FREUNDE MIT GEWISSEN VORZUEGEN
The Love Camel, aka: Andrea Novarin came through Berlin town for his birthday. Camel lives in central London where he works for the British Film Institute. The Camel is one of my oddest and most unique gal pals. We met in the 1990s when he volunteered to be my assistant for the events I put on in Milan, Turin, Bologna and Rome. Camel knew everything about LA punk rock and was well versed in my career in underground film, music,art and journalism. Funny I didn’t find out till recently that Camel has written several books on Italian cinema and the horror genre. It was these books that got him his position at BFI. Shows you how self absorbed I am.
I adore my Camel. He is very soft spoken and doesn’t toot his own horn and is completely devoted to his Vagimule doll. We’ve known each other now for almost 20 years and I can’t imagine life without the Camel. He bought me a bevy of presents that included many obscure film titles and two books: Queer Pollen-White Seduction, Black Male Homosexuality, and the Cinematic by David A. Gerstner on University of Illinois Press and The Twenties by Alan Jenkins an illustrated survey.
I came down with a bit of a cold and also had some Commie Biggie duties so I wasn’t able to hang out with the Camel as much as I wanted. Luckily Daniel Hendrickson the Jewish Muslim was able to take Camel to see his fellow Camels at Hasenheide Park in Neu Koelln but we had some lovely joyous meals together at Atlantic on the Mehringdamn Corridor, Toughstein Café in the Insel, Santa Maria the Mexican bistro in Kreuzberg, The Bilderbuch on Akazien Strasse and Azul where we met with film historian Marc Siegel for his belated birthday celebration. Earlier in the week along with Daniel Hendrickson, Susanne Sachsse and Mr. Siegel we went to the Arsenal for the Akira Kurasawa retrospectacle to see a screening of Rashomen with sexy Tishiro Mifune and has juicy nips. At Arsenal we ran into Little Alex of Chocolate Grinder Film Kollective and his hot Israeli modern dancer lover Assaf Hochman and Arsenal Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus who gave me a beautiful 1920s dress from Arsenal kasse girl Grit who is leaving the Arsenal now that she has finished school. Grit will be missed as she is one of the sweetest ladies in all of Germany. Marc Siegel also relayed to me a story about when he brought the Malaysian born Taiwanese film director Tsai Ming Liang(The Wayward Cloud) to Club Sucker at the Garage one Sunday in Silverlake and the famous director was treated to an impromptu performance live on stage of fellatio by the doll of a humpy well endowed indie rocker. Just my usual antics at the famed art/performance lounge and beer bust that I hosted for some five years which now seems like a lifetime ago.
Got an emug from one of my oldest and dearest sisters of the clothe Ron Athey whose new book project needs support. Here are the details below so please help the tatoo love god in this very important and worthwhile endeavor:

http://www.indiegogo.com/Pleading-in-the-Blood-The-Art-of-Ron-Athey

Another one of my famous lady friends Glennda Orgasm aka: Glenn Belverio will be in Berlin for a few days before venturing to the Vienna Fashion week. Can’t wait to spend some quality time with this geniuses genius.

Just received this note from my hot comrades in Slovenia:

Dear friends,
you are very welcome to this event at ISEA2011.
Hope to see you there,
Marcela
www.aksioma.org

Janez Janša, Janez Janša, Janez Janša
Name Readymade
Thursday, 15 September, 2011 - 13:00 - 14:00
Sabanci Center Main Theater, Levent
ISEA2011 ISTANBUL - The 17th International Symposium on Electronic Art
Name Readymade is a project presentation dealing with a wide range of issues related to the “name changing” gesture perpetrated by three Slovenian artists who, in 2007, officially, and with all the papers and stamps required, changed their names and assumed the name of the Slovenian Prime Minister at the time, Janez Janša. Ever since, all their works, their private and public affairs – in a word, their whole life – have been conducted under this new name.

The presentation is a parcours through different stages and aspects of the act of name changing and its consequences, including public, relational and intimate ones; it is an investigation of how, in western society, the concept of personal name coincides with (or differs from) the question of personal identity.
More: http://isea2011.sabanciuniv.edu/other-event/name-readymade
---------Produced by Aksioma - Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana / www.aksioma.orgSupported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the Municipality of Ljubljana
-- Marcela Okretič Aksioma | Institute for Contemporary Art, LjubljanaNeubergerjeva 25, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenija tel.: + 386 – (0)590 54360gsm: + 386 – (0)41 – 250830
aksioma4@siol.net
www.aksioma.org
***
I also received info from my NYU PhD student Josh Lubin-Levy who was part of my production team for my smash award winning New York City success last year Vaginal Davis is Speaking From the Diaphragm:

Petite Mort Recollections of a Queer Public
A project by Carlos Motta and Josh Lubin-Levy September 17–25, 2011 / Thursday-Sunday, 12–6pm
Curated by Ingrid Chu and Savannah Gorton
Commissioned and published by Forever & Today, Inc.
Book launch & performance: Saturday, September 17, 6–9pm
Performance series: September 18, 23, and 24 & 25 (details below)
Forever & Today, Inc.
141 Division Street
New York, NY 10002
www.foreverandtoday.org

Forever & Today, Inc. presents Petite Mort: Recollections of a Queer Public, a collaborative project by Carlos Motta and Joshua Lubin-Levy, including a book and a related series of performances, all taking place in and around Forever & Today, Inc.’s Lower East Side/Chinatown storefront—a gathering place and site for activity from September 17–25, 2011.
Motta and Lubin-Levy’s book, Petite Mort: Recollections of a Queer Public, on view and available at Forever & Today, Inc., assembles drawings from memory of spaces in New York City where a public sexual encounter occurred, and presents contributions from an intergenerational group of over 60 gay men.
Conceived as an atlas of queer affection, Petite Mort proposes a subjective blueprint of the city, one that values not simply the space “as is,” but how it has been performed and engaged, highlighting the fundamental connection between public space and queer life.
The collected drawings, depicting sites extending from a residential rooftop to The Rambles in Central Park, remind us that public sex is not exclusively about a personal pursuit of pleasure—they also contain the seeds of historical social and political action that have brought together communities of gay men.
Petite Mort asks questions challenging us to expand our vision for queer politics: What if our politics were rebuilt around a broader notion of intimacy rather than individuality?Can we foster, rather than police, the trust and affection inherent to desire and pleasure? Should equality be about difference, rather than assimilation?
The performance series includes: Sketchy Walk by Juan Betancurth and Todd Shalom, a self-guided late-night cruising walk in the Lower East Side/Chinatown; Last Call by J. Morrison, interactive performances lasting for the duration of one song; and TENS by Cyrus Saint Amand Poliakoff, participatory performances exploring how language and electricity operate in the body.
Printed in an edition of 500, proceeds from the Petite Mort book benefit Queers for Economic Justice (QEJ). Beginning September 17, 2011, a free PDF is available atwww.foreverandtoday.org.
DRAWINGS BY:
Anonymous, Daniel Arango, Pablo León de la Barra, Jarrod Beck, Jean de Boysson, W. Chase, G J Climer, Ashton Anders Correa, Jonathan Crespo, TM & Liam Davy, David Deitcher, John Paul Detty, Rafael Perez Evans, Allen Frame, Jack Fritscher, Vincent W. Gagliostro, Terence Gower, Daniel Greenfield, Daniel Handal, Christopher Hollowell, Aram Jibilian, John Jurayj, Dave King, Doron Langberg, Michael Lehman, Trygve Luktvasslimo, Sebastiano Mauri, Matthias Vriens Mcgrath, Michael, Billy Miller, John Monteith, Matthew-Robin Nye, Eugenio Percossi, Matthu Placek, Eric Rhein, Manu Rodriguez, Samuel Roeck, Sergio Roger, Cyrus Saint, Patterson Scarlett, Christopher Schulz, Jacques Servin, Ethan Shoshan, Jean-Michel Sivry, Daniel Smith, John J. Spencer III, Max Steele, Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, George Towne, Ultra-red, Jonathan VanDyke, Antoine Vigne, Jason Wee, Seth Joseph Weine, Eric Wolf, and Jake Yuzna.
WRITINGS BY:
Johan Andersson, Kate Bornstein, Jill H. Casid, Ingrid Chu and Savannah Gorton, Joel Czarlinsky, Tim Dean, Aiken Forrett, Katherine Franke, Gordon Brent Ingram, José Esteban Muñoz, Eileen Myles, Ann Pellegrini and Janet R. Jakobsen, and John Paul Ricco.
PERFORMANCES BY:
J. Morrison: Last Call, Sat. Sept. 17, 6–9pm & Sun. Sept. 18, 12–6pm at F&T, Inc.
Juan Betancurth and Todd Shalom: Sketchy Walk, Fri. Sept. 23, 10–11pm, outdoor location; very limited capacity, RSVP required (RSVP opens Mon. Sept. 12, 12pm,rsvp@foreverandtoday.org).
Cyrus Saint Amand Poliakoff: TENS, Sat. Sept. 24, 6–9pm & Sun. Sept. 25, 3–5pm at F&T, Inc.
Carlos Motta is an artist and and Guggenheim Fellow (2008) whose work has been presented at MoMA PS1, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, X Biennale de Lyon, with upcoming projects at New Museum and Performa 11.
Joshua Lubin-Levy is a PhD candidate in Performance Studies, New York University who has directed and/or performed at Dance Theater Workshop, The Kitchen, and Performance Space 122.
Forever & Today, Inc., a non-profit founded in 2008, is a sponsored organization of the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), a 501(c)(3). Curating and commissioning projects in collaboration with a single artist, collective, or collaborative entity, the organization extends unique opportunities for artists to create new work and engage diverse audiences through exhibitions, performances, site-specific installations, publications, and educational and public programs.
Funding for Petite Mort was made possible in part by USA Projects, an online initiative of United States Artists, with donations by over 70 supporters.
http://www.art-agenda.com/shows/forever-today-inc-presents-petite-mort-recollections-of-a-queer-public/
***
I know so many talented artists from around the world and I love letting you my readers know about their work. Here is the latest from German queer beauty Paula Winkler:

Ihr Lieben,
hiermit lade ich Euch herzlich zu der Ausstellung "Trautes Heim, Glück allein" im Nassauischen Kunstverein in Wiesbaden ein, in der meine Arbeit "EXCEPTIONAL ENCOUNTERS" zu sehen sein wird.
EINLADUNG ZUR AUSSTELLUNGSERÖFFNUNG IM NASSAUISCHEN KUNSTVEREIN IN WIESBADEN
AM SAMSTAG DEN 10. SEPTEMBER UM 17 UHR
http://www.kunstverein-wiesbaden.de/seiten/2011_2012_010.html
Ich freue mich euch dort zu sehen.
Herzliche Grüße
Paula Winkler

WAS ZIEHST DU AM LIEBSTEN AN?
A lot of visitors to Berlin have been asking me what is happening here that is fun and exciting. I hate to break the proverbial bubble but I am a working girl who hardly goes out on the town partying or making the scene. I rarely go dancing or clubbing unless it’s a party or event that I am hostessing, DJane-ing or have designed the visual allure for. Drag queens are thought of as creatures of the night. But I am not your usual dragon lady. I like to go to bed early and wake up early.
But if you are coming to Berlin in late summer or early Fall here are a few things of interest that might strike your fancy:

The Pergamon Museum on Museum Island(Kopfergraben)in Mitte. Their antiquities collection is supposed to be superb as well as their annexed Near Eastern Museum and Museum of Islamic Art. Open Mon-Sun 10-6pm Thur 10-10pm admission 8 euros Bus lines 100 and 200(which takes you to all the tourist spots).

One of my lovely and talented Weisensee Art Academy students Anne Duk Hee Jordan is part of a fascinating group show so please go and see it. Here are the details:

Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,

GIZ und Berlin Art Junction laden Sie herzlich
zur Vernissage der Ausstellung 4 der Berlin Art Junction
Donnerstag 8. September von 17 bis 22 Uhr
im 5. OG des GIZ-Hauses Berlin,
Reichpietschufer 20 ein.

Die Künstler der Ausstellung,
Anton Burdakov, Alexine Chanel, Georgina Criddle, Taro Furukata, Anne Duk Hee Jordan & Camilla Storgaard, Caroline Kryzecki, Pierre-Etienne Morelle und Jennifer Oellerich
werden anwesend sein.

18.30 Uhr
Performance "Double" von Pierre-etienne Morelle
Wir würden uns freuen, Sie begrüssen zu dürfen.
Für mehr Informationen:
www.berlinartjunction.org
Anfahrt: Mendelssohn-Bartholdy-Park
(U2), Postdamer Platz (U2, S1, S2, S25)
--
Berlin Art Junction
Fuldastr. 9
12043 Berlin
Tel: +49 (0)151 56842702
contact@berlinartjunction.org
www.berlinartjunction.org

Chicks on Speed Cultural Workshop Now!r
Performances, Exhibition Workshops, Talks with the those good friends of mine Chicks on Speed and guests at Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien Mariannne Platz 2 10997 Berlin
10.9-23.10.2011 daily 12-7pm www.chicksonspeed.com

Pork at Ficken 3000 Urban Str 70 10967 Berlin U8 at Hermannplatz. Every Sunday night starting at 10pm. This lust laden dance club is the brainchild of Tennessee Claffin the former Mormen missionary and hustler ex lover to A-list directors Gus Van Sant and Bryan Singer. Their motto is "exploit yourself today, pay for it 2morrow.

And if you are a true cineaste. Go to the Arsenal the only film institution in the world run by a triumvirant of powerful feminist women-namely Milena Gregor of the Gregor German film dynasty, Birgit Kohler and Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus. And every month you can see yours truly at the Arsenal with my per formative silent film event Rising Stars, Falling Stars. See info below:

Rising Stars, Falling Stars presents
Swedish Realness Night Saturday September 24, 2011 8pm with a rare screening of Norrtullsligan(Webliche Jungesellen/The Norrtull Girl Gang) Directed by Per Lindberg 1923. With live musical accompanyment by the Mighty Blue Bros.-Tim&kJohnny. After the screening join hostess and series curator Vaginal Davis for an intimate angst-y wine reception in the world famous Rote Foyer.
Norrtullsligan 1923 8pm Kino2 Arsenal Institut For Film and Video Art
Potsdamer Strasse 2 Sony Filmhaus in historical Potsdamer Platz
www.Vaginaldavis.com
www.arsenal-berline.de

JEDEN ABEND EINE NEUE STADT
Went to the Heimat Hafan in Rix Dorf to see my ueber lovesexy baby diaper Joel Gibb and his band The Hidden Cameras perform. It was a hometown weekend celebration at this major Ms. Gorgeous theatre in Neu Koelln that is about the same size as the Lido in Kreuzberg but with oodles more charm and elegance.
Opening for the Hidden Cameras was Chinawoman who is a lovely saaphic sister whose crooning reminded me a bit of Chan Marshall of Cat Power. Early in her set she sang a ballad of forelorn longing with a hypnotic beat. The rest of her material drifted in that grey matter area between Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star and off kilter Joan Armatrading style rock outs.
Mr. Joel Gibb was brilliantly working it on stage showcasing a male Kay Thompson theatrical side that I had always known he was capable of. The great Thompson was also channeled in tosome new vocal and choral arrangements that echoed through the house. This European touring version of the Hidden Cameras is filled with gifted musical geniuses who also perfectly moonlight on stage as the singing/dancing Williams Brothers---filled with personality plus. Eloise would be proud.
Special guest baby dyke go-go girls El Cavajero and Katja from Silver Future added to the allure of the evening. Zero-ing in on all the festivities: fresh faced and bright eyed Felix Knoke of Tenderloin just back from holiday on Lake Constance looking very dreamy and chewable,happy-go-lucky Anna Muelter of HAU, novelist Travis Jeppeson who celebrates his 32nd birthday today and will be going back to school to get his Phd in London leaving for that town on Sept 20th. Can’t wait to hear about his two months spent in China working on an art project there. Accompanying Mr. Jeppeson was Jay Crisfar the young star of Judy LaBruce’s Otto: Up With Dead People. Chit chatted with a nicely subdued Tennessee Claffin of Pork at Ficken3000, graphic designer Mario of Slovakia, Joel Gibbs super muscular and sweet boyfriend Enrico Dallman,hunky bigg dicqued Vegard Vinge and Ida Mueller who directed the incredible version of Ibsen’s The Wilde Duck in the spring at Prater der Volksbuehne and caught a brief glimpse of artist Wolfgang Tillmans.

DER ALLTAG ALS DEMONSTRATION
Went with the Jewish Muslim to the little Indian restaurant on Akazien Str that has the tini tiniest most unhappy waiter in the world. The food is delicious at this place but seeing the poor sad sack dimunitive Indian server always puts me in a funny mood.
Blow the bugle,crash the cymbols all my troubles fill a thimbal - The Love Camel is coming to town. Yes that famous two humped species will be here in Berlin very soon as the summer tourista season comes to a close. Also heading the teutonic way is those strapping Idaho ginger haired Hilbert Bros: Jeffrey and Kurt, who I am sure will be very popular with the gay men of Nollendorky Platz as the Hilbert Bros are blessed with a mighty generous helping of cock. You heard it first here----COCK. Both boys together equal about 20 plus inches of heavy duty prime man meatrekus. Yummy. Also my old girlfriend and sister of the holy clothe writer/bon vivante Glenn Belverio aka: Glennda Orgasm will spend a few days in Germania before heading to Vienna for the Love Ball. Glenn’s blog and regular Diane Pernet column is just resplendid and a joy to behold as Glenn is one of my favorite writer/personalities. He is like a queer version of H.R. Mencken or Robert Benchley.
Here’s a sample from an astute blog quote from Glennda on Madonna: Women think they need to overdo it with the surgery so the public and media will still adore them but isn't it clear the opposite is true? As soon as the press smells the blood from the surgeon's knife, they're racing shark-like toward the ...source. You never see stories that proclaim, "Look how OLD Dame Judy Dench looks" with cruel closeups. No, because she is respected for the merits of her talent and no one cares that she looks her age.

Last night I went to a dreamy dinner party hosted by legendary experimental filmmaker Wilhelm Hein of Kali Films and his art photog girlfriend Annette Frick where Wilhelm made his famous chili con carne. The soiree was in honor of the filmmaker Pip Chodorov in town from Paris to screen his film Free Radicals:A History of Experimental Film. Between dinner and dessert Ms. Frick screened some of her latest short subjects including a hilarious one featuring Evelyn Ruessler and Austrian poet Sissy Text. You never know who you will meet at a dinner party at Herr Hein’s, so it wasn’t a complete shock to see German film matinee idol Matthias Schweighoefer sitting across from the members of CHEAP: Susanne Sachsse, Marc Siegel, and Tim& kJohnny Blue. The Brothers Blue had just returned from performing at a music festival in Helsinki, Finland and were tanned and buff. Mr. Schweighoefer, the blondine male ingenue of teutonic romantic comedies wants to stretch his acting chops by playing Wilhelm Hein in a movie about experimental cinema in Europe in the 1960s.

DIE REVOLUTION FAENGT ERST AN
Was taken to lunch by Rimini Protokol’s Helgard Haug, Daniel Wetzel and their cute young interns to Café Sol on Akazien Strasse. They want me to be a part of their new piece adapted from the play Herman’s Battle by Heinrich von Kleist the romantik teutonic writer who offed himself in a ritualistic double suicide. Herr Heiny seems like the type of melancholy baby who could exist in a nice ripe state up my twitchity poop chute. I don't know much about him other then Kleistpark in my neighborhood is named after the dude, and there is an image of him in the big residence and he looks kind of cute and brooding, in that angsty way I can sometimes like in men. I think that E.L. Doctorow who wrote the book Ragtime based his tome after von Kleists's Michael Kohlhaus which in his version was reworked as Coalhouse Walker played by the late black gay actor Howard E. Rollins Jr.in the Milos Foreman film version from 1981.
The timing for this project is a bit off as I have so much on my plate at the moment with Commie Biggie and performances back in the states, London, and Spain. 2011-2013is going to be jam packed with spritely activity.
Had dinner with Anna Muelter at the Shwartzer Café the other evening. It was great getting together with Anna and hearing about her long summer holiday in the US and Canada. I couldn’t believe she had never been to the Shwartzer Café which was filled with lots of yummy bright young things including the fresh faced blondine German actor Lucas Vogelsang who I wish would want to spend some time sitting on my face.
Received a lot of emails from the media asking me if I am going to be in the new Woody Allen movie that will be filmed in Germany. I guess there is a rumour floating about in the states that I am up for a role. First of all kids, I am not an actor and although I do love Mr. Allen--Interiors is one of my favorite films of all time, I even spoofed it in my movie The White to Be Angry as “Riche Jewish Husband”. But after seeing his last film Midnight in Paris which had a great premise that just didn’t gel I don’t think I will be taking the place of Scarlette Johansen or Diane Keaton as his next raggle taggle shiksa goddess. The other day Little Alex of Macedonia and the Chocolate Grinder Film Kollective cooked me a nice luncheon at his Sonnen Alle flat and we talked about my new film/performance project for Living Archive and he repaired my costume for Memory Island that I will wear for my piece at the Tate Modern.
Earlier that morn I had breakfast at Toughstein Café with Manuel Schubert of Filmhighlights Magazine and then we did a radio interview discussing the new Red Hot Chili Peppers album I’m With You which is extremely personal. I have never been a fan of the group, but was enjoying this record especially their tribute “Brendan’s Death Song” to the late Brendan Mullen who was one of my LA punk rock mentor’s who I dearly loved and miss so much. Brendan's long time companion Kateri Butler is even referenced in the song. Kateri was my managing editor at the LA Weekly and she is a gem of a gal and was very devoted to her sexy big peniled man Mr. Mullen.
My artist friend Douglas Gordon sent me this link to a musical short that features one of my Bricktop at the Parlour Club girls the talented heritage chanteuse Janet Klein. The saucy Ms. Klein I have known for over 20 years. She started off in the poetry/spoken word scene and was an ex of artist Skip(Girls in Bikini’s Getting Fucked All Day)Arnold. I was the one who encouraged her to go the vintage songstress route as her look and styled echoed a bygone era. Like me she also doesn't drive a car. This is what she sent to Doug and I repost for your amusement:
Oh Doug, I wanted to share this with you. Something jolly and gentle that we just made with our Japanese friend Kazumi (it makes me happy)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIyUKM55dXw

***
One of my talented NYU students Joey Tang is having his first big solo show in Berlin at Exile Gallery in September. He sent me the information on some weird program that i can't figure out how to copy and paste into my blogs format so check Exile Gallery on line for information. Sorry but i am a right brain girl and you know the German saying, tunte und technik.

And all of my Argentine followers check out the band Leisylento down South America Way and also on the European continent:

Queridos queridas,
° este viernes el 2 de septiembre, vamos a tocar en buenos aires con DIENTE NEGRO !!!!!!!!! we will play on the 2nd of september in the place called LA USINA : Bulnes, 326 , almagro, doors open at 21h please come over the ocean *********free entrance////entrada libre

°also: TOMORROW: 30.08.11
experimental // visual // accoustic // mimic // mute // POETRY evening with us (Otok & Beatriz del Río) & friends in : LA CASA DE LA LECTURA ( lavalleja 924) 18h30

°~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~and a little glimpse in the future: Leiseylento in Marburg on the 17th of september..... with new songs about butter & ducks
see you everywhere*
and i wish you all a lot of success with the declining summer,
otok&beatriz--
Leiseylento **bazaar musical***
www.myspace.com/leiseylento
face book: leiseylento

DIE NETZSTRUMPFREVOLTE DER SCHLAMPENMAERSCHE
Was chittle chatting with the baby diaper of the Hidden Cameras Joel Gibb who told me that he was hanging out with fellow Canadians Dicky Doo the celebrated DJ and Generation X writer Douglas Coupland who was in Berlin with his boyfriend on a book tour. They had a scrumptchy dinner at Tin Tin on Paul Linke Ufer. Joining them was gallerist Scott Cameron Weaver and the members of the all-girl band Electrelane. The extraordinarily handsome Mr. Gibb and his European version of HC will be performing on Saturday Sept 3rd at Heimat Hafen in Rixdorf along with Chinawoman. Check out Joel Gibb and Chinawoman's Canuck Caper interview on pirate radio:

http://www.fluxfm.de/

And here is a link for Electrelane:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlSfPmqiplY&playnext=1&list=PLBB90EF10F3778405

Received a wonderfully sweet missive from the writer and film director Sam Irvin whose book Kay Thompson-From Funny Face to Eloise I mentioned the other day. The fact is I am savoring every page of this biography of the grande diva of the Arthur Freed movie musical unit at Metro Goldwyn Mayer during the golden era of Hollywoodlandia.
The insights and revelations are beyond compare. I usually read books really quickly as I go through at least 20 a month stemming from my days as a reviewer at the LA Weekly. But with Kay Thompson I am taking my sweet girly time, and of course there are lots of notes I write in the margins because this spirited tome will certainly be used as a text book for a block seminar I am planning to teach on the musical film in 2013 at the Chicago Art Institute.
Loved finding out little known tidbits like the scoop on former Metro matinee idol Van Johnson(Brigadoon) having had an affair with married comic actor Keenan Wynn (Royal Wedding)and that Judy Garland via Miss Thompson’s inventive vocal arrangements was the first rap artist with her Madame Crematante: A Great Lady Has an Interview from Ziegfeld Follies(1946)directed by her nelly husband and Liza Minnelli's father Vincente Minnelli.

Sent to me via my webmaster Larry Bob Roberts:

Dear VD,

I'm a huge fan of yours and it tickles me pink that you are not only
enjoying my Kay Thompson bio, but that you mentioned it in your blog,
too. Thanks for the plug! I'm very touched.
xxxooo
Sam
www.KayThompsonWebsite.com

GANZ TRADITIONELL
Went to a spiffy and delicious formal dinner party at the lovely Goltz Strasser compound of Gerard Forde on the Akazien corridor of Schoneberg. Mr. Forde looked Benny Hill resplendid in a vintage Balmain dress and Ungaro Greecian heeled sandles. The drawings on the heels courtesy of Christophe Chemin.
The British translator to the Dutch academic and art establishment is also working on a spectacular book project about the late dancer Freddy Herko. Mr. Herko is known as an early Warhol star whose final performance involved his graceful leap from an open window to the pavement five stories below.
The private feast was in honor of Warhol and Jack Smith Superstar Mario Montez, and his longtime companion Dave returning to the USofA after a month long stay in Berlin. It was an intimate gathering that consisted of the ravishing actress Susanne Sachsse, her boyfriend film historian Marc Siegel, a lovesexxy young American born German social worker named Andre, and La Montez’s German assistant Alexander Pohnert.

Just received this emug from Hector Martinez in Los Angeles:

Fetcha, I'm sitting here at Starbucks waiting for an agent. Outside I see a hot, tall Ginger in super flimsy shorts showing off a big thick whopper of a Chorizo with dick head lines and cross vein. He keeps walking back and forth showing off so I'm trying not to pay attention to him. Its hysterical. He saw me look at his crotch, u can't help but see it. Ok, he's walking past me again. I think he's getting aroused by the back&forth action. He's handsome, fit,big leggy and what a Butt!!!! That Dick is Huge!
***
Went with Susi Su and Marcu the other day to Frau Mansfeld to finally take care of my 2010 taxes. When I lived in the states I never made enough money to file taxes, but here in Germany its best to use a profesional tax preparer as the laws are confusing and all engulfing. Susi and Marc made a nice luncheon back at their Hufeland Str flat and they also help me with my new insurance paper work which is a daunting task. After over 5 years living in Berlin I am now switching to public insurance which will be much cheaper for me and less of a headache dealing with a morass of paperwork. The next morning I go to breakfast with Daniel Hendrickson the Jewish Muslim. We have a lovely time at the Turkish boite in Neu Koelln on Karl Marx Strasse that is one of our favorites. The temperature will soar to 95 degrees which will make it the last real warm day of summer.
Susi & Marcu brought me some cute gifts from the states including the biography by Sam Irvin on Liza Minnelli's godmother Kay Thompson-from Funny Face to Eloise. Can't put the book down for a New York minute.

HEMORROIDS OR ASTEROIDS?
For all you Billie Ray Martin fans out there just received this email from the talented singing sensation outlining her current musical projects and how you can become a part of the majick:

it's all happening and getting exciting (it's been ages since a full album release)....so here's another email from us. hope you don't mind. we are now pre-selling four different optional packages of the new album by 'the opiates' entitled: hollywood under the knife. all money we raise with this pre-sale will go towards our promotional campaign worldwide including: press promotion, club promotion, tv promotion and the making of videos, touring etc. we want as many people as possible to find out about us and are running an extensive campaign for the album, singles and remixes. here are the different options available: 1. copy of cd album 12.99 eur 2. copy of cd album signed by brm and with personal dedication 24.99 eur 3. copy of cd album plus copy of the opiates vinyl ep 'anatomy or a plastic girl' 39.99 eur (both signed and with personal dedication ) 4. copy of cd album plus copy of the opiates vinyl ep 'anatomy or a plastic girl' 27.99 eur to pre-order the album please email your choices, amounts, details of the dedication to johanna@billieraymartin.com all orders will be shipped three days before the release date, i.e. the 14th october. if you are interested in making a wider investment in the opiates promotional campaign or the next billie ray martin solo album, in return for a variety of special opportunities and involvement with brm or the opiates, please get in touch with us for details. many thanks the opiates billie ray martin disco activisto records www.billieraymartin.com
***
Received a wonderful emug from my olde punk rock pal and colleguen Alice Bag with the band Cholita the female Menudo whose memoir Violence Girl will be out shortly and I guarantee it will be a sizzling read.

Hello Graciela, It's Sad Girl. How's life in Berlin? I bet you're making your presence felt there. Over here on my side of the pond there's a lot of excitement connected to my upcoming memoir. No joke, I'm really having a book published. To celebrate the release, Artifix Records wants to put together a limited release ep featuring some of the different bands I've been in. I'd love to include a Cholita cut if that's ok with you. How would you feel about that? Xoxo, Alice www.alicebag.com The True Life Adventures of Violence Girl Diary of a Bad Housewife
***
O and the Wieland Speck finissage at Arsenal was a wonderful intimate event that featured a clip show by love sexy Kiki Petersen highlighting the underground and mainstream acting career of Herr Speck including his roles in Ulrike Ottinger’s classic Freak Orlando, and Just a Gigolo Marlene Dietrich's last starring film role with David Bowie. Enjoying the raucus trip down memory lane: art photog Annette Frick, Andreas Bernhardt(former Gaultier make-up designer and Speck film star), actress/director Susanne Sachsse, film historian Marc Siegel, Manuel Schubert radio presenter with Film Highlights Radio Magazine, Elsa of Lisbon, Arsenal Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus, legend Zazie De Paris, new sweet Arsenal intern Sandra Schulze,projectionist Anselm and filmmaker Birgit Hein.

IHR KITZLER WAR SO GROSS WIE EIN KNABENPIMMEL
Nick Ashford, who with Valerie Simpson, his songwriting partner and later wife, wrote some of Motown’s biggest hits, like “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough“ and “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing,” and later recorded their own hits and toured as a duo, died Monday at a hospital in New York City. He was 70.
I use to play Ashford & Simpson’s “Solid” at Club Sucker at the Garage in Silverlake. I saw them perform their cavalcade of songs at the Sunset Junction Street Fair one year and they were very entertaining on stage. Mr. Ashford with his lady locks flowing,long polished fingernails and glitter & sequined Johnny tank tops was quite the R&B dandy. He will be missed.
And speaking of the Sunset Junction I've heard that it might not take place this year. That icky little Michael McKinley of the sad tye dyed t-shirts who runs the festival or better word grifts the festival did some kind of mismanagement thing and the city counsel was not amused. If he uses the money he makes to pay for sucking the hot cocks of young latino gangbangers then its worth it, but if it just goes into his pocket to pay for more horrible t-shirts then screw him.
***
A little art review for you art damaged sissyphiles:
ALLE WORKERS PEARLS
Berghain Aug 18-26th 2011 16-22 uhr
Entering the back rotundra of the Berghain techno dance club you become overwhelmed by the buildings stark industrial beauty. A brief torrential downpour right before I arrived contributed to puddles of water that glistened like an electronic cinema diadem.
This new section of the behemoth which will soon become a live music concert hall is unusually inviting. This group gathering of the united workers of Berghain Unlimited brand Thurn und Taxis felt like I was viewing a gnarly graduate student show, and of course most of the exhibit is uneven,but that only adds to its charms.
An ungainly portrait by Martina Minete Dreier reminded me of what Kurt Cobain would have looked like if he had lived to pot bellied middle age. I enjoyed trying to keep up with the playful ghosting video projection by Yusuf Etiman the patrician Turkish guru of Basso kollective. Gunnar Neumann´s circle one Franko b like blood burn print with accompanying insect horror ring video was zenlike and meditative, but the standout of this show has to be Sarah Schoenfeld´s large scale color double negative prints of heroin and mdma frozen as lovely and serene chrystalline entities. The perfect commentary on modern clubland Deleuze adaise.
***
Ulrich Ziemons the handsomest man in all Europe invited me over for a scrumpteous dinner Plattenspiel where he cooked a wicked lasagna and we did the spinderella behind the mighty wheels of steel. Yowza my dear Uli has some great taste in musica. Can’t wait till we start Djing together along with Olga Damnitz at next year's new Berlinale Underground cineclub called Arzner in homage to the great lesbian Hollywood film director Dorothy Arzner.

PACK MICH AUS!
Its so funny whenever I write memory pieces of my childhood growing up in LA in the 60s and 70s I always get a flood of response from readers. I purposely don’t have a comments section on my blog as I don’t want to encourage showboating, something that is so prevalent on the internet with people with way too much time on their hands. But thanks a d’mint for all of you who wrote to my student assistant Gleeson Brevard and my webmaster Larry Bob asking for more about the young Vagimule hatched from the primordial ooze of the LaBrea Tar Pits.
In keeping with that tome I’d like to tell you about one of my childhood friends from elementary school named David Hayes. David was a hefty mulato boy with coloring like the actor Wentworth Miller. He was in the Mentally Gifted Minors Program with me in the LA Unified School District from 3rd Grade up into high school. We didn’t go to middle school together as at that time he was enrolled in private school. David was way ahead of the times in terms of sexuality. He was a bonafide openly gay child. He was teased mercilessly by all the kids and even the teachers didn’t like him. But he would fearlessly stand his ground and say “so I like boys. So what?” In 4th grade David became a minor celebrity when he was handpicked from our school to star in the KTTV production of Student News which was like a miniature 60 minutes for kids. Being regularly on TV only made things worse for him, and the abuse from students and teachers alike continued with an upped ante. David and I bonded over our love for the L.Frank Baum series of Oz books. I have always rallied for the underdog and was the only person in the entire school who was friends with David and would talk with him. Its so strange that David wasn’t effeminate like I was. He was much more the typical boy in that he was a bit rugged and looked and dressed actually quite sloppy and was always unkept sort of like the Pig-Pen character in the Peanuts cartoon series. If anyone should have been crucified as a giant FIT(Fag-in-Training) it was me, yet I was popular all through school and quite adored. My Fertile La Toyah Jackson collaborator Beulah Love(who has an abrasive personality) would say that she couldn’t believe how I got away with murder, and could say and do the most outlandish things and people just somewhat smiled and were bemused.
Anyway David Hayes formed a bit of a crush on me and asked me after school if he could kiss me. I said ok and offered my cheek to him. He wanted to kiss on the lips, and I told him I thought that was disgusting. To this day I don’t like kissing people on the lips unless they have such amazing pillow lips that I can’t resist. I’m not much of a cock sucker either unless its one of those mega juicy ultra desireable penises with no visible veins or blemishes-beercan thick with a mushroom knob and heavy Birkin bag balls. Well David continued to be enamored of me and was always giving me gifts and presents and asking me to spend the night at his house and what not. His mother was also very light skinned, not as light as David but around maybe a shade or two the coloring of Angela Davis and she had the same educated tone to her voice which I loved. His mother knew David was lonely and was trying to help encourage him to make friends, but other then him calling me on the phone and hanging out at school my mother didn’t allow outside contact with other children as she was a very private person, and was also going through her religious zealiot period and didn’t encourage worldly contacts.
David Hayes continued to court me even offering me money for just one kiss which I would always refuse. I was relieved when he switched his object of affection to a strange white boy in our class named Edward Taylor. This was 1971 so there weren’t so many white children at Hobart Blvd Elementary School in midcity LA. Most of the caucasion families had escaped to the suburbs during white flight, but the Taylor family were unusual in that they were a bit hippy dippy/early new agey white liberals involved in Catholic liberation politics. Edward’s father was tall and strapping with bright warm blue eyes who wore his hair long and straight parted in the center and had a Jesus like blondine beard with a bit of a Dudley DooWright chin. His mother was movie star pretty looking like Carol Lynley from The Poseidon Adventure. Edward was very bright and was a gifted artist and a very happy go lucky kid. He was extremely quirky and sometimes appeared almost catatonic. I admired how aggressive David Hayes was in pursuing Edward. He just literally swooped down on him, and Edward just went along. They would be on the playground just passionately French kissing like adult lovers, so lost in the act that they were unaware they were causing a scandalous scene. The teachers and administrators were so horrified and unnerved by the open romance that they didn’t even know how to handle the situation. I think they just thought the same sex couple would tire of each other and stop the PDA and then they wouldn’t have to address the issue.. But David and Edward became inseperable and would walk around together hand-in-hand and even created their own secret lovers language. The make out sessions continued with newfound flourish. Finally their parents were called in for a serious discussion with Principle Richard Homet a stern authoritarian figure but both Miss Hayes(David’s single mother) and the Taylor’s didn’t see anything wrong with their son’s kissing and mildly petting each and this made the school administration mad with rage. The Vietnam war was still raging so the boys parents thought that the school shouldn’t be so concerned about two children showing each other affection when the world was filled with violence and hatred and that they shouldn’t be making such a big deal out of something so minor.
Even the other kids at school stopped being shocked by their behavior and resigned themselves to saying, “Oh its just that David Hayes and Edward Taylor kissing again.” David Hayes was still bullyed and harrassed, but its strange how no one ever attacked Edward or called him a faggot or sissy. I was the ultimate fag/sissy and no one ever made fun of me or dissed me all through school. Of course I had crazy serial killer eyes, and inherited my mothers ability to give someone a frosty look of disdain that child nor teacher dare challenge.
David Hayes was still starring on local TV by 1972 and in the 5th grade his mother removed him from public school and enrolled him in a private academy geared for children working in the entertainment industry. I would still get the occasional phone call from David Hayes into the 6th grade and even when I started middle school. He and Edward continued to see each other even when Edward left public school for Catholic School in the 7th grade. Edward lived not far from me so I would run into him occasionally on the weekends. His family lived in a huge house in the historic Harvard Heights Section of Mid City. Edward’s affair with David Hayes was most likely just a phase he was going through as I saw him several times during junior high days being quite cozy with a black girl named Simone Williams who I had known since 3rd grade. Simone was quite a personality, very feisty ---my favorite phrase of hers was, “Don’t point your finger at me, my mama’s not dead”. She was also overly developed for her age so that is probably what caught Edward’s pubertic eye.
Edward in his teen years turned into quite a hunk like his father. All traces of the lanky dork evaporated. Edward Taylor really developed into quite a beauty--a mixture of sinewy surfer dude and baseball jock. Unfortunately whenever I would run into him in the neighborhood later during our high school years I could see that he had become a hesher stoner. He was still his friendly gregarious and warm self but also completely out of it on marijuana. The last time I saw Edward Taylor was at a GoGo’s record signing party at Liccorice Pizza on the Sunset Strip. I was helping the GoGo’s then manager Ginger Canzerroni with the event which was packed with people as The GoGo’s debut album Beauty and the Beat became a surprise mainstream crossover hit. At this time Edward was sporting a musclebound rockabilly look, and we chit chatted for a bit. He didn’t seem stoned, so maybe he had given up the MaryJane.
David Hayes’s career in television didn’t last beyond his tween years. But his mother Patty Hayes became an influential casting agent working for Universal Studios. She cast the TV series Battlestar Gallactica. David continued his private school education during the junior high school years but went briefly to my high school Los Angeles High during senior year. He looked exactly the same from elementary school days--tubby and dishelved. And the kids still harassed him. At my high school there was a contingent of openly gay and lesbian students like Kenneth “Kenny” Bowman who I had known since Jr. High and who would later become the preeminent Grace Jones drag queen impersonator of Hollywood. David Hayes started hanging out with Kenny and his clicqa, but I think David was too butch and normative for this group of queens and baby dykes who were all seasoned club kids at the underground discos of the era.
By junior year of high school through my cousin Carla Duplantier who was the drummer of the punk band The Controllers I was already acquainted with the first 100 punks of Hollywood so I felt too sophisticated to be hanging around nelly disco dolly’s like Kenny and his ilk. And David was also too nerdy for me to want to hang with as I enjoyed the company of older kids who were already in college and art school. At that time in the late 1970s there was a lot of crossover between the punk and underground disco scene that centered around the teen disco Ginos II in Hollywood which was ruled over by the legendary butch drag queen DJ Michaelangelo and his cosmetics Drag Queen Review that performed regularly at Ginos II and at Peanuts Disco which at that time was mainly a lesbian hangout.
Kenny Bowman aka: Miss Grace met a muscular ginger boy from the Midwest at Peanuts, he gave up performing and left California to work in the video store that his humpy red headed husband owned with his parents somewhere in the midwest. Kenny died in the mid 1990s of Mrs. AIDS.
The last time I saw David Hayes was in 1982 when I was working at Retail Slut on Melrose Avenue. He hadn’t changed a bit, and hung out with me in the store all day one lazy Saturday afternoon. He seemed really titillated by my punk rock lifestyle and intrigued by my Fertile LaToyah Jackson magazine. If you are out there David Hayes give me a holler.
*
Our special Rising Stars, Falling Stars in honor of Wieland Speck was a smashing sexsess with a screening of the first gay themed movie Anders Als Die Anderen 1919 directed by Richard Oswald starring Conrad Veidt, Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld and Anita Berber. The film is only a fragment as the original prints were all destroyed but in the 1970s a partial was recovered in the Ukraine and restored by the Munich State Film Museum. Eunice Martins did a fabulous job accompanying the film on klavier and highlighting the action with just the right touch of whimsy and finesse. In the Rote Foyer after the screening the crowd was able to delight in the Wieland Speck restrospectacle installation and get up and personal with Herr Speck in the fleshy flesh which made everyone very happy. Joining in the festivities: Manuel Schubert of Film Highlights Radio Magazine, Darryl Els the South Afrikan guest film programmer, Elsa Hallelujah, the Portuguese intermedia actress who has made the Arsenal her second home, Arsenal Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus and her lovely childhood friend the Argentine tango dancer Katja Ramharter, Michaela Wuensch of bbbooks kollective, scholar Nicole Wolfe and her Norweigan artist girlfriend Eline McGeorge who has a Scottish surname, Nanna Heidenreich of Arsenal Experimental who is now teaching full-time at a college outside of Berlin, film editor and Laurie Anderson acolyte Ruth Schonegger and her new smoking hot girlfriend, modern dancer Assaf “Gisele” Hochman with his lover Tielemachos Alex of Chocolate Grinder Film Kollective who styled the Vagimule doll’s wardrobe and did her hair & makeup, Daniel Hendrickson the Jewish Muslim, his visiting fagademic friend from Princeton University Zahid Chaudhary who is one fine piece of love sexy manhood. Dr. Chaudhary brought along his pals from Avignon, France the art fag couple Lionel & Laurent. Arsenal kasse girl Grit, the sweetest woman in Germany and kasse boy Garrett looking mighty sexy as he is graduating from a twink into a rather nice looking young man with an awesome bubble butt. Projectionist Anselm, studly Ulrich Ziemons of Forum Expanded and his pretty lady friend Juliane, Living Archive Project Coordinator Marcus Ruff ,rosy cheeked artist Jan Vorisek with Harold Ancort, novelist Wayne Koestenbaum(Humiliation) Romanian actress Luminita Gheorghiu (Death of Mr. Lazarescu), and the delightful Swedish spoken word poet and artist Karl Holmqvist.
Sunday it was the screening of Wieland Speck’s Westler from 1985 at the Arsenal‘s Speck Retrospectacle. Westler is the historic drama of classic proportions of young gay love divided by that little tiny tired Berlin wall. The movie is quite effective and emotional and I was surprised to see it start of in LA. It can’t get any far west then Los Angeles. Talk about setting off strong feelings of nostalgia in seeing my hometown circa 1984 the last great year of my city being truelly faburitic in the post punk era. Imagine my chagrin to see a Griffith Park cruising scene that features a young uncredited Steve Antin during the peak of his youthful hustler white beauty and glory. I think at this period he had David Geffen as a sugar daddy, Jon Harp the “It boy” of the fashion new wave scene as his main lover, and I think he was also diddling with fashion photog Greg Gorman and the young Tom Cruise as Antin and Cruise both were teen sex comedy ingénues. That Steve Antin sure got around. Well he did have one tight, hard and very desireable body. Most recently he directed the Cher/Christina Aguilera bomb Burlesque which was talked about all over Hollywood and not because of the divas but because of Mr. Antin and his former longtime lover a Sony Pictures/Screen Gems Unit Exec Clint Culpepper who were having constant knockout sluggos during production. Mr. Culpepper is king of the schlock buster with films like the Resident Evil franchise under his banner.
Getting back to Westler also in the film is a young Zazie De Paris the legendary French Berlin based chanteuse whose eyes are filmed in such a hypnotic way that when she is on the screen you become completely mesmerized. I also noticed a very young Thomas Kretschmann, the German matinee idol. Westler was his first film, he had been a swimmer and that magnificent manlische bod of his was shown to full benefit in an army male bonding roughouse sequence that is erotically charged.
Also enjoying the film and the post screening discussion between Herr Speck and film historian Marc Siegel who just got back from holiday in the states with his director/writer/curator girlfriend Susanne Sachsse was Warhol superstar Mario Montez and his longtime companion Dave, Arsenal Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus, Manuel Schubert of Film Highlights Radio Magazine, and Jurgen Brunning of Wurst Films,
After the discussion and Q&A with the publicum I accompanied Wieland to the Hafen bar in Nollendorky Platz for a birthday party for one of his personality plus lesben friends. Since it was a nice warm summer evening, something that has been very rare this season with all the rain showers, the sidewalk in front of the bar was packed with locals and touristas. It was a hoot hanging with Wieland and his longtime Berlin clicqa of boisterous fags and dykes that included his housemate Frauelein Mabel.

KOERPER & GEIST
Joel Gibb invited me to see him perform at the Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt’s Festival Ueber Lenbenskunst that situated itself with the heady banner Prospects for Sustainable Living.I almost tripped and fell on the stairs of the deconstructed installation set that looked like a fire hazard in the giant pregnant oyester. Going outside was a little better and since I was my usual early self I decided to take a nap on the hammocks which looked as if they were hanging within a geodesic dome. The only problem with them is that they didn’t seem properly secured. One in fact was very much broken, and I saw two people go spinning before they were ejected to the ground.
Fortunately the performances started pretty much on time.The baby diaper of the Hidden Cameras was basically doing a solo quasi acoustic set on the Mocky Post-Alles Stage. Things usually don’t bode well when the curator doesn’t show up to his own event. Mocky who is a collaborator of Peaches did an uninspiring Skype welcome and tepid backyard performance from his new home in Los Angeles. Fortunately Mr. Gibb redeemed the stage with his regal presence and alchemic musical charms. The blah blah blah hippy dippyness of the event didn’t dampen Joel Gibb’s spirit as he quietly proved that art survival is a worthy mandate and went about showing how its properly done. Assisting him on stage was DJ Snax who plays a wicked keyboard, and Miss Peaches herself making a guest appearance dueting with Joel in a harmonized glossalalia that was beyond compare.

AHA DES MONATS - FRAUEN MIT GAYDAR
My scientist will be returning to his hometown of Saarbrucken soon, so we had our last little rendevous which culminated at a nice restaurant off of the canal where he treated the doll to a most delicious meal. Its been nice having a bit of a summer fling. Could someone actually penetrate the protective layers of the lady with the cold tale heart? We shall see.
Received this missive from my delightful friends in the Balkans.
Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, and Vžigalica gallery kindly invite you to the opening of the exhibition:

Eva and Franco Mattes aka 0100101110101101.ORG
Fuck the Systsem
www.aksioma.org/systsem

Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana,
Vžigalica gallery, Trg francoske revolucije 7, Ljubljana, Slovenia
August 18th – September 9th 2011
Opening: Thursday, August 18th 2011 at 8pm
New publication: Aksioma brochure #11, Ljubljana 2011
“Fuck the systsem! And the illiterate! Vuk Ćosić talks to Eva and Franco Mattes aka 0100101110101101.ORG”
Net art, online performances, pranks and false identities by Eva and Franco Mattes, aka 0100101110101101.ORG, reveal the hidden and repressed characteristics of the individual hidden behind a computer. In virtual worlds and parallel realities, in the cyborg [human + computer], at the very end, they discover a ghost, which runs the symbiotic machine and which is, after all, (nothing but) a primate = irritable, competitive, egocentric and many other things. In the present exhibition entitled Fuck the Systsem, we will be presented with four provocative online and public actions, whose mutual interest is the “game” as a civilisational and cultural achievement.
The artistic pair has played all types of games (following Roger Caillois: competition, gambling, mimicry, excitement). In the project Plan C* (2010), the couple and their collaborators set up an action in three acts: arrival in Ukraine, investigation of Chernobyl, and transfer of material to Manchester. The game Plan C was ostensibly a prank; however, it was actually perfectly serious and full of adrenalin. In the video and photo documentation of the second part of the action, the artists wearing white protective clothing investigated the abandoned remains of an amusement park with merry-go-rounds and electric cars. According to Caillois, circuses belong to the type of games that anticipate risk, which always entails the decisive punishment for the acrobat – death. In the last part of the project Plan C, the artists transferred a merry-go-round from Ukraine to Great Britain; however, nobody took the potential risk of the object seriously.
The works My Generation (2010) and Freedom (2010) explore the deterioration of the game, caused by the breaking of the rules of the game or the player’s digressions. Freedom is an online performance, in which the Mattes entered a shoot-out videogame to engage other players in establishing a discourse about another reality – contemporary art. Their attempt was a complete failure. Heavily armed commandos had erased them from the game even before the performance could have started. This raised the question of the identity of the people on the other side of the screen, who control the avatars. Therefore, using found footage from the internet, the Mattes compiled a shocking video work My Generation, which shows people during fits of rage after they have lost a game. They take games too seriously. They have lost all sense of an “extra-game” reality, and their obsession harms intimate and familial relationships, it leads to keyboards being broken, monitors being spat on, etc.
In the video work No Fun (2010), Franco Mattes dangled from the ceiling as a suicide victim to register the reactions of casual visitors to the website Chatroulette, that is otherwise being used for video chats between (often coincidental) visitors. Many interlocutors were shocked; however, the most shocking reactions were those of the people who were totally indifferent. For in the field of virtual reality, there is very little awareness of death, which is a natural and inevitable part of digital life. Death, not only as a political protest against corporate web environments (YouTube banned the screening of the video), but also as a consequence of a defect in the vital functions of a human organism or a hard drive.
*Plan C is a project by Ryan C Doyle, Eva and Franco Mattes aka 0100101110101101.ORG with the collaboration of film makers Todd Chandler and Jeff Stark, photographer Tod Seelie and fabricator Steve Valdez. Plan C was originally commissioned by Abandon Normal Devices and Dispari&Dispari Project.
Download the full text by Ida Hiršenfelder here.
Production: Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, 2011
www.aksioma.org

Artistic director: Janez Janša
Executive producer: Marcela Okretič
Public relations: Mojca Zupanič
Technical support: Atila Boštjančič

Co-production: Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana

Supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the Municipality of Ljubljana
Sponsor: Datacenter d.o.o.


Contact:
Marcela Okretič, 041 250 830, aksioma4@siol.net
Aksioma | Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana
Neubergerjeva 25, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
tel.: + 386 – (0)590 - 54360
www.aksioma.org

WIR WOLLEN TRENDS SETZEN
Received this email from Ernie Larsen of the art couple Sherry&Ernie about a project in Upstate New York:
Please spread the word of this upcoming event to anyone you know in upstate New York who might be interested--and consider attending yourself!
ANDES SPROUTS PRESENTS
A DOWN RENT WAR GATHERING
AUGUST 19, 2011 7PM
HUNTING TAVERN, ANDES, NY
Andes Sprouts Society presents an evening dedicated to exploring the lively history of the Catskills' Down Rent War. The program will take place at the Hunting Tavern in Andes where some of the actual events of the War took place. The evening will include an informal reading of portions of The Calico Indian Insurrection a film script about the 19th century rebellion written by Ernest Larsen. Larsen is the author of the Edgar-nominated novel Not a Through Street, a widely-published media critic (The Nation, Art in America, Jump Cut, etc), and the writer/producer of many award-winning experimental films and videos screened at international festivals and two Whitney Biennials. Ulster County's Academy Award winning actress, Melissa Leo will read one of the parts.
Larsen has said this about his film script:
Fantasy, history, and the history of fantasy intertwine and strengthen one other in this story: the farmers, inspired by the Boston Tea Party and their own imagination, decide to organize anonymously and clandestinely in small tribes, a brilliant organizational move-- they adopt Indian pseudonyms ( like “Big Thunder ‘) and dress up, disguising themselves (both cross-race and cross-gender in 1840!)) in red-dyed sheepskin masks (fitted out with horns and antlers) and women’s calico dresses and even adopt a fake-Indian patois so that no one should be able to identify their faces, their bodies, or their speech patterns.
As fantasy-Indians, in calico skirts, the Anti-Renters let loose a playful and generalized spirit of unchecked transgression.
Included in the evening's events will be tin horn music and a recital of Down Rent songs. The Down Rent War took place on both sides of the Hudson River. The evening's program will present short clips from a video by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Professor, Branda Miller, about Big Thunder and the Down Rent War east of the Hudson in Columbia County.
Andes Sprouts Society initiates programs for artists, farmers and the general public include: new media art residency, bio-technology and farming workshops, eco-aware exhibitions, community radio programs, film screenings, public projects and performances, lectures and forums. For information about Andes Sprouts Society contact Madalyn Warren: 646 775 5055 madalyn.warren@gmail.com
Thanks to The Hunting Tavern, a project of The Andes Society for History and Culture, a not for profit educational corporation established in 1975 for the purpose of promoting the history of Andes and the surrounding area and to provide diverse educational and cultural programming. It is located in the historic village of Andes, NY in the heart of the Catskill Mountains.
http://www.deepdishwavesofchange.org
***
My webmaster Larry Bob sent me a note that San Francisco tranny goth musician Brigit Brat died. Brigit was also known as God’s Girlfriend. We were never that close but we did hang out with each other in New York at Squeezebox where I remember she fooled Mistress Formika into booking her at Don Hill’s. She also worked as a tranny dom in Los Angeles with Mistress Ilsa Strix at her famous Los Feliz House of Domination. Mistress Ilsa is now married to Larry Wachowski the director of the Matrix franchise. At around 7 feet tall without high heels, and white blonde hair Brigit was quite the sight. If anyone has any details on her death please send me or Larry Bob a note and I will post more info.
***
O and more from Douglas Gordon, who is one of my oldest and dearest friends:
Hi hun,
Sigh, I'm having the hardest time getting my second wind back...it's been six months now here in BKK...I'm at the threshold of my next "step" in this relocation/move, and now trying to garner strength for this next "plunge"...
Whore Storey was in the area on two Thai islands and he invited me to visit on both...it was great, beautiful and very relaxing...but now Doug Gordon needs to do her thing and really start hustling.
Thanks for this reply and info on your new video...very interesting!!!...and you know that I have ALWAYS been a BIG fan of Glen Meadmore. I listen to his music a lot here in BKK.
Wow, Goddess Bunny has gained some weight hasn't she? The last time I saw her, probably in late 1980s', I had picked her up on Santa Monica Blvd to give her a ride...she was all by herself wheeling along in the summer heat on her way to the Hollywood Screen Actors Guild on Hollywood Blvd...(she said she had an appointment with Patty Duke). She was charming and professional, but Vag...(I love the gal) but she smelled like her anus & pooper hole hadn't been washed in a week...oh my.
Let's try to skype soon. When is a convenient time for you?
I have attached a pic of Miss Whorey and his Korean husband Ho Suck (that's really his name) sitting on the deck of John's private villa on Phuket Island...and me in the pool of the 3 story house on Koh Samui Island. Every morning the cook would pic a coconut off the tree in the background, and serve it to me with a straw and a small glass of iced vodka...I would take a sip of coconut juice, then a sip of vodka...ummm
Look at this fucking beautiful photo of Naomi Sims..."SHE" was the first black super model...even before my favorite, Donyale Luna (in my opinion the most beautiful woman that ever lived)
lov lov luvvy duvvy
little me
***
Found some old writings I did as an 8 year old in the LA Unified School District Mentally Gifted Minor’s Program. Now I am flooded with memories of my first performance persona Carolyn Langendorf which I based loosely on the child TV and moviestar Pamelyn Ferdin who voiced Lucy van Pelt in the TV Peanuts cartoon specials It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown, and Play It Again, Charlie Brown and the 1969 feature A Boy Named Charlie Brown. Ms. Ferdin also killed Clint Eastwood in the antebellum drama The Beguiled from 1971 directed by Don Siegel. I had forgotten that I was doing drag as young as 7 years old and had a small following from it. I guess I didn’t consider myself a professional tranny until I was a tween and started getting paid for my work.

WENN DIE MAMMA ZUR SCHWULEN - MUTTI WIRD
Got a cute email from my good pal artist Douglas Gordon:

Hi sweetdreams
I will be leaving the house in an hour to have dinner with my german
neighbors, both lawyers from Berlin, Anja and Vorst (sp) pronounced
Yorst.I am taking them to my favorite place in my hood named Soul Food
Mahanakorn.
Was just reading your blog...I don't know how U do IT!...such a
command of the English language not to mention creativity & imagination!
Love love LOVE that Ron organized the riots in London...it IS a shame
they couldn't wait for the tired Olympics...none of the athletes have
feet or legs anymore anyway...it's all advanced metal prosthetics now!!!
Liked the Sylvester clip...did I ever tell you about my friendship
with the BEAUTY?...we used to go to the same parties...I can remember
many 1970s' afternoons on Polk Street or Castro with Sylvester sitting
in the back of a bar/lounge practicing A Capella. The last time I
crossed paths with her was at a Labelle concert at the Paramount
Theatre in Oakland. She was making her entrance into the theater in a
dress with a 20 foot long train...I was wearing a silver jacket &
silver levis with white feathers sewn up & down the seams...we
passed... greeted each other with a kiss kiss on each cheek...and she
then leaned over into my ear and whispered: "I see you didn't dress".
miss you horribly...want to Skype soon...pleeeeeeeze.
chin chin little me
***
O and I received this call for help from some Berlin local punk rock kids:

Hello moustache friends--
this time we need your help: On tour with a band in spring we dented the car. The rental company charges us 980 euro now. To cover this, we will have a fabulous La Moustache fundraiser Friday August 26 at lovely Raumerweiterungshalle!!
Would you like to dj or show your latest performance? Do you have other ideas how to get involved? We are also looking for people for bar and door shifts and cleaning next day at 12. Please get in touch if you want to help us! Thanks a million.
www.lamoustache.org
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1337871527
***
This morning was feeling a little ill but went and had breakfast at the Turkish boite La Femme with muscular and sweet Enrico Dallman, the physiotherapist lover to baby diaper Joel Gibb of the Hidden Cameras. The wonderful Enrico just turned 36, but could easily pass for 28. We had a wonderful time gossiping and catching up on every little thing as well as gawking at all the humpy bubblebutt young Turks on the street. After breakfast I headed over to the American Bibliotecha to try and do some research, but was feeling lousy so cut things short and headed back home to crawl into bed.

WAR IN EINE DRAG QUEEN VERLIEBT!

Been making a secret film with a big shtar and I had to sign a confidentiality agreement that I won’t disclose details of working with this A-lister. Hi di hi ho-hum. Also will be doing a film for art shtar Wu which should be fun, but its all keeping me very busy and acting like a chicken with its head cut off as I don’t have much time for myself what with preproduction duties on The Communist Bigamist and also working on my commission piece for the states. The last fun thing I was able to do was go and see Wieland Speck’s queer double feature at the Arsenal with a screening of Rosa von Praunheim’s It is Not the Homosexual Who is Perverse (1970) and William Friedkin’s Boys in The Band (1970) which stars a bunch of queens and one straight in the form of Lawrence Luckinbill who is married to Lucille Ball’s daughter Lucie Arnaz. Enjoying the gayosity of it all baby diaper Joel Gibb of the Hidden Cameras with Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys, Manuel Schubert of Film Highlights Radio Magazine, Daniel Hendrickson the Jewish Muslim for little Christ Jesus in the manger, prima ballerina Trixie Cordua, Arsenal Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus, and hunky Tim Schenkl of Chocolate Grinder Film Kollective.

Before running off to Brandenburg and Rostock to film Ali Jenka of the famous Vienna Austrian art kollective Gelitin invited me to his lover Gunther Gerdes aka: Baby Papi for a delightful dinner of Wilde Salmon, green chupa mi verga beans, a karoten & Inger Stevens Ginger soup & tunte salad. For desert was yellow melon chunky with nilla ice cream. Yumsickle. Joining us for supper was the personable Swedish poet and artist Karl Holmquist who has lived in Berlin for over 15 years. What a lovely evening of merriment was spent as we watched a slide show of a Gelitin performance installation in Venice, Italy. Ali had spent part of his summer holiday in New York on Fire Island with AA Bronson and went to an artist retreat in the upstate New York town of Warwick with faith healing oracle Paul Selick and James Carmen the director of photography for Judy LaBruce’s films.

I am always forgetting that I get invited to press screenings of Hollywood films months before they come out, and as usual I forget to write about them until a publicist starts badgering me. So here is my take on the JJ Abrahms film Super 8: I am all wrapped up in the house of Elle Fanning, baby sister of Dakota Fanning. Nymphette Elle is already way too self-possessed for a child of her age. She is fast becoming this generations Jodie Foster circa The Little Girl Who Lived Down the Lane. But unlike Jodie she isn’t romantically involved with her mother. Jodie overcame her incest damage and seems pretty adjusted these days in saaphic domesticity. Jodie’s mom like most stage mother’s also tried to pimp her daughter out to film executives back in the sordid 1970s. O don’t get all shocked its not like I am sprouting some revelation. All child stars are abused it’s the nature of the showbiz beasty. Some stars like Shirley Temple wise up and make it work for them. Diane Lane was another child star who didn’t let the mistreatment get the better of her and has prospered. Ditto for Shia LeBeuf, The Jonas Bros, Justin Timberlake and Ryan Gosling who were all passed around Patty at a tender age. But getting back to the flicker Super 8---- the first 25 minutes is fantastic then it evaporates into Steven Spielberg shmaltz liquor Ville. Keep the procoscious tweens ditch the CGI monster!

Local elections are happening in Berlin and so the giant campaign posters are cropping up all over the city. My favorite posters are the ones for Christian Zander of CDU and Lars Oberg for SDU. Gay burgermeister Klaus Wolwereit is running again for mayor. I was recently told that Canadian video artist Benny Nemerofsky when he was a tad younger had a short lived sex affair with the mayor. Fraulein Mayor is big on self promotion and goes to the opening of a bag of potato chips. These citywide elections here in Berlin for some reason brought to mind the Los Angeles mayoral race of 1973 where Tom Bradley became the first negro to hold the top office in a major US city. I was in grade school at the time and the campaign was contentious. My 6th grade teacher Dorothy Gichtin confided in us that she voted against Bradley and supported his opponent Sam Yorty who had held the office for centuries. I’ll never forget Mrs. Gichtin going on about how Bradley tried to make whites who didn’t support him feel as if they were racists. She then asked the class to share their opinions on the mayoral race. I was quite the politized 11 year old because of my pen pals in Paris who unlike children in the US would go marching in demonstrations. I raised my hand and she called on me, and I calmly told her that I felt that was a racist. She turned bright red and screamed and yelled at me with such vehemence that the other children in the class were visibly shaken. I had a habit as a child of being able to push adults buttons. Her white liberal guilt must really have eaten at her because she called for a parent/teacher conference. I don’t think she was expecting my mother a middle aged status quo looking colored lady wearing a hat, matching purse, and fake pearls to be so militant in her views, so when my mother backed up what I said with such quiet intensity and Southern iron fist in velvet glove my teacher was knocked to the curb, and called in sick the rest of the week, and wound up not returning to Hobart Blvd Elementary School for the remainder of the school year.

DIE GROSSE JUBELNUMMER

Well Hector Martinez and Ericla Pierce are now most likely back in their tiny house in the Silverlake foothills overlooking Bellview Park. It was nice having them here in Berlin. They seemed to have a nice time despite the weather in Berlina not exactly cooperating with them. Jeffreyland Hilbert of Kustom Creative (formerly with Sony Pictures) and his baby brother Kurt will be my next set of visitors. Can’t wait to see my adopted hometown through their eyes have hills.

Over in the queen mumdom of the UK social unrest has exploded and the streets are on fire. The British press seem to be thrilled to have something exciting to cover and be shrill about. The commentators and TV presenters are literally foaming at the mouth. So much for objective news reporting. Its all something that I have been predicting for some time and without wearing my Whoracle et Delphi costume. England and its austerity measures. What started in London has spread to Blimy Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool and Manchester. Arab Spring has now morphed into the Jubas Summer into Fall. O and Missy America will not escape the shards. Thus spake Madame DeFarge in her vinoshop knitting a designy pattern.

I asked some of my art friends living in London to give a commentary and this from Dom Johnson:

Hi Vag
I just couldn't help myself. The streets were on fire so I snuck into the Body Shop and got a Raspberry Ripple Body Lotion, a face scrub made of kelp, some soaps shaped like fruits, and a Hello Kitty foot pumice. Now I feel terrible, because a lady on the news called me a "feral rat".

Things in London have settled down I think. Monday was intense, with riots all across London but the epicentre just round the corner on the street where Hackney Baths is. There were riot police, burning cars, helicopters, running fights between gangs and cops. All very surreal and scary. I saw a bit of it for a while on my way home from work but scurried home to my Art Deco oasis of middle-class luxury and hid from it all. I watched it develop on the rolling news, and could hear sirens and smell burning rubber and metal.

Now the violence has subsided in London mostly, but has spread to Manchester and other parts of the country. The youths are taking over, but in a pretty cack-handed way. At first I thought it was political, but if it is a form of activism, it is in a new way that I don't understand -- no leadership, no messages, no ambition or objectives, no style, and completely self-destructive.

X

That’s the middleclass perspective from the son of a banker and now what my sister of the clothe Ron Athey who moved to London just two years ago:

I miss you hyaena,

how's the berlin life treating you? hurry the fuck up and come over here.
i organized the riots, but i was trying to get them to wait until the olympics came to town, but you know that mob mentality, it just spun out of control.

they take a while to round up police support here, and everyone wants to jump in. last night on my street in twee Islington, there were a pack of 5 fat middleclass weenagers with hoodies on running around rolling dice and when they heard the sirens, 'you think they're onto us?' and running down the street.

most locals are happy some spirit has been shown, but of course its a pain in the ass when the ugly goons get involved and the govt will probably use this an excuse to go to more of a police state since obviously no one gives a fuck if they're on cctv or not.

child we're from LA, and we had two riots----1965 and 1992, even with a the burning buildings this will die down. the only danger is that london will turn into LA. The police patrol here is still so benny hill its hard to imagine, but they do pull out the riot squad and i've been seeing more armed pigs that its getting closer to the tired lucrative Olympics.

I am on a Sylvester roll trying to shake the blues away. You can understand that being a historian of showbiz LA



*
One of my favorite golden era stars Esther Williams just turned 90 years old. I love Miss Williams. She is one of the last great MGM stars still alive. Her movies were always so entertaining, and she could handle herself above water too in the singing and dancing department and never fully got credit for her acting chops which were always effective. I lover her in Neptune’s Daughter, Easy to Love, Jupiter’s Darling, Pagan Love Song, Take Me Out To The Ballgame and Bathing Beauty.

My second official date with my scientist from Saarbrucken was very sweet. He took me to this delicious Indian restaurant called Aapka located at Maybacher Ufer 23 that is also a cocktail bar. I had a delightful walnut and ginger soup that was creamy and intoxicating plus a lemon chicken with a sauce that enveloped me. Going on a date with someone age appropriate is nice. The scientist is very nice, soft spoken and gentile. The city of Saarbrucken was a military fort during the Roman era and during the middle ages it was ruled over by a homosexual Prince who lived in a pimped out pansy palace.

JETZT GEBEN WIR GAS
Hector and Ericla are back from their sojourn of Prague, Vienna and Budapest. They had a good time but missed their plane back to Berlin from Vienna because of some imaginary orgy at a naked sex club they thought they were invited to, so had to pay and exorbitant amount of money for another flight. God damn tired sex tourists. At least they didn’t get rolled by tricks. Last night they wanted to eat again at Hasir in Nollendorkyplatz so we went back to the Turkish chain and ran into Piero Bellomo who was with his Westside posse of esquilitas.

Saturday evening I had Tavia Nyongo over at the Cheese Endique Trifecta. Tavia is the Black Kenyan/American who is a NYU Performance Studies professor. We gossiped and klatched as its his last few days in Berlin before having to return to his teaching responsibilities in Man!hattan. Sunday I had my date with a scientist from Saarbrucken the upscale city on the border of Germany and France. I won’t go into details on the blogina as doing that ruined the last two romances with the Swedish journalist and the young blondine venture capitalist. Well with the Swedish journalist I made the mistake of taking him to Bruce La Bruce’s Gang of Four Skins during the Arsenal BLAB retro spectacle last year. Word to the wise: never take a date to a Judy LaBruce film.

My date with the scientist included a nice dinner at the atmospheric Kreuzberg Turkish boite Def’ne on the canal. The food is scrumptious and so i highly recommend the place, and their Turkish wine is out of this world.
One of my sweet talented Weissensee students Annette Knol has a show in Linz, Austria. If any of my readers are in that area please go and check it out. Here are the details that she sent me:

Dear friends,

"Into Onto" by Amelia and I opens this Friday, 12. August at the bb15 in Linz.
If you find yourself in Austria or nearby Linz, it be great to see you there!

Performance will be on the opening night only.
Opening times: 13. - 15. August / 16 - 18:00

Bests, Annette Knol

O and please check out the blog of Israeli artist Uzi Parnes:
http://uziny.blogspot.com/

Also juicy beauty boy Gunnar Neumann who works at the Lab Sex Club that is connected to the famous Berlin dance palace Berghain is part of a giant group art show of all the employees of the techno disco called Alle Workers Pearls - Kunstausstellung der Berghain arbeiter 18-26 Auh 2011 taglich Geoff net 16-22 urh. I am filming a movie that day and it may go way into the evening so I might not be able to attend so please go and tell me all about it so I can write about it in this very blogette.

TRADUIT DE L’ALLEMAND
Had a lovely birthday breakfast with the sweet and juicy young journalist and musician with the hot band Tenderloin, Felix Knoke. Not only is Felix smart but he is deliciously witty and bright with a knowledge of a million subjects and is a lot of fun to hang out with. He works freelance with a lot of different periodical publications in Germany, but writes mainly for Der Spiegel Online and Der Stern. I’ve known Felix since 2005 and I am the better woman having made his hunky acquaintance. After catching up with Felix in the morning I spent the afternoon with Daniel Hendrickson the Jewish Muslim for Christ Jesus at his Neu Koelln compound where we helped me with some pressing issues concerning my commission pieces in the states. Whenever I have trouble deciding anything I always run it by Daniel as he is a pillar of cool calmness and reason, where I tend to be shrill and hysterical. I am always getting offended by someone or something and I tend to lash out immediately especially in written form as my pen sheds a might poisonous venom.
Later I met up with Manuel Schubert of Film Highlights Radio magazine to see the slide talk by Wieland Speck and Andreas Struck at Arsenal that is part of the month long Wieland Speck Retrospectacle. Called a Diashow the slide presentation featured images from 1968 to 1998 and was quite the historical record of Berlin before and after the wall coming down. And it was fab to see images of a young Wieland, Zazie De Paris, Mabel, Andreas Bernhardt, the members of London's Blue Lips and the USA's Hot Peaches, as well as the young handsome Rosa von Praunheim, and a ravishing teenage Marc Brandenburg. It was also lovely hearing the stories of Arsenal Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus and Kiki Petersen when they were young film curators just starting out in Kreuzberg in the early 1990s. In all it was quite a remarkable intimate evening where fans of Wieland could get up close and personal with the film programming star and legendary Berlin cineaste.
The wonderful avant garde designer Rick Owens sent me a treasure trove of his new designs from Paris for me to wear at my West of Rome/Getty Pacific Standard Time performance piece. Included in the giant package that was fedexed to me was a remarkable pair of Owens wedge heals in his signature geodesic design
I am going to be one insanely stylish hiefer when I host the West of Rome Trespass Party Fundraiser on Oct 3rd at Union Station and in Jan, 2012 for my own piece that closes the Pacific Standard Time Getty event. Thank you ever so Rick Owens for hooking me up--- you are the best pal a gal ever had.

SENSENMANN AUF SEELENJAGD
Did a magnificent interview with Dr. Gavin Butt of Goldsmith College for Performance Matters. Dr. Butt flew all the way from London to film the Vagimule Doll. We had a lovely time in the Cheese Endique Trifecta gossiping and cackling like two Sloan Ranger school girls. Later in the early evening I met Daniel Hendrickson the Jewish Muslim for Christ Jesus at the Arsenal for the Wieland Speck Spectacular. What a grand evening it turned out to be. Hanging out with us was Manuel Schubert of Filmhighlights Magazine. His interview with me and Wieland is now up and running and here is the link:
filmhighlights-Spezial - Ein Nachmittag mit Wieland Speck by filmanzeiger

The Arsenal was SRO for that beautiful man known as Wieland Speck. Wieland and sexy chanteuse Zazie De Paris along with Joel Gibb and trombone player Jan Schade sang the song West of the Wall from the Spielfilm WESTLER von Wieland Speck 1985 to get everyone in the mood. A video installation is set up in the foyer of the filmhaus as well as the Rote Foyer and Black Box. After several speeches by Rosa von Praunheim, Arsenal Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus and Herr Speck himself there was a screening of some lecher short subjects by Wieland and others from the early
80s to early 90s. One of the films featured Debora Iyall of Romeo Void filmed in San Francisco in 1980 and i was shocked to see a young hunky Andreas Bernhaerdt in several of the films. Andreas was once a top make-up artist in Paris in the 1990s whose beauty was captured by Pierre & Gilles. Andreas did my make-up for CHEAP's It Happened to Me and the first CHEAP Silvester Party in 2006 with my art band Ruth Fischer. One early film that Wieland stars in by director Christoph Eichhorn is like a silent and is hilarious. My fav of the short subjects was a party film by Mr. Speck where a bunch of gnarly fags are sitting around eating, drinking and chit chatting while two twinks get down and dirty.
Also seen at the retrospectacle: Joel Gibb, Enrico Dallman, Kiki Peterson, Angela Melitoupoulous, Elsa of Portugal, Angela Anderson, DJane Olga Damnitz, Nanna Heidenreich, John Edward Heys, Johan Hick, Uli Ziemons, Wilhelm Hein, Annette Frick, Ellen von Unwerth, Todd Sekular, and Tobias Rauscher and his hot new honey.
Rosa von Praunheim was looking quite fetching in his hot pink outfit with matching pink leider hat. Rosa introduced me to two strapping young actor/producers Frank Christian Marx who is related to the famous philosopher and Udo Lutz with the company Ente Kross Films whose new production Maenner Zum Knutschen will be released early next year directed by Jurgen Hirsh. The more muscular of the two men had co-starred in the film Don II with Shah Rukh Khan who is the biggest movie star in the known and unknown world who makes little Tom Cruise look like a bit player.

TWO WEEKS IN A SMALL TOWN
The wonderful young black professor Dr. Tavia Nyong’o who teaches performance studies at NYU and has been living in Berlin on sabbatical took me to dinner at the Kreuzberg Mexican restaurant Santa Maria and interviewed me about my art work and curatorial projects. Like President Obama, Tavia has a Kenyan father and white American mother. Also like President Obama, Tavia has a calm, serene manner bordering on catatonic. He is also well hung. Not that I have seen his penis or the presidents myself, but the Vagimule doll has her Stasi spies who are everywhere feeding her gossip and important up-to-the-minute information. There are those who do not like or appreciate gossip, saying it is boring and useless. Don’t listen to these inane individuals and tepid lost souls. As my late mother would say, “Some of us aren’t able”. Gossip is a necessary part of the human experience, it informs and expands our horizons and is the one true living, thriving and endless archive.
My LA visitors Hector Martinez and his lover Ericla Pierce have continued their holiday on the continent by going to Prague. It was nice hosting them at the Cheese Endique Trifecta. Thank god both of them are only 5 foot nothings or there would be hardly any room in my tiny art studio. After Prague where I am sure Senor Martinez will delight in having an audience with as many Bel Ami models as he can muster the couple will venture to Vienna, Austria for a few days. Back in 2005 when I was invited to the Steirischer Herbst Festival in Graz, Austria I brought back to Hector and Ericla some pumpkin seed oil from Styria which they are now addicted to. I’m sure they will have a few bottles in tow upon returning to Berlin before heading back to Los Ang.

WIR HABEN KEINE ANGST
One Flaming Day in a Rented World eventa at Arsenal was beyond fabulous starting off with a rooftop garden autograph signing and birthday celebration for superstar Mario Montez. Not even the torrential downpour could put a damper on things or dull the taste of a delish birthday cake designed by Susanne Sachsse who also styled the Warhol legend for the festive occasion. La Montez was looking quite fetching and every bit of the underground royal that she is. Seen getting autographs the love sexy Carolla Grauman of Cinematek Asta Nielsen in Frankfurt,Angela Melitopolous, Wilhelm Hein, Annette Frick,Manuel Schubert, Evie Ruesseler who has a new brilliant tome out on bbooks imprint that I can’t wait to read called The Recompensationists, Trixie Cordua, Nanna Heidenreich, Uli Ziemons, Darryl Els, Salome Gersh, Elsa Aleluia, John Edward Heys, Zazie de Paris, Arsenal Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus,Daniel Hendrickson, the Jewish Muslim for Christ Jesus, Piero Bellomo, Michaela Wunsch of bbooks kollective whose son is now 3 years old, Nazli Kilerci and The Greek, neophyte curator Todd Sekular who some think is a dimunitive doppelganger for Marc Siegel, but now that I have had a good look at him he doesn’t resemble Mr. Siegel at all, and model/musician Charlotte Kemp Muhl and her date Sean Lennon who was taking a signed autograph of Senorita Montez to his mother Yoko Ono for her birthday.
Later the festivities continued with a screening of I Shot Jack Two by Uzi Parnes and Ela Troyana that wowed the crowd and an interview and film clip session with Marc Siegel and Mario Montez that featured a screening of Ron Rice’s avant garde classic Chumlum (1964) Taking in this juicy spectacle: NYU Professor Tavia Nyongo, with young students Sebastian Luhmeier, Brandon Jacob-Jenkins and Australian scholar Damon Young, art shtar Ming Wong.
Scott the personable blondine husband of Uzi Parnes told me he would like to move to Berlin. Mario Montez and his longtime companion Dave will be in Berlin for a month. Mario and film historian Mark Siegel are also working on a book together. Dave told me that his 30 year old son use to be a regular at my 1920s performance art club Bricktops at the Parlour Club in Hollywood. Djane and all around girl who can do anything and everything Olga Damnitz was at the wine reception at the CHEAP Gossip Studio circular bar along with those Turin Film Festival queens,plus Tobias Rauscher of Sissy Magazine, French fashion designer Julien Fournie’, filmmaker Kiki Petersen,with Judy LaBruce producer Jurgen Bruning& Klaus from Wurst Films, filmmaker Matthias Mueller, Senol Senturk my co-director with the X-Schulen piece Tony Montana Riding the Valkyries, Frau Cheetum and writer Manfred Hermes, whose new Fassbinder book just received a glowing review in the German periodical Taz by the great teutonic journalista and scholar Dedrich Dedrichson.
On a sad note just got word that Milly the last remaining member of the musical group The Del Rubio Triplets died. I will never forget when she, and her siblings performed at the Afro Sisters Too Much Make-up Party at the home of Fertile La Toyah Jackson photographer Beulah Love back in the 1980s. That party was a hot sensation that featured stars like Jayne County, Glen Meadmore, Italian designer Marina Spadafora and her then husband Sean Ferrer who is the son of Audrey Hepburn, Interview Magazine photographer Albert Sanchez, Abel Villareal, Ghislain de la Felaise, model Tony Ward,TV commercial stylist Michi,Wanda the Man, Salvador, Juan Fernandez, movie makeup artist Michele Buhler, Jeff Judd, Iris Parker & Valerie of Madame X, actress Amy Wright with dinge queen actor Michael Anthony Hall who was macking on Iris' cute mulatto boyfriend, members of the Ska bands Section Eight and a newly formed No Doubt with a young Gwen Stefani before she and that group made the cross over to the big time, and a social climbing Lypsinka aka: John Epperson who left early because there was no one she thought was famous enough at the party.
***
FLASH REPORT: Curator and Film Historian Marc Siegel sent me this note with some more names of people that were at One Rented Day at Arsenal Saturday. Enjoyeta!

Thanks for your mail and for your great support during the rented day! I'm happy it went so well. I just talked to daniela and realized in that there were lots of people there I didn't even recognize. So who was there: Filmmaker/artist Matthias Müller, fresh faced from Bielefeld just to get a Mario Montez autograph. Young cute Jewish curator Todd Sekuler, Karola Gramann, in from Frankfurt to lure mario there for a Jack Smith event in 2012. Film festival curators from many diff euro countries, like a lady from the netherlands, a young adorable dyke from the paris lg fest, the italian fags from the turin fest. Swarthy greek filmmaker panna yorgos (or something) who's eager to do a docu on Mario. Kiki, claus and jürgen of wurstfilm fame. Dandy writer manfred hermes beaming with satisfaction about the great reviews his intriguing fassbinder berlin alexanderplatz book has received, Chatty good time sally gesine danckwart in smart new high heels and star brit artist angela bulloch at round bar afterwards Actress and singer supreme Zazie de paris Filmmaker and ny downtown legend and old theater buddy of mario montez, john heys Ballerina trixie Nanna, uli Salome Piero Tavia Queer film curator and filmmaker karin michalski of clip club fame with sweet swiss curator andrea thal Adorable polish activist and newfound MM and jacka smitha fan, asia kubiakowska (fresh from the smith retro in poland) Uzi, ela, scott Nazli, jorgos Great mario supporter and freddy herko researcher, gerard forde Greek filmmaker theorist angela melitopolous Israeli documentarist-humorist avi mograbi I think that's all I can think of for now, my dear... I need to get to bed as I'm beat and we leave in the morn for New York. Hope you enjoy the last days with hector and eric. I really enjoyed meeting and talking to them also. And enjoy the rest of the month. And let's have a lady lunch in sept! I miss you and sept seems so far away but what can you do... Love marcu

WIE WIR DE LIEBE NEU ERFINDEN
Rising Stars,Falling Stars Feminist Studio Workshop presentation of Germaine Dulac’s La Souriante Madame Beudet featuring the sensitive live music accompanying of The Blue Bros Tim & John (kJohnny) was SRO. The summer season of international visitors put the whelm in whelming at Arsenal Inst fuer film und video kunst. After the screening the Rote Foyer was transformed into a quasi Lesbian seperatist reception hall where Arsenal Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus graciously greeted the guests that included Hector Martinez and his lover of 32 years Eric Pierce from Los Angeles, professor of German literature Roman Lach who has known Frau Schulte Strathaus since they were embryos, Warhol and Jack Smith Superstar Mario Montez with longtime companion David, Turkish/Kurdish intellectual powerhouse and devastating beauty Nazli Kilerci with her adorable Greek boyfriend Jorgos, my former boss at the LA Weekly Tom Christie who was the arts editor of that periodical publication with one of his ex interns Dr. Millay Hyatt who is now a Berlin resident, Israeli hungthrob Uzi Parnes and his filmmaking partner in crime the vivacious Ela Troyano with Uzi’s yummy husband Scott. Canadian video artist Mark Andre Pennock, junior curator Nadja Talmi of the Haus of World Cultures, dimunitive Darryl Els guest programmer from Johannesburg, South Afrika, Berlin curator Claus Lueser, British artist and curator Phil Collins with the divine Katrin Dod of Hebbel amUfer Theatre, sparkling filmmaker and curator Angela Melitopolous, artist Lydia Hamann one of my former Weissensee Art Academy students with her glam opera singing posse, Uli Ziemons of Forum Expanded with his assistant Nora, American scholar Alena Williams with the Ph.d. Black Girls Coalition, love sexy Hili Perlson of Sleek Magazine, Manuel Schubert of Filmhighlights Radio Magazine, film historian Marc Siegel with his smoking super hot, super foxy and super smart intermedia actress girlfriend Susanne Sachsse the fearless leader of kollective CHEAP, Daniel Hendrickson the Jewish Muslim with his Italio/German beau Piero Bellomo, American composer Nico Muhly who is now a big fan of the Blue Bros, dreamy student film theorist Clemons Stoltzenberg who is the son of one of Germany‘s wealthiest industrialists. I met Clemons when he was an intern with the CHEAP Gossip Studio installation for the Berlinale in 2008. Pretty Mr. Stoltzenberg came to Rising Stars with Noah Becker the drop dead Major Ms.Gorgeous mulatto son of tennis star Boris Becker along with two handsome baby dykes escorted by young German theatre thingy Wolfram Lotz, filmmakers Avi Kaurismaki(Le Havre), and Tau Ruspoli who is the son of an Italian prince. They were outrageously flirting with Elsa Aleluia the Portugese actress who makes the Arsenal her second home and photog Greg Gex.
***
Just got a note from the famed singer Billy Ray Martin who use to be my downstairs neighbor my second year in Berlin. Ms. Martin is a phenomenal talent with a voice that is a godshead.
hmv london, oxford street instore live performance 17th october 18 o clock. other shows tbc. digital collectables: we will be releasing three banners featuring the art of wolfgang tillmanns in the coming weeks. please watch twitter and 'like' on facebook to get details
(www.facebook.com/billieraymartinmusic)
other news:
we still have about 30 copies left of electribe 101, the john peel sessions. www.billieraymartin.com/mart
also in stock soon: 15 copies of billie ray martin and hard ton: fantasy girl remix (snuff crew remix) on white label vinyl. please shout if you want a copy reserved.
disco activisto records
www.billieraymartin.com

ARSCHKALT
Hector Martinez, my old friend from the post punk days of the 1980s who is now an executive with Affleck Insurance and his lover Eric Pierce are visiting me from Los Angeles. We went to Hassir the Turkish restaurant chain in Nollendorky Platz walked around the K-Damn and had a drink at tired Tom’s Bar before heading back to the Cheese Endique Trifecta so the boys could get some sleep from their jet lag. In the morning we had coffee and pastries from a little Turkish bakery around the corner from my studio. Unfortunately it is pouring rain today, which certainly puts a damper on their tourist activities. Oh welpsis that is summer in Berlin.
Marc Siegel sent the latest CHEAP mailing list notice and I copy it directly:
Dear CHEAP Friends, Less than two years ago, we Berliners had the great privilege of witnessing the first public appearance in over thirty-five years of the first and greatest Superstar of the New York Underground, Mario Montez. That was LIVE FILM! JACK SMITH! Five Flaming Days in a Rented World. In just two days, on Saturday, July 30 at the Arsenal in Berlin, Mario Montez will be back receiving guests on the rooftop terrace at Sony Center! Don't miss this special opportunity to mingle with the legendary darling of the underground! This is One Flaming Day in a Rented World. At 5pm, we will celebrate Mario's recent birthday and the Superstar will provide autographs for his fans! At 7 pm we will be in Kino Arsenal 1 for Ela Troyano and Uzi Parnes' gorgeous LIVE FILM presentation I SHOT JACK TWO, a 60 minute multi-media homage to Jack Smith including rare film footage, sound recordings and photos of Smith taken by his former collaborators Parnes and Troyano. The evening will conclude with THE SUPERSTAR ON THE SILVER SCREEN, an informal tour through Mario Montez's career on film, with many clips of his known and unknown film appearances, commented on by the LEGEND himself, in conversation with yours truly and in dialogue with YOU, the people! Yes, One Flaming Day in a Rented World presents a rare opportunity for all of us to pose questions to the Superstar about his film appearances, his theater career, his glamor, his charm. Don't miss it! (see attached flyer for more info). One Flaming Day in a Rented World, Sat. July 30, Arsenal 5pm Rooftop Terrace: Autograph Session and Birthday Celebration 7pm Kino Arsenal: I SHOT JACK TWO by Ela Troyano and Uzi Parnes, followed by: THE SUPERSTAR ON THE SILVER SCREEN: MM in conversation with moi and vous about his film career, with many rare clips! AND...VERY IMPORTANT... *Vaginal Davis' Rising Stars, Falling Stars, Friday, July 29, 9pm. Arsenal, Potsdamerstr. 2 Just because it takes place every month, doesn't mean that Vaginal Davis' Rising Stars, Falling Stars is an any less special, flaming, or necessary event! Indeed, the monthly regularity of Miss Davis's silent movie event comforts many of us in these cold summer months. Miss D's perspectives on film and fancy are not to be taken for granted! Tomorrow, Friday, July 29, she treats us to a feminist master class with Germaine Dulac's 1923 experimental treasure La Souriante Madame Beudet. Live music accompanyment by those gnarly girly men Tim & kJohnny Blue. Followed by an intimate lesbian separatist wine reception in the Red Foyer hosted by Dr. Davis herself. www.arsenal-berlin.de www.vaginaldavis.com Every month Vaginal's silent film chitchat event is accompanied by a radio interview by the striking, young Manuel Schubert. Check out this month's recording at: http://soundcloud.com/filmanzeiger/rising-stars-falling-stars-july2011 Hope to see you at these back to back, black don't crack, brown don't frown Arsenal double-dildo double evening weekend treats! Warmly, Marc

TUNTEN UND TECHNIK
Spent a wonderful morning starting at 9am sharp being interviewed by Sleek Magazine’s lovely Hili Perlson a personable young journalista with an intriguing family background in that her father is Polish and her mother Iraqi/Israeli. We clicked immediately, which doesn’t always happen with members of the mainstream media.
Sleek Magazine is a Berlin based art/fashion glossy that is in English and German and has become much more interesting then Zoo Magazine which I use to write for under editor Rebecca Voight. The photographer taking my portrait - Belaid Le Mharchi was a cute boy with fine features from Morroco. We also immediately developed a nice repoire. The issue featuring “The Doll” should hit the stands in September.
Have some more prep work for Commie Biggie then I have to clean the Cheese Endique Trifecta to get it ready for visiting dignitaries from the states namely Hector Martinez and his lover Eric Pierce, who arrive tomorrow morning. They are only in Berlin for a short time then will go to Prague and Vienna.