[Seven by Nine Squares homepage]
[tENTATIVELY]
[ Neoist Path]
A Mere Outline for One Aspect of a Book on
Mystery Catalysts, Guerrilla Playfare, booed usic, Mad Scientist
Didactions, Acts of As-Beenism, So-Called Whatevers, Psychopathfinding, Uncerts, etc..
{3rd Edition - July '95 Version of Text Only}
- tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
c/o the Funny Farm
RR 4,
Markdale,
Ontario, N0C 1H0,
Caca-Nada
or Box 382, Baltimore, Maryland,
21203,
us@
Extroverted behavior of a calculatedly complex &
politically/socially
theoretically backed nature has constituted a significant part of my
activities
throughout most of my life. To many people, such behaviour is
so-called
"performance art". Not wishing to
be "pigeon-holed", thusly enabling
entities
perceiving my actions to superimpose their stereotypes to
oversimplify me, I've
been substantially occupied with public self-contextualization
resistant to
previously existing categories. Failing that, I've often opted in
favor of
unpopular categories to attempt to give an "edge" to my activities -
hence,
I've preferred being labeled "criminally insane", for example, to
being an
"artist".
Since much of my life has centered around manifesting my imagination
with
"bizarre" appearance & behavior in everyday life, I've frequently
encountered people trying to explain me. As such, I've been called
"Hippie",
"Jesus", "Charlie Manson", "Faggot", "Weirdo", "Hare Krishna",
"Punk", "Clown",
"Satanist", "Cult Leader", & "Skinhead" - to name some of the
main ones
that I've heard most often - "Weirdo" & "Clown" being, perhaps,
the 2 most
accurate. Given that even many of my friends find it difficult to
even adjust
to calling me "tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE", it can accurately be said
that my
struggle for self-definition has a long way to go.
Terms that I've used to describe some of my activities are:
Mystery Catalysts: activities meant to stimulate people's
curiosity -
usually by creating an unusual situation with no obvious source or
explanation
- see #s 14, 15,
16, 25,
49, 82,
178, 179,
& 182
Guerrilla Playfare: unusual
interactions &/or interventions in
environments where such incidents are unexpected - see #s
12, 18,
21,
22, 24,
26, 27,
39, 40,
41, 43,
44, 49,
50, 51,
52, 53,
55, 57,
59, 63,
65,
66, 67,
99,
103, 108,
109, 113,
114, 135,
142, & 143
booed usic: an unpopular use of something (usually, if not
always,
sound) - see #s 62, 71,
72, 73,
74, 75,
76, 79,
80, 99,
100, 101,
103, 104,
105, 106,
107, 108,
109, 110,
111, 113,
#outline114, 116,
117, 118,
122, 123,
124, 125,
& 127
Mad Scientist Didactions: lecture type
situations generally
with a
perverse message & audio-visual aids - see #s
2, 8,
37, 38,
39,
47, 54,
56,
60, 64,
69, 70,
72, 73,
74, 75,
76, 77,
78, 79,
80, 81,
101, 105,
106, 107,
110, 111,
115, 118,
120, 122,
123, 127,
& 190
Acts of As-Beenism: these acts can be
anything in which
there's supposedly a demonstration of or reference to the
possibility that
roles are
flexible - while in many ways this description might apply to almost
anything
I've presented, I've usually only applied this term in connection
with "Generic As-Beenism" - see #s
101, 118,
122, 123, &
127
So-Called Whatevers: a very open term to describe just about
anything
that I might not want to label otherwise - see #s
177, 180,
181, & 185
Psychopathfinding: finding an outlet for psychopathic energy
other than
the violent ones usually associated with this explosive state of
being - this
usually involves some element of risk, confrontation, or
role-reversal - see #s
12, 18,
24, 26,
35, 37,
39, 40,
41, 42,
43, 48,
50, 51,
52, 57,
59,
60, 65,
69,
77, 99,
102, 108,
113, 114,
120, 142,
& 143
Uncerts my most recent term for audio focussed events - see #s
174, 176,
183, 188,
& 189
etc..: can include aspects that I somewhat accept previously
existing
terms for - such as "Reading" {see #s 2, 4, 5, 19, 35, 37, 47, 68,
120, 130,
& 173}; "Concert" {see #s 1, 3, 27, 28, 29, 33, 34, 71,
102, 117, 119, 121,
126, 128, 129, 132, 134, 138, 139, 145, 147, 150, 151, 172, 175,
& 187};
& "Audience Participatory" {4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 12, 20,
21, 22,
25, 37,
39, 40,
42, 43,
52, 60,
109, 120,
104, 141,
142, 163,
164, 165,
166, 167,
168, 169,
170, 171,
180, 181,
183, & 185}
- those actions in which I
consider the
conventional contexts of "Reading" &"Concert" to adequately
describe their
primary substance are isolated by being in brackets: [.....]
{The following list doesn't include "shows" in which I mainly
participated by contributing 1 or more object(s) but at which I
either wasn't
present & at which no action oriented instructions of mine were
being
followed or "shows" at which I was present but at which my presence
added
little more than simple explanations (such as my Retrospective of 14
Films at
the Empire Salon in Baltimore on May 30, 1982 & many, many other
such
events).}
- the Evergreen House, Baltimore, us@
- 1959 or 1960 or 1961
- A duet performance with my
sister of a very simple piano piece that was
probably originally intended for 2 hands. Our participation in this
recital was a very minor outcome of my being forced to take piano
lessons.]
- charity benefit (for people with Muscular Dystrophy ) in the
backyard of my parents' home in the suburbs of Baltimore, us@
- summer, 1963?
- Wearing a full-body antique bathing suit meant for an adult
male (&, hence, very large on me) & a long black hair wig, I read
satirical poetry that I'd written about my sister.
- a Brooklyn, Baltimore, us@ coffee-house
- summer, 1971
- Playing 12-string acoustic guitar,
upright piano, & singing I performed covers of
music by the Incredible String Band,
Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, & whorehouse blues
songs, etc..]
- Apathy Project, Baltimore, us@
- September, 1977
- The Audience was handed a folded 8&1/2 X 11" piece of
paper with 2
pages from my book: t he book t he referent 4 wch consists of t he
non-materialized transparent punch-outs from a letter/whatever
stencil printed
on it. Page 31 was on the front: this consisted of a grid of 15 X 15
1st 4
letters of words with each vertical column having every fragment
begin with the
same letter. The grid arrangement, the vertical organization, the
non-referentialness, & the fragmentation were all meant to
stimulate the
reader to extrapolate & explore the text creatively. Page 89 was
on the
inside: this consisted of a fragment from a longer text in which all
"e"s were
substituted with "(v)"s. This fragmentation & substitution were
meant to
disrupt the otherwise linear narrative so that the reader's attention
would
drift off. The audience was then asked to read simultaneously from
these texts
in whatever way they wanted to which they proceeded to do.
- Dave Kotofski's apartment, Baltimore, us@
- 1977
- This was a "private" reading with little or no audience other
than Dave.
Reza Barahani (sp?), Iranian poet & political activist (author of
"Crowned
Cannibals" - a critique of the Shah's regime) then in exile, read
"linear,
referential" poetry in English & Persian - & Marshall Reese,
Kirby
Malone, & I read, or otherwise presented, mainly "non-linear,
non-referential" texts. I presented various "spatially expanded"
writings which
included hiding words & phrases in Dave's place for him to find
later.
- various simultaneous locations, Baltimore, us@
- early 1978
- A group of perhaps 8 people were organized into every
possible duo. Each
duo chose a time of day when each of them would perform an unusual
(or usual)
daily activity specified for them by the other. As such, each person
had (if
the number of 8 people is correct) 7 times of the day when they knew
they were
performing something at the same time as 1 of the other members of
the group. I
remember, for example, taking out the fortunes from fortune cookies
(preferably
without breaking the cookie) & the pimiento from stuffed olives
(preferably
without ripping them) & causing them to switch places as my
instruction
from Beth Downey. These simultaneities were performed for at least 1
week &
were deliberately undocumented so that the emphasis would stay on the
experience itself rather than any object produced by it. A later
version for
vaudeo documentation was started but unfinished.
- (originally written as:.."a thing involving audio tap(hh),
tap(hh) playing
machin(hh), 2 cushion(hh)d s(hh)at sp(hh)ak(hh)r cabin(hh)ts, 2 paid
book-(hh)nds, mt(hh)d pock(hh)ts & pock(hh)t-books, books, a
book-sh(hh)lv(hh), & an audi(hh)nc(hh)?") more simply &/or
commonly
known as "the human book-ends thing"
- Red Door Hall, Baltimore, us@
- fall, 1978
- Two long planks joined & supported at the middle &
held up at
either end by sturdy speaker cabinets on their sides formed the
"bookshelves".
Boxes filled with books were scattered about on either side of the
planks on
the floor. The "human book-ends", Laurie Stepp & Beth Downey,
emptied their
purses onto the speaker cabinets so that they could rattle when
sounds would
come from them & took their places on the cabinets facing each
other across
the planks. During this action they only communicated thru gesture.
What was
originally a 3 hour 4 track reel-to-reel tape with only 35 very
narrow range
sounds on it was played in stereo so that 2 of the tracks were heard
forwards
during the 1st 3 hours & the other 2 tracks were heard backwards
during the
last 3 hours. When the tape was being flipped the "human book-ends"
were
permitted a break. The audience was encouraged to pay in "ob(hh)ron +
gold"
& to react to the situation in some creative way. One friend,
Augusta Leigh
McDonald, went so far as to find a goldfish pond & capture a
goldfish that
she named "Oberon" to pay with. Bonnie Bonnell imitated the central
tableau by
making a miniature version of it in a corner. Gayle Hanson tied up
Steve
Brookes & read from the masochistic book "Venus in Furs". Most
people,
myself included, placed & arranged the books on the bookshelves
&
attempted to communicate gesturally with the book-ends. Richard
Ellsberry typed
a typewriter portrait of me. The essentialness of the materials &
their
unusual restrictiveness were meant to function as (& did function
as) a
catalyst to the audience to draw their inspiration from.
A-Muse-ing.
8. GHOST FILM presentation with Ghost Writing Booklets
- Community College of Baltimore, Harbor Campus, Baltimore, us@
- fall, 1978
- Members of the audience were given note-pads with invisible
ink writing
&/or drawing on them (i.e.: "Ghost" writing &/or drawing)
& were
given pens to "take notes" about the film they were about to see or
"doodle".
The pens that they were given were the "developer pens" for the
"ghost" writing
& their ink was invisible except where something was already
marked by the
ink that they were to develop. Thus, the resultant notes or doodles
& the
original preparations were only visible where they intersected -
producing a
collaboration. An attempt to show my film "GHOST FILM, A Nightmare
for
Projectionists" was then made. Given that the film is deliberately a
poorly
spliced mess, this attempt was only partially successful &, once
again, the
deterioration of the film was contributed to so that it could
continue to
progress as a nightmare for projectionists.
- Balto Media Edition Fashion Show, Red Door Hall, Baltimore,
us@
- January?, 1979
- Volunteers from the audience were linked together by &
enclosed in
giant paper dolls which they then paraded on the fashion show runway
in a
disoriented manner.
- Balto Media Edition Fashion Show, Red Door Hall, Baltimore,
us@
- January?, 1979
- A video camera was aimed at me in the dressing room which was
connected
closed-circuit to a tv for the audience to watch at the end of the
runway. I
was naked except for a flexible metal mesh dress form. The dress form
was
gradually covered by (an) assistant(s) who hung all of my more
eccentric
clothing onto the mesh until I was substantially covered by it. In
the
meantime, various other people, such as Susan Lowe & her
children, moved
about in the dressing room.
- Balto Media Edition Fashion Show, Red Door Hall, Baltimore,
us@
- January?, 1979
- Charlie Brohawn & I cut leg holes in the bottoms of
plastic wardrobes
& arm holes in the upper sides & stuffed the wardrobes with
specially
made xerox "decode" collages & paraded on the runway as
"twins".
- Corner Theater, Baltimore, us@
- March, 1979
- The Baltimore Oblivion Marching Band (B.O.M.B.) - variously
called a
roving band of defiant youths (in "newspaperese") by myself & No
Name
Interaction/Reaction Group by Sumu Pretzler (a.k.a. Doug Retzler) -
was a
loosely knit group with variable membership that got together, mainly
on
weekends, to crash various events - usually with the intention of
stirring up
some action & catalyzing greater interaction between all those
involved.
This usually involved eccentric dress, toy instruments, &
aggressive
"socializing" (or "anti-socializing") with strangers.
- B.O.M.B.'s premier crashing was at an improvisation class
where our
crashing was meant to be a critique of how silly we thought the class
was. We
snaked thru the students & teacher(s) alike trying to get them to
spontaneously react to our unexpected presence & then left before
they had
too much of a chance to integrate us into their perception of the
class.
- Lancaster Institute of Fine Arts benefit, Lancaster,
Pennsylvania, us@
- March, 1979
- This was the last section of B.O.M.B.'s premier. We "partied"
at the
benefit while I got volunteers to dance while wearing the same giant
paper
dolls used in the Balto Media Edition Fashion Show.
- Penn Station Photo Booth, Baltimore, us@
- spring, 1979
- The 1st part of a 3 part action in which I subtly altered my
face &
had a black & white picture taken of it in the photo booth which
I then put
on display in the place allotted for such on the outside of the
booth. The poor
fidelity of the photos made the slanted moustache appear possibly
real despite
its well-nigh impossible "shaveability".
- Penn Station Photo Booth, Baltimore, us@
- spring, 1979
- Following the same procedure described in the preceding
entry, but with
the face alteration being the addition of dots, these photos
eventually
returned to me in a convoluted way 2 years later! A friend of a
friend was
telling me that he'd found & stolen a display photo on a photo
booth of a
guy who looked like he had bullet holes in his face! Of course, the
photos that
he'd stolen & saved were of me & the circle was completed
& the
mystery solved.
- Penn Station Photo Booth, Baltimore, us@
- spring, 1979
- Once again, following the same procedure as in the preceding
2 entries, I
smeared crunchy peanut butter on my face in the photo booth during
rush hour at
the train station. Given that the sides of the booth were open to
prevent any
"hanky-panky" in there, my action was totally visible to the
commuters. A
couple of weeks later, a friend of mine told me at a party about
going to the
photo booth & seeing a picture of a guy with "a horrible skin
disease"
which she then stole. It wasn't until later that she realized it was
me.
- I'm still waiting, 16 years later, for the slanted pencil
moustache photo
to return to me.
- a construction site in Maryland, us@
- late March, 1979
- In fall of 1978, I started working as a hard-wood floor
finisher. This job
involved stooping over a bucket of lacquer & brushing the lacquer
on the
floors as a part of the finishing process. Inhalation of the fumes
caused
intoxication. Co-workers Brian Wolle (a.k.a. "Brain" &/or "Herr
Brain Storm
Drain") & Doug Retzler (a.k.a. "Sumu Pretzler") & I exploited
this high
& tried to have fun at work by improvising vocally while
lacquering. These
improvs centered around creating a mythology about the living
conditions in
"Lacquerland" - our name for the state of mind & body gotten into
from the
fumes. Our audience, when there was one, were our fellow construction
workers -
who were apparently entertained but who made jokes about our being
"crazy".
There were a fair amount of these sessions but, for the purposes of
this
history, I've restricted myself to only listing the 3 that we audio
recorded.
- Pennsylvania, us@
- April 3, 1979
- In violation of curfew, we went to the 3 Mile Island
Visitor's Center
during the peak of its nuclear crisis. Doug Retzler/Sumu Pretzler
wore a mylar
suit & pretended to be a nuclear scientist who had "everything
under
control" while his "protective garb" got increasingly tattered. A
photo of Sumu
was much printed in various papers with captions made up to "fit it"
by the
"newspapers" with little regard for trying to find out what the photo
actually
depicted. Supposedly, an article was eventually written for a
reporters'
magazine about the resultant ridiculous disparities.
- the Maryland Institute of Art, Baltimore, us@
- spring, 1979
- A woman (the potential "date": Claudia Behrman) was separated
from the
contestants (me & 2 others) by a partition. She asked questions
of each of
the contestants such as "Are you more like Johnny "the Wad" Holmes or
Sherlock
Holmes?". Whenever I was asked a question I read an excerpt from: t
he book t
he referent 4 wch consists of t he non-materialized transparent
punch-outs from
a letter/whatever stencil making no attempt to have my answers be
"relevant" to
her questions. The "winner" was a guy playing the role of an "army
man" -
complete with military helmet.
- Festival of Disappearing Art(s), Red Door Hall, Baltimore,
us@
- Sunday, April 29, 1979, 10PM
- The chairs were arranged very close together so that the
audience was
seated in uncomfortable proximity. The audience faced a hanging
blanket which
functioned as a "theater curtain" to hide "where the show would be".
The
recessed window nooks were covered with billboard paper with rips in
them. Each
nook had a sign labelling it "John Wilkes' Booth". Unknown to the
audience,
John Ellsberry (who was "obsessed" at the time with the Lincoln
assassination)
was hidden in 1 of the nooks with a black & white reel-to-reel
video camera
& deck. While Marshall Reese introduced me, I navigated thru the
cramped
audience - increasing their discomfort & forcing them to interact
with me -
while John videoed my actions & their reactions. The curtain was
then
removed, John ripped his way out of his hiding place, & the "real
show" of
the audience watching themselves on video began. After the audience
had watched
the tape & realized that they were the "performers", John
returned to his
no longer secret camera position & the intitial process of me
moving thru
the crowd while John videoed was repeated. This 2nd time, the
audience's
participation was more enthusiastic as they tried to remove my
clothes &
otherwise impeded my progress.
- Johns Hopkins University Campus, Baltimore, us@
- spring, 1979
- The most memorable portions of this action are Charlie
Brohawn & I
wearing each other's clothes as a continuation of our "twins" routine
& our
running thru the crowd tying them together with string. The
"documenter" of all
this filmed almost all of his footage of the tits & asses of
dancing girls
rather than of us.
- Charles Street, Baltimore, us@
- spring or summer, 1979
- This was primarily distinguished by Sumu Pretzler/Doug
Retzler convincing
a parading bunch of boy scouts to lie down in the streets for him so
that he
could draw their body outlines in chalk while they "played
dead".
- another construction site in Maryland, us@
- date uncertain, possibly mid 1979
- Another mythology-spewing plunge into derangement by myself
& fellow
denizen of Industrial High Society Herr Brain (see #17).
- the "Artists Support the Mayor's Ball", the Maryland
Institute College of
Art, Station Building, Baltimore, us@
- summer or fall, 1979
- As a publicity event, this event was organized to give the
appearance that
artists supported the Mayor in his running for re-election (or some
such). I
was hand-delivered an invitation to this by person(s) unknown. The
main event
was inside but outside on the parking lot a punk band ("Da Moronics")
was being
paid to play. I entered the building carrying a "picket sign"
emblazoned with
the words that form the title for this action. The sign was meant to
request
that those present help me escape from the machinations of
politicians &
government. Everyone present inside seemed to be very rich. I
didn't
recognize any of them as artists. There were tv crews &
reporters
everywhere. I was almost immediately confronted by a security guard
& told
to leave. As I was being ushered out, an apparently rich woman that I
passed
sneered something like "OH! Get that awful thing out of here!"
(meaning
me).
- Corpus Christi Church, Baltimore, us@
- November 21, 1979, 2 - 8PM
- Tables were set up in the basement of the church where people
ordinarily
played basketball. The tables were "set" with xerox "place mats" with
pictures
of tuning forks & crab mallets as the "utensils" & a
transistor radio
was set in the middle & tuned to a "top 40" station & left on
as the
"Crab Feast". I returned periodically, providing no explanation, to
photograph
whatever was happening in the room as response to it.
- Security Square Shopping Mall, Baltimore suburbs, us@
- December 22, 1979
- Under the instigation of Gayle Hanson, crabs with baby doll
parts tied to
them were taken to the shopping mall on the last saturday before
Christmas in
hat boxes & released by Gayle & me on the floor of the mall
near
"Santa's" stand. A mesmerized crowd quickly formed while Gayle
"explained". One
of "Santa's helpers" came along to try to put a stop to this bizarre
behaviour
by sweeping up the crabs which made it even more bizarre for me. We
were
eventually kicked out of the mall by security people & we
returned what
crabs were left alive to the harbor where they swam sluggishly
off.
- Baltimore, us@
- winter, 1979/1980
- Cris Cheek (clarinet), Chris Mason (bass clarinet), Gayle
Hanson
(clarinet?), Patty Karl? (clarinet?), & I (alto sax) improvised
while
wandering the streets & alleys. We were joined by a guy named
John(?)
playing recorder who heard us passing by.
- Baltimore, us@
- winter, early 1980
- With an unknown line-up that consisted of at least Chris
Mason &
myself, more wandering improvising on wind instruments. Again we were
joined by
John(?), this time on alto sax, when we unwittingly passed behind his
apartment.
- Baltimore, us@
- winter, early 1980
- Again with an unknown line-up beyond Chris Mason, myself,
& Doug
Retzler pulling a wagon with some sort of large cardboard horn,
meandering
improvising thru the streets. A black guy told me I played like John
Coltrane
which I found strange but flattering considering that I could barely
play the
thing - especially in the cold weather.
- the Telectropheremanniversary, the Proposal Gallery,
Baltimore, us@
- January 24, 1980
- With exposed knees & genitals, we (Gayle Hanson - Voice
& Electric
Organ, John Ellsberry - alto sax, Lee Warren - Electric Bass Guitar,
&
myself - Voice, Electric Guitar, & Electric Organ) played 2 sets:
1st:
trying to somehow play along with recordings of incoming phone calls
to the
"telephone stations" that the event was a celebration of the 1st
anniversary
of, & 2nd: playing original songs about such relevant topics as
the
transmission of "(telectro)pheremones" & venereal diseases.
Thruout, phone
calls to our premiering 3rd phone station were forwarded to multiple
phones in
the gallery to be answered by anyone present who felt so
inclined.
- the Balti-Media Edition & Science Fair Benefit, Corpus
Christi Church,
Baltimore, us@
- March 1, 1980
- I'd made a 4' X 4' X 7' replica of a transistor radio called
AS RADIO
which was supposed to be pushed around on a wheeled model's stand
while
musician's played from scores inside of it. As an unpopular weirdo
act this was
shoved off 'til last by the organizer, Doug Retzler, while the "real"
musicians
- the rock "stars" - milked their prima donna time for all it was
worth. By the
time it was our turn, the audience was largely gone - as were some of
the
players - & some of the players were asleep. A Flop.
- the Balti-Media Edition & Science Fair, Johns Hopkins
University Glass
Pavilion, Baltimore, us@
- March 30, 1980
- The same thing Flopping because of the breaking of the stand
wheels.
- Baltimore, us@
- summer?, 1980
- A conference call improvisation by Doug Retzler, Richard
Ellsberry, &
myself broadcast live over the radio using phone sounds, etc, to
promote our
"telephone station" of the time: (301)962-0210.
- Red Door Hall, Baltimore, us@
- October 19, 1980
- The only big band performance by The Tinklers. This show
consisted of
their usual mix of "childish" charts & explanations, sign
language, &
songs. I played alto sax & function generator - this latter with
my
toes.
- Grand Open Reading, Red Door Hall, Baltimore, us@
- January 4, 1981
- I was invited by Tom DiVenti to participate in a large
reading. We
misunderstood each other - I misunderstood his invitation & he
misunderstood me to have consented. Usually I avoid such readings
because I
don't like conventional readings at all, because I rarely consent to
read
unless I have something special in mind, & because I find most
readings to
be little more than Mutual Admiration Society Group Therapy Sessions
in which
little or no critical standards are present. Disgruntled that my name
was on
the poster & knowing that everybody would ultimately just be sick
of each
other at the end of such a long reading & glad for it to be over,
I asked
Richard Ellsberry to be my proxy & to simply be the last person
to read
& to read the list of everyone who had read before him. Sure
enough, the
crowd roared with disapproval with Keith Worz (usually creative in
his
heckling) going so far as to try to cut apart Richard's names list
with
scissors while Richard attempted to read it.
- next 2 t he keswick home 4 t he incurables across from t he
rotunda,
Baltimore, us@
- Monday, February 2 (Groundhog's Day), 1981
- While embedded between 2 floors of a building I listened to a
"hypnotic"
tape that I'd made which attempted to convince me that I could walk
thru walls
& perform other extraordinary defiances of "consensus reality".
The
audience was kept at a distance from this action by 2 "bodyguards".
(Kirby Malone & Richard Elsberry). The
"attempt" was either witnessed thru doorways or on 2 monitors which
were
stacked vertically - the top monitor showing the top half of my body
in 1 room
& the bottom monitor showing the bottom half of my body in
another. Because
none of my flesh showed, it was unclear to those who had arrived late
whether
there was even a body in the clothes. This was sponsored by Desire
Productions.
- APT 81, Peking Poolroom, Montréal, CaNada
- Mercredi, 18 Février, 1981
- First, I explained to the audience that I was going to kiss
everyone there
while I said the word "Pleasure" in 26 different languages. Each
audience
member was to rate which word they thought was most pleasurable to be
kissed
during the saying of. This explanation was translated into French
from English
by Kiki Bonbon. I proceeded to do as explained while a tape of mine
played as
"background usic". Most of the audience was male, 1 of the women
refused to be
kissed, & there was general extreme discomfort with such an
intimacy from a
"stranger".
- Second, the audience was led to the bathroom where they were
asked, again
with Kiki translating, to write the names of all of the objects in
the room on
those objects. The purpose of this was to make everyone more
conscious of how
much language surrounds us. This deteriorated into a more ordinary,
but still
"spirited", graffiti session.
- Finally, having moved to the bedroom, it was explained, Kiki
translating,
that I was going to read from the "Arabian Nights" removing all
vowels - as I
had heard is done in Arabic writing. This was, of course, a
deliberate absurd
misinterpretation of "scholarly" information meant to reduce a
narrative text
to gibberish & to provide a ridiculous challenge for the
translator.
- APT 81, Peking Poolroom & the streets, Montréal,
CaNada
- Samedi, 21 Février?, 1981
- In the kitchen, the oven door was open with a turntable on
it. The
turntable had a record on it which I had painted with
glow-in-the-dark paint.
The main lighting in the room was from a clamp lamp over the
turntable &
from lasers which were set up to reflect off steam irons (a neoist
symbol of
severity) held by Kiki Bonbon & Zbigniew Brotgehirn. While the
turntable
turned, I blotted out the record's light by spray-painting black on
it &
Richard Ellsberry (then known as Richard X) gave a lecture
accompanied by chalk
writing on the walls about the Krononautic Organism (the time travel
"society"
that those of us from Baltimore at this festival represented). Ruth
Turner did
something out on the roof adjacent to the kitchen. Doug Retzler
wandered the
streets of Montréal, under the influence of LSD, aiming a
low-intensity
portable laser into windows & doorways of bars & other
buildings
periodically calling the Peking Poolroom to interupt the lecture
& report
on his activities. The action more or less ended when Kiki asked
Zbigniew " Do
you really want to do this?" (i.e.: hold the steam irons to reflect
the lasers)
to which Zbigniew replied "No" & they stopped doing so.
- School 33, Baltimore, us@
- summer, 1981
- Two groups of "child-size" paper dolls were given to the
students to wear
& they were encouraged to write & draw on each other. Most of
the
students were uncomfortable in the restrictive "costumes" & 1 of
the girls
ripped her way out. After this, all of the students were encouraged
to do the
same - which they did with great gusto making a total mess &
throwing the
paper scraps around enthusiastically. I thought of this as my sly way
of
providing them with confining role models to break.
- Experimental High School -> the streets, Baltimore, us@
- fall, 1981
- Asked to co-teach a class at the Experimental High School, I
named the
class the No No Class & centered it around the teaching of
guerrilla
activities. At the 1st class I told the students that no matter how
well they'd
do in the class I planned to give them all "D"s (the lowest passing
grade)
since grades were aspects of a different political system than what
the class
represented. Some students dropped out immediately. They were then
shown 2
vaudeos of quasi-documentation of 2 "guerrilla theater" type actions.
At the
end of the 1st class, they were asked to bring umbrellas to the next
class.
- The 2nd class consisted of my having the students walk down
the sidewalks,
tightly clustered together, with umbrellas over their heads - despite
its not
being rainy or sunny. The purpose of this was to force other
pedestrians to
have to navigate under the moving variable height ceiling that the
clumped
umbrellas created. As the finalé, we blocked the entrance of a
supermarket until a guard chased us away.
- Public Works Festival, Toronto, CaNada
- October, 1981
- Eugenie Vincent & I were tied to the roof of a rented car
to attract
attention to us while we drove around the city with signs advertising
the
festival we were to participate in & "HOMEX" - the magazine that
1 of the
drivers, Ricki Kilreagan, was editor of. After 20 minutes or so, we
were
stopped by a cop, who was eventually joined by 2 others. The cops
tried to
figure out what they could charge us with & eventually decided on
"seatbelt
violation" - much to the general amusement.
- YYZ Gallery, Toronto, CaNada
- October 10, 1981
- As an impromptu contribution to the "Neoist" night at the
Gallery, Eugenie
Vincent stripped, with her face wrapped with toilet paper (so that no
photographs could be used to incriminate her in case she were to run
for
political office later), & lay on the floor. Unwanted left-overs
from a
very authentic Chinese meal we'd had earlier (cow's lung or some
such) was
spread out on her chest & abdomen. The audience was told that
whoever ate
the most food off of Genie without using their hands would win a free
Chinese
dinner. Of course, we knew that it was unlikely that anyone would
want to eat
any more chinese food after undergoing this experience but we figured
that at
least a few people in the audience would want to eat this slop off of
the
naked girl. I, most likely, conceived of all this & acted as
judge.
Ricki Kilreagan attempted to play some sort of kitsch tv music.
Sin-Dee Heidel
probably assisted in some way or another. 2 or more guys from the
audience
tried to eat the food off of Eugenie. I think everybody but 1 guy
dropped out
repulsed by the food. The remaining one who would've won pulled out a
pocket
knife in a frenzy of sexual aggressiveness & started scooping up
the food
with it. He was disqualified as a result & no-one won. To top it
off, a
sleazy Yugoslavian Photographer chased Genie around, still naked with
toilet
paper wrapped around her face, photographing in an "artistic" frenzy.
This same
photographer documented Skin Transfer (#46) - telling us "I believe
in you" but
refusing to give us copies of the photos. Hhmmm..
- APT 4, Montréal, CaNada
- October, 1981
- Wearing sandwich boards that said in English & French:
"Neoist Parking
Meter Action - Pay Me to Go Away" & wearing a parking meter hood
over my
face, I stood at empty parking places & waited for cars to park
there. Then
I followed the drivers when they left their cars with an impassive
face &
my hand out-stretched mechanically. The drivers all avoided me by
walking
somewhere where I wasn't - after which I left a Neoist Parking Ticket
under
their windshield wiper. Finally disgusted by what I thought was a
mediocre
response to my imaginative begging, I started to walk back to the LOW
theatre.
En route, 2 guys stopped me & asked me what I was doing. When I
explained,
they thought it was so funny that they pretended to get out of a car
& gave
me money.
- APT 4, Montréal, CaNada
- October, 1981
- Wearing my Tim Ore clothes, I set up an easel with a canvas on it in a
park across from the Mont Royal Cathedral. Going thru painterly gestures such
as extending my thumb to "check perspective", I proceeded to paint a very crude
depiction of a house that wasn't intended to look like the cathedral. Keeping a
straight face, I knew that people would look over my shoulder & look at the
painting & think that I was some sort of "poor crazy man" & give me
wide berth after seeing my "crazy" picture. It amused me that a simple child's
painting of a house with a smoking chimney (or some such) when placed in this
context could become a catalyst for fear. Eventually, 2 people had the nerve to
ask me if I was attempting to paint the cathedral. I laughed & explained
what I was doing - after which they were relieved & explained that, sure
enough, they'd been afraid to talk to me because they thought I was crazy.
Things aren't always what they seem, eh?
- APT 4, LOW Theatre, Montréal, CaNada
- October 15?, 1981
- Wanting to only perform street actions during this festival
but wanting to make money off of them by charging entry to the LOW theatre (a
basement apartment with a bay window in the front) I decided to charge
admittance to the theatre & then perform my actions outside so that the audience
would be watching thru the bay window what they could have watched for free
from outside. With a tv outside facing in (or inside facing out with the
reflection visible inside?) showing video of the previous 2 street actions, I
stood outside trying to sell "Neoist Passports" (large, elaborately folded
& rubber stamped "blackprints" made from passports of Istvan Kantor's
that he'd had altered by various friends & aquaintances in his travels)
which I was trying to sell for some ridiculously LOW price - something like
$3.00. Probably few people, if anyone, paid to enter the theatre. No-one would buy a
passport off this "deranged-looking" character. As usual, I didn't make any
money - but I'm sure that whatever free meal I got that day courtesy of Gordon W.
Zealot & Monty Cantsin was delicious!
- APT 4, Vehicule Art & someone's home, Montréal, CaNada
- October, 1981
- Announcing our intention to launch the money-making activity to be known
as "American Manoeuvres" at Vehicule Art, Monty Cantsin/Istvan
Kantor, Gordon W. Zealot, & I presented a ceremony primarily steered by Monty.
Monty later got us some home repair work where I fixed a doorbell successfully
& poorly caulked a bath-tub & where the 3 of us tried to fix the roof.
Monty & Gordon may've painted a room. I was paid enough money for this to
take a train back to Baltimore. So much for American Manoeuvres.
- 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.
- 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 von Rinteln) & 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- the Sixth International Apartment Festival, the streets to
Phillips
Square, Montréal, CaNada
- Lundi, 21 Février, 1983
- Boris Wanowitch drove his car with the steam irons painted on
it thru
Montréal. Mounted on top was a P.A. system connected to a tape
player
& a microphone on the inside. Monty Cantsin/Istvan Kantor played
a tape of
some of his dramatic electro-pop music with sirens & such-like
Apopolyptic
sound effects & provided a voice-over of neoist slogans provided
mainly by
him & myself such as "We Are Not Subject to the Lies of Science"
&
"Neoism Now & Then!". We were stopped by the police & given a
ticket
within 20 minutes for some sort of noise violation. When we reached
Phillips
Square, we continued with our broadcasting & got out of the car
to display
the usual neoist eye-grabbers: flaming steam irons, etc & to
promote the
festival.
- the Sixth International Apartment Festival, Consulat Neoiste,
Montréal, CaNada
- Vendredi, 25 Février?, 1983
- I explained my purpose in English. After each of my sentences
or phrases,
Monty Cantsin/Istvan Kantor translated them into Hungarian &
Mario Campo
translated them into French. As the difficulty of translating my
calculatedly
fractured English became too ridiculous, Istvan's translation became
more &
more his own free-flowing (&, probably, self-promotional)
statement &
Mario took the liberty of changing "tentatively, a convenience" into
"tentatively, an inconvenience". I explained that one could perform
Blo-Dart
Acupuncture &/or Ear-Piercing on a potential assailant by
astutely
diagnosing whatever problem was behind their hostile aggressiveness
&
healing them before they could get to you. I provided a life-size
acupuncture
chart which Alan Lord then proceeded to blow a dart at by way of
demonstration.
Given that the chart was meant to be of a man but was lacking a
penis, it was
decided that this potential assailant's problem was fairly
obvious &
he was thusly given a PRICK.
- Best of Baltimore Ceremony, Pier 6, Baltimore, us@
- Thursday, August 11, 1983, 6:30PM
- Having been nominated as 1 of "BalTimOre's Best" by Dave
Bakker, I was
awarded, while wearing my Tim Ore clothes, at a mayoral ceremony. The
mayor
remembered me for years after this & presumably wondered what
exactly I'd
received the nomination for.
- That Frame Place, Baltimore, us@
- Sunday, August 28, 1983
- Surrounded by the environment of my Tim Ore exhibit, I sang a
19th century
american song about the wonderful socio-sexual advantages of having a
moustache
(ever notice how almost all the guys in porno movies have them?)
while wearing
the Tim Ore clothes I projected a slide show on general Tim Ore lore
& the
history of Famous Moustaches - including such figures as Groucho
Marx, Hitler,
Dali, John Waters, & Frank Zappa.
- 14BX Sub-Par/Con (The 3rd Church & Foundation of the
SubGenius
Convention), a Baltimore Train Tunnel, us@
- September 18, 1983, very early morning
- A wire was stretched across the train tunnel thru an eye hook
& 2
partially truncated & mummified dog corpses that I'd found there
that had
apparently been run over by trains were hung from the wire on either
side of
the tracks. A metal sheet with instructions for using Black &
Decker power
tools with a No Copyright symbol spray-painted on it was suspended
between the
dogs. The dogs were painted white with the words "Poop" painted on 1
of them
& "Pee" painted on the other & glowing cyalume light sticks
were placed
between their rear legs. The walls of the tunnel were spray-painted
with
non-intersecting (except for, perhaps, the occasional accident)
squiggly lines
which I associated somehow with native Australian dreamtime culture.
A strobe
light flashed, someone made the dogs dance by tugging on the wire,
& Ron
Cummings manipulated & played tapes that he'd made of him beating
on the
dead dogs. I was naked except for my shoes & socks & I had
white
squiggly lines painted on me. I danced & gyrated wildly &
beat the dogs
& the thunder sheet with a club. The dogs were on fire &
exuded what
one might call a "foul" smell. I had been entrusted with the sacred
head of
Arnold Palmer by a representative of the Bloody Head Launcher's
Society which I
had set on fire & which I was also beating about the tunnel. The
title of
this ceremony was a reference to "Pee-Dog" comix by Jay Condum &
Gary
Panter & "Poop-Dog" comix (which was a friendly rip-off of
"Pee-Dog") by
the Reverends Ivan Stang & Sterno Keckhaver. Eventually a large
quantity of
police came (from the railroad cops, the city police, & the
nearby federal
reserve bank guards) because 1 of the attendees reported having
witnessed
something "horrible & immoral" & I was arrested. When the
"news" found
out about this (it was done partially as a publicity stunt anyway)
they
"reported" that I was a "Cult Leader" who was "praying to the dogs"
etc. Very
little attempt was made to actually find out who I really was or what
I
actually was doing & when I was interviewed what I actually had
to say was
considered too weird to quote. I was quoted both in the newspapers
& on tv
as saying things that I hadn't said by people who hadn't even been
present at
the time when I'd supposedly said them. The cop who'd arrested me
bought a
photo of this ceremony from me. Another cop who'd allegedly been on
the "force"
for 26 years was quoted as saying in the newspapers "I'd rather run
up against
a man with a gun than a situation like that!" The beat goes
on..
- That Frame Place, APT 7, Baltimore, us@
- Thursday, September 22, 1983
- At Dave Bakker's suggestion he & I combined some of our
generic motifs
into 1 "performance". This took place in the space of the Tim Ore
show. I was
dressed in the Tim Ore clothes & Dave was dressed in an austere
black suit.
We began by dragging our way across the floor to each other from
opposite ends
of a rope that had strings attached to it that were attached to
various objects
in the room such as an approximately 3 foot tall inflatable
"cave-man" & a
table & chair, etc. Hence, when we pulled on the rope the objects
attached
to it moved. Dave was under a transparent plastic sheet. A tape
played of muzak
from an "easy-listening" radio station that ended with a news report
about the
Inauguration of the Bal Tim Ore Underground Club. When Dave & I
met at the
middle of the rope & the middle of the room, Dave came out from
under the
plastic & we toasted to each other with rum & coke. Dave
stood on a
table at 1 end of the space while a tape played with a simple Casio
music-track
& a voice-over of Dave's that began with "Sitting alone in an
empty
hospital room.." & included "Sitting & thinking about
thinking about
nothing..". The voice-over stopped & the music picked up speed.
Dave
removed his suit to reveal pajama bottoms with rappelling gear
surrounding the
crotch that may've seemed like some specialty sexual apparatus to the
audience.
His chest was wrapped tightly with wide clear plastic tape with some
sort of
medical device in the center. He started to rapidly wrap his face
very tightly
with more of the same tape so that his face became very distorted. He
sat &
pulled on strings that were strung thru the ceiling & down to
inverted
mannequin legs that were sticking up from the floor. His manipulation
caused
the legs to clack open & closed. I, as Tim Ore, performed the
same "If
You've Only Got a Moustache" presentation described in a previous
entry. Dave
laid down on a stretcher that he'd made that had a large, stitched
wound in the
middle of it. This stretcher was tied to the same rope used earlier.
I dragged
the stretcher & Dave across the room by pulling on the rope -
knocking over
all the objects that the rope was attached to in the process &
various
other objects in the way. When Dave reached a window, he attached a
rope to his
rappelling gear & climbed out the window still wrapped in tape
& in his
pajama pants. I jumped out another window which, unbeknownst to the
audience,
led to another room rather than to the outside. Dave's exit was so
spectacular
that no-one except Monty Cantsin/Istvan Kantor noticed me
leave.
- Baltimore, us@
- Saturday, November 19, 1983
- A large group of people were organized by R.U.T.S/L.E.R.
(Random Universe
Tours & Services (Doug Retzler) & the League for Esthetic
Research (Dan
Carney & Alec Bernstein)) to add the unusual to the traditional
Thanksgiving Parade. Many, many people participated. Some of the
people like
Laure Drogoul, Nancy Andrews, Liz Downing, & Gabrielle
Hourticulon made
floats relevant to Thanksgiving traditions. Gabrielle pulled a live
turkey in a
cage. This was considered to be so offensive that she was thrown out.
Many of
the floats were parodies of the military with camouflage &
dancing
missiles. I was wearing camouflage coveralls & a Reagan Mask.
Strapped to
my feet were baby dolls that made some sort of crying noise when they
were
squeezed (or walked on). I had a friend, Matty, wear another Reagan
mask &
we tied a long banner between us by attaching it to our necks. The
banner had
this "Thanksgiving Prayer" on it: "Give Us Today A Conquered Nation
So Many
More May Suffer Starvation". With substantial difficulty we walked
the full 3
or more miles of the parade & with our arms outstretched "like
Zombies" -
much to the enthusiastic response of the crowds lining the streets.
Our group
was so large that the parade officials made us split up into 3
different
segments to diffuse our potency. 1 of these segments (2 floats &
miscellaneous other things) were thrown out of the parade for
"getting out of
order".
- Emergency Show, M.A.P., Baltimore, us@
- Friday, December 9, 1983
- I had gotten to know drunks that were squatting in the
building next to
where I was residing. Their form of squatting had an unhygenic
destructiveness
reflective of their alcoholic/economic hopelessness. They used their
2nd floor
as a toilet/dump. The floor was covered with Thunderbird bottles,
piss,
diarrhea, & cigarette butts. They drank & fought & passed
out on
the 3rd floor. Their difficulties in many ways paralleled my own
& their
proximate despair helped increase my own. Having been threatened by 1
of the
more psychotic of the winos, I was totally paranoid 1 night that he
intended to
force me into a confrontation in which 1 of us might kill the other.
I decided
to use this crisis as creative fuel & conducted a "live" radio
show via the
telephone in which I gave a "blow-by-blow" description of the
accumulating fear
& my way of dealing with it - with music & effects mixed in
by the WJHU
"DJ" Ron Cummings. Eventually the situation calmed down & the
drunks &
I established a fairly stable & friendly relationship. Having
been invited
to participate in the "Emergency" show I decided to transplant the
misery of my
neighbor's & my life to the gallery. I partitioned off a 2 room
space &
covered the floor with T-Bird bottles. I offerred to pay the winos to
participate in the "performance" simply by attending it & talking
to
people. On the day of the "show", there was a larger group than usual
of
alcoholics waiting to help me. Some of them I'd never met before.
They had
misunderstood me & thought that I needed to assemble a gang for
some sort
of rumble. When they finally figured out that they weren't there to
fight some
of them dropped out. By the time the "Alternatives.." started there
were only 3
of them left. The space was crowded, the bottles were being kicked
around, my
"paranoia" tapes were playing, & there was an open mike that
people were
encouraged to use. The drunks were being very vocal - in some cases
being
political & talking about alcoholism & in 1 case just being
"out-of-control". The atmosphere was intense & claustrophobic. I
was
passing around joints the contents of which I wouldn't identify (it
was oregano
with perfume) to try to increase the paranoia. After enough "joints"
had
circulated & the claustrophobia seemed strong enough, I had my
father come
in (none of my friends knew him), wearing a policeman's uniform with
a german
shepherd on a leash, & just walk thru the crowd. He's had a
tracheotomy, so
I didn't have him say anything to break the paranoid illusion of his
being a
"real" cop until he left the 2 rooms where the "Alternatives.." was
happening.
I'd originally tried to get the railroad cop who'd arrested me for
the "Poop
& Pee Dog Copyright Violation Ceremony" to do this but his
commanding
sargeant wouldn't permit it. My intention in creating this situation
was to
simultaneously make the gallery attendees more aware of the
oppressive misery
of the drunks' lives & to give the drunks a paid vacation
from it
where what they had to say was of primary importance.
- a house in Baltimore, us@
- December 25, 1983
- Deciding that it would be more fun to work than to spend
Christmas with
our relatives, Doug "Sumu Pretzler" Retzler & I once again
recorded a visit
to "Lacquerland" (see #s 17 & 23). It was decided that every day
is
February 29th there & that the pterodactyl seems to be the most
common
bird.
- t he telectropheremoanin'quinquennial, Galaxy Ballroom,
Baltimore, us@ -
Tuesday, January 24, 1984
- This was the occasion of the 5th anniversary of the Baltimore
Underground
Telephone Network. The word "telectropheremoanin'" being a pun that
combined
"telectro" (as in having to do with telephone communications) with
"pheremones"
(lust inducing biological signals) with "moanin'" (as in moaning with
pleasure). This pun was the theme of the night. I had paid a phone
sex
prostitute by mail to be called by me that night. In case there was
any problem
with that I'd asked my friend Lisa "Wet-Legs" (as she became known
after this
night) to act as a back-up. The basic idea was that I'd call the
prostitute
& broadcast our conversation to the bar's audience - gradually
making it
more & more perverse. As my conversation was to get stranger, the
booed
usicians were to gradually start playing until their sounds would
drown out the
conversation. The booed usicians were: Mark Harp (tapes & radio),
Craig
Considine (trombone), Ron Cummings (tapes, records, & mixing
board), Leroy
Keltner (trombone), & myself (tapes). There was "trouble on the
line" at
the phone sex prostitute's so Lisa substituted. Lisa had gotten
mysteriously
sick earlier, had vomited & passed out - my call awoke her. This
added to
the general feeling of it all. Suggestions from the audience were
taken &
someone's friend was called too. I was too drunk &/or inhibited
to carry on
a very good conversation so the extremely able Buddy Johnson was
called in to
relieve me. The highlight of his conversation with Lisa for me was
their
reminiscing about school-days they never had together when he pulled
out his
"short fat pancake" & she "covered it with Mrs. Butterworth's".
Throughout
the "phone sex" & the booed usic that encroached on it, an hour
long
analysis projector transfer to video of the 16mm version of my film
"Subtitles"
was shown on a large video projection screen.
- Madrid, Spain
- May 1984
- Erecting a banner reading "Eso Es Una Quimera Colectivo"
(intended to mean
"We Are A Figment of The Collective Imagination") a group of 6 or
more of us
(including Ricki Kilreagan & Gail Litfin) made alotof noise while
kids
romped around us wearing cylindrical boxes around their feet &
lower legs
that we'd originally brought as drums. This was late at night in a
public
square with a central statue & was brought to a halt when an old
woman from
a near-by apartment building came out & chastised us for
disturbing the old
& infirm.
- the Neoist Network's 8th Apartment Festival, London Musicians
Collective, London, UK
- Wednesday, May 23, 1984
- Pete Horobin/Monty Cantsin had drawn a brain on my mostly
shaved head. My haircut at the time was a circle that went around 1 ear in the front
& the other ear in the back. There was an upside-down & backwards
question mark on the back. This was before I had my brain tattoo. For the "Chapati
Circus" I wore a green clown wig hiding it all & a clear plastic "normal"
face mask. My clothes were a jump suit made by & given to me by Nancy
Andrews that had "Discover a Lovelier You" written neatly on it with pictures of
plastic surgery - including "nose jobs" & "tummy tucks". Continuing the tradition
of free neoist haircuts, I had Monty/Pete cut my wig & lather my mask. To
climax this grotesque farce, I eventually ripped my transparent mask apart
in the process of shaving it & Pete pulled off my wig to reveal my
"brain" & the spectacle of my head underneath.
- the Neoist Network's 8th Apartment Festival, London, UK
- late May, 1984
- My lover/travelling companion of the time, Gail Litfin, was
diabetic. She'd had laser surgery on her left eye which had left that eye
blind. Her right eye had hemorrhaged so that all she could see was the red blur
of the pool of blood there. She was legally blind. Since I was leading her
around, we joked about me being her "seeing-eye dog". We bought a dog mask from
a store specializing in animal masks (where Gail almost got caught
shoplifting) & added a leash to my outfit for "completeness". The Festival's
organizer, Monty Cantsin/Pete Horobin, shot a film of Gail leaving our fest HQ with me
on all fours as her "guide dog" (as they say in England), boarding a bus
(where guide dogs ride for free, of course, & the driver didn't question the
unusualness of this particular dog), & shopping in a mall (where we were
kicked out of 1 store).
- Paris, France
- late May?, 1984
- I was periodically visiting my friends Reinhardt U. Sevol
& Via Vidorae in Paris. Reinhardt was an avid at the time &
wasn't planning to participate in the London Apartment Festival so we
decided to form another group to perpetrate actions. Those present at this founding
were Eugenie Vincent, Via, Reinhardt, Gail Litfin, & myself. The name
of the group, Ton Tocock Schisme, was a mesostic made from the names of
previous groups that we'd been involved with. Reinhardt made a flier
announcing "La Fondation d'une Clinique d'une Réalité Cyniquement Inversive". Later,
Reinhardt, Via, & I made a film of the only series of actions made in the
name of this group that I know of. My main part in it was wearing chef's
coveralls that R.U.S. had swiped from his hotel kitchen job which had the title
& credit for the film on it while laying on my back on the longest
pedestrian conveyor belt in the Paris subway. Reinhardt filmed while people
navigated their way past my obstacle.
- near the White House, Washington DC, us@
- October 31 (Halloween Day), 1984, 10:30AM - 1PM
- In an action conceived of & co-ordinated by Doug Retzler,
people wore
cardboard "Halloween" masks with Reagan faces on them with null signs
over them
& distributed anti-Reagan literature to convince voters to vote
for anyone
but him. The gist of the message was "If You're Not Scared, You Ought
To Be." I
was photographed by the secret service while wearing mine. If only
Reagan could
have been arrested as a result in a case of mistaken identity,
eh?
- the Severn Institute, Annapolis, us@
- December 8, 1984
- I made a form love letter which had the dual function of
exploiting the
aphrodisiacal qualities of romanticism & making fun of the
absurdity of it.
I often filled in the name of a person that I was sincerely attracted
to &
gave the letter to them in places where the lighting was so low it
wasn't
obvious it was a xerox. Even though the letter was written in a
deliberately
"poetic" overkill style, I found most women to be surprisingly
responsive to
it. My intention hadn't been to "humiliate" anyone but just to have a
mutual
laugh over the ridiculousness of my own extreme romanticism &
that of
anyone who might share it. Sometimes it backfired somewhat. For this
reading, I
addressed the letter to 2 different women & had them read it
simultaneously.
- The Saint Mark's Poetry Project, New York City, us@
- Monday, May 27, 1985
- This was meant to be a fairly straight-forward presentation
of some of my
films with my presence adding little more to it than the possible
giving out of
MIKE FILM DISTRIBUTION FORMS (forms containing some of the
approximately 46,800
super-8 frames of film that I'd cut up for the purpose of having them
put in
odd places around the world + information about what other people had
done with
theirs) & my cutting a "double negative" symbol into my leg with
an exacto
knife while my film "A Double Negative As Not A Positive" (a
quasi-document
made with HannaH AvivA / Casandra vonRinteln of us cutting into each
other's
skin with exacto knives). Much to my surprise though, the audience
called me a
psychopath (which I sometimes think of myself as) & tried to stop
the
showing of "Neoist Guide Dog" (see the entry about this) because they
thought I
was exploiting the "poor blind woman". Much to the
projectionist/organizer Mark
Nasdor's credit he resisted them & the short "show" went to its
conclusion.
- Cafe Anthrax, Stamford, Connecticut, us@
- May 30, 1985, 8PM
- I don't remember much of what I did for this other than the
usual
presentation of films & vaudios but I do remember not having any
pants on
when the cops arrived there. Much to my surprise I wasn't arrested -
despite
the fact that the majority of my audience were probably
teenagers.
- t he No Business as Usual Benefit, St Johns Church,
Baltimore, us@
- June 29, 1985
- More video simultaneous with booed usic in which the main
other visual
element was me frantically trying to save the borrowed stereo
amplifier that I
was blowing. The booed usicians: Beef Jerky (guitar), Herr Brain
Storm Drain
(percussion), myself (tapes, records, radio, ring modulator,
voice).
- Galaxy Ballroom, Baltimore, us@
- Monday, January 27, 1986, 9 - 11:30PM
- Attendees were given a paper entitled "19 Preposterous Lies
About What
Will & Will Not Happen" & a Mike Film Form Letter (see a
previous entry
for a superficial explanation of this 1) & a "bruise"
rubber-stamping to indicate that they paid when they entered. I wore
shoes made
from loaves of bread; presented films, slides, & vaudeos; cut a
"double
negative" shape in my leg; I read Tony Lowe's "Universal Famine
Appeal" while
launching his balloons with slogans on them like "Thoughts Can Fly";
the
audience was prompted to "sing along" to the "graphic notation" of my
film
"Sound Along W/ t he Bounding Ball(s)"; & the booed usicians
played. For
this occasion they were: Herr Brain Storm Drain (percussion, cornet),
Beef
Jerky (small instruments, etc..), Mark Harp (tapes), Norman Yeh
(violin &
piano), & myself (tapes, records, & radios). Projectionist:
Joan
Lobell. To quote from the "19 Lies" flier "The average person prefers
to only
experience the consonant - by which I mean experience which they fool
themselves into thinking that they are comfortably familiar with. I
do not want
the average person near me. I prefer the dissonant vowels. That's a
thought to
take into consideration when you wonder why I might lie when
publicizing public
it shows (mad scientist didactions) that I instigate &
participate
in."
- Tufts University, Massachussetts, us@
- Thursday, April 17, 1986, 9 - 11PM
- This didaction had the usual mix of films, vaudeos,
anecdotes, slides,
& booed usic - with the addition (which became a staple thruout
the "6
Fingers Crossed Country T.Ore/Tour" that this was the 1st installment
of) of
mechanical "lewd" dancing during the projection of the peep show
movie "Balling
Tim Ore is Best" (that I co-made as Tim Ore with Dick Hertz). I was
naked
except for a sweatshirt with a model of 6 tits on it, ankle bells,
& a
plastic ball & chain that had "work" painted on it during this
latter. The
booed usicians were: Michael Bloom (guitar), Norman Yeh (violin &
lyre),
Jake Dillon (amplified electric football game - unfortunately most of
his
equipment had been recently stolen so this didn't work very well),
& myself
(tapes, records, & radios). Projectionist: Joan Lobell.
- the Bunker of
La Société de Conservation du
Présent,
Montréal, CaNada
- Samedi, 19 Avril, 1986
- John Berndt & I built a maze out of muslin (brought
especially for
this purpose) at the entrance of this space. While people were
filtering in,
Steve Estes' 1/2 hour student video "Drinking & Smoking" was
shown. This
tape is a close-cropped shot showing Steve from the neck down to
mid-torso
& his arms opening a bottle of whiskey & a pack of cigarettes
on a
table in front of him. He then drinks the bottle of whiskey (a pint
if I
remember correctly) in its entirety during the course of the tape
until he
slumps forward onto the table. The booed usic gradually came in
during this. I
was wearing my "Hair Suit" (a pair of coveralls covered with wigs -
an obvious
pun on "hirsute") & the usual combination of booed usic, slide
show, films,
skin cutting, "robotic" lewd dancing with "6 tits" + "ball &
chain" + ankle
bells, vaudeos, attempts to get the audience to "sound along", &
anecdotes
was presented. Representatives of the S.C.P. typed in a description
of the
(did)action while it was happening into a computer which displayed
their typing
on a screen to the audience. This is the "show" that led to 1 idiot
labelling
me a "pornographer disguising himself as an artist". The booed
usicians: John
Berndt (organ), Norman Yeh (violin & lyre), Guy Boulanger
(sound-board
& effects), & myself (tapes, records, radios). Projectionist:
Joan
Lobell.
- Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland, UK
- Friday, June 17, 1988
- See the previous entry for a description of the beginning.
When I'd
entered with the busking unit, Laura Trussell plugged in the PXL
camcorder to
the tv showing in the front of the suitcase to show the audience
itself &
to create feedback. Then I introduced the night by saying "Hello,
welcome to
the unpopular, but non-elitist, cobbley world of user-friendly
spectacle..
[more specific blither about the Philosopher's Union, etc..] ..&
please
keep in mind that Laura & I are the audience & you're the
performers -
which isn't, by the way, a role-reversal, since performers we will
never be.. -
ANYWAY, enjoy yourself & MIND THE GAP!!" At some
point I'd
congratulate them for having known the password - explaining that
we'd had to
turn away 157 (or whatever) people who hadn't known it (that got a
few laughs).
Then there was 2 hours of "Philosopher's Mouthpieces" - during the
ones that
were non-lingual (particularly Valerie Dearing's) I probably added
busking unit
audio.
- Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland, UK
- Saturday, June 18, 1988
- See the previous 2 entries. This basically combined the
"best" of both of
these nights in the most linear & didactic way.
- Glasgow Suburban Branch - Bal Tim Ore Undergound Club,
Glasgow, Scotland,
UK
- Wednesday, June 29, 1988
- Glasgow is 2nd only to London as the railroad capitol of the
UK. It had
had (& still has?) various competing railroads & had some
abandoned
lines as a result. Laura Trussell & various new friends of ours
& I
explored Glasgow trying to find a suitable underground location to
found a
"club". We finally picked an abandoned subway station underneath a
botanical
garden. Decorating the club with two 5 foot long papier maché
"boats"
from the Transmission basement & various other things, we
inaugurated the
club with about 17 people. We provided free booze, badges (buttons)
made by
Mark Pawson that identified the club somehow but were printed
black-on-black in
honor of the subterranean darkness, & set up the busking unit
& let
them play with it. The station had large air vents that vented in the
botanical
gardens park but they were surrounded by bushes & most people
probably
didn't even know they were there. So when the busking unit was
playing, people
walking by in the park would hear strange sounds coming from the
bushes.
Eventually, someone must've alerted the cops to these sounds because
they
forced their way thru the bushes & shone flashlights down into
the pit to
try to see what was going on. Threatening to flush us out with dogs
if we
didn't come out, we finally left. Fortunately, by then, the party had
already
basically climaxed. There were no arrests.
- Tentsmuir Park, Scotland, UK
- July 11, 1988
- Laura A. Trueseal, Pete Horobin, & I lugged about 120
pounds or more
of equipment for several miles at my not-very-enthusiastically
received
suggestion so that I could play with the booed usic busking unit (see
previous
entries for explanation) in front of seals in their natural habitat.
I'd wanted
to wear a seal mask while doing so to "attempt to blend in" (more to
observe
their reaction) but Dundee's modest costume shop only had Donald Duck
representing the aquatic world so I reluctantly rented the duck mask.
In order
to reach where the seals were, we had to ford a narrow point of an
arm of the
North Sea to reach a sand bar & walk further out on it. When we
arrived,
most of the seals slithered into the water to watch from greater
safety. Their
heads bobbed up & down - continuously looking in our direction.
Only a
couple of younger seals stayed ashore. 1 older 1 stayed briefly but
finally
left somewhat sluggishly. I stripped & put on the Donald Duck
mask &
set up the busking unit to play it. The seals were too far away to
have much of
an experience of that, especially considering that it wasn't very
loud in
contrast to the sea & the wind, so I nervously decided to get in
the rather
cold water to give them a closer look at me at least. Knowing nothing
about
seals, & not being able to see very well with the mask on, I was
afraid the
seals might try to bite me thinking I was threatening their children.
Back
ashore again, I was squatting by the water-line when 1 of the younger
seals
approached from a few feet away curiously coming directly toward me.
Still
awkward as an inter-species diplomat (despite that being my partial
purpose for
being there) I started to stand to back away. This body language was
apparently
interpreted as an act of hostility & the seal hunched its back
& hissed
at me. So for those likely to "follow in my footsteps", don't hunch
your back
at a seal if you want to "break the ice".
- Festival of Non-Participation, VAUDIO Weekend, Dundee
Resource Center for
the Unemployed, Dundee, Scotland, UK
- Friday, July 22, 1988
- The space had an intricate Graham Harwood xerox mural on the
wall behind
me. Given that this was the Resource Center for the Unemployed &
that
Graham had lived on the dole for something like 8 years by this
point, this was
remarkably appropriate. There was a 4 foot screen tv in the middle
with a film
projection screen above & behind it. The booed usic busking unit
was on top
of the tv. Starting off wearing my "leper-skin suit" (a tattered
white linen
suit with color xerox heat transfers of pictures of lepers &
rotting skin
of lepers & an obvious take-off of the leopard-skin clothes that
were
popular when I made the suit), I eventually stripped off a layer to
reveal my
zipper clothes (pants & a jacket made entirely from zippers)
& during
the "Balling Tim Ore is Best" section unzipped the front of my jacket
to reveal
my "6 tits" sweatshirt. Following the usual procedure of showing
films &/or
vaudeos with anecdotal prefaces in between, by midway thru I'd added
the moving
around of a safety lamp to complicate the lighting, reveal the mural
when the
lights were otherwise off to enhance the projection situation, &
to enable
me to use the busking unit. For the last half of the show, I played
the busking
unit & presented Philosopher's Union Member's Mouthpieces on its
tv. For
the last 3rd of the night, I had "You Haven't Heard the Record, You
Haven't
Read the Book, NOW! Don't See the Movie!" projecting at a slow
speed
while a couple of other vaudeos preceeded its presentation on the tv
at a
faster speed - enabling the 2 versions to be out-of-sync, in-sync,
&
out-of-sync with each other again.
- the Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
- Saturday, July 30, 1988
- This was the pinnacle of my UK didactions in inside,
scheduled
circumstances. In an attempt to make my presence more exciting &
the films
& vaudeos less gruelingly long, I pared down the length of the
program
& added more planned action. Tired of the miniscule audiences, I
made a
poster on which I called myself a "FAMOUS NEW YORK PERFORMANCE ARTIST
&
CLOSE PERSONAL FRIEND OF GENESIS P. ORRIDGE". I did attract a
slightly
larger crowd but whether it had anything to do with my misleadingness
I don't
know. Amongst the new elements added to the usual simultaneous film,
vaudeo,
story-telling, & booed usic busking unit were my taking my vital
signs data
(as participation in Pete Horobin's decade-long data project). I had
drunk
alotof water beforehand so that I was wriggling with a desperate need
to pee
thruout. When I began to show my piss-in-the-mouth
SubGenius movie,
"Pee on
"Bob"'s Head", I finally allowed myself to pee
- thusly beginning the data section. I pissed thru a cored
banana - thusly
using the old extended dick in a banana joke. I was pissing into a
pint jar but
I'd had to piss so bad that it overflowed onto the floor. Then I used
a
urinalysis test strip, took my blood pressure & pulse,
etc..
- Festival of Non-Participation, Glasgow Green, Glasgow,
Scotland, UK
- Monday, August 8, 1988, 8PM
- Organized by Kenny Murphy-Roud (sp?), this part of the fest
was a burning
of art works on a garbage pile in a section of a park used for
sports. As Tim
Ore, I made a "gallery" painting with this text on it "The Artist
Does Not
Grant The Purchaser of This Painting the Right to Guard It in Any
Way". With
Laura A. Trueseal acting as my "agent" we made a show of selling the
painting
to Kenny for 1 pence. It was then burnt.
- Murraygate Shopping Mall, Dundee, Scotland, UK
- Saturday, August 13, 1988
- Busking is legal in Scotland. Therefore, buskers are a
regular feature of
shopping areas in Dundee. On the day that we decided to busk at
Murraygate,
there was a guy playing acoustic guitar & playing such things as
Simon
& Garfunkel songs. The only other busker there that day was doing
representational chalk drawing on the sidewalk. No-one seemed to pay
much
attention to them but they would throw them coins. We set up the
booed usic
busking unit in front of a John Menzies store. I was wearing my
zipper clothes
& had an infinity symbol shaped hair-do (it looked more like ring
worm
ouroborous). Vex (Mike Kane) played his guitar amplified thru the
busking unit.
L.A.W. (Laura Ann Walker) made more original & personalized chalk
drawings
than the usual fare. Laura A. Trueseal & I alternated between
shooting PXL
footage & "concrete mixing" with the busking unit. The mixers
allowed us to
move both our sounds & Vex's guitar playing thru the 4 speakers.
We put a
white shirt on the ground that had "Yes, This Is Busking!" written on
it &
I made an attempt to get people to give us money. We attracted a
fairly large
crowd of curious & baffled people, unlike the other buskers, who
actually
stayed & watched. However, again unlike the other buskers, only a
few
people would give us money. Eventually, the John Menzies employees
complained
to the police about the noise & about the crowd blocking their
store
without coming in & the police chased us away. We made
approximately 2
pounds. Pete Horobin shot a vaudeo quasi-document of all
this.
- during the Edinburgh International Theatre Festival (or
whatever it's
called), Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
- Saturday, August 20, 1988
- Setting up with the busking unit on a field of stones 40 feet
or so across
from a woman selling extremely generic water-color landscapes as a
part of some
sort of outdoor crafts fair. Playing the busking unit with dense
gusto, I
attracted a crowd who turned their backs on her water-colors. Georg
Ladanyi
shot a super-8 film of this (I'd like to see it some day Georg!).
However,
perhaps b