Friday, December 26, 2008
L.A. gigs December 2008
What a way to end the year! Doing 2 L.A. gigs in extremely unique spaces! Jen below covers the trip in detail. I find it funny that the reading at Talking Stick in Venice Beach was much more confrontational and controversial than the jam at Echo Curio…even through there was no nudity or physical sex at Talking Stick…only words and images in the last poem could be seen as taboo if you squint! But everything was acid fingernails on the blackboard at Talking Stick. At Echo Curio everything was on the journey of going deeper into the underground community. If +DOG+ was too intense for you, you could watch from the outside through big storefront windows as huge shirtless guys went primal, wrestling one another for/to comfort. Standing outside wasn’t avoiding. They came in when we started to play, came into the communal circle of jamming, pleasure skin rubbing in sexually, oncoming headlights from the outside blended surreal with strobes, slides, and German expression movies. All in the open. All acceptable.
Mark phog masheen just wrote:
Thank you again for the opportunity to play at your shows. Your performances are powerful stuff that confronts assumptions about sexuality and handicaps and a myriad of other topics. I felt the performance was moving, beautiful and challenging all at the same time. Thank you again for the opportunity to participate.
JEN:
We were to leave early on Saturday morning. I woke up from napping at 3:30am and had a coffee, waiting for the word that we were ready to go. Got the word and came down. Helped load the car with Mikee. Then Frank got in the car and we were ready to roll. It was a beautiful drive as the sun rose. We listened to Christmas music but it was making us sleepy so we put on some motown and grooved down until we got to Harris Ranch for breakfast. Linda brought food from home which we all thought was the best food to eat. The rest of us ate a Harris Ranch breakfast which was not as satisfying as we had hoped. Admired all the decadent Christmas decorations that were there. Then we left and I drove the straight away for a couple of hours until we got to the grapevine, giving Mikee a chance to have a little nap. We knew we weren't going to get much sleep until after the gig, and Frank hadn't slept since 5pm the previous day!! Mikee drove us into L.A. and down the winding road to get to our hotel in West Hollywood. Our room was huge! Frank's bed was there and we all laid down to get a 10 minute nap in before we had to eat and then go to the gig. The alarm went off but Frank didn't wake up. He hadn't slept now in over 24 hours and this was a sure sign that he needed to sleep. Linda and Mikee were whispering about what to do, how could we let him sleep at least an hour and still get food and to the gig on time. Then they asked if I was asleep but I wasn't, had been listening to them the whole time. I said that it sounded good to let Frank sleep. What they were saying about ordering food in and getting to the gig after the first band sounded good. Linda got on the phone to the restaurant, Hugo's, but then Frank woke up. Well, she told him what she was prepared to do to give him more time to sleep, and said that she would take the heat for it. But since he woke up on his own we would just follow our original plan. We freshened up and then went to Hugo's for dinner. It was busy but cozy and we all had to study the menu for a while to decide what to order. Everything looked so good. When we finally ordered, the food came really quickly. All was very tasty, but we were already feeling wiped out. Frank noticed our first celebrity siting, Sally Kellerman, sitting a few tables away. Then when we were leaving, James Cromwell's wife saw Frank and said hello as if she knew him, then James did the same thing! We were all blown away as we made our way to the car to get to the gig with our delicious coffees.
We found Echo Curio which was a cute art space storefront with people hanging around outside. Took a while to find parking but then decided to just unload at the front and then repark the car. Jeff (cosmic starfish), Mark (phog masheen) and Steve from Dog, along with other Dog members, helped us carry the gear inside. The place was cozy, filled with visual art on the walls and ceiling. There were two small rooms and a bathroom. Mikee got the camera set up to videotape the first band as Frank, Linda and I parked in the middle of the front room. Linda told the story of wanting to let Frank sleep to Jeff, Mark and Steve and Steve's girlfriend Jen. It was all very surreal at that point because we had been up for so long. The first band, On Holiday, started and they were really fun. There were black and white movie clips playing on the walls while they played their herdy gerdy organ synthesized dream-like sound. When they were done, Frank asked if they would play in his band and they said yes! Then the second band, Fantastic Sleep, started. They played one long dreamy intricate electronic sound scape adding to our surreal state. We drifted off with the music. They also agreed to be a part of Frank's band. Next band was Dog and they were intense screaming thumping shaking. At one point Steve jumped on the lead singer, Robbie, and then Robbie left to go lie in the other room as the band played on. Steve and some of the other Dog members would be in Frank's band too. Soon it was time for us. Linda and I got into our costumes which consisted of just bracelets, beads, rings, boas and fun hair elastics. We then got Frank ready by taking off all his clothes. We were on! Everyone stuck around for our performance and the first thing we did was get them all into a big circle with the band. The circle bordered the whole circumference of the room. Toy instruments were laid out in front of the audience members. Then Frank started to vocalize as the band played and Linda and I erotically danced, also vocalizing into mics. Everyone was so open to what we were doing, soaking it up, giving in to it. It felt really great. We danced into melting trance, rubbing and rocking to the music that came in intense waves. Then we got the band and everyone else there. They welcomed us, melted with us and the room vibrated with pure simple joy of being. This feeling lasted well after we finished as Linda and Frank talked to everyone and Mikee and I packed up. It is a bit of a blur but it all felt really good and we were amazed we actually made it. Everything was packed up in no time and we were on our way back to the hotel.
We showered and as soon as my head hit the pillow I was out. I remember waking up at one point and saying to Mikee that I think I passed out and he said "yeah, a while ago." After a good sleep we all woke up to get ready for a Hugo's breakfast! Amazing hot cereals, fruit, eggs fuerte, chipotle scramble and pumpkin pancakes. We shared and loved every bite. It was an amazing restaurant, amazing food, 10 across the board. After breakfast we took a short walk up Santa Monica Blvd. We saw a thrift store and went in. Linda has always wanted to go to a thrift store in Hollywood. Mikee went around the racks finding really neat items that you wouldn't find anywhere else. Frank saw a woman who picked a very low cut top from the rack and he told her she should put that on. She laughed and said that he should put it on. We got talking to her and found out her kids live in Berkeley. Told her all about Frank's performances and other work. We gave her a flyer and some of the painting postcards, and a Chapped Lap poetry book. She started to read the first poem I Came To Play and said she was going to cry. Really thanked us for what we do. Said we were saints and we said Frank was the saint! Was amazing how she saw us and how deeply this affected her. Linda got a couple of really cool items like a red poncho and a yellow smock/vest. Both comfortable and unique. We headed back to the hotel after that to sleep. We napped for a couple of hours and then got up to order food from Hugo's that we would pick up and eat in the room by the cozy fire. Mikee and I left Linda and Frank sleeping, but when we got to the restaurant we had forgotten to bring money!!! Went back and the room key didn't work so Linda let Mikee in to get the wallet. Then we were back before the restaurant closed and picked everything up. Back at the hotel we set a table and chairs up beside the fire. Then we served up the food and stuffed ourselves with sheperd's pie, mac and cheese, salad, hummus wrap and a tuna salad sandwich. Then we hit the bed again and slept until morning. We were already planning what we would eat for breakfast at Hugo's. When we got there we had to boot somebody's driver out of our vip parking spot. When we walked in the restaurant we saw James Cromwell again sitting with a couple of guys and figured it must have been his driver. We sat down and got comfortable and then all of a sudden he was at our table saying hi to Frank! When he read Frank's card that says Shaman and Performance Artist he looked deeply into Frank's eyes and smiled. You guys said it reminded you of when Timothy Leary did the same thing many years ago. They both had the same twinkle in their eye too. Maybe they're from the same planet. We ate a good breakfast and then went back to the hotel to nap before having to go to the poetry reading that night. Thought we would go to Hugo's again but realized that wouldn't work for time, so we decided to go to this Mexican restaurant that was 5 minutes from the performance space. While driving there we became unsure of where we were going but realized we were on the right track after consulting the maps. Took more time than we thought in rush hour traffic. When we finally got to the restaurant the only thing we could do was order take-out. Mikee and I sat to wait and they served us really good chips and salsa which we inhaled. Linda was lucky to get there when she did because there was just enough left for her. We hustled back to the car and found the space, The Talking Stick. We ate in the car without a minute to spare. Delicious chicken and tortillas, but low on the veggies, so it was good Linda got the tasty veggie plate.
The Talking Stick was a neat place tucked in the middle of fast food joints on a corner in Venice Beach. The space was a comfy cafe set up with a stage in the corner. Mikee set up the equipment and I set up a table of swag. Jeff (cosmic starfish) was there and Mark (phog masheen) showed up too! The first band with Tim O played quiet beautiful folk songs. Frank and Linda came in and we sat together listening. When they were done Frank asked if they would be in his band but they said they had to go. Next up was Jeff playing his whimsical songs on his accoustic. He dedicated a song to Frank saying that Frank was the most sensuous person he knew other than his wife. Frank asked him if he would play the “dirty” song that he played on the Shaman's Den. Jeff couldn't remember what song that was, but came up with something anyway. It was a song about always being nice but not wanting to and he broke his pick as he performed it. Then we were up. I quickly got changed into a sexy outfit and handed out toy instruments to the people in the audience. Then we were all on stage, me Frank Linda Mark and Jeff. Linda read Frank's poem I Came To Play as I vocalized, and Jeff and Mark played their instruments. It is a very powerful poem that talks deeply about the power of play, which is what we were doing there! After that Frank noticed that the two musicians who had first played and said they were leaving were firmly planted on the couch in the back. He said that if they aren't leaving they should come up and play, and they did! The next poem was A Rant On An Open Mike and this poem talked about the dangers of niceness and the passing of the modern talking stick. It was an ode to places like this cafe, although there was very little reaction from the audience. We just kept on, having fun. Next came Tortures and Mutation Is Evolution. Every poem speaking directly to everyone, to what was going on right now. It seemed crude at times because it may not have been what the people wanted to hear, but it was what they needed to hear. Next, Jeff read Their Cuddling Cocoon which is a very sensuous poem. A couple of middle-aged middle-class guys, Jim and Jim, who arrived just before Frank started, played their toy instruments. They were having fun! Everyone else was quiet and their applause dwindled as the poems went on. We finished after everyone introduced themselves, and Frank asked Jim and Jim what they thought. They loved it! One of them said they were glad they didn't bring their daughter though due to the last poem Jeff read. I showed them what we had on the swag table and they bought 2 Chapped Laps. Everyone was out of there fast while we got our stuff together. We talked in the car about how difficult it was to do that, like roter-rooter cutting through all the resistance. Very effective. We talked about how different it was from Saturday's performance at Echo Curio, but really they were the same. Both performances fulfilled a need.
When we got back to the hotel, we picked up the laptop at the front desk and the woman working their who Frank had been talking too during our trip asked Frank if he would sign her copy of Chapped Lap. We told her about the poetry reading and it was amazing how she got us. She asked what day we would be performing in January so she could get the day off to come. Frank then asked her if she would be a plant, along with her co-worker who also got a signed copy of Chapped Lap. Linda described what she would do as a plant and she was very enthusiastically into it! Even getting nude! Really amazing. We got back to our cozy room with the fire going and got ready for bed, already planning what to have for our last meal at Hugo's in the morning. It's always fun to share good food, but really everything was fun on the trip. I wanted to melt into everyone and I did that by focusing on what needed to be done, focusing on you and what your needs were. I did what you did even if it wasn't familiar to me because I just wanted to be with you all fully. And all of it was so much fun! Driving early, waking up for piss breaks, eating, farting, walking around the room, stretching, putting Frank's wheelchair in the back of the car, making sure Frank was comfortable in his chair. I loved it all because it was with you. It wouldn't have mattered where we stayed or ate. It didn't matter what music we listened to or when we went to bed or got up. I loved every minute of it, just focusing on you, being with you. Could feel that this is what we all are together and it made my heart sing. We got up early and packed, then hit Hugo's for one last mega breakfast with cereals and egg dishes, and then dessert! Topped it all off with some coffees and then got in the car for the long ride home. Mikee did the driving, after a brief check of the dashboard lights, and we grooved to some Hot Wax cds. We stopped at Harris Ranch and sat by the fire in the hotel lobby. Then we went to the restaurant to get a cup of hot water for Linda's tea. I drove out of there and into the night while Mikee caught some zzzzz's. It was challenging but the music and the traffic kept me going, as well as knowing that I was being depended on. After a couple of hours we stopped at Starbucks and Linda said I did real good. Mikee and I got some black tea and then Mikee drove the rest of the way. We got home and unloaded everything with the boyz. It felt good to be back, even though there was still a level of weirdness with Erika. After unloading, me and the boyz went to the bh to finish your dinner. I told them all about the neat things that happened on the trip, the wonderful food we ate, and the amazing performances.
Can't wait for the January trip! Love you!!!
In Freedom,
Frank Moore
Mark phog masheen just wrote:
Thank you again for the opportunity to play at your shows. Your performances are powerful stuff that confronts assumptions about sexuality and handicaps and a myriad of other topics. I felt the performance was moving, beautiful and challenging all at the same time. Thank you again for the opportunity to participate.
JEN:
We were to leave early on Saturday morning. I woke up from napping at 3:30am and had a coffee, waiting for the word that we were ready to go. Got the word and came down. Helped load the car with Mikee. Then Frank got in the car and we were ready to roll. It was a beautiful drive as the sun rose. We listened to Christmas music but it was making us sleepy so we put on some motown and grooved down until we got to Harris Ranch for breakfast. Linda brought food from home which we all thought was the best food to eat. The rest of us ate a Harris Ranch breakfast which was not as satisfying as we had hoped. Admired all the decadent Christmas decorations that were there. Then we left and I drove the straight away for a couple of hours until we got to the grapevine, giving Mikee a chance to have a little nap. We knew we weren't going to get much sleep until after the gig, and Frank hadn't slept since 5pm the previous day!! Mikee drove us into L.A. and down the winding road to get to our hotel in West Hollywood. Our room was huge! Frank's bed was there and we all laid down to get a 10 minute nap in before we had to eat and then go to the gig. The alarm went off but Frank didn't wake up. He hadn't slept now in over 24 hours and this was a sure sign that he needed to sleep. Linda and Mikee were whispering about what to do, how could we let him sleep at least an hour and still get food and to the gig on time. Then they asked if I was asleep but I wasn't, had been listening to them the whole time. I said that it sounded good to let Frank sleep. What they were saying about ordering food in and getting to the gig after the first band sounded good. Linda got on the phone to the restaurant, Hugo's, but then Frank woke up. Well, she told him what she was prepared to do to give him more time to sleep, and said that she would take the heat for it. But since he woke up on his own we would just follow our original plan. We freshened up and then went to Hugo's for dinner. It was busy but cozy and we all had to study the menu for a while to decide what to order. Everything looked so good. When we finally ordered, the food came really quickly. All was very tasty, but we were already feeling wiped out. Frank noticed our first celebrity siting, Sally Kellerman, sitting a few tables away. Then when we were leaving, James Cromwell's wife saw Frank and said hello as if she knew him, then James did the same thing! We were all blown away as we made our way to the car to get to the gig with our delicious coffees.
We found Echo Curio which was a cute art space storefront with people hanging around outside. Took a while to find parking but then decided to just unload at the front and then repark the car. Jeff (cosmic starfish), Mark (phog masheen) and Steve from Dog, along with other Dog members, helped us carry the gear inside. The place was cozy, filled with visual art on the walls and ceiling. There were two small rooms and a bathroom. Mikee got the camera set up to videotape the first band as Frank, Linda and I parked in the middle of the front room. Linda told the story of wanting to let Frank sleep to Jeff, Mark and Steve and Steve's girlfriend Jen. It was all very surreal at that point because we had been up for so long. The first band, On Holiday, started and they were really fun. There were black and white movie clips playing on the walls while they played their herdy gerdy organ synthesized dream-like sound. When they were done, Frank asked if they would play in his band and they said yes! Then the second band, Fantastic Sleep, started. They played one long dreamy intricate electronic sound scape adding to our surreal state. We drifted off with the music. They also agreed to be a part of Frank's band. Next band was Dog and they were intense screaming thumping shaking. At one point Steve jumped on the lead singer, Robbie, and then Robbie left to go lie in the other room as the band played on. Steve and some of the other Dog members would be in Frank's band too. Soon it was time for us. Linda and I got into our costumes which consisted of just bracelets, beads, rings, boas and fun hair elastics. We then got Frank ready by taking off all his clothes. We were on! Everyone stuck around for our performance and the first thing we did was get them all into a big circle with the band. The circle bordered the whole circumference of the room. Toy instruments were laid out in front of the audience members. Then Frank started to vocalize as the band played and Linda and I erotically danced, also vocalizing into mics. Everyone was so open to what we were doing, soaking it up, giving in to it. It felt really great. We danced into melting trance, rubbing and rocking to the music that came in intense waves. Then we got the band and everyone else there. They welcomed us, melted with us and the room vibrated with pure simple joy of being. This feeling lasted well after we finished as Linda and Frank talked to everyone and Mikee and I packed up. It is a bit of a blur but it all felt really good and we were amazed we actually made it. Everything was packed up in no time and we were on our way back to the hotel.
We showered and as soon as my head hit the pillow I was out. I remember waking up at one point and saying to Mikee that I think I passed out and he said "yeah, a while ago." After a good sleep we all woke up to get ready for a Hugo's breakfast! Amazing hot cereals, fruit, eggs fuerte, chipotle scramble and pumpkin pancakes. We shared and loved every bite. It was an amazing restaurant, amazing food, 10 across the board. After breakfast we took a short walk up Santa Monica Blvd. We saw a thrift store and went in. Linda has always wanted to go to a thrift store in Hollywood. Mikee went around the racks finding really neat items that you wouldn't find anywhere else. Frank saw a woman who picked a very low cut top from the rack and he told her she should put that on. She laughed and said that he should put it on. We got talking to her and found out her kids live in Berkeley. Told her all about Frank's performances and other work. We gave her a flyer and some of the painting postcards, and a Chapped Lap poetry book. She started to read the first poem I Came To Play and said she was going to cry. Really thanked us for what we do. Said we were saints and we said Frank was the saint! Was amazing how she saw us and how deeply this affected her. Linda got a couple of really cool items like a red poncho and a yellow smock/vest. Both comfortable and unique. We headed back to the hotel after that to sleep. We napped for a couple of hours and then got up to order food from Hugo's that we would pick up and eat in the room by the cozy fire. Mikee and I left Linda and Frank sleeping, but when we got to the restaurant we had forgotten to bring money!!! Went back and the room key didn't work so Linda let Mikee in to get the wallet. Then we were back before the restaurant closed and picked everything up. Back at the hotel we set a table and chairs up beside the fire. Then we served up the food and stuffed ourselves with sheperd's pie, mac and cheese, salad, hummus wrap and a tuna salad sandwich. Then we hit the bed again and slept until morning. We were already planning what we would eat for breakfast at Hugo's. When we got there we had to boot somebody's driver out of our vip parking spot. When we walked in the restaurant we saw James Cromwell again sitting with a couple of guys and figured it must have been his driver. We sat down and got comfortable and then all of a sudden he was at our table saying hi to Frank! When he read Frank's card that says Shaman and Performance Artist he looked deeply into Frank's eyes and smiled. You guys said it reminded you of when Timothy Leary did the same thing many years ago. They both had the same twinkle in their eye too. Maybe they're from the same planet. We ate a good breakfast and then went back to the hotel to nap before having to go to the poetry reading that night. Thought we would go to Hugo's again but realized that wouldn't work for time, so we decided to go to this Mexican restaurant that was 5 minutes from the performance space. While driving there we became unsure of where we were going but realized we were on the right track after consulting the maps. Took more time than we thought in rush hour traffic. When we finally got to the restaurant the only thing we could do was order take-out. Mikee and I sat to wait and they served us really good chips and salsa which we inhaled. Linda was lucky to get there when she did because there was just enough left for her. We hustled back to the car and found the space, The Talking Stick. We ate in the car without a minute to spare. Delicious chicken and tortillas, but low on the veggies, so it was good Linda got the tasty veggie plate.
The Talking Stick was a neat place tucked in the middle of fast food joints on a corner in Venice Beach. The space was a comfy cafe set up with a stage in the corner. Mikee set up the equipment and I set up a table of swag. Jeff (cosmic starfish) was there and Mark (phog masheen) showed up too! The first band with Tim O played quiet beautiful folk songs. Frank and Linda came in and we sat together listening. When they were done Frank asked if they would be in his band but they said they had to go. Next up was Jeff playing his whimsical songs on his accoustic. He dedicated a song to Frank saying that Frank was the most sensuous person he knew other than his wife. Frank asked him if he would play the “dirty” song that he played on the Shaman's Den. Jeff couldn't remember what song that was, but came up with something anyway. It was a song about always being nice but not wanting to and he broke his pick as he performed it. Then we were up. I quickly got changed into a sexy outfit and handed out toy instruments to the people in the audience. Then we were all on stage, me Frank Linda Mark and Jeff. Linda read Frank's poem I Came To Play as I vocalized, and Jeff and Mark played their instruments. It is a very powerful poem that talks deeply about the power of play, which is what we were doing there! After that Frank noticed that the two musicians who had first played and said they were leaving were firmly planted on the couch in the back. He said that if they aren't leaving they should come up and play, and they did! The next poem was A Rant On An Open Mike and this poem talked about the dangers of niceness and the passing of the modern talking stick. It was an ode to places like this cafe, although there was very little reaction from the audience. We just kept on, having fun. Next came Tortures and Mutation Is Evolution. Every poem speaking directly to everyone, to what was going on right now. It seemed crude at times because it may not have been what the people wanted to hear, but it was what they needed to hear. Next, Jeff read Their Cuddling Cocoon which is a very sensuous poem. A couple of middle-aged middle-class guys, Jim and Jim, who arrived just before Frank started, played their toy instruments. They were having fun! Everyone else was quiet and their applause dwindled as the poems went on. We finished after everyone introduced themselves, and Frank asked Jim and Jim what they thought. They loved it! One of them said they were glad they didn't bring their daughter though due to the last poem Jeff read. I showed them what we had on the swag table and they bought 2 Chapped Laps. Everyone was out of there fast while we got our stuff together. We talked in the car about how difficult it was to do that, like roter-rooter cutting through all the resistance. Very effective. We talked about how different it was from Saturday's performance at Echo Curio, but really they were the same. Both performances fulfilled a need.
When we got back to the hotel, we picked up the laptop at the front desk and the woman working their who Frank had been talking too during our trip asked Frank if he would sign her copy of Chapped Lap. We told her about the poetry reading and it was amazing how she got us. She asked what day we would be performing in January so she could get the day off to come. Frank then asked her if she would be a plant, along with her co-worker who also got a signed copy of Chapped Lap. Linda described what she would do as a plant and she was very enthusiastically into it! Even getting nude! Really amazing. We got back to our cozy room with the fire going and got ready for bed, already planning what to have for our last meal at Hugo's in the morning. It's always fun to share good food, but really everything was fun on the trip. I wanted to melt into everyone and I did that by focusing on what needed to be done, focusing on you and what your needs were. I did what you did even if it wasn't familiar to me because I just wanted to be with you all fully. And all of it was so much fun! Driving early, waking up for piss breaks, eating, farting, walking around the room, stretching, putting Frank's wheelchair in the back of the car, making sure Frank was comfortable in his chair. I loved it all because it was with you. It wouldn't have mattered where we stayed or ate. It didn't matter what music we listened to or when we went to bed or got up. I loved every minute of it, just focusing on you, being with you. Could feel that this is what we all are together and it made my heart sing. We got up early and packed, then hit Hugo's for one last mega breakfast with cereals and egg dishes, and then dessert! Topped it all off with some coffees and then got in the car for the long ride home. Mikee did the driving, after a brief check of the dashboard lights, and we grooved to some Hot Wax cds. We stopped at Harris Ranch and sat by the fire in the hotel lobby. Then we went to the restaurant to get a cup of hot water for Linda's tea. I drove out of there and into the night while Mikee caught some zzzzz's. It was challenging but the music and the traffic kept me going, as well as knowing that I was being depended on. After a couple of hours we stopped at Starbucks and Linda said I did real good. Mikee and I got some black tea and then Mikee drove the rest of the way. We got home and unloaded everything with the boyz. It felt good to be back, even though there was still a level of weirdness with Erika. After unloading, me and the boyz went to the bh to finish your dinner. I told them all about the neat things that happened on the trip, the wonderful food we ate, and the amazing performances.
Can't wait for the January trip! Love you!!!
In Freedom,
Frank Moore
Sunday, December 7, 2008
All-Stars in L.A. in December 2008!
The world-known San Francisco-based performance [r]evolutionary
Frank Moore will do 2 live L. A. shows in December!
The Molten Core
backed up by
THE CHEROTIC ALL-STAR BAND
Saturday, Dec. 13th, 2008
At Echo Curio
1519 Sunset Blvd., Echo Park, CA 90026
8pm
A FIVE BUCK DONATION IS
ASKED TO SUPPORT THE SPACE AND ARTISTS.
http://www.echocurio.com/
echocurio@gmail.com
213-977-1279
Frank Moore will do 2 live L. A. shows in December!
The Molten Core
backed up by
THE CHEROTIC ALL-STAR BAND
Saturday, Dec. 13th, 2008
At Echo Curio
1519 Sunset Blvd., Echo Park, CA 90026
8pm
A FIVE BUCK DONATION IS
ASKED TO SUPPORT THE SPACE AND ARTISTS.
http://www.echocurio.com/
echocurio@gmail.com
213-977-1279
The Molten Core poster by LaBash
The Erotic Campaign
9/17/200
Photos and video available here!
A performance can be built on a good title…like THE EROTIC CAMPAIGN…FEEL, TOUCH THE POSSIBILITIES. The title creates a bubble of expectations that set off reactions which build a reality. The excuse for this performance was the U.K. Eurotrash tv show SEXARAMA…the title tells it all…wanted to do a piece on the campaign. I grabbed onto this excuse to do a 3-hour inter-active ritual. For the last few years I have been only doing band gigs. I knew probably the t.v. people would boil the hours of magic down to 5 minutes of sleazy fluff. But I am willing to risk! The difference between a band gig and an inter-active ritual is the band gig has fairly defined frames. But in an inter-active ritual I don’t know what will happen from one minute to the next. I do enter the performance with pictures. But it always becomes quickly obvious those pictures ain’t what is going to happen….so dive in and float!
Everything clicked. Great band full of my long-time Cherotic vets…a great space…an audience ready to combine politics, erotics, music, and personal magic. I had to just not block it!
ERIKA:
We had our coffee and got ready to head out to the gig. The space was amazing, so cozy with great lighting a beautiful floor lots of pillows and all the band members we had not seen in a while came out of the woodwork, John the Baker, Lob, Steve from LA, Dr. O and Tomek!!! What fun. We got the space all set up and decorated in the Frank Moore for President decorations and Jen and I set up the swag table!!! It looked great!!! And the people were arriving, 25 in the end and they all stayed. The TV crew from England was there and getting set up, "So, its just Frank's performance for the whole 3 hours?” they wanted to know!!! The performance started and Frank went around and asked people how they heard about it and then Kene-J was there or the Archivist, hip hop rapper who has been on the Shaman's Den and who owes Frank a pot roast one of these days. He sang a beautiful song and at the end of the performance said that he felt so inspired and would go home and write five songs. Then Frank and John did a few duets, amazing, powerful, a song about freedom, then crack baby and Fuck the Fascist USA. Frank had a couple of people read his two presidential speeches while Frank, Linda, Jen and Erika did a sexy, melting nude dance with slides going on top and everything in the room melted. The Frank Moore Cherotic All Star Band jamming in the back ground. It was a powerful and amazing night. The audience loved getting gotten by the three naked girls at the end and now they had someone to vote for in November!!!!! After the show we cleaned up and talked and said good bye to people who came to the performance and band members.
DA BOYZ:
When we got to the 8th St. Studios, most of the band was there hanging out in the lobby, Steve and Jen, Lob and his girlfriend, Dr. O, and Jen was there too ... and the 8th St. Studio was filing out, tons of people ... Everyone helped unload the cars, and then we realized that the previous group had gone and locked everything up! We waited for a bit, tried calling you guys, and then magically this older guy showed up and seemed to know that we needed to get in! He opened it up for us, and then you guys were there! And the performance set up began! What a beautiful space! First the ramboard went down, then the rugs, and quickly the space was transformed into a magical campaign stop, the Frank Moore for President campaign vinyls and banners interspersed with Mikee's swirling erotic painted backdrops ... really neat! The xmas lights ...
The band set up and started playing ... an amazing journey of music and sound that continued throughout the entire night, feeling like it rooted everything. It was really neat to see JTB again after what seemed like a long time! And Dr. O! It was like a homecoming ... it felt really warm and close, really good. Jeremy from BNG and his girlfriend Bobby were there too ...
It felt like everyone who came was ready to just go with whatever ... open, willing to follow wherever this was going, which we didn't know! It was fun Frank talking to Nick and David, the camera guys from British TV ... we were saying today that there is a feeling that everyone who comes into the space is automatically together because we're all going on the same journey together, following along ... Frank having Kene-J come up and do a song was so great! It was neat that he came ... everything about the night felt like what folks were saying later about what a country under a Frank Moore presidency would be like ... like Lila, everyone together, everyone close, no competition, jealousy ... everything was really heartwarming ... John and Frank doing the ripping duet!! And then talking to all the band members, getting a sense of the long-term relationships that people have with Frank and us, a really deep sense of community, that it felt like everyone automatically was able to be part of by just being there. We really noticed later how a lot of people said, "Well, this is my first time ..." and it felt like they could sense that what Frank was doing was a long-term thing, something to be experienced over the long-term, and that they had a sense of this being just one part of a much longer experience of community on some level ... and that they could see themselves coming back again to continue the experience ...
And then Frank had Jeremy undress Linda, Erika, Jen and Mikee slowly while a guy from the "audience" came up and read one of Frank's campaign speeches, getting more and more inspired as he read it. It was beautiful and intense ... the vision of Frank and the huddle of naked bodies with the words of Frank's speech resonating through the room, with the music playing ... a dream of a new world ... and it only deepened as Lob's girlfriend took over reading a longer speech of Frank's, and the lights went out and the slides and strobes started while Frank, Linda, Erika and Jen played under the mind-altering combination of slides and bodies and music, and passionate vision for society!!! It is really hard to describe how it affects you taking all of that in ... it comes in through so many openings at once, through the pores ... you feel like you are not thinking really in the usual way anymore, just soaking it up ... it was amazing to see how everyone else there was having the same experience of it, and so inspired and magically altered by it ... transformed ... grounded by the music that just kept swirling things deeper and deeper ... so beautiful. The things that people said afterward were really amazing ... the woman who said in all earnestness that she had been thinking of voting for Obama, but was going to vote for Frank now ... Kene-J saying that he was so inspired that he was gonna go home and probably write 5 songs! Such a wide array of people, and everyone so open and willing ... Alexi said later that Jeremy and Bobby left early because they had to pick a friend up from the airport. They had asked him if it would be ok with Frank if they left early, since they had that obligation ... Alexi said it would be ok, but might be better after the undressing! Because Frank was just about to have Jeremy undress people ...
The playing under the slides while Lob's girlfriend read Frank's speech was amazing visually... liquid, erotic, mind-melting ... and then when Linda, Erika and Jen "got" everyone, it was so deep and so satisfying ... you wanted that feeling to go on and on ... and it really felt like it did, that it penetrated the talking afterward and the space itself, and that there was no dividing line ... that everyone left the space carrying it with them out into the world. Very very deep and powerful ....
Then we dismantled the space, always amazing to see a space restored to its blank slate again after so much has happened in it ... we were talking about the performance, packing up, snacking, farting!
JEN:
The space was great! Very big and beautiful with wood floors. Started getting carpets and blankets down. Then when you guys showed up Erika and I got the table of swag decorated and set up. The place was transformed pretty fast and looked beautiful with all the banners and posters and lights. Who knows what was going to happen! Was really exciting just to find out. It was a lot of fun to see John the Baker again, and Dr. O, Steve, Lob. Met Tomek for the first time and he was great. That band was classic and core. Really great.
Frank started out talking to everyone and I was just memorized like always. Love the way you work a crowd erasing division and expectation, like we're all discovering what is happening together. Never boring! Archive came up and sang which was a great rap about shakin' it and that loosened everyone up a bit. Then you played with John and that's always a lot of fun too - crack baby and other hits with John throwing his guitar after felt like old times. Then you talked to the band and it felt like John was really deeply feeling how much we mean to him. Lob is funny with the mic and he's so there with us, and you could tell that Dr. O felt great being back. Steve had been another great musical connection and really gets it too. Tomek was quiet but very present. Talking to the band like that really anchored what we did next.
You asked the couple up front if they would be undressers and the girl said no but the guy that works with Corey at bng said yes! With Josef reading the short version of Frank's speech, he slowly undressed Linda, Erika, me and Mikee. Excitement was building as to what was coming. That was such the tip of an iceberg, I wish that couple had stayed to see all that happened next. The reading of the speech started out a little slow and fumbly but then became very impassioned by the end as it was really talking about us living our dreams in a real way and that is such a powerful thing - most people really deeply how much we need to do that.
Then the lights went down and we got up to do the ritual. We started right in with Lob's girlfriend reading the long version of Frank's speech that provided a great context for everything. Playing nude together is always so beautiful, feels so soft and relaxed. Moving together touching and rubbing - the whole body is alight and in tune - turned on. Felt really good. Then we went around the room and got everyone. We started with the band. Felt so good, felt like family. Then we spread out into the audience and brought them all in. The three of us just following each other went to every person and embraced them in us. Everyone accepted us and felt like they melted with us. We were in Lila and this was something you could feel every person wanted, wanted life to be like this with everyone. How great and amazing and wonderful. When the mic was passed around it was great to hear how everyone enjoyed it and how some of them let it change them right then. When Mikee got the mic I knew it would eventually come to me but I didn't know what to say. I was just feeling so good and it was difficult to pick out anything specific at that time. When Erika got the mic she said that it felt great to go and hug everyone. I felt that too and it was great to hear her say that. Then Linda spoke and it was my turn next. I was just counting on the feeling that I had would produce words when I had to but that didn't really happen because all that kept coming out was how great it was, how great it felt. Speechless, just smiling from ear to ear.
I have always been amazed at what you do, but now I'm here with you and it's us, so it isn't really amazing in a way because it's life everyday. But in the context of us in a performance bringing others in who are willing to come, it still feels amazing because it is so easy to do. It's so right here now and needed, craved. It felt as though everyone was waiting for us, beckoning us to get them. And when we got them it felt as though the energy of what we are was going out through their lives into other lives and out and out expanding into the world. So small and intimate, so practical and simple, but so powerful! The kind of power that can really change things.
Photos and video available here!
A performance can be built on a good title…like THE EROTIC CAMPAIGN…FEEL, TOUCH THE POSSIBILITIES. The title creates a bubble of expectations that set off reactions which build a reality. The excuse for this performance was the U.K. Eurotrash tv show SEXARAMA…the title tells it all…wanted to do a piece on the campaign. I grabbed onto this excuse to do a 3-hour inter-active ritual. For the last few years I have been only doing band gigs. I knew probably the t.v. people would boil the hours of magic down to 5 minutes of sleazy fluff. But I am willing to risk! The difference between a band gig and an inter-active ritual is the band gig has fairly defined frames. But in an inter-active ritual I don’t know what will happen from one minute to the next. I do enter the performance with pictures. But it always becomes quickly obvious those pictures ain’t what is going to happen….so dive in and float!
Everything clicked. Great band full of my long-time Cherotic vets…a great space…an audience ready to combine politics, erotics, music, and personal magic. I had to just not block it!
ERIKA:
We had our coffee and got ready to head out to the gig. The space was amazing, so cozy with great lighting a beautiful floor lots of pillows and all the band members we had not seen in a while came out of the woodwork, John the Baker, Lob, Steve from LA, Dr. O and Tomek!!! What fun. We got the space all set up and decorated in the Frank Moore for President decorations and Jen and I set up the swag table!!! It looked great!!! And the people were arriving, 25 in the end and they all stayed. The TV crew from England was there and getting set up, "So, its just Frank's performance for the whole 3 hours?” they wanted to know!!! The performance started and Frank went around and asked people how they heard about it and then Kene-J was there or the Archivist, hip hop rapper who has been on the Shaman's Den and who owes Frank a pot roast one of these days. He sang a beautiful song and at the end of the performance said that he felt so inspired and would go home and write five songs. Then Frank and John did a few duets, amazing, powerful, a song about freedom, then crack baby and Fuck the Fascist USA. Frank had a couple of people read his two presidential speeches while Frank, Linda, Jen and Erika did a sexy, melting nude dance with slides going on top and everything in the room melted. The Frank Moore Cherotic All Star Band jamming in the back ground. It was a powerful and amazing night. The audience loved getting gotten by the three naked girls at the end and now they had someone to vote for in November!!!!! After the show we cleaned up and talked and said good bye to people who came to the performance and band members.
DA BOYZ:
When we got to the 8th St. Studios, most of the band was there hanging out in the lobby, Steve and Jen, Lob and his girlfriend, Dr. O, and Jen was there too ... and the 8th St. Studio was filing out, tons of people ... Everyone helped unload the cars, and then we realized that the previous group had gone and locked everything up! We waited for a bit, tried calling you guys, and then magically this older guy showed up and seemed to know that we needed to get in! He opened it up for us, and then you guys were there! And the performance set up began! What a beautiful space! First the ramboard went down, then the rugs, and quickly the space was transformed into a magical campaign stop, the Frank Moore for President campaign vinyls and banners interspersed with Mikee's swirling erotic painted backdrops ... really neat! The xmas lights ...
The band set up and started playing ... an amazing journey of music and sound that continued throughout the entire night, feeling like it rooted everything. It was really neat to see JTB again after what seemed like a long time! And Dr. O! It was like a homecoming ... it felt really warm and close, really good. Jeremy from BNG and his girlfriend Bobby were there too ...
It felt like everyone who came was ready to just go with whatever ... open, willing to follow wherever this was going, which we didn't know! It was fun Frank talking to Nick and David, the camera guys from British TV ... we were saying today that there is a feeling that everyone who comes into the space is automatically together because we're all going on the same journey together, following along ... Frank having Kene-J come up and do a song was so great! It was neat that he came ... everything about the night felt like what folks were saying later about what a country under a Frank Moore presidency would be like ... like Lila, everyone together, everyone close, no competition, jealousy ... everything was really heartwarming ... John and Frank doing the ripping duet!! And then talking to all the band members, getting a sense of the long-term relationships that people have with Frank and us, a really deep sense of community, that it felt like everyone automatically was able to be part of by just being there. We really noticed later how a lot of people said, "Well, this is my first time ..." and it felt like they could sense that what Frank was doing was a long-term thing, something to be experienced over the long-term, and that they had a sense of this being just one part of a much longer experience of community on some level ... and that they could see themselves coming back again to continue the experience ...
And then Frank had Jeremy undress Linda, Erika, Jen and Mikee slowly while a guy from the "audience" came up and read one of Frank's campaign speeches, getting more and more inspired as he read it. It was beautiful and intense ... the vision of Frank and the huddle of naked bodies with the words of Frank's speech resonating through the room, with the music playing ... a dream of a new world ... and it only deepened as Lob's girlfriend took over reading a longer speech of Frank's, and the lights went out and the slides and strobes started while Frank, Linda, Erika and Jen played under the mind-altering combination of slides and bodies and music, and passionate vision for society!!! It is really hard to describe how it affects you taking all of that in ... it comes in through so many openings at once, through the pores ... you feel like you are not thinking really in the usual way anymore, just soaking it up ... it was amazing to see how everyone else there was having the same experience of it, and so inspired and magically altered by it ... transformed ... grounded by the music that just kept swirling things deeper and deeper ... so beautiful. The things that people said afterward were really amazing ... the woman who said in all earnestness that she had been thinking of voting for Obama, but was going to vote for Frank now ... Kene-J saying that he was so inspired that he was gonna go home and probably write 5 songs! Such a wide array of people, and everyone so open and willing ... Alexi said later that Jeremy and Bobby left early because they had to pick a friend up from the airport. They had asked him if it would be ok with Frank if they left early, since they had that obligation ... Alexi said it would be ok, but might be better after the undressing! Because Frank was just about to have Jeremy undress people ...
The playing under the slides while Lob's girlfriend read Frank's speech was amazing visually... liquid, erotic, mind-melting ... and then when Linda, Erika and Jen "got" everyone, it was so deep and so satisfying ... you wanted that feeling to go on and on ... and it really felt like it did, that it penetrated the talking afterward and the space itself, and that there was no dividing line ... that everyone left the space carrying it with them out into the world. Very very deep and powerful ....
Then we dismantled the space, always amazing to see a space restored to its blank slate again after so much has happened in it ... we were talking about the performance, packing up, snacking, farting!
JEN:
The space was great! Very big and beautiful with wood floors. Started getting carpets and blankets down. Then when you guys showed up Erika and I got the table of swag decorated and set up. The place was transformed pretty fast and looked beautiful with all the banners and posters and lights. Who knows what was going to happen! Was really exciting just to find out. It was a lot of fun to see John the Baker again, and Dr. O, Steve, Lob. Met Tomek for the first time and he was great. That band was classic and core. Really great.
Frank started out talking to everyone and I was just memorized like always. Love the way you work a crowd erasing division and expectation, like we're all discovering what is happening together. Never boring! Archive came up and sang which was a great rap about shakin' it and that loosened everyone up a bit. Then you played with John and that's always a lot of fun too - crack baby and other hits with John throwing his guitar after felt like old times. Then you talked to the band and it felt like John was really deeply feeling how much we mean to him. Lob is funny with the mic and he's so there with us, and you could tell that Dr. O felt great being back. Steve had been another great musical connection and really gets it too. Tomek was quiet but very present. Talking to the band like that really anchored what we did next.
You asked the couple up front if they would be undressers and the girl said no but the guy that works with Corey at bng said yes! With Josef reading the short version of Frank's speech, he slowly undressed Linda, Erika, me and Mikee. Excitement was building as to what was coming. That was such the tip of an iceberg, I wish that couple had stayed to see all that happened next. The reading of the speech started out a little slow and fumbly but then became very impassioned by the end as it was really talking about us living our dreams in a real way and that is such a powerful thing - most people really deeply how much we need to do that.
Then the lights went down and we got up to do the ritual. We started right in with Lob's girlfriend reading the long version of Frank's speech that provided a great context for everything. Playing nude together is always so beautiful, feels so soft and relaxed. Moving together touching and rubbing - the whole body is alight and in tune - turned on. Felt really good. Then we went around the room and got everyone. We started with the band. Felt so good, felt like family. Then we spread out into the audience and brought them all in. The three of us just following each other went to every person and embraced them in us. Everyone accepted us and felt like they melted with us. We were in Lila and this was something you could feel every person wanted, wanted life to be like this with everyone. How great and amazing and wonderful. When the mic was passed around it was great to hear how everyone enjoyed it and how some of them let it change them right then. When Mikee got the mic I knew it would eventually come to me but I didn't know what to say. I was just feeling so good and it was difficult to pick out anything specific at that time. When Erika got the mic she said that it felt great to go and hug everyone. I felt that too and it was great to hear her say that. Then Linda spoke and it was my turn next. I was just counting on the feeling that I had would produce words when I had to but that didn't really happen because all that kept coming out was how great it was, how great it felt. Speechless, just smiling from ear to ear.
I have always been amazed at what you do, but now I'm here with you and it's us, so it isn't really amazing in a way because it's life everyday. But in the context of us in a performance bringing others in who are willing to come, it still feels amazing because it is so easy to do. It's so right here now and needed, craved. It felt as though everyone was waiting for us, beckoning us to get them. And when we got them it felt as though the energy of what we are was going out through their lives into other lives and out and out expanding into the world. So small and intimate, so practical and simple, but so powerful! The kind of power that can really change things.
Poster by LaBash
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