gone AWOL... now pasted

punk monks go pop

last thursday [october 06] saw the wet weather launch of the pop up night markets at taylor square for which i'm curating the vibe for with the punk monk propaganda team headed up with co-conspirators craig bunkwaa & stevie dunstan. it's a community microcosmos, space for the senses to be soaked & soothed in a mild edible, tactile, visual & aural orgasm. baby steps towards a long distance street party dream.

below is a pic of bunkwaa looking awesome & me emulating an autocratic melted wax doll. if nothing else i will spend the rest of my life avoiding that particular facial expression. stevie somehow escaped evidential humiliation. aren't photos grand?

we're collaborating with the wonderful sydney sustainable markets which emerged from humble yet aspirational saturday morning beginnings [stevie & i were there for the christening & still have our recycled city council silk banner bags to prove it] and are going from strength to strength now stretching wings to a new tomorrow via the sydney crave food festival. undeterred by the incessant rain the people still come...

in addition to a handful of incredible food stalls [no gozleme in sight] which sold out despite the on/off opening downpours our semi-usual projection bombing of experimental light onto buildings and spaces with or without people can be witnessed each week. this time round we'll be illuminating entire heritage buildings with our well-loved OHPs.

rotating interactive workshops designed to provide a hands on artistic experience for the curious & adventurous. this time, recycled zines! as seen here last week, sustainable jewellery mentored by highly skilled & versatile sydney artist christie torrington. 

this coming week, christie's handiwork can be witnessed with live illustration whilst playing alchemist with the rest of the uber punk monk artists via our grateful dead re-appropriated & signature liquid light projections as she fuses both analogue disciplines into a wondrous sight whilst combating ambient spill from street lights in taylor square. we'll also be bombing ground zero with video animations you can dance on in the fleeting shadows. kill switch anyone? 

each week we can promise live music to complement the existing oxford street soundscape... featuring two different folk artists combined with our own handpicked & much loved DJs/experimental noise artists [defender sound & interstellar starfish].

not to mention our regular live art collaboration with street artists. last round: bunkwaa, konsumterra & andros in some sort of epic pirate panel battle. who knows what will be on the agenda this time with additional moonlighting visitors armed with poscas who come & go in the night?

you can always spot a punk monk event-side by our telltale hands. follow the colour trail & you'll find us. somewhere between our makeshift dancefloor pulsing rainbow waves of light, hub of quietly humming artists, the sultry chai tent & inlet of industrious marquees spewing out seductive aromas of yum. despite what our mothers told us, we still like to play with our food.


NB. photos all rights reserved by dave cheng for punk monk propaganda


pop up night markets at taylor square
every thursday in october
taylor square
oxford street
darlo. sydney
17:00 - 21:00

in a heartbeat

i would come
with you
in a heartbeat
-if only
you asked
      but 
you don't

good good good, good vibrations

sound waves: one of the most sexiest & powerful things ever...

official statement

Official Statement from Occupy Wall Street - this statement was voted on and approved by the general assembly of protesters at Liberty Square: Declaration of the Occupation of New York City

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.

They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.

They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.

They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.

They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.

They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.

They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.

They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.

They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.

They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.

They have sold our privacy as a commodity.

They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.

They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.

They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.

They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them.

They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.

They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.

They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.

They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.

They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.

They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.

They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.

They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.*

To the people of the world,

We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.

To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.

Join us and make your voices heard!

*These grievances are not all-inclusive.

when monks burn

buddhist monk thich quang duc self-immolates in downtown saigon - 1963

in the last week, no fewer than three monks have set fire to themselves in protest of the stringent chinese regime incurring loss of religious rights & personal freedoms in tibet. and it's just another awful story in the news... most of which highlight the acceleration of sanctioned tyranny on this planet.

which people are the governments of the world working for exactly?

haiku: blind anger shower

altered states beckoned
jealous troll to manifest
blind anger shower

we are the revolution

this is what the television networks and newspapers are not broadcasting.

angela

this morning 

i walked 

into public 

toilets

- you lay

shaking in corner

back against the wall

dead eyes

in a pool 

of blood

on the floor

yours

two 

suicide addicts

held gaze
superficial separation

bonded strangers

i asked

- as you bled

into

cold concrete

the congealed red

treacle unreal

mine

"what happened?"

you told me 

i knew

- it's true

i became

society blanketed

them not us 

divided i drove

to buy aspirin 

your secret

in the news

ours

surprised

by my return

i said my name

- victoria

accused with 

stained razor

cast beside cheap 

beach towel edges 

lapped by red waves

of generating media 

storm weathered

theirs

broken sneer 

"it's only a try"

i pointed out

angry arm wounds

and showed

my outside scars

- a litre of blood

freshly butchered

thick and sticky

a fly skimmed 

becoming stuck on

you

shared code

you relaxed 

a little, asked

"am i psychic?"

i said

"a little", your 

penetrating stare

was accompanied 

by words, "a lot"

felt fingers 

dial 000

them

waiting

for sirens

we spoke of 

reinvention

crying

you said "i don't

live here anymore".

"it's a shitty town anyway"

i laughed

avoiding psych nurse

sycophant overtones

me

the ambos said

to give you

fake details

before i left

she wrote sarah

but i changed it

the sick and poor

are people too

even when drowning

in scarlet lies

- your name is 

angela

fly in, fly out

welcome to perth. capital city of the australian resources boom, the centre of gravity on the west coast which in many ways echoes the spirit of original mining mentalities throughout history. my new sometime home base as i amongst others seek personal fame & fortune buying into the ubiquitous fly in, fly out culture at the expense of the environment, one way or another. it may as well be us right...

at least i wake up somewhere beautiful each morning. this is my preferred spot. i can often be found here. location, location, location.

unless it was this morning which was some dodgy car park wedged between an anaconda megastore & super-sized botanica sports bar which is somehow through the randomness of the universe where i landed with my sister to sequentially carve up dance floors, drown in vodka, buy rounds of tequila & make new friends who fresh & flush with affluence match glass for glass & slices of lemon mass rounds of mescal. work hard, party hard culture is rife.

sometime soon i will wake up back here again in a world of focussed sanity, sheltered under the silhouette of the trees which frame the sleeping city beyond as wildlife i don't recognise gather around me singing their strange song. 


in the meantime i'm stuck in no [wo]man's land counting down hours of escape to stagger back to the serene cityscape & then to my adopted east coast hometown to my faerie daughter named for the weather, disfigured alien who thinks he's peter pan, cyborg wife, gay lover who won't allow me to touch his arms, myriad of lost boys & a bunch of beloved punk monks. there really is no substitute for family.

observation of verbs: merge

merge
1. to cause to combine or coalesce; unite
2. to combine, blend or unite gradually so as to blur the individuality or individual identity of.

this is a cancer cell image i found on the interwebs. the copyright is not mine. does it look like me?

exactly who is the monster here?

Watch live streaming video from democracynow at livestream.com

love made me a crack whore

life is full

life

is full
------>

of irony

becoming that which you despise. happily.

 once

i scorned

happiness

      now

i have

 become 

       it

uncontainable in every way

what happens in the container stays in the container...

we [punk monk propaganda] had an art installation at sydney university as part of our verge festival presence this year [we also curated the opening party with major raiser]. the shipping containers were dumped on campus and we were fortunate enough to be granted one to play with for the duration of the fest.

paste-up container photo copyright: konsumterra

this is what the exterior of our container looked like thanks to much loved street artists konsumterra & boots who kindly sexed it up for us. inside was an entirely different matter and quite a separate conversation which will be pursued later. 

it all started when kate taylor started thinking in UV & i was channeling shamanistic temples. somehow by closing night we were at naked roller derby girls and paint. quite an obvious progression really. 

ky-lee menzies is not as innocent as she looks in any of the matters above. but this is a well earned beer. because unbeknownst to us by the end of the festival, all the paste-ups had to come down...

it took the punk monk chicks six hours collectively to scrape those suckers off. while i gadded about at my art exhibition opening they did the hard yards. i dropped by with buckets & grabbed a couple of peace-keeping snaps en route. the air was damp & heavy.

although these hotties manage to make the task look vaguely fun, it wasn't nearly as much as what happened the night before [see below]. and that's before we got under the lights.

a test cut of my little avant garde punk monk film G.L.O.W. will be projection bombed on the back streets of tortuga studios, st peters for in the night garden at sydney fringe festival this friday. 

it's a whole different POV of roller derby girls. uncontainable & unforgettable. 

now that we've escaped the threatened charges of public indecent exposure & the glue stains have worn off one thing is for certain: roller derby girls meet punk monk chicks are extremely good sorts/sports. at least the ones we play naked painted ladies with.

hold infinity in the palm of your hand

the best part about rolling a joint in a field of mirth...

and gazing down amongst the oversized seed pods into the valley beyond

is smoking it.

then rolling around & running amok afterwards

before descending down to the mountains edge to drive even further away from civilisation.

"to see a world in a grain of sand

and a heaven in a wild flower,

hold infinity in the palm of your hand

and eternity in an hour."

- william blake

i am a freak

having fun together makes a party!

this is just what it's like behind the scenes at punk monk propaganda. the secret to our event success!

T minus 4 hours

missed the plane twice already... 
guess i don't really want to leave you.


jet plane from punk monk propaganda on vimeo.