Sugar Skulls //\\ Hobbledeions -- Split Release

Hobbledeions (Scott Martin; Hands Off Cuba, Forest Bride, Fever Queen, Lambchop) and Sugar Sk*-*lls (Ben Marcantel; Hands Off Cuba, Forest Bride) are teaming up to "bring you a slice of your summer sound track." They are busy preparing a new cassette tape release, Secret Fugue Machine, and are having an in-store at Grimey's Saturday, May 28th at 5pm. 

The Sugar Sk*-*lls video (the first of a pair) was shot on kodachrome super-8 film stock around 1998 by Kelli Shay Hix. It was shot on super 8mm film stock. This track was taken from the critically acclaimed* digital album Another Micheal Mann Film which can be downloaded HERE via his bandcamp site.

About the footage, she said: "the water footage was originally intended for use in an imaginary geography collage piece, in which a wild geographical landscape would be created using footage shot all over the world.  In order to keep the landscape imaginary, I'd rather not say where I shot the footage.  I will say this:  It's all shot street photography style, though-- no shots set up, no effects, etc.  Just a nuts n bolts camera that I used to carry with me through my travels."

Here is the video:

sugar sk*-*lls: c. de gualle rilye'd up from Kelli Shay Hix on Vimeo.

*Ryan "I am smiling" Norris: Local album of the year? Nay, album of the year. 

Circuit Benders Ball - Nashville October 23rd

Circuit Benders’ Ball


Open Lot
1307 Jewell Street
Nashville, TN
37207

Saturday October 23rd
Workshops 2pm-6pm
Performances 6:30pm -12:30am
Open Lot in association with Geek Media Expo and Theatre Intangible present the Circuit Benders’ Ball, a day-long celebration of the art of the bend. American artist Reed Ghazala accidentally discovered circuit bending in 1966 when a toy amplifier short circuited with his metal desk. Since then, circuit bending has become its own genre of visual and auditory art with masters such as Tim Kaiser and Thriftsore Boratorium advancing the field. The Circuit Benders’ Ball will feature two stages, eleven bands, an interactive art gallery, and two electronic workshops. The roster of talent includes Tim Kaiser, Thrifsore Boratorium, CMKT4, Ben Marcantel, Dave X, Jeremy Walker, Robbie Hunsinger, and more. The festival is $10, and the workshops are $15 each. If you buy a ticket for both workshops, you get into the festival for free. Geek Media Expo passholders also get in for free.


Workshops:
The workshops at the Circuit Benders Ball are for all ages and all skill levels. These classes are a perfect introduction to electronics for children, students, and everyone! The classes have limited seating and will fill up fast. To reserve your spot, send an e-mail to tony@theatreintangible.com. Specify which class(es) you want and how many spots you want to reserve.

Make Your Own Contact Mic w/ CMKT4 2pm-3:30pm $15
If you’ve ever frequented GetLoFi.com, then you’ve probably seen the famous bottle-cap contact mic. The mic’s creators will guide you in making your own, using their newly unveiled contact mic kit. Purchase additional kits for just $10 and take your creations home with you!

Circuit Bending 101 w/ Cincinatti’s Thriftsore Boratorium 4pm-6pm $10-$15
Don’t know one end of a soldering iron from another? Mark and Karl from the Cincinnati hackerspace Thriftsore Boratorium will show you how to make your electronic toys howl, squelch, sputter, and sing. The workshop is absolutely essential for beginners with enough fresh insights to make it worthwhile for the experienced bender. Learn soldering/bending tips, how to scope our your local thrift stores, what make the best bending candidates, and more. For $15, we will provide all the equipment you need, including components soldering tools. After the workshop, you get to keep your newly-bent bent toy!
Bring your own toy and electronics and pay only $10.

With performances by:
Tim Kaiser, Thriftsore Boratorium, CMKT4, Ben Marcantel, DaveX, Jeremy Walker, Robbie Hunsinger, Malocchio, Theatre Intangible LIVE, Freya West Electric Burlesque w/ Score by Aaron Doenges, and The Blight Side of Life.

Visual Art & Video Projections by:
Derek Schartung, Sabine Schlunk, Kelli Shay Hix, Austin Alexander, Alex Wolfe, Anderson Cook, Matt Christy, Tim Kaiser, CMKT4, Patricia Earnhardt, Devin Lamp, Thriftsore Boratorium, William Davis, Devin Bell, Jeremy Walker, Ben Marcantel.

All Ages

Festival Pass $10

Free to Geek Media Expo Passholders

Workshops $15 each

Both Workshops + Festival Pass $30

Third Live Projection 2010, Little Hamilton, July 26th

Film Projection for, and in-between, live music performances by:
Sugar Skulls (Ben Marcantel)
Kelli Shay Hix (w/ Amy Marcantel & Kyle Xavier)
Sons of an Illustrious Father (New York)

Kelli Shay gave me a call over the weekend to ask if we would be interested in projecting for these live bands she had booked at the Nashville art space, Little Hamilton. Of course I said yes, and as usual with no consulting my partner. To be asked by such talented artists to assist in augmenting an artistic performance is  a very gratifying sensation which, if taken seriously, can completely alter the performance and elevate the propensity for full effect. The audience is also often engaging and stimulated and vocal, as was the case this evening. The reception was incredible, again....
The previous screenings, albeit successful, culminated on this showing. It was the most last-minute one yet, but one for which my partner and I were well prepared. On this occasion, Alcamy played the initial set of composite film images for both Ben and Kelli's sets, while perpendicular to those images, I screened segments of more known films and some rare Chris Marker early VHS projects. I also played a really psychedelic Wim Wenders short, "Ten Miles to Trona," off of the very interesting project reproached from the 1978 original in 2002 in two 10-film projects titled "Trumpet: Ten Minutes Older," the other film set simultaneously released was "Cello: Ten Minutes Older." Incredible short films there.
It was a great success. Some great hosting was done, particularly by those at Little Hamilton, Dave I believe it was. But, we had a ton of fun, got some great film in front of some great people, and all the while, got some projects out there of ours while instigating new collaborations.
The folks of Sons of an Illustrious Father were very talented and open young people, loving their travels and playing music that seems to me to have been very emotionally cathartic. Best of luck to them, as I hope they've had a safe return, and thanks to everyone for the wonderful comments and questions, namely Scott Zeman of Vanderbilt University and Holly, whose comments are never taken lightly. Lastly, thanks to the great performers Marcantels and Kyle and Kelli Shay, thanks for the invite!!!!
Below are some stills from Chris Marker's "2084," which insitigated a lot of questions and comments...a great work of Marker's VHS output!

Second Live Projection 2010, Betty’s Nashville, July 22nd

Live set that evening at Betty’s Grill, 49th & Charlotte:
Sugar Skulls [Ben Marcantel]
Black Patch [John Adams, Joe Garcia, Nathan Vasquez, Adam Bednarik]
Doberman [Scott Martin, Ryan Norris]

Scott Martin and I had talked one evening after a set of his at Betty’s about doing some video projection during one of his shows. He asked me if we could work that out because he wanted to play with some images really going on around him.
I lucked into it really. Only one other time has Scott called me accidentally, but one Sunday morning, Scott called and woke me up, asking if he could get in my liquor cabinet on a dry, eventful Sunday. I had to refuse because I currently don’t have a liquor cabinet, and was not who he thought he was talking to. I got the opportunity to ask him if he had any shows coming up though, and right then and there we made arrangements for Alcamy Henriksen and I to provide video for his show that following Thursday. I agreed immediately on our behalf.
The next few days were set-up for Alcamy Henriksen and I to get together to view, shoot, compile, and edit something for the occasion. With two laptops, two projectors, and two screens, we shot many films on top of and beside one another. Some of these films being paired had already gone through various multiple exposure, performance, and re-filming processes.
The images we worked with were both commercial and generated by working artists we know, a lot of which was work of Alcamy’s. My awareness of the film work being done among Ben Marcantel, Dustin Zemel, and Alcamy Henriksen is that upon which my enthusiasm and ability to create such a live video environment are contingent.

Stills from film;
Compiled by ABA & ASPHH; edited by ASPHH, 2010.

The show was a great success. The music, all around, was yet another incredible showing of just some of Nashville’s immense pool of dedicated and extremely talented artists and musicians. I am amazed, as usual, and dually honored to have been a part of it. Having heard and seen the progression of these musicians over the past ten years, there is hardly any effort left to lacking. The opportunity to collaborate with these artists to create a more succinct environment in which their work can be experienced is an opportunity not to be turned down.

Alcamy worked crazy hours and by her determination we were well over prepared with footage for the show. My heartfelt out to she and Scott for the great work, initial invite, and the desire for collaboration. Let’s fucking do it again!

Art Sabotage: Break In/Out - May 7th, 2010

After mentioning it twice between us, ASPHH and I decided to take over an unoccupied apartment in her building for a couple of hours on Friday, the 7th of May. We sent out close to twenty-five emails at three pm, followed by another dozen or so text messages, giving eveyone five hours to react. The exhibition was therein scheduled that evening from seven until nine, followed by a film screening across the hall at a properly occupied apartment.

The works displayed were paintings, drawings, photographs, plaster molds, and other works on paper, glass, and chalkboard. During the exhibition, Aleksandr Medvedkin's Happiness played on a wall while the sound art disc, part of Stockholm-based Styx Forlag's Autistisk Skilskrift publication provided the soundtrack. This audio addition was originally released in 2006 as supplement to the book of the same title, and features, among other artists, works by Leif Elggren, Sten Hanson, CM Lundberg.

Due to the process of presenting these works, and the place in which it was executed, there were many unexpected, unforeseeable, and palpable though intangible authors and attendees, in the curatorial and viewing processes. The time constraint certainly had great effect on the exhibition as a majority of the work shown did not arrive until just ten before seven. The space constraint of hauling the audio/visual equipment and art work in a compact sedan; the effect of viewing art for a short window of time in an unoccupied apartment in which none had permission to be, all had significant authorship and presence in the show. These presences, these constraints, were of immense help, across the board.
The constraints mentioned in getting the work to the apartment are self-descriptive. It's hand was apparent in the selection process of the curation. The time constraint followed a similar trajectory, but to a lesser extent as the two respective collections from which we culled the exhibit, containing original works by artists, almost all still living and working in San Francisco, Nashville, New York, Stockholm, and Los Angeles, are housed in three locations central to the room we temporarily inhabited for the exhibit. Of course, with further planning, plenty of other works could have been requested, reclaimed, or created for the show, but the required intentionality for this exhibit to have happened did not extend to that possible function, it is out of scope. The need and desire met, were equal, and as the progenative wave, the monad made another equal, another palpable, intangible third whose presence was of substantial breadth to provide the necessary force to assert itself.

photo: Ben Marcantel; image: Alcamy Henriksen, “10012009-11202009, TN/CA/TX/AZ" 2009, [42 Polaroids]

photo: Ben Marcantel; image: Marc Byndas, "Universitá (immobile)," 2005 [ink, paper]

Oh My Ben

I don't know if you all have had the pleasure yet of having seen any short films by Ben Marcantel, but I will give the great news that he has a channel up now on YouTube.

Ben's videos harken back to some real masters, and he does them justice. Stop-motion magic is his game, and his fervent productivity attracts many wonderful collaborators.

In his most recent upload, "Waltz of the Circassian Beauties", he is telling a tale over the always beautiful music of William Tyler, founder of Sebastian Speaks record label and collaborator with Ben Marcantel's music projects Forest Bride. William is also a fellow member of Hands Off Cuba, and both of these groups are just now releasing new records. So much going on to be excited about.

Love is Magick! indeed!!

Another of Ben's films is available on the Forest Bride link above.

The short "Face Continuum" is also available on YouTube currently.

Keep up with his channel, and hopefully some of his ongoing projects will be made available to us soon!