Category Archives for Uncategorized

Friday, September 25th at The Arm in Brooklyn, NY


Above: Stills from Nathaniel Dorskys’ film Sarabande

Hermitage is very pleased to announce the screening of Nathaniel Dorsky’s films Sarabande & Winter this Friday at The Arm in Brooklyn. Both of these films were completed in 2008, and shot on 16mm kodachrome.

“The films of Nathaniel Dorsky blend a beauteous celebration of the sensual world with a deep sense of introspection and solitude. They are occasions for reflection and meditation, on light, landscape, time and the motions of consciousness. Their luminous photography emphasizes the elemental frisson between solidity and luminosity, between spirit and matter, while his uniquely developed montage permits a fluid and flowing experience of time. Dorsky’s films reveal the mystery behind everyday existence, providing intimations of eternity. The latest films of this master filmmaker—Song and Solitude, Winter and Sarabande—continue his development of these profound traditions.” (Steve Polta, San Francisco Cinematheque, 2009)

Friday, September 25th – 9pm sharp (running time is 35 minutes)
The Arm
281 North 7th St. / Brooklyn, NY 11211
$7

Lord Whimsy on PAINTING WITH MOSS (2009)


Above: Lush, ground-covering Irish moss.

Last week I had the pleasure of attending Lord Whimsy’s (Arthur-sponsored) Terrarium Workshop in Philly. Among many other pieces of invaluable botanical information, he shared one of the most inventive graffiti-making methods that I’ve ever encountered; using cheap ingredients (found moss, water and buttermilk or beer), it is possible to blend up a moss-spreading concoction that can be painted with a brush onto any stone surface (such as a garden wall, walkway or even the exterior of your home) to create the living design of your wildest imagination. If it has always been your dream to have living walls, this could be the start of something beautiful…

Lord Whimsy’s Guide to GROWING YOUR OWN MOSS:

Try spreading your carpet of moss with this method: find and clean a clump of moss. Add equal parts water and buttermilk (beer apparently also works well). Add a couple tablespoons of sugar. Mix in a blender: the consistency should be soupy, but not too watery or thick. Pour wherever you’d like moss to grow. Moist, shady spots are best. You can also apply the moss slurry onto surfaces of stones or walls with a paintbrush.


Above: Japanese moss-covered home.

'44 PRESIDENTS' by MZA & Maria Sputnik

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Forty Four Presidents by MZA & Maria Sputnik.  Available in hardcover from Garrett County Press.

A brief illustrated history of the U.S. presidency told by the presidents themselves in the style favored by modern social networking web sites, Forty Four Presidents imagines 220 years of presidential succession pancaked into a single moment — documented simultaneously by each commander-in-chief in status updates designed for easy consumption by their Facebook friends. Each status update is accompanied by a jaunty, high-contrast profile picture intended to reflect something of the essential personality (and hotness) of the president.

Sept. 22 Autonomedia Jubilee Saint — Marcel Marceau

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SEPTEMBER 22 — MARCEL MARCEAU
Masterful mime, French Resistance fighter.

SEPTEMBER 22, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
Wiccan MABON.
Inuit FESTIVAL OF THE SEAGODDESS. Sedna the Shaman goes to her abode at the bottom of the sea and makes a deal for good hunting weather.

ALSO ON SEPTEMBER 22 IN HISTORY…
1692 — Eight “witches” hanged, Salem, Massachusetts.
1792 — New calendar adopted in revolutionary France, with ten-day weeks,
three-week months, and 12-month years, starting at Year One.
1862 — Emancipation Proclamation signed by Abe Lincoln in U.S.
1991 — Huntington Library makes Dead Sea Scrolls public for the first time.
2007 — Famed French mime, Resistance fighter Marcel Marceau dies, Cahors, France.

'44 PRESIDENTS' by MZA & Maria Sputnik

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Forty Four Presidents by MZA & Maria Sputnik.  Available in hardcover from Garrett County Press.

A brief illustrated history of the U.S. presidency told by the presidents themselves in the style favored by modern social networking web sites, Forty Four Presidents imagines 220 years of presidential succession pancaked into a single moment — documented simultaneously by each commander-in-chief in status updates designed for easy consumption by their Facebook friends. Each status update is accompanied by a jaunty, high-contrast profile picture intended to reflect something of the essential personality (and hotness) of the president.

'44 PRESIDENTS' by MZA & Maria Sputnik

44_presidents_number_40

Forty Four Presidents by MZA & Maria Sputnik.  Available in hardcover from Garrett County Press.

A brief illustrated history of the U.S. presidency told by the presidents themselves in the style favored by modern social networking web sites, Forty Four Presidents imagines 220 years of presidential succession pancaked into a single moment — documented simultaneously by each commander-in-chief in status updates designed for easy consumption by their Facebook friends. Each status update is accompanied by a jaunty, high-contrast profile picture intended to reflect something of the essential personality (and hotness) of the president.

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint — H. G. Wells

H. G. Wells
SEPTEMBER 21 — H. G. WELLS
Pioneer science fiction writer, radical socialist, visionary.

SEPTEMBER 21, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
Bashi, Congo: FESTIVAL OF NYAMUZINDA, God of Famine and Epidemics.
Belize: INDEPENDENCE DAY.
Siberia: FEAST OF KUODOR-GUP, God of Riches.

ALSO ON SEPTEMBER 21 IN HISTORY
1327 — British king Edward II murdered in prison with hot poker, Berkeley Castle.
1792 — Following years of revolution, French abolish the monarchy.
1827 — Angel Moroni visits Mormon-to-be Joseph Smith, drops off gold tablets.
1866 — H. G. Wells, author and futurist, born, Bromley, Kent, England.
1934 — Canadian poet, songwriter Leonard Cohen born, Montreal, Quebec.
1937 — J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit published.
1938 — Hurricane strikes Long Island, New York, kills an estimated 700 people.
1939 — Pro-Nazi Iron Guard assassinates Romanian Prime Minister Calinescu.
1976 — Former Salvador Allende-era Chilean socialist U.S. ambassador
Orlando Letelier fatally car-bombed in Washington D.C.
1993 — Russian President Boris Yeltsin suspends parliament & constitution.
2004 — Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) People’s War and Maoist
Communist Centre of India merge, forming Communist Party of India (Maoist).

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint — Tod Mikuriya

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SEPTEMBER 20 — TOD MIKURIYA
American doctor, medical marijuana advocate and activist.

SEPTEMBER 20, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
EID AL FITR: Islamic RAMADAN ends.
Incas, in Peru: BIRTHDAY OF THE SUN.
All fires, including the sacred fire of the Temple of the Sun, have been
extinguished for three days. A priest, using a special mirror and conse-
crated cotton, helps the sun rekindle the temple flame, from which all
fires in the empire are relit. Animal sacrifices are made, followed by
eight days of feasting.
Poland: FEAST OF ZYWIE, goddess of longevity.
Scandinavia: FEAST OF ORLOG, Deity of Destiny.

ALSO ON SEPTEMBER 20 IN HISTORY
1878 — Social realist writer Upton Sinclair born, Baltimore, Maryland.
1885 — Early jazz great Jelly Roll Morton born, New Orleans, Louisiana..
1906 — Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle published.
1933 — American medical marijuana activist Tod Mikuriya born, Bucks County, PA.
1942 — Chilean coup martyr Charles Horman born, New York City.

EIDALFITR: Islamic RAMADANends. Incas, in Peru:BIRTHDAYOFTHESUN.
All fires, including the sacred fire of the Temple of the Sun, have been
extinguished for three days. A priest, using a special mirror and conse-
crated cotton, helps the sun rekindle the temple flame, from which all
fires in the empire are relit. Animal sacrifices are made, followed by
eight days of feasting. Poland: FEASTOFZYWIE,goddess of longevity.
Scandinavia: FEASTOFORLOG,Deity of Destiny.

Sept. 19 Autonomedia Jubilee Saint—Paolo Freire

paulo pic

SEPTEMBER 19 — PAOLO FREIRE
Brazilian radical educational theorist, social activist.

SEPTEMBER 19, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
Lakota and Oglala Sioux: FEAST OF MATO, the Bear Spirit.
Avening, Gloucestershire, England: PIG’S FACE FEAST, commemorating boar’s head feast in 1080.
Berkshire, England: SCOURING THE WHITE HORSE, with a 400-foot chalk figure drawn on a hill.

ALSO ON SEPTEMBER 19 IN HISTORY
1833 — Mary Jemison, “race traitor,” adopted Senecan “white Indian,” dies.
1921 — Radical educational theorist Paolo Freire born, Recife, Brazil.
1928 — Disney’s “Steamboat Willie,” first talking cartoon, released.
1955 — Argentina ousts dictator Juan Perón.
1959 —Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev barred from visiting Disneyland.
1985 — Italian fabulist writer Italo Calvino dies, Siena, Italy.

Sunday night at The Cinefamily Silent Movie Theatre in L.A. – Jeff Perkins Psychotropic Light Show

“Light sculptures hover in space, slowly growing and merging into primitive, but at the same time, futuristic forms. The present, the rational world, is erased. Hypnotic, entrancing and unpredictable, they awaken the unconscious mind, and evoke primordial, inchoate existences pre-dating H. P. Lovecraft’s ancient Cthulu gods. The dreamer journeys into numberless spaces, worlds beyond comprehension which change and merge, collapse and grow into archetypes of a primeval, timeless connection with the fetal mind.” — Peter Mays

Alongside artists such as Nam Jun Paik and Yoko Ono, Jeff Perkins was a member of the Fluxus group in the mid-1960s and later in the early ’70s, an innovator and practitioner of psychedelic light shows as a member of California’s Single Wing Turquoise Bird (who played live along with rock bands like The Velvet Underground and The Grateful Dead). First performed in the late ’60s and early 70’s in Venice, CA, his light projection pieces are highly minimal but not at all static. This evening, Jeff will be performing a live set (with a special musical guest), using hundreds of slides and four projectors. The slow flickering dissolves, from patterns to minimal shapes, will optically trick the mind into thinking it’s a constant moving image — a show not to be missed.

Lights by Jeff Perkins with music by Taketo Shimada and Tres Warren:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2TLapgx1l4
Sunday, September 20th – 8PM
The Cinefamily Silent Movie Theatre
611 N Fairfax Avenue / Los Angeles, 90036
$13

Buy tickets here.