Archive for May, 2007

Realizing the Impossible / Dark Dark Dark Tour

Published at May 25, 2007 in projects. 0 Comments
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Realizing the Impossible: Art Against Authority Book Tour & Multi-media Event!

Just published on AK Press, Art Against Authority (edited by Josh MacPhee & Erik Reuland) is 300 plus page collection of writing and images investigating the instersections of art and anarchism.

The authors will discuss the book and present documentation of creative art actions from around the world.

Dark Dark Dark will play their music to melt your longing heart.

Dara Greenwald will make you laugh and cry with her revolving and evolving collection of short videos.

Who we are:

Josh MacPhee is an artist, curator and activist whose work often revolves around themes of radical politics, privatization and public space. His first book was Stencil Pirates: A Global Survey of the Street Stencil (Soft Skull Press, 2004). He also organizes the Celebrate People’s History Poster Series and is part of Justseeds Visual Resistance Radical Art Cooperative.

Erik Reuland (AKA Erik Ruin) is a Minneapolis-based, Michigan-raised puppeteer, printmaker, and erratic editor of Trouble In Mind, a zine about the intersection of art, everyday life, and radical politics. He works/has worked with several art collectives, including UpsidedownCulture, Street Art Workers, Prison Poster Project, Barebones Productions, and Justseeds.

Dark Dark Dark is a group of musicians informed by the mountains, plains, seas, and cities in a tradition of exiled wanderers. City Pages of Minneapolis calls it “a gently spooky American folk with eastern European exoticism.”

Dara Greenwald makes short videos that capture the interesting and strange sides of life, subculture, and the bizarre inner workings of her brain. New site coming soon.

Tour Schedule:

Date

City

Venue

Address

Start Time

5/26

Albany

Ironweed/Free School

8 Elm Street, Albany, NY

 

8 pm

 

5/27

Boston

Lucy Parsons

549 Columbus Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts

3pm

5/28

Portland

People’s Free Space

144 Cumberland Ave. Portland, Maine

 

7 pm

5/29

Montpelier

Black Sheep

Langdon Street Café 4 Langdon St. Montpelier, VT

 

7 pm

5/30

Amherst

Food For Thought

106 N.Pleasant Street Amherst, MA

 

7 pm

5/31

Providence

Building 16

39 Manton Ave. Olneyville

 

8:30 pm

6/1

Brooklyn

AdHoc Arts

49 Bogart Street, Buzzer 22, Unit 1G, Brooklyn

6:30 pm

6/2

 New York
(music only show)

ABC No Rio

wi/ Why Are We Building Such a Big Ship?

 

 156 Rivington Street, NY, NY

3pm

6/3

DC

Brian Mackenzie Infoshop

1426 9th St. NW (btw O & P St) Washington, DC

6 pm

6/4

Baltimore

Red Emmas

800 St. Paul St. Baltimore, MD 21202; (410) 230-0450

Call for time

6/5

Philly

Temple Gallery

259 N. Third St., Old City

7 pm

6/6

Connecticut

Wrench in The Works

861 Main Street Willimantic, CT

7 pm

Stories from the Upper Mississippi

Published at May 23, 2007 in projects. 0 Comments
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Last summer, while on the Miss Rockaway Armada, A’yen and I built a storybooth. We invited people in towns along the Mississippi to share stories about their lives. We met some incredible people who…well, they speak for themselves below. Rollover red and orange dots for description. Click to hear stories.

The project will continue this summer with a Storyboat. A’yen will be on the river recording stories on her converted fishing boat and I’ll be editing and posting them from New York. They’ll be posted HERE.

Sleeping Dogs Lie

Published at May 14, 2007 in travel. 0 Comments
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So, I managed to get a flight home from Seattle and made it to New York 12 hours before the flight to Costa Rica. I felt a little triumphant because I spent hours on the phone and internet in my friend Erica’s living room in Seattle trying to figure out just how the hell I was going to get home and still make this other flight.

Once back in Brooklyn I paid my taxes (it was the 16th) and did a bunch of other life-maintenance crap like pay bills and finalize work for May…and then, with no sleep, A’yen and I were off to the airport at 3am. I couldn’t believe we were actually going to make it…and then… “I’m sorry Miss, but your passport has expired.” My jaw dropped. A’yen was on the verge of tears. And there was no way they were going to let her on the plane. There was nothing we could do, so I went on ahead and A’yen proceeded to go through a minor hell to get her passport renewed. She’s Canadian. She went to the consulate. No dice. She called her mom who then drove with her to Canada where she had to jump through a million hoops to get a passport. In Canada you’re required to have a guarantor- a professional (there’s a list that includes doctors, dentists, lawyers, and teachers) who’s known you for at least two years and will vouch for your existence. Even if you’re renewing a passport you need this guarantor. Seems crazy. And seems designed to make it quite difficult for people who don’t have lots of white collar ‘professionals’ in their lives to get a passport. Oh Canada.

Anyway, eventually A’yen made it and I was super happy to see her get off the plane with a big exhausted smile on her face. We were housesitting for my friends, taking care of their dogs Mousey and Dinah (above), watering their garden (also above), cooking and reading. The time we spent there would fall into the category of vacation. Not like I needed a vacation from anything. It was nice. And strange. Highlights include the beach; hammocks; more beach; going surfing for the first time since I was 14 (and almost rubbing my nipples off); lots of mangos; a ridiculous amount real estate development and the accompanying well-tanned reptilian gringo real estate venture capitalists.

This is sometimes neccessary to move on.

Published at May 13, 2007 in travel. 0 Comments
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I think I left off with the Greyhound…

I finally got off of the bus in San Francisco, where I met up with Marshall and Nona to play Dark Dark Dark shows up the West Coast.

San Francisco: Surfing (not me…holding out for warmer waters), climbing hills, and a super fun house show with Ghost Family, Covena Turpentine, Leyna, and Broadway the band.
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Eugene: Long long drive. Tiny Tavern. 5 people. The mechanical bull finale of Urban Cowboy was playing on the television. Chickens and ducks in the backyard=fresh eggs for breakfast (thanks Lydia).
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Portland: My sister and I got our nails done together. We played an unexpectedly fun show at the Know (bar) that included wheeling my bass around the bar in a pram (baby carriage).
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Olympia: Relationship drama (not mine, not the band’s). Catching up with old friends and old chairs.
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Seattle: Scribble Squat was a magical place to play. There were candle chandeliers and honey cake and kids dangling their legs from half-burnt ceiling beams. The police started banging down the door halfway through and we played a few more songs. Afterwards people went outside and talked to them and the most memorable part of the conversation (as it was relayed to me) was:

Cops: We’re just trying to be cool here.

Kids: (reassuring) You’re being cool! You’re being cool!

Cops: We know you hate us.

Kids: No! We don’t hate you! Why would we hate you?

Cops: Yeah…people told us that you hate us.


San Juan Island: The ferry was f’in expensive. We busked in attempt recoup. Our friends Juniper and Sean put us up at the lovely Juniper Lane Guesthouse. We swam in the freezing ocean that was framed by forest and driftwood lagoons.

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Seattle:
My flight back to New York was canceled. There was an ice storm. And I only had 24 hours to get back there in order to make my flight to Costa Rica the next day.

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to be continued…