DRIPPY LEG MYSTERY SOLVED

I am Jennifer Hasegawa and I am Loading…

I am a fourth edition product of the United States. I am a married divorced bi-curious actor singer dancer producer philanthropist with kids (1 adopted), known for playing Morë Logín on the internet reality TV show called “Reality” about a real reality (The state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or might be imagined. In a wider definition, reality includes everything that is and has been, whether or not it is observable or comprehensible. A still more broad definition includes everything that has existed, exists, or will exist.) TV show.

In a recent episode, I am still wearing my ring, even after waking up one morning in Vegas with Christina singing my praises and Demi spilling her addiction past. Comment (24)?

Hair by politics, make-up by business (entertainment gloss, tech foundation, media mascara, and lifestyle shadow), culture top, comedy slacks, healthy living belt, women bag, and local shoes.

Generally speaking, can you like me? I have 76k and want to connect.

Featured posts holding up my fence:

1. Trickle-Down Ugly
2. The Night I Got My First Bra Thrown Onstage
3. Heather Locklear: What Is She Running From?

Beyond my fence, stars (Massive, luminous spheres of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of their lifetimes, stars can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter.) are stepping out of axis, including λ Orion A, β Ursa Major, and George Clooney.

I love people who talk.

I tolerate question marks.

But I hate to see people fail and I have to tell you that Celine Dion had a wardrobe malfunction, which was mistaken for a very pregnant Jessica Simpson.

Kim Kardashian admits to wasting my time and $. She acts like she’s the only one! Last week, Brad Pitt confessed to me that his kids aren’t allowed to Google him. “Kids,” he said, “You can’t Google me.”

This is for real and scientifical.

Michael Jackson; though dead, they say; has been made immortal (A biological form able to live forever. The jellyfish, Turritopsis nutricula, can revert to the polyp stage after becoming sexually mature. It is the only known case of a metazoan capable of reverting completely to a sexually immature, colonial stage after having reached sexual maturity as a solitary stage.) by French circus people.

Meanwhile, a 77-year-old white man upstairs has died despite being on a hit sitcom written by a white man who is still alive! Life, is not fair. Especially when it comes to RiRi who has sexy leather pants – HOT <onClick> event!

I live in a land neighboring a small Texas County where celebrity-owned pots burst recently. Snoop Dogg and Willie Nelson both bought the same defective pot! Coincidence, or celebrity justice?

Personally, I care about the worst hair in Hollywood. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

ABOUT JENNIFER HASEGAWA

Jennifer Hasegawa has collaborated with Truong in the creation of digital art for At War and in other projects, but she is also a poet and information architect.  She was born in Hilo, Hawaii and lives in San Francisco.

Accompanying our exhibition At War, opening Friday, February 3, 6–9pm, we have asked the artistic collaborators of Peter Max Lawrence and Truong Tran, creators of At War,  to contribute something to our blog that details their own identities in conflict.

Jennifer Hasegawa’s piece the ways in which flat, objective truths and hyperbolic, celebrity-style myths press up against identity on a daily basis.  “We presuppose that truth and myth affect identity, but how does identity affect fact? Myth?” asks Jennifer.

“Drippy Leg Mystery Solved,” is comprised of Wikipedia definitions and headlines from The Huffington Post Entertainment > Celebrity section.

Image courtesy of Jennifer Hasegawa

We asked the artistic collaborators of Peter Max Lawrence and Truong Tran, creators of At War,  to contribute something to our blog that details their own identities in conflict. D.W. Lichtenberg has collaborated with Truong in the creation of digital art for At War and in other projects, but he is also a writer. He writes on paper, on a computer, and also on empty packs of cigarettes, which he saves. The piece below  explores what D.W. might erase if he could erase his addiction to nicotine.

AN IDENTITY WHERE I NEVER SMOKED CIGARETTES

An identity where the anxiety of death did not straddle my bed.

An identity where I didnʼt walk through airport security realizing I had holes in my socks.

An identity where I was not drowning in the dependence of others.

An identity where we said goodbye to being so beautiful to us.

An identity where you said, listen Iʼve been drinking (not me).

An identity where there was no pack that began it all again.

An identity where you were the only one.

An identity where all the things that attracted me to you were not all the things you disliked about yourself.

An identity where Iʼm forever talking, forever closing the distance.

An identity where I never got used to having you around.

An identity where I liked talking on the phone.

An identity where I never attended a childrenʼs play by Maurice Sendak with someone I was doing coke with.

An identity where I accepted the passing of time.

An identity where nobody I knew quit smoking.

An identity where Christmas didnʼt feel like nothing after opening all the presents.

An identity where time isnʼt the only thing that can tell.

An identity where nothing.

An identity where everyone I love is drunk.

An identity where I am the one that brings the best of us all, not you.

An identity where I was never related to an addict.

An identity where Iʼm not only there when Iʼm drunk.

An identity where Iʼm not constantly wondering what my mother is thinking.

An identity where I am the life of the party.

An identity where I never realized I was totally alone.

An identity where I didnʼt give the last one to Wanda.

An identity where your dad drowned, not mine.

An identity where you were not denying that you were in love with me.

An identity where nothing.

An identity where nothing no one.

An identity where nothing no one never.

An identity where I was interested in more than just what makes you sad.

About D.W. Lichtenberg
D.W. is the author of ”THE ANCIENT BOOK OF HIP” (Fourteen Hills Press, 2009). He currently lives in San Francisco where he edits corporate video by day and LA PETITE ZINE by night. He collaborates with artist Truong Tran on video art and digital collage. He hopes to one day write the Great American Bumper Sticker.

Photo courtesy of D.W. Lichtenberg

What: Asphalt Meditation by Jack Leamy

Where: The Ramp Gallery

When: February 6–20, 2012

In the words of the artist, Jack Leamy, “These portraits are culled from death mask archives of American statesmen that I have painted on asphalt. The asphalt becomes spatial like a starry night and symbolizes the road behind us and beyond us; it is the slate of memory and destination. The challenge is to breathe life into these literal headstones, these death masks. Like the ghost of Hamlet’s father come back to enlighten us, these portraits are intended as warnings. These American fathers are made into living indictments questioning the state of our union and individual socio/political accountability.”

Jack Leamy was born and raised in a factory town in rural Massachusetts. He earned his BFA from Pratt Institute and his MFA in 2010 from the San Francisco Art Institute where he received the Irene Pijoan Memorial Painting Award. Jack is also the recipient of the prestigious Tournesol Award for 2010/2011. He has exhibited his artwork in Massachusetts, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The Ramp Gallery accepts exhibition proposals on a continual basis. Submission Guidelines can be found here. To purchase work on display or for more information email gallery@somarts.org

What:  At War
When: February 3–29, 2012
Opening Reception: Friday, February 3, 6–9pm
Poetry & Dance Performance: Thursday, February 16, 7–9pm
Closing Reception & Panel:  Saturday, February 25, 7–9pm
Where: 934 Brannan St. (between 8th & 9th)
Free Admission During Gallery Hours: Tuesday–Friday, 12–7pm,  Saturday, 12–5pm.

At War, curated by and featuring artists Peter Max Lawrence and Truong Tran, explores identities in conflict, ranging from ethnic, gender, and sexual identity to conflicts of artistic identity indicated by disparate processes, practices, and mediums.

On display are hundreds of paintings, drawings, videos, and sculptures which incorporate religious elements, assumptive queer histories, and war iconography.

In preparation for the opening reception, Friday, February 3, 6–9pm, Lawrence and Tran initiate war by physically dividing the exhibition space into representational territory with a demilitarized zone line and complete a series of wall and free-standing sculptures utilizing found objects representing the refuses of moral and sexual wars. Dueling audio/visual installations will face off in the gallery annex.

Opening Reception
At War: Peter Max Lawrence & Truong Tran
Friday, February 3, 6–9pm. Free admission.

Poetry & Dance Performance
At The Front Line: War Words & War Dance
Thursday, February 16, 7–9pm. Suggested donation of $5 in advance, $7 at the door. Advance tickets: http://atwar.eventbrite.com/.
The evening includes poetry and dance by Bay Area artists Rachael Dichter, Rick D’Elia, Jennifer Hasegawa, Carolyn Ho, Philip Huang, Macklin Kowal, Daniel Lichtenberg, Daniel Redman, and Liz Tenuto.

Closing Reception
At Peace: Panel Discussion
Saturday, February 25, 7–9pm. Free admission.
Panelists include Rebekah Edwards and Monica Jane Peck, authors of essays and criticism on At War, and contributing video artist Daniel Lichtenberg, Tran’s artistic collaborator. The discussion is followed by a Q&A session with curators Peter Max Lawrence and Truong Tran.

During the accompanying event, Front Line: War Words & War Dance, Thursday, February 16, 7–9pm, Lawrence and Tran act as generals or their respective armies comprised of multi-disciplinary Bay Area artists—Rachael Dichter,  Rick D’Elia, Jennifer Hasegawa, Carolyn Ho, Philip Huang, Macklin Kowal, Daniel Lichtenberg, Daniel Redman, and Liz Tenuto—who aid in the construction of a larger tableau focused on conflict and collaboration.

Tran, whose aesthetic is organized and contained, engages literary artists to perform on his behalf, while Lawrence, whose aesthetic is chaotic and rampageous, enlists an army of performance artists, including dancers and other practitioners of creative movement. Admission to Front Line: War Words & War Dance is a suggested donation of $5 in advance or $7 at the door. Advance tickets at http://atwar.eventbrite.com/.

For the month-long exhibition Tran creates a series of sculptural and video installations obscured by physical and optical veils. He conflates historical images of war with an image depicting intimacy between men, and projects video onto a canvas of international symbols of war and peace, such as 1,000 broken wishbones and 1,000 origami cranes folded by a member of his artistic army, poet and visual artist Carolyn Ho.

Tran said, “Vietnamese American artists who have attained some level of success in the art world by Western standards have, by and large, made art about the Vietnam War. If my Vietnamese ethnicity plays a role in my work, it is to challenge this kind of singular narrative; a conscious opposition to the idea of ethnicity as a frame or container. This very thinking is dangerous in that it perpetuates of a single story thereby limiting the creative possibilities of an individual.”

Lawrence offers a dense installation composed of a multitude of media and messages that examine both the internal and the external forces that cause one to go to war with the individual persona and challenge perceived cultural and national identities.

At War closes on Saturday, February 25, 7–9pm, with a panel discussion including the authors of essays and criticism about the exhibition, and a question and answer session with the curators.

At War, created by Peter Max Lawrence and Truong Tran, is one of four exhibition proposals selected to receive a 2011–12 Commons Curatorial Residency at SOMArts. Selected artists and curators receive curatorial stipends and a support package valued at over $20,000, as well as access to one of the largest and most beautiful gallery spaces in the heart of the city to expand their practice, engage the Bay Area’s cultural communities, and turn vision into reality.

What: Opening reception for At War

When: Friday, February 3, 6–9pm

Where: 934 Brannan St. (between 8th & 9th)

How Much: Free Admission

Attend the opening reception for At War for a first look at hundreds of paintings, drawings, videos, and sculptures which incorporate religious elements, assumptive queer histories, and war iconography. A DMZ line divides the gallery in half for Peter Max Lawrence and Truong Tran’s respective installations, and allows the artists to explore their many identities in conflict while relegating their wildly conflicting artistic styles to opposing ends of the gallery.

For more information about At War, click here.

Pictured: “How A Baby Grows Up” by Truong Tran, above;  video still  from “My Reykjavík” by Peter Max Lawrence, below

What: The News

When: Tuesday, February 7, 2012, 7:30–9pm, house opens at 7pm

Where: 934 Brannan St. (between 8th & 9th)

How Much: $5 admission

The News is the new place to see fresh, queer performance by Bay Area artists. On the first Tuesday of each month The News will spotlight performance pieces, experiments, and works in progress by pre-selected solo artists, groups, or troupes. An informal session for critical feedback follows the performances.

The first edition of The News on February 7th features Rotimi Agbabiaka, DIAmanda Kallas II Dia Dear, La Chica Boom, Peter Max Lawrence. Magic Meals, the Brontez Purnell Dance Company, Kolmel WithLove, and Shaunna Vella.

Artists interested in performing at The News can find more information here.

ABOUT THE PERFORMERS:

Rotimi Agbabiaka calls San Francisco home after previously living in Nigeria, Texas and Illinois. Since moving to San Francisco last summer he has performed with the SF Mime Troupe and presented his solo play, “Homeless,” at the SF Fringe Festival, for which he received Best Solo Performance Award. He now plays James Brown and other wacky characters at Beach Blanket Babylon.

DIAmanda Kallas || Dia Dear writes, “Are you my Mother?”

La Chica Boom is a performance artist, ecdysiast, and community organizer who explores Chicana iconography, issues of race, gender and sexuality. Through the practice of ethnic drag, theatre, neo-burlesque, and clowning, La Chica Boom provides a biting satire that points to contemporary and historical “escandalos.”

In addition to touring North America as a solo performer and with the Fluffgirl Vaudeville and Burlesque Roadshow, she is the founder and producer of Kaleidoscope, An Annual National People of Color Cabaret, the first national event dedicated to cabaret and neo-burlesque performers of color in the U.S.

Some of the venues where she has been featured include Yerba Buena Center for The Arts, Corio, One Eyed Jacks, MondoHomo, The Moisture Festival, Burlesque Hall of Fame, Tease-o-Rama, and The Vancouver Queer Film Festival.

Peter Max Lawrence was born in Topeka, adopted soon there after, and raised in Kansas City, Kansas. Over the course of his life, Lawrence has created a large and diverse body of work, exploring a wide variety of approaches, media and techniques. Lawrence’s visual art, performances and videos have been presented internationally in venues ranging from major museums to basement bathrooms.

Among his recent works of note are the critically acclaimed “QUEER in KANSAS,” “Warholics” and the experimental short “de Young,” which was created while working as an artist in residence at the museum and was later featured on KQED’s “Truly California.”

He has also directed music videos for Carletta Sue Kay, Krystle Warren and Troops. Currently he is the curator for The One and Art Thieves and is developing various collaborations with other musicians, artists and writers. He lives and works in San Francisco, California.

Magic Meals  writes, “Take the time to relax. Eat a nutritious snack. Watch the sunset. Smell the roses. Think about what you want in life. What do you see?”

Brontez Purnell Dance Company is a new and experimental contemporary dance company based in Oakland, CA. Utilizing influence from modern, African, contemporary and new wave dance, Brontez Purnell Dance Company favors a DIY dance aesthetic.

Purnell explains, “I had been playing around in bands for a while and doing my dance major and collecting my ideas of what my “home theater” would look like, and then BPDC just came together. I used people I had been seeing at punk shows because I wanted this kind of community centered, yet person-to-person based, present and immediate experience with both my dancers and the audience.”

Shaunna Vella is a choreographer, dancer, teacher, and performance artist who has been creating work in the Bay Area since 2003.  Her work has been seen at ODC Theater, Dance Mission Theater, The Garage, Studio 210, and The Ashby Stage. As a dancer, she continues to dance for local companies such as Anne Bluethenthal, Deborah Slater Dance Theater, Liss Fain Dance, Paufve Dance, Agora Dance Project, Dance Ceres and Davalos Dance Company.

Vella has been teaching at St. Mary’s College since 2004, and teaches at Ace Dance Academy in Walnut Creek. She served as a active artist for the Isadora Duncan Dance Awards Committee in 2007-2008. As well as being an artist and teacher, she works in the field of social justice and has worked for the Tides Foundation, The Family Violence Prevention Fund, and currently works at the Jewish Community Federation.

Kolmel WithLove is the creator and the host of The News. Kolmel, curates, builds cameras and costumes, collaborates with other artists, makes films, and performs. Her films have screened in a variety of settings including: Frameline Film Festival, MIX Mexico, Seattle Center of Contemporary Art, RAID Projects and in the upcoming book and DVD “Strange Attractors.”

Kolmel has performed in venues including Yerba Buena Center for The Arts, SOMArts Cultural Center, Highways Performance Space, The Velaslavasay Panorama Theatre, The Garage, various galleries, a few living rooms, two very nice leather bars, and a piano lounge.

How did John Cage’s legacy of chance operations influence this work?
With this specific piece, I was mapping my travels over the Internet for the course of a week and translating that into choreography. John Cage and Merce Cunningham and their chance operations definitely factored into the sort of language that I use. And I’d like to think of [my process] more like systems more so than chance operations because the system that I’ve created is very specific.

It’s a matter of translating movement through a virtual place into movement in a physical place, and there are different choreographic phrases that correspond to different topics of moving through data. A lot of the repetition has to do with mapping how long maybe I spent looking for information – looking for a specific type of information. It’s kind of split into topics and choreographed from there.

When you were creating this system did you end up finding things that surprised you or encounter any “lucky mistakes”?
Definitely. First there was the challenge of embodying information that I moved through, or embodying that movement that is usually done by a click of finger. So that process of physically embodying virtual movement was exhausting. It was really interesting to at the end of that feel a different relationship to the way that I move through a virtual space because now I have like a physical memory of it too, that’s attached.

Did you set a certain time during each day throughout the period of a week?
No, that is definitely another thing that was not controlled at all.

So I was going back and looking through browser history – a week later. Trying my hardest not influence myself to search for certain things [again] and trying to keep myself removed a bit. Then I organized it into some sort of structure and form that could be used to create a choreography form.

Is the structure and form hard to organize? I know when you go to one source there is always another link to another source, and all those connections build and build and they kind of get tangled up.
Totally. Yeah, exactly. I was reading a lot at the time about visualizers and visualizations, especially of the Internet. And making very visual maps that some how sort of organize how nebulous that space is – so I just focused on methods for simplicity, trying to keep it really minimal, and not showing necessarily all the webs of interactions but what’s important.

What: Nolan Jones in The Ramp Gallery

Where: The Ramp Gallery

When: January 14–February 6, 2012

This body of work, designed and created by Nolan Jones, is based on research into the text-based visual art of John Cage, who often played with typography and graphic design in innovative ways. After designing the web graphic for Get Lucky: The Culture of Chance, Nolan was asked to further explore the concepts of his design for a solo show in The Ramp Gallery.

The large piece on display in The Ramp was created by building a highly varying font-type lexicon and applying a chance operation structure. The smaller work highlights Nolan’s custom font for Get Lucky.

Nolan Jones is a graphic designer who uses hand processes to develop typography-based works.  Through his background as a graffiti artist and during his educational career, Nolan developed the ability to create original typographic compositions using hand-drawn letter forms and graphic elements. Nolan Jones is currently studying graphic design at California College of the Arts. He is also the co-founder of Gaskill Gallery in Oakland. Related posters are for sale for $35, edition of 30. Posters can be purchased at SOMArts, or by contacting gallery@somarts.org

Below the jump our CCA Community Student Fellow, Bianca Sandiko, interviews exhibiting artist Antonio Cortez about his “3D Mathematical I Ching Chart” as part of Get Lucky: The Culture of Chance. The exhibition is open for viewing this week  Tues.–Thurs.,12-7pm, and closes on  Thursday, January 26, 6–9pm with a reception & discussion panel.

What: Tons of opportunities to make a difference by volunteering at SOMArts!

When:  January & February

Where: 934 Brannan St. (between 8th & 9th)

Our biggest volunteer event of the year, Community Volunteer Garden & Cleanup Day, will be held on Saturday, February 4, 10:30–3:30pm, partial day shifts available. We need all hands on deck for a day of beautification and socializing. To join the crew for this volunteer opportunity or to request more information, please email volunteer@somarts.org or phone 415-863-1414, x111.

Below the jump, you will find even more opportunities to get involved in January & February.

Street Team: Flyer Distribution for Upcoming Exhibition
Week of Jan. 23, 2012, 4-5 hours at your convenience
Looking for a volunteer to place postcards at San Francisco galleries, arts organizations, LGBTQ and other social justice organizations, and some small businesses advertising the upcoming Main Gallery exhibition, At War. We supply the list of places. This is a great way to explore the city and help spread the word about the exhibition.

Get Lucky: The Culture of Chance Closing Reception
Thursday, January 26, volunteers needed: 5pm–10pm (event times: 6pm–9pm)
The closing reception includes a curatorial walk-through as well as a panel discussion featuring individuals who have been influenced by the work of John Cage. We need volunteer event assistants from 5:00pm – 10:00pm. For more info about the exhibition, click here.

At War Exhibition Opening Reception
Friday, February 3, volunteers needed: 5pm–10pm (event times: 6pm–9pm)
The upcoming exhibition, At War, explores identities in conflict. Curators and participating artists will complete a series of sculptures with found objects, and dueling audio-visual installations will take place in the annex. Volunteers aid the event helping at the door and assisting exhibiting artists, set-up and clean-up. For more information about the exhibition, click here.

Community Garden & Cleanup Day: Calling All Volunteers!
Saturday, February 4, 10:30am–3:30pm
Come help us beautify SOMArts for everyone! We will have outdoor tasks in the garden (led by Amber Hasselbring of Mission Greenbelt) and indoor tasks in various parts of the building. Come at 10:30am to check in and enjoy some morning coffee together. At 11am we will tackle our list of pre-arranged tasks. We will break down at 3pm and enjoy drinks and refreshments together and bask in the beautiful results of our work! We want many volunteers for this, so sign up ASAP!!

The News: Queer Performance Program
Tuesday, February 7, volunteers needed: 7pm–9:30pm (event times: 7:30pm–9pm)
On the first Tuesday of each month The News will spotlight performance pieces, experiments, and works in progress by pre-selected solo artists, groups, or troupes. Volunteers are needed to help with box-office and the bar, setup and takedown. This a great opportunity to meet performance artists and experience the development of a work. This is a new program at SOMArts – get in on the ground floor! Click here  for more information.

At the Front Lines: War Words & War Dance
Thursday, February 16, volunteers needed: 6pm – 10pm (event times: 7pm–9pm)
A presentation of the At War exhibition, this event features lead artists Peter Max Lawrence and Truong Tran acting as generals of their respective armies comprised of local artists to create a tableau of conflict and collaboration. Volunteers will help with setup and takedown, box office and hospitality and experience the exhilaration of live performance. Click here for more information.

Feast of Words: A Literary Potluck With Maxine Hong Kingston
Tuesday, February 21, volunteers needed: 6pm–9:30pm (event times: 6:30pm–9pm)
This monthly literary event featuring local writers and local chefs welcomes guest writer Maxine Hong-Kingston reading a section on war and peace from her free-verse memoir “I Love a Broad Margin To My Life”. Jasmin Golan returns as February’s esteemed culinary guest. More information about the event is available here. We need volunteers to help with box office, and setup and breakdown of the potluck. Volunteers can participate in the evening’s creative exercises and enjoy good food, too!

At Peace: Panel Discussion
Saturday, February 25, volunteers needed: 7pm–10pm (event times: 7pm–9pm)
The At War exhibition closes with peace. This panel discussion includes Rebekah Edwards and Monica Jane Peck, authors of essays and criticism on At War, and contributing video artist Daniel Lichtenberg, Tran’s artistic collaborator. The discussion is followed by a Q&A session with curators Peter Max Lawrence and Truong Tran. Volunteers are needed to be event assistants – setup, breakdown, hospitality & box office.

Gallery Greeters
Wednesdays & Saturdays, various hours available
Gallery Greeters are important at SOMArts and really make a difference. Gallery Guardians greet people coming to SOMArts and are available to answer questions and give directions. They also keep count of gallery attendance and often help staff with basic clerical tasks. Bring a smile and your go-with-the-flow attitude. Wednesday shifts are available from 12pm-7pm and Saturday shifts are from 12pm-5pm. We request Gallery Guardians to work a minimum 3-hour shift. This is a great way to get acquainted with the staff, programs and events at SOMArts.

To RSVP, or to request more information about any of these volunteer opportunities, email volunteer@somarts.org, or phone 415-863-1414, 111.