Unless Obama Turn-Out is GIGANTIC,

. . . one statistician projects he'll lose to election fraud. Statistical analysis here.

So pls f'ing VOTE.

Tom Moody Interviews Paul Slocum Re-

his "sampler remixer," used by Paul in his performance at the opening nite of The Program -- interview here.

Surprise!

UPDATE on THE PROGRAM: Week Two Opening

Another full house. If you missed it, the work will as usual remain available for viewing at Conduit through noon this Thur. during the gallery's normal hours, Tues.-Sat. 10am-5pm, except there are a couple of pieces that will remain installed longer, and ALSO except that Nathalie Djurberg's Once Removed on My Mother's Side will be available for viewing only on Tuesday and Thursday, and Dumstrut will be available for viewing only on Wednesday (in order to comply with the artist's exhibition requirements and our own installation schedule).

After-party at Bolsa, a lovely, laid-back wine bar in Oak Cliff (recommended! -- 614 W. Davis west of the Bishop Arts District, 214-367-9367). Pics from the opening and after-party here.

I and my co-curator Charles Dee Mitchell are, briefly, on tv, on KERA's Think program. If I got it right, the remaining broadcasts are 8/4 at 11:30 am, and Wed. 8/6 in the wee hours, at 1:30 am. I think it's also supposed to be available online and/or by podcast for a week or two. (Thanks again to everyone at KERA, as well as Lisa Taylor for setting it up!)

Upcoming highlights: on Sat., August 9, we'll open Ryan Trecartin's A Family Finds Entertainment (42 jam-packed minutes, installed -- be sure to make the time to see it; it will be up through the remainder of THE PROGRAM), Tryptych TV (a compilation from a vlog by jimpunk, Mr. Tamale, and Rick Silva a.k.a. Abe Linkoln), and Michael Bell-Smith's Battleship Potemkin Dance Edit (120 BPM). The popular ShiftSpace installations will also remain up. The seated screenings will include another Trecartin plus works by Andrea Fraser, Kalup Linzy, Shana Moulton, and Anthony Goicolea, among others.

If you'd like to see Matthew Barney's Drawing Restraint 13 (27 min.), it runs through noon on Thursday, August 14, Tues.-Sat 10am-5pm.

ALSO, there will be a panel discussion at the Dallas Museum of Art, with the three co-curators and Paul Slocum and moderated by Suzanne Weaver, the Nancy and Tim Hanley Associate Curator of Contemporary Art, on Sun., Aug. 10 at 1:30, featuring three additional works as well as clips from those shown at Conduit.

Details including the most up-to-date version of the schedule here.

IF YOU HAVE DONATED at the Kilobyter ($100) level or above, you are entitled to one or more reserved seats at the seated programs (number depending on the level of donation). To reserve your seat(s), please e-mail the Video Association's Exec. Dir., AC Abbott, at ac(a)videofest.org with your name, the number of seats you'd like to reserve, and the programs for which you'd like to reserve them. And thank you for your support!

While You Were Out . . .

. . . a few headline stories:

B*sh Admin Recently Discussed Killing U.S. Sailors to Create Pretext to Attack Iran, per Pullitzer-winning Seymour Hersh, as reported by Think Progress.

B*sh Plans to Redefine Abortion to Include Contraception, as reported by the Tucson Citizen.

Blackwater Mercenaries Used in Medical MJ Bust? As reported by Salem-News.com; see also The LA Times.

And some interesting stats here . . . certain interests would like us to believe the election could be close, for more than one reason. Please help make this the biggest landslide ever.

Pretty Funny Political Video

here. Parental advisory.

UPDATE: THE PROGRAM, Week One Opening

Before you leave the house, you might want to check here for the latest.

A few photos from the Week One opening here, by Ben Britt. He had to leave early; it got fuller later; and everyone came back for Treewave, which played a terrific mash-up incorporating some of the original chiptunes the band's known for, plus new, cool stuff.

Thanks for coming out!

Week One's work will remain on view until noon Thurs., or with respect to a few pieces, longer. We generally expect to be making the switch starting Thurdays at noon, so if you couldn't make it Sat. nite, try to come by Conduit before then to see what you missed.

Next week's exhibition opens Sat., Aug. 2 (Week Two), at 7pm at Conduit. The Barney and Netzhammer continue through Week Two, but everything else will be new. Up-to-date schedule details here.

Re- UFO's

I'm agnostic about pretty much everything. I operate on the basis of temporary conclusions; "truth" is whatever seems to have worked best so far in terms of predictive power – like, if you live based on certain assumptions, what's your subsequent quantity and quality of life? I have to say, a lot of us live by stuff that does not pass this test.

I don't know how seriously to take the recording at the link below, but it seems to me unlikely that we are the only life in the universe, or the most advanced. I find the possibility of UFO's more plausible than any number of articles of religious faith.

I don't mean to promote or disparage either – I'm dam' glad I've never been in a situation that required me to decide whether I actually believe in either an omnipotent deity or aliens.

I do happen to believe that whether one believes in a deity has little to do with how well one behaves. I think any sane person who's had the nurturing and education to think clearly about life (too few of us) will behave pretty much the same way (constructively), whether they believe in any o' that or not.

All that said, check out the Dr. Edgar Mitchell interview here.