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hosler.jpgThursday, March 13, 4:00-5:30pm
Adventures in Illegal Art: Creative Media Resistance and Negativland
Mark Hosler of Negativland in attendance!
Quintero Lab Theater, Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center, University of Houston

A film/lecture/presentation/conversation with Mark Hosler of Negativland presented by the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts.

Interested in media literacy? Want to know more about creative and humorous anti-corporate art/activism? Interested in challenging the roles of advertising and corporate power in our lives? Opinionated about intellectual property issues? Want to be involved in the evolution of art, law, and resistance in a media saturated world? Then…

Reserve your space now! 713-743-5749

Imported Beer

At work I sometimes find myself on the phone with our contractors in Bolivia. A few weeks ago I was going back and forth on a particular problem that required multiple phone calls before arriving at just the theory of what was causing it. This was followed by a few more calls to Bolivia as we implimented the solution.

The net result was that we not only resolved the problem, but likely cleared some things up going forward that should reduce the impact of this kind of issue in the future.

The developer/tech I worked with was so happy with the efforts and the results that she informed me she would be sending me a sample of her favorite Bolivian beers as a thank you. These arrived today via one of our Houston employees who travels back and forth between locations

And she sent them in a nifty leather man purse which goes GREAT with some shoes I just bought!

They Might Be Giants

They Might Be Giants put on a great show last night. I did secure my photo pass so I was able to shoot the concert. Sadly, the barricade that is usually in place at The Meridian was nowhere to be seen. That is usually the primo spot to be in for shooting the shows there, especially the big draws like TMBG. It creates a jostle free zone for photographers and lets you have some flexibility.

With the barricade gone I has to jockey for position at the front of the stage which was a huge pain. Still, got some good shots…

The rest are in the gallery right behind this link.

Satellite Radio

With the purchase of my new car came the added bonus of an XM radio with a three month subscription.

Since I’ve never really been too keen on owning an iPod (which I do) and amassing a huge personal collection of digitized music (which I haven’t) XM has been a great boon to my music listening. Hours upon hours of commercial free music have successfully lured me back from my recent addiction to talk radio and introduced me to many new favorites as well as rekindling my interest in some old friends.

Just the other day I was introduced to The Move which is a band I probably *should* have been aware of 30 years ago.

As I was listening to a version of “Do Ya” which I have always associated with Electric Light Orchestra I was struck by the fact that not only was the song one I knew, but the musical and vocal styling were hauntingly familiar. It was like listening to ELO without the string section and the polish and production values that made them a huge success in the 70’s and early 80’s.

Of course this made perfect sense once I verified (via the WWW) that The Move was fronted by none other than Roy Wood. After a little research I learned that Jeff Lynn joined up with Roy Wood toward the end of the band’s career and it’s obvious to me it was he who transitioned The Move into the better known, more widely acclaimed ELO.

And last week I was was listening to the live version of 21st Century Schizoid Man performed by Greg Lake (not with King Crimson) that must have gone on for over 10 minutes.

XM is rekindling a sense of wonder and joy in my music listening that I thought had gone the way of the Dodo and 70’s style album rock (a la late night KLOL). I wasn’t sure if I was going to go ahead and subscribe when the free trial was over but after 3 months I was hooked. When the sales monkey from XM called to let me know my free trial was expiring I signed up for a full year.

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