Four Flew Into the Cukoo's Nest

In 1978 The Cramps played a legendary gig at Napa State Mental Institute, California, 25 years later, artists Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard set about remaking the infamous video of that show... This is 'File under Sacred Music'

http://www.fileundersacredmusic.com/about/index.html

Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard's new film project File under Sacred Music takes as its starting point an infamous video that documents a live performance by The Cramps for the patients at Napa Mental Institute, California, on 13th June 1978. Captured on blurred and grainy black and white film, this unique social document has been swapping hands at record fairs and via the internet since the early eighties. Forsyth and Pollard began by re-enacting that legendary performance in order to film it and remake the rarely seen video document.

They consulted closely with a number of mental health arts organisations, before inviting members from Core Arts, Sound Minds and Mad Pride to attend the performance and filming, which was staged on a specially constructed set in the Institute of Contemporary Arts Theatre in London on 3rd March 2003. To re-create the on-stage performance by The Cramps, Forsyth and Pollard went to incredible lengths to work with musicians who understood the full context and spirit of the project. Eventually, a band was constructed featuring Alfonso Pinto from London-based punk band The Parkinsons as Cramps' vocalist Lux Interior, Holly Golightly, a legendary solo artist as well as a founder member of Thee Headcoatees, as guitarist Poison Ivy, Bruce Brand, a key figure in the Medway scene, as guitarist Bryan Gregory and John Gibbs from The Wildebeests and Holly's current band as drummer Nick Knox. The resulting footage was edited and degraded to meticulously re-create the content, spirit and damaged aesthetic of the original video tape the artists had purchased on eBay.

At a time when media technology has encroached on the live event to a point where few feel live at all, Forsyth and Pollard's project pushes beyond any simple re-presentation of a significant cultural moment to project an alternate testament of reality that examines 'liveness' beyond the limitations of needing to 'be there'. Their critique is less about then than now, reframing contemporary culture and pulling the their own generation into sharp focus. Forsyth and Pollard have pioneered the current art movement exploring re-enactment as an artistic genre.

Since their first live art project The World Won't Listen in 1996, to their critically acclaimed A Rock 'N' Roll Suicide (their seminal art event re-enacting David Bowie's final performance as Ziggy Stardust) they have had the timing and insight to key into contemporary society's increasing engagement with simulation as a part of cultural expression. File under Sacred Music marks a significant and ground-breaking development in their practice and addresses one of the most important questions facing all kinds of performance today: what is the status of the 'live' and the 'real' in a culture now obsessed with simulation and dominated by mass media and mediation?

Articles about File under Sacred Music have appeared in numberous publications including The Guardian, The Independent on Sunday, Art Review, i-D Magazine, Sleazenation and Mojo. The project has been presented at various locations including the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, Site Gallery in Sheffield, Schaufenster in Oslo, National Film Theatre in London, Hull Time Based Arts Gage Festival, Royal College of Art in London and Foundation Adriano Olivetti in Rome. For full details of all past, present and future screenings please visit the seeing the film section of the FUSM site, or join the mailing list to be notified of future events by email.

Los Campeones de la Lucha Libre

... and LUX INTERIOR, TOO!!

Lux Interior Film Screening in LA
By Karina Longworth
2/5/2009

http://blog.spout.com/2009/02/05/lux-interior-film/

Lux Interior, frontman of the campy, classic horror-infused punk band The Cramps, died over the weekend. In a sort of sad/sort of fortuitous accident of timing, as Bob Westal points out at Forward to Yesterday, an animated film in which Lux had a key voice role is having a big screening via the American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood tonight.

Los Campeones de la Lucha Libre is described by the American Cinematheque’s website as “A feature-length animated action-comedy” in which “Masked mayhem ensues when a team of wrestling heroes is caught in the middle of a struggle between a gang of barbarians right out of Mad Max and a legion of monsters inspired by the golden age of Mexican horror films.” Tonight’s screening will be the Los Angeles debut of the English-language print of the film. There’s a bit on the animation company’s blog about Lux Interior’s role:

We needed a creepy, unearthly yet endearing voice for Rayo X, and after testing many actors, it was apparent that the role was made for Lux. Working with him was both a blast and an honor…Tomorrow night will be a sadder experience hearing his voice ring out at The Egyptian, and a little unnerving when Rayo utters Lux’s favorite line in the movie ‘Ah, the heady stench of death‘.

If you can’t make the movie, there’s a surprisingly large number of Cramps videos and circa-late 70s, early 80s live footage of the band on YouTube — at least, as of this writing. A favorite clip making the rounds is embedded above: The Cramps playing a California mental hospital in 1984

Vox Lux

Lux did voice work on this animated movie. Note the eerie coincidence of the premiere date. More info can be found HERE:

http://loscampeones.net/

-Chuck

Attention Los Angeles - "Los Campeones De La Lucha Libre" at The Egyptian Theater - Feb 5th. 2009

by Juan Guillermo Tornoe
Hispanic Trending

http://juantornoe.blogs.com/hispanictrending/2009/01/attention-los-angeles-los-campeones-de-la-lucha-libre-at-the-egyptian-theater-feb-5th-2009.html

My friend Ruth Livier sent out an inviation a few days ago for the screening of "Los Campeones de la Lucha Libre", animated flick on which she's one of the Five Campeones (the girl that "kicks butt"!):

"LOS CAMPEONES DE LA LUCHA LIBRE (The Champions of Mexican Wrestling) -- BouncyNet / Azteca Cine, 2008

DATE: Feb 5th, 2009
TIME: 7.30pm
WHERE: The Egyptian Theater, 6712 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028

MAIN CAST (Original English version):
Armando Valdes-Kennedy ………. Dragon Rojo Jr
Richard Green …………………………. Mr Profesional
Candi Milo …………………………….. Tsetse Fly
Ruth Livier …………………………….. Sorpresa
Lux Interior …………………………….. Rayo X

Matt Danner ……………………………. The Stranger
Eduardo Antonio Garcia …………… Dragon Rojo Sr
Eric Bauza ……………………………… Rey Extremo
Mauricio Svanstrom …………………. Dr. Blanco

Feature-length action-comedy from FWAK! Animation, the creators of ¡Mucha Lucha!

Masked mayhem ensues when a team of wrestling heroes is caught in the middle of a struggle between a gang of barbarians right out of Mad Max and a legion of monsters inspired by the golden age of Mexican horror films. A Spanish-language version of this film just ran in theaters throughout Mexico, but we're proud to present the first ever public screening of an English-language print on 35mm.

Creators Eddie Mort, Lili Chin and other guests will present pre-production art, visual reference and never-before-seen rarities, followed by a surprise feature from the vast EL SANTO vaults shown in celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the icon's death, a day celebrated in Mexico for the star's impact on popular culture."

LOS CAMPEONES DE LA LUCHA LIBRE is written by Keith J. Rainville (From Parts Unknown Publications), with musical direction and score by Phofo (Superswell), and featuring a main cast of Armando Valdes-Kennedy, Richard Green, Eduardo Antonio Garcia ("No Country For Old Men"), Ruth Livier, Candi Milo ("Mucha Lucha"), Eric Bauza ("Ren and Stimpy"), Matt Danner, and Lux Interior (The Cramps).

Soundtrack includes music by Mariachi Los Toros, Los Straitjackets, Mezklah, Ollin, The Ghastly Ones, Neal Hefti, Chow Nasty, The Vanishing, Las Membranas and Moderatto.

http://www.loscampeones.net
http://www.myspace.com/loscampeones
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=37343577269

Posted by Juan Tornoe on January 26, 2009

Gypsies, Dopes and Fiends

THE FIEND OF DOPE ISLAND (1961)

With The Yugoslavian Bombshell

Tania Velia

REVIEW FROM DVD VERDICT
http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/paganfiend.php#

Reviewed by Judge Bill Gibron
Indiana Jones' drunken, psychotic third cousin, twice removed, rules over his Trinidad but not quite Tobago island paradise like Lash LaRue with an anger management problem. Cracking the leather across the backs of his mostly drunken associates, he fancies himself a charismatic totalitarian despot, a friend to the native and the riding crop equally. In reality, he's just the incredibly sweaty drug running/gun smuggling Fiend of Dope Island. When a mail order lounge singer arrives to provide the one bit of spice on this otherwise mushy plantain of a paradise, it's not long before our overheated male is smitten, with a whip. It's up to the lacerated locals and the social outcastaways surrounding him to teach the Sensimilla selling sadist that there's more to life (and love) than a quick flick of the wrist.

Meanwhile, William Stanton experiences what numerous writers to Penthouse Forum have only daydreamed of, untold computer geeks have fan fictioned over, and numerous teenage surfer dudes have prayed for when he ends up shipwrecked on Pagan Island, a tropical paradise filled with topless beauties. With names right out of Disney's Polynesian Village Hotel Conference Center, our hero is at first feared, then befriended, then feared again, then almost sacrificed, then coddled, then feared, then…well that's about it. Oh, and while scuba diving for buried Sea God treasure, he is molested by a giant mollusk, AKA a clam. Seems he's irresistible to all species. Both Fiend of Dope Island and Pagan Island sound like promising exploitation experiences. Fiend portends to offer a salacious look at the life of a dictator-like drug dealer on an exotic island that just screams naked hula dancers. Pagan is every middle-aged World War II vet's nice Hawaiian punch. Combined, it should make for one fantastic fantasy inlet delight. But both movies are King Kamayamaya disappointing.

Fiend does indeed present the incredibly heinous Charlie Davis, a man whose interpersonal interaction skills can best be described as oriented around the cat o' nine tails and a voluptuous Volga boatwoman in Glory La Verne. But otherwise, the movie is as odiferous as a Durian daiquiri. This is supposed to be a film about the dangerous life of drug running, not the hazards and hardships of private island ownership. All the actors have been directed to deliver their lines in a rapid fire gulp of air, like their about ready to belch up some conch salad. Actor Bruce Bennett is the worst. This ex-Tarzan speaks so fast without moving his lips more than a centimeter in any direction (up, down or sidewise) that his dialogue simply becomes a series of sonic blurts. It sounds like he's been working with David Byrne in the experimental art of lyric writing via phonetics. There are a couple of fun moments, like Glory's mad Bulgarian samba that has Charlie pounding on the conga drum like a spastic Gene Krupa or the climactic shark attack which combines horrible overacting and hyper-kinetic kiddy pool splashing with intercut stock footage from episodes of Flipper. But with only one split second shot of a breast and hardly anything else going for it except Charlie's miscreant mood swings, this Fiend is a flop.

Pagan Island also starts with possibilities. This premise just seems ripe for some ribald revelry. Stud muffin sailor splashes down on a seemingly deserted island, does the Robinson Crusoe "thang" and just when it looks like he'll starve to death, a group of lei wearing topless tomatoes stumble across his path and offer their ample assistance like a Luau La Leche League. But instead of a steamy sex farce or wanton display of ample island flesh, nothing happens. A native girl dances around a tropical gift shop version of Domino's Noid, our poop deck deviant spends countless hours trying to decipher the Ungawa language (and various European accents) the ladies use as secret sensual code, and the audience wonders if the body tape holding those flower necklaces close to the vest will ever come loose. If it weren't for that tacky Trader Vic's corporate logo standing in the middle of the grass hut grotto where these ladies live, there would be very little sculpted figure to look at. True, this is a movie that features women sans Bikini Island tops. But when Wilson, Tom Hanks' volleyball lover in Cast Away, has more sex appeal and emotional range than the naïve natives offered here, it's time to consider this male fantasy flaccid. The underwater treasure cove caper seems pasted in as an afterthought and there is an attack by a burly bunch of backlot stage hands in wool diapers that just hurts in its unintentional hilarity. Perhaps in 1960 this seemed like racy, soon to be banned brazenness. But viewed along other titles in the SWV catalog, Pagan Island is all cutie with very little nudie, as well as very little excitement. Visually, the black and white prints of Fiend and Pagan are near pristine, if overly soft. The monochrome seems geared more toward the gray than ebony. Even the trailers and alternate title sequence for Fiend (under the moniker Whiplash) look brand new. With movies this unfulfilling, Something Weird Video must step in and offers some decidedly different extra content sacrifices to the Gods of personal entertainment in hopes that they will be appeased. And they are, for the most part. First, we learn more than we ever wanted to know about the customs and creepiness of Bali and its clothing optional residents. We then get to see some hula girls and various other examples of tropical tomfoolery. There's even a truncated (read: without explicit sex) bit of pseudo porn that finds a rough trade looking merchant marine bedding the most hideous island girl (make that matron) in the history of backroom smoker cinema. About the only bright spot is the colorful feature starring Lewis Van Dercar. While supposedly an insight into the artistic temperament, it's really a first person narrative about a young woman's decision to totally give in to the world of nekkid artists modeling for elderly beatnik types. Add another great gallery of lost exploitation advertisement and the supplements outshine the rather tame movies offered. But all the pearl polishing in China couldn't remove the humid, overheated ho-humness of these titles. While this DVD package would certainly be the answer to a shipwrecked castaways daily doldrums, most landlubbers will have difficulty finding their South Sea legs.