Bettler des Lebens
So sad hearing that Chris Cornell of the band Soundgarden died. I only had contact with him once at my Sunday afternoon punk rock beer bust and olde English t-dance/performance space Sucker at the Garage in Silverlake back in our first year of operation which was 1994. I shared a nice flirtation with him as he was relaxing in the Mitzi Gaynor Lounge in the back of the club. Earlier I was on stage introducing the British indie pop band Marine Research. As was my usual shtick I was playing with the rather large round rump of Marine Research’s young drummer who went by the name of DJ if my memory serves correctly. Please forgive me if I get some details wrong,this was the last century after all. Mr. Cornell and I spent some 15 minutes sitting next to each other and looking deeply into each others eyes. We hardly spoke. At one point he gave me a nice passionate kiss on the lips and we did another long butterfly kiss with our lashes. I remember thinking that he looked more Latino then what I imagined a Pacific Northwest white boy to look like. If anyone else who was there has a similar or different memory please let me know or feel free to correct any missinformation that you feel I have posted.*
Returned to Berlina from a horde of travels in time to catch a brilliantly warm sunny day with Spring temperatures almost hovering around 90F. Sorry I haven’t been forthcoming in announcing the various places I have been visiting,but because I have some aggressive stalkers I find it best to not let it out to the general public just where I happened to be at any given time.
Was delighted to catch the famous academic Amelia Jones give a sterling lecture at the Mediality Couples Congress at the Institute of Theater Studies at the Friei Universitaet Berlin. Darling prolific Ms. Jones is the Robert A. Day Professor of Art and Design as well as Vice Dean of Critical Studies at the Roski School of Art at the University of Southern California. Amelia presented on the Relation Works of Ulay: Performativity from Intimacy to Antagonism to be exact.
Also speaking was plan b’s innegmatic Sophia New and Dan Belasco, who I didn’t realize have been working on a GPS art project for over a decade, and the personable Lisa Newman who I was finally able to meet in the flesh after she conducted some emug interviews with me and Del Grace Volcano a few years back. In the audience was artist Richard Hancock who I hardly recognize anymore now that he’s removed those long dreadlocks he use to sport.
A few days ago I got to meet the muy sampatico British gallerist Dan Gunn. We got on quite famously like twin daughters from different mothers. Dan is a loveable hoot and goodtime Charlie who reminds me of artist Phil Collins. Something tells me Dan I will become topflight BFF’s.
*
Received this cute note from the wonderfully talented Beth Stephens who along with her life partner Miss Annie Sprinkle are the world’s leading ecco sexualogists.
I don’t have internet access so I am not always able to post things on a timely basis so sorry if the dates of the event have passed. I am sure you can look Beth and Annie up on the internet to get on their mailing list to be more on top of their marvelous daring do’s.
E.A.R.T.H.
Lab Presents!
The E.A.R.T.H.
Lab is
producing Environmentalism
Outside the Box: An Ecosex Symposium,
and it’s happening soon! Thursday,
May 18th & Friday, May 19th.
We want to know… What happens when we posit the Earth as our lover?
Where do our “bodies” end and begin? What is the potential
of “ecosex”? Join us in exploring our relationships with the
environment and social justice, fostering human/non-human
collaboration, and promoting critique and debate of new ideologies
and a new sexual identity concept.
Earth Lab director and
artist Beth Stephens and host artist Annie Sprinkle, will be joined
by many other Earth-lovers! Donna Haraway: Story
Telling for Earthly Survival, a
new film, will have its first U.S. sneak preview showing with
discussion between UCSC Professor Emerita Donna Haraway and filmmaker
Fabrizio Terranova. Decolonizing
Settler Sexuality will
be the first keynote with Professor Kim TallBear from University of
Alberta. The second day’s keynote is Love
and Struggle: Grounding Against Environmental Fatalism with
respected eco-feminist professor from University of Georgia, Chris
Cuomo with respondent, UCSC history of art and visual culture
professor, T.J. Demos.
Presenters are coming from five
countries, to share a wide array of titillating and provocative
topics, including: Academic
Freedom in a Ecosexphobic World; Unsettling
Our Earthly Pleasures; Eco-burlesque
Water Tassels;
and Bees,
Bathhouses & Beyond! Finally,
community members (that’s you!) are invited to participate in a
two-hour open mic session followed by some great performance
art.
Events will be held at the Digital
Arts Research Center, DARC 108,
on the UCSC campus. The event runs from Thursday, May 18, from
10am-10pm, and Friday, May 19th, 10am-11pm. Did we mention the
symposium is free? To check out the full schedule, the panels
and panelists, performers and keynote speakers, click
here.
A
NEW BOOK—LAUNCH AND READING AT PURE PLEASURE
Bask
in the symposium afterglow the morning after, on Saturday, May 20th
at noon. Pure
Pleasure in
Santa Cruz, will host a book launch and a community reading of The
Explorer’s Guide to Planet Orgasm—
For Every Body, written by E.A.R.T.H. Lab director, Beth
Stephens and director of research, Annie Sprinkle. This book is an
illustrated eco-inspired guide to the universe of orgasms. Find the
book ahead of time on Amazon or
at As
You Like It Boutique,
or pick it up at the reading and get it signed by
the Orgasmanauts themselves!
SLOW
DANCING WITH HORSES
There
is also a pre-conference event, Slow
Dancing with an Other–Kevin
O’Connor, Lori Halliday and horses. A collaboration between horses
and humans at dusk on the Horse & Heart ranch, 5017 Ironwood Dr.
Soquel, CA. The Facebook page for the event is here.
Purchase tickets here.
Students
$10, Regular admission $20
*Below is info on a very interesting tome from an academic acquaintance I met while teaching or performing in Austria a few years back:
Dear friends and colleagues,
hereby I would like to inform you about my new publication with my kindest regards:
Yvonne P. Doderer (2016) Shining Cities. Gender Relations and Other Issues in Urban Development of the Twenty-First Century.
Translated by Dawn d’Atri, 321 pages, 196 images, ISBN 978-3-00-055018-8, www.shiningcities.net.
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To offer this analysis for a wider public, you can download a PDF under the terms and conditions of the Digital Peer
Publishing Licence (DPPL) at: www.shiningcities.net ;
Please feel free to distribute this possibility widely to whom you think might be interested! Thank you!
(But you can order a printed version as well:)
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Description
In the twenty-first century, the majority of people are living in cities—at least this is the credo communicated frequently. This statement has been strengthened by the “urban renaissance” that dawned at the beginning of the twenty-first century and by globally evident increase in capital investment in urban-development projects. Such planning endeavors are conveyed to the public, the political sphere, and the media with the help of Internet platforms. The visualizations and descriptions found on such project websites are associated with promises of modernization, appeal, and economic growth—in short, with a better life.
In this publication, images and texts from 12 projects planned for Europe, Africa, and Asia are surveyed critically: What do they “tell” about future life in these new urban districts? Who will live and work in these cities? Which forms of living and lifestyles are propagated? And most importantly: How do these designs relate to actual urban reality, including that of the inhabitants to whom the projects are addressed?
Written in a comprehensible way, supplemented by illustrations and photographs, this in-depth analysis sensitizes the reader to the interconnections between urban-space production and societal (gender) relations.
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There is also a German version available: Yvonne P. Doderer (2016) Glänzende Städte. Geschlechter- und andere Verhältnisse in Stadtentwürfen für das 21. Jahrhundert. München: edition Metzel / Verlag Silke Schreiber. ISBN 978-3-88960-161-2. http://editionmetzel.de/
