KMZ microblog
New from Adrian Hornsby
New creations from Adrian Hornsby :
See a fetching video of the deer penis installation (aka Deer Alive, or on a two-brane universe ) here : http://www.adrianhornsby.com/see/deeralive/deeralive.html
Bunny Hop vs Wheeled Migration
As readers of this space know, Quinn Comendant is now involved with a tremendous bicycle collective in California called Wheeled Migration which encourages sustainable transport, organic gardening, and communal meals. You can learn more about this fabulous enterprise here: http://www.wheeledmigration.com
And recently it came to our attention that old KMZ friend Jennifer Friar has a bike-mad partner named Luke who runs the outrageous Bunny Hop bike shop in Richmond, Virginia. See more here: http://bunnyhoprva.wordpress.com/
Wheeled Migration:
Bunny Hop:
And yes, to the casual observer, the juxtaposition between the East Coast shredders and the West Coast hippies is somewhat amusing. If I wanted to take my children on a lovely bike ride through the forest? I'd go with Wheeled Migration. If there was a fight? I'd pick the bike team that has the guy with the tattooed hands.
Cyclists. You gotta love 'em. All of 'em.
Alessandro Capoccia
In a world where the website has become the business card, old KMZ colleague Alessandro Capoccia is getting his schmooze on. Check out more of his work at www.alessandrocapoccia.com
5x15
Eleanor O'Keeffe's latest project features five speakers who are given 15 minutes each to regale an audience. Shades of the TED series or The Moth, 5x15 debuts in London on January 18 and among the featured speakers will be an arctic adventurers and a BBC director.
More here : http://www.5x15stories.com/
SHADOWS
Mik Kuhlman gets started with Shadows - a live movement art installation and performance in which Mik projects herself into history. Performances will take place February 26, 27 and 28 on Vashon Island. Read more on www.mikkuhlman.com including how to donate.
BARC
DCF BARC project launched at the 2009 Shenzhen Architecture and Urbanism Biennale. BARC will run through to the Shanghai 2010 Expo. Read more on burb.tv.
Ethan's Freaks & Geeks
Kilometer Zero folk might remember Ethan Gilsdorf as the hardest working poet in Paris. During our years there, Ethan cranked it out and appeared in the pages of almost every lit journal (including our own) and on the mic of almost every stage (including our own). Now, he has his first book out, what promises to be a curious exploration of the world of role-playing and gaming and multi-sided dice. (We can only say 'what promises' because the copy KMZ ordered to its local bookstore in France was slyly bought by another customer; this, it would seem, is a good sign for Ethan.)
Hats off for your gumption, Ethan. For more information, join the man's Facebook group or sign up for his Twitter feed or read his blogs or visit his website or get all old school and content yourself with his free monthly email newsletter.
New Fiction
New fiction from Jonny Diamond (read Falling for Lady Mondegreen) and Musa Gurnis (read Love Nest)
Clara McBride's Improfessionals
As the years squirt by and KMZ members travel further and further from the association's Parisian roots, it is mightily impressive to see that one of our own is still in the French capital, still making art, still chasing dreams.
Clara McBride, the actor who performed in a raft of KMZ productions and Adrian Hornsby plays, is one of the founding members of the Improfessionals improv troupe. The group began way back in 2001 and this year they have introduced ImproFlicks, a French version of the show at one of the péniches - those cool barges moored along the Seine. If you happen through Paris, check their website for shows and take the time to catch up with Clara.
http://www.improfessionals.com/
Roger's Pass by Colin Askey
Colin Askey, dear to all of our hearts, makes his directorial/producerorial/screenplayorial debut with Roger's Pass. Watch the trailer and tell me you aren't hankering to see this film ...
http://www.youtube.com/RogersPassMovie
Iterations Upon a Sleeping Human
Two short films by Adrian Hornsby
Iterations Upon a Sleeping Human
duration 1'20
Further Iterations upon a Sleeping Human
duration 1'35
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Musa Gurnis
The talented Musa Gurnis visits Atlantic City. Her damn fine reportage is here:
http://www.thelmagazine.com/newyork/sadville-24-hours-in-atlantic-city/Content?oid=1201879
KALEID editions - Artists who do books
Victoria Browne launches Kaleid Editions - a new press for contemporary artists' books, an exhibition space and a publisher of artists' conceptual responses to classic novels and texts.
LAUNCH!
Tuesday 6-9pm, 1st September 2009
Unit 2, 23-25 Redchurch St.
London E2 7DJ
UK
CALL OUT!
Contact Victoria if you have recommendations of artists' books or small publications ... or if you would like to get involved.
www.kaleideditions.com
victoria at kaleideditions dot com
Don't Drive Day
As one response to the tyranny in Iran, Sparkle Hayter is promoting International Don't Drive Day, scheduled for July 12. Her new blog - http://dontdriveday.vox.com/ - gives all the details, but here's the strategy in a walnut shell: Iran depends on oil revenue to maintain its brutal regime; if oil consumption drops enough, the price of oil will drop; and, as oil revenues drop, Iran will be more vulnerable to economic sanctions and more amenable to international opinion.
Even staunchy NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman is on board with giving Iran a kick in their oil wells:
"With oil at $70 a barrel, our economic sanctions on Iran are an annoyance; at $25, they really hurt," Friedman wrote two weeks ago. "Let’s get serious: An American Green Revolution to end our oil addiction — to parallel Iran’s Green Revolution to end its theocracy — helps us, helps them and raises the odds that whoever wins the contest for power, there will have to be a reformer. What are we waiting for?"
And, hell, even if you don't give a ripe fig about Iran or politics or anything else, opting for you bike instead of your car a few times a month is a great way to save a few bucks and build some nice buns. Look at these two fine fellows:
Remember, to learn a little more, go here : http://dontdriveday.vox.com/
Slave Hunter: One Man's Global Quest to Free Victims of Human Trafficking
by Aaron Cohen, Christine Buckley
There are more slaves in the world today than ever before. There's more of most things, and there are more slaves in the world today than ever before.
Slave Hunter is not an academic study of human trafficking, but a memoir that travels from Southern California to Sudan, Cambodia, Burma, Ecuador, Israel, Iraq, and back. John Bowe, who first alerted Americans to the presence of slavery in their own backyard and author of Nobodies, has called it "an inspiration to those who would claim the world's problems are too big for any one of us to tackle ... and a rollicking action-adventure tale to boot." A portion of the proceeds go to Abolish Slavery, an NGO founded by co-author Aaron Cohen
This links to a book summary; this to the first chapter, and this to the amazon purchase page.
Christine read at Kilometer Zero shows in Paris and Amsterdam - among many who were quite rightly afeard of enslavement to their own egos. Take heed take heed, there will be much to learn from this book.
Human rights issues addressed elsewhere on Kilometer Zero include Craig Walzer's excellent Out of Exile, an account of Sudanese refugees, Jeremy Mercer's translation of the hugely influential Robert Badinter's Abolition, as well as Jeremy's darkly daring And the Guillotine Fell, an account of the guillotine and the last man to be placed under it in France.
The Sleep of Reason / Dormez Vous?
May 26, 7:30pm, Café de la Plage, 59 Rue Charonne, Paris
The poet Saint Pol Roux hung a Do Not Disturb sign on his door whenever he went to sleep. It read "Poet at Work."
2 poets who write in their sleep will read from their dreamwork (traumdeutung) on May 26 at 7:30pm at the Café de la Plage, Paris.
By this we do not mean that they wake, remember, then write down what they have dreamed. No. They write while they are fast asleep.
Geoffrey Cruickshank-Hagenbuckle is the author of Kook! a parapsychological pulp-noir thriller. His short story Ick-a-Body first appeared in Kilometer Zero 03, while his poetry has been published in Purple, The Paris Times, The Boston Review, Jacket, Fence, Verse, Action Yes, etc. He is a poetry critic for Rain Taxi and an art critic for The Brooklyn Rail.
Virgile Novarina (French) has published 2 books of drawings and writings from sleep. He recently returned from a performance in the West Indies where he slept through the opening in his bed—shipped from Paris—in the gallery exhibiting his works.
May 26, 7:30 PM 59 Rue Charonne (at Rue Trousseau) Metro Ledru-Rollin, or Charonne
Stringskips
Victoria Browne, of KMZ #5 glory, has a dauntingly good new project that will be shown as part of the KALEID Exhibition in London. She describes the work thusly:
"Stringskips reference 18th century hachuring techniques and the celebrated Durfourkarten (a military topographical survey of Switzerland completed in 1862), giving historical details of the location to CERN's 21st century Large Hadron Collider.
String theorists may describe the topography of the Multiverse as a mountainous spacetime divided into an infinity of valleys. This act of speculation is interpreted as intense, studious engravings, macro and micro in scale; two dimensional splinters of an exoteric, multidimensional landscape.
As part of KALEID, new works on paper and glass microfiche will be exhibited."
Here's the show flyer:
And, you really should see the work:
http://lillil.com/content/Stringskips.html
Like Rats
Like Rats, a provocative and paper by Adrian Hornsby, originally delivered at the Kyoto of the Cities conference in Naples, is now available to read online via Cluster.
Amanda Park Taylor has been a superb community and environmental activist as long as we've known her, and she uses her platform as The Conscientious Objector columnist at L Magazine to rally for many a righteous cause. Amanda is also one of the world's great animal people whose dogs - Clovis, Miika, Faolain - are securely in the Pantheon of Great Pets. What could be more logical than her combining these twin passions? Logic, indeed, rules.
Amanda has started a new non-profit venture called This Bag Saves Lives. She has produced a limited series of silkscreen bags which she is selling online and in quality pet stores throughout New York City in order to raise funds for animals in need. As part of this campaign, she has also placed donation boxes through the city and can often be found racing around to collect donations of food, blankets, and other assorted pet accoutrements for a legion of animals in need.
Learn more about her work (and donate or buy a bag!) at her website:
http://www.thisbagsaveslives.com
Lauren B Davis
Lauren Davis cast a wise shadow at a few of our KMZ evenings. A little older and a little more accomplished than most of our Paris milieu, she carried herself with the proud humility one associates with artists who have crossed the dark bridge from aspiration to application. Those who have read her novels know Lauren is a talent writer; now, in this new essay, a contemplation of the suicides of her two brothers, we discover some of the deeper, personal forces that have driven her work.
Read the essay here:
http://wildriverreview.com/spotlight_apriliscruel.php
Or visit Lauren's website here:
Academy of Fine Arts in Cologne
Yet another subscriber to KMZ Magazine ... viva KMZ!
Where to find us in Cologne: http://www.khm.de
MIK KUHLMAN in RUBBLE WOMEN
MIK MOVES!!
Those who were fooled into thinking Mik didn't move by her appearance bolted into a chair as II in Three Parts were fooled indeed. In fact, both directing and performing with KMZ and many others, Mik is a tongue of flame in a raging storm. She has a new show opening in Seattle: "a dirty gritty warehouse event with lots of choreographed movement and original music - historic events mixed with mythological characters - it's intense."
Elsewhere on kmz Mik starred in Three Parts, directed The Dumb Waiter, and worked on movement in Marion Davies & the Moon.
Jonny Diamond
Some of us heard the first part of this story long years ago, amid the soggy carpets and musky air of a KMZ Venue at the Chateaudun squat. The faded drunkenness and half-remembered friendships of those nights seem to fold into perfectly into Jonny Diamond's work. Read him here:
http://www.badgerandbear.com/jonnydiamond/content/geist/dave/geist_dave.html
Visit him here:
Elsewhere on kmz Jon wrote a story for Kilometer Zero 01, was featured in Evolution, was a leading organiser of the Bush Demonstration Paris, and trod the boards briefly in Earth if only to exercise his proclivities for raw havoc
Troy Davis
Having written a book about the end of the death penalty in France, and having translated the book Robert Badinter (aka the Greatest Living Frenchman) wrote about his battle against the death penalty, I find myself receiving a number of emails on the subject. Recently, a pro death penalty activist by the name of Dudley Sharp wrote me after conducting a lengthy review of the cases of innocent men freed from death row in America. He wrote:
"In an interview, I saw that you stated there had been 130 exonerated from US death row. Please, fact check ... The number may be 25."
This isn't the first time I've heard pro death penalty people attack the numbers of innocent people freed from death row. And, it's true, some of the 130 men were released due to procedural issues and were never technically proclaimed innocent. But, I never really fall for this argument. In the end, even for the most fanatic supporter of the death penalty, there were 25 innocent men about to be killed by the U.S. government!!!!! Isn't that 25 too many? Wouldn't one innocent person getting executed be enough to turn you off the death penalty???
Anyway, I think Troy Davis is innocent, but I'm not entirely sure. Still, I think the most ardent supporter of the death penalty would agree with me that we should postpone the execution until we can affirm the actual guilt of the fellow ...
- posted by Jeremy Mercer
New Amnesty International video on the Troy Davis case (foot-tapping good !) :
Snow Fox
Eldritch snowfall in London has snowfoxes keening weirdly beneath the crescent moon. Ken Livingstone eschews "global warming" as "too cosy" a term. The former London mayor has long wanted us to refer to recent putatively man-induced meteorological imbalances as "extreme weather". One punter reports sledding on Primrose Hill to be "mayhem ... a budding chaos ... of exactly the kind that will most likely swallow the earth".
Raise your intellect AND lift your soul
Two upcoming talks in London from Adrian Hornsby:
FROM MAO TO WOW
LSE, Wednesday 4 Feb 2009, 4.00pm
DESP(L)OTS
University of Greenwich, Tue 10 February 2009, 5.30pm
Driftwood
We have always found small joy whenever one of our friends excels in the Saviour's chosen profession. In his latest wonder of carpentry - and freeganism - Tim Vincent-Smith combed the beaches and caves of Santorini to find driftwood for this combination bed chamber and stairway to the Greek skies :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/qcom/3139601102/
As always, for those unfamiliar with the Atlantis Books project : www.atlantisbooks.org
Stefan Bladh
More of Stefan Bladh's work can be seen here: http://www.stefanbladh.se/
Social TV
Social TV is a non-partisan Israeli social change initiative that aims to empower the peace and social change movement in Israel. Founded in 2006, Social TV has already produced over 250 short video programs for its website and seeks to become a model of socially responsible communication throughout Israel and the Middle East.
Here is the entry page to their website (most of it is in Hebrew): http://www.tv.social.org.il/
This is a video report about IDF combat soldiers who refuse to serve in Gaza.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cMs0nai4JQ&feature=channel_page>
This is a short report documenting over 10,000 Israelis in Tel-Aviv
protesting against the attacks in Gaza.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc9DN2Oi0-w&feature=channel_page>
Out of Exile
Working with Dave Eggers and the Valentino Deng Association, (http://www.valentinoachakdeng.org/), Craig Walzer travelled across North Africa, Europe, North America interviewing people who had fled Sudan during the brutal civil war. The result is the mesmerizing Out of Exile, an oral history as poignant as it is important. And, if you're at all interested in the art of narrative non-fiction, get this book along with Egger's What is the What and have a nice long think about the role of truth in story telling.
To learn more about the book, visit it's official site page:http://www.voiceofwitness.com/out_of_exile.php
"They are amazing tales, full of chance and happenstance that occur in a shadow world where Cairo operates as a kind of hub, boomeranging people away from Sudan, or, more often, keeping them trapped in stateless limbo." -- San Francisco Chronicle
The Chinese Dream
The London launch of the redoubtably fat Chinese Dream, held in the library of the devastatingly swank Athanaeum.
2 December 2008, 18.30–21.00
The Chinese Dream n.
1. individual prosperity within a modern urban setting
2. continuing Party-led ascent toward superpowerdom (preferably with moon landings)
3. 784 page hardcover anatomizing China’s breakneck rise, and bearing witness to a society under construction
THE CHINESE DREAM
a society under construction
Neville Mars, Adrian Hornsby and the DCF
010 Publishers, 2008
784 pages, full colour, hardcover
price € 49.50
ISBN 978 90 6450 652 9
WHAT IF YOU BUILT THE WHOLE MASS OF WESTERN EUROPE IN 20 YEARS?
WHAT IF 400 MILLION FARMERS THEN MOVED IN?
WHAT WOULD IT LOOK LIKE? HOW WOULD IT WORK?
WOULD YOU BE ABLE TO GO TO SLEEP AT NIGHT?
AND IF YOU DID, WOULD YOU DREAM OF SOMEWHERE ELSE …?
Magic Bullet from kmz on Vimeo.
To find the answers to these and much beyond go to BURB.TV
Abolition
Although it might sound bombastic, Robert Badinter could well be the greatest living French man and is certainly an international human rights icon for his tireless crusade against the death penalty.
A lawyer, politician, and statesman, Badinter's is best know for abolishing the death penalty in France. He became a devoted abolitionist after one of his clients was unjustly guillotined in 1972. Over the next decade, Badinter fought the death penalty both in the courts – he saved six men from the guillotine - and in the political arena. After the election of François Mitterrand in 1981, he was named Minister of Justice and wrote the legislation that abolished the death penalty. He was later appointed president of France’s Constitutional Council and is currently a member of the French Senate. Internationally, he has advised on the constitutions of evolving democracies in Eastern Europe, participated in major trials such as that as former Pakistani president Ali Bhutto, and was a founder of the World Congress Against the Death Penalty.
Kilometer Zero is pleased to note the English release of Badinter's masterwork, Abolition. The book recounts his legal and political battle to end the death penalty in France, and serves as a guidebook on the various legal and political strategies that can be used in the quest for abolition. The book won the prix Femina - essai when it was released in France in 2000 and has since been translated into several languages. The American edition is being published by Northeastern University Press with a preface by Kenneth Roth of Human Rights Watch. The translation was done by KMZ alumnus Jeremy Mercer.
Badinter and Mercer visited New York City and Washington D.C. in September 2008 to mark the release of the book. You can listen to Badinter's conversation with Neal Katyal about the death penalty, hosted by the New York Public Library, here: http://media.nypl.org/live/badinter_katyal_9_19_08.mp3
FORA TV
Watch the bull here: http://fora.tv/2008/11/02/Adrian_Hornsby_China_Has_to_Keep__Riding_the_Bull_
(And, if you don't know Fora TV, beware: very good, very addictive: http://fora.tv/)
Viken Berberian
Viken Berberian's first novel, The Cyclist, was a poetic examination of the mind of a burgeoning terrorist and his love of less ideological pleasures such as fine Mediterranean hummus. Not only was it incredibly timely, considering the events of September 11, 2001, but it was also tremendously written and garnered him comparisons to none other than Albert Camus.
Now, as if being equated to a French icon wasn't enough, his second novel, Das Kapital, has French critics dizzily searching for new superlatives. Is it Berberian's gift for augury or is it his talent with words? Likely both, but read on for yourself.
