FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012
WIR HATTEN SCHON BEFUERCHTET As I write this my head is spinning from drinking Macrobiotic Vegan Vodka in the form of a Chlymidia cocktail. The first day of Camp/Anti-Camp was a smash success! Sold out SRO crowds that like Jack Smith!Live Film brought a lot of different scenes together. The Foodgasm installation of sexy Liz Rosenfeld and humpy Ozzie Sam Icklow was beyond brilliant with the smells of gourmet delicacies wafting throught the HAU 2 foyer. The Chicks on Speed girls and their narcotics den of inequity The VooDoo Chanel Alter Bar was also very popular. The late George Kuchar began the program with his hilarious masterclass on acting film from 1977, followed by beautiful co-curator and intermedia actress Susanne Sachsse hilariously reading timely tomes on camp backwards. Handsome Marc Siegel gave a powerful denouncement of the patriarchy system in the German theatre scene in his welcoming remarks, but what warmed everyone’s hearts was seeing living legend and treasurer of treasures Miss Hollywoodlawn performing with Daniel Hendrickson and John Blue on Cello. The three of them spun a magical thread of relevance and texture that gave me goosebumps and their interplay with each other was wonderous. Holly shined like only a true star can and looked divine with hair and make-up design by genius genius Tan Binh Nguyen who made the 65 year old starina look like a freshly scrubbed Warholian youthquaker. There were so many celebutants in the audience that it is impossible to name them all but it was a joy to hobnob with the dapper scholar Douglas Crimp, who use to be Holly Woodlawn’s New York roommate in the 1970s. Crimp’s lecture “Camp Reflections From ‘Our Kind of Movie’ The Films of Andy Warhol was the talk everyone was anticipating. I had to get into hair and make-up so I was only able to hear snippets in the dressing room intercom system. I also wasn’t able to see New York star Narcissister as she went on right before me and I was still getting a face beat on, but Love Camel reported to me that she was SENSATIONAL, doing a Gydra performance with multiple heads, that morphed into a reverse strip with various sundry items popping out of her vagina and giant Afro Wig. The Camel was really impressed by her inventive video art one short subject featuring a kinky treadmill where she is whipped, anally plugged and chugged. Narcissister when not performing is sweet, charming and simply ravishing, it’s exciting that there are some hot new performers out there to take the place of us old veteranas and Ms. Narcissister has one hot boyfriend who I wouldn’t mind getting to know in an intimate manner. My talk show installation VD is SFTD was messy and chaotic just like I expected, but did have some engaging moments like my opening song with Daniel Hendrickson at piano, my co-hostess Carmelita Tropicana who makes everyone fall madly in love with her plus a playfully hilarious Theodora Tabacki in mesmerizing Serbi Tropi-Camp drag with Evi “Bear Boy” Ruesseler who premiered her new film which despite technical difficulties was thoroughly engaging and the hit of the evening. Our Living Sculptures Toby, Max, Xavier and Vassily kept the audience aroused with their antics and my favorite band Leiseylento performed some incredible songs for Miss Woodlawn who the evening show was dedicated to with the theme What Would Holly Do? and a cocktail named in her honor Classy Holly-itis. Miss Woodlawn’s companion Nikko was supposed to keep her from drinking too much and he did a good job at that as she was very lucid and sharp on stage, but Nikko needed someone to keep him from drinking. Tonight we will have Stefanie Schulte Strathaus the Empress of the Arsenal presenting 16 mm films, Weiland Speck, Landgraf Klesse, Love Camel, Foodgasm, the divine Kembra Pfahler and Gio Black Peter. Oops forgot to mention i saw Patty Aldrich of A Walk on the Wildside Boutique of Toronto, the great Corolla Graumann of Kinotek Asta Nielsen, Jose Munoz, Richard Move, Gavin Butt & Baby Diaper Joel Gibb just to name a few of the luminaries at Holly Woodlawn´s epic performance. NOTE TO NIKKO Holly´s devoted companion and confident: The audience only needs to see The Great Holly Woodlawn nix the band Tangowerk. The female singer was ok in an 1980s sort of way, but the funny looking guy with the frizzed hair playing computer (which is quite the oxymoron) and those dreadful videos----please, i beg of you NEVER AGAIN.
SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 2012
HUMOR IST, WENN MAN NICT IMMER LACHT It is now the third day of the art festival Camp/Anti-Camp: The Queer Guide to Everyday Life and it’s a sterling success on all counts. Congrats to curators Susanne Sachsse & Marc Siegel and guest Tropicamp curator Max Jorge Hinderer Cruz. Yesterday there were packed lectures with a program beginning at 12:00 noon. The gorgeous scholar Juliane Rebentisch hit it out of the ballpark with her talk on Camp Materialism and the Tropi-camp section of Camp/Anti-Camp was also feverishly mobbed. Carmelita Tropicana’s performance ”Meine Box Berlin” had the New York legend conquering Berlin with the same charm and dexterity that is so apparent in the 1993 film by her sister Ela Troyano YOUR KUNST IST YOUR WAFFEN. It was amazing seeing a young Alistair & Julie Tolentino make cameo appearances in that film as well as posters on the East Village streets advertising a Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black performance. Unfortunately for the Vagimule doll my issues with losing my voice emerged so I didn’t get to see any of the lectures or performances, but got a reliable first hand account from Jewish Muslim Daniel Hendrickson and The Love Camel. I had an interview with a German television station that was supposed to be for only 30 minutes that went on for almost two hours and that tuckered this old gal out but the TV interviewer was nice and bubbly and her cameraman and soundguy were kindof eye candyish. Beggars can´t be choosy. I didn’t get a good sleep Thursday night so I spent most of Friday in my dressing room drinking tea with honey&lemon and sucking on lozanges. I tried in vain to take a disco nap to catch up on lost sleep but that didn’t work too well. VD is SFTD went over very well on Friday with my new co-host Nanna Heidenreich who was just brilliant and looked very sexy in her skirt made from men´s suit pant ensemble. Stefanie Schulte Strathaus the lovely Empress of the Arsenal made a very unique and special 16mm presentation on the show which was quite a hit with the crowd, and it was grand to have the 16mm projector buzzing along musically in the cavernous HAU2 space. Special thanks to Arsenal senior projectionist Bodo for handling the celluloid reel changing duties. The Love Camel proceeded to offend many with his selection of German Educational films from the early 1970s and Wieland Speck was his dashing self telling stories of the glory days of Berlin in the early 80s running around with Jayne County, Zazie De Paris and Romy Haag. The evenings proclitities were dedicated to Jayne’s raucous spirit with the subtitle Jayne County’s In Love with a Russian Soldier and the drink special: If You Don’t Want to Fuck Me Baby Fuck OFF and Die featuring once again macrobiotic and vegan vodka and my special Chlymidia cocktail. Nice moments on stage with Sam & Liz of Foodgasm who presented the guests and some lucky audience members some tasty food samples from their installation in the HAU2 Foyer and a hilarious moment with Landgraf Klesse and his concept of the Court of Good Taste. Wieland Speck also accepted the CHEAPY Award on behalf of Jayne County who was supposed to perform with the band The Lazy from Munich, but couldn´t come to Berlin as she takes care of her elderly parents who are in their 90s and her mother became deathly ill. We also presented a CHEAPY to Kembra Pfahler of the VHoKB who wowed everyone with her stream of conscienceness philosophy on Future Feminism and the decrepid state of affairs in New York and the US of A in general. In the words of Kembra and I hope I am quoting her correctly, “People in New York who you run into will say they are fasting, but the actuality is that they are starving”. The late nite ended with sexpert Gio Black Peter singing one of his hit songs from his album The Virgin Shuffle. While I was being painted as Venus in Furs by our Akshunist painter Yorgos the Greek Aktive Byzantine Ottoman. Gio Black Peter assaulted the audience with his lovesexy ways and wound up prancing about completely nude and the Vagimule Doll got caught up in the naughty Jayne County moment and wound up fellating the New York art and music star. Being the Lesbian that I am, of course my blow job wasn’t very good and so I wasn’t able to ignite that huge sea monster he keeps between his legs. Oh welp! I tried my best. My lesbiana girlfriend Carmelita Tropicana doesn’t mind when i fool around with boys. Thank god she is so open minded. Our Living Sculpture boys Toby, Max and cute Greek beauty Vassily were adoreable on stage, and we had the addition of Richard Gersch (curator Susanne Sachsse’s teenage son and his friend Georg doing a kickboxing demo on stage as installation that looked amazing and sent all the chicken hawks into a cardiac arrest at the sight of nubile buff teenage high school boiganzas. Tonight is the last night of the talkshow/installation and with the Karen Black concert afterwards we are going to try to make the show zip along at a record pace. Our guests are the writers Travis Jeppesen and Eli Lev’en from Sweden with a video presentation by Love Camel of Turkish re-makes of American Mainstream Box Office Hits. Yowza!
FRIDAY, APRIL 27, 2012
EINSATZ FUER DEN TATORT VORSPANN I am exhausted! The Camp/ Anti-Camp and Rising Stars, Falling Stars: We Must Have Music re-launch has knackered me out like something otherworldly. I don’t know where to begin in writing about the last week or so. Berlin has been an utter whirlwind of activity. Well my screening of George Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess starring Dorothy Dandridge, Sidney Portier, Pearl Bailey, Diahann Carroll and Sammy Davis Jr. was a huge hit and the perfect way to jumpstart the RSFS series with a new spark. I even liked how the print was turning a reddish pink. It made this Hollywood Golden era film take on a decidedly more experimental aura. Re-vamping RSFS would have been impossible without the tireless efforts of Arsenal Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus, Daniel Hendrickson, the Jewish Muslim with help from Markus Ruff of Living Archive Project and of course Jeffreyland Hilbert of Kustom Kreative the genius of design wizardry who created the postcard fliers and posters that has everyones mouths agape. Jeffrey is a genius. After the screening Warhol Superstar Holly Woodlawn dropped by as a special guest star during the wine reception held in Kino II. Of course it is always a joy being in the presense of such an astounding talent, but I felt her companion Nico should have let the great lady rest a bit in preparation for her long plane trip to Los Angeles. Her fans were of course excited to catch one more glimpse of her divinity. On hand were Blue Bros kJohnny & Tim who is leaving Berlin permanently in a few weeks and returning to Portland, Oregon, delicious Toby Rauscher & French hotsy totsy Xavier who were so wonderful as my living sculpture boys in my talk show/ installation VD is SFTD, they were joined by Little Alex of Macedonia, art video maven Nguyen Tan Hoang, Jonathan Berger and his cute NYU student Joy, Senol Senturk, Mikki the sprightly C/A-C stage manager, gorgeous Nazli Kilerci, Romy Haag, with singer Billie Ray Martin, Piero Bellomo, New Zealand scholar Pete Limbrick, Kyle Keyser, Susanne Sachsse & Marc Siegel, curator Hannah Keller, Verena von Hodel, Lars Denicke, video artist Bjorn Melhus, Salome Gersch and handsome Uli Ziemons. Everyone was talking about how faggoty Sammy Davis Jr. was in the film Porgy & Bess playing Sportin’ Life. Well Sammy is a well known womanizer but he also had some sugar in his proverbial tank and that is a fact many don’t know about the Rat Packer who also packed quite a penile punch in his tiny frame. Funny lady Pearl Bailey was a hoot playing Cat Fish Row wiseacre a Mariah. Of course the beauty of Dorothy Dandridge couldn’t be denied, and she somehow conveyed a modern edge to her low key performance. Sidney Portier has such a masculine voice and ardour and Diahann Carroll made to look plain and ordinary also packed quite a wallup. The Last night of Camp/Anti-Camp was a marvel with the concert performance by the music and art kollektive The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black starring the amazing Kembra Pfahler who had the audience revitted. It was so wonderous hearing the Karen Black hit songs again. I haven’t seen the band play in almost a decade. The extra Karen Black treat was guitar god Samoa returning to the lineup. No one short of Glen Meadmore plays guitar like Samoa. He defines the Karen Black sound and seeing Kembra & Samoa together was my ultimate fantasy come true. The Lady Kembra is a consummate artist and one of the planet’s smartest and most gifted women. Every move she makes is perfection personified, and Berlin was able to experience a rare treat. I was also happy to see Tenderloin perform and Dagmar Hofpfisterei the teenage lead singer was in good form despite having almost OD’d just a few hours before the gig. The crowd seemed to really enjoy their music and songs like Empty, Eat Me Like The Good Book Sez, Salome’s Last Dance which takes text directly from Oscar Wilde, Cheeseburger, No Soul, Octavia and Incitement to Discourse. I especially loved the animated text behind the band that was created by Jean Y. Kim who also did the video for SFTD. Joel Gibb of the Hidden Cameras is quite a good drummer and he also managed to play keyboards and guitar at the same time, plus Felix Knoke and Landgraf Jan Klesse are very attractive on stage and had lots of the girls going wild over their manly appeal. Tenderloin’s next gig with VHoKB is August 10th in London England during the Olympics when Antony of Antony & the Johnsons curates The Meltdown Festival. The last day of C/A-C featured celebrity sightings as diverse as Peaches and The Pet Shops Boys, Wolfgang Tilmans, Katy Perry, and Jens Friebe the German indie pop singer/songwriter. The last SFTD was a speed talk show/installation that was over in 27 minutes and featured as guests a playful Tim Studkin masquerading as a former Bel Ami porn model turned scholar and activist, Swedish poet Eli Lev’en and good time Charlie of a writer/journalista Travis Jeppesen who has very pretty bare feet that the Vagimule managed to shrimp as the packed audience squeeled uncomfortably. The Love Camel aka: Andrea Novarin of the BFI didn’t offend anyone with his video selection of Turkish film remakes of Hollywood Blockbusters like Star Wars and the Exorcist. Co-hostess Nanna Heidenreich was sublime. It seems like everyone’s favorite SFTD evening was the Friday salute to Jayne County that featured Arsenal Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus and her dynamic 16mm film presentation. This evening also had everyone talking about the kickboxing demo by Richard Gersch and Georg that was so earnest and sexy in a quiet way and of course the nude rapping by New York sensation Gio Black Peter that featured just a bit of analingus and felatio, not to mention a mock Court of Good Taste by Langraf Jan Klesse with an inspired Liz Rosenfeld of Foodgasm. Kembra Pfahler and Wieland Speck (accepting a CHEAPY Underground Über Alles Award for Jayne County were other highlights of Friday, and everyone was admiring the beautiful set that was designed by Jonathan Berger and Senol Senturk that featured a fetching wall of cacti. Catching every moment of the three day festival: Peter Limbrick, New Zealand film scholar who lives in San Francisco, Pet Shop Bears Disco Club proprietors, Mobile Academy’s Hannah Hurtzig, Sophia of Plan b, Katja Sander and artist Phil Colllins with their gaggle of art students in tow. Plus the lovesexy Angela Melitopoulos, Jan Kunemund of Sissy Magazine, Piero Bellomo, Sabeth Buchmann the wonderful art theorist who teaches in Wien, Dragan Asler and the Serbian Art Mafia, the Great Alessio who did a splendid make-up job on Teodora Tabacki making her look all Serbi-camp, Koen Clarehout, Maeke Harmsen, Katrin Dod the Beauty of HAU, Steffan Faupel and his music writing partner, Art shtar Ming Wong, scholars: Anja Michaelson and Kimiko Suda, supermodel Akira Knightly with make up artist Tan Binh Nguyen who not only beats the face of curator Susanne Sachsse, but Vaginal Davis and Holly Woodlawn, DJane Olga Damnitz, Angie Anderson, Christina the hot Romy Schneider looking girlfriend of sexy Sasha, dancer Asaf Hochman, Earl Dax of Pussy Faggot, Juan Luis Mielgo Castellanos, the sexy Spanish teacher, academic Todd Sekuler and Hanno Stecher of Catchfire blog.
‘Camp / Anti Camp’ was originally written by Vaginal Davis for Speaking from the Diaphragm, 27 April 2012, http://blog.vaginaldavis.com/2012_04_22_archive.html