The Sun Ra Ship is Leaving this Planet!
The REDCAT NOW Festival made the Sunday, Aug. 8 “Scene & Heard” column. Christine Marie had a great quote pulled stating “she began experimenting with the technique long before ‘Avatar.’ ‘I’m way ahead of James Cameron,’ she said with a laugh.”
Read the whole column here.
Here are some photos from our last night at REDCAT, taken by Steve Gunther.
FringeNYC finally worked out all of their show schedules last week. Ground to Cloud is officially show # 3928 and will have five performances at The New School for Drama Theatre. The first show starts August 19.
The closest link on the Fringe site is for all the shows starting with the letter G. Please go there and scroll down to read about the show. And please buy tickets!
Ground To Cloud
45 min
N/A until 8/17
Aug. 18/Aug. 31
Ground to Cloud
A Special Bay Area Preview
Christine Marie & Ensemble present “Ground To Cloud,” a full-length theater spectacle of giant shadows, live action, and moments of 3D effects.
With special opening guest, Tobias of the Yard Dogs Roadshow
Plus Jonathan Youtt of The Big Tadoo Puppet Crew AND Vladamir Levitansky
Thursday, July 22
8pm to 11pm
$14 via Brown Paper Tickets
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/118172
$15 or more at the door
CELLspace
2050 Bryant St.
SF, CA 94110
This will be a preview performance and will make it’s premiere the following week in LA at the REDCAT NOW Fest and an east coast premiere in New York City in August for the New York City Fringe Festival.
Continue reading “[u] Ground to Cloud: July 22 at CELLspace”
Just posted this up in the HFt Productions page, and thought you all might like to see the final listing of all the tour dates from the past year. Every thing adds up to 60 stops, with only two cancellations. THANKS again to ALL the people who helped keep me on the road, in the air, and in the spaces with all these fun, stencil-related events. Things I did this year: digital slide presentations, skillshares, street art tours, stenciling demos, book signings, stencil VJ’ing, exhibits, interviews, window displays, budget stencil art sales, and much more!
Back in April, FORA.tv recorded the Stencil Nation presentation at Booksmith up on Haight St. in San Francisco. It has been posted on their site for a while (over 700 views, who knew?) but I decided not to spread the word until I finished the touring. With the Year of Stencil Nation finally complete, I present to you the presentation in all its guts and glory. Or should I say umms and uhs. This presentation changed over time (in Middle America, I opened up the presentation with pics of stencils and street art from Iran), and was always different. So here’s a unique slice of what was going down on tour a few months ago.
If you have Windows Player installed, you can see the Dec. 12, 2008 version of the presentation from A Cappella Books in Atlanta, GA (recorded by the Atlanta Forum Network).
The week has flown by. I drove over the Canadian/USA border at Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls almost a week ago. Got to see the falls from the bridge, and I didn’t need to stop to catch any other view. The border guard didn’t flinch at the big bike box in the back. If he had looked, he would’ve found a partial bike made from used parts. The back tire of the bike Martin Heath made for me began to squeak again. It started up after I pushed the coaster break. Martin said the back tire was shot and that I’d have to find another one in San Francisco.
Martin gave me a pass to see the opening of the Short Film Festival up on Bloor St. Then I went to CineCycle, helped pack the bike, and watched some amazing 1960s Serioscope jukebox music reels. They were dated, but extremely interesting to watch. I said final goodbyes to Janet and then Martin and I pushed the bike to my China Town flat on a dolly. Toronto was fun! Can’t wait to post the stencils from there when I get a chance.
Continue reading “B-Town, Paint Louis and Beyond”
Friday night ended up being a random chain of events. I had no plans really, and considered a Blue Jays baseball game. But Goran Bregovic was playing his Balkan beats for a free concert, and that seemed much more important to go to. After wandering by the book store to check in with them, Tino just happened to be at the cafe next door. Charlie from the bookstore introduced me and it was finally great to meet one of the featured photographers in my book face to face.
Tino knew about the concert and decided to go. I’d planned to meet up with a pre-party but Tino said that they were all down at the square where the concert was going to be. So we hopped on our bikes and rode down into Toronto’s version of Times Square on Yonge St. (complete with animated ads running up the sides of buildings). There was a crowd, but we found the party via a trumpet call and a ghetto blaster blasting Roma beats. Once we arrived, I re-met some folks I’d met in Portland last June during the Car Free Conference. They were plenty drunk already, and we all danced our way deep down into the crowd and close to the stage. Guess a boom box of Roma beats spreads the Red Sea for a good spot to dance.
Continue reading “Street Art Four Hours Straight”
The Trumbull-Plex presentation went well last night. Jhon showed up with a large platter of Middle Eastern food and began to set up for the show. Nicole Macdonald showed up with a digital projector and her movie “A City to Yourself.” We got things set up quickly, so I found some spray paint in the shop area and sprayed a stencil on Trumbull’s door. Instead of the usual red flags, I sprayed black flags in honor of their philosophical leanings.
We didn’t start on time since no one had showed up at 8pm and Jhon said that everyone felt that 9pm was always the start time at Trumbull-Plex. So the movie began around 8:40, with about 10 people in the comfortable chairs. Third generation Detroiter Nicole’s movie showed scenes of an empty Detroit as she spoke about what the mostly emptiness means to her. She showed fields of grass and flora with rotting houses in them. Some were painted orange by students, maybe in protest to the decay around them.
Continue reading “Soggy Drive, Soggy Sneaks”
The sun finally shines today in Detroit. Which is a good thing, since I’ve borrowed a bike from Trumbull’s bike shack. Headed out towards Third St. with things looking chilly and overcast for the day. Then the sun pops out from behind the haze and the clouds turn fluffy. Time to peel off the hoodie.
Jhon from Trumbull gave me some great tips for where to discover stencils. Hit the ped bridge over Highway 10 and found some. Found some on Willis St. in front of the Avalon Bakery. One was a great paste up supporting Pingree for Mayor. I found Pingree’s statue later, with another paste up of him on the pedestal (Someone had added a funny mustache). The plaque said that he was the “The Idol of the People” and had been the first to warn citizens against the evils of private corporations. After biking through the post-Fordist ruins of the city, which has slowly lost buildings to encroaching nature in the past five decades, I now understand why this former mayor is popular with a stencil artist and his friends.
Continue reading “Pedaling Thru Motor City”
