1991. Performance Au/In Canada 1970-1990
Ok, if it weren't for my goal of literally listing every book that I know of in which I'm mentioned it would be utterly ridiculous to include this. Indeed, it's so minor that I'd forgotten about it but then I saw it on my bookshelf & thought something to the effect of: 'There's some extremely minimal mention of me in that, isn't there?' & the answer is YES but, wow!, it's about as minimal as it gets!
Incredibly enough, I'm even listed in the index as "Tentatively" for this one! The ironies abound here: YES, I was part of this performance, in fact, here's a photograph from it:
I'm to the right, Peter Pan is lower down, & John Berndt is blindfolded on the left. Of course, my full name is "tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE' using tOGGLE cASE.
The reason why this one puny entry is ironic is that the performance wasn't even in Canada, it was in New York City. The "Monty Cantsin" whose name the entry was under is originally Hungarian but, ok, by then he was a Canadian citizen living in NYC. Under those circumstances, calling this a "performance au/in Canada" is stretching things a bit.
On the other hand, between 1970 & 1990, the dates covered by the book, I'd actually performed in Canada 14 times:
3 part action - APT 81, Peking Poolroom, Montréal, CacaNada - Mercredi, 18 Février, 1981
krononautic divector field didaction - APT 81, Peking Poolroom & the streets, Montréal, CacaNada - Samedi, 21 Février?, 1981
Seatbelt Violation Public Works Promotion - Public Works Festival, Toronto, CacaNada - October, 1981
contest at Public Works Festival - YYZ Gallery, Toronto, CacaNada - October 10, 1981
Neoist Parking Meter Action - APT 4, Montréal, CacaNada - October, 1981
Mont Royal Cathedral Painting - APT 4, Montréal, CacaNada - October, 1981
LOW show - APT 4, LOW Theatre, Montréal, CacaNada - October 15?, 1981
American Manoeuvres - APT 4, Vehicule Art & someone's home, Montréal, CacaNada - October, 1981
Parade de Propagande - the Sixth International Apartment Festival, the streets to Phillips Square, Montréal, CacaNada - Lundi, 21 Février, 1983
Blo-Dart Acupuncture &/or Ear-Piercing - the Sixth International Apartment Festival, Consulat Neoiste, Montréal, CacaNada - Vendredi, 25 Février?, 1983
tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE & t he booed usicians' Mad Scientist Didaction - the Bunker of La Société de Conservation du Présent, Montréal, CacaNada - Samedi, 19 Avril, 1986
tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE & t he booed usicians' Mad Scientist Didaction - the Rivoli Club, Toronto, CacaNada - Wednesday, April 23, 1986
tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE & t he booed usicians' Mad Scientist Didaction - the Funnel, Toronto, CacaNada - Thursday, April 24, 1986
Generic As-Beenism - Ultimatum II, Montréal, CacaNada - Sunday, September 13, 1987
Granted, these 'performances' (not always my preferred term) were often underdocumented & in small conspiratorial places or outside as guerrilla actions - but performing at The Rivoli Club, The Funnel, & in Ultimatum II was certainly at least as high profile as much of what's presented in the book. Oh well.
Even more ironically: sometime around 2000 or 2001 I was having drinks with a group of about 8 friends around a table at a bar in BalTimOre. I went to the bar to get another drink & saw an acquaintance who likes my 'performances'. I went to say hi & he introduced me to a fairly ordinary looking guy wearing a black leather jacket who, it was explained, was a performance artist from Toronto.
I was friendly but it quickly became obvious that this guy had a serious chip on his shoulder against me - apparently because I'm more famous as a performer in Toronto than he was. While it's true that an action I'd performed there in 1998 had been so well-liked that I'd been paid a little extra than originally promised (both amounts being small), I was under the impression that I was almost completely obscure. Hence his drunken hostility seemed bizarrely disproportionate. In fact, when I was asked back in 2005 to screen a movie by Pleasure Dome they advertised it as something like "his first appearance in Toronto" which was hardly the case but reinforced my perception of my non-reputation there.
Anyway, I was anxious to get back to my friends at the table, who I rarely got to see, so I excused myself & told the new acquaintance goodbye - to which he retorted very sarcastically something like: 'Yeah, go back to your fucking friends!' Maybe since 1990 I've acquired some acclaim in Toronto but if I have I'm certainly not aware of it & the last time I tried to arrange a performance there the people I wrote didn't even bother to reply.
- March 31, 2016E.V. notes from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
idioideo at verizon dot net
to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE Anti-Neoism page
to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE Audiography page
to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE Bibliography page
to my "Blaster" Al Ackerman index
to the site that lists the Books that tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE has something in or is mentioned in
to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE BYOC page
to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE Censored or Rejected page
to tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's Collaborations website
to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE (d) compositions page
to Amir-ul Kafirs' Facebook page
to the "FLICKER" home-page for the alternative cinematic experience
to Gifs made by Ryan Broughman
to tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's GoodReads profile
to Graffiti index
to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE Home Tapers
to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE index page
to tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE'S minimal International Union of Mail Artists page
to a listing of tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's manifestations on the Internet Archive
to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE as Interviewee index
to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE as Interviewer index
to tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE'S Linked-In profile
to the mm index
to see an underdeveloped site re the N.A.A.M.C.P. (National Association for the Advancement of Multi-Colored Peoples)
to tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's Neoism page
to the DEFINITIVE Neoism/Anti-Neoism website
to the Philosopher's Union website
to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE movie-making "Press: Criticism, Interviews, Reviews" home-page
to tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's Score Movies
to SMILE
to find out more about why the S.P.C.S.M.E.F. (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Sea Monkeys by Experimental Filmmakers) is so important
to the "tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - Sprocket Scientist" home-page
to the Tattoos index
to Psychic Weed's Twitter page
to tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's Vimeo index
to Vine movies relevant to tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE made by Ryan Broughman
to tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's presence in the Visual Music Village
for info on tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's tape/CD publishing label: WIdémoUTH
to a very small selection of tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's Writing