One of Berlin’s canal-side venue gems, the GlasHaus at Arena hosted Watcha Clan (now signed with Piranha) and Nomad Sound System on a powerhouse diaspora double bill Saturday nite, and with dj Pepe Vargas from Terra Beats keeping it bouncing for a last, mostly balkan, round. W-Clan is a high-energy Marseille-based band with a “multi-Port” sound mixing flavors of Barcelona, Casablanca, Oran and Algiers… along with some novel electronica/drum and bass/dub elements that take it sailing over the edge, at points almost rave/psy-trance -like but much more deeply rooted.

http://xlterrestrials.org/plog/index.php/uncategorized/transmigration-of-cinema-tour-20-in-production/xltmdc2/ [ You can read the above text here ] The Transmigration Of Cinema 2.0 is in production! That means we are re-assembling the project ( TOC 2006-2007 tours) for another XL terrestrial round, because recent assessments show that the arts+tech and mediated culture wave have a looooooong way to grasp the critical stage of our sit-com planet, wherein No documentaries, No feature films, No tv series, No new media installations, No digital art, No website will serve as an evacuation plan, much less a lifeboat, for the Virtual Titanic Anatomies of Militarized Supermarket Life, or Anti-life , as the case may be.

“Why Democracy?” is a very intricate question, especially when asked through the wide lense of global films. And when one considers the Gore Vidal line that true democracies have only ever existed for about 5 minutes, the possible perspectives in works of 5- 15- x minutes are bound to only scratch the surface of a very deep and complex itch. Nevertheless this last day shorts program of the Berlinale (Talent Campus) under the curatorial helm of South African Don Edkins and STEPS International succeeded in bringing together some very impressive political filmmakers.

Coming soon : an investigation of Dusan Makavejev’s remarkable feats of a fully sexualized post-68 cinema. In the meantime, two of his groundbreaking films are now available at Criterion.

[ from the XL terrestrials' forthcoming de-manifesto: The Revolution Will Not Be Virtualized! ] In Bela Tarr’s 2000 film Werckmeister Harmonies, an unlikely circus caravan comes to town with a mysterious cargo. The carny types push and bark their hidden prize and the town lines up to get a glimpse of the unknown. Rumors and […]

[ Images from Haus der Kulturen der Welt , Transmediale 2008 : project: Amazon Noir ] Coming soon, the Xlt reports

A multitude of art groups converge at Transmediale to render the final scene of Kurosawa’s version of Macbeth, Spider Web Castle ( aka Throne of Blood 1957). A 12 minute scene expanded to a 12 hour sonic collage, orchestrated by Shu Lea Cheang and Moving Forest. Mikro.FM is one of the groups you can join in […]