Artists At War Blog http://www.artists-at-war.com/blog/ en-US Copyright 2008 Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:37:12 -0800 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification Former LA Deputy DA got Manson family: Now going for Bush & Co. Friday, July 25, 2008
Vincent Bugliosi at the House Committee on the Judiciary.
]]> http://www.artists-at-war.com/blog/2008/08/go-la-da-you-got-manson-get-bu.html http://www.artists-at-war.com/blog/2008/08/go-la-da-you-got-manson-get-bu.html Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:37:12 -0800 A brief note on a new project...
Heavy reading, but well worth it. Highlights include Ben Shepards piece, a Michael Hardt/El Kilombo pairing, I want to do this all day (an audio documentary about really alternative education projects around north america), and an interview with Ashanti Alston. ]]> http://www.artists-at-war.com/blog/2008/06/a-brief-note-on-a-new-project.html http://www.artists-at-war.com/blog/2008/06/a-brief-note-on-a-new-project.html Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:58:14 -0800 Thank you Paul Sills

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November 18, 1927 - June 2, 2008

Paul Sills gave us Story Theatre and improvisation which continues to influence thousands of individuals and provided a unique awareness about the space we inhabit. He brought these gifts into the world when America was unraveling at the edges. In the interview segment below, Paul explains how Story Theatre came out of a desire to make sense out of a time when abuse of power was rampant. After considering more direct ways to confront this, he decided to pour himself into his art where creating new worlds was possible and natural. Following these instincts led him to tell us some of the most percipient stories at moments we needed to hear them most.

Paul's immeasurable contributions to American culture and our theatrical tradition will be celebrated, taught and honored for generations to come. His achievements were due in no small part to the enormous support he received from family, especially from his wife Carol Bleackley Sills. They collaborated in Story Theatre productions in many ways. His presentations were unencumbered by props and theatrical mechanisms. He coached players to fill the vacant space by creating a collective minds eye capable of triggering imaginary scenes that held all the production value a story could need. These were places that invited play and extemporaneous expressions. Carol's minimal yet luminescent and painterly environments offered a perfect context for interplay among the players interpreting their stories. The image below was taken during Paul's presentation of the Metamorphoses in Wisconsin at the Peninsula Art School near the Baileys Harbor farmhouse he and Carol shared.

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Excerpt from Interview: Paul Sills Reflects on Story Theatre
by Laurie Ann Gruhn

"[Story Theatre] was an answer to the question of how the theatre could be relevant in 1968. We opened the Story Theatre in Chicago in July, and the democratic convention nominated Humphrey in August of that extraordinary year, when in the Spring, first Martin Luther King, then Bobby Kennedy were assassinated. Initially we were talking about opening a bar where we could put the Democratic party on trial for getting us into Vietnam in the first place, but that was just a desperate idea. Then I happened to read the Blue Light story in the Grimm Brothers collection and I saw it on stage in the space then and there without the need to change a word. Stage space is capable of transformation-with out mechanical scene changes-as we knew from working with Viola Spolin at Second City. Playing her game "Transformation of Relations," the players could change relationship from doctor­ patient, to flying birds, to robots, to whatever else emerged, and where they were transformed along with them. As all true improvisation is in pure stage space (without literal props or scenic devices), transformation of where is implicit. In the Blue Light, an old soldier who, on account of his many wounds can serve no longer, goes before the King and is sent off penniless into the dark forest. He limps along until he sees a light and comes to the house of a Witch. She refuses to take him in for the night unless he promises to go to the bottom of her well and retrieve for her a blue light that burns brightly and never goes out. She lowers him on a rope. The space shaping player helps the audience see the forest, the rope and feel the clammy surface of the well, and the quality of the mysterious blue light. As the Witch winds him up on the winch, be suspects she's not going to let him up and refuses to give her the blue light. She cuts the rope and he falls to the bottom of the well. There is no escape. He has nothing left but the blue light and his pipe, which as his last act he lights from the flame. And lo! A little gray man appears and offers to do his bidding. This is a motif in fairy tales: the power that's given from nowhere, just when nothing seems possible. In the depths of the despair, there lies the spark: the transformation of reality. The soldier gets his revenge on the King, replaces him, and marries the Princess and triumphs over soldiers, judges, over all authority and power. And when the paternal power was overthrown, in the highly charged political situation of'68, the young people cried, "Right on!" It was just in the air. After all, we were doing the story during the convention.

"As for the other fairy tales in the first Story Theatre show, the audience found those that were relevant to their concerns and saw them as pertinent to the hour. Later, in San Francisco, in '73, the Blue Light no longer seemed relevant, and San Franciscans said the show we did there wasn't political at all. To sum up, Story Theatre was a response to a need I felt to say something in'68, and I found what I had long been looking for, a theatre that took place in pure space, the space of transformation.

"The alternative way of telling stories in theatre is dramatic form, which inhabits a different space. Even Shakespeare, who moved closer to pure story in his last plays, does not escape the literal space of drama. Each scene has its exposition to orient the audience spatially. Both Yeats and Brecht, who came ever closer to story, often seemed restricted by dramatic form, having no conception of the transformation of space. They used storytellers, as Chamber Theatre uses narrators, for non-dramatic purposes. But story is different from drama; it intends something else. Drama may need and use story, as Shakespeare did, but story is primary, and story re-telling, a different act."

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Link to full interview: Paul Sills Reflects on Story Theatre

Remembrances:
NY Times
LA Times
Chicago Reader
Playbill
Chicago Tribune
AP


]]> http://www.artists-at-war.com/blog/2008/06/thank-you-paul-sills.html http://www.artists-at-war.com/blog/2008/06/thank-you-paul-sills.html Homage 1968 improvisation Second City Sills Story Theatre Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:39:26 -0800 Memorial Day Accompanying the list was a story about Riverside National Cemetery, the busiest cemetery in the Country for soldiers who aren't making it back from Iraq and Afghanistan alive. May they rest in peace.
I'd like to encourage some traffic at the site they put together: http://projects.latimes.com/wardead/
national_cemetery.jpg

]]> http://www.artists-at-war.com/blog/2008/05/memorial-day.html http://www.artists-at-war.com/blog/2008/05/memorial-day.html peace memorial day Mon, 26 May 2008 22:43:44 -0800 Take Action to Protect Tejon Ranch Folks at the Center for Biological Diversity are saying the following about the Tejon Ranch Deal:

One of the tragedies on the "deal" is what the environmental groups settled for on Centennial, gave Tejon ranch much more land for development than LA County was willing to give.  The County was requesting that at least 50% of the land be set aside as open space.  This "deal" undercuts the County significantly, when the County was actually TRYING to do some good conservation work.

They recommend the following actions:

1) If you live in LA County write your County Supervisor to oppose the Centennial new city. It is in Mike Antonovich's district and he is still riding the fence about it (he has been on the record opposing other mega-developments within his district to date).
 

2) Another thing you can do is write to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and tell them not to issue any permits to harm, injure or kill California condors.  The FWS is currently in the process of trying to do that - to give permission to Tejon ranch to kill condors through granting an "incidental take permit".  The letters/postcard can be sent to:

Mary Grim, 
Section 10 Program Coordinator, 
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 
2800 Cottage Way, W-2605,

Sacramento, CA 95825

 

Something along the lines of:

  • Please do not issue any permit to kill, harm or harass California condors. 
  • Taxpayers and private individuals have spent tens of millions of dollars over a decade to bring the condor back from the brink of extinction. 
  • The condor recovery program has been successful.
  • It is unprecedented and wrong to allow one condor to be lost, just to allow just another leap-frog urban sprawl development to be built on Tejon Ranch.

Include your name and address, so that it gets into the record.

 

]]> http://www.artists-at-war.com/blog/2008/05/take-action-to-protect-tejon-r.html http://www.artists-at-war.com/blog/2008/05/take-action-to-protect-tejon-r.html Tue, 13 May 2008 16:30:46 -0800 Save Tejon Ranch LA Times was a humongous development deal between  Tejon Ranch and a coalition of supposed environmental groups. In this time of  oil and food shortages, the deal establishes a land trade for the right to develop this wildly beautiful and deeply invaluable remote Tejon area. This place is popularly known as the massive intact ecosystem (270,000 acres) reaching far beyond the the I-5 Grapevine.

Photo of Tejon Ranch

The LA times (itself a shareholder in the ranch until 1997, and whose former owner, Harry Chandler, currently heads the investment group that currently owns the Ranch) announced this deal with uncritical, almost utopian, fanfare. Bullshit!

Unsurprisingly this deal makes less then everyone happy (the voices of condors, grasses, trees and hillsides have no say in the matter ), and a little digging turns up some fault-lines showing within the Sierra Club, a major deal-broker in this matter. To permit this building,  the Sierra Club National apparently sold out Sierra Club locals- those who will be most affected by this pointless gas chugging chemical spewing sprawl.

The more principled Center for Biological Diversity all but condemns this deal....

Tejon Ranch covers over 270,000 acres of wilderness at the crossroads of Northern and Southern California. The Mojave Desert, the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains, the great central valley and the southern forests all converge on Tejon Ranch -- the only place in California where four ecoregions come together.

"This deal does a disservice to the wildlands and wildlife of Tejon, to the people of Southern California who will suffer the consequences of overdevelopment, and to all Californians, who will pay the price," said Keats. "We can and must demand better. We live in a world too fragile to allow this kind of sacrifice. Now is the time to say enough is enough."




Save the Tejon Ranch! Does southern California need more mega developments? Create a plan that empowers local residents- not one that limits there right to challenge sprawl (as this one does). Groups are calling for the creation of a huge new natural area (state or national) on this critical environmental treasure.
 
Stay current on the issue & folow Sierra Club dissident Jan de Leeuw excellent Californian blog Not In my Back Yard.

For more info check out and support SAVE TEJON RANCH.

Save Tejon Ranch

]]> http://www.artists-at-war.com/blog/2008/05/save-tejon-ranch.html http://www.artists-at-war.com/blog/2008/05/save-tejon-ranch.html Sat, 10 May 2008 21:48:25 -0800 Here's to International Solidarity!
Ports have shut from LA to Um Quasr in opposition to the wars. Workers are in the streets. Philly had its first May Day celebration in years.
I just wanted to share this message from my friend in Basra:

MAY DAY greetings to you , to all workers and labor movement.
Our hops for peace ,social justice, dignity and human rights for all people.
 
Hashmeya M. alsadawe
President of electricity union of Basra

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]]> http://www.artists-at-war.com/blog/2008/05/heres-to-international-solidar.html http://www.artists-at-war.com/blog/2008/05/heres-to-international-solidar.html Iraq May Day Thu, 01 May 2008 18:59:02 -0800 Biomaterial charges against N.Y. art professor dismissed - New York Times
Biomaterial charges against N.Y. art professor dismissed

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 21, 2008
Filed at 8:45 p.m. ET

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- A judge threw out charges Monday against a college art professor accused of improperly obtaining biological materials for an exhibit protesting U.S. government food policies.

U.S. District Judge Richard Arcara ruled that the 2004 mail and wire fraud indictment against Steven Kurtz, a University at Buffalo professor, was ''insufficient on its face.''

Kurtz is a founding member of the Critical Art Ensemble, which has used human DNA and other biological materials in works intended to draw attention to political and social issues.

His arrest drew protests from artists in several countries who called the charges an intrusion on artistic freedom. ''Obviously this is a weight off his back, but he still had to suffer through this for four years,'' said Kurtz's attorney, Paul Cambria. ''The last thing this guy is is a bioterrorist.''

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Buffalo said it was considering an appeal but otherwise declined to discuss the ruling. Kurtz was indicted in 2004 following what began as an anti-terrorism investigation after police saw lab equipment in Kurtz's home while responding to the death of his wife, Hope.

Although investigators determined that lab equipment was part of his art work, he was indicted a month later. The charges carried a maximum of 20 years in prison.

Kurtz was accused of plotting with Robert Ferrell, former chairman of the University of Pittsburgh's human genetics department, to improperly obtain potentially harmful organisms.

Ferrell was fined $500 in February after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor count of mailing an injurious article to Kurtz.]]> http://www.artists-at-war.com/blog/2008/04/biomaterial-charges-against-ny.html http://www.artists-at-war.com/blog/2008/04/biomaterial-charges-against-ny.html Tue, 22 Apr 2008 10:18:57 -0800 case dismissed, cruel witch-hunt over In a case of exhausting the avante garde, the courts today finally ended their macabre case against Steve Kurtz of the Critical Arts Ensamble.

caedefensefund.org
]]> http://www.artists-at-war.com/blog/2008/04/case-dismissed-cruel-witchhunt.html http://www.artists-at-war.com/blog/2008/04/case-dismissed-cruel-witchhunt.html Tue, 22 Apr 2008 02:57:17 -0800 Some Quotes & Shit day_after-c.jpg

I'm blogging from my friend Peter's laptop. I'm subleasing his place in South Central Los Angeles. It's not all urban wasteland here. In fact this area is quiet and has lots of huge and old (by LA standards) houses and churches.

Relocating isn't all bad. I like having a new area to explore. Peter told me to check out Chef Marilyn's Soul Food Express, which is just south of Adams on Crenshaw. I had delicious corn muffins, fried catfish, yams and collard greens.

Anyway, I wanted to share some quotes. The first is from Betrayal Trauma by Jennifer Freyd:

"..ridicule is often a response of those in power when they have little to say in defense of a challenge to the status quo"

The other is quote of a quote from The Corndawg's Live and in Person cd: "When tough little boys grow up to be dads they turn into big babies again."
 
I don't know why Corndawg isn't a big rock star. I guess the music industry really is dead. I heard they were gonna turn the Capitol Records building into high rise apartments. I know what you're thinking,  "I saw that building destroyed  by a super tornado in The Day After Tomorrow." Remember, it's only a movie.

I wanted to mention my poor kitty Babyman. He got killed by a car last month. If your cats have to go outside, don't let them out at night. Seriously, I have lost two cats to cars in the last two years. 222 -the mark of lameness.

-charles

]]> http://www.artists-at-war.com/blog/2008/04/some-quotes-shit.html http://www.artists-at-war.com/blog/2008/04/some-quotes-shit.html Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:34:44 -0800 GENESIS: SARAJEVO sarajevo0108ex17.jpg
Spreading dance through war-torn Bosnia, and with plans to do the same in other countries like Uganda and the Philippines, Genesis: Sarajevo heals and empowers young girls while unifying cultures. Check out the website for pictures and to get to know the project a little better: www.genesissarajevo.org
There will be a Benefit for the 2008 summer dance intensive in Sarajevo. Money raised will provide dance shoes to Bosnian dancers, U.S. dance instructors to teach the two-week dance intensive, an exchange program to study in the U.S., costumes and venue costs in Sarajevo.
The event will take place at THE KING KING in Hollywood Wednesday, APRIL 23, 2008.  $25  at the door for a night of amazing talent including dance performances by groups and crews from around Los Angeles, spoken word, possibly some live music, etc. All proceeds go directly to GENESIS: SARAJEVO and are completely tax deductible. 
For show time and other information about Genesis: Sarajevo, e-mail Amy Danielson at stardanc13@gmail.com. 
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]]> http://www.artists-at-war.com/blog/2008/04/genesis-sarajevo.html http://www.artists-at-war.com/blog/2008/04/genesis-sarajevo.html Projects Fri, 04 Apr 2008 20:32:39 -0800 PEOPLE's playgroup As some of you may know, I'm on the board of my kid's pre-school, a historically progressive, cross-class/cross-race place up in the hills of EP.

Because of continued budget cuts by the city and state, the school has to do fund-raising to support its mission- keeping in economic diversity (ie. fundraising makes up the gap that poor people can't make in payment). So as a boardmember, I have to speak about a few things- donating labor, thanking x person and y person.

But seeing the need for some dynamic energy, I start off with a story that leads into why Christina and I are at the school. I start going in to the progressive and radical history of the school and why what this means today- its not like I was doing any firebrand speech (the director of the school kind of offhandedly explained why we are called the People's playgroup, what a damn treat to be a part of such a wonderful linguistic time-warp), its just that it was about ideals and values. And I'm thinking, damn, so I guess this room full of near strangers is kind of in agreement with what we are hear for, social justice and non-violence.

To be a part of the verbal actualization of the community was pretty damn cool.


]]> http://www.artists-at-war.com/blog/2008/04/peoples-playgroup.html http://www.artists-at-war.com/blog/2008/04/peoples-playgroup.html check out these exclamation marks ¡¡¡¡¡ Stonal MInd Funk Boogie upside-down. hot-damn Yeah Wed, 02 Apr 2008 23:03:12 -0800 YO presents 4 days of Art and Activism Against the War
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LA vs WAR schedule:
Thursday, April 10, 2008: 12:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Friday, April 11, 2008: 12:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Saturday, April 12, 2008: 12:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Sunday, April 13, 2008: 12:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.

YO presents 4 days of Art and Activism Against the War.

LA vs WAR highlights the travesty of a senseless war now going into its 6th year, giving LA artists a platform to exercise their freedom of speech. Hundreds of artists representing our diverse communities unite in delivering a universal message of peace and understanding, and offering resistance and opposition to the US government's war policies.

LA vs WAR highlights:

- Yo! What Happened to Peace?: posters on display from the international touring peace poster exhibition; live anti-war poster screen-printing demos

- Hit+Run: live t-shirt printing featuring custom artwork from the Hit+Run artist network

- Mark of the Beast: display of corporate-jammed logo spoofs - Crewest Graffiti & Stencil Art Garden: graffiti artist network doing live graffiti and stencil painting

- Center for the Study of Political Graphics: anti-war themed display from America's premier political poster archives

- Artwork Exhibition: handmade creations by independent local artists

- Universal Peace Altar: a memorial to lives lost in the war created by Ofelia Esparza and Shrine

- Peace in Iraq Photo Project by Azul 213: audience participation photo project to promote peace

- Dublab.com: music selections created by DJs from the web radio collective

- Lost Film Fest hosted by VJ Scott Beibin: film and video celebration of culture jamming and illegal art

- Light installations and projections: interactive entertainment provided by Todd Lazer

AND MORE...

All ages are welcome and admission is free.

See also myspace.com/lavswar

For volunteer or sponsorship inquiries, please contact LAvsWAR@gmail.com ]]> http://www.artists-at-war.com/blog/2008/03/yo-presents-4-days-of-art-and.html http://www.artists-at-war.com/blog/2008/03/yo-presents-4-days-of-art-and.html Thu, 27 Mar 2008 12:47:22 -0800 Army Holds Annual Bring Your Daughter To War Day ]]> http://www.artists-at-war.com/blog/2008/03/army-holds-annual-bring-your-daughter-to-war-day.html http://www.artists-at-war.com/blog/2008/03/army-holds-annual-bring-your-daughter-to-war-day.html Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:57:13 -0800 Revolution Today honking and/or texting for impeachment; others are preparing to vigil to mark the 4,000th official US casualty, which will likely happen within days or possibly hours of this writing; others are participating in the 7th Iraq Moratorium by taking self-directed action for peace; some will contact Congressional Representatives urging them to join Schakowski and Sanchez in supporting the right for union organizing in Iraq by overturning Saddam's law kept on the books by the US occupation; more might do something online--creating a web, protest traffic jam--like taking the Voters Pledge for Peace or watching David Swanson in a Stop Wars t-shirt explain how our representatives could flip off the war switch, or hearing testimony from last weekends IVAW Winter Soldier Hearings, or they might visit a site like this. I know I haven't even scratched the surface of what people are doing right now to express their discontent.

This site is dedicated to emerging gestures that embody our time and relay its flawed flavor. Erickson's Munchian Screaming Hawkeye BJ reflects current existential angst simmering at the collision point between our affinity for a mythology about how '60's revolutionary tactics appeared to usher in peace and equality in the wake of a turbulent decade smashing into a future that appears crumbling beneath us. This, broadsided by the power-elite's unquenchable thirst to exploit, creates a spectacular moment of disquiet, malaise and frustration seen in much art today.

Yet, this is just another day. People continue to get active and learn to make resistance part of a daily diet. Despite attempts to muffle voices of decent under the boisterous yelping of a media-military-government-complex, we will be heard by those who listen for us. We are Hortons and we are whos--to borrow a re-emergent theme spawned during the 1954 Army-McCarthy Hearings--we need to listen to one another and take actions to protect each other.

IHearYou.jpg

This is a still from the Seuss inspired Russian animated short I Can Hear You (Ya Vas Slyshu), written and directed by Alexei Karaev.
]]> http://www.artists-at-war.com/blog/2008/03/revolution-today.html http://www.artists-at-war.com/blog/2008/03/revolution-today.html protest Fri, 21 Mar 2008 10:59:58 -0800