THE MILL ON THE FLOSS

Went to the premiere screening at Moviemento Kino of Sadness is an Evil Gas Inside Me by my former student from Malmo Art Academy/Lund University Stine Omar who wrote the script and stars along with her super sexy boyfriend Max Boss who directed the project. They are also in the very popular indie electro band Easter. Omar&Boss developed their international following by making a series of music videos on YouTube and are a bonafide internet sensation. Sadness is a not-ready-for- prime time TV serial which feels as if the Queercore G.B.Jones teen rivalry flick The YoYo Gang was psychotropically crosspollinated in a secret Monsanto lab with the shards of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and David Lynch’s early 90s TV soap opera Twin Peaks. I loved the deadpan loopyness of it all. On my way out of the screening some American dimestore critics were complaining of the poor quality of the video. The lowtech nature of the work makes it even more interesting to me.

In keeping with the trend of spreading the word about my talented former students, my perfect baby boy Alex Jovanovich of NYU who is also a damn amazing art critic at Art Forum Magazine is in a group show at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac curated by Jack Pierson that runs until October 25th.

Dear All:

If you happen to be in Salzburg during the next couple of months, please check out this wonderful show I'm in:Tomorrow´s Man - curated by Jack Pierson - Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac Jack Pierson's gorgeous solo exhibit, "A Town Not This One, " is in the gallery's main space!:

A TOWN NOT THIS ONE - Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac

Those of you on the left coast of Los Angeles should run to the Janc Ar Gallery at 961 Chung King Road in Chinatown to see the expressive painting exhibition Mirrored Face Off by my Swiss German high art child Cyril Kuhn who I first met when he was studying at California Institute of the Arts in Valencia California in the 1990s. Both Ron Athey & I were guest art professors at the time.  Cyril is brilliant and comes from a long line of famous artists.  His grandmother who is over 100 still creates tapestries for all the churches in Europe and his mother Rosina Kuhn is a lauded portraiturist.

Also in Los Angeles is a solo show at CB1 Gallery called On Ice by Lily Simonson who was in a class I taught years ago with Warhol superstar Bibbe Hansen who is also the mother of pop star Beck and daughter of the late/great Fluxxus artist Al Hansen.
September 14 - October 26, 2014 CB1 Gallery 207 W 5th Street Los Angeles, California 90013

Last year, Lily Simonson spent over a month in Antarctica, sleeping in a one-person tent and plein air painting in the McMurdo Dry Valleys--one of the coldest, driest environments on the planet. As the embedded artist in a National Science Foundation expedition, she worked in tandem with geologists to investigate changes in this alien landscape of ice and volcanic rock. Invoking the tradition of Romantic landscape painting, Simonson’s new series of mammoth canvases transports viewers to this sublime, barely-explored, and thrillingly inhospitable world. Invoking the tradition of Romantic landscape painting, Simonson’s new series of mammoth canvases transport viewers to this sublime, barely-explored, and thrillingly inhospitable world. On Ice will also feature Lily Simonson’s concurrent series of hyper-saturated glowing abstract paintings. These works evoke the dazzling skies of the Aurora Australis, and the prismatic splintering of white light through crystalline ice.

Simonson's Antarctic exploration will continue this winter, when she embarks on a three-month residency on the ice as the 2014-15 National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers Awardee. She plans to SCUBA dive beneath the sea ice to observe and paint new subjects thriving in the frigid, otherworldly habitat of the Southern Ocean. Simonson will also join the Exploration Vessel Nautilus this month, painting aboard the ship as it explores Kick-em Jenny, the Carribbean's only active submarine volcano. Visit nautiluslive.org to chat with her live while she is at sea. (Full press release.)
Oh and my student from Weissensee Art academy Ann Duk Hee Jordan who is an actual Mongolian Princess is having a solo show. I taught at Weissensee back in 2007 and from that class came several standout young artists including my protege Christophe DeRohan Chabot,  and Katja Maya von Hellsdorf of the band LeiseyLento.

Anne Duk Hee Jordan  OF bodies chang’d to various forms, I sing…i

13 September – 01 November, 2014 cubus-m | Pohlstraße 75 | 10785 Berlin

“In this closed garden of the first observations there always remains the possibility of dreamlike mutation, transformation, protean survival in an everchanging shape.”
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I just found out that comedienne Joan Rivers died age 81.  She along with Phylis Diller are two of the first female stand up comics.  Ms. Rivers was known for her caustic humour.  I remember when she directed a low budget comedy feature film in the 1970s called Rabbit Test starring Billy Crystal as the first man to become impregnated.   I also adored the television film she wrote called The Girl Most Likely Too . . .featuring a young Stochard Channing before her star turn in The Fortune with Jack Nicholsen & Warren Beatty and the film musical of the Broadway hit Grease.  My sources tell me that Joan Rivers died from complications of cosmetic surgery and the overuse of botox.

IM SUEDLICHEN WENDEKREIS DES STEINBOCK

As many of you know the Vagimule Davis doll doesn’t really cook so she depends on the kindness of friends and strangers alike to feed her face. Since the 1980s she has been a revered dinner guest, and loves small intimate dinner parties in favour of going to other kind of gatherings or soirees. Knowing so many talented gourmands is a plus especially when they appreciate inviting someone to table who really enjoys chowing down on their grub. The last artist dinner for Douglas Crimp at the close of his symposium at Arsenal was held at the Leipziger Strasse boite Centolire-Café e Panini which is a favourite spot used by Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus and Dieter Koslick during the Berlinale for VIP guests. The food at this tiny restaurant is beyond divoon.
Speaking of classy dinner functions I was invited to a major feast by the lovesexy visiting artist, choreographer,dancer,composer,opera singer(countertenor) Adham Hafez who is based in Cairo and is the founder of ARC HIVE, HaRaKa Dance Development and Research, the Arab performing arts archive. Multi-talented Adham also heads the Adham Hafez Dance Company and is artistic director of the only Egyptian dance festival - Transdance.

www.harakaproject.org www.adhamhafez.com

The dashing Adham Hafez is the epitome of continental-speaking a million different languages perfectly and is just pure joy and light to be around. He is constantly traveling so it was a great honor to be able to be in his hallowed presence eating food cooked from his mighty loving hands. My dear young friend Koen Claerhoutoen who works in Berlin at the Haus of World Cultures and in Egypt for the Cinematheque will be visiting the USA in September where I have already paired him with some of my closest comrades and sisters in the clothe. Koen graciously volunteered his spacious compound for the Hafez dinner festivities which included Koen’s his hunky dirty white boy Gallic roommate Michel Belague who is an award winning filmmaker, cinematographer and producer. Also on the VIP guest list: Michel’s lovely girlfriend Ame’lie Legrand(who is related to composer Michel Legrand) who is a cello virtuosa from the French Cantal mountain region,muscular hotsy totsy Rui Silveira a former dancer now working as an arts manager in both Lisboa and Berlin and Deborah Stokes a performance artist, filmmaker and video artist hailing from London who has worked for many decades in Japan, France, Greece and Egypt where Mr. Hafez discovered her. Here is the menu that luscious Adham Hafez prepared-
Appetizers: carrot puree with cinnamon and lemon,Grana padano bread sticks,toasted almonds in sweet and spicy coating,yoghurt dip in herb sauce,cucumbers with curried cheese. Soup: artichoke and rucola soup with pine nuts, mushroom cream soup. Main Dish: Green Salad with Balsamic vinaigrette butter blanched potatoes in tomme-cheese cream lentil loaf in carmalized onion sauce Desserts: selection of French cheeses frangipane with pears.

Had to go for a long overdue check-up at Dr. Stephan Minx’ office in Kreuzberg @ Moritzplatz. My high blood pressure has gone down which I am very happy to report. While in the waiting room ran into Fassbinder star Eva Mattes whose doctor is Thomas Minx, the twin brother of my physician.
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O and now here is a long overdue snippet from my work-in-progress novel Naked on my Goad:

Once again Malloury Sheridan found herself in the Lucille Bremer-Weg under a waning Los Lobos moon. For several days she was feeling unattractive and bloated. It seemed as if the most hideous of creatures looked upon her as a pariah. In the park on a bench under a gas lit lamppost she met Praetor who seemed younger than his 44 years. He had dark thin hair that was showing traces of gray and recede, and wore thick horn rimmed glasses. Praetor was tall, thin and reedy. Secretly she was wishing to herself that Praetor’s frame was more muscular and defined as she longed to be held by a man of hulking force and determination. At this particular place and time the fact that Praetor was desirous of her was all that mattered. The ease in which they began discussing Uganda was thrilling to Malloury. His Norfolk was average in width and length, but he had a mighty sack of Howard which she grabbed with abandon. Praetor had lived in Baehr for 13 years, across the street from a lame kneipe bar The P-Konnect. He was originally a lazy student prince from Heidelberg, didn’t seem to be particularly ambitious having worked an assembly of low wage jobs unable to quench the ache over some Black musician from Austin Texas that he met ten years ago when the man was on holiday in Baehr. Malloury felt a tinge of sadness that sometimes her amorous nature got the better of her. But all she could do is sigh realizing that it’s not that easy being a Lotte Lenya lady with a difficult dance card to fill.