81 APT

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81 APT

tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE

"81 APT": Have you ever wondered about what happened at "81 APT"?   The 3rd International Neoist Apartment Festival, the 1st one I organized, & the 1st one in BalTimOre & the us@?   Welp, you won't get much more than a passing impression from this extremely impoverished documentation - even though I've gone to substantial lengths to improve it under better conditions than it was originally recorded.   Nothing 'officially' happened on Monday, June 1 - so that's missing here.   Despite the extreme lo-fi of this, I've decided to post it online - if only b/c I think this was a highly historic event.   I was living in a 24 room mansion the rent for wch was initially NIL (ie: monetarily - we were expected to patrol a nearby abandoned school - the house had been living quarters for the headmaster) - I think we eventually pd something like $200 or $250 a mnth.   This became the Krononautic Organism's HQ.   81 APT was coproduced by the Merzaum Collective, the Krononauts (really mainly me), & the Neoists (Monty Cantsin & Tom Konyves came from Montréal) - & Doug Smith (aka Reverend Ivan Stang) of the Church of the SubGenius sent an incredible package of (mostly his) 16mm films as his contribution.   As such, 4 major creative groups were united, in toto, for the 1st time.   As if that weren't enuf, people like Tom DiVenti & Keith Wörz, punk performance poets from the beat/Bukowski lineage, also participated - as did many other people not so obviously affiliated.   This quasi-documentary cd hardly do it justice EVEN IF I'D HAD ANY MONEY TO PAY FOR TAPES & SUCH-LIKE (wch, as usual, I didn't).   Even David Zack was living at the KO HQ at the time.   May 29, 1981: This 1st day started w/ Keith's performance in his Apt around 3AM, then a little sleep before Western Union called w/ a Monty Cantsin telegraph, a substantial film & video program followed that night - culminating in projections by Rick Kilreagan w/ live sound from Some Queer (collectively under the name of N.E.M.B. - Non-Erotic Male Bonding).   Essentially, I find it pratically MIRACULOUS that this festival even happened & that so many people participated.   I was the main organizer & to say that I was POOR at the time wdn't be stretching it.   Merzaum may've had some funding but, as far as I recall, that might've gone into photocopying the 11X17" posters & probably very little else.   This was a VERY VITAL TIME IN BalTimOre.   It's difficult to pin down everything that happens in Apartment Festivals.   In this one, since it mostly took place in a 24 room mansion, there were always plenty of people around doing all sorts of things.   May 30, 1981: For this, the 2nd day of 81 APT, Richard (the founder of the Krononautic Organism - our time travel society) had organized a "Non-Apartment Sale" - Non-Apartment b/c it was on the wrap-around porch of a HOUSE, not an APARTMENT - w/ maybe just a bit of a jab at the APT Fest in there somewhere, some irony perhaps.   For those few of you fanatically interested in neoism this might be mainly interesting b/c of the brief glimpse of Dave Zack strumming a bouzouki.   Zack cd barely stop playing all day long.   It was astoundingly monotonous.   Given that I had to live w/ him I got sick of it PDQ - still, though, I have to agree w/ "Blaster" Al Ackerman that it was somehow indicative of his "otherworldliness" - I never knew whether to 'blame' Zack's demeanor on his diabetes or on something more philosophical but I've almost never know anyone to be so OBLIVIOUS.   The most entertaining part of it for me was when Zack wd make up lyrics about Monty Cantsin & neoism, strumming the same chords over & over.   May 31, 1981: This, the 3rd day of the 3rd International Neoist Apartment Festival, was largely distinguished by The Tinklers' fabulous "Nature Walk".   The Tinklers guided attendees around the grounds behind the Krononautic HQ mansion, gave out a chart & 2 transparencies, pointed out things, sang songs, & did their full-on Tinklers THING.   This was in what I think of as the HEYDAY of the Tinklers insofar as they were very exploratory & in-progress.   Alas, this being the festival-of-limited-means that it was, the main documentation here is a crummy audio recording - probably recorded on some $20 piece of crap.   I've added some scans & some crawl titles &, FORTUNATELY, the AMAZING David Yaffe was there taking notes so I have something to excerpt from for these titles.   David went to an astonishing variety of cultural events in BalTimOre & took copious notes about all of them.   If anyone wants to publish a bk about BalTimOre cultural history from the 1970s to the present? (David?   Are you still doing this?!) they'd be well-served to publish his notes.   They're extraordinarily thoughtful & scholarly.   Later that night there was supposed to be a program of Doug Smith's UTERLY BRILLIANT films but, as I note in the movie body, I think they were mainly screened scattered about on other nights.   Some participants, particularly Laure Drogoul, made installations that were accessible throughout.   Mannette Letter apparently signed food & installed it in people's stomachs.   Mannette also supposedly was doing something only referred to on the poster as "bed" that I neglected to mention in this edit.   I vaguely remember her & Zack going in the room that the poster mentions.   What they were doing I can only guess.   I was probably too busy fucking my latest girlfriend - who mostly missed the entire festival b/c she was going to bed early in order to get up to go to work at the horse track stables at 5AM for some pathetic low wage.   June 2, 1981: This is from the 5th day of 81 APT, the 3rd International Neoist Apartment Festival.   This was where the Merzaum part of the event started to kick in.   Marshall Reese, Kirby Malone, Ro Malone, & others were the mainstays of Merzaum's organizing.   They organized some GREAT FDAs (Festivals of Disappearing Arts) that really made performance in BalTimOre THRIVE.   This night started off w/ Marshall's "Microsongs Portarama" about European & American exploration & exploitation of Africa.   As w/ all Merzaum productions, this was thoughtful & innovative.   But just try getting that out of this shitty vaudeo.   The footage is thanks to Lizard Media Systems.   Lizard was one of the only people I knew who cd afford to buy the new-fangled VHS camcorder.   Its light-sensitivity & resolution were practically zilch but, by my impoverished standards, this was FANTASTIC.   At any rate, to compensate for the 3rd generation lo-res here I've adjusted the brightness & contrast so that we can even SEE ANYTHING that Marshall's doing.   I DO remember liking this performance - esp the careful preparation that Marshall had put into it.   PLUS, I'm always a sucker for multiple projections.   Following this was a performance w/ Lisa Jane Kohner on cello & Tom DiVenti on steel drum.   DiVenti was one of the most active punk-poet-performers in BalTimOre & he'd given some of the best performances along those lines that I'd ever seen.   He was also the singer/guitarist in BalTimOre's primo punk band, Da Moronics (founded 1977), the founder of the Apathy Project, & the guy who ran Apathy Press.   What's remarkable here is that he played STEEL DRUM - something somewhat out of character & something that showed he was capable of diverse things.   Alas, again, a completely crummy recording & NO visuals other than David Yaffe's notes as crawl text.   Topping off the night was Mitchell Pressman's contrabass solo.   I don't even have a lousy recording of this, wch is too bad b/c Mitchell was a great bass player.   Fortunately, I publish audio K7s w/ him playing on them so I excerpted from one of those here.   The diversity of TALENT in BalTimOre & in this festival was phenomenal & the cross-breeding between scenes & disciplines superb. June 3, 1981: This is from the 6th night of the 3rd International Neoist Apartment Festival - held in BalTimOre.   It begins w/ a paltry amt of super-8 footage of David Zack (of Nut Art & neoism) & Richard (of the Krononautic Organism) in Laure Drogoul's "Vibro-Lounge" installation in the attic of the HQ's 24 room mansion.   Zack's strumming away but it's not heard in the sound - instead we hear something from his later "Alien Dialects Workshop".   Kiki Bonbon, a founding neoist from Montréal, was scheduled to be next but he didn't attend.   Instead, he sent a letter to some of the participants a mnth ahead of time.   See an explanation of his "united nations" postal scam here.   Given the contents on his letter (shown in a different section) the use of "united nations" is somewhat ironic.   After Kiki, Napoleon Moffat, another founding neoist from Montréal, was also scheduled.   He also didn't attend.   Why?   Hard to say?   Poverty?   Difficulty crossing borders?   All sorts of possibilities suggest themselves.   June 4, 1981: The 7th day of 81 APT, the 1st of the neoist festivals in BalTimOre.   This night started off w/ Kirby Malone, of the Merzaum Collective, presenting his "Apparatus, Mr. Hyde" - a meditation on automatons & humans becoming automatons as society becomes more & more technically control-freak oriented.   This was a great performance w/ lots of interesting visuals & sounds & texts.. but it'll look like shit here thanks to the extreme lo-res of the vaudeo.   Don't let that bother you, listen to the texts & enjoy watching Vaucanson's Duck waddle by in my primitive attempt to add a little crisper image.   Following this is the perhaps misleading quasi-saga of "Beschwerlich Bügeleisen" by 2 non-attendees: Kiki Bonbon (see the June 3rd movie & notes) & Zbigniew Brotgehirn (bread brain).   I was disappointed that they & Napoleon Moffat didn't attend from Montréal.   They always had something interesting to offer. June 5, 1981: The 8th day of 81 APT.   Brotgehirn didn't show but Monty Cantsin, the founder of neoism did, & his Blood Lottery was fantastic.   Starting off in the fireplace, he played a function generator I'd built from a kit & a neoist tape.   He'd written graffiti on the walls.   According to David Yaffe's notes there was supposed to be a video component too but none of the 3 monitors worked right.   He kicked out one of the windows in the room & went out onto the porch thru the hole.   Dave Zack had promised he'd fix the window after this but he later denied that & I probably got stuck w/ it.   My roommates, who already hated me for being so 'violent' (although one of them made himself rich making commercials for the US Air Force at the time - but that, of course, isn't 'violent'), hated me even more after this.   Once out on the porch, he had me take a dollar from each of the willing attendees & a slip of paper w/ their name.   He had his blood taken & offered the winner of the lottery a choice between his blood & the money.   The winner, coincidentally, was his girlfriend.   I don't think it was fixed.   Really.   Richard Hambleton, the Canadian mail & street artist is briefly visible.   He'd come down from NYC.   His presence was a major asset.   Monty then went on the front lawn, across from where a woman was sitting at a bus stop, & pulled his pants partially down in the light of a car's headlights & stuck a tube of his blood in his asshole so that he cd then pour the blood out from the tube into his mouth.   He practices yoga.   This must've been sexy for the vampires in the (v)audience.   His doing this made Richard & other roommates nervous so they stood trying to block the woman at the bus stop's view.   If she saw it, it must've seemed like a pretty damn bizarre ritual.   Why on EARTH wd anyone do this?!   It was GREAT!   Very dramatic.   Even revolutionary in its twisted way.   Tom Konyves, the poet who was teaching Monty English, came down w/ him from Montréal & gave a reading.   If you can understand what he's saying in this rotten recording you're better than I am.   June 6, 1981: For the last 2 parts of this 81 APT, the documentation gets even WORSE!   Is that possible?!   I resort to slowing down only slightly relevant super-8 footage.   We start off w/ David Zack's "Alien Dialects Workshop" wch was held in a big abandoned warehouse space.   I don't recall Dave having much to say.   I think he started strumming a string instrument pretty quickly.   Still, his attitude was probably somewhat informed by the pulp SF that "Blaster" Al Ackerman & I (& persumably Zack) love(d).   After all, we WERE in the 6 Fingers Club (R. A. Lafferty enthusiasts take note).   ANYWAY, Chris Mason, an excellent sound poet & half of the Tinklers & sometime part of the Merzaum Collective, & I & Mannette Letter & possibly others starting improvising.   I like to think that we were creating Alien Dialects.   Mannette can be seen in the film - as can Chris & Richard & our friend Joan & her dog.   Eventually David Zack & Monty Cantsin show too.   Chris & Mannette were fabulous & I probably got in a few good sounds too.   Late that night, Nancy Andrews & Rick Kilreagan hosted a big event at their rental apt.   Judging by David Yaffe's notes quite alot happened - including some films that probably gave a feminist mock to ads.   Alas, you won't see any of that here.   About the best I can offer is the "Gender Fuck Party (closet film)" wch features Nan & Rick & wch was shot at the same apt & wch was probably also projected that night.   It's shown in a more complete version on this YouTube channel elsewhere.   Many of the festival participants are in this film so it's pretty appropriate to incorporate it here.   June 7, 1981: Yes, here we get to the absolute scraping of the bottom of the barrel documentation-wise of the very last day of 81 APT, the 3rd International Neoist Apartment Festival in BalTimOre (29 yrs ago as of this writing).   Whether Steve Pocock was from Zaïre or not I don't know.   I remember liking Steve & I didn't know him very well.   Maybe his family were wealthy exploiters of African labor.   Dunno.   Forgive me for even suggesting that if I'm wrong.   Most likely Steve sd he was from Zaïre for entertainment's sake.   Having lost touch w/ him almost immediately after this I have no idea.   At any rate, he was a young guy, maybe still in his teens, & I remember this as being a reasonably well crafted performance.   David Yaffe certainly wrote extensive notes about it so he must've been inspired.   Unfortunately, the only abysmal visuals you'll get here are a very slowed-down shot of Steve & Yaffeot sitting next to each other during Monty's performance.   The sound is a backwards playback of some post- Alien Dialects Workshop stuff.   At least there's a smattering of Yaffe's description.   After that, there's a list of stuff that probably didn't happen & some credits.   It was CHAOS & it was GLORIOUS.   You had to be there.   - February 4, 2010 notes from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE