check out this interview with artists working on jeremy wade’s show opening thursday at japan society:

Japan Society presents the world premiere of its commission to Bessie Award- winning American choreographer Jeremy Wade. In a bold and violent juxtaposition of movement, text, animation and video of manga (Japanese comics) drawing, Wade takes a playful and cynical look at consumerism and Japanese kawaii (cute) culture- from the infantile fluff of Hello Kitty to teenage doe-eyed love portrayed in anime- exploring its ubiquitous influence on the world today.

Wade, American-in-Berlin, directs there is no end to more, a solo for a salesman in which he sells his own super show, performed by actor/ dancer Jared Gradinger in collaboration with Brooklyn-based Japanese manga artist/ illustrator Hiroki Otsuka,Berlin-based video artist Veith Michel, musician Brendan Dougherty and architectsKatja Mitte and Henning Ströh with text cowritten by Wade and visual artist/ writerMarcos Rosales.

Jeremy Wade
there is no end to more
December 3-5 at 7:30 PM

Just saw inkboat and cokaseki’s AME TO AME (Candy and Rain) at Japan Society. (See earlier preview post). It was a delightful work of “Butoh 2.0″ – a playful, surreal, physically rigorous meditation on relationships. It used some of the movement vocabulary associated with Butoh but had a distinctly contemporary feel – from the soundtrack to the gently humorous avant-slapstick interchange between the two dancers. Culturebot recommends you go check it out, its playing through Saturday.

If you don’t get to see AME TO AME, mark your calendar now for Jeremy Wade’s “there is no end to more” which is coming to Japan Society December 3-5. Jeremy is the master of the grotesque and extreme, this promises to be intense:

from the Japan Society site:

Japan Society presents the world premiere of its commission to Bessie Award-winning American choreographer Jeremy Wade. In a bold and violent juxtaposition of movement, text, animation and video of manga (Japanese comics) drawing, Wade takes a playful and cynical look at Japanese kawaii (cute) culture— from the infantile fluff of Hello Kitty to teenage doe-eyed love portrayed in anime—exploring its ubiquitous influence on the world today. In his inimitable way of walking the line between societal norm and aberration, consumption and delusion, Wade peels away the layers of kawaiito reveal the grotesque that lies beneath. Wade, who is based in Berlin, directs there is no end to more, a solo for a salesman in which he sells his own super show, performed by actor/ dancer Jared Gradinger in collaboration with Brooklyn-based Japanese manga artist/illustrator Hiroki Otsuka, Berlin-based video artist Veith Michel, musician Brendan Dougherty and architects Katja Mitte and Henning Ströhwith text co written by Wade and visual artist/ writer Marcos Rosales.

When I picked Lewis up from his grandmother’s today (AKA “Cookie Nana”), they were watching an episode of “River Monsters” on Animal Planet.  This particular episode took host Jeremy Wade to India in search of a man eating catfish called a Goonch – oh, the things that entertain my child.

During the show we saw a 7 foot version of the catfish with shark-like teeth, however this wasn’t the river monster they were seeking – a larger killer catfish lurked on the bottom of the Kali River.

Without thinking, I said out loud that they should use a goat as bait to lure the catfish in (the fish had already eaten two humans and a water buffalo – a goat seemed like a nice snack). Lewis agreed as long as the goat was dead.   I said I wasn’t sure that would do the trick – PETA forgive me, but maybe it would need to be alive to work.

Of course Lewey became angry with me.  Although it was important to catch this fish it wasn’t fair to do it at the expense of a goat and I conceded-  I did sound a tad awful suggesting it. I just wanted to make sure they caught the goonch since children play and bathe in the river yet I did feel guilty for suggesting a live animal as bait.  Lewis had a compromise:

L: Maybe if they knock the goat out first that would be ok.

Me: Knock the goat out?  Like hit it on the back of the head?

L: Yeah that would work – with a pistol.

Me: So I’m horrible for suggesting they use the goat while it’s alive but it’s ok to pistol whip the goat before feeding it to a nine foot long goonch?

We have agreed to disagree.

In a surprise twist ending, Jeremy Wade did not catch the fish – and, as PETA knows, he would have released it if he did catch it so all is well that ends well.  So much for my idea to launch float trip adventures down the Kali – I’ll save it for the Huzzah and take my chances with the blue gills.

I am not normally one for interpretive dance, post-modern theatre, or anything which could possibly fall within the realms of “butoh“. But a number of upcoming performances at Japan Society, here in NY, look quite good, and I really wish I was going to be here to see them.

heavenly BENTO is a play about the foundation of the SONY Corporation. Tedious as that might sound, it looks from the preview video to be quite engaging, and quite artistic. Video projectors illuminate a white stage, bringing it to live with motion and imagery not directly representative of a literal setting inhabited by the characters – such as an office – but providing a metaphorical setting, thoughts and themes floating around the actors/characters, interacting with them, and being interacted with.

A limited number of seats are available immediately around the stage, reminding me of when I saw “Copenhagen” on Broadway.

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Ame to Ame (Candy and Rain) is a most bizarre “dance”(?) performance, with obvious influences from butoh, but in white, not black, and with a cute, pretty, fun, energetic, and upbeat mood overall. Or at least that’s what I gather from the preview video. While true ankoku butoh centers on explorations of the ugliest, darkest aspects of our humanity, performers intentionally carrying themselves in disturbingly inhuman ways, their faces distorted into macabre masques, Ame to Ame seems far more light-hearted.

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The season also includes hands-on shamisen and taiko workshops, a special day-long presentation of selections of Japanese & American video art from the 1960s-70s, the 13th annual Contemporary East Asian Dance Showcase, and a special performance piece by Berlin-based American artist Jeremy Wade. Commissioned by the Society, it explores Japanese pop culture, specifically kawaii (cute) culture, and its influence on the outside world, through a cynical and subversive light.

I don’t know much about it, and there is no preview video, but I get the impression that it’s the sort of thing that’s dark but with a devilish smirk; the kind of thing that could be more amusing than disturbing, provided you are just the right kind of twisted.

I regret that I won’t be able to see any of these performances, but look forward to further YouTube coverage, and the like, and encourage you, if you have the chance, to visit Japan Society and check it out.

Just how good is this show on the Animal Planet? It’s simply tremendous. The writing is in incredible, the locations breath taking and most importantly the perfect mixture of reality and fantasy wrapped in a packaging that connects on all facets from a production standpoint. Don’t wait for Lost. This reality gem takes you on a trembling hunt for creatures (not animals) that has only existed via folklore, wise tails and second hand accounts. In today’s episode, extreme angler angler Jeremy Wade searches for The Goonch, a man-eating species of catfish nestled in the chilly rivers of the Himalayas. And throughout its run, the music and editing is as chilling as the first person confessionals delivered by Wade. The Animal Planet has itself a winner.

leider gehen unsere einträge komplett durcheinander. ich werde mich bemühen, dass bald mal in ein system zu bringen.

aber bis dahin, geht es erstmal so chronologisch weiter.

der begriff politics of ecstasy fiel mir zu der frage des spektakels ein, und da ich meine anmerkungen per mail ganz gut fand, stelle ich sie jetzt hier ebenfalls ein.

Link: Context #6

David: “politics of ecstasy” das klingt nach Jeremy Wade oder?

JP: ja auch.

Aber noch etwas anderes: ich hab letztens mit jemandem gesprochen, der sagte, er fände es so interessant, dass das chaotische und spielerische offenbar über zwei jahrzehnte lang die leitmaxime der geldwirtschaft gewesen sei, ohne dass jemand es zugegeben habe. die ganze finanzwirtschaft zeichnet sich dadurch aus, dass es erstens einen eklatanten mangel von theoretischer durchdringung gibt – eigentlich versteht niemand, der aktiv daran beteiligt ist, wie es funktioniert – und zweitens ein hohes Maß an emotionalität und man könnte sagen ekstatischem handeln – rausch, intuition, drama, freude, lust. Das sind auch die politics of ecstasy! Und dabei haben sich die neocons und die konservativen zumindest in D immer als die realisten, die zurückhaltenden skeptiker und vernunftmenschen behauptet. Links galt immer als emotional und irrational und rechts als nüchtern.

Das gegenteil ist inzwischen der fall. es wird klar, dass die ganze liberale ideologie eine hochsuggestive, letztlich emotionale und throriedefizitäre ideologie ist. Die marxistische Ökonomie zeichnet sich dagegen durch theorielastigkeit und durch einen fast religiösen materialismus aus, was paradoxerweise schon immer klar und auch immer die kritik der liberalen war. also: der marxismus sei menschenverachtend, weil viel zu systemisch, und verkenne das wesen der menschen, was dann u.a. zu den gulags und stalin geführt habe. Trotzdem konnten 40 Jahre lang linke Positionen in D als illusionäre Romantik abgelehnt werden. Was für ein diskursiver Gerniestreich!

Vielleicht konnte man für den rhenischen Kapitalismus und die soziale Marktwirtschaft noch sagen, sie sei vernunftorientiert und genügsam, aber vom Liberalismus, der spätestens seit Ende der Achtziger in Europa tonangebend ist, kann man sowas ja wirklich nicht mehr behaupten.

Insofern ist das, was wir jetzt erleben ein riesen-spektakel, ein dramatisches finish einer westerninszenierung, die genau darauf immer hinausgelaufen ist. Politics of ecstasy!

Vielleicht wird Jeremy Wade jetzt auch noch mal ganz anders interessant. und auch der begriff des spektakels. Du siehst die versuche ja überall, die krise medial als showdown zu inszenieren, als heroisches drama.

darüber sollten wir nachdenken. was ist da für ein inszenierungs- und narrationsbegriff am werk. wie stellt sich denn unsere welt da gerade dar?

IMAGES: These images show large species of freshwater catfish from around the world: the Mekong giant catfish (Pangasianodon gigas) of Asia (top) and Wels catfish (Silurus glanis) of Europe (bottom).  The Mekong giant catfish in this image weighed in at 646 pounds (293 kilograms), and the Wels catfish tipped the scales at 187 pounds (85 kilograms). The Mekong giant catfish is critically endangered, but the Wels catfish isn’t considered endangered or threatened. The Wels catfish has been blamed for attacking swans, but “there are no recorded attacks on humans.” The goonch (Bagarius sp.), another species of large freshwater catfish (not pictured, but you can find images here) of India, is being blamed for preying on humans. Learn more about the conservation of giant freshwater fish here, because they are increasingly becoming endangered.

BREAK

Growing up in the south and being a freshwater fisherman, large catfish are both folklore and reality to me. In the south, some large catfish can be found in secluded farm ponds or around dams, and stories abound of divers observing huge catfish, particularly blue catfish, around dams across the south.

However, folklore seems to have evolved into an extreme reality in India where large catfish might be preying on humans. Some type of creature, in the sacred Hindu Great Kali River, has allegedly pulled three teenagers under its waters. Locals believe that a type of catfish called the goonch has grown large enough, after feeding on partially burnt corpses from funeral pyres, to prey on living humans.

Five, a television channel in the United Kingdom, is airing a special documentary about the man-eating catfish of the Great Kali River called “Nature Shock: Flesh Eating River Monster.” The documentary will be hosted by biologist Jeremy Wade, and “is due to screen on October 14 at 8.00pm on Five.” From the Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom:

Locals rumours have held for years that a mysterious monster lurks in the water.

But they think it has moved on from scavenging to targeting live bathers who swim in the Great Kali, which flows along the India-Nepal border.

The extraordinary creature has been investigated by biologist Jeremy Wade for a TV documentary to be shown on Five.

He said: “The locals have told me of a theory that this monster has grown extra large on a diet of partially burnt corpses. It has perhaps got this taste for flesh by feasting on remains of funeral pyres.

“There will be a few freak individuals that grow bigger than the other ones and if you throw in extra food, they will grow even bigger.”

.       .       .

In 2007 an 18-year-old Nepali disappeared in the river, dragged down by something described as like an “elongated pig”.

However, the first live victim of a goonch was thought to have been a 17-year-old Nepalese boy in April 1988.

Witnesses said he was cooling himself in the river when something suddenly pulled him below the surface.

Three months later a young boy was dragged underwater in front of his horrified father.

Mekong giant catfish image found here.
Wels catfish image found here.

On the Net: The Megafishes Project
On the Net: Village youths land giant fish – Prize of four-hour struggle: 86-kg Gangetic goonch

Related news: 226-pound catfish recently caught in Spain. You can read more about this large catch here.

More related news (updated 31 May 2009): REEL BIG FISH: 102-pound blue catfish caught in Virginia, may be new state record

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Vous le savez, ça tchatche aux Subsistances et pendant quatre jours une dizaine de créations s’inscrivant dans les arts vivants seront proposées entre ce jeudi et dimanche prochain.

Ce soir à 21 H, 5 euros sous la verrière, Michel Laubu et son théâtre d’objet nous invite à nouveau en Turakie en compagnie de l’ex-Kat Onoma Rodolphe Burger. Leur « Grammaire des ondes et apprentissage du silence » devrait encore faire merveille dans un des lieux fétiche de Michel Laubu. En récupérant Burger l’Alsacien et Laubu le Lorrain les Subs nous font la promesse d’un beau spectacle de Turak porté par les guitares de Burger.

Séances : 3 avril, 21h / 4 avril, 21h / 5 avril, 21H / 6 avril, 20h30.

Parmi les autres spectacles on retrouvera avec plaisir Kastôr Agile, on découvrira « la maison des clowns » et Jörg Müller, coté danse et musique Jeremy Wade, Le Faso danse théâtre et Latarjet et Fleischer pour leur « douce nuit ».

Training aux nuits sonores 2008, comme toujours, les subsistances donnent une carte blanche à Arty Farty pour la soirée électro du 4 avril. Renseignements utiles et nécessaires sur www.les-subs.com

A noter également le dernier enregistrement de Rodolphe Burger, « No Sport » avec la participation de James Blood Ulmer.

> Télécharger le programme complet

Lyon, le 3 avril 2008.