Friday, June 06, 2008

LIEBE ZUSCHAUER UND MITWIRKENDE
Forgot to mention that sweet little Marco, the Italian beau of French superstud Maxime Cervulle was in town with his hot dyke ladyfriend Mariela and they came to see me perform at the West Germany Club with The New Bloods as well as my Happening at the Halla.
I thought i was going to Paris to DJ at the Porn Film Festival, but stupid Hustler Magazine withdrew their grant to the festival, and that was going to take care of my accomodations, travel and honorarium. Oh welp, i was just in Paris awhile back. Hopefully someone will bring me their again in the fall, which is much better then a summer trip.
On July 1st Beth Ditto and the Gossip come through Berlin and i am supposed to be the MC at their show at Columbia Halle next to Flughafen Templehoff, the Nazi Airport.
Last night i was the date of Daniel Hendrickson, the Scandanavian Muslim for the X Wohnungen Project that spotlighted, performances, installations and films screenings at different apartments in the neighborhood of Neu Köln. The route we took started at a bordello, which they should have made part of the process, having an artist dress it up or something . . . that was a curatorial miss step in my opinion. The first apartment on our itinerary was art directed, and featured a performance by my Cheap Blacky co-star Christophe Chemin working the alchemy that only he is known for. Next was a brilliant new film and live music presentation by Tim Blue, assisted by his brother KJohnny Blue, that was completely sublime.
On Sanderstr 10 was a hetero kitch piece that featured the German fascination with kareoke. I did enjoy singing the Pet Shop Boys remake of The Village People´s Go West, but was a bit put off by the lazyness of turning the audience into the performance.
On Pflügerstraße 64 a man sang a dull song accompanied by TV newsfootage.
At Friedelstrasse 61,the Turkish artist Nurkan Erpulat created pure ecstacy with her witty tableaux vivant through a key hole, likewise at Weserstrasse 212 the home of gifted Troy Lopez, the chef to the Berlin stars along with playful and robust soundscape artist Eric D. Clark getting cunty suprema with a delightful original disco medly along with la Lopez´Jamaica style fisting crepes----voila!!! So much of art today lacks generosity, so the combination of Clark and Lopez fueling art for the senses was a much needed treat.
At Weichelstrasse 8a, the gorgeous Ideal Passage Apt Complex beckoned. Too bad the blondine assistant was such an icky little sourpuss, who really wasn´t featuring me the minute he laid eyes on la doll. He was a cute kid with a nice tight ass, but he really deserved to get beaten up. Thankfully the William Tell like host was personable and attractive.
At Sonnenallee 65 Daniela and i weren´t up to playing the Kirsten Pieroth knock knock game, but it was nice being read a Ted Hughes like poem by Carl Holmquist even though the party surroundings was a major irritant---- there wasn´t one cute boy at the affected soiree that i would have liked to snog, let alone chit chat with. We did have a good time at the opening party at the WAU Cafe. It was great to see and hang with Peaches whose X Wohnungen performance installation was the talk of the evening, i wish it was on my route. I would have also loved to see the Walter Gropius project haus and the activity that was part of that action. Oh welpsis at least i got some sugar from delicious Anna Muelter, Christian F, Suzi Su and a host of other familiar and loving faces that kept coming out of the wood and pantyworks. Too bad my knock knees kept me from dancing to Sheila Chipper of Elastica fames spunky party mix.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

ICH VERSUCHE; MICH VON SCHLECHTEM FERNZULHALTEN
So sorry its taken me forever to post something, but the combination heavy duty schedule of performances, events and teaching assignments with the heat wave has left me war torn and battered. I will begin by saying that i had a lovely time in Stuttgard teaching at the Merz Akademie a performance art workshop for a week that culminated in a short performance with my students. Shout outs to a gifted gang of young people: Jasmin Bauer, Elisabeth Dreher, Isabel Kast, Steffen Kottner, Kristin Pfeuffer, Daniel Schenk, Carola Hähnel, Ann-Lena Carl, Christian Goldemann, Christian Greiner, Hanno Heilbronner, Isabel Pettinatio, Julia Weiß, Steven Ziegler and Erik Sturm. They wowed their colleguens with a spirited akshunist, fluxus style happening called "Modangela" that was a major hoot. The Merz Akademie is housed in a former insane assylum, the perfect place for Vaginal Davis to teach. Stuttgard may seem provincial and extremely clean and middle class, but remember its where the RAF came from. The dean of the school treated all the guest teachers to a super exotic Afrikan dinner at the restaurant Ambiente, where we had our choice of entres that included Zebra, Ostrich, Antelope or Crocodile.
Got to meet my fellow art teachers that included Stefan Pren and Stefan Eckel of b books kollective, along with Dutch beauty Harmine Louwe', Stephan Geene, Nicola Ritter, Ekkehard Ehlers, Gijs Gieskes and Jana Frank.
At dinner i met sexy, radikal art provacateur Oliver Voss, a juicy manicre, who i wouldnt mind jumping on his said proverbial love bone. Also drank in to the wee hours with Peter Ott, the Hamburg documentary filmmaker, theorist Helmut Draxler, Russian computer art designer Olia Lialina, filmmaker Christina Lang, design theorist Dr. Yvonne P. Doderer and Christoph Dreher, the cineaste and cameraman who use to be in the punk band Diehaut.
Before Stuttgard, i taught for a week at the art school Weißensee, then presented a piece "You'll Know What To Do" with the students in what writer Travis Jeppeson called an avante gard boot camp, at the Raumerweiterungshalle a DDR style container in Neu Köln, where some of the students work as part of a very sophisticated art kollective producing an interesting body of events that you should check out. After performing to a SRO crowd we all joined forces for some fried chicken at AReis, the Lebenese chicken shack on Sonnenalle, then more dwinking and stinking at Silver Future. I am sure you will be hearing a lot more from Annette Knol, Lydia Hamann, Christophe de Rohan Chabot, Anne Duk, Jenny Cash, Joana Coppi, Katja and Anna. They are definately all artists that the international scene will benefit from.
O and i also performed with Kjohnny Blue of Cheap opening for the Portland Oregan band signed to the Kill Rock Stars label, The New Bloods, along with Humousexual at West Germany in Kreutzeberg. I usually don't perform at rock clubs, but this was something special organized by the promoters Le Mustache, at a odd little club in an office building that reminded me of the early days of the Masque for some reason, though it didnt look like the Masque, but more like a shower in a gay bathhouse. Everyone at West Berlin including its owner and intern were sweet and accomodating. Earlier in the evening the cute British/German gay couple who head Humousexual hosted a vegan dinner, that was scrumpteous. So nice connecting with the black sister women of The New Bloods, who have such an original sound that includes a violin along with guitar and drums. I love how when they are on stage they completely ignore the audience and engage in private conversation. I had to buy their LP on vinyl no less, which will be added to my playlist when i DJ. Wanted a T-shirt, but they were all sold out.
For the May version of Rising Stars, Falling Stars we screened The Perils of Pauline starring Pearl White, with music accompanyment by the Blue Bros, Tim and KJohnny who out did themselves this year with what looked like a floor scattered with 100 different musical instruments of unknown origins. In the audience was the Cheapies: Marc Siegel, Daniel Hendrickson, and fearless leader Susanne Sachße, handsome Uli with Guillame, Marc Arthur, Travis Jeppeson with beau Mario, and a young German underwear model knows as the concubine of Terence Koh, Christophe Chemin, Anna Muelter, Christian F., Nanna Heidenreich, Katja and Christophe de Rohan of my Weißensee class, Arsenal director Stefanie Schulte Strathaus making a glorious and humorous introduction to the proceedings which began with lots of wine liberally flowing amongst the audience. Seen having a good old girlish time, German film legend Birgit Hein with important cultural figure Dorothee Wenner of the Berlinale Talent campus. Later we all ventured to Kreuzeberg for the annual birthday bash of Angie Baby and bedroom eyed Turkish lothario Senol Senturk made extra special by Arsenal Empress Stefanie, screening a rare experimental film starring Marilyn Monroe in dishabille. No she didnt show the recently discovered blue movie where Ms. Monroe is performing fellatio on the large genitals of John F. Kennedy.
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The last three days were devoted to the final performances of Cheap's production of Max und Moritz at the Parkaur. It was sad to say goodbye to a piece so filled with joy, and an excellent cast with a delightful musical score provided by Tim Blue. I play a sexy, permiscuous Witwe Bolte, who causes havoc with her all-dancing,all-singing, well trained chickens---poot, poot, poot. The heads of the childrens theatre will probably regret cancelling this production, which attracted the Bundespresident for a command performance at Schloss Castle Belleview. If they had only known how to properly promote the piece, they could have had a crossover hit, that not only appealed to children but adults. But state sponsored theatres rarely show such a visionary tract. Too bad.
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This Saturday is the June version of Rising Stars, Falling Stars at Kino Arsenal at the Sony Center in Potsdamer Platz, 9:30 pm at the intimate Theatre 2. We will screen comedy great Mabel Normand in Tillie's Punctured Romance also starring the great Marie Dressler and a pre-fame Charlie Chaplain. The wonderful Eunice Martin will accompany the film on piano, and after the screening a free wine reception in the Rote Foyer.