Franklin Furnace’s Goings On
August 13, 2003
CONTENTS:
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1. Norm Magnusson, FF Alumn, at Spike Gallery thru 9/20, & in the NY Times & Artnet.
2. Diane Torr, FF Alumn, stars in film opening at the Quad, 8/22, afterparty at Tapis Rouge
3. Alan Sondheim, FF Alumn, curates reading/media series at Flying Saucer Café, first Tuesday of every month
4. G.H. Hovagimyan, FF Alumn, presents Shooter, Paris, Sept. 19-28, 2003
5. Penny Arcade, FF Alumn, at Joe’s Pub, TONITE, 7:30 & 9:30
6. Karen Finley, FF Alumn, extended thru Aug 31 at Fez at Time Cafe
7. Dixon Place joins HOWL in the East Village, August 21, 22, 23, 2003
8. Rev. Billy, Karen Finley, Anne Magnusson, FF Alumns, in HOWL festival Aug. 19-26.
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1. Norm Magnusson, FF Alumn, at Spike Gallery thru 9/20, and in the NY Times.
Norm Magnusson, FF Alumn, is featured in “Vacation” at the Spike Gallery at 547 W. 20th st. in NYC. The show has been extended through September 20. More
information can be found at www.spikegallery.com
From the Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/01/arts/design/01ART.html?pagewanted=4&ei=5070&en=2baf17cde264fd88&ex=1060747200
“VACATION,” Spike, 547 West 20th Street, (212) 627-4100 (through Sept. 20). Innocence and experience collide in the works of Norm Magnusson, who outlines juvenile, coloring-book-style images over gridded fields of pages from pointedly selected books. Jesus offering guidance to a little boy is drawn over pages from Bulfinch’s “Mythology,” for example, and paper-doll clothes over “Lolita.” Also on view: Buck Henri’s engaging photographs of exotic dancers, old cars, mannequins, small-town parades and other subjects; Alan Schmer’s illustrative paintings of farm animals; and Melissa Stern’s pedestal-size figurative sculptures that blend surrealism and primitivism (Johnson).
From Artnet:
http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/reviews/robinson/robinson8-4-03.asp
Still on view over the summer at Spike Gallery on the westernmost reaches of West 20th Street are large storybook paintings — Mary Magdalene, an Indian chief, a group of men surrounding Elizabeth Taylor — by Norm Magnusson. “They’re about gender imprinting,” said Norm, who has two girls with a boy on the way. Spike was opened last season by a Texas firecracker named Tina Brown Chambers in a rough-hewn brick space, a former leather bar whose many picture windows look out onto the West Side Highway. “I always wanted a window gallery,” said Chambers, who has also exhibited little-known sculptures by David Salle and works by Jean-Michel Basquiat borrowed from the famous Mugrabi art-collecting clan. “Norm was the first guy to walk into the gallery,” she said. The paintings are $6,000.
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2. Diane Torr, FF Alumn, stars in film opening at the Quad, 8/22, afterparty at Tapis Rouge
Diane Torr, FF Alumn, stars in film opening at the Quad Aug 22
VENUS BOYZ
“An Utterly Fascinating, Beautifully Crafted Exploration of the World of Drag Kings!” VARIETY
Opens August 22nd at the Quad Cinema in New York City / 13th bet. 5th & 6th Ave.
WINNER! Best Film – Semaine de la Critique Locarno 2001
Berlin International Film Festival 2002 / Panorama
Do you dream of slipping into the opposite sex? Transcending social norms of masculine/feminine? The eagerly anticipated documentary VENUS BOYZ is an intimate film about people who create intermediate sexual identities. Club Cassanova, the legendary Drag King night in New York, is the point of departure for an odyssey into transgendered worlds, where women become men – some for a night, others for a lifetime.
Director Gabriel Baur examines the current Drag King movement and brings drag kings, female masculinity, and gender performance from NYC and London to the screen, featuring a star studded cast including Mo B. Dick, Dréd Gerestant, Storme Webber, Diane Torr, Del la Grace Volcano, Bridge Markland, and legendary Drag Queens Mistress Formika and Queen Bee Luscious.
VENUS BOYZ also explores how, for the various women involved, masculinity and transformation can be defined as performance, subversion and/or existential necessity. The Drag Kings profiled examine social power structures, discuss their lives with candor, humor and insight, and explore male eroticism and power strategies with a self-awareness, self-reflection and self-confidence befitting the gender pioneers they are. As celebrated Drag King Mo B. Dick explains, instead of becoming an angry woman,I became a funny man.
Baur also researches the world of female-to-male (FTM) and inter-sexed persons and follows their transformation, as we see women experiment with male hormones to become new men and cyborgs.
“VENUS BOYZ scores as an utterly fascinating, beautifully crafted exploration of the world of drag kings — women who dress, perform and/or live as men. Gabriel Baur’s quietly resplendent docu is as carefully composed and structured as the manufactured masculine personae of the women she’s filming.” – Variety
“It took Gabriel Baur five years to make her doc about the drag king movement. But it was worth the wait…..Many of the women portrayed in VENUS BOYZ say that performing as men permanently changed their lives. Watching the film may provide a similar experience.” – DOX
“This is one of the best documentaries on the subject of gender identity and identification around , with fascinating and thought provoking comments from such participants as Diane Torr and Del La Grace Volcano.” – Melbourne Queer Film Festival
VENUS BOYZ, 2003, 104 Minutes, Color, 35mm, 1: 1,85,
Dolby SR, Unrated
A film by Gabriel Baur. With Dréd Gerestant, Diane Torr, Del LaGrace Volcano, Bridge Markland, Mo Fischer (Mo B. Dick), Storme Webber, Queen Bee Luscious, Mistress Formika, Dee Finley, Philly, Judith Halberstam
For more info go to www.venusboyz.com
Dawn Durante at 1-212-243-0600 x15
email Dawn@firstrunfeatures.com.
Kelly Hargraves at
Kellyh@firstrunfeatures.com for screening copies,
photos and interview requests.
www.firstrunfeatures.com
PARTY FRIDAY, August 22nd – @Tapis Rouge – 9 Avenue A (bet. 1st & 2nd Ave)
OFFICIAL AFTER PARTY for “VENUS BOYZ”
“A First Run Features Film Release” – www.firstrunfeatures.com
Dee Finley & MegaBoy Kate throw the AFTER PARTY, and the Director & Cast of the FILM WILL BE IN THE House!! 2 Floors of Music – Hip-Hop & R&B on Top and DJ DuskGrrl spins Rock, 80’s and Electro on the Main Floor. Live performances and appearances by film protagonists
DRED Gerestant
Diane Torr
Storme Webber
Shelly Mars
Queen Bee Luscious
Philly Abe
Dee Finley
Go-Go Dancers and First Run Features DVD Giveaways.
$5 with ticket stub $10 w/out – 9:00 pm till 4:00 am
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3. Alan Sondheim, FF Alumn, curates reading/media series at Flying Saucer Café, first Tuesday of every month.
THE FLYING SAUCER READING/MEDIA SERIES
We will be having readings the first Tuesday of each month (August an exception). Please come and support us!
Contact Brenda Iijima or Alan Sondheim for further information.
Brenda Iijima yoyolabs@hotmail.com
Alan Sondheim sondheim@panix.com
The Flying Saucer is located at 494 Atlantic Ave. between Nevins and 3rd Avenues, in Brooklyn. You can subways to the Pacific or Atlantic stops, including the 2, 3, 4, 5, W, N, R, Q, and anything else that runs there.
Telephone at the Flying Saucer Cafe is 718-522-1383.
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4. G.H. Hovagimyan, FF Alumn, presents Shooter, Paris, Sept. 19-28, 2003
Peter Sinclair & I are pleased to announce that Shooter, the work developed at Eyebeam will be exhibited at the new multimedia arts center in Paris, La Gaite du Paris. http://www.la-gaite-de-paris.info/ The piece will be on exhibit from September 19th to 28th.
La Gaite is a rather interesting location. It is an abandoned high-tech theme park built inside a 19th century Italian Opera House. The City of Paris has repurposed it for a digital arts center. You might make a comparison between La Gaite and Eyebeam in terms of the scale and intention of both.
If you need more info contact: pauline@la-gaite-de-paris.info
We will be premiering a new performance work called Rant/Rant Back/Back Rant at La Gaite on Sept. 20th. The piece will also be performed at the Split International Festival of Film & New Media in Split,Croatia Sept.22-28th.
Description
Rant / Rant Back / Back Rant
There are two performers; the ranter and the processor. In English the word “rant” means (verb) to talk in a noisy, excited or declamatory fashion or (noun) a bombastic, extravagant speech.The processor listens to the ranter and grabs live audio which he outputs to loud speakers. The ranter hears the processed sound clips and responds. The performance can be likened to a musical jam session using digital signal processing. In society you often see ranters on the street. They talk about the current events or shout about the people in power etc.. They often speak the truth. We listen with one ear while pretending not to hear. The two performers process the information in a feedback loop, in real time. What then is the content? It’s information gleaned from TV, newspapers, conspiracy theories, hearsay, paranoid delusions etc..
If you need more info contact: split.filmfest@st.tel.hr
homepage http://nujus.net/gh
with Peter Sinclair http://nujus.net
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5. Sonya Rapoport, FF Alumn, in Cologne, Germany in September.
Sonja Rapoport, FF Alumn, will be showing her web project, DiGITAL MUDRA, at le-musee di-visioniste in Cologne, Germany in September in an exhibit of artists’ self- reflection by means of digital media.
Her project, Digital Mudra, is an adaptation of a multimedia interactive installation in which participants can be viewed expressing their feelings with hand gestures. The selection of images, gestures, and accompanying words represent the artist’s reflection of herself.
Mudra, from Sanskrit, means gesture movements. They comprise a blending of Arayan and Dravidian cultures. The dance movements tell a story cued by the story teller and interpreted by the Kathakali dancer. A physical and emotional mood is created.
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5. Penny Arcade, FF Alumn, at Joe’s Pub, TONITE, 7:30 & 9:30
PENNY ARCADE at Joe’s Pub
Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., $15 (it’s hard to be greedy when half of New York’s being laid off…)
International performance star Penny Arcade continues to expound on her New York Values. The creator of international hits Bitch!Dyke!Faghag!Whore!, Bad Reputation and Sex, Love and Sanity turns her hilarious eye toward the suburbanization of New York. Hysterically funny, high impact comedy loaded with content about sexual and identity politics, the media, celebrity culture, 9/11, globalization, war, and the future of Western civilization, all while dancing to an extraordinarily fun, theatrical sound score that will have you rocking in your seat and roaring with laughter, as she ears away the veil from “bourgoise bohemia”, marketed youth culture, The Vagina Monologues, and post-modernism. Get your spiritual booster shot from the funniest girl in New York with something to say as Penny Arcade redefines performance and standup comedy.
Controversial and eye opening, for the eclectic, independent, thinking public who don’t need their entertainment filtered and homogenized. With an amazing soundscore mixed live by long-time collaborator Steve Zehentner.
www.publictheater.org
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6. Karen Finley, FF Alumn, extended thru Aug 31 at Fez at Time Cafe
Karen Finley Channels Liza Minnelli In “Make Love”
More performances added — through August 31 ** plus, a special post-show “Liza Minnelli Cabaret” Aug. 17 **
Karen Finley, the most controversial woman in performance today, has added additional late night performances to the already announced extension of her acclaimed new show Make Love, at Fez though August 31st. This cabaret-driven, lounge-style act co-stars drag performer and artist Chris Tanner, pianist Lance Cruce, and a rotating roster of Liza Minnelli impersonators (including Finley’s 9-year old daughter).
There will also be special “Liza Minnelli Cabaret” following the August 17th performance. It will feature numbers by many of Finley’s rotating roster of Minnelli impersonators including Tanner, Cruce, Brandon Olsen, Taylor Mac, Miss Webb and Flawless Sabrina. It is free and open to the public, with preferred seating going to audience members of the earlier performance.
In Make Love, Finley channels Liza Minnelli in song, dance glamour and glitter. Liza’s tragicomic life is the backdrop as one New Yorker grasps to make sense of the current chaos of our nation. The “Divaness” of Liza as an icon and symbol of New York becomes the place to throw pathos, hilarity, mockery and taboos. With piano, torch singing and Karen Finley as the narrator, Make Love is a complex amalgam of humor, pain and compassion.
“Liza Minnelli is New York,” explains Finley. “She keeps on trying. After her hipreplacement, she still gets up and dances.” Finley encourages audience members to come dressed as their own inner-Liza.
Make Love runs through August 31, Sundays at 8:00pm with aditional performances Sat. Aug. 16, Sat. Aug. 23, and Fri. Aug. 29 at 10:00pm. Tickets are $20. Fez is located inside Time Cafe at 380 Lafayette Street at Great Jones (accessible from the B, D, F, & Q at Broadway/Lafayette, the N/R at 8th St., or the #6 at Astor Place). For reservations and information call 212-533-2680.
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7. Dixon Place joins HOWL in the East Village, August 21, 22, 23, 2003
Dearest DP family, Hope that this summer is giving you all a chance to relax and get some time away! We’ve been gearing up for the fall and a very, very exciting season that we have planned, including commissions by Peggy Shaw, Clare Byrne, and Sam Kim, and a DP Veterans work-in-progress series. Our season brochure will be coming your way in about two weeks — we hope you’ll be excited as we are, and that we’ll get to see you this fall! For the month of August, we’re turning all of our attention to our beloved home turf, the East Village.We’re initiating several programs as part of the first annualHOWL! Festival, organized by the Federation of East Village Artists, celebrating the EV’s cultural and artistic community. We hope we’ll get to see you there! It’s going to involve hundreds of East Village artists, businesses, and institutions, during the week of August 20-26. As part of HOWL, Dixon Place is organizing amazing walking performance tours — an opportunity for small groups of audiences to be led around by fabulous guides to East Village artists’ apartments, and be treated to entertaining and intimate performances within their homes. It’s up close, it’s personal, it’s real, it’s gritty (well maybe not gritty) — it is going to be a lot of fun. Each night of August 21, 22, and 23 will feature a completely different tour — the schedule is below — you could come on all of them! Your membership passes will entitle you to join the tours for free, but you should be certain to reserve your slot in advance since space is extremely limited! This is also a great chance to invite a guest to come and experience the East Village — tickets can be purchased for just $10 each. We would love to have you join us for this celebration of our neighborhood. To make sure that you’ll able to get a slot on the tour, please contact us directly as soon as possible at 212-219-0736 x103 — leave a message with your name, phone number, the tour you’d like to reserve for, and how many tickets you’ll need. Stay well, stay cool, and stay in touch.
Xoxo
The Dixon Place Staff
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8. Rev. Billy, Karen Finley, Anne Magnusson, FF Alumns, in HOWL festival Aug. 19-26.
Opening Statement:
A shout out to all fringe players: Something will happen in Manhattan. A countercultural force will land in the East Village on August 20th and remain until August 26th. This force calls itself the HOWL!Festival. The HOWL!Festival is your friend. The HOWL!Festival is here to entertain you with 261 events in 50 venues. Concerts, performances, wigs, parties, jazz, poetry, scandal, bollocks, scowling film, raving lunacy. The HOWL!Festival. Find out When, Where, and Why. Go to www.howlfestival.com. Brought to you by FEVA, the Federation of East Village Artists, an equal opportunity partier.
Special Events:
REVEREND BILLY’S BENEDICTION
when: Tuesday August 19 7:30 pm
where: St. Mark’s Church 2nd Ave. & 10th St.
price: suggested donation $10
links: www.howlfestival.com
Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping kick off the 1st Annual HOWL!Festival with an old-fashioned revival meeting. Catch the spirit as the 34-voice choir and 7-piece band back the Rev for a benediction ceremony sure to raise the roof. He of the right-wing threads and left-wing mouth will open the Howl Festival at St. Mark’s Church, 8 PM, Tuesday August 19th. The festival is sponsored by FEVA, the Federation of East Village Artists. FEVA invited the Stop Shoping Gospel Choir and their radical pastor to open the fest with material they will take to Burning Man in the Black Rock Desert. This final show, with tickets at $10 – $100 sliding scale, will fly 35 singers to Reno. A Broadway-size stage, in the structure that supports “The Man” will be graced by the NY-based church nightly through the week of Burning Man. Rachel Corrie, the woman who faced the bulldozer in Palestine and was a Burner, The Church of the Subgenius, and AIDS-activists the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence will receive “Fabulous Sainthood” from Reverend during the “Strange Worships.”The Howl Festival runs parallel to Burning Man with hundreds of performances and exhibits during the week that follows the opening. Go to HOWLFESTIVAL.COM for information. Tickets to Reverend Billy at REVBILLY.COM
HOWL! OPENING NIGHT PARTY
when: Wednesday August 20 7pm-11pm
where: Angel Orensanz Foundation 172 Norfolk St.
price: $5
links: www.howlfestival.com
The opening night party for the HOWL!Festival kicks off at 7pm with two book release parties, continues at 8:30 with a specially curated art auction and exhibition, and culminates from 9-11pm with beer, a deejay, and fashion.
MOVEABLE EAST
when: Thursday August 21 7pm
where: Angel Orensanz Foundation 172 Norfolk St.
price: $3 students/ $6 adults
links: www.howlfestival.com
Karen Finley moderates (immoderately) an all-star panel of artists and lifers, players and dreamers, in an attempt to hone in on memories, theories, and future hopes for East Village life.
EAST VILLAGE GUITAR HEROES
when: Friday August 22 7pm
where: Joe’s Pub 425 Lafayette St.
price: $15
links: www.howlfestival.com
Lenny Kaye (The Patti Smith Group) will play his first solo gig in years. Gary Lucas (formerly of Captain Beefheart) astounds as usual, and up-and-comer David First makes a welcome appearance, with special guests Tom Chiu and Dave Egger of the Flux Quartet.
WIGSTOCK AFTER-PARTY
when: Saturday August 23 7-11pm
where: Webster Hall 125 East 11th St.
price: $20
links: www.howlfestival.com
Anne Magnuson emcee’s this special bill celebrating the return of Wigstock! Arrive early for Mini-Kiss, the littlest band in the world to rock and roll all nite and party every day! And then dance away to the hypnotic groove of energetic party legends The Tom Tom Club!
ROCK POETRY CELEBRATION
when: Sunday August 24 9pm
where: Joe’s Pub 425 Lafayette St.
price: $50
links: www.howlfestival.com
This exclusive evening of reading, insight, and laughter features Lou Reed, Lee Ranaldo, Thurston Moore, guest stars, and a captive audience for some of rock’s greatest poet laureates, lyrical luminaries, and performance stars.
NAKED
when: Monday August 25 9pm
where: Fez 380 Lafayette St.
price: $15
links: www.howlfestival.com
Naked: an evening of post-burlesque hosted by our favorite rodent Scotty the Blue Bunny, and featuring performances by Ann Magnuson, Bradford Scobie, and Taylor Mac. With more nudity than you can shake a drink ticket at.
EV/DV COMPILATION
when: Tuesday August 26 9pm
where: Loew’s Village VII 66 3rd Ave.
price: $10 general / $6.50 seniors & children
links: www.howlfestival.com
This EV/DV Compilation is a unique series of no-budget, short (5 minutes or less) videos about the East Village. Filmmakers include Steve Buscemi, Larry Fessenden, M.M. Serra, Nick Zedd, and many other notable directors.
thank you,
Paul@howlfestival
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Goings On is compiled weekly by Harley Spiller
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Goings On are compiled weekly by Harley Spiller
Click http://www.franklinfurnace.org/goings_on.html
to visit ‘This Month’s World Wide Events’.
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