BE BLANK CONSORT AT PNA's OROMANCER

At long last!

Be Blank Consort's performance at The Oromancer is here!

This event took place on November 8th 2008 in conjunction with Cathy Mehrl-Bennett's My Kimono Show which featured her digitally collaged homages to collaborators and friends within the mail art and experimental poetry community.   

Participating in the Be Blank reading were:

John M. Bennett

Scott Helms

K. S. Ernst

Geof Huth

Marylin Rosenberg

C. Merhl-Bennett

Olchar Lindsann

Tomislav Butković

Warren Fry

The evening began with individual readings.

Warren Fry reading his New International Version from PNA-Video on Vimeo.

Tomislav Butkovic performing his 'Junk Not Barbeque Scene' from PNA-Video on Vimeo.

Olchar Lindsann performing Tristan Tzara's 'White Giant Leper of the Countryside' from PNA-Video on Vimeo.

Scott Helms reading his 'Memory' from PNA-Video on Vimeo.

Geof Huth reading works from '49 Petacosts' and 'Wavelight at Which' from PNA-Video on Vimeo.

K.S. Ernst reading her 'Whatler Tiffly, No May' from PNA-Video on Vimeo.

John M. Bennett reading from L Entes and elsewhere from PNA-Video on Vimeo.

Be Blank Consort at The Oromancer Part 1 from PNA-Video on Vimeo.

The Be Blank Consort at The Oromancer Part 2 from PNA-Video on Vimeo.

Unfortunately our videographer had to change out the tape during the performance of Al Ackerman's Poem for Six Readers and a Dog, a Be Blank favorite.

Anti-Mass at the 2009 Roanoke Marginal Arts Festival

See, see, documentation from the Roanoke festival continues to appear! Here is that Sunday morning's Anti-Mass ceremony, concocted and overseen by Bradley Chriss, Tomislav Butkovic, Warren Fry, and Sara Adrian. Benedictions are granted to Aaron Bensen, John M. Bennett, Olchar Lindsann, Ralph Eaton, Julian Mathews, and Jim Leftwich.

Soon we'll put up Ralph's reading of the Bible Babel, which occurred several minutes after, this; then Lindsann's phonetic poem and part of Michael Peter's Vaast Bin performance, and that's everything we've got from Roanoke.

Also within a few days--official info on the upcoming re-re-convening of events at the PNA Oromancer space here in New Jersey, with Rick Weaver up from Baltimore and a slew of other Post-Neo friends from NJ and NY.

Ubu Enchained, Act V: The Cycle Completed.

Here it is, the last bit of Ubu Enchained. Act V was conceived with the British Post-NeoAbsurdist Cabarets in mind (the Itinerant Mirror, etc.), and though toned down in relation to those this nonetheless ensured a decent bit of physical, psychological, and aesthetic abuse of the audience, plenty of confusion and slap-dashery on the part of the hosts as well as the guests, a respectable mess afterward, and complaints from neighboring establishments about how much more interesting (i.e., loud. [i.e. awesome]) our event was than theirs.


Ubu Enchained, Act V from PNA-Video on Vimeo.

There were lovely pre-recorded bits that we rudely souted over, and improvised scenes-turned-actions. This act would have been performed Saturday night at the Water Heater space, but due to Olchar's puking everywhere it had to be delayed til Sunday, in a different space. Hosting were Olchar Lindsann, Warren Fry, Tomislav Butkovic, Julian Mathews, Evan Damerow, Bradley Chriss, and Megan Blafas. Sara Adrian filmed. Jim Leftwich caried the Vizier around for Julian; and let it be known that was John Bennett who pulled out his knife and started freeing all of the prisoners a few minutes in, leading the inevitable audience backlash (which we nonetheless were forced to keep firmly in line). Ralph Eaton also tormented us quite a bit. Asshole.

Ubu Enchained, ACT IV

Ubu Enchained, Act IV
ACT IV

Performed at the Water Heater (Roanoke VA) on 2/21/2009 in conjunction with the 2nd Annual Roanoke Marginal Arts Festival.

In this performance: Evan Damerow, Tomislav Butkovic, Olchar Lindsann, and Warren Fry.



Ubu Enchained, Act IV from PNA-Video on Vimeo.

Act IV follows in the tradition of Post-NeoAbsurdist puppet theater. With special guest stars Mr. Squibbles as Perkins, Tsubasa Berg's altered 'BAR' Chicken as Lord Dufferin, and Mr. Livingston as Pa Ubu, the roll he made famous in Olchar Lindsann's shitr film, Ubu Roi.

A Meat Performance by France's Julian Blaine

http://documentsdartistes.org/artistes/blaine/media/poemorte.html

UBU Enchained, ACT III

Ubu Enchained
Act III


Participating in this event were members of the New Jersey and Washington D.C. Post-NeoAbsurdist Contingents and members the Water Heater audience.


Ubu Enchained, Act III from PNA-Video on Vimeo.


Performed on 2/21/09 at the Water Heater, Roanoke VA

Act III was conceived as a live, participatory foley event. It appeared after act IV (coming soon) which was performed earlier that day. The dialogue was prerecorded and played over loud-speaker while event participants used objects like shoes, chains, and watermelons to produce live foley sounds. We ran out of tape before the act ended so the last two minutes are lost to memory, unfortunately.

A few words from Amy Oliver

Documentation of Act II of Ubu Enchained is posted below. Here are some words from the play's translator, Amy Oliver, which I asked for as a shoddy stand-in for her actual presence at the goings-on (stuck as she was over in the U of K):


Dear friends, enemies and innocent bystanders,

In the interests of brevity, I will be brev. Suffice it to say that if the experience of translating this play has taught me anything, it is that the act of translation involves not merely substituting one word for another, that is to say not at all. It involves rewriting the whole thing, not merely for speakers of English, but for speakers of the 21st Century, of America and England, of digital watches and fat-free yoghurt and 24-hour supermarket shopping. That is not to say that the text has been brought up to date in any way- indeed, I hope it maintains that unnatural combination of eerie timelessness and off-putting anachronism with which, in part, Alfred Jarry won our love in the first place.

My other great realisation was that, contrary to my previous beliefs, I could not actually speak French at all. This was, as you can imagine, something of an impediment to the completion of this project. Nevertheless, I discovered that by staring intensely at the book for a protracted period of time, I was able to extract some meaning from the senseless gobbledegook on the page. It is that meaning, painstakingly squeezed, that we present to you
today.

My thanks go out, of course, to the New Jersey Post-Neo contingent, firstly for doing me the honour of choosing to perform my translation of Ubu Enchainé, and secondly for edifying it with what I anticipate to be a truly shit-hot performance. I hope you may come to appreciate the horrors which I have wrought upon this poor, defenceless piece of theatre. I am clutched by horrifying pangs of grief when I think that I cannot be with you today in order to suffer the deluge of rotten fruit, eggs, other groceries and perhaps even physical beatings that I might otherwise have found myself suffocating beneath in the event of your displeasure.

Thank you.

Amy Oliver, Feb 2009

UBU ENCHAINED, ACT II

Slowly but surely! Here is Act II of Ubu Roi from the Marginal Arts Festival, in the form of a shadow-play. Act II was actually the fourth to be performed, on Sunday shortly before Act V.

Evan made the puppets, performing them are him, Megan Blafas, Warren Fry, and me (Olchar), with Tomislav on sound.

More documentation up soon!

Hello Roanoke, Hello Deleuze, Hello Economy

Here's a video detailing Psychogeographic activities in Roanoke, VA from our friend Matt Ames:

T.J Anderson Reads Bob Kaufman

Proff. T. J. Anderson is an associate professor of English at Hollins University. He is the author of Last Round Up and Notes to Make the Sound Come Right: Four Inovators of Jazz Poetry and has written extensively on jazz poetry and African American literature.

Bob Kaufman (1925-1986) was a surrealist/beat poet most known for his activity in the late 1950's and early 1960's in the San Fransisco Bay area. Known in France as the American Rimbaud, he co-founded Beatitude Magazine and is considered by many to be the quintessential jazz poet of his generation. His spoken word poetry comes to us largely because of the work of his wife Eileen Singe who transcribed his readings.

Anderson is seen her at the Water Heater in conjunction with the Roanoke Marginal Arts Festival. He is accompanied by Matt Ames on guitar. Later, Post-NeoAbsurdists Brad Chriss and Olchar Lindsann join him for a simultaneous scat poem. Anderson caps off the reading with two of his own poems.


T.J. Anderson reads Bob Kaufman at the Water Heater, Roanoke VA, 2/21/09 from PNA-Video on Vimeo.



On

On yardbird corners of embryonic hopes, drowned in a heroin tear.
On yardbird corners of parkerflights to sound filled pockets in space.
On neuro-corners of striped brains & desperate electro-surgeons.
On alcohol corners of pointless discussion & historical hangovers.
On television corners of cornflakes & rockwells impotent America.
On university corners of tailored intellect & greek letter openers.
On military corners of megathon deaths & universal anesthesia.
On religious corners of theological limericks and
On radio corners of century-long records & static events.
On advertising corners of filter-tipped ice-cream & instant instants
On teen-age corners of comic book seduction and corrupted guitars,
On political corners of wamted candidates & ritual lies.
On motion picture corners of lassie & other symbols.
On intellectual corners of conversational therapy & analyzed fear.
On newspaper corners of sexy headlines & scholarly comics.
On love divided corners of die now pay later mortuaries.
On philosophical corners of semantic desperadoes & idea-mongers.
On middle class corners of private school puberty & anatomical revolts
On ultra-real corners of love on abandoned roller-coasters
On lonely poet corners of low lying leaves & moist prophet eyes.

by Bob Kaufman

UBU Enchained ACT I

VIM VOM VIM to All!

We're back...FINALLY!

Just last week Olchar Lindsann, Evan Damerow, Tom Butkovic, Julian Mathews, Brad Chriss, Megan Blafas and I got back from Roanoke VA after having finished our production of Alfred Jarry's Ubu Enchained, translated from the French by British Post-Neo Amy Oliver. We were invited by Jim Leftwich, Brian Counihan and Ralph Eaton to perform the play in conjunction with the Roanoke Marginal Arts Festival. It was decided early on to take a different approach with each act (pantomime, improv, puppet play, shadow play, and radio play with live foley sound), which gave us a chance to explore different creative modes and lent itself well to the loose structure of the Festival itself.

Here is a link to Jim Leftwich's amazing Flicker post of the Marginal Arts Festival (with over athousand photos):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/textimagepoetry/sets/72157613626382481/

Here is Act I, which we decided to do as an improv of the original script. It took place on Market St. in downtown Roanoke and was strategically positioned at the mid-point of the 1st Hoo-Rah Marginal Arts Parade organized by Ralph Eaton.

Ubu Enchained
ACT I

Cast:
Pa Ubu- Brad Chriss
Ma Ubu- Megan Blafas
Pisspoor- Evan Damerow
Pisspot & Eslpeth- Julian Mathews
The Three Free Men- Tomislav Butkovic, Olchar Lindsann, Warren Fry

UbU Enchained ACT I part1 05/20/09 from PNA-Video on Vimeo.

Camerwork by Jim Leftwich (thanks Jim!)

So,

We have a host of documentation to go through and put up on the blog. This includes the Be Blank Consort, which took place in New Brunswick last November (its almost ready), the rest of last summers Anti-Festival, and Fiddlesticks events from nearly a year ago. So, our work is cut out for us. But bare with us, its coming!

Tom Taylor's Birthday is Today

SPARCATUS TRIUMPHS
the slaves rebellion

he stands at the crossroads of humanity
composd in the moment which has enveloped all of us

ghandi asserts the left

the slaves stand silently in the wet fields
in small groups. tears are streaming down their faces

we are the silence you created, come to revive you
into life itself and its promises and forgiveness

such a quiet rebellion! engendered from within
great circumstance toward the light on the horizon
of emptiness, into the flames on the borders of the heart

we walked slowly and deliberately --
a man approached the beast saying 'trust me'

we remember 'I have a dream' as we all did
as we all had a dream, as we all do still

the embrace of history's arms is calm and sea
gulls rise through the flamingos at incirlik airfield
the jets thundered in and out, no bird strikes ever

this is the salience of small things arriving in the mail

now let's go out and kick some ass

TOM TAYLOR

Eat Your Meat and Potatoes

My refrigerator art

Nov. 8th BE BLANK CONSORT

Sorry, but I only took one photo during the Nov.8th event. And this one only includes maybe one-fourth of the BBC ! Hoping for more photos forthcoming from my friend, Gabriella Traviline. From left to right, Marilyn R Rosenberg, John M Bennett, and Geof Huth (taking notes, perhaps for his blog - so keep a watch out at www.dbqp.blogspot.com)

Anti-Festival 2 Video Footage!

HELLO!

We are alive! AND! We are busy planning and conspiring for Be Blank, who're on their way here this NOVEMBER 8th!

In the meantime we've finally got the second Anti-Festival update for you, WEEK 2!




Tomislav reading Stephanie Carlin




Tomislav reading Roland Silnachen's Poem to be Performed for Strangers




Suddenly, a window closing event!




Aaron Howard reading Allen Ginsberg's Super Market in California





Aaron Howard reading Ezra Pound's sonnet A Tree




Aaron Howard reading e.e .cummings' 'Next to of Course God America i'




Aaron Howard reading e.e. cummings' 'pity this busy monster man, unkind'




Evan Damerow reading his poem ¢¢??/?.///????/////...





Alan Reed reading from Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot




Alan Reed reading from Eric Chevillard's Crab Nebula





Olchar Lindsann and Warren Fry performing a simultaneous reading of Beowulf



Orpheus from Warren Fry on Vimeo.

Alan Reed's Orphus, as performed by Alan Reed, Olchar Lindsann and Warren Fry




Olchar Lindsann, Alan Reed, Evan Damerow, and Tomislav Butkovic performing Mallarme's Herodiade




Mark Sonnenfeld reading a few of his poems.




Evan Damerow and Tomislav Butkovic performing a collaborative sound-poem.




Cory Wellington performing a recipe for BRAINS!




Cory Wellington sings a song I don't recognize....help us out Corey!






Cory Wellington performing 'Super Cup Throw'




Cory Wellington performing 'Sorrow and Death and Murder and Pain'

BE BLANK CONSORT T-Shirt

Be Blank Consort T-shirt
by

cmehrlbennett

Create Custom TShirts On Zazzle
See other Performing Arts T-Shirts

Be Blank Consort T-shirt
by

cmehrlbennett

design your own t shirts Using Zazzle
Browse other Panoramic Maps T-Shirts

s i m u l t a n e o u s p a l i m p s e s t s

Inspired by lnylnylny, and the 3 hours of brute salon that currently resides on my hard drive, I made these: >>>#<<< >>>%<<< >>>&<<< very late last night.
They will change and evolve as I try different ideas and make new clips.
*make sure you have the most updated Quicktime and use Firefox for best results*

Update & upcoming events!

A not-entirely short update and some upcoming events hosted by the NJ Post-NeoAbsurdist cell at 131 Bayard St.:

The first event of the Autumn here at The Oromancer (yes, this is the official, actual, final name of the venuehouse. we may or may not get around to posting the whole story) went smashingly! Thanks to everybody who came, it was great to see so many of you together again. Rick, Krista, and Snoops were a joy to have in town, the 3-D pieces made that night are crazy, and the event even got started fairly on-schedule and finished at a decent hour so we could talk afterward.

And on Wednesday, Presidential Debate Bingo was great fun as well. The heavy economic emphasis and the constantly-changing nature of the smokescreen of emotional trigger-phrases made it harder than expected; Evan won the most squares award, Kelly won the doodle contest, Shawna won the least-squares award, and Jamie won for closest to an actual bingo.

One more event in October: a Right-Geist celebration of Goonieween (Oct. 25) to help fight off Johnson & Johnson's ghastly attempt to takeover this independant, mom & pop paranormal ghost-for-hire company--a joint venture of New Jersey Post-Neo and the Meme-Rider Media Team. More on this soon!

THEN:

November 8 at 7:00 PM--the biggest event we've held here since the Anti-Festival (we're even renting folding-chairs):

FIRST, this is the opening of Cathy Mehrl-Bennett's KIMONO SHOW in the Anti-Gallery (or Room of Traps). Cathy's Kimonos--each one dedicated to a collaborator and friend--are beautiful pieces which speak directly to the role of art as interpersonal gestures: using source material from the piece's addressee, she manipulating it digitally, inhabiting the constraint of the kimono's physical shape in a way analogous to closed form in literature. The generosity of these gestures, in which frank friendliness is the guiding idea, make us delighted to welcome them, and hopefully you, into our home. The kimonos can be viewed at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmehrlbennett/sets/72157594534258236/

And the beautiful full-colour book (or free .pdf book), with notes by Cathy on each person to whom they are dedicated and internet links to all, is available at:

http://www.lulu.com/content/2794266

AND, to celebrate: THE BE BLANK CONSORT!
If you know Be Blank, I need say no more; if not, DO NOT MISS this! First, here's a brief bio:

THE BE BLANK CONSORT

The Be Blank Consort was born in June 2001 at The Atlantic Center for the Arts (New Smyrna Beach, Florida) when all of its members were part of a literary residency convened by Richard Kostelanetz. We are all writers, but we all use language in greatly expanded and often completely new ways and contexts. The Consort was formed to perform various kinds of texts, many of them created collaboratively, in ways that would reveal new resonances and possibilities in them. Some of the pieces are poems written by one of us and scored for multiple voices by another. A few are entirely written and scored by one person. Many more were written in collaboration between two or more of the performers and others. Scott Helmes, in January 2002, initiated the first poems specifically designed for performance by The Consort. Core members include K. S. Ernst, John M. Bennett, Scott Helmes, Michael Peters, and Sheila E. Murphy. The group has performed in Boston, New York, Baltimore, Minneapolis, Columbus, Albuquerque, Prescott (AZ), Miami, and many other venues. They have released a CD, SOUND MESS.

As a note to those of you in the are unfamiliar with Be Blank, I should mention that the Be Blank Consort has influenced Post-Neo performance poetry more than any living or recent group, so if you enjoy the simultaneous poems that we've done and want to see our roots: here they are. At the same time, their approach would seem contrapuntally different from most of ours. So it ought to be twice, or thrice as fun. Here's Warren's review of Be Blank when they performed in NY awhile back:

http://www.brooklynrail.org/2007/12/artseen/be-blank-consort

From the core group, we will have John Bennett, Scott Helmes (all the way from the West Coast!), Kathy Ernst, and Michael Peters. Performing with them will be friends from around the area--SO to prepare you for Be Blank, when they will become so many tongues of the group, there will be short individual readings by all of them and everybody who is coming out to perform with them: Geoff Huth, Marilyn R. Rosenberg, Edward Lense, and probably us hosts.

AND there will be intersections with groups of friends and collaborators in two other cities: there will be a live video-feed with the HCON Festival in Baltimore, organised by Rick Weaver, and phone-poms with Jim Leftwich, Ralph Eaton, and hopefully some others down in Roanoke, VA.

A lot of great shit--hope to see everyone there--VIM VOM VIM!

rick weaver sings

Rick Weaver sings from Jamie Bruno on Vimeo.