FRIDAY JULY 23

• POP: A Group Exhibition Lawrence Arts Center (940 New Hampshire Street in Lawrence, KS) Friday, July 23, 7-9pm (Ongoing until August 20th) From the organizers: Taking inspiration from popular culture, artists use a variety of mediums to express their personal visions. This exhibit explores a range of approaches to art making, especially ideas of popular culture and its influences. The use of found objects or recycled imagery which in their original context fit into the everyday are often used by artists to create a new conversation about current and past influences on culture. The participating artists in this exhibition represent several generations, and, therefore, varying perspectives on popular culture interact in the gallery. Featuring art by Kendra Marable, Archie Gobber, Dan Anderson, Kristin Morland, Jaimie Warren, Alison Filley, Jeff Eaton, Jeremy Rockwell, Joelle Ford, and Ann Dean

• Unmask. Unearth: Discovering the Wetlands The Lawrence Percolator (940 New Hampshire in Lawrence, KS) Friday, July 23, 6pm (The art is on view starting at 6pm with performances at 7pm on the 23rd and 24th) From the organizers: The Lawrence Youth Ensemble will perform the play, which is about the Baker Wetlands. The play, performed and written by area teenagers, is a collaboration among several community agencies, including the Lawrence Youth Ensemble, the Percolator, and the Douglas County Juvenile Detention Center. These performances are accompanied by a art show featuring Wetlands-inspired art.

• The Victor Continental Show Liberty Hall (803 Massachusetts Street in Lawrence, KS) Friday, July 23, 9:30pm (With a second performance July 24th at 9:30pm) From the organizers: The swinging sketch comedy of Victor Continental returns for another steamy summer affair! This local troupe of song and dance provocateurs skewer everything from foul-mouthed mimes to the state of the Lawrence economy in this awesome annual tradition.

SATURDAY JULY 24

• 1109 Gallery Members Show 1109 Gallery (1109 Massachusetts Street in Lawrence, KS) Saturday, July 24, 7-9pm From the organizers: The Lawrence Art Guild presents our once-a-year members show at 1109 Gallery. This show is sure to be an eclectic mix of all mediums and a must-see for everyone!

SUNDAY JULY 25

• Nature Photography Exhibit Mirth Cafe (745 New Hampshire Street in Lawrence, KS) Sunday, July 25, All Day From the organizers: Local photographer A. Scott McCauley will be showing a collection of his nature portfolio at Mirth. A preview of his work can be seen on his website AScottMcCauley.com where prints can also be purchased.

FRIDAY JULY 30

• Do You Need A Friend To Go With? Wonder Fair: Art Gallery, Shoppe & Studio (803 1/2 Massachusetts Street in Lawrence, KS) Friday, July 30, 7-10pm (Ongoing until August 22nd) From the organizers: Christopher Bostwick is a graduate of the printmaking department at the Kansas City Art Institute. It was here that he developed his skills as a printmaker but also reaffirmed his penchant for drawing directly on paper. Do You Need A Friend To Go With? features colored pencil and gouache drawings – some as large as 60” x 48”. These drawings take the form of a set or stage, the theatrics of which are always implied, the actors never shown. Bostwick sets the scenes, rife with absurd details culled from a culture of excess and Google image searches. He revels in humorous juxtapositions and complicitous pairings. His drawings become abandoned scenes full of misleading clues to the most banal of mysteries – the everyday.

posted by: Scott Stewart

FRIDAY JULY 9

Sonic Youth - Sleeping Nights Awake (Documentary) Michael Albright

• SONIC ORPHANS: Lost Music Films 1965-87 Wonder Fair: Art Gallery, Shoppe & Studio (803 1/2 Massachusetts Street in Lawrence, KS) Friday, July 9, 7-12pm From the organizers: SONIC ORPHANS is a compilation reel of lost and found clips projected on 16mm, mostly silent, of some rare celluloid gems that have been seen by almost no one and have never seen the light of youtube. Most of this footage is truly orphaned film--- abandoned, lost, found, and now presented raw without editing. The videos feature The Beatles, Avengers, Huns, Boy Problems, Sonic Youth, Butthole Surfers, and Johnny Cash. The presentation includes a discussion of “orphan films” as they are called by archivists, a one-night photo exhibit & live local music by Kansas City's LAZY. $5 at the door.

SATURDAY JULY 10

Wild West Film Festival 2010 Promo Video

• Wild West Film Festival Liberty Hall (644 Massachusetts Street in Lawrence, KS) Saturday, July 10, 7pm From the organizers: The Wild West Film Fest is a 48-hour marathon film fest that anyone with a video camera can enter. We hope to raise money and awareness for a good cause while getting people excited about local film making. We provide a secret theme and you have 48 hours to create a working short film – no longer than 5 minutes. You provide us with the short films and we provide you with a great venue, judges and prizes for the winners! Proceeds from our ticket sales benefit local organizations such as Habitat For Humanity, Halo Foundation, and Children’s Mercy Hospital. The judges were blown away by the quality of films this year. Along with the typical gang of local judges, we also enjoyed the company of local comic book writer Jai Nitz. He has written several comics for D.C. and Marvel. He is currently working on Hollywood movie comic tie-ins, such as the upcoming Green Hornet. There will be a costume contest during the festival, the most heroic hero or vile villain will receive a cash prize and a DVD of the films. Tickets are only $7 for general public and $5 for students. www.wildwestfilmfest.com

posted by: Scott Stewart

Between 1992 and 1996, environmental artist Agnes Denes created Tree Mountain—A Living Time Capsule. The project consisted of a series of architectural renderings on vellum featuring designs for a new forest to be planted in Pinziö, near Ylöjärvi, Finland. These works on paper became planning documents after the Finnish government decided to make Denes’ project its official Earth Day contribution at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, 1992. This major earthwork and reclamation project was designed by the artist as a community building project that also made use of waste from a nearby gravel pit. To accomplish the massive undertaking, Denes invited 11,000 people to plant a tree. Each person became the custodian of a tree and received a certificate recognizing their role in the project. The forest, which is to remain a living legacy for the next 400 years (20 generations), has spawned additional projects in Australia and the Netherlands.

The 11,000 trees were planted according to an intricate mathematical pattern derived from a combination of the golden section and sunflower/pineapple pattern designed by Denes. The tree mountain is 420 meters long, 270 meters wide and 28 meters high.

See more of Denes' work via Chelesa Art Museum

posted by: Brent Carter

"The skinNY" is the story of Rachel and Joanna, two wildly self-confident girls from Orlando who move to New York to work in PR and "run this town." They dress like it's 2004, believe they can have any guy they want, and listen almost exclusively to Fergie. Starring Jonny Sollis and Fabrizio Goldstein (The Fat Jew). Produced by Nick Gallo from The Onion.

posted by: Harold Johns III

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION BANS PRESS PHOTO ACCESS TO GULF OIL SPILL, THREATENS JAIL TIME

According to a new safety zone rule passed down from the US government, reporters and photographers are not allowed within 65 feet (20 meters) of booms, boom operations, and other cleanup activities, except with the express permission of the US Coast Guard. CNN’s Anderson Cooper reports that the limit was originally 300 feet, but it was reduced to 65 feet.

But to complicate matters, under the new rule, anyone found “willfully” in violation of the rule would be fined $40,000 and charged with a Class D felony. Class D felonies typically carry a jail sentence. The law especially affects photographers in the area who need to be on site in order to properly cover the events.

Our two cents: I assume our new policy for the Gulf Oil Spill is to act like it never happened in the first place by banning media coverage until everyone forgets that it did.

-

CORRUPTION IN AFGHANISTAN: US CUTS AID AFTER BILLIONS SIPHONED OFF TO DUBAI

Brigadier General Mohammed Asif Jabarkhel sits with folded arms in his office, just a few steps away from the security checkpoint at Kabul International Airport. "Of course I know what's going on here," the 59-year-old head of the airport's customs police grumbles from beneath his thick moustache as a fan whirs in the background. "But, in this country, who's allowed to speak the truth?"

Jabarkhel is referring to the huge amounts of money regularly being secreted out of Afghanistan by plane in boxes and suitcases. According to some estimates, since 2007, at least $3 billion (€2.4 billion) in cash has left the country in this way. The preferred destination for these funds is Dubai, the tax haven in the Persian Gulf. And, given the fact that Afghanistan's total GDP amounts to the equivalent of $13.5 billion, there is no way that the funds involved in this exodus are merely the proceeds of legal business transactions....

Since invading Afghanistan in 2001, the United States alone has invested almost $300 billion in military and reconstruction efforts there. But far less progress has been made than what was either hoped for or expected. One major reason for this could be the fact that a significant portion of the millions meant for reconstructive efforts continue to be siphoned off. The people benefiting are often those who enjoy extremely close business ties with the donor countries....

Reports on cases of persistent corruption like this have enraged American politicians and led a key panel to approve a freeze on the $3.9 billion in aid for Afghanistan's government already earmarked for the 2011 budget year.

Read the full article via Der Spiegel International (published July 5, 2010)

Our two cents: Thank god we're not in debt in this country otherwise we might actually miss the $3 billion that magically disappeared in the Afghan War. Oh...wait a minute, we're actually massively in debt - over $13 trillion in debt to be more precise.

-

ECUADOR POLICE SEIZE 100-FOOT NARCO-SUBMARINE BEING SECRETLY BUILT IN A REMOTE JUNGLE

Police in Ecuador seized a 100-foot submarine being built by suspected drug traffickers capable of carrying a crew of six and 10 tons of cocaine on underwater voyages lasting up to 10 days — a "game changer" for U.S. anti-drug and border security efforts, officials said Monday. A raid Friday by 120 police officers and soldiers netted the fiberglass sub as it was nearing completion in a clandestine "industrial complex" hidden in mangrove swamps near San Lorenzo, a town just south of the Colombian border.

Read the full article via LA Times (published July 6, 2010)

Our two cents: First and foremost you've got to respect the ingenuity of the Ecuadoran drug dealers who built the sub. And I'm sure a few months from now the Pentagon will unveil the first billion dollar nuclear-powered submarine built specifically for the "War on Drugs."

-

WIDOW LIVED WITH CORPSES OF HUSBAND AND TWIN SISTER

The 91-year-old widow lived by herself in a tumbledown house on a desolate country road. But she wasn't alone, not really, not as long as she could visit her husband and twin sister.

No matter they were already dead. Jean Stevens simply had their embalmed corpses dug up and stored them at her house — in the case of her late husband, for more than a decade — tending to the remains as best she could until police were finally tipped off last month. Much to her dismay.

"Death is very hard for me to take," Stevens told an interviewer.

As state police finish their investigation into a singularly macabre case — no charges have been filed — Stevens wishes she could be reunited with James Stevens, her husband of nearly 60 years who died in 1999, and June Stevens, the twin who died last October. But their bodies are with the Bradford County coroner now, off-limits to the woman who loved them best.

Read the full article here via Associated Press (July 5, 2010) Watch video of the story here

Our two cents: Creepy!

-

KOBAYASHI ARRESTED AS CHESTNUT NABS 4th HOT DOG CROWN

Cops carted away six-time Nathan’s champ Takeru Kobayashi after the legendary competitive eater — banned from the Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest today — tried to rush the stage. Two beefy men, wearing polo shirts with NYPD logos, stopped Kobayashi as he attempted to hop a barricade and reach Joey Chestnut after the San Jose, Calif., eating machine won his fourth consecutive Nathan’s title.

"I saw Kobayashi trying to push his way through the police," a witness said. "He got to the top step, almost to the stage, but he didn't get onstage."

The muscle men put Kobayashi in a headlock and dragged him backstage. It wasn't immediately clear what Kobayashi wanted to do onstage. Kobayashi was barred from eating today due to an ongoing contract beef with Major League Eating. Kobayashi was charged with resisting arrest, trespassing and obstruction of governmental affairs, police said.

Read the full article here via the NY Post (published July 4, 2010)

Our two cents: You would think the NYPD would be too busy harassing New Yorkers at post 9/11 checkpoints to work security at a hot dog eating contest, apparently not.

-

posted by: Harold Johns III

FRIDAY JULY 2

• Xx Chromosome The Blue Gallery (118 Southwest Boulevard in Kansas City, MO) Friday, June 2, 6pm A wide variety of styles focused on the subject of womanhood. Artwork created by this all female group featuring Shannon Gaines Bowman, Jennifer Walker, Jane Almirall, Jes Owings, Kelley Seda, Melinda Wallace and Sandi Devenny.

Speak Salon Studio

• Maria Calderon Andean Highlands: Before the thread hits the loom Speak Salon Studio (327 1/2 Southwest Boulevard in Kansas City, MO) Friday, July 2, 6-10pm Maria Calderon is a painter, fashion photographer, and yoga instructor. She is showing new burlap pieces painted with acrylic. Also Early Jewelry and two vintage clothing dealers. www.mariacalderon.com

• Immovable Axioms 2631 Gallery (2631 Holmes in Kansas City, MO) Friday, July 2, 5-10pm Limited edition prints, zines, drinks and music at this group show. Featuring paintings from a small mix of illustrators and graphic designers up for the month of July. Luke Rocha, Adrian Halpern, Shane Ogren, Mark Galloway and Hector Casanova.

SATURDAY JULY 3 • Gentle Cycle; With Like Colors Be Moved Studio (2 E 7th Street in Lawrence, KS) Saturday, July 3, 7-9:30pm Soft colors and pleasant compositions are abundant in art by Kelly Clark, Kristin Morland, and Mari Lacure. Spoken word performances by Aaron Storck, Anne Bruce & Jenny Hoyt, Leralee Whittle & Paul Sprawl starting at 8:30.

Molly Murphy

• Molly Murphy Greater Kansas The Invisible Hand Gallery (801 1/2 Massachusetts Street in Lawrence, KS) Saturday, July 3, 7-10pm Murphy explores Kansas landscapes, a subject matter that fits her style of blushing colors and chunky strokes.

• Lu Vaccaro Past & Present, Pots & Paintings The Lawrence Percolator (940 New Hampshire in Lawrence, KS) Saturday, July 3, 7-10pm Look for the green awning in the alley behind the Lawrence Arts Center to find this gallery. Colorful paintings and pottery from long time local artist Lu Vaccaro. This show runs through July 18.

TUESDAY JULY 6

Alicia Kelly and Andrew Jilka

• Stupid Heavy The Bourgeois Pig (6 East 9th Street in Lawrence, KS) Tuesday, July 6, 7-9pm New works on paper by artists Alicia Kelly and Andrew Jilka. Show runs through July.

posted by: Scott Stewart

To enlarge and see all full rundown of the stats click here

posted by: Harold Johns III

Synopsis:

Shot high above the streets of NYC, Up There reveals the dying craft of large scale hand painted advertising and the untold story of the painters struggling to keep it alive. Capturing a trade that is equal parts artistic precision and grueling labor, the film presents a painting tradition pre-dating modern advertising. A craft that today finds itself dangling precariously on the brink of extinction.

Up There is directed by Malcom Murray, based on the original concept by Mother. It is produced by Mekanism with music by The Album Leaf.

posted by: Brent Carter

The entire Star Wars Trilogy was summarized in animated gif form by pixel artist Folds Five. Check out his versions of the Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi after the jump.

See more work by Folds Five here Read an interview about the project here

posted by: Harold Johns III

News moves fast these days, really fast, so fast we often struggle to get all the information we want to share up on The Rathaus. Our WTF News can be particularly troublesome in this regard, seemingly because we're swimming in just this type of news as of late. So in an effort to document the best of the worst and the weirdest in the news, we've put together another roundup segment. Here's what we've been shaking our heads to in WTF disbelief recently.

-

OFFICERS CLAIM THEY DON'T NEED A LAW TO STOP PHOTOGRAPHERS FROM TAKING PICTURES

Two police officers stopped a teenage photographer from taking pictures of an Armed Forces Day parade - and then claimed they did not need a law to detain him.

Jules Mattsson, a 16-year-old freelancer from Hackney, east London, was photographing police cadets on Saturday when he was ordered to stop and give his personal details by an adult cadet officer who claimed he needed parental permission to capture images of the cadets.

After arguing his rights in a series of protracted legal debates with officers, the sixth former says he was pushed down a set of stairs and detained for breaching the peace until the parade passed.

Read the full article (with video of the incident) via The Independent

Our two cents: England's own Association of Police Chiefs has made it clear that police are not allowed to harass photographers of any kind while in the public realm, so obviously the cops were out of line and acted like a goon squad in this instance.

-

OKLAHOMA POLICE TASE AN 86-YEAR-OLD BEDRIDDEN WOMAN FOR NOT TAKING HER MEDS

American police have been accused of tasering an 86-year-old bed-ridden grandmother. Lonnie Tinsley called the emergency services to his home in El Reno, Oklahoma, when he became concerned that his grandma Lona Vernon had failed to take her medication. But instead of a medical technician, he claims at least a dozen armed police officers answered his call.

When Mrs Vernon ordered the police from her house, officer Thomas Duran allegedly decided she was being 'aggressive' and gave the order: 'Taser her.' Her alarmed grandson is then said to have replied: 'Don't taze my granny!' According to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Tinsley’s 'obstructive' behavior prompted the police to threaten him with their tasers. He was then assaulted, removed from the room, thrown to the floor, handcuffed, and detained in a police car.

In order to ensure 'officer safety', one of his men 'stepped on her oxygen hose until she began to suffer oxygen deprivation.' Another of the officers then shot her with a taser, but the connection wasn’t solid. A second fired his taser, 'striking her to the left of the midline of her upper chest, and applied high voltage, causing burns to her chest, extreme pain', and unconsciousness.

Read the full article via the Daily Mail

Our two cents: American cops use tasers with all the discretion of a drunk teenager carrying a gross of bottle rockets. Check out TaserWatch to read other incidents of Taser abuse.

-

ALL MCNUGGETS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL, SOME CONTAIN THE SAME INGREDIENTS AS SILLY PUTTY

U.S. McNuggets not only contain more calories and fat than their British counterparts, but also chemicals not found across the Atlantic. CNN investigated the differences after receiving a blog comment asking about them.

American McNuggets (190 calories, 12 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat for 4 pieces) contain the chemical preservative tBHQ, tertiary butylhydroquinone, a petroleum-based product. They also contain dimethylpolysiloxane, “an anti-foaming agent” also used in Silly Putty. By contrast, British McNuggets (170 calories, 9 grams of fat, 1 gram of saturated fat for 4 pieces) lists neither chemical among its ingredients....

Dimethylpolysiloxane is used as a matter of safety to keep the oil from foaming, says Lisa McComb, who handles global media relations for McDonald's. The chemical is a form of silicone also used in cosmetics and Silly Putty. A review of animal studies by The World Health Organization found no adverse health effects associated with dimethylpolysiloxane.

TBHQ is a preservative for vegetable oils and animal fats, limited to .02 percent of the oil in the nugget. One gram (one-thirtieth of an ounce) can cause "nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse," according to “A Consumer’s Dictionary of Food Additives.”

Read the full article via CNN's The Chart

Our two cents: As a general rule, don't eat food with an ingredient you can’t pronounce.

-

LIGHTNING STRIKES THREE OF THE TALLEST BUILDINGS IN CHICAGO AT THE SAME TIME

Watch the video here

-

AT LEAST 604 PEOPLE WERE ARRESTED DURING RECENT PROTESTS AGAINST THE G20 SUMMIT IN TORONTO, CANADA

Many of those arrested were innocent bystanders who were waiting for buses, walking their dogs or just taking a stroll. Amnesty International Canada is calling for an independent review of the G8/G20 security measures.

Read the full article via CBC News

Watch video taken behind the lines here

-

posted by: Harold Johns III