Die ganze Mischboch ist da

Had a lovely Magic Flute meeting with CHEAP’s pretty fearless leader Susanne Sachsse and that handsome young studkin Musicologist Roger Mathew Grant visiting Berlin for the summer looking like a demi god.

Had a fun telephone interview via New York’s Document Journal Magazine with Norweigan muscle hunksis artist Bjarne Melgaard.  We were supposed to do a skype interview at the CHEAP studio officina in Neu Koln but Skype wasn’t co-operating so we had to switch to landline.  Mr. Melgaard is one of the most popular young artists working the international art world firmament and he confided in me that he is a big collector of my paintings and sculpture pieces and has been following the Vagimules career if you can call it that since the days of The Afro Sisters and Cholita the female Menudo.  The article Mr Melgaard  interviewed me for along with a portrait  of yours truly by WolfgangTilmans will be in Document Journal’s Autumn issue.

Last night I went to a festive summer book launch at Arsenal Institute fur Film und Video Kunst for the dynamite duo of Nanna Heidenreich and Maja Figge called “Post koloniale Medienwissenschaft”.  The evening started with a lecture by Ms. Figge whose book is called “Deutschein (wieder-)herstellen” and a screening of the odd 1957 West German film Der Stern Von Afrika that is set in 1939 during Nationalsocialism and tells the true story of a bland blondine war hero named Marseille and his ardent hunky love interest Robert of the pillow lips and double chin and their buxom shared black concubine played by Afro Europan  low rent entertainer Roberto Blanco.  All the Germans in the audience seemed scandalized by this film which I found merely amusing for its peek through old footage of prewar Berlin.  The most disturbing part for me was the jigaboo insignia on the side of the fighter planes and the dainty swastikas on the boys uniforms.

La Heidenreich gave a concise lecturina that was part theory ala her book “V/Erkennungsdienste” des deutschen Auslaenderdiskurses und die Perspektive der Migration (which is getting some notice in the US via The New Republic Magazine and the AP newswire) and the rest all out  fangirl extroidinaire as she introduced the 1980 German/Turkish film  „Goelge“ directed by Sema Poyraz who was in attendance and was quite personable during her post screening Q&A with Nanna.  The packed crowd resonated with some of the finest celesbians in all of Europa and in general just a high quotient of the very famous and dynamic so I'm only able to give you at this time a partial list of the whose who:  Maja Figge’s girlfriend Bettina a trained architect, video artist and yoga teacher and their transatlantic possem, Miss Kolja who teaches post production at DFFB, Wibke Straube the film and trans scholarina, Gudrun her old roommate and a well known activist, Ulli the key figure of Kotti & Company, Kim her colleague at UdK, Kathrin Peters, Judith Sigmund and Tashy Endres of the Institute for Gestaltung, media studies scholar Anja Michaelson, film curator and filmmaker Karin Michaelski, artist and filmmaker Isabell Spengler, who we haven’t seen in a coons age whose child is now four years old, Ela Wusch of bbooks kollectiv who didn’t want to talk about her love affair in LA with the Franko Bros-James and Dave, film historian Christine Noll Brinckmann, Michaela Ott, philosophy professor at Art Academy Hamburg, Beatrice Michaelis,Eli Hashemi Yekani, artist Justin Tyme, Noam Gorbat, Syrian artist Omar from Ferash Publishing, Kathrin Hunsicker, Ulrike Bergermann the editor of the this fab book series and the big boss at the Universitaet Braunschweig looking very lovesexy and glam with her girlfriend the geographer,  great urban studies scholar and anti Olympics activist Sybille Bauriedl, DJane Bianca Krug, Angelika Levi, Arsenal Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus looking very fresh and summery who will be off soon on more important business travels throughout the the far nether regions, Muzlim jihadist Daniel Haji Hendrickson , It boy fagademic Zulfukur Cetin, film critic Toby Ahsraf, Jasmin Ihrac the dancer and Kanak Attack activist, Jule Karakayali the racism and migration scholar and British theatre director James Dacre.

QUAL FOI A ULTIMA VEZ QUE DESTE FESTIVAL?

My first visit to Lisbon, Portugal couldn’t have come at a better time as Berlin was engulfed in a temperal heatwave. At icky Schonefeld Airport I was surprised to find that Koen Claerhout of Haus de Kulture de Welt and pal would be on my flight on their way to Lisbon for a summer holiday.

The weather in Lisbon was warm but breezy and I am not just talking about the 1971 film starring William Holden and Kay Lenz.  I arrived to the picqueresque Iberian city onTAP airlines Portugals’s own Air Berlin which because the Portugese tend to be dimunitive is one of the most cramped in terms of seating.  The 3 hour and 45 minute trip seemed like it was 6 hours long, but upon landing everything was Granada.  Whisking me to the lovely Hotel Florida the festival angelitos ----pretty&personable Magda and lovesexy suave Andre.  Lisbon’s airport is conveniently located within the city limits which is a major blessing.

Pedro Marum and Ricke Merighi the genius curators/ programmers with Queer Lisbon and sponsor Africa Cont in collaboration with  the Cinemateca Portuguesa and Galeria Ze’ dos Bois brought forth this fantastic art/music/film congress  Are You For Real? An Afro Futuristic trip from blaxploitation to queer sonics and visual utopias.  Now that’s a hairy  eyeball mouthful eh?

After the horrible plane flight it was lovely to relax at Hotel Florida for a bit before the welcome dinner.  I loved how in the elevators of the hotel you are joined by a life sized Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn.  I had a great view from my 4^th floor Harrison Ford Room that looked upon an impressive square with a giant statue, the next day I was changed to a much larger John Travolta Scientology Suite with joyous street views. 

The welcome dinner hosted by the sweet festival artistic director Joao Ferreira and his crew of handsome Joao’s who are part of the Queer Lisbon extended familia was at the family owned Adega Dom Luis.   I was told that the food in Lisbon is divoon and was not disappointed.  After feasting we took a long walk back to the hotel and got a nice flavour of the city and its nitelife with so many beautiful young people partying in the streets. 

The second day in Lisbon was the opening of the congress with another VIP dinner at the spacious and delicious organic boite Jardim dos Saberes(Garden of Flavours)  It was lovely meeting Will Sylvester from Bushwick New York who is the post-production producer for the installation A Person is More Important Than Anything Else by artist Hank Willis Thomas which weaves various audio, images newsreel clips, speeches and interviews of go tell it to the mountain queen James Baldwin.  The soft spoken Mr. Sylvester reminded me of a young Mrs. Michael Glass but with  dreadlocks  when Mrs. Glass  was working as manager at the first location of Amok Books on a side street in Silverlake.  Joining the din din was handsome and tall Afro German Dominik Djialeu one half of the Berlin based party duo Stitch&Tchuani of the queer hippity hop club Berries.  I had met Dominik back in February during the Berlinale when I was DJaning the Forum Party.  In Lisbon Dominik DJed the opening party for this art congress.  Another guest was the cute and cuddly Black British journalista Ashley Clark who has curated for the BFI and The Brooklyn Academy of Music.  I love how these young modern straight black men like Mr.Sylvester and Mr. Clark are super comfortable expressing a little sugar in their tanks and flit and float quite easily in queer environs. Portugal is a tiny country but has a rather large colonial presence throughout the world so its great that congresses like this exist.  Germany could learn a lot from its deep south neighbour.  After a terrace garden wine reception at the Cinemateqa the opening screening of Are You For Real?/Space is the Place starring Sun Ra expertly set the tone for everything to come.

It was a juicy luxury  to have a few days to settle in before my performative lecture on Sunday July 5^th at the Galeria Ze dos Bois which is a former royal palace that is now a contemporary art institution.  Was wonderful meeting Dona Amelia the 79 years young caretaker and muse of the art palace who riveted Liad Hussein Kantorowicz and I with stories about living in Lisbon for the past 50 years.  Pedro Marum took us for lunch to a wonderous tapas on top of a hill with glorious views of the river and ocean with the doppleganger of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.  I was fortunate that I had the very talented make-up artiste Ms. Rita Guerreiro who beat me a fine face so that I looked immaculate infront of the very large audience that came out to see me that included actress Maria de Medeiros(Henry&June) and Pulitzer Prize winning black writer Wesley Morris. Special shoutout to Time Out Lisbon writer Bruno Horta who wrote a full page article on me that really spurred the populaces curiousity.  After my lecturina the standout performance for the evening was by Ms. Hussein Kantorowicz, the Israeli/Palestinian artist who I have known for awhile as she was the long time girlfriend of  the late scholar and artiste Tim Stuettgen.  I was completely WoWed by her disidentificative piece Running/The Better Half.  Liad is certainly a startling new voice in the performance art firmament. And the world needs a voice like Liad’s who enchants on every level with her voice, body, video imagery---featuring a low tech skype conference call with her younger self that was beyond geniustrata as well as channeling of Jewish Mysticism with the power of Sheila.

At a frolicsome party after the two performances Sunday eve I met a beautiful black woman scholar who is American but was educated in posh boarding schools in London and her cute gaysian BFF who is an artist in residence in Lisbon.  Needless to say when two black girls born the same year get together a stylish hoot of a time is had by one and all.  Lisbon I already miss and adore you.

ZUM EUMEL SNACK

Rising Stars, Falling Stars-We Must Have Music was stellar by starlight Sunday evening post Gay Bottom Feeder Shame Parade and Festival with a screening of the 1934 Mexican rarity Redes.  The best comment about the film came from gorgeous Israeli baby dyke Noam Gorbat, who's working on a low budget historical-phantasized lesbian feature film which will stage a love triangle in the then british mandate in palestine who said the film screening of Redes was proletariat labor porn!  Enjoying the pornocupia and post screening fiesta complete with tequila body shots was a group of legendary West Berliners from the 1980s Super 8 filmmaking scene including Barbara Kasper, Lothar Schuster the photographer and documentary cineaste, Universitaet Bochum Professor of Media & Gender Studies Astrid Deuber Mankowsky with Cilly Kugelman the director of the Jewish Museum, film editor and Laurie Anderson co-hort  Ruth Schoenegge, that dashing piece of virile masculinity Vegard Venge the genius stage and film director with buddy Max of the Volksbuhner ensemble, film historian Marcuse Siegelstein looking like he is 32 though he just turned 50 with his lady love Susanne Sachsse, Atlanta of the University of Oldenberg and her hot gal posse that included Sudanese super model Alek Wek, Scandinavian Muzlim Daniel Hendrickson, that sexy Arsenal Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus back from the middle-east where she has been brokering peace initiatives, dorkaholic film director Colin Trevorrow who has a mad unrequited crush on Vaginal Davis, incogNegro writer Mat Johnson (Loving Day),academic IT GIRL Nanna Heidenreich whose new book V/Erkennungsdienst, das Kino und die Perspektive der Migration just dropped and is already getting tons of international acclaim.  Congrats Nannoothka-----we love you!!!!

Frühherbst

Rising Stars, Falling Stars - June 2015 - Vaginal Davis & Fred Zinnemanns REDES by Filmanzeiger on  Mixcloud

DER SCHOENE SCHEIN

Just read in The Daily News that Downtown LA Central Library will feature an exhibition called “To Live and Dine in LA that displays a collection of historic and visually arresting restaurant menus.  USC communications professor Josh Kun facilitated and selected some of the best items.  Josh use to work at UC Riverside along with Dr. Professor Jennifer Doyle.  Josh is one hot piece of hava nagila and I have had a longstanding crush on him.  Haven’t seen him in years but I am sure he has aged well like Manneshevitz wine.

Had a delightfully zany time being photographed by Wolfgang Tilmans at his fancy Prinzessinnen Strasse studio rooftop garden on top of the FSK Kino for Fall issue of Document Journal Magazine.  I was outfitted by Miu Miu in a Lana Turner They Won’t Forget Sweater and dripping in Prada jewelry.  The delightful fashion assistant was Katherina Korbjuhn and Servullo Mendez who was my make-up artiste last year for a Dazed&Confused portrait beat a face of sheer perfection this time as well.  Special thanks to Miss Evelyn (Wolfgang’s no nonsense right hand gal) and all the other cute and cuddly staff at the Tilman studios. The Vagimule doll had a blast!

Did a telephone interview with Bruno Horta from Time Out Lisbon that was a lot of fun as I chittle chatted with him at twice the Camille Paglia speed of light. I will be in Lisbon in July  for the Are You For Real Art & Film Congress that explores Blaxploitation cinema and afrofuturism at the Portuguese Cinematheque.  I hope a bunch of young big peniled boys named Joao will pull a train on me in my hotel room.

Attended the 50^th birthday party of Marcuse Siegelstein the other evening.  It was a small intimate affair with just a few visiting fag&dykademic royals that included Heather Love and her wife Mara and daughter Juliet, New Zealand via Ozzie scholarinas Anna Marie Jagose and Lee Wallace, fashion plate Sianne Ngai and hubby Mark McGurl, New York’s lovesexiest gay “IT” couple Damon&Michael,Daniel Hendrickson the Scandinavian Muzlim, beautiful Arsenal Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus and her glam sister Bettina, The Gersh Twins Richard& Salome with Juicy Roman and his pet puppy, art shtar Yael Bartana and artiste wifette Saskia, UCLA academe Gil Hochberg, Steffi whose boyfriend is in the UK band Travis, Norweigan genius theatre hunksis Vegard Venge and his ravishing costume& stage designer Ida Muller, intermedia actress & director Susanne Sachsse and Canadian/Ukranian dance academica Chris.

I was feeling a little sickly the other day so i missed the lecture at the ICI Berlin that Heather Love gave on the work of Samuel Delany, but I am sure it was as fabtastular as the handsome Heather who is one of the brightest stars in the heavenly academy firmament

ANGST ESSEN SEELE AUF

CFile, a global community for clay and ceramic creatives have featured the Vaginal Davis doll and Rod Bianco at the NADA fair in their weekly blog https://cfileonline.org/marketplace-the-ceramics-of-new-art-dealers-alliance-fair-2015/
Was coming back from the post office and ran into a pair of bubblebutt bobsytwin looking blondine boys wearing matching hippy style harum pants on the Hauptstrasse. O and they were also barefoot. I love me some of these dirty white German boys. In Berlin there are also a lot of straight men who have very femme features and a lot of straight women who have masculine features including broad shoulders and are very tall. Several times i found myself cruising on the street what I thought was a college age boy and it turned out to be young woman, and several times I pointed out a hot looking babydyke and in reality it was a genetic man or teenage boy of the early Justin Bieber modus. One look that is quite prevalent with middle age men in Berlina is that of the adult baby. Resembling an infant or toddler when you are 50 years old is never a good thing.

MARIMACHA

The weather in Berlin warmed up to heat wave levels which was actually nice because it forced the boys and men to wear skimpy clothing providing some nice eye candy for The Doll's hairy eyeballs.  Gone are those god awful hiphop influenced board shorts that are now being replaced by "who wears short shorts" and "Daisy Dukes".  I wouldnt mind if thongs became the new male trend in Berlina proper as men in my adopted hometown tend to have rather voluptuous asstrovars.  The only thing that is missing is broad shoulders.  Berlin can't hold a candle to the men in Hollywood who have surfer boy shoulders that taper down to a tiny waist.  The only problema is that men in Southern California---especially ACTORS are way too short. Berlin herren have the height but i can do without those narrow shoulders, pigeon chests and way too skinny ankles in stove pipe pants and complicated jeans.
Attended a scrumpteous dinner party at the compound of Fearless Leader Susanne Sachsse of CHEAP kollective where she cooked some spring awakening asparagus and field salat that was way too divoon for wordlings. Delightful visiting scholars from New Yorika  headed by the handsome Heather Love and her gorgeous wifette Mara and personable daughter Juliet along with vibrant lesbian fagademics Ann Marie and Lee of New Zealand via Australia.  Lots of booze was consumed  as assorted expensive Kentucky pussy galore Bourbon, vodka body shots, gin martinis, and fractured fairytales spilled into the wee hours  as Marcuse Siegelstein the hilarious juicy jewsy film historian who teaches at the Goethe Universitaet in Frankfurt am Main did his best Zero Mostel/Shecky Green impersonations.
I had a nice meeting at the Romeo und Romeo Cafe in Nollendorky Platz with young junior curator  Mahret Kupka who will be putting on a drag congress and art & film festival at the Museum Angewandte Kunst (Museum for Applied Arts) in Frankfurt in the Fall of 2016.  I hope to do an installation with Susanne Sachsse of our Communist Bigamist(Two Love Stories) piece. 
Frau Kupka is very lovely and tall like a supermodel.  There aren't many curators in Germany who are people of color as Teutania is still very anglo-patriarchalsific.
Received this sweet missive from that sexpot and intellectual power top Alex Jovanovich who also is the best reviewer that Art Forum Magazine has on staff:
"Love your post on man-buns and Christian commune cult-leader beards. All foul. I
intend to chignon the hairs growing from my back wart and grow to rabbinical
fullness m'southern region pubes. I'll be sure to leave a little Thousand Island
dressing in there at all times." 

Those of you in the New York area must check out dear Alex's latest events----

Dear All:

I'm happy to announce I have a few exhibitions/events happening this month:

" The Nothing That Is - a drawing show in 5 parts" at the CAM Raleigh--a huge group belt-buster curated by Bill Thelen (see attached the beautiful invite he created for the show):  http://camraleigh.org/2015/06/summer-of-drawing/
 
" Making a Scene: Objects for Performance" at the MAD, curated by Jake Yuzna (I'll be performing " New Day," commissioned especially for the series, on June 12 + 13):  http://www.madmuseum.org/events/new-day

" Inside the Episode" at Launch F18, a summer show curated by Jack Pierson (attached is the marvelous invite Jack made for this show):  http://www.launchf18.com/exhibitions

Hope all of you are far better than well--see you soon!

GEMEINSAM SIND WIR STARK

My German cousin Norman von Holtzendorf who lives and works in Washington DC as a high powered international sollicitor mailed me a copy of the book by Duncan MacLeod with the intriguing numerical title 5150.
I was completely unaware that Duncan was a writer having known him primarily as a musician in the beyond brilliant LA based heritage country outfit The Acres.  Just started reading the book and I am savoring every page hoping to make the experience last longer as i tend to read very quickly. This tome is a quasi memoir of Duncan's period of living in San Francisco in the mid 1980s which is the time I first met Mr. MacLeod when he was a fragile young androgynous gothish deluze adaised Bay Area scenester.Throughout the 1980s when I was in the performance group The Afro Sisters I would venture up to pretty San Francisco for gigs and in the early 1990s when I put the Sisters on hiatus I would do solo performances at Stephen Parr's series of underground evenings at his South of Market loft space.San Fran is a small town so its possible to become acquainted with everyone within a certain scene especially when a lot of LA emigres had moved up North to become big fishes in a small pond. Duncan MacLeod and his band The Acres use to perform regularly at my club Bricktops at the Parlour Club and my endurance art festival Platinum Oasis at the Coral Sands Fist Fuck Motel. Check out more info on Duncan at www.dunkablog.com.
Was riding my bike toward the Kudamm from Schoneberg and noticed that they have almost completed renovation on a large building from 1970s early 1980s that hosts a Conroy/Conrad? store on such and such street. The building was ugly before but now that they have fixed it up it looks even more ungainly liked they wrapped it in a giant black duck tape bandaid.
So much for Berlina design schemes.
ATTENTION MEN OF BERLIN-A Prince Valiant hair cut is never a good idea when it comes to coiffure identity. Also hair buns are icky, but when you have very little hair and you desperately try to shape it to conform to the hair bun style that is also a major NO NO.  Also a hairbun and a bushy Grizzly Adams beard more major NONOs.  Something tellS me that soon Donald Trump will try to fashion his comb over into a hair bun. 
Ambrosia this plant not native to Germany from North America is causing havoc with my allergies this spring.  According to Viki Baum I am not the only person suffering this season as its become an epidemic.