avaf's to do list ix
1. New pseudonym: Butch Queen Vogue Fem Bizarre $$ Dressed Like A Ninja With A Twist Period (B.Q.V.F.B.$$.D.L.N.W.T.P.) or Blast From The Past Legendary Runaway Female Figure Face Realness In Pastel Colors (B.F.P.L.R.F.F.F.R.P.C.);
2. Cds: Ark; Ruth/Ilitch; Phillipe Doray; TV on the Radio; Michael Mayer (aka superpitcher); Luomo; Kenny Dope’s “Roller Boogie 80’s”; Kenny Dope’s “Break Beat”; “The World of Arthur Russell”; Marshall Jefferson’s “Move Your Body”; “Serie Noire 2”; Devo’s “Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!”; New Basement Jaxx; Bush Tetras; Electric Six; Kelis; Outkast; The Faint; Savas Pascalidis;
3. Try to get Les Rita Mitsouko’s “Marcia Baila” video (directed by Philippe Gautier) on ebay;
4. New video with Los Super Elegantes: a. Fill Chinatown with more lamps and hanging things; b. Get transparent sticker made for windows at javier’s; c. Get floor sticker for outside the gallery; d. Hide current exhibition works; e. Ask Chinatown people to lit lamps and signs during the day and fountain; f. Have LSE vogue in Chinatown’s pedestrian streets till Buddha fountain;
5. check Superstudio exhibition at Pratt Manhattan Gallery (144 W 14th St., 2nd Floor);
6. Buy digital MD stereo voice/sound recorder (to record vogue ball’s M.C.);
7. LSE project for peres projects: a. Research picture disc (specially puzzle picture disc Ð different songs? same song?); b. Make list of possible collaborators; c. Research neon sign; d. research silk-screen for banner and t-shirt; d. Contact Trajal (choreography), Renata (styling), Bec (digital effects and hoola-hooping), Orianna (video post-production), Betsy, and Michelle (both for shooting); e. Research theater and Hollywood musical stage sets;
8. Possible collaborators for LSE project: Vaginal Davis, Aleksandra Mir, Nick Lowe, Dean Sameshima, Christophe Hamaide Pierson, Marco Boggio Sella, Miguel Villalobos, Michael Magnan, Tobias Bernstrup, Xevi, AA Bronson, Black Leotard Front;
9. Watch: West Side Story; ABBA Gold greatest videos compilation; Fassbinder’s “Chinese Roulette”; “Willie Wonka and The Chocolate Factory”; Warhol’s “Chelsea Girls”; Michel Gondry’s music videos compilation (specially White Stripes’, Daft Punk’s, Chemical Brothers’, and Kyllie Minogue’s); “Valley of the Dolls” (plexiglass mobile); Talking Heads and Kraftwerk’s music video compilations; H.R. Pufnstuf; Blondie’s “Island of Lost Souls”; “Samurai Jack”; Stan Brakhage (Criterion Collection); Dario Argento’s “Suspiria”; Technotronic’s “Pump Up The Jam”;
10. Get Panasonic AG-DVX 100 camera, test it and see if necessary to get wide lens to shoot LSE video;
11. Research L.A. graffiti, take pix of sections of it and make line drawings;
12. Go to Strand and get books on theater and Hollywood musical stage sets (also second hand at amazon.com). Also research subject at Picture Library. Other books: “Futurist Performance”, “The Theater of The Bauhaus”, “Wiener WerkstŠtte: Design in Vienna, 1903-1932”, Mike Davis’ “City of Quartz”, “The Mystery of The Crystal Skulls”;
13. Produce transparent structures/props on wheels: transparent sticker applied on plexi or printed?
14. Separate favorite vogue movements from low-res videos and show them to Trajal. Build choreography for LSE video out of this selection. Maybe have both me and him in the video vogueing;
15. Meet Betsy. Ask her about backwards panoramic camera movement and how to play music outdoors while shooting a dance music video (boom box?). Watch Van Sant’s “Elephant” again;
16. LSE video: a. White Stripes effect: jump both LSE in a trajectory doing different poses while “advancing” towards a certain direction; b. Do reversed movements; c. Split screen in two; d. Wide angle shots with LSE dancing towards the camera (Beastie Boys’ “Intergalactic” style);
17. Invite AA to collaborate on the last part of LSE video doing one of his butt massages on me. Me and AA in profile against a recreation of General Idea’s Venetian Blinds, me naked laying on a bed on wheels, AA squatting on me massaging my ass and talking;
18. Imagery for LSE’s installation: LSE dancing; ashtrays; beer and liquor bottles; vogue images; roller skates; light bulb and power hand (Guston); Chinese lamp; Chinese architecture elements; marty’s shoes; LSE’s sunglasses; LSE’s cars; LSE’s houses from outside; Milena’s dresses; Milena’s heels; coffee mugs; pizza; plate with snacks; piano; windows; balconies; doors; glasses; lighters; cigarettes; cigarette butts; cigarette packs; crushed cigarette packs; tambourine; microphone; musical instruments; cocaine mirror and straw; visor; peacock feather earring; church organs; birds; Ypioca bottle; skeletons; Na Bunda (cachaa) bottle; boob lighter; Cocopalm cigarette; Ginger Lynn porn star action figure; Chinese rooster;
19. Build a stage set for javier’s space that is like a huge ashtray from which LSE could sing and perform;
20. See Rosenquist’s show for B+W paintings references; have a look at Barbara Kruger’s works and General Idea’s multiples;
21. Ask Milena about Michel Majerus’ mirror-like floor covering at The Geffen;
22. Ask Rama about support for theater props on wheels (with Marty’s image);
23. Have Yamaha Disklaviar pianos (that would be playing LSE songs by themselves whenever Marty and Milena are not around) for the duration of the whole show at javier’s space;
24. Use room at WB as a stage set for LSE. Use spiral staircase as the center of their performance (possibly attach an ashtray placard to it). Confirm with Shamim that LSE could perform there at least once (maybe without notice, during the day for regular visitors). If we don’t get permit, do it guerilla-style anyway. Also check with curators the possibility of shooting part of the video at the installation when LSE come back in April. Ask Trajal to choreograph this section of the video as well, in which they would be pretty much cat walking the whole time and interacting with elements of avaf’s installation, a mixture of ABBA’s “Knowing You, Knowing Me” music video and Fassbinder’s “Chinese Roulette”. Round all corners at WB, install plexi mobiles to the ceiling (referring to Valley of the Dolls and Blondie’s video “Island of Lost Souls”);
25. Burn music references for LSE: Rio’s Funk; Freestyle; Hip-Hop; Rita Lee;
26. LSE video: create a crescendo with the images, like beats being added gradually to the same music base; first you have, let’s say, the White Stripes effect (from that Michel Gondry video shot in NY); then you have the split camera effect (like in Samurai Jack) and the White Stripes effect together; and then you have the split camera effect, the White Stripes effect and the Technotronic effect altogether (blue screen with singer in the center of the screen and images floating and rotating in the background. Effects are added as beats are added. The same would be happening with the choreography and outfits: hands and arms movements being gradually added to a base movement; clothes being added to a basic bodysuit outfit.
27. Use L.E.D lights to tint B+W wallpaper. Set the lights to got from white thru a range of different colors sometimes smoothly, sometimes strobe-like. Plexi mobiles and people’s clothes would also be tinted by lights. Buy xmas lights and run test with them looking at old zines (Destroy All Monsters’ “Gueisha This”) as per Wendy’s suggestion;
28. Shape doorway as one of the transparent plexi shapes (like the jeagermeister bottle). Build a “performance” window: a window from my room to the next that people could reach going on a step ladder and look thru it to see the other room from above, from a different perspective;
29. PAF: install sticker samples in Central Park and the Key rink in the Bronx. Invite skaters (Lezly and Bob) over and get their thoughts about it. See how resistant it is to skating, to the weather, how different it is btn skating on asphalt and skating on the sticker. Talk to skaters about idea of having LSE play live at party on April 17th in CP to celebrate the project. If the skaters are ok with it, ask LSE to play Rita Lee’s “Lana Perfume” (song I used to roller skate to when I was a teenager);
30. Music references for LSE’s new song: Mu’s “Tell You Something” and “Why I left”; Outkast’s “Ghetto Musik”; Devo’s “Mongoloid”; Phiiliip’s “Elemental Child”; Gold Chains’ “Mounts of Coke” and “Human Pony Girl”; LCD Soundsystem’s “Loosing My Edge” and “Beat Connection”; Jam + Spoon’s “Right In The Night’ and “Stella”; !!!’s “Me and Giuliani Down by the Schoolyard”; Ride Committee’s “Accident”; Franklin Fuentes’ “Tyler Moore Mary”; Robbie Tronco’s “Walk For Me”; Basement Jaxx’s “Fly Life”; Moi Renee’s “Miss Honey”; Miss Fernando’s “Octopussy”; Cajmere’s “Percolator”; Mix Masters’ “In The Mix”; Captain Comatose’s “Don’t Come Back”;
31. Research Gary Lee Boas, Jimmy de Sana and Antonio Lopez;
32. Possible appropriated lyrics for LSE song from Rio’s Funk and vogue songs: “Quer danar? Quer danar?/ O Tigr‹o vai te ensinar/Vou te dar muita press‹o/ Ent‹o martela/ Martela/ Martela o martel‹o/ Levante a m‹ozinha/ Na palma da m‹o”; “N‹o p‡ra/ N‹o p‡ra/ N‹o p‡ra n‹o/ N‹o p‡ra, n‹o p‡ra, n‹o p‡ra, n‹o p‡ra/ AtŽ o ch‹o/ Vai/ Vai/ A paradinha/ A paradinha/ A paradinha/ Ela sobe/ Ela desce/ Ela d‡ uma rodada/ Elas est‹o descontrolada”; “Accident/ A terrible terrible accident/ Accident/ A horrible horrible accident”; “Avalanche/ Avalanche/ Avalanche/ Ambulance/ Ambulance/ Ambulance”; “Janet Jackson got caught stealing”;
33. Visit planetarium (for projection ideas);
34. Final list of elements for WB installation: transparent (plexi) theater props (marty and jeager bottle) on wheels; plexi shapes popping out of the wall perpendicularly; images mounted on sintra popping out of the wall; spiral staircase in the middle of the room; plexi mobiles with l.a. graffiti printed on them and cut to shape; floor sticker with crushed cigarette packs; ceiling sticker with cocktails; wallpaper and l.e.d lights; stickers right on wall; stickers mounted on thick foam; video projection on window in wallpaper; rounded corners; milena’s camel toe ceiling and walls placard; bottle-shaped doorway; performance window with step ladder;
35. Find out who makes those Chinese lamps sold in l.a.’s chinatown and see if it would be possible to produce a giant version of it for installation at javier’s;
36. Make an outdoors mural as off site work during show at peres projects. Probably somewhere in the Toy District in l.a. Have graffiti artists tag on top of it;
37. Research brackets for elements popping out of walls (like Majerus’);
38. Watch Argento and Ken Russell: church organs, birds, rococo excess, decadence, ancient rituals, witches mixed with disco, house parties, museums + city squares, sexy guys on the beach wearing thongs, lots of drinking, sun, hysteria;
39. Contact John’s vocal coach whenever back to l.a. Take classes;