Name: The Octopus Project

Title/Occupation: Band (…a sort of Tim Burton block party is unfolding)

Organization/Company: Peek-a-Boo Records

URL: http://www.theoctopusproject.com

Note: Questions were primarily answered by Josh Lambert.

1. Where did you grow up and how did you end up where you are now?

We all grew up in different parts of Texas (Josh – San Antonio, Ryan – Austin, Yvonne and Toto – Houston).  Yvonne, Toto & I met in Houston and ended up all going to college at UT in Austin together.  We’ve been in various bands together since late high school.  We met Ryan about 3 years ago and he’s been a fantastic addition to the gang!

2. Which performance, song, play, movie, painting or other work of art had the biggest influence on you and why?

Picking one specific influence is pretty tough!  I think we’re all influenced by a million different things all the time & it’s always changing.  But, if I had to pick only one thing in my life that influenced me the most, I’d probably pick the first time I heard “Appetite for Destruction” when I was 12 years old.  Previous to that, I’d been listening to movie soundtracks or whatever was on the radio.  That record completely blew my mind and made me want to start playing guitar.

3. What skill, talent or attribute do you most wish you had and why?

I wish I could make everyone happy all of the time.

4. What do you do to make a living? Describe a normal day.

Playing in a band is pretty much it for us!  Every day is different!  If we’re on tour, it’s — get up early, drive for 7 hours, load-in/soundcheck, play the show, go to bed late, repeat.  At home, it’s a little more lax, but usually we spend most of our time practicing, writing songs, working on video stuff, sending out orders, writing emails, etc.  It’s a ton of work!

5. Have you ever had to make a choice between work and art? What did you choose, why, and what was the outcome?

Thankfully, none of us have ever had to choose between having a normal job and working on the band.  Our choice has always been the band, and we’ve worked as hard as we possibly could to make it as awesome as it can be.  Being in a band is definitely incredibly tough — mentally, physically, monetarily.  You really have to love it to make it work.  But, we all love it more than anything else and the positives far outweigh the negatives.  I absolutely love being in a band with Yvonne, Toto and Ryan and couldn’t imagine doing anything else with my life.

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Marielle Heller (photo by Jim Baldassare)

Friday night Culturebot went down to 3LD to check out The Diary of A Teenage Girl, Marielle Heller’s adapation of Phoebe Gloeckner’s graphic novel of the same name. This impressive production, directed by Sarah Cameron Sunde and Rachel Eckerling, does a great job of capturing the intensity and insanity of being a teenager out of control and raises some interesting issues along the way.

Diary is the story of Minnie Goetze, a fifteen year old girl growing up in San Francisco in 1976. She lives in a dysfunctional household with her mother and younger sister and a succession of her mother’s deadbeat, drug- and alcohol-addled boyfriends. She starts an affair if one of these boyfriends, the 34-year-old Monroe, which starts her down a reckless path of chaos and confusion, fueled by booze, drugs and hormones. Her best friend is a similarly precocious 15 year old named Kimmie.

The set for the production is a 70′s style “conversation pit” with Minnie’s bedroom in the middle. The design is Sensurround in the best possible sense, with a totally immersive video and audio environment where characters and scenes take place all around and in the audience. The production level is really great – it really makes you feel the dazed and confused slightly out of control boundary dissolving sensibility that was the 70′s.

The story, as related by Minnie, unfolds in 48 scenes, like panels in a comic book, as she recounts her life into a tape recorder. And what a story it is. She starts an affair with Monroe and sets out on a sexual odyssey that can seem shocking at times. She goes through all the touchstones of 70′s pop culture – ‘ludes, cocaine, Rocky Horror Picture Show, David Bowie – but retains a remarkable innocence and enthusiasm throughout. She writes poetry and draws comics, writes fan letters to Aline Kominsky and in many ways is the quintessential counter-cultural American teenager. And while the markers of her adolescence are set in the 70′s, I think that sense of adventurousness and voracious appetite for life, no matter how fucked up, is true for teenagers everywhere and always. I certainly felt that the show spoke to my adolescent experience – I wanted to have sex, I wanted to do drugs, I wanted to have adventures and be out of control. That’s what teenagers do.

I think what may be controversial about this production is that it is not a morality tale and it is not a victim narrative. Minnie is almost always portrayed as having agency. She’s not exploited by her 34 year old lover, she doesn’t “realize the errors of her ways” and magically reform into a good girl. What she does is survive.

The show itself moves briskly, is well-paced and well-acted. Marielle Heller not only adapted the story but stars as Minnie and in some ways it is like a solo show with other people in it. The other characters tend to be a little bit two-dimensional, in keeping with the graphic-novel sensibility. It was a good choice because the show is very presentational rather than conventionally dramatic, which could have veered much too close to Lifetime Movie territory.

Culturebot suggests that when you go to see the show you get there a little early and check out the gallery show of Phoebe Gloeckner’s original artwork. Though the show more than stands on its own, seeing the panels and reading Gloeckner’s authorial voice will help give a sense of the world of the play and introduces you to her general attitude. ALSO, Culturebot’s good pal Bill Roundy curated the gallery show and we trust his opinion intrinsically on all things comic-book related.

Did you see the show? What did you think about it? Discuss!

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Gavin Kroeber (Creative Time) leads a panel featuring artists Sharon Hayes and Alix Pearlstein, the Radiohole ensemble, and curatorNancy Spector, exploring the porous lines of affinity and bias that connect and separate performance art and the performing arts. To what degree are the burgeoning opportunities enjoyed by performance in the visual arts sphere the result of intentional disciplinary distinction, and to what degree is the institutionalization of performance art moving the form towards the mechanisms of the performing arts (casting, rehearsal, repetition, and dramaturgy)? Must cutting-edge theatre and dance artists cross over into visual performance art to find adequate spaces and sympathetic audiences, or can the American performing arts adapt to accommodate performance more broadly construed? Eschewing naïve scenarios of disciplinary rapprochement and nostalgic discussions of 20th century performance movements, this panel will bring artists and curators that are employing techniques across shifting disciplinary lines into lively dialogue, discussing how flexible practices benefit artistic inquiry, challenge institutional approaches and develop spaces for social rapport between often segregated art worlds.

Intersections with Performance and Art

Monday, April 5
6:30pm
Martin E. Segal Theatre
The CUNY Graduate Center
365 5th Avenue, New York, NY

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The fourth UpStage festival of cyberformance (live online performance) will be held on 101010 (10 October 2010). The call is now open for performance proposals.

The 101010 Upstage Festival aims to create a participatory space for collaboration, creation, and for the presentation of current cyberformance. The festival provides a platform (and shares the technichal expertise) to enable artists to experiment with the new medium, and to have their work seen alongside performances by internationally renowned practitioners – in a celebration of the evolution and diversity of cyberformance practices.

For more info visit their website here.

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The EdLab Digital Art Residency (EDAR) 2010, supported by Gottesman Libraries (Teachers College, Columbia University), aims to explore the intersections between technology, data, art, and media. EDAR awards selected artists $2,500 to complete their proposed data visualization projects, leading to possible public outcomes including seminars, public discussion and online publication. Additional funding may be available to support equipment, travel, and housing expenses. Invited residents are expected to work on site at Teachers College during the residency period, July 5 through August 13, 2010.

For more information visit the EdLab website here.

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In 2010, EmcArts, the leading nonprofit provider of innovation services to the arts sector, will further advance its pioneering Innovation Lab for the Performing Arts, an immersion program for arts organizations, thanks to a generous $1.6 million grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF). EmcArts is pleased to partner with DDCF to deliver three more Rounds of the program to 11 participating organizations from across the country in 2010 and 2011. Eligible organizations are producing, presenting (including arts and college-based presenters) and service organizations in theater, dance, and jazz.

More info? Visit Emcarts site.

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Nick Leichter and Monstah Black brought it Home – as in there’s no place like it – in DanceNOW’s most recent full-length modern dance musical, The Whiz.  From the moment Monstah begins his R&B crooning in full-blown afro wig, complete with hair pick, a soulful tone is set and we know we’re getting the goods in this 70s-to-2010 mashup.  The Leichter/Black team is proving a rich collaboration served very well by the setting at Joe’s Pub.  The duo’s hot hype matches the playful, good-time audience used to the musically based Dancemopolitan series. Monstah’s cabaret personality threads through the entire work and he works the floor with plenty of panache.  Nick’s blend of urban and classical dance vocabularies, with the aid of additional choreography by the saucy Wendell Cooper,  plays out well in the close quarters.  Dance at Joe’s Pub works best when it has wit and style, when it understands the atmosphere of tables, wait staff, cat calls, cocktails, menus and an audience out for entertainment.  The Whiz hits the right mix: the energy is high, the dancing robust, the singing great, and the green-sequined divas plentiful.

There were enough references to the late 70s film version (and I suppose the original Broadway show) to satisfy any “Brand New Day” nostalgic needs.  Though I missed any obvious Lena Horne/Glinda moments, we did get a Diana Ross bit, complete with portable electric fan to keep Dawn Robinson’s hair flying for “Soon As I Get Home.”  There was a brief appearance by David Parker who belted out a rousing “Be a Lion” after sitting quietly at the bar for about 4/5ths of the show.  We got a snippet of what a luscious mover Monstah is during The Tin Man’s “If I Could Feel” and, finally, someone addressed the homo-erotic underpinnings of “Slide Some Oil” (on me), not to forget the oozing “Juicy Fruit” number for Leichter, Cooper, and Keon Thoulouis that had the two ladies in front of me gasping for air (“Oh God, all three of them at once.”).  Singer/performance artist Yozmit appeared out of an installation of white, plastic sheets that, I think, she’d been sitting in for longer than Parker was at the bar to sing a haunting, gibberish/Pansori lament as the Wicked Witch of the East Village.  Korean is a soulful language and Yozmit’s performance, wrapped in white plastic, with his head in a large, clear bubble turned the witch into an unwillingly bound shaman.

Monstah, Leichter, Cooper, and Yozmit provide a multiplicity of club and underground aesthetics that appropriately reference the disco-inspired original while offering a more contemporary vision of New York’s urban dance and performance cultures.  Their Poppy Girls turned into a gender-bending Papi dance full of hip slides and hand snaps – strike the pose, work the pose – that would have challenged any Drag Race contestant.  Lauren Basco, Laurie Taylor, Stephanie Liapis and Aaron Draper (in a delightful popping “Mean Ol’ Lion” solo, dressed in boxing headgear and gloves) rounded out the hard-dancing MJ and Prince-channeling cast and moved The Wiz’s original celebration of African-American liberty into a modern day dance party for pluralism.

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SXSW 2010

The quintessential South by Southwest Festival (SXSW) happening came at the tail end of the festivities on Saturday, March 20th when Joseph Gordon-Levitt hosted and curated an evening of music, film and live performance at the G-Tech Theater located at the Austin Convention Center for hitRecord.org. The music, film and interactive event featured live performances by Sean Lennon and Charlotte Kemp Muhl of The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger. This event was “quintessential” as it mixed the three pillars of the festival with a super-cool indie film actor. This is what SXSW is all about. It has one foot in the past, with sights set on what is yet to come.

The music portion of SXSW boasts almost 2,000 bands, booked into more than 85 venues, with parties hosted by radio stations like WFMU, WOXY, KUT, KGSR, and even NPR; The interactive bit had panels from social justice to social networking; and the movies include everything from animated shorts, experimental shorts, documentaries, narrative features, and the world première of “Kick-Ass”. Even the first look at the new Predator flick was shown. Too much happens at SXSW for one person to catch everything, too much happens at SXSW for organization to catch everything, but I will highlight the most impressive aspects I found at the festival.

Movies

Life 2.0

There were several noteworthy films, but the one that has haunted me for days is a documentary called “Life 2.0” which follows four people and their interactions in the online game Second life. Shockingly human, this documentary about a video game drips with emotion as we see the players struggle with challenges in the virtual and real world. Refreshingly, the filmmakers make rock solid choices on how to present each player from moment to moment, from avatar to person. This is the kind of documentary film school professors’ hope their students will make.

Interactive

Although SXSW encompasses the entire city of Austin, AOL setup shop on the ground floor of the Austin Convention Center, ground zero for the festival, to plant SEED.com, a new localized, viral journalism branch of AOL rooted in the media giant’s subsidiaries. With SEED, writers and photographers can accept and be paid for various assignments. Although I’ve seen ideas like this in the past, AOL is much more organized with SEED then other ventures. With the incentive for payment, and team of editors accepting and rejecting work, could SEED be the face of new journalism?

Zone Perfect live.create.lounge

On a personal note, I really enjoyed the “Zone Perfect live.create.lounge”, which featured an open bar, free peanut butter and dark chocolate Zone Perfect bars (which taste acceptable after six gin and tonics), live music, and a wall you could collaboratively paint. People who downloaded the Zone Perfect “MyTown” application for the iPhone got a free $15 iTunes gift card.

Music

In fairness to my new friends at Zone Perfect, every “lounge” and party features a free bar. If you’re sober at SXSW you’re doing something wrong or you’re in grade school. The best parties this year included the Paste Magazine party at the Galaxy Room, and the Blurt Magazine party at the infamous Irish pub B. D. Riley’s the afternoon after St. Patrick’s Day. A band that stuck at Paste was The Givers-a group of crowd-pleasing melody makers from Louisiana. However, the best music at SXSW always comes out of the “unofficial” SXSW events. An unofficial event can be found in every corner, but four good bands including New York’s Jupiter 1 and Nashville’s Heypenny at a house party hosted by this guy and his fantastic wife. Both bands are worth your attention, and this really was the best music I heard at SXSW.

Heypenny

With roots and an emphasis on music the death of Alex Chilton hung over the festival. The Big Star front man was a legend in Austin, and was to play the festival. Chilton was in the 2.0 phase in his life and his death on Wednesday night reverberated across the festival and controlled twitter feeds. His passing even made CNN Headline News. Chilton’s death was a quintessential one for the 2010 festival with one foot in the past and its eyes on what is yet to come.

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Just got home from Hans Thies Lehmann‘s lecture on Post-Dramatic Theatre. Fascinating stuff. I’m not smart enough to recreate it here. But I’m going to a workshop on it tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll get smarter in the interim. Or you can just read the book, I’ll do the same and we can grab coffee and talk about it later.

Friday took us to see some post-dramatic theatre first-hand when we went to The Wooster Group’s North Atlantic which, though energetically performed by an extraordinary cast of actors, felt a little bit dated. I was left wondering why they decided to bring this particular show back now? Riddle me this, Batman.

Saturday took us to DTW for Yasuko Yokoshi’s Tyler, Tyler (scroll down to read Maura’s review of it) which we enjoyed quite a bit. Great blend of contemporary and classical styles, beautiful dancing, smart, thoughtful, engaging.

Sunday was another winner when we went to 92Y for Yoshiko Chuma’s latest installment of the “page out of order” series. Yoshiko makes really amazing work that is macroscopic and microscopic all at the same time, that blends highly choreographed and stylized movement with the pedestrian. Its definitely post-dramatic. But can “dance” be post-dramatic theatre? Oh goodness, I don’t know.

Please discuss in the comments.

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Sunday, March 28 // 7:45pm // $20 Suggested Donation

The Golden Sound Camp Meeting
A Benefit for the upcoming production: Get Mad at Sin!

Featuring performances by:
Rachel Shukert 10:35 // Brendan Connelly 10:15 // Paul Lazar 9:55 // Chase Granoff 9:35 //
Heather Christian and the Arbonauts 8:55 // Andy Horwitz 8:30 // Matt Citron 8:15

at Glasslands

289 Kent Ave. b/w S. 1st and S. 2nd in Williamsburg, BKLYN.

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