from chicagonoise.net
Posted by: bridesblood on Wednesday, June 23, 2004 - 01:16 PM

in short:15 short videos/films, 1 butoh performance, a handful of iraqi music
videos.

There were four winners tonight:
1) Andy Ortmann's DJ set before the performance and videos got running
2) Camilla Ha's butoh performance
3) Lodger: I Love Death animated piece
4) Introduction to the Party Dream video (excerpt)

Naturally this ain't saying everything else sucked—but the above
mentioned items definitely stood out.

SHOW REVIEWS
Andy's set was a lovely mix; sadly, I was only there for about an hour
of it. But anyone who pulls together Claudine Longet, NWW, Flying
Lizards, ABBA as performed on Moog, and a pile of other audio
delectables and diversities is a force by which to be either humbled
or brought to joy, depending on whatever issue you bring to the table…
Camilla's butoh performance was something I was quite achin' to see,
especially since I've not had the chance to see much butoh since
leaving NYC. For those to whom butoh is a new turn o' words, it's a
Japanese dance form born (very loosely here) out of the post H-bomb
generation of avant-garde dance. Slow, contorted, motions and often
pain/absurdism are some of the fruits butoh picks. Camilla had a
spliced video of what may have been a previous performance that rolled
as she did the live piece. It's somewhat hard for me to give this an
accurate review: the movement (both live and video) were excellent,
slow contortions of hand and body: live, a strobe light enhanced this
sense of otherworldliness (that and her stare out beyond the walls of
the building) and distance between her and us—that reads hokey but
it's all I got. She also had two dead eels which she pulled out of
various clothing pouches, the necessity of which I will admit I wasn't
truly certain but that didn't detract from the overall piece. Also,
Andy and insectdeli's synth and laptop oceanic rumbling wind force
drones were a solid audio component….

The Lodger animated piece was an amusing "senior citizen in a
wheelchair with a pal rapes and kills a woman" in stick figure form
(like that simplified AOL promotional character), which I'm sure is a
genre we've all enjoyed. We flashback to how the dude in the
wheelchair's interaction with the raped and killed woman evolved and
led to that conclusion.

And, in one sentence, the Party Dream is a musical duo of gents from
OH who have enough bad 80s clothing, vocoders, synths, moustaches,
ridiculous raps and synth dance-rock, gold g-strings, lacking
sensibilities, women's one piece swimsuits that look like glamorous
(and ill fitting) professional wrestling outfits, seizure-like dance
moves, and an ultimate display of "sure, this may be THE most retarded
thing you'll see and you'll probably laugh at, but it will
unquestionably be `the most,' and that's all we give a shit about"
attitude to make you root for them and wish they were opening for Van
Halen when they bring their sorry carcasses to your town.
a fine wrap up to a solid weekend worth o' fun...Send this story to a friend

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