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Wednesday, November 04, 2009

RÄUMLICHE TRENNUNG
I was only able to see 30 minutes of the Andrew Kerton with Johnny Woo performance of Palla-dee-uhm so i can´t give it a proper review. I had my performance Memory Island on the big stage right after Andrew´s piece, so i had to leave early go get dressed amd into make-up, but i did like the song Andrew lip synched to that began his absurdist music hall style review. Tan Bihn Ngyuyen was designing the hair and make-up for superstar Mario Montez, so i figured i would have to do my own face beating. But luckily for me Tan Bihn had finished Mario, and was able to give me an excellent 40s style war painting sesh and let me wear one of her tres expensivo real hair wigs. I looked stunning giving Hedy LaMarr from White Cargo crossed with Judy Garland in Presenting Lilly Mars and a tad bit of Lana Turner in Johnny Eager. My costume was designed by Little Alex of Macedonia, and was perfect. The HAU 1 theatre was packed SRO and then some. I didnt know HAU 1 had two balconies, but i was told after my performance that they could barely fit the overflow in the second balcony. I got a million positive comments about Memory Island---how great it looked, and how the piece slyly commented on race and class without being dogmatic and shrill. Several Canadians didnt even recognize Baby Diaper Joel Gibb of the Hidden Cameras who starred in the film wearing little next to nothing but his generous endowment, and inflamed bullet nipples. Alex & Julian also looked great, and Alex made a new screening version of the film which truly sparkled. I also received a sweet comment from Spike Jonze about my film. Spike also was raving about Ronald Tavel´s The Life of Juanita Castro which starred Mario Montez in the role that Mr. Tavel wrote for him but which he never had the opportunity to perform. This was a fitting tribute to Tavel who died after the first round of Live Film back in March. Ms. Montez looked ravishing in one of Susanne Sachsse´s vintage frocks and she was backed with equal elan by the great Bibbe Hansen(Beck´s mom) as Fidel Castro, Bruce La Bruce as Che´Guevara and a hilarious Diedrich Diederichsen as Raul Castro. Other principle players included Rainald Goetz, Katharina Sieverding and Susanne Sachsse.
Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz film premiera Charming For the Revolution featured the amazing Werner Hirsch aka Antonia Beard, and delightfully left the audience in a merry mood Friday. Professor Jennifer Doyle was the perfect moderaturin for the talk with the filmmakers and star after the screening. Ms. Boudry & Lorenz created a work of pure charm and seemless beauty. This style of electronic cinemas is just what we need in this new century.
The other lectures that i was able to listen to were thrilling, and not dry in the least beginning with the marvelous orator Douglas Crimp who ruminated on dancer Paul Swan and Jack Smith. The handsome Mr. Crimp carries great weight and authority when he speaks, and his soft yet manly voice kept everyone in the large auditorium space rapt. La Doyle followed with her tome Like the Weather and Flowers and Stuff-Poetry, Correspondence and Scotch Tape which brilliantly woved the politics of displacement and gentrification into the Smithian mix showing how timely Jack Smith really is, then La Doctura Jose Munoz who connected new supreme court justice Sonia Sotomayor to Smith in an elegiac way, and finally the lovesexy Juan Suarez who introduced us to a Smith sister of the clothe in the form of Brazilian artist Helio Oiticica and Tropicalism.
Thursday soared with the team of Werner Hirsch and Jakob Lena Knebl, who are like the Laurel & Hardy or Mabel Normand and Roscoe Arbuckle of the intermedia art set. I really enjoyed the playfulness of their performance and film Hamdrahm und Zerwuzeln. These stalwart drag king dandies show why drag kings have really eclipsed drag queens in the realm of queer artisanchezing.
Another performance premiere that soared was Ela Troyano and Uzi Parnes I Shot Jack Two that featured a smorgy of slide show material and films from the 80s with cameos by the divine Carmelita Tropicana and others to joyous results. The love that Ela & Uzi put into this piece vividly came through soaking the audience up with waves of double bouble.
I am exhausted from rehearsing and hungry so i will end here, and pick up tomorow with reports on the first day of Live Film and presentations by Wilhelm Hein, Tim Blue, Theatre of 8, Tim Stüttgen, Diedrich Diedersen and more Penny Arcade.
MEHR ZUM THEMA SEX
Matchmaker, Matchmaker find me the perfect match! I can never find anyone for myself, but i´m great in creating new couples. I did my Dolly Levi thing with British academe & live artist Dom Johnson was gave an extroidinary lecture on Saturday called Glamorize Your Messes, which featured a rumination on the published and unpublished writings of Jack Smith. An electrifying love connection between Dom and young Toby, one of Marc Siegel´s students from the Free University was a Live Film festival highlight.
A very smart and thought provoking film premiere came from one of my Berlin favorites Ms. Evelyn Rüssler and her Unicorn Tabloids short. Ms. Rüssler is a sensitive artiste in the grand sense of the word, and everything from the way she speaks to moves her beautiful body is a living breathing testament to high art. I first met Evie back in 2005 and she enchanted me with her generous spirit and right on observations. If you have the opportunity to catch her work, please do. You won´t regret it.
On Saturday I saw Beatrice "Trixie" Cordua´s Real Beauty performance. Once again she used a stark light and debris strewn set to great affect. Trixie breaks all the rules in performance and is completely fearless. I think it was probably the most fearless piece in the festival.
I have to run to Bad Breast rehearsal but will return to posting a little bit later in the afternoon or early evening. I want to talk about the special performance of The Life of Juanita Castro that was done in salute to Ronald Tavel who died back in March, plus more about Mario Montez his wonderful spouse David Krasner, their humpy German escort Alex, Andrew Kerton&Johnny Woo, Douglas Crimp, Pauline Boudry, Renate Lorenz, & more.

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

LIEBER SCHOKI ALS SEX
Just wanted to inform my quarter of a million love sexy readers about a hot new blog in town CLASS written by one of my juicy, young, beautiful kai kai girlyfriends Ms. Wu who lives in Los Angeles and has taken over the mantle in making my old hometown a fun place again with her MacArthur Park Live Art venue Wildness. Here is all the info so do your duty and check it out:
CLASS speaks about creativity clublife and capitalism, by a queer and trans person of color living in Los Angeles.
http://wutsang.blogspot.com/
***
I will be leaving this week for New York to take part in Rose Lee Goldberg´s Performa Biennale with an installation that opens Nov 8th at Participant Inc. Gallery on the lower east side that is part of the group show Stuart Sherman: Nothing Up My Sleeve curated by the gorgeous Jonathan Berger, and on Mon Nov 16th at Santos Party House i perform Reparations and Retardations featuring the queercore reunion of Pedro, Muriel & Esther [PME] with original members Glen Meadmore on guitar, Sneaky BigDique Pete Tomlinson on drums&percussion and Dean „The Babe“ Opseth on bass,so i won´t be here for this happening that features my art nephew Kjohnny Blue:

Hello all you art, music, performance, or good old fashioned entertainment minded people.
I am taking part in the Nacht und Nebel festival in Neukölln with a group of friends. I like to think of our piece 'FLUCT' as a living music box in my cellar. Axel Scheele (Lewinsky) and I will be making a live sound performance of guitar, cello, samples and electronics to accompany the performative installation of Karim Ben Abdelkader, Nadine Meier, and the team of Schwarzrock & Salomon.
It is on saturday the 7th starting at 9 PM and goes continually till 11:30.
Reuterstr. 47 at Lenaustr.
There are free taxis on the festival route and several other things to see in the very near vicinity. I hope to see you there.
KJohnny Blue

www.bluesoundcut.com
www.myspace.com/johnbluemusic
www.myspace.com/beatcops

*
I´ve been getting a million emails congragulating me on Memory Island, my Jack Smith Live Film piece that features Joel Gibb of the Hidden Cameras and Alex and Julian of Chocolate Grinder Kollective. I wasn´t happy with my performance as i had a few technical problems like the power pack on my McDonna microphone falling off while i was in the middle of a dance routine, which killed my focus. But many people told me they didn´t notice this, and felt that the combination of hot boys on film with a wacky older woman live really worked for them.

I received this emug from the great master of experimental film in Germany Wilhelm Hein:

dear vaginal,
i was so happy,that during our two hour long shooting session with mario montez through her lips came such great compliments about your performance.
its always a miracle for me, that still people are around us,who are not a part of this corrupt career system. everybody of us wants to be in the full light of fame,but only with a work,which is created by our soul and body.that is one of the big reason,why mario is still in such a good state and also looks great.
big hugs
wilhelm

O and here is my continuing overview of the 5 Flaming Days in a Rented World:
I cannot stress how exciting it was to see the work of Hans Scheirl & Ursula Pürrer Sunday that featured their super 8 shorts from the 80s including Gezacktes Rinnsal Schleicht, Sich Schamlos Schenkelnässend An, Girl Camp? Techno Punk! Zigzagged Rivulet is Shamelessly Creeping up Wetting Thighs. Plus some extra surprises featuring performance footage from their punk and post punk experimental music bands. Yowza!!!!
Christophe Chemin´s dazzling feature film Seeking Me You Sat Exhausted stars Susanne Sachsse, Brian Tennessee Claflin, Karen Suender, Jakob Suender, Ram Bahadur Bomjan and Max Vogel. I feel like Christophe should have had the film in French with no subtitles, and stuck with his first instinct of using all classical music and only the wonderful sound scapes of Steev Lemercier to fill in the gaps.
Just a little addendum---Guy Maddin´s new lovely short film was called Little White Cloud That Cried. I have my catalogue in front of me, so i can retrace my mistakes and give people proper credit and spell their names correctly. I appologize once again for yesterday´s quick no sleep blogging, but i wanted to write something and just get it out there.
Handsome fellow Canadian Deirdre Logue´s program Beyond Her Usual Limits featured short subject jewels that looked wonderful on the big screen, but were also made as art installations. East Asian German Oliver Husain´s premiera performance film Purfled Promises along with Nao Bustamante´s Silver & Gold was one of the many crowd pleasers, everyone was talking about these two films and how they exemplified the new exciting generation of Jack Smithian performance/filmmakers.
I didnt get to see that many of the Ken Jacobs films, but the ones i did were incredible. And as far as the celebrity quotient, well Live Film!Jack Smith! Was the most talked about festival to hit Berlin and broke all box office records at both HAU, Arsenal and the WAU cafe who ran out of food and liquor. Among the celebs: Fassbinder superstar Volker Spengler came to pay his respects to Mario Montez and Tony Conrad, plus Hannah Hurtzig of Mobile Akademie fame, filmmaker Spike Jonze who is making a Hollywood feature about Jack Smith, German actors Moritz Bleibtreau, Daniel Brühl& Franke Potente and so many others that i just don´t want to go into a major listing at the moment.
On Saturday i caught a bit of the conversation Investigating Atlantis featuring curator Marc Siegel and writer/musician Thomas Meinecke(FSK). I will participate in Mr. Meinecke´s Plattenspieler on Nov 28th at the HAU. Plattenspeiler is something we don´t have in the US. I had to leave Investigating Atlantis to get in line to see Penny Arcade´s Denial of Death which was a tour de force. Penny riveted the audience with the sheer power of her voice, presence and New York Moxy. I liked that she had someone acting as Jack Smith in a nifty minimal set, and the original music in the piece with its bite and texture matched her in spirit and tone. It was great seeing Penny getting her due from the adoring throngs.
I was so exhausted that i didn´t get a chance to attend the Tony Conrad & Gordon W. happening Impacted Crustacean billed as a Jack Smith Delirium, but everyone in Berlin is talking about the fellatio and cunnilingus performed live on stage.
My fingers are killing me, so i will have to end here, but i will continue later with my views on the new film Unicorn Tabloids by Evelyn Rüsseler and others.

Monday, November 02, 2009

OMMMGASMUS
I am exhausted from 5 Flaming Days in a Rented World the Live Film! Jack Smith! art festival curated by Marc Siegel & Susanne Sachsse of CHEAP and Stefanie Schulte Strathaus of Arsenal. Congrats kids you did an excellent job and you´ve shaken up Berlin to its core.
I only have a little time to write as I have rehearsals for the new Bruce "Judy" LaBruce collaboration The Bad Breast, which is loosely based on the writings of Melanie Klein. I will write more in depth as soon as i can, so please be patient with me.
The last day of the festival was jam packed. There was a premiere by Oliver Husain which featured a film and performance that was brilliantly staged and executed. Oliver was on my panel Playing Hide and Seek with Odors so i had the opportunity to watch a lot of his earlier works which have a nice playful quality to them. Oliver is both an electronic filmmaker and performer, was born in Germany with an east Asian background i believe. He now lives in Toronto and has definately been infected by the Crazy Canuck syndrome of doing wonderfully whimsical work, plus he is extremely cute and cuddly. Another out there Canadian is Diedre Logue a handsome butch filmmamker who gave up performing live. Her work is very personal and she wears her vulnerability on her sleeve which is bewitching. Ms. Logue´s output is serial in nature with juicy bits and bursts that are short, sweet and direct. I watched her DVD´s over and over again and saw something different each time. I don´t think there is anyone in the experimental film circuit doing work like this. Being the dag hag I am of course i am crushed out on Diedre who has such a commanding presense and is sincere and loving in that Candian manner i adore. She also has a very cute girlfriend named Alison, and always travels with a hot posse of pals. Also on my panel was the delirious Nao Bustamante. Her performance film Silver and Gold really captured the spirit of Jack Smith and his muse Maria Montez in such a delirious fashion. When you see this new piece from Nao get ready to be propelled into the penile world of Dominican male courtesan Portofino Rubio and his well endowed pack of pals. I shall say nothing more. Also on my panel was Isabel Spengler who premiered a new work called The Osmosis of the Unicorn which i didnt get to see as i was stuffing myself with food when it was showing, but i did see her work on DVD and its quite a collection especially the films she made in LA while getting her MFA at Cal Arts. The critics say her work is the result of being a bastard child of Annie Sprinkle and John Waters but i think she has more in common with another member of the Baltimore Five Kenny Camp, who like Kenneth Anger, John Aes-Nihil and Barry Levinson left Baltimore for Los Angeles. Kenny and Aes-Nihil are the least known of the Baltimore 5, but Isabel´s early solo and collabortive work has a Kenny Campian quality that is simply delicious.
Guy Maddin also premiered a new color film which featured some intriguing Chix with Dix in it, and was one of the most Bachanalic in the festival. Mr. Maddin is from Winnipeg Canada the home of my best girlfriend Glen Meadmore. Mr. Maddin was influenced by Glen when Glen was doing his punky performance work in Winnipeg in the late 70s. There is something very sexy in that prairie way with Mr. Guy Maddin and i feel he is definately a kindred spirit. One of the other highlights of the last Day of Live Film! Jack Smith! was a grouping of older short subjects from Austrian transgender legend Hans Sheirl and his former partner Ursula. I have been a huge fan of Hans since Shari Frilot of Sundance New Frontiers section turned me on to the groundbreaking work Dandy Dust back in the late 90s. Leave it to Austrians to be way ahead of the curve. Hans & Ursula´s work that was shown was made in the 80s but is so current that it will make you scream with joy. Sitting in the audience with me was downtown New York legend Penny Arcade who was literally on fire during her performance on Saturday. More about Penny later. Sunday ended with a discussion with special Live Guest Mario Montez with Tony Conrad that was illucidating. Ms. Montez looks incredible, and is equally a gracious grande madame. Callie Angell presented her with a Warhol Superstar Award. No one is more deserving, and she has a magnificent life partner who is warm and loving. Ms. Montez and her lover will be coming back to Berlin for a residency and may move here. Lets hope this comes true and soon. The last new premiere was Christophe Chemin´s first feature film a meditative longing that was like a Carravagio painting come to life. It looked stunning, and featured incredible performances headed by Susanne Sachsse of CHEAP. Within a Chemin work all his influences are seen in full repose, and the sexy, handsome young Frenchman has stayed close to the great traditions of experimental film. My favorite aspect of the movie was the carefully guided long shots, which is a curse in mainstream circles, but here is a blessing. The feature is actually 4 hours long. The version we were treated to was only 1 hour and 15 minutes. I would love to see all 4 hours but early in the morning in a comfy movie house after a well rested night of sleep. Sorry for all the spelling mistakes and other casualties of not having my program in front of me. I promise to make corrections when i have more time.