OK. Sorry. I've already written a shit ton in the last hour. But I need to get one more artist in for today. And it's Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay. I met him. I melted. I saw his work "Day Breaks Instead of Night Falling" and my proverbial prairie cherries dropped. I don't know what makes them proverbial but it sounds cool.
I promise I will write more. But Benny is a performance artist/visual artist/awesomesauce artist who does amazing work with video, sound, writing and performance on a range of issues that could be viewed as 'queer' or could not, and that's ok.
For the purpose of this- I'm going to focus on a couple of his works, but mainly his early and continual fascination with sound and the sound of his own voice- and the the the the sound of queer effeminate male voice.
My starting point is his book:
Sounding Selves
Here is a video of some of his stuff:
Rosa Song
It's a recreation, and it gorgeous.
Ta,
Johnny.
Monday, January 28, 2013
I am the one that I want...
Apparently I find the depressing -20 wind blowing up my cherry red jeans and freezing my... prairie cherries to be quite funny. So I'm suddenly stuck on funny people. For my second artist today- Margaret Cho. Cho is a comedien, actor, activist, and huge supporter in the Queer and Asian (mutually exclusive- though I'm sure she's down with the gaysians) civil rights movement.
This celebrity comedienne was probably one of the first almost-mainstream Asian-North American personalities that I saw on TV. I had watched "I'm the one that I want" when it first came out in my last year of highschool. Because of her, I thought it was completely normal to have Asian representation on national/international television and media. So I was wrong. So she was fighting/is fighting for representation, and so what if she has gone so far off on the depend on political life that some argue she's lost all the funny and pretty much become a political pundit.
I was 14, when I first saw 'All American Girl'. Margaret Cho's sitcom, where as she puts it in "I'm the one that I want", "the network turned my 60 minute comedy set into a series." The show flopped, because the jokes ran out, and the subsequent writers... sucked. They didn't understand Asian-American humor... and neither did America at the time.
Following her career a bit, Cho has gone on to produce several more stand up comedy dvds, established herself as a social media tour de force, and several television roles while balancing out a career of gay cruise ships, and rehab.
Her methodology is stand up comedy. Writing humorous and thought provoking text that turns into stand up comedy, animated television characters, books, social media/youtube videos that maintain her relationships with audiences, fans, and collaborators.
For this artist, I think the best way to look at her autobiographical performance... is by looking at her work.
Reading her books "I'm the one that I want", "I have chosen to stay and fight", and watching her stand up comedy series, "Notorious C.H.O", "Assassins", "CHO Revolution", "I'm the one that I want" are my starting point.
What do you think?
Here's a clip of her on chicken salad.
Peace,
Johnny
This celebrity comedienne was probably one of the first almost-mainstream Asian-North American personalities that I saw on TV. I had watched "I'm the one that I want" when it first came out in my last year of highschool. Because of her, I thought it was completely normal to have Asian representation on national/international television and media. So I was wrong. So she was fighting/is fighting for representation, and so what if she has gone so far off on the depend on political life that some argue she's lost all the funny and pretty much become a political pundit.
I was 14, when I first saw 'All American Girl'. Margaret Cho's sitcom, where as she puts it in "I'm the one that I want", "the network turned my 60 minute comedy set into a series." The show flopped, because the jokes ran out, and the subsequent writers... sucked. They didn't understand Asian-American humor... and neither did America at the time.
Following her career a bit, Cho has gone on to produce several more stand up comedy dvds, established herself as a social media tour de force, and several television roles while balancing out a career of gay cruise ships, and rehab.
Her methodology is stand up comedy. Writing humorous and thought provoking text that turns into stand up comedy, animated television characters, books, social media/youtube videos that maintain her relationships with audiences, fans, and collaborators.
For this artist, I think the best way to look at her autobiographical performance... is by looking at her work.
Reading her books "I'm the one that I want", "I have chosen to stay and fight", and watching her stand up comedy series, "Notorious C.H.O", "Assassins", "CHO Revolution", "I'm the one that I want" are my starting point.
What do you think?
Here's a clip of her on chicken salad.
Peace,
Johnny
Where your heart and mine randomly interface...
So technically, I guess this is supposed to be my first blog post. My assignment today was to create a working list of artists I wanted to explore to answer the questions from my introductory blog (that I wrote like 5 mintues ago).
I was/am/eventually will(in the next 20 minutes) talk about people like Margaret Cho, Benny Nemer"ohmyfuckinggodawesomepleaseletsmakebabies"ofsky, Jay Brannan (maybe), Guillermo Gomez Pena, etc.
But on my last minute search for a reading list- because I originally thought I all I needed was a listing of methodology, not a reading list (#listeningfail #gobacktograde3) I discovered TIG NOTARO, a comedienne who 6 months ago, ripped out her heart about her personal tragedy and made it funny, and made it so impactful that some blogger named flamelikeme write a post as epic as this 'the way we weren't'. In this performance and subsequent blog post, Tig Notaro explains how she has breast cancer in both of her small breasts, losing her mother, catching pneumonia and how her life has taken a swan dive to shitsville... and the subsequent applause and support from her fans who laughed and cried and gave her the only thing they could- time, money, laughter, and some anonymous love.
So as I'm biting back tears in this petuli ridden café, my first artist is Tig Nataro. Read about her bio here. Born in Mississippi (because that's important to know). She resides in the west coast, working on a few shows and celebrities.
So what's her methodology? She takes life experiences and finds the potential humour in self deprecating witty comments, or highlighting the awkward moments of connection between people and in relationships, and shares them onstage where she performs as herself.
This made me think about comedy- specifically stand up comedy as performance.
So the first reading that I came up with from a very insightful google search tags: "stand up comedy autobiograpy performance" produced:
Gilbert, Joanne. "Performing Marginality: Comedy, Identity, and Cultural Critique." Text and Performance Quarterly 17 (1997): 317-330.
If you have any suggestions for books on similar stuff... lmk.
As a preemptive thank you- here is a link to Tig Notaro performing about her 'titties'.
Thanks!
Johnny.
I was/am/eventually will(in the next 20 minutes) talk about people like Margaret Cho, Benny Nemer"ohmyfuckinggodawesomepleaseletsmakebabies"ofsky, Jay Brannan (maybe), Guillermo Gomez Pena, etc.
But on my last minute search for a reading list- because I originally thought I all I needed was a listing of methodology, not a reading list (#listeningfail #gobacktograde3) I discovered TIG NOTARO, a comedienne who 6 months ago, ripped out her heart about her personal tragedy and made it funny, and made it so impactful that some blogger named flamelikeme write a post as epic as this 'the way we weren't'. In this performance and subsequent blog post, Tig Notaro explains how she has breast cancer in both of her small breasts, losing her mother, catching pneumonia and how her life has taken a swan dive to shitsville... and the subsequent applause and support from her fans who laughed and cried and gave her the only thing they could- time, money, laughter, and some anonymous love.
So as I'm biting back tears in this petuli ridden café, my first artist is Tig Nataro. Read about her bio here. Born in Mississippi (because that's important to know). She resides in the west coast, working on a few shows and celebrities.
So what's her methodology? She takes life experiences and finds the potential humour in self deprecating witty comments, or highlighting the awkward moments of connection between people and in relationships, and shares them onstage where she performs as herself.
This made me think about comedy- specifically stand up comedy as performance.
So the first reading that I came up with from a very insightful google search tags: "stand up comedy autobiograpy performance" produced:
Gilbert, Joanne. "Performing Marginality: Comedy, Identity, and Cultural Critique." Text and Performance Quarterly 17 (1997): 317-330.
If you have any suggestions for books on similar stuff... lmk.
As a preemptive thank you- here is a link to Tig Notaro performing about her 'titties'.
Thanks!
Johnny.
Welcome to SEPA
So legit and transparentliciously- this blog is part of a grad seminar on... you guessed it- Socially Engaged Performance/Art- FA890 AY at the University of Regina. But this isn't going to be your run of the mill academic blog- no sir/madam/creature/person/soul/soulless/creation, this is going to be epic... or it's going to be a solid documentation of some of my work, thoughts, and feelings on some neato artists.
My name is Johnny Trinh. I'm a performance artist based in Canada. I can't specify a province, city, or villa because I can't seem to take root anywhere. I'm looking at life and art and the use of autobiography as fuel and fodder for performance. How much does the self inform the art? When does the self become the art?
What I really want to know is that if I tell you my story in glitter, light, and abstraction- will you see some truth? will you care?
Can I be a little less lonesome as I sit in this trendy indie cafe in Regina, SK, listening to trendy indie local artists, surrounded by hippies and hickuma if I can connect with you?
So... how did I jump from social engagement to loneliness? I believe that "loneliness" is both product and root of antisocial, disassociating behaviour that isolates and creates so many walls and barriers between communities and people.
I think that the artists I'm going to explore ultimately provide a voice, and create a dialogue by shouting over those walls.
What I need from you is a hug. No, actually, maybe? MAYBE you could provide a comment or suggestion of book, article, performance or something- anything that can help inform this research and this life.
Thanks for visiting :)
Johnny.
My name is Johnny Trinh. I'm a performance artist based in Canada. I can't specify a province, city, or villa because I can't seem to take root anywhere. I'm looking at life and art and the use of autobiography as fuel and fodder for performance. How much does the self inform the art? When does the self become the art?
What I really want to know is that if I tell you my story in glitter, light, and abstraction- will you see some truth? will you care?
Can I be a little less lonesome as I sit in this trendy indie cafe in Regina, SK, listening to trendy indie local artists, surrounded by hippies and hickuma if I can connect with you?
So... how did I jump from social engagement to loneliness? I believe that "loneliness" is both product and root of antisocial, disassociating behaviour that isolates and creates so many walls and barriers between communities and people.
I think that the artists I'm going to explore ultimately provide a voice, and create a dialogue by shouting over those walls.
What I need from you is a hug. No, actually, maybe? MAYBE you could provide a comment or suggestion of book, article, performance or something- anything that can help inform this research and this life.
Thanks for visiting :)
Johnny.
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