Wednesday, June 30, 2010

chasing jack

in the bush for the weekend, before anyone else awoke still peacefully slumbering from a late night mulled wine flavored bonfire, i snuck outside to the garden to chase jack amongst the lingering frost. 


the night had been cool outside & the temperature had dropped to around -4 degrees celcius. inside the cabin it was toasty warm. the morning magic hour lived up to its name only inhibited by the inadequacy of this humble mobile phone for capturing its true beauty. still.

sunset boulevard

driving back from conrad's after a day of film post-production planning, battling with external hard drive formatting [we won], peppermint tea, a picnic of organic cheese, tomatoes, freshly baked bread with & shell collecting on the water's edge.


the feature has begun as the battle of the shape commences. queer street is reborn. the traffic hums. 

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

the mackerals call to queer st

ah victoria -
im home -
callin victoria -
callin callin callin callin
victoria aint there
not even her voice
inside telephone
no voice
 call me
freezin
in this house
outside
a huge mad sun
spins
i stay inside sweepin up
dust
sorrow
seepin
spillin over the blood red floor

speak  missy victoria
we make plan for
tomorrow about catchin de sun
in queer street
all those bloody little mackerals
waitin in de long tin with writin
writhin in oil
cryin out for missy victorias

no victoria in long tin
no victoria inside her ole telephone
just bloody little
mackerals
all about de life of
mackerals
nothin about missy victoria
very slippery missy victoria
escaped when de mackerals
got coaxed inside de tin with all de
writin
oil
mackerals callin for missy victoria
missy victoria
shut inside de telephone
tryin to immitate de mackerals

yea i laugh await your
mackeral message


- christina conrad

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

FFF

toilet graffiti - fraser studios, sydney


triple X has nothing on this. thematic portrait of the day.

compulsory children's education


this is what they should be teaching at schools. compulsory field excursions.


...an excellent product of the new zealand eighties outsider music scene.

sunrise in shades of grey



I couldn't
Sleep
So restless
Ran
As fast as I could
To the top of the hill.
Sydney Park
Still in darkness
Odd walkers about
With dogs impatient
Straining on leads
Like me.

I sat foetal
Hugging my knees
On the still
Monochrome grass
Panting red-faced
Desperately
Waiting for the first
Sunrise
Without you
But it would not come.

Cold city walls
Still shrouded by
Layers of Colin McCahon 
Grey
Greeted me
instead. 
Amusing no?
It was beautiful
but
I'd hoped
for 
Colour.

this isn't me


but then again it's just another costume change.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

dead

everything is a metaphor. 
but perhaps not everything is a film.

suburbs spawn existentialism

BTS with AWOL MONK: talking to heremaia rudkin about the "what if girl"


extract from #KSZ 02 [sydney kino zine]

ironically this month's behind the scenes featured filmmaker whose amazing almost bus stop romance originally captured my imagination at newtown flicks is featured in #KSZ02. the zine was released last night on the night of kino#37 where steven kastrissios who featured last month in BTS with AWOL MONK for issue 01 had an equally enigmatic almost bus stop romance short film screen as his first ever KINO film. stop the zeitgeist bus! the trick is whether there's a trifecta... tune in next month & see.

heremaia rudkin despite being disarmingly handsome is a quintessentially bashful kiwi boy made good. although he’d never admit it.  

we shared some locally brewed beers last wknd on an erskineville pavement under the sun & talked about the recent success of his no/lo-budget film WHAT IF GIRL which was awarded the panavision industry prize at the recent cool kid on the festival block, newtown flicks as well as playing in the shortlisted “audience bites back” finale night which featured the most popular film from each previous sesh. 

upon seeing the film i made a direct beeline. he oozes a polished yet casual KINO sensibility asking big questions in small format. his film is, dare i say, like him likeable. extremely identifiable. in a savvy understated eastern suburbs kinda way. despite being an inner west fest, the dilemma universal.

a graduate of NZ film school, heremaia dabbles in video production by day to pay bills but his passion for story telling takes him into the wonderful world of film at night. and yes his nan helped finance his short. hello australian film industry.

newtown flicks is the test fest for the film & it’s an undeniably great result & infinitely valuable springboard. newtown flicks provides a respected forum & veritable hotbed of talent lurking beneath the cinematic radar while gallantly competing this year with the competitive film calendar by going head to head with the 57th sydney film festival. a scheduling nightmare but still viable due to the scope of the programme. closing night was near full with all bums accounted for on seats.

encouraged heremaia now looks to his new town to provide the stimulus & setting for many more films with an avant garde music video in the works & a very different story. We talk 7D. canon has really hit the indie filmmaker sweet spot — there’s an observable trend. every other indie filmmaker is ditching their large format HDV cameras & downsizing/upgrading to the canon DSLR with HD video range.

his challenge [a problem common to many emerging financially-strapped filmmakers] however is to build a tribe to work with.

like the born-again pimp i am, i tell him about the new cine religion at fraser studios one monday a month & he promises to come. one thing there is no shortage of in sydney is a film subculture coupled with a community which supports & nurtures fresh talent. whether or not he does come, there is no “what if” about heremaia's promising screen future.


NB. images used are copyright the filmmaker [heremaia rudkin]. thanks to heremaia for use of pics]

BTS with AWOL MONK is a regular behind the scenes segment which can be found in every issue of kino sydney's zine produced by punk monks clare devlin-mahoney, alexander papasavvas & kate taylor with contributions from other kino lovers. [#ksz]

Friday, June 18, 2010

zen toilet flux


zen toilet flux: the install at "decorating loos" group art exhibition. 

we graffiti'd the toilet doors in custom-made cubicles built into the gallery infrastructure as well as creating our own transmedia experiment beyond the walls in the gallery atrium. we integrated crowd-sourced haiku into an evolving zine on a "toilet roll" sculpted into a living waterfall.
photos by alexander papasavvas


zen toilet flux -- artist statement:
inner reflections 
at haiku waterfall, space
time continuum

public toilet is a misnomer for a meditative space which offers respite from the incessant hub of the outside. often associated with graffiti which is unfairly represented as transgressive or low-brow, it seems natural when given quiet time that we seek to make our mark: a tangible extension of our thoughts, on a wall, commencing way back when with antediluvian art.



whether this communication serves a purpose other than advertisement or is merely a human compulsion to disrupt order & white space is not definitive.

in the frenetic paced urban world can art be typographically packaged into the convenience of haiku for the person on the street & ultimately fuse gallery & gutter?



this stylized urban zen garden welcomes you. the crowd-sourced haiku waterfall’s negative ions offer regenerative tranquility and the invitation to all for reflection at the water’s edge.

exhibition ends this wknd. come soak up the art. find a happy place.

featuring art by punk monk propaganda & talented others
565 king street
newtown

love hate relationship. with windows 7.

64 bit: it was like the holy grail. the must install operating system version. where windows actually comes good. windows 7 the mirage on the horizon of historical throwback pre-emptive beta releases. PC redeems itself.


sadly i've never seen more blue screens. a few black screens of death but resuscitation is enabled to travel predictably & inevitably back to blue. i don't want this to be my new BF but thanks very much for the consistency. can't i have a real microsoft original start-up fundie instead? 


bill gates, i'm coming to the redmond campus after your secret building 23 [the other pentagon] always a curious number. yes? and transplanting it to DIA [or is it already there buried deep underground?]. what back door NSA? and i'll fill it with broken binary in classic revenge story fashion. i'm with douglas coupland on bad acid on this one. 


signed frustrated windows user.

first brews

evidence of my recent blog transgressions: in the corner shop studio right now two fermenters boil, toil and trouble like the cauldron offspring of macbeth's witches. 


protectively i ensure they maintain their optimal early to mid 20 degree celcius reading. my daughter leers on, jealous. i turn up the heater & close the door behind her. to keep the heat in. for the beer.


i blame dan simmonds AKA civilised pig for starting this craze. under his guidance, together, we pursued the perfect handmade alcohol for our art night: algae rhythm [soon to be reborn] over the last year. this saw the creation of ginger rhythm  [kickin ginger beer] as we researched elements to create its partner "algae beer" looking for organic & legal ingredients to give us the desired green. it's a work in progress.


a monster has been created whilst we independently explore the plant & animal kingdom to hone to-die-for variants of our creations whilst developing our craft [to be fair dan is the master & we at punk monk propaganda HQ are not jedis yet].


my cat is mesmerised by the water bubbling happily in the air locks. this is a good sign right?

Thursday, June 17, 2010

we are the children & do not need to be saved


this is still one of the most powerful poignant protests ever witnessed. this monk set himself alight in downtown saigon to bring attention to the repressive discriminatory policies which existed in vietnam at the time. the year was 1963.


are these the lengths required to convince the government that 99% of australians polled said "no" to an imposed internet filter? we do not need to join china's internet control ranks. we should not have to martyr any more monks in the pursuit of knowledge and peace.


if we are the children let not the state be the parent. let mao tse tung and his culturally deplete inheritance stay where they belong. in the history pages. 

houdini got his bike back

it's been a week for embracing slackery despite the length of the "to do" list. it's weird even though singularly they're all cool things & i'm working on numerous exciting projects, as soon as anything goes onto the list it reeks of chore. the human psyche is evil! time is a luxury most can't afford & usually i cherish it. then sometimes flagrantly disrespect it. this feels so western. 


it's been a week where the chore meets energy equilibrium was strangely off. while i have been humming in secret worlds of plants waiting to be born & lying in the sun with cats on a sun-soaked balcony dreaming of algae blooms & compost toilets with killer kangaroos that jump out like jack-in-a-boxes, then waking up to create wicked home brews at slothlike pace; my dear blog has laid barren desperately neglected. 


hello blog. i'm just over here. i'm sorry i allowed my windows 64 bit incompatibility issue with constant blue screen crashes scare me off from writing film reviews & posting up cool stuff from our art exhibition opening. i was/am weak. this will still happen i swear. 


still it was nice to sleep. and look, houdini got his bike back.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

dangerous accomplices

where i review "the most dangerous man in america" and "wasted on the young"... two of my standout films from this year's sydney film festival [right after i finish propagation duties]. test for link.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

sorry. turn it up.

no ordinary choir. like wolves in sheep's clothing these pseudo bureaucrats in suits & rubber ties have a lot to apologise for. 


another version of kevin rudd's historic "sorry" speech courtesy of this bizarre finnish ensemble who've turned their artistic intentions onto australia.



may 12 - august 01, 2010
[free ferry every hour from the MCA]

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

haiku: does love exist outside the square [card]?

hallmark dominates
emotional vernacular
what exists sans card?

Monday, June 7, 2010

haiku: endless things to come


photo by olastuen, courtesy of creative commmons

endless things to come
time an unparallel plane
lost my boarding pass

Friday, June 4, 2010

slicing through the time line

movement across time when time is a malleable medium. an operatic vision.


static no.12 - much anticipated newcomer to his static series, melbourne based new zelaander, daniel crooks won the inaugural $100 000 basil sellers sport and art prize with his video 'static no .11 [man running], inspired by studies in human physiology.




crooks' static series stem from an early fascination with the ability of photography and cinematography to break through the time continuum. digital slices break the time barrier to present fluidity in space in this case through the practice of tai chi.


you've come a long way from eadweard mubridge baybee. without moving an inch.


daniel crooks
sydney biennale
cockatoo island
may 12 - august 01, 2010
[free ferry every hour from the MCA]

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

haiku: crowd sourced toilet art

this saturday june 05, 2010 fellow punk monks; clare, alex and i are creating a crowd sourced art experiment at ATVP [at the vanishing point] gallery. 


it is the first of multiple parts of our protest installation about transgressive toilet decoration in response to adolf loos, the puritanical aesthetist's theory that "one can measure the culture of a country by the degree its lavatory walls are daubed".  


this is a transmedia project with varied entry points arguing that high art need not conflict with form nor function but readily adapts to space and time. 


the work in progress will be revealed on opening night june 10. our success largely relies on participation. this experiment requires neither rocket scientists nor fine artists. please spread the word.


we'll be there at 2pm. come join the quiet fray!


email me @ propaganda[at]punk-monk.com with any questions.


decorating loos @ ATVP
at the vanishing point - contemporary art inc.
565 king street
newtown, australia