A wedding invitation for a small simple role playing workshop staged for the finale of In The Land Where the Tiger Smoked, my collaboration with Torsten Zenas Burns.
11:29 pm - Other Turbans at Video Dumbo, Saturday Other Turbans is included in Eye Candid as part of Brooklyn's Video Dumbo Festival at 81 Front Street, Saturday, September 29th, 7pm. If you missed its premiere at Monkey Town earlier this month come see what is perhaps my most personal film to date. Other Turbans is an experimental documentary and part three in my hearing loss trilogy. As post-operative subject, I end up stumbling across Max Neuhaus’s Times Square and walk through a field of high tension wires via contemplative excursions while adjusting to my new implant.
The rest of the program as well as the video festival itself look very worth checking out. Unfortunately, I won’t be there. But just wanted to give you a heads up on the event.
If anyone is up for seeing a rare to see film at Monkey Town in Williamsburg this Thursday go to this link. RSVPing is recommended. The site describes the work by asking us to picture "Derek Jarman and Jack Smith having a baby raised by Kenneth Anger and James Bidgood." And that's just name dropping. The rest of the description is what got my attention. I'll be there and around NYC for a few days. What's weird is they don't mention The Cockettes, which is mostly what I come across while looking up info about the film. Hope to run into some of you.
10:14 am - Censorship and Homophobia from Bluehost.com! I recently helped by boyfriend put up his website of art photography. I told him to use Bluehost.com since it was the web service provider I was using, and I thought they seemed pretty good. After only two weeks, Bluehost pulled the plug on his site claiming he was delivering pornography. They did this without any warning.
After he called to inquire, they exclaimed that "if you can't see it in a Disney movie" they consider it pornographic. It's funny, their initial page doesn't seem to market themselves as the web service for parents and kids, and they obviously haven't seen the bare-breasted, ass-slapping excerpt of The Abominable Freedom on my site.
You need only to look for yourself at what they consider pornographic to begin to wonder if they have mixed pornography up with the word homosexuality. In other words, in the context of Jamil's sixty some photographs there are only three that show nudity. The style of these three photographs on there own is a far cry from porn. In the context of the other works, even less so. So what's there problem?
My site expires in January and I don't plan on continuing with them. If any of you out there are considering choosing a web hosting provider or know anyone that is....stay far away from Bluehost.com and spread the word!!! Jamil's website is now up and running via Godaddy.com.
12:14 pm - Danger Zone Hey all SFers and possible SF visitors...
Ever wonder what it would be like to unveil your own implant? While some of you may already know, come find out how I responded. I'm premiering a new video called Other Turbans at Studio 27 as part of an evening of international shorts addressing the "boundaries of conformity or danger in both public and personal spaces."
Friday, July 20th at 9pm, 689 Bryant Street. See link for more details.
09:59 am - update Hey, I've been away from LJ a while. I'm just posting a few pics of places I've been...exploring CA a lot more this year. What an amazing state. My camera recently broke while taking pics of the new bf (har har), so the last few months of pics will have to do.
On other news, my fabulous first intern destroyed all my India negatives. Last post I wrote that I'd be putting some up on occasion. Will do eventually, but if they are extra scratchy blame it on ceramic dust. Believe me...many of them are beyond photoshop repair.
08:36 am - All things old are new again I'm sure that is someone else's line. But for some reason, I couldn't stop thinking it in relation to pondering a pseudo-stereoscopic photo series I took but never activated into anything, when I was but a wee lad traveling for 6 months in India...followed by a month in Nepal. I'll be posting some at a later date. I have an intern unearthing/digitizing the negatives for me. She rocks!! I'm so excited.
Before I handed over the film, I tried to take all the pics of me out of the loop but was looking over her shoulder to find her looking at pics like the one above. Yikes!! But I had even messier hair and I was all cobwebbed up in mosquito netting. I won't be posting those.
I'm also weeding through a journal written of my adventures but when typed I took every other word out of every sentence and left only every seventh sentence in full. I may fill in some blanks or maybe not. I know there is a multi-channel video piece in here somewhere. If not, maybe I'll at least find the something I don't know I'm looking for.
PS. Live Journal look under construction. Trying to make it tie into my website more. Still workin' out the kinks.
Below is more information about the screening's inception taken from the Ocularis website:
Inspired by a Brooklyn film artist’s recent discovery that his 16mm collection contained multiple copies of the celebrated 1974 film (for television) Marlo Thomas’s Free To Be...You and Me, Ocularis has devised a scheme to put his reels to good use. More than twenty film and video artists will be invited to rework, restage, respond to, satirize, criticize, or in their own way create short works inspired by the original’s all-too-memorable segments, including “It’s All Right to Cry,” “William Wants a Doll,” “Ladies First,” and “Parents Are People.”
Conceived by Erik Z and Nick Hallett. Curated by Thomas Beard and Nick Hallett of Ocularis.
07:59 am - Sing Along Oh Cosmonauts Though I consider myself an artist that uses video, I don’t always consider myself easy to please on the appreciation of video installation. However, I have to say I was in for a pleasant surprise at SFMoMA last weekend and just wanted to recommend a couple things to people in the area or for those just visiting.
Still from Phil Collins’ dünya dinlemiyor
British artist Phil Collins (not that Phil Collins) does more than entertain with dünya dinlemiyor (Turkish for "the world won’t listen"), an installation comprising several karaoke performances of mostly elated fans of The Smiths shot in none other than Istanbul. While some obviously read the words off the screen and others relied purely on memory, the variety of approaches, whether dead-pan or extremely earnest where all from some part of the heart...even if the meaning in completion was lost in translation. At first, I approached the installation with hesitancy having experienced several other artists who have evoked the powers of karaoke in other works. Perhaps I was also a bit of defensive since I’m working on a large piece that includes tidbits of karaoke too. However, the performances won me over and as a side note actually made me realize why I like The Smiths. They are so exuberant about melancholia that it cancels out depression. Phil Collins via The Smiths and the Turks have made me realize the key to a happy despair is celebrating it. Be sure to see the guy that refused to sing but just took the opportunity to dance like Morrissey. He does a great job.
Still from Jane and Louise Wilson’s Stasi City
The other inspirational work ends up breaking my rule for never saying “I wish I made that piece” by making me say, “I wish I made that piece.” But then again…I know I’m too ‘tarded to use a dolly with such grace. My skills lie elsewhere. However, Jane and Louise Wilson’s Stasi City, is a synchronized four-projection installation where architectural representation become choreographed with mesmerizing skill. The site of their videography is Staatssicherheit, the empty headquarters of the East German secret police. The combination of disheveled 70s wood paneling, toppled furniture and abandoned medical equipment is evidence of an ambiguous history. The cool din of architecture is only broken by a person, whose face we never really see, levitating through the debris, as if the whole place existed in zero gravity.
Which photo taken this summer goes with my horrendous senior pic for the reunion website? I will submit the winning combination. Please be kind. No stealing pics for mullet sites. It was friggin' 1987. Everyone had one!
12:15 pm - Yaayy....Go Horsey! I just wanted to share my favorite YouTube personality. Everyone needs a hobby and ilovehorseyrides lives up to his name. I suggest you play them simultaneously for full impact.
Julie Wyman and I partaking in Ho Fatso, an installation by Rania Ho
Last weekend I went to catch the end of the ISEA 2006 Symposium and the Zero One Festival in San Jose. I didn't see everything because my time there was so brief. Two shows that are still up for a while that I would recommend are at The San Jose Museum and The San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art. See the links for more details.
However, the biggest treat of them all was getting to experience an oldie but goodie, Survival Research Laboratory enact Ghostly Scenes of Infernal Descecration! If you haven't seen them already, don't miss a chance whenever they may be in the vicinity. They don't perform their mechanistic feats very often but if you go bring your earplugs. I understand they are outlawed to perform in the whole Bay Area, but I guess San Jose is considered the outskirts. A colleague told me whenever they do their thing some scapegoat responsible for their presence looses a job. Below are a few pics of their show though there is much better documentation of this event listed here! However, nothing is like being there and feeling the explosive vibrations through your body. It was CRAZY FUN!
10:08 am - The Living Squid Hey, been doin' lots and no time for postin' but I have a few old Korean post left. Here goes it...maybe next one will be more about what's been going on lately.
My last night in Korea, I finally got to eat "the living squid"...at least that is the direct translation I got from my Korean friend Joo-Mee. However, on YouTube I have found a bunch of other posts about the dish described as Octopus, so go figure? Anyway, forgive the awkward cam. I was by myself with only my still camera to grab video with...it's hard to tape yourself eating things that still move.
08:49 am - HOT STUFF, NYC July 28th @ 6pm While I was soooo appreciative that a healthy LJ crew came to the premiere of The Abominable Freedom back in March, for those who missed the sheer musical nudity of it all, come on out to Scanners: The 2006 New York Video Festival at Lincoln Center this Friday at 6pm. It will be playing again in a program called:
And for those who did get a chance to see it, the description of the video we are screening with may be tantalizing enough to get you to come for a second viewing. I've copied it below highlighting a few key words to get you at least considering it. FYI - also check out William E. Jones, the website. I've never experienced work by him myself, but have read a bit about Is It Really So Strange?, his 80-minute documentary about the cult of Morrissey fans that have sprung up amongst LA Latinos. That and his site's description for The Fall of Communism as Seen in Gay Pornography has more than made me curious and excited to see his new work.
V.O. William Jones, USA; 59m In V.O. Jones appropriates imagery from 70s and 80s gay porn classics from directors such as Tom de Simone, Fred Halstead, and Joe Gage. (Everyone remembers Gage’s Kansas City Trucking Co., El Paso Wrecking Corp., and L.A. Tool & Die, right?) The imagery is then wedded to sound (and subtitles) borrowed from Jean Genet and art films by the likes of Renoir, Bunuel, and Debord. When the end credits roll and reveal all the source material that went into this delirious and magnificent creation, audience jaws will drop.
Actually, I’ll be around Thursday through Saturday trying to catch a lot of the other screenings in the festival. So if any thing else catches your eye, let’s go see a show together.
We really only went to a handful of Buddhist temples while I was in Korea. The Buddha above greets you at the entry of Haedong Yonggungsa, a dragon-themed temple in Busan that is most famous for its sunrises as it borders the sea. Since Torsten and myself are not particularly sunrise people, we visited in the late afternoon. We also went to Bulguksa Temple and Seokgulan Grotto just outside of Gyeongju. The latter is actually a cave temple said to be constructed in 751. It's highlight is a rather larger than life Buddha carved out of a massive singular rock as its centerpiece. Of course, in respect to those who worship there, I didn’t take any pictures of the actual shrines, but here are some pics of their surroundings.
one of the buildings from Bulguksa Temple ( more pics )
Torsten and I have our video, I am Today's Lesson Plan in the mix. It's the one where we perform psychic surgery onto each other and the world is reduced to stacked taffy planes that spin round and round. The program is called Alternative Realities (The Infinite Sights of a Techno-Natural Landscape) curated by Ashley Bellouin, though on-line it is generically titled Video Program - B. Our program starts at 4pm and looks like a great line-up. Ashley is screening our work with one of my oldest favorite video art pieces and one of my newest. The late 80s tape Lilith by Steina is named after Adam's first wife and unfolds via the manipulated sounds and images of Doris Cross processed upon and within a wooded background. Both painterly and synthesized, it is uncertain whether the subject plants a curse or is telling a story that demands the attention that her knowing lines grant her. Takeshi Murata's Monster Movie with an amazing soundtrack by Plate Tectonics immerses his subject further into a technological gel. A giant hairy fanged long-armed monster arises, struts and spins his way through the decomposition and reconstruction of his own image. Monster Movie contains a contemporary twist on the psychedelic aesthetic which bears a humorous and uncanny resemblance to the decay of corrupt media files.
10:04 am - Burial Mounds I'm not one for graveyard tourism except in Paris. But who wouldn't smoke dope on Morrison's grave or wear lipstick and leave your kiss on Wilde's? Oh yeah, there was also the visit to The National Museum of Funeral History in Houston, which left me wondering what might my fantasy coffin be? And I suppose I'd visit the pyramids if I were to go to Egypt though rumor has it Queen Hatshepsut's Mortuary Temple is where it's at. Ok...so maybe I'm into graveyard tourism.
An ancient tradish of the ancient Silla dynasty of Korea is mounds. Come to find out that even today many people are buried under small mounds. Their individual mound is often clustered together with others on their family's very own burial mountain. That usually includes the family in the very extended sense of the word. Korea is 75% mountain so they have a lot to choose from.
However, the mounds I have a few images of are bigger than most because, you guessed it...they were royalty. These can be found downtown in the once capitol city of Gyeongju. This site is called Daereungwon Nodong and Noseo-dong Tumuli but it is unclear to me if they know exactly who is buried in what mound. The one excavated mound that you could enter called its resident The King of the Flying Horses because he had horses with wings engraved on his royal accessories. The mounds were well built layers of gravel, large stones that were all about the size of one's head, and soil and grass. As you can see, the meticulous pathways and gardening bring together the very best aesthetic elements of The Wizard of Oz and the Teletubbies.
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