Thursday, April 15, 2010

ÉLAN TIMIDE - DIE ZWEITE

It turns out Élan Timide is still the hit. After podcasting "Improvisationsstück" I noticed a frightning enhancement of popularity. With more than 200 listeners and I don't know how many downloads (between 3 and 10 everyday), it proves to be commercially relevant. Here comes another "klasse" Élan Timide song by the name of "Das selbe Lied". Enjoy.


09 das selbe lied.mp3

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Vive La Christian Dance Force



Fun Club Initiative has a new subdivision: "The Christian Dance Force" based in Duisburg, Germany. In case you haven't heard of Duisburg, the city doesn't have much of a dance history, yet it is quite famous for coal mining, steelmaking and the production of tanks and other heavy weaponry in World War II. Our crusade begins, become acquainted with how we dance our way to God:



And let us prove to you that dancing can also serve an educational purpose. Here we try to persuade "the kids" not to waste their lives and virginities in "the disco". We also demonstrate that women are real snakes that (sort of) deserve it.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Air Band Contest - Mitch's Birthday

Most people ain't have the guts for nothing. Nobody hates them, nobody loves them either, nothing worthwile ever comes out of their mouthes or bones, I don't even know who they are, but I can feel their presence and it makes me sick to the guts. If you're not sure whether you should agree or feel offended, find some balls in your boring existence and sign up for the air band contest at the 18th. Perhaps you got beaten up by drunken strangers at some point and fought back and remember the adrenaline rushing through this empty bone-house of yours? Didn't it feel good? Finally alive?

I strongly recommend you to get on stage and prove to yourself that you still have this tiny little (and in some way much bigger) soul of a child hidden in your "persona" that in many ways is more like a function. Do something unexpected, ridicule yourself, become a piece of art yourself, nothing more sublime than this...

Fun Club's security adviser and long term biker, Mitch, will be part of the jury and your MC for the day. It is also his 39th birthday and although he's not the brightest head he understood that it is about time to become senseless again.

You find all the necessary information here and here. Go for it. Sign up or at least invite yourself.

Monday, April 12, 2010

The Fun Club Song - Love Is Clean

In cooperation with Dr. Love our chief executive Tony Abstract wrote and recorded "The Fun Club Song" aka "Love is Clean". Enjoy.


Love is clean.mp3

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."

Saturday, April 10, 2010

1,2,3 Fun Again - Smoker Jesus Rarity

Fun Club Initiative is back on track and feels better than ever. Feel free to terminate boredom and depression with immediate effect, someone is here for you now, someone who sees through your rouged heart of glass just to find hidden treasures in the sherds, someone who loves you for who you really are. His name is chief executive Tony Abstract and today he proves his unconditional love by revealing parts of his until now strictly classified past as a rock musician.

In the early 80s, he was part of the postmodern trio Smoker Jesus. In just a few days they wrote a dozen of perfect songs and produced an LP in a very limited edition. They only made 20 copies with elaborate handmade booklets including a picture of Tony's ass. They kept a few for themselves (so they thought) and gave the rest to close friends. Just recently - when a friend asked for a new copy - they discovered that none of the band members had any left. By now no one really remembers the order in which the songs were presented, but at least they found most of the tunes as mp3s on some old Commodore computers. Tony took the time and mixed some hits together. Sometimes it's just parts of songs and some songs are completely missing, yet it might still help to keep some of the magic alive.

It starts out with the original introduction, then we get a glimpse of "The Sea Is My Land", followed by parts of "Prostitute Song". Next we hear a good part of "Romantic Electrician" and the ingenious "Neighbor Song" that was written and recorded in 20 minutes. Then Tony gives you what was called "Smoker Jesus Hymn", although it probably should be called "Love Is The Devil". Afterwards we hear the original intro to "Paper Bag Song" followed by "Paper Bag Song". Last but not least he gives you the very beginning of "The Fisherman's Tale", a pretty fucked-up song that originally takes 12 minutes of your time,


Smoker Jesus God Damn The Sun.mp3

Friday, March 19, 2010

Pants

ÉLAN TIMIDE - LONG FORGOTTEN MUSIC

I just came across one of my favorite bands of the (g)olden days. A bunch of high school friends of mine formed a band called "Élan Timide" that all the teenagers in our small town adored. It turns out they were quite ahead of their time - I still love that shit. Élan Timide that's Peter Rings (vocals), Dr. med. dent. Johannes Albert (guitar), Dr. phil. Johannes Schülein (organ) and Matthias Kalmbach (drums). The piece I bring forward to you is called "Improvisationsstück". Enjoy...


10 improvisationsstück.mp3

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Ewa Kniaziak - Let's Give Up On The Idea Of Romance

Our second or third winner for that matter, Ewa Kniaziak, introduced her submission to the 19,99 € Award with the kind words: "Dear jury, the first photo was taken at the .HBC in concert. I'd like to win for the money. Thank you." She immediately stroke me as a smart tactician since she knew by the time she sent in her application that our terrific 19,99 € Award ceremony was going to go down at the .HBC as well. Then again, pretty much everything decent in Berlin is happening there lately, so I guess I don't have a point. I also know her pretty well, thus I didn't really have to make any guesses about what kind of person she was. Our jury however didn't know her, so I'm all the more happy that they noticed that she's a good one. It sort of consolidates my believe in the fine art scenes, since it seems mostly pretty random what these folks like and dislike and 90 % of the self-proclaimed connoisseurs repeat some crap they found in already renowned blogs anyway. Yet my incapability of developping sound and profound judgments about pieces of fine art still remains, it's pretty different with literature, I don't even have to read it to know if it's good or at least worth burning.

If it comes to Ewa Kniaziak's photography "Let's give up on the idea of romance", our jury had some concerns about the title, yet they all agreed sooner or later that it was way more than just corny, technically very well-done and beautiful this is.



Gusti Gould Korban: "I still like "Let's give up on the idea of romance". I had an initial hesitation before choosing it (perhaps somewhat similar to your initial feeling that it's kitsch, Martin) because I felt it was "too mainstream". But then I realized that wasn´t a good reason (worrying about how I looked!) for rejecting it. It's visually quite beautiful with great textures and use of light. [...] From what I've seen so far it looks like none of us is ready to give up on romance."

Lasse Lawrence: "My second favorite piece would be "Let's give up on the idea of romance". I cannot really explain why, it's cheesy and a little hippie or 70's revival. But I must say that despite of that it's a beautiful photography work in terms of light and shapes or movements. I printed it in a very bad quality on a shitty paper on my terrible printer at home and I must say that it still looks beautiful, maybe better! I like this impression of suspended moments, I know a song called "Suspended in Love" (it's not a cheesy song at all, it's even completely hysterical), maybe it has to do with that. Time, motions, senses being suspended and that's the other part, the other side of the picture, that keeps us away from the danger, the danger to be drawn, to fall out of senses. Being suspended reminds us that we all will fall at some point."

Martin Beck: "I printed out the Romance-Picture as well, and I must say it makes a much better impression, when it’s not in that Windows-window where you always see that silly title above it. What strikes me is the complete lack of sexiness of that scene (that’s of course a very subjective thing), and I guess that indeed justifies the title to a certain extent. As I always have a problem with making my mind up with a single photography, I did something forbidden and googled the title, and seeing it in the context of the other pictures I think it’s not stemming from such a cheesy mindset as my first impression was, and there is an interesting examination of light, contrast etc. And on first glance I find some of the other pictures better than the submission. Still I think the title is a no-go."

Cornelia Huth: "Yes it is the most pathetic theme to choose ever. It's drinking too much and writing love songs. Black and white. I get the cheesy, the mainstream, being to agreeable and over-aesthetical. It is somewhat the perfect picture (and picture perfect) for a hip advertisement in Berlin Mitte, just name one. That's the thing, but that's no reason to dislike it, as Gusti said, just look at the streetart sell-out shit that's happening at the moment. There is no real or unreal, I think the context is wide in this case. It captures an individual, intimate moment and generates another individual feeling, memory, taste or smell. That's not new at all, it’s not pointing at problems or arousing intellectual discussions but it shows the ability of an artist in general to generate something out of everything. The apparatus just made the transportation visible, one to one. Moreover this little box changed the way of our perception in general. It just brings us to see pictures everywhere and see everything in pictures. All the other things I agree with too, interesting shades of light, unexpected effects, not able to localize, looks like underwater. [...] This could be the work of Ryan McGinley's assistant (who by the way was the youngest artist showing at Moma ever and at the same time working for the New York Times, the Olympics, fashion stuff etc.). It includes all the references of subjective photography or like other people say, documentation photography (Goldin, Tillmans). Although I like the medium and it's way of transporting the theme, I am having a hard time, like Martin, judging photography by just one picture and without any context information."

Here we see the young lady early in the morning, still haunted by nightmares that only a good cold morning shower can wash off.

No One Loves Music - "Kill" The Mix Tape

Fun Club Initiative now podcasts "mix tapes for idiots" - just a few minutes of joy and fun for the poor and lonely. We don't take any responsibility for what happens after, it's a crude mix of styles that - after going through the Fun Club mixer - is barely bearable. Free you ears sisters & brothers...


Mix-1.mp3

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Malgorzata Szandala - Nearly Impossible

Last week I presented Bas Hendrikx' Award winning candy distributor "Candybars", today I'm honored to introduce the second first winner of this year's 19,99 € Award, Malgorzata Szandala, and her piece "Nearly Impossible". The thing with having two first winners is that there's a strong tendency to refer to a first first winner and second first winner. Is Bas Hendrikx the better first winner because I presented him first? (Am I a chauvinist for treating gentlemen before ladies? Or a feminist (with a sweet tooth for Marilyn Frye) for the same matter?) Or is Bas Hendrikx the less valuable first winner because I spent less words on his presentation? Then again, why do I mention his name so often? It's a damn cool name, that's for sure, but so is Malgorzata Szandala, Malgorzata Szandala, Malgorzata Szandala. I just love the beauty of echolalia. However, I really couldn't care less and I'm mostly asking myself why I'm asking myself all these damn questions. Despite the fact that there were moments in my life when my psychological constitution was to be considered more sane than it is these days, I'm rhetorically prancing through these questions because there is indeed a reason why I presented Bas first and Malgorzata second.

For weeks now I've been going through all the letters our jury members exchanged in the process of finding a decision. While reconstructing the spirit of decision making within the art industry, I discovered that our jury didn't exactly fall in love with Malgorzata's piece at first glance or as Gusti Gould Korban so felicitously verbalized: "It grows on you." Here we see "Nearly Impossible":



And here are a few things our jury members pointed out in the course of their "postmodern" discourse:

Cornelia Huth: "I like this one. A short message made of stones (that's what I see) thrown intentionally on the ground to make it look like the complete opposite, just fallen there, saying "nearly impossible", sounds like a funny parody to me. The blurry symbolic language puts it in-between: high and low quality, streetart and land-art, serious and ridiculous. As Lasse said before, I do like reading short messages everywhere as well and finding this while wandering around would make my day. Moreover, I somehow experience a zeitgeist feeling here. The phenomenon of transporting messages, expressing feelings, staying in contact, making arrangements these days. Everything you have say to your friends / family / lover / world is in 120 letters. Starting with text messages and facebook. I can’t even remember reading a letter on real paper. Like the title says: (For me) it is nearly immpossible to explain things in this form, but that's what we do all day. Funny too. I just like the twists this piece is able to transport."

Gusti Gould Korban: "I can hear the crunching sound that walking on such gravel makes, something which always makes up for its ugliness and here the touch of green does the same. The message is a pleasant surprise that subtly humanizes the barrenness. The idea is a clever one that works. It brings an immediate smile to the observer who then is able to easily make a myriad of associations both aesthetic and philosophical. And it grows on you. The combination of inanimate rubble, green life and the unexpected words of man, barely visible at first glance, makes for intelligent whimsy. I wish I were able to join you all for a drink..."

Lasse Lawrence: "Even if I don't really get the topic of this piece, I like the idea of walking down some random dirty rocky path in a nature park or something, finding such an unexpected mysterious message on my way, it reminds me of Cosmos, a book by Gombrowitz, where the walkers find a bird hanged on a branch in their way to a refuge, and start their investigation from this point - and start to see signs in the smallest elements of the surrounding environment, leading them to some unlikely speculations."

And here you see a picture of Malgorzata, Bas didn't send me one, but I'm sure he's also pretty:

Friday, March 12, 2010

Bas Henrikx - Candybars

Life ain't scary, it's just pretty expensive. Sometimes I'm glad I don't have any wives nor kids that I have to shoot when there's nothing more to pawn. Bas Hendrikx from Amsterdam, one of two winners of this year's 19,99 € Award, doesn't have to worry about money anymore.

Jury member Martin Beck writes about Bas Hendrikx' installation "Candybars" from 2009:

"Candy Bars is my winner because of its intricate and complex entanglement of the aesthetics of minimalism and our regressive desire for cheap sensual pleasures. References to minimalism can be found in its rectangular box shape as well materials such as frosted glass, metal and neon lights, rendering it a highly aesthetic piece. Yet the minimalistic practice of manufacturing a work of art with the means of industrial production seem to be reversed by artistically recreating a functional object that is itself a standardised item of serial production. The resulting piece fits well into an art space, yet it confronts our wish for a refined acknowledgment of its formal and material qualities with our regressive sensual desires and the automatism by which consumer capitalism is ready to cater them.

An image that reminds – judging from the rather bad quality picture – of a pink bucket, a drink or a meaningless abstract emblem, offers a pleasure that is as cheap as it is sweet, unhealthy and redundant. At the same time promising and withholding the designated object of our infantile desire, Candy Bars represents a study on display, taste, aesthetic experience and objecthood at times when the art sphere is increasingly incorporated in the entertainment industry."

Jury member Lasse Lawrence adds:

"I like the piece because of its triviality in an art space. [...] I like Candybars because it reminds us that art turned into the product of some diluted consumption and exhibitions are the places where this diluted consumption takes place. It's not only "let's have a break, let's have a candy bar!" it's also let's have a break, let's examine why we visit exhibition spaces, what we come here for?"

 

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

The 19,99 € Award Fun Explosion - A First Glimpse Of The Ceremony

AND THE WINNERS OF THIS YEAR'S 19,99 € AWARD ARE BAS HENDRIKX & MALGOSIA SZANDALA! 

So unfortunately we have to divide the 19,99 € in half. We will inform the winners shortly in person and agree on a safe way of shipping the fortune. [As soon as we have enough time to breathe.]


 
 

Sunday, February 21, 2010

"A harp is like a piano without its clothes on while it's still young and pretty". Baby Dee interviewed by Uwe Schneider

Over breakfast a friend of mine came up with the idea of investing a few thousands in a baby company, taking her eggs and my sperm and a few poor women, later sell the high-class blue-eyed treasures to the highest bidders. Then I got asked by a friend of a friend if I could babysit their daughter tonight. And on my way home huge masses of snow came down the roofs like white and shiny (late) Christmas bombs, I couldn’t help but imagine at least one of them hitting a baby buggy – survival of the luckiest.

These three incidents are somewhat unconnected, I admit. Still - lightheaded as I am they all reminded me (onomatopoetically) of a brilliant musician from Cleveland, Ohio, who has been haunting my daydreams for quite a while now. Baby Dee honored us greatly by answering a few of our questions. I would like to express my gratitude towards Baby Dee and also thank Uwe Schneider for doing all the dirty/journalistic work.

And don’t you think that we will excuse your absence on March 25th (Berghain). It would be plain stupid to miss out on Baby Dee’s Berlin concert and we do not tolerate this sort of self-destructive behavior.

Last but not least I would like to apologize for this introduction, but what else can I say? Just read…



"Your new album "A Book Of Songs For Anne Marie" is sort of a remake of an earlier version that was recorded in a really provisorical way. What lead to your decision to work on these songs again?

I never thought of the first release as the definitive version of those songs. At that time I just knew I didn't have the wherewithal to do them justice so I purposely made the record that went with the book (they were released as a book not a CD) in a kind of slapdash way so when I recorded them I went to a studio and played through the songs once and sent it off without even listening to it.

I thought back then that a song was worth more if somebody else did it. To me that gives a song more of a life of its own -- completely independent and apart from the writer. That was what I was after. It just seemed to me at the time that was a way to leave room for somebody else to take it and make it their own.

I didn't quite get that but I got the next best thing. Maxim Moston offered to arrange them and produce the record. It's still me singing and playing harp and piano though. What can I say? It's not a perfect world.

In most of your songs, there is a strong element of storytelling. This becomes even clearer with this album because of its main character Anne Marie. Imagine a novelist or filmmaker would like to do an interpretation/adaptation of it, how would your work appropriately be translated into film or literature?

It would have to be hugely tragic, wouldn't it? Like one big death scene and the actors would have to look good naked.

Most of your songs are based on harp and piano. Apart from the fact that there is a harp in every piano - what do you think are the most important differences between using the piano or the harp to shape the character of a song? And why is it that you love these two instruments so very much?

A harp is like a piano without its clothes on while it's still young and pretty. I always loved the harp but didn't get to play one as a child so the piano is my mother tongue. All these songs were written at the piano and then completely rewritten to play on the harp. The harp was what I used to carry them out into the world.

I can do a piano tour now and have mostly good pianos to play but back then I had to use the harp. No one knew who I was then and getting a piano can be kind of a big deal. Music, the instruments and the writing is generally a lot more of a practical thing than most of us start out thinking. Probably if good pianos and concert harps weren't so damn big and expensive a lot more people would be playing them and doing tours with them. As it is they're among the most impractical things on earth for a tour to depend on.

I have a tiny concert harp that I keep in England. If times got tough for me and piano shows became unrealistic again I could always go back to schlepping it around on trains.

The "Book of Songs" lacks all the cabaret or even rock elements of your previous album "Safe Inside The Day". In a certain way, it may introduce the newer fans to your more classical style, may this be called "torch song", "balladry" or whatever. Would you regard "Safe Inside The Day" as a singular thing and the "ballads" as your main focus?

I don't know what to call my stuff. I call them dirges but that's a joke. I don't like to call them ballads. The only song I ever wrote that I would think of as a ballad is The Earlie King because it has that feel of the telling of a story with a beginning and an end and something dreadful happens... To me that's what a ballad is. I know in pop music the word ballad has become synonymous with slow or moody or unhappy or something like that. Maybe I'm too attached to that old meaning of the word to embrace it.

But hell. This is my interview and I don't like the word ballad. My songs are not ballads.

Lieder? I'm picturing Schubert having a rant about his work being lumped into a category called Lieder.

Art Song? Too precious but probably the best description. Too bad it's not a form of music that people make.

I don't know. I'm at a loss here. Sorry!



In many of your songs (e.g. "So Bad", "As Morning Holds A Star" and "Lilacs") there is a certain element that reminds of English renaissance music and poetry. Are you interested in that period, or is there no direct influence?

The music of the Renaissance was important to me but I only really loved the Italians and the Spaniards. Palestrina and Morales and Victoria. I admired William Byrd because he wrote well for three voices and I have a serious kink for three voices in counterpoint. I don't know any renaissance poetry. And I would say the influence of English music is non existent in my music. I never studied it and never listened to it.

Lugubrious and dreary Irish American crappy ballads have certainly had an influence as that was the soundtrack of my early youth. So there you go -- Ballads -- But only crappy ones inform my work.

Due to your biography you are sometimes labeled as a transgender artist. In our opinion, however, most of your lyrics deal with love in general, independently from any gender perspective. Would you agree?

I agree wholeheartedly and God bless you for leaving the tired old story of gender dysphoria back in the dust where it belongs.

In recent years, there was a large public interest in somehow folk inspired artists with a certain transgressive or counter cultural element in their style. One of the frequently used terms alongside this hype was "new weird america". As you work and have worked with the likes of Antony, Bonnie Prince Billy or David Tibet - have you ever regarded yourself as a part of something like this, and did this discourse influence the way you have been treated as an artist?

I don't know a single person (including the ones you mentioned) who wouldn't cringe and howl at the thought of being bunched in among the "new weird america" or "freak folk" people. Even the people who the category was made for don't fit it. David Tibet LOATHES folk music and he's considered the godfather of all that neo neo neo folk fuck shit. I love Devendra and let's face it, they pretty much made that box size just to fit him. But even he doesn't belong there. Not in my opinion anyway. He's much to good for that.

The same goes for Joanna Newsom doesn't it. She's much too sophisticated to be genuinely folky.

Vashti Bunyan doesn't fit because she's the real deal isn't she?

Also from my perspective not one of these people even come close to fitting the bill for either weird or freaky. I suppose I have to own up to those but I don't have a folkloric bone in my body.

And no, I don't think it's influenced the way people treat me. Some people can be different and loved for it and some can be different and hated for it. I think I'm kind of in-between -- tolerated. I am tolerated and that's a lot more than I expected. Allowed to make a living -- pretty amazing really. But I don't think I owe that to there being a name somebody made up.

And how fortunate for me to live in such a wonderful world as this where it's really possible to live outside of some bonehead's necessity to classify and make groups.

As if music and the people who make it were a card game for the simple minded like Go Fish. As if one can do this --

MATCH THEM LIKE TO LIKE AND LAY THEIR FACES DOWN IN A DECK OF HUMPIN DOGS

-- and be proud?

To hell with the makers of categories.

It's said that you have already played music in the early seventies. What kind of music was this, and are there any records?

No records. I just improvised a kind of beginningless/endless thing on the harp and spent years writing and playing the same piece on the piano. Believe me you didn't miss much.

Seems that 2010 will be a busy year for you. After your own tour there'll be an album and shows with the band Current 93. What else can we expect from you in the nearer future?

I just finished recording an album at my house in cleveland with Andrew WK producing and members of Mucca Pazza playing. Mucca Pazza is a thirty piece marching band from chicago. They're led by Mark Messing, a composer and arranger and souzaphone player and bassoon player. He's just unbelievably talented. Him and John Steinmeir, a jaw droppingly good percussionist and fellow crazy cow came and we recorded everything live right there in my house on Andrew's Steinway D!
He's going to edit and mix it. It'll come out on Drag City maybe late fall?

Also I'm collaborating with Little Annie. We're going to get together this summer to write and record. We already got a start on that. It's going to be super fun. I adore Little Annie.

Thank you a lot for the interview. As the world's greatest enthusiasts for ballads of all kind, we'll try our hardest now not to mention them any more. So all we can say in the end is - keep your eyes and ears open for the new things to come. And check out Little Annie's lovely music as well.

Baby Dee auf Myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/theonlybabydee
Baby Dee at home in Cleveland:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uWMfyDzACc&feature=related
Clip zu "Dance of Diminishing Posibilities":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRJIbvKy-1g
Live at the Bistrotheque London 2008:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOvbuu_TD78&feature=related"

Monday, February 15, 2010

Eight Things That Matter


REASONS TO READ FUN CLUB ________________________________________________________________


§1
We have reason to believe that superhero Baby Dee might answer a few of our questions. Don't forget to mark March 25th in your calendar - don't you miss Baby Dee's show at the Berghain!

§2
A review of Randy Twigg's masterpiece "Undone" is in the making.

§3
Our review of Houellebecq's and Lévy's "Volksfeinde" ("Ennemis publics") will be continued.

§4
We will soon introduce you to the winner(s) of this this year's 19,99 € Award.

§5
Our HUGE literature award/competition will launch in a few days.


TIME TO GO FUN CLUB ________________________________________________________________


§6
On February 28th we will present the winner(s) of this year's 19,99 € Award in a spectacular show at the HBC. We would like to take a minute and thank our co-operation partner Sunday Extraordinaire.


FRIENDS OF FUN CLUB ________________________________________________________________


§7
Please check out "lobby" at Kino Arsenal, a project by our jury member Martin Beck inter alia. Daily from 11 am to 10 pm or later - February 12th till February 21st.

§8
Please apply here for the air band contest at next week's Sunday Extraordinaire. Don't miss out on 200 €.




"7 Year Itch" Art Show - Snooped By Uwe Schneider

While our 19,99 € Award jury is curating the hell out of all the wonderful submissions we found in our mail box, Fun Club's music and literature expert Dr. Uwe Schneider goes down on the art scene like an eagle. Once again he proves why he is considered the first German "Universalgenie" after Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.

"In Billy Wilder's movie from 1955, the title “Seven Year Itch“ refers to the declining affection between partners after being in a relationship for seven years. I’m not the one to decide if this is a psychological phenomenon to be taken seriously or a mere cliché – in the case of the notorious Strychnin Gallery, whose Berlin branch was founded in 2003 by Yasha Young and whose best of exhibition was named after this quote, it surely gains different aspects of meaning. Strychnin, with their vast range of genres and styles is far away from a “monogamous“ relationship with any particular movement within the fine arts. Maybe this is why there is no sign of declining interest at all to bear. In some languages, „itching“ is also a metaphor for feeling restless about something, and it might serve as the most appropriate connotation of the phrase: Strychnin looks back on seven years of prolific and restless art shows and now presents their first retrospective.



The anniversary celebration started last Friday and presents a selection of about 60 international artists, who all have exhibited there before. When talking about various styles and genres, one shouldn't ignore some obvious combining elements that are leitmotifs of some sort in the history of their choice.  I'm talking about a focus on phenomena usually labeled „lowbrow“, „pop surrealism“ or „fantastic realism“ - styles in which classical modernism, folklore and counter culture meet, where influences from comics, book illustrations and underground music are hard to overlook, and whose subjects are figurative and narrative in the deconstructive way of a Murakami novel or a movie by Julio Medem or Tim Burton. For example, this is the case in the works of two Davids from across the Atlantic Ocean, Hochbaum and Stoupakis, who can't be missing among Strychnin's greatest hits. Consider Stoupakis' childlike fairytale set pieces, which are both kitchy and nightmarish and gained a lot of critical reputation in mags like Juxtapose and Hi Fructose; or think of the collaged foto and painting fragments of Hochbaum's mythical dreamscenes full of mediaeval cityscapes and strange women with brushwood on their backs – they all appear like screenshots from a folk tale which follows a surrealist script and is accompanied by some punkish score. 


Music, by the way, isn't just a metaphor in the exhibition's context. Whilst Stoupakis could easily illustrate a sexy dark cabaret outfit, Benjamin Vierling has actually contributed artwork for folk chanteuse Joanna Newsom. His „oil and egg tempera on panel“ works belong to the most traditional ones on the Strychnin roster, comprise influences from the 15th to the 19th centuries and are of a highly symbolic nature. Ansgar Noeth's prints under glass must be mentioned as well in context of a new symbolist tendency in contemporary art. The striking heads of his allegories, however, are a far cry from any pre-raffaelite contemplativeness. They subtly balance between earnestly showing and slightly mimicing the sins they deal with. More focused on the counter cultural element are the black and white images of Clive Barker-illustrator Richard A. Kirk (not to be confused with the composer Richard H. Kirk), the symetric "Devil's Caravan“ by a certain Gothic Hangman, and the death metal-like fantasies of The Ring's make-up artist Chet Zar, who contributed some canvas work – something monstrous with a strangely humorous twinkling of an eye. Another prominent figure from the movies is special effects bigwig Cliff Wallace. Confronted with his „Penitent“ and „Lamia“, my companion and I had the same association with Pan's Labyrith, and indeed Wallace collaborated with Guillermo del Toro before. 


Scott Radke's almost decorative mixed media work, the human faced "Snowflake“, leads us to a neo-baroque focus that is chiefly represented by some wondrously strange dolls whose charisma ranges from shy eroticism to an implied mental derangement that is hard to describe. Some of the dolls are way sweetish in their melancholy appearance, like for instance Marina Bychkova's porcellain "Agnetha“. Others, such as Virginie Ropars' "Alba“ or Beth Robinson's "She Caught Her Stallion“, which is made of clay, fabric and human hair, are rather recommendable to those who seek the morbid side of a decadent baroque scenery. Highly influenced by this period of cultural history is also art's most (in-)famous dog Ray Cesar, whose ultrachrome print "French Kiss“ has been on display since last year's "Magistrates“ show, from wich a number of exhibits are still hanging. It's impressive how his works combine schemes of childlike characteristics with a touch of fastidious audacity and sometimes even wickedness. 


When it comes to facial features, these childlike aspects inevitably evoke associations with the world of Japanese anime and manga art with its saucer eyed girls of willingly simplified design. This elements, however, have an independent tradition in Western lowbrow art in general. It is obvious in works of painters like Mark Ryden, children's book illustrator Nicoletta Ceccioli as well as in Leslie Ditto's „Rusty Memories“, which also shows her influence from hot-rod street culture. The anecdote says that some of her first artistic impressions came from helping in her family's Harley Davidson shop, where she could watch her father painting the gas tanks and other parts of bikes with popular fancy images of powerful, sexy women. Many of her paintings represent a somehow melancholy side of rock'n'roll, show vital yet desperate scenes. Less melancholy are the lively pin-up variations of Berlin based digital artist and illustrator Mimi S., whose work derives from traditional animation and found various usage in poster-artwork and other music related stuff in the last couple of years. Graphics like these build a bridge to another kind of cult movement of 1950s popular culture – the funny and brightly colored phenomenon of Californian Tikki bars with their South Pacific flair that were highly fashionable at that time and can look back on quite a few revivals since then. In some corners of the gallery you'll find pieces from a former show devoted to that subject: handpainted and artistically modified ukuleles, prints, sculptures and more.


There are also pieces that lack the vintage element that is very much in the focus of the selected work. Another local hero for example, "Jack“ from Manuel Cortez' foto book "Berlin Calling“, is mainly rooted in contemporary urban art. The candy coulored plastic world of Michael Frojman aka Bijou, a French designer and DJ, may transcent the daily "here and now“ in the opposite way and plays with the stereotypes of a bubblegum fun society, apparently not disagreeable to the artist. It would be too much namedropping to mention all the other contributors, too much talking theory on subtle otherness and a new historicism without regress, too much cliché to go on babbling about weirdnes and joyful morbidezza. Needless, however, to say that I was excited and that I recommend you to drop in.


7 Year Itch. Anniversary Group Show featuring over 60 artists
Opens February 12th at 7 pm.
Exhibition runs until March 7th.
Opening times: Thursday - Sunday 12 noon – 6 pm
Strychnin Gallery
Boxhagenerstr. 36
10245 Berlin
www.strychnin.com"

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

The Evolution Of Mickey Mouse - Michal Dabrowski

Many of us are searching for new angles to look at the world, Michal Dabrowski can hook us up for good.

Walt Disney said about him: "Visionary Michal Dabrowski, based in Warsaw and Berlin, studied Applied Social Sciences. He makes graphics, photos and short movies. He likes it when art mixes with anthropology."



"The fittest will survive

The strongest won't survive. The fittest will. At least according to Darwin. Survival is a prize granted to those who fit best into the specific balance of a given environment, who have this particular set of characteristics, which sometimes are even invisible to human eye. Sometimes it's the speed. Sometimes it's the colour of the feathers. Sometimes it's the position of the thumb. Sometimes it's the amount of down on the fruit that protects it from parasites. But the environmental balance isn't settled once and for all. With climate change, quality and quantity of food, the number of representatives of given species or the taste of the audience, the favoured characteristics do change and individuals equipped with them start to have bigger chances for replication and gaining goods, which are always limited. And that's why we evolve. To adjust. And that's why Mickey Mouse evolves. To adjust. To us.

He is 62 years old. He had to fight for our attention with Felix the Cat, Popeye The Sailor, Bugs Bunny and plenty of others. And he survived. He changed a lot from the beginning, but he survived. His microenvironment helped. For example Felix the Cat didn't succeed because his microenvironment was silent (side note: the first words said by Mickey were „Hot dogs! Hot dogs!”). Innovative and skillful use of technicolor also helped our Mouse to establish his position.

He also had good lawyers. When together with his rival – Bugs Bunny they starred in „Who framed Roger Rabbit”, it was settled, that the length of their appearance was to be exactly the same to a microsecond. But all of that wouldn't have been enough. He himself also had to change. His head got larger. Just as his eyes. His jaw retracted. His tail disappeared and generally he got kind of rounded up. And he's not so rugged anymore. And he doesn't fight for a girl like working class heroes. He got boringly polite which actually goes much better with his falsetto (another side note: at first Walt Disney himself gave voice to Mickey but then all the cigarettes he smoked made him rather growl than speak). As Stephen Jay Gould wrote in his article ”A biological homage to Mickey Mouse”, Mickey more and more resembles a child. He's getting younger. He's evolving backwards.

According to Konrad Lorenz, that's how our perception of animals works. We see human traits in them. We tend to judge their mimics and behavior the same way we judge ours. So, when Mickey looks like a child, subconsciously we treat him like a child, and children are sweet and charming. Maybe that's the pattern that Disney's illustrators followed. Maybe even without being aware of these processes they tried to make Mickey look sweeter and more charming. If that is so, than we already have a part of this history. We know how and why he changed. But a much more interesting question still remains unanswered. How did we change? Because he's adjusting to us, isn't he? So, is it that now he is simply better adjusted and we are the same or maybe in the last 62 years something has also changed in us (or in the way we want to be perceived)? And if so, why do we want rugged men to grow into charming children? Why don't we want him to fight anymore? And why does Mickey have to wear those gloves all the time?"

Monday, February 8, 2010

Dogan, Donate, Susan's Sick Sister & ASCII

Desperate times call for desperate anecdotes. Two days ago I went to see my favourite and somewhat legendary Spätverkauf manager Dogan, he runs the so-called "Späti International" located in Neukölln Weserstreet. I don't know exactly how he does it, but sometimes there are more people hanging and drinking in his fucked-up shop than in all these bars that spread in said area like the rash on that contaminated baby's skin that I always have to picture before falling asleep, let's hope that it doesn't exist.

Liquor, cigarettes & candy on the counter and I was searching for a 5 € bill amidst a few 100 € bills when he said: "Hey, I can change that 100." I was really confused for a minute, meditating about how this could possibly be a rip-off, when he said: "You know, I collect them - think they are beautiful." I just nodded my head a few times and said something boring like "that's right" in response, then we exchanged bills, he didn't even check if my 100 was good to go. Looking back on said event, I doubt that Dogan is an expert on bills, he's just a collector blinded by beauty. So next time I go shopping I might try to con the poor man. You can keep me from pulling such a mean scam on my (almost) friend Dogan (perhaps you could call him a facebook friend although he is not a facebook, at least not to my knowledge) by trying out FUN CLUB'S new DONATE button. If we raise a 100 € till the end of the week, his ass is safe.

We will use the money to cure Susan's sick sister. We just found out a few days ago that she suffers from a strong form of incontinence, the real medical term was too sophisticated to remember. However, Susan even took on a second job as an ASCII artist. 


 
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Sunday, February 7, 2010

Mysterious Saukerl - Alexander Knopf Präsentiert

Fun Club's exchange program with Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg continues. Talented young scholar Alexander Knopf agreed to join the jury of our upcoming Literature Award. On top of that he delivered a thoroughly fascinating and mysterious "review". For the first time ever in Fun Club history, we felt obliged to leave words untranslated.

After making a fortune as a real-estate agent, Alexander Knopf decided to squander his money as a backpacker. He traveled the world and picked up pretty much every language he came across. When he finally returned to Eastern Germany, the wall was already gone, so he went to Heidelberg and enrolled as a literature, history and ethnology student. He has been published in countless magazines, journals and newspapers and has a very particular skill set if it comes to editorial practices. Some of us might remember his magazine "federlesen", others have benefited from his contributions to the Hebel edition. These days he's working on a PhD on Georg Friedrich Philipp Freiherr von Hardenberg, also known as Novalis.

In the picture below you find Alexander Knopf in a weird position. It might be hard to believe that it's really him, yet this might prepare us for what's coming.


"IN DEN BÜCHERBERGEN, die nach 1989 von Ostberliner Antiquariaten unter dem Etikett „ideologisch kontaminiert“ verramscht wurden, findet sich noch heute, bei geduldigem Graben, manches brauchbare Druckerzeugnis. Aus dem Jahre 1955 etwa stammt das völlig vergessene und tatsächlich nirgendwo mehr auffindbare Büchlein „Der Stellvertreter“ [Заместитель], verfasst von Ivan Golz, der es auch vom Russischen ins Deutsche übertrug. (Fischer Verlag Jena) Golz, seinerseits persona incognita, gibt wenig Informationen preis. In Lemberg um das Jahr 1900 geboren, verlebt er eine nirgendwo bezeugte Jugend, bis sich ein Lebenszeichen erstmals in den zwanziger Jahren in Petersburg findet. Majakowski berichtet von einem Zusammenstoß mit dem „Saukerl [мерзавец] Golz aus Lemberg“, der sich nach einer Lesung seine Gedichte ausbat, um einen Hering darin einzuwickeln. Offenbar hatte sich Golz nach der Revolution nicht nur dem antibolschewistischen Widerstand angeschlossen, sondern auch für Futurismus nicht viel übrig. Es ist nicht unwahrscheinlich, dass besagter Golz mit jenem identisch ist, der nach Auskunft von Sinowjews Tagebüchern das Dekameron so gut übersetzt hat, dass er, Sinowjew, es trotz Stalins Belletristikverbot (mit gleichzeitiger Empfehlung seiner eigenen parteipolitischen Schriften) nicht aus der Hand zu legen vermochte. Nach dem Kronstädter Aufstand, in den Golz – wir wissen nicht wie – verwickelt war, floh er nach Berlin. Dort verliert sich seine Spur rasch und unwiederbringlich. Nicht mit letzter Sicherheit steht fest, ob das Couplet mit dem Titel „An den traurigen G.“ des in den Berliner Cabaréts der späten Zwanziger nicht unbekannten Erich Kleinwiegel auf Golz anspielt:

Kau nich auf deinem Bleistift rum, 
Der is doch nur von Holz 
So wie dein Kopp, den trägste stumm 
Tagaus, Tagein. Wat solls?

Mit deine Ohren hörste nich, 
Schmierfinkenkomsomolz, 
Dabei sing ich det nur für dich. 
Undank ist… ach, wat solls! etc.

„Der Stellvertreter“, Golz’ einziges auf uns gekommenes Werk, ist ein Kammerspiel. Gumbrow, Insasse eines Irrenhauses, sieht sich gezwungen, seine Zelle fortan mit dem soeben eingelieferten Lemski zu teilen. Für Gumbrow eine Katastrophe, denn der Grund seines Aufenthalts im Irrenhaus ist der freiwillige Rückzug in die Psychose zum Zwecke eines ungestörten Bücherlebens. Ein „geschmackvoller Coup“ habe ihm, wie Gumbrow selbst sagt, dieses Privileg verschafft. Anlässlich eines Besuchs in Uppsala, bei dem er sich den Codex argenteus vorlegen ließ, begann er vor dem zur Salzsäule erstarrten Bibliothekar, Seite um Seite auszureißen und sich in den Hals zu stopfen, nicht ohne eine Silberintoxikation mittleren Grades zu verursachen. Es ist klar, dass ein Buchstabenmensch nur das Buch der Bücher verspeist. Aber hier geht es um mehr als gelehrte Allusion auf Johannes. Mit einem einzigen Akt der Gefräßigkeit zeigt Golz, was beiden, Religion und Literatur, von seiten der stalinistischen Kulturfunktionäre blüht: Das Verschwinden im Schlund der Revolution als Apokalypse selbst. Droht einer der Ärzte („Ingenieure der Seele“?) Verdacht zu schöpfen, verleibt sich Gumbrow ein weiteres Buch ein.

Die wechselnden Störungen, die Gumbrow durch die Emigration in den Wahnsinn ein für allemal auszuschalten gehofft hatte, stellen sich nun in persistenter Gestalt Lemskis ein. Lemski soll, so hatte ein Gericht geurteilt, gar nicht Lemski sein, sondern wahnhaft die Identität eines andern in Besitz genommen haben. Bis zum Schluss steht der Leser vor der Frage, ob Lemski das Opfer einer Verleumdung oder tatsächlich irre ist. In dem Gespräch, das einen Großteil des Buches einnimmt, schildert Lemski den Verlauf der Gerichtsverhandlung. Er sollte vor Jahren das Angebot eines Unternehmens angenommen und die Stelle des Inhabers besetzt haben. Dieser sei, so hatte ihm der seinerzeit verhandelnde Sekretär erklärt, „des Lebens wahrhaft müde“ und wolle „mit dieser Welt nichts mehr zu schaffen haben“. Lemski sollte keinem anderen Willen als dem eigenen unterliegen, sei aber verpflichtet gewesen, in allen Angelegenheiten des Unternehmensinhabers – sein Name ist natürlich Lemski – nicht nur als dessen Vertretung, sondern als dieser in persona zu erscheinen. Er sollte stets und überall auf seinem neuen Namen beharren, solange bis die Welt sich mit der Tatsache abgefunden hatte, erfahrungsgemäß rasch. Lemski, war der Sekretär fortgefahren, habe sich mit einer Sicherheit in seiner Rolle bewegt, dass der Tausch nicht nur im allgemeinen Bewusstsein, sondern auch in seinem eigenen bald in Vergessenheit geriet. Irgendwann habe er nicht mehr nur dienstliche, sondern auch gesellschaftliche und private Verpflichtungen wahrgenommen, bis sich selbst Madame Lemski in die neuen Verhältnisse fügte. Madame Lemski hatte die Aussage bestätigt. Sie hatte sich erst mit der Nachricht vom Hinscheiden ihres Mannes, das ihr eine gewaltige Hinterlassenschaft in Aussicht stellte, des seltsamen Abkommens wieder erinnert und sofort einen Prozess angestrengt.

Es ist klar, dass Lemski nicht nur einen Andern vertritt. Er vertritt die Andern, den „neuen Menschen“, die „toten Seelen“, die ihrerseits als von sich entfremdete Parteischablonen nur noch eine homogene Marschiermasse abgeben. Zugleich aber muss Lemski der Gegenentwurf zu dem Privatmenschen Gumbrow sein. Denn auf gewisse Weise reizt Gumbrow, jeden Nexus zur communitas kappend, beständig zur Frage: ‚Was gehen uns Privatidiosynkrasien an?‘ Die Ironie will es, dass Marx selbst die contemplatio verurteilt hat. Sie ist als unangemessene Reaktion abzulehnen. Freilich ist der Gegenentwurf nicht optimistisch. Es gibt keinen Optimismus in Golz’ einzigem Manifest. Das Irrenhaus ist der letzte Ort, an dem sich leben lässt, aber nur ein falsches Leben, denn es gibt kein richtiges im falschen etc. Dass Gumbrow letztlich nicht Gumbrow, sondern eben jener Unternehmensinhaber Lemski ist, zeigt nur, dass auch der Rückzug ins Papierleben durch Verlust des Selbst erkauft ist, während die Einsicht Lemskis, tatsächlich nicht Lemski zu sein, ihm den eigenen Abgrund offenbart und in den nun auch begründeten Wahnsinn stürzt. Zum Glück, kann man sagen, befindet er sich am rechten Ort."