If only for Grace Jones…

MEIGHTH DAY
A Mayday celebration on the 8th of May two thousandth and ten.

Pentagonal Monochrome (Tambourine) performance eventh by Scoli Acosta
and Area Sneaks Los Angeles launch

With: Scoli Acosta, Area Sneaks, Ara Shirinyan, Aaron Kunin, Alexandro Segade (the Universal Separatist), Pearl Hsiung & Scott Martin, Anna Sew Hoy, Gabriela Jauregui, Brian Kim Stefans & more

Featuring: DJ Jan Tumlir

Including: the levitating of the Pentagon, peddling of wares, vinyl records, skeins of homespun yarn yarn straight off the animal, ceramics, small press books, paper jewelry, dog balloon art, preserves and other foodstuffs, manifestations of poetry, the poetics of the manifesto

Date: Saturday, May 8, 2010
Time: 6:00pm – 10:00pm
Location: LA>< Art Street: 2640 S. La Cienega Blvd. City/Town: Los Angeles, CA View Map

Friend of mine from Bard and fabulous filmmaker… not to be missed.

JENNIFER REEVES: WHEN IT WAS BLUE
with a live score by Skúli Sverrisson
Los Angeles premiere
“Reeves’s captivating tour de force explodes all preconceptions about both experimental and environmental film.” The Globe and Mail

2008, 68 min., dual-projection 16mm

This double-projector film performance by New York artist Jennifer Reeves pays rapturous homage to the endangered beauty of our blue planet. Composed in four parts to represent the four seasons and cardinal directions, When It Was Blue traverses the globe and its diverse ecosystems from New Zealand to Iceland, the Americas and beyond, rejoicing in myriad fauna and flora, mountains, forests, oceans, the splendor of seasonal change—in short, the expanse of life as it exists on earth. Reeves hand-paints frames and optically prints other images to create impressionistic textures in what critic Mark Peranson calls “a wide-ranging play on the notion of ‘blue’—the color, the sensation, the sinking realization that the natural world (and 16mm film) must be captured as much as possible before it disappears.” New York-based bass player and composer Skúli Sverrisson—who directs music for Laurie Anderson—plays his soaring score live.

In person: Jennifer Reeves and Skúli Sverrisson

Curated by Steve Anker and Bérénice Reynaud.

I’m going… I’ve only read one of his books but it was really great.

The Korean Cultural Center and Green Integer/Douglas Messerli
invite you to a reading and reception
for the noted Korean poet, Ko Un
on Friday, April 23rd, 2010 at 7:30pm

Location: The Korean Cultural Center, 5505 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90036
(parking is located behind the Center)

Ko Un will be reading in Korean, Douglas Messerli in English

Born in 1933 in southwestern Korea, Ko Un grew up in a Japanese-controlled land that was soon to experience the horrors of the Korean War. In 1952 he became a Buddhist monk, and began writing in the late 1950s. Since that time, Ko has been recognized as one of the most notable of living Korean writers and has regularly been nominated and short-listed for the Nobel Prize for Literature. In 1982 Ko Un published his Collected Poems in Korea. The Los Angeles Publisher, Green Integer, has published two volumes in English by Ko Un to date, Ten Thousand Lives, selections from Ko Un’s 25 volumes of poems about people he has met during his life, and Songs for Tomorrow, selected poems from 1960-2002.

Friday May 7, 2010, 1-3 pm: Noah Wardrip-Fruin, “Meaning What We Play: Games, Fiction, and Expressive Processing”
(5826 Mathematical Sciences Building)

Today’s games have well-developed models of spatial movement, combat, and economics. But their models of fiction barely deserve the name. Even those supporting the most ambitious games are burdensome and bug-prone for authors – while providing the player quite limited ranges of meaningful choice. This talk discusses examples of more dynamic approaches to fiction, considering lessons past work presents for designers wishing to craft models that express their visions for playable fiction. At the same time, the talk argues that critics need to begin to interpret the computational processes of computer games (and digital media generally) and connect them to an understanding of audience experience.

The event will be open to all, but because seating will be limited, please RSVP to David Shepard (dshepard@ucla.edu) if you will be attending.

Additionally, on Monday, May 10, 2010, 4-6pm, in Humanities Building 193, Wardrip-Fruin will present some of his more recent, unpublished research for discussion. All are welcome to attend.