Friday, January 29, 2016

Zukunftsmusik



Sunday January 31st at 8pm its Rising Stars, Falling Stars-Briefe aus der Garderobe at Arsenal Institut fur film und video kunst at Kino 2 in the basement of the Sony Center for a rare screening of the Pina Bausch directed film Lament of the Empress (Die Klage der Kaiserin).  Listen to the radio conversation with Tante Manuel “Vicki Baum” Schubert of die tageszeitung.

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Jonathan Berger:  A Future Life
Feb 12-March 12, 2016
Adams and Ollman Gallery
Portland, Oregon
 
My most beautiful and lovesexy super talented young child of New York high art Jonathan Berger who was production designer and producer of  my recent revamp of Mozart in the Jungle Fever of The Magic Flute at the 80 WSE Gallery has a brilliant solo exhibition of his own that opens Feb 12 to March 12 at the renown Adams and Ollman Gallery at 209 SW 9th Street in Portland Oregon.  I have known Jonathan since he was a weenager and coed at California Institute of the Arts where I taught a performance art class with tattoo love god Ron Athey back at the end of the last century. 
I fell madly in love with Jonathan and his intoxicating architecturally pulsar body of sculpt specific work, and way of thinking that was light years ahead of his peers, or anyone else for that matter.  Jonathan stands alone in an art world filled with mawkish poseurs and insipid frauds.  The gifted Mr. Berger is one baby manchild Prince of Judea of not only the promised land but the Attavey Real Madrid-McCoy.  There aren’t enough superlatives to describe the alchemy Jonathan Berger is able to invoke.
So I implore all you bi & tri-sexual coastals to not hesistate in flying and or skipping to the  mighty Pacific Northwest to see Jonathan Bergers solo exhibit A Future Life.  Your life will depend upon it.  
I predict this show will be at the top of the critics lists come the end of 2016 and the name Jonathan Berger will be a household word.

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Spaete Einsichten




Large crowds at the Arsenal’s screwball comedy program with screening of You Can’t Take It With You the other evening directed by Frank Capra 1938, starring Miss Jean “I Only Photograph Good on My Right Side”Arthur  a skinny baby faced Jimmy Stewart, Lionel Barrymore, Spring Byington, Eddie Rochester Anderson mugging more then Mickey Rooney, Edwrd Arnold and 14 year old Ann Miller running around in a tutu on point.  All these depression era comedies seem like they were written for todays economic turmoil and come with lots of lessons that I think really resonate with a German audience.  Ran into my Blood of Abraham Israeli art son Assaf Hochman who got kicked off of an Easy Jet plane to Greece because of his ultra tight bubble butt, and Jozo Juric the Croatian publicist BFF of Jamaica Troy from the Rosa Caletta CafĂ©.
Went back to Dr. Weigel in the Mehringdamn kiez for my second appointment.  Was expecting just to have a filling but it turned out I needed a root canal.  With any other dentist this would have been a big problema, but not with Dr.Weigel who has such a lovely manner about her and is so comforting  with personality plus.  Dr. Weigel is also related to East German cinema royalty, as her father Kurt Maetzig was a very important film director in the GDR who directed some of the banned films of the 1960s along with the state endorsed bio pic of Ernst Thaelmann.  Herr Maetzig was also the first artistic director of the film school in Babelsberg and only died a few years ago at age 101.
I just got a signed copy of the booklette The Dynamics of the Queer Movement in Turkey before and during the Conservative AKP Government by the hot tiny muscular sexy Turkish/Arab scholar and stud Zuelfukar Cetin.  Zuelfukar is one of those new breed of young academics who is getting a lot of attention at the moment.  Zuelfukar is from the ancient city of Antioche and has been living and working in Berlin as a scholar, prolific writer and activist for several years.  You can read his booklet the first of his tomes translated into English by Scandinavian Muzlim Daniel Hendrickson here:
Over a decade ago I got upgraded  to business class on a flight from Europe to Amerikkka I sat next to an old gay white man who struck up a lively conversation with me.  He told me his name was Fred Koch and that he worked in art philanthropy.  I told him about my work as an artist and it seemed to peek his curiosity.  I didn’t think much about this encounter until a few years later when I was in a hotel in the States and I saw a news report about these conservative  industrialists brothers named Koch.  The news report showed a picture of the two brothers whose names I don’t remember now, but it also showed the eldest brother who was the man I met on the plane who is not part of his brothers business.  If I had known he was from a super duper billionaire clan I should have worked my feminine wiles on him and turned the rich geezer inito my sugar Opa.  He must be a dinge queen because he was certainly giving me the hairy eyeball on the plane.
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I normally do not like crowd funding announcements as I feel crowdfunding takes the responsibility away from institutions to finance artists projects where it should be and turns artists into art panhandlers and beggars of life. I would never do a crowdfunding myself but I will on occasional recommend the funding of certain projects of people whose work I admire and respect.  This is indeed the case with the work of the young Israeli artist Miss Liad.  Read on and donate accordingly:

Hi there!

if you're getting this email, there's a chance that you've heard that I just started a kickstarter campaign to fundraise my upcoming short film “No Democracy Here”, or even seen the trailer.

In case you didn't here's a link. Watch it til the end! It's fun! 


the film deals with a left-leaning dominatrix who conducts 'political domination' with her right-leaning slaves and teaches them about democracy and free will through power-based bdsm techniques. It was shot live and on location in israel on election day, in and out of the voting poles and includes participation from the public at hand. It challenges notions of what electoral democracy is, and of all sides who partake in it.

The film was shot a few years ago, before the unfortunate degeneration of israel into a much tighter-controlled fascist-leaning state. We got detained by police – and we have great footage from it that we wanna use in the film. Today such actions would be impossible to commit, as they'd land us in jail or beaten in the street. So it's important that we get a chance to turn it into a film.

To finish the editing process - we need money. This money isn't simply a 'donation'. You're not just helping us complete this project, you're actually buying something, in most cases at least an ability to see the film or part thereof.

I really only try to send it to people that aren't dirt-ass broke. And 10 euros is really an affordable amount for many people I know. If you can give more (and perhaps you can), consider doing so. If you're totally broke, but you've got facebook or twitter, spread the word and the link.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/763505520/no-democracy-here?ref=email

If by chance you got this by both email and facebook – sorry for the spamming. I'm desperate here.

Thank you so so much!!!!

Liad.