Packed Sundays

I’m almost on my way. Packing, packing, packing. Hauptstadtfeeling, here we go. My trip to the motherland and other bits of old Europe starts this Friday. And at the end of October, I’m going to meet up with Mary Messhausen, Oliver, Prancey Girl and Toffi in Berlin. There are two exciting events for what is going to be a super extra long (but not very halloweeny) weekend in the capital.

On Sunday, November 1st, I’m going to be djing for my friend ND Baumecker’s birthday at Berghain Kantine. Mary Messhausen will be a hosting as The Juicy Punne. Starts around 9 or 10 pm.

The Wednesday before sees the opening of the Live Film, Jack Smith festival at arsenal. All the Jack classics will be screened. So many events, films and performances, there is barely time for shopping. What can you do? My favourites are posted below & make sure to read arsenal’s press clippings for all the 411.

Mark your calendars for Oliver’s premiere of Purfled Promises, Sunday afternoon, November 1st, 4:30pm. This is going to be one packed Sonntag.

LIVE FILM! JACK SMITH! Five Flaming Days in a Rented World

From Oct. 28 through Nov. 11, Arsenal Berlin presents the event “LIVE FILM! JACK SMITH! Five Flaming Days in a Rented World“. The performances, films and videos, slide presentations, exhibitions, concerts, lectures, and discussions, look at the gender-bending and genre-breaking works of Jack Smith, Andy Warhol and other avant-garde artists of the 1960s, from a number of angles. The work of Jack Smith is juxtaposed with recent works of numerous international contemporary artists. A special guest is the legendary drag performer and underground superstar Mario Montez, who on this occasion will appear in public for the first time in thirty years.

Jack Smith (photo by Helmut Herbst)

Mittwoch, 28. October 2009

18:00 LIVE FILM! JACK SMITH! Five Flaming Days in a Rented World Eröffnung
– Jack Smith (ST315) Andy Warhol USA 1964 4 min
– LIVE FILM! Susanne Sachsse, Marc Siegel, Stefanie Schulte Strathaus über Five Flaming Days in a Rented World
– Der Superstar in Berlin. Ein Gespräch mit Mario Montez
– Lost and Found. Jerry Tartaglia über die Restaurierung der Jack-Smith-Filme
– Jungle Island/Reefers of the Technicolor Island Jack Smith 1967 20 min
– Hot Air Specialists Jack Smith 1970er 7 min
– Song For Rent Jack Smith 1970er 4 min
– Kino-Catering von Gordon W.
– Ausstellungen: John Edward Heys, Michael Krebber, Klaus Mettig, Uzi Parnes, Kristian Petersen, Jerry Tartaglia/ Sean Michael Kirk
Kino 1

Friday, 30.October 2009

19:30 Konzert von Kinky Justice (Justus Köhncke), Im HAU 1, Foyer

20:30 Mario Banana 1 & 2, Andy Warhol 1964 8 min
Mario Montez im Gespräch mit Marc Siegel, Im HAU 1, Saal

21:30 Memory Island, Performance von Vaginal Davis & Chocolate Grinder Collective , Im HAU 1, Saal

22:30 In Erinnerung an Ronald Tavel: Ronald Tavels The Life of Juanita Castro
Performance mit Rainald Goetz, Mario Montez, Katharina Sieverding, Bruce La Bruce, Susanne Sachsse, Diederich Diedrichsen, u.a. , Im HAU 1, Saal

Saturday, 31. October 2009

22:00 Konzert & Performance von Tony Conrad und Gordon W., Im HAU 2 , (Bis 2.30 Uhr, Einlass durchgehend)

23:00 Denial of Death, Performance von Penny Arcade , Im HAU 1, Bühne

Sunday, 01. November 2009

16:30 Purfled Promises, Oliver Husain 2009 10 min
In Anwesenheit von Oliver Husain, Kino 2

17:00 Playing Hide and Seek with Odors
Ein Gespräch über Performance in Film und Video mit Deirdre Logue, Nao Bustamante, Isabell Spengler, Oliver Husain, Moderation: Vaginal Davis, Kino 2

hauptstadtfeeling

Total Paniert

Manchmal habe ich das Gefühl den Anschlussß nach Deutschland zu verlieren.
Das Video sollte bei dem hier in Toronto sehr beliebten Deutschkurs “German for Berliners” zum Pflichtprogramm werden.

Totally breaded. Watch the video and brush up your German.

3 Tage Wach.

Thanks b.

Berlin Alexanderplatz

Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s television miniseries Berlin Alexanderplatz is based on the Alfred Döblin classic 1929 novel of the underclass in Berlin during the Weimar Republic. Fassbinder details a mammoth portrait of a common man struggling to survive in a viciously uncommon time. It was first broadcast in Germany in 1980.

RWF had a longstanding obsession with the novel. For instance, in his 1975 movie Fox and his Friends (Faustrecht der Freiheit), the main character played by Fassbinder himself, is named after the Berlin Alexanderplatz protagonist, Franz Biberkopf (Frank Beaverhead).

Remastered in 2006, the series is finally available as a DVD box set from The Criterion Collection with English subtitles or through SZ Cinemathek in Germany.

PS1 in New York is screening the more than 15-hour epic in 14 screening rooms – one for each episode of the film through January 2008.

Further reading:

• Susan Sontag on Berlin Alexanderplatz
• Interview with Ingrid Caven (in German). She talks about her marriage to RWF and how she feels about the Fassbinder Foundation. The interview is followed by a heated debate about how the Fassbinder Foundation manages his legacy.

Fassbinder on Berlin Alexanderplatz:
“Beim zweiten Lesen also wurde mir von Seite zu Seite mehr und mehr klar, staunend erst, dann mehr und mehr beängstigt, so betroffen zuletzt, daß ich beinahe gezwungen schien, Augen und Ohren zu schließen, zu verdrängen also, wurde mir klarer und klarer, daß ein riesiger Teil meiner selbst, meiner Verhaltensweisen, meiner Reaktionen, vieles eben, das ich für mich, für mich selbst gehalten hatte, nichts anderes war, als von Döblin in ‘Berlin Alexanderplatz’ Beschriebenes.
Ich hatte also, ganz einfach, unbewußt Döblins Phantasie zu meinem Leben gemacht. Und doch, es war nicht zuletzt dann doch wieder der Roman, der mir dabei half, die folgende beängstigende Krise zu überwinden und an etwas zu arbeiten, was zuletzt, wie ich hoffe, relativ sehr das werden konnte, was man eine Identität nennt, soweit das in all dem verkorksten Dreck überhaupt möglich ist.”
aus “Filme befreien den Kopf”, Essays and Arbeitsnotizen von RWF (#)

In Paris

Maison Martin Margiela Women’s Collection Spring/Summer 2008: Highlights | Complete
…
Kanye is in Paris right now and he is blogging about it (and not just that)
…
Funny Face turns 50. Enjoy the infamous fashion shot sequence, featuring Audrey in Givenchy in Paris (via Ann Magnuson/paperblogs).

Want it. Need it.

Very Mitte

I enjoy reading Vaginal Creme Davis blog, including her spiced up Berlin stories. However, information about Miss Davis’ upcoming project can be found in an email she wrote to Ann Magnuson:

“In the summer we start work on a performance adaptation of the seminal Rainer Werner Fassbinder film Whitey, which Canadian auteur Bruce La Bruce will direct and will feature costumes by couture designer Rick Owens…”

Earlier:
Hauptstadtfeeling
Hotnuts Nov 2006

hauptstadtfeeling

At one of this years S parties in Frankfurt some first timers stepped into the tiny place and said: “Mmmh, das ist ja richtiges Hauptstadtfeeling.”
(they meant: Hauptstadt as in capital as in Berlin)
We are mocking the term ever since.

During my time in old Europe I feel the need to take it all in.
So, this weekend I made my trip to Berlin to get my Hauptstadtfeeling fix. I was very happy when ND took me to Berghain/Panoramabar Saturday night or better, early Sunday morning. We arrived at 3.30 am just in time for the gig of Toronto’s Ontario’s own Junior Boys. Loved their show.
After that, Jesse Rose (cute) did a dj set. I especially liked the first part during which he played Mr. White – The Sun Can’t Compare and mixed it into Romanthony – Let Me Show You Love (Quick Dub/Crooklyn Mix).
Although I had taken a short disco nap from 11 to 2, I left the club übertired at 8.30 am.
Hauptstadtfeeling pur.