Some say culture-jamming fails to flip the script on our consumer culture. Adbusting, artivism, detournement or just plain parody—call it what you will. You can screw with Google searches; you can sample advertising soundtracks for your new CD and get it played on a pirate radio station. Some say all your cleverness just feeds more product to the beast, and the beast just turns around and feeds it back to you—I mean, even if you’re making TV that poke fun at itself, you’re still asking people to watch TV. Right? If this sort of conversation hooks you, then so will Mark Hosler’s short videos addressing issues of media-literacy, creative and humorous anti-corporate art/activism, the role of advertising and corporate power in our lives, intellectual property issues and the evolution of art, law and resistance in a media-saturated, multi-national world. Hosler is co-founder of Negativland, which has been sampling and subverting the corporate culture’s sounds, images and texts since 1980. Hosler will present his videos in person at Hallwalls, an event co-sponsored by the Experimental TV Center and the Central New York Programmer’s Group.

Dance seems to be growing in Buffalo (see “Artist of the Week,” page 15), and nobody can argue that there’s plenty of talent to mine here. Take Beth Elkins, for instance. A professional dancer since 1990, she worked with the Milwaukee Ballet and BalletMet Columbus before coming to Buffalo, where she has since been involved with Pick of the Crop and Neglia Ballet. And now she has founded a new dance company, Nimbus Dance, with the idea of putting on performances with current subject matter in unconventional spaces. To that end, Nimbus will premier its first production, Story of a Girl, in Gallery 164, the art gallery she shares with her husband, architect Brad Wales, on Allen Street (his gallery is below, her dance and Pilates studio above). Story of a Girl is a multimedia project, featuring a video backdrop by Wales and a photo show by Buffalo Spree photographer Jim Bush. Featured dancers include Elkins, Melanie Aceto, Jennifer Golonka and Kerry Ann Ring. Story of a Girl will also run next week, Thursday through Saturday, April 13 to 15.

Upon first listening to Matthew Good, one may be drawn to his sarcastic lyrics or recognizable voice. The Matthew Good Band was one of the most successful alternative rock bands in the late 1990s and early aughts, releasing seven albums from 1995 to 2001. Now a solo performer, and with a less than syrupy-sweet reputation, the Canadian-born Good has a penchant for irreverence—just ask Nickelback or anybody who reads his personal blog regularly. His angry and sardonic personality is a psychologist’s dream, and it carries over into his catchy music. On Friday, however, he’s going to just let his music speak for itself, as Good makes a quick pit-stop in Buffalo as part of his first ever solo acoustic tour. The show, which will go down at Club Infinity, is his only Stateside appearance, so it’s a must-see.

This year the lake didn’t freeze over, and the Power Authority’s Lake Erie/Niagara River ice boom swung limply in the current. Even so, its removal this weekend will signify the beginning of spring here. Warm weather, daffodils, groundhogs and equinoxes be damned, it’s not spring until the ice boom is gone. Accordingly, Western New York will celebrate the event—and our rich waterfront—with the fourth annual Boom Days weekend. Events planned for Friday include cannon salvos at Fort Niagara and historic Fort Erie, a ceremonial ice boom ball drop by the fireboat E.M. Cotter, live music from Rocket 88, food and drinks and a fireworks display. Winners of the Just Buffalo Boom Days poetry contest will read their poems (see “In the Margins,” page 12). Additionally, the Buffalo Waterfront Alliance is sponsoring an Open Waterfront Forum. Presenters will range from recreational boating companies to waterfront interest and volunteer groups. A similar celebration will take place Saturday at the LaSalle Yacht Club in Niagara Falls, with Evergreen, Jim Marohn and Fort Niagara Re-enactors will providing entertainment.

This week the UB Art Gallery offers a glimpse at what goes on in the lecture halls of the university’s Media Study Department when it presents NET<3, a two-day exhibition of new work by nine students who explore sociable technologies. The exhibit includes two installations: Tribot, a prototype robotic partner for people by Nicholas Stedman and Assistive Technology, the design for a chair that helps a person in and out of the bathtub. On Monday (April 10) Loren Sonnenberg will perform Rawing the News, a metaphorical illustration and lecture on the process of online news production. On Tuesday (April 11) David Hohusen presents a workshop on creating comic images using gaming systems; Jonathan Burow, Tom Peters and Parker English present Socially Networked Video, a choose-your-own-adventure piece using a web-based tool that allows the artists to compose and distribute live, streaming video of the audience; Brian Diesel presents The Enveloop, a discussion on mediated social environments; and Al Larsen presents Warm Not Cold (pictured), a performance comprising music, spoken word and video .