ArtCall Diary - Entry 6/25/2000
Pitching Elevators
Ray
could read the writing on the chalkboard. ArtCall has found itself on the
border of illiquidity. We now have tons of money tied up in deposits here
and there. We find ourselves with unauthorized charges against our bank
accounts which deprive us of potential cash flow. Bankruptcy is not an
issue, but illiquidity is. What this diary entry consists of is a pitch
to a potential investor. Now what makes the humor level work for this diary
entry is that most of the background of this article is performance artists,
and the body of the work itself consists of what is best known in in venture
capital circles as "an elevator pitch". However, this pitch is going
to Kansas, where there are real elevators that hold grain. So what is being
done is "pitching elevators".
The crew at Ray's gathered treeside (with help of the quickstich program)
to swap gab and gossip. Eye candy was out in all its finery. ArtCall participants
trickled their way in for coffee 'that could not be beat', and Ray's fine
ice cream, to beat the heat. Bobby Gertler, sans shirt, was off in manicland,
unable to sit still for more than a few seconds at a time. Ray did not
bring his lease down from his apartment, so no idea as to what his month-to-month
figures, once his lease ran out, would be. ArtCall knows what its month-to-month
cash burn rate currently is. Expenses run at about $2,000 per month.
The
banners were flying outside the 156 Rivington Street gallery. The performers
were hot. The weather was hot. The topic at hand was hot, money and lots
of it! No Rio, as it's normally called amongst the regulars, is now in
the ''last mile" of capital improvement fund raising. The 20 year old gallery
had finally won a "letter of intent' from the City of New York to buy the
building for $1.00. There was a catch to this, as they needed to raise
$150,000 for capital improvements by September or the deal might fall through.
No Rio had so far raised about $90,000 or so of this critical funding.
If the gallery could get to roughly $100,000, they would qualify in the
"art foundation circles" for matching grants to get them the rest of the
way to the total.
Robin Goldsmith has done a great job of coordinating the Open House/Street
fair. Robin spent considerable energy on getting the Street Closure Permit,
keeping all of the various committees focused and all of the minor little
'gotta get done' chores that go into making an event happen. Robin has
been involved in No Rio since the early 80's and staged several plays in
the No Rio performance gallery. Without Robin there would be no event.
It is this last crucial $10,000 of all the money that is raised that
matters the most. And Saturday's street fair was designed to get that monetary
objective off to a good start. Media of all kinds had been notified. One
of the original No Rio performance stars, Penny Arcade and current Wide
Open Cabaret host Matthew Courtney were the MC's for this street performance
gala. The doors to the whole building were thrown wide open to the whole
community to show what transpires behind the famed welded Rivington School's
welded doorway. All of the galleries departments such as the computer lab,
silk-screen shop, 'zine library, children's art program, photo lab, and
main gallery were perused by the public during the 6 hour art extravaganza.
ArtCall is in a similar situation to No Rio. We too are in a "last mile"
funding situation. The ArtCall is working to make sure that all of the
stock certificate art that begins its creation cycle on June 30th, gets
safely processed. ArtCall roughly needs $3,000 to make sure that this happens.
ArtCall too, like No Rio, has thrown open its doors to the general public,
in the form of a Web Cam. The Web Cam page currently refreshes itself every
30 seconds. Last mile funding will speed refresh times and add sounds to
this pioneer effort of an internet startup. We are now both trying to raise
a crucial 7 1/2% of our current financial needs.
The artists on the No Rio stage have many years of performance art experience.
No crowd would ever accuse them of dogging it. Carl Watson, Baron Von Blumenzak
(shown here as Zero Boy), and Fly, shown above, have over 6 decades of
artistic experience between them. They will also turn in some dandy verbiage
in their share ArtCall stock certificate share designs. All three specialize
in finding the incongruous positions that American society seems to place
itself in. I'm sure they'll find the same thing about Webbittown and do
the same on our shares.
Penny Arcade was one of the first artists to sign on to the ArtCall project.
Miss Arcade is the "Official Performance Artist of The Lower East Side".
Not too many folks would dispute the claim. She might even turn in a street
sign, for her certificate design, of a lower east side street. 3D animator
Calmx (now brace yourself) was the very first artist to turn in a redesigned
share. Petra has been a No Rio staff/volunteer for many years now.
It is this volunteerism spirit that has also helped the ArtCall project
get as far as it has. Petra also adds to the ArtCall technical base as
she works for the No Rio ISP.
The performer list was stellar and backstage food from various eateries
tickled the palates of the performing players. Even Ratner's got into the
act (and they were the very first restaurant I ever ate in in NYC back
in 1971). There weren't any johnny-come-lately's on this performer list.
ArtCall list is much the same as everyone has a resume that is just about
20 years long. Most of the acts here "cut their teeth" on the No
Rio performance stage in the early to mid-80's.
89 year old poet Tomasso even graced the crowd at this celebrity packed
event. Tomasso has now moved to Newark NJ, and is not quite as mobile as
in past days, but still turns out for major events. Tomasso is one of the
most charming folks you will ever meet. Tomasso is the grandfather of the
"rant and rave" school of poetry. I have never in my 17 year association
heard an unkind word of anyone come out of Tomasso's lips.
Many small organizations such as Soft Skull press from Suffolk Street were
in attendance. Soft Skull is a place where a No Rio performance artist
can get their work distributed. Food Not Bombs, a No Rio program to help
feed homeless people in the Tompkins Square Park area, has been in existence
for 10 years now. They get donations from the neighborhood grocery stores
and restaurants and make a meal a day that is served in Tompkins Square
Park. Artcall artist S.D. Prestiani has been doing this for over a decade
as human emotion performance.
There
also is a computer lab open to the public. You can learn basic computer
skills there. While they don't have all the latest bells and whistles on
all their computers, they are very serviceable and open to all at least
3 and usually 6 hours a day,. As New York is playing catch-up to the wired
world, this is a good place for a Lower East Side artist to work out of.
It will also be a starting point for many ArtCall artists to get their
web pages ready before ArtCall's parent corporation hosts the site. All
five of the terminals were in steady use during the Open House/Street Fair.
There are 4 Mac boxes and one PC box that you can use, along with a big
box of donated floppy discs and a printer for hard copy. Personally I think
this is the biggest stride No Rio has made over the years, The Computer
Lab.
The Linemen, a bluegrass band took the stage for the first half of the
3 o'clock hour. The sun was blazing down on the stage, and I'm sure anyone
that was on the stage for any length of time lost a ton of weight. The
music was hot and so were the donations, as someone wrote a check our for
$500.00 during the set, and someone pledged $500.00 at the same time. Things
were beginning to work out in capital improvement fund raising department.
Comedian Steve Ben Israel took the stage to bring a lighter moment to the
festivities. And as the crowd chuckled along, reached in his pocket took
out all the cash in it and donated it to the cause. He reminded everyone
that No Rio was about access for all and that (amazingly) it took $10,000
for the space to get up to handicapped access codes. Debbie Stein also
took a turn dressed as Miss Liberty in a wheelchair, and got more donations
for the building improvement fund. Miss Stein has supported many of the
ArtCall's prior computer projects when she had one of the early Wang word
processors that ran on 8" disks.
No,
she doesn't get as many grants from the foundations as say Holly Hughes,
Reno, or Annie Sprinkle. But make no mistake about it whatsoever, Penny
Arcade is "The Performance Artist of The Lower East Side". Penny was working
the crowd. A fair amount of $20 bills had actually come No Rio's way. Miss
Arcade decided to dare the crowd. For $50.00 she'd take her dress off.
A priceline.com reverse auction soon ensued. But a price was reached at
$20.00. A man with sunglasses and a khaki shirt gave up two of the brand
new ten dollar bills. And to the crowd humming "The Stripper", in the background,
Miss Arcade removed her very fashionable pink dress to the delight of the
crowd. A similar fate was also in store for Matthew Courtney, but in this
case the tables were turned, as someone donated $20.00 for Matthew to keep
his clothes on! How's that for performance art at work? Here at the
ArtCall we have always run on a similar vein, doing whatever it takes to
get new technology into the hands of performance artists. For we can now
host any Web Cam that an artist wants to put up, have the latest in Wireless
Web technology at their beck and call, and make stunning 3D imagery of
any painting or sculpture they can create.
As Wide Open Cabaret veteran Kirk Kelly took the stage it was off to the
table areas to see what and whom had showed up. We found this bag of coffee
that was politically correct in every sense, from its raising to its marketing.
We also found women's issues activist Fran Luck hard at work at the BlueStockings
group table. Bluestockings is a bookstore/coffeehouse/meetingplace over
on Allen Street between Stanton and Rivington.
20
years is a long time.
Unless of course you are Tomasso, who might tell
you it all happens in the blink of an eye. From the "Real Estate Show"
on Delancey Street, to all the current programs now housed in the 156 Rivington
Street building, ABC No Rio has an illustrious heritage. The ArtCall too
has such a 20 year heritage. I have known ArtCall artist John Penley since
1980, when we met in a cold water flat on Bleecker Street. And Clayton
Patterson has collected more of my work and taken more documentation of
me than anyone else. ArtCall has on average a 15 year relationship with
every artist you see pictured. Most No Rio regulars have at one time or
another, put their life on the line in order to save the space from being
overrun by drug addicts, or overzealous art groupies, or even some of New
York City's finest (police). Many benefits have been held, art shows staged,
cabarets convened, just to keep No Rio viable, visible, and alive. Art
collectors worldwide have also done the same for the ArtCall's forerunner
projects, which have included financial performance art, scene documentation,
computer generated newslettering, and public access television performance
art programming and production. ArtCall too is much like ABC No Rio in
that needs funding to make the last mile. It isn't so much that it won't
be done, it is in how it will be done. ArtCall and No Rio both have differences.
ABC No Rio is a non-profit arts agency, while ArtCall is for-profit Delaware
corporation. No Rio raises money to get to matching grant status, ArtCall
raises money to get to venture capital raising status. No, 20 years ago
you could not have predicted that either the ArtCall or ABC No Rio would
find themselves in the situations they are in. Both are doing noble deeds.
ABC No Rio, in that they bring their artistic pool of services to anyone,
and ArtCall in that they are providing 'bleeding edge' technological advances
to the artists.
The street fair had some invigorating areas. The massage area was one such
area. Petra had been quietly getting some of her own little side contributions
for a massage for No Rio Executive Director Steve Englander. "He can't
ever relax around here. I've never seen him relax. Give me your change,
we're gonna get him a massage from the Chinese massage guys," Petra
implored with all her heart. By 4 o'clock she had her wish, and to the
strains of reggae from Liv-I-Culture, Steve Englander got the much deserved
massage from the folks of Tui-na Center.
ArtCall artist and Community Board 3 member Marcia Lemmon was on hand to
soak up some much needed culture. Marcia loved ABC No Rio and supported
them 1000%. No Rio was many of the things she stood for the most, arts,
community improvement, and less noise. Marcia also liked what had happened
to the drug-ridden bodega across the street from ABC, it had turned into
a boutique named Patch. The 155 Rivington store, run by Sarah Sims Erwin,
carried a very sporty line of clothing and has live models in the storefront
window to entertain you on weekends. Some folks don't even realize they
are human! ArtCall was extremely glad to have Marcia on our side. For when
ArtCall's parent company got venture capital, they would have to jump through
many hoops and Marcia either knew the hoops or knew who knew the hoops.
The girl above in the black dress is the widow model we were talking about
in the previous paragraph. Her name is Bobbi Williams. I almost flipped
when I heard the name! ArtCall has a Williams in its history. In fact his
name is Bobby and he is the largest single investor in ArtCall's parent
company. Bobby Williams owns 17.33% stake in the ArtCall's original share
allotment. He runs 4 (soon to be 5) gas stations in the Twin Cities area.
Both Bobbi/Bobby's were a bundle of energy whenever I've looked at them.
Matthew Courtney smiled and held up two fingers as a secret to the ABC
No Rio street fair had been unraveled. Even graffiti artist Ed Hush's tag
looked like it had been foiled in its latest attempt to keep a secret.
Like a good canvas, performance art is something to behold. It just takes
a little patience for the best parts to come to you.
Penny and Matthew worked together all day long under the sweltering heat.
The temperature was in the mid to upper 90's all afternoon long. They were
always together and on perfect cue. They kept at their tasks of keeping
the festivities moving along and raising the needed funding for the No
Rio capital improvements. I think I might have broken down, as I found
myself constantly going inside to escape the blazing sun. Deep in the ArtCall
video vault is our tape of "The Greatest Performance Video, Ever!" that
was shot at ABC No Rio on New Year's of 1990. This is a tape that ArtCall
intends to use for streaming video when Little Margie ships the tape library
back east. I introduced over 200 acts in a 12 hour non-stop no-break all-action
marathon session. But this performance was awfully hard to beat as the
temperature was just a bit too warm.
Barbie was on hand for the No Rio festivities. Her cheerful demeanor is
always a welcome sight. ArtCall does its best to put on a cheerful smile
(unless we can't get some prized treasure) even if the ship is sinking
(like at Treasure Island in Las Vegas). Fly was all dolled up for the Open
House festivities. She was even sporting a brand new 'do' just for the
occasion. She even did an after-fair reading in the gallery garden.
Just when the place seemed to be worn out, up to the microphone trotted
a guy with a hand drill. The patter started, and lo and behold, we were
in the presence of someone from The Bindlestaff Family Circus. There was
the usual spiel about what he was about to to. The first shock came as
he put the drill up his nose, and began twisting it! If that wasn't
enough, a phillips head screwdriver soon followed. Then came the real crowd
pleaser, a huge 24:" long broadsword. The end to this little 10 minute
horror story came complete with a 12" dagger that indeed was very sharp
as he demonstrated by cutting various objects with it. A little tiny mistake
with this and he was finished! Like any good street performer he had the
hat passed to raise more money and then ever so slowly swallowed the dagger.
The audience went wild with applause. A lot of $20 bills got raised during
that act. Everybody was happy.
Edgar Oliver kept things going at a frenetic pace with his take on 'the
dark side of things'. Meanwhile back in the performer area Leonard Abrams,
just maybe the real star of the show, had been doing the great chore of
making sure that all the performers got enough liquids and didn't succumb
to the heat, as the temperature had climbed well into the 90's. The newly
terraced garden in the back found a new friend as I checked in there for
most of the rest of the day.
As Greg Kline playing "Darth Bunny", KL, and The Afficionado's wound down
the the fantastic fair, a lot of us headed to the renovated, and being
further renovated garden. The Greenspace Project has been quietly removing
all of the debris that has accumulated over what we suspect to be a 50
year span. The whole area has been terraced and planted with all different
species of flowers. This is another example of No Rio's continued efforts
to upgrade their facilities. It makes for a fab outdoor performance space,
and after the fair was over, some of the performers dropped into the garden
and did even another impromptu session.
A
great example of the diversity of No Rio can best be exemplified by David
Huberman. David is a native of Queens, who holds down a day job as an Express
Mail clerk for the USPS. On a cold January night in 1985, it was David
who woke up the whole Wide Open Cabaret, with his immortal lines, "I'm
a ranter! I'm a raver! I'm a ranter and a raver, and I'm here to stay!".
In that instant a galvanization occurred. Everyone in the room looked around
at each other. They had all just found a home for the craft of their art,
whatever direction it would take them. ABC No Rio wasn't created that night,
but its continued survival became assured that night, as 50 folks at Matthew
Courtney's Wide Open Cabaret all took an unspoken pledge to never let the
place fall into the wrong hands. Thousands of art shows, performance pieces,
punk shows, children's art workshops, silk-screens, photographs, and computer
files later, it has all come to pass. No Rio is their home.
Finally good-bye's were said at No Rio and it was off to Restaurant Festival,
124 Rivington Street for a hamburger "that could not be beat", and to wind
down from the great big gigantic getogether. Speculation about how much
money raised included guesstimates from $2,000 on up. The street fair was
a success by any Lower East Side standard. And a good time was had by
all! Margaret reported during dinner that she and Robert Parker were
now ex-ex's and that their 3 children were all doing just fine. Ms. Parker
is working on a site called cyberneddy.com.
Calmx and I ambled up Avenue A to alt.coffee for an iced coffee since the
heat had still not broken. I now had five disks to edit when I arrived
home. I turned on the AC and plopped down on the headquarters couch only
to fall deep asleep and dream of what might happen Friday.
I awoke Sunday to the cool breeze from the air conditioner. Work was
done making the code for the WorldWide
WebbCamm web page function properly. We now have it set so that it
refreshes every 30 seconds. It is as fast as our poor 56k connection can
stand and still handle the rest of the ArtCall chores. As soon as our DSL
connection goes in we will speed up the refresh rate to 5 or ten seconds
and maybe stream the sounds. We have been using a Canon A1 digital video
camera and a little Winnov bubble camera for outdoor use. The outdoor shots
usually consist of our view up the Bowery.
The call came in at 6pm, Clayton wants a copy of his Guru's website.
He's willing to buy us a color cartridge, the paper, and pay for the train
fair to get it. We just realize that the camera battery is dead. So there's
only 37 minutes of charge on the camera as I leave the house, and begin
the walk across Delancey Street to see Clayton. I've temporarily forgotten
about "Cook Gecko Cook" at the Collective Unconscious at 8 o'clock. Clayton
goes into his fact checking mode (yep, the darn cartridges cost $40.00
each) and finally he drags out a $50 bill and he gets a copy of the guru's
website when this artcall is finished.
We arrive a bit early to find Gecko getting dressed for her little "Cook
Gecko Cook" affair. Gecko is a performance artist that to coin a phrase,
pushes the envelope, of performance art just a little. Gecko was flying
under the radar of ArtCall's predecessor, The NetLetter, so we don't have
any prior documentation of her body of art. Yet, Gecko has been one of
the busiest little bees on the art scene in the last decade in the Lower
East Side. Gecko has also been a model for Morrie
Cramer, and various other artists. We wandered back outside into the
high humidity and looked at this wonderful little barrel fountain that
is installed each nite outside the Collective Unconscious space at 145
Ludlow Street.
The Collective Unconscious Space is kind of like ABC No Rio in that it
too is a non-profit art agency, that they do much performance art, and
that they are extremely innovative. At this point they begin to part company
as Collective Unconscious is in leased space as opposed to No Rio's owning
the building outright. Collective Unconscious is also an artist collective
as opposed to No Rio's being an artistic collaboration. There is a bit
of a pressure cooker that bubbles under the Ludlow St. space that forces
the space to schedule something every day to attempt to pay the rent.
There
was a predecessor to Collective Unconscious on Avenue B called Gargoyle
Mechaniqe. They wound up folding due to gentrification and skyrocketing
rent. The collective faces the same challenge, as they get hit with a whopping
46% hike in their lease rent in a couple of months. Pressure is pervasive
across even the Lower East Side as gentrification creeps ever southward
from the East Village. For the time being it seems as though a liquor license
is a more of a printing press to print money than to help a neighborhood.
What started the upgrade process of a neighborhood, art, is rapidly being
discarded in favor of cold hard cash, and frankly we hope that the saturation
to all the bars and restaurants ends soon.
The sold out show (pop. 40), was a hit as Gecko revealed her Texas past
while cooking up the garlic. Smell is a little used element of performance
that Gecko has latched on to, much to her advantage. The heat prevented
Gecko from doing much actual cooking, but she promises to do just that
when the show regularly launches for every Sunday nite in September. Sprinkled
with seasoned sexual innuendo throughout, Cook Gecko Cook was indeed a
very tasty performance.
The entire collective has an electronic element to their work. Gecko's
performance was no different as video was taken and an old electric generator
contraption was used for cooking the desert, "Bananas Foster". The machine
creates bolts of lightning and when the bananas were lit aflame with 151
proof rum, the bolts of lightning actually cooked the bananas! (they were
very tasty too!) I attempted to take a picture of the finale, only to come
up short as the charges from the device actually erased the picture as
it was being taken. I was lucky I didn't lose my camera altogether.
It was an international audience that was onhand catching this rising performance
star. Erica Steinhauer of Oxford, England was very happy with what she
had witnessed. Erica was visiting her daughter her in the states and was
also "buying up the bead district", she said, for things she
couldn't get back home.
As Gecko had set up the performance series, she had landed a couple of
local sponsors, Jeremy's Microbatch Ice Cream (at first I thought it was
beer), and Original Sin Cider (hard). We liked how she managed to "plug"
the items without it detracting from her patter on-stage.
As the assembled multitude gathered to consume the feast, it was apparent
that they were satisfied at the performance they had witnessed. Gecko had
no serious delivery problems, only one minor glitch, (the rum has to be
delivered just before it it lit) and Yes Gecko You Can Cook!
Monday was spent editing the nearly 200 pictures taken. This is no mean
feat. And at 2pm Paul Kostabi checks in with a request to deliver the "Inside
Kostabi" tapes to Manhattan Neighborhood Network. He offers $20 for this
service. Inasmuch as we need to get a printer cartridge I agree to this
otherwise unprofitable venture. (although he threw in a "hamburger that
can not be beat" at a future date) By the time I am done over 5 precious
hours are eaten up.
As
I did doorway-to-doorway warfare, trying to be in air-conditioned buildings,
I went through the New York Hilton and found John Bianculli tickling the
ivories again. He did a great job during Streaming Media East 2000, and
I was sorry his picture didn't get in the documentation package then. As
I got ready to take a picture, I found that all my disks were still at
headquarters being edited. Darn. So I added the picture taken from SME
2000. John plays at the Hilton Monday thru Friday's 4:30-8:30 every nite.
What added insult to injury was when I got over to MNN, I am greeted by
the professional wrestler "The Iron Sheik". The Sheik was in for a studio
show taping that evening. I have never seen a man with such a huge chest,
it must have been well over 60 inches big. And I would never want to experience
a meant to hurt "Camel Clutch" from him, as I'm sure it would break my
neck. But there he was larger than life, all smiles, and I could not get
a picture. Double darn.
Cartridge and paper obtained, and tapes delivered, it was off to the
first M-11 bus going down 9th Avenue. It began its slow descent downtown.
I transferred at 14th Street and again at 3rd Avenue and I was finally
back at HQ. Bobbi began the alert service on WorldWide
Wireless, and the calls seemed to come out fine in my cellophane browser.
Editing continued at a furious pace throughout the night.
I edited and edited and edited some more. You have read most of the
results of that editing by now. Richard Gins checked in from creativityland.
He has been extremely busy developing a domain structure housed to be housed
under the creativitydirectory.com
domain name. Clayton then checked in. The new blank shares were in! I started
to get ready to go get them. Paul Kostabi then checked in with a computer
glitch. Something was causing his and Mark's works to come out looking
funny on Ebay. I decided to pay a visit once I was through with seeing
Clayton.
The shares were in. In fact, they are the best they have ever looked!
Clayton took a xerox of the specimen share and off I dashed to see Paul
Kostabi. By the time I arrived, his Ebay problem appeared to have vanished.
But he couldn't wait to get his little artistic hands on one of the new
Webbittown stock certificates. There was a misprinted share at the back
of the book, and he quickly marked it up for a quick sale on Ebay. "We
just have to make money The Webbittown Way," he said as he added a
dash of gold leaf to the seal area. Follin Gallery also loaned headquarters
a brilliantly executed mixed media piece that incorporates an Ebay pager
(that actually works) in a painting.
It has now taken almost 4 days to execute this diary entry. It is an
elevator sized work. I'm sure your browser took awhile to load the thing,
but then there is a lot of work to be digested. You have seen two different
approaches to performance art in this entry.
I hope that you have enjoyed it.
Next Issue: A trip to ad agency country, the computer expo and
THE ARTCALL!
Jottings: The ArtCall at Clayton Performance Space 161 Essex
6/30 7:30-9, Hello Laura Forde Wieden+Kennedy 6/30 12-5, National Arts
Club 15 Gramercy Park South 6/28 6:30-9, Tony Shafrazi Gallery 119 Wooster
6/29 6-8, Montserrat Gallery 584 B'way 6/29 6-8, Wide Open Cabaret ABC
No Rio 6/30 8-2, David Deporis Pink Pony 6/30 9-11, KatKitty's 3D Camera
Cabaret 6/29 to 7/2 all day, PS 1 Queens 7/2 12-6, 4th of July Fireworks
East River 8:30-10, Kim Foster Gallery 529 W 20 St 7/6 6-8, Tribes Gallery
3rd and C 7/6 6-9, Deepdale Gallery 248 1/2 Broome 7/7 8-12, 303 Gallery
7/8 6-8, Harry Druzd 303 Gallery 525 W 22 St. 9/7 6-8, All times PM unless
otherwise noted.
photos ©carol
braddock aka red ed
Artwork Permission of Webbittown Corporation,
artwork©
ArtCall Archives
ZZZNEWSLETTERSIGNUP1ZZZ
ZZZCHATSTAT1ZZZ
.