Needless to say, my primary response after exiting a 65 minute performance of plaid cellos, goths in tutus, extremely large lettered dice, giant eyeballs with Hebrew lettering, and a whole lot of donkey was "WTF?" The show was baffling and amusing and ridiculous and pretentious and inspiring all at once.

Line notes from the program of Zomboid! Film/ Performance Project #1 written, directed and designed by Richard Foreman:

Mostly--
--people are interested in 'events'. But I find more potent, the time between events, the oscillation of the field -- in this case that potent "staging area" in front of filmed tableaux, in which the archetypically 'blindfolded' hover like semi-visible Gods -- semi-controlling the wobble of 'blind' impulsive behavior on the stage below.

How to put this into action?

I PROPOSE
--that every compositional strategy (formalist, narrative, etc) is a distortion of reality, a relative lie -- a limitation of options. Every CHOICE closes down most of the world -- (all other alternatives).

Yet a certain amount of choice, and compositional procedure cannot be avoided. (But do try!) Of what remains -- make the lie evident as a lie. Radical choice: Make the stage event in a certain sense "unconvincing."

Then -- what is one left with? Phenomenon which, as it arises, must be "tossed away." This "tossing away" as the interesting aesthetic event. The fascinating new rhythm.

"Ah -- this moment starts to be interesting? -- Toss it away!" The "music" of that "toss it away" -- a kind of ecstasy, a stripping down that reveals -- what? Some strange, new oscillating "thing" under all other "things."

THE OTHER!

This "OTHER" ARISES AS THE STAGE EVENT IS PUNCTUATED BY THE REPEATED "TOSSING AWAY" OF THEATER AND EVENT AND NARRATIVE... THE FILM PROJECTED THROUGHOUT IS THE HOLDING ONTO THE NON-DEVELOPING "BLINDNESS" (Blindfolded) IN WHICH OUR HUMAN LIFE IS INDEED GROUNDED.

We humans understand, finally, only those illusionary systems that we "construct" for ourselves (the social contract). We are blind to the complex "whole" that operates outside (below and above) our consciousness.

The "radical space" of this performance is a "staging arena" that hovers in that "in between" space -- between projected image (the sustained archtype of blindness) and the live performance of our many impulse-grounded behavioral twitches.

Richard Foreman

Uh-huh. So obvious. Don-key.

We also went to the Botanical Gardens in Leiden where they had a crazy carniverous plant exhibit on a catwalk above the tropical plant section. I decided that pitcher plants are completely creepy and the fact that you can see bits of digested whatever floating around in their bowls is mad gross. Venus flytraps, however, remain tidy yet fantastically dangerous looking.

The Peace Palace in The Hague in Holland. We were guided there by some friendly resident who explained that The Hague has become more popular with the trials of well known war criminals (cough cough Milosevic). The Hague is also home to an awesome museum with nearly all of MC Escher's work in one place.

My always charming little sister at the Burcht, the original "protection" for her adorable little Dutch town in Leiden, Holland. It was really just a giant circle and the citizens of Middle Ages Leiden would gather in it when they were under attack.

The 300 foot tall Atomium is a model of an iron molecule (Fe, baby!) built for the 1958 World Fair. This puppy is big enough that each ball can comfortably hold an exhibit about a) the World Fair b) the construction of the gigantic molecule or c) any number of extremely strange art exhibits including a floating flourescent cloud of stringy things and a suspended bunch of water molecule beds meant for children. Dude, Belgians are weird.

The impressive tower of Town Hall in the Grand Place central square of Brussels.

Back from Europe already, more's the pity. I took a crapload of photos and a few actually turned out decently. This is the impressive Saint Michael cathedral that we passed on our daily walk to the city center of Brussels.