José Cuervo Mural. Photo: Alamy. For The Telegraph.

This summer, Jose Cuervo is launching the “Jose Cuervo Tradicional Mural Project” in ten target communities nationwide. The company has reached out to NALAC’s artist
directory in search of visual artists to star in the Promotional video campaign featuring the upcoming mural contest. The Mexican tequila company is looking for 7-8 bilingual visual artists of Mexican heritage, who are 21+ years of age, residing in the New York tri state area (including Pennsylvania), and who are available to appear as spokespersons in the video segments in late May 2012. The video segments will be taped in New York.

If you or someone you know is interested in this opportunity, please provide artist contact information by following this link.

Please be advised that this sudden opportunity is time sensitive and names must be submitted no later than Wednesday, May 16, 2012. More details about the program will be made available once Jose Cuervo has reviewed the submitted names.

[Press Release]

José Cuervo Mural. Photo by randalwark

El súbito halo de la muerte Lorquiana me acompaña. Mientras me someto al proceso interesante de los ensayos del teatro, pienso: las máscaras, los rituales, los primeros sonidos, los ritmos y los dibujos iniciales representaronese primer contacto del ente creativo primitivo y el primer manifiesto artístico para enlazarnos con el mundo de lo desconocido. Incluso el arte fue nuestra primera ventana paraconocer detalles relevantes sobre nuestra historia, y por lo tanto, fue tinta indeleble para descubrir nuestra identidad. Precisamente en la actuación y en los gajes del arte encontré varias enseñanzas sobre el ser humano que superan a cualquier otra disciplina. A continuación, las comparto con ustedes:

Verosimilitud: el actor del cine contemporáneo busca, a toda costa, que su actuación sea un retrato exacto de la vida: pretende que cada acto sea veraz, orgánico y cónsono con la realidad presentada. La importancia de lo orgánico es relevante para el actor que busca trascender. Si debes llorar, llora. Si es necesario reír, hazlo con todas tus fuerzas. Sé quien eres, seas quien seas. Y ámate por quien eres, no por quien serás.

“Connessione”: La relación entre el entorno y las cualidades psicológicas de los personajes inmersos en una historia es inextricable. Todo incide en todo: cada minúsculo paso de cualquiera de los integrantes de un espacio determinado influyen en la naturaleza, en los espacios, en el Cosmos. En dicho contexto, el protagonista y los actores que le circundan desarrollan escenas del pasado y del futuro, sueños, angustias, fantasías, relaciones, situaciones vitales y deseos. ¿Qué pistas te regala el Universo diariamente para darte cuenta que todos estamos conectados? ¿Qué paso decisivo, positivo y asertivo efectuarás hoy, que afectará indudablemente a tu cuarta generación?

Pluripotencial: El actor –como cada célula inicial del cuerpo humano- tiene la capacidad de ser pluripotencial. Es capaz de desdoblarse en distintos personajes: llega a amarlos y comprenderlos como si cada uno de ellos fuera su primogénito. Sólo a través de los zapatos incómodos del otro somos capaces de entenderlos: incluso podrás entender a los mal llamados “deambulantes”, “narcotraficantes”, “drogadictos”, “maltratantes” o “pedófilos”. El amor incondicional parte de la capacidad de conocer a los demás y entender su entorno: sólo de esta forma, podremos servir como agentes de apoyo y asumir posturas constructivas, para así gestar una sociedad que promueva una cultura de paz.

Equidad: No existen personajes minúsculos: todos son importantes para la consecución de la historia. Existen personajes antagónicos y protagónicos, balance de energía masculina y femenina: luces y sombras se integran en un gran “sfumato” y van construyendo la mejor versión de nosotros. Cada ser humano es ejecutor de su destino –eterno protagonista- y cultiva los frutos que ha sembrado.

“Dimostrazione”: El director de escena encauza al protagonista y posibilita que la representación sea más intensa o sublime, dependiendo del caso. Son aquellos grandes Maestros que nos permiten que expresemos nuestras más hermosas cualidades; incluso aquellas que desconocemos, o más tememos. En esta existencia, ¿has sido un Maestro o un anti-Maestro? ¿Provocas lo mejor de los demás a través de la acción de dar lo mejor de ti?

“Encuentro ingenioso”: Aprendí en una película que, en algún lugar del Mundo, un protagonista está buscando la camisa perfecta para dormir, mientras su alma gemela, busca el pantalón de dormir idóneo para acompañarle en sus horas con Morfeo. Ambos se encuentran en un mismo escenario, con una sola pijama, a la hora justa, cuando están preparados para convertirse en un binomio perfecto. Incluso el amor es asunto de histriones: son dos protagonistas ya formados, que sólo coincidirán cuando renuncien a ser personajes de reparto en sus historias de amor.

“Los ángeles”: los personajes de reparto reaccionan al protagonista mientras éste realiza su representación. Siguen las insinuaciones del protagonista -o las propuestas del director de escena- y tienen que lograr la mayor empatía posible con su mundo de vida. Son fundamentales para conectar la historia. ¿Eres capaz de posponer tus asuntos para servir de respaldo para el otro?

El público: se refiere a “la caja de resonancia del acontecer dramático”. Son el eje central durante los preparativos y en la fase de armonización, y después en la fase conclusiva o posterior a la puesta en escena. Proporcionan una retroalimentación dirigida al protagonista mediante el acto de compartir sus emociones y la retroalimentación de identificación. ¿Existe un actor sin el público? ¿Existe un líder sin su grupo de apoyo?

Mientas leo estas palabras, pienso en las enseñanzas de Adriana Barraza en aquel encuentro inolvidable del Taller Telemundo: Actores de Miami. En mis grandes maestros y aliados de New York Film Academy en California. En el concurrido proyecto “Voces Unidas por Nuestro Cine Puertorriqueño” de mi amiga del arte Vane I. Vélez y en la digna representación de mi hermano da Vinciano Ėktor Rivera en Q’ Viva! The Chosen. En el nutrido teatro experimental del director Elvin Doel Ramos y sus hijos creativos. En el décimo aniversario de Cinefiesta, en los respetados colegas del Colegio de Actores y en los noveles directores, laureados en los Festivales Internacionales. En la calidad humana de Ernesto Concepción, en la en la disciplina de Idalia Pérez Garay, en la asertividad de Sara Pastor y en la dulzura de Cordelia González: simplemente, pienso en la actuación, en los amigos y en los grandes Maestros del arte.

Si “persona” significa “máscara”, sé capaz de convertirte en un manifiesto viviente de la película de Dios en la Tierra, “in actu”. Tu color es distinto, sublime, etéreo. A fin de cuentas, tal como en la puesta de escena, la vida se trata de creaciones eternas, máscaras multicolores y sueños de “pantalla gigante”.

Resulta evidente: para lograr todo ello y triunfar en “las tablas” de la vida, lo más hermoso de nuestro Universo interior deberá cobrar vida en el Universo exterior.

[Fotos por Neysa Jordán para la obra Bodas de sangre, de Federico García Lorca, adaptada y dirigida por Doel Rodríguez. Dicha adaptación experimental se presentó el 11 y 12 de mayo en el Teatro Francisco Arriví, en Santurce, Puerto Rico.]

He comprado una cosita pequeña y oscura. Un tanto barata para las posibilidades que tiene pero, sobre todo, capaz de subsistir bajo la amenaza rotunda de mi cónyuge al crear hipérboles que aseguran que nos vamos a inundar de páginas si llego adquirir un libro más.

“Ni uno más” dijo, ni un anaquel más porque, según ella y sus hermosos ojos, hay más sitios para acumular libros que para acopiar cosas necesarias como ropa, comida y parafernalia cotidiana (A lo cual me atrevo a preguntar: ¿Cómo sería una casa llena de libros, incluso dentro de la estufa y debajo de la nevera?).

Vanidad de vanidades dirán, pero que mucho me ha emocionado el entrar tanta literatura en él aparatito. Como si yo anduviese con toda Alejandría debajo de un bolsillo cucando a los bibliófilos y zarandeando a los bibliotecarios. Porque de eso se trataba todo aun cuando admito que fue de gran ayuda al estudiar para la reválida de abogado. Fue útil andar con todos los repasos y los casos y los llamados pedefes para arriba y para abajo. Leyéndolos en la fila del banco, en la panadería al esperar el revoltillo con jamón y queso suizo, y también cuando el viejo me daba pon para ir a ver (q)uestiones de librerías, doctorados y vainas académicas que tanto nutren.

La curiosidad, esa que dicen que mata felinos, siguió el curso normal de las aguas y me atreví a impulsar lecturas en el anglosajón moderno y de antaño en el dispositivo electrónico. Cosas que no había podido adquirir en los dos intentos de ahogarme en textos: el primero el bachillerato en Estudios Hispánicos (muchas cosas en el exquisito castellano) y el segundo el Juris Doctor (muchas leyes, casos y más casos). Al final del día mezclaba lo aprendido en ambos trances, analizaba cuáles textos me convendrían y hacía piruetas con las leyes y tratados de derechos autor y propiedad intelectual para ver qué presas estaban indefensas y solitas en algún rincón olvidado de la internetz. Poco a poco fui llenando los llamados “folders” con cosas en varios idiomas, cosas en pedefes y mobi y en cuanto formato pudiese con tal de pasar estos miopes por encima de las letras y gozar esa cosa nítida que la literatura, un café y una lluvia de tarde en Moca (único pueblo de cuatro letras, broder) ofrecen.

Más gatos internos fueron anquilosados mientras me adentraba en las fauces cibernéticas de la maquinita maravillosa, el semi-aleph, como le digo a veces. No obstante, lo cierto es que este mundo de las letras es un enorme río donde se buscan pepitas de oro pero a veces se encuentran cosas más repulsivas. Y sufrí, desocupado lector, sufrí al toparme con un mundo norteño en donde cualquier imbécil escribe una cosa con el poder de hacer que un muchacho se suicide o una quinceañera (o sesenteañera) se tatúe sus bellos (viejos) omoplatos con cuestiones absurdas. A veces, demostrando que el capitalismo siempre se parecerá a la “yararacusú … enrollada sobre sí misma”, porque encontré cosas a 99¢ que son peores que las comidas que te venden en los “value menu”.

Entonces es que llego a ese momento de la verdad, en donde uno se cansa de darle para atrás y para adelante a los botones que mueven las páginas (que jamás vas a tocar) de los libros que nunca vas a diferenciar entre edición de 1825 y la de 2009. Apenas pasan cosas así y te demuestras que somos seres materialistas, que funcionamos palpando las cosas y no sólo pensando en ellas. Poco a poco se medita en este asunto mientras uno escribe una columnita para una revista cibernética. Ves tus manos tecleando y necesitando pausar para agarrar algo que te saque de todo este asopado de malabares que llamamos isla. Miró para el lado, en el librero de la izquierda (estoy rodeado de libreros) allí yace palpitante un edición blanca y negra de Don Quijote y más allá un marcador de libros hecho en mundillo que me obsequió mi tía Eda (el marcador más hermoso que he visto). Miro el computador y el librero; el computador y el librero y la maquinita negra llena de libros y cosas que cabe en un bolsillo: no puedo con la tentación de ir a ese lugar de la Mancha, pero esta vez me voy “oldstyle” y le digo adiós a la maquinita electrónica, a la Alejandría portátil.

]]> http://www.crudoprod.com/klindo/feed/ 0 http://www.crudoprod.com/regarding-the-idea-of-a-third-depression/ http://www.crudoprod.com/regarding-the-idea-of-a-third-depression/#comments Tue, 15 May 2012 01:05:06 +0000 Sheyla Rivera http://www.crudoprod.com/?p=6949

We have bred a monster out of consumerism through the over emphasis on credit. We are trapped in a cycle where the resulting anxiety in turn leads to excessive consumption, when instead we should be practicing a more sober economy. Our stress has been channeled that way by marketing, publicity, and our consumerist society: Buy this to fix that, buy this to make up for that, you know you need it, you’ll never be the same. You got credit? BAM!

Now how do we shake off those pathologies? Intense psychoanalysis? profound financial advisory sessions? or a “going-back-to-the-basics” approach? Is it even possible in such an industrialized and urbanized society?

Warren Buffet, one of the richest men in the world, has been asked a hundred times how to become a millionaire. His answer? Save and don’t spend on what you don’t need. Makes sense, after all, don’t we spend all the money we make? If you look at how much money you have made in your life so far, you end up asking yourself: “where the hell did all that money go?”. We consume ourselves into debt and end up trying to survive rather than living. Also, we end up alone in this due to the fact that the policies are not interested in aiding the consumers, rather focusing their worry toward the corporate sphere. Sounds to me like a Third Depression indeed.

Response to “The Third Depression” by Paul Krugman (published in NY Times)

The VenusSings.com Bilingual Poetry Festival, a digital and interactive event series and poet residency program, starts today in Providence, Rhode Island – Wednesday, April 4, 2012. Published authors and Bilingual Poets/Performers-in-Residence, Carolina Major Diaz & QueenMah Love, will read works and launch the digital arm of the festival on www.bsrlive.com;  Festival director, Reza Clifton, produces the online radio show Sonic Watermelons LIVE every Wednesday from 6-8 PM.

Community members in Rhode Island are being invited to celebrate National Poetry Month in April 2012 with an interactive and digital Bilingual Poetry Festival produced by VenusSings.com.  The aims of the festival are to unite general poetry audiences and multilingual RI residents through the celebration of poetry, music, and literary culture in community and online settings. Participants in the festival will learn about and experience how interacting bi-culturally can become a tool in self-discovery, personal empowerment, political expression, and community building.

Spearheading the Festival Committee is Reza Clifton, who operates VenusSings.com and is the founder/producer of a well-received and re-requested Bilingual Poetry Night that she debuted in downtown Providence in the spring of 2011.  Through the development of these Bilingual Poetry Nights, and during the organization of Hispanic Heritage Month activities in Providence in 2011, Clifton began meeting with authors, poets and community organizers about furthering Bilingual Poetry programming and developing a festival.  As a result, a group of published and to-be published talented individuals emerged with the interest, ability and motivation to create spaces to share their work.  The Bilingual Poetry Festival is evidence of their commitment to advancing themselves as literary professionals and to sharing the joys of hearing bilingual and multicultural poetry.

The Festival will begin April 4, 2012 with an interview on Clifton’s weekly online radio show, Sonic Watermelons, which airs on Brown Student and Community Radio.  This will also be the launch of the digital arm of the festival, which entails poets appearing weekly on Sonic Watermelons and blogging on VenusSings.com throughout the two-month period.  Bilingual and multicultural poets, authors and bands will also engage in readings, performances, workshops, and talk-back sessions with a variety of different audiences in RI in April and May 2012.  These interactive sessions will take place in schools, restaurants, cafes, art centers, and other community locations, while the incorporation of digital media will allow the Festival to provide an accessible and continuous resource for getting to know the poets (and performers) and hearing their work.

We encourage community members of all ethnicities and backgrounds to join us in this journey to use literature and performing arts to build self-discovery, personal empowerment, political expression, and community-building with youth and adult community members in Providence. A list of performers and a festival schedule will be maintained on VenusSings.com, along with blog posts from the resident poets and updates about episodes of Sonic Watermelons.

Sonic Watermelons on Brown Student Radio (BSR)

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

6:00-8:00 PM

Hear it live or archived: www.bsrlive.com

• On Radio: April 4, 11, 18, 25; May 2, 9, 16, 23, 30
• In the Community: April 12, 13, 19, 24, May 3, May 10, May 12

Performers

• First Featured Poets: Carolina Major Diaz, QueenMah Love
• Registered Poets: 9 (Including Shey Rivera, founder of .Crudo! and Sussy Santana!)
• Registered bands: 3

Participating Sites

• VenusSings.com
• BSRLive.com
• AS220
• .Crudo
• Rhode Island College
• Tea in Sahara
• Fertile Underground

“Pink Smoke Over the Vatican” is a multiple award-winning documentary film about the controversial movement of women being ordained as priests in the Roman Catholic Church.

On June 3, 2008, The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which is the modern name for The Holy Office of the Inquisition, issued a sweeping order of excommunication for “the crime of attempting sacred ordination of a woman.” “Pink Smoke Over the Vatican” chronicles the events that led up to this severe punishment and tells the stories of the determined women and men who, through the forbidden and illicit path of female ordination, are working to end the underlying misogyny and outdated feudal governance that many believe is slowly destroying the Roman Catholic Church.

“Pink Smoke Over the Vatican” explores the complex ethical choices made by the women who are painfully discerning the difference between man’s law and God’s law. Their struggles encompass both the internal battles wrought by going against the Church they love as well as the external battles with the Church hierarchy, centuries-long tradition, police, and the rampant prejudice that still prevails against women in positions of power. But when viewing this film, it is the impression that all have been undeniably touched by spirit that is certain to move both Catholics and the general public alike.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The producer and director of “Pink Smoke Over The Vatican,” Jules Hart, is the founder of Eye Goddess Films. Hart’s work has aired on PBS and shown at numerous festival venues. Her films have covered a wide variety of topics including storefront churches, Latina healers, drumming as a spiritual practice, and art as a vehicle for healing.

Ms. Hart took on this project after being approached by a woman who was seeking ordination.  Hart, a non-Catholic, was initially unaware of the challenges and struggles facing these brave women but felt this was a story that needed telling.  She was stunned by the Church’s attitudes and rampant gender discrimination.

“I’ve been a feminist and activist for a long time, but making this film certainly reinvigorated my commitment to women’s issues,” said Hart.  “I realized that there is still an enormous amount of work to be done.” Hart has lectured at Antioch University, Whittier College, and at UCLA, her alma mater, on topics such as Film and Folklore, Women in the Arts, and Women and Religion.

“Pink Smoke Over The Vatican” has received eight awards including Best Documentary at the 2010 Santa Fe Independent Film Festival, and Best Faith-Based Film and Best Female Filmmaker at the 2010 AOF international Film Festival in Pasadena, CA. It was also screened as an official selection at eight festivals during 2010 and 2011 including the19th Annual Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, the Carmel Art and Film Festival, and the Athena Film Festival at Barnard College in New York. The film also had a short theatrical run at the Orinda and Balboa Theatres in the SF Bay Area and screened at a parallel session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in February of 2011. On April 2, 2012, “Pink Smoke Over The Vatican” will screen at Michael Moore’s Monday Night Documentary Film Series at the State Theatre in Traverse City, Michigan.

]]> http://www.crudoprod.com/pink-smoke-over-the-vatican/feed/ 0 http://www.crudoprod.com/the-living-art-and-sounds-of-michael-alan/ http://www.crudoprod.com/the-living-art-and-sounds-of-michael-alan/#comments Mon, 02 Apr 2012 02:25:46 +0000 .Crudo http://www.crudoprod.com/?p=6632

For New York artist Michael Alan, art is catharsis; “a combination of harmonious opposites, a means of communication and a radical juxtaposition of dimensional elements”. He explores the relationship between destruction and creation, through his visual art, his installations, performances and music. Alan is the founder and director of the Living Installation in New York. 

Lynn Maliszewski interviews Michael Alan for .Crudo. 

Lynn Maliszewski: I first discovered you after you started posting your Halloween subway joyride drawings on Facebook, which I slowly became obsessed with for their energy, their pure aura of people. Do you find yourself attracted more to people, individually, or situations where people exist?

Michael Alan: I see everything in general as a part of art/ life in process. I find most things funny or twisted; It’s a big dream. Nothing is average, even the basic human levels where we fulfill our animal needs and the supernatural desires of a seahorse.

LM: What’s your favorite people watching spot?

MA: Anywhere I show up at when I’m invited. It can be the worst place, the best place; it’s all what you turn it into. I do like Halloween A LOT because people appear as all they really want to be. I met one of my new friends when I was doing the Halloween drawings. His name is Andre and now he helps me out at my live shows. I believe in meeting people through creating art when it’s not expected.

LM: What was the first drawing you remember making?

MA: I remember turning Slick Rick into a baseball player for the Mets. He had super long skinny legs, a mitten and his batting average was 5000. Then I made a whole team of playing cards, including Squiglies, Raindrop, my dad, Axl Rose and a bunch of junkie rock band dudes. This was before I put dicks everywhere.

LM: Where do you find memory interacting with your visual recordings?

MA: I try to clean the slate of human needs or my temporary feelings and go to the other side, to a place you enter and leave your flesh behind. Forgetting everything, but being open to what may come. Being deliberate with your marks even if they seem haphazard or wild. I feel like I live my life like every day could be my last and that allows me to take some chances and push the image.

LM: Oftentimes images emerge over time in your work. How conscious are you of the multiple layers of composition in your work? Do they all appear in one sitting or do the works develop, more often, over time?

MA: Most detailed works take six months to years. Most of the works are altered over and over. I have a large studio and storage where I have things set in motion. I use no assistance, and let time do its magic. I am conscious and unconscious at the same time. I work every day at building my skills by working with layers of different textures and pigments. I’ve devoted my life to this practice.

LM: What is the most recent surprise or discovery you’ve made in your practice?

MA: That I can sing! I am not just silly but the wild energy on stage!

LM: What are you attracted to?

MA: Good honest people who actually wanna be friends. Stopping violence, books, Cd’s, records, memories of those who have passed.

LM: The beauty of many of your images is the conglomeration of the macro and micro, and how various degrees of investigation of the piece reveal eternally new things. Do you think on more macro or micro terms in your own life?

MA: I try to look at the big picture and try be happy, or at least Be. I am optimistic about nothing. Things are always going to fade, move, or change, which helps me not get too attached to one thing. I care about those I love and the rest, I hope, will all find peace. I love my work and respect myself. Deep inside my chest are a million spinning atoms.

LM: Talk to me about your alternate universe persona, Michael Alien. How does he influence your music? Your flat artwork?

MA: I don’t know if I have an alternate personality. Michael Alan Alien is a band including Raindrop, my mom, and Woof Woof, my dad. It is more of a public art piece in comparison to my fine art paintings. At first, I was just composing the music or bringing in a band to play. Recently I’ve reached out to musicians I knew, or didn’t know, and have been pushing it to the limit. I wanted to create these six to seven-hour long music videos. My music project, which I like to call the Living Project or Sound Drawing, has been the best rediscovery for all my work. It has allowed me to take breaks from the visual art and work on some precision editing in the musical process. It makes me even more attuned to editing in my own work. I also made friends with like-minded people like Jeff and Jane Hudson, Vas Deferens Organization, Renaldo from Renaldo and the Loaf, Noah Becker, Japanther, Tim “Love” Lee, Geneva Jacuzzi, and more and more. Some collaborations are just a swap, but some are new friendships. It’s hard to find real friends in the art world.

LM: In your Living Installations, your 2D work provides a loose choreography for actions. Do you think these installations influence your flat work? How? Do they just get you into an overall more invigorated mode?

MA: Yes but it’s not about the mood. It’s about understanding the body more. For example, a student would go and draw a corpse. I’d rather work with people that are living and change them into elements of my work. Learn how to work on people and work with myself as a performance artist. You really learn motion and what that means. Without living it, you won’t be able to experience it and without experiencing it, you won’t be able to paint it.

LM: Do you create flat work and music like you do your Living Installations, in extremely long breaths of activity? Is this always the way it’s been?

MA: Yes, Lynn, it’s always been that way; since grammar school. The “long breaths” just mean I really don’t stop. I don’t believe in taking a break, I just don’t. Even if I go out, I draw or at least bring a tape recorder with me. Otherwise, I’d really be bored out of my mind. I may take a day off once a month but I still end up doing something in the house. I feel like my studio is not just the room I rent as my studio but it’s also the world around me. I don’t believe that the place for me to create art is only within this space.

LM: Your work is extremely centered, working through images of the past, present and future melding together in a continuous moment that fuses chaos, evolution, love, and deceit. What is your spiritual foundation?

MA: That’s a good question. I was lucky to be raised by two loving parents in a not so loving time in New York so my foundation is silliness and love, compassion and forgiveness. My aunt was a nun so I spent a lot of time in a nun factory where people were very nice to me as a child. I also grew up around some really hard criminals in my neighborhood that thankfully gave me some backbone that you need in the art world. Spiritually, I’ve always been right on the line, meaning that time in your life when you’re young or you’re old and you realize there is something else beyond you. I’ve always stayed in that space of accepting there is something else and it’s greater than me. I’m here to make work about going to that place.

LM: What are your thoughts about New York’s current state of evolution?

MA: I feel that we have lost a major part of this great city. Its soul, what makes New York “New York”, is fading. It’s clean and it’s safe. That’s great and I appreciate that as an adult. But the rawness and the spaces that attracted the wayward traveler are gone, going… It seems confusing that the happenings, the art movements of the 80s and 90s, innovative artworks on trains, innovative people dancing in the street, beat-boxing, punk shows at CBGBs are all gone, but things change. New York was raw and now it’s just…not. It just seems like some of the reasons people came to New York are now a crime. Such chaotic beautiful energy is penalized with a ticket. It has transformed into chaotic business energy or chaotic “iPhone-what-do-I-do” energy. I want to keep what’s New York, New York. I’ve been here my whole life. That’s part of why I do the Living Installation project.

LM: How do you maintain your energy during those twelve-hour studio days?

MA: Easy, I have no child or wife. I learned the key to mixing it up: music, painting, writing, drawing, reading. It is all I want to do so it duplicates. It’s not all high-energy either. A lot of it is tedious cutting and pasting, and you can do a lot of it lying down. Sometimes I lie down for six hours and work on one thing, stitching it up, cutting it up. I get so involved I have dragged myself across the room for a cup of water.

LM: You started with the Draw-a-thon and moved into Living Installations, both of which engage the community while developing your own process and stressing your practice to mutate it. What might be your next move in the live sphere?

MA: The Living President Project where I dress up like the president and do dance moves on TV, pointing at weather patterns and what to buy next with girls in bikinis in the back dancing, drinking Lamborghinis. Sign up now and you can get a free scarf! Don’t you just love global warming?

LM: I read a bit about your early performances, which discuss you performing in a Freddy Kruger outfit and doing remixes to “Ice Ice Baby”. What direction is your current music going in, considering the slew of new collaborations?

MA: Well, luckily, I’m not dressed up like Freddy Kruger anymore. I definitely exert myself and push and turn myself inside out during the show with different material. I can joke and act out the music and scenes with the talented models (those freaks love it).

LM: You just signed a record deal and are expanding the music practice you started over seventeen years ago. You’ve utilized a number of collaborations for your Living Installations, but how might the music’s separation from performance alter it?

MA: I’ll never perform live without making art with my hands. You won’t see me singing in a chair unless I can tie a person to the chair and turn them into a toy. I’m working a record deal/split album and maybe more with Vas Deferens Organization. I believe they’re the future of sound and people should really pay attention to them. It’s why I’m doing this record thing. I never had any intention of a record deal. It’s a limited edition and going to be coming out on vinyl or CD soon. I believe what they’re doing is really high art and the sounds…oh boy, I just had to join them. I don’t believe in much art today, but they are doing it!

LM: What are you listening to right NOW?

MA: Severed Heads, Jeff and Jane Hudson, my mom and dad.

LM: Your most current tracks from the Living Installations revolve around hip-hop, techno, screaming metal, and even some reggae. What are some of your musical favorites? Is anything in particular, musical or not, influencing your direction on the audio front?

MA: 80’s punkie, Post punk, Lo-fi, The Germs, ODB, most of the people in the project, odd loops, The Muppets, The Residents, Crass. I hate reggae.

LM: What is a day in the life of Michael Alan like?

MA: Wake up, visit my parents, make music with them, go back to studio, make works, make tracks, gym, music, paint, paint, answer emails, avoid phone. Go to some function or avoid it, piss in an alley. Do at least one act of random kindness. Send stupid text messages about skeletons to my friends, research music, read, laugh at things, eat cookies, sleep. Repeat.

MA: I want to say thank you to Kenny Scharf, Jello Biafra, Kingdom Scum, The Krays, Ramsey Jones (ODB’s family), Turn to Crime, Japanther, Jeff and Jane Hudson, Mutz, and so many others that were part of the Living Project!

Check out Michael Alan’s Facebook music page and more of his artwork!

PUERTO RICO INDIE LANZA NUEVA SERIE DE VIDEOS MUSICALES

PuertoRicoIndie.com anuncia el lanzamiento de su primera serie de vídeos para el web, Archipiélago. La misma pretende documentar el sonido independiente en Puerto Rico a través de sesiones de estudio con algunos de sus exponentes más experimentados y prometedores, sin limitarse a un género musical en particular.

Archipiélago cuenta con tres episodios publicados hasta la fecha, de un total de doce proyectados para la primera temporada del proyecto que se extenderá a lo largo del 2012. Cada episodio es dedicado a un artista o agrupación de la escena local en particular y comprende la grabación de uno a tres temas enmarcados por segmentos de entrevista.

En su primera edición, lanzada en diciembre del 2011, el trío de rock progresivo Campo-Formio compartió varios favoritos de su discografía – pero fue la grabación sorpresa del tema inédito “La Mocosa” que elevó el episodio a una experiencia esencial para seguidores de la banda y ayudó a definir el carácter especial de Archipiélago.

Desde entonces Puerto Rico Indie ha publicado episodios dedicados al rock experimental del cuarteto Tach.dé y a la música de la aclamada cantautora MIMA -quien interpretó una versión acústica del tema “Oigo Voces”, original de Rita Indiana, para la serie. El próximo episodio de Archipiélago contará con la participación de Dávila 666, grupo que trascendió la escena local durante el pasado año, ganando exposición en la prensa internacional y tocando en escenarios alrededor del mundo entero.

En su entrevista para Archipiélago, los integrantes de la agrupación Tach.dé comentaron sobre la calidad de los proyectos de autogestión en Puerto Rico y la necesidad de documentarlos adecuadamente. “Hay un montón de talento escondido que la gente aún no ha descubierto”, opinó Pachy García (bajo, teclados, vocales); mientras que Daniel Sierra (percusión, vocales) añade que“el problema es que nunca se ha regado lo suficiente y es una lástima… eso es algo que yo creo que está cambiando ahora – por fin se está documentando todo como se supone”.

Y precisamente fue con ese fin de documentar la escena independiente del país que surgió primero PuertoRicoIndie.com hace tres años atrás, y ahora la serie de vídeos Archipiélago.

Episodio 1 | Campo-Formio 

Episodio 2 | MIMA 

Episodio 3 | Tachdé 

¡Chequéa nuestra lista de videos musicales de bandas puertorriqueñas! Pincha la siguiente imagen:

By Sam Seidel. Preface by Herbert Kohl. Foreword by George Clinton

Many educators already know that hip-hop can be a powerful tool for engaging students. But can hip-hop save our schools? In Hip Hop Genius, Sam Seidel introduces an iteration of hip-hop education that goes far beyond the usual approach of studying rap music as classroom content. Through stories about the professional rapper who founded the first hip-hop high school and the aspiring artists currently enrolled there, Seidel lays out a vision for how hip-hop’s genius—the resourceful creativity and swagger that took it from a local phenomenon to a global force—can lead to a fundamental remix of the way we think of teaching, school design, and leadership. For more information, please see: www.hiphopgenius.org

Sam Seidel will present his book at the Brown University Book Store today at 6:00 p.m. Check out the Facebook event!

Sam Seidel has taught in a variety of settings from first grade to community college and directed youth programs for young people affected by incarceration. He now works with several national networks of innovative schools; speaks at education events; and writes for The Husslington Post, GOOD, and a variety of other publications.

“Don’t wait for Superman—Hip Hop Genius is here!”—William Upski Wimsatt, author, Bomb the Suburbs and Please Don’t Bomb the Suburbs

“Hip-Hop Genius is a powerful and necessary work. Through his beautifully written account of the High School for Recording Arts, Sam Seidel offers real-world texture and nuance to the field of Hip-Hop Based Education.”—Marc Lamont Hill, author, Beats, Rhymes, and Classroom Life: Hip-Hop Pedagogy and the Politics of Identity

“In this insightful and illuminating book, we learn that hip hop is much more than a source of entertainment. It can and is being used as a medium for creativity and genius to be cultivated.”—Pedro A. Noguera, Professor of Education and executive director of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education, New York University

On Saturday, May 19^th, 2012, the hallowed grounds of the Silver Cinemas South Hills 8 will once again showcase the greatest classic horror film festival in the Hudson Valley, The Hudson Horror Show V!  Our fifth 12-hour film festival will feature five full length classic genre films along with shorts and drive-in style trailers, all off rare 35mm film prints!

Our “December to Dismember 2011″ show was a total sell out.  Don’t miss out, grab your tickets now!  This is our third year of shows and ticket prices are still only $26.00 in advance via PayPal. Advance ticket holders save money and will be admitted first.  If any tickets remain, they will be available at the door on the day of the show for $30.00, cash only.

Our Frankenstein-like monster of a lineup is now complete!  Doors open at noon that day and our “opening act” will be a mash up of two of the greatest movie studios of all time as Hammer Films and the Shaw Brothers collide in LEGEND OF THE SEVEN GOLDEN VAMPIRES!  This film, also know as The Seven Brothers Meets Dracula, mixes Gothic horror with well, kung fu, it’s kind of like putting your peanut butter in my chocolate, who knew they would taste so good together?

We’ll have our semi-traditional “Mystery Movie” in the lineup, which could be just about anything at this point.  Perhaps some blaxploitation?  How about a good old fashioned rape/revenge flick?  Maybe some more giant monsters?  Our lips are sealed until showtime but it will be anything but a disappointment!

Hudson Horror Five will then push on full steam ahead with our triple axe attack triple headliner!  Our zombie movie for this show will be an extremely rare screening of George A. Romero’s “DAY OF THE DEAD”.  Unfortunately, this amazing film was barely seen in theaters upon its original theatrical run in 1985, and it’s had even fewer screenings since.  We are proud to unearth this zombie classic one more time.

Headliner number two will be a movie that has been constantly requested by Hudson Horror fans, “PHANTASM”!  Dwarf zombies, crazy bugs, killer spheres and of course, “The Tall Man”, the nightmarish masterpiece will definitely make you want to sleep with the lights on.

Our third and final headliner of this triple threat will be none other than the incredibly influential slasher flick, the original, “FRIDAY THE 13^th”!  This film, originally released in 1980, was a watershed horror release and kick started the slasher craze that took Hollywood by storm for many years to come.  Perhaps the biggest star of the film isn’t Jason Voorhees, but Tom Savini’s realistic and gruesome special effects.  These effects were unfortunately toned down in 1980 so the producers could secure an “R” rating.  However, we’ve been lucky enough to obtain a print that has the best parts intact!  At long last, Hudson Horror presents the UNCUT version of the original FRIDAY THE 13^th off 35mm film!

We will have the usual shorts, drive in trailers, vendors, giveaways, trivia questions and usual nonsense that make Hudson Horror so much fun.  Get your tickets early for Hudson Horror Show V, and we’ll see you on May 19^th, 2012! Check out our website for more information: www.hudsonhorror.com

[Press Release]