2. I, Marc Moscato, am speaking at the Multnomah County Library as part of “Zinesters Talking,” Tuesday, October 6th, from 6:30–7:45 p.m. I’ll be giving a slide lecture on organizing the Dill Pickle Club’s Art for the Millions bike field trip. More info on the lecture series here.
3. My film The More Things Stay the Same is screening as part of “Visible Histories” at Other Cinema in San Francisco, Saturday, October 17th. My piece will show alongside work by long-time friends Vanessa Renwick, Erick Lyle and Dara Greenwald. Should be a great show.
4. This site has been quiet as of late but big plans are in the works; keep tuned.
Ariana Jacob has initiated a new poster campaign and seeks your participation. The project poses open ended questions displayed as posters in public windows. The first installment asks: How much is the fate of this place all ours? Respond by calling her special response “hotline” @ (503) 575-9031.
Jacob, currently a student in PSU’s social practice program, has been making curious and thought-provoking images for several years. Her previous silkscreen works (often found wheatpasted on public buildings) are some of the more moving images I have seen since I have lived in Portland. She has also recently designed a poster for the Dill Pickle Club’s upcoming field trip HOW ARE THINGS MADE.
This Saturday, August 22, Loren Sonnenberg will be at the Waypost in Portland to screen URFest, a 97-minute program of activist-inspired documentaries from Buffalo, NY. The films highlight Buffalo’s urban issues such as sustainable housing, community building projects, cooperative ownership models and community food sharing.
URFest, while however loose in its curatorial vision, looks to be a timely and relevant show. The program presents a nice complement to Tough Stuff, with more of a documentary/ activist take on contemporary media practice in Buffalo. For more info, check out the site blog here.
Bill Brown is one of my all-time fave filmmakers. I first met him when I set up a screening of his work @ the WOW Hall in Eugene, with Casiotone for the Painfully Alone and S.M. Gray. I can’t remember much about the show except the sound guy took all the money and I could only pay Bill like $50, even though the show was packed.
I later became Bill’s “personal press agent” in my work at Peripheral Produce, which released his excellent “The Next Best Place” DVD collection, as well as at Microcosm Publishing, where I promoted his “Dreamwhip” fanzine-turned-book.
In any event, the dude makes good films. 16mm beautifully composed filmic essays. Poetic, funny, smart, a little political. Sort of a wanderlust, dreamy quality to them.
This Saturday, August 15, Bill and his sweetheart Sabine Gruffat will be @ Disjecta (8371 N. Interstate) to present Time Machine, a multimedia performance of “video, spoken word, scratchy records and 35mm slides.” According to their website, Brown’s performance involves reading about roadside attractions paired with a slideshow, while Gruffat live mixes video and audio feedback. Weird, possibly interesting, and, if Brown’s previous projects are any indication, something definitely important and worthy of checking out.
Last night at the First Thursday art walk, the Scion car company, a division of Toyota, hosted “Installation 5,” a traveling art show at three galleries in the Everett Station Lofts. The company has rented out three galleries for the month, and is taking the show on tour to 9 U.S. cities this fall.
From their site:
Launched in 2003, Scion Installation is a revolutionary art tour affirming the brand’s ongoing commitment to support independent artistic expression and featuring work from an unprecedented collective of contemporary artists, designers and photographers.
The openings featured music by area d.j.s, free booze and bags filled with Scion-related products, including CD samplers, an art magazine and a pair of flipflops promoting the company. Proceeds from the sale of artworks go to charity.
The experience left me with mixed feelings. What does it mean when a multinational car corporation (especially one that self-describes their products as “developed with a new generation of youthful buyers in mind”) organizes a DIY-minded art show? Is this promoting and supporting independent culture, or is it exploiting youth culture? Is this a new, future model for arts funding? And is this a good or bad thing? Discuss.
Glad to be back in Portland after three weeks of biking around and showing films in 100 degree weather. Tour was fun but exhausting. Be sure to check out the site blog, which we’ll be updating with some reflections and more pics in the next few days. I have about 40 DVDs of Tough Stuff left; pick up one here.
The dust is settling and things are beginning to take shape for the Dill Pickles. Lots of planning, projecting and grant writing. We started a Facebook page; join the “I knew ‘em when” club and become our fan.
A quick blurb on a happening this weekend from Ms. Carye Bye:
Letterpress Printers’ Fair
Saturday, August 8, 2009
11 am - 4 pm
Liberty Hall - 311 N Ivy, Portland, Oregon
$2 admission from 11 am - 2 pm, Free 2 - 4 pm
Today I leave for a two and half week biking jaunt through the great Pacific Northwest, showing movies about Buffalo and the end of capitalism. Hooray! Be sure to check out the blog/ site for the tour, as we’ll be regularly updating it with stories, pics and videos from the road.
I will have limited access to e-mail so please bear with me; it may take a while to respond to any inquiries. Thanks and hope to catch you soon…
In May, when Portland City Council extended the Sit/Lie ordinance for 5 months in order to hold community dialogues around the issues raised by the Streets Access For Everyone (SAFE) committee, Commissioners Amanda Fritz and Nick Fish promised discussions in many neighborhoods over the five month period. So far, it looks like there will be only two meetings, being held three days apart, on July 18 and July 21.
From Sisters of the Road:
When you heard from us last, a Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge ruled that Sit/Lie unconstitutionally exceeds the city’s authority, as it conflicts with and is preempted by state law. After this ruling, the enforcement of Sit/Lie was suspended. This doesn’t mean that Sit/Lie is gone, so we still have work to do to ensure that the City takes it off the books.
Please show your support and come to the following community meetings that Commissioners Fritz and Fish are organizing:
Saturday, July 18th from 10am-12:00pm
Kaiser Town Hall
3704 N. Interstate, Portland
Tuesday July 21st from 7pm-9pm
First Unitarian Church
1011 SW 12th Ave, Portland
Our understanding is that these community meetings are not just focused on Sit/Lie but rather on Sit/Lie, the various services associated with the Street Access For Everyone (SAFE) oversight committee, and how we all as Portlanders can come together and discuss opportunities to make our city friendly for everyone.
In addition to having some kind of installation on hoboes, displacement and anarchists playing in a tent in a warehouse, I’ll be participating in this event at this year’s What the Heck Fest.
“MAKING IT HAPPEN”
An Open Discussion on Making It Happen
Sunday, July 19th 10:00 am
at the Department of Safety, 1011 12th St., Anacortes, WA
Roll out early and join a discussion or two on creating events, running venues, and kick-starting special moments.
What works where you are?
What is happening elsewhere?
What kinds of face-to-face moments are important in a hyper-connected world?
How do we keep going when everybody’s broke?
Participants will include:
Mariella Luz (Olympia All Ages Project, Olympia, WA)
Marc Moscato (Dill Pickle Club, Portland, OR)
Aimee Buyea (Sugar City, Buffalo, NY)
George Wietor (Division Avenue Arts Cooperative, Grand Rapids, MI)
Hollow Earth Radio (the internet)
Kevin Erickson (All Ages Movement Project)
Joe Ahearn (Showpaper, NYC)
and… YOU!(?)
Now all I have to figure out is how I’m getting there!
Back in November, I had the good fortune of meeting and interviewing Abigail Satinsky, one of the co-founders of the Institute for Community Understanding Between Art and the Everyday (InCUBATE Chicago). Started as a collaborative between arts administration students at the School of the Art Institute at Chicago, InCUBATE is dedicated to researching and developing alternative funding models to commercial and non-profit arts projects.
As a former arts admin student and someone who has worked somewhat begrudgingly at NPOs for the past 10 years, I had an immediate interest in InCUABTE’s work. Their research carries added relevance as we contemplate the long-term affects of our current ecnomic recession.
Perhaps InCUBATE’s most well-known project is Sunday Soup, a monthly gathering wherein participants pay $10 for a bowl of soup and vote on an artist project to receive the raised funds. The grants, while small in scale (usually $100-$300) adopt a Muhammad Yunnus style approach to funding, allowing for the support of small to medium sized cultural productions.
In April, InCUBATE funded the production of my book, Brains, Brilliancy, Bohemia, and I gave a lecture on Chicago hobohemianism at a Sunday Soup event.
This month two separate InCUBATE-inspired gatherings come to Portland.
First up is Stock, organized by Katy Asher, Ariana Jacob and Amber Bell. The dinner will take place at Gallery Homeland, Sunday, July 26th, from 6-9 PM. Read the guidelines and application process here.
Next is Food For Thought, a project focusing on political/ activist projects. The event is organized by Axiom Infoshop, a group trying to start a book shop, free store and info-center in North Portland. Meeting time and location TBD; visit their site for details.
Back in November, I had the good fortune of meeting and interviewing Abigail Satinsky, one of the co-founders of