charity case

...and then i was rescued from my deliberate hermit-like isolation by these beautiful people who are the poster kids for buddhism & friendship. they even have a benetton baby for christ's sake. eat your heart out angelina, no international adoption papers necessary.

so in the evening i followed up my tinny lunch with something a little more holistic and delicious. although i would like to say my creamed corn was organic.

i am the christmas charity case & thankful for the philanthropists who emerged from blurred shadows [daniel, andrew, claire, marianne, davey] who all tried to rescue me from myself over xmas. the best families are created.

sadly the pool party in the pelting rain was detoured as i passed out on the couch whilst serena and eugene showed me their stunning holiday photos... no, really they were wonderful. life is just so... tiring.

thanks guys, all of you. you are the spirit, the son/daughter and the holy ghost. suddenly i feel quite religious. perhaps that's just the wine/blood i'm drinking.

the grinch stole christmas

behind the smoke & mirrors of lazy summer days & barbecues on the "slip, slop, slap" beach at sydney & fab pool parties with meandering yachts cresting the harbour, this was the reality of my christmas this year.

still that cold can of creamed corn in front of my solo video gaming station for xmas lunch was delicious. all that was missing was a glass of fresh goon to wash it down.

run a mile

this is my mum. like me she likes to run.

except she looks a lot better in short shorts than i do.

bollywood! bollywood!

bollywood! bollywood!

what other genre or mechanism is there where we are afforded full unambiguous shameless colour, song & dance in modern day cinema? the guilty pleasure of a massive population stemming from mumbai india and then spreading around the world gives us what are essentially post modern elvis & timeless sirens in full technicolor productions with probably even more hip swaggering cheese, drama & fun.

the massive hindi cultural vehicle which has essentially become a cinema style has been entertaining millions around the world since its inception in the 70s as an infusion between bombay & hollywood although the bengalese film tradition started way back in tollygunge which was in the early 1900s the hub of the evolving indian industry.

tollywood became bollywood with the geographical shift as india took over america's role as the largest film producer in the world & moved to bombay. i guess technically it should be called mollywood these days...

in 2010 i will be producing a low budget bollywood feature film to be shot in sydney which is an australian/indian production. it's an excuse to embrace fantasy, fun and hard work in an intense environment perhaps even more unreal than usual. i mean even kylie's doing it...

it's come on the back of some hard work with my tribe punk monk propaganda & a bunch of us will be heavily involved in this feature which is incredibly exciting follow through for all our humble but big vision short film & event installation work. some of this can be found on punk monk propaganda's facebook, vimeo or youtube pages. most months we can be spotted at sydney's KINO, showcasing intermittent experimental projects.

something on a much larger scale has just happened for another unknown director in uruguay. comparing our work is like dwarf apples and um, precious persimmons, but check out this vid which was uploaded on youtube last month [nov 2009]. so far it's received over 1.5 million views. he's just been sponsored by sam raimi to produce a 30 million dollar feature... the story isn't particularly original but the execution is breathless. all for less than your weekly rent...

i did that once too for a script to screen five day challenge for KINO [KABARET] after coming out of a year long deep dark depression which is how i met a couple of punk monks. the landlord suffered and this is the film we made. poles apart from fede alvarez's masterpiece but nonetheless we're very proud:

throw some passion in and maybe dreams can really come true.

that's bolly/hollywood!

[and now for fun a really cool little film a friend of mine made, which i saw yesterday for the very first time]

bananas in pyjamas

...are coming down the stairs. studio bound for sleep.

the other arrived at 3am & and explained his "trivial" drunken behavior, barely coherent, still wet.

one [wo]man's trash is another's treasure it would seem. or the converse.

merry christmas.

X marks the spot

now all we need is a pirate treasure map.

looks like punk monk digital will be delivering one of those in the new year...

with copyright laws running amok and proposed changes including total ISP privacy rape in australia this sounds like something a few renegade pirates might want to be a part of.

the iinet debacle was just the beginning.

watch this space, err, spot.

i'm the crooked woman...

who walked a crooked mile

and found a crooked sixpence

against a crooked stile

and bought a crooked cat

which caught a crooked mouse

and we all live together

in our little crooked house

[pix by punk monk davey cheng]

the blonde's guide to changing a car tyre

five hours & a ten kilometer walk to intermittent mobile reception after we blew & shredded our cooper 4WD tyres on some bad ass guillotine rocks we made brief contact with a voice over 300 kilometers away. before losing contact again. the eerie shadowy bush echoing back our desperate calls.

ingenious chick answers to broken jack know-how, cleverly placed hair clips & girlie guns stranded deep in the australian bush until an unlikely knight turned up in the middle of the looming darkness. for a [very long] minute there mcgyver would have been impressed. NRMA SCHMENRMA...

typograffiti artists

last week we held another ALGAE RHYTHM [AR:006] at the corner shop. the last one for the year.

typograffiti was a mishmash of neon graffiti on hijacked alley walls and spray can action on DIY vertical scapes made from a monster recycled cardboard canvas painstakingly crafted by our resident german curators felix & michael after a workshop from various underground graff artists.

my camera is still broken & my mobile phone wasn't quite up to the job for the evening so all i have to offer as a remnant of the evening are these portraits by fellow punk monk davey & some links to clare and alex's wonderful picture blogs.

additional stop motion was shot from my upstairs bedroom that night so the proof will be in the pudding when it's all uploaded to see if there are any additional offerings of this fantastic night.

in the meantime i give you some of the usual AR suspects.

words are easy, like the wind

words are easy, like the wind; faithful friends are hard to find.

- william shakespeare

this is today

wedding day

is marriage a patriarchal social construct? it was in this case.

this is my parents on their wedding day. all those dreams promoted by hans christian andersen then patented & reproduced by hallmark cards didn't eventuate for them, except perhaps for a looping cinderella caught in the ashes who never actually made it to the ball. there's reality for you.

i want to believe. i wonder if it really does work for anyone else? could it for me?

#arkfail: DIY social media for noobs [now with monk porn]

as per my previous blog last week we [punk monk digital] launched this. a question of sorts:

and then in the wknd we gave some kind of answer:

overwhelmingly we have received loads of feedback. a thousand thanks. 99% was positive. if that was fat-free, you'd be buying it.

re: the fat.

if selling out is passing on the black lung and not being prepared to spend the rest of our lives in the coal mines then we will own that scurrilously spat title. whilst doing so we tried to do it with tenacity, humour, adherence to social issues we really care about: climate change, with just "a little nod" to popular culture & religion [in case you didn't notice]. we're not forgetting our socio political activism roots anytime soon. and yeah, we also paid attention to the product & the client's message whilst inserting some of our own unique brand. we're still legitimate artists/activists & make no apologies for commercial crossover. sorry if you prefer your guerrillas homeless & hungry.

there is a longstanding argument about corporations raping & exploiting artist talent in these style of competitions. i agree with the majority of the sentiment. they are exactly what they are. any hype filled rhetoric on rinse, recycle, repeat sheep's clothing delivered by such organisations must be rubbed into open wounds with more than a handful of salt. we know they lie. we know they don't give a shit about us. we know "sustainable" translated into corporate speak means units & profit margins.

you know those women getting "exploited" in porn movies? a lot of them are educated savvy streeet smart chicks making informed decisions about whether they want to be there or not. neither you or i have to agree with their chosen vehicle of expression or income generation but mostly they don't have a gun/or a raging coke addiction rammed against their head. mostly. either did we. sometimes exploitation can be two ways. a marriage of convenience. eyes wide shut.

the next question has to be: will it work? we have no idea. we're experimental filmmakers/culture jammers/projection bombers/social media amateurs making it up on the fly as we go along.

in the unlikely event that we seduce saatchi and saatchi with our voicemade bouncing animal sound effects & wa was inspired by 70s porn soundtracks combined with DIY animation skills & win: a chunk of the prize money pool goes back into our guerrilla film & art projects at punk monk propaganda. channeling struggling artist is highly overrated. we like to eat too. we're not going to be in the top fortune 500 anytime soon...

so far we've had over 2.5K views in five days which isn't exactly a viral success but we're still at the top of the clickthru/comment ladder after coming in on the last week of a six week long running competition.

thanks for helping us. tomorrow is the finish line. if you haven't already & would like to please just bounce along after the kangaroo, get your fluffer kit on and click here.

typograffiti

for me my love of type started with helvetica & david carson. ray gun magazine then bikini...

*swoon*

now this coming monday punk monks felix pflieger & michael prechtl with a little help from our friends bring you AR006: typograffiti.

street art crosses the divide & armed with personal markers in an exhibition setting at punk monk propaganda's corner shop, avid algae rhythmers can learn from these masked masters the secret of fusing type and graffiti into one in an intermedia setting featuring films, infra-red projections, posters, and a scavenger hunt culminating in a collective art project.

all this fueled by civilised pig's secret alcoholic ginger rhythm recipe. the only thing mightier than a pen in one hand is a glass of punk monk's special brew in the other. and a really big speech bubble canvas...

we can't guarantee NSW legislators how secure our spray cans will be but we're using travis bickle's clever arm design to conceal our dangerous weapons. you talkin to me?

maybe you should just write it... try this for some type of obsession:

between the lines

[img courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/72249211@N00/. thnx.]

it's the matrix. any matrix will do. the matrix in your mind. the matrix in your lounge. the matrix in the bar. you're offered a metaphorical choice. do you take the red pill or the blue? which one do you take? and why oh why is life constantly reduced to duality which only offers two options. why not take none or all of the above... or scavenge up a whole lot of other color pills. or eat, i don't know, say, mushrooms instead?

it's amazing how many people around me & then further away take lots of drugs. chemicals are everywhere. i float on the periphery of a variety of sub-cultures so go figure. some take more than others. through the various social networks i infiltrate some are more stereotypically apparent than others. people mostly don't offer me anymore & they've finally stopped asking me what i'm on. usually nothing. sometimes i shut them up by selling 1gm bags of baking soda. it's better than most the shit they're snorting anyway. jk.

i don't really care about moderate or occasional drug use. informed choices, yes. like a born again christian i've been there. it would be hypocritical of me to position otherwise. why should it be just ok for me just because i fantasise that jimi hendrix & i belong on the same planet? sometimes i still like to experiment with things that come out of the ground. within reason. with respect.

what i find inherently dull is that people end up using just to maintain some sense of normalcy which in relative terms research has shown is a lot less happier/stable than non-users. stability schmability you say... drugs do not make anyone more interesting. only perhaps only to yourself. if life is so dull without them, maybe it's time to mix it up.

sure ignorance is bliss & we're all familiar with the status quo argument that surround a sheep with grass and it will mindfully eat it's way through a green field unaware of the wider surrounds which is arguably just a sea of endless repetitive fields. despite old school government reefer madness-like dressed-up scare mongering maybe there could be something in it? if faced with choices where do you find real information, real opinion, decent sources talking the shit you can as a self-aware cynic trust? first video response to reefer madness would have to be "grass", by ron mann.

a few weeks ago i found myself in an interview situation where a couple of sex workers were bagging out their drug supplier because the liquid ecstasy one of the women had previously ordered had been shammed so instead of only having her usual 5 mls she'd had the whole 15 and not been as smashed up as she should've so was then going to organise a "john" to make a surprise hit on the supplier in her workplace [city brothel] because she's a "dirty fucking crack whore". "how so", i asked? because "she would have used the money for an ice fix". most importantly this conversation could have occurred anywhere between anybody. an ad agency boardroom. a plumbing office. a music festival. drug hierarchy. now that's fucking hilarious.

this week a new experiment in youth comms hit the interwebs by way of between the lines, a web based incentive which offers realspeak forum & blogs covering the expanse of issues in the ubiquitous scene that we invariably & inevitably are a part of. all of us. the stuff that mainstream media will not cover. the good, the bad, the ugly. balanced dialogue. is it truly possible?

it's still early days yet but fresh off the boat it sits in infantile form waiting to seed organically from collective stories, wisdom. from you. from us. from all sides of the fence. without prejudice. without gloss. without dumbing down.

this is one topic that we need to cut through the BS on. because honey whether you collapsed your septum on 85% columbian coke off the cisterns at the ivy or on some badly cut base in the back of the cross you'll still look as bad as michael jackson the next day after. but maybe have a slightly different ride in between. how do you monitor that?

early december AWOL monk with punk monk propaganda will be working with between the lines in conjunction with the launch of FBi does drugs week further developing our "loves me not" mobile series which is an inverted narrative dealing with mental health. come party with us. i'll save you my best blend.

a fine romance

a fine romance, my good fellow

you take romance, and I'll take jello

you're calmer than the seals

in the arctic ocean

at least they flap their fins

to express emotion

a fine romance with no quarrels

with no insults and all morals

i've never mussed the crease

in your blue serge pants

i never get the chance

this is a fine romance

toyota yaris... for a rainy day

we tried to make a viral film on youtube in our "spare time" for "fun" after i had a dumb-ass idea a week or so ago in the shower... sadly it took longer to execute than we expected. first we had to learn how to draw & animate [massive apologies to the rest of the team felix & davey for mammoth ambush].

then, um, we had to emulate an MP3 player pumping out 70s porn tunes [vox pop]. we still argue about the sound of a car door opening... we think we nailed the airbags. you know the toyota yaris has seven? it was just begging for an ark-like menagerie takeover.

the yaris campaign: it's like a swear word in social media ville. the stunt which has generated a fair amount of discussion on the interwebs. a world of cross pollination between a handful of agencies going head to head tapping into their oft under-resourced concept of social media in order to create a pyramid selling strategy with something even less tangible to sell than amway products or herbalife: an ad.

anyone watching TV in the 80s would have been subjected to the faberge organics TVC: with myopic cells dividing as consumers apparently pass on to their own network the blissful results of the first shampoo which apparenty yielded orgasmic like results. if we are to believe elida faberge's marketing team, this good news spread like AIDS: pioneering self-aware viral media. shiny silky hair for everyone.

back to the future to a bunch of shiny advertising agencies trying to outpitch the other in social media ingenuity. between a werewolf playing chauffeur in sydney, ingenious boot-boxing & a variation on lego stop motion, saatchi positioned themselves at the back of the imaginative pack by dangling a carrot to indie filmmakers & passing the creative buck on. lazy, ignorant and exploitive one could argue.

we didn't become aware of the campaign till after it was well into the active throes. knowing we were disadvantaged & time-poor[the competition is measured by mass clickthrough numbers & comments] we thought we might try anyway... after all we are starving filmmakers breaking into the fast furious vacuous world of advertising & although the tardy 7K prize won't keep us in film stock & processing it will pay our ailing corner shop rent.

we need you to click & tell us how much our first effort sucks. help us go to seed. is it too little too late to play 13th hour climate change bridesmaid? perhaps our effort is even less clever than saatchi and saatchi's foray into social media.

buy nothing: BND#09

[art by barbara kruger]

if descartes armed with plastic in one hand & scissors in the other instead of lube had a love child with warhol, it would be barbara kruger.

i have loved her for an eternity & today is an excellent opportunity to pay homage to her social activism in highlighting that not only does money not buy taste [the evidence is everywhere - stretched hummer anyone?] but no matter what you buy, it will not change your life. even though she says it will. that's irony 101 for you.

seventeen years ago [back in 1992], a guy called ted dave in canada created "buy nothing day" which was essentially a fast against consumerism -his original vision was to initiate a day of action for society to examine the gross issue of over-consumption. it was championed by the infamous adbusters magazine [my long time favourite culture jammers in town] and thus an international movement was born...

buy nothing day is an annual event. this year it's to be held in north america november 27 and internationally november 28. buying nothing is an horrendously difficult commitment as we move further away from the earth & closer to the the shops. i mean they're in our homes/minds now... closer still.

our credit cards & mobile phones have long since replaced lionel's blankie as personal security icons. we have evolved, as coined in my 2005 documentary with social economist clive hamilton: "ALIENNATION" into consumer bots. one step over the line of micro-chipping or bar codes tattooed onto our forms "for her swiping pleasure".

reiteration of jingles in popular culture have replaced fabled nursery rhymes as we unconsciously parrot away witty throwaway anecdotes with photographic perfection from repetitive imprinting of various ad ditties which become the new mythology. you're soaking in it... you have to opt out like a haight & ashbury hippie if you want to escape. we are surrounded.

the government doesn't want us to think. they want us to shop. affluenza is a corporate-made disease. capitalism depends on slavery to the system which is ensured through consumerist addiction. must have more stuff: the new mantra for an updated religion.

most television networks will not seriously cover buy nothing day despite the fact that is active with huge followings in over 65 countries [if you see it on the news it'll be in the fluffy animal segment at the end]. adbusters have experienced huge censorship & most networks will not carry their ads. apparently their money is not as good as everyone else who are promoting us to buy... well anything will do. just buy it. dammit.

creation of desire is an almost scientific artform these days for marketeers. we have been collated & databased to the eyeballs. psychologists and marketeers fuse forces to coax and coerce us to want more stuff. but how much stuff do we really need?

buying nothing for one day won't change the world but it is a vehicle for raising consciousness & examining purchasing behavior. it's not until going through the exercise of locking up your cards that you realise in the western world how often we use them. some people around the world never have that opportunity & merely face the consequences of our wasteful actions. who said that life was fair, huh?

what would happen if we did not conform. obey. consume. ??? cheesy as fuck but to quote john lennon & yoko ono: imagine. and then buy nothing.

BND#09

november 27: USA

november 28: the world

access all areas

a couple of years ago i was introduced to a bunch of physically impaired filmmakers through KINO KABARET. KINO is [as some people already know] my subcultural cinematic religion which became my family... this is the place where for the last two years i've been making films on & off on a monthly basis to showcase with a bunch of other under-resourced filmmakers who are also big on ideas.

together under the philosophical umbrella of "don't think, just shoot" we have risen above the crippling confines of no budget & produced numerous films of varying standard [some international film fest award winners] which are usually happily bolstered by the open jamesons & coopers bar to be savoured by the hundred or so people who regularly turn out to watch them/us.

KABARET is the more intense version of KINO where films are made within a 48 hour timeframe. it's a lot of fun & the environment is wholly coo-operative in an ego-free environment as new and old filmmakers alike come together.

earlier this year, i amongst a handful of others helped a friend, phillip debs, who is profoundly deaf since birth, sign out a short film; all things bright and beautiful as part of the coming together for sydney's only 48hour film marathon [we make a series of 48 hour films for the week with three sessions all up back on back]. it's a humbling opportunity to take stock of the aspects of life i coast through in on auto-pilot mode but conversely also appreciate the other aspects which are introduced when not so reliant on other senses. it helps that i like to wave my arms around...

the people behind KINO in sydney are the festivalists; a non profit company which has such incredible reach producing multiple film festivals throughout sydney & into the expanses of greater sydney. NSW would be such a sadder place without them.

sometimes it's hard to believe it's the work of just three nurturing vision-filled people: matt, marianne and karina aided & abetted by the sea of interns they invariably attract wanting to sit and learn at their generous & all inspiring feet.

one of their labours of love is access all areas film festival which kicked off a few days ago. bringing niche films [mostly locally produced] which are hard enough to see outside of arthouse cinema houses in major cities alone, the festival is touring NSW and taking the mountain to mohammed as it were. the films are travelling throughout wagga wagga, orange, griffith and outer regions within NSW to the people who don't take a trip to the cinema for granted. schools are included too.

issues of mobility, hearing impairment... are all covered where audio descriptions in addition to open ended captioning for all films are transmitted through individual audio receivers which are provided free of charge by the festival. carers are on hand at all venues to help make the less able more comfortable.

don't dis my [or any other's] ability. embrace the differences. reject homogeny.