music, video, lights, camera, action

hey hey, a bunch of audio and visual wonderfulness to post in your direction.

first off for your aural pleasure, here's a link to the last episode of my radio show Now Hear This on reboot fm , featuring Waldemaar and Raymond Antrobus
Now hear this #2 Paula Varjack: Raymond Antrobus, Waldemaar by reboot.fm

and then a little eyecandy to follow it up with. a teaser of my upcoming show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with Martin Bengtsson. We're otherwise known as "Me and Marty"

Me and Marty - Edinburgh fringe show preview... from paula varjack on Vimeo.

lets make art... the problems of mixing art with pleasure..

its so common that it's become a familiar cliche'. two artists get romantic and think, what if we used our chemistry to make art??!!! Or two artists start making art, only to find more than creative chemistry. What brings me to all this? Well to start with, a good friend of mine has just split with her band, not long after its creation, and the split was way nastier than any break up stories she's ever confessed. so i come home and i'm thinking on this, only to come across an interview. the interview is with the artist, black cracker, formerly the producer/beatmaker of what was one of my favourite bands.

Why the past tense..? well. i'll have to rewind a bit.

several years ago i was at a music video screening at london's gay and lesbian film festival, and i saw this wonderful promo with art-school aesthetics, and the track that went with it? ahhhhh it had abassline that tickled all the right places.

so within days i'd bought the album.

but it wasn't just that the beats were sick and the rhymes surreal, playful and dirty. the icing on the cake is this duo were on bianca cassady's (cocorosie's) new label, the producer: black cracker, had long been part of the legacy of new yorks slam poetry scene. AND she and the mc of this musical project... were together, as in together together. this is where i mention that they were a seriously hot hipster gay girl couple who were very open about being together romantically, who seemed so cool and relaxed in interviews

who made music that sounds like the kind of sex you want to be having in soundproofed rooms.

i. was. sold.

i'm not sure why i never got to see them live .

but in the beginning it seemed like they were only ever playing in their hometown of brooklyn, then i guess i lost track. years later, i move to berlin only to hear they were making a very special appearance at scala. unfortunately i arrived more than fashionably late, only to run into my neighbor saying i'd missed this really cool electro hip hop group from new york, who had hung out for a while and chatted with people there, but had left. gutted does not even begin to describe what i felt.

i told myself they'd be back in berlin again. but much to my disapointment, the next time they crossed my mind i went to their myspace, only to see most of the info deleted, no gig dates, and a direct to their two solo pages. it appeared the band was no more. i and other fans were left in
the dark as to why, as after all its not anyone's business but theirs.

but maybe partly because so much of the intrigue (outside of the music), had been the idea of a couple making this brilliant music together, i couldn't help be curious about their personal
narrative.

spoken word superstar turned producer , dates and then musically joins
forces with bianca cassady.

tours with cocorosie mcing and beatboxing

hooks up with a girl, who isn't that interested in making music

convinces her otherwise. and thus bunny rabbit is born.

black cracker: the producer, the beatmaker, the director, the hype girl vs.

her girlfriend bunny rabbit: the mc, the front woman, the name on the album.

the name starts as her artist name but it takes over. bianca cassady starts a label, they're signed to it. the press love them. they sound great, they're fun live,they look fierce in photographs. before it all goes wrong, they even make this track???!!!

(and hearing those lyrics feels a little odd now)

and then... ????? well thats just it. i'll never know. their old myspace music page is deleted. (and that is serious, defunct bands rarely if ever delete their pages, its generally the way old fans find their way to later projects). and only one of them is featured as a friend on
their old record label's myspace page.

typing in http://myspace.com/bunnyrabbitandblackcracker now leads to bunny's own t-shirt label and a very odd promo video???? black cracker, arguably a genius of a producer, has moved on to solo work, while bunny has a new duo project, her new bandmember is a cute boyish girl, so i can't help but wonder if they're together .

the only clues i have to the end of the story, are this video clip

( the way she says "every mc should learn to make their own beats" stings me a little,)

and these words from the black cracker interview

The terms of my split with Bunny Rabbit where so perverse and destructive that I had no choice but to examine myself.

(note from me: you really should download the mixtape at the end, you'll thank me!)

so r.i.p. the duo formerly known as bunny rabbit and black cracker . i look forward to both of your new projects, but man i wish i'd have made it to that berlin gig..........

Bunny Rabbit - Rio Grande (({in High Definition})) from War Hologram on Vimeo.

--

waldemaar plays video games...

Ten reasons why i *heart* this wonderfully lo-fi video
















1.the video gamer outfit (which i must point out is very much like waldemaar's cameraman outfit, witnessed at the last anti-slam)

2. in the show me and marty are currently rehearsing for edinburgh, we've been taking choreography reference from the pet shop boys, and those moves have found their way here

3. the lo fi graphics

4. an original nintendo game console has been used.

5. the line "disco yourself"

6. most if not all of the video game sound effects on garageband have been used...

7. the fact that marty (aka waldemaar) came over one day to get his tripod back "because he had an idea for a music video" and that the next day BOOM its there. and in all its its d.i.y-ness its utterly charming..

8. brief shot of that horrific vintage yellow plaid jacket, with gold shiny disco ball hanging from front pocket.

9.the return of the black jim afro wig. but most of all

10. the track!!! where has waldemaar been hiding this one? its brilliant!

so i locked myself out of the flat yesterday.

its here that i feel i must note i have never ever ever locked myself out of any place i have ever lived in, so perhaps it was my turn or era or something. i was kind of in a rush to get out, not really quite awake yet, and i vividly remember looking at my keys hanging off a ribbon on the door, and cheerfully thinking
*ah yes my keys are there *
before walking out and pulling the door shut, thinking
*um wait, keys should be.... F**K*

the good news is there is a friend with spare keys who lives close by. but as his phone is switched off i've had a summery day and a half of homelessness. so last night i ended up in a spontaneous sleepover at a friend's house. i very rarely stay over at people's houses in berlin. even when i'm on the other side of town i generally prefer to make it back to mine to sleep. so there is some element of childlike wonder in staying over at someone's house.

said friend has no alcohol to drink in the house. which means last night was a bit like one of our nights out together, without the drinking (which is to say not like one of our nights out, at all) . so for once i can remember all the details about the evening (a lot of talking about our work, some viewing/listening of each other's work, going to bed and reading). . being in his flat (he lives alone) and around his stuff last night in this morning has been kind of fascinating. there are lllllot of random objects. i keep finding more , a bright orange watergun, a lime green afro wig, some sunglasses marked *real 3d* (think about it for a second)

and i've discovered all kinds of other interesting details that i was never aware of. like his hip hop period, his new yorker magazine collection, or that he used to run track (and as soon as he woke up he left to go for a run). all of which i have only been made aware of by staying here....
sorry just got distractedby a package of oil paints on the other side of this desk.

and i wonder what happens in the secret, at home lives of the rest of my friends. maybe i should take this episode of homelessness to tuck into the worlds of the rest of them. who knows what new sides of them i will find?

or maybe i'll just keep going by that friend with the spare key until he's at home or answers the door...

This saturday..... an adventure in beat poetry....

Shut up and SPeak!!!!

Shut Up And Speak # 8
(English version below)

Es ist wieder so weit:
Zum nunmehr achten Mal findet am 06. Mai 2010 SHUT UP AND SPEAK statt
und diesmal sind wir zu Gast im Festsaal Kreuzberg.
Es gibt Performances in deutscher und englischer Lautsprache und auch in
deutscher Gebärdensprache.

SHUT UP AND SPEAK ist eine Nacht voller Spoken Word Performances.
Es gibt eine etwa eineinhalbstündige Show voller berührender, schöner, lustiger,
nachdenklicher, politischer, trauriger, wütender, leiser und lauter Texte.
Auf der Bühne stehen ausschließlich Frauen/Lesben/Trans*,
im Publikum sind alle Gender sehr herzlich willkommen.

Was noch? Spoken Word ist die direkte, intime und authentische Performance
von Texten, die den Federn, Kulis und Tastaturen der Darbieter_innen
selbst entstammen. Diese Form der Performance entstand ursprünglich aus der HipHop- und
Beatnik-Bewegung der USA – in den letzten Jahren erfreut sie sich auch
in Deutschland und Europa zunehmender Beliebtheit.
Im Gegensatz zu Lesebühnen wird Spoken Word häufig performt –
im Gegensatz zu Poetry Slams gibt es hier keine Wertungen und Sieger_innen.

Fakten:
06.05.2010
SHUT UP AND SPEAK
-mit Gebärdensprachperformance-
Festsaal Kreuzberg
Skalitzer Straße 130

Eintritt zwischen 2 und 6 Euro.

Die Türen öffnen sich um 20:00
Die Show startet (pünktlich) um 21:00

Wir freuen uns auf euch!!!


Shut Up and Speak # 8
The time has come again for our next SHUT UP AND SPEAK show.
The show will be on May 6th at Festsaal Kreuzberg.

Performances will take place both in the spoken language of
English and German and in German sign language.

SHUT UP AND SPEAK is an evening full of spoken word performances,
an approximately 1 ½ hour show full of inspiring, beautiful, funny, thoughtful,
political, sad, angry, quiet, and loud texts.

The stage will only be for Women/Lesbian/Trans*.
In the audience all genders are welcome.

What else? Spoken Word is a direct, intimate, and authentic
performance of words, which owes its debts to the Hip Hop and
Beatniks movement in the USA. In the last years spoken word has also
been gaining increasing popularity in Germany and Europe.
In contrast to a regular reading, these texts are brought to stage in a lively performance.
In contrast to Slam poetry, there will be no winners and no competition.

Facts:
Date: May 6th, 2010
SHUT UP AND SPEAK
-with sign language performance-
Festsaal Kreuzberg
Skalitzer Straße 130

Costs: 2-6 Euro
Doors open: 20:00 h
Show starts: 21:00 h

We are excited to see you there!

Schatzi Improvisieren Mich!

not a poetry slam,
not an improv show,
not an open mic,

what then?

perhaps a funny experiment in between all these things.

hosted by
Maria Maddalena aus Cattolica
and Paula Varjack