C R O S S F I R E
POPshop Saloon Series #1 | CROSSFIRE Edited by Joseph A. W. Quintela
Copyright Š 2011 by Joseph A. W. Quintela All Rights Reserved ISBN: 978-0-9838418-1-4 Published by Deadly Chaps | Call Death COLLECT New York, NY 2011 DCcollectCF|1| Book Concept by Joseph A. W. Quintela http://www.deadlychaps.com
POPshop Saloon?
POPshop Saloon is an interactive, inter-art event series produced by Prudence Groube and featuring live poetry performances curated by Joseph A. W. Quintela. The driving principle behind the series is to erode the barriers between artist and audience as well as those that so often divide the various disciplines of the arts. Begun in the summer of 2011, POPshop Saloon first took residence in the KGB Bar’s infamous Red Room where the space was whimsically transformed in the spirit of pop-up shops but moments before the beginning of each show.
CROSSFIRE?
The first event in the POPshop Saloon series, CROSSFIRE was conceived as an evening that would place poets, visual artists, actors, and musicians in a crossfire of words shot out by the audience, forcing them to produce live works and performances using the constraint of the given word set. At the evening’s outset, a 10’ by 5’ canvas was erected along one wall, as the room was strewn with word-generating prompts in the form of comment cards, newspaper flowers, and fortune cookies. Minutes later, as the audience arrived to mingle and sip infused whiskeys, they were also encouraged to use the prompts to provide words to three poets working on the canvas. While one poet painted out the given words, the other two used them to begin composing and adding lines of poetry. An artist decorated around their work weaving the poetry and words together with elegant swaths of black paint. Meanwhile, actors and musicians roamed the room recording words, listening in on conversations, and examining the canvas to inspire impromptu performances. About an hour later, as the canvas began to fill, these performances began with a vibraphone set, followed by hip hop and vocal performances, an impromptu dramatic monologue, and a jazzinspired reading of the canvas itself. The evening culminated in the auctioning of the canvas with proceeds benefiting New York Cares. CROSSFIRE | 1
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Part I | Setting the Stage CROSSFIRE | 3
Bouquet of Printed Flowers | Photo Courtesy of Prudence Groube
Prudence Groube’s often whimsical creations at Mimachan Studios provided inspiration for the various prompts and decorations that drove the evening’s artistic festivities. Newspaper flowers affixed to green bamboo sticks were folded at her studio and later arranged around the Red Room. The words upon them would be used by the audience to add to the canvas.
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Empty Canvas with Paint and Brushes | Photo Courtesy of Erin Barbour
Artist, Puja LadiJungle, and poets, Joseph A. W. Quintela, Mariana Luna, and Niel Rosentalis agreed to use only black paint on the white canvas to preserve a page-like feel. CROSSFIRE | 5
Vibraphone with Flowers, Hanging | Photo Courtesy of Erin Barbour
A veteran of performances in the New York Subway tunnels, musician, Erin Barbour, was unfazed by the prospect of playing for a raucous crowd. This fact wouldn’t make lugging her Vibraphone up two flights of narrow stairs into the Red Room any less harrowing.
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POPshop Preparations Courtesy of Erin Barbour
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Though Quintela had worked or performed individually with both Luna and Rosentalis prior to the performance, they had never before worked all three together or with LadiJungle. As excitement built amongst the quartet they realized there were a few last minute details to discuss: like how not to step or paint on one another while sharing a canvas.
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Infusion | Photo Courtesy of Erin Barbour
An expert of both pickling and mixology, Groube created infused whiskeys with various types of fruit to relax the atmosphere and get the creative juices flowing in both the audience and the artists. Needless to say, they were a popular part of the evening’s festivities.
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Set a Stage, Srike a Pose | Photo Courtesy of Erin Barbour
With the room staged and just a few seconds remaining before the audience will be allowed into the theater space, LadiJungle, Quintela, and Groube pose for a quick snapshot.
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Stepping into the Crossfire | Photo Courtesy of Erin Barbour The audience was an integral part of the project’s palette, so anticipation built both inside the theater and outside as the guests begin to arrive. At 10:30, with the room completely staged in a mere half hour, the doors swung open and an excited audience took their first steps into the CROSSFIRE.
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Part II | Stepping into the Crossfire CROSSFIRE | 11
Prompt Card (Front) | Photo Courtesy of Joseph A. W. Quintela
Prompt Cards were strewn throughout the Red Room. As audience members arrived they were guided through the room by Groube, as Quintela answered questions and received words at the canvas. Meanwhile, LadiJungle, Luna, and Rosentalis began to paint. Two giant sketchbooks of exquisite corpse, a word and picture parlor game favored by the Surrealist movement, serves as added entertainment for the audience as the canvas started to fill with words, poems, and designs.
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Prompt Card (Back) | Photo Courtesy of Joseph A. W. Quintela
Early words to be painted on the canvas include: holiday, too, soon, park, madness, dead, center, and sky. The poet’s trade roles as they receive more words to work with. Using only these, one of the poets writes a short snippet of lines that reads: Too soon, to the mad sky. Too soon, to the park. Too soon, to the dead. Too soon.
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Flower Picking | Photo Courtesy of Erin Barbour
Groube guides an audience member through the process of picking newsprint flowers to contribute to the canvas. 14 | CROSSFIRE
Collateral Wordage | Photo Courtesy of Erin Barbour
As the canvas begins to fill with the words provided by the audience, the poets have a greater pool from which to compose their lines of poetry. Quintela begins to use small words that are contained within larger words and the practice is soon used by all three poets to expand their available palette. Still, verbs remain scarce--a fact that markedly influences the lines written and highlights the role of the audience as both constraint and inspiration.
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Word : Art | Photo Courtesy of Don Quixote
The poets use both paint and markers to vary the size and texture of their written work as LadiJungle builds the visual impact of the canvas with her textile-like designs. With every inch beginning to fill, the quartet starts to write and paint over previous sections suggesting a sudden emergence of a graffiti aesthetic within the composition of art and poetry. 16 | CROSSFIRE
Taking Note | Photo Courtesy of Erin Barbour While the canvas is being painted, actor and playwright, Mike Houston roams the room listening in on conversations and gathering material for an impromptu monologue that will be the culmination of the live, interactive performances later in the evening.
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Part III | Inter-Acted (Performance) CROSSFIRE | 19
Dance of the Mallets | Photo Courtesy of Scott Villalobos Barbour kicked off the performances with a three song set played on her vibraphone. The dance of her mallets perfectly mimicked the crossfire of words that had just filled the Red Room and the audience reacted with thunderous applause.
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Rapid (Cross) Fire | Photo Courtesy of Erin Barbour
Hip hop artist, James Sykes, used a prompt card to ignite his lyrical flow and encouraged the audience to shout out words from the canvas as he continued, incorporating them into his verse to their delight. Sykes’ shout out to an absent Irish friend, Katie Sheahan, would later provide inspiration for the next show in the POPshop series.
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“The Words� in Three Parts | Photo Courtesy of Molly Rydzel
Pulled from the talent-laden audience by surprise, Molly Rydzel (playwright), Matt Bechtold (actor), and Jen Jayden (singer/songwriter) give an impromptu recital of words chosen from the canvas.
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Canvas Reading | Photo Courtesy of Scott Villalobos
The “Canvas Reading” challenged several notions of a traditional poetry reading. By necessity, the poets read with their backs to the audience, reading both complete sections and individual words as they were inspired by the canvas and each other. Portions of the reading verged on the nonsensical, as pure rhythmic and aural elements dominated the poet’s attention, calling into question the function and definition of the words provided by the audience. At other times, the poets were able to insert commentary into their interpretation of the work. “Tasty girls downstairs,” read Quintela, in reference to the KGB bar located beneath the Red Room Theater. “Capitalism Downstairs,” responded Rosentalis a few moments later, to the delight of the audience.
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Canvas Reading (Transcript) Vindictive Rabbit toss Sky to girl girl Motor cycle thorough Where where where you where right I want right where Where where you is where Park Is the want Or where of Snitches You Brinkmanship Thorough Fire crotch Girl Icky icky Grass ragu flower Green bitchin Tuesday Green bitcin Tuesday Harry Potter Weather 24 | CROSSFIRE
Sky blue skill Rhythm makes green dreams Tuesday makes a thought Thorough Thorough Café Voltaire Café roses Café goose Café green Café dungerees Café inconceivable Café Toulouse Lautrec Cafe Holiday holiday holiday holiday holiday holiday holiday Or holiday or inspired cock or indictive…. Or ringing the edge of the sky As intangible as a clove of light invented Spite Perfected Too soon Spite Perfected
Dark Too soon Xanadu Too soon Black Too soon Black Babylonians Too soon Babylonians Too soon Holiday Too soon Holiday The sky holiday holiday holiday holiday holiday holiday Lyrical Too soon tornado lungs dead sky too soon tornado lungs dead sky too soon tornado lungs dead sky too soon Fuck Tornado lungs dead sky too soon Participating Mad Myself
Mad Your thoughts remake Your program snitches indictive Proof Proof Make our world Lung dead My mind well trained going fun Going exuberant Any ideas? World stew Hairy world The bells Mild you keep you yes keep you yes keep mild lunacy vermin you yes keep you yes you keep a program mild bites the snitches Lunacy Too soon Reclusive sky Keep icky stuff In the town edge we keep Icky stuff Infinite the sci-fi circus Stuff
The map of trains six fires into myself I want you where I want you Green trains on the green flat land Sci-fi holiday On the high all day We did not invent trains For hairy moms For hairy moms and holiday for hairy moms this program inspired cock’s participation in girls, in the last flower the invention, Tuesday, I imagine these, the fuck program transgirls is tasty downstairs The girl reads red houses Sisters introspective edges Recluse Lungs Thorough recluse, like Tuesday Breakmanship Seven knoblings envour, seven green sons Too lyrical Alpine Seventy-two lyrical Two ones
Island? Alpine? Too perfected Three two one John Wayne Or‌ Recluse Inconceivable wrangling Inconceivable recluse Inconceivable center Ooh Tornado Sequin sound island make our world dark Tasty girls downstairs How tasty Very wicked cocks Very wicked cocks Babylonian Very wicked cocks Ba ba lonyan Very wicked cocks Bab ba lo ny um Lyrical Babylonian Dead sky Lyrical Babylonian hairy cock
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Wicked cock Lyrical Babylonian wicked cock Wicked cock lyrical lyrical lyrical Babylonian wicked wicked cock Babylonian wicked lyrical Captitalism Capitalism Something like that Capitalism downstairs Tornado tornado tornado tornado tor na do tor – na – do tornado tornado Dead Urges Flatland Perfecting Lungs motorcycle bike inspired Sister Sister sister sister sister sister sister Six four Girl girl Abstract
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Yet is right yet where are you filled in the street airs is airs your red air murks that’s red red red. To the girl who reads red houses Magnitude of the sun As usual As proof As Espanola Basketball Babylonian Basketball Hairy bibles Magnitude Holiday inn Down old raven Flatland Inspired Babylonian cock It all comes back to inspired Babylonian cock I wrote it I wrote it.
Inconceivable Wrangling Courtesy of Erin Barbour
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Groube reacts to a particularly surprising moment of the poets’ performance. CROSSFIRE | 27
Monologue Our of the Crossfire | Photo Courtesy of Erin Barbour
The final and most challenging of the evening performances, Mike Houston’s monologue was inspired by snippets of conversation that he overheard though the course of the evening. The result was written mere moments before delivery and with improvisation inserted into the performance as necessary. The rapturous audience was astounded by Houston’s ability to build his character while displaying virtuoso range in the monologue’s tone.
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Part IV | The Crossfire(d) Canvas CROSSFIRE | 29
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Canvas Detail | Photo Courtesy of Prudence Groube
mad Tuesday edge holiday endowed or wrangling flatland urges icky life
tornado lungs dead sky too soon
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Canvas Detail | Photo Courtesy of Prudence Groube
the mad, the mad believe participation
tasty girl downstairs, capitalism downstairs.
and ideas? worlds, too. heavy worlds of bells, mind you, keep you, yes, keep you, yes, keep mild lunacy
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Canvas Detail | Photo Courtesy of Prudence Groube
band of thought, lyrical growth and steel, too soon, too soon the tornado saw and make the zero and keep, and flesh, and mild word of proof, we bitch, we make our proof CROSSFIRE | 33
Canvas Detail: Signature of Puja LadiJungle | Photo Courtesy of Prudence Groube
A: ? Q: with worlds we thought our make A: center worlds are green knoblings
boots, bourbon, airy trans-girl clue reinvention. fresh, mild
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Canvas Detail: Signature of Mariana Luna (Don Quixote) | Photo Courtesy of Prudence Groube
mad in the perfected park ick! ick! brinkmanship, perfected inspire the perfect word the perfect girl. ick! ick! the sky endowed, perfected the sky wrangling, perfected
tornado tornado tornado tornado tornado tornado tornado tornado tornado tornado tornado tornado tornado tornado tornado
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Canvas Detail: Signature of Niel Rosentalis | Photo Courtesy of Prudence Groube
boom like boom like inspired Babylonian cock boom like cock… …is the most boom kiss like a lone baby.
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Canvas Detail: Signature of Joseph A. W. Quintela | Photo Courtesy of Prudence Groube
we ate charisma an instrospective fuck. his motorcycle lungs, his circus girl, his alpine sky of boots
or holiday, or inspired cock, or indictive wrangling, or the edge, or the sky edge, or intangible cycles, or the clump of life invented
FIN | CROSSFIRE New York | 2011
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Erin Barbour represents the vibraphone half of the vibe/marimba duo iMallet.
reviews. She is currently working on her follow-up release.
Matt Bechtold is an actor and barman widely renowned for his impeccable delivery of both these arts.
Puja LadiJungle is a creator of print graphic design, surface textile design, paintings, silkscreens, and art books. Selection from her portfolio can be found on her website. (ladijungledesigns.tumblr.com)
Prudence Groube is an Australian ex-pat now living and working in New York, where she creates the world of Mimachan, who inhabits the space between the seen and unseen. Prudence’s work is in private collections both domestically and internationally. She has shown in Brooklyn and Manhattan in both solo and group shows. (www.flickr.com/photos/mimachanstudi os/) Mike Houston resides in New York City, where he has studied with Bill Esper at the distinguished William Esper Acting Studio. Most recently, he received the 2007 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Solo Performance for his work in "The Ledge", written by Jack Hanley. Jen Jayden is an indie singer/songwriter currently residing in Brooklyn. Her music career has spanned both coasts, in addition to a stint of singing at sea. A 2007 EP “Unpredictable” was produced by Jeffery David and garnered beautiful
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Mariana Luna, aka Don Quixote is into hi-fi, lo-fi, and sci-fi. She's performed in usual and unusual venues... Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School, theaters, bars, trains, abandoned buildings... NYC, Berlin, Canada, Iceland, Mexico, etc. Primary media: words, film, photography, sound/music. Primary themes: memory/oblivion, death, voyeurism, revolution, serial migration: gangofbirds.com Joseph A. W. Quintela writes. Poems. Stories. On Post-its. Walls. Envelopes. Cocktail napkins. Twitter, Canvas. Anything he gets his hands on, really. He is the senior editor of the Deadly Chaps book series. (www.josephquintela.com) Nathaniel Rosentalis is a senior at Sarah Lawrence College focusing on poetry and queer studies. Molly Rydzel is the undisputed leader of her apocalypse survival squad (zombie,
machine, biological, extra terrestrial) as well as EdibleBrains Productions. EB champions the female voice in science fiction and horror, theater, film, and multimedia. Molly is the author of two plays that have been workshopped and produced in Manhattan, and is responsible for the online feminist zombie phenomenon The Dead Walk in Brooklyn I-III. James Sykes has gone through his rebellious periods as a young person trying to make it out of the hood, hustling, and working while pursuing his ultimate goal: making music. Through this, has emerged a confident, funny, outspoken individual that is Kid Playboy of the Brooklyn-based Fly Guys, Inc. POPshop Saloon would like to thank: Lizza Dauenhauer-Pendley and Scott Villalobos for providing video recordings of CROSSFIRE. Additional Photo Credits: Page 2 | Canvas Detail | Photo Courtesy of Prudence Groube Page 30 | Canvas Detail | Photo Courtesy of Erin Barbour
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