252. [Volunteers Collective @ Jessica Rustler's Cylinder Gongs @ Chatham College
- Chatham College outside near Woodland Hall, Pittsburgh, us@
- Sunday, February 15, 1998, near sunset
- As with many actions I'm involved with, this wasn't intended for an audience nor was it intended not for an audience. Michael Pestel & I simply played an approximately 40 minute set using this sculpture of 9 hanging gongs made from metal cylinders with their ends cut off while people on campus wandered by & lingered for a few minutes here & there. Michael also played a music stand by bowing it, played a cymbal, & played the gong support. I played the music stand by scraping it with various parts of a pocket knife, & played the cymbal & gong support too. I wore a latex 'hat' that looks like a human head severed below the nose with a pool of blood issuing out from it (the 'brim'). I played an extended cymbal section with the 'severed head' on the cymbal.]
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
253. Volunteers Collective @ the National Aviary
- Marsh Room, National Aviary, Pittsburgh, us@
- Sunday, February 22, 1998, morning
- Sharyn Lee Frederick, etta cetera, Moya Luckett, Michael Pestel, Jon Skuldt, & I arrived @ the Aviary's Marsh Room an hour or so before it officially opened to interact with the birds there. These latter included one or more of each of the following: Wattled Currasow, Coral Billed Ground Cuckoo (named "Monster"), Greater Flamingo, Red Rumped Cacique, Red Crested Cardinal, Inca Tern, Giant Cowbird, Spackled Mousebird, Blue Eared Glossy Starling, Orange Bishop Weaver, Crested Oropendela, Kiskadee, Buff Throated Sultator, Black Head Woodpecker, Ruddy Duck, Cuban Whistling Duck, Hooded Mergansee, Wood Duck, Bahama Pintail, Rubybill, Argentine Red Shoveler, Hamerkop, Southern Lapwing, Scarlet Ibis, Roseate Spoonbill, Yellow Crowned Night Heron, Green Backed Heron, Boat Billed Heron, Snowy Egret, Bluegrey Tanager, Painted Bunting, Scaley Naped Pigeon, Red Bellied Macaw. Michael Pestel had been coming to the Aviary regularly to play & record & has selections from these sessions on his Ornithology Shadows CD. Michael played flute, Vile Air (a hybrid violin & slide whistle), & tape player; Sharyn played wood, rubber, ocarina, trombone, voice, greeting card, pie pan, whistles, & corrugated tube; etta played crow call, voice, micro-cassette player, floor (by squeaking her shoes on it), chime tree, siren whistle, & whistling. Jon played a tape player that produces an unintentional by-product drone, corrugated tube, slide whistle, & pie pan; Moya played very quite clarinet & harmonica; & I played voice, trombone, bells, violin, chime tree, Jon's droning tape player, whistles, bird calls, rattle, whistling, & corrugated tube. etta & Sharyn mimiced bird mannerisms & we all attempted to interact with the birds in various, usually sound based, ways. The public wandered thru & occasionally a child would play the chime tree or some bells.
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
254. Volunteers Collective "A Year of Sundays" Release Party @ the Chatham College Swimming Pool
- Chatham College Swimming Pool in the (former) Mellon Mansion, Pittsburgh, us@
- Sunday, March 29th, 1998, 8 to 9:30PM
- The Volunteers Collective is a project started in '89 (see entries 125, 127, 181, 242, 243, 245, 247, 250, & 251) that's gone thru various phases since then - the phase most recently preceding this event being 2 monthly series. A series on the1st Tuesday of every month @ the Red Room @ Normal's Store/Performance-Space started in January of 1997 & a series on the last Sunday of every month (in theory) @ various sites in Pennsylvania started in March of 1997. This was the release party for the Widémouth cassette (#18) entitled "A Year of Sundays" from this latter. It was intended to be a climax to the series since I've somewhat decided to not work within the Volunteers Collective context anymore. This decision was made largely to disassociate myself from the Baltimore VC which doesn't seem to have a conceptual orientation along the lines of what I'm currently most interested in. My preference is for what I'm provisionally calling "CircumSubstantial Playing" - meaning playing in which the whole circumstances under which the playing occurs is created/found & concentrated on as the primary stimulus for substance to be improvised out of. Such an approach factors in social & physical elements as being of high importance & isn't necessarily concerned with "music". "Music"-production seeming to be the main point of the Baltimore VC series. I advertised this event with the following e-mail notice:
Sunday, March 29th, 1998, at 8PM, in the Chatham College Swimming Pool located in the lower depths of what was the Mellon Mansion, people who think they might have fun doing such a thing (or something or another) will gather in the pool with street clothes on (no bathing suits PLEASE) to make sound while a smoke machine fogs up the area. I'm asking people to bring metal salad mixing bowls to float with candles in them - to also be used as percussion instruments. It's also suggested that waterproof sound makers be brought. As if that's not enough, the pool lights will be off so at various times & in various combinations the lighting will consist of the candles, a strobe light, & a (hopeful) video projection of (a so-far unedited) edit/compilation of the (presumably) complete Volunteers Collective footage - which is quite alot. This vaudeo will be projected onto the smoke, at least, & (dubiously) onto a screen planted above or in the pool as well - resulting in a perplexity of reflections. I'll probably bring masks to be worn by those not afraid to have their perceptions further confused. This is not advised for people inclined towards DROWNING under oddball sports conditions!
I did manage to complete the vaudeo edit - with sound from 23 sessions & visuals from 19. The selections used were highly fragmented & usually short & structured with substantial black space around the actual shot & separating sections so that they would project onto different parts of the screen, so that they would intrude suddenly, & so that they wouldn't play long enough to completely muddy the reverberant acoustic environment. The screen was made from white nylon Spandex & was approximately 10 feet high by 15 feet wide & was stretched perpendicular to the dividing line between the shallow & deep ends of the pool. Anything projected on it could be seen from both sides clearly. Wanting to have this be a potentially participatory experience for whoever might attend, this wasn't restricted to 'veteran' players to the exclusion of 'amateurs/students'. As such, a mix of the crude & the subtle was to be expected. Given that I started @ precisely 8PM & that most people wandered in after that, entering the room must've been disorienting. The strobe back-lit the screen & the video projection front-lit it. In the foggy dark, it was hard to see where you were walking & there were power cords & other objects around to be careful of. People danced in the strobe & the projection, played in the pool & wandered around the perimeter. There were big plastic water jugs as percussion & flotation devices + kickboards floating in the pool. I'd provided various small instruments, masks, & siamese twin outfits (which weren't used) & etta cetera & I provided 10 squeaky toys usually sold for dogs to play with. These were variously shaped, such as as a human foot, a chicken leg, etc.. Rachel Matthews & Sharyn Lee Frederick brought metal salad mixing bowls to float - one of which had a lit candle in it. Michael Pestel had arranged for the school to provide the fog machine, the Spandex, the strobe, the vaudeo projector, the pool, the VCR, & the sound system. We, unfortunately, had to pay a 'lifeguard' to be there who did next to nothing (including even be there all the time) & who was the only person present to be paid. The darkness & the chaos contributed to what I suspect was a conglomerate of quasi-autistic experiences for the attendees. I spent most of my time doing the lifeguard's job & making sure no-one drowned, tripped over wires, or otherwise hurt themselves, - as well as managing the technical end, etc.. Meanwhile, Carol danced, wearing a tutu, creating shadows - often in what I thought of as a 'dream-like' isolation from others @ the relatively uncluttered perimeter of the deep end. etta cetera slid across the floor on the leg-ends of a black velvet pants suit her mother had given her. I wore my "Hir Suit" (mechanic's coveralls with wigs attached) with a plastic "gorilla" chest bared & a large red sombrero. People wandered in & out - some mainly in there in the dark & possibly never even seeing who else was around them squeaking & screaming & throwing the water jugs at the walls. At least 23 people participated ranging in age from, perhaps, 13 to 46. These included those mentioned above + Ailecia Ruscin + Lowell + Margaret (?) & her son + Greg Pierce + Mark Tierney + Edgar Bucholtz + Terry + Ava Collins + many others whose names I don't know. My main criticisms might be that the live sound didn't always interest me & that the lighting wasn't disorienting enough. Nonetheless, given the dangers of the pool environment, I'm happy that we could push it as far as we did without anyone getting hurt.
- on my onesownthoughts YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/xnghwdLNZx4
- on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/yrofsundaysrelease
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
255. S.P.C.(A.)S.M.(F.)E.F. @ "Big as Life"
- Time-Warner Screening Room, Museum of Modern Art, New York City, us@
- Thursday, May 28, 1998, 6:20 to 7PM
- I was dressed in pants & a shirt that were black on the right side & white on the left (made from sewing together halves of 2 different pants & shirts). This was mostly covered with a stuffed Killer Whale toy that I'd altered so that my legs could come out of its mouth, my head could come out of its ass, & my legs could come out next to its tail-fins - hypothetically giving the appearance of my being swallowed & shit out again. This action was my framed as my intro to the screening of my super-8 film "You Haven't Heard the Record, You Haven't Read the Book, NOW! Don't See the Movie!". I said a few words about the film but then said something like "But, forget about that! The films not important!" & then followed that with a fairly impassioned reading of the following text. This text was also handed out simultaneously by the Society's co-founder, etta cetera (a concerned protester) (see the many entries mentioning etta cetera from #212 on).
A n I m p o r t a n t M e s s a g e B r o u g h t t o Y O U b y
t h e S o c i e t y f o r t h e P r e v e n t i o n o f C r u e l t y
t o S e a M o n k e y s b y E x p e r i m e n t a l F i l m m a k e r s
( w i t h g u i d a n c e f r o m t h e K i n o - E t h i c s S o c i e t y )
We IMPLORE you! When you witness this "Big As Life" series, DON'T LET YOUR GUARD DOWN! Ask: WERE ANY SEA-MONKEYS HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THESE FILMS?! Yes, yes, we 'know': these are super-8s - little fish in a big pond: their makers hardly likely to be guilty of the same crimes as the "MaMoPi" producers. Nonetheless, it's shocking what a little vigilance will reveal!
Let us tell you. AT LEAST 1 VERY WELL-KNOWN FILMMAKER INCLUDED HERE HAS USED BRINE SHRIMP IN HIS FILMS TO ATTEMPT TO INDUCE "HYPNOGOGIC VISION"!! Hard though this may be to believe, a closer look will bring this & related horrors to light. This very same filmmaker has similarly treated the Gypsy Moth - whose name itself derives from its analogous relation to the plight of the European Raggle-Taggle Gypsy - nearly wiped from the face of the earth by the Nazis during the filming of WW II (apparently Leni Riefenstahl objected to the way they looked on screen). This unnameable has been waging his own war on God's tiny creatures for years now - perhaps inspired by some misguided jealous hatred of the former entomologist and Surrealist filmmaker, Luis Buñuel.
How is it that such violations as the above usually go unnoticed? Canonization. While the drastic over-emphasis of some filmmakers to the almost complete exclusion of others may SEEM to be just another of the many objectionable machinations of lazy critics & self-promoting HYPNOGOGUES used for banal career advancement, the deeper reality is far more sinister. Canonization is used as a way of LESSENING THE INTELLIGENCE & PERCEPTIVENESS of the viewing audience (vaudience) thru numbing their criticalness. Rather than paying attention to what's before their very senses, the vaudience allows itself to be hypnotized by the reputations & hype of the canonized. As such, the achievements of the Sea Monkeys gobbled up by these BIG FISH IN SMALL PONDS is sadly overshadowed NOT by the sometimes fictitious enormous brains of the Big Fish but by their more factual paunch. Keep in mind that the filmmakers whose work you're most exposed to simply have the advantage of wealth - NOT necessarily 'talent'. It's to the credit of the curators of "Big As Life" that this isn't always the case here.
Just as it's only a stone's-throw away from slaughtering cows for food to using their ears to make emulsion, so is it only a short step from the perception of "the adult brine shrimp Artemia [as an important] food source for fish and crustaceans raised in home aquariums, aquaculture systems, and [..] laboratories" (see the "Rhode Island Sea Grant FACT SHEET") to the exploitation of these unfortunates on the food chain to tools of unscrupulous 'Hypnogogy'-inducing Experimental Filmmakers! One need only read the February, 1956, issue of "All-Pets Magazine" to come across such unfeeling statements as "Within the confines of a two-gallon tank I have personally seen as many as 40 or more of these monsters and have used them for feeding my larger live-bearing and egg-laying tropicals."!!
It doesn't take a sprocket-scientist to realize that THE CONTEXTUALIZATION OF ANY LIFE-FORM AS A "MONSTER" (OR "SUBHUMAN" OR "SAVAGE") IS ONLY A RATIONALIZATION FOR THE SCAPE-GOATING OF THAT CREATURE for "feeding [..] larger [..] tropicals"! & how do we connect this to film? Let's analyze the advice found in Ward's Natural Science Establishment, Inc.'s "Culture Leaflet No. 10": "In using the larvae as food it is desirable to separate them from the unhatched eggs. This may be done by placing a light at one end of the pan or tray, using the cover to shield most of the pan from light. The larvae will collect at the lighted end and may be removed exclusive of eggs."
Sound familiar? Generally, when people witness films being projected, they have their attention directed to "a light at one end of the [room]". Could the purpose of this be to distract us from the isolation of our eggs? Think of this, a canonized filmmaker is paid to come to your local museum. They stand in front of the 'viewing audience' & provide commentary around the time that a light in the speaker's vicinity attracts the 'vaudience' to its image warmth. If the vaudience becomes too distracted by the "hypnogogy" of the light & hornswaggled by the 'smoke screen' of the speaker's explanation, their nest eggs can be spirited away before they 'know' what's happened. NEXT THING YOU 'KNOW', YOU'RE LIVING IN "A TWO-GALLON TANK" ROBOPATHICALLY ACCEPTING YOUR ROLE AS A "MONSTER" whose only purpose is to be eaten by those who've conned the world into uncritically accepting their 'exotic' status.
A Note on KES Terminology
K.E.S. utilizes both the terms "brine shrimp" and the affectionate "sea-monkey" in reference to the members of this particular species. "Sea-monkey" is in no way intended as a derogatory or condescending term, but recently a faction of the K.E.S. has argued that it is in fact both paternalistic and primatocentric. K.E.S. remains divided on this issue. Members in favor of retaining the brine shrimp's familar designation argue that the term inspires the affection of children and adults alike, while the radical opposition notes that historically the term has been utilized to support the enslavement and domestication of millions of brine shrimp by thousands of American and Canadian youngsters in the post WWII period of late Capitalism.
S.P.C.S.M.E.F. - <anon@fyi.net>
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
256. Death Bed Aerobics
- Silver Eye, Pittsburgh, us@
- Saturday, August 1, 1998
- This was a very short (5:00) filmstrip projection collaboration between myself (as Party Teen on Couch #2) etta cetera [the apparently skewed grammar here being not a mistake]. We made 2 filmstrips meant to be projected side by side called Death Bed Aerobics. In most cases the strips were just meant to be projected next to each other without any motion other than that of the strips passing thru the projectors. However, at key points, the projections were moved to heighten their content. So, for example, when a text on the strips reads:
It All
Be- Gan
With A
Split- ting
Head- Ache
then the "Split- ting" would be a cue to separate the images further. Eventually, the images left the screen altogether. I was wearing my Leper-Skin Suit both in the filmstrip & during the screening. These clothes are an extremely ragged white linen suit covered with color xerox heat transfers of pictures of lepers & leprous skin. I was also wearing my funeral home softball team t-shirt.
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
257. S.P.C.S.M.E.F. Approved Sprocket Scientists
- Cinecycle, Toronto, CacaNada
- Tuesday, August 18, 1998, 8:30 to 11PM
- I started off wearing my "Cloud Suit" (sky camouflage with the front covered with square buttons with pictures of clouds on them) + the S.P.C.S.M.E.F. stuffed Killer Whale toy described in 253 + a rubber 'horror' novelty item of a man's head cut off around the mouth with a pool of blood spilling out from its rim which I wore as a hat. During the opening projection of my 16mm film "Bob Cobbing", I read a tailored variation of the S.P.S.M.E.F. text reproduced above (again in 253) - while etta cetera (see most of the entries from 212 on) handed out the text with a picture of me being eaten & shat out again by the Whale under a bridge at Coney Island. After this speech, I removed the Whale. This was followed by the movies "What's Your Fucking Problem You Bloody Gash", "National Cancer Institute Documentary", & "Peterson's Restaurant". After this latter movie, I quizzed the (v)audience about what they got from it (which turned out to be very little). This was followed by "Department of Failures", "The Postman Always Rings the Homunculous of Woody Allen & Hollis Frampton Twice", "Mirthplace of the Republicans", & the 1st 3 "Background Movies for Home Music". Next the "Volunteers Collective" vaudeo made for 252 (& now incorporating footage from 252) was projected simultaneously partially superimposed with a slide show. While this was happening & I talked about the slides, the great violinist David Prentice played -moving a little around the room. The final slide was of one of etta cetera's Story Dresses (dresses & other clothes on which she writes stories) & she came to the front wearing the same outfit & spun her story parasol. The evening ended with "Death Bed Aerobics" (see 254). Interspersed throughout this I played bursts of canned laughter that etta, Jubal Brown (the person who arranged the screening), & I taped.
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
258. Urban Myth of the Force That Prevents Building on the Railway Lands
- Railway Lands Central & West, Toronto, CacaNada
- Saturday, August 22, 1998, 9:30PM to 1:30AM
- There's a fairly large area of 'prime real estate' near the Toronto Harbor between Spadina (to the East) & Bathurst (to the West) & Front St (to the North) & the Gardiner Expressway (to the South) that's currently (as of August '98) a fenced-in grassland occupied by 10 or so 'hobos', a slew of insects, some foxes, & some deer, etc.. This area is right next to the Sky Dome (Toronto's sports & concert arena) & the CN Tower (a very tall tourist attraction) & is slated for 'development' by Hong Kong based Terry Hui. Hui is quoted in a business magazine as saying "Our Motivation is just to create some wealth for everyone." This, by building condos (or what have you) to replace the grasslands. Oh Really? Somehow I don't imagine that the people already living in this area are going to get any wealthier by being forced off the land. I always wonder about this type of 'visionary' economic thinking. There is NO WAY that I can think of to "create some wealth for everyone". There is simply a limited amount of wealth to be distributed & in ANY capitalist economic scheme this wealth is taken from the poor & snapped up by the rich. On the other hand, an equalization of the wealth by having the rich GIVE BACK what they've stolen from the poor IS POSSIBLE. This, however, would not be creating "some wealth for everyone". A notice posted at the edge of the grasslands read as follows:
CITY OF TORONTO NOTICE
AN APPLICATION HAS BEEN SUBMITTED TO THE CITY BY GRAND ADEX DEVELOPMENTS FOR AN OFFICIAL PLAN AMENDMENT AND REZONING TO PERMIT A MIXED USE DEVELOPMENT COMPRISING RESIDENTIAL, COMMERCIAL, AND OPEN SPACE USES AT A DENSITY OF 629,655 m2 IN TOTAL GROSS FLOOR AREA AND INCLUDES PROPERTIES IN THE AREAS KNOWN AS THE RAILWAY LANDS CENTRAL AND RAILWAY LANDS WEST.
IF MORE INFORMATION IS REQUIRED CALL: THE CITY OF TORONTO URBAN DEVELOPMENT SERVICE AT 392-7333
I rewrote this sign to read:
CITY OF TORONTO NOTICE
AN APPLICATION HAS BEEN SUBMITTED TO THE CITY BY A CAUCUS OF THE NO-NO CLASS FOR AN OFFICIAL PLAN AMENDMENT AND UNZONING TO ADVOCATE AN EXPANSION OF THESE GRASSLANDS TO INCREASE THEIR CURRENT DENSITY OF GROSS FLOOR AREA FROM ITS 629,655 m2 SO THAT IT MAY OVERGROW THE CN TOWER, THE SKY DOME AND THE RAILWAY LANDS WASTE IN ORDER TO CREATE A RULING CLASS FREE ZONE.
IF LESS INFORMATION IS REQUIRED CALL: THE CITY OF TORONTO URBAN ENVELOPMENT SERVICE AT 760-3466
& pasted (with the assistance of etta cetera & Jubal Brown) the revised sign over the original one. The new phone # was the info line for the "Po-Po: Into the Wasteland" series that this action was part of.
The "Wasteland" events are illegal actions organized by Jubal Brown & AMEN! in which mostly 'abandoned' urban spaces are used for an evening. The previous 4 had been in buildings. Thanks to the EXTREMELY GENEROUS GIFT of Cinecycle operator Martin Heath of a filmstrip camera & a multitude of lenses, etta & I then proceeded to make a filmstrip having the appearance of a history of the area entitled "A History of the Toronto Railway Lands Central & West - Part 3". For this we photographed pictures & such-like in the special collections section of the Toronto Reference Library & the Metro Urban Affairs Library (thanks to the very helpful librarians) + the grasslands & our new sign, etc.. After a shot of the Hui quote mentioned above we had a shot of an ad that read "Now Anyone Can Get A Cellphone" with grafitti under it reading "Even the Homeless?". On the night of the event, I was sitting by the new sign ushering people to under the Spadina bridge where things were to start when police pulled up - ostensibly because of a complaint of people on the railroad tracks. They said they didn't want to break up our party but that they wanted to make sure no-one crossed the tracks. They went under the bridge, where perhaps 80 to 100 people were assembled, & snooped around - eventually finding some explosives of Steven Rife (the fire performer for the evening). After forcing him into a demonstration of what he was going to do, the police (astonishingly enough) left without further interference. This may've been because they were under instructions to not have confrontations with the anarchists in town for the Active Resistance gathering (a similar event to which from 10 years previous had been somewhat violent) which this event was somewhat related to. After they left, I presented the filmstrip - introducing it as a found historical strip for which I didn't have the soundtrack. Throughout the strip, the graphics used in my Pictogrameting action (see 203) were interspersed without explanation next to & on top of the historical illustrations. When asked what they meant, I said I didn't know. As the strip progressed, I gradually made it more obvious that this was no ordinary history by reading the bogus NOTICE aloud & by pointing out the Hui quote & the grafitti. When the filmstrip ended, people thought that my presentation was over & they were led thru the grasslands to the main area where events were to happen. In the meantime, I rushed to put on my player belt (see 212 etc) & to grab the Pictogramet Sign & to put on some taped together plants to use as camouflage. Then I scurried around the perimeter of the people - sometimes showing the sign & sometimes getting close enough for people to hear the tapes. While this was happening, etta cetera mixed with the crowd spreading the rumor that there was an Urban Myth that a force existed in the field that prevented building there. The basic idea was to establish the pictograms as an historical presence thru the filmstrip & to then have the pictograms come alive in the actual space as a peripheral phenomena that never came close enough to be clearly perceived & to tie it all together with the Urban Myth.
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
259. Reading
- Fuel & Fuddle, Pittsburgh, us@
- Thursday, August 27, 1998
- Jon Skuldt asked me to give a reading with him so he opened with standing at the mike for a few seconds & then saying "Excuse me" as if he had to go deal with something for a moment - after which he played a tape of his giving a simulated reading in which, basically, no ordinary poems were read & he didn't return to the mike. Then, as "Party Teen On Couch etta cetera", etta & I started showing slides & explaining them & reading their texts. I was wearing my "Cloud Suit" (see entry 255) & etta was wearing 1 of her Story Dresses (see entry 255 again). We began with my "Play Out Regress" - a highly encoded & abstracted text from my high school yearbook (revised a decade later) & the audience received free copies of the magazine it appeared in: "dop e". Then I showed a slide of my "mediums for Heinrich Welz". This was followed by etta cetera's reading "Miss Connected"s/"Missed Connections" that had been placed in Baltimore & Pittsburgh City Papers by members of the Kneehighs Gang + a few responses to them while I played S/F/X. I projected & read the entire book version of my half-asleep phrases entitled "Telepathy Receptivity Training". I put on 1 of the Story Dresses & etta & I read the stories awkwardly off each other's dresses by flashlight. We ended with a reading of a slide of the sign made for 256.
- The movie from this is on my oneownthoughts YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/dDrKuf7ybE8
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
260. Air Drop #2: Code Name: Alpha Alpha Alpha
- Overtop Carnegie-Mellon University & environs, Pittsburgh, us@
- Friday, September 4th, 1998, 1:30 to 2:30PM
- This was (as the above title indicates) the 2nd in a series. For more info relevant to this 1 (like a rough description of the type of paper plane used) see entry 246. One of the main differences between this & its predecessor is that it was done mainly in the name of the Association of Autonomous Astronauts & not Le Groupe Absence. The day started with a phone call at 8AM from the pilot, Delta Bravo, saying that the weather in Baltimore was too misty for him to take off as early as he'd planned. We
waited an hour to find out how the weather would change. Delta called back & said that it was clearing & that he'd leave around 10:30 & that we should meet him at the Allegheny Airport near Pittsburgh between 12 & 12:30. I called the ground cameraperson, Mike Juliet, to tell him that we'd be starting 2 hours later than I'd originally told him but I only got his answering machine.
12:15 & Juliet Lima, Sierra Lima Foxtrot November, & I (tANGO, aLPHA cHARLIE) arrived at the airport. Delta had just arrived. I was wearing sky camouflage with the front covered with a hundred or so square buttons with images of sky & clouds on them. Sierra was wearing a flight suit. We had a video camera, 2 35mm still cameras, a tape recorder, & a half-frame 35mm camera (for shooting filmstrips).
We shot various footage of each other & the plane & loaded the 950 paper planes (etc) in (unobtrusively packed in a shoulder bag & a small box so that they wouldn't attract too much attention from airport personnel). Delta ran thru his various technical checks & we boarded the plane & got ready for take-off.
Then the camcorder ceased to work. I later realized that a connection in the camcorder power had ceased to work & that the tape had then jammed. I tried changing batteries to no avail. Since we were about to take off, I gave up on the camcorder & decided to concentrate on the filmstrip camera while Sierra shot slides & Juliet shot stills. As the plane lifted off the ground, the filmstrip camera jammed! This had been working perfectly 'til then & I still have no idea why the film wouldn't advance & the camera wouldn't take any more pictures. There were still about 20 pictures left on the roll (out of 48 available).
In the noisy airplane, Delta had asked us to maintain silence while he communicated with the radio tower. I tried to communicate thru gestures to Sierra that I wanted her to rewind her slide film & take it out of her camera so that I could put it in the filmstrip camera & keep on shooting with that. She misunderstood, rewound the film too far so that it no longer had a tongue sticking out for rethreading, & handed me her camera instead. THEN she understood & began frantically trying to pry open the film cannister without exposing the film inside so that the tongue could be gotten out & the film could be loaded in my camera. The film got mangled & that was more or less the end of that roll. Down to ONE still camera &, hopefully, the ground camcorder! At least we got some good audio recording off the plane's sound system.
In the meantime, the plane was circling around the targetted drop area: the campus of Carnegie-Mellon University - picked because it's near an easily identifiable landmark (the Cathedral of Learning), because it has much open space for the planes to land on, & because there would be alotof people milling around outside. Juliet & I had put a "Missed Connections" in the City Paper (a weekly paper in many cities in the US) that read as follows:
"Missed Connections" or "Mis-Connecteds" or "I Saw Yous" (etc) are usually used by people who met someone briefly or just saw them somewhere without meeting them & who want to meet them again. A typical example might be something like "I saw you at Station Square. You had a red sports car & we kept looking at each other. Your friend Jennie introduced us but then you had to go. Can we meet again?"
Juliet & I had given a reading the week before (under the names of Party Teen on Couch #2 etta cetera - see entry 257) where we'd read Mis-Connecteds that our gang (the Kneehighs) had placed in various papers around the US (mainly Baltimore & Pittsburgh). This was partially to SEED the audience's mind in the hope that they'd read the next week's Mis-Connecteds & see the "UFOS ON CMU" one.
ANYWAY, we dropped the 950 paper airplanes over the campus - not sure whether we were actually hitting the target or not. The planes were of a type that flies loop-de-loops - chosen so that they'd stay in the air a fairly long time to increase the chances of people seeing them. We could see them flying all over the place. They looked great! We could see that many of them had landed on a golf course in Schenley Park next to CMU.
We returned to the airport, Delta flew back to B-More, & the rest of us headed back to P-Burgh to drop the film off to be developed & to head to the CMU campus to find out how many of the planes, if any, had made it there. We got there & were happy to find THAT THEY WERE EVERYWHERE!! The drop had actually been ON-TARGET! This's not an easy thing to do when you're flying in excess of 100mph & have other wind factors to take into consideration. We walked around & asked groups of students near where we saw planes if they'd seen the planes come down. None of them had. When we told them that we'd just flown over & that we'd dropped a thousand paper planes onto the campus, they expressed no curiousity AT ALL! They mostly stared dully or hostilely at me & made no move to even look at the pointed-out nearby planes. We didn't find any witnesses to tape-record an interview with & Mike Juliet was nowhere around to be found.
We went to the golf course next & there were paper planes everywhere. I went up to a few golfers who were surrounded by the papers & asked them if they'd seen them come down. They hadn't seen them & hadn't even noticed them all around them!? One guy did pick one up to read it & carried it off with him. We finally found a group of old men sitting around in the shade by the golf course building & one of them had seen the planes come down. They had a couple of the planes there with them. I asked the witness if he minded that I record an interview with him & he said he didn't want to be recorded because he was wanted by the police. I didn't believe this (or that my recording him would matter) but I respected his request & didn't record him. We talked substantially about the project. I explained the AAA somewhat to him - reading the slogans off the plane & talking about some of them somewhat.
The main AAA text on the plane was somewhat like this:
FREE ADMISSION TO RAVE IN SPACE!*
The Asssociation of
Autonomous Astronauts has launched
an information War against
the present-day state, corporate
and military monopoly of space travel.
What we need today is
an independent, community-based
space exploration program,
one that is not restricted by military,
scientific or corporate interests.
Only those that attempt the impossible will achieve the absurd.
The AAA moves in several directions at once.
Death to goverment space agencies everywhere.
All power to the Association of Autonomous Astronauts!
Space Travel - By Any Means Necessary
Dreamtime Is Upon Us!
Here Comes Everybody!
Space is the place.
The Christian millenium is right around the corner... may their world end with it!
Space travel is necessary - evolution implies it
Sex in space is necessary - evolution demands it
The Association of Autonomous Astronauts
is making the future happen.
The AAA asks, 'What is the point of going into space
only to replicate life on planet earth?'
Everything you ever wanted on planet earth, and never
received, will be yours in outer space.
http://www.t0.or.at/aaa
http:/www.deepdisc.com/aaa
http://www.uncarved.demon.co.uk
*must provide own transportation
The planes also had 5 rubber-stamps + an individual frame of super-8 film from my MIKE FILM project on each of them. The MIKE FILM was accompanied by my Baltimore P. O. Box address. One of the stampings read: Home Skiing is like Yard Sailing - an obscure reference to a fake attempt to start a silly fad thru the TV Hospital (see entries 183 - 189) & another tie-in to the "Missed Connection".
The old man that we talked with said that he thought that most people wouldn't be able to understand what it was all about & that if they'd even look at the planes they'd just throw them away in confusion. He seemed to understand the slogan "Only those that attempt the impossible will achieve the absurd" the most easily. He wanted to know if we were a "cult". I told him no.
Juliet & I had to leave to go to work. We stopped back at our house 1st & found that Mike Juliet had dropped off his camcorder footage. He had left his house at 7:30AM & hadn't gotten my message that the flight was starting late. As such, he'd waited at CMU between 10:45 & 1:30 & then gone inside to try to call me. When he came out the planes were everywhere. He'd missed the drop. He shot footage of people completely ignoring the planes laying around. Amazing.
Despite the footage fuck-ups & the lack of interest in the targetted audience, I'm happy that we managed to actually hit the target & to pull it off in general. To me, most people are hopeless robopaths - too busy following orders, being normal & being stupid to ever notice or care about anything unusual in their environment. This was an attempted seeding. It largely fell on (metaphorically) rocky ground: in the midst of hopelessly (?) dull people. College students: REACTIONARY MUDDLE AMERICA. Nonetheless, with a drop this large who knows who it may've reached. 4 website addresses were included. MAYBE SOMEBODY will check out the websites as a result. MAYBE SOMEBODY will have their mind tweaked a little. I'm sure the old men at the golf course did.
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
261. Attention-ExSpanDex #1
- Normal's Books & Records, Baltimore, us@
- Saturday, September 26, 1998
- This was the 1st presentation of a cross-country tour which I retrospectively dubbed the "Attention-ExSpanDex Tour" mainly because most of the vaudiences couldn't endure the lengths of the programs. Entries 259-266 are from this tour. All but 264 meet the attention-span-expanding criteria. Most of the presentations involved multiple projections of super-8mm, 16mm, slides, filmstrips, VHS (projected &/or on TVs) + talking & other 'live actions':
How Orgone Cinema Treats Its Visiting Filmmakers
- 5:40 - 16mm & VHS - January '95
Presented simultaneously with a dramatic reading of the generic S.P.C.S.M.E.F. Speech (see the prototypical speech in 253) whilst wearing the Killer Whale Outfit over the Cloud Suit + the severed head hat (see the description in 255).
Department of Failures - 2:30 - VHS - November 11, '95
Diszey Spots - 11:20 - 16mm & VHS - October-December '93
The Postman Always Rings the Homunculous of Woody Allen & Hollis Frampton Twice
- 8:24 - 35mm filmstrip & audio cassette - July '96
Grounded! - 6:00 - 16mm & VHS - May '95
Peterson's Restaurant - 14:56 - 16mm & VHS - 1st 1/2 of '95
Air Drops - 19:30 - VHS & 35mm filmstrip - September '97 - September '98
This being the rough draft of the quasi-documentation of entries of 246 & 258, a couple leftover paper airplanes from the 2nd Air Drop were flown into the audience at certain points.
Funny Farm Summit Meeting - 14:00 - 16mm & VHS - August '94 - July '95
The Department of Maybe Presents: Problem Solving Demonstration
- 55:00 - VHS - November 4, '95
This was the audience-participatory section which I found to be surprisingly well received. See entry 201 for a previous description.
Death Bed Aerobics - 4:45 - 2 35mm filmstrips & audio tape - July '98
See the description in 254. A difference being that instead of wearing the funeral home softball team t-shirt, I was wearing a plastic chest with glow-in-the-dark bones on it. This 'skeleton' & my right thigh's glow-in-the-dark dust-mite tattoo were charged up with a black-light to be shown to the vaudience as the finalé. "Death Bed Aerobics" was presented everywhere during this tour except at a screening (not listed here) at the San Francisco Art Institute sponsored by the San Francisco Cinematheque.
Thanks to John Berndt for arranging this.
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
262. Attention-ExSpanDex #2
- Robert Beck Memorial Cinema / Collective Unconscious, NYC , us@
- Tuesday, September 29, 1998
- Starting off wearing the extremely tattered "Leper-Skin Suit" this was much like any other ExSpan with its interspersing of explanatory patter & various format movies. Reproduced below after the program list are some of vaudience member Bruce Stater's comments. As usual, I began with the dramatic reading of the generic S.P.C.S.M.E.F. Speech (see the prototypical speech in 253) whilst wearing the Killer Whale Outfit + the severed head hat (see the description in 255).
3 Mile Island - 14:30 - VHS - April '79
- made by the B.O.M.B. collective (Baltimore Oblivion Marching Band)
Paper Dolls in Dava's Class - 2:27 - VHS - '81
Les Promenades Hysteriques - 10:00 - super-8/VHS - '84
- made by Ton Tocock Schisme
Philosopher's Union Member's Mouthpiece: Emma Elizabeth Downing
- 5:50 - PXL/VHS - early '88
National Cancer Institute Documentary - 3:20 - 16mm - '93 - silent
Diszey Spots - 11:20 - 16mm/VHS - Oct-Dec '93
How Orgone Cinema Treats Its Visiting Filmmakers
- 5:40 - 16mm/VHS - Jan-May '95 - in collaboration with Orgone Cinema
Peterson's Restaurant - 14:56 - 16mm/VHS - '95
- in collaboration with Orgone Cinema
Department of Failures - 2:35 - VHS - Nov '95
The Postman Always Rings the Homunculous of Woody Allen & Hollis Frampton Twice
- 8:24 - filmstrip/audio cassette - July '96
Mirthplace of the Republicans - 17:03 - VHS - '95-'96
Background Movies for Home Music: Light Motion - 1:41 - VHS - Dec '97
- in collaboration with Dave Lahn & etta cetera
Volunteers Collective/Slide Show
- approximately 30:00 - VHS/Slides - '82(or earlier)-'98
This was a similar & more 'successful' presentation than what's described in 255 since the video projector didn't malfunction. Of course, David Prentice was also missing. After the "Sound Thinking" slide, I presented Sound Thinking: Phase III: Mimesis - as described in 217 (still simultaneous with the vaudeo) & then returned to my slides description.
Death Bed Aerobics
- 4:45 - 2 filmstrips (side-by-side)/audio cassette - July '98
- in collaboration with etta cetera
The Department of Maybe Presents: Problem Solving Demonstration
- audience determined duration - VHS - '95
- in collaboration with Julia Dzwonkoski of the Get-Out-Stitute
Once again, see 201.
"Either unfortunately or fortunately, depending upon one's disposition toward sound asynchrony, most of tENT's films have separate sound recorded on tape. Last season at MoMA's "Big As Life," "You Haven't Heard the Record..." screened accompanied by tape sound alone; however, at Robert Beck tENT projected a number of the VHS transfers with sound alongside the silent originals. The effect was a double projection of a filmic image either slightly ahead of or slightly trailing a video image with synched sound. tENT commented that one impulse for the double projection was to allow the audience to gage the extent of the film image-sound asynchrony and perhaps to make mental corrections relying of [on] the video. This idea of this function, whether or not one experiences the dual projection in the manner it proposes, clearly relates to tENT's meditation on aspects of James Peterson's cognitive theory of experimental film presented in the work "Peterson's Restaurant"-- which I will discuss more extensively in a separate post. tENT's brief comment on the double projection points to a set of ideas concerning the filmviewer's responsibility in "solving problems," testing pure perception against the background of various types of schemata, actively filling in the missing elements of the implied representation and participating with the work's construction of sense and meaning. But we also agreed that the double projection also adds yet another layer of "semiotic noise", a prominent feature of much of the work and creates an experience of cognitive dissonance on a different level of participation with the work.
"Les Promenades Hysteriques," "Diszey Spots," and "Peterson's Restaurant" were all shown with simultaneous video and film projection and only in the case of the latter (for reasons which will become obvious following a viewing of the film) did tENT attempt to adjust for a closer synch between them. Most of the work was shown singularly on VHS with the exception of "National Cancer Institute Documentary" a 16mm work made by adding sprocket holes to a strip of microfilm designed to pass through a viewer horizontally rather than vertically as in 16mm reel projection."
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
263. Attention-ExSpanDex #3
- Chicago Underground Film Festival / Viaduct, Chicago, USA us@
- Thursday, October 1, 1998
See the other Attention-ExSpanDex entries. This was probably the low point of the tour in terms of audience response. The crew was very dedicated & helpful but I didn't get the impression people got much out of the presentation. Chalk up another bad time in Chicago (128 was a nightmare of hostility, stupidity, & mismanagement). As before, I began with the dramatic reading of the generic S.P.C.S.M.E.F. Speech (see the prototypical speech in 253) whilst wearing the Killer Whale Outfit + the severed head hat (see the description in 255).
Subtitles - 12:30 - 16mm & VHS - '80-'92
Balling Tim Ore is Best - 16:00 - super-8mm & audio cassette - '85
- a collaboration between Tim Ore & Dick Hertz
Philosopher's Union Member's Mouthpiece: Emma Elizabeth Downing
- 5:50 - (PXL)VHS - early '88
You Haven't Heard the Record, You Haven't Read the Book, NOW! Don't See the Movie!
- 27:00 - super-8mm & VHS - early '88
- made with the assistance of Laura A. Trussell
Barfroom - 4:15 - 16mm - '89-'90
- made with the assistance of Dee-Dee Ranged, Terry, & Randy George McWilliams
National Cancer Institute Documentary - 3:20 - 16mm - '93
Diszey Spots - 11:20 - 16mm & VHS - Oct-Dec '93
Funny Farm Summit Meeting - 14:00 - 16mm & VHS - '94-'95
- made in an environment created by Laura Kikauka
Peterson's Restaurant - 14:56 - 16mm & VHS - '95
- with Orgone Cinema & Sharyn Lee Frederick
The Postman Always Rings the Homunculous of Woody Allen & Hollis Frampton Twice
- 8:24 - filmstrip & audio cassette - July '96
Background Movies for Home Music: Light Motion
- 1:41 - VHS - Dec '97
- with the assistance of Dave Lahn & etta cetera
Volunteers Collective/Slide Show - app. 30:00 - VHS & Slides - '80-'98
- in collaboration with a slew of people
As usual, after the "Sound Thinking" slide, I presented Sound Thinking: Phase III: Mimesis - as described in 217 (still simultaneous with the vaudeo) & then returned to my slides description.
Death Bed Aerobics
- 4:45 - 2 filmstrips (side-by-side)/audio cassette - July '98
- in collaboration with etta cetera
See the descriptions in entries 254 & 259.
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
264. Attention-ExSpanDex #4
- MCAD, Minneapolis, us@
- Saturday, October 3, 1998
- As with all of these tour presentations, I began with the dramatic reading of the generic S.P.C.S.M.E.F. Speech (see the prototypical speech in 253) whilst wearing the Killer Whale Outfit + the severed head hat (see the description in 255). This was the longest presentation of the tour - something like 4&1/2 hours. Astonishingly enough, there were still 4 people left at the end & 2 of them came up to talk with us enthusiastically. Many thanks to Patti Rhodes for her exceptional help!
3 Mile Island - 14:30 - VHS - April '79
- B.O.M.B. (Baltimore Oblivion Marching Band)
Subtitles - 12:30 - 16mm & VHS - '80-'92
Balling Tim Ore is Best - 16:00 - super-8mm & audio cassette - '85
- a collaboration between Tim Ore & Dick Hertz
Philosopher's Union Member's Mouthpiece: Emma Elizabeth Downing
- 5:50 - (PXL)VHS - early '88
You Haven't Heard the Record, You Haven't Read the Book, NOW! Don't See the Movie!
- 27:00 - super-8mm & VHS - early '88
- made with the assistance of Laura A. Trussell
Barfroom - 4:15 - 16mm - '89-'90
- made with the assistance of Dee-Dee Ranged, Terry, & Randy George McWilliams
Volunteers Collective/Slide Show - app. 30:00 - VHS & Slides - '80-'98
- in collaboration with a slew of people
As usual, after the "Sound Thinking" slide, I presented Sound Thinking: Phase III: Mimesis - as described in 217 (still simultaneous with the vaudeo) & then returned to my slides description.
National Cancer Institute Documentary - 3:20 - 16mm - '93
Diszey Spots - 11:20 - 16mm & VHS - Oct-Dec '93
Funny Farm Summit Meeting - 14:00 - 16mm & VHS - '94-'95
- made in an environment created by Laura Kikauka
Peterson's Restaurant - 14:56 - 16mm & VHS - '95
- with Orgone Cinema & Sharyn Lee Frederick
The Postman Always Rings the Homunculous of Woody Allen & Hollis Frampton Twice
- 8:24 - filmstrip & audio cassette - July '96
Background Movies for Home Music: Light Motion
- 1:41 - VHS - Dec '97
- with the assistance of Dave Lahn & etta cetera
Air Drops - 19:30 - VHS & 35mm filmstrip - September '97 - September '98
- a collaboration with Delta Bravo
See 246, 258, & 259.
Death Bed Aerobics
- 4:45 - 2 filmstrips (side-by-side)/audio cassette - July '98
- in collaboration with etta cetera
See the descriptions in entries 254 & 259.
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
265. Attention-ExSpanDex #5
- Parallel House, Iowa City, us@
- Monday, October 5, 1998
Due to misunderstandings & problematic organizing, this was a very reduced presentation. It was also the one with the most publicity. The presenter, Stephen Perkins, was quoted in the Iowa Press Citizen as saying "The show will appeal to anybody interested in putting themselves in a situation where preconcepts of things could be questioned, where people are invited to question their daily habits, routine ways of thinking or being." The audience was directed into a small cement-floored basement that was cleared out just for this. An audio tape of mine was playing as they entered. As usual, I began with the dramatic reading of the generic S.P.C.S.M.E.F. Speech (see the prototypical speech in 253) whilst wearing the Killer Whale Outfit + the severed head hat (see the description in 255). Because of the size & shape of the space it was difficult to get a good view. The substantial discomfort of the environment (there were no seats provided) must've added considerably to the ordeal.
The Postman Always Rings the Homunculous of Woody Allen & Hollis Frampton Twice
- 8:24 - filmstrip & audio cassette - July '96
Slide Show
Air Drops - 19:30 - VHS & 35mm filmstrip - September '97 - September '98
- a collaboration with Delta Bravo
See entries 246, 258, 259.
Misconnecteds Slide Show
See entry 257.
Death Bed Aerobics
- 4:45 - 2 filmstrips (side-by-side)/audio cassette - July '98
- in collaboration with etta cetera
See 254 & 259.
The Department of Maybe Presents: Problem Solving Demonstration
- audience determined duration - VHS - '95
- in collaboration with Julia Dzwonkoski of the Get-Out-Stitute
See 201.
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
266. Slides & Filmstrips
- Dreamtime Village, W. Lima, Wisconsin, us@
- Wednesday, October 7, 1998
- A very casual stripped down presentation for old friends. No S.P.C.S.M.E.F. Speech.
The Postman Always Rings the Homunculous of Woody Allen & Hollis Frampton Twice
- 8:24 - filmstrip & audio cassette - July '96
Slide Show
Death Bed Aerobics
- 4:45 - 2 filmstrips (side-by-side)/audio cassette - July '98
- in collaboration with etta cetera
- See 254 & 259.
Air Drops - app. 10:00 - 35mm filmstrip - '97-'98
- a collaboration with Delta Bravo
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
267. Attention-ExSpanDex #6
- Other Cinema / Artists Television Access, San Francisco, us@
- Saturday, October 17, 1998
- Back to the full-scale presentations. Thanks to Craig Baldwin & all the other SF fanatics. As with the preceding, I began with the dramatic reading of the generic S.P.C.S.M.E.F. Speech (see the prototypical speech in 253) whilst wearing the Killer Whale Outfit + the severed head hat (see the description in 255).
Philosopher's Union Member's Mouthpiece: Emma Elizabeth Downing
- '88 - 5:50 - VHS video
You Haven't Heard the Record, You Haven't Read the Book, NOW! Don't See the Movie!
- '88 - 27:00
- super 8 with sound from VHS video
Barfroom - '89-'90 - 4:50
- a collaboration between tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE & Dee-Dee Ranged, etc..
- 16mm optical sound
Funny Farm Summit Meeting - '94-'95 - 14:00
- 16mm film with sound from VHS video
Peterson's Restaurant - spring of '95 - 14:56
- a collaboration between tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE & Orgone Cinema
- 16mm film with sound from VHS video
Background Movies for Home Music: Light Motion [should be Hurry]
- December '97 - 1:41
- a collaboration between Party Teen on Couch #2, Dave Lahn, & Miss Notworthy
- VHS video
Uncert &/or So-Called Whatever - '78 to '98 - app. 30:00
- tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE & the Volunteers Collective
slides + projected VHS video + audio cassette + speaking + mime
Previously referred to as the Volunteers Collective/Slide Show, this was described in ad vance publicity as: A concrete mix of a brief history of some aspects of my pursuit of a politics of blatancy + quasi-documentation from 9 years of a large-scale international collective project that I've tried to manipulate into the arena of CircumSubstantial Playing + a quasi-example of Sound Thinking as a peculiar area of quasi-paradoxical cognition - ie: Sound Thinking: Phase III: Mimesis - as described in 217.
Death Bed Aerobics - July '98 - app. 4:45
Party Teen on Couch #2 etta cetera
manipulated projection of 2 35mm filmstrips + audio cassette
See 254 & 259.
The Department of Maybe Presents: Problem-Solving Demonstration
fall of '95 - audience determined length
a collaboration (of sorts) with the Get-Out-Stitute
VHS video & audience participation
See 201.
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
268. Attention-ExSpanDex #7
- Basement Films / Field & Frame, Albuquerque, us@
- Thursday, October 22, 1998
- My descriptions of these presentations has been fairly minimal & lazy. I guess you had to be there. Fortunately, some people were & they even wanted to go out & drink with us afterwards. My kinda people. Thanks much to Keif Findlay & to the other Basement Films & Field & Frame people. Typically, it started with the dramatic reading of the generic S.P.C.S.M.E.F. Speech (see the prototypical speech in 253) whilst wearing the Killer Whale Outfit + the severed head hat (see the description in 255).
Subtitles - 12:30 - 16mm & VHS - '80-'92
Balling Tim Ore is Best - 16:00 - super-8mm & audio cassette - '85
- a collaboration between Tim Ore & Dick Hertz
Philosopher's Union Member's Mouthpiece: Emma Elizabeth Downing
- 5:50 - (PXL)VHS - early '88
You Haven't Heard the Record, You Haven't Read the Book, NOW! Don't See the Movie!
- 27:00 - super-8mm & VHS - early '88
- made with the assistance of Laura A. Trussell
Barfroom - 4:15 - 16mm - '89-'90
- made with the assistance of Dee-Dee Ranged, Terry, & Randy George McWilliams
National Cancer Institute Documentary - 3:20 - 16mm - '93
Diszey Spots - 11:20 - 16mm & VHS - Oct-Dec '93
Funny Farm Summit Meeting - 14:00 - 16mm & VHS - '94-'95
- made in an environment created by Laura Kikauka
Peterson's Restaurant - 14:56 - 16mm & VHS - '95
- with Orgone Cinema & Sharyn Lee Frederick
The Postman Always Rings the Homunculous of Woody Allen & Hollis Frampton Twice
- 8:24 - filmstrip & audio cassette - July '96
Background Movies for Home Music: Light Motion
- 1:41 - VHS - Dec '97
- with the assistance of Dave Lahn & etta cetera
Volunteers Collective/Slide Show + Bob Cobbing
- app. 30:00 - VHS, Slides, & 16mm - '80-'98
- in collaboration with a slew of people
This was even more elaborate than what's described in 260 on - thanks to the additional projection of "Bob Cobbing". I particularly liked this multi-projection combination.
Death Bed Aerobics
- 4:45 - 2 filmstrips (side-by-side)/audio cassette - July '98
- in collaboration with etta cetera
See 254 & 259.
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
269. Jon Skuldt for a Day
- Room 501, Cathedral of Learning, Pitt University, Pittsburgh, us@
- Monday, November 16, 1998, 3PM
- Jon Skuldt (see 251 & 257) asked etta cetera (see most of the recent entries - starting at 207) & I to assist with a presentation he was required to make for one of his classes. The theme (as I recall 7 months later) was to be texts based on interviews. Jon asked us to enter the room shortly after he'd begun, to identify ourselves as "Jon Skuldt", & to proceed along the theme. Jon afterwards told me that he "wanted to issue some sort of critique about the narcissism/fantasy of writerdom." He described his portion as having "used "writerly" and self-centered phrases (partially from artificial interviews or segments of interviews) as my source material. These phrases were contained as samples on the Macintosh, on cassette tapes, and I supplied additional source material live with my own voice. By constantly ping-ponging tracks and running them at different speeds/out of sync/etc. I hoped to create a text which would foreground the narcissism and absurdity of the statements, partly through repetition [..]." Some of the source phrases were:
Computer:
*y'know, as a writer, I...
*I just write what I feel, y'know?
*I am so sick of form getting in the way of my writing.
*What's it called again? No -- I don't really want to know -- I don't want
anything to infect my art.
*You are SO creative! That is just SO creative! That is SO creative!
You are SO CREATIVE.
and so on.
Voice:
*What I am about to say is EXTREMELY important.
*This is interesting.
*This is based on a series of interviews.
and so on.
After a few minutes of the above, I arrived & said something like "Hi. I'm Jon Skuldt - sorry I'm late but I had a very important meeting." I then explained that I'd just gotten back from touring & gave a rough description of The Department of Maybe Presents: Problem-Solving Demonstration & played a little of the mostly incomprehensible audio tape from the San Francisco version of this (see 265) on the Player Belt (see 212 & many of the entries after that). etta, as "Jon Skuldt", arrived shortly after me & asked the audience 2 questions to the effect of "Are you going home for Thanksgiving?" & "Can I get a ride to Baltimore?". She handed out pieces of paper for people to write their answers on, collected the papers, & sounded out the answers in Morse Code on a portable device & then left. She didn't get a ride. I'd already left, in the meantime, saying something like "Sorry, I've got to run, I've got an important appointment." After we left, the originating Jon Skuldt finished the ping-ponging segment by quoting the Macintosh samples & pulled out another tape recorder (one which buzzes and feeds back but can't record because it's trying to play) and insisted that the opinions of his fellow classmates were extremely important to him. He walked from student to student, asking for their opinions, and when each began to speak, he made ecstasy faces and moaned with pleasure.
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
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