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the-master-cylinder · 5 years ago

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SUMMARY Andrew Norris is the new music teacher at a troubled inner city school. As he arrives on his first day, he meets fellow teacher Terry Corrigan, who is carrying a gun. When Andrew asks about the firearm, Terry assures him he will learn why the protection is necessary. When they enter the school, Andrew is shocked to see everyone scanned by metal detectors and frisked. He spots a student with a knife, but the security guards let the kid go because they are so overworked.

The halls of the school are covered with graffiti. Andrew learns he is expected to patrol the halls as a security guard during his off periods. In his first class, a group of five disruptive students are roughhousing and causing trouble. The leader of the gang is Peter Stegman, the only member of the group who is actually registered in that class. They all eventually walk out, and Andrew discovers the rest of the students actually want to learn, especially Arthur, who plays the trumpet, and Deneen, who plays the clarinet.

As Andrew gets to know the school and the area, he decides that he wants to put together an orchestra with his more advanced students. Peter’s gang sells drugs, run a strip club, and cause all kinds of mayhem. They follow Andrew home and taunt him one night.

At school, Andrew is confronted with more and more evidence of Peter’s crimes. The two grow increasingly at odds. Eventually, after Stegman killed Terry’s animals in his lab, Andrew and Stegman wind up in a bathroom alone together. Peter throws himself into a mirror and beats himself, claiming that Andrew attacked him. Trying to clear things up, Andrew visits Peter’s mother at home. Frustrated when Peter still plays the victim and his mother will not hear Andrew out, he hotwires Peter’s car and drives it into a wall. During lunch, Stegman’s gang start a “food fight” and force their friend Vinnie to stab Arthur, which he does so and causes him to be sent to a hospital. Vinnie is arrested and held in a youth detention center. Terry is driven insane after the incident with the animals in his lab and is killed after crashing his car when trying to kill Stegman and the others.

Andrew’s orchestra is about to give its first concert. As his wife Diane gets ready at home, Peter’s gang breaks into the house and gang rapes her. One of them takes a Polaroid of her being raped and has it delivered to Andrew on the podium, just as he is about to start the concert. Horrified by the photo, he runs off the podium in pursuit of Peter’s gang. Andrew and the gang chase each other through the school. Andrew kills them off one by one, and finally confronts Peter on the roof. Their last scuffle ends with Peter falling through a skylight and getting tangled to his death in the ropes above the stage. His corpse falls into full view of the audience as his neck is broken by one of the ropes. Andrew is never charged because the police could not find a witness to the crime.

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Interview with Director Mark L. Lester

What was the initial inspiration for Class of 1984? Mark L. Lester: I was visiting my old high school, and I noticed there were gangs walking around with no shirts, really tough kids, and the whole school had changed. Then I started to do some investigating, and found that there were some schools, just a couple, that were starting with security and checking for guns. I thought, “Boy, that’d be a good idea for a movie,” and started researching violence in high schools. Over about a year, I came up with the story.

I read that the dialogue the detective (Al Waxman) has is verbatim from interviews you did with cops while researching the film. Mark L. Lester: Yes, I went to a police station and talked to the juvenile officer; I described a case like this and the scenes in the movie—“What would you do?” I just copied his answers down and put them in the script.

Mark L. Lester

Psycho II and Fright Night’s Tom Holland has story and co-screenplay credit; were there significant differences between his draft and what wound up on screen? Mark L. Lester: There was an additional writer [Barry Schneider] who didn’t take credit, but we worked on making it more like A Clockwork Orange, with the dialogue. None of that was in Tom Holland’s script, so we rewrote it to be more like Clockwork Orange, where the gang talked in their own kind of language. And then there was a large punk element added, because that movement was just taking hold in England. I got the costuming and the whole flavor of the punks from that, from British magazines and so forth.

How difficult was it to find a school to shoot in? I imagine a lot of high schools would object to a movie like this filming in their hallways. Mark L. Lester: Well, that was Toronto’s Central High. We shot it during the summertime, so the school was available. We did put graffiti on the walls and it was very hard to get it off, so when the kids came back to school, all the graffiti was still there. It caused quite a stir.

How did you wind up casting Perry King as Andy Norris? Mark L. Lester: I just interviewed him; I had seen him in Bad, the Andy Warhol film. But when it came time to do the scene in the wood shop, it was a mini-revolt. He said, “No, I can’t kill a kid on a table saw! That’s too gruesome, with the blood splattering on my face… That’s beyond anything I could do.” I said, “But Perry, don’t you remember, you boiled that slave alive in Mandingo!” He said, “Oh, that’s rightI guess it’s OK then.”

How about Roddy McDowall? He’s terrific as Corrigan. Mark L. Lester: I just knew him from Planet of the Apes and had always wanted to work with him. So I asked him to do it, and he was fantastic.

McDowall drove the car himself for the scene where Corrigan tries to run Stegman down. Was that his choice? Mark L. Lester: I was gonna use a stuntperson, but he said, “No, no, I want to drive, and I’m gonna drive really crazy.” I got in the back seat to do the sound, and he just took off and started driving insane, right up to the crash point. It was unbelievable; he was swerving all over the road.

So he didn’t have any qualms about the film’s violence? Mark L. Lester: No, he was a real professional. Everyone wanted to be involved in a hip, young movie that was different, and cutting-edge at the time. Even Lalo Schifrin, who was considered a very prestigious composer, wanted to do it, and he brought in Alice Cooper to do the theme song (“I Am the Future”).

That was quite an odd match of musical talents… Mark L. Lester: Yeah… Schifrin brought in a guy named Gary Osborne to write the song with him, and brought Alice Cooper in to perform it, and he did a really good job.

Another musical highlight is when Stegman surprises Andy by playing a piano concerto in his class. According to the credits, Van Patten wrote that piece himself. Mark L. Lester: That’s right. I was going to use another piece of music, and then he said, “No, no, let me use my own.”

How did Van Patten wind up being cast? Mark L. Lester: I saw him on a TV show, The White Shadow. He was playing a bad kidnot like he does in this movie, but he was perfect. This is his best work ever as an actor; he actually directs now. And Michael J. Fox I saw on TV also; it must have been Palmerstown, U.S.A. I hired him based on that, and it was only his second feature film.

Merrie Lynn Ross, who plays Andy’s wife, was also a producer on Class. How did that come about? Mark L. Lester: She put up some money for the film. I had worked with her before; she was in Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw for me.

It’s interesting that she would help with the financing of a movie in which she’s so rudely treated on screen… Mark L. Lester: Yeah, but she never complained. She’s not naked in [the rape scene], she’s fully clothed… Also, the Canadian producer, Arthur Kent, became the “Scud Stud.” During the first Gulf War with George Bush, he was the guy reporting for the TV news on the rooftop [from the war zone), and became known as the “Scud Stud.” Then he protested a dangerous assignment and started picketing the network that was Arthur Kent.

Your stunt coordinator was Terry J. Leonard, who had just done Conan the Barbarian and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Were there any stunt scenes that posed particular challenges? Mark L. Lester: In those days, there was no CGI, so the whole ending on the rooftop was actually a stunt guy crashing through glass and right into the auditorium. We flipped a car in another scene—but the movie revolved a lot more around the thriller aspects than any big stunts, so in that sense, it was different from films today. It didn’t rely on big action gags through the whole movie, it relied on the suspense of the teacher and what was going to happen to him.

Speaking of potentially injurious situations, you’ve said that a lot of extras in the club were real punk kids. Mark L. Lester: Yeah, I actually held auditions for them. They came in and were all handpicked; they had to have certain hairdos and all that, so it was very carefully done. And then they were really slam-dancing hard into people, hurting them, and we had to carry a few people out of there!

As far as the staged mayhem goes, were there concerns about the film’s violent content while you were shooting it? Mark L. Lester: I didn’t have any, but later on it was banned in certain countries, like Switzerland. It was considered too controversial, with the teacher killing the kids like that. But the wood-shop scene became the biggest crowd-pleaser of the movie. When the teacher and the boy go at it with the table saw, the audience just went wild every time that scene played; they couldn’t wait to see him kill that kid.

Class of 1984 was released in the U.S. by United Film Distribution, which had sent out movies like Dawn of the Dead and Mother’s Day unrated. Was there ever talk of releasing Class the same way? Mark L. Lester: No, they wanted to cut down the table-saw scene and a bunch of others, and it ended up getting an R rating. But the funny thing is, by mistake the prints ended up getting struck with the X version; those were the ones that got released, and no one ever questioned it.

The film got widely mixed reviews when it first came out-but surprisingly, one of the raves was from Roger Ebert, who was on a tear against “dead teenager” movies at the time. Mark L. Lester: Yeah, Ebert really kicked things off; he saw it at the Cannes Film Festival and gave it a great review. About half the reviews overall were great, and then some people didn’t like the violence and so forth. Newsweek was a bad review, Time was a good review, the New York papers liked it-and it did huge business.

Did you think that when you made this way back in the day, that it would have reached cult-status, much like it has now? Mark L. Lester: No, I had no idea that it would take off like it did, although until it opened, it was very controversial when it came out. It was in Time Magazine, and Ronald Reagan once had a speech about education, and they put the pictures from the movie into an editorial, and it had such controversial press, so it took off back then, and at the beginning of the film, I’d put a warning to the country that this would happen, the future couldn’t get much worse I don’t have the EXACT wording.

“Class of 1984” is not a great movie but it works with quiet, strong efficiency to achieve more or less what we expect from a movie with such a title. It is violent, funny, scary, contains boldly outlined characters, and gets us involved. It also has a lot of style. One of the reasons for the film’s style may be that it was made by people who knew what they were doing. …It tells a strong, simple story. It is acted well. It is not afraid to be comic at times and, even better, it’s not afraid at the end to pull out all the stops and give us the sort of Grand Guignol conclusion that the slasher movies always botch. You may or may not think it’s any good, but you’ll have to admit that it works. Roger Ebert – CLASS OF 1984 (1982) January 1, 1982

Interview with Actress Lisa Langlois

Class of 1984, you played Patsy the Punk. A completely different character…as rotten-of-an-apple as you can get. Was it fun to be vicious and terrorizing rather than terrorized? Lisa Langlois: Well, it’s so much more interesting. Although understand, they brought me in to play the nice girl, Michael J. Fox’s girlfriend. I went in and they told me they really saw me in that part. I said, “You know what? Would you just let me come back dressed and acting like the other character?” I explained that I grew up with four brothers. I’ve been around a lot of their friends and I’ve seen these kinds of tough people. I know how to do it. So I came back in, did the role and they loved it.

You really stand out in that film. How much of your characterization was in the original script? Lisa Langlois: I’ve gotta tell you…there was really not a lot of dialogue for me in that film. Everything that I did was improv and they kept it in the final cut. That’s what I liked about the director, Mark Lester. He didn’t have an ego about you throwing a line in or some business. He loved it.

What was the experience like for you making Class of 1984? Lisa Langlois: Not good. One was that all the Canadians (not the Americans) got asked to work for scale. They said they would give us a buyout later because they didn’t really have the money to make this film. And then the movie became this big hit and none of us ever got paid any residuals for television or video, etc. The extras really got mistreated. They hardly got paid. They got peanut butter and jam sandwiches. That scene where the girl takes her clothes off in front of the punks…that was really hard to do. It involved real acting for Tim Van Patton and me because she didn’t want to do that scene. She didn’t want to take her clothes off. She was shaking.

It reminded me of what happened to me in Phobia. You get intimidated and you don’t want to make waves. You’re young. You want people to like you. And they make it sound like it’s no big deal. That poor girl was literally shaking. I remember it was so sad, my makeup artist was making her up and I was sitting next to her. She told the girl, “Don’t worry, I’ll make you up so that no one will recognize you.” And I thought, that’s NOT just the issue. It doesn’t matter whether someone can see your face…in front of everybody, you’re taking your clothes off! Right. Timothy and I were talking about how uncomfortable we were with that. He said something to Mark because that guy was a gentleman. I just loved him.

There’s an almost lascivious nature to your character Patsy in that scene with the naked girl…almost lesbianic…? Lisa Langlois: That was an acting choice I made. Like I mentioned, I made the choices with Patsy because in the script she was just…standing there. That was one of my complaints. We had this really terrific stunt coordinator with Terry Leonard, and he never gave me anything to do in the fight scenes. Nothing. I decided I would be this character who’s really perverted in that I got off on sex and violence. What I would do is, when they were beating people up, I would jump up and down, and dance around. And when someone had to take their clothes off, I would get excited.

Tim was generally unhappy on this shoot. At the time, the movie was very violent. To me, it seemed so surreal and over-the-top and exaggerated because where I came from, I could never imagine kids behaving like that in school or having to go through metal detectors to get into class. Again, it was the wild, wild west we talked about earlier. The punk rockers that were hired to be extras…they weren’t really extras, they were real punks.

Did they cause any problems on the set? Lisa Langlois: Well, for me personally, they knew I wasn’t a real punk rocker. I had my hair purple, pink and some other colors. So a) they knew I was an actor and not one of them, and b) they didn’t appreciate me wearing a dress. Several times, I had punk rocker women come up to me and say, “We’re gonna get you…”

That’s awful! Lisa Langlois: Mark really wanted reality. It would have made more sense for me to have a wig than to dye my hair all those colors anyway. It was hell getting my hair to look normal again. But I was terrified. You won’t notice in the movie, but whenever there were big scenes like in a club or whatever, you wouldn’t see me. Because I would literally disappear.

For your own safety… Lisa Langlois: Yes. I was afraid. When they were slamming people, they were actually doing it. It was for real. They were really hitting each other. The punk extras got off on it.

Lester has talked in documentaries about going out and finding these punks for the film. Lisa Langlois: It wasn’t well thought out for the actors. It wasn’t taking care of us. I was afraid because I knew there was no protection on that set.

Did the female punks consider you a poser? Lisa Langlois: I think that would be the term you would use now. They just felt I was a fraud, I guess you would say. We were embarrassed to be in that film and it ended up being this big, big hit.

What did you think when you saw the finished product? Lisa Langlois: I didn’t go see it for a long time. However, I remember my mother saying that it was the quintessential moment for her when she knew I had done a good job as an actress. Because she was in a theater watching it, and when I got killed at the end, the audience got up and cheered. It was a real memorable moment for her.

Great! The audience was so engaged, they cheered. Lisa Langlois: Although, honestly…I don’t think I’m killed. I think I survived.

A car comes crashing down on your head! We’d have to side with the people who think you died. It’s pretty extreme. Lisa Langlois: Yeah, but it IS the movies. And I’m still talking. Which reminds me, I had completely forgotten about the part where the gang members killed Roddy McDowall’s animal in the biology lab. That was horrible. That was really, really horrible. I watched it and just thought, “Oh, wow…” But it was really great to act opposite Roddy in that movie.

The scene where he has the gun pointed at you is quite a good moment. Lisa Langlois: It was one of those things where you’re thinking, “Oh my God, I have this scene with Roddy McDowall…how am I going to do this?”

Do you think Roddy was one of those people who was unhappy making this movie? Lisa Langlois: I don’t know. Because the scene with the gun was really the only one I had with him. When there’s a big scene like that with lots of people, you don’t get any instant one on one time.

We wanted to ask you about one of the most powerful, unnerving scenes in the movie. The sort of Clockwork Orange scene where the gang goes in and rapes Perry King’s wife. Was that difficult? Lisa Langlois: So upsetting. I just saw it. Again, that was my idea to get a Polaroid camera and take a picture of it.

That was a good idea. It’s certainly revolting! Lisa Langlois: It’s really revolting. And then to give the Polaroid of his raped wife to Perry at the event. It was also my idea to put my finger in my mouth…my middle finger…and summon him with it. I came up with the moment when Patsy, like a little juvenile delinquent, takes her finger and pushes it through a hole she makes with her index finger and thumb.

You should be really proud of yourself, Lisa. Lisa Langlois: You know what? I had to find something to do because they never gave me any lines. In fact, before I thought of lines and things to do, my boyfriend suggested I wear a chain that makes noise. So whenever the audience would hear that chain, they would know that character is present. I thought that would never fly because the sound department wouldn’t go for that. We have to say the choices you made are fantastic. We couldn’t take our eyes off you. Even in the scenes in which you aren’t necessarily supposed to be the focus of attention. There was a certain…unpredictability to your character that made us always want to watch you.

Was the “kissy kissy” thing your idea as well? Lisa Langlois: Yes, that too. Ironically, they gave me a Marilyn Monroe shirt to wear. I’m wearing a shirt with her face on it. I also really hated my makeup in Class of 1984 because in my mind, that was so not punk. The makeup artist that I had was this woman who was not a young person. Privately, I thought, “She doesn’t know what punk is.” She kept bringing out all the glitter stuff and everything. It was so not the character.

Interview with Actor Timothy Van Patten

How did you get cast in Class of 1984? Timothy Van Patten: I have to go in the wayback machine; it was 1980 or ’81 when we made it. I think it was just a routine casting call. You know, the part couldn’t have been further, at that point in time, from the person I actually was, which was sort of a health fanatic. The character was a thrasher, a total punk rocker. In order to prepare for the movie, I went up to Toronto and started hanging out in punk clubs, which was a whole new experience for me (laughs).

Did you get into any hairy situations doing that? Timothy Van Patten: I was with some other actors who were sharing the experience. I never got into any major situations.

What was your working relationship with Mark Lester? Timothy Van Patten: Mark was a very good director, very capable. Decisive. He had a vision, and has turned out quite a few memorable films. He absolutely knew what he wanted, and I remember the entire experience going smoothly.

You’ve got that great scene with Michael J. Fox in the bathroom. What do you remember from shooting it? Timothy Van Patten: Michael was the first person I met on the film. We befriended each other immediately and started hanging out. Actually, we went to a pawnshop and each bought a guitar, and in our free time we’d go to the park and play. We became pretty good friends. Man, so much time has passed. Michael was playing the opposite of me, sort of a clean-cut kid. You could tell the guy was really good even then. He made his small part memorable. As the years go on, I appreciate him more and more because of his body of work.

In a interview Lester talked about the scene where you play the piano concerto, which you’re credited with composing yourself. Is that true, or did you work with the film’s composer Lalo Schifrin at all? Timothy Van Patten: You know something, it was totally improvised. I play the piano, but I don’t read music. At the time, it was just some sort of song I was fiddling around with; there was nothing written down for it. I was under the impression that I would play that piece, and they would replace it with different music by Lalo or something. They ended up keeping it, and they paid me a whopping $50 Canadian for it. I don’t think I even cashed the check. I may still have it somewhere.

In those days, was that like $15 American? Timothy Van Patten: Exactly! It’s hysterical. It totally works for the character. It totally works.

It’s clear that you’re really playing—your fingers are hitting those keys and that really adds to the scene. Timothy Van Patten: I haven’t seen the movie in a long time, but I think they left in the production sound. The sort of music-class, banged-up piano sound.

Do you recall the scene where you beat yourself up in the bathroom to get Andy Norris (Perry King) in trouble? Timothy Van Patten: All those scenes, they were all so heightened that for an actor, they were fun. There’s a lot of stuntwork in the movie, which I loved doing when I was that age. Perry was a very experienced actor, and I had just started acting three years before that. I had come off a television series called The White Shadow, and I wasn’t that experienced. Working with a guy like Perry made it easy. The writing was good, and those scenes worked between Perry and I. That bathroom was rigged, but I remember hitting the mirror as hard as I could, and it didn’t break. I said, “F**k it! I’ve got to stay with this!” and slammed my head into the mirror again, and it broke. If you look at the film, I’m a little bit dazed after that first hit.

Did they give you a stunt bump in pay for that? Timothy Van Patten: No! We all sort of did our own stunts in that film. The big fight with the African-American gang under where the highways converge, that was mostly us. The great Terry Leonard was the stunt coordinator. He was a legendary stuntman; he was Harrison Ford’s stunt double in the first Indiana Jones film. This guy has had every bone in his body broken twice, including his back and his neck. That was a thrill for me, working with Terry.

McDowall’s character “Mr. Corrigan” is shown pointing the gun at the class is an alternate poster. Have you seen that one? Timothy Van Patten: No! I’d love a copy of that. I just thought that scene was extraordinary. I remember looking at his copy of the script, spying it when it was on a desk while he was rehearsing. Every page of scenes he was in was covered, front and back, with notes. Small, small handwriting, top to bottom. It just impressed the shit out of me. That guy was a total pro. He and Perry really anchored the movie. All the other actors like Stefan Arngrim, Lisa Langlois, Neil Clifford and those guys—they lifted me up. I was the oddest piece of the puzzle, because I really wasn’t as experienced as all of them. I didn’t relate to the material as much as they did; Stefan Arngrim had some experience in his life in that world. They were all totally invested in their characters, and they carried me along and taught me a lot.)

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CAST/CREW Directed Mark L. Lester

Produced Arthur Kent

Screenplay by Tom Holland Mark Lester John Saxton

Story Tom Holland

Starring Perry King Merrie Lynn Ross Timothy Van Patten Lisa Langlois Stefan Arngrim Michael Fox Roddy McDowall

Music Lalo Schifrin Alice Cooper

CREDITS/REFERENCES/SOURCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY Fangoria#317 Fangoria#318 dreadcentral terrortrap.com

Class of 1984 (1982) Retrospective SUMMARY Andrew Norris is the new music teacher at a troubled inner city school. As he arrives on his first day, he meets fellow teacher Terry Corrigan, who is carrying a gun.

#80sFilms

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whatisdereklisteningto · 6 years ago

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Friday night fusion returns because I still have stuff I got at Attic Records in Pittsburgh about five months ago that I haven’t listened to. Billy Cobham’s fifth LP (which I got for $5) has a dumb / weird / bad title and cover, but is otherwise pretty good! A good chunk of the album is fairly propulsive uptempo funk-rock-jazz with great drumming (duh) but also some killer horn section playing. Speaking of those fantastic horn players, this album has a “guys that also played with Zappa at some point” count of five dudes! Glenn Ferris, Randy Brecker and Mike Brecker play on the whole album, but the title cut also features Walt Fowler and Tom Malone (and Larry Schneider, about whom I know nothing.) Side two slows down for a 9+ minute one-take drum solo with a little bit of delay weirdness and the 12+ minute “Moody Modes”, which is way more jazz than the rest of the record and is a decent little piece with some nice acoustic piano, trumpet and upright bass playing. Pretty enjoyable first listen, will spin again.

#Billy Cobham #A Funky Thide of Sings #LP #vinyl #jazz #fusion #funk

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thecultoftill · 7 years ago

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Schneider on his musical career.

MetalHammer: Is it true that you played the trumpet first?

Schneider: Yes! My parents wanted me to learn how to play this instrument, so they sent me to a special school on the basis of a pioneering socialist orchestra. I was offered a choice, I would learn to play the trumpet, clarinet or trombone, but I chose the instrument that, in my opinion, could be mastered with the greatest ease. It turned out that I was a talented guy and then they sent me to study, and literally an hour later I was already playing my first warm-up exercise. A year later I was already playing in the orchestra, in which I began to give concerts. I was always told that I could make a career in the orchestra which, in principle, I had to think about.

MH: And how did you manage to change for the drums?

Schneider: Playing in the orchestra, I became interested in drums, large, heavy drums, and small ones, as well as cymbals. When we played something from the modern repertoire, we were accompanied by a drummer with his kit. I kept an eye on him, because I really liked the sound of the drums, and often I came home and played drums, and I did not even have real drumsticks. You know, fireworks are launched from such sticks? So I played these same sticks on scraps of paper! (laughs) Then I told my parents that I wanted to learn how to play drums, and at first they did not support me. Both mom and dad grew up in classics, my father was an opera director, and my mother was a music teacher, and they did not listen to rock music.

MH: But ultimately reconciled?

MH: I constantly constructed a self-propelled drum set from different pots and buckets, and then, when I grew up, at the age of 14, I had my first real drum kit. My relatives had to reconcile with this, and they allowed me to rehearse and take a fun class. Then, I wanted to learn how to play the drums, because my parents wanted me to learn some kind of instrument, and I went to the music school my father taught last years. He then thought that I would go there without any problems, but I managed to fail the exam! I already played well on drums, but to become a well-developed musician, it was necessary to be able to play the piano, to have musical notation, to be able to sing. I had to teach myself and play my favorite music!

Schneider in a 2012 interview with MetalHammer.

#Rammstein #Rammstein Interview #Schneider #Christoph Schneider

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rammfanmex · 6 years ago

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I was reading this, and I realized that the instruments almost perfectly match the Rammbois:

Earth (Taurus, Capricorn): Drums

Taurus (Till's moon sign) body part is neck & throat. This is why people who have Taurus strongly in their natal charts are usually good singers.

Fire (Aries, Sagittarius): Stringed Instruments

Water (Scorpio): Resonant Instruments

Although technically the piano is a string instrument, keyboards are electronic and they resonate (lol).

Air (Aquarius): Wind Instruments

None of the guys have air sun signs, however, the moon sign of both Paul and Schneider is Aquarius, and they both play wind instruments: the clarinet and the trumpet, respectively.

The only one who does not fit is Richard. But because of some of his personality traits, I am convinced he has very strong Leo (fire sign) presence in his natal chart.

This is a description of Cancer sun sign rising Leo from my Astrology book:

"...[they) are attractive and svelte in their youth but tend to gain weight around the waist as they get older. They walk with the majesty of Leo, are seductive, have a wide smile and an abundant lion mane [...]. They are ambitious, protective, paternal, generous, romantic, and passionate. They are very responsible with their families and try to include them in their plans. They can also be variable, dominant, possessive and egocentric, and they don't forgive easily when offended."

"They want to be the boss. They almost never rest, are always exerting energy, but they also have their ups and downs. They sometimes appear to be sure of themselves, and they're sometimes afraid of not doing what they have committed themselves to do."

"They possess so much talent that they can rise to the top. They need to value themselves more. [...] They tend to look for influential or powerful people [Richard looking to collaborate with music stars comes to mind], and sometimes they can have strong disappointments with them, which can lead them to depressions that alter their emotional equilibrium. [...] They can shine in the artistic medium, in choreography, or any job that requires creativity."

The Elements and their correspondences

E A R T H

Earth represents strength, grounding, prosperity, the material, wealth, success, foundations, death and rebirth. Focus on this element if the goal of your spell is about fertility, prosperity, business or stability. Earth spells may take longer to work, but they’re also more firm and are good if you’re looking for long-term solutions.

GENDER: Feminine SEASON: Winter DIRECTION: North HOUR: Night

COLOURS: Green, Brown, Black ANIMALS: Bears, Deers, Wolves, Badgers HERBS/PLANTS: Ivy, Ash, Vetiver, Wheats, Oats INSTRUMENTS: Drums (Percussion instruments)

STAR SIGNS: Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn STONES/GEMS: Jade, Onyx, Emerald, Salt RITUAL TOOLS: Stones, Dirt, Bones, Pentacle, Salt, Crystals RITUAL FORMS: Burying, Planting, Imprinting to soil or sand TAROT SUIT: Pentacles

A I R

Air represents intellect and the mind, wisdom, knowledge; logic as well as abstract thought, intuition and higher consciousness. If you’re seeking freedom, travels, or to enhance your memory and focus - focus on Air spells! Air is whimsical and amiable, personally I haven’t found it useful for more serious spells, but it does wonders for my studies.

GENDER: Masculine SEASON: Spring DIRECTION: East HOUR: Dawn

COLOURS: Yellow, White, Sky Blue, Pastels ANIMALS: Birds, Spiders, Butterflies HERBS/PLANTS: Lavender, Birch, Vervain, Dill, Aspen INSTRUMENTS: Flute (Wind instruments)

STAR SIGNS: Gemini, Libra, Aquarius STONES/GEMS: Amethyst, Opal, Alexandrite, Beryl RITUAL TOOLS: Incense, Wand RITUAL FORMS: Fanning, Tossing into air, Suspending in a high place TAROT SUIT: Swords

F I R E

Fire represents energy, passion, purification, love, inspiration, desire, will, courage, power, leadership, sexuality. In spellcraft, focusing on Fire is good for purification, healing and love spells; it’s the best element for quick, strong spells. Although, Fire is fierce in essence, and Fire spells are susceptible - they should be well thought out.

GENDER: Masculine SEASON: Summer DIRECTION: South HOUR: Noon

COLOURS: Red, Orange, Gold ANIMALS: Snakes, Lions, Horses HERBS/PLANTS: Cacti, Cinnamon, Pepper, Basil INSTRUMENTS: Guitar (Stringed instruments)

STAR SIGNS: Aries, Leo, Sagittarius STONES/GEMS: Amber, Citrine, Ruby, Tiger’s Eye RITUAL TOOLS: Athame, Candles RITUAL FORMS: Burning, Smouldering, Heating TAROT SUIT: Wands

W A T E R

Water represents purification as well; though it’s focused more on the soul and the subconscious rather than the physical, material world. Water stands for emotion, intuition, wisdom, eternal movement, reflection, lunar energy. Focusing on the Water element is good for psychic abilities, getting in tune with your inner self, mysteries, friendships, love, dreams and sleep.

GENDER: Feminine SEASON: Autumn DIRECTION: West HOUR: Dusk

COLOURS: Blue, Indigo, Silver ANIMALS: Otters, Fish, Sea Mammals, Frogs HERBS/PLANTS: Lotus, Water Lilies, Aloe, Gardenia INSTRUMENTS: Cymbal, Bell (Resonant instruments)

STAR SIGNS: Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces STONES/GEMS: Moonstone, Aquamarine, Pearl RITUAL TOOLS: Cauldrons, Chalices, Seashells RITUAL FORMS: Diluting, Placing into water, washing away, bathing TAROT SUIT: Cups

#info #band post #had to do this

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riffsstrides · 6 years ago

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Peter Protschka Quintet

Twilight Jamboree (Live at Bird’s Eye Basel)

Double Moon, 2016

Tobias Backhaus, drums

Martin Gjakonovski, bass

Martin Sasse, piano

Rick Margitza, sax

Peter Protschka, trumpet

Ability to suffer, they say, is part of the basic equipment of every "genuine" jazz musician. For example, enduring the strenuous, grueling circumstances of a tour every day, something that the superstars of pop would not even discuss To be patient, and then to feel this inimitable sense of deep faith in a band at the end of the day, to be able to enjoy the collective willingness to take risks with the resulting limitless musical freedom and the reactions of an enthusiastic audience in the best case. Peter Protschka can tell you a thing and play a song about it. The musician from Cologne is one of the most versatile and interesting German jazz trumpet players of the younger generation. His greatest passion is hard-bop and post-bop, that classic American way of playing jazz that has been cultivated since the early 1960s, exudes sheer energy and passion that can almost exclusively be produced live on stage and hardly ever in a sterile studio with its wild beauty. To this end goes, Protschka regularly goes on tours, including with his current quintet, to which the superb US tenor singer Rick Margitza belongs along with Martin Sasse (piano), Martin Gjakonovski (Bass) and Tobias Backhaus (Drums). "To go on tour with a jazz band is just as exhausting today as it was 30 or 40 years ago; you should not delude yourself about that," the trumpeter writes in the liner notes of his new CD "Twilight Jamboree". "You can sit all day in the car, and the bandleader often drives himself, as is in our case. On the interstate highway all day, traffic jams, then arrive, sound check, check-in at the hotel, the first hot meal of the day, and the long-awaited shower is often only after the concert, then a few drinks at the bar, a few hours of sleep. And the same routine the next day, usually a week or more at a time." Why does a jazz musician put himself through all of this? It's really only about the thing in itself. The gods have always demanded sweat before success. And this success—see above—Protschka and Co. want to have this success over and over again. It simply pays for everything, inspires, lets you forget all the troubles you experienced. The evening of October 24, 2014 at the Basel jazz club "Birdʼs Eye" must have been such a moment. Five musicians who delve into their own sound world oblivious to the world, blend into an organic unit after just a few bars, in which there are no egos anymore, but only deep inner acceptance, crispy grooves, beautiful melodies and brilliant runs. In an accelerated swing pulse, bass and drums drive the harmonious action and create the basis for consistent and often perfect modal chord progressions, on the basis of which catchy themes and virtuoso solos are discharged. Peter Protschka, born in 1977, is considered one of the most sought after accompanists precisely because of his special sounds on the trumpet and the flugelhorn. He has played alongside of Ronnie Burrage, Maria Schneider, Ingrid Jensen, Bobby Shew, Don Menza, Alex Sipiagin, David Murray, Oliver Lake, Tom van der Geld, Jürgen Seefelder, Thomas Stabenow, Martin Sasse, Paul Heller and Dejan Terzic. He was awarded the Jazz Prize of the Baden-Wurttemberg Art Foundation in 2004. Protschka has taught trumpet, theory and ensemble at the Rhineland Music School in Cologne since 2007. In addition, he has worked in the field of tension between jazz and classical music on period instruments since 2010. His debut CD "Kindred Spirit" (2011) received rave reviews. "After we had survived our eighth (!) traffic jam on our way from Berlin to Düren near Cologne," Peter Protschka remembers, "then Rick said in his inimitably dry way: 'No more traffic jam guys? What a drag. Well anyway, weʼre living the dream!’ We made it in time for the concert: No shower, no food – just music." Just another one of these indescribable festive evenings at dusk, which makes living worthwhile.

in www.challengerecords.com

#Peter Protschka Quintet #Twilight Jamboree (Live at Bird’s Eye Basel)#Double Moon #Tobias Backhaus #Martin Gjakonovski #Martin Sasse #Rick Margitza #Peter Protschka #discos #spotify

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notafraidofredyellowandblue · 2 years ago

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Schneider interview with The Bosshoss

2020 (first year of the Covid pandemic, but that is only briefly mentioned), Schneider is interviewed by Alec 'Boss' Völkel and Sascha 'Hoss' Vollmer for their radioshow (Alec is also a close personal friend of Alec, you may have seen him and/or his wife Johanna in pictures with the Schneiders).

youtube

A little translation from my side into english, because i couldn't find one yet, and because Schneider is just a big sweetheart (like basically all the Rammstein guys are) in it. The Bosshoss (BH) guys tend to interrupt him now and then, but Schneider (S) manages very well to ignore that and finish his own story (many years in the Rammstein democracy training under his belt 😊), so i'll translate their stuff only when they start a new topic (and I'll leave out the initial greeting and goodbye at the end, they are probably selfexplanatory).

BH: Was it easy to postpone the Stadiumtour?

S: I'm saying yes, but one saw the situation coming, and we secured dates in time for next year.

BH: You have been playing these really really big venues for a long time, stadiums, football stadiums, what is your favorite stadium?

S: This tour we have only been able to play for one summer, and that was just in Europe, I'm just going to say the best stadium in the world really is the Olympic stadium, that is a really great stadium..

BH: in Berlin?

S: ..possibly it fits us really well, but obviously it's also such a great location for us because we are Berliner and then it's a dream to achieve, finally to make it and play in Huxleys, or to make it to the O2, you know, and like that, step by step, and at some point you get to Die Waldbühne and then the Olympic stadium and.. if you get there at all.

BH: let's talk about you a little bit, you started learning music in an orchestra..

S: I could choose between clarinet, trombone and trumpet, and uh..one I felt was too big, the other too girly and trumpet, well, then I'll play trumpet.

BH: ..the little trumpet-boy Christoph..

S: Yes, so I had my job in the orchestra, und us trumpets, and trombones I think, we sat in directly in front of the percussionists, and I always had a lot of time to watch them during rehearsals and I thought that was cool, I was interested in Rockmusic as well..

BH: So you taught yourself to drum and then Rammstein happened? Or did you learn something properly in between?

S: No, it was like this, I really was inspired by it and at home tried to.. I collected sticks, leftovers from fireworks, Newyear's eve fireworks, really thin sticks. And then I became a self-taught-drummer, I build more and more stuff together in my room, from stools, buckets, musicstands, tried to craft myself a high-hat and played along with the music that I thought was hot.

BH: Are your 'greats' from this period, from that genre or..

S: Well yeah, I like, as you say, I like the straight drummers, the ones who are really in service of the band, the ones who see themselves as backing musicians, the ones who hold back and play what is important. The master is Phil Rudd, ACDC drummer, he influenced me a lot stylistically, he plays so minimalistic, when you analyse it, it is impressive.

BH: Are you nervous, when you play in LA some time, or elsewhere, then, I don't know, Lars Ulrich or Dave Grohl are backstage and look over your shoulder, are you excited?

S: Ofcourse, that's really really bad, for instance when you know .. is there (note: I can't make out the name he mentions) or Dave Grohl, all happened. And I'm not the best drummer..

BH: But it's not about that, maybe technically, but you play exactly the way you should..But Chad Smith thought it was cool? Or didn't he watch you yet?

S: Well, Chad Smith I actually know really well, he's a big Rammstein fan, he visited us often, and he was also with us in our rehearsal room..

BH: What, here at home? The drummer of Chili Peppers happens to be at Christoph Schneider's.

S: Yes, he was in Pankow (note: part of Berlin where Schneider is from, and i think Rammstein practice there too, if I'm not mistaken)

BH: Cool, and I'm always proud that we have a German band who is moving internationally, Goddamn that's a German band, I think that's really cool. Chad Smith eating soup in Pankow. Crazy that.

BH: Du you think it's important, you are all six from East-Berlin, that you are a East-Berlin band, that Rammstein has that background?

S: Ofcourse that's still always there in Rammstein, that rebellious, it was always about being against something, against the system and with Rammstein that is always a part of it, what can one be against, how can you provoke, not go with mainstream, that is a role we took on ourselves.

BH: Is there a band that really inspired you, or was crucial for where you are now?

S: Early on I was inspired by classical music, my parents are from a classical music background. The first rockalbum I heard was a Classic Rock album my parents got as a gift from the west, and then I got into the 70's Hardrock bands, starting with Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, but then something strange happened to me, I had listened to those Rock things for a while, and a lot of Jimi Hendrix and that 70's stuff. And then the 80's arrived with all those new bands, those Spandex bands, and those didn't turn me on, and then I took a turn and got more into the Classic Pop world for a few years, Depeche Mode, that was a different feeling at the time. At the start of the 90's a new 'bad' thing, starting with Ministry..

BH: Ministry, ofcourse..

S: .. and then Pantera, that was the only metalband... for me they were.. that was such an ultimate, banging, that was the coolest metalband ever, and that was a time just before we then started..

BH: Are there musicians who already died who you would have liked to have worked with?

S: That's a good question..

BH: Thank you..

S: ..I would love to do a little side-project..

BH: do something with Bosshoss

S: Yes, we could do something

BH: Right, we did a song of Rammstein once

S: and you did it very well

BH: Mein Land

S: Yes, and I can speak also for my entire band when I say that really impressed us, that wasn't just a remix, you did a coverversion of a song, you translated it and made a real song out of it.

BH: Yes, it was Mein Land, we called it 'My country'

S: That was better than ours..

BH: No, no, no... Well dear friends, listeners of the Rodeo Radio Rock show of Bosshoss here, Christoph Doom Schneider of Rammstein just said Bosshoss is better than Rammstein.

BH: Nightliner or private jet?

S: Well nowadays I'm going to say private jet

BH: Coolest thing is a Sprinter by the way

S: Oh, I know those days too..

BH: Hotel or rather go home

S: Well actually I love a hotel..

BH: Really?

S:.. after a concert I love to go to the hotel, have a little peace and quiet and go to sleep, well not right after a concert obviously, first get down and chill out, but not go home immediately.

BH: David Lynch or Tarantino?

S: David Lynch at the time made Lost Highway and accidently discovered our music and used it in his movie. We were megalomaniacs at the time..

BH: Neubauten or Kraftwerk?

S: I'm going to say Kraftwerk is the band that is closer to my heart, I really love them, I think it's one of the greatest bands ever in Germany, if not the greatest, because they show well everything we are, is so German, and that at a time when there wasn't anything like it. Maybe with Kraftwerk it's the music and with Neubauten the lyrics and their aggression...their consistency in breaking with everything. They also did something nobody did before, so really they are in the same league.

#christoph schneider #schneider is a sweetheart #see i even had a tag for it #so it must be true #rammstein #bosshoss #rammstein interviews

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jazzworldquest-blog · 8 years ago

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USA: Alex Sipiagin & Dave Kikoski-Bonnie and Clyde(2017)

Bonnie And Clyde, a set of original music inspired by ten unique pairs of characters, is the latest accomplishment in the very productive and creative career of arranger-composer-trumpeter Dave Lisik. A Canadian who taught high school in Winnipeg, Canada and college in Memphis, Tennessee, Lisik has been a resident of Wellington, New Zealand since 2010 where he teaches at the New Zealand School of Music and has been a very active part of the jazz and creative music scene. While Lisik has written for many larger ensembles, symphony orchestras and his own quintet in his career (with over 450 compositions), Bonnie and Clyde features the duo of trumpeter Alex Sipiagin and pianist Dave Kikoski interpreting his music. Sipiagin, along with Bob Sheppard, had been the principal soloist on Lisik’s 2011 jazz orchestra record Walkabout – A Place For Visions. In 2014, Lisik’s quintet recording Machaut Man and a Superman Hat featured Sipiagin and tenor-saxophonist Donny McCaslin along with the rhythm section of the Mingus Big Band which included Dave Kikoski. “Alex and Dave are both incredible players, technical masters and artists on a really high level,” says Dave Lisik. “As a trumpet player I have a particular appreciation for Alex's ability on the instrument but his inventiveness really stands out for me, even when compared to some of the other top trumpeters playing today. Music just flows out of both of these guys. Alex was in New Zealand for the national jazz workshops in January 2016 and he was already planning some duo gigs with Dave Kikoski. Rather than just writing random tunes for them, it seemed more interesting, given the two-player format, to create a collection of new tunes based on famous pairs from history.” The adventurous music on Bonnie and Clyde was a challenge for the two players but they quickly came up with fresh and inventive ideas that perfectly fit the pieces. “A few of the tunes start with chord progressions like standards, others are more modern harmonically, and a few are based on ostinatos with melodies and no harmonic progression. It is easy to worry about there not being enough variety with only two instruments but then, as always happens with players at this level, they took the music to places that I had not imagined. The improvisations and interplay are so interesting that it is fun for me to hear what they did with my pieces.” Bonnie and Clyde begins with “Kourke ‘N Spock,” named after Captain James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock from Star Trek. “The odd spelling of Kourke is a nod to the way that Alex, with his Russian accent, pronounces Kirk. It’s identical to how the Russian Star Trek character Pavel Chekov said it, which I found humorous.” The wide intervals played by Sipiagin somehow sounds effortless and relaxed, giving this piece a futuristic feel. “Samneric,” the twin boys Sam and Eric from Lord Of The Flies who were so close that they melded into one character. This dramatic performance has Alex Sipiagin and Dave Kikoski engaging in dramatic interplay as they play off of each other’s ideas throughout the piece. “Antony and Cleopatra,” historic figures who were immortalized by Shakespeare, are musically portrayed by Sipiagin (who hints at the melancholy of Miles Davis on this piece even during his faster runs) and Kikoski, who takes an extended solo filled with twists and turns. “Porgy and Bess,” the lead characters in George Gershwin’s famed folk opera, are saluted in a thoughtful piece that is a bit nostalgic. “Henson and Oz” celebrates the creative partnership of Jim Henson and Frank Oz who together created Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy and Ernie and Bert. This high energy romp has Sipiagin and Kikoski engaging in playful moments and fiery stretches that jump around with the energy of a children’s television show. About this track Lisik says, “Jim Henson and Frank Oz were one of the most important modern comedy duos. Henson passed unexpectedly in 1990 and Frank Oz eulogizing Jim Henson at his memorial service is one of the most touching moments I’ve seen and a wonderful tribute to the relationship between these two men. “Bonnie and Clyde” is for the Depression era criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow who were depicted in a colorful movie of the same name. Lisik’s music is worthy of a memorable chase scene. “Arwen and Aragorn” is dedicated to two characters from the Lord Of The Rings, a saga that is particularly popular in New Zealand where the films were shot. The particularly lovely chord progression of this romantic jazz waltz is borrowed from “Fairy Tale” by Bob Washut, Lisik’s former teacher at the University of Northern Iowa. The cat and mouse interplay throughout “Holmes and Watson” is perfect for a tribute to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. The whimsical yet mysterious piece conjures up the image of a Sherlock Holmes tale. “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern” are Shakespearean characters from Hamlet. On this performance and briefly elsewhere, Dave Kikoski is heard on Fender Rhodes, sometimes playing electric and acoustic pianos together with one hand on each. The unisons and general theme on this original are quirky, witty and difficult to predict. Bonnie and Clyde concludes with “Fred And Ginger,” a warm ballad dedicated to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Too much praise cannot be given to the two musicians who interact spontaneously throughout the ten pieces with the same confidence and relaxed creativity that they would have displayed if they had been stretching out on much more familiar standards. Dave Lisik became involved in music early in his life. After playing organ for five years, he switched to trumpet in sixth grade, performing regularly in his school bands. “Both of my junior high and high school band directors were trumpet players so I'm sure that helped me.” Lisik developed quickly and, while still in high school, he performed for two years in the big band at the University of Manitoba. Always interested in writing, he experimented with electroacoustic music while in high school and mostly wrote classical music while in college, but gained experience writing jazz before and during his doctoral study at the University of Memphis. “I wrote for the guest artists who came to the school including Marvin Stamm, Bill Mays, Luis Bonilla, Paul Hanson, Carl Allen, and Kirk Whalum. Once my dissertation was finished, Luis was particularly encouraging and helpful in getting players to record my first big band CD.” Among those jazz composers and arrangers whose music inspired him early on were Bob Brookmeyer, Jim McNeely, Maria Schneider and Thad Jones. In addition to teaching at the New Zealand School of Music in Wellington, Lisik co-directs the New Zealand Youth Jazz Orchestra, founded and produces the NZSM Jazz Festival, and is a trustee of the New Zealand Jazz Foundation. During the past year he has co-written with Eric Allen the book 50 Years at the Village Vanguard: Thad Jones, Mel Lewis and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. He has also recorded many inventive CDs of his music with several new projects scheduled to be coming out in the near future. For the future, Dave Lisik says, “I hope to keep writing music for inspiring performers, both in classical music and jazz. I want there always to be some urgency to evolve and keep getting better rather than having my projects be too similar.” Bonnie and Clyde, which is unlike any of Dave Lisik’s previous recordings, succeeds at being fresh, new and full of inventive music. Scott Yanow, jazz author/historian and author of 11 books including Trumpet Kings and Jazz On Record 1917-76 via Blogger http://ift.tt/2pPSHwe

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everettwilkinson · 7 years ago

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RAND PAUL stokes even more confusion on his backyard brawl — TAX UPDATE: House Republicans have revenue shortfall as Senate gears up to release its own bill — TRUMP TO CHINA: You guys can solve NKorea

FOR YOUR AWARENESS — SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY.) tweeted stories from the Washington Examiner and Breitbart, which both called into question his neighbor’s story that their altercation was based on a disagreement on landscaping. INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW — So, what really happened? Breitbart http://bit.ly/2zoDuL1 … Washington Examiner http://washex.am/2ykHjgo

Good Thursday morning. FROM 30K FEET — There is trouble brewing on Republicans’ push for tax reform. Not only will the Senate Republicans package being released today differ significantly from the House bill — Trump said Democrats will like it better! — but House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady is dealing with his own issues over concerns the bill provides massive tax cuts for corporations while individual industries are lobbying to keep their own tax breaks. To further complicate things, Republicans have a massive revenue shortfall they need to plug up. STILL IN THE MIX: Including a repeal of the individual mandate to buy health insurance, which raises shy of $400 billion in revenue, but would complicate the political calculus in the Capitol.

Story Continued Below

OF COURSE: Tax reform will have a million twists and turns, as does any massive legislation, before getting passed. But any delay on the House’s schedule could complicate the White House’s timeline to pass an overhaul of the tax code before the end of the year. Much of this is choreographed — House and Senate are in close touch — but lawmakers’ reaction to two different bills cannot be predicted.

— TWO THINGS WORKING IN THEIR FAVOR: The Republican drubbing Tuesday night at the polls has GOP lawmakers very nervous about their own reelection prospects and facing voters without a single legislative accomplishment. Read Kyle Cheney and Seung Min Kim. http://politi.co/2ztzEzN

… AND — POLITICO/MORNING CONSULT POLL: “Poll: Support for GOP tax plan ticks down but remains positive,” by Steven Shepard: “Among registered voters who said they have seen, read or heard about the tax proposal, 45 percent support the proposal, down from 48 percent last week. The percentage of voters who have heard about the proposal who oppose it held steady at 36 percent, the poll shows. … The most popular element of the tax bill is increasing the child tax credit from as much as $1,000 per child, to $1,600 per child: Three-in-five voters (60 percent) say it should be in the bill.” http://politi.co/2zqgMlH

**SUBSCRIBE to Playbook: http://politi.co/2lQswbh

ABOUT THE HOUSE WHIP COUNT — RACHAEL BADE: “GOP leadership will whip the tax bill early next week to determine how many votes they still need. They’re also discussing whether to hold the chamber in session until the tax bill passes — perhaps even through the weekend. Leaders have their work cut out for them. While they won [Rep. Tom] MacArthur, they just lost Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), whose defection on Tuesday shocked senior Republicans.

“Issa and several New York Republicans are pushing to restore the state and local tax deduction frequently claimed by their constituents. Rep. Dan Donovan, another such holdout, said he and fellow Empire State Reps. Peter King and Lee Zeldin have submitted requested changes on the matter to Ways and Means.” http://politi.co/2iGwaQw

— MORE DETAILS: BRIAN FALER, SEUNG MIN KIM and JOSH DAWSEY: “Senate Republicans, meanwhile, plan to unveil a tax plan on Thursday that sharply diverges from the House GOP’s plan, including by not fully repealing the estate tax, eliminating the state and local tax deduction and possibly changing a tax cut for unincorporated ‘pass-through’ companies so it is more palatable to the small business lobby than the House legislation. GOP leaders will brief the conference on the details on at 11:30 a.m. Thursday in the Strom Thurmond Room at the Capitol, according to two sources.” http://politi.co/2zq291E

— ON THE STATE AND LOCAL TAX DEDUCTION: In the House, Republicans have loads of lawmakers from high-tax states like New Jersey, New York and California, so they have to find a solution for the deductibility of state and local taxes. In the Senate, New York, New Jersey and California are all represented by Democrats, so the GOP doesn’t have the same incentive to fix that problem.

CATCHING YOU UP ON TRUMP ABROAD …

— HIGHLIGHTS FROM JOINT PRESSER WITH CHINESE PRESIDENT XI JINPING: Trump called the U.S.-China trade relationship “very unfair and one-sided,” per Andrew Restuccia. “But I don’t blame China, after all, who can blame a country for taking advantage of another country for the benefit of its citizens.” Instead, Trump blamed past U.S. administrations for the trade problems. Further, he said the U.S.-China trade relationship “just doesn’t work” and “is just not sustainable.”

— ON NORTH KOREA: Trump said, “China can fix this problem easily and quickly,” and called on the Chinese president to “work very hard on it.”

JUST POSTED — JOSH ROGIN in WaPo, “Inside the drive to ‘make a deal’ with North Korea”: “Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and his top North Korea official, Joseph Yun, have a concrete idea of how to get from here to there. Yun told an audience at the Council on Foreign Relations on Oct. 30 that if North Korea halted nuclear and missile testing for about 60 days, that would be the signal the United States needs to resume direct dialogue with Pyongyang. Yun’s remarks, which were off the record, were described by two attendees. Yun declined to comment.” http://wapo.st/2iH7jMr

THE FALLOUT FROM TUESDAY NIGHT’S ELECTION …

— “GOP faces wrenching call: Running with or away from Trump,” by Alex Isenstadt: “Sweeping losses in Tuesday’s elections have exacerbated a growing rift inside the GOP over whether the party’s candidates should embrace President Donald Trump in next year’s midterms – or make a clean break. With Trump’s approval ratings cratering in swing states across the country, some senior party strategists are imploring lawmakers to abandon the president. Others argue that shunning Trump and his populist base is simply out of the question and that anything other than a full embrace of the president will spell electoral disaster. “In the Virginia gubernatorial race, Republican Ed Gillespie tried to have it both ways – with disastrous consequences. Gillespie, who privately agonized about the degree to which Trump should be involved in the contest, refused to campaign with the president. But at the same time, he trumpeted Trump’s culture war issues in ads. White House advisers spent Wednesday combing through the election results and fuming about Gillespie’s have-it-both ways approach. By keeping Trump at arm’s length, they said, Gillespie squandered an opportunity to motivate conservatives whose support he needed.” http://politi.co/2zqY2Co

— “‘Canary in the coal mine’: Republicans fear Democratic wins mean more losses to come,” by WaPo’s Bob Costa and Phil Rucker: “A wave of Democratic victories ignited a ferocious debate across the Republican Party on Wednesday over whether President Trump’s unorthodox behavior and polarizing agenda are jeopardizing the GOP’s firm grip on power in Congress, governors’ mansions and state legislatures.

“The recriminations sparked by Tuesday’s results — a decisive rebuke of Trump and his policies in Virginia and elsewhere — threatened the fragile GOP push to pass sweeping tax cuts by the end of the year and raised deeper questions about Republican identity and fealty to a historically unpopular president. A year ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, Republicans are increasingly uncertain about keeping their majorities on Capitol Hill and are worried about how damaging Trump’s jagged brand of politics may become to the party.” http://wapo.st/2znW06l

ELENA SCHNEIDER: “Data points out of Virginia confirm Republicans’ fears that bubbled under the surface all year, which special election victories in safely red seats ‘glazed over,’ said a senior GOP aide. But ‘now there’s [electoral] evidence that there’s reason to really worry.’ Swing voters in suburban counties outside Washington and Richmond soured on Republicans up and down the Virginia ballot, an ominous sign for dozens of suburban Republicans in Congress, while the progressive base poured out to vote in high numbers. College-educated voters backed Democratic Gov.-elect Ralph Northam with 60 percent of their votes, according to exit polls. …

“Tuesday’s result are also serving as a reality check for members who may be considering retirement during a cycle that’s become increasingly difficult for Republicans to raise money. Nearly three dozen GOP incumbents were outraised by Democratic challengers in the third quarter of this year, as the liberal base continues to pour money into first-time candidates.” http://politi.co/2hW7p32

–“What the Hell Just Happened in Virginia?” — POLITICO Magazine: “Did Democrats win? Or did Republicans lose? And what role did Trump play? 17 political watchers dissect the election results.” http://politi.co/2iGZExF

POTENTIAL 2018 TRENDLINE — “Democratic women sweep into office in state elections,” by Maggie Severns: “Female candidates swept into office in Virginia and other elections around the country Tuesday, giving Democrats the first taste of a force reshaping their party in the first year of President Donald Trump’s administration. Women running for office for the first time may have wrested control of the Virginia House of Delegates from Republicans, who held the chamber since the 20th century. Another female Democrat flipped the Washington state Senate to her party’s control, alongside Democratic women who picked up state legislative seats in Georgia and Michigan, while Manchester, N.H. elected its first Democratic mayor in decades in Joyce Craig — who is also the city’s first-ever female mayor.

“The Virginia races especially, some of which are currently in the recount process, outperformed Democrats’ wildest expectations before the 2017 elections. And as the party looks ahead to 2018, that success has prompted progressives, pro-abortion groups and Democratic candidate recruiters to double down on encouraging female candidates and running on issues like women’s health and equal pay in the midterm elections and beyond.” http://politi.co/2hnrlz7

GOOD SCOOP — “This Megadonor Has Spent Millions On Republicans. Now He’s Thinking About Running Against One,” by BuzzFeed’s Tarini Parti: “Republican megadonor Foster Friess was busy writing checks to GOP candidates, contemplating the future of health care, and getting coffee with liberals for his campaign to ‘restore civility’ in politics last month, when he got an unexpected call from President Trump adviser and provocateur Steve Bannon. ‘I get this call, “Foster would you consider running against [Wyoming Sen. John] Barrasso?” And I said, ‘What’s your name?’ ‘Steve Bannon?’ Because we’re pretty much strangers, it kind of struck me as how did he even get my name or my number?’ Friess, a multimillionaire investor, is now launching a ‘listening tour’ to help him decide whether he should challenge Barrasso — his ‘personal friend’ and ‘hero’ — in a GOP primary.” http://bzfd.it/2yKtr3i

SEUNG MIN KIM: “McCain opposes Trump nominee over torture memos”: “Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has already warned President Donald Trump against bringing back torture, is vowing to reject any administration nominee who has backed so-called enhanced interrogation techniques. McCain was the sole GOP senator to vote against confirming Steven Engel to lead the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel earlier this week, citing his role in the controversial torture memos under the George W. Bush administration.” http://politi.co/2zq0SYx

— “U.S. Subpoenas Icahn Over Biofuel Action While Trump Adviser,” by Bloomberg’s Miles Weiss, Jennifer Dlouhy, and Mario Parker: “Federal investigators have issued subpoenas for information on Carl Icahn’s efforts to change biofuel policy while he served as an adviser to President Donald Trump, according to regulatory filings. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York is ‘seeking production of information’ pertaining to Icahn’s activities regarding the Renewable Fuel Standard … The investigators also want information on Icahn’s role as an adviser to the president.” https://bloom.bg/2AnSPbE

PALACE INTRIGUE — “The New Washington Drama: Treasury Secretary Versus Treasury Secretary,” by NYT’s Alan Rappeport: “Raising eyebrows in economic circles, Lawrence H. Summers, the mercurial Treasury secretary for President Bill Clinton, has leveled a barrage of increasingly personal criticism at the current Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin. In podcasts, blog posts, op-eds and on Twitter, Mr. Summers … has accused Mr. Mnuchin of damaging the credibility of Treasury by making ‘irresponsible’ economic assessments of the administration’s tax plan and acting as a ‘sycophant’ to President Trump. The attacks have alternately amused and angered those who run in economic circles, with some saying it is Mr. Summers who is damaging the credibility of the office by leveling public attacks on a sitting Treasury secretary.” http://nyti.ms/2hmrGlh

TRUMP’S CABINET — “Inside Betsy DeVos’s efforts to shrink the Education Department,” by WaPo’s Moriah Balingit and Danielle Douglas-Gabriel: “The seventh floor of the Education Department’s headquarters near the Mall used to bustle. Now, nearly a dozen offices sit empty and quiet. The department’s workforce has shrunk under Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who has said she wants to decrease the federal government’s role in education, including investigations and enforcement of civil rights in schools. In all, the department has shed about 350 workers since December — nearly 8 percent of its staff — including political appointees. With buyouts offered to 255 employees in recent days, DeVos hopes to show even more staff the door.” http://wapo.st/2jfoPeR

CLICKER – “Look Inside the DeVos Family Office: Financial disclosures provide a rare peek inside an investment structure used by ultrawealthy families,” by WSJ’s Anupreeta Das and Jean Eaglesham: http://on.wsj.com/2jbcrML

MEDIAWATCH — “Lawmakers alarmed at push to sell CNN,” by Steven Overly: “Even critics of AT&T’s proposed mega-merger with Time Warner expressed alarm Wednesday at allegations that President Donald Trump’s Justice Department is intervening in the deal for political reasons — namely his oft-expressed complaints about CNN … Sources familiar with the proposed merger told POLITICO that the DOJ issued an ultimatum to the companies Monday — that they either sell Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting, which includes CNN as well as networks like TBS and TNT, or shed satellite television provider DirecTV.

“The sources said it’s clear the real sticking point for the government is CNN, whose coverage of the administration has become a frequent target of Trump’s anger. Unnamed DOJ officials later offered reporters a much different account, saying the companies themselves had offered to sell CNN — an option the officials said they rejected. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson called that untrue, saying in a statement that he ‘never offered to sell CNN and have no intention of doing so.’” http://politi.co/2Ap0TIS

–JAMES V. GRIMALDI and MICHELLE HACKMAN have won the 2017 Everett McKinley Dirksen award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress from the National Press Foundation. Per the judges: “Their investigation revealed that Rep. Tom Price, then the nominee to be HHS secretary, had traded in health stocks while pushing legislation that could affect those stocks. Reverberations from their story dominated Price’s confirmation hearings and effectively put him in the crosshairs during his brief tenure at HHS.” The winning piece http://on.wsj.com/2AmLFnV (h/t Morning Media)

ALTERNATE REALITY — “What if Hillary had won? A jolly trip down memory lane, alternate-timeline edition,” by WaPo’s Ben Terris, Dan Zak, Monica Hesse and Amy Argetsinger: http://wapo.st/2Avuv8n

POLITICO is accepting applications for its fifth session of the POLITICO Journalism Institute, an educational initiative focused on newsroom diversity. The intensive program, which is designed for college students, will be held May 29 to June 9. It features hands-on training for up to 12 recent grads and university students interested in covering government and politics. Students also will have an opportunity to have their work published by POLITICO. All expenses are paid for the program. Admissions are made on a rolling basis, so apply today but no later than Jan. 15. http://politi.co/2zHC0Mz

PHOTO DU JOUR: Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen, visit with family and victims of the shooting at the Sutherland Spring Baptist Church as Sen. Ted Cruz, foreground right, prays with a woman on Nov. 8 in Floresville, Texas. | Eric Gay/AP Photo

SEB’S GOT A NEW JOB — @yashar: “A Fox News spokesperson confirms that the network has hired Sebastian Gorka as a National Security Analyst.”

VIDEO DU JOUR — Steve Herman (@W7VOA): “On an iPad @POTUS played this video for President Xi showing his granddaughter singing in Chinese and reciting Analects of Confucius. This is being broadcast across #China.” http://bit.ly/2yk6UG9

LATE-NIGHT BEST — BILL CLINTON on Conan — “On Dictators, Democracy, & Why We Need Immigrants More Than Ever” — 7-min. video http://bit.ly/2iGgvAR

PLAYBOOK INBOX — ROGER STONE’s appeal for donations to his legal defense fund http://politi.co/2ym1CKF … The fund http://bit.ly/2iGqJB3

TRUMP INC. — “Trump Tower Condo Prices Lag Behind Those of Similar Midtown Properties,” by WSJ’s Josh Barbanel: “Condominium prices are faltering at Trump Tower, President Donald Trump’s property on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, more than at similar buildings across the city. The median sale price and average price per square foot both are down sharply since 2015, when Mr. Trump launched his campaign for president, and now are plumbing depths last visited during the financial crisis.” http://on.wsj.com/2hlfrFP

COURT WATCH — “Congressional Hunger Center says employee stole $1.1 million, disappeared,” by Josh Gerstein: “A hunger-focused non-profit group founded by House members lost more than $1.1 million due to embezzlement carried out by the organization’s former finance director, according to a lawsuit filed in Washington on Wednesday. The Congressional Hunger Center filed suit in U.S. District Court against Mohamed Gurey, claiming the certified public accountant looted the funds as far back as 2010 by forging signatures on the group’s checks and by tapping the center’s bank account to make large cash withdrawals at a Maryland casino.” http://politi.co/2yjx1xg

****** A message from Morgan Stanley: Startup Landit seeks to launch a technology platform that would enable companies to further the success of women in the workplace. Through the Morgan Stanley Innovation Lab, the firm’s in-house technology startup accelerator program, Landit was able to access our networks and resources to connect with investors. Read more. ******

WILD — “A Harvey Weinstein Operative Played Another Role,” by WSJ’s Mark Maremont: “‘Diana Filip,’ Israeli undercover operative, meet ‘Diana Ilic.’ A private investigator reported to be working undercover on behalf of film mogul Harvey Weinstein was identified by two people as the same woman that The Wall Street Journal reported over the summer had used a different alias to wring information out of a critic of a large U.S. insurer. The woman in the Journal article had given her name as ‘Diana Ilic.’ … The Journal, in its August article, published surveillance photos of the mystery woman, captured during a July dinner near Philadelphia with an analyst for a research firm critical of the New York-based insurer, AmTrust Financial Services Inc.” http://on.wsj.com/2hfWTTL

TOP-ED — ROBERT GATES in the NYT, “Ending DACA Will Hurt Immigrant Troops”: “As we observe Veterans Day, we remember with reverence the extraordinary debt we owe to those who have served in uniform and sacrificed, even unto death, for their fellow Americans. This includes the more than 109,000 immigrants who, since Sept. 11, 2001, have become citizens while wearing the uniform of the United States military. They have been part of a rarefied group: the 1 percent of Americans — native-born, naturalized and undocumented immigrants alike — who constitute our military. All of those undocumented immigrants, through their willingness to shed blood to protect the rest of us, have earned the right to call themselves ‘American citizen.’” http://nyti.ms/2AnNPUr

OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED last night at the LBJ Liberty & Justice for All Award event honoring David Rubenstein at the National Archives (pix http://smu.gs/2hUPzO4): dinner co-chairs Amb. Lloyd Hand and Cappy McGarr, award presenters Lynda Johnson Robb and Luci Baines Johnson, Larry Temple, Amy Barbee, Ben Barnes, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Dr. Susan Blumenthal, Reps. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), Ron Kind (D-Wis.), Jim Costa (D-Calif.), Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), Lamar Smith (R-Texas), Doris Matsui (D-Calif.), Don Beyer (D-Va.), David Cicilline (D-R.I.), Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), Marc Veasey (D-Texas), Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Gene Green (D-Texas), Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) and Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) …

… Julian Castro, former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, Dr. Elena and Robert Allbritton, Barbie Allbritton, Martin Frost, Lyndon Boozer, Fred Humphries, Adrienne Arsht, Jacqueline Mars, Laurie Knight, Pam Brown and Adam Wright, emcee Cokie Roberts, Tom Johnson, Leon Harris and Ben Chang.

— Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) and the Gateway IPA won last night’s first annual “Brew Across America,” competition organized by Anheuser-Busch. Nine lawmakers participated, including Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Reps. Peter Aguilar (D-Calif.), Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), Al Lawson (D-Fla.), Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), John Rutherford (R-Neb.), Scott Taylor (R-Va.) and Greg Walden (R-Ore.) Paul Kane, Carl Hulse, Sue Davis, Sam Stein, Bob Cusack, Josh Dawsey and Warren Rojas served as media judges. They were teamed up with judges representing the beer industry, led by Anheuser-Busch’s Jane Killebrew, Jim McGreevey, Craig Purser, and Bill Canton.

SPOTTED: Sens. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Reps. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), John Katko (R-N.Y.), Ron Estes (R-Kansas), Dennis Ross (R-Fla.), Ted Yoho (R-Fla.), and Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), as well as Joe Donoghue, Roland Foster, Andy Dockham, Justin Sok, Doug Bailey, Stef Webb, Chris Ternet.

DUELING TRUMP/CLINTON HAPPY HOURS — SPOTTED last night celebrating the one-year anniversary of Trump’s election at the Exchange by the EEOB on 17th and G streets NW: Rick Dearborn, Ory Rinat, Emily Murphy, Sean Miles, Andrew Olmem, Nick Owens, Jacob Wood, Loretta Greene, Chris Gray, Turner Bridgforth, Brennan Hart, Geoff Smith, Lenwood Brooks, Anthony Paranzino, Chris Caudill and Jim Frogue.

–SPOTTED for the Hillary alum happy hour last night at American Ice Company: Karuna Seshasai, Alex Phillips, Adrienne Watson, Christina Reynolds, Corey Ciorciari, Glen Caplin, Josh Schwerin, Lori Lodes, Lily Adams, Rob Flaherty, Tyrone Gayle, Constance Boozer, Adrienne Elrod, Carlos Sanchez, Cristobal Alex, Xochitl Hinojosa, John McCarthy, Dominic Lowell, Megan Nashban, Lauren Crawford, Alex Hornbrook, Riley Kilburg, Miryam Lipper, Sabrina Singh, Troy Perry and Bishop Garrison.

BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Kevin Sullivan, founder of Kevin Sullivan Communications, Inc. and senior adviser at the Bush Presidential Center in Dallas. A fun fact about Kevin: “In the 1980s in Dallas I once won a Rodney Dangerfield act-alike contest sponsored by a local radio station. First prize was getting to meet him backstage before his show. He shook my hand and said, ‘Go ahead. Act like me!’ I politely declined.” Read his Playbook Plus Q&A: http://politi.co/2AmlwWo

BIRTHDAYS: John Harris (hat tip: Danielle Jones) … DOJ’s Sarah Isgur Flores … Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is 65 … Bob Graham, former U.S. senator and Florida governor, is 81 … USA Today’s Alan Gomez … Shannon Currie, special assistant to Joel Benenson … Rep. John Katko (R-NY) is 55 … Rep. Scott Tipton (R-Colo.) is 61 … Jake Oeth … Peter Roff … Jessica Stuart … Trish Choate … Politico’s Trevor Eischen and Hugh Ferguson … RNC alum Orlando Watson … Claire Tonneson of Sunshine Sachs is 29 (h/t Daniel Strauss) … HuffPo’s Arthur Delaney … No Labels founder Nancy Jacobson … Joel Seidman, senior producer at NBC Nightly News (h/ts Jewish Insider) … David Wolfson … Aliza Klein … Hal Dash … Samara Hutman … Matthew Ellison, LD for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), is 29 (h/t Natalie Knight) … László Baksay … Tara Patel … HFA alum Kendra Kostek …

… Matthew Dolan … David Mastio, deputy editorial page editor of USA Today, is 46 (h/t Bill Sternberg) … Matthias Reynolds of Zignal Labs … Karen Scott, Obama WH alum … Peter Lichtenbaum, an assistant secretary of commerce under Bush 43, now a partner at Covington & Burling … Edelman’s Aleena Hasnain … Samantha Sher … Andy McCarty … Catherine (Simmy) Martin … Kevin Bailey … Kathleen Clegg … Sean Redmond … Lisa De Pasquale … Megan Carpentier … Dee Dee Sorvino … Labinot Maliqi … Jen Overbye … Alex Curd … Bethany Aronhalt … Marc Kimball … Carolyn Casey … John Cacciatore … Catherine Chen … Shokhan Washburn … Kym Traczyk … Sarah Godlewski, the pride of Eau Claire, Wis. (h/ts Teresa Vilmain)

****** A message from Morgan Stanley: How can technology help drive success? In the Morgan Stanley Innovation Lab, our in-house technology startup accelerator program, startup Landit seeks to use their tech platform to enable companies to further the success of women in the workplace. One of five startups participating in the program, Landit believes the partnership has the potential to accelerate their curve and expand their opportunities. “Only a small fraction of all venture capital money is given to multicultural and women entrepreneurs,” explains Carla Harris, a Vice Chairwoman of Morgan Stanley and Head of its Multicultural Client Strategy Group. “Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley is a leader at the intersection of what these companies need: capital, connections, and investment banking content. We have the resources, access to relationships, and the expertise that can help refine these businesses and hopefully attract capital to scale up in size.” Read more. ******

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caveartfair · 8 years ago

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Gallery Weekend Beijing Puts Focus Back on China’s Traditional Art Capital

Gallery Weekend Beijing.

As the art world geared up for this week’s Art Basel in Hong Kong, a number of international visitors and hundreds of locals made their way to Beijing’s 798 and Caochangdi art districts for the inaugural Gallery Weekend Beijing.

Launched by German artist and writer Thomas Eller, the weekend takes cues (and a strikingly similar typeface) from the gallery weekend in his former hometown, Berlin. In total, 14 of the city’s galleries and four of its museums took part in the weekend, which also involved a number of talks and performances.

The gallery weekend model makes sense for Beijing much in the same way that it does for Berlin. Market attention on the mainland has, particularly recently, focused on the more internationally oriented Shanghai. Beijing does not have a major art fair or another major event to draw the art world’s attention. But it has long been home to a wealth of the country’s most prominent artists, and serves as the conceptual core of Mainland China’s art community.

An event that brings in international attention, but places its focus on exhibitions, artists, and art practice rather than on commerce, is what the city needed, according to Long March Space founder Lu Jie. During a panel on China’s internationalization, Lu said that while the country’s art market has become strikingly global over the past decade, he thinks that it has actually reached a low point in terms of intellectual dialogue.

“This is the kind of international exchange that we lack today,” he said.

Installation view of “Zhuang Hui: Qilian Range” at Galleria Continua.

Such was Eller’s aim in initiating the weekend. After moving to Beijing three years ago, Eller said he began to think about ways to better position the city’s art scene. That started with “Die 8 Der Wege,” a survey show of Chinese contemporary art that he co-curated with Guo Xiaoyan and Andreas Schmid for Berlin’s Uferhallen. He then, however, set his sights on trying to bring together Beijing’s galleries and a growing number of museums. He said that, as in all major art hubs, politics within the art world here meant that he could have an impact that someone coming from the inside might not.

“It maybe needed an outsider to come in and tie these things together,” Eller said.

The entire gallery weekend came together in just three months. “We had to show momentum,” he said, in order to gain support of key players within Beijing’s art community. Even before the weekend’s events had come to a close, Eller had his eyes set on an expanded edition next year.

Gallery Weekend Beijing kicked off with a performance by Cheng Ran in 798, at a still-under-construction location for Galerie Urs Meile, whose main gallery compound is about one mile to the north. The performance, Neoclassical, saw a series of Cheng’s earlier films cut together with found, archival footage and displayed on a giant LED screen as experimental musicians Li Jianhong, Wang Ziheng, and Soviet Pop from Beijing’s underground scene played instruments ranging from electric guitar and trumpet to bubble wrap.

Accidental Menagerie, 2015. Max Hooper Schneider Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA)

Installation view of “The New Normal” at Ullens Center for Contemporary Art. Photo by @christina_uoy, via Instagram.

While galleries were the ostensive focus of the weekend, its crown jewel was the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art’s (UCCA) massive survey of art in China today “The New Normal,” curated by Guo Xi, Yang Zi, Alvin Li, and Wenfei Wang. The show is the latest in an iterative series of surveys of Chinese contemporary art by an institution that remains at the very heart of 798 despite ongoing questions about its future. (The museum’s founder Guy Ullens announced in July that he intends to sell the museum and has publicly released little information since.)

“The New Normal” features standout works by Chinese rising stars like Cui Jie, Guo Xi, and Miao Ying (her installation Chinternet+ is the show’s highlight). But it also reflects China’s internationalization, with recent BMW Art Journey winner Max Hooper Schneider presenting a monumental sculpture that encases snakes, bullets, and innumerable knickknacks in acrylic resin, and a Sophia Al-Maria film that positions the shopping mall as the cathedral of the 21st century.

Gallery Weekend Beijing’s “Best Gallery Exhibition Award” was handed down to Zhuang Hui for his exhibition “Qilian Range” at Galleria Continua. The award provides the winning artist with the opportunity to create a catalogue and the winning gallery gratis participation in next year’s gallery weekend. It recognized an exhibition that focuses on a series of photographs of the artist bounding through and looking towards the Qilian mountain range nearby his hometown of Yumen in western China and was curated by Frieze’s Colin Siyuan Chinnery.

Green Hole 2, 2016. Zhang Xinjun Long March Space

Installation view of He Xiangyu at White Space Beijing. Photo courtesy of the gallery.

As deserving of recognition, however, was White Space’s solo of He Xiangyu (who also opened an exhibition at Shanghai private museum Qiao Space this past weekend) and Long March Space’s group show “Marching in Circles.” Curated by Robin Peckham, the latter show features remarkable works by the collective COME INSIDE, whose app Love Spam (2017) allows those who download it to either send the artists money or receive messages that provide, alternatingly, uplifting advice and depression-inducing news; Yu Honglei, whose video En Route (2016) appropriates footage from desert rally-racing; and John Gerrard, who displays a set of mesmerizing, digital renderings of oil floating on the Thames and Hudson rivers.

While the gallery weekend saw a surprisingly high concentration of installation and video across its exhibitions, painting also remained well represented. Influential young gallery Magician Space mounted a show of humorous and discomfiting works by Wu Chen—one sees Osama bin Laden holding a dead swan, another, Santa Claus lying naked on a brothel bed, a mirror above showing his less-often-seen pair of rosy cheeks. Pace Beijing constructed a runway of sorts to guide viewers through Li Songsong’s weighty, pastel-hued works in oil. And PIFO Gallery mounted a 10-year-anniversary survey of its engagement with abstract art, including works by Huang Yuanqing, Liu Jian, Enrico Bach, and Simon Mullan.

Installation view of “Li Songsong: BEIHAI” at Pace Beijing. Photo courtesy of the gallery.

Also of note was Gallery Yang’s exhibition of 29-year-old artist Yang Song’s sculptures and installation “Askr Yggdrasils,” which is at once humorous and disturbing. The works see figures emerge out of the bulbs of soil around tree trunks and a vast wall of forest floor turned on its side. Some appear as if sculpted into the mud directly, others like ancient statues colonized by roots over hundreds of years.

Playing with this tension between past and present in a different way was Ink Studio, which shows new works of Tai Xiangzhou—paintings on silk and an installation modeled on an ancient, rotating Buddhist sutra.

“We’re just ahead of Art Basel in Hong Kong and we have this new gallery weekend in Beijing, but this is perhaps our most traditional show of the year,” said the gallery’s artistic director Craig Yee with a laugh.

A master restorer of Song Dynasty painting, Tai appropriates the era’s techniques in his own works, applying between 20 and 30 layers of ink to silk. Rather than classical subject matter, however, Tai’s collection of meteorites serves as subject matter for the nine-panel work that anchors the show. Placing the viewer in the midst of what feels like a primordial explosion of space rock, the work is a sharp reconfiguration of the Song philosophy, which posits the inseparability between human nature and the natural world.

Askr Yggdrasils 4, 2015. Song Yang Gallery Yang

Mountain of Heaven, 2014. Tai Xiangzhou Ink Studio

As the weekend wound to a close, M WOODS museum founders Lin Han and Wanwan Lei gave a tour of their current exhibition of the late French artist Cristof Yvoré. Curated by Wanwan, the show is a stark departure from the institution’s last, which featured a selection of Warhol’s films and Silver Clouds (1966), an installation of silver balloons that became a selfie sensation. Yvoré’s work, rather, is more contemplative and, at least in comparison to Warhol, fairly unknown.

Wanwan said she discovered Yvoré at an art fair several years ago and found herself haunted by the work—mostly still lifes painted from memory and facades of nondescript buildings—throughout the rest of the day. Forty-six of his paintings and 30 works on paper, representing nearly one-third of the artist’s entire oeuvre, are currently on view at the museum (three are from its permanent collection). Wanwan said they have been pleasantly surprised by the attention the show has received from its audience despite Yvoré’s relative obscurity.

Whether this indicates that the wider art-interested public in Beijing is growing increasingly sophisticated and moving beyond brand names remains to be seen. But efforts like Gallery Weekend Beijing play no small role in that process.

“We think it’s a success,” Wanwan said.

—Alexander Forbes

from Artsy News

#Artsy News

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