New Media

The Propagandist wants to see the kind of promotions you don’t typically see in a Google Adsense placeholder. They’ve got a neat example of the type of political propaganda advertisement they’re looking for.

Instructions
Are you a Photoshop geek with a hate on for tyrants, terrorists and human-rights abusing jerks of the world? Send us your ad. We post it, plus your name, a link to your blog and, if you insist, your home address, social insurance number and ATM password.

Have fun, everyone.

BTW, here’s a glimpse back to what political advertising used to look like. I really do think an ad like this could work again today. It’s definitely memorable.

I’ll be checking out the Neanderthal Arts Festival again this week. It’s into it’s second week, so there are new shows to see and much fun to be had. Details:

Neanderthals In Fort Mac and Countries Shaped Like Stars

Neanderthal Arts Festival

The Neanderthal Arts Festival showcases cutting-edge theatre from across Canada and BC. The Festival also includes the Walking Fish Showcase for emerging theatre artists and a range of other initiatives and events.

The action takes place at The Cultch, 1895 Venables Street.

Tickets available through the Cultch website

For more information visit the Neanderthal Arts Festival website

Week 2: July 28 – August 1

Highway 63: The Fort Mac Show by Architect Theatre
Produced by Architect Theatre; Venue: The Cultch Historic Theatre

Every Canadian experiences the benefits of oil, but many know very little about life at its source. Behind every barrel, every economic projection or environmental scandal, there are people. Who are the people at the northern tip of Alberta’s Highway 63? At the heart of the world’s largest energy project, theatre creators from across Canada use a blend of verbatim and improvisation to bring the front lines of the oil sands to Vancouver.

Countries Shaped Like Stars by Emily Pearlman & Nicolas Di Gaetano
Produced by Mi Casa Theatre, Venue: The Cultch Rehearsal Hall

The courtship of Gwendolyn Magnificent and Bartholomew Spectacular is a tale of love best heard through a tin-can telephone. With performer-operated lights, water glasses, whirly winds and a mandolin, they create the sounds and images of a landscape forever altered by regret.

The Hanging Judge by Andrey Summer
Spectral Theatre Society; Venue: The Cultch Historic Theatre

In a cemetery outside 17th Century London, two trolls meet by the discarded corpse of a hanged judge. The mangier troll, Blemish, has brought a bag with him inside which is a bound man. Blemish would like to eat this man, but the other troll – Chantecler – has just returned from France, where Napoleon has ushered in an era of enlightenment. And Chantecler has learned.

Walking Fish Showcase: July 31, August 1
Returning for its eighth season the Walking Fish Showcase, will featuring its strongest line up yet of emerging, young theatre artists. An eclectic evening of adventurous, risk-taking theatre, the line up this year includes:
• Red by Jordan Hall, directed by Renee Iaci;
• SeaofSouls.com by Melanie Wickes, directed by Jeff Gladstone;
• The Assembly Line by Paulo Ries Ribeiro, directed by Nathan Medd
• The Woods at Tender Creek by Lenore Rowntree co-directed by Ella Simon & Evan Frayne
• The Anarchist Banker, devised and created by The Ensemble, co-directors: Nicole DeLauriers & Ryan Swansen, choreography by Edmond Kilpatrick.

More provocation and political hit-and-runs from the Ministry of Truth.

• WikiTreason?
• Questions of Privacy
• Human Rights Tribunal On The Way Out?
• Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and cannot remain silent
  

When I’m not ruminating on conspiracies in central Asia, I can often be found at local tech events in Vancouver enjoying the company of fellow entrepreneurial-minded geeks. My roundup in Techvibes from DemoCamp last week, where tech start-up people got to tell other tech start-up people why they’re awesome. Highlight of the evening:

Honourable mention must go to Ed Levinson from Analusis, mostly because he was just so darn entertaining, in the tradition of manic street preachers. (Sadly, Ed didn’t actually get to pitch his idea. It went like this):

Sadly, Ed got pulled away at that point. He’d hit the 30-second mark. But I could tell that most of the people in the room wanted to hear more and I will be in touch with Ed to find out precisely what this entrepreneurial mentor was driving at.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani may be executed by Iran at any moment. The following is a letter from her children, Faride and Sajjad Mohammadi e Ashtiani. Please sign this petition to help save this innocent woman.

Plea to the world by Sakineh’s Children
Do not allow our nightmare become a reality, Protest against our mother’s stoning! Today we stretch out our hands to the people of the whole world. It is now five years that we have lived in fear and in horror, deprived of motherly love. Is the world so cruel that it can watch this catastrophe and do nothing about it?

We are Sakine Mohammadi e Ashtiani’s children, Fasride and Sajjad Mohamamadi e Ashtiani. Since our childhood we have been acquainted with the pain of knowing that our mother is imprisoned and awaiting a catastrophe. To tell the truth, the term “stoning” is so horrific that we try never to use it. We instead say our mother is in danger, she might be killed, and she deserves everyone’s help.

Today, when nearly all options have reached dead-ends, and our mother’s lawyer says that she is in a dangerous situation, we resort to you. We resort to the people of the world, no matter who you are and where in the world you live. We resort to you, people of Iran, all of you who have experienced the pain and anguish of the horror of losing a loved one.

Please help our mother return home!

We especially stretch our hand out to the Iranians living abroad. Help to prevent this nightmare from becoming reality. Save our mother. We are unable to explain the anguish of every moment, every second of our lives. Words are unable to articulate our fear…

Help to save our mother. Write to and ask officials to free her. Tell them that she doesn’t have a civil complainant and has not done any wrong. Our mother should not be killed. Is there any one hearing this and rushing to our assistance?

Faride and Sajjad Mohammadi e Ashtiani