This is Geistlist.
It’s been kind of a bucket list entry to be part of an artist residency, and two weeks ago I went on one: a week Swimming Hole Foundation, an old house and new barn built and orchestrated by Debera Johnson nestled between various mountains Catskill, with a group of 6 artists taking apart cassette tape players put together by humans, jamming microphones¹ into the planet to listen to plants and water, and learning how to talk back maybe with machines. I’ll likely be publishing some words/photos/art about that later which will be in here but I haven’t yet because I’m busy:
¶. Tonight 7pm sharp: Mmuseumm Opening Ceremonies
4 Cortlandt Alley, TriBeCa, NYC
Mmuseumm, the modern unnatural history museum in a former freight elevator shaftway, is finally back for its first opening ceremony and “annual” “season” since “2020,” famously the first known year to last three years. And this year already off to a geologically interesting start, postponed from last week due to a smokestorm.
I led research and fabrication on a collection which must for the next two hours remain secret, but it should make a killer impact. You might find me in the alley if you are on time. But wait in line, and do pick up a folded newsprint guide for your collection.
¶. Through June 24: ❝a bonkers all-out sweaty showbiz freakout adaptation of 2nd century donkey-based thriller The Golden Ass❞
Westbeth, West Village, NYC
I met Lisa Fagan when she wrote a free jazz opera/informercial with CHILD loosely based on a dream in which she tanned her anus in a shopping mall decorative fountain at sunrise, but stayed too long.
Her new show Deepe Darknesse (dee-pee dark-ness-aye) premiered last night within the underground labyrinth of blackbox theaters at Westbeth Artists’ Housing, and imagine one of those novels that jumps back and forth through time, point of view, and relevance to plot and all kind of culminates in having no view of point. It’s like that, in dance form, with monologues of breathing, ballets with bread, mid-performance microwave lunch break with contact mic’d wine glass, and laptop as sex organ. I could feel a subset of the audience getting some sort of theater-patron-annoyed as my contingency laughed really loud at very dark events (I think).
It’s also wild because I was just about to send it to Robbie and Monica and Elizabeth and the rest of the Co. at Monica Bill Barnes & Co. imploring them to attend it², and
¶. June 1, 2, 3: Dance Errors
Irondale Center, Downtown Brooklyn, NYC
Monica Bill Barnes was the first dancer I understood, and it was through a This American Life show I watched in a movie theater (livestreamed) with my mom a month before I moved to NYC. Now we’re friends and she lets me see new shows while they’re being worked on, and one is now coming back.
It’s about tripping and falling and injuring yourself, and important things you carelessly carry with you and a producer playing you, and going to dinner at TGI Friday’s with friends you’re not sure you like, and live jazz recordings, and delivering a toast.
It’s sold out but there’s a waitlist and maybe if you just come to Layfayette Church at 7:25pm and say hi to Elizabeth and you’re cool about it and don’t expect to, you might get it due to no-shows. It’s how the city works.
Oops forgot to send this one out on time
¶. September 22, 23: Dance Errors
Irondale Center, Downtown Brooklyn, NYC
Nevermind! I’ve been assured it will return, with the following from Producer/Writer/Woman/Robbie/Audience Member/Borrower/Returner Robbie, on behalf of the Co.:
Our sold outᵃ June run is behind us and people are asking
ARE YOU DOING IT AGAIN?
We have said Yes! without knowing the plan.
And we said Yes! enough that we had to make a plan.
September 22nd and 23rd at the Irondale Center.
September?! you say. That’s so far away!
Yes September!
It’s time for summer now.
It’s not time to think and wonder who you are.
Also – do you know how hard it is to get an audience over the summer?ᵇ
So we will be back in September.
A different color will be creeping back onto the trees.
You’ll be looking at new backpacks.
You’ll want to tell someone all about something you’ve been reading
and how it’s made you think something new about some old thing.
And we will be there.
This time, with a disco ball!ᶜ
a - Technically “given out” not “sold out” because we are doing free tickets for all
b - I was trying to meet someone for coffee this month and now we’re looking at the end of August.
c - The disco ball was added on June 2nd (thank you Barbara Samuels and Kimie Nishikawa) and you can’t be surprised to hear that we fell in love with it, so if you saw the show prior to June 2nd, you should come back
d - Let Jacob know to let Robbie know if there’s anyone you want to tell more about the show to, we’re happy to send some more photos or this one really great video clip to anyone who is on the fence.
e - We’ll definitely send more emails this summer though
f - In
[PICTURE OMITTED: STRICT HYPERTEXT-ONLY NEWSLETTER], we’re all looking for Elizabeth Furman. We are so lost without her.
¶. Tomorrow: Chocolate City CLE
The 105 from Quincy to Empire, Cleveland & Internet
I’ve spent this year building an interactive map of Cleveland hyperlocal black history with ThirdSpace Action Lab. The thing with historical maps is they can feel really unlinked from the present or future, and learning about something that happened where you physically stand that was part of everything before now: it’s genuinely a sacred feeling. If you are in Cleveland using it on your phone, the website scrolls to different content as you physically move around the city.
But you’ll be able to browse the route from anywhere (and we’ll stop asking for location if you’re obviously not in Cleveland after launch). I can’t share it yet check choc.city starting tomorrow. If you’re in Cleveland, come by Cory United Methodist Church 11am tomorrow, say hi. I land circa noon.
¶. Through June 24: A Computer Virus That Takes Over a 4D Theater to Perform a Poem
50th Street Subway Station, Midtown, NYC
Every Thursday through Sunday, 2 – 7pm
Mark Fingerhut’s Halcyon.exe opened this week at Public Works Administration. PWA is an art gallery in a newsstand booth in a 1 station (uptown side, but outside turnstiles). Halcyon.exe is weird and funny and a little ironic-MS-Paint aesthetishy, but it is a genuine computer virus that the staff double clicks on a high-powered gallery computer and then lets take over the room with a bunch of lights and solenoids. Imagine if the AI extinction risk doomers are right, except that the AI is bound to an airgapped haunted house carnival ride.
Ask for one of the 2-sided gallery description sheets, it’s a really nice essay. It mentions birds & Infinite Jest and pinball machines, three of my documented interests.
¶. June 18: Printing History Films at an Volunteer-Run Anarchist Cinema in a Former Bodega
Spectacle, Williamsburg, NYC
One of those incredible serendipities thrust upon me: a filmmaker I love, who makes movies about type, in town and hosting an event at my favorite underground cinema. And part of a series! How obscure can you get before the asymptote of everything I stand for in creative life, before a scene ceases to exist?
Which I devastatingly have to miss on account of being in Cleveland (see above (though if there’s an afterparty I’ll land just in time, so please let me know (I emailed Doug, so convince him to get drinks with you until circa 11pm.))).
¶. Through June 17: Getman’s Virtual Book Fair
getmansvirtual.com is a website that only opens every couple months. Built during COVID by Tony Mills and run by Marvin Getman, it is one of very few websites that sacrifice omnipresence to create spectacle. It is one of the only online stores that understands the magic of a book fair.
It’s open until Saturday, then closed until July.
¶. Every Wednesday Afternoon: A Trumpet Show
Internet
Every Wednesday at 4:30pm NYC time
Remember when everyone started livestream shows and dance parties and weekly family Zoom meetings and open webcam nights? Now they’re all dead, the moment passed. Or they just became an in-person DJ night at Three Dollar Bill.
Not for John Turner, he’s still doing his weekly livestreamed trumped improv show, over 3 years running with only something like one week missed. If you want he’ll text you the link each week (like: personally), reply and I’ll get you in touch.
¶. Through June 23: Mad Max: Furry Road as Fine Art
Salmagundi Club, Greenwich Village, NYC
A photo of our cart for Idiotarod 2023 taken by John Huntington got accepted into the 2023 Salmagundi Club Open Photography show. The opening reception is tonight and I likely can’t make it because see above, but stop by before it ends. We might stage a furry intervention/closing performance, got to reach out to John. Or ask for forgiveness.
¶. August 25: Goof, Gather, and Show
203 Driggs Ave, Williamsburg, NYC
Friend of a friend of mine is organizing a camp for girl, trans, and/or non-binary comic artists ages 11–14. If you are one, are raising one, or know one well, and are free August 21–25 and can get to Brooklyn you should apply. Hit me up is money is a reason not to, we can probably figure that out. You can also put money in here.
But just as importantly, we get to be (possibly) their first audience, for a public gallery show and reading. I’ll probably post about this again later.
¶. Me in a Music Video
Internet
I recorded a music video in the basement of a can factory. Brian Eno once did too in the same studio, but this one has me in it. It’s by Cookie Tongue, who you should see live at all costs.
∞.
No appendix this issue, super got to run. All errors are on purposubject to reward if identified actually.
¹ Geophones technically, reply and I’ll send you a photo. They look like a gardening tool with an XLR cable attached.
² I try to keep my “you have to see this” threshold high because it can be a real obligation-maker on the receiving end. It’s also a whole treacherous risk/reward lottery telling an artist who just did something unique and incredible “you remind me so much of something something that happened before,” and wording must be kept precise.