Monday, February 05, 2018

VOLLE PUNKTZAHL


Volle punktzahl
With having to paint 50 new pieces for exhibition in New York City I completely forgot to report on Original Sin.  Original Sin is the CHEAP Kollektiv collaboration with XiuXiu that premiered in December of last year at silent green KulturQuartier. Every night of the production was sold out and greeted to thunderous universal acclaim. OS is the second time CHEAP has worked with Jamie Stewart of XiuXiu who wrote the music for our 2015 re-interpretation of Mozart's The Magic Flute called MAGIC FLUTE-An Opera in Six Steps. 
With OS the starting off point is Fearless Leader of CHEAP Susanne Sachsse's famous grandmother Luise Brand.  OS is presented in a non linear fashion as a concert/installation. La Sachsse stars and directs OS. I perform as one of the many manifestations of the grandmother. The piece also features Jamie Stewart and his beautiful and talented wife Angela Seo, along with Marcuse Siegelstein, Richard Gabriel and Senol Senturk who along with Jonathan Berger did the production and set design completely transforming the kupula of the silent green.  Jackie Shemish the lighting designer of Magic Flute also brought his stellar talents to this group effort.
The star studded publicum at the performances included: Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus, Tom Holert founder of Harum Forocki Inst and writer for Art Forum and Texte Zur Kunst, with Claudia Honegger the children's book editor. Tom and Claudia are one of Berlin's sexiest power couples. Kathrin Tidemann, artistic director of FFT Dusseldorf who has been a longstanding CHEAP admirer. Ruth Schonegger and her actress/director girlfriend Miriam and Noam Gorbat. Ruth & Noam were also part of the OS production team supervising the video portion of the piece. Deutsch It girl Clarissa Mehring who is related to Ms. Davis from the German side of the family, Salome Gersche &Nadja of Arsenal Experimental, dreamy scholar Nanna Heidenreich and her delicious gal pal Fine, Philipp Albers the famed journalist and jury member of the Berlin Arts Funding Body, film ingenue Victoria Schultz, artists A.L. Steiner, Phil Collins, whose Cologne Art Academy students contributed to the video portion of OS. Aykan Safoglu who is on the board of the Schwules Museum, Stephan Genne and Cidem of bbooks, Toby Ashraf, Piero Bellomo of La Collezione, Stefi Albert, Sharon Smith of Gob Squad, Eike Wittrock and Stefanie Wenner.  Coming all the way from London to see OS Martin Hargreaves with cutie pie Francesco, Assaf Hochman, Sophia and Dan of plan b, Michael Dutte the Konig of Wilmersdorf, Ida Mueller and Vegard Venge with company members Robert Faber & Ilaria, Camilo Del Valle Lattanzio aka: Camilo of the Valley, of Columbia who is one of Berlin's hunkiest and smartest sex champions, Mara Mills of NYU, Ashley Hans Scheirl and Tina Jacob Lena Knebel, Mason Leaver Yapp KW curator, art shtar Yael Bartana and her artist girlfriend Saskia, Juliana Rebentisch who just won a prestigious philosophy prize with artist Ely Clark, everyone's favorite sexy smarty the beauteous Ms. Hannah Hurtzig of Mobile Academy with the drummer of the German avant garde ensemble Zeitkratzer, hungthrob Jan Kunemond, artists Mark Tereite, Pola Seiverding, Christophe Gurke, Michael Stipe of REM with his mega hot French photographer lover Thomas Dozel, dashing Dean Sameshima, Berlin trans legend and German TV star Zazie De Paris, Koen Klaerhout, Michel Belague, Jorg & Tina of silent green, Pauline Curnier Jardia, Prima Ballerina Trixie Schonherr aka: Beatrice Cordua, Ulrich Ziemons of the Berlinale's Forum Expanded who is also Europe's most handsome man with his life partner the brainy ginger curator Anja Lueckenkemper. The Frankfurt School Gang: Rembert Hueser, Verena Mund, Kerim Dogruel& Kalani Michell with beau Benno Herz of the band Oktalog, Sophie Bunge of Suhrkamp Press, Gina Doria, Stephen Ahrens of Zeughaus Kino, kJohnny Blue and goddess Emelia, award winning filmmakers Merle Kroeger and Phillip Scheffner, the artist/filmmaker Shelly Silver, and Madeleine Barnstorff of Oberhausen Programming Committee.
After coming back from Offenbach am Main teaching a bevy of super smart young artists the Vagimule doll didn't have time to fart, as she immediately had to jump on stage for a performative conversation No One Leaves Delilah-A (W)rap on Riots with curator Natasha Ginwala at Acud Macht Neu (Studio). This was part of the larger art congress and exhibition Riots: Slow Cancellation of the Future. A last minute addition to the performative conversation at Acud was Josh Kun who is in Berlin as an American Academy Fellow. Josh is one smoldering dorky Jewish boy, that Ms. Davis has lusted after for centuries. Josh use to be a professor at UC Riverside but is now teaching at USC. Josh is the ultimate mover and shaker, was even a guest on NPRs Fresh Air with Terrie Gross a few years back and I believe he is the recipient of a MacArthur Genius Grant. It was a lovely packed audience of a crowd that you normally don't see in Berlin mixed with older and younger people and larger sprinkling of colored folks then is the norm for artsy fartsy events in Berlina proper. I had invited the wonderful young Afro Brazilian student Leo Lina who studies with Hito Steyerl and Ming Wong at UdK and he brought a juicy gaggle of young kids with him. It was great to see in the audience Angela Anderson, Djane Olga Damnitz, Angela Melitoupolous, Susanne Sachsse, Marcuse Siegelstein, Richard Gabriel, patrician curator Beau Rutland and my super hot Berlin gallerist Dan Gunn.
One of my fav 1990s children has to be Scotland Zeif. I first met Scottland when I was hosting the Sunday afternoon punk rock beer bust and olde English T-dance Club Sucker at the Garage in Silverlake. Scottland at the time was a mere weenage troubador and FIT who approached me for a gig at my club. I booked him and he was an immediate singing sensation with his joyous ode to film star Sigourney Weaver. A few years later when Scottland was a college freshman he fronted a performance group with two other young beauties that performed at my Bricktops at the Parlourclub. The Parlour's owner Lenny Young was so smitten with the boys, that he flirted with them all night pouring them stiff drinks even though they were a few years shy of the legal age limit to embibe. Lenny usually was quite the stickler when it came to following rules as he was a closet conservative but his one weakness was young attractive caucasoids.
I hadn't seen or heard from Scottland in a few years.  He now lives in New York City with a look-a-like husband.  But out of the blue he sends me a copy of a book he co-wrote called The Joey Boots Chronicles. I didn't know anything about Joey Boots, so i just started reading and couldn't stop. Its only about 200 pages. Mr. Boots was one of the gonzo contributors to the popular Howard Stern cosmos. Talk about a world I wasn't familiar with. The life of Joey Boots is quite startling. The best part is his life as a teenage hustler/petty criminal and his stint in the army during the Balkan Wars. Certainly a fascinating read that I can honestly recommend.