For immediate release    Contact: Gerry Fialka 310-306-7330 pfsuzy@aol.com

THE UNURBAN is proud to host MESS (Media Ecology Soul Salon) at 3301 Pico Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90404, 310-315-0056, free admission, Start times listed below, http://www.laughtears.com/ Info: 310-306-7330 - The public is invited to these engaging interviews by Gerry Fialka with the following modern thinkers who'll address the metaphysics of their callings and the nitty-gritty of their crafts.        

Sat, Aug 21 at 3pm: JAY LEVIN is best known as the Founder and former Editor-in-Chief of the Los Angeles Weekly. Under his editorial, and business leadership the newspaper became one of the premier journals in the country. It had the largest circulation of any urban weekly in the country and won numerous journalism awards. Jay, who has several media projects in development,  is also a grassroots political activist and thinker, mostly around issues of poverty, sustainability and media reform. He is the president of the non-profit Share With The Other LA and is heading an effort by the nascent Green Business Assn of LA to attract more capital for green jobs creation to LA. A trained counselor as well as a media expert, Jay now keeps sane in a very ridiculous political and media landscape by teaching a highly original life mastery course he created that is becoming popular by word of mouth. This has now led to him being invited to teach and speak at venues other than his living room.

Sat, Sept. 11. LELAND AUSLENDER (films at 2pm, interview at 4pm). Auslender’s photographic ”Celestial Images” and prize-winning films depict transcendental or “peak” experiences of our oneness with the mystical universe. Influences include the erotic sculptures of Taki and Ron Boise, the ecstatic poetry of Rumi, the death of the filmmaker’s 3-year-old son, and experiences with entheogenic substances such as LSD and magic mushrooms. “Entheogenic” is Greek for “Finding God Within,” which replaces the misleading words, “hallucinogenic” and “psychedelic.” Films to be shown are: “The Birth of Aphrodite” 1969 - 9min(CINE Gold Medal, Atlanta Silver Phoenix, Cannes Film Festival), “The Sculpture of Ron Boise” 1966 - 9min (Venice, Bergamo, Addis-Ababba. and San Francisco International film festivals, CINE Gold Eagle), “Dear Little Lightbird” 1971 - 19min (One of Ten Best – Photographic Society of America), “Venice Beach in the Sixties-A Celebration of Creativity” 2007 – 15min (Gold Remi Award - WorldFest Houston International Film Festival).

Sat, Oct 16 at 3pm. LES PLESKO - Les Plesko’s most recent book is Slow Lie Detector, a novel about love and filmmaking in the Mojave desert, his former home, as well as The Last Bongo Sunset, a semi-autobiographical romance about drugs and sex in Venice in the 1970s. He claims to have lived on every virtually every walk street along the Venice boardwalk. Plesko was born in Budapest and made his escape in the 60s. He teaches a very popular series of Novel Writing workshops at UCLA and is a recipient of the program’s Instructor of the Year award. In his spare time he likes to read books of arcane postmodern philosophy while smoking many cigarettes.

Sat, Nov 20 at 3pm. CHUCK ANDERSON is one of LA's most knowledgeable political activists. His background involves poetry with W. E. B. Du Bois and Langston Hughes, and admiring the militant anti-slavery activist John Brown. Anderson is active in the Peace Movement and Pacifica Radio-KPFK. Anderson lived in Mexico for 20 years and served as the foreign correspondent for the LA/Detroit Herald Dispatch, managed by Malcolm X. His grass-roots activism has ranged from supporting Black Panther pioneer Robert Williams to years of street corner protesting for human rights. He has volunteered for LA's Progressive Newspaper CHANGE-LINKS for many years. Chuck is a Pan Africanist, Bolivarian, and supporter of open borders, open arms and open hearts for all immigrants.

Sat, Dec 11. FILMMAKER ALAN GORG (films at 2pm, interview at 3:30pm) Alan Gorg, (B.S. 1952 and M.F.A. 1970, U.C.L.A.), teacher/writer/producer/director/actor, has written and produced documentary films for the University of California and PBS, and founded theater groups in Hawaii and California. Media Associates published his two autobiographical novellas THE SIXTIES and THE SEVENTIES. "Alan Gorg is a filmmaker who truly cares about the uplifting our world. His intention with each project is to awaken the world to a more compassionate and loving appreciation of each other." -Ruby Lee. HOW TO JUMP START YOUR WAR (2010, 20 minutes, at 2pm) is a satirical look at the four similar deceptive protocols used to start each of the last four big international wars: World War Two, Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq. Most people of all political stripes do not like being swindled, and this animated and historical video is about giving college and high school classroom exposure to what might possibly be the four biggest fakes of the last hundred years. This video is sure to provoke discussion about the causes of war. Please note that among the four rulers primarily responsible for those four big wars, there was one fascist, one communist, one Democrat, and one Republican. War is an equal opportunity enterprise. PROPHECY & POLLUTION (2010, 80m, at 2:20pm) starts with Part One, AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A HOPI, nearly fifty years ago in a quiet pueblo village where connecting with nature has provided a peaceful agricultural life.  In Part Two EARTH SPIRIT, oil and mining development threaten the indigenous pueblo people, who raise protests, citing aboriginal prophecy that incursions into Mother Earth will bring disaster.  In the third and concluding part THIRD WORLD INVESTMENT SEMINAR, prophecy is fulfilled as corporate capitalism does in fact develop oil and mining on lands of indigenous peoples all around the world, and the results are more protests, but also widespread war, disease, and death.

SAT, Jan 8 at 4pm Metaphysical Mash-ups: M&Ms With D&G - Don Leidinger, Devotee of the Divine Discipline of Druidic Deconstructions and Gerry Fialka, paramedia ecologist, lead adventurous discussions in American Zen, Anarchist Spirituality and Constructive Rechannelling. No experience preferred. Explore center without margins. Percept plunder for the recent future.
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"Fialka's cool questions are right at the heart of all my work. By far the best interview I have ever been treated to." - Ondi Timoner, only two time Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury winner

"Fialka's interviews are more gratifying than one could imagine, exploring ideas that don't normally get discussed. With his MESS (Media Ecology Soul Salon) series, a cumulative effect emerges as each progressive interview builds upon and enhances the previous ones. His diligent efforts examine the impulses that motivate people. The secret to good conversation lies in the questions, and Fialka's questions are an art form." - William McNally, Activist/Author

GERRY FIALKA, film curator, writer, lecturer, and paramedia-ecologist has conducted interactive workshops at UCLA, MIT, USC, San Francisco's Yerba Buena Art Center, the Ann Arbor Film Festival, Culver City High School, Massey University (New Zealand), and more. His public interview series MESS has included the likes of Mike Kelley, Alexis Smith, Abraham Polonsky, Mary Woronov, Paul Krassner, Ann Magnuson, Heather Woodbury, Norman Klein, Chris Kraus, P. Adams Sitney, Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, Kristine McKenna, John Sinclair, Grace Lee Boggs, Van Dyke Parks, Orson Bean, George Herms, Doug Harvey, Janet Fitch, Jon Rappoport and Phil Proctor, among many others. Fialka's interviews have been published in books by Mike Kelley and Sylvere Lotringer. His William Pope.L interview is published in the magazine ARTILLERY Jan'08 issue. Fialka's MESS retrieves the original 1970 MESS (McLuhan Emergency Strategy Seminar) with McLuhan, Buckminster Fuller, and Ted Carpenter (They Become What They Behold) among others, all of whom stressed that breakdowns can be breakthroughs. Fialka has also interviewed Timothy A. Carey, George Clinton, Ben Watson, Tom Gunning, Dr John and many more. Visit: www.venice wake.org
For Fialka bio & image: http://www.laughtears.com/

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MESS (Media Ecology Soul Salon), produced by Gerry Fialka since 1997, is based on Marshall McLuhan's insight: "If you don't study the effects of technology, you become its slave." And by "technology" McLuhan was referring to anything humans invent, from language to computers, from philosophy to books, from toothpicks to bulldozers. In dialogues with modern thinkers, MESS provides a forum for probing both the form and the content of media, and for comprehensively surveying-its services and disservices, avoiding bias or point of view. MESS is percept-plunder for the recent future.

In his book "I, Fellini," Federico Fellini wrote, "I don't mind speaking autobiographically because I reveal less of myself talking about my real life than I do if I talk about the layer underneath, the one of my fantasies, dreams and imagination." MESS peers into the portals of discovering this layer. MESS seeks what lies beyond this layer.

Participants -- including writers, artists, filmmakers, musicians and activists -- are the early radar systems and rear-view mirrors detecting how major transformations in technology affect us. As we live in a MESS-age, this interactive series shakes people out of their regular agendas and reality tunnels. MESS promotes mapmakers who search for new lands and new data. MESS seeks meticulous understanding of every thing we see, hear , feel, taste, and smell, passionately needling the somnambulists and proving that learning can and must be fun. As McLuhan asked, "How are you to argue with people who insist on sticking their heads in the in visible teeth of technology, calling the whole thing freedom?" "Technologies are not mere exterior ads," said Walter Ong, "but also interior transformations of consciousness." And, in his book Immediatism, Hakim Bey observed, "Simply to meet face-to-face is already an action against the forces that oppress us by isolation, by loneliness, by the trance of media."

"If it works, it's obsolete." -- McLuhan. "Another fine MESS." - - Random Lengths News.

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"Gerry Fialka's MESS series is a unique opportunity to meet special artists in a unique, intimate and revealing setting. His intelligence and dedication to research leads to a stimulating and highly interactive interview that is both entertaining and amazingly enlightening." - Phil Proctor of the "Firesign Theatre"

"Gerry Fialka is very special, well prepared and ready to take risks - I learned about my self! My kind of interviewer. " -Martin Perlich, author THE ART OF THE INTERVIEW

"Gerry Fialka is willing to enter in new discussions even if they go against his current views. Fialka's multilayered delivery of ideas encourages the search for new questions and new paradigms that extend beyond. He is well-informed, off-beat and articulate - one of the most fascinating people I've met." - Keith Jeffries, Ascalon Films

"What a great interview Fialka conducted with me. He made it so easy. There used to be people on TV who conducted interviews in depth, though few as good as Fialka. Tom Snyder was the last." - Orson Bean

"Fialka is a Zen master of media shuffling your mind with McLuhanisms, and stacking the deck with fresh insights into our culture." - David Selsky, Independent Film Programmer &author of 'Worlds of Silence'

"Gerry Fialka is a wonderful host, able to create a joyful relaxing and concentrated atmosphere. During the Q&A he showed himself as a very eloquent critic asking deep and serious questions- always with humor, knowledge and full of energy." - Ine Poppe, Professor at the Willem de Kooning Art Academy, Amsterdam

"I am very impressed by Gerry Fialka's energy in bringing together groups of people to think about ideas. That is very much in the McLuhan spirit, to create and foster interdisciplinary, living, educational projects in which people can talk about ideas. [Fialka] creates forums that bring together a plurality of critical perspectives into one multivalent conversation. " - Janine Marchessault, author of MARSHALL McLUHAN:COSMIC MEDIA.

"When I participated in Fialka's MESS, he created a unique through-space kind of meditation. This collective free high fires up the ability/consciousness of not judging. It makes a gap between saying and meaning leaving a lot of room for interpretation. Really amazing event." - Marc Herbst, editor-Journal of Aesthetics and Protest.

"Fialka's MESS interview series is a fascinating evening with stimulating questions and approaches. I surely enjoyed the depth of the arena and a chance to pontificate on questions of the spirit in a relaxed scenario and free speech surrounding." - Lady Lord Buckley

"Gerry’s interview with me was like hypnotherapy without the snapping of the fingers to bring you back. I really felt good after that." - Lucky Otis, grandson of Johnny Otis and son of Shuggie Otis & the GTO’s Miss Mercy

"Gerry Fialka is one of the most giving impresarios that ever landed in Venice, California. He continues to fulfill Venice founder Abbott Kinney's dream of Chautauqua's influence on people. Fialka is the glue of the Venicessance. " - Jeffrey Solomon, Historian, Venicebeachwalkingtours.com

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"The confusion is not my invention...It is all around us and our only chance is to let it in. The only chance of renovation is to open our eyes and see the mess." -Samuel Beckett.

"It's crazy how you can get yourself in a mess sometimes and not even be able to think about it with any sense and yet not be able to think about anything else. " - Stanlery Kubrick

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More archives:
*** Mac Rebennack

http://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B6FeuIKOihYBNTJhNjg0OWEtNmExMC00YjkxLWFmNmItOTBkZDU1NGZiNzNm&hl=en

*** tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE http://www.archive.org/details/GerryFialkaInterviewingTentativelyAConvenience-22510 
*** Carol Fondiller- Venice activist http://www.archive.org/details/CarolFondillerInterviewedByGerryFialka
***Del Casher - seminal musician & inventor

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ARCHIVE 2010-
SAT, Jan 9. RUDY PEREZ from 2-6pm (Film from 2-3:30, interview at 3:30). RUDY PEREZ's career has encompassed early training with the giants of modern dance, the birth of the postmodern dance movement, and the creation of a large body of vital work. He is an active 80 year old, influential choreographer and teacher based in Los Angeles, California, recognized in 2005 with the Lester Horton Lifetime Achievement Award and an Honorary Doctorate from California Institute for the Arts (CalArts) in 2006. Perez's career began in New York, working various day jobs and studying dance at night with Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Mary Anthony, and others. His breakthrough solos in the 1960's with the Judson Dance Theater - whose members included Lucinda Childs, Trisha Brown, Steve Paxton and Yvonne Rainer - helped launch the postmodern movement in dance. During that time, he studied with dance therapist Marian Chase and practiced dance therapy at Bellevue Hospital. http://www.rudyperezdance.org/about.html

SAT, Feb 13 at 3pm. DONOVAN SEELINGER - 2-4pm - Eight year old whiz kid, who's made experimental films, specializes in science, string theory and singularity. This unique fun interview transcends Art Linkletter's Kids Say The Darndest Things by merging Stephen Hawkins with Pee Wee Herman.

SAT, March 13. RONALD X. SENSOR - 2-4pm - The mysterious regular caller to Reverend Dan's seminal rock'n'roll radio show MUSIC FOR NIMRODS, Ronald X. Sensor will discuss his philosophies, censorship, and his alien abduction survivor techniques. Reverend Dan will spin wild tunes for a 4-6pm listening/dance party.

SAT, April 10 at 3pm. BARRY SMOLIN is an LA radio host, noted educator, composer, and writer. Best known as the longtime host (since 1995) of The Music Never Stops, KPFK's psychedelic radio show, Smolin has also released 3 albums of original music under the performance moniker Mr. Smolin: At Apogee (2003), The Crumbling Empire Of White People (2007), and, most recently, Bring Back The Real Don Steele (2009), a Los Angeles song-cycle recorded live and unrehearsed at Echo Curio. In addition to the albums, Smolin's music has been featured on the Showtime TV series Weeds. As a journalist, Smolin has published articles on a variety of subjects in the L.A. Times, NY Arts, The Sondheim Review, and numerous online venues. In 2004 he penned the foreword to the groundbreaking art book Dumb Luck: The Art of Gary Baseman, published by Chronicle Books. His current ongoing fiction project, The Miranda Complex, chronicles the romantic misfires of a pair of teenagers set against the backdrop of 1970s Los Angeles. Smolin earns his living teaching high school English at the Hamilton Humanities Magnet in the Los Angeles Unified School District.  

Sat, May 15 at 3pm: DOUG HARVEY. Since graduating with an MFA in painting from UCLA in 1994, Doug Harvey has written extensively about the Los Angeles and International art scenes and other aspects of popular culture, primarily as the art critic for LA WEEKLY, the largest circulation free weekly newspaper in America.His writing has also appeared in Art in America, The New York Times, Modern Painter, ArtReview & Art Issues. He has written museum and gallery catalogue essays for Jim Shaw, Jeffrey Vallance, Rick Griffin, Gary Panter, Big Daddy Roth, Thomas Kinkade, Basil Wolverton and many others. Harvey’s curatorial projects have ranged from a raffled solo show at INMO gallery to late psychedelic poster artist Rick Griffin's retrospective at Laguna Art Museum. He has also been part of the curatorial collective creating the exhibition content and design at the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culver City, CA. Mr. Harvey also continues to maintain an active art career, exhibiting his visual art (painting-based multimedia) locally and internationally, and participating in international experimental sound, radio, and film communities, as well as regularly teaching in both studio practice and art theory contexts. His diverse oeuvres were recently the subject of the survey exhibition Untidy: The Worlds of Doug Harvey at LA Valley College. He lives and works in Los Angeles and maintains a blog at www.dougharvey.blogspot.com and a website at www.dougharvey.la

Sat, June 26 at 3pm - UNCLE RUTHIE BUELL wears a lot of hats. For 50 years, she has hosted the enlightening KPFK 90.7FM radio program, "Halfway Down The Stairs" (every Saturday 8 AM), a program of stories, songs, poetry, & live guest performers.) It's audience ranges from age 3 to age 93! She teaches music to LA's Blind Children's Center in Los Angeles. Ruthie is also a  singer-songwriter. Her music is multi-leveled, non sexist, multi-cultural and all those fine PC things our little hearts cry for! (recognize the quote?) Ruthie also teaches beginning piano to kids, adults and special needs students of any age. Her students are also introduced to many other instruments, all of which are found in Ruthie's home.  In her spare time (she does not fold her laundry) Ruthie writes a lot of poetry, does two fast miles daily on the boring gym treadmill, pushes 115 lbs on the leg press, swims, and dreams of  winning the three yard Sprint Event at the Senior Olympics.. or performing her off-color adult songs at Buckingham Palace, whichever comes first. Every third Thursday at 7pm, leads a poetry workshop called "Poetry Plus" at The Workmen's Circle, 1525 S. Robertson Blvd, LA. Ruthie received The Magic Penny Award from The Children's Music Network, past winners have included Malvina Reynolds, Woody Guthrie, & Tom Chapin. 

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