051. reading
- EAR INN, New York City, us@
- January 9, 1982
- Eight file folders were put on various tables in the bar in front of where I was going to read. Each of the folders had staples showing on the outside implying something stapled into the inside. Each folder had a string attached to it with a paper clip on it holding the folder shut. Inside each folder was a place-mat with a cartoonish listing of various fears. In 1 of the folders the place-mat was presented unaltered. In the 2nd 1, the word "verbophobia" (fear of words) was cut out fairly small in the center, in the next 5 folders the cut out "verbophobia" got progressively larger until, in the last folder, there was no longer a place-mat or any words in or on the folder. I had 61 file cards cut into a personally symbolic shape that I call the "frame-of-reference". Each card had 1 sentence on it that I anticipated needing to say. E.G.: "No.", "Hi, Charles.", "R u mad at me?, "Did u 'v a good drug influenced writing session last nite?", "Yeah, I was pleezed when I noticed Ear as d rived from Bar.", "Monty, I didn't xpect u 2 come!", "A cuarento Y Tres, 43, & Vodka, pleez.", "Did u like my reading sufficiently?", "Yeah, I like t he humor of t he restrictions of my anticipations & of t he pauses while I try 2 find an approximately appropriate sentence on t he cards.", "Once, I wrote t he word: BOLD on a piece of paper just large enough 2 accomodate it & put it on t he floor & I watched how it moved X noting where I saw it daily - Then I wrote t he word TENSION on a piece of paper & did t he same - BOLD moved frequently around my apt & I assume it eventually left thru t he door - but TENSION stayed word-side up X my typewriter t he ntire time I resided there, so I suggest u write on pieces of paper & leave them around t he Ear Inn & watch their progress." (when I read this latter, Jackson MacLow protested that it was more than 1 sentence), etc, etc.. I restricted what I could say to people while in the Ear Inn to either readings from the cards or from other prepared texts. Thus all of my interactions were readings. In keeping with my interest in expanding the body of text, I repeated the actions of all of my previous audience participatory "readings" & added such things as pulling down my pants to reveal a slightly larger than life size photo of my own naked crotch with a braille writing of "HSV-2" (Herpes Simplex Virus - Type 2 - which manifests itself as clusters of white blisters similar to braille) on the penis & having a piece of water-soluble paper with "Read Underwater" written on it dissolve in front of the audience while I swished it in a pan of water. Other visual props such as my complex Heinrich Welz piece were used.
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
052. tENTATIVELY, a Skin Exchange
- APT 5, New York City, us@
- March 15 - 21, 1982
- Throughout this festival, at various locations - including "Des Refusés", the loft of 1 of the festival organizers, a gallery, & a cable tv studio where we were part of a "pre-nuclear war party scene", HannaH AvivA (a.k.a. Casandra vonRinteln) & I shaved off all of each other's hair from the waist down (which we had pre-dyed red & green). Our pubic hair was then exhibited in a "Shit Show" at the Kwok Gallery. After we'd shaved off each other's hair, we painted layer after layer of latex on each other's skins in order to make 2nd skins that we could then peel off. The original idea was to enable us to "wear each other's skins" (or "get under each other's skins"). Apparently, some garbage collectors peeped into the window of Des Refusés & saw HannaH & I "performing" & reported us to the vice squad. From then on, someone that we assumed was a vice squad cop sat a few feet away from us & watched us intently with a grim face. We weren't arrested. This process was done so ineptly by us that it wasn't satisfactorily finished by the end of the festival. When we returned to Baltimore we continued it - finally exchanging skins & making a film of us fucking while wearing them. This film was supposedly stolen while still in the camera in Chicago at the 2nd SubGenius Convention a few months later. If Casandra wasn't lying to me, it may be in circulation as "porn" somewhere. If this latter is true, it probably looks like some sort of Ed Gein home movie.
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
053. Zero Hour
- Artifice, Baltimore, us@
- March 21, 1982
- This was my 2nd 'performance' 'performed' in absentia (others being the January 4, 1981 "Reading by Proxy", the following "Publicity Stunt (performed by Monty Cantsin)" & the "Panel Dummy Speak" of June 19, 2004). I'd been asked to do something for the "Odd Nights in March" in the Festivals of Disappearing Art(s) / Krononauts month long series of events that surrounded the Krononautic Organism's Party for People(s) from the Future(s) but I was unable to attend because I was going to be in NYC for the Neoist APT Fest. SO, I made fliers that were typewritten on plain white paper cut into 8.5"X2.75" strips with 4 lines of text in 2 variations: one: with the word "zero" on the top followed by a line with a scratched-through "it's not" & an unscratched-through "9 o'clok" (a highly esoteric reference to B.U.T.N. (BalTimOre Underground Club) & a Crab Feast song) followed by a line with the address of the 'performance' followed by a line with "tentatively, a convenience" & my P.O.Box address; two: the same as one except with the word "hour" at the top. Accidentally, nowhere was the date of the 'performance' shown. Intentionally, no explanation was provided. I spray-painted graffiti around town that had a very stark "0" overtop a very stark "HR" with one or both of the papers in between the 2.
For the night of the event, Ricky Kilreagan was presenting "A Psychosexual Inventory" where he had people come & be interviewed by him one by one on sexual matters. After this, they were to sit in a room where an 8-track cartridge tape was to play of a sound piece that I'd done called "Zero Hour" where I played the clocktower melody poorly on alto sax with 15 minutes of 'silence' between each of the 4 parts. This 'silence' was actually loud hiss from the lo-fi of the recording. Since there was no tolling of bells at the hour mark, it was always "zero hour". Unfortunately, my stringent request that the entire tape be played was not followed & only something like the 1st 15 minutes was played. I later learned that people thought that the hiss was the piece. It was my intention that the passing of time be the focus but, predictably, people became immediately bored & even in this 'performance art' context the audience (& organizers) were catered to & the tape was stopped. I had previously played this tape at my apartment in 1979 or thereabouts when a planned presentation of it at a friend's gallery hadn't happened because the gallery wasn't open when it was scheduled to be.
Perhaps one of the best outcomes of this is that I think "0 HR" was taken to be a mysterious new graffiti tag by one or more people after that.
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
054. Publicity Stunt (performed by Monty Cantsin)
- the Neoist Network's First European Training Camp, Würzburg, West Germany
- June 24, 1982
- The realization of the score (from my: PUBLICITY STUNTS my growth as an obscuro): "shoot (a) blank(s) in the dark" on a bridge at night.
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
055. KILL NORMALITY B4 IT KILLS U!
- 2nd Church & Foundation of the SubGenius Convention, Chicago, us@
- September 4, 1982
- Displaying myself around town looking bizarre, as usual, & wearing sandwich boards that read KILL NORMALITY B4 IT KILLS U! on the front & DON'T KILL ME! I'M A SUBGENIUS! on the back.
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
056. Anti-Music with/against Drz 4 "Bob"
- 2nd Church & Foundation of the SubGenius Convention, Radisson Hotel, Chicago, us@
- September 4, 1982
- Having been invited to play "anti-music" with "Drz 4 "Bob"" I came prepared with timers & flashers as my instruments. While the good Drz tried to play, I plugged all of their equipment into my devices causing them to either have pulsing power or no power at all. Apparently I blew at least 1 of their amps which wasn't my intention. I was simply trying to disrupt anything "musical" that they might try to do. 1 of the band leaders, Reverend Sterno, got increasingly irate & followed me around unplugging my devices. The climax of all this was when I got so frustrated by Sterno's interference with my interference that I clubbed him over the head with 1 of my timers. I wasn't very popular with the Church of the SubGenius for awhile after that but Sterno seems to have forgiven me.
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
057. INAUGURATION OF THE B.T.O.U.C.
- Bal Tim Ore Underground Club, Baltimore, us@
- December 31 (New Year's Eve), 1982
- With the help of friends, I moved the 4' X 4' X 7' replica of a transistor radio called AS RADIO (previously mentioned in connection with the 2 last Crab Feast flops) into an abandoned set of rooms in the approximately 3 mile long train tunnel between (what had been) the Mount Royal Station & the Camden Station.
This space, & another, newer, set of rooms in a new extention of the old tunnel, were further decorated with elaborate graffiti (mostly made with stencils) made by myself, Dave Bakker, Randy Hoffman, & Laure Drogoul (&, possibly, others). An 8 track cartridge player & an amplifier & some speakers were installed in the AS RADIO & connected to the power in the tunnel & the Club was ready to open! Having stuck a marker up thru a manhole cover at the top of a shaft leading from the club, we located what was to become the "V.I.P." entrance on a conveniently unused lane on Howard Street. On New Year's Eve, Randy, Dave, & I (as Tim Ore) placed highway cones around the manhole & used a meathook (which bent) to lift the heavy, concrete coated, manhole cover. Dave & Randy were dressed as construction workers with hard-hats & shirts that had ID tags on them that read "Balto Co". Friends were invited down into the hole & down into the club & beer was provided. 2 truck drivers who stopped to ask for directions were invited down the manhole. They were dubious at 1st until they saw the spandex wrapped Sin-Dee Heidel emerge at which point they decided to descend. Eventually a reporter & a photographer came & did their do. When they left, they called train authorities to ask them what they thought of this & 2 of them stopped by at street level to visit. When they arrived, Randy & Dave, still manning the manhole, kept a straight face & asked them if "they'd like to see the boss". They did & I popped to the surface looking very "un-boss-like". I chattered away merrily & explanatorily for awhile & promised to close the "V.I.P." entrance when we left & the railroad officials were sensible enough to leave us in peace.
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
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