5/19/2008
New Warsaw Texas findings
Today we came across a link with some more information about Warsaw, Texas. There is this site called waymarking.com where people post informations about unique and interesting locations on the planet - Warsaw, Texas is in there (of course) and there is even some photographs that might look familiar to attentive readers of our blog:
4/06/2008
Manual cc, uqBar, Berlin
The Manual cc exhibition is travelling and will be shown during the 5th Berlin Biennial at uqbar Berlin! Here's the press info:
Manual CC – Instructions for Beginners and Advanced Players
curated by Marianna Dobkowska
Manual in Action Event Sunday, April 6, 2008, 2 p.m. – open end
7 p.m: TV-screening by Marianna Dobkowska with videos around the idea of games and instructions
Duration of Phase I April 3 – 19, 2008
Phase II – Presentation of the Results of the Open Call
Opening April 25, 2008, 6 p.m.
Duration April 25 – May 17, 2008
Parallel to the 5th Berlin Biennial, uqbar is presenting the exhibition Manual CC – Instructions for Beginners and Advanced Players, curated by Marianna Dobkowska.
Manual CC is a set of game manual-scenarios, composed of “instructions for beginners and advanced users”, that have been submitted by artists on special cards, all of which are of the same size. During the exhibition, the cards are placed in special display cases with holders for copies of the original instructions, which can be picked up and collected by visitors. Following the manual instructions, the visitors can, inside or outside the gallery, recreate the artists’ projects, which are single player or group games.
On April 6, from 2 p.m. on a special event at uqbar gives the opportunity of playing together with others. An extra game by Wilhelm Sasnal will be on display. At 7 p.m. Marianna Dobkowska will show a video compilation arount the idea of games and instruction, including works by Zbyněk Baladrán, Agnieszka Brzeżańska & Marek Raczkowski, Aleksander Komarov, Igor Krenz, Kateřína Šedá, and Lucia Tkáčová & Anetta Mona Chisa.
The Creative Commons license (Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5) al¬lows for reassembly of the works after the end of the exhibition – in any place, time or configuration and without the authors’ knowledge. The format of the project is constantly changing and it is continually drifting towards unexplored areas by utilizing various media. For example, as magazine inserts, a table with cards in the gallery hall, a set of postcards, or e-mail attachments. The exhibition is not composed of tangible artworks, rather, it is an evolving set of instructions which can be used in many different ways. The playability, as traditionally understood, of many game manuals might be questioned. They are mostly conceptual projects, focused on the mere act of initiali¬zing a game – with/against oneself, other visitors, passers-by etc., mostly with an open ending and uncertain results. The assumption is that the works can be assembled with minimal or no financial resources. The construction stage is made even simpler by the fact that most artworks can be assembled without any extra items – manual instructions should be enough.
The number of participants, both artists and “users”, is constantly growing. Currently, over seventy artists are involved. For the show in Berlin, an open call to artists was initiated, the results of which will be presented at uqbar from April 25 on.
Manual CC was initiated by a group of twelve female-curators from the Jagiellonian Univer¬sity Curatorial Studies program. The project took its first manifestation in the form of an exhibition at Bytom’s Kronika in September 2007. Other embodiments of Manual CC include a book, and a series of interventions in printed art magazines. The next presentation will take place at CCA Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw from April 25 to May 18, 2008.
At uqbar, Manual CC is presented in the framework of Alphabet (I for Instrukcja/Instruction), a curatorial project by Kronika, Bytom (www.kronika.org.pl ). Alphabet is made possible thanks to the financial support by the Polish Institute in Berlin.
Artists, articipating in Manual CC so far:
4!, Mark Aerial Waller, Paweł Althamer, Vasil Artamonov & Alexey Klyukov, Anatka Barczewska, Zbyněk Baladrán, Kuba Bąkowski, Bas van Beek, Anca Benera, Sarmen Beglarian, Sanford Biggers, Tomek Bierkowski, Rahim Blak, Agnieszka Brzeżańska & Marek Raczkowski, Karin Bühler, Yane Calovski, Martin Conrads, Holly Crawford, Agnieszka Chojnacka, Hubert Czerepok, Jiří David, Oskar Dawicki, Marjan Denkov, Julien Diehn & Nick Oberthaler, Christoph Draeger, Stanisław Dróżdż, Drumlander/ Louis Blackburn & Angelo Vermeulen, Elshopo, Pola Dwurnik, Samuel Francois, Marcius Galan, Rainer Ganahl, Haimo Ganz, Ingo Gerken, Simon Goldin & Jakob Senneby, Leszek Golec & Tatiana Czekalska, Ryszard Górecki, Henry Grahn, Marek Glinkowski, Grupa Whitney Houston: Paulina Ołowska & Bartek Przybył & Aleksander Wawrzyniak, Małgorzata Jabłońska & Piotr Szewczyk, Jesper Jargil, Łukasz Jastrubczak, Olivier Kosta –Thefaine, Jiří Kovanda, Justyna Köke, Elżbieta Krajewska, Anna Krenz, Igor Krenz, Paweł Kruk, Wojtek Kucharczyk, Agnieszka Kurant, Piotr Kurka, Robert Kuśmirowski, Dominik Lang, Maciej Landsberg, Jan Löchte, Sara MacKillop, Agnieszka Małecka, Anna Mandoki, Katarzyna Marszewski, Christian Mayer & Yves Mettler, Asier Mendizabal, Mirzlekid, Nuria Montiel, Bartek Mucha, Jacek Niegoda, Anna Niesterowicz, Txema Novelo, Parfyme, Dan Perjovschi, Ben Petersen, Robert Rumas, PGR ART, Raketa, Wilhelm Sasnal, Jadwiga Sawicka, Jochen Schmith, Maciej Sieńczyk, Janek Simon, Jiří Skála, Kateřína Šedá, Škart, Bruno Steiner, Rudolf Steiner, Kamen Stoyanov & Vasilena Gankovska, Paweł Susid, Superflex, Tomáš Svoboda, Grzegorz Sztwiertnia, Lucia Tkáčová & Anetta Mona Chisa, Karl Tuikkanen, Tomssa, Tomáš Vaněk, Joanna Warsza, Olav Westphalen, Franziska Wicke, Adam Witkowski, Julita Wójcik, Patryk Zakrocki, Honza Zamojski, Grzegorz Zgraja, Florian Zeyfang
uqbar
Schwedenstr. 16 | D -13357 Berlin | T + 49 (0)30 460 69 107
projectspace@uqbar-ev.de | http://projectspace.uqbar-ev.de
U8/U9/M13 Osloer Straße
Friday – Saturday, Sunday Wedding (27.4.) 2 – 7 p.m. and by appointment
The Teksas Blow'Em Poker game manual on display (middle)
Manual CC – Instructions for Beginners and Advanced Players
curated by Marianna Dobkowska
Manual in Action Event Sunday, April 6, 2008, 2 p.m. – open end
7 p.m: TV-screening by Marianna Dobkowska with videos around the idea of games and instructions
Duration of Phase I April 3 – 19, 2008
Phase II – Presentation of the Results of the Open Call
Opening April 25, 2008, 6 p.m.
Duration April 25 – May 17, 2008
Parallel to the 5th Berlin Biennial, uqbar is presenting the exhibition Manual CC – Instructions for Beginners and Advanced Players, curated by Marianna Dobkowska.
Manual CC is a set of game manual-scenarios, composed of “instructions for beginners and advanced users”, that have been submitted by artists on special cards, all of which are of the same size. During the exhibition, the cards are placed in special display cases with holders for copies of the original instructions, which can be picked up and collected by visitors. Following the manual instructions, the visitors can, inside or outside the gallery, recreate the artists’ projects, which are single player or group games.
On April 6, from 2 p.m. on a special event at uqbar gives the opportunity of playing together with others. An extra game by Wilhelm Sasnal will be on display. At 7 p.m. Marianna Dobkowska will show a video compilation arount the idea of games and instruction, including works by Zbyněk Baladrán, Agnieszka Brzeżańska & Marek Raczkowski, Aleksander Komarov, Igor Krenz, Kateřína Šedá, and Lucia Tkáčová & Anetta Mona Chisa.
The Creative Commons license (Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5) al¬lows for reassembly of the works after the end of the exhibition – in any place, time or configuration and without the authors’ knowledge. The format of the project is constantly changing and it is continually drifting towards unexplored areas by utilizing various media. For example, as magazine inserts, a table with cards in the gallery hall, a set of postcards, or e-mail attachments. The exhibition is not composed of tangible artworks, rather, it is an evolving set of instructions which can be used in many different ways. The playability, as traditionally understood, of many game manuals might be questioned. They are mostly conceptual projects, focused on the mere act of initiali¬zing a game – with/against oneself, other visitors, passers-by etc., mostly with an open ending and uncertain results. The assumption is that the works can be assembled with minimal or no financial resources. The construction stage is made even simpler by the fact that most artworks can be assembled without any extra items – manual instructions should be enough.
The number of participants, both artists and “users”, is constantly growing. Currently, over seventy artists are involved. For the show in Berlin, an open call to artists was initiated, the results of which will be presented at uqbar from April 25 on.
Manual CC was initiated by a group of twelve female-curators from the Jagiellonian Univer¬sity Curatorial Studies program. The project took its first manifestation in the form of an exhibition at Bytom’s Kronika in September 2007. Other embodiments of Manual CC include a book, and a series of interventions in printed art magazines. The next presentation will take place at CCA Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw from April 25 to May 18, 2008.
At uqbar, Manual CC is presented in the framework of Alphabet (I for Instrukcja/Instruction), a curatorial project by Kronika, Bytom (www.kronika.org.pl
Artists, articipating in Manual CC so far:
4!, Mark Aerial Waller, Paweł Althamer, Vasil Artamonov & Alexey Klyukov, Anatka Barczewska, Zbyněk Baladrán, Kuba Bąkowski, Bas van Beek, Anca Benera, Sarmen Beglarian, Sanford Biggers, Tomek Bierkowski, Rahim Blak, Agnieszka Brzeżańska & Marek Raczkowski, Karin Bühler, Yane Calovski, Martin Conrads, Holly Crawford, Agnieszka Chojnacka, Hubert Czerepok, Jiří David, Oskar Dawicki, Marjan Denkov,
uqbar
Schwedenstr. 16 | D -13357 Berlin | T + 49 (0)30 460 69 107
projectspace@uqbar-ev.de | http://projectspace.uqbar-ev.de
U8/U9/M13 Osloer Straße
Friday – Saturday, Sunday Wedding (27.4.) 2 – 7 p.m. and by appointment
3/28/2008
unNatural Disaster, University of Texas at Dallas
unNatural Disaster, curated by Greg Metz, opened tonight in the Visual Arts Building at The University of Texas at Dallas. The exhibit runs through April 18, 2008. Our polish-texan friend and colleague Mark Jedlinski went to the opening to have "a couple of shots" and took some great photographs for us.
photographs by Mark Jedlinski
Read more about the show and participating artists in the text from curator Greg Metz: http://ah.utdallas.edu/season0708/unnatural.htm
Also find more pictures of the show here:
pics by Mark Jedlinski / pics by Greg Metz
photographs by Mark Jedlinski
Read more about the show and participating artists in the text from curator Greg Metz: http://ah.utdallas.edu/season0708/unnatural.htm
Also find more pictures of the show here:
pics by Mark Jedlinski / pics by Greg Metz
9/15/2007
Manual cc, Kronika Gallery, Bytom
Above: Nick Oberthaler & Julien Diehn "Texas Blow'em Poker", 2007
a collage, one of the cards comissioned for the Manual cc project.
---------------------------------------------------------
MANUAL cc Instructions for beginners and advanced players
Exhibition in Kronika opens on 15th September (Saturday) at 7 p.m.
MANUAL cc is on view till 1st October 2007.
MANUAL cc Instructions for beginners and advanced players invites
its spectators to enter a world of game-exhibition. This world has
been created following the game instructions provided by a selected
group of artists on special postcards. The players/spectators are
encouraged to re-create the artworks themselves and for that
purpose they can use the space in the gallery or take the games
outside.
Creative commons’ license allows for recreating of the artists’
works even after the exhibition. The current display in Kronika
Gallery is only the first stage of the project, that will be followed
by the publication of all the instructions and hopefully will further
evolve in space and time The project refers to a conceptual
tradition in art history and Pierre Restany’s ‘Art Concept from
Europe’ exhibition (1970) for which the artwork was sent in by
mail or created based on the instructions that were mailed in by
the artists. Additional conceptual references that can be traced
in the MANUAL are: dematerialization of artwork, non-defined
authorship, superiority of idea over execution as well as
a peculiar sense of humor emanating from most of the artworks
on display.
As a part of the game-exhibition, the twelve curators have also
attempted to re-create an “invisible” project, which is
an exercise of an American conceptual artist – Robert Barry’s
assignment for his students in Novia Scotia College of Arts and
Design (1969). The students were asked to “create” an immaterial
artwork in a form of a secret, an oral agreement, which was never
to be disclosed. The main idea being that the artwork will cease to
exist if that secret is disclosed to any third party.
One of the main underlining theories behind the MANUAL is the
methodology, which was popular in 1970s based on the concept
of abolishing the supremacy of the artist over the spectator. The
artist would often only create a general framework for the artwork
and invite the spectator to participate in the final creation.
The instructions sent to Kronika Gallery in Bytom by the artists
form all over the world provide such frameworks as it is hard to
predict the course of the games, the level of rivalry or the final
results. The curators offer the gallery space to the
spectators-players.The success/failure of the project is entirely
dependent on the players’ participation.
---------------------------------------------------------
The opening night program includes additional games, films and
sound performances.
+ sound performance by Wojtek Kucharczyk
++ reconstruction:
La Monte Young „Composition #5” (1960)
Emmett Williams „Voice Piece for La Monte Young” (1963)
Yoko Ono „Bicycle Piece for Orchestra” (1962)
Alison Knowles „Proposition” (1962)
+++ John Cage "4’33” (1952) played by Julia Malik (cello)
++++ dj set by muskimusk
---------------------------------------------------------
curators: Marianna Dobkowska, Magdalena Drągowska, Anna
Grajewska, Ewa Kobylarczyk, Magdalena Lipska, Cecylia Malik,
Noriko Nagashige, Agnieszka Pindera, Monika Rendzner, Anna
Sulich, Magdalena Torbus, Marika Zamojska
Postgraduate Curatorial Studies at Jagiellonian University
www.studiakuratorskie.studies.uj.edu.pl
exhibition architecture: Michał Latko
graphic identification: Marianna Dobkowska, Krzysztof Bielecki
Project realized with fincial suport of Urząd Marszałkowski
Województwa Śląskiego, Embassy of Denmark United Kingdom in Warsaw
and Jagiellonian University In Cracow.
---------------------------------------------------------
artists:
4!
Mark Aerial Waller
Paweł Althamer
Anatka Barczewska
Kuba Bąkowski
Sarmen Beglarian
Tomek Bierkowski
Rahim Blak
Agnieszka Brzeżańska & Marek Raczkowski
Karin Bühler
John Cage
Yane Calovski
Martin Conrads
Holly Crawford
Agnieszka Chojnacka
Hubert Czerepok
Christoph Draeger
Stanisław Dróżdż
Drumlander/ Louis Blackburn + Angelo Vermeulen
Pola Dwurnik
Samuel Francois
Marcius Galan
Haimo Ganz
Ingo Gerken
Simon Goldin & Jakob Senneby
Leszek Golec & Tatiana Czekalska
Ryszard Górecki
Henry Grahn
Marek Glinkowski
Grupa Whitney Houston: Paulina Ołowska, Bartek Przybył
& Aleksander Wawrzyniak
Małgorzata Jabłońska & Piotr Szewczyk
Jesper Jargil
Łukasz Jastrubczak
Jan Loechte
Olivier Kosta -Thefaine
Justyna Köke
Elżbieta Krajewska
Anna Krenz
Wojtek Kucharczyk
Paweł Kruk
Piotr Kurka
Agnieszka Kurant
Robert Kuśmirowski
Maciej Landsberg
Sara MacKillop
Agnieszka Małecka
Anna Mandoki
Mirzlekid
Nuria Montiel
Bartek Mucha
Jacek Niegoda
Anna Niesterowicz
Txema Novelo
Nick Oberthaler & Julien Diehn
Parfyme
Ben Petersen
PGR ART
Raketa
Wilhelm Sasnal
Jadwiga Sawicka
Jochen Schmith
Maciej Sieńczyk
Janek Simon
Bruno Steiner
Rudolf Steiner
Paweł Susid
Superflex
Karl Tuikkanen
Tomssa
Adam Witkowski
Julita Wójcik
Patryk Zakrocki
Honza Zamojski
Grzegorz Zgraja
---------------------------------------------------------
kronika
Rynek 26, Bytom
t: 00 48 32 281 81 33
f: 00 48 32 281 76 94
e: mail@kronika.org.pl
w: www.kronika.org.pl
Godziny otwarcia:
wtorek - czwartek 11.00 - 18.00
piątek 14.00 - 20.00
sobota 11.00 - 15.00
5/15/2007
5/09/2007
Stacking polish furniture
The Texsas Bar is going to be built of old furniture pieces from the Polish Institute that they were going to throw out. We borrowed Roland's camping car to get materials at the hardware store and then transport the furniture from the Polish Institute to Julien's studio. Having a french license plate we didn't mind parking the bus right in the non-parking zone in front of the institute. That way it was easily filled within 15 minutes. And we took as much as we could to fill it to the very top!
5/07/2007
Mitch in Vienna
Met old pal Macio again tonight at Rote Bar in Vienna where he played live with his band Baaba. Some kind of improvisational jazz with a blend of fusion and electronics. Great show!
3/22/2007
How about a Teksas Bar?
Exciting news! We were invited to a group exhibition in Vienna curated by Sebastian Cichocki in collaboration with the Polish Institute which will take place in May. As contribution we came up with the brilliant idea to make a bar. A Teksas Bar, what else? Here's a first sketch by Nick:
1/16/2007
12/23/2006
Renata, Joseph and the polish sausage
Being in California Julien researches a bit about polish communities in the Golden State: Renata is polish and lives in San Francisco. She does a lot of things and has a couple of videos online. This time she takes us to her favorite polish store to tell us all about Joseph's polish sausage.
12/10/2006
4 wheels to Texas
Julien has to hand back the Datsun to Johannes and therefore found himself another car. See it here on the left. This is an original '76 BMW 2002 and will - if the mechanic is positive - be the drive to Texas. Let's see about that... for some reason, when starting up blue smoke comes out of the exhaust pipe, just for a minute until the engine is warmed up. I mean, it drives well but the smoke thing is still quite scary.
12/07/2006
Oris Street
Cruising through Compton in the search of a new car Julien found Oris Street (what a surprise!) and shot a couple of photographs of its diverse views with nostalgic thoughts of good old friend Oris who is probably just serving some shots of Zoladkowa to Nick.
12/04/2006
WARSAW weekend vs. L.A. weekend
WARSAW WEEKEND ...or ujaz vodski in Ujazdowski
Well. The weekends. Nick went with basque friend and co-resident Inaki to an opening on Friday at Hotel Europejski. Kind of socialist styled big hotel, where there was sort of an exhibition and party in the basement. Lots of people, also people we had already met before, and lots lots lots of free Zoladkowa. That was the deal.... the story could already stop here... well, Nick had some shots, more or less probably about one bottle, mixed with sprite (nice new combination)... there were lots of familiar faces around as already said... Joanna, Sarmen, Alicija, Warsaw artists Oskar Dawicki and Agata Bogacka, our "chief-sheriff" Marianna Dobkowska and some more... afterwards we went on to Kafe Kulturalna, where suprisingly a huge party was going on (5 more beers). And then Nick and Inaki went for some "Warsaw kebab" (actually a mix of turkish and pakistani styled food) which was very good... reached bed at 5am. The headache next day was a bit too much, so Saturday was more about staying at home. Today we went for the Rembrandt exhibition in the kind of national museum that looks like a post classicist bunker from outside. Nick bought 2 old polish punk cds. PROLETARYAT and DEZERTER. Now in one hour Nick has his meeting with Patryk for the poster design. ...that was Warsaw weekend no.2.
Next week there is some more openings to come and Nick will leave to Berlin to meet good old friend commander Megerle. Zajebiscie!
LOS ANGELES WEEKEND not over yet
The week-end started Thursday with a free 25th-issue-of-some-cool-magazine party where the booze was not free at all - $10 for a Vodka-Tonic! The DJs were really good though so it was worth a dance. Unfortunately the doorman at the VIP area didn't like our faces and wouldn't let us in (there is always a VIP area in this city and you better look like you're important to get in). We did end up sneaking in via the back staircase just to realize that they were closing the bar. It was 1.30am by then and half an hour later the crowded dancefloor got swiped empty by some really big guys: "Move to the doors. We're closing". This is America, not Poland. Friday, Julien went to see Scorsese's new blockbuster The Departed starring the whole Hollywood crowd. Gangsters, police, lot's of blood and stuff, quite intense.
Last night, Saturday, openings in Culver City on LaCienega: Blum&Poe showed a consistent Dave Muller show. M&C showed Paul Pfeiffer, very nice. These are basically the only two shows worth a visit down there. Lightbox Gallery had some groupshow curated by Nick McCarthy of Franz Ferdinand (wooohooo!) with some horrible paintings, lame videos and conceptual bullshit, black lines on white canvas depicting the lines of a pinball game - I thought it was shit, but anyways. They had an aftershow party in the gallerist's nice house in Venice Beach right by the ocean with tons of good food (barbecue) and enough drinks that would help the stiff guests loosen up after a while. Today, Sunday, a drive downtown to meet Johannes's landlord is scheduled. He will fix my car (the brakelights don't work, no handbrake, and the exhaust pipe slowly falls off). Czesc!
Over now - Los Angeles finishes its week-end. 3:33am. Mackey Apartments. Cochran Ave. >Dead End.
The car is kinda fixed: Grant, Johannes's landlord, will get the missing parts by tomorrow. He used to be professional Mercedes Benz mechanic and is now taking care of UPS trucks. We went to his place (far east) this afternoon - he's just putting together a beautiful 70's Chevrolet Chevelle - really nice. Afterwards we had some nice Tacos at 24h-Taco on Soto/Whitey. Now, a few hours later, just had another big Taco at another 24h-Taco place on Vermont/Santa Monica. I am sick, really sick. Lots of Vodka Tonic with Johannes on some Silverlake party @ Akbar where Sean DeLear invited us. Jeppe from JuniorSenior DJ-ed, dance party, not too many people but fun and stiff drinks at the bar. Need rest now. Czesc again!
Well. The weekends. Nick went with basque friend and co-resident Inaki to an opening on Friday at Hotel Europejski. Kind of socialist styled big hotel, where there was sort of an exhibition and party in the basement. Lots of people, also people we had already met before, and lots lots lots of free Zoladkowa. That was the deal.... the story could already stop here... well, Nick had some shots, more or less probably about one bottle, mixed with sprite (nice new combination)... there were lots of familiar faces around as already said... Joanna, Sarmen, Alicija, Warsaw artists Oskar Dawicki and Agata Bogacka, our "chief-sheriff" Marianna Dobkowska and some more... afterwards we went on to Kafe Kulturalna, where suprisingly a huge party was going on (5 more beers). And then Nick and Inaki went for some "Warsaw kebab" (actually a mix of turkish and pakistani styled food) which was very good... reached bed at 5am. The headache next day was a bit too much, so Saturday was more about staying at home. Today we went for the Rembrandt exhibition in the kind of national museum that looks like a post classicist bunker from outside. Nick bought 2 old polish punk cds. PROLETARYAT and DEZERTER. Now in one hour Nick has his meeting with Patryk for the poster design. ...that was Warsaw weekend no.2.
Next week there is some more openings to come and Nick will leave to Berlin to meet good old friend commander Megerle. Zajebiscie!
LOS ANGELES WEEKEND not over yet
The week-end started Thursday with a free 25th-issue-of-some-cool-magazine party where the booze was not free at all - $10 for a Vodka-Tonic! The DJs were really good though so it was worth a dance. Unfortunately the doorman at the VIP area didn't like our faces and wouldn't let us in (there is always a VIP area in this city and you better look like you're important to get in). We did end up sneaking in via the back staircase just to realize that they were closing the bar. It was 1.30am by then and half an hour later the crowded dancefloor got swiped empty by some really big guys: "Move to the doors. We're closing". This is America, not Poland. Friday, Julien went to see Scorsese's new blockbuster The Departed starring the whole Hollywood crowd. Gangsters, police, lot's of blood and stuff, quite intense.
Last night, Saturday, openings in Culver City on LaCienega: Blum&Poe showed a consistent Dave Muller show. M&C showed Paul Pfeiffer, very nice. These are basically the only two shows worth a visit down there. Lightbox Gallery had some groupshow curated by Nick McCarthy of Franz Ferdinand (wooohooo!) with some horrible paintings, lame videos and conceptual bullshit, black lines on white canvas depicting the lines of a pinball game - I thought it was shit, but anyways. They had an aftershow party in the gallerist's nice house in Venice Beach right by the ocean with tons of good food (barbecue) and enough drinks that would help the stiff guests loosen up after a while. Today, Sunday, a drive downtown to meet Johannes's landlord is scheduled. He will fix my car (the brakelights don't work, no handbrake, and the exhaust pipe slowly falls off). Czesc!
Over now - Los Angeles finishes its week-end. 3:33am. Mackey Apartments. Cochran Ave. >Dead End.
The car is kinda fixed: Grant, Johannes's landlord, will get the missing parts by tomorrow. He used to be professional Mercedes Benz mechanic and is now taking care of UPS trucks. We went to his place (far east) this afternoon - he's just putting together a beautiful 70's Chevrolet Chevelle - really nice. Afterwards we had some nice Tacos at 24h-Taco on Soto/Whitey. Now, a few hours later, just had another big Taco at another 24h-Taco place on Vermont/Santa Monica. I am sick, really sick. Lots of Vodka Tonic with Johannes on some Silverlake party @ Akbar where Sean DeLear invited us. Jeppe from JuniorSenior DJ-ed, dance party, not too many people but fun and stiff drinks at the bar. Need rest now. Czesc again!
11/28/2006
Mitch & Mitch
Yesterday, finally, Nick saw Mitch & Mitch's show in Warsaw, in a nice theatre space (where i can't remember the name, because i wouldn't be able to spell it) ...was a nice show, although Nick found the first songs from the new album better than the last ones... Mr. Moretti is indeed a good entertainer for the public... anyway, they had a strong surf influence in their songs, reminded me of The Ventures in some case, some parts instrumental, some with voice... made the people dance. Today Mr. Skolimowski, old friend star journalist from Warsaw, might take us to The Car Is On Fire in Hybrida space. Should be worth seeing it... and Nick might do a poster design for our fabulous friend and musician Patryk who is planning a new record. So there is lots of things to do the next days.... hope this finds Julien well in LA.
... X
... X
11/24/2006
News from Polsku
Because Julien seems to be very lazy in LA having barbecues and driving around baseball stadiums, Nick will post some little flash-news from Poland. ...OK, Nick is also a bit lazy but this is because here it's DARK DARK DARK most of the time. The sky goes gray at about 2pm and at 4pm it's already night... in fact it's quite warm for winter in Poland. Surprisingly. Anyway there is enough vodka in the freezer of the well known studio at the CSW to keep us warm.
Saturday, Nick has been to the opening of friend Agata Bogacka showing new paintings at Raster Gallery. Very crowded and afterwards again to the legendary 55 klub in the Palace of Culture (which has shitty decoration now), local hero DJ friend Artur8 and some Gigolo dj from Berlin (DJ Naughty) ...after some shots of vodka Nick found his way home somewhen around 5am. The beginning of the week was calm... Nick mostly spent his time with buying food and organizing the studio, also a bit of drawing, cooking, and today visited a fabulous old bookshop and bought some nice old postcards for Julien and a polish Western movie book with excellent photographs. There is some meetings scheduled with old friend Jacek Skolimowski, next monday at a Mitch & Mitch concert which will be fabulous for sure.
Some news from LA too...
After 6 weeks of blue sky Julien had to make it through a few days of Los Angeles fog. Driving is no fun these days. But he had at least two memorable encounters this week:
A banjo-cowboy in Park LaBrea playing cowboy tunes to passing pedestrians (video will be uploaded shortly), and a very nice Culver City gallerist who knows a lot about baseball, has a second gallery in Dallas and is actually originally from Texas (addendum: his gallery assistant was by far the more memorable part, hum... hope it wasn't the wife).
Other than waiting for the sun Julien has been driving a part of Mullholand Drive today, in the fog, passed through a couple of Canyons, in the fog, and celebrated Thanksgiving alone in the fog since the invitation to a dinner got cancelled. So long...
Saturday, Nick has been to the opening of friend Agata Bogacka showing new paintings at Raster Gallery. Very crowded and afterwards again to the legendary 55 klub in the Palace of Culture (which has shitty decoration now), local hero DJ friend Artur8 and some Gigolo dj from Berlin (DJ Naughty) ...after some shots of vodka Nick found his way home somewhen around 5am. The beginning of the week was calm... Nick mostly spent his time with buying food and organizing the studio, also a bit of drawing, cooking, and today visited a fabulous old bookshop and bought some nice old postcards for Julien and a polish Western movie book with excellent photographs. There is some meetings scheduled with old friend Jacek Skolimowski, next monday at a Mitch & Mitch concert which will be fabulous for sure.
Some news from LA too...
After 6 weeks of blue sky Julien had to make it through a few days of Los Angeles fog. Driving is no fun these days. But he had at least two memorable encounters this week:
A banjo-cowboy in Park LaBrea playing cowboy tunes to passing pedestrians (video will be uploaded shortly), and a very nice Culver City gallerist who knows a lot about baseball, has a second gallery in Dallas and is actually originally from Texas (addendum: his gallery assistant was by far the more memorable part, hum... hope it wasn't the wife).
Other than waiting for the sun Julien has been driving a part of Mullholand Drive today, in the fog, passed through a couple of Canyons, in the fog, and celebrated Thanksgiving alone in the fog since the invitation to a dinner got cancelled. So long...
11/16/2006
Back in WARTEXAS!
Finally Nick arrived in Warsaw after a long long ride with the train - and three polish hijackers in his compartment (smuggling four bags full of Schnaps and Vodka). After a short visit to the unique 24-hour shop opposite the castle Nick went back to the studio with some sausages and beer (yeah, they sell beer now!) where he met with Inaki, the new resident from basque country. Definitely a rioteer. yeah. more later...
Simultaneously, in Los Angeles, or eventually 9 hours later Julien opened a tiny bottle of Vodka he brought over from Poland - one sip and the world was alright. Yes, definitely more later, ...time to get things started.
Simultaneously, in Los Angeles, or eventually 9 hours later Julien opened a tiny bottle of Vodka he brought over from Poland - one sip and the world was alright. Yes, definitely more later, ...time to get things started.
10/28/2006
Roaring 60s in LA
After initial difficulties Julien has finally found a car - Johannes kindly lends his '66 Datsun! Ready for a road trip to Texas...
10/13/2006
The separation
l a n d e d
After a neverending flight with a couple of Bloody Marys on bad movies with the crew Julien finally arrived in La La Land where he'll be hanging out for the next six months. A few palmtrees and a blue sky make it look almost like Warsaw on Charles de Gaulle place, ...feels like home.
Did the infamous "art walk" downtown last night which made me almost faint. Figured out that downtown is (even if a little creepy in some spots) quite cool - the art walk is not. Best wishes to Nick!
After a neverending flight with a couple of Bloody Marys on bad movies with the crew Julien finally arrived in La La Land where he'll be hanging out for the next six months. A few palmtrees and a blue sky make it look almost like Warsaw on Charles de Gaulle place, ...feels like home.
Did the infamous "art walk" downtown last night which made me almost faint. Figured out that downtown is (even if a little creepy in some spots) quite cool - the art walk is not. Best wishes to Nick!
Nick is abandoned now in Vienna... but new Warsaw adventures are to come... in about two weeks Nick will be back in Poland at the CSW with some fine Zoladkova and Zywiec beer remembering the old times... hopefully there will be some sun at least in the cold winter of Poland where Nick will try to attend more rocknroll shows than before... so watch out for news. The arrival in Warsaw is scheduled for november 7. Peace to L.A.
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