First of all my profuse excuse-me for the late response to your immediate answer to my new year’s mail. Not really astonishing, but nerve-wracking nevertheless: as soon as I had sent out my decision to change my life, my computer started to act up too. It just returned from the doctor…
“Passions don’t burn out”
Passions not, but the objects of your passion. Once you realize that the woman you desire so much, just isn’t interested in climbing into bed with you, you can try a little harder, look for a different approach, a hidden door. But then there comes a point where you have to admit that she simply ain’t conquerable. Once you have reached that point the choice is to suffer romantically for the rest of your life…. or to let go of her and find a new love amongst the billions of other beauties this planet has to offer. Many of us waste their whole lives staying obsessed with this one they can’t get. I try not to make that mistake.
11 years have passed since my last feature, the good old Wedding Cow. My latest project “Monogamy?” is now the third bigger film that doesn’t find its financing. The important Swiss production company C-Films was sure that we would run in open doors with this project. They submitted it for development money to Swiss TV, government and the two cities Zürich & Basel. They received 4 answers… 4 very definite NOs. Sure, in half a year we could reapply, to likely receive further rejections in 3/4 of a year from now. 11 years of this is more than enough. When someone asks me: “And you, what do you do?” To say I’m a director feels like a total fraud. Directors direct…
We filmmakers are like sperms within a woman. We’re far too many fighting to impregnate that same egg. Most of us will die without reaching our destination, completing our mission….
Being in Argentina complicates matters further. For the Argentineans I’m the rich Swiss, definitely not one of them, definitely not someone who’s project needs their financial support – and for the Swiss I have left long ago, I’m no longer one of them… and so not worthy to be subsidized either.
“Kill yourself…”
During the past months I felt more and more depressed and bitter. The only solution seemed to kill myself… or then to change radically. But a change for what? I haven’t got the faintest idea.
I feel like I just jumping out of a plane without a parachute. But once the airplane is on fire this might as well be the only solution. For the time being I’m in the liberating free fall. But soon the ground will rush nearer and nearer… Will I come up with an alternative before I shatter on the floor?
“or stop using glamor, hype, romantic drug to rush above everyday reality”
My body… or is it my brain… has grown tired of the drug it’s used to use, grown resistant, maybe even allergic. And so I need to find a new drug.
TOMI STREIFF Tuesday
From the Heart
Tomi
STREIFFSCHUSS FILMS AG
Tomi Streiff
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well, I always figure out how to do what I want to do with what I have. This may take years sometimes. But I always do what I want. This is a part of directing, of creating, of living. True, I don’t try to do things “the right way. ” I just do!
we are outing at least one of those who rip down all fliers, including ours, in Berkeley. It’s a part of the documentary Max is making. He already has footage of the dude talking about me as he rips our flier down!
In Freedom, Frank Moore
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Frank Moore’s Shaman’s Den Sunday, February 14, 2010 Max Good, Director www.vigilantefilm.com
hey pop! i got a new artist that i would like to get on your tv show. can you provide your addresse again so i can send you his cd?
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sure, son! Any friend….
Frank Moore Inter-Relations P.O. Box 11445 Berkeley, CA 94712
the artist should write real big on the envelope YOUR SON SENT ME!
missed you, son! Get your ass to the next performance!
In Freedom, Frank Moore
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oh, i will be sending the cd’s. i planned on being there. when is it? at the same place?
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well, son… Since you are playing at the Temescal performance [which is great news!], you can give me the Cd there. The next performance is SatUrday, January 30, 2010 starting at 8pm [but we get there at seven o’clock to set up]. It’s at TEMESCAL ARTS CENTER, 511 48th Street, Oakland, CA 94609-2058.
AND MARK THESE DATES OFF ON YOUR CALENDAR!
2010 Dates! Saturday, February 27 Saturday, March 27 Saturday, April 24 Friday, May 21 Saturday, June 26 Saturday, July 31 Saturday, August 28 Saturday, September 25 Friday, October 22 Friday, November 19 Friday, December 17
Twenty TEN is the start of a new decade and The Hi-Nobles will be kicking it off in high gear with three Bay Area performances in once weekend, one the entire country can enjoy.
The soul quintet continue to sweat-up shows behind their debut album Shake, which the East Bay Express calls “Dirtbombs-esque Sixties garage soul” and the Stockton Record says “fuses an old-school – but roughed-up – rockabilly energy with twangy, sometimes metallic, hard-rock muscle, a raunchy, bluesy grind and some post-punk attitude and aggression.”
Fri, Jan 22 – 9pm Pissed Off Pete’s 4528 Mission (at Santa Rosa) San Francisco, CA 94112 584-5122 www.pissedoffpetes.com/ w/ Knights Of The New Crusade &Shangorillas
Sat, Jan 23 – 9pm The Stork Club 2330 Telegraph Ave Oakland, CA http://www.storkcluboakland.com/ w/ Captain 9’s and The Knickerbocker Trio & Horror-X 21+
Sun, Jan 24th – 8pm Live on Frank Moore’s LUVeR Radio! Berkeley, CA LISTEN LIVE !!
I wholeheartedly agree with your insightful assesment
Which means, fuck yeah… Now to the studio for more artmaking
keith
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a great name for a punk band… CRIPPLED YUPPIES!
Hey, I am doing a monthly performance series in Oakland at the Temescal art center. Come and dance with me!
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REALITY PLAYINGS: experiments in experience/participation performance CRITIC’S CHOICE: East Bay Express
Frank Moore, world-known shaman performance artist, will conduct improvised passions of musicians, actors, dancers, and audience members in a laboratory setting to create altered realities of fusion beyond taboos. Bring your passions and musical instruments and your senses of adventure and humor. Other than that, ADMISSION IS FREE! (But donations will be accepted.)
Actually, this painting was made concurrently with “Traffic Jam”, however, unlike, “Traffic Jam”, which is an impersonal satire, “No Parking Zone” is a self-portrait that resulted from losing an occult battle with a powerful chihuahua that I met online. You may read more about this in my blog.
I am now seeking opportunities to exhibit my paintings. For this purpose I have created a special blog, “Gallery Data” for cataloging art galleries worldwide to add to my mailing list. Since starting this in December I have collected nearly 300 galleries (mostly in the USA and Europe), but I am seeking more, and so, if you want to suggest any galleries to me kindly submit them to my “Gallery Form”. I will greatly appreciate your help! – David Normal
PS: This is my new mailing list – informally entitled “Normal News.” Basically, this is incarnated from my old list at my gmail account. I intend to send out monthly dispatches featuring my latest art work from now on. If you don’t want to be on the list then by all means unsubscribe.
Keith Hennessy responds to the Artists & the Recession Survey Results (scroll down for info)
That is, an artist responds to the Survey’s startling revelation that artists are usually low-income and less likely to have health insurance than the general population. Additionally, the survey discovered that if we don’t quit, we tend to thrive in times of crisis. Oh yah and we prefer money to buying stuff and networking.
No personal offense intended to the individual human workers who receive this, but…
The following survey highlights are so ridiculously obvious that the money spent is a rude joke at the expense of art, not in service of art. The consulting fees that paid to find collect this info could have supported my next project, which has been rejected by five granting organizations and is now a dead idea. Probably several projects could have been funded.
Of course artists hold other jobs, have low incomes and don’t all have health insurance! You spent time and money to find this out? Again?
Do you know how insulting it is just to keep filling out these surveys every year or two?And then have the most tired news come back as a highlight.
Of course we think the arts are valuable. That’s why we put up with these conditions.
And yes art thrives in crisis, financial and ethical. Reagan was great for art. An AIDS pandemic during Reagan’s tenure was fucking amazing for art. Calling that an opportunity to collaborate and experiment is just another kind of poke in the eye with a sharp stick.
During the dotcom crash and the artspace crash, many artists lost space and funding streams they’d briefly enjoyed. But the art and non-profit consultants during that time continued to get paid at rates that most artists will never experience. How many art consultants and survey designers don’t have health insurance? You’re not the enemy, but your work could improve if you would hire artists as consultants – not as free survey fillers – to coach you on transitioning to a more activist or criminal pursuit that might end up with more artists getting more money. Yes criminal. I’m imagining Robin Hood. Whether slowly stealing from the organizations you work for doing some spectacular grand thefts, your talents would be much more likely to result in more money going to artists if you stole than if you surveyed.
How many studies do we need to prove that artists and small businesses are better economic stimulants than any government program or corporate appropriation of artist bodies (of work)?
Really. How many?
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it took me so long to answer this because of an explosion of performance possibilities, both public and private. And I thought things would slow down when you get old! Maybe blame it on the recession!
Keith, I totally agree with you. Historically we here have done well during recessions on every level. True, some of our sources of money have been cut and cut and cut again just this past year…. And there is no “cost of living increase ” because THEY have determined that the cost of living went down this year. [in what reality do they live?] But us artists know how to do things without a lot of money. We here pool our resources together for both living and art making. We are doing reasonably well in both.
Artists have to be adaptable. Most of us live on the edge anyway, so recession is just another thing we have to deal with. On their site, they say artists are underpaid! what are they talking about? A lot of us pay for the doing of the art… Art is an addiction. These people don’t understand that. They think art is a moneymaking career that somehow don’t make money! They are extremely linear! Most of us have day jobs. Are they saying those jobs are underpaid? True. But most of us don’t do those day jobs as ARTISTS, but as art addicts! We get paid not as ARTISTS at Burger King, but as burgers flippers! I think artists should be funded to do whatever art they do. But art is not a moneymaking career! And these crippled yuppies are just spreading distractions!
We are happy to start 2010 off right with a MINI BUTOH FESTIVAL consisting of two workshops taught by out of town guest artists, and two amazing performances, all on the SAME WEEKEND.
First, the performances:
BARE BONES BUTOH PRESENTS 16 A Benefit for a member of the community who wishes to remain nameless.
WHEN: Friday Jan 8, and Saturday, Jan 9, 2010 (yep, that’s this coming weekend!) Both performances are at 8:00 pm
WHERE: Studio 210 3435 Cesar Chavez St San Francisco, CA 94110 Studio 210 is located in the former Sears Building, inset from the corner of Cesar Chavez and Valencia Street. Accessible by BART – 24th St Station; and MUNI – #27, #12, #14, #49.
TICKETS: $5-$20 sliding scale. No one turned away for lack of funds. Additional donations are graciously accepted and gratefully appreciated.
WHO: This time around: Christina Braun (Sat only), Cheryl Burns, Shelley Cook-Contreas, Michael Curran (Fri only), Mark Deutsch (Sat only), Jennifer Hicks, Dorine Hoeksema, Henry Kaiser, Mateo Lugo, Luku (Fri only), Martha Matsuda (Sat only), Ri Molnar (Fri only), Jeffrey Alphonsus Mooney (Sat only), Shawnrey Notto (Sat only), Liz Roncka, Liz Saari-Filippone, Sharoni S. Seigel, Bob Webb, and Daniel WrightAbigail. Surprise guest artists may well also be performing. There are often last minute additions (local, national, and international artists) to the programming, it’s that kind of show.
Bare Bones Butoh Presents is a performance showcase for local and International artists working in the areas of Butoh, Performance Art, and/or Ritual Performance. It exists for artists to try out new material, show works in process, hone improvisation chops and redo or revisit previous material. Bare Bones Butoh Presents employs the grassroots ethic of working together to sustain an artistic culture.
The minimal fee the audience pays at the door allows Bare Bones Butoh Presents to function as a fundraising platform which supports local Butoh and Performance Artists. Every Bare Bones Butoh Presents show has been a Benefit Performance for an individual or group within the Butoh/Performing Arts community in need. Bare Bones Butoh Presents 16 is no exception. All proceeds from these performances go towards a member of the community who wishes to remain nameless. Please feel free to donate freely, it’s a good cause.
Bare Bones Butoh Presents is community building and performance all smushed together into two evenings. We hope to see you there.
For further info on the performances, or to register for the workshops, please contact: Bob Webb bobwebb20@hotmail.com 415-821-7124
And now, the workshops:
Workshop #1 Syzygy Butoh Workshop Taught by Nathan Montgomery Saturday, Jan 9, 2010 2:00-5:00 pm Studio 210, 3435 Cesar Chavez (@Valencia) San Francisco $35
In this workshop we will focus on recovering and cultivating physical dignity in the body and expression. Syzygy Butoh proposes a dance training in which we develop energetic presence in order to liberate our impulses and learn to work with all our energetic qualities. We start by exploring the empty body, or corpse body. From there we move into progressive explorations of standing, walking, running, twisting and jumping. By focusing on these simple physical actions we can recover basic energetic principles of presence in the dance. We then move into improvisational explorations that challenge us to reach beyond our normal movement patterns and explore our connection to multiple dimensions of body, space, time and content. For example, we may explore what the quality of stone has to teach us in dance, or the quality of paper, flower, wind, water, etc. Come with a beginners mind. No previous dance training necessary.
Nathan teaches and performs throughout the United States. He has studied Butoh for over ten years with Diego Pinon, as well as spent time in Japan with the Ohnos. He works in collaboration with such groups as Human Nature in Arizona and the CarpetBag Brigade of San Francisco. He co-created TinHouse Experimental Dance Theatre in Boulder, CO, and continues to base his productions there . In classic proscenium, on mountaintops, or in the town junkyard Syzygy performs in diverse venues. and settings. For Nathan, while the work is originally connected to the seed of Japanese Butoh, Syzygy grows as an American Butoh.
Workshop #2 The Poetic Body Butoh: connection, spirit and form Sunday Jan 10, 2010 12:00-3:00 pm Studio 210, 3435 Cesar Chavez (@ Valencia) San Francisco $35
The Poetic Body is a movement laboratory for those interested in traveling deep into movement consciousness in the context of dance/theatre. Topics of exploration toward choreography may include personal memory, embodying imagery, awareness training, translating poetry to movement, puppetry techniques for the body, meditation, physical stamina training and choreography/designing space. Splicing metaphors and specificity of form, we become the worlds and carry its atmospheres. Exercises range from slow internal focus to chaos. The physical and energetic body transforms through birth, influence and letting go, revealing a new relationship to imagery, the audience, and body/mind. Combining movement imagery with space, shape, time, gesture, relationship and kinesthetic delight. Spirit, space, atmosphere, partner exercises meet though form.
Ms Hicks believes form must go hand in hand with spirit for the theater, not one chancing the other. We will explore pure kinesthetic joy of moving and finding connection to space, self, others and spirit as well as finding a repeatable form. We will work with form/technique letting spirit erupt from inside. We dance from metaphors and experience, colliding worlds open to a river of thoughts and feelings. We move from earth, from emptiness, from strength and from turmoil. From specificity, we create, through spirit we dance. Students will work as a group, solo and in partners.
Jennifer is of the 3rd wave of butoh artists which began dancing in the United States in the late 1980’s/early 1990’s. She has studied with many Japanese Butoh Masters, but her main mentor is Katsura Kan. She has also been influenced greatly by her study with Maureen Fleming and early training in butoh with artists such as the Tamanos at the San Francisco Butoh Festivals. Her other influences include modern dance, Body Mind Centering, Yoga, The Viewpoints, Shintaido and Trancedance. These aspects are taught in unique combination creating an ongoing investigation into how one is to take Butoh, as a viable performance technique, into the next century. Let’s talk, dance, and share ideas.
Basic class structure: brief meditation – warm-ups to unify the group, stretch and train the body/mind – dynamic group, partner or solo exercises designed to build spirit, energy and focus – work with butoh kata or forms – combine into dance/set in space and time – closing.
Once again, to sign up for these classes, or for further info on the performances, please contact: Bob Webb bobwebb20@hotmail.com 415-821-7124
Thank you
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hi, bob! I want to invite you guys to come and dance at my performance!
