there's gold in that there fry-pappy.

in the year after my parents were married, folks siphoned gas from cars parked on the street. today, it's Mel-Fry. and maybe also gas, who knows.

>>Outside Seattle, cooking oil rustling has become such a problem that the owners of the Olympia Pizza and Pasta Restaurant in Arlington, Wash., are considering using a surveillance camera to keep watch on its 50-gallon grease barrel. Nick Damianidis, an owner, said the barrel had been hit seven or eight times since last summer by siphoners who strike in the night.

“Fryer grease has become gold,” Mr. Damianidis said. “And just over a year ago, I had to pay someone to take it away.”<<

discipline and preference.

soon available to some TiVo users: let the chicago tribune's critic pick your television.

>>The recommendation service will be available only to the roughly 100,000 TiVo subscribers in the region surrounding Chicago. But Thomas S. Rogers, chief executive of TiVo, said in an interview that TiVo was in talks about similar partnerships with other print media outlets. The service, if extended to other markets, could create new relevance for local television critics, whose numbers have shrunk in recent years as papers cut expenses.

“It creates a connection between reading the recommendations and actually having them on your TV set at your convenience,” he said.<<

remediation.

from mike sacks, photos of tv.

grad students arrested for al-qaeda download.

from Dr. Alf Gunvald Nilsen, University of Nottingham:

>>Their alleged “crime” was that the graduate student had downloaded an Al-Qaeda training manual from a US government website for research purposes, as he’s writing his MA dissertation on Islamic extremism and international terrorist networks. He had then sent this to his friend in the Department of Engineering for printing. The printed material had been spotted by other staff and reported to the University authorities who passed on the information to the police. The two were then arrested by armed police on May 14 and held for six days without charge, before being released without charge on May 20. During the six days they were imprisoned, the men had their homes raided and their families harassed by the police.

It is worth noticing that in talking to one of my colleagues, a police officer remarked that the incident would never have occurred if the persons involved had been “blonde, Swedish PhD students” (the two men were of British-Pakistani and Algerian backgrounds respectively).<<

Dr. Nilsen's whole letter here, and a times higher education supplement story here.

pervasive gaming, nyc

i wish i were around for this:

>>

In 2006 the Come Out & Play Festival turned New York City into a playground for a weekend, then did the same for the city of Amsterdam in 2007. Hundreds of players gathered to play dozens different games across each city. Players raced through the night in a city-wide game of zombie tag. Friends faced off in life-sized Pong using only their ears to "hear" the ball. Payphones produced points and Tompkins Square Park became a putt-putt course. 200 people performed stunts to display on the Reuters screen in Times Square. It has been darn good and fascinating fun.

Well, the festival is back. In June 2008, the New York will have the chance to come out and play again across the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Right now we're accepting applications for games in Come Out & Play 2008 in New York. Drawing international media attention, designers from around the world and hundreds of players, Come Out & Play features innovative work in the emerging world of street games, big games and pervasive games.<<

CFP: mapping queer scholarship/activism/performance

NACCS Joto Caucus &
Center for the Study of Genders and Sexualities, CSULA

present the

2nd NACCS Joto Caucus Conference

“Sacred Space Making: Mapping Queer Scholarship, Activism, and Performance”

October 10-12, 2008
California State University, Los Angeles

Submissions due August 1, 2008.
Email submissions to: naccs-joto@naccs.org

more here.

is this a thing?

puppy parties? did we know about this?

NYT theatre round-up

davids yazbek and henry hwang bring a new musical about bruce lee, harvard's ART gets a new artistic director, what it's like to close opening night, drama desk awards are out, and kelli o'hara is apparently responsible for single-handedly rescuing the ingenue from extinction. um, thanks?

SITI woolf in nyc

the SITI company is giving a reading of Virginia Woolf's Freshwater:



>>Virginia Woolf wrote Freshwater on a lark for her friends and family to put on during idle hours. She wrote the play both as relief from her own tough labor during the writing of her masterpiece Mrs. Dalloway and as an unmitigated entertainment to share with those closest to her. The play is eccentric and delightful, full of literary references juxtaposed with almost surrealistic situations. She created a deliberately witty and wacky universe and she cast her family and friends as the characters in the play.

Our production is an embodiment of Woolf’s adventurous spirit – a theatrical escapade that taps into our shared social human impulse to entertain one another. The actors and audience are transported together into a Victorian garden on a summer evening. Freshwater is an amusement, a variety show of sorts, acted out by an exotic yet familiar tribe in a playful mood. SITI will premiere this work, directed by Anne Bogart and featuring 6 SITI Company actors and the SITI design team, at The Women's Project in January 2009. SITI will present a free reading of the play on Thursday May 22 at 7pm at The Women's Project. Seating is limited; to make reservations email your name, number in your party, and phone number to reservations@siti.org by 2pm Wednesday May 21.<<

better than a goddess.

oscar pistorius, who was born without fibulas and runs on carbon fiber appendages, has won his appeal to compete in the beijing olympics.

>>[A] scientific investigation carried out by the Institute of Biomechanics at Cologne University last November found that the blades gave him a clear competitive edge over such athletes. . . . [The Court of Arbitration for Sport]'s three-man panel decided that the IAAF, which claimed that Pistorius benefited from a 'technical device', did not prove that claim to a sufficient extent.

The CAS statement added: "On the basis of the evidence brought by the experts called by both parties, the Panel was not persuaded that there was sufficient evidence of any metabolic advantage in favour of a double amputee using the Cheetah Flex-Foot.<<

new paradigm: the megan meier suicide.

via wired:

>>A nationwide community backlash ensued, after a news story published last year revealed [accused Lori] Drew's role in the cyberbullying, and pressure was placed on Missouri authorities to charge Drew with a crime. But after investigating the incident, local prosecutors concluded last December that they could find no law under which to charge Drew.

That's when federal prosecutors began working to build a case -- a difficult task, given that there is no federal law against cyberbullying. On Thursday, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles unveiled its solution by charging Drew with "unauthorized access" to MySpace's computers, for allegedly violating the site's terms of service.

MySpace's user agreement requires registrants, among other things, to provide factual information about themselves and to refrain from soliciting personal information from minors or using information obtained from MySpace services to harass or harm other people. By allegedly violating that click-to-agree contract, Drew committed the same crime as any hacker.

That sets a potentially troubling precedent, given that terms-of-service agreements sometimes contain onerous provisions, and are rarely read by users.<<

background on the story here.

toy theatre!

great small works' toy theatre festival is coming to DUMBO.

more on how theater failed america.

from mike daisey (i would give an eyebrow to see any of these panels, and not just the one with my secret boyfriend scott shepherd):

>>As part of the reopening of HOW THEATER FAILED AMERICA at the Barrow Street Theatre we're hosting a series of roundtable discussions after select performances on the state of theater in America. These feature luminaries like Robert Brustein, Rocco Landesman, Gregory Mosher, Oskar Eustis, James Bundy and more in direct conversation with working actors, do-it-yourself producers, arts funders, theatrical bloggers, and you...the schedule is below, and I hope you'll come and be part of the conversation.

HOW THEATER FAILED AMERICA ROUNDTABLES

DOWNTOWN, MIDTOWN, EVERYTOWN
Sun May 18th:
Robert Brustein (founder of Yale Repertory Theatre and American Repertory Theatre)
Jonathan West (Milwaukee-based actor and blogger)
Emily Ackerman (actor and ensemble member of The Civilians)
Leonard Jacobs (national editor for Back Stage)
Sheila Callaghan (playwright, Dead City)

DO-IT-YOURSELF OR BUST
Sat May 24th:
Greg Kotis (playwright, Urinetown)
Jason Eagan (Artistic Director, Ars Nova)
Erez Ziv (Managing Director, Horse Trade Theater)
John Clancy (founder of the New York International Fringe Festival)
Scott Shepherd (The Wooster Group)
Lisa Kron (actor, solo performer and playwright, Well)

YOU ARE WHAT YOU WATCH
Sun June 1st:
Jim Nicola (Artistic Director for New York Theatre Workshop)
Mark Russell (founder of PS122 and the Under The Radar Festival)
Steve Bodow (head writer of the Daily Show and Elevator Repair Service member)
Morgan Jenness (literary agent, former literary manager of the Public Theater)
David Cote (theatre editor for Time Out New York)
Isaac Butler (Freelance director and theatre blogger)

FOR PROFIT, NON-PROFIT, NO PROFIT
Sun June 8th:
James Bundy (dean, Yale School of Drama; Artistic Director, Yale Repertory Theatre)
Dan Fields (Disney Imagineer and freelance director)
Stephanie Weisman (founder and director of The Marsh in San Francisco)
Dave Greenham (executive director, The Theatre at Monmouth)
Tommy Thompson (veteran Broadway production stage manager)
Diane Ragsdale (Mellon Foundation)

ASSEMBLING ENSEMBLES
Sun June 15th:
John Collins (Artistic Director of Elevator Repair Service, The Sound and the Fury)
Tanya Selvararnam (collaborator with Jay Scheib and The Builder's Association)
Colleen Werthmann (actor and Elevator Repair Service ensemble member)
Heidi Schreck (collaborator with 2-Headed Calf, Seattle's Printer's Devil)
Scott Walters (former Artistic Director of Illinois Shakespeare Festival and blogger)
Hal Brooks (freelance director, Thom Paine and No Child…)

THEATER IN 2033
Sun June 22nd:
Rocco Landesman (Tony-award winning producer, Angels in America, The Producers)
Gregory Mosher (Tony-award winning director, former head of Lincoln Center)
Oskar Eustis (Artistic Director of the Public Theater)
Richard Nelson (playwright, Conversations in Tusculum)
Paige Evans (director, Lincoln Center's new LCT3 program)
Garrett Eisler (Village Voice theater critic and blogger)<<

the Elvis of cultural theory.

i didn't know that's what we're calling Zizek, but i'm okay with it. you can hear him at democracy now.

>>For example, let’s take, again, Iraq. This is my supreme example. They went there to do what? (a) To defundamentalize the country, to introduce their—some kind of a secular democracy, which would then serve as a model for the others; (b) to contain Iran. Now, three, four years later, what’s the result? (a) Almost two million, all the educated, secular, middle classes, majority of them left the country. The country is more religiously fundamentalist than ever. (b) We know that among the Shia political elite, the orientation is fundamentally pro-Iranian. So isn’t this a nice paradox that the ultimate result in Iraq of the US intervention is the exact opposite? It’s really a little bit like Oedipus’s story, you know? The parents were told, your son will kill you, blah, blah. They acted to prevent it, and in this very way they realized it. So something is obviously wrong here.<<

church : state :: alcohol : light sabre

that is, should be separate from.

via boing boing.

surveilling truants.

also from the times: dallas straps GPS units to truant students.

>>Truancy experts say the results in Texas are promising.

“It’s far better than locking a kid up,” and is cheaper, said Joanna Heilbrunn, a senior researcher for the National Center for School Engagement.<<

maker faire.

i had a conversation in seminar recently about whether or not modding--or maybe a larger category, more like "repurposing"--can be considered subversive, categorically. points were made on each side, but whatever you call it, i have a huge crush on people who make things, especially when involves tinkering mischievously with someone else's product:

>>“We are grabbing technology, ripping the back off of it and reaching our hands in where we are not supposed to be,” says Shannon O’Hare, who has brought his three-story Victorian mansion on wheels, one of the most prominent examples of the anachronistic style known as steampunk, to the Faire. He is holding forth in a vintage British military uniform and pith helmet, and is gesturing with a hand that holds a sloshing tankard of ale.

“We’ve been told by corporate America that we cannot fix the things we own,” says Mr. O’Hare, who goes by Major Catastrophe and works as a fabricator for the stage and businesses. “All we can do is buy their stuff and like it.” Cars have become too complex to work on under a shade tree, and people have no idea what is inside their cellphones and cameras. “All this technology, and it’s not ours. It’s somebody else’s,” Mr. O’Hare says. “ Make is about taking that back off and making it yours.”<<

ethnography for hire.

this just sounds repulsive:

>>Welcome to Ethnographic Insight, Inc., where qualitative marketing research provides your business with the ultimate vantage point—a close-up of your company's products and services through the eyes of your consumer.

Ethnographic Insight anthropologists are experts in ethnography. We have academic training, years of fieldwork experience, and are innovators in the application of anthropological models and methods to marketing research.

We provide you with a real-world understanding of consumer preferences, motivations, and needs by examining the environments consumers inhabit and the socio-cultural influences on their behaviors. Such insights translate into strategic business opportunities, including improved customer loyalty and increased competitive advantage.<<

that link goes to some sort of FAQ about the bastardization of ethnography for marketing purposes, one of which reads,

"When is ethnography appropriate?"

hmmm.


eeeew.

summer school.

quarantine, an english performance group, is accepting applications for its summer school:

>>We work with both experienced performers and people who have never performed before. Using their personal histories and experiences, we invent a theatrical form that’s tailored to each piece – from intimate encounters to epic events.

We often make theatre that blurs, exchanges or even removes the distinction between spectator and performer. Our past projects have included shared meals, family parties and a journey in the dark for one person at a time - as well as more conventional performances on stage, watched by audiences in seats.

Quarantine asks questions: about the world we live in, about who theatre is for – and who should make it. Because of its form, content and the people who engage with what we do, we see Quarantine's theatre as social action as well as artistic reflection.<<

there are currently 15 performers, ranging in age from teens to septagenarians, none of whom identify as "actors."

and if that doesn't float it for you, guillermo gomez-pena's Pocha Nostra is also taking applications for a summer workshop:

>>The prestigious Pocha worship is an amazing artistic and anthropological experiment in which artists from several countries and every imaginable artistic, ethnic and sub-cultural ackground begin to negotiate common groud. Performance ecomes the connetie tissue and lingua franca for our temporary community of rebel artists.<<

black separatist worships aliens, eats toddlers

sure, identity is discursively produced, but maybe we should have a whole other term for identity produced and assigned based on hoax email campaigns.

barf.

nothing's easier to consign to irrelevance than an angry black man.

this, via bitch, phd. the coverage of the protest is less interesting than the tenor of the comments. apparently whatever demographic can be loosely defined around commenters to NYT coverage of the Bell verdict do not particularly admire those who give enough of a shit to engage in some civil disobedience.

no love for sharpton, or for the passion with which he translates anger and grief to peaceful action.

we apologize

for the break in posting. being a one-person shop (who nevertheless enjoys the royal we), ennui occasionally ensues and there's no one else to slap up random video game trivia and calls for papers. sorry.

this never happens to mike daisey. his blog is regularly filled with random but relevant links, skillfully blurbed, and punctuated with gorgeous images. we mention this today because of his tracking of the miley cyrus issue, a pop culture moment that continues to be both intoxicatingly unimportant and yetbutalso a picture window into the crazy road kill car wreck intersection between american female adolescence and celebrity.