There’s a difference between promoting the arts and selling wrinkle cream

Posted on September 13, 2005 by ladylucy

Re Ich bin ein Berliner

Dear Lady Lucy,

Thanks for the explanation, and the interesting link.

But am I naive and/or stuffy to think that people working in the arts
should be more concerned with the truth and not get involved in
propagating nonsense? It even occurs to me that it’s treating your
potential punters with contempt: anything to get their attention, even
if it’s rubbish. There’s a difference between promoting the arts and
selling wrinkle cream.

But that’s my rant over. Your programme looks very interesting, and I
wish I could get to it.

All the best,

Posted in General | 3 Comments

Shock the House

Posted on September 12, 2005 by site admin mr_hopkinson

joy

There was a full house of mostly unfamiliar faces ( many regulars were awol after the debauchery of the Arnolfini opening the previous night ) for the Bristol leg of the Minotaur Shock / English odd bods tour.

In brief . . . The Computer went down pretty well, actually selling quite a few CDs; Freeze Puppy was wonderfully bewildering ( in a very good way ), and Minatour Shock ( pictured above ) was seemingly effortlessly entertaining, featuring some rather smart video based backing.

The tour continues to London, ICA on Thursday 15th; Leicester, The Attic on Friday 16th; Liverpool, The Beluga Bar on Saturday 17th, and Manchester, Mint Lounge on Sunday 18th.

Catch ’em if you can.

Posted in admin, computer sings, General | 2 Comments

Urban legend

Posted on September 11, 2005 by ladylucy

Hi Martin.

Thank you for your points,
However as curator of this project I thought this
“Urban legend” was one to allude to and seemed to
suit the theme of ex pats living and working
in Berlin.

Please see

http://www.serve.com/shea/germusa/jfkberl.htm

On Sun, 11 Sep 2005, Martin Smith wrote:

> Saw your notice in ArtsNews about the Berlin weekend, and I hope it
> goes well – looks interesting.
>
> But I was disappointed to see you repeating the old story of JFK’s
> “gaffe”. It’s one of those myths that refuses to die. It comes up in
> various forms, because Berliner can mean a kind of pancake (not
> doughnut) as well as a kind of sausage, but its primary meaning is a
> resident of Berlin, so JFK was entirely correct in his usage, and the
> story must have started either maliciously, or by someone who didn’t
> know much German.
>
> JFK had his faults, but let’s criticise the real ones.
>
>
> Also, you cannot say “eine Berliner”, as eine is feminine and Berliner
> is masculine. It should read “eine Berlinerin”.
>
> Sorry to be picky, but someone has to do it!
>
> All the best,
>
> Martin
>
>
> Martin A. Smith
> Stained Glass Maker / Sculptor

Posted in General | 6 Comments

Krautus Orchestrus And a bit of Burlesque for good measure.

Posted on September 7, 2005 by richie paradise

Hey, How YOU doing? Well after my shenanigans in The Big Apple it was back to the good old Orchestral Bada Bing. But on a lighter note:

If you went to the Cube a few months ago for a film about Burlesque and Protest Cheerleading then you may remember the generously proportioned (ie Boobalicious) World Famous BOB
World famous Bob

Well I’m glad to say I got see her perform at The Slipper Room, a Burlesque Club in Alphabet City.
BobBob
As you can see, she’s still got it. Because of The Cube I could pretend to be more highbrow than I actually am because I’d seen her in a Documentary. Thanks again Cube Perverts.

Anyhow, to the Orchestra. An interesting session where we kind of chatted for ages
chatchat back
before we played a selection of ideas built around sound effects played by Mr Hopkinson, seen here in 100% concentration mode hopkinson Now if only he could concentrate on the music………………..

The first sound effect was a jet aeroplane which we interpreted into a drum and bass style thingy with sterling sax from Gareth gareth which then turned into a chill out Orb style piece before I Drum and Bassed it up again, which isn’t easy when you only have a small cymbal and a snare drum, but where there’s a will there’s a way. Next up was Village Cricket match chosen by our resident Aussie Belinda brassy bel
well I’d have thought an Aussie mentioning Cricket when England are on the cusp of winning back the Ashes was asking for trouble, Well friends this is The Cube Orchestra we’re talking about and trouble this time came in the form of a Kraut rock interpretation
kraut rock
crazy I know. Hugh and Tomoko, We salute yewwwwwwwwa
hugh and tomoko.

Something spacious then came out of Hugh’s chaos theory conducting. It all started quite normal
Richie Paradise sez its normal and then CHAOS
chaos

Answers on a postcard if someone can tell me why Marcus is ahem giving it large with the old hand movements there.

An interesting little gathering with some great ideas. talking of ideas The Orchestra has started a forum to discuss what we do and how we can best do it. It also stops our email inboxes getting too full up with general chit chat. Important messages will continue to go out to your email address so fear not, you’re still in the loop. If you wanna go there its here:

https://secure.irational.org/discourse/index.php

Big Love, red richie Richie Paradise

Posted in Cube Orchestra, General, pretend you're more highbrow than you are, Richie Paradise | 3 Comments

Pass the Post

Posted on September 7, 2005 by site admin mr_hopkinson

Just to post, I really won’t be posting much now until after my Cut-Up screening at The Cube on Saturday October the 29th.

No pressure, but it you want to and can, please feel free to pick up the posting baton if you’re at any Cube events that can be covered . . .

Dates for your diary in the meantime, from my biased p.o.w., are . . .

Minotaur Shock, Freeze Puppy and mr_hopkinson’s computer sings – Saturday 10th September

Rasha Shaheen & Emily Breeze’s Joint Albums launch – Friday 16th September

CUBE 7TH BIRTHDAY featuring MOVIEOKE – Saturday 1st of October

Actually, as Chiz pointed out, it’s a really good couple of months, so check it all out, and if you get a chance to take some pics and write it up, well that would be swell.

email mr_hopkinson @ sparror.cubecinema.com ( sans spaces ) if you wanna b-login . . .

Posted in admin, computer sings, General | Comments Off on Pass the Post

Here Again

Posted on September 5, 2005 by site admin mr_hopkinson

Sadly I wasn’t able to make it, but there was even more Here based Cube shenanigans this weekend with the Orchestra playing at the gallery opening for a show by Gunilla Jähnichen.

How could the orchestra fit into the modest gallery space? I’ll let Hugh take over . . .

Last night’s micro-orchestra performance in the Here gallery went pretty
well. It was certainly an interesting experiment, and worth repeating. I
used my laptop to record one performance, then played it back while
recording another performance, then played the whole lot back while
recording another, and so on for nearly two hours.We recorded 14 tracks
in eight takes, each 11 minutes long. Tim was present for the start, but
after that the orchetra consisted of just Tomoko and me. We played
guitar, bass, percussion (bottle tops, plastic cup, handclaps etc.) and
vocals.

A roughly-mixed version is available for download:

http://www.orchestra.cubecinema.com/downloads/live_03-09-05/Here.mp3
(10 MB MP3 file).

The exhibition’s really good. Go and check it out.

———–Hugh

And just really to add to our recently neglected gossip category I’ll mention that there’s been a lot of to and fro on the Orchestra Cube mailing list, basically because some members felt the Here Shop Party performance wasn’t good enough.

My personal angle is that the beauty of the Orchestra is there is no “good” or “bad” – in fact when I read the original call to arms I was hoping for something like The Portsmouth Sinfonia – but I am glad that, although based on loosely similar principles, it’s been able to be very distinctly its own thing.

Posted in admin, Art, Artists, Cube Orchestra, General, Gossip, Here Shop, mp3, Music, performance | Comments Off on Here Again

Here be Dragons

Posted on September 1, 2005 by site admin mr_hopkinson

Rounders then – now officially uk cool.

The day before the match I chatted about it with Camilla in the newly opened shop, and we figured Here’s chances were slim against the competitive rock climbers, and skateboarders of The Cube.

However, come the glorious cloudless day, the Here shop slaughtered The Cube – a total of 25 points to 17 and a half !

There is some overlap in Cube and Here volunteers, and the competitive faction was quick to point out that several key Cubers became Heretics to even the numbers – notably James who, along with Duncan, instigated the game in the first place.

I, along with Morgan, took the ever-so impartial role of scorers . . .

piped to the post

. . . and took a huge number of action sport shots for the records, you can really see the various volunteers’ running styles . . .

in the running

There was a lot of synchronous yellow going on too . . .

round

Later that evening many players were found in the packed out Here Shop gallery for the final I Know I Have No Collar gig for a year . . .

I know it's I know I Have No Collar

. . . featuring various special collaborators, like Lollipop Mike doing the best mewing ever. Before the main act there was solo support was François, and providing entertainment throughout Joff the Illustrated DJ . . .

who was djing as well as drawing

. . . doing some very fine illustrations, my fave being a very economical but very accurate Delia Derbyshire.

They threw out into the audience a polaroid of the soon to be Canada based Aaron. I actually managed to capture the exact moment that that picture was taken. Then at the very end of the gig Tom Cobbs shook every single audience member’s hand.

The evening was a great round off to a great weekend, and I felt privileged to be there, at Here. Long may they remain and reign.

Posted in admin, Cube, Cube Cinema History, Events, General, Here Shop, Music, performance, Volunteers | Comments Off on Here be Dragons

David Markey

Posted on September 1, 2005 by ladylucy

On the 11th October David Markey will come with his films.
UK Premiere of works by the LA-based Independent Filmmaker

As a self-taught filmmaker and musician, David Markey brings together alternative music, experimental cinema and contemporary culture in a direct and insightful way. He has been making films and music videos for over 25 years, collaborating with bands such as Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Black Flag and the Meat Puppets to name but a few, as well as visual artists such as Raymond Pettibon and Cameron Jamie.

Read more about this at the Desperate cinema website

Posted in Artists, Film, General, Music | Comments Off on David Markey

No puns Here

Posted on August 29, 2005 by site admin mr_hopkinson

The Here Shop Party celebrating their refurbishment and reopening was a big success – sold out, and full of the usual high quality local kids ( usual that is until they all up sticks for Canada . . . most are only off for a month though )

Camilla filled in with her famous swimming poem ( minus swimming cap ) . . .

I like swimming / swimming is great / I like swimming / now let's mate

. . . before Headfall started playing. Like all the acts on the night they performed to images projected on the screen. They rescored a comic called Smoke from 1993 ( I missed who it was by, but I liked it and it reminded me of 12 years ago ).

collective comic reading

Michal mentioned that despite it being a happy occasion that the Here shop is open and thriving after 2 years, the Green Leaf Bookshop is having to close with a large debt after 20 something years. There is a campaign called something like ‘one last book’, where people are encouraged to donate a tenner in lieu of a final imaginary book purchase to help them out . . . The Greenleaf Bookshop’s website is no longer up, but if you would like to get more info about making a donation you can email Michal.

I know I have no Collar were up next – their penultimate show before Aaron leaves for Canada for a year. Their final one is at The Here Shop today as I write ( Sunday evening ). They played their usual top stuff, interspersed with scarf and West Wing based banter, to speeded up DV of Aaron’s drawing and painting.

sorry no pics of Fránçois and Rozi on stage

Next was Fránçois, playing to his great little short stop frame super8equse-but-not video animations and ending with both Fránçois and Rozi playing to a wonderful longer one they had made together that was fresh out of much thanked James‘ DVD factory.

Last up was the Orchestra Cube – introduced by Captain Richie, they ( we ! ) actually started about 11pm when the live license ran out ( but don’t tell anyone! ).

The Here Shop drawers, lead by Aaron with James on the live feed camera, were in the middle of the stage, the Orchestra was divided into two on either side. As with most OC outings there was no real clear objective, and so no parameters in which to fail. I think it was tricky for the two sides to hear each other, and I felt it could have benefited from a slightly shorter set, but as ever there were great moments, and moments of glorious chaos.

drawing influnces

I enjoyed the unusual challenge of trying to take direction from what the camera was relaying of the live drawing – and liked the way the live drawers were the performers centre stage rather than musicians.

Old school Cuber Morgan, who missed a planed Big Chill performers reunion at Movieoke the night before, got back from London in time to join me on stage to help with the kaoss pad and pipes contribution.

We stayed on stage with my hi-tech looking bits for the faux satellite link-up with Jeffery Lewis.

After packing up we ( James, Aaron and me ) stopped for chips from Rita’s On the way back home, where the guy serving was intrigued to check out the drawings from the Orchestra Performance.

Lovely Rita's

Posted in admin, Animation, General, Here Shop, Music, performance, Richie Paradise, Video | Comments Off on No puns Here

Look Here, Crack kills dontcha know?

Posted on August 29, 2005 by richie paradise

crack kills

Yes, I’m a very bad man….

But look, here I am concentrating very hard on translating the pretty pictures drawn by the Here Gallery drawing team into music, and not on the (ahem) craic.
Concentrate.

I thought this worked pretty well. The Orchestra is always gonna have a massive disparity of opinion on what works, what sounds good, bad etc But personally I thought considering we were stuck between a rock and a hard place, do we interpret the pictures as individual musicians or try and make a cohesive piece together?, that what we did come up with was actually pretty darn good at times.

team drawmark and draw team

Some lovely flute playing on one spacey section courtesy of Ellie was complemented by some (once again) good Tabla from Ale (seen here on guitar)
ale ellie dani

Some members found it difficult to hear others on the opposite side of the stage
other side of the stage

I was possibly in the best place as I was nearer the middle. in hindsight it ay have been better to have the drawing team right at the front with us behind and around them. Personally I’m not in favour of the Orchestra soundchecking and all that nonsense, if people want to suggest a way for the music to go then they need to stand up and take charge at that moment. We’re all reasonable people who all shut up when Peter asks us to after all……………..

Anyway it’s about the smiley faces smiley
and YOU the audience. It really was a great turn out at The Cube, Audience

audience

WE SALUTE YOU

Posted in Cube Orchestra, General, Here Shop, Richie Paradise | Comments Off on Look Here, Crack kills dontcha know?