3/25/15

What I Want Us To Do on Friday Night

Here's what to do on Friday night. Here's what I'm doing Friday night. I want you to do these things with me please. And in this order.

#1: AT THE JUMP: NEW WORK BY JULIA NORTON



Opening reception Friday March 27th, 6-9pm
Yashar Gallery Jiddy's Art Show at Yashar Gallery
Open by appointment through April 12th, contact through www.julia-norton.com

Yashar Gallery (ground floor of the Leviton building)
276 Greenpoint Avenue (at Provost Street)

#2: The Multifarious Array: Tommy Pico, Felix Bernstein, Jessi Probus & Caroline Contillo





The Multifarious Array is a semi-monthly reading series featuring the very best poets at the very best place (Pete's Candy Store).

Pete's Candy Store
709 Lorimer St.
Reading starts at 7PM. FREE

#3: HOT RABBIT FEATURING DJ M.O. and MAX STEELE





HOT RABBIT - LGBTQ Dance Party
FRIDAYS @ THE MONSTER (Downstairs)
80 Grove St (W 4th/7th Ave)
10pm-4am

**** FREE ENTRY with PASSWORD **** COWABUNGA ****
**** DJ M.O. ****
*** MIDNIGHT performance by MAX STEELE ***
Sexy go-go magic by VIVA BODYROLL and RIFY ROYALTY !!!
Photos by photomistress GRACE CHU !!
Emcee GUPP on the mic !!




tldr: Jiddy No-No's new art work, solo show, super important, then down to Pete's Candy Store for a scintillating reading by some of NYC's brightest thinkers (Teebs, Caroline and Jessi, Felix Baby Spice Bernstein) curated by art star Isaac Richard Pool, then come on out to the Monster in the West Village to see me sing a number at what is actually a legitimately awesome queer dance party.

and you don't even have to spend any money if you know the password for Hot Rabbit. Just saying <3 p="">

3/17/15

Back in the midst, in the early part of my mental breakdown, I got some donations toward these dream shoes. I didn't end up collecting any of the money. I mean, I returned it all. Then yesterday I found the shoes, on sale, randomly, in my size.



I feel like it was fate.

3/11/15

THREE ELEVEN

THREE ELEVEN
ELVEN
THRIVING ELVIS
EVEN THEN

I have two shows this week that I want to tell you about.
(Don't Stay Home. )



First:
FRIDAY THE 13TH:

THE MULTIFARIOUS ARRAY: GORDON HALL, MAX STEELE, BUZZ SLUTZKY

Pete's Candy Store (709 Lorimer St.)
7:00pm
$FREE

The Multifarious Array is a really cool reading series, and the wonderful Isaac Richard Pool is curating some fantastic things, and I am so, so excited to be part of this thing. And reading with Gordon and Buzz! It feels very fancy. I am thinking about what to wear?

More importantly, I'm reading some new things. I'm working on a new zine. I'm working on a tiny, short, preview zine, and then a longer bigger thing. But it's in a new vein (for me), and I'm excited to share some of this work on Friday. I'm nervous and excited.




Then, later:
SUNDAY THE 15TH:

THE GARFIELD HOUR : New Work by BECCA BLACKWELL and MAX STEELE

at Earl Dax' PUSSY FAGGOT! 6 Year Anniversary Party
The Delancey (168 Delancey St.)
8PM
$10 or
RSVP for Reduced Guest List HERE:
http://tinyurl.com/PF-6yr-RSVP
(it's $6 instead of $10)

* Open Vodka Bar from 8-9pm *

So I'm singing some new songs and telling some new stories from a show I'm working on called THE GOOD DAUGHTER on Sunday night. And I'm opening for my favorite NYC queermo DaddyFag Genius Baby Superhero Becca Blackwell, who's showing some of their new solo show. It is truly an honor and I barely feel up to it. But Pussy Faggot is the fucking best and Earl is the most wonderful and Miss Pennifer Arcade is hosting, it's going to be so lovely. Description and line-ups below. But just as a reminder: $6 with RSVP link and OPEN VODKA BAR during the 8-9 slot which is when Becca and I are performing, so. You know.

Arrive early for the 6-year anniversary of PUSSY FAGGOT!, and enjoy work-in-progress performances by Becca Blackwell and Max Steele beginning at 8pm (basement level). Blackwell performs their new solo show, "They Themself and Schmerm." In this hilariously raucous romp, inspired by a self-produced video by Corey Haim called Me, Myself and I, Blackwell (a he-she-schmerm ginger who was in the circus and enjoys cute sweaters) chronicles the struggle of abuse, identity, sexuality, and gender. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll question what bathroom to use. Steele will perform songs from his new show, "The Good Daughter."

Come for The Garfields, and stay for the rest of the evening! Full details on PUSSY FAGGOT! Divine Intervention can be found HERE (and below)

Hosted by Penny Arcade, Guest Co-Curated by Travis Chamberlain, Door by La China Loca.
DJs Susanne Oberbeck (Gay Vinyl/No Bra) and Chris Giarmo. Closing DJ and performance set from THE ILLUSTRIOUS BLACKS (Manchildblack Black II and Monstah Black)

8-9 pm OPEN VODKA BAR
8 pm: The Garfield Hour!: New work form Becca Blackwell and Max Steele
9 pm: MIX NYC screening of David Hoyle short film and video work.
10 pm: Penny Arcade-hosted set
Rooftop Garden with all-night durational performances by Anya Liftig and Jen Rosenblit
Video projections by Kris Grey

Performers so far include: Reid Bartelme, Sapphira Cristàl, Viva DeConcini and Ann Pellegrini, Fantasy Grandma, Nick Hallett, Needles Jones, Karl Marks, Rachel Mason, Kenny Mellman, and Runn Shayo.



Okay and tonight I'm personally excited because Miss Pennifer and I are going all the way uptown to the 92nd Street Y to see this fantastic Eurodra Welty show our friend David directed.

I also don't know what to wear for that.

3/9/15

In school we had an art show together where we told everyone for months that we were fraternal twins, and then the art show was a lot of art about us, as twins. Composite drawings of fake baby photos, etc. It was obviously a lie but people still kind of believed it, or didn't get the joke of it, in a way. After school she went on to what seems like a very successful and glamorous job in the art world industry and I have gone on to pursue much more humble avenues of occasionally making art, unsuccessfully (it feels like) by comparison.

Last summer I slept with a guy who, it was revealed after we'd hooked up, was her intern. I thought "okay." But then later in the summer I slept with a different guy who, it was later revealed, was another of her interns. I don't know if she knows --she probably wouldn't care, or would think it was funny-- but I had been sort of banking on the idea that the two interns wouldn't tell each other they'd hooked up with me. I'd fooled around with each of them exactly once but tried to stay friendly with both.

I want to be friends with all of the boys.

Yesterday I saw them walking down the street together. Maybe they were coming from work or something. We didn't say hi to each other.

3/2/15

Tons de Legal

A theme from the week, from the weekend, could be being in the right place at the wrong time. Is time a place? A theme is being super early, or super late. On Sunday I showed up for a rehearsal I wasn't called to. Like, by a month. I was humiliated but they were nice about it.  It was like from a movie, from Smiley Face or A Woman Under the Influence. Funny and tragic. Taking everything too seriously. the way I always do. I take everything so seriously that it almost appears as if I don't care at all. I'm so obsessive and neurotic that I become lazy. This is a neat trick, the myth or circularity.

Break the cycle.

So instead I went to some art stuff. Went to some art stuff. I saw Andrew Norman Wilson's installation, Wether, at Chapter NY. I liked it, but I also thought it was a little bit creepy or scary. Anything that's legibly alchemical freaks me out, a little. Also boxes, cubes. Squares are inherently scary, right? All those corners? All four of them? In Chinese, four is considered unlucky because the Mandarin word for "four" (肆) sounds like the word for "death" (死). I'm okay with leaving four out of things. The whole four elements thing I find a little specious anyway. There's no room for Love, for Consciousness, and also I don't feel like Air should get to be it's own element, if we're excluding electricity. I'm rambling.

Anyway I ran into lovely Ross on my way to the opening and I was talking to him about how the installation was pretty, but also kind of scary, for the box/cube fear, and Ross said that fear can be good. I thought "Hmm." It's not the first time I've heard that sentiment, but I did stop to think about it a bit. Fear can be inspiring, I guess. Fear can also be paralyzing. You have to be careful how scared you get, I guess.

I went to this reading but it seemed empty or like in the wrong place. I mean I went to the place, it was the right place, but there was no one there except for the staff, and they seemed to be preparing a soup. I was intimidated. I hadn't been invited. Not personally. It was in all likelihood a free and public event but still. I just got drunk at the sculpture show downstairs instead.

I also went by Untitled to see a show of frankly fantastic new paintings by Henry Taylor.


Served Up, 2009

I was unfamiliar with his work before, but I really loved the paintings at Untitled. Definitely worth a trip to the LES to see them. The sculptures didn't really grab me, but sculptures rarely do. One of those openings you sort of stumble into, but are so glad you did. There was a cute little kid running around the gallery, and he knocked into me as I was holding a beer, and I spilled it on his jacket. He didn't seem to notice, and ran off, but I was kind of worried that the little kid (I'm guessing he was between four and six) would find his parents and be reeking of beer, but that's not my problem, really, is it.

I found the Chinatown bakery that, for a few weeks in a row now, has taro buns on sale on Sunday nights, which is perfect for art opening crawls through the neighborhood. I mean they're on sale because they're a little bit stale but I don't care.

I've been smoking, more than I should, obviously. I need to organize. I need to purge. I need to collect myself, and then I need to purge.

I went to Tanja Grunert to see Beyond 1.1, curated by Mitra Khorasheh &; Bethsabee Attali, featuring work by Charlotte Becket, Angelica Bergamini, Anoka Faruqee, Rachel Garrard, Paul Jacobsen, Dorothee Recker & Lisa Ross.


Angelica Bergamini, Respirado (Breathing), 2007

Really great show! Packed! Gorgeous and mean and smart. Some of the curatorial conceits were a little lost on ragamuffin me (dig the curator's text on the website) but that didn't dampen my experience of the show. I didn't stay for as long as I should have, and I'd like to come back.

I don't really go in for nature or nature art or the beauty of the natural world. I don't respect nature. Nature doesn't respect me, either. But this show gave me some things to think about-- I'm thinking of the ideas of fearful symmetry, of historical humor (isn't it funny what we used to think was true?). I'm thinking of how if you take a wide enough view, which is impossible, on some level, not to do, then there's a kind of beauty in the tautology there-- it's true because it's true. It's wrong because it's wrong. I think the show seemed to touch of themes of, if not the ineffable, than the inevitability of nature. I highly recommend it.

Thursday night I saw Sleater-Kinney, perform. It was a fucking trip. They were wonderful. I don't know if it was totally the transcendent experience I was hoping for. Actually it's just that they didn't play "Good Things". They were pretty fantastic. I hadn't seen them perform live since before One Beat, so it was kind of weird seeing all the later songs live. And the new stuff was fantastic. I geeked out, it was lovely.

My play is happening for one more weekend only, and I really want you to come. Just before the show on Saturday, I found out via the internet that the Casual Dots were playing in Williamsburg that night and promptly had a conniption. After the show, I ran over to Union Pool and was told that I was the last door ticket they let in. But I got in.

I saw the Casual Dots perform.
I'd never seen them before. I've only ever seen Kathi Wilcox perform in The Julie Ruin in the last few years. I saw Quix*O*Tic a couple times in the early 00s, but have long been a big fan of Christina Billotte. They were fucking amazing. I've loved this band for so long and I never ever ever thought I'd ever get to see them live. PLD told me he saw an interview where Kathi says they're making a new record, and the handful of new songs they played were awesome. They also played the songs from the old record, including one of my favorite songs in the whole wide world, "Hooded":



I really had such a fantastic time I can't even tell you. Really. I am on cloud nine that I got to see them. Okay.

The train this morning had bad air. It made me feel bad.
AND my snow boots broke. Just in time for more snow. It's kind of awful, right.

So, two lovely little things.

A: You can read a new piece I wrote, and also hear me reading it, and also see a glowingly lovely intro from Tommy Pico, over on TOE GOOD POETRY.

B: an idea I'm fooling around with