Game boy

This SMH article talks about Shigeru Miyamoto who designed Mario, Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda and other games for Nintendo. The article says that Nintendo has sold over 300 million copies of Miyamoto's games worth billions of dollars.  Miyamoto says: "For me the question is not so much about looking realistic but creating games that when people play them, it feels real to them."

W: http://smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/28/1090694015937.html

Films, Politics and Learning

These nights aim:

- To bring together radical film-makers, radical film buffs, and radical educators.
- To inspire educators about ways they can use film in their work.
- To inspire film-makers about ways they might facilitate learning about politics.
- To foster discussion and advocacy about this field of practice.

We are seeking videos and films under 2 categories:

1. Agitprop: protest, guerrilla, activist, political, subversive short films /videos.
2. Participatory film-making: community films/videos as social intervention.

The nights will focus on short films and video fromartists, activists and educators from the international scene. Your work will be presented to anaudience of educators, activists and artists delegates from of the "Education and Social Action" international conference and the general film buffs interested in activism.

The nights are a non-profit event without competition. There are therefore no prizes and no pay involved, but of course you keep the rights.

There is no limitation of geographic origin butspeaking Films/Videos must be in English, or subtitled in English. Fiction, documentary, animation or experimental are accepted. Videos must be no more than 10 minutes.

The only format accepted is DVD.

Send copies with entry form to Celina McEwen, The Centre for Popular Education, UTS, PO Box 123, BROADWAY NSW 2007 AUSTRALIA. Entry copies will not be returned, so don't send originals. To confirm receipt your video/film, send a self-addressed stamped postcard.

Deadline for entries is September 30, 2004.

Individuals and organisations can submit unlimited number of films, but should complete a separate entry form for each film. All the films may be put on the same tape.

Entry forms can be downloaded from www.cpe.uts.edu.au/pdfs/FPLentry.pdf

For further information email Celina on (02) 9514 3847or celina.mcewen@uts.edu.au
Source: info forwarded from Lucas Ihlein 

Dotmov Festival 2004 - organised by Shift Magazine, Japan

DOTMOV Festival 2004 is a digital film festival with an aim to discover talented creators and provide them with an opportunity to show their work. Submitted works throughout the world will be screened at Soso Cafe which is produced by an online magazine Shift for a month, from November 1st to 30th. Last year's total submission was 351 works from 24 countries. All selected works for this year will be shown on Shift web site. During the festival, a lot of related audio & visual events will be held.

The deadline is on the 20th of September. Join this festival with your full of originality work!

W: http://www.shift.jp.org/mov/en.html
Source: first sighted on Jean Snow's site

Manifest 2004 - Aug 13, 14, 15 in Melbourne

The Melbourne Anime Festival is on in 2004. The dates are set as August 13, 14 and 15. We'll have screenings, cosplay, Anime Idol, traders, auctions, panels, karaoke, an art show, roleplaying games, a trading card game tournament, cel and model painting workshops, and lots of new stuff.  
For more info: http://www.manifest.org.au/

Animania 2004 - Oct 23 and 24, 2004

Animania started in 2002. This year's it's going to held at the Sydney Town Hall. They expect 5000 to 10000 people to attend this year.

For more details: http://animania.auroraevents.com.au

Citrus – The Ethnic Australian Icon

By Toni Salter - The Veggie Lady

"Just about every second property in Australia would have at least one citrus tree, albeit in a dubious state of vigour.  What a great legacy our early European-Australians brought for us all to enjoy.  Yet, their horticultural heritage has not necessarily been passed on down through the generations, with many of the “younger generation” pursuing academic and professional careers that their forefathers were not privileged to experience.  Meanwhile, we’ve lost some of that family know-how when it comes to looking after the rogue citrus tree that we discover with joy when we move into our newly purchased first home.

“What the heck am I going to do with this thing?” we ask after we taste the shrivelled, bitter and tough results of our neglect.

Don’t be put off!!! And don’t be tempted to dig it up to make room for the planned pergola or “outdoor extension”.

Citrus are really very easy to maintain.  And with a bit of work now you’ll have the best tasting oranges and lemons in the neighbourhood.  Guaranteed!  I remember transforming a 14 year old, fully neglected navel orange tree at the bottom of a garden in South Hurstville into the juiciest, sweetest orange I’ve ever tasted.  It was so laden with oranges that neighbours all about were able to enjoy its fruit as a goodwill gesture from its owner..."

Full article at: http://www.chaosgeneration.com/theveggielady/citrus.htm
Veggie Lady website: http://www.theveggielady.com/ 

Celestial Silks - 31 July - 24 October 2004, Art Gallery of NSW

Celestial Silks: Chinese religious and court textiles

Celestial Silks offers a rare opportunity to view over 70 visually spectacular and sumptuous Chinese religious and court textiles...

We are fortunate that three rare early robes, which are recent acquisitions to the Hall Collection, form part of the exhibition. They are exquisite, intact examples dating from the 5th and 6th centuries and, as far as we know, this is the first time that robes from this period have been exhibited outside China.

The religious textiles from China and Tibet demonstrate the extensive use of Chinese textiles in places of worship as decorative hangings and for creating and mounting tangkas (devotional icons). A set of four symbolic 18th century tangkas has spectacular iconography. Three feature imagery with a landscape including corpses, skulls and human bones. The fourth presents the western paradise of the Buddha Amitayus, which was the reward for those observing discipline and compassion in life.

The second section of this absorbing exhibition is dedicated to court robes and textiles of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Robes worn at the Ming Court for celebratory festivals such as the Moon Festival are included. To enhance our appreciation of the lavish style of the Chinese courts, there is a rare collection of Festival badges and minutely embroidered imperial robes, replete with the Emperor's symbols.

A spectacular dragon banner, which would have originally hung in one of the palaces of the Imperial Clan, will find a temporary home in the new Asian galleries for the duration of the exhibition.

The final section is dedicated to showing uncut yardage of beautiful silks before they are shaped into religious and court robes and hangings. An unmade dragon robe of aubergine coloured silk (c.1850), with the ground entirely worked in peacock feathers and the dragons couched in gold wrapped silk thread, is an outstanding example of such exquisite work. Few robes and textiles with this type of work have survived in good condition because of insect damage.

W: http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/media/current/celestial_silks

Call for Visual Artists - 9 August 2004

"This is an invitation from northern beaches artist David Jenkins and 'small boat big sea' productions. They are inviting 15 visual artists to participation in an exhibition to be held at William Street Studios, Fairlight as part of the Manly Arts Festival 2004.

Works may be in any format: drawing, paint, multi-media, sculpture, installation, photography, etc.

'living room' exhibition
16 to 25 September 2004
William Street Studios
Fairlight NSW 2094
  
‘small boat big sea’ is proud to present ‘the living room’, a six day exhibition, between 16 - 25 September 2004 that focuses on an exploration of the essence of life.

The exhibition is a part of the Manly Arts Festival 2004 and will take place at the beautiful William Street Studios in Fairlight. Curated by Stephanie Powell and Lee Mangion, ‘the living room’ will be a mixed media exhibition combining works by both emerging and established artists.

Submitting artists should portray a representation of their ideas, beliefs, thoughts and understanding of the essence of life. The exhibition seeks to explore this theme through representations of either one, or combinations of, the themes: celebrations of life, grievances of life, and understandings of life. It seeks to explore the questions: Why do we exist? What makes us smile? Why do we cry? Is life beautiful? What is within?… It seeks to explore the topics of: spring, birth, renewal, ‘the heart’, laughter, spirit, sadness, spirituality…

For more information and an application form, visit artsConnect below:

http://www.artsconnect.com.au/news/july_smallboatbigsea.htm

Please feel free to pass this info onto other artists who may be interested is displaying their work.
  
Kind regards,

Teresa Charchalis
artsConnect
1/51-53 Manly Corso
Manly NSW 2095
Tel: 02 9976 5226
www.artsconnect.com.au"

Google duo worth $8bn each

Article in SMH reporting that Google will be worth as much as $US36 billion when it goes public next month. The founders are Sergey Brin 30, and Larry Page 31. They developed the search engine in 1998.

W: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/27/1090693963297.html

The Insider

Bought a copy of The Insider at the newsagent.  It's a new publication published by IF Media who put out Inside Film magazine. The magazine features actors, musicians, TV people etc. People featured in this issue include: Joel and Nash Edgerton, Rose Byrne, John Safran, Lewis Morley and more.

W: http://www.theinsider.com.au

Carlos magazine

Bought a copy of Carlos magazine from the newsagents. It's the magazine 'Upper Class flyers' get when they fly Virgin Atlantic. It almost looks zine like in presentation, except a v. professional and graphically designed slick version of the traditional zine format. It uses 2 colours and has a number of illustrations in it. They also have one advertiser for each issue. The cover caught my attention. The dress and stars on the cover are actually a gold colour.

John Brown Citrus Publishing came up with the idea for Virgin Atlantic. You can read a brief outline of the Overview, Client Objectives, Strategic Approach and Creative Solutions at the JBCP website: http://www.jbcp.co.uk/html/our-clients/virgin_carlos_cs1.htm

Markets

Have always found markets really fun and interesting. Great community atmosphere. The Markets and Fairs website has a listing of markets around Australia.
W: http://www.marketsandfairs.com.au

Also want to check out Kirribilli markets some time. It's on the 4th Sat of the month except Dec where it's 1st and 3rd.
W: http://www.kncsydney.org/Markets.htm.

Found a couple of references to it having some cool designer finds: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/04/1083635124810.html and http://www.sydney.citysearch.com.au/profile?id=20868527

Secret stylists' business

This SMH article lists the places where fashion stylists go to find designer label clothing, vintage clothes and accessories. People SMH asked were:

Rachel Wayman, fashion director, Shop Til You Drop magazine
Judith Cook, style director, In Style Magazine
Ken Thompson, freelance stylist
Tali Shine, author of The Glam Girl's Guide to Sydney Shopping
Ella Argent, fashion director, New Woman Magazine

W: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/21/1090089208735.html

Stupid Creatures - cool stuffed toys

John Murphy from North Carolina creates these really cool stuffed beings out of socks. They're called 'Stupid Creatures'. He hand-makes each one and takes requests from customers on the specifications of their creature to be. They're just the coolest creations!

W: http://www.stupidcreatures.com/

In the Mind of the Architect - tonight

Sunday 25 July 2004, ABC, 11.35pm. Duration: 25mins
Episode: Keeping the Faith
"We cross the country to examine how architects use ideas to change the way we live and think. In this episode we look at a crematorium, a law court, a public hall and two private houses."

Crafty things

Thinking about crafty things. Remembered that I tried to knit a dark brown scarf for my dad once - when I was a young kid. It's probably about 1/3 done. Then stored it away.

Also remembering sewing used to be compulsory in the early years of high school. Don't know if that's still the case. It's kind of cool when you see people creating funky, beautiful bags, clothes, accessories etc to sell at the markets or online. Has an earthy, 'real' feel about it.   

Came across some of the following interesting links:

Felt artists
http://www.peak.org/~spark/felt_artist_links.htm

The Victorian Feltmakers Inc
http://www.vicfelt.org.au

Knitters Guild NSW
http://www.knittersguildnsw.org.au/
A new group has opened up in Glebe and they meet up at Glebe library

Sydney Community College
http://www.sydneycommunitycollege.com.au/
For courses on hand felting, sewing, fabric printing, knitting and more. Lots of these courses are already full!

Some designers who make hand-crafted goodies:
(if anyone out there knows of similar Australian sites, feel free to drop me an email)

Cut + Paste
http://www.cutxpaste.com/
Hand-crafted goodies from a range of designers. Jenny Kwok's, Brooklyn is behind the website

Polaire
http://www.polaire-online.com/
Hand-crafted goodies from Isara, Chicago
Also lists a number of other similar sites in the links section

Tiny Monkey
http://www.tinymonkey.com/
Hand-made velcro cards by Sandy Lee, California

Alison Rose
http://www.alisonrose.com
Hand-crafted goodies from Alison and Nicolas, U.S.

Ex Libris Anonymous
http://www.exlibrisanonymous.com/
Hand-made journals using old illustration, childrens books etc as covers and as pages interspersed throughout

Neuty
http://www.neuty.com/
Hand-crafted goodies from Doris Ho, NY

Checklist for Building the Ideal News Web Site

Suggestions include the scroll-less home page, better ad management, more user-generated content.  

W: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/stopthepresses_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000581290
 
Originally sighted on Paidcontent.org newsletter 21/7/04

Buying design magazines - Selectair

Selectair imports design magazines direct from a number of publishers in Australia and around the world. Titles include Big Magazine, Dutch, Processed, Self-Service and many more.

W: http://www.selectair.com.au

Getting Japanese magazine titles

Jean Snow who is based in Tokyo, is now offering to help you get Japanese design magazine titles. If you let him know which title you want, he'll tell you the cost of the magazine and the postal cost and it'll be an extra 400 yen (approx AUS $5) for time and materials (envelope cost, and PayPal transfer costs etc).  

W: http://jeansnow.net/2004/07/22/magazine-sales/

artsConnect

artsConnect is a website featuring Australian artists, designers, musicians, actors, writers and more. The site offers a free page for people to promote their work, and to connect with other creatives.
 
W: http://www.artsconnect.com.au