Reading with Robin

Well, time flies, when you're gounded. Time to catch up - let's use our little wings. So first and foremost we're happy to let you know that our star author on the 'One Two Three Fun Club Initiative', Robin Pineda Gould, has become a youtube sensation while we were busy staying silent. Secondly, you should definitely check out and follow his channel: it's delicious! Thirdly, there are too many written words as it is, so stop reading and start watchting!

The Year Of The Hot Pants - A Fashion Lecture By Dr. Love

Fun Club Initiative is proud to present a fashion feature by Dr. Love.

"Dear females, my name is Dr. Love, I have a PhD in love & romantic feelings with a special expertise in female love & female romantic feelings. So I mostly advise women who are a bit lost in this cruel and pointless world of love, try to reform their boy-friends for whatever matter (e.g. drinks too much, has a hygiene problem, doesn't make her feel like she's the light at the end of some slutty tunnel) or are just looking for a decent mate to copulate with. My success rate is extremely high. 

Like any good doctor in the field of love I usually say nice and decent things like: "Don't be a pussy, get the fuck over it, respect yourself, at best even love yourself, don't expect too much from some random fellow who's probably just as lost as you are and then take it from there. And yes, of course you're very good looking and hot and the boys are stupid for not letting you know more often." However, today I'm on a different mission. As professional as I might appear, I'm also a human being with hobbies and one of my hobbies is fashion, I'm in fact a born-and-bred fashion freak. Now that summer is coming up, I thought I advise you on what to wear in 2010. I might add that you first and foremost should wear what you feel comfortable in, even if it looks really retarded and/or plain boring. Then again, I don't really have to apologize for advising you to dress slutty, the backlash movement already took care of it. It doesn't matter if you want to be a housewife or a porn actress or just one big artficial boob set on sticks, as long as you add that you don't do it for the men or the money, but for your innermost being (e.g. to feel sexy JUST for yourself), it is alright and your God given right as a woman.

2010 is the year of the hot pants. Hot pants are cheap and sexy. It makes a lot of sense to wear them in summer - in winter it's too cold. Advantage: your legs will see some sun, get all brownish and suddenly all the stuff that you might not like about them (e.g. all these bruises that you never know where you got them from at the first place or this bit of cellulitis that - by the way - even I have on my ass if I don't pose for a picture) disappears. I have to admit that the miniskirt provides you with a similar feature, but it has the disavantage (particularly in spring) of basically begging this fucking cold stone you're sitting on next to Hans Mustermann (so you can lick on each others icecream) to give you a nasty cystitis that will make "the sex" (that you will still have, because you're a good girl) quite painful for a while. However, this is what I have in mind:

The following pants are also beautiful, but they are just not hot enough, you would have to cut off a bit of leg:

And just to show you that there are many options that as such allow you to make your own decision and be a real individual while looking like anyone else, I give you the gold option:

If you're about to get married, you can of course also wear hot pants. However, under no circumstances you can combine them with this top. In this case you need a tight, but high-necked white shirt and a black (bow) tie. You should also wear a different face (facial expression).

Well, most of us don't get married, so let's get back to workaday clothes. This is the direction we're heading at:

YES - I do believe that hot pants should be combined with a decent belly-crack top. Perhaps this one would suit you well?

Britney has proven a while ago that even a disgusting orange-grey hippie robe can be worn as a hot belly-crack vestment:

If you have a big heart, you can show it by wearing the following treasure:

However, it is very much important that you choose the right shoes with the hot pants belly-crack combination. All things considered there is only one choice. You definitely need a manly counterpoint. There is an old saying that I just made up and it goes like this: "If you show ass also show that you can kick some." The following model looks super-comfy and they definitely feel "hot" in summer:

Thank you kindly for taking my advise under consideration. Your friend and doctor, Dr. Love."

Pants

About Interns, Streetart, Fashion, Tony, Family & Masked Kisses

February 3rd, 2010 - a historical day. Our chief executive Tony Abstract was to be the first human to eye-witness a phishing attack on open street, the victim turned purple before he shut down. What an exorbitant lie, but how else would we steal your attention, for sure not by reminding you once again that the 19,99 € Award deadline is closing in. I won't back down, spoke the deadline, before casting a cloud over your every move. And suddenly you lost sight of this silver lining that we all constantly chase, while only a few ever come to wear it as a necklace. We got carried away. What we indeed discovered a while ago is a new tattoo on Weinmeisterstrasse. We took a picture of it almost a week ago, when the the colour was still fresh and fragrant, but then we forgot about it, thanks to liquor and love.

 

 

In regards to our award ceremony on the 28th, we would like to announce that we're looking for two camera teams. One camera team is supposed to document the ceremony, while the other camera team should document what their colleagues' are doing. This way we hope to offer enough transparency, the media just play a crucial role in any healthy democratic system. We're dead serious about that, so please apply here.

We're gosh darn happy to welcome our new intern Henrique Churumabilioso in the Fun Club team. One of the many ordeals the young fashion photographer had to go through during his job interview was a fashion shoot with our chief executive Tony Abstract himself.

Tony wears blue 'cause he feels blue most of the time, at least that's what he says. The "blue suit" is part of the "Urban Knight Collection" his half-sister Antonia created and crafted by means of recycling old rags she found in the closet of Tony's (but not her) old man Anton Abstrakt der Ältere. The beautiful mask was provided by the hosts of Berlin's legendary Instant Kuss Party series, well-known in secretive circles for their gigantic masked balls.

We Deny Everything But Good Art

It is about time to introduce our "creative tool" Peter Rings, also known as Peter Ringo. Right now he's sitting crossed-legged in the FUN CLUB studio working on a (hopefully) three-dimensional FUN CLUB logo. A few minutes ago he sent us the long expected 19,99 € Award slogan via text message: "We deny everything but good art - the 19,99 € Award." The brilliant slogan was followed by some rather unfriendly mumbling a bit later on the phone, I guess you all know how artists can be since you all consider yourself artists anyway, however, Ringo said that he didn't have the time to design the 19,99 € Award Logo/Flyer around the slogan, so we're now looking for another intern to do the job. Anyone? 1,2,3.

There's no reason to pronounce the first syllable of "weekend" since it in fact just ends. However, we're grateful for the chance to finally officially dislike something, the Fashion Week After Party at Warschauer Str. 34 was just insanely pale and all things considered dispensable. A bunch of dressed-up rowdies from the suburbs prancing around like they haven't been laid for too long and perhaps they played some music there, but I really don't remember. We feasted on the open bar till it closed, then we met friends and discussed  The Mystery Method.

How beautiful in comparison was our Saturday afternoon at the Heroes. We really have to review this unobtrusive gem more thoroughly, since it just always allures us to stay happily ever longer than our tight schedule commands. Perhaps it's the cuisine, aah, one sweet taste parade, on Saturday we went for the "cake rumble", tomorrow we'll attend the Cantine du Jeudi for the first time, this week they offer Lasagna.

The beautiful lamp you see above is designed by French designer, artist and wood master Romain Houssais and to be found at the Heroes.

Oh, it is almost time for our late night photo shoot with Susan, so we have to tell you about the spectacular robot performance at the Sunday Extraordinaire another day.

My Deer Darling - Christophe Coppens

Thou shalt not bribe your vibes nor agonize, wise men walk their walk betimes. Just a fistful of wisdom we need along with the beautiful dress our chief executive is planning to wear on the night he turns 30. We saw Christophe Coppens' "Deer Cape" from 2005 in Portuguese magazine "Zoot". Grateful we are... add some air as may best please you.

Meeting Jacques By Accident - Traffic Magazine

There I stood on the corner of Gormannstraße and some other street, wrapped in dirty white, just another animal stuffed in natural darm, trying to look like a venturous, yet unpretentious snowmonster. I would die to say that I was wondering how I got here, since it reads like the beginning of a book that would sell pretty well, but I remembered every single step from my trashed desk to the front-door, how I rolled my cigarette and how I almost dropped it because I thought I saw a snowmonster, but it was just my reflection in one of the gallery windows. At the time in question I wasn't really wondering about anything, I just held on to the thought that I would invest in spaceships as soon as I had made my fortune with AdSense, just in case one of Emmerich's visions should become true. And then out of nowhere Jacques appeared in front of me, a huge paper roll between left arm and torso, we shook hands.

He was on his way to the printing shop, the paper roll being the third issue of "Traffic", he seemed happy. I said: "Ah, traffic, saw something 'bout that on facebook, so that's your magazine?" He said "yes", I complimented him on the layout, he highlighted the content. Before we went separate ways, Jacques handed me a copy of the first issue, so I could find out for myself. Since the magazine is subheaded "news to go", it seemed like a good idea to read it in the subway, lucky as I am my train got stuck between Janowitzbridge and Heinrich-Heine-Street for a while, so I had enough time to get a first impression. The editorial stuff of "Traffic" proves to be impressive, there are quite a few figures whose background show the peaks of German Feuilleton. I'm not even sure if there's a proper word for what the Germans call "Feuilleton" in the English language and I think the French would rather address it as "rubrique littéraire", while associating "le feuilleton" with something that's on TV, I wonder what went wrong when the Germans conquered the word, or rather got stuffed with it like an adipohepatic goose, one shouldn't blame them for everything, they have enough shame to carry as it is. However, the names read big shot and the words seem to keep up, I don't speak German too well, but I didn't feel awkward reading it which doesn't happen too often. I was happy to find a section on man perfume, which is really encouraging, up and till now I always felt the need to hide it or to pretend that I bought it as an emergency liquor supply. I also learned how to adjust a bow tie, how embittered Daniel Richter really is and that I rather shouldn't write a novel on Dubai, well, the latter I already knew. However, these are all things that I like to read (for free).

Thoughts On Houses - Robin Pineda Gould

TA: Mr. Pineda Gould, amongst many other things you have been labeled "avantgarde musician", "singer-songwriter", "movie director", "writer", "poet", "philosopher king", "religious leader" and "insane"? Despite the fact that some of these labels imply a bit of irony, which one of them feels like home to you?

RPG: I feel compelled to state that fist and foremost, a house is not (always) a home, but in all these constructions, or so called labels, a certain house has been constructed for those of us Dyonisians trapped in the nomadic path of creative dementia praecox. At many times I feel the necessity to find the hearth of this structure, load it with the dry, sensual wood of creation, and illuminate that very hearth and its surrounding construction in the flames of the tortured muses that at times are chained to me. I can make my home in any label, and I find the "singer-songwriter" in particular quite piquant.

TA: Now that we addressed the matter of different houses within the landscape of art, thought and religion, what is it exactly that makes them false fronts in a way? In regards to art, thought and religion as houses themselves, I might add the question if they are at least somehow stable and if yes in what sense?

RPG: They are false fronts to the extent that art is a false front. The word false itself has a pejorative connotation, but that is not the case here. It is an asset. Most artists have trouble being labeled, when this is the best thing in the world. If someone says to me: you are a singer-songwriter , I readily reply: yes. And so on. There is nothing more stable than the emptiness of words made solid in the instance of the utterance. Religion is a stable house, but not a stable home. And so it goes. Art is nothing but embracing the falsity of things, but that very good, beautiful falsity that needs at least two people to become. That is why many artists are quasi-pschizophrenics (another great label by the way).

TA: Love has always been a main theme within your work as well as in your life. Set aside the boring fact that I could say similar things to most other artists, I would like to ask how your (now not anymore so) private love life manifests in your work? Perhaps there is a certain development that occurred in both "realms" simultaneously? Asking this I do not necessarily assume that a woman guided/guides your ways through the creative process, it might just be as well the other way 'round.

RPG: Love is so prominent, because as you so well put it, I am often intoxicated by this phenomena. I am somewhat hungry at this point, so talking of love becomes complicated. So capricious is love. But for the past year I have been submerged in the glorious nasality of French; a serious trickster when it comes to love. In the baroque excess of the French language, many men fall captive, and cannot avoid becoming lost on the jagged rocks around our modern day Sirenum scopuli. Like Odysseus, we must find the wax to put in the ears of our friends and the ropes to tie ourselves to the phallic mast of love, and let the siren rape us. Is love an intoxication? It is indeed. Is it worth dying for? We do it every night. Birdwomen of the world, do not launch yourselves into the water just yet, as we must all sail by again. Did Jesus know what to do with love? No, he never wrote a song.

TA: You are half Mexican, half American, have strong bindings to the German artistic scene and now you're living in Montréal, Canada, where you share an apartment with two French twins. I hope you don't mind me asking if what other magazine's labeled your "inspiring neverending identity crisis" can be traced back to such simple facts of life? (I might add that Deleuze once said in regards to Kafka that the devil is the duplication itself.)

RPG: Simplicity would require finding a home. But this is more the case of a house. Yes, it is this simple. If that is what he (Deleuze) said of Kafka imagine what he would say of Wittgenstein. Symptomatology can be very poetic indeed, and satisfactory. But as we probe further we realize that the causes themselves break down into ever more complex elements. The fact that my father has origins traceable to Tangiers and the Ivory coast and my mothers Austrian heritage become significant with further probing. Whichever house you choose.

TA: Now that we addressed your girlfriend Séverine Lombardo and her twin sister Élodie Lombardo as entities first, I would like to dive back into real life. You're working on a dancing performance together with Séverine and Élodie right now, can you tell us a little more about that?

RPG: The name of the piece is Petites Pièces de Poche, choreographed and conceived by Séverine Lombardo. I like to call it by its anglophone eponymous name: little pocket pieces. I am collaborating with another musician in this work. Speaking for myself and what this work means to me I would say that my part is understanding the dynamic impetus in someone else's brilliant vision, and try to find a way to make the work live and come into being through its aural counterpoint. More than anything, it is a test and testament to my capacity to rid my work of all masturbatory elements (something that has been both criticized and celebrated in some of my work); it represents the creation of art that is functional in feeding and improving upon another individual's work. These are the serious moments in life, when what you do as a compulsion becomes organized and must submit/interact with the wills of others. That is the "work" aspect of it, what makes it exist in the world, where some money can come from these actions. I don't believe this is necessarily a good thing, but it definitely is pleasurable and leaving philosophical beliefs aside it is something I will defend. Especially when the work in question is so significant. The work plunges the audience into pitch black, where spasms of light, movement and music will overtake their sensory experience. It is a work of fragments and delicate abstraction, something that moves beyond trends and fads of any kind. From out of the darkness we reach out and assault, to fade back into the darkness once again and recommence the assail from another side. Highly recommended, if I may say so myself.

TA: Mr. Pineda Gould, thank you very much for this interview, it was a pleasure tasting some of your thoughts. Now as a last request, I would like to ask you for your retrospective on the year 2010. What will have been the most important things that you did and did not do in 2010?

RPG: Being that everything is what it is, there are no important actions. Once we attack that belief we realize that things are both important and not important at the same time, and to different degrees. The rhizome comes into being. In 2010, there will be much excitement. All acts of artistic creation are not important, albeit necessary (paradox included). Things to be considered truly important. Important: being a good man involving my family and friends and maybe even strangers. Detrimental: not learning German. Improving my French will be very important as well. Making music, film and poetry; those are only gifts.

Love is a Weapon, by Robin Pineda Gould from Robin Pineda Gould on Vimeo.