Monday 31 October 2011

Self-Portrait Day: My Halloween Costume @ DC's


Bollo

Over at Dennis Cooper's exemplary blog DC's the annual Halloween party is in full swing. My own costume is below, but you're best advised to take a wander round to see what everyone else wore. This being DC's, some outfits are decidedly NSFW. That's if your W isn't Halloween-friendly, anyway.

Self-Portrait Day: My Halloween Costume, Day 1 (of 2)

Self-Portrait Day: My Halloween Costume, Day 2 (of 2)

For Halloween I've come as Something Scary:

Sunday 30 October 2011

Halloween Hocus Pocus @ The Stud Farm 29.10.11

To the Perth Road last night for the mother of all Halloween fancy dress parties. I took a few photos and here they are:




Your correspondent as a dead Steve Jobs


Catherine as Grace Jones


Sarah as a bunch of grapes


Catrin as the News of the World


Fraser as Beyonce


Scott as Muammar Gaddafi


Claire as Lady Gaga








Stephen as a Jim Lambie sculpture that didn't sell at the Glasgow Art Fair


Andrew as the Human Centipede





Saturday 29 October 2011

Zazou Disco Terror Halloween Special @ Kage 28.10.11

To the Kage last night for Zazou, Dundee's spookiest nitespot. I took a few photos, and here they are:


A ghost, on the dancefloor




I like watching horror movies


Kelly as Laura Palmer: "She's dead. Wrapped in plastic."


Oscar as Dr. Herbert West - Reanimator


Yikes!


DJ Stefan Blomeier as Benny (or is it Björn?)




Standing room only




Assorted spooky goings on




Your correspondent in full zombie regalia




Haunted dancehall

Friday 28 October 2011

Zazou - !Disco Terror Halloween Special! Tonight from 11pm!



Il Discotto & Stefan Blomeier play spine chilling space vampire disco grooves, ghoulish giallo soundtracks and deranged VHS synth scores from beyond your most vivid hallucinatory nightmares.
Visuals will be choice cuts of the rarest and most obscure horror/nasty/sci-fi/mondo films the 70s/80s have to offer.
PRIZES FOR FANCY DRESS = think Dawn of the Dead meets Studio 54......

Kage nightclub, St Andrews Lane, Dundee

Tuesday 25 October 2011

A CUT A SCRATCH A SCORE @ Duncan of Jordanstone



An ambitious multimedia project taking place at various sites across Dundee, A CUT A SCRATCH A SCORE can hardly be faulted for a lack of ambition. Described by Duncan of Jordanstone Exhibitions as being “a comic opera in three parts”, the venture incorporates opera, comedy, drawings, sculpture and moving images, and will “act as a stage for the city and its people”. Open rehearsals took place last week in the art college’s Cooper Gallery, as well as two offsite locations: City Square and the Botanic Gardens, with a team of resident writers responding to and reflecting on the process on a blog. I caught up with Beth Savage, dramaturge, who has been working with artists Sam Belinfante, David Barnett, Bruce McLean and Adeline Bourret to ask a few questions:

The Skinny has no opera section. What part of the magazine should this go in?


I think you would have to invent a whole new section for this. Do you have an “undefined” section?

Describe A CUT A SCRATCH A SCORE to our readers.

The project started with a weeklong series of live events and discussions which will be followed by an exhibition both in the Cooper Gallery Dundee and then later in the RCA London.
It combines elements from opera, literature and visual art to create a stage on which to examine the notions of comedy, music and art within society.
It takes inspiration from Dundee’s comic industry and adopts the archetypes, such as the gentle giant and the mischief-maker, characters which we are all familiar with, and uses them to ‘score’ the ups and downs of modern life.
The project also approaches subjects such as collaboration and hierarchy in art. It aims to create a true collaboration between the artists and the city and to reject traditional conventions of a hierarchical system allowing each of the contributors to the project to have a sense of ownership and authorship of the work.
There were various open rehearsals and salons with the artists and writers as well as forums such as the blog in which those who attended the week’s events could have their say and continue the discussions which came up. I hope these will continue throughout the exhibition period as they opened up some very interesting discussions surrounding the ideas behind the work and the project has only just begun.

Did you, or any of the other artists and writers, have any opera
experience?


Lore Lixenberg is of course an amazing opera singer and Sam Belinfante has a very strong classical music background which has greatly informed the work. Bruce Mclean and David Barnett have also worked with various theatre projects during their careers.

Was there much scope for adapting the work as the week went on? Was there any room for improvisation?

The Open Rehearsals acted as a space for both experimentation and inspiration. For example I was writing the libretto live as the events unfolded, this was then the basic starting point for the following rehearsals and Culminating Performance. A lot of what happened on the night was subject to change and much of it was improvised.

How do you hope to engage the city’s residents with this project?


By taking to the streets and involving local projects such as the Dundee Drum Academy, and the choir and singers from Dundee there will be a certain amount of public participation and authorship. When making live art in a public space there are always these amazing incidents caused by people’s reactions which really enrich the experience. It changes the way people move through or use the space for the duration of the performance, sometimes even longer. Also by opening up the project to the public through the Open Rehearsals and Salons there is a chance for people to experience aspects of making the work which might otherwise have been hidden and perhaps even to influence the work through the discussion.

http://www.exhibitions.dundee.ac.uk/acut.html

Thursday 20 October 2011

Stefan Blomeier - The Danish Straits


"There is little known about the artistic persona of Stefan Blomeier. His recent music release Popular Electronics II / Radio Astronomy Research Laboratory Of Electronic Progress has given his persona something of a minor cult status and only increased the flow of rumours around the artist behind it.
In the run-up to the Netaudio commission for new works, a close associate of Stefan has released the following statement:
Early morning. Alone in the centre of an empty Aalborg traffic island, Stefan Blomeier listens to the cars in the distance. He hopes their humming might crowd out his past, smoothing over the angry dissonance. Far too much is at stake here. At moments like these, his memories are all cartoons and his achievements all computer games, and yet it is beautiful. Stefan Blomeier has never felt more alive than he does at this split-second pause-button image-capture video-tape freeze-frame."

http://synthseries.blogspot.com/2011/10/synth023stefan-blomeier-danish-straits.html


Stefan Blomeier @ _B_A

Tuesday 18 October 2011

receipts

Made a few purchases:


Kate Zambreno - Green Girl, £9.25


Kathy Acker - Blood and Guts in High School, £9.49


Le Comte de Lautréamont - The Songs of Maldoror (Solar Nocturnal), £6.16


Ragtyme featuring Byron Stingily - I Can't Stay Away 12", £15.00

Monday 17 October 2011

void


Salvador Dalí - Les Chants de Maldoror, 1934

Extract from Maurice Blanchot – The Experience of Lautréamont:

Reading Maldoror is a vertigo. This vertigo seems to be the effect of an acceleration of movement that, just like the encircling of fire, at the centre of which we find ourselves, provides the impression of a flamboyant void or of an inert and somber plenitude. Sometimes we see ourselves at the heart of an exceptionally active, sarcastic consciousness that it is hardly possible to fault. Sometimes this omnipresent agility, this whirlwind of lightning bolts, this storm overloaded with meaning, no longer offers the idea of a spirit in any way, but of a lumbering, blind instinct, of a dense thing, of this tenacious heaviness, proper to the body that undoes itself and to substances seized by death. These two impressions are superimposed; they necessarily go together. They give the reader a drunkenness that races to its fall and an inertia docile at his stagnation. In these conditions, how could he have the desire, and the means, to regain enough equilibrium to discern where he is falling? He proceeds and he sinks. Therein is his commentary.

Sunday 16 October 2011

AGK 2 post 15: Gayle Meikle and Alexandra Ross - I’m Sticking With You



“Gayle and Alexandra make public the fact that they are indeed BFFs and they like cats with things on their heads. Perhaps the most beautiful show of friendship and love EVER. Hugs for everyone”

Gayle Meikle - I'm Sticking With You from yucknyum on Vimeo.

AGK 2 post 14: Ben Robinson - Ghost Rider



“We can’t promise Ben will keep his clothes on, but we can promise this will be a must see”

Ben Robinson - Ghost Rider from yucknyum on Vimeo.

AGK 2 post 13: John Louden - Irreversible Assault



“Two pieces of cinematic mood music combined to make one. Unlikely to be found on any karaoke machine”

John Louden - Irreversible Assault from yucknyum on Vimeo.

AGK 2 post 12: Morgan Cahn - Kiss Me



Morgan Cahn - Kiss Me from yucknyum on Vimeo.

AGK 2 post 11: Skeleton Hopskotch - These Are The Things That I Like



“Hello! Skeleton Hopscotch here. You might like my music video because it’s a list of things I like. You might like them too.”

Skeleton Hopskotch - These Are The Things That I Like from yucknyum on Vimeo.

AGK 2 post 10: Holger Mohaupt - Autobarn



“From coast to coast in 4 seasons and 4 frames per second.
Please note the phonetic karaoke subs.”

Holger Mohaupt - Autobarn from yucknyum on Vimeo.

AGK 2 post 9: Hannah Maclure Centre Team - Addicted to Love



“Robert Palmer’s 1986 chauvinistic classic re-imagined by the team at Hannah Maclure Centre, with more pouting and better dancing”

Hannah Maclure Centre Team - Addicted to Love from yucknyum on Vimeo.

AGK 2 post 8: Dawn Campbell - Someone Like You



“The video consists of found cine (super 8) footage, which I projected onto the wall and filmed with an HD camera. I then edited a montage of clips which evoked some of the lyrics within the song.”

Dawn Campbell - Someone Like You from yucknyum on Vimeo.

Saturday 15 October 2011

AGK 2 post 7: Catrin Jeans and Sarah Messenger - You Spin Me



You Spin Me Round created by Sarah Waffle Burger Messenger and Catrin Jeans which won the Hannah Maclure Centre Micro cinema mini residency. HMC's very own Clare Brennan sang with mates Sean, Lesley and Simon.

Catrin Jeans and Sarah Messenger - You Spin Me from yucknyum on Vimeo.