SOME CAME RUNNING

A myriad of apologies for being so delinquent in my writing responsibilities but after the glamour of the recent 64^th Berlinale International Film Festival and Forum Expanded I caught the usual post Berlinale flu that always circulates and pre birthday blues mixed with another gout attack to my knock knees which laid me up for quite some time.  Before becoming ill La Susanne Sachsse cooked a scrumptious birthday dinner for me at her Eastside compound that also featured her male escort Dr. Professor Marcuse Siegel and Daniel “Haji” Hendrickson the Scandinavian Muslim.  Lady Susi the Fearless Leader of Kollectiv CHEAP and Mr. Siegel are always kept very busy with imaginative and innovative projects. Frau Sachssee was all over this year’s Berlinale with her triumphant performance in the Bruce LaBruce film adaption of Arnold Schoneberg’s Pierrot Lunaire which was presented as one of the major events of Forum Expanded under Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus whose curatorial genius really sparkled in a magical and mystical fashion this year.   I can't stop talking about how Miss Stefanie and her Forum Expanded curatorial team made such excellent choices and created such excitement that really made this year's festival jump. But getting back to Pierrot Lunaire, I saw the film twice at its premiere at the Dephi Kino and a follow-up screening at the Arsenal which was more relaxed and featured a brilliant Q&A with the audience where Judy LaBruce was quite wonderful in acknowledging the fact that the film wouldn’t have come together without Susanne who was really the co-director and co-editor and supervised every moment of its inception and fruition. In the audience at the Arsenal was the distinguished Romanian film critic and film programmer Irene Rudolf who has now joined the legions of Sachsse rabid admirers. I am so glad I got a chance to see the film twice as you really have to watch it multiple times to fully absorb every aspects of Susanne’s incredible performance as the man who calls himself Pierrot.  Not only is her acting so courageous and spot on conveying just the perfect tone throughout, but her singing of the score is equally hypnotic and entrancing. Susanne shows so many different sides of herself in this film and her vulnerability had me fighting back tears several times throughout both screenings.  The movie really deserves a lot of attention and I am so glad that it was awarded a special Teddy prize as it’s a movie that cannot be ignored.  Of all the members of Kollective CHEAP Susanne Sachsse has really emerged as a leading cultural force.  Her own film projects like the masterful Serious Ladies,and upcoming cinebon about her famous grandmother plus live art and installation pieces are just the tip of what is going to be a career that many writers and critics will be pondering over with radiant glimeze for years to come.
Other aspects of Forum Expanded that was abuzz: the young handsome Polish filmmaker Marcin Malaszczak who continues to impress this year with his short subject Orbitalna, veterana Laura Mulvey & Company with  her excellent  23^rd August 2008 and the Forum Expanded Think Film No 2 mini congress.

I was still not feeling tip top but was booked way in advance to DJane the record release party for the popular Berlin based duo Easter at Sudblock at KottBusserTor.  Easter is made up of my androgynous former student at Malmo Art Academy in Malmo Sweden Stine Omar and her beautiful beau Max Boss.  The two have become YouTube sensations with their arty electro fused music video short subjects and deadpan live shows which attract throngs of young cute admirers.  I was behind the wheels of steel from 10pm till a little after 1am before they emerged on the stage with a short set. The celebutants in the audience included the bootylacious Israeli modern dancer Assaf Hochman and his muscle pup studkin lover Little Telemachos Alex, Allie the Indie rock royal,Adam Black the Paris based teen dream and ItBoy, Butterclock the Berlin based French butterpop divette, Raphael Meinhart the Austrian Marimba stylist,Matti Hofmann the saxophone playing fairy godmother, performance artist Diego Bianchi fresh from Arco Madrid,William Massey of L’Officiel Art and Documenta 14’s Adam Szymczyk.  Sud Block’s cute and lovesexy manager Denis was the perfect host making sure that I was appropriately hydrated all evening long and when I got peckish he even provided the doll with a nice snack.  The entire staff at Sud Block are delightful.  The last time I DJaned there was last year for the Listen Up Feminist Music Festival.  My only complaint is the cigarette smoke almost caused me to have an asthma attack as there is very little room for the air to circulate. 

For more info on the band Easter go to this link: http://easterjesus.bandcamp.com/album/new-cuisine-pt-1

 

UND WIE MAN SIE SOFORT ENTLARVT

Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus and her Forum Expanded team should be proud of all their efforts this year with the theme What Do We Know When We Know Where Something Is? This questions kept coming up during the Berlinale in marvelous and unexpected phenomena that will continue to resonate as Forum Expanded embarks on the Road to Oz and its 10 year anniversary/jubilaum next year.

Forum Expanded has become the talk of the town and is even eclipsing other areas of the Berlinale Film festival as it should. The art world of course wants to get its guey coated sticky fingers deep into the projectile fudge slide so expect a lot of jocko socko shake-ups and milk-a-magnesias by next year and even a smackdown or two. Even mainstream media outlets who for the most part always remain clueless by only focusing on The Competition section of the Berlinale were buzzed by the offerings on display by Forum Expanded.
Friday evening Forum Expanded came to a nice closing at the celebrated Berlinische Galerie-Landesmuseum fuer modern kunst, fotografie und architektur with Jack Smith: Beyond the Rented World II-Hamlet, Gems & other shorts-Coffin Scene,Abortion Pit Nightmare,Nun & Zebra,How to Select a Victim and Jack Smith at Cologne Art Fair (1974) featuring a performative introduction by the great Jerry Tartaglia looking dapper and bemused. When it comes to Shakespear Jack Smith’s Hamlet is the only version worth its grain of unadulterated sea salt. I was laughing and crying simultaneously at the sheer beauty of the proceedings which besides Mr. Tartaglia featured Marcuse Siegel as moderator, with appearances pre and post cocktails with the handsome  matinee idol looking Diedrich Dederichsen, Nanna Heidenreich, Uli Ziemons, Nora Melitor, Maria Losier, Susanne Sachsse, Bruce “Judy”LaBruce winner of Teddy Special Jury Prize for Pierrot Lunnaire, Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus, Manuel Schubert of FilmHighlights Magazine, The Love Camel-Andrea Novarin, Wilhelm Hein,visiting artist Fred Dewey who teaches at Art Center School of Design in Pasadena and is also the director of Beyond Baroque in Venice, CA., Ruth Schonegge and hot girlfriend Miriam, fotographer Annette Frick, Evi Ruesseler the Bear Boy, Isabel Spengler, Daniel “Haji”Hendrickson, Trixie “Beatrice Cordua” Schonherr and that Norweigan god of gods Vegard Vinge looking more muscular and lovesexy then I last remember him. Yummy! Because I was DJaning the Pierrot Lunaire premiere party I wasn’t able to go to the first Beyond the Rented World program at HAU 1 that was dedicated to the late great Warhol and Jack Smith drag superstar Mario Montez that featured The Milkbath Scene from Normal Love, Boiled Lobster of Lucky Landlady Lagoon, In the Grip of the Lobster, Exotic Landlordism and Overstimulted plus Ken and Flo Jacobs, John Zorn, Jerry Tartaglia and Marc Siegel.

Received many emugs today of people enjoying my DJaning at the Forum Party. As I’ve said many times before I am not a proper DJ. The environ of the dank and smokey nite club world is not my scene any longer if it ever really was. The celebutants that came by to say hello while I was spinning in the beautiful Green Salon of the Volksbuehner: Shari Frilot, my former boss with the New Frontiers Section of the Sundance Film Festival looking radiant and healthy who came to Berlin from New York where she attended the NYU Memorial Services for Dr. Professor Jose Munoz. Shari is a party animule and really knows the meaning of spreading joy on the dance floor, she was in the nubian posse of NewYork filmmaker par exellance Thomas Allen Harris whose latest Through A Lens Darkly:Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People was in the Panorama Section of the Berlinale with his juicy jubas jubilee producer Gregory Warren Jr. who was breaking many preValentine hearts as every man who saw him wanted to take a nice big bite of all that Mandingolan eye candy. Mr. Warren also produces along with Mr. Harris their Digital Diaspora Family Reunion project, sweet Aussie actress Toni Collette also came up to La Diva and while I was resting between sets I held court with a relaxed Judy LaBruce, the stylish Carolla Graumann of KinoTech Asta Nielsen, Nanna Heidenreich, Sharmishta Sarker the Cultural Director of The Goethe Institute in Calcutta who will be bring Marcuse Siegel, Susanne Sachsse and Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus who was looking quite serene and sophisticated for a six week experimental film tour of India soon, Hungarian cineaste Bela Tarr, the grandson of JFK-Jack Schlossberg,, Stephan Geene of bbooks Kollective whose brilliant film Umsonst featuring a delicious young cast I found totally enthralling and sublime. Unsonst was just another one of the many delights of Forum Expanded.  Forum Expanded Rules!!!!While taking a break from DJaning I also chittle chatted with my old punk rock actress pal Patricia Arquette of the famous Arquette acting dynasty, Ellar Coltrane who plays her son and Richard Linkletter who won the Silver Bear for directing this critical fav and Love Camel lauded experimental narrative film Boyhood that was over ten years in the making. Thursday Feb 13th I was surrounded by a lot of award winners including Guillaume Cailleau and Michel Belague who won the Silver Bear for the short subject La Borat, lovesexxy Lebanese director Roy Dib who won a Teddy for his Forum Expanded short Mondial 2010, Karim Ainouz whose film Praia do Futuro was in the Competition with lover Mario,Koen Clarehout, Nadja Talmi,Julian Radlmaier whose film A Proletarisches Wintermaerchen is a sheer delight. I expect big things to happen for Mr. Radlmaier who is not only a gifted young filmmaker but is also an entrancing male beauty whose man milk is coveted by many henpecked horny admirers, Diane McCarthy of radio station ReBootFM,hunky Georgian actor Vakho Chachanidze with Andro Sakvarelidze of the Forum film Blind Dates, Assaf Hochman, Daniel Hendrickson and Vassily Bourakas.

During the Berlinale Sid Caesar of the 1950s TV variety and comedy hour Show of Shows that first introduced to the public the comic writing talents of Mel Brooks, a teenage Woody Allen, and Carl Reiner died age 91. Sid Caesar had a kind of barrel chested 1950s style manliness that was quite sexy and a little hard to describe. Also Hudson the famous New York City gallerist of the famous independent, non corporate Feature Gallery died age 63. I didn’t know Hudson that well but back in the early 1990s his gallery hosted evenings devoted to queer zines like my Fertile La Toyah Jackson Magazine and he also did exhibits featuring the work of G.B.Jones andTom of Finland. I will never forget that Hudson also paid for my plane tickets to New York on many occasions in the late 1980s and early 1990s when he heard that I needed airfare. That kind of generosity without fanfare is so rare these days. Hudson will be missed by many.

Will write more about Berlinale, as soon as I recouperate from a little flu bug and congestion plaguing me, so please sit tight and be patient with the Vagimule Doll who celebrates her 845th year on the planet Feb 20th.

WEG MIT DER WAMPE

The Vagimule doll is beyond exhausted from DJaning at the Forum Party at the Volksbuehne Thursday. I had a lovely time and wore my couture Rick Owens gown which looked great in the Green Salon where I was doing my Spinderella behind the mighty wheels of corugated steel. Thank god DJane Olga Damnitz aka Angela Anderson and Uli Ziemons aka: Parti Kruger also shared some of the spinning duties with me and were sensational! I was completely knackered when I was told to put the breaks on the excitement around 4am. Throughout the night i kept murmering the theme of Forum Expanded: What Do We Know When We Know Where Something Is? I also had The Love Camel Andrea Novarin helping me with all my CD's and vinyl LPs. Seems like people enjoyed my nutters collection of music. I am really not a proper DJane as I don't know how to mix or any of those kind of fancy things. I am more of a dolly bird jukebox. Will give you more about the party in another post, and highlights of Jack Smith Beyond the Rented World at The Berlinische Galerie with Jerry Tartaglia & Marcuse Siegel and of course more Forum Expanded, Forum and Berlinale Gossip.
Want to let you know about the book launch and reading from THE SUICIDERS at Ficken3000 Sunday (the 16th) that features Judy LaBruce DJaning afterwards as part of Club Pork. Judy and Susanne Sachsse just won the Teddy Special Jury Prize for the film Pierrot Lunaire. Congrats to Judy and Susi who deserve more prizes and awards!!!! It's free to get in so stop by Ficken 3000 before 11 and partake in a special reading by author Travis Jeppesen starting right at 10:30pm.For all you literary figurines out there Travis Jeppesen is part of the Object Oriented Ontology in particular or Speculative Realism in general, a philosophical movement that attempts to inquire into the life of material objects outside of human perception and discourse. Travis's work is the artistic analogue to this philosophical movement---whoda thunk?.

DAS PANZERT IHREN RUECKEN

My gout problem has gotten a bit better but I have had to curtail my activity during the Berlinale so that the stress of multiple screenings and events doesn’t overwhelm me and leave me immobilized. Will write more about the festival but please be patient with me.

Just received this announcement that German underground film legend Wilhelm Hein has won a very prestigious art prize. Below is the info with a link in German. Congragulations to Wilhelm who I am sure is going to be receiving many more accolades as we progressive into 2014.

08.02.14 20:28 Wilhelm Hein erhält den Ehrenpreis des Preises der deutschen
Filmkritik 2013
Seite 1 von 2 http://vdfk.de/news/view/162-wilhelm-hein-erhalt-den-ehrenpreis-des-preises-der-deutschen-filmkritik-2013

08.02.2014, 16:15 Uhr
AKTUELL
Kritiker-Panel auf der
Berlinale
"Halbzeit –
Internationale
Filmkritiker ziehen...
Wilhelm Hein erhält
den Ehrenpreis des
Preises der deutschen
Filmkritik 2013
Berlin, 03. Februar 2014
- Der Verband der
deutschen Filmkritik...
Aus dem
Befreiungsschlag
erwächst
Verantwortung
Stellungnahme des
Verbands der deutschen
Filmkritik zum Urteil
des...
mehr...
WILHELM HEIN ERHÄLT DEN EHRENPREIS DES
PREISES DER DEUTSCHEN FILMKRITIK 2013
Berlin, 03. Februar 2014 - Der Verband der deutschen Filmkritik
verleiht seinen Ehrenpreis dem Avantgarde-Filmkünstler Wilhelm
Hein. Die Preisübergabe wird im feierlichen Rahmen der
Verleihung des Preises der deutschen Filmkritik 2013 am 10.
Februar in Berlin stattfinden.
Seit über 40 Jahren steht Wilhelm Hein für den
Experimentalfilm und für das Undergroundkino. In
den 1960er-Jahren sind – in Zusammenarbeit mit
Birgit Hein – seine ersten Materialfilme entstanden.
1968 war er Mitbegründer von XSCREEN, dem
legendären Kölner Studio für den unabhängigen Film. Mit dem Ehrenpreis
würdigt der Verband der deutschen Filmkritik Wilhelm Heins konsequente
und kompromisslose Filmarbeit, die bewusst Position bezieht gegen
etablierte Kunst und für die Subkultur. Seit 1989 arbeitet Wilhelm Hein an
seinem Work in Progress, die inzwischen 12-stündige Filmcollage im
16mm-Format „You Killed the Underground Film or The Real Meaning of
Kunst bleibt … bleibt …“.
Der Preis der deutschen Filmkritik wird traditionell im Rahmen der
Berlinale in 12 Kategorien für Spielfilm, Spielfilmdebüt, Kinderfilm,
Dokumentarfilm, Darstellerin, Darsteller, Schnitt, Drehbuch, Kamera und
Musik aus der vergangenen deutschen Jahresproduktion verliehen. In
diesem Jahr werden erstmals ebenfalls in Berlin die Preise in den beiden
Kategorien Experimentalfilm und Kurzfilm vergeben.
Die Preisverleihung wird moderiert von Burghart Klaußner. Sie findet am
Montag, 10.02.2014, um 20.00 Uhr (Beginn der Verleihung: 20.30 Uhr) in
der Tube Station, Berlin, statt.

AUFSCRAUBEN & LOSLEGEN

After such a jam packed time in New York City, returning to normality in Berlin was difficult as now I have to venture into Berlinale International Film festival mode. There is no rest for the perpetually wicked and so I found my self first going to Hebbel Am Ufer Theatre or HAU I to see the Hidden Cameras perform in celebration of their new album Age. Baby Diaper Joel Gibb and his music kollective were in fine forma donning a masculine skirt ensemble in preparation for the death water balloon fisticuffs that are likely to reverberate around the world because of Gay Goth Scene. I had a Forum meeting the next day so I wasn’t able to stay after the concerto for the after party at WAU café. Did get to chittle chat with Travis Jeppesen with Brian Tennessee Claflin of Pork at Ficken 3000, sexyeiffel towers Adrian,the SouthAfrikan all grown up son of Rosemary’s Baby, newly gay married French artist Christophe Chemin, El Calavero, handsome Gallic photog and beau of Michael Stipe – the intoxicating beauty that is Thomas Dozol, very pretty Dean Sameshima who gets sexier as he ages, precious Skandinavian artiste Ingar Dragset, and young Polish/Japanese/American artist Winston Chiminski. I will be DJaning along with my Forum Expanded colleagues Olga Damnitz and Uli Ziemons at the Forum Party at Volksbuhener on Thursday Feb 13th in the Gruener Salon, and I will also be behind the mighty Spinderella wheels at The Schwuz Club for the Pierrot Lunaire party on Sunday Feb 9th along with the films director Judy LaBruce and guests that will undoubtedly include the movie’s star and co-director Susanne Sachsse. The Love Camel, Andrea Novarin also comes to Berlina for the Berlinale festivities on Feb 9th when Pierrot Lunaire has its world premiere at the Delphi Theatre.

I was more then all ready to celebrate along with Scandinavian Muslim warrior Daniel Hendrickson the opening of Forum Expanded What Do We Know When We Know Where Something Is? at deconsecrated mid century St. Agnes of God Evangelische Church Alexandrinen Strasse in Kreuzberg. Was immediately impressed by the mystical mood set by the many installations in the austere Richard Serraesque former religious compound. There is an almost mystical pull with the work of Iranian/German Azin Feizabadi’s interactive installation Chronicles From Majnun Until Layla-Stage 1&2, Egyptian Malak Helmy’s Music For Drifting multi-channel soundscape, Ken Jacobs’ A Primer in Sky Socialism, Jordanian Firas Shehadeh Guerilla 8-Bit and Thailand’s Jakrawal Nilthamrong Hangman and Intransit video and film set pieces. The film portrait Tea by Robert Fenz featuring the patrician Berlin art collector Erika Hoffman Koenige--Muslim Daniel overheard film artist Birgit Hein say was “too fetishizing of celluloid”. Go see it yourself and tell me what you think. The exhibition at St. Agnes will be up til Feb 17th so see it a few times to fully soak it in, that’s what I plan on doing. Seen schmoozing the great Deidreich Deidrichsen, Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus being interviewed by a million different TV stations including CNN and the BBC with her Forum Expanded team players: Nanna Heidrenreich, Anselm Franke,Bettina Steinbruegge, Ulrich Ziemons, Nora Molitor, Angelika Ramlow and installation design crew headed by Angela Anderson with Richard Gersch, Alexia Apolinario, Catalina Fernandez, Noam Gorbat and Mark Pennock. I got a chance to flirt with hunky Pole Marcin Malaszczak(whose man milk I would love to drink from the source-just putting it out there) humpy Frenchman Michele Belague, activist Hannah of Iraq, Koen Claerhout, Nadja Talmi, Marc Siegel, Susanne Sachsse, Salome & Richard Gersch with a tall goodlooking school friend and more.

The Forum Office has moved from The Haus Huth to a more modern building catty corner. Other then the nice view from the Forum café I prefer the old location better. After picking up my accreditation I went to Mitte to meet Susanne Sachsse in front of the Hackeshe Hof Café to see a John Waters exhibition at this trendoid Gallery that is supposed to be one of the most famous in Berlin. Of course I had never heard of it. The lean and lanky Mr. Waters was looking quite elegant and dashing in his designer suit. The place was a mob scene with of many people wanting to consume the film supershtar who is always very gracious and accommodating to fans. One overzealous elderly man almost tripped over a Waters sculpture. If I was curating the exhibition I would not have had the lighting be so bright and I would have edited things down considerably as less is always more. Ran into dapper and charming Gary Everett of Liverpool’s Homotopia Festival, Travis Jeppesen and posse, Marcin M. and his lovely film critic pal Carmen of Dazed and Confused Magazine, Lady Gaby, Nazli Kalerci and her hot Turkish girl posse, Premil the shy Serbian conductor of Pierrot Lunaire, Baby Diaper Joel Gibb being his flippant self, filmmaker Yony Leser and his hot producer Paula.

Went to homebase Kino Arsenal for the first very playful program of Forum Expanded Friday at the cinema basement filmhaus starting with Main Hall by Phillip Fleishmann, Another Color TV by The Youngrr Kollective from Indonesia, Fernando Que Ganhou Un Passaro Do Mar by Portogese duo Filipe Braganca& Helvecio Marins Jr. ending with Marie Losier’s hilarious Bim Bam Boom Las Luchas Morenas which is classic Marie. Program 2 The Curse of Medea by Branwen Okpako had an attractive cast of Black Deutsch actors something you don’t get to see very often, I only wish their acting wasn’t in that naturalistic style that is popular in Germany with classic and even non classic text. Loved how Nanna Heidenreich handled an obligatory showboater during the Q&A. 
The stress of New York and now Berlinale has taken its toll on me and I am having a painful gout outbreak which is really cramping my style. Ended Friday at the Forum Expanded mega event program at the Cinestar IMAX theatre of Yael Bartana’s Inferno. I have never seen a movie in an IMAX theatre so there was the feeling of pageantry in the air. I wished the Brazilian men in the 20 minute film had their clothing burned off instead of the cheesy SGI effects that engulf this 600,000 euros art labour. The handsome and stately Ms. Bartana is an important artist so everyone is allowed a hiccup in a fascinating career. 

Those of you who like a bit of anti institutional protest in your art search you must venture to Wedding for the annual Wilhelm Hein/Annette Frick gathering at Casabaubou Sunday. Here are two missives from Annette & Wilhelm and then the info:

dear vag

thanks for posting number 14 is ready It got a SuperKnallereine Reisebeschreibung eines Dichters der Paradjanov besuchte mit unveröffentlichten Fotosund lots of misinformationhighway Stoppersbut get just the first 2machine brokeJerry will show his Leni Riefenstahl Filmyou are in toowith one picture and the letterLove and greetings to Love Camel Annette

vaginal

thanks again we got your letters from new york. we are totaly overworked in the moment. our new magazine is coming out very soon.and so on jerry is coming. everything is a bit difficult for me as you know with the arsenal etc. people... but this has nothing to do with our relationship. WE ARE THE ARTISTS !!!!! FUCK THE CURATORS !!!! but you and i have to pay our rent and and and .so everybody has to make more or less boring compromises. thats normal.we are not mentaly ill. yours wilhelm ps. can you imagine:one of the greatest filmmaker of their filmworld and mine too sergej paradzanov just had his 9o. birthday (he is dead since a long time).no tribute to him at the arsenal or somewhere else in berlin:thats what i mean. JERRY TARTAGLIA: A SHORT HISTORY OF THE FUTURE UND ANDERE FILME außerdem NEU : JENSEITS DER TRAMPELPFADE 14 FACHBLATT FÜR FILM FOTO UND ANDERE KÜNSTE DIESMAL SCHWERPUNKT FILM *WYNN CHAMBERLAIN BRAND X *ECKEHARD MAASS - BESUCHT SERGEI PARADZHANOV IN DEN 8O JAHREN *CECILE CHICH NACHRUF AUF MARIA KLONARIS *WIELAND SPECK - MAUERAKTION UND DIE STASIAKTEN DAZU *PETER SAUL AUSSTELLUNG VENEKLASEN/WERNER AUßERDEM : GEDICHTE - TEXTE - PAMPHLETE UND COLLAGEN VON u.A.: * CORNELIA MÜLLER: * SIRONE UND VERONIKAS WALLSTREET AKTION NEW YORK 2001 *NICK ZEDD *evi aka bear boy *WILHELM HEIN *ANNE DIPPEL *RUVI SIMMONS *SHIRIN BARTHEL *PAUL SHARITS *FLORIAN CRAMER *TAYLOR MEAD *MARIO MONTEZ *LYNN B. *VAGINAL DAVIS *GEORGE KUCHAR *CLAUS LÖSER *HANS HELMUT KLAUS SCHÖNHERR *YAM YAM *JACK STEVENSON *DAVID KRATZNER*PETER WEIBEL, *MALCOLM LEGRICE *SAADI *SAM CHAMBERLAIN *VAGINAL DAVIS *JOHN HEYS *ALEXANDRE ESTRELA *FOTOS-AKTIONEN ANNETTE FRICK CASABAUBOU - SEESTR. 107 - BERLIN - WEDDING - U6 -SEESTR: CASABAUBOU- So. 9.2.2014- 15-21 UHr

DER GUTE GOTTIN VON MANHATTAN

Thank goddessa for my wonderful webmaster Larry Bob Roberts who is based in San Francisco and who created and maintains my webpage and keeps it updated. I know nothing about technical matters and when I first started blogging I didn´t know that I was blogging. The Wall Street Journal and New York Times were contacting me to ask my opinion on blogging as a phenomena and I didn´t even know what they were talking about. Just shows you how computer illiterate I really am. I recently gave an interview where I incorrectly stated that I have a quarter of a million daily readers of my blog and webpage, well I stand corrected as that is now over 2 million. All this and I have never been on Friendstar, My Space,The Face Book, Twitter, Insta-gram or any of the other social medialic intititties. Just like in the days of queer zines in the 1980s and 90s its word of mouth that has the power to propel this nutty lady forward. I wish I could figure out a way to make it pay the bills better, but whatever. If I made more money I would just waste it on hot hustler boys---so ghetto I was born and ghetto I guess I will remain.

Headed off to New York City during the polar whoretex, afraid my flight would be cancelled but it wasn’t. Remind me never to accept a gig across the Atlantic in the middle of winter. If it wasn’t for Bianca of CoCo Rosie and Jonathan Berger I would have never ventured to the East Coast of Amerikkka. I arrived at Newark Airport Saturday Jan 25th at 1pm freezing cold but clear and sunny. Sweet and highly organized Eric Schmalenberger who was Kembra of VHoKB’s assistant for the Womanizer Exhibit back in 2007 at Deutsch Projects was there to pick me up and sweep me to Man!hattan and the Ace Hotel on 29th Street at Broadway which is a 1904 former single room occupancy turned trendy boutique hotel staffed with stunning young millennials who are very lovesexii. My 8th floor suite had fab views of the nearby Empire State Building. My Chola BFF the Azteca Machaca Warrior, Hectora Martinez flew to NewYorika from Plato Del Lago to help me with the performances and to photograph/document La Reina and her Reinadom and I was happy to have Hectorina and her famous poker face by my side. Hector works as an executive for a large insurance company and he and his longtime lover of 20 plus years Ericla Pierce who works as a therapist at Kaiser Permanente just bought a new home that overlooks the Silverlake Reservoir. I was fortunate that Hector also treated me to all my meals as MoMa PS 1 didn’t provide me with a perdium. I had heard through the artist grapevine that the museum is notoriously shortshrifty and shady when it comes to compensating artists so Jonathan Berger who is a New York City native and child of high art-his father was the Arts Commissioner of New York City in the 1980s and 1990s did most of the dealings with the MoMa administration as being such a ghetto girleen I would have wound up going off big time and shaming them through my international children who use social media as a weapon and involve my editor pals in the mainstream press. New York City can still be exciting, but I don’t see it as the be all and end all. It seems that the only artists that institutions compensate well these days are those who are already rich which is a system I don’t get at all and refuse to condone. On this trip I arrived with a paltry 22 cents in my pocket. While still in Berlin I took the subway to Tegel Airport at 5am before the U-Bahn controllers were trolling about,as my flight was at 9am. I am so 13 cents and forever in the red with my German bank account. Living hand-to-mouth is my reality but I’ve been broker then usual because of betrieben costen that comes at the end of the year. Berlin is still one of the cheapest major cities to live in but there are some hidden costs that can sneak up on you with a powerful dropkick. To give credit where credit is due MoMa did pay for an economy plus exit row aisle seat as that was not up for negotiation. I am 6feet6inches without highheels tall and they did take care of my transport from the aeroport providing Eric who came to fetch me with a car service(they conveniently bailed on the return trip) and put down a credit card for me at the hotel as I don’t have one. You don’t need a credit card for hotels in Europe. Jonathan fought to get me four nights in a hotel but MoMa would only pay for two so GAG had to pay for a night out of their limited and already stretched budget. Why the museum wouldn’t let them fundraise to increase their budget is beyond me, and Hector paid for a night which was ridiculous. Why should Hector subsidize a huge institution? My friends who work for very poor institutions in Berlin were shocked that MoMa wouldn’t pay for four nights for an artist coming all the way from Europe. When an artist comes from the States to Berlin four nights is standard policy. Word to institutional forces---be gracious and generous. Next time I see Catherine Gund Saalfield (I am godmother to her mixed race children)and her mother Agnes Gund I will definitely mention this to them and since they are on the MoMa board I am sure they will set things right. Since I don’t come from wealth and priveledge no one will listen to my gripes, but if it is voiced from a grande olde money Edith Whartonesque family. . .

The next morning Sunday Jan 26th the day of the performance Eric fetched Hector and I and took us to MoMa PS1 via the subway. Sunday Sessions is organized by Jenny Schlenzka, Associate Curator with Mike Skinner Producer & Technical Director and Alex Sloane [Ranger] Live Programming Coordinator. Before reaching the museum we stopped for breakfast at a little cute 1940s style diner that was around the corner from MoMa PS1 which is in Queens. I had never been to the New York borough of Queens which is also known as Long Island City I believe. I was jet lagged out of my mind and was completely excrement for brains. Didn’t know how I was going to perform, but perform I somehow did. The goddess Freya was certainly my homegirl Sunday afternoon and evening at MoMa giving me energy from some little unknown reserve. I felt my performance could have been better if I had more time to recouperate from the flight. Wonderful Eric Schmalenberger found me the delightfully voluptuous make-up artiste and burlesque princessa Miss Cherry Delight of Coney Island aka: Drea Lorraine who beat a fine face on the Doll luxuriating my skin with a replenishing massage and soaking NYC 45&50 Pro longwear on my crusty old mug. She dusted gold deposits on my cheeks and fresh Moroccan on the lips. The eye palette was Indianwood, all make-up by M.A.C and moisturizer by Lush. The museum was packed early on with hordes eager to catch the last days of the Mike Kelley exhibition. I was asked to perform for this event by the divinely gorgeous and mega talented Bianca Casady of CoCo Rosie who interviewed me in the first issue of the new feminist magazine Girls Against God, which is published by Capricious whose owner is Sophie Morner. GAG is co-edited by Bianca who for the performance took on the persona of Mad Vicky and created an intoxicating specialty score for my grand entrance and welcome cantata. Working in collaboration with Bianca was the acclaimed artist Anne Sherwood Pundyk who served the most scrumptious Vagina dentata cookies as D’Meter the goddess of the harvest. The entire event was created as a feminist happening titled Wolf Moon Gathering celebrating the powerful forces in control of the wild female soul. My duties was as hostessa and fairy goddess anchoring the entire experience with my insane Druid Wiccan sorcery. Rick Owens came to my rescue at the last minute and designed my couture menstrual robes which went perfectly with the proceedings. So many young women came up to me after the performance saying that this evening was exactly what they needed to be able to heal from the evils of danger capitalism. The greed and selfishness of the upper echelons of New York society is worse now then the last time I was in NYC in 2012 during Hurricane Sandy Duncan. I am sure this lovely ritual is still moving through everyones arteries and will reside in their inner being for all of eternity. I loved how the first hour of the program was slow and comforting in tone, offering healings of sound,handwashing with many forms of feathered-smoke blessings creeing the magical subterranean Forests of Burzee. Many in the audience came prepared and dressed for the occasion ready to offer items of personal significance to the altar for the casting of spells. In order to tune out the outer-world mobile phones were left at the door so that everyone was present and focused. During the second hour the beautiful and powerful enchantress Bryn McKay guided meditation and prayers, then there was a plant channeling of the sacred feminine by hexen Melanie Bonajo. The legendary enigmatic Black Lipps diva Johanna Constantine looking stunning in a vermillion gown with temple prostitute J.ZaraA evoked the Goddess Allura through dance and conjuring of voice. A group chant was ignited by singers Diane Cluck and Yasmine Hamdan calling the Skeleton Woman brilliantly embodied by Rebecca Wright doing the Dance of Life/Death/Life. The fervent soundscapes and breathtakingly inventive musical accompaniment was by water-soul-barer Doug Wieselman and cellist Danny Bensi. Others who collaborated on the project were: Jamie Fletcher, Angela Dream, Melati Malay,Molly Narnia, Lily Gold, Bianca Butti, Athena Barat, Marine Loimant Sebag, Samantha Samhair, Anna Fitzgerald, Kim Schneider, Asha Man of Moon Church Quarterly the coven and zine, Susannah Simpson, Minka Sicklinger, Marina Beautiful Dreamer, Cheyenne Timpirio, Kyle Morrison, Ben Clotten, Anika Sabin, Ariel Hahn, Emily Yost, Phoebe Pundyk, Julia Fiorino, Chrystal Loyer,Teresa and Eric Schmalenberg who was Bianca’s assistant. Also lighting designers Marika Kent and Karen Walcott, good friends of Miss Bianca who generously gave their design and engineering expertise to the event. Support from the MoMa side: Rosemary Selig-Addiss.

The celebutantes in the audience: Amare’ Stoudemire,Harley Viera Newton,Scotland Zief and his scientist lover Patricio Mujica and posse, Tavia Nyongo, Barbara Browning and Ann Pellegrini of NYU’s Performance Studies Department, bootie pie Chinese actor  Daniel Wu with British actress Rebecca Hall, Priyanka Chopra the new Guess Girl, Linda "Les" Simpson who gave me a copy ofher brilliant new chapbook on the late Page Potter Reynolds, the Pyramid Club era transgendered mannequin and performer, Hilton Als of The New Yorker Magazine,writer Bruce Benderson, Mr. Mickey Boardman of Paper Magazine, Guy Trebay of the New York Times Style Section, Thomas Lax of the Studio Harlem Museum, The Lady Bunny, photographer Slava Mogutin and his humpy artist lover Brian Kenny,Viva Ruiz and Gavin Russom of Crystal Ark, Scary Ben of Bushwick Burlesque, goodlooking and large peniled muscle dork Dr. Advenchure,Kae Burke & Elna Delgado of The House of Yes,photographer Jamie Warren, artist Raul DeNieves,designer Wren Britton, musician Damon Albarn, and ballet dancer Adrian Danchig-Waring. Since I never know who anyone is I am still waiting back for the complete guest list so keep checking back to the old blogette in the next few days for updates. Below are the links

www.momaps1.org
www.becapricious.com
www.girls-against-god.tumblr.com
www.facebook.com/GirlsAgainstGod

promotional video for GAG: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fabe-v9f1M

It included content from the first issue and footage from a launch event at Printed Matter with Kembra of VHoKB and NoBra.

Before rehearsing in the middle of the day I did a photo shoot for the LA issue of new periodical publication Popular Noize Magazine with the Dutch photographer Gijs Van De Most that was cute and fun. I hope they photoshop my huge eyebags as I wasn’t able to get any sleep before leaving Berlin for New York and looked like a scamp my entire time in the metropolis.

There was no rest for the wicked as the next day I had two artist talks to give. One at NYU Art & Art Professionals Department at the Barney Building where some of the young undergrads were bored and just tinkled through my lecture sending text messages to friends on their mobile devices. I wasn´t offended as I would have probably done the same if I was there age and outfitted with expensive gadgets to play with. I’m sure they are thankful to have wealthy parents who can afford paying the outlandishly high tuition at NYU. A few of the students were attentive and two even asked insightful questions so it definitely wasn’t a bust. My other talk was in Brooklyn at Pratt Institute for the Performance Studies Department headed by Jennifer Miller the Bearded Lady of Circus Amok who was my co-hostess back in 2010 for VD is SFTD at PS122. I was only expecting around 20 people and was shocked to see over 300 eager young faces Yowza!!! Jennifer Miller, Jonathan and the celebrated interdisciplinary poet,sound artist and multimedia performer Tracie Morris who is an associate professor of Humanities and Media Studies at Pratt wanted to go after my talk to a bar for margaritas but with my jet lag I just had to chuck back to the hotel and rest.

The last day of performing in NewYork was Tuesday Jan 28th at NYU which was one long day starting in the morning. Jonathan Berger came up with the brilliant idea of doing a panel discussion in the form of Vaginal Davis is Speaking From the Diaphragm taking the panel format out of the realm of dullard academia. Jeffrey Hilbert of the LA advertising agency Custom Creative came up with the fabshmashtic title VD’s BM: Physique Tutorial-VD is Speaking From the Perineum. The entire event was in conjunction with the exhibition DEVOTION: Excavating Bob Mizer which is at the 80WSE Gallery curated by Jonathan and Billy Miller of Straight to Hell – The Manhattan Review of Unnatural Acts. I was so happy to wander through the exhibition which features photos of Mizer that are unexpected like his portraits featuring women, children and animals. Most people are only aware of Mizer as a beefcake photographer but his talents were relentless and varied. One of my fav fotos from 1949 was of Gypsy Boots the LA health food pioneer and eccentric. Gypsy Boots who died not that long ago use to have this famous health food restaurant on 3rd Street near Normandie which was very popular with stars during the 1970s. Mr. Boots also wore his hair long and went around barefoot like a hippie decades before the hippie movement. He was also quite a hornpig and loved grabbing the asses, and tits of women and dicks of young strapping lads. Another portrait that caught my eye was of Bob Mizer’s well dressed yet masculine looking aunt and his young fey nephew ---certainly an FIT, the foto shimmers with a strange kind of formality that is somehow unnerving. Congrats to Billy & Jonathan who are genius genius genius!

For Speaking From the Perineum Billy Miller was my co-host and he was simply incredible with that computer like Encyclopedia Browne mind of his. I adore and love Billy who since he was a teenager has been one of the most desired beauties in America’s homosexual underworld. Billy is in his mid fifties now but still exudes youthful exuberance with an innocent sheen. Helping us with this production was technical expert Dustin Foster, & cute, cuddly Damian Davis both on staff at NYU’s Barney Building. I joked that Damian was the son of Altovise and Sammy Davis Jr. Miss Jean Kim who worked with us in 2009 on Reperations& Retardations and 2010 on VD is SFTD in New York and also in 2012 in Berlin for Camp/Anti-Camp created the animated visualities from my written text and drawings. Jonathan’s pretty gallery assistants Mary Beth,Kate and tall drink of sexwater Hugh worked miracles in a short period of time and Alex Casso the super studly yet sensitive New York “It Boy” was my assistant giving Hector and I much needed aesetic joy as we got to breathe in his sweet smelling young male aromas. Alex doesn’t wear any scents and he doesn’t need to as he has the most exquisite natural and fresh body odor like sandalwood after a spring rain. Yummy!!!

Creating the perfect soundscape score for the event was Ross Menuez of Salvor Projects. Ross has a superior record collection and his DJ-ing was the perfect red carpet for conversation. Serving the audience and panel guests the Ficken Spritzer cocktail was a bevy of juicy NYU art students Jess, Alex, Jackie, Karena & Sawyer. The first two guests were Dennis Bell who acquired the Mizer estate in 2003 and John Sonsini a painter who was Mizer’s studio assistant from 1986 till Mizer’s death in 1992. Remind me never to do a Skype interview again. Skype is very unreliable and causes more stress then its worth. When the technical difficulties started to occur we just played with it and made it seem all mystical which worked but I would rather not have to deal with it, but the two Skype guests were quite inviting and animated and along with Billy’s grilling of them the Skype episode turned out better then I expected.
Our first live guest was Justin Spring who is a handsome and dapper New York based writer. I am sure after enjoying Mr. Springs presentation everyone in attendance will run out and purchase his tomes: An Obscene Diary:The Visual World of Sam Steward and the biography of Sam Steward Secret Historian:The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist and Sexual Renegade. Mr. Spring was followed by the charming Marvin J. Taylor who is the director of NYU’s Fales Library and Special Collections. Mr. Taylor showed us some rare male-on-male erotica from the turn of the century that was quite throbbing to put it mildly. Mr. Taylor’s newest publication is Looking For Mister Benson: The Black Leather Jacket and Narratives of Masculinities.With all these heavyweights this version of my talk show/installation took on a more intellectual tone then with the version I did in 2010 at PS 122 where I was performing analingus on stage. Bringing it on with the content valve fully exposed was the most important photography critic in the world Vince Aletti who writes for The New Yorker Magazine’s Goings On About Town section and following Mr. Aletti the legendary cultural historian and foremost critic of performance art Ms. Cynthia Carr who worked at the Village Voice during its salad days from 1984-2003. C. Carr is one of my personal heroines so having her on SFTP was very important to both Jonathan and I. Ms. Carr specializes in experimental and cutting edge art with a focus on performance art and everyone should have her books Our Town: A Heartland Lynching,A Haunted Town and the Hidden History of White America, and Fire in the Belly: The Life and Times of David Wojnarowicz on their bookshelf. Back in the last century Ms. Carr doing a guest stint at the LA Weekly wrote a fab review of one of my poetry readings at Difficult Light Bookstore and it was the best review ever written about my work and showed that she completely got what I am about.
So there wouldn´t be three Skype calls on the program the New York based artist Rachel Mason created a short film where she interviews her parents Karen and Barry Mason who own the Circus of Books adult bookstores in WeHo and Silverlake. The Masons, especially Mrs Mason had the audience in stitches. To further feminize the event I invited the most important woman in the world Bibbe Hanson and her young artist husband Sean Carillo on the panel and they did not disappoint showing a collage of found and collected images that certainly enhanced the goings on. Tonya Blazio-Licorish who works for NYU’s Steinhardt Visual Culture and Costume Studies has been overseeing the preservation of props and costumes in the Bob Mizer archive and her serene presence, glamour and intelligence really illuminated. The wonderous Ed Halter of Light Industry screened a rare Bob Mizer film and was playful yet knowledgeable. The evening ended on the perfect note with the supreme K-8 Hardy showing her Positions Series which uses unexpected cultural references in a similar vein as Bob Mizer. Ms. Hardy is so prolific and has shown everywhere in the world including The Whitney Museum and is a founding member of the influential feminist art collective LTTR. Over 100 people had to be turned away as there was no more room to stuff them inside the Barney Building Auditorium. I was glad that the panellist and audience all got drunk together and it was a very intimate gathering. The VIPs in attendance:  my former student Scotland Zief and his lover the famous young scientist Patricio Mujica, Claudia Gonson of the Magnetic Fields with Hal Sedgwick, Benjamin Tischer of Invisible Exports Gallery, the scintillating artist Baseera Khan, LA based video artist, photog and UC Irvine Professor Bruce Yonemoto,rock star suprema Michael Stipe and his handsome French photog lover Thomas Dozol, Steffan Kalmar of Artist Space with beau the British dancer Michael Clark, Lia Gangitano of Participant Inc. Gallery of the Lower East Side, Downtown art royals Uzi Parnes, Ela Troyano and Carmelita Tropicana, Linda “Les”Simpson, dynamic art duo Slava Mogutin & Brian Kenny,Tavia Nyongo of NYU Performance Studies with Dr. Professor Ricardo Montez of Princeton, my former Bricktops at the Parlour Club girlFriday Charity Hope Valentine,Theodore and Asya Berger looking young and delicious, artist Michelle Handelman, videographer Nicholas Jenkins, fashion designer Thomas Englehart,  Art Forum Magazines best reviewer the H.L. Menckenish beauty boy Alex Jovanovich, avant garde theatre don Eric Schmalenberger,Travis Chamberlain, writer Hassan Blasim(The Corpse Exhibition and Other Stories of Iraq),photographer Ves Pitts, heritage neo burlesque star Gin Minskey, designer Thomas Engel Hart, Circus of Books heiress Rachel Mason,Liza Johnson, honcho James Turrell, cute nebishy actor Michael Zegan with Russell Westbrook, the reclusive genius and Vice Magazine columnist Bob Nickas who also teaches at Columbia University and painter Michael Bilsborough.