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Transplanted Californian David Biasotti somehow managed to tie up most of the loose ends of the Trees story from his secret headquarters in Yokohama. Check the new issue of Ugly Things for his expansive overview with interviews, photos, and whatnot. The British folk rock quintet—long a favorite of us GGPers—has seen recent attention due to Sony's reissue of the group's '72 On The Shore album on CD with added tracks. Plus they're just rad.
"All people. Earth people. Water people. I breathe and I speak. I breathe and I speak to you, to everyone and everything around me. To you who listen to the music. To you who do not listen to the music. To the roar of the outside. To the roar of the inside. To the air speeding through the passes, from the desert to the sea. To the air drifting slowly back to the mountains, high and patient. To the moisture rising straight up, in a cloud, tower-like and white. To the moisture returning, isolated in the drips and drops that bounce and roll down nylon and gutters. To evaporation. To the way out. To the way back."
West Coast New Energy Encounter Group
In live activity, this Sunday January 27 at 8 PM
at David Patton Los Angeles
featuring Paul Gellman, Erik Bluhm, Relatively Clean Larry Rengert, Ruby Neri, Bonnie Perkinson, Fellow Candle, Tom Watson, Danny Leyson, and Ashley Gallagher.
Bring a pillow to sit on, maybe.
The West Coast New Energy Encounter Group has had these recent performances: Garden Grove Creative Community at The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, Circular Performance Demonstration With French Percussionists and Actors at The Purple Night of the California Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art, and Timed Duration of Organ, Flute and Slow Movement (as the New Energy Dark Consort of Musicke) at Fritz Haeg's Sundown Salon.
This activity is being held in conjunction with the gallery's current show, Erik Bluhm-Cooperate With The Energy And Anything That Happens. Bluhm's exhibition of collage works has been cited over at Emma Gray's January Top 10 at Saatchi Online as well as Caryn Coleman's ArtReview blog.
David Patton
Los Angeles
5006 1/2 York Boulevard
Los Angeles, California
90042 USA
Telephone:(323) 478-1966
Fax:(323) 478-1166
info (at) davidpattonlosangeles (dot) com
Thur— Sat, 12-6pm, and by appointment
Governor Schwarzenegger's latest fix for California's budget crisis is to shut down 48 state parks to save money on upkeep and staffing. The possible closures include Tomales Bay, San Simeon, Topanga, and Will Rogers. At the same time he plans to hire guards to keep the pesky public out. Though many are saying 'ol Arnie's proposal is just a bluff, the mere thought of such actions should make even the most level-headed resident feel like chucking this clown right out of the state. This is public land, bro, not some sort of leverage dealie. And IF it does come down to this, I'd like to see a lot of you brothers and sisters out there in those closed parks, picnicking, hiking, whatever, just USING your rightful public land and thumbing your nose at any government stooges who try to stop you. Meanwhile some jokers think that CHARGING people to use this land is the answer. Are you serious? For one thing, most of them already do, for parking or camping fees. Where's that money going? As for the rest, after selling off and plowing over just about every inch of natural landscape, you're going to make us pay to walk around on the few acres that don't have crappy subdivisions or shopping mall parking lots spread over them? You’ve got to be kidding me.
If that weren't enough to inspire a new batch of Terminate the Terminator bumper stickers than here's the latest news from Sacto. Yesterday Schwarzenegger announced his support of the OC tollway that'll cut right through San Onofre State Park—against the recommendation of the State Park and Recreation Commission and just about every Californian who thinks things like clean beaches and open public areas are more important than fastlanes for SUVs and lining the pockets of freeway building entrepreneurs. "I have concluded that this project is essential to protect our environment and the quality of life for everyone in California," Schwarzenegger said in a letter to the Coastal Commission. So accepting the misleadingly-named Transportation Corridor Agency's kickback to put new trashcans in the park is going to make up for the fact that one of the region's last unobstructed deltas and a major animal right-of-way are soon going to be bisected by a deafening river of smog and concrete?
I say send the fool an email and tell him that closing our public parks is not an option. And remind him that in the old days, if you hired someone to keep tabs on your budget and he fucked it up this bad he'd be out on his ass, not jocking around Malibu on a poser Harley. And while you're at the computer, let him know that you’d like his developer buddies to keep their money-grubbing mits off San O, and that he ought to know (being the Conservative he claims to be) that putting less cars on the roads we have (through public transportation, carpooling, etc.) is the solution not only to gridlock, but for keeping California golden the way it ought to be.
The last couple month have been filled up with a bunch of little guys, and we're not talking about elves. These 'lil guys were made by some big guys who happen to be friends of ours. First, buried way deep down in the middle of the December issue of Artforum, there's a blurb about Tall Paul Gellman's mini figurine show at Tiny Creatures here in L.A. a few months back. Alas, a photo of his work got bumped for someone's with more seniority, so here's an example to your left, and there's more where that came from here.
Secondly, truth seeker and driftwood sojourner Kyle Field returns to Gay Paree this winter with his show that might be called "Free Old Spirits" at Atelier Cardenas Bellanger gallery. Here's one of the denizens of Cottonball Hill. But shhh, don't tell anyone because it's not official yet.
David Patton Los Angeles is pleased to present
Erik Bluhm - "Cooperate With The Energy And Anything That Happens"
12 January—9 February 2008
Reception for the artist on Saturday, 12 January from 7—10 pm
For this show at David Patton Los Angeles, Bluhm will present a number of medium and large-scale collages. The images form symbols and shapes or, as Bluhm describes them, "iconic images and shapes that are forms identifiable as significant, yet only inherently. They withhold too much to qualify as concretely vital, yet in their shapes and designs are embedded the often thorny markers of being, sometimes cryptically representative, sometimes transparent and spiritual."
Bluhm's work has been exhibited at Hiromi Yoshii Gallery in Tokyo, Atelier Cardenas Bellanger Gallery in Paris, and 2841 Harrison in San Francisco. As a founder of The West Coast New Energy Encounter Group—a subset of the greater New Energy movement—Bluhm and his colleagues have presented performances at The Hammer Museum, The Purple Night of the California Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art, and at Fritz Haeg's Sundown Salon.
David Patton Los Angeles
5006 1/2 York Boulevard
Los Angeles, California
90042 Directions to/from Chinatown
Telephone:(323) 478-1966
Fax:(323) 478-1166
Thur— Sat, 12-6pm, and by appointment
info at davidpattonlosangeles.com
http://www.davidpattonlosangeles.com
photo by meta
Sure the enchanted hills of Asheville, North Carolina are a long ways away from soggy Southern California, but the freaky sounds emanating from the little radio station there must be pingponging off the ozone or something, cuz you can pick them up real easy on yer compooter machine. Join ex-TRW technician and Palos Verdes audiophile Peter Poffenberger each Tuesday night as he hosts Ooze Out, a program promising to "inject analog ooze into our digital culture, playing the very best of Rock/Experimental from around the world. In addition to a play list of heavy levels, come and enjoy special guests, long distance interviews and field trips with Ooze Out correspondents Steve Brown, Byron Browne and Carley Dergins." Rumour has it Poffenberger's been doing some sound aura recordings out in the woods near the former site of Black Gum College, not to mention some silence sessions with the elusive Space Folk in NYC. Stay tuned, it'll be worth it, I swear.
Listen to OOZE OUT!
Tusedays 10pm to 1am
WPVM 103.5 FM
Asheville NC
Outside of Asheville listen at wpvm.org (streaming)
shows are archived for one week at wpvm.org/nav/archives/
Though I'm not sure exactly what this is all about, there are a couple reasons why we're probably going to be going to this presentation from Semites magazine. First our boy Lawrence Rengert will be banging away on something hollow and really feeling it in a New Energy kind of way. Then they're showing an Osho film: dunno which one, but if it's the one where seedy-looking Tom Robbins gets all touchy feely with his female interviewer when describing Osho's allure, then you're probably not gonna want to miss it. And finally, you get to see Wallace Berman's 16mm film, Aleph (1965-66).
Here's how Semites editor Daniel Feinberg describes it. "Semites despises progress, shares your absurd superstition of the new, and shrieks in infidelity, like an emergency brake, at a utopia marked by an expiration date. On January 2 we ask you to join us and celebrate this gamble that is Semites for a screening of our new film Bet at The Mountain Bar in downtown Los Angeles. Bet, seen as a crypto, albeit nominal, sequel to Wallace Berman's Aleph, is a messianic dérive: immediately, yet lyrically against political Zionism, the 7 minute 04 second film claims no salvation without revolutionary transformation of material life. Veiled in tight black and smoking, Semites say with Hegel: seek for food and clothing first, than shall the Kingdom of God be granted to you. Refreshments will be provided."
"Other performances in this evening of horror vacui will be a screening of Paul Yoshida's Bulimic Cinema-—a short religious video on Osho, doo-woptical art, and betrayal. We also will be screening Wallace Berman's 16mm film Aleph. With occult performances by Larry Rengert of Black Mass of the New Energy, Bushwick's DJ Pause and others." 8 o' clock sharp.