Friendship Cove is having it’s 2nd Birthday tonight. Friendship Cove is a happy seedy hotbed art home, mid-industrial drone, down in Griffintown. Many of the show posters around here were designed in the Cove by Jack Dylan who came from Stratford with a deep sense of performing art theatrics, self-reference and caricature in his drawings; and (let’s be honest) more then a little indie playboy in his personal style (heads up!) Some of his pictures are also deeply beautiful – I have a King Lear poster by Jack Dylan over my desk, designed for a fictional Shakespeare collection, I think. And my 17 year old sister has the poster he designed for Arcade Fire over her bed. Both of these mix comics with a medieval sort of pattern work and nostalgic shades of blue and I think they’re gorgeous. But anyhoo.

Miracle Fortress and Think About Life hatched from the Cove, as Graham Van Pelt is a fellow founder, and Arcade Fire used to gig with Jack and Graham at the venue’s previous incarnation, Electric Tractor; in other words, they know how to mix mess and lovely to create a brilliant cozy, crazy place to see and throw shows, as we know from the love we got doing our first Assembly there. (And our Assembly was one of Miracle Fortress’s first ever shows with a band, now that I think about it, right before SXSW, aw.)

Tonight’s Friendship Cove show features Japanther, Telefauna without Tyler but with Graham Van Pelt sitting in, and Secrets of Mana. 10$ at the door. 215A Murray Street. [Map]

Another longstanding hotbed of artism de Montreal is kicking dust and pasties up tonight at a venue closer to the Plateau/Mile End bubble – Kiss My Cabaret is at Sala Rosa ce soir. Kiss my Cabaret has been rocking for over 5 years, always hosted by founder and Arterie owner Danette Mackay mixing burlesque, spoken word, crazy funk, and general mayhem on a semi-regular basis. Tonight’s Kiss my Cabaret show features members of the Maha Choir (who will also be doing something very special with industrial sound art from Griffintown at our Indyish Mess in November, woo!) and a 10 piece funk act with costumes from Toronto called Elastocitizens. This show is 20$, which is steep for our broke arty scene, but it’s 10 bones if you’re in costume.

And knowing you, you’re in costume right now, aren’t you?

The Dare Dare space in the unnamed park by the overpass was a perfect odd awesome venue for us, and working with them was delicious. They kept coming out of the trailer with popcorn. This gleefully painted truck trailer moves to a different space every 2 years according to their mandate as mobile artist run center. Dare Dare bought new speakers for our event so there were a few new technical issues but also really good sound (something to worry about with lo-fi films, a highway overhead and streets all round.) When they kicked off the night with friendly hello and intro to some other cool art events going on nearby they also let us know that the city wants to make the sweet, unnamed but no less theatrical, space into a parking lot.

Here is the Montreal City Council office if you want to complain.

The highlights for me were getting yelled at to speak French while speaking French (one heckler, 100 nice guests, not a bad ratio) … and (actual highlight) introducing Dave Cool from What is Indie? to Jim from No Media Kings. They had both heard of each other’s work but hadn’t realized how deeply connected their messages were, I guess because one speaks to musicians and the other to authors (mostly). The greatest pleasure for me with Indyish is in making these kinds of connections, and hanging out with these inspiring types of people.

I spent some of yesterday meandering between coffee shops and checking out the location for the new Drawn and Quarterly storefront on Bernard with Jim and his hilarious rock star wife Susan who plays bass in Tom Boyfriend and made the zine Lady Scientist. I learned a lot from these fine people and laughed more, then we parted ways. They headed toward a wedding and I hustled off to an “all girls old time blue grass jam,” which was sweet: the back porch rang with banjo, accordion and fiddle and we drank Serbian plum moonshine and were merry. How was your Saturday? Here’s hopin it was grand!

Hypocrite

Posted to Indyish Video by rza on June 30, 2007

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….and you can see Jim’s Infest Wisely scif fi collaboration, and the Video Hymn mix tape, because our screening tonight (in the nameless park near the overpass to the left of St.Laurent near Bernard) is just a block away from this week’s University of the Streets cafe with Alex Megelas:

Hi all,

Tomorrows, Jim and I are moderating the 2nd of our four discussion series on Living Outside the System. The question being asked is A cultural revolution or a revolutionary approach to culture?

Here’s the information. I hope to see y’all there!

Alex

Living Outside the System.A cultural revolution or a revolutionary approach to culture?
Friday September 21st, 7pm – 9pm
Le Cagibi, 5490 St Laurent.

In this conversation we will explore, drawing on examples from various contexts, the independent vs. corporate dichotomy that is very much a part of many current art forms, drawing on examples from various contexts. We may also discuss topics such as the marketing of “cool” and artistic expression as a metaphor for ‘living outside the system.’.

Guests:

Eric Braà¼n: Multidisciplinary artist (painting, sculpture, comics, etching), publisher of the anthology 106U and founder of USINE 106U. His graphic universe explores different materials with humor and lucidity.

La puce à l’agonie: Designer, painter and conceptor, her work in visual arts focuses on recomposing fragments linked to childhood and by mass-producing little pink cats.

Jonah Aspler: Former musician in groups Flacid and All the Answer, Jonah is currently the bassist for hardcore punk band …And the Saga Continues

Here’s some of the great blogging and documentation that’s been done so far on the Assembly 2.0:

-the show lists: http://www.indyish.com/assembly-20-show-lists/
-the videos:
1: http://www.indyish.com/assembly-20-part-1-the-video/
2: http://www.indyish.com/the-assembly-20-part-2-the-video/
And the blog tag: indyish.com/tag/assembly2.0

And here are a few photos from the shows, featuring hosts Darren Curtis and Matt Silver from Kidnapper Films – who were hilarious. I didn’t really warn them beforehand, but I kind of wanted them to be unprepared and just yammer during the set up time for each act, which were potentially gonna be kind of long and awkward. I’ve known these two guys for 13 and 10 years respectively, and I know they’re funny and, in my opinion, funniest when they’re off the cuff and rambling. I got what I wanted and laughed my tired butt off every time they were up there. Lots of photos and more coming soon from Tessa and Sarah, the hardcore Assembly 2.0 crew. They’re already getting up to their elbows in the book plans.

These photos are all by Marilis Cardinal, by the way, who as of last night’s meeting is spectacles-free and smiling! Cheers to her bright and shiny new eye balls, may they continue to heal stupendously!!

We started working with Celtx on the first Assembly back in February. Since then we’ve befriended their team of friendly open-source newfies and figured out a pretty effective exchange of energies. They gain tons of hands-on feedback from participants about their software and gain new users while being true to their wish for international collaborations; we have their excellent tech support throughout the project and are able to publish our documentation in projectbooks and dvds.

Check out the post announcing the Assembly 2.0 as winner of the P.O.W.

Participants from every stage of the relay (writers, illustrators, animators, theatre groups, and musicians) are being sent the “we plug in” Indyish/Celtx tshirts with One Neck’s design along with Celtx usb keys. Every single participant!

POW!

Thanks again (and again) for taking part, and to Celtx for helping make it all possible. Enjoy the swag and stay tuned for upcoming Assembly relays.

On June 26th:

[...] Over the next few weeks, I’m posting each individual step of the 12 projects that made it to the end of the relay, plus the pieces that made it part way through. All the scripts were uploaded to Celtx Project Central as writers finished them, and many of the illustrations were added to scripts and uploaded as well.

Video and photos were taken at the performances. These will be included in the posts going up on indyish and on the dvd we’re putting together of the project. Two video clips have already been shared with snippets of the two nights.

Friday show here.
Saturday show here.

For a list of the projects that were performed each night, check the show lists.

Every post about the Assembly 2.0 is tagged and can be found at: www.indyish.com/tag/assembly2.0

[...] Also, feedback for the uber-helpful folks at Celtx is still appreciated if you had any snags or have questions. The Assembly 2.0 forum will be closing now that the relay is over, but please check out the support forums to ask questions and suggest new features.

[...] Last thing, copies of the Assembly 1.0 Scriptbook, Projectbook, and DVD are all available and lovely. Support the Assembly by picking up a copy and learn more about the history of the project.

Thanks so much for your participation!! We doubled the number of projects that were completed in the first Assembly, and the work was extremely eclectic and interesting to read, watch, and listen to.

Then on June 27th,

As an explanation to those whose work wasn’t performed:

What made it through the relay wasn’t based solely on quality of work. It depended on a lot of factors:

-length for production in 48 hours
-number of characters
-simple/elaborate setting
-difficulty in making the piece work with amateur or professional actors
-ability to incorporate music

But after all this, actors could change the scripts as much as they wanted to produce them. So when we met with actors at the Fringe, we handed round the scripts and acting groups picked which they were most personally inspired by and felt they could work with to create a piece of their own.

All the scripts and illustrations and script re-writes will be published in the Assembly 2.0 Projectbook, and your work is cc attribution 2.5 which means you can reproduce your work in other ways or make changes and use it for something else.

The nature of this project means that the passes are intimately related to participants’ personal artistic visions. We actually think this is what makes the project worth doing; the art that is made in the Assembly is in fact the story of each project and its unique journey, not just the individual pieces themselves. That’s why we stress publishing everything that was made with commentary on how the relay was run.

[To answer one artist's question about resubmitting work now with edits for the Projectbook, we will be including the versions that were submitted during the Assembly, as these are the true artifacts of what was passed within the relay. If this poses a serious problem for any artists, they can contact me privately, but I don't think this should be an issue. Please include links to your current work in your bio if you'd like to show readers more representative pieces.]

While this information was shared with you in the rules that accompanied the Celtx projects, I believe it’s worth reiterating for everyone now that the relay has ended and the dust is clearing.

Thanks again for opening yourself to an experimental art project like this.

Keep the comments coming!

So yeah, keep the comments coming. The larger narrative that you helped build by writing a script or acting in a play is immensely valuable to our development, as is your feedback. I’m looking forward to putting everything together in the Projectbook and getting a sense of the entire Assembly 2.0, because the performances are not the culmination of your work; they are a destination to work toward while inside the relay. But I’ve now blabbed enough to sufficiently overstress the value of the process.

Thank you guys!!

Tyler Rauman makes show posters, mainly for local promoters, Blue Skies Turn Black, but also for all kinds of other events. (He designed our Assembly show poster).

Tyler just got a digital camera and is a bit flash-happy. At the link above you can view the photos he took as he worked on his latest poster for Calvin Johnson, Julie Doiron, and Brian Seeger. Flicking through the shots feels a bit like watching that program where the guy teaches you to paint step-by-step. This is less of a lesson and more of a look at how one artist’s ideas develop over time.

Tyler talks about tools and techniques with the most passion of anyone I know; he loves to let you in on what he’s learning. Right now he’s in Toronto selling posters with Jack Dylan as Miracle Fortress make their way west on the Pop Off tour.

More of Tyler’s work on indyish.

3 different ways to watch the films that were made: as silent films from before they were soundtracked, with original music soundtracks, and with audio commentary about their making.

DVD includes:

Short Films by Paul Neudorf and Tamara Kramer, Risa Dickens, Lela Quesney, Lara Kaluza and Martin Reisch, Allen Lento

Music Soundtracks by Zen Nakamura, Allan Lento, Josh Hinck, Brave Radar, Bubblegum Phantom, Brad Levia

Illustrations by Tim Kasper, Greg Ryan, Carl Ruttan, George Blott, Mirela Zdjelaric, Tyson Bodnarchuk, Beth Frey, Pascaline Knight

Photos from the project and screening party by Tristan Brand and Marilis Cardinal

Commentary by project manager, Tessa Smith, and indyish co-founder, Risa Dickens

Blog posts from Assembly 1.0

DVD compiled by safe solvent