10.1.2006 | Sun

Wolf Eyes with John Wiese and Baltic Sea

9p, $6, 18+

Drawing from such disparate sources as Throbbing Gristle, Black Flag, and King Tubby, the Michigan trio Wolf Eyes creates harsh and hypnotic electronic landscapes that merge the frenzied energy of hardcore with the nihilistic menace of early industrial and noise. With John Wiese, an American noise and experimental music artist, and Baltic Sea, a Portland-based experimental rock outfit.

10.3.2006 | Tues

Ovo with Idm Theft Able and Crank Sturgeon

8:30p, $7, 18+

Ovo is a project of music and life. Tired of traveling with each others’ bands, Stefania Pedretti and Bruno Dorella started Ovo to allow them to tour on their own. Ovo brought their experimental noise to SPACE a couple of years ago and shook everyone up. With Idm Theft Able, a performer who can vomit diamonds into/onto microphones and amplified surfaces with a Windham, Maine attitude, and Crank Sturgeon, who fosters junk noise, Dada faux pas, actionist ethos (act-shun pathos), fisch kopf psychedelia, non-art performance-art, and nothing too serious.

10.5.2006 | Thurs

Alias and Tarsier with Astronautilus and Dilly Dilly

9p, $8, 18+

Alias is in part known for his diverse range of collaborations with such notables as Will Oldham, The Notwist, John Vanderslice, Lali Puna, Sage Francis and Ben Gibbard (Death Cab For Cutie), so it was no surprise when he shifted gears from his 2002 glitch-infused, instrumental hip hop opus Muted and began working on a project with Brooklyn vocalist Tarsier. Their ambitious live presentation involves a four piece band armed with keyboards, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, MPC, and live effects, promising a big, but warm sound.  With Astronautalis and hometown hero Dilly Dilly.

10.6.2006 | Fri

First Friday Arts Walk: The Arts Formally Known as Prints

5-8p, free, All ages

In conjunction with The Maine Print Project, SPACE presents “The Arts Formally Known as Prints,” a group show of work that uses the idea of printmaking as a starting point. Artists include G. Bank, Kyle Bravo, Karen Gelardi, Adriane Herman, Colleen Kinsella, Brian Reeves, Chad Verrill and David Wolfe.

10.7.2006 | Sat

Gustafer Yellowgold

3p, $6 kids/ $8 adults, All ages

Singer Morgan Taylor and his band of musicians cater to an active and often verbally inquisitive audience. They musically narrate the story of Gustafer Yellowgold, a golden alien who comes from the sun, blessed with a magnetism for making friends with some of Earth’s odder creatures. It all comes to life in a “moving book” of songs and pictures, projected in full color onto a big screen, with subtitles for early readers. This potent combination of original music and dynamic cartoon illustrations has a surprisingly wide appeal ranging from small kids to the adults who bring them.

10.13.2006 | Fri

AV Geeks presents "The Modern Housewife"

7:30p, $6, All ages

Since the early 90’s, Head A/V Geek Skip Elsheimer has amassed a collection of over 18,000 films from school and government auctions, creating one of the largest archives of educational, training and promotional films in the world.  Pulling from this collection, A/V Geeks returns to SPACE for another fun evening of retro-film tomfoolery, this time presenting films aimed towards solving the problems faced by today’s (well, really, yesterday’s) modern housewife. A fascinating and insulting look at the 1950s and 1960s housewife.
Goodbye to Garbage - General Electric - circa early 1960s
In this short, our housewife learns about the wonders of the garbage disposal. This film is a favorite with audiences due to the high-speed photography of grapefruit rinds and bone being pulverized.
[How To Pack A Suitcase] -Shell Oil - circa late 1950s
Shell Oil's women's travel consultant gives us some handy tips for packing a week's worth of clothing in a single overnight bag.
Home is What You Make It - Whirlpool - 1969
This film helps the modern homemaker buy, care for, get service for and get the most out of her modern home appliances for present and future needs while reinforcing the most absurd gender stereotypes.
Joy of Living with Fragrance - Avon - circa early 1960s
An amazing promotional film that introduces us to the world of perfume and the importance of smelling nice. Those with fragance allergies may wish to hold their noses during this film.
Soft as a Cloud - Dow Chemical - 1955
So you've spent all this money on the latest appliances, but you still aren't happy. Perhaps it is because your water is "old fashioned". This film sells the housewife on buying a water softener for the home even if they already have soft water.
Freeze-In - Calvin Corporation for Sears - circa late 1960s
Made for Sears appliance salesmen, this film tries to capitalize on the zany format of TV's Laugh-In to introduce the new Kenmore freezer campaign. Even though the film features two of the stars from Laugh-In - Arte Johnson and Judy Carne.- it is clear that the director of this ephemeral gem missed the point. It's like watching a train wreck!

10.14.2006 | Sat

The Lunchbox Series with Kelly Murphy: A Curious City and SPACE event

11a, $5/ person, $10/family, ages 4+

A witch looking to do a wee bit of wickedness, switches a troll baby and a human baby.  But, the weary and slightly confused parents continue to love their ‘children’ and the witch’s plan, alas, backfires. Illustrator Kelly Murphy talks about illustrating Good Babies: A Tale of Trolls, Humans, a Witch and a Switch. We’ll invite kids to transform themselves into their troll cousins with a mad round of mask making. 

10.14.2006 | Sat

We Push Buttons Launch Party

9p, $5, 18+ 

Celebrating the launch of wepushbuttons.com, a locally-based, globally-informed webzine and forum for the electronic music community. WPB features in-depth reviews interviews of artists, comprehensive local club and event listings, as well as bulletin boards, staff commentary and much more.  WPB is not genre specific, but instead covers all forms of electronic music: hip hop, techno, house, trip hop, downtempo, DnB, breaks, trance, IDM, leftfield, electro and beyond. There is something for everyone at WPB. Whether you are a producer or consumer, artist or fan, label head or tech head, you all have a place to discuss what’s new, interesting, and influential to your life and lifestyle in electronic music. Come and celebrate with us and plug in.  Tonight’s party will lostsatellite (electronica), Vik44 (IDM, techno), The Desert People (trip hop, downtempo), Syn the Shaman (hip hop), j.hjort (tech house, minimal techno). 

10.17.2006 | Tues

Supersystem with Zombi and Hiss and Chambers

9p, $8, 18+

Supersystem (formally El Guapo) melds hip-hop, electronica, punk rock, so-called world music and a  bit of everything has gone into the architecture. The NY/DC quartet’s latest record A Million Microphones has eleven startlingly original tracks saturated with African-tinged guitar, complex polyrhythms, atmospheric synthesizers, jaunty, funk-fried bass and infectious beats. With Zombi, presenting re-architectured progressive rock and dynamic instrumentals featuring a signature sound that’s achieved using only electric bass, drums, and a collection of analog synthesizers. Also with Hiss and Chambers, a Portland-based quartet combining anthemic rock and dark retro dance stylings.

10.18.2006 | Wed

Creative Conversations: What is an Arts District?

7p, free, All ages

Creative Conversations is a way to connect creative individuals: to each other, to organizations, to information, to opportunities. Tonight we’ll ask: What is an Arts District? We’ll learn about what other communities are doing to safeguard, develop and promote the arts and artists of their districts. After the presentation, we’ll discuss what are some opportunities to strengthen the Arts District of Portland.

Presented by The Portland Arts and Cultural Alliance

10.19.2006 | Thurs

Documentary Film: After Innocence

7:30p, $8 /$6 for members, all ages

AFTER INNOCENCE tells the dramatic and compelling story of the exonerated - innocent men wrongfully imprisoned for decades and then released after DNA evidence proved their innocence. The film focuses on the gripping story of seven men and their emotional journey back into society and efforts to rebuild their lives. Included are a police officer, an army sergeant and a young father sent to prison and even death row for decades for crimes they did not commit. The men are thrust back into society with little or no support from the system that put them behind bars. While the public views exonerations as success stories - wrongs that have been righted - AFTER INNOCENCE shows that the human toll of wrongful imprisonment can last far longer than the sentences served.

The film raises basic questions about human rights and society's moral obligation to the innocent and places a spotlight on the flaws in our criminal justice system that lead to wrongful conviction of the innocent.

AFTER INNOCENCE is directed by Jessica Sanders, an Academy-Award nominated filmmaker (“Sing!”), and is produced and written by Jessica Sanders and Marc Simon in association with The American Film Foundation, an Academy® and Emmy®-award winning production company. Simon attended the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and was a student at the Innocence Project, an experience that inspired the idea for this film.

10.20.2006 | Fri

Deerhoof with Seekonk and Small Sails

9p, $10, 18+

Small Sails is an audio-visual group based in Portland, OR, comprised of four members - three of which play musical instruments: vibraphones, keyboards, guitar and drums. The fourth member handles two 16mm projectors and uses film loops to project various images behind the band during performances. With Portland, ME favorite Seekonk, playing a bewitching fusion of slowcore, dream pop, and post-rock.

10.21.2006 | Sat

Moses Atwood CD release

9p, $5, 18+

A classically trained guitarist who studied under notable teachers such as Dusan Bogdanovic and Apostolos Paraskevas, Moses has studied musical traditions from all over the world. With heavy influences from blues masters such as Mississippi John Hurt and Skip James, songwriting legends like Woody Guthrie and Townes Van Zandt, and contemporaries such as Tom Waits and Kelly Joe Phelps, Moses Atwood is a muscian who truly draws upon the roots of American music. 

10.22.2006 | Sun

Alec K. Redfearn w/ Al Duvall and Poor Valley Salvation Society

8:30p, $7, 18+

Alec K. Redfearn is a musician, composer, and performance artist whose music is a complex mix of psychedelic folk, progrock, old-time country, acidic cabaret, dark circus music, and sinister dream fragments that haunt in recurring motifs. Al Duvall began his musical career on the vaudeville stage as end-man in Lew Dockstader’s Minstrels. He took up the banjo in 1991 as physical therapy for his pleurisy, and went on to master the alto kazoo at the age of 118. Al Duvall attributes his remarkable longevity to a daily dram of Hamlin’s Quinsy Balsam. With Poor Valley Salvation Society, two nice Jewish boys, a former Virgin Mary, and two fallen choir girls hell-bent on a mission to make old-time country and gospel rowdy and fun.

10.23.2006 | Mon

WHO IS BOZO TEXINO?

55 min. b/w experimental/documentary

7:30p, $6, all ages

In 1987 filmmaker Bill Daniel and his trusty Bolex camera began hanging out in hobo jungles and riding freights across the West, looking for clues to the identity of a strange boxcar graffito. While gathering interviews and discovering clues to the identities of many of the most legendary boxcar artists, Daniel discovered a vast underground folkloric practice that has existed with little notice for over a century. Today these drawings live on as a new breed of hobos have taken to the rails and kept the tradition of moniker chalking alive. This artform provides unlikely common ground between mostly conservative railworkers and old school tramps and the kids whose approach includes spray cans and punk lifestyles.

Since completing the film in June last year, Bill Daniel and his film Who is Bozo Texino? have been on the road, wowing audiences of punks, geezers, folkies, foamers and graffiti toughs all over the nasty ol usa. The film has screened at festivals across Europe including Rotterdam, Vienna, and Slovenia.

10.27.2006 | Fri

An Evening with Mady deLone and David Shepard

7:30p, $5 suggested, all ages

David Shepard served 10 years of a 30-year sentence for a crime he didn't commit. DNA evidence and legal assistance from The Innocence Project helped him prove his innocence. SPACE hosts Shepard with Mady deLone, Executive Director of The Innocence Project, in conjunction with the gallery exhibit "The Innocents," on display through November. Shepard and deLone will talk about their experiences and the issues surrounding wrongful convictions in the United States today.

10.28.2006 | Sat

All Hallows’ Eve

9p, $10, 21+

SPACE celebrates All Hallows’ Eve in fine fashion with costumes that can’t be revealed. Expect some surprises, some beauty, and some one-time-only performances by Portland musicians paying tribute to their musical heroes.

10.30.2006 | Mon

Vialka with Okbari

8:30p, $6, 18+

The dynamic duo of Marylise Frecheville and Eric Boros, aka Vialka, draws its influences from traditional and modern music from around the world. Vialka is not just a musical project, but a social scientific experiment, attempting to meet and communicate with interesting and unknown musicians and artists from around the world - with particular interest in polluted dictatorships, bleak colonies, and monarchic democracies. With Okbari, performing multi-instrumental original music inspired by the Middle Eastern, Turkish, Persian and Indian traditions. Okbari presents traditional and classical pieces as well as new interpretations of percussive pieces from Eastern Europe and South India, and incorporates the oud, bouzouki, doumbek, riqq, tabla, ney, mridangam and several other instruments from around the world.