Year Zero Gig
The last three months of 2009 have been extremely successful for the international writers' cooperative, Year Zero, with the publication of their first seven novels. In addition, the Year Zero group issued an anthology, Brief Objects of Beauty and Despair (download as a free e-book here). Their second anthology, 13 Shadows Waiting for Sunrise, will launch at the end of December, and the group is celebrating with a series of live events featuring readings by the authors, as well as live music.
Their first gig will be at Rough Trade Records, in London's Brick Lane, starting at 6 pm on February 4th, 2010. Anyone associated with SG UK is welcome and entrance will be free. Music will be from singer/songwriter Jessie Grace, and the bands To The Moon and InLight. Authors reading extracts from their work include the fabulous Penny Goring, the incredible Daisy Anne Gree, and founder members Dan Holloway and Larry Harrison. If you've not come across any Year Zero work, check out the flash fiction, video and book chapters on the Year Zero website. Signed copies of novels will be on sale at the gig, together with the Year Zero 2010 Tour T-shirt.
Free E-Day
1st December 2009 is being designated Free-e-day, when independent artists, writers, musicians, photographers and film-makers are giving away a sample of their work in an electronic form. Creative people from as far afield as Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, USA, Canada, and Europe are coming together to offer something for nothing on December 1st. This willl be a thank you to their current fans, and a present for their new ones.
As well as free e-books, magazines, plays, art work and music there will be on-line workshops, debates and live events. In England, there will be a live gig at Cafe Tarifa in Oxford, featuring music from Nikki Loy, Mol Hodge, and the Joker & the Thief, and a performance reading from the poet Nikesh Shukla. Authors Dan Holloway and Roland Denning will read from their novels and there will be dance, and an exhibition of artwork.
Anyone who wants to take part by providing some of their work on Free-e-day can simply send an email to songsfromtheothersideofthewall@googlemail.com and ask to be included in the directory and full colour e-brochure. This can be downloaded for free from the event’s website freeeday.wordpress.com
Ron
SuicideGirls FREE Pin-Up Set
These images, featuring Rambo and Radeo, give you a FREE glimpse into the SuicideGirls take on the modern pin-up.
As a special promotion, to show non-members what lies behind SuicideGirls' members-only velvet rope, we're opening this set up for public view for a limited time. If you're 18 & over click HERE to see the complete adult-only photo set .
If you'd like the inside scoop on SG offers and exclusives (such as this one off free photo set), send your name, age, city, state/country and email address to: newsletter@suicidegirls.com
Microsoft Offers Free Xbox LIVE Arcade Title for Outages
Earlier this month Microsofts Xbox LIVE service was unreliable at best. Users were greeted with either frequent Yo-Yo disconnects (Connected! Not connected. Connected! Not connected.) or cryptic messages about Windows LIVE IDs - just in time for the post-Christmas present game-fest.
As they attempted to address the situation, Microsoft assured their loyal players that it was not the result of hackers or hardware failure, but the largest sign-up of new members to Xbox LIVE in our 5 year history, according to LIVEs manager Marc Whitten. And instead of a simple apology, they decided to hand every LIVE subscriber a free game for their trouble.
Were pleased to announce that from 2:00 a.m. PST Wednesday, January 23, 2008 through 11:59 p.m. PST, Sunday, January 27, 2008 you can download the full version of the recent Xbox LIVE Arcade game, Undertow free of charge.
The game description, from Xbox.com:
Undertow is a fast-paced action-shooter that sends you underwater as you battle up to 16 players for control of the oceans! Non-stop conquest-style battles push the envelope of onscreen effects and combat action and boast some of the most stunning graphics ever seen in an Xbox LIVE® Arcade title.
punk invites Xbox enthusiasts to check out the Xbox Et Al Group.
SuicideGirls Halloween Photoset: Free to the Public!
For the first time ever, SuicideGirls is making a very special Halloween Photoset FREE to the public. If you are over 18, click here to see the FREE Gallery. What better way to celebrate this devilishly delightful holiday than with a truly terrifying zombie set featuring a classic SuicideGirl?
Diner of Death is the SuicideGirls take on the anti-comic movement of the early '50s. Evil, gruesome, shocking, and ridiculously sexy, it will get you in the mood for tricks and treats of all kinds.
Lotsa Museums Free in L.A. Tomorrow
This Sunday, October 1st in the Los Angeles area, twenty museums have agreed to open the doors to the public free of charge. Take advantage of this, Southern Californians; while there are some museums that are always free (such as the Getty), most are not.
The participating museums in the day event include:
Armory Center for the Arts
Autry National Center's Museum of the American West
California Heritage Museum
California Science Center
Craft and Folk Art Museum
Fowler Museum at UCLA
The Getty Center
Hammer Museum
Japanese American National Museum
Laguna Art Museum
Long Beach Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
The Museum of Television & Radio
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA)
Museum of Tolerance
Norton Simon Museum
Orange County Center for Contemporary Art
Pacific Asia Museum
Skirball Cultural Center
Southwest Museum of the American Indian.
More info and links to the participating museums are here.
Photo Location: Folk Art is Free Art on Oct. 1.
Travel-size Pictures
In a world where more people own digital cameras than Photoshop, email users everywhere are plagued with incoming hi-res image files from friends and family unaware of their enormous snapshots' power to crash computers. Tell everybody you know: here is a useful site to bookmark. Resize2Mail is a free, no-fuss web utility that lets you resize and crop raw jpgs or gifs with the click of a button to web resolution, perfect for email or even posting here on SG.
Photo Location
For those who still would like to fuss a little, bookmark the advanced options page.
Last Week of the World eBook Fair
The days are counting down. You have until Friday, August 4th to download all the eBooks your hard drive can handle. After that the month long World eBook Fair will come to a close and youll have to pay the annual membership fee of $8.95 for access to a library of over 300,000 books.
The creators of the World eBook Fair hope the invention of eBooks will advance the world as much as did the invention of The Gutenberg Press, and look forward to the Neo-Industrial Revolution following the advent of eBooks, just as the invention of The Gutenberg Press undoubtedly led to the first Industrial Revolution...
The fair is co-sponsored by Project Gutenberg, a non-profit that has been working for 35 years to increase the creation and distribution of eBooks. Just remember, the organization is run by volunteers and many of the eBook submissions are made by volunteers, so the database is not the most consistent or accurate. Your best bet is to stick to the classics (or search at random for independently published eBook gems).
Two books in the collection:
On the other hand, to hear a few words against the eBook revolution, scour the newsstands for remaining copies of O, The Oprah Magazine's July Reading issue and read Harper Lees rare and brief letter on her love of reading (Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, stopped giving interviews in the early 60s and rarely ever, ever publishes anything in print.).
San Diego Punk Rock Craft Fair
This Saturday and Sunday, July 29th and 30th is the first ever San Diego Punk Rock Craft Fair. Aside from the many vendors gracing the event, there will also be bands, a zine demo, a henna tattoo demo, a dominatrix stand-up comic, the Derby Dolls, a wrestling show, burlesque show, door prizes, gift bags and more. The event will be held at UCSD's Che Cafe from 10am to 6pm.
It may be called a craft fair, but don't expect to find any crocheted doilies on hand. The Punk Rock Craft Fair has very little in common with the church bazaar atmosphere usually associated with craft sales. The Punk Rock Craft Fair, to be held this July 29th and 30th at the Che Collective on the UCSD campus, is a free two-day festival that combines raw musical performances, underground arts and crafts, and side-show like attractions to create a truly unique experience.
I'll be there on Saturday; hope to see you then. However, those missing out on the weekend of festivities can check out the vendor gallery to shop online.
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iKaraoke
I don't know if everything they say about karaoke is true, but gluttons for punishment everywhere should take note; the Online Karaoke Machine is a library of midi versions of "popular" songs in classic karaoke video format for anyone with Quicktime and an internet connection. Use it to become a belligerent American Idol in the privacy of your own home (or yet more entertaining, at work.)
Misprinted Type
Eduardo Recife, a designer in Brazil, distributes free and unusual fonts for download at his website Misprinted Type.
Simply browse the type library for your favorites, download the appropriate package (Mac/PC) and install to your computer. Then start using those, and stop using Comic Sans. Please. For the love of God.
Photo Location
Fun Fact: "Selfish" is used here on SG.
Ping-er Painting
Feeling creative and lazy? Whip up your latest masterpiece using art.com's Artpad, a free flash-based program that allows you demonstrate your genius by drawing with your mouse. Even better, when you're done you can amuse yourself by clicking the "replay painting button" over and over and over at various speeds.
Photo Location ("art" by me)