Odd Costumes

On Thursday May 21 Costume Jim posted on the Kostume Kult Diskuss list that Odd Costumes was going out of business. By 1pm Stefan, Jim, Peter, Susan and many more were pouring through the treasure trove of goodies. The photos that follow here are Rick Raguso, Frank Raguso, Nick Raguso, Susan McIntosh and yours truly; playing around with just a couple of our finds.

Odd Costumes is open again on Tuesday morning at 10am. Get over there and get the choice finds before they're gone!

Steve Buscemi showed up about an hour into our celebration. He had a meeting and so he needed to split after a short time.


Getting ready to be picked up by the Wondermare Blimp.

Wondermare - Pass Through This

Synopsis
Wondermare is based on the notion that much of the behavioral conditioning programmed in our subconscious is the unhealthy byproduct of a world out of balance, a "house of cards" on the brink of catastrophe; the truth of which is obscured from us by our own myopic pursuits and illusions.

The exhibition uses as its setting the story of Alice in Wonderland precisely because it contains anecdotes about the rites of passage into adulthood. The tale consistently resists an easily defined linear structure and at the same time confronts the confusing and often nonsensical rituals that we must travel through in order to obtain a civilized or adult persona in the world we see through our looking glass.

Immersed in an eight-screen video landscape, gallery visitors will feel compelled to address the parts of themselves that are hidden, repressed and denied. As an interactive exhibition, the show creates the opportunity for a psychological rebooting or do over, where visitors will have another chance at addressing their own rights of cultural passage that they may or may not have gotten right the first time around.
Vignettes

The Beginning
The Birth of this Moment

Bullies
The Wondermare characters threaten and tease the viewer as they walk the gallery.

Meet The Terrorist - Division of Terror Control
Turn in your friends for your own safety. A ticking time bomb.

Astroheroes - Be The Hero You Were Meant To Be
When you get to the chroma key screen act out your inner hero.

My Breasts: My Rights - My Rites
A young person can shoot a gun but viewing love making in a movie is illegal?!

Feed The World
Juxtaposing the insulated rich across the gallery from the impoverished masses

The Zombie Minority
Get a real sense of what it's like to be immersed in Zombie culture.

Mad Hatters Tea Party (My Favorite Bachanal)
Tea cups filled with paint, anthropomorphic beings, beer bongs and a hedonistic orgy.

Smell The Flowers
Live in the moment with the blooming flowers blowing in the breeze.

Text Yourself To Death
The white rabbit leads us on a journey of people compulsively texting

We're At War! With Ourselves
Small children run around with toy guns imprinting evil deeds.

Body Dismorphia
Society doesn't like fat people and neither should you!

My First Time
A sexual experience

Religious Icons
Meet the cast of characters

The End
Design your own Tombstone

Black And Light Ball

On the way to Asya's I had to get a photo of Susan and Rick in front of the emergency knocking down of these 5 story buildings at 14th and 7th Aves. The middle retaining wall between the two building began to buckle out towards the street just days before. There is a man up in the yellow/orange box knocking off 50 to 200 1b chunks of brick and concrete.I don't know who scribbled this all over Asya's mirror but it was unnerving for me. I think it was high art and isn't that what great art does, take us out of our comfort zones? I liked Norman Mailer's take on Picasso's blue period. Even though the pictures are sad and filled with despair they command the highest prices. Mailer believed that for those who could afford them, having a blind beggar on their walls gave them balance, grounded them in an earthly existence; it showed them a part of life they would never experience.

The night was very very animated. Finally we get to the party and the visuals and overall experience were mind altering.

Wondermare - The Rites of Passage

Here is the current list of vignettes for our Wondermare show at Apex Art for July 2009.

The Beginning
The Birth of this Moment

Bullies
The Wondermare characters threaten and tease the viewer as they walk the gallery.

Meet The Terrorist - Division of Terror Control
Turn in your friends for your own safety. A ticking time bomb.

Astroheroes - Be The Hero You Were Meant To Be
When you get to the chroma key screen act out your inner hero.

My Breasts: My Rights - My Rites
A young person can shoot a gun but viewing love making in a movie is illegal?!

Feed The World
Juxtaposing the insulated rich across the gallery from the impoverished masses

The Zombie Minority
Get a real sense of what it's like to be immersed in Zombie culture.

Mad Hatters Tea Party (My Favorite Bachanal)
Tea cups filled with paint, anthropomorphic beings, beer bongs and a hedonistic orgy.

Smell The Flowers
Live in the moment with the blooming flowers blowing in the breeze.

Text Yourself To Death
The white rabbit leads us on a journey of people compulsively texting

We're At War! With Ourselves
Small children run around with toy guns imprinting evil deeds.

Body Dismorphia
Society doesn't like fat people and neither should you!

My First Time
A sexual experience

Religious Icons
Meet the cast of characters

The End
Design your own Tombstone

Wondermare Picture

Here is our most recent picture of Elysee and Trebla Dam from Wondermare.

Wondermare Synopsis

Herein lies the newest version of our synopsis for Albert and Susan's Wondermare show at ApexArt.org for July. Let us know what you think.

Myths contain potent symbolic resonance that allow us to project our life experiences and desires upon the characters contained within archetypal narrative structures. In our show "Wondermare", we have chosen the narrative template of "Alice in Wonderland" precisely because it contains potent narratives about the rites of passage into adulthood. The story consistently resists a pat and easily defined linear narrative structure and at the same time confronts the confusing and often nonsensical rituals that we must travel through in order to obtain a "civilized" or "adult" persona in the world "behind" or in "front" of our looking glass. It is our belief that the much of the behavioral conditioning and psychological tapes programmed in our subconscious are the unhealthy byproducts of a world out of balance. It is a "house of cards," on the brink of catastrophe; the truth of which is obscured from us by our own myopic pursuits and illusions. By immersing the audience in an 8 screen video landscape it compels us to address the parts of ourselves that are hidden, repressed and denied. Wondermare creates the opportunity for a psychological "rebooting," a "do over," whereas through interactivity, the participant will have another "chance" at addressing their own rights of cultural passage that they may or may not have gotten right the first time around.

Alice In Wondermare

Here Susan plays Alice after she's stolen the Mad Hatters hat. I wonder how she did that? Oh, and one more thing, I'll buy you a drink at the restaurant that's located behind Alice if you can tell me the name of it and where it's located:) Susan, this doesn't count for you (and don't tell your friends or give them any clues!!).

Wonderful New York Video Shoot

In NYC there exists many places that exude character, charm, chutzpah, and class (how's that for a bunch of nouns that start with C?!). Some like the Empire State Buildning demand to be noticed but there far exceeds those that demand attention by those that take some work to find. The Pink Pony on Ludlow has the appeal of a Pastis without the crowds and the high prices. It was the perfect restaurant for our recent shoot.

Fighting ourselves

On April 20th, Big Al and I shot our two actors Ken Cypert and Ian Phillips as Tweetle Dee and Tweetle Dumb characters on a playground in Soho. We imagined them as school yard bullies, brothers, twins, who unable to express themselves and their desire for one another as so often happens in patriarchial war culture, they turned their aggression to each other and outside sources. I truly believe that our enemy, the shadow if you will, that we harbor in ourselves is often projected onto others and most often reflects that thing we see in ourselves that most terrifyies us in relationship to our own desires. That which we abhor is often that which we most secretly desire.

Video Taping Pilot

Albert's red eye gives it the 'Crazy' touch as he and Phyllis work to get the shot of Amy Winehouse singing with the Adrian Harpham Band.

Adrian Harpham At The Gershwin

Adrian Harpham kicked off the music set with Love Conquers All. He then followed it up with...

Happy

All Around the World

Sea Of Time

Free From Your Spell

Not The One

Rehab - with Amy Winehouse

Push It To The Limit

When Amy came on the crowd flew into a frenzy.

Amy Winehouse and an Exhuberant Fan

Many thanks to Kelly Lincoln for taking these great photos at the Premiere.At the Crazy Studios Pilot screening at the Gershwin, an exhuberant fan moves forward to lick Amy's toes.
Security was called in to remove the offender but Amy said she like it; so he was allowed to carry on. Later it was rumored that the fan had caught 'The Swine Flu'. EJ looks on in the background and it was later rumored he went for a pedicure immediately after the show.