Story coming sooon ! See below for upcoming shows, meanwhile check the rapid fire mastery of Speed Caravan’s Kalashnik Love here: http://www.myspace.com/speedkravan

Peter Gabriel’s Realworld label just got some frickin teeth!

Can The Entertainment Industry Be Made Relevant To Surviving the 21st Century ??!

pod — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:19:40 +0000

+ + +

{ Our minor XLt “intervention” at Womex last year … A2N now in 2010 ? }

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< 6-11.09 > ALL TOGETHER NOW, the 2nd annual new music + culture conference in Berlin. Forums for rethinking the music industry and creative platforms. Plenty of LIve Streams if you’re not in Btown… and you can see the whole schedule HERE !

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Can The Entertainment Industry Be Made Relevant To Surviving the 21st Century ??

WE are NOt optimistic! BUt that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be there, attempting to upgrade …or detourn this Systemic Operating Trainwreck.

What to do with an overmediated world?? Some serious beyond the Ministries Of Culture, Beyond STickies (^), beyond the screens, beyond the avatars, beyond the popCoN, questions are due! And how to dump the corporate parasites !

ANd… in addition, since we ARe VEry Interested in DIY economies and autonomous cultural sectors, so the XLt will be on hand to report from the ALL TOGETHER NOW Conference, beginning today. Yes, some strategies will be discussed that could open the gates for better digital architecture for the peeps ! While XLt are a little more focused currently on Eject + DElete Buttons, and Escape Hatches, there are some things in here that could have big meaning for cultural economies outside the corporate Endgame. And on the micro-scale of how we pay our rents, feed those imposed meters, and fill our bellies… via the art world.

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We’d like to stir some serious debates, cause we fear that most of the topics getting discussed here are going to be on the wrong page… like fueling + navigating the navel-gazing culture further into the digital abyss … ad-vert infinitum.

In other words, there is no substantial social engagement plan on the decks.

REd ALErt! ALL Hands On DEck !!

stay tune for the results!

RambaZamba’s 20 Years of Big Hearts + High aRt Praxis

pod — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 12:02:38 +0000

{ RambaZAmba in “Mueller und Mueller, Legenden vom Ich ” 2009 + 20th Jahre Kbrau and “Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari” }

< 1-3.09.10 > 20:30 Uhr. Anlässlich des 20. Jahrestages von Sonnenuhr/Theater RambaZamba 2010 erarbeitet das Ensemble Höhne ein großes Open Air Spektakel von “Der Frieden – Ein Fest” (nach Aristophanes), das gemeinsam mit der polnischen Straßentheatergruppe “Teatr Osemgo Dnia” und der israelischen integrativen Gruppe “Kenafayim” aus Tel Aviv auf dem Hof der KULTURBRAUEREI zur Aufführung kommt.

It’s FREE! More info HERE at RambaZAmba site

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RambaZamba, founded by Gisela Höhne in 1990, is celebrating it’s 20th birthday at Kulturbrauerei, and staging an epic production based on Aristophanes’ Peace with over 80 artists from Poland’s Teatr Osmego Dnia and Israel’s Kenafayim together w/ Berlin’s Sonnenuhr/Theater RambaZamba crew and Ensemble Höhne.

A MUST SEE! One more night for FREE at Kulturbrauerei… Imagine Living Theater, bits of La Fura Del Baus + De La Guarda, and a little taste of Philippe de Broca’s King of Hearts all mixed in one. A rare theater praxis + spectacle worth absorbing w/ body + heart + mind ! And the accompanying music ensemble+chorus is equally epic !

Article coming soon to XLt, but for now… Go experience ‘em in 3-d + in the flesh !

tbc

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XLt Blurbs: Eye & We & Tails Of Summer Nights

pod — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 10:51:06 +0000

{ the XLt Kollectiv }

< 10.09 > Piranha’s Nights Of Ramadan finale w/ Speed Caravan, Kobra 36, Dj Pasha, the XLt Kollectiv, Terakaft ( former members of Tinariwen ) …

< 11.o9 > DJ Shazam’s UrbanKarma night at Tresor w/ XLterrestrials

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Upcoming XLterrestrial shows w/ 17 Hippies, Speed Caravan + Kobra 36, Dj Shazam…

+ All Together Now (A2N), Die Nächte des Ramadan, Uber LebensKunst, Citizen Kino at Club Der Polnischen Versager, Transient Spaces – Tourist Syndrome, Dub Gabriel, DVA tour + much much more !

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< 1.09 > 20 Years Kulturbrauerei w/ 17 Hippies, Tommy Wosh (MC), RambaZamba Theater + XLterrestrials Kollectiv Vjs…

Note: It’s free after 20:30h ( crazy RambaZamab show in hof ) , but if you want, 20th ceremonies starting at 18:30 ( invites only, but u can try ) … djs + vjs later.

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< 27.08 > opening 2nite: Transient Spaces – The Tourist Syndrome: Berlin, NGBK

< 27-28.08 > Schlagstrom Festival

< 27.08 > opening : Reclaim Your City at Neurotitan

< 6-11.09 > All Together Now (A2N) – Music industry upgrades camp, congress, forum

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more news coming soon!

Vive Les Enfants Terribles ! In Memory of Christoph Schlingensief

pod — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 07:53:28 +0000

{ Schlingensief (not) in the Volksbuehene }

” i hate theater. “

1960 – 2010 †

The master deconstructionist who would never keep his art within the walls, on a stage, in the cinema, or within reasonable limits…

Long Live The ENFant TERRible von Oberhausen !

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Perhaps it will take some time for the english-speaking press and cultural spheres to fully grasp what Christoph Schlingensief is to the artworld. For the moment there is only a silly AP news wire blurb making the rounds w/ some of the least important facts which reach only as far as to link him to his Bayreuth and Manaus Opera moments, and to call him “controversial… with strong political messages.” Mind you, this is the auteur who was arrested at Documenta (1997) for a project now known as “Kill Helmut Kohl”(plakat). And then intervened in Vienna at the height of the Haider-dämmerung ( think Bushdom w/ slightly more naked xenophobia) with a live TV broadcast of an Austrian-version of Survivor, to vote selected (+ real) immigrants off the island. Staged in the country’s capital, from central square- Karlsplatz – during one of their most prestigious art festivals.

So while the XLterrestrials cannot adequately go into great depth of his life and ouvre which will anyway be better read in Germany’s major newspapers or those who from a far left can specialize in the challenging outer limits… ( links ). …if you can read German…

for those who don’t, these words can only provide a glimpse from just a handful of direct encounters, from his presentation at Berlinale in Hau Eins -2009- [ Xlt plog hier ], Kaprow City at Volksbuehne – 2007 – [ XLt plog hier ] , and a handful of films.

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{ Hau Eins Berlinale 2009 }

And that is more than enough to feel a deep sadness that Schlingensief’s alien and confrontational genius has been so short-lived. Stolen away from us by a tragic illness (lung cancer), he died at 49.

And we were extremely curious + inspired by his increasing migration from deconstructive to grand-scale constructive Actions, and perhaps it will be Africa who will now miss him most. He had incredible projects underway there. (more).

Today he is being reported with unanimous deep respect as one of Germany’s most important contemporary artists. Something that seems fairly unfathomable in US media culture. It would be like seeing the Yes Men getting their full due in The New York Times just after having had their editorial (warmongering) pants pulled down hard by the pranksters on Times Square… or at The Met.

We’ll try to come back for a greater view, but for now, perhaps he might be introduced (+ begin to be understood) by seeing how much he could provoke even the progressive critics of a cultural magazine like The New Yorker… and here, try to imagine the elements you don’t get to see from the artist’s own coup d’etat point-of-view. Wagner’s Bayreuth in a still historically knee-deep fascist home turf getting slam dunked through a Lynchian-esque (+ Namibian) freakshow mirror! Exhibit A : Nausea by Alex Ross.

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And from ZDf ( auf deutsch), a wide-lens overview : Zum Tod Von Christoph Schlingensief

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A quick image gallery:

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And of course his website, blog , and his films at 451 fahrenhiet … AND WE JUST FOUND OUT he staged a piece called ROSEBUD at Volksbuehne in 2001… a looong trail of genius to absorb and investigate!

tbc… as time allows.

Folk & Fæ Symposium … Where the wild things converge!

pod — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 19:38:07 +0000

{ On the way back from DK, the seagulls dance in the wind currents of the ferry }

Folk & Fæ Symposium

Last week the XLterrestrials participated in a Symposium on a small idyllic island anachronism in the Danish South Sea. Named Folk & Fae, the event was constructed as a convergence of international artists to explore the relationship between animals and humans, while at the same time remixing the classic Platonic scenario in which seven philosophers gathered to consider the nature of Eros.

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{ From Folk & Fae Symposium, this has an eerie “witness to a lynching” effect }

Humanity vs Nature

Just seven months before we were in Denmark to report on the Climate Summit, which one can now conclude leaves its historic + horrible scar upon the future of global politics, populations and entire species. The event was the largest-ever meeting of political leaders to address ecological concerns and revealed quite nakedly that there is no hope of human intelligence arising to meet the necessities of a global crisis in the dim and narrow frame of elected, semi-elected + selected figureheads of various nations, each with their own territories, agendas and power structures.

Coming December nations will meet again, this time in Mexico. But the new scenario may perhaps be that a new force, platform or agency for collective global intelligence will be required for any form of civilization to survive the imminent challenges that the collision of humanity and nature has in store for us.

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In Retro Paradiso, Micro-Politics + Animal Eros

In a beautiful polar opposite to convention centers, stormtroopers, power ties and G20 puppet fucks, a small circle of friends meet to perform a 3-hour theater + analysis program with all the weight of personal memories, families… wild dreams, hopes and fears regarding our collective future… and the individual desires to reconnect with all our magical planetary relations.

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{ slides from Sara Hamming’s intro to Folk & Fae }

So all this warrants much more of XLt analysis + a praxis route… as we have come to realize that understanding the maligned + brutal relationship to animals might lead us back upon sustainable paths.

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And then one of the XLt dreamed the other night about the micro-political as the macro-solution:

The Seven Samuri Principle (inverted*)

Would it be more strategic to consider: NOT confronting the malady at its center and its most fortified, but by aligning ourselves into micro-political bodies + entities, and by changing all those locked-in behaviours within a new seductive cellular manifestation ?

An accessible deconstruction of the nuclear family cage, we organize ourselves around the structure of seven colleagues ( with no dogmatic # but a suggested form ) to engage with, as much as possible, and as best suited to the geographic and realtime situations, another existence.

The dream entailed entirely new familial constructs and sexual relations… as if to imagine we were suddenly another species with different co-habitation customs. Afterall the current homogeny of relations serves the colonization well. Time to exit ! And the fenced-in (city) habitats appear to rob us of all the diversity of breathing as creative + communal creatures.

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* 7 Samurai inverted. In an inside-out version of Kurosawa’s ingenius film… we do not seek to invite warriors in to protect the village from the ubiquitous raiding bandits, we send 7 samurai out of the “city walls” to confront the mechanisms which have allowed the loop of parasitical enemies to contain us as such an easy catch. And perhaps it even de-escalates the societal configuration of hunters and prey.

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work-in-progress

tbc…

XLt Summer blurbs: Back to the art grind… Yow, Are we having fun yet ??!

pod — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 22:23:52 +0000

{ 2 Copenhagen stencil finds, can u find the polysorbate 80 fan ??! }

< 7.8 > Club der P. Versager nite w/ Kruno (Hr) of Gentle Junk, Zeljko (Sf) of Kafana Balkan, Podinski ( X? ) of XLt… Yow! are we having fun Yet ?!!

THis Sat.Nite – East Dance Space Shuttle
at Club der P. V. … mit dj/vj Podinski + special XLterrestrial guest(s)… Could be a once-a-monthly, So PLease come out and say HI and support us cause Mitte nites need some new life, and we might have a schliwowitz welcoming committee, so drop in for a drink … at the very least.

What : eastblok,roma,balkan,dub,d+b,experimental,indigenousresistance,radical world remixers,wild and fluent pianos,euphoric accordions,madly embracing cellos,orchestral blossoms,thrashing beats,and the angelic muses…

+ psychotronic dance experiments + XLt eyebit cut-ups…

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And we’re a wee too tired from our Northside tour to judge the hallucinogenic fx of 2 Copenhagen stencil finds merged into One… whattya think? Guess who lurks in the shadows ? on the b-side ??

tbc…

XLt Sustainability Research, Route #1 : Social Enterprise

pod — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 14:08:02 +0000

{ the Baisikeli warehouse, Henrik and Ivan }

Coming soon: The Baisikeli project(s)…

Gouging out the eye of the cyclops – Part 2: the blurbs + Citizen Kino beta test

pod — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 23:59:46 +0000

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{ Citizen Kino / pic remix via Leszek Lebrowski via Pigasus Galerie }

< 26.7 > XLterrestrials present a special Citizen Kino* beta test at a secret location in Berlin… monday, July 26. 21:00h. If you would like to attend, please subscribe to our (infrequent) newsletter by writing to: Pod (at) XLterrestrials (dot) org

Added: Location/ Map HERE ( temporary link )

We’ll be testing out a new psychomedia analysis approach and gathering ideas from participants in order to create a ( von Trier-like ) Digital Dogme – 2010. Not about How to make media, but how we should utilize it, recycle + recontextualize it, and/or defend ourselves against its inherently problematic colonization of realtime.

XLt tries again to gouge out the eye of the cyclops + other news

pod — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 17:56:38 +0000

{ found on the web from Plog knows where }

Topple the word/game order – part 2

Well you may have heard the latest news blip on the Palin Worm. She’s trying to outdo the Great Ex-Communicator-In-Chief, Bushyboy, by inventing words like “refudiate”… and then juxtaposing herself w/ Shakespeare, who might ALSO have coined a few words himself. Very funny, but you have to wonder if there’s a genius scripting this lunatic. She is after all like a remotely operated vehicle…

which is precisely why the XLt would like to add One ourselves to the American language:

( a Sarah) Palindrone , n. 1. a pilotless vehicle that reads the same from left to right as from right to left. Often used for target practice and/or tracking the known unknowns. 2. an opportunistic character self-assassination device, which does not necessarily cancel itself out when deposited in the midst of a mis-(under-)educated public… 3. a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) for political manipulations !

This reminded us to remind YOU, dear XLT readers that one should be getting prepared for that potentially small evolutionary moment of the 2012 elections…

You might be wondering how to create some campaign/action to go Beyond The Valley Of The Republicrats, a title btw for an XLterrestrial film project that has been in “pondering production” mode since at least 2000.

For sure, the Palin phenomenon is an incredible tactic to herd anyone with any brain cells left into the arms of the Democratic party. Like a good cop/bad cop game you’ll run scared to the nearest comfort zone, and this effectively obscures the fact that any real solution is far outside the ballot boxes, and the pathetic Duopoly (as Ralph Nader called it.)

But lest you think the XLT are Green Party or 3rd party advocates, well that would be about as simplistic and ineffective as buying organic shampoos… as Derrick Jensen once pointed out, that won’t save a single species, nor the planet. It’s a bit more complex than mere elections, but certainly Not beyond the means of an activated population of millions or billions !

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And well nevermind The Palin troll… what a distracting load of crap, and we apologize for dragging you into it… it’s just a starting point for deeper analysis, to inform you it’s time to exit this retarded … + fascist B-movie… trailer…

And meanwhile there’s some happening shit going on locally, and we’ll be posting news about that asap….