The 23rd Chaos Communications Congress, a 4-day data-rich and pioneering geek-social convergence in Berlin is off and running as of Today. We have put out our feelers to catch some reports, and while we’re at it we’re going to reflect a bit about our socio-impressions and perspective-trawls from #22. Meanwhile here’s 23c3’s deep wiki’d resource base… and blogger’s page. cont… Not much up on these blogs yet as we quikly surfed em… what’s up?? isn’t anybody drinking mate and tweaking til dawn?

We scooped a treasure chest of musika (+media) gems on the eastern trails, some of which may not be landing here ( leftcoast) for several months… so here’s a list, new and old, from the 4 corners, ESSENTIAL MUSIC , nevermind looking back on top ten lists from 2006, we’re gearing up for an XL 2007! And We’ll be continuing to update ( and link) as soon we can absorb and process all the new additions : Nomad Sound System (not yet released)

Jan Svankmajer’s new film Lunacy is Not the appropriate film to take your lover unless s/he has a penchant for tickling life’s underbellies under a microscope and reads stacks of critical theory like a psycho-sexualized addict with a possession for pricking the entire civilized bubble which restrains us from encountering the flood of ecstatic, unraveling and convulsive truths. to be cont. …ah there’s so much to disentangle from that weird nite and heaped on top of the whole kulture-shock of being back in the belly o the beastie… but this speech was absorbed the day of landing, and resonates with so much that needs to transpire in 2007 : Sean Penn’s speech upon receiving the Christopher Reeve 1st amendment award.

The first night of the re-land upon the shores of the long-lost Leftcoast, our Happy Feet Travels Compa brought us out to The SantaCon Party being held at Cafe Du Nord. …where Scott Beale’s “You’d Better Watch Out: Portland SantaCon ‘96″ was pulled out of the old VHS drawer ( Neeeeds Digitizing! )… and… revealing the 1st year Santarchy invaded “foreign soil” or should we say soiled the foreign state. Back in 96, some 2oo Santas from mostly the Bay Area loaded up at SFO and headed for PDX… and after a number of inebriated + dada digressions finally came around to their objective to enter a shopping mall which had been pre-fortified by riot-geared cops unprepared to comprehend what Santa species had come to eat their bot brains for breakfast.

dj Shazam dropped by the Transmigration show, and asked if we’d bring some beats on board for an event tomorrow nite at ZMF… A pretty wicked show, featuring one of Shazam’s projects called Nomad Sound System, who are just about to drop a next level fusion cd featuring input from Algeria, Tunisia, Japan, and Germany , 5 musicians weaving together a diversity of influences such as Asian Dub Foundation, Rai and Berber riffs … a sweaty mix of the global brotherhood without borders.

XL Terrestrials will land at the Zentrale Randlage THIS Wednesday :: 13.12.06 :: 20: 00h sharp :: Schönhauser Allee 172, Berlin :: U2 Senefelderplatz Special guests of Media Decompression Collective ( the Berlin branch, also opening minds in Toledo, Ohio … since 1§§6?? ), who program regularly at this fine “newer” venue for experimental music and programming for the those who regularly test the outer limits. We’ll post a more detailed description of this exciting collaboration just as soon we get our bags unpacked, catch up on that dreadful sleeping habit, make the rounds of dropping flyers on a Berlin Saturday nite from our XLT fleet of droid helicopters, and stop those damn horizontal lines spilling out of control on our u-tubed frames.

Happy Birthday Possible Worlds!!! Check the site for events running from Dec 8-10 to celebrate … And support the expanding network of Possible Worlds… U TOO can get hosted alongside some great communities that are at the forefront of social pio-bio-geo-neering for sustainable futures!! And need we mention they are our favorite server for all things XL Terrestrial !!

There seems to be something in the sensual waters of the current Viennese school that will not take the prevalent techno-fascisms lying down. There is heavy resistance full with humor and full-on attack, at least as far as museum sectors can allow for any serious public discourse and deconstructions. Exhibition and forums take place in Wien’s institutional culture epicenter here in Wien known as the Museums Quartier. Roböexotica is the 8th gathering of techies, futurists and jammers putting the spin on the man-machine curve which might otherwise whisk humanity into the hyper-drive envelopes of business-as-usual and the discarnate dystopias with their irreversible price-tag infrastructures.

XLTs are still on the road, passing thru Austria where we will drop in on a project called Roboexotica in Wien. At first this looked like some deranged transhumanist party and then we read in V. Vale`s newsletter ( ReSearch ) a little more clearly into its irony: “Roboexotica 2006 : What is it all about? It’s an annual festival where philosophers, scientists, researchers, computer geeks and artists from all over the world talk about/build “cocktail robots” and discuss technological innovation, futurology and science fiction.