OBEN HUI,UNTEN PFUI

Rising Stars Falling Stars - Vaginal Davis & Jacques Demy - May 2014 by Filmanzeiger on Mixcloud

MARCHING THE MARCHIONESS OF DUFFERIN

Been out of commission for the last few days confined to bed due to a painful gout attack. I guess I’ve been stressed out with having to move from my penthouse flat after eight years inhabitance. Before getting sick I had a lovely meeting with Susanne Sachsse about our 2015 New York City project a performative installation of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Also had a fab luncheon with actor Viggo Mortensen who is spending a lot of time in Spain doing theatre. Viggo use to be married to one of my best gal pals the lovely and talented Exene Cervenka of the legendary LA punk band X. Viggo and Exene had a kid together named Henry who I use to babysit when he was a toddler. Whenever he started crying I would threaten to put him in the oven and make a cookie out of him. He stopped crying ASAP. I guess its obvious I’m not a huge fan of children. Well that little boy is now 27 years old and in the summer is coming to Berlin and wants to hang out with me. I think I actually did stick him in the oven once. Poor child is scarred for life. Back in the 1980s Viggo and I were part of the poetry/spoken word scene of Los Angeles. This was way before he was an A-list movie actor. One of my ex dates Tim Donnelly worked at Beyond Baroque in Venice, California and I use to perform regularly there with Viggo, Exene and Henry Rollins of Black Flag. At one event at BeBop Records in the Valley Tequila Mockingbird gave Henry Rollins and impromptu head shaving. I also threatened to beat Viggo up when I found out that he was cheating on Exene with his Indian Runner co-star Patricia Arquette of the famous Arquette acting dynasty. Viggo has a really huge penis. When I did the Sunday afternoon punque rock beer bust Club Sucker at the Garage in the 1990’s Patricia Arquette use to bring her son Enzo Rossi to the club to hang with his Argentinian dad Paul Rossi of the punk band Wasted Youth. Paul bought the Garage bar from the elderly gay dude who owned it when it was the oldest gay bar in Los Angeles called The Bunkhouse. Come to think of it. Enzo Rossi must be college age now.

Enough trolling down memory lane its making me feel too old. I also had a lovely dinner at this great Portuguese restaurant in East Berlin with Susanne her beautiful twins Richard & Salome Gersch, film historian Marcuse Siegel and the great scholar, curator and writer from New York City Douglas Crimp. Mr. Douglas Crimp is beyond brilliant, very sexy and always immaculately dressed.

One of my handsomest and sexy young students Christophe DeRohan Chabot who is a very talented young artist from a famous patrician family in France is doing some kind of zany performative event on Saturday evening. If you are visiting Berlin I highly recommend your checking it out:

Dear friends, 

I would be pleased to invite you to the opening of

informationas ( a place ) / to (a) show

at Kreuzberg Pavillon this saturday the 17th,

between 8 to 12 pm in Naunystr 53

Thank you very much

All the best,

Christophe de Rohan Chabot
***
And I also received a note from the team that works with the internationally lauded German singing chanteuse Billy Ray Martin who use to be my downstairs neighbour back in 2008/9. Billy and I both worked with British musician David Harrow of Depeche Mode fame who now is an Elysian Park based music artist in Los Angeles.

Dear all.

This week sees some exciting releases on bandcamp, the main one being two previously unreleased recordings https://billieraymartin.bandcamp.com/album/two-unreleased-recordings
Fans have supported this release in a big way and have expressed their appreciation across social media. Billie would like to thank her fans massively for the love and support.

Also albums like 'Deadline for my Memories' have been made available on bandcamp with bonus tracks, as have other albums. Currently we are in the process of uploading all CD singes, then all vinyl singles, while adding bonusses and unreleased recordings whenever available. Be sure to follow Billie on bandcamp. also new on bandcamp, a previously unavailable release: Crime and Punishment EP http://billieraymartin.bandcamp.com/album/billie-ray-martin-presents-sonnenstahl-crime-punishment and: http://billieraymartin.bandcamp.com/album/where-fools-rush-in-including-original-demo with added demo. The release date for the next official BRM single, a Bowie cover entitled: "After All", has been set to 13th July (Germany 11th July) with promotion starting next week across all usual platforms. A video was shot last week. We'll update you on news asap. Billie Has also shot a video for the follow-up song and next month she'll shoot the video for her duet with Aerea Negrot entitled: Off The Rails.
Billie is currently in the studio recording follow-ups for the single, as well as recording for some other collaborations. A soul album is also being mixed to be released early next year. Other bits. Billie has been writing very personal notes on how her various releases were written and recorded. Fans have been loving them. One example:the mad, mad tale of how Four Ambient Tales was written and recorded. Trust me, you'll be surprised (read the 'about this album' description) https://billieraymartin.bandcamp.com/album/four-ambient-tales
Best wishes from the BRM-Team.Some info about the new single: “After All”
Four track Digital release
Release date: 13 July 2014 (Germany: 11 July 2014)
Label: Disco Activisto Records
Catalogue no: DAREC1402
Distribution: billieraymartin.bandcamp.com
and all digital stores worldwide
Style: House (Chicago) A spontaneous idea while in a writing session with Dark Storm (aka Abdullah Al-Wali), Billie casually recorded demo vocals for this Bowie cover. To record the song had been on Billie’s ‘to do’ list for a number of years and Abdullah’s production vibe lent itself perfectly to the idea.
Billie and Abdullah had come together by chance, after Billie had received the Dark Storm album promo and replied that she loved it. Soon after, they got together for a week in Berlin to work on song ideas.
Billie had a certain sound in mind for the mix of ‘After All’ and managed to create something in the studio that surpassed her own expectations. Not designed to service dancefloors in an obvious way, it still manages to create a ‘back to the roots’ groove... anyone uttering Electribe 101?
Legendary House and Techno Pioneer Mijk van Dijk’s mixes give this release a serious old school house vibe with an Electribe 101 feel, while the chilled Caesar Gergess Dub adds the theremin (!!) and jazzy trumpet to the package.
Tracklist:‘After All’
Original version Mijk van Dijk remix Mijk van Dijk dub Caesar Gergess mix
Written by: David Bowie
Produced by: Abdullah Al-wali & Billie Ray Martin
Mixed by: Billie Ray Martin & Steve Honest at Hackney Road Studios
Additional Guitar: Steve Honest

billie ray martin disco activisto records
www.billieraymartin.com

***
And if you are interested in some rollicking phun queer coursework during the summer:

Summer Writing Workshops at the Kotti-Shop

All writers and their unique styles are welcome: Poets, Narrative, Broken Language, Essays, Correspondence, Scripts & Plays, Lyrics for Music.

No previous experience required.
at the Kotti-Shop - Adalberstr. 4 - www.kotti-shop.net / www.facebook.com/kottishop
60 € for all 6 sessions. All materials included.
Questions and registration at: ameliabande77(at)gmail.com

Wednesday's Workshop "Dancing with Words": Experimenting with writing in all forms. Everybody is welcome.
Wednesdays from 19:00 to 21:00 / 6 weekly sessions / Dates: June 4th to July 9th
(Find further details below)

Tuesday's Workshop "Read the Writing Electric": Write your own work while reading the work of others. For people who have a project (or several) in mind they want to work on / edit / receive feedback on / expand / share.
Tuesdays from 19:00 to 21:00 / 6 weekly sessions / Dates: June 10th to July 15th
(Find further details below)
.................................................................................................

WORKSHOP ONE: DANCING WITH WORDS
Language: English, though you can write in your preferred language.
Wednesdays from 19:00 to 21:00 / 6 weekly sessions / Dates: June 4th to July 9th

Every week we will work with a specific theme or assignment leading to a piece of written material. We will experiment with various types of writing while learning about rhythm, tone and the power of what we write about. During the workshop we will run a series of simple and practical writing exercises to help develop personal style and voice in the creation of texts from things we observe, experience or imagine. We will also write collectively, using cut-and-paste techniques.

This workshop wants to offer a safe space to write while learning how to give and take useful feedback. It doesn't matter if you already have a specific project you are working on, or if you just want to come and develop fragmented ideas. This will be 6 weeks of hard work mutating into a fun and experimental choreography of words.

.................................................................................................


WORKSHOP TWO: READ THE WRITING ELECTRIC
Language: English.
Tuesdays from 19:00 to 21:00 / 6 weekly sessions / Dates: June 10th to July 15th



Every week we will read or see the work of a specific writer (These will be short pieces: a poem, a youtube video, a story or fragment of a longer text). We will respond with simple written exercises and experiments that work with notions of plagiarism, appropriation, riot writing and total admiration. Also, participants will have the option to present their own texts to the group in respectful and illuminated feedback sessions. Projects in all genres and stages of completion are welcome. This workshop wants to be a safe and useful space for discussing written materials, expanding our understanding of what writing is or can be.

If you already took one of the Dancing with Words workshops before, I recommend you register for this one, it will be all new assignments and text experiments :) Some of the writers we might read are: David Wojnarowicz, Eileen Myles, Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, Dante Alighieri, Assata Shakur, Raúl Zurita, Kathy Acker, Dead Prez, Walt Whitman, Lydia Davis, bell hooks, Mujeres Creando, Charles M. Schulz, the list will expand or shrink and is open to suggestions by participants.


"It is the experience of writing that matters. I am driven to write, compelled by a constant longing to choreograph, to bring words together in patterns and configurations that move the spirit. As a writer, I seek that moment of ecstasy when I am dancing with words". bell hooks in Remembered Rapture: Dancing with Words.

Register at: ameliabande77(at)gmail.com

***

Oh and one final little item from the British artist Elly Clark:
Portraiture & other stories
The George Richmond Portrait Project / Instantaneous Culture / Banff / and Skype

Dear friends, family, colleagues & collaborators,

This is a rather overdue newsletter about some of the things I've been up to over the past few months. Whilst last year was largely a year of exhibitions (including FRAME_birmingham & new site-specific commission Half Crowns in their Petticoats for Thrift Radiates Happiness at Birmingham Municipal Bank), 2014 is about production and development. Thanks to a generous R&D grant from Arts Council West Midlands, I have been able to gather more material for my ongoing George Richmond Portrait Project, and to go on shoots across the country visiting portraits and their current guardians.

GEORGE RICHMOND PORTRAIT PROJECT

(My great-great-great grandfather) George Richmond RA (1809-1896) produced over 3000 portraits during a career that spanned 6 decades. I am focussing on portraits that are still owned by the same families that commissioned them. Therefore the photographs I am taking and the audio I'm recording forms a kind of double portrait of a family; of those who are living and those who came before, and whose image/s (and stories) subsequent generations have lived with since then. Over the past 3 months my team and I have done a further 9 shoots - in Scotland, Northern England, the Midlands and London - with more planned for the summer. I have also spent some time delving through letters and diaries in the Royal Academy Archives.

You can see more about this project on the project website: georgerichmondproject.com and on Soundcloud, and follow our progress on Twitter (@GRProject_) and Facebook. (/GeorgeRichmondProject).

INSTANTANEOUS CULTURE

The other thing I've been working is a series of songs about the way we communicate. For a long time I have been obsessed with mobile phones, and, when they saturated the market, with their impact on us, our sense (and presentation) of self, and our relationships. I made my first piece about this in 2002 and in 2010 I wrote a series of songs about them, for my (now disbanded) band Theodor Storm in Berlin.

Now, in collaboration with a set of brilliant music/costume/set/camera/editing people from London, Berlin & Birmingham, I am working these songs into new forms, and making videos to go with them. The first, Instantaneous Culture, made in collaboration with a bunch of pretty splendid peeps in Berlin & London you can see here: http://vimeo.com/95290394.

DISTRIBUTED INTIMACIES at The Banff Centre

I am excited to have been granted a scholarship to participate in a three-week themed residency, entitled Distributed Intimacies, taking place at the Banff Centre in Canada next month to develop this work further. I will also be producing a series of prints from Conversational Traces.

And finally, I have works as part of two projects by curator Charlie Levine: a couple of short films in the Moving Image Project (shown so far in Tokyo, Christchurch & Baroda, India), and a rendition of Edward Lear's The Owl and the Pussy Cat for the Tale Tellers.

Many thanks for reading.

With best wishes,

Elly

GETTING GERTIES GARTIFICATION

The wonderfully talented Canadian born artist Ms. Karen Lofgren aka: Kara Hunger who has been living in Los Angeles for many years and was once part of the CLevel art collective has a new book out which I advice you all to check out.Trajectory Object c. 2000-2050 Artist: Karen Lofgren, Designer: Willem Henri Lucas, Writer: Ben Ehrenreich. Printing by Typecraft, Wood, & Jones, Los Angeles.Trajectory Object c. 2000-2050 was printed in conjunction with a solo project of the same title organized and presented by High Desert Test Sites. Installation shown in detail at: www.karenlofgren.net/work and http://www.highdeserttestsites.com/projects/trajectory-object-c-2000-2050Edition of 500 hand signed and numbered copies, self-published with support from The Ranch Projects; West of Rome Public Art; Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; and Royale Projects Contemporary Art.

For those of you living in Berlin and want to be involved in some very interesting independent coursework please check out the happenings surrounding one of my former Weissensee students Annette Knol and her Kotti-Shop in Kreuzberg.

C o p y r o b o t e r Z i n e W o r k s h o p
Dieser Workshop ist eine Einführung in Zine Produktion und Risografie Druck mit Annette Knol im Kotti-Shop. In dieser 1-Tägige Analoge Druck-Workshop macht jede Teilnehmer_in ihre eigene Auflage von ein Zine/Heft/Büchlein (z. B. 16 Seiten/ A5 Format)
Kosten: 40,- (inkl. Alle Materialien)
Max. Teilnehmer_innen pro Tag: 5
Sprache: Deutsch & English
Nur mit Anmeldung auf: copyroboter(at)kotti-shop.net
Samstag 7. Juni - 12-18:00
& Sonntag 8. Juni - 12-18:00
C o p y r o b o t e r Z i n e W o r k s h o p
This workshop is an introduction to zine production and Risograph print with Annette Knol.
In this 1-day workshop (pick your day) each partcipant will make their own edition of a zine/book/booklet (for example 16 pages in A5 format)
Cots: 40,- (incl. all materials)
Max. participants per day: 5
Language: German & English
Only with registration at: copyroboter(at)kotti-shop.net
Saturday 7th of June - 12-18:00
& Sunday 8th of June - 12-18:00
Kotti-Shop
Neues Kreuzberger Zentrum
Adalbertstr. 4
10999 Berlin
www.kotti-shop.net
W e i t e r e s im K o t t i - S h o p
°Samstag 24. Mai - Neues Kreuzberger Zentrums 40. Geburtstag ! mit Ausstellung & Workshop.
°Writing Workshop mit Amelia Bande (im Juni & Juli, wochentliche Workshops am Dienstag & Mitwoch)
°Neue Publishing Puppies Veröffentlichungen.
°Samstag 28. - Sonntag 29. Juni ---> Die 1. Publishing Puppies Workshop M U S T E R I N G .
Wir schicken die weitere Infos bald rum!

GENERAL GRAPPLING PHYSICALITY

One of my very beautifull young students Nick Pittadides who collaborated with me on the performance piece DEJECTA at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (MoCa) back in 2011 came through Berlin on a short visit from his homebase in London. After graduating from USC Nick worked as an assistant with the art kollective My Barbarian and lived in New York City for six months assisting another one of my high art children Marc Arthur of Performa. Was so glad I was able to hang out with Nick for a bit and catch up on every little thing. He is absolutely adoreable and I love him.

After my time with Little Nicky I was invited to a spargle dinner at the compound of Piero Bellomo at LutzoPlatz. I love Asparagus season and the food of course was divine(fertility salad, rosoto) along with hallowed company in the form of Scandinavian Muzlim Daniel Hendrickson who makes killer homemade date muffins and helped Piero with the cooking. Visiting dance world dignitary Tom Fletcher who now lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida after years in Berlin and Paris as a world renown choreographer and dance teacher extroidinaire regaled everyone at table with stories from his illustrious career in the arts. Tom gave me a belated birthday gift of a huge coffeetable book about the Musical Film which I will of course treasure and can’t seem to put down with giant photos of some of the most beloved Hollywood Musicals from the late 1920s and the advent of sound all the way to the early 1980s.
***
Carla Bozulich one of my extremely talented gal pals from Los Angeles is coming to Berlin to perform. Carla is known mostly as the lead singer and creative force behind the punk country outfit The Geraldine Fibbers who were one of my all-time favourite bands. She also was in Ethyl Meatplow which was a music group that was pivotal to the burgeoning Modern Prim scene of the early 1990’s that formed around the underground nite spot in Silverlake Club Fuck and the notorious personalities known as The First Family of Fuck.

Bei Ruth in exile and La Moustache present:
CARLA BOZULICH
Friday May 9 @ West Germany

Skalitzer Straße 133, U Kottbusser Tor, 9pm
https://www.facebook.com/events/507670772675160/

Carla Bozulich is an art-punk heroine. Time and again she has headed up bands that sound like nothing else and arguably stake out genres unto themselves: the bent agit-prop of Ethyl Meatplow; the ferocious roots-tinged epic rock of The Geraldine Fibbers; the vocal-driven sound-art of Scarnella and Evangelista, her first album for Constellation in 2006, followed by three more albums between 2008-2011. She has set aside Evangelista for now, to focus on the songs that form Boy, her third record under her own name.

Boy is a refreshing and much-needed reminder of what pop – as an oblique angle, influence, and intent – can do in the hands of a ferociously commanding singer/lyricist who has cut her teeth on genre-bending, genre–blending, and DIY aesthetics. Here is a batch of ten songs that clock in at 3-5 minutes each, mostly hewing to recognizable structures of verse, chorus and bridge, but full of destabilizing accents and strategies, and nothing that could read as winking irony, gloss or mere effect/affect. (...) Boy sharpens and focuses each song's intent and structure.

While Bozulich wrote most of it, played the majority of the instruments and made the album artwork, the album’s creation was aided, abetted and sometimes rescued by the input of John Eichenseer (aka JHNO). The Italian drummer Andrea Belfi joined with his impeccable rhythmic support. http://cstrecords.com/cst102/
***
I just watched a great little video film by art photographer Annette Frick that i Just love called Lenin or Lennon. Annette and her partner in art and life the legendary underground film maestro Wilhelm Hein have a wonderful little independent performance space and salon called Casabaubou which will be presenting a marvelous event for Mothers Day, so if you are visiting Berlin and want something unique to attend this is a MUST SEE:
Betreff: 11.5.2014 ab 17 Uhr im CASABAUBOU -zwei Sensationen
Liebe Freundinnen und Freunde

V E R G E S S T D I E K U R A T O R E N !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! in Kürze zwei Sensationen

zurück in die Zukunft die neuen Künstler lassen sich nicht bevormunden

11.5.2014 ab 17 Uhr im CASABAUBOU

SEESTR:107 - U6 SEESTR:

W I E N E R B L U T

zum Muttertag

Malaktion von Andreea Oana Limban und Sogar Plum

außerdem : N E U E R S C H E I N U N G !!!!!!!!! conversations with bice - a cartography of desire

by bear boy 48 Seiten mit DVD nur am Muttertag im CasaBaubou 7,-Euro

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FILME - FOTOS - TEXTE - BILDER - PERFORMANCE - von WILHELM HEIN - SHIRIN BARTHEL - RUVI SIMMONS - ANNE DIPPEL - SUGAR PLUM - ANDREEA OANA LIMBAN - LEONIE BÖGER - PETER WEIBEL -

BEAR BOY - ANNETTE FRICK - KURT KREN - U.A AUßERDEM NOCH WENIGE EXEMPLARE DER LETZTEN DREI NUMMERN VON

JENSEITS DER TRAMPELPFADE HEFT 13,14, 15 z.T. mit DVD außerdem ein Film im Netz Lenin or Lennon©AnnetteFrick

Dein Video wurde unter http://youtu.be/eTYf5Qod3J4 veröffentlicht.
***
Now that its spring time i find myself in a very meloncholic mood. Its always sad when a relationship ends especially when its with someone that you consider a great love, but I find that its always best to be able to let people go as a way of really showing your love for them and help them find themselves in the process. If you were meant to be with this person somehow the two of you will find your way back to each other. Time heals all wounds as the saying goes so most likely after a well proportioned amount of time the forces of the cosmos will bring you back together. In 2005 I broke off a friendship with someone very dear to me, and it took six years for us to get back together again but we did and now the relationship is stronger because of the big break and time apart healing.

DRAUF UND DRAN

Was taken out for a lovely bruncheon to Papaya Thai Restaurant by one of my dear art shtar children Wu Tsang and his hot girlfriend the sizzling performer Tosh aka: Boychild. Wu is in Berlin to mount a big show at the famed Berlin galerie Isabella Bortolozzi. Had a wonderful time catching up with Wu who is just sweetness warmth and light personified. Wu collaborated with me on my 2011 MoCa performance DEJECTA cooking a fab minimalist dinner that was part of this spectacular piece where I worked with a galaxy of guest stars like Glen Meadmore, Jean Spinosa, Jean Kim, Marc Simon & The Boyfriend, a bevy of luscious art school kids from several Southern California Universities & Colleges and my incredible production whiz Jonathan Berger.  Wu’s exhibition opening for A Day in the Life of Bliss is May 2nd from 6-9pm with a performance at 8pm by Wu and Boychild. Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi is located at Schoeneberg Ufer 61 near Potsdamer Platz.
***
For those of you in New York the lovesexy artist and Art Forum writer Alex Jovanovich will be presenting something special at the Whitney Biennial so check it out below:

Dear Friends:

I am thrilled to announce that I will be showing four of my slideshow works at the Whitney Biennial this year, from May 7 - May 11, on the second floor of the museum in the Kaufman Astoria Studios Film and Video Gallery (http://whitney.org/Events/AlexJovanovich).

Should you have the time or desire, please come!

Yours,

Alex
***
Over the centuries It has been a pleasure to be invited to teach workshops and block seminars in England and my students in the UK are always so ultra nate'. Here is a little note from one of them and a list of very interesting performances that take place in Berlin and Merry Ole England:

Passionate Friends, Radicals, Phantoms and Losers,

Make an arrangement and stick to it. With moonshine, star gazes, a kept hearth and the heavy hand of justice, Only ever

Sara Zaltash

MONTH OF PERFORMANCE ART BERLIN

We’re going to Berlin to run this auction of live art with Performer Stammtisch on 5th May. I am also performing this for 14 days, and specifically inside an 8ft white cube in Mariannenplatz 1st May and 8th May. It is totally self explanatory. Except of course, you don't know that Sebastian and I agreed in December to find each other in Berlin in May. And I have spoken to him since. And I made an arrangement so I'm sticking to it. Other great things will happen.

Because it’s MPA-B. Expect my soul to shift. SEX – SEX – SEX Friday 16th May 2014 Vogue Fabrics Stoke Newington LONDON.

Sara Zaltash, GETINTHEBACKOFTHEVAN, Alex Swift, DP, Needless Alley, Jonathan Kemp and the returning FoxyandHusk! All with BRAND NEW work. And TWO other surprise acts showing up on the night. F***. YES.

Doors at 8pm. Performances 9-11. Disco 11-til the end of the road. https://www.facebook.com/WTFIA

THE STATE OF MAGICK / THE MAGICKAL STATE

Remember when I swam to Bestival while singing a 100-verse ballad in two languages about the impossibility of changing fate? YEAH, ME TOO. Thanks to the inimitable Nick Kilby, I am presenting a paper about Sink or Sing at this academic conference at De Montfort University in Leicester. I’m weary of love, delusional and leaving the country.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnPMoAb4y8U&feature=kp

See you different.

xxxps: I have a tumblr and sometimes I fill it up with a million things in a matter of seconds and other times I barely even know who we are. http://sarazaltash.tumblr.com/

Sara Zaltash is a member of Residence. She is a founder of AUCTION ACHTUNG! She thinks artists should be paid. #illshowyoumine
***
One of my most talented Bricktops at the Parlourclub kids sent me this little missive that you should also check out:

Hi All,

I hope this message finds you well and happy. As spring warms up my animation studio, I am getting back to work on Seed in the Sand. Please check out my new Zazzle Store at http://www.zazzle.com/cegavske?rf=238595898255878978! You are sure to find something you'll love.

Also, you might enjoy this recent clip from Seed in the Sand on Vimeo, https://vimeo.com/91307589.

Best Wishes,

Christiane

DIE SCHADEN FREUNDINNEN

Had a wonderful little get-to-gether with one of my former students the gorgeous blondine Christophe DeRohan Chabot. The patrician Mr. Chabot just turned 26 years old, but I remember him as a mere baby from when I taught a performance studies class in 2007 at the Weissensee Art Akademy here in Berlin. Christophe was one of my most eager beaverette students in the class I called Life as Art- Art or Life where I taught the principles of Availabism as created by Kembra Phahler of the Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black. Can’t believe it was so long ago. Christophe and another student of mine Acme Singt are both quite active in Berlin working on very engaging all encompassing projects that straddle the intersection of painting,action, sculpture, surveillance and performance. Christophe is gearing up for a new exhibition and wanted to show me some of the things he was working on and get my feedback. This hot young boy never fails to surprise and invigorate me with his art work and I predict that the name Christophe DeRohan Chabot will cause major havoc in the art cosmos soon.

My wonderful Los Angeles pal the A-List Hollywood Costume Designer Michael Kaplan came through Berlin looking for inspiration and took me out for a fabulous South American dinner at the sizzling newish boite Sudaka in Schoneberg at Goltzstrasse 36. I ate Michael out of house and hearth scarfing down the pumpkin garnellan soup, glorious lamb cutlets plus some sweet potato fries and a spinach banana meld. The desert was a glorious chocolate cake with French Vanilla icecream that literally floated to the table. Joining us was Little Alex of Macedonia who I recommended to Michael to hire as his Berlin assistant and Christophe DeRohan Chabot who was just plain eye candy for us all. Mr. Kaplan will be based in London for the next few years where he is working on the latest installments of the Star Wars film saga, which means he will be working with elderly Star Wars alum Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill who will make guest appearances of some kind. At dinner Michael Kaplan regaled us with hilarious tales of his storied Hollywood past and relationships with the rich and infamous. Some of the secrets he spilled are way too scandalous to repeat, but the names of people like Sandy Gallin, Bryan Singer, Victor Salvo and Roland Emmerich did come up, so you’ll just have to guess what exactly we discussed. Michael is one of those Hollywood celebutants who is just a complete angel and sweetheart and is very loving and genuine something you don’t find too often in LaLaLandia. I didn’t know that Michael’s first involvement in the costume industry was working on the Sonny &Cher show with Ray Agayan and Bob Mackie, and that his first film job was on the Village People starrer Can’t Stop the Music directed by Nancy Walker which featured a young well hung Steve Guttenberg, Bruce Jenner, Barbara Rush, Marilyn Sokol, Valerie Perrine and Altovise Davis the wife of Sammy Davis Jr. The producer of the film was the notorious caftan wearing Allan Carr who of course was madly enamored of the young Micheal Kaplan who still is a muscular gorgeous hunk of Philadelphia Freedom shine the light!!!! Michael went on to design the costumes for Blade Runner, Flashdance, Fight Club, and the recent Star Trek Reboot. What few people know is that Michael also worked with legends like Joan Blondell in a TV movie, Virginia Mayo on a stage variety show, Linda Manz from Days of Heaven fame and Marlon Brando in a Michael Jackson video. I also found out the little known fact that director Michael Bey is the illegitimate son of Manchurian Candidate helmer John Frankenheimer-----yowza!!!!

The next evening was Rising Stars, Falling Stars-We Must Have Music at Arsenal Institute fur film und videokunst where we celebrated a Dorothy Arzner Manifesto nite by screening her 1940 classic DANCE GIRL DANCE that stars Maureen O’Hara,Lucille Ball, Maria Ouspenskaya, Viriginia Field and Miss Louis Hayward from a story by the German writer Vicki Baum. Dorothy Arzner was the only woman in the directors guild during the Golden era of Hollywood from the 1920s to 1950’s. The other two women being Ida Lupino and Vicente Minnelli. Also Dorothy Arzner was openly lesbian. On the personal side Ms. Arzner was my screenwriting teacher at UCLA in the early 1970s when I was still in elementary school taking Upward Bound film coursework. Of course at that time I didn’t know that she had once been a major Hollywood film director. Ms. Arzner along with screenwriter Oscar Saul who adapted Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire to the screen in 1951 also taught at UCLA and both of them volunteered their time teaching at the Watts Towers Community Center in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Los Angeles.

Its sad that still in Hollywood there are so few female directors. When movies first began in the late 1890s one of the first action film directors was a woman named Alice Guy Blache who also directed a film called The Cabbage Fairy 1896.

DANCE GIRL DANCE really brought out the Easter Sunday crowds. Kino 2 at the Arsenal was jam packed with lesbian feminists of all ages, plus some cute baby dykes and dag hags with a sprinkling of male lesbians. The crowd was all having a hoot of a time as the film played, and after the screening during the wine reception there was lots of flirting, kissing and sexing going on. Enjoying all the rhubarb stately Arsenal Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus, Nanna Heidenreich, Uli Ziemons, Little Alex of Macedonia who styled and did the hair and make-up for the Vagimule doll making her look very Lola Falana, Marcuse Siegel, Susanne Sachsse, Markus Ruff, Dr. Tonya and galpal, Assaf Hochman,Piero Bellomo with husband Daniel Hendrickson the Scandanavian Muzlim whose piano playing warmed many hearts including Hollywood costume designer Michael Kaplan who was turning quite a few heads himself like the young Mexican ballet star Javier Cachiero, artists Julie Pierart,Matthew Corbin Bishop with Latvian art shtar Mara Traumane, Living Archive experimental film educator Stefanie Schlueter with her sexy crop of young grad students, actress Maribel Verdu, male ingénue Logan Lerman from the Darin Aronofsky epic Noah and trendy Berlin hair hopper Charlie Le Mindu. Next month Sunday May 25th at 8pm we will screen the rarely shown Jacque Demy musical UNE CHAMBRE EN VILLE from 1982.

Was invited to a spectacular brunch at the super chic Victoria Louise Platz flat of Gunther Gerdes aka: Papi Choulo the lovesexy husband of Ali Janka of the Vienna Austria art kollectiv Geliten. Handsome Ali has a studio in Berlin, but was mostly here to hang out with his longtime companion and get away from the hustle and bustle of being an international art shtar. The bruncheon was lovely, and it was nice to catch-up on every little thing with Ali and Papi. Was surprised to hear that Ali has suffered through some major trial and tribulation with health problems in the form of a brain tumor. Ali has bounced back stronger then ever, but it certainly puts things in perspective that one must be thankful for every moment they have as nothing is guaranteed in this life or the next.