-
update Nov. 29, 2012
My canvases are being held by Finnish authorities!
Help, I'm being suppressed! Come see the violence
inherent in the system! #art #Finland
update December 07, 2012
My canvases eventually released from Finnish customs
and went up on the walls of Baari Vakiopaine after the
weekend. Posting some pics of the show.
The LIVE #ZzorhnAndBingoRage show successfully insinuated
itself into the Finnish headspace and laid the seeds of
mental corruption. I will have a "closing" of some sort,
also by telepresence.
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17 Canvases
I have sent 17 canvases to Finland by Canada Post, they should arrive by Wednesday (Nov. 28). My contact and fixer in that part of the world is Finnish Strongman 2009, Bartender Will at Baari Vakiopaine, Jyvaskyla, Finland.
We are going to put on a live ustream episode of the #ZzorhnAndBingoRage show at 10 am on December 01, 2012. This will be arriving at 6 pm, Finnish time; barring the usual problems of livestreaming. Z's working on an outline for the show. We should have a twitter feed for people to ask questions. English please, you Finnish savages; tweet @bingorage . [I use the word “savages” in the same, friendly, male, psychedelic bro sense espoused by Joe Rogan in his JRE podcast.]
The 17 canvases:
1. Orca Breech. An archetypal beast, that we are only beginning to understand. We fantasize about meeting aliens, but we cannot speak to the dolphins, yet.
2. Game of Bronies. Simple, non-objective portraiture. High contrast canvas.
3. DeerCrow. “Transformation piece”. Probably human, but on -at least- a secondary transformation.
4. Quillpoon And Blood-Musky. There is an emergent biography of “the quillpooneer”. He is the only entity that is capable of catching the Blood-Muskies. Huge, fearsome members of the ESOX family that are never seen at the surface, anymore. However; in the time of the quillpooneer, his unique catches created a glut of blood-musky meat. It was fed to dogs, beggars had to take it. What was he writing, out there, on the water?
5. Chimera . There is a long catalog of human beings or anthropomorphic deities in world mythology, that have been blessed or cursed with the physical attributes and divine attribute of flight. Harpies, Hawkmen and Angels... etecetera.
6. Treating The Windigo. Take your medicine, you filthy, fucking Windigo. Boiling grease; cure for douchebaggery and cannibalism, hardcore in its symbolic intent. During a time of famine, in the far north, in the depths of Winter, using up your store of grease to “cure” the greedy cannibal.
7. FrogBeast02. Looks slightly demonic, but don't worry. It looks like there is some sort of “Buffy-thing” going on. Swords and tits make for great tv; what about art?
Heroine? Or Murderer? Beast? Or Person?
8. Brown Cape, Jedi Dancer. A long night of wine and paint. Talk and music. And dance.
9. Red Turtle Canvas. Originally red turtle, now greenish. It swims amongst the cosmos, but still near the Earth.
10. Self Defenses. Nobody should need equipment like this to live at home; on the physical, or mental planes. Culture is not necessarily your friend. Nobody is this special.
11. ScudFly 4 Halibut, w/ Jonah-Bait. Yo; here's the breakdown: It is obviously a custom-tied wetfly, it's design based in the sport of flyfishing. It is an imitation of a freshwater shrimplike crustacean known as a “scud”. The overall shape of the hook is “wrong” from the perspective of a trout-based design; the steel hook underneath the wrappings has the shape of a NorthWest Coast-styled Halibut hook, with the attachment point and the barb point at opposite ends of a U-shaped structure, but closer than any other points on that structure. Is the Jonah-Bait a miniature human, a “synthetic bait” of some kind, or an average sized human? The bait looks like a normal human. If so, then the prey is Godzilla-like in size. What is it tied to? And, what with?
12. Moozo And Serpent. Look like friends. Both seem to enjoy the summer's sunset.
13. Right Eye. A well-travelled eye.
14. Fish Eater Treaty. An otter-like lizard is petitioning the fish-spirits for the right to use their bodies. They signal their assent, with the smoking of the pipes.
15. Ojibway Aquanaut. Everyone should learn how to swim and snorkel dive. Then float over dark, fathomless water and dream of long swimmy things with sharp teeth. Kick and float on.
16. Bear Pirate Zombie. A true “Hide-painting”, a “skin”. Will, I forgot to get a toy sword or cutlass for him. Could you spot me a euro and pick one up to stick in the loop?
17. Pink Corvid Dancer. A pink bird powwow dancer. Since it is a corvid, it must be related to jays and crows. It seems to be dancing with a rawhide and antler rattle.
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50 Years of Ontario Government Support of the Arts.
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Most recent (NOvember 25) incarnation of the Miss LoonTrout ... canvas.
---
Hey there BingoRagers! I need your help to spread the word about the upcoming show in Finland, and my buddy Will Lahti's curatorship at Vakaiopaine (Google translate for website).
I have 4 opportunities, that I am asking my OG BingoRagers, tweet followers, fb friends, accidental blog readers, Stumblers, etcetera to help me spread the word about. You are free to buy, a well.
Post, tweet, RT, “like”, share and so on; the new LoonTrout video and link to this blogpost. Try watching an episode of the #ZzorhnAndBingoRage show. Tell people how awful it was.
Help me find some art patrons. 8-)
1) Limited edition, signed digital prints series of 25 available (2 artist proofs, reserved); printed on canvas, signed, rolled and mailed by tube, unframed.
“Miss LoonTrout in-progress; composite” October 2012
“CutFoot Flees With The Beast” (Homage to “Guernica”) November 03, 2012
$200.00 confirm availability by email before sending money. There will be other works available in this print and shipping format, right now, from BingoRage Studio --- brokenvultureart@gmail.com
2) To view and buy in person; the “Finnish cafe at the end of the world”; Vakaiopaine, December 2012. My unique, original canvases will be available in Finland for the Mayan Apocalypse and the discerning European BingoRager. $300-$1500 CDN range. What's that in Finnish sheckels?
3) “CutFoot Flees With The Beast” (Homage to “Guernica”); original, signed, stretched canvas, 2011-2012. Price includes shipping, insurance. * $ 3 000.00 CDN
Approx. 24” x 18” x 4”
4) To sponsor; 3 cultural endeavours in NW Ontario: #BingoRageStudio, #ZzorhnAndBingoRage podcast partner, Zzorhn of #SpiritFirePark and #LittleBeaverCulturalCentre:
- The “Miss LoonTrout...” original multimedia canvas. |** $21 000.00 CDN
Approx. 3' x 5.5' x 1' For the grand-uncle with everything? See video below.
* CutFoot $ 3 000 includes shipping, insurance.
** Miss LoonTrout $20 000 for “the canvas”, $1 000 for crating, insuring and shipping in Canada. International orders could cost thousands more to insure and ship.
Very Important Notes:
Email for availability and shipping quote before sending any money.
Total payment must clear bank before shipping.
No change for “overpayments”; exact funds only, after email confirmation.
No refunds for final sales or for unsolicited or uncleared payments.
Updated Miss LoonTrout video:
Older CutFoot video.
OK. Spread the word.
50 Years of Ontario Government Support of the Arts.
Updated October 25, 2012:
-Photo and description added.
-After consulting the Fringenuity website, I have added scandalous speculation to my previous predictions about the Fringers' fates. (below)
Aw Shucks 2012
Acrylic on canvas #painting.
13.5"x16.5"
The humanoid figure is based on a common "pictograph" of the Canadian-Shield/Boreal-Forest suite of prehistoric rock-art paintings of Northern Ontario, Minnesota, Manitoba, Northern Quebec and adjacent regions.
The upturned hands with splayed fingers (often just three) has been interpreted as "someone seeking knowledge/power". The horns on some figures has been interpreted as "someone of knowledge/power", a shaman.
Big Hopes for the final season of “Fringe”. [SPOILERS ahead.]
I had not kept the FOX network show, Fringe, on my “must-see” list last year, but after watching the first episode of the final season, I am hooked, again. As a story segment, it is actually the second of this final series; episode 19 of season 04 being the actual first episode in this time sequence, jumping ahead some 24 years to the adult lifetime of Peter and Olivia's “lost” child. I had not seen episode 19 last year and was able to see it right before this year's premiere; “in sequence”. The credits no longer focus on the “weird science” aspect of the show, but on the dystopian tone of a future under a humourless, unappealable, all-consuming authority and a population forced to destroy their world for the benefit of that authority. This episode had the brass of BattleStar Galactica's insurgency on New Caprica, a soundtrack reminiscent of Tangerine Dream's darker atmosphericals and an omnipresent grayness.
The last 2 minutes, alone, still choke me up. It has mythology-resonant imagery (perhaps story hints) and strong music choice. The silent acting performance of John Noble (Walter) in a wrecked taxi broke my heart and then filled it with joy; busted eye, ratty houserobe, “miserable future” and all. It's that good.
Walter is lying down on the sofa. He is defeated and wounded from his brutal interrogation at the hands of “WindMark”, a bloodless “observer” with some status in the occupying force.
Again; he sees tinkling lights tinged with rainbow playing upon the wall. He follows them to their source; a mobile of old, broken cd's catching the sun, next to an abandoned taxicab.
Walter finds a bag at the base of the mobile containing another cd, labeled “Trip Mix 6”. He puts it into the taxi's cd player and it begins to play! WTF?
A spectrum of emotion plays over Walter's face, as he listens to the 80's one-hit wonder “Only You” (recorded by Yazoo) and sees a dandelion breaking through the pavement, immediately in front of the car's window. Musics soars... and cut to black.
Wow. That was trippy. I think that there is much more going on here, than is readily apparent. What is the significance of the Dandelion? There is a small seahorse hanging from the visor of the cab, reiniscent of one of the enigmatic “graphic dividers” that separate the acts of a Fringe teleplay. Does it have a significance, beyond its familiarity? What about the other knickknacks on the dash: dice, chicago skyline snowglobe, a baseball, huluskirt bobledoll, pinetree freshener, random chain necklaces and pendants?
Clearly, there is a breadcrumb trail (confirmed in the rather boring S05 Ep02) implied by the sequence, but it's not apparent yet, if the cab and song have more significance. Walter has been thinking about music throughout the episode and may just be happy to have found any.
The dandelion (as pointed out in another review, by Tim Surette) is metaphorically tied to “Etta”, the lost and found daughter of Peter and Olivia, whom is now a hardened resistance-fighter. She was “lost” during an observer attack, while playing with ripened dandelion heads. (Tim reminds us that...) Etta thinks that she was four when she was separated from her parents, but Olivia remembers that she was “3 years, 1 month and 5 days” old since the dandelion/observer-attack episode, in the park. Is that significant?
My hypothesis:
Potential spoilers ahead.
I am beginning to think that “September's plan” has already been tripped.
So, what is the trap? Or, more appropriately, when and where would it have been sprung? I'm hoping that Season 05 actually represents some sort of simulation that the observers have been baited into and diverted from the actual Earth. I'm thinking that it probably occurred at the time of the Observer “invasion”, when all of the future-humanoids were mobilised for the action. My guess is an extrapolated scenario, not necessarily correct, based on the imagery of the first three episodes of Season 05 and S04E19, but especially Episode S05E01.
In no particular order, yet:
a) Walter's trail to “the plan”, mythic overtones and his musical need. The breadcrumb trail is a granddaddy of archetypal narrative (Collecting energy stones! How 8-bit.), a simple storyline for a simulated cultural-battle architecture. It has been removed from Walter's mind, yet remains embedded in his personal environment and historyscape.
b) The taxicab of wonders and the thought unifier. Is it more likely that a broken and abandoned taxi with a working stereo system would be handy to bring a small comfort to Walter in his recuperation, or that someone left it there for him to find, when needed. Walter hints at music's power to bring new perspective, during his interrogation.
c) The desolate and empty urban landscapes and crowded familiar cultural detritus in an oppressed, dystopian future. The better to not strain an AI or a young “ 'verse ”, with too much character-useable detail, while providing base-level stimulation and shelter for the “sims”. That and just enough psychological ground to stand on for our "real" villains and heroes.
d) The “ambering” process, “amber-gypsies” and our experience of Etta's missing childhood. We only have Etta's reassurance that 20-some years have passed. It may have, in her perception and recollection. (How did she survive the Observer attack in the park?) Anyways, it has been long enough for the sims to develop a subculture and economy related to trade in a materiel used for “hiding from the Observers” (... infiltration of a synthetic timeline by outside uploads?).
e) The Observer WindMark's inability to retrieve “the plan” from Walter's brain, physics “beyond Walter's comprehension” and the apparent ability to hide from the Observers for 20-some years in “amber”. Story devices, or meaningful backdoors to an all-seeing rule of Earth?
f) The dandelion. The dandelion of the Observer attack is finished, gone to seed. The dandelion of Walter's taxi is bright and yellow, poking up through the concrete. It is reminiscent of Stephen King's rose in the "Dark Tower" mythos; representing the protagonist's imperiled universe, growing in an abandoned lot of another world.
Alright. That's my guess about this season. I hope the brooding, epic tone of the first episode is recaptured during the rest of the season.
Laterz.
:Eric
PS:
After being contacted and encouraged by the Fringenuity website, I've decided to embolden my prediction and have determined that the trap was actually sprung when Peter stepped into "the machine" at the end of Season 03. Everything that has happened since is part of the simulation (running in Peter's brain, assisted by "the machine"). It is essentially a dream and explains how he was coerced from oblivion in Season 04.
The Harpooneer is not the protagonist of his novel, Moby Dick. Neither, is he, the villain. He is a shadow figure, a “hired gun” brought on board for his skills, and for his cultural distance from the rest of the crew.
As he sinks, he glances upwards and beholds Ahab, backlit and merciless. The final stab at hope is lost as his knife flutters and flashes away; the ropes, fresh and rotten, hold fast. He thought that the birchbark would be the last thing seen, but it was the sky, of course.
Ahab and the crew only saw flashes of a fluttering blade, then there was nothing.
The great Sturgeon is bleeding profusely from her belly, but she has been injuried, very badly before. The fresh harpoon point is also bleeding, but slowing. The hook in her lip is ancient and unreproducible.
If this is a Trout – hook, then the man is very, very tiny; approximately 1/4 inch tall. Surely some sort of synthetic bait.
If it is a Halibut-sized fishhook, then the man is most likely a native North-American elf species, or whatever those Northwest Coast Empires called them. How do you say “fairy” in Kwagiulth, or Haida?
If the man is man-sized, then the hook is intended for a leviathan on the scale of Kaiju; Godzilla and Cloverfield-sized prey. No whale, dinosaur, mosasaur or shark, living or extinct has ever been large enough to bite this hook. If something bites this hook and you are on the other end of the “mono”, then your civilisation just fucked-up, bad.
Either, the man is about to die, or there is some unknown tech/GenMod at work; in order that he not drown. Also, there must be some neutral-buoyancy measure in the “fly-tie material”.
Perhaps the “monofilament” is some sorta super “gel-spun” line; #2TrillionTest .
- July 01, Canada Day, 2012
This is the first pass at my 2012 downtown Fort Frances art project, on the historic Rainy Lake Hotel, on Scott St. I will continue to document the progress of this project throughout the summer, perhaps streaming live, while painting and installing the monumental papier-mache multimedia piece. I am vending and displaying there, Thursdays throughout the summer (weather permitting). “Smallmouth at Stream Bottom” (working title). I am planning to have the work done by the time of the 2012 FFCBC (Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship); in order to publicise and fundraise for a monumental multi-element bronze and granite sculpture installation.
--
Photos click for larger size detail. Will be updating with Facebook comment extension shortly, please check back in half an hour.
19:45pm CST Now updated with Facebook commentary. 21:47 pm, CST.
21:52 pm , CST. Edited to get rid of spammy-looking art sale, sorry.
20:23 pm CST, May 13, 2012 Blogpost abstract, edited from FB comment thread:
Puppet and mask street theatre is a court-recognised and historically significant artform and way of having a public voice, outside of socially-mandated "channels of communication". The proposed "ban on masks" can and will be abused to interfere-with and legitimise the abuse of puppet and mask troupes. I know it's not part of your daily reality, but these are great people and great artists working for you. In order to preserve it, it is necessary to acknowledge that public art is legitimate way to lobby our shared society, our shared mindspace as well as our political system. To agree that we are engaged in real conversation, to try to find areas of agreement. I am lobbying the room to agree that masks and/or the wearing of masks at our protests should NOT BE BANNED in Canada AND AFFIRM that public mask/mask-type/puppet theatre is a legitimate means of public expression. Considered responses only, please.
PS: They want to put people in jail for ten years (10), for "wearing a mask" at a protest.
You are not endorsing a spanking, with your unthinking assent.
04:01 am, CST. May 14, 2012. Sent my MP an open letter.
Mr. John Rafferty, MP;
I don't know if you have heard this argument against the proposed mask ban and imprisonment legislation: It would begin to exclude or at least punish the puppet and mask street theatre techniques which are successful tool s to attract attention to the message of a protest. The proposed 10 year ban on "wearing of masks" could be abused as the blunt instrument and threat of official suppression of free speech. A "grey area" with exceptions to the rule would only leave wiggle room for prosecutors and riot police to arrest and prosecute first, then sort later.
Thank you, for your consideration.
Sincerely, :Eric C. Keast
:Eric
This is a new painting, on an old canvas.
It's called SpinnerBait;
A "Colorado spinner"-type lure , permanently attached to a single-hooked
jighead, with rubber skirt.
It is designed to provide plenty of action at slow retrieve,
allowing the caster to plumb holes and structure.
The wire, swivel, rings and spinner-blade of this lure -without a lure, but with a snap- can be obtained at your local tackle shop. I've always called them colorado spinners, they come in a variety of colours but I like the metallic flavours and they can be attached to a wide variety of lures, other than "jigs".
There are some robust, heavy-gauge wire varieties of the spinnerbait, produced for freshwater musky and saltwater use, with large, heavy, multiple spinner-blades and interchangeable large-body rubber baits.
The latest Zzorhn And BingoRage show (Season 02, Episode 17), “The Mob Mentality Apocalypse” (link to Ustream.tv)
is in the metaphorical can. Episode notes, are as follows:
We are late. Our bandwidth problems. Video quality gets better two minutes in.
Intros. Penguins and polar bears do not fight. Feed back. (Eric has first breakdown at 8:00; does not want new show member, will consider a “hot intern”.) Zzorhn pimps his FB chatroom page. Eric warns against inviting the internet into your back yard.
Stealing blues songs is bad. Eric is angry. This is a comedy podcast.
Skit, re: Montreal taxi driver hit and run. Eric wears a suit, get corporated by Zzorhn. (18:20) I object. Horse puckey. Hello DanniPants 24:51. Watch Montreal taxi driver hit and run after Zzorhn vamps in blue. Eric says the tax driver abused an imbalance of power and is therefore in the wrong. Eric then tries to make the point that our government and corporations are increasingly abusing the imbalance of powers in society?
We want to see the missing video of previous time; how much is missing? Eric drops knowledge about Canadian news and P.Q. Student riots as backdrop to this story.
Art review: Papier-mache rattle and puppet. 50:25. Describe papier-mache process with foam and clay model, transfer to handle for "functional sculpture"; war club theme.
The internet is built for cats, 52:04. What a good JohnnyCat.
53:45 Pack mentality. Safety in numbers, power in numbers. Our fractal metaphors don't surprise me. We like to think we have free will. Everybody likes dogs; even if they have sexual needs and Eric's bestiality fear. Eric realises that Zzorhn is full of pooh. Again. Zzorhn implies that we are all in danger of succumbing to our animal nature, our pack nature; when exposed to a “mob”. Sathyrhana "Satyagraha" 1:03:00; Zzorhn is happy that I made a certain distinction. Eric says that the Internet is the veil drawn over your eyes and police risk dehumanising themselves by “alienisation”. The black bloc are agents provocateurs and a danger to peaceful protest.
1960's psychological experiments regarding imbalance of power, social behaviours beyond our control and the appeal of creeping fascism. Stanley Milgram, the Stanford Prison Experiment, The Third Wave . The" third wave" experiment is not well-documented, but seems to suggest that their is a leaning towards fascism, in our deeper pack mentality.
BingoRage Filthy Puppet Theatre (1: 17:00). Excuse me. 1:19:30 The Milgram experiment (as enacted by sock puppets). 1:23:50
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This canvas has a divot, created by long storage against a pointy thing. The fabric may rebound a little, but the dimensionality has been set in an acrylic matrix.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Facebook comment update from May 12, 2012. 21:15 'ish pm, CST.
- (Okay; just had to interrupt the update to check out ruckus, at the window. My big old round cat, the brave Johnnycat, is sitting in the window and two ravens are sitting in the branch immediately outside the big panes, discussing how to dissect and share him. Johnny seems to love the attention. What a brave Johnny.)
Fellow forum members; please do not mistake my previous points as an endorsement of violence.
I am a staunch believer in the rights of "free speech" for all, "freedom from violence and threat of violence" for all and "freedom to have a voice in the affairs of my society" for all, which -for myself, yourself and others- is mostly limited to our shared pool of armchair political speech, by reasons of health, calendars and/or location. Other people who have access to city populations and seats of government can lobby the actual physical persons whom represent us, or wish to "manufacture our consent" (Noam Chomsky), in person. Their bodies , their rights and their privacy are being broken and battered for us, a significant portion of the population (Perhaps for you at times and in the interests of my intellectual foes, occasionally.). They represent me, because they are brave for me, for us and even for you, occasionally.
What, then does this have to do with the wearing of a mask? Why would a person wear a mask? There are only two polar answers, you cannot deny one or the other:
a) Because they are a criminal, or have “done something wrong” and wish to escape punishment.
OR
b) There actions were legitimate and they wish to preserve their privacy for legitimate reasons, and wish to escape punishment.
If you say there are no legitimate reasons to preserve your privacy and the wearing of masks at protest is a criminal act, then you are endorsing punishment for what you consider “immoral beliefs and/or actions”, not a crime against person or property. These are fear-based reactions accessed by your consciousness when you perceive someone else as an “other”, not an intellectual judgement. This is the animal response system that propaganda, advertising, political media messages, canned news, press releases and the emerging “arena-politics” play with.
Zzorhn speaks to the pack mentality in our most recent show ("Mob Mentality" link above).
I can prove that there is at least one legitimate reason to wear a mask to a protest. Without a doubt and beyond contravention. (Unless, of course, you are just a mindless troll for your set beliefs{ERIC; Cite particular meaning “reactionary, provoking online behaviour”}, hijacked by some malevolent, reactionary memeplex that you are not aware of, yet.)
If the protestors are using theatre and artistic tools to tell their story and voice their position, such as puppet and mask presentations, then these are legitimate, timeless means of public media, public voice. Please, let us not get into the game of creating exceptions to an atrocious rule (that only gives police and prosecutors a "grey area" to arrest people in); please just admit that there is a legitimate reason to wear a mask to a protest.
If it is your contention that this is not a legitimate means of public expression, then you really may be irrelevent and have to reevaluate what it means to be human, for yourself. You are without art, or in denial extremis: going insane with the contradictions that you are allowing to fire around the inside of your head.
When you see a gathering of people labeled as a “violent protest” -regardless of your political stance, economic stance, religious stance, urban vs. Rural stance, right/left position, etc.- You, I and everyone else should be held accountable to recognise there are many social systems in place to label and shape how you perceive that event. That doesn't mean that everything is a lie; don't live in fear, live in ongoing evaluation. Look at different sources and actually read the arguments.
You have to acknowledge, not that you are wrong, but that you may not be correct, this time.
No one person is ever right all the time and you should be suspicious, when the media and social sources you choose to believe, echo what you think is right.
Most people in the past chose not to dig too deeply into the “official story” of events in our society because it was a hard thing to do, and dangerous, as the bodies of murdered journalists around the world and the beating and imprisonment of media in our own countries would attest to. However, nowadays, we have access to more information, as an increasingly participatory audience, that was supposed to be hidden from us by distance and official silences and denials. Or sources are augmented by the spread of cameras, phones and connectivity; the evolving “participatory panopticon” (Jamis Cascio) that we are embedded-in and growing. It is becoming a powerful tool to criticise the behemoth of government with accessible, proveable numbers, photos, video, scientific research... real evidence that is increasingly sourced and produced in a non-university, non-corporate, non-governmental, non-NGO fashion. It is open-sourced, crowd-sourced grassroots that is in increasing danger of suppression.
I speak about the erosion of free speech so much, because it really is on the rise. When I was growing up, my generation X and the previous generation of Baby Boomers (now in power, a huge segment of the population) grew up in fear of the official enemy of North America (Yes, Canada, too, was frightened). They were the bad guys, because they were a torturing, totalitarian state and closed market, where free speech, free movement and economic innovation was not allowed. We, were the champions of life, liberty, freedom from torture and “cruel and unusual punishment”, good governance and free markets. Well, we beat the Soviet Union and now we are embracing and endorsing an emerging, creeping totalitarianism, that is already endorsing the tactics of oppression and suppression that once were accusations leveled at the “thuggish KGB”.
When we allow the nonstop, persistent erosion of civil rights on the ground and in the evolving online fora, we are endorsing the punishment of legitimate criticism. Sure, that means that bad actions will still occur, but that is what our legal system and prison system is for..
the punishment of bad actions,
not the punishment of the desire to preserve our rights, our privacy.
A mask is speech; it says that "you frighten me and I do not want you to find me", for good reason or ill.
Saying that a person is not allowed to protect themselves from official violence means that you endorse the official punishment of people you disagree with. Therein lies the road to fascism. It is subtle and seductive to say: "violence is wrong, unless it is used against someone with whom I do not agree, even if they are right".
There is an Indian word, "Satyagraha", which means "insistence on truth". It has spiritual interpretations, of course, but I like the real world insistence on the truth, a "reality-based" world, where evidence has primacy over "gut reactions". It means that humanity should base its decisions on the realities of the world, not the "just-so" stories about the environment, the afterlife, evolutionary science and "dirty, violent protestors" that we share with people that think like us.
I do not fear the increasing surveillance that we are all subject to, as long as it is evenly distributed. When all politicians, corporate executives, policemen and bureaucrats -you and I, as well- are subject to the same level of scrutiny as everyone else and our free speech is truly protected, then all corruption, unnecessary violence and stealing would disappear, theoretically.
But, if the people in charge use the surveillance state only on "us, the population" (yes, you too), if the elite/aristocracy/police/oligarchs/politicians/whomever can “switch it off" ala 1984 (G. Orwell) and operate criminally without fear of legitimate consequence, then the corruption and insanity of contradictions above us is insulated from change. Allowing the erosion of rights for some, endorses the erosion of all your rights.
This comment started out as a response to a previous posting, but I would now like to announce an initiative for the forum: Could we as a loose, rather random group of folks with widely varying views actually work together to create shared public documents, manifestos that are sets of shared agreement on how to fix the world, or at least little parts of it, a little at a time. I propose the hashtag #ZBGmanifesto to tag future proposal/discusion on the Bar and Grill page.
If you have stayed with me, so far, then "Bravo."
Have I spoken to the rationale within you and convinced you that the wearing of masks to a protest should not be illegal?
The short version of my blogpost: Puppet and mask street theatre is a court-recognised and historically significant artform and way of having a public voice, outside of socially-mandated "channels of communication". The "ban on masks" will be abused to interfere with and legitimise the abuse of puppet and mask troupes. I know it's not part of your daily reality, but these are great people and great artists working for you. In order to preserve it, it is necessary to acknowledge that public art is legitimate way to lobby our shared society, our shared mindspace as welll as our political system. To agree that we are engaged in real conversation, to try to find areas of agreement. I am lobbying the room to agree that masks and/or the wearing of masks at our protests should NOT BE BANNED in Canada AND AFFIRM that public mask/mask-type/puppet theatre is a legitimate means of public expression. Considered responses only, please.
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Eric, in front of the "Northwestern Ontario Warrior Walleye, Not A Fucking Zander" canvas.
"Sky Battle"
#BingoRageStudio
Acrylic on canvas, 2010-2012
Update: March 24, 2012
Tonight's #ZzorhnAndBingoRage episode - www.ustream.tv/recorded/21372091
Addressing Nuclear angst of the 80's, sock puppets, etc.
Update: March 31, 2012
Added the edited sock-puppet video to this post; "The Day After: deleted scenes (as portrayed by sock-puppets).
WARNING: Adult language and adult situations.
The Day After (1983) A review, etc.
This article contains SPOILERS, disturbing imagery and coarse language.
I am watching this old, melodramatic, made-for-tv movie again, in order to prepare for the next episode of the #ZzorhnAndBingoRage show. Sunday, March 25, 7 pm, CST, at
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/zzorhn-and-bingorage-wandercast
The video is in “VHS-quality”. And by “VHS-quality”, I mean it’s a heap of crap.
I have stopped the video at its most dramatic point to sum up the film so far: All these really nice, earnest, loving people that I am being introduced-to, are all about to be rat-fucked out of their civilisation. Corn-holed by history and power-addicts. I mean... these kind and gentle motherfuckers are about to eat shit and die, for no good reason and it makes my nuts tighten and my stomach hurt to remember how frightening this movie, and its ilk, were.
It makes me wonder if it wasn’t just part of a coordinated media scare tactic to keep us North Americans in line, putting up with the deregulation of corporate interests and the economic sinkhole of military spending started with the Reaganism that creeped over the border and into Canada. Clearly, the target audience for the movie was rural America, but it was well-known that any missiles coming from the Soviet landbase would be flying over Canada. Perhaps the “Russkies” had plans to detonate a few at altitude, over old Canadia, just on scorched-Earth principles; Denial of refuge and aid to their enemies and other bronze-age sentiments. That was the kind of thoughts that we, the last of the cold-war children were supposed to have, while watching this movie-of-the-week apocalyptic pulp.
It continues to seek out and fan the flames of armageddon indulgence in the dreams of the faithful and the memory and guts of the lapsed.
The main stars include Jason Robards and Steve Gutenberg. “The Gute”, of Smodcast infamy. There are a bunch of familiar faces and complete nobodies-no-more in the ensemble, including the old-fart from Northern Exposure. I am watching the movie in order to critique it and also to refine the draft of my most recent script for The BingoRage Filthy Puppet Theatre:
“Deleted scene from The Day After (Steve Gutenberg vehicle, 1983); as performed by
sock puppets”. (Check it out live, tonight.)
(OK; it wasn't really "a Steve Gutenberg vehicle", but doesn't that phrase just sound delicious?)
Like I already said; I have stopped the movie at its halfway point. Shit’s getting real. I don’t remember if The Gute ever makes it home, or if there is anyone there. That’s hardly relevant, but I remember his scalp falling off in my hazy recollection of the first time I watched this thing. Not in bits, but, like, all-at-once. That recollection is the basis for my puppet play. As I watch, I wonder if “The Gute” was really the right pick for this role.
There are alarms, ominous silent landscapes, reasoned, measured tones of voice rattling off codes and the flipping of switches and pushing of buttons. Oh yeah, we are using this in the show, too.
My sphincter is puckering in childhood fears as unquestioning technicians and bureaucrats follow their playbook of my doom.
When Z and I try to recreate the tension of those moments, I should lean over and
“tell him a secret”, but make him promise not to tell anyone, “Ever!”; even though we are likely doomed to perish in the retaliatory strike upon our position. Make him promise. Then, tell him.
- Z: “What could possibly be so bad that you can’t tell me without promising not to repeat
it, if we are going to be vaporised in the next eight minutes?
- Eric: “Z... I fucked a bear, once... It weren’t right.”
Go to black.
The start of the nightmare: Nuclear missiles literally fly out of a farm family’s back yard. The ones the government promised them, and us, never to use. Nuclear holocaust was our 9-11, but it never actually happened. It was a sim, a threat; a virtual apocalypse held over our head like the Sword of Damocles.
Ah, the “skeleton shots”.
Iconic cold war imagery, seen through the perceptions of a helpless, omnipotent observer as the immediate world is transformed from matter to light, shadow and heat. We see the shadows of numerous skeletons, metaphorical millions, stripped of their flesh a fraction of a moment before the bones, too, are vaporised.
At first, explosions in the sky strip us of our electricity and our technology. The shitbags have just murdered the last few thousand years.
Explosions on the ground rob us of our cities and our peoples. You can feel the heat coming, before the blast wave.
I had to stop and rewind that whole detonation bit. I feel dirty... like a junky, freebasing that old, used fear, finding a way to cook it down a bit more. We won the cold war, didn’t we?
---
The special effects may seem a little dated,
but they still gives me that ol' gut-punched feeling.
---
After the immediate effects of the nuclear detonations, this movie reveals itself as a modern incarnation of a 1950‘s “hygiene film” with hokey lines like “Dad... what is radiation?”. The PSA continues as the nuclear family huddles amongst their practical food and water stores and listen to the soon-to-be-dying-a-lingering-nearby-death whining of their family dog (which should not be let into the family shelter, unless it is to be immediately cooked and eaten). Doctors huddle about the cafeteria, planning their defense while DeusExMachina explains the effects of an EMP. The messages are so clear, these many years later. Be prepared, the government will not help, fuck off and die.
Then, the zombie apocalypse starts. Wait, what?!
---
I can hear the presumed few of yous sayin’: “The Day After, was no fucking zombie-movie. It was a nuclear armageddon-type depiction, sees.”
I say that the nuclear exchange between the USA and the USSR was only the initial apocalyptic event.
The real horror always begins after the first apocalypse, be it: volcano, meteor, tsunami, earthquake, moral decay, flood, siege, plague, massive direct attack... or some such variation of this queue. The land left bereft of civilisation and supplies always becomes a zombie apocalypse; just with varying degrees of death in the participants. The hubris of the zombie apocalypse is that we take satisfaction in planning to be amongst the living, the winners... that it is possible to be amongst the ultimate winners.
Is this is the core metaphor of our age? A hip, new incarnation of the same, old story:
The endgame in any series of personal and societal apocalypses is the metaphor of “my fortress and our survivors” against “the other”. The other... being in various states of strangeness, bloodlust, decay, hunger and desparation. The line between living human predators and undead human predators becomes moot in the real-world application of societal collapse and attack upon the species. Especially if both are covered in shit, rot and radioactive dust.
Zombie Zeitgeist
#BingoRageStudio,
Acrylic on canvas, 2011-2012
This movie could not be made, now. There are no happy endings. There is no moral high ground. There are no plucky heroes triumphing against the odds. The movie ends as the squalid zombie apocalypse begins to gain momentum.
Update March 24, 2012. Early a.m. - Another Miss LoonTrout video added to end of post. New vid includes explanation of the Mayan calendar.
This painting has been around a while, but it keeps getting better:
"Miss LoonTrout Got A Crappy BoobJob,
Mr. & Mrs. CrackPenguin
Pull Their Tired, Old William Tell Routine,
Nanabush Is Alive, And In The World."
It was in storage for a couple years at Definitely Superior Art Gallery in Thunder Bay; then again for the last year, in the back of the studio.
I have been working on new canvases for most of this winter's painting, but lately I got the bug to take another look at some existing works. Nothing is ever done, while it's in the studio.
---
My most recent video with Miss LoonTrout; sock puppet interpretation of the Jay Mohr podcast, Mohr Stories #35, and a promo for our upcoming #ZzorhnAndBingoRage show.
---
March 2006, old BingoRage studio.
Used papier-mache technique to secure mask to canvas, on 1"x4" boxframe.
This paper cast had one other "brother", that was sold separately , as a wall-hanging, blue clownmask.
It was not as creepy as you might imagine.
First paint on the "Miss LoonTrout..." canvas.
It looks so nice and uncluttered.
Simple.
Nanabush still has two, healthy antlers, strongly attached to his head. This imagery is a recurring motif in my work, taken from rock art and shamanic traditions around the world. The human figure portrayed with horns or a "halo", to denote wisdom and power.
---
This next video documents the process of "bead-embroidering" the "ghost" into the early LoonTrout canvas.
By July 2007, all the major parts were in place (except background-fishey, just added).
Irregular concentric rings ripple out from Nanabush, as he strides through our reality, like the ripples in the pond as he strides through the shallows.
The doorway, from which the bead-ghost entered the reality of the painting is much better defined at this point.
The Turtle figure is still prominent, upside-down in the upper right quadrant (under LoonTrout's left wing).
Nanabush's right antler is now busted.
---
This is how the canvas looked, as it was displayed at the
DefSup Art Gallery, NOCAA-10 show
(Northwest Ontario Contemporary Aboriginal Artists - 10)
winter 2008-2009.
Very, very bright. I had used a white spray paint to highlight the mask and needed to cover it up with alotta green.
UFO is more dimensional and Nanabush's third eye has appeared.
---
This is how the piece looks today, after I have been tweaking it for the last week.
All the characters have gone through visual upgrades.
Turtle is all but completely gone, replaced by a new character, the vertical background fish.
Vertical, background fish arose from a conversation with my friend Toshie and his dreams of surfcasting...
so, it must be a dream-striper.
---
The whole painting is a pile of chaos:
Damage by circumstance, bad decisions, survival by chance and the skin of our teeth.
The CrackPenguins are depicted running "their tired, old William Tell routine"; a grim drinking game.
It is based upon the "accidental" shooting of William S. Burroughs wife, down in mexico, famously portrayed in the David Cronenberg film, Naked Lunch.
The "Crack-Penguin" is a personal trickster-figure of mine. You just can't trust a penguin, they're always trying to ingratiate themselves.
---
The LoonTrout character cuts quite a figure.
It must have been a strange set of circumstances that allowed the pairing of a Trout and a Loon; natural enemies.
You would think that growing up in a blended household and overcoming certain self-loathings would have innoculated Miss loonTrout from the ravages of advertising...
But, no. She, too, has gone under the knife.
Probably a cutrate, back-alley-type cutter.
The UFO, in the background, now makes more visual sense as it attacks an "old-timey" police car, rather than the little stick figures that I had put there, fleeing, before. Happier UFO, happier artist.
---
Nanabush and his advising angels.
There appears to be some sort of moral arguement going on.
Nanabush seems to be in rather high spirits. At least for a trickster, who's had to tear-off his own right antler. Medical reasons, or what?
---
This piece is available as a sponsorship opportunity for Spirit Fire Park. We are installing the paper "Sturgeon Mama" statue in the park this summer and would like to build a roof to shelter it from the worst weather, as well as new muralwall infrastructure.
Purchase this sponsorship opportunity for $20 000:
- Receive the "Miss LoonTrout..." canvas, or have it sent to the museum/library/etc. of your choice
- Have a new mural installed at Spirit Fire Park, in your name, your business name or loved one' memory.
- Build a shelter for the "Sturgeon Mama" statue.
Yes. That is a bunch of clams.
If you haven't got it, please spread the word and pass this on to any rich relative or the notorious art patron in your life.
Forward, tweet, blog, pod, etc.
Thanks.
:Eric
"Miss LoonTrout - evolution" video; with Mayan calendar explanation.
Updated: March 21, early in the a.m.
The canvas in the accompanying photos
to this posting is called
"Grief And Beyond"
It was begun after I received word about the
death of a friend's mother, recently.
My friend Z, lost his grandmother this winter
and my own mum passed, a little while ago.
The main character in the composition is "the survivor". The antlers are representative of "acquired knowledge or wisdom", in shamanic pictography, worldwide.
The main action in the background is the allegorical crossing of the Styx and an imagining of the transition from flesh and information to mystery.
I'll post the video about this piece, shortly.
:Eric
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"What's With All The Frakkin' Apocalypti?"
- That may be the question that you are asking yourself if you've been following my newest endeavour: The Zzorhn And BingoRage Show. An atavistic, yet intellectual, cultural review. Certainly, there are moments of quiet desperation, near-crying and sulky bitchiness...
but shit gets real, occasionally.
The title refers to this season's overarching goal: Staring down the Mayan Apocalypse, millenialism, armageddon-seekers, fear-mongers and the impending panopticon.
It started out as a comedy podcast, but is hardly ever funny; not that there aren't moments of humour amidst the pathos. We are the embodiment of "a little knowledge being dangerous" in a world where authority is being leveraged to make us stupid, reproductively overzealous, poor and docile.
"dangerous"? To whom? Certainly not to our neighbours, friends and family; our whole community. No. "Speaking Out" is a danger to the powers-that-be, whom are civically and morally obligated to oppress us.
So, we are exploring the ideas of apocalypse, cultural and imperial collapse, armageddons, existential threat and popular media.
That's what I've been up to. That and painting... and a little sculpture... and some #AggroDemocraticoDocumentarianism. I have been promising Zzorhn and our "viewership" that I would start publishing more videos. I must apologise; I feel that I have some sort of mental block that is preventing me from publishing what is already essentially done. A ridiculous inability to finish punching a few more buttons and make a few more decisions.
Tonight; I remedy this, with Media Trap. This piece was painted to accompany a previous "Zzorhn And BingoRage" episode: "Media and the Technological Apocalypse".
During our most recent show, we spoke about Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto" and "Fight Club" as our relevant movies. This is my review...
[Spoilers ahead.]
Apocalypto; A review of the 1996 film as history and metaphor, keeping in mind who made it.
Eric C. Keast, March 07, 2012
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Mel Gibson’s epic film, Apocalypto, starts out as an Anthropological tour of pre-Columbian tribes of Central America. There is hunting, sex and humour in village life, but a hint of darkness is creeping into their jungle, pushing refugees before it.
The main character, Jaguar Paw, wakes from a prophetic dream, warning him to flee, but it is already too late. Empire comes to ravage his village and enslave his extended family; it is all that he can do to save his wife and child, before capture. Thus begins the march to the top of the world.
As they approach the outskirts of the Mayan city-state, they skirt the edge of a tremendous clearcut stretching to the horizon; the jungle is being mowed back, one tree at a time.
It is at this point that the film’s universe turns.
The city’s newest slave acquisitions are marched past a strange sight beside the road; a crying girl standing over a fallen body... a woman. They are both covered in some terrible growths. The returning captors beat her back in disgust, when her cries for pity are rebuffed. She carries “the sickness”, which the captors know enough of... to fear.
All the fear leave the child’s character and is replaced by judgement. The child becomes an angel of doom and pronounces her judgement on the empire. The implication is that the child represents some sort of divine intervention.
But from whom? Quezalcoatl? Jaguar? Nope...
It’s Mel Gibson... in allegorical representation. We have left the anthropological reconstruction behind and have entered a story-space of cultural propaganda. The girl represents a physical wave of biological destruction that spread out in fron of the first Europeans and their new religion. Her appearance as an angel, bringing divine judgement is lacking a line: “There is a new god in town and he’s about to start kicking ass... Yay, Christianity!!”
Now, just wait... don’t get all knee-jerky, just yet. Just because Mel is a little right of the current pope in Catholic matters doesn’t mean that this is a bad movie. I think that it is a great movie and a great representation of a cultural era that it is hard for us to fully conceive of, as modern “western” viewers.
But as a rural-Canadian, obvious leftwing-artist-type and Ahnishnahbeh; I have to say that the movie should not be seen without considering it as a cultural object, with implications in its imagery. All cultural objects have an agenda, either constructed and/or acquired.
The captors lead the jungle-dwellers through various layers of the city, which has extended its feeding of wood, stone and blood outward, like the tentacles of an organism.
The film’s delicious visuals of mass human labour and epic civil endeavour resonates with the imagery of Dante and Hieronumus Bosch. The bound captives are being guided through the various layers of hell. They pass a column of slaves cutting and chewing up rocks for the city; varying in size from pyramid block to plaster dust. They pass through layers of charcoal-makers (fire), madness, sickness, poverty, failed agriculture, starvation.
As they enter the city, the central market is abuzz with activity and produce. Although the countryside is failing and the vast population of the culture is slowly being deprived of their lives, things seem to be just fine inside the city.
It is at this point that new “castes” of people are introduced, the “elite”. They sit around the city, laughing and carefree. Some are carried about the city. Others participate in its important religious duties. There are priestess and musicians working double time; singing and preparing the ongoing ceremonies.
Husband are separated from wife and child. The men continue the march to die; the others to be sold or discarded.
The raucus machine of death continues in an orderly fashion. The sacrifices are painted a special blue and marched past a beautiful painting of their impending doom, explaining the procedure. It is kind of like a boilerplate sacrifice-contract that you ink with your passing. Nice touch.
Then. It is up the ramp... to the top of the world.
The death that the head-priest and the King’s family have in wait for you at the top of this Mayan city-state really, really sucks. I’ll save that and the ending for yous that haven’t seen it yet. I want to talk about cynicism and history, now.
The obvious questions in your mind at this point in the movie should be “Why the fuck is this happening?” and “What the fuck?!!!!” You should be ANGRY, or at least feeling a little bit ill by this point. If you have no empathy or sympathy with the jungle people about to die or live in slavery for the rest of their lives, you really should. They are you. Let me explain.
---
The sacrificial lambs may not be all of you, but they are most of you. Most of us. They are the victims of a social machine evolved from spare parts of resource extraction, resource management, history and myth, labour shortage, technology, power and religion.
They are the victims of a cynical ploy by the super-elite class to buy some more time and power atop the apocryphal “heap” of the regional power system. Using their society’s intellectual and scientific resources, they time the tightly-managed harvest and murder of their neighbouring societies to coincide with a solar eclipse and “prove” their rights to rule as successful petitioners of the gods and their right to skim the very best off the top of their society as directors of its economy.
Now the question that would never be asked at the top of that pyramid is : “Is it OK for us to pretend that ours is an unquestionable path, even though everything is a lie and we live by the suffering of millions below us?”
The implication of the story is that the ceremonies are now over, because of the eclipse. It is not certain how long this bloodshed has been going on, but a later scene indicates that there are hundreds if not thousands of victims.
The gruesome imageries depicted in the movie are probably good representation of events that actually occurred at different times in the Mayan empire, perhaps at every significant astronomical event. It is not known to me if those types of mass sacrifice were still going on during the earliest contact period with Europeans. The height of the Mayan empire had already passed by that time, fragmenting into smaller city-states. The Mayans, of course, still walk among us.
The last portion of the movie completes the arc of Jaguar Paw and lands the judgement of the plague-angel's prophecy.
Bingo-Rage was an inside joke between my Mum and I. She was a diehard, loyal bingo player who passed away a few years ago. Her jones wasn`t the multimillion dollar jackpots bleeding Las Vegas dry, it was the insatiable $50 inside square and the lascivious, yet demure thousand dollar jackpot.
I could always tell when she had missed a big pot; holding onto a card that only needed two more numbers, when the ballcount was only at 36. Or, some such compelling position. She then watched twenty-two balls dance by, sometimes right next door; but fail to light on her stoop. She was steamed.
I smile and declare ``another clear, cut case of Bingo Rage. Tut, tut...``
That earned a harumph and we would run our post-Bingo routine: analysis of the night`s lineup and remembrances of triumphs past.
Unless noted; ideas, images, pics and text are creations of Eric C. Keast / BingoRage Studio (formerly Broken Vulture Art). Clear link to BingoRage.com w/ "Bingorage" in link text fills my standard for Creative Commons attribution.
No commercial use without informing and paying the artist, thank you. :)
