Ukrainian sand animation artist Ksenya Simonova, who came to fame in her country via an American Idol styled TV show, has been taking her country by storm -- even moving people to tears -- with her unique handmade sand art, which she creates live as a kind of requiem to those who died during the Great Patriotic War. As in the video clip above, her real time public performances of sand animation are typically made up of Simonova swiftly hand crafting various war images, quickly morphing from one tragic image to the next, all to the accompaniment of a somber soundtrack of classical & traditional music plus soundbites of wartime news footage.

Working with a mixture of regular sea sand and volcanic sand, all spread out on a glass pane as canvas, Simonova uses her hands to craft her engaging moving stories. At the end of each dramatic live art performance consisting of tales of death and destruction she blows out a votive candle. Usually at this point audience members are seen tearing up. Surprisingly, Simonova, who is also a part time model, only took up the unusual art form (she is only one of a handful of such artists -- the others are from an older generation) just one year ago after becoming a victim of the credit crunch. Reportedly her next project will be a Michael Jackson themed live art installation piece.

Every year the staff of Amoeba Music in Hollywood get together for a no-holds-barred musical cage match called Amoebapalooza...20 Amoeba bands get as crazy as possible onstage for 10 minutes each!

How crazy IS possible?

Very crazy was the answer this year...and/or very glamorous, creepy, rockin', shockin', wild, wonderful, and dancetastic! One of the most wonderful and insane Amoebapalooza lineups of all time took the stage at the King King on Sunday night and showed how it was done. Surely any unsuspecting patrons to walk in from Hollywood Boulevard must have thought they had stumbled onto the set of some kind of psychedelic rock opera written by Andrew Lloyd Webber's brain-damaged evil twin, and hopefully they stuck around to enjoy it with the rest of us.

As our lovable and pants-wettingly funny host Brently Heilbron put it, it's the last Amoebapalooza of the decade...soon we won't have the Oughts to kick around anymore, and it'll be the Teens! Taking this temporal warning to heart, the musical freaks of Amoeba made sure they sent the Oughts out with a kaboom. Have a drink with me and let the show begin...

The lights went down on the red velvet curtain, and the festivities began with a Jaco-Pastorious-on-PCP solo bass guitar odyssey from gangly wunderkind Ben Ricci, bravely kicking off this night of strangeitude. Is the bass meant to make sounds like that? Dunno. Ben's bass wizardry was closely followed by the hard-charging sounds of Thin Lizzy tribute band Emerald, with one Sam Rodriguez channeling the spirit of the late great Phil Lynott. Sorry if I'm leaving anything out...the next thing I remember was the always mind-blowing cabaret fantasia of Cream Puff, the one-man show of antique futurist foppington Joey Jenkins. There really is nothing like Mr. Jenkins...jigging, chanting and prophesizing from the stage, in his knickers and mountaineering headgear, he makes you feel like you've wandered into one of David Lynch's weirder dreams. He ended by collapsing in a grand death scene, instantly growing a marvellous flower from his heart. Showbiz!

Today, August 29th 2009, marks what would have been Michael Jackson's 51st birthday. To celebrate the date and the legacy of MJ and the King of Pop's music there are numerous parties planned for this day in various cities, including San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles.

In LA tonight QuestLove of the mighty Roots (who killed it the one time I saw them play live at Amoeba Hollywood two years ago -- see pics here) is overseeing the Remember the TIme special MJ birthday party tonight with a three hour set along with DJs Vikter Duplaix, Rashida and Loslito at The Church in downtown LA. The party starts at 10pm and goes til 4am. 21+ $20 admission or $15 if you send an RSVP message here by 6pm. The Church is located at 606 E. 6th St. at the corner of Crocker, and one block east of San Pedro.

In San Francisco tonight at Yoshi's A-List Musiq Circle & Mohogany Events are presenting what they have dubbed "The Official Bay Area Michael Jackson Birthday Celebration" with music by Rick & Russ Show. The event is an after party for the sold out Mint Condition show also at Yoshi's.   Those with ticket stubs from that show get a $5 discount on the $10 admission tag. Doors 9:30pm. Party til 2am. Yoshi's is located at 1330 Fillmore Street. Also tonight at 9pm at The Madrone at 500 Divisidero in San Francisco there will be a screening of the new MJ tribute video above by Naplam Clique's Unity and Trevor that was directed and edited by Trevor Parham for Eklectyk Creative Media and includes the MJ eulogy speech by the Rev. Al Sharpton.