Well... What do you expect?
Course I haven't been blogging when I've been busy.
I've been getting it sorted.
I've been thinking about getting it sorted.
I've been procrastinating about getting it sorted.
I've just been OK...
SO I had some dreams that have refused to go awasy. I made some plans on those dreams, which oddly for me, I kept liking. Not everyday, not always. There was always a lot of confusion and lethargy, but the impulses and the germs of ideas didn't seem to wane, peter out or wander off.
Then I showed some stuff to some peeps on those ideas, and tried to be as true to the stuff as I could.
A few peeps saw some good, reacted well, said the odd encouraging thing.
A few other amazing peeps wanted to lend a hand. They were happy to; always amazing and totally gob-smacking when the genuine nature of people and their responses to you and your silly dreams actually sinks in...
Long story short...
Tawdry lives again, his shot and healing the world one set of nails at a time might actually materialise in some form or another. The Manic Cures show is being reworked, further distilled and finished with much more clarity collected wisdom by virtue of the other incarnations of the show and the thinking and talking time I've had on it up to the present.
And you know what?
Think Tawds is gonna have a few good years ahead of himself!!
Soon as the signing is done, more will be revealed....
But...
But...
Tawds has been showing me the value of sticking to your guns however far out they may at first or, even after a long time, seem...
Everyone who's been kind enough to interact with the project so far has taught me the value of listening to criticism and understanding the opportunity criticism represents, constructive, ill considered, hurtful or otherwise...
And as Tawds always says.... "Never underestimate the value of a slow burn..."
OK so this reads like some schmultzy overly vague waffle about some kind of show thingey or other...
I get that.
Can't talk specifics atm but as it's been too long. Really wanted to just say that the pay off for all this work and non- work is just around the corner....
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Sunday, August 30, 2009
San Fran Pre-burn
You get the most beautiful view of San Francisco as you fly in over an endless Pacific on a clear day. Didn't know there were so many mountains. Just before we banked right to prep for final approach, there poking through the mist and low cloud, the red towers and part of the suspension girders of that bridge. Funny, for something I've never seen with my own eyes, it's amazing how well I know the graceful span, and how much I'm looking forward to a face-to-face 'reunion' with it.
Cloudless and about 80 degrees or 26C by the time we landed, hot and hazy on the runways as we taxied to the terminal. Shiny corridors, travel-ators and slow slow customs queues. Fingerprint scans, a dodgy no-sleep-in-24hours mug shot and then find your way to the confusing, easy-to-follow instructions of the BART rail system ticket machine...
Powell and Market was a heaving mass of buskers,beggars and shoppers galore.
Canyoned avenues of flagship stores, a smart, well dressed, cashed up crowd, and for the most part not that overweight.
A stupidly sexy cop standing guard buy some store with a perfect handle bar mo, black uniform stretched across a big fit frame. Are you kidding me with that look? I haven't slept in half a world away, but do you really expect me to dig out the digi and start snapping, cliched magnificence notwithstanding?
Check in at the hostel equals a rank smelling entrance and no room at the room of the inn to swing a cat but who cares when the bed is a bed and me and the posse are in the God damn US of A.
OK, it's only taken me 43 years to get here.
Don't try to sleep. Readjust your body clock by mixing it with every soul in town who knows this is a uniquely rare and sublime late-August, San Francisco day. Set the dial on your wobbly jet-lagged legs to Steep Hills and get out there for god's sake.
transamercia pyramid
the piers
fishermans warf
Pier 39 and huge crowds of uppety sea lions and tourists eye balling each other
lombard the crookedest street
broadway
china town
noodles followed by darkness
Oh I get it now, the hostel is on the corner of Nightclub and Exotic Ladyland
then three weary souls clamber over the piles of bags and hit their bunk beds
call me old for a travelling manic curist but ear plugs rock
As for today, woke up legs last.
Did you know that the one deemed to be best dressed each day on the playa at the burn can vie for the title of Sparkle Pony
Clearly sparkle ponies need sparkle and the best of desert bling is to be found up hill, many of them actually and down tail over in the Lower Haight.
But first the SFMOMA, and the AVEDON, O'keefe and Ansell Adams exhibitions... OMG, no really, OMFG
Then it kicked in...
A long long street of colour and mayhem
And the shops were full of soon to be burners, itching for the right bit of desert bling
Portable neon for the body or bike
More cheap-arse plastic battery operated sparkle than you could poke a very big stick at
But it all kicked in...
It was the night before christmas
It was the last shopping moments before the mardi gras parade
It was exciting
It is exciting
This city is immense and beautiful and as changeable as the tempestuous weather
Walk away from the shiny shops on Market and it all changes with every step; rents, incomes, the appearance of happiness and apparent trappings of success leach out of the place. Keep walking turn right and you get the city buildings with commanding avenues, parks and a gilded dome, lying on the grass of the surrounds on a chilly overcast day are many folks being given lunch by community support staff and charity workers. Keep walking past the concert hall and ballet centre and it all changes again. Ornate houses, street after hilly street of them, in mostly very well kept states of repair.
Get lost, ask for directions, receive ambiguity, finally get found and end up under the biggest rainbow flag ever right beside Harvey Milk Plaza. Maybe it was the jet lag but a street full of ubiquetos rainbow culture and rainbow peeps set off a massive set of fashion insecurities for the BF and I... I mean we just hit the street for the time ever and memories of Harvey, Tales of the City and all the doccos and the movies of the city and the Castro come flooding back at the exact same time as we pass a gaggle of queens....
"Oh but I only way 175 pounds honey. Well girl I'm down to 168 now.
Really.... A quick burito and a corona and we were outa there!
So that was days one and two...
Other best bits...
The homeless guy begging on Haight, silver hair and beard, his jingle, "A couple of coins so I can get my life started."
The muso playing in the hostel mess hall... "If anyone here knows Tim Burton personally, come see after the show, this next song has sooo got to be in one of his movies."
Day three, Oakland and Wal Mart
Hello, we aren't in the land of charming anymore...
Cloudless and about 80 degrees or 26C by the time we landed, hot and hazy on the runways as we taxied to the terminal. Shiny corridors, travel-ators and slow slow customs queues. Fingerprint scans, a dodgy no-sleep-in-24hours mug shot and then find your way to the confusing, easy-to-follow instructions of the BART rail system ticket machine...
Powell and Market was a heaving mass of buskers,beggars and shoppers galore.
Canyoned avenues of flagship stores, a smart, well dressed, cashed up crowd, and for the most part not that overweight.
A stupidly sexy cop standing guard buy some store with a perfect handle bar mo, black uniform stretched across a big fit frame. Are you kidding me with that look? I haven't slept in half a world away, but do you really expect me to dig out the digi and start snapping, cliched magnificence notwithstanding?
Check in at the hostel equals a rank smelling entrance and no room at the room of the inn to swing a cat but who cares when the bed is a bed and me and the posse are in the God damn US of A.
OK, it's only taken me 43 years to get here.
Don't try to sleep. Readjust your body clock by mixing it with every soul in town who knows this is a uniquely rare and sublime late-August, San Francisco day. Set the dial on your wobbly jet-lagged legs to Steep Hills and get out there for god's sake.
transamercia pyramid
the piers
fishermans warf
Pier 39 and huge crowds of uppety sea lions and tourists eye balling each other
lombard the crookedest street
broadway
china town
noodles followed by darkness
Oh I get it now, the hostel is on the corner of Nightclub and Exotic Ladyland
then three weary souls clamber over the piles of bags and hit their bunk beds
call me old for a travelling manic curist but ear plugs rock
As for today, woke up legs last.
Did you know that the one deemed to be best dressed each day on the playa at the burn can vie for the title of Sparkle Pony
Clearly sparkle ponies need sparkle and the best of desert bling is to be found up hill, many of them actually and down tail over in the Lower Haight.
But first the SFMOMA, and the AVEDON, O'keefe and Ansell Adams exhibitions... OMG, no really, OMFG
Then it kicked in...
A long long street of colour and mayhem
And the shops were full of soon to be burners, itching for the right bit of desert bling
Portable neon for the body or bike
More cheap-arse plastic battery operated sparkle than you could poke a very big stick at
But it all kicked in...
It was the night before christmas
It was the last shopping moments before the mardi gras parade
It was exciting
It is exciting
This city is immense and beautiful and as changeable as the tempestuous weather
Walk away from the shiny shops on Market and it all changes with every step; rents, incomes, the appearance of happiness and apparent trappings of success leach out of the place. Keep walking turn right and you get the city buildings with commanding avenues, parks and a gilded dome, lying on the grass of the surrounds on a chilly overcast day are many folks being given lunch by community support staff and charity workers. Keep walking past the concert hall and ballet centre and it all changes again. Ornate houses, street after hilly street of them, in mostly very well kept states of repair.
Get lost, ask for directions, receive ambiguity, finally get found and end up under the biggest rainbow flag ever right beside Harvey Milk Plaza. Maybe it was the jet lag but a street full of ubiquetos rainbow culture and rainbow peeps set off a massive set of fashion insecurities for the BF and I... I mean we just hit the street for the time ever and memories of Harvey, Tales of the City and all the doccos and the movies of the city and the Castro come flooding back at the exact same time as we pass a gaggle of queens....
"Oh but I only way 175 pounds honey. Well girl I'm down to 168 now.
Really.... A quick burito and a corona and we were outa there!
So that was days one and two...
Other best bits...
The homeless guy begging on Haight, silver hair and beard, his jingle, "A couple of coins so I can get my life started."
The muso playing in the hostel mess hall... "If anyone here knows Tim Burton personally, come see after the show, this next song has sooo got to be in one of his movies."
Day three, Oakland and Wal Mart
Hello, we aren't in the land of charming anymore...
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Decisions and feedback
If James were writing this blog and not Tawdry, he would probably say...
So, I get ideas
Lots usually
In the past I didn't always recognize their value
In the past I found it hard to follow many of those ideas through
But now I try to honour each of them
Regardless
Where ever possible
Tawdry Heartburns Manic Cures has been for me a lot about honouring ideas
Despite fear, reservation, cost or potential disaster
Just shut up
Put up
And do it...
So I had an application to take the collection of ideas that make up this show to a
national arena that could potentially have spin off internationally
An application to get invited at least, let's not get carried away here
An application to be considered for a performing arts trade market
I put it off and put it off and got 'busy' and distracted and blah blah blah
At almost deadline I went to bed to watch episode after episode of a fave show
I spent almost an entire day procrastinating and worried sick about it
Not enjoying the show
Not enjoying me
Not enjoying time slipping and slipping and f*****g slipping
Finally, I had to stop watching the crap I was pretending to be interested in
And ask myself a simple question.
Actually, there was an observation first
James I said, you are scared and in hiding
Do you want to turn your back on your ideas yet again because you are scared?
Actually, there was another observation and another question
It feels almost painful this hiding and procrastination
You could just turn give in to it and walk away again, the ideas will come again and
You can turn away again
Do you want to do that?
Do you want to be that person James, decide now?
I don't know why but it takes a lot of 'pain' to sometimes overcome fear or at least
Knock sense into myself
I want to be someone who talks about it and does it
Not someone who just talks about it
I decided that again despite the relative fear and pain
I can work with those parts of myself more than I can work
With the acknowledgement that I am someone who chooses not to follow through on
Inspiration however profound or otherwise I might imagine it to be
Around the time that this was all going down I had some very honest feedback about
Tawdry's week long gig at PICA in Perth a few weeks ago.
Some good stuff but also some very clear and straightforward stuff about what hasn't
Worked, about where attention should be paid to move the work forward
Stuff about opportunities missed and preformative moments not delivered well or
Handled to the best effect for the work
I don't find it hard to hear honest appraisals about my ideas based work, because it's
The only way to make the stuff that really matters to me better. But more than just
Hearing it, it re-energized my approach to the work, distilled some of it in my head
and made the procrastination easier to work through too
Not a magic remedy but a clear pathway forward, not confusing, not scary just work
That will help make those ideas of mine sharper, clearer, easier for peeps to
Interact with
Armed with objective insight, the decision to do can be all the more productive, and
low and behold, enjoyable
Who knew???
So, I get ideas
Lots usually
In the past I didn't always recognize their value
In the past I found it hard to follow many of those ideas through
But now I try to honour each of them
Regardless
Where ever possible
Tawdry Heartburns Manic Cures has been for me a lot about honouring ideas
Despite fear, reservation, cost or potential disaster
Just shut up
Put up
And do it...
So I had an application to take the collection of ideas that make up this show to a
national arena that could potentially have spin off internationally
An application to get invited at least, let's not get carried away here
An application to be considered for a performing arts trade market
I put it off and put it off and got 'busy' and distracted and blah blah blah
At almost deadline I went to bed to watch episode after episode of a fave show
I spent almost an entire day procrastinating and worried sick about it
Not enjoying the show
Not enjoying me
Not enjoying time slipping and slipping and f*****g slipping
Finally, I had to stop watching the crap I was pretending to be interested in
And ask myself a simple question.
Actually, there was an observation first
James I said, you are scared and in hiding
Do you want to turn your back on your ideas yet again because you are scared?
Actually, there was another observation and another question
It feels almost painful this hiding and procrastination
You could just turn give in to it and walk away again, the ideas will come again and
You can turn away again
Do you want to do that?
Do you want to be that person James, decide now?
I don't know why but it takes a lot of 'pain' to sometimes overcome fear or at least
Knock sense into myself
I want to be someone who talks about it and does it
Not someone who just talks about it
I decided that again despite the relative fear and pain
I can work with those parts of myself more than I can work
With the acknowledgement that I am someone who chooses not to follow through on
Inspiration however profound or otherwise I might imagine it to be
Around the time that this was all going down I had some very honest feedback about
Tawdry's week long gig at PICA in Perth a few weeks ago.
Some good stuff but also some very clear and straightforward stuff about what hasn't
Worked, about where attention should be paid to move the work forward
Stuff about opportunities missed and preformative moments not delivered well or
Handled to the best effect for the work
I don't find it hard to hear honest appraisals about my ideas based work, because it's
The only way to make the stuff that really matters to me better. But more than just
Hearing it, it re-energized my approach to the work, distilled some of it in my head
and made the procrastination easier to work through too
Not a magic remedy but a clear pathway forward, not confusing, not scary just work
That will help make those ideas of mine sharper, clearer, easier for peeps to
Interact with
Armed with objective insight, the decision to do can be all the more productive, and
low and behold, enjoyable
Who knew???
Monday, August 3, 2009
Golden Bilby Award
At last year's Putting On An Act, the performance manager at Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (PICA), renowned local choreographer Chrissie Parrot instigated an award for the best / most innovative act of the week long contemporary performance season.
Somehow, a bronze of a bilby (a small endangered Australian marsupial) was procured from somewhere and stuck on a small plinth. One was given to the recipient last year, another was engraved as a perpetual trophy and this year, after the show last Saturday night, I was given one too! I was pretty shocked and actually in the middle of doing the nails of a Taiwanese sound artist who is here in Perth on a residency. So ducked around the corner of the PICA library where I had set up my week long interactive instillation doing nails and walked into the PICA bar to get the gong.
Funny, nobody in the rest of the world knows or cares about a tiny homespun thing like this but here in Perth WA, for me it meant a lot. No, I didn't have an Oscar moment although I did manage to forget to thank my support network my tech support Jude and my partner Jamie. Doah. Sorry you guys. But I did get to see that beyond the typed notes, hand-written secrets, and the yelled-out audience confessionals (in the live report on stage) that people got it.
It makes it all worth while when an audient get it. Apologies grammarians because I don't know the singular of audience. It is awesome when loads of people dig your work but even if only one does it still makes a difference. Yes the more the merrier and it would seem that a bunch of people saw the ideas in the Manic Cures Project, and yes it may be in the most isolated city in the world and completely unimportant for everybody else not here, but that's not the point. It's not my point.
My point is that if you show up and put it out there, no matter where you are, no matter what the cost there is always the chance that someone is gonna see it and embrace it. That makes it worth while. Sure, I got a few negative responses, peeps not digging it so much. I grateful for those too. But people were moved to respond; people embraced the concept and the content and responded appropriate to the level of their comfort with the project. Some where moved to reject it others were moved by it. I felt tangible interaction with a wide variety of people over the course of the week and that is a pretty amazing thing to experience I have to say. I am inspired and fascinated by the variety and generosity of responses that this project has received.I feel a debt of gratitude and hope that the manicures I give in some way make recompense to the people who share their confidences (anonymously) with the project.
My thanks to all the Putting On An Act punters who stopped by and to PICA for their support and encouragement too.
See you next gig...
Tawds
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Putting on a show
So I'm installed in the 'library' of the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, PICA all this week 28/7 - 1/8 2009, doing nails for secrets 7-9.30pm until Saturday. It's my gig for this year's Putting On An Act, the contemporary performance week that PICA hosts annually.
For it and out of it, will come a short performance of the secrets that my 'clients' and their friends have donated over the course of the week.
If you have followed this blog you may know that this isn't new in the Manic Cures Project, the performance of the gifted secrets. However, it is an evolutionary process.
For this next performance in addition to reporting on the secrets I received in exchange for nail tech services rendered, I would like to find a way for the audience to have the opportunity to divulge secrets 'en masse'.
But how do you get a bunch of theatre punters to 'get it off their chests' to loosen their lips as a group? Who in their right minds would want to divulge personally charged information amongst a group of strangers doing the same thing simultaneously?
Given that I hate the idea and the practice of enforced audience participation this is a tricky proposition. I'm fine with invited participation... But how do you successfully invite a group of strangers in a dark theatre to scream out their most private, most personal and possibly most gut-wrenchingly embarrassing secrets, AND make them feel empowered and protected while doing it????
I have some ideas about that...
Maybe you will just have to come and see................
Monday, July 27, 2009
Putting On An Act
The night before
Think I have all the prep done
Think I will sleep without waking at thought of things not
yet done
It gets easier though it feels like it doesn't
So I'm doing a week of nails for secrets at the illustrious
PICA in Perth WA July 28 to Aug 1 2009
It will be kewl to see what comes of it; to see the PICA
crowd's preparedness to loosen their lips
I would like to blog more but it's late and there are three
jobs I'm doing tomorrow, the last of which is Tawdry
But it's never a chore, it's a dialogue with surprising directions and interjections
And And And this time I get to do more
This time it's evolved a little and that's exciting
And And And
It's the last gig before heading to Burning Man where Tawdry visits the Nevada and nail beds,
hot beds and restless beds of the Burner's secrets as yet un-Manic Cured...
Kewl Kewl
Can't wait
Night night!
Friday, July 3, 2009
meeting the deadline
It's about the lack of sleep
Not because of all the work but all the procrastination
It's not that easy to do, to sit down and commit your honest ideas to a form knowing
you will submit that form to a panel who will rate that form amongst a whole bunch of
other such forms
You give you ideas in that form to a panel which is made up of people you probably know well or at least know of
And they tell you if you have shown good form, are on form, informed, reformed, form fit
Or if it doesn't go so well formless out of form or poor form
All the more problematic coz you used to be on that panel and even chair it
So you better commit those ideas in a way that looks like you know what you are doing
Oh did I leave out the part where I used to run workshops on how to fill out those forms
Hahaha
Still it's no laughing matter
Well, I mean I'm talking about the stuff that means more to me than just about anything else
The communication of the stuff that really keeps me awake at night
The stuff that takes my eyes off the road and takes my focus from a dull conversation and puts the joyful sinful duration into my showers
My ideas
My being a conduit for fresh thoughts
And the sending those thoughts across time and space to who ever is roughly in front of me
When they pick up my ideas my thoughts
When they toss them around their brains for a bit
Mull them over even for a little
Even if they turf them out quickly
Or think about it then decide no
Or hang on to them
Or run with them
Or laugh or wince or be dumbstruck or just cynical because of them
When that happens
I know I'm alive
So despite all the procrastinated sleep deprivation
It's worth it
Coz if this application bares fruit
I get to build some ideas and send them out
And in so doing when I see hear feel those ideas get received
I know I'm alive
And it's a good feeling that...
Not because of all the work but all the procrastination
It's not that easy to do, to sit down and commit your honest ideas to a form knowing
you will submit that form to a panel who will rate that form amongst a whole bunch of
other such forms
You give you ideas in that form to a panel which is made up of people you probably know well or at least know of
And they tell you if you have shown good form, are on form, informed, reformed, form fit
Or if it doesn't go so well formless out of form or poor form
All the more problematic coz you used to be on that panel and even chair it
So you better commit those ideas in a way that looks like you know what you are doing
Oh did I leave out the part where I used to run workshops on how to fill out those forms
Hahaha
Still it's no laughing matter
Well, I mean I'm talking about the stuff that means more to me than just about anything else
The communication of the stuff that really keeps me awake at night
The stuff that takes my eyes off the road and takes my focus from a dull conversation and puts the joyful sinful duration into my showers
My ideas
My being a conduit for fresh thoughts
And the sending those thoughts across time and space to who ever is roughly in front of me
When they pick up my ideas my thoughts
When they toss them around their brains for a bit
Mull them over even for a little
Even if they turf them out quickly
Or think about it then decide no
Or hang on to them
Or run with them
Or laugh or wince or be dumbstruck or just cynical because of them
When that happens
I know I'm alive
So despite all the procrastinated sleep deprivation
It's worth it
Coz if this application bares fruit
I get to build some ideas and send them out
And in so doing when I see hear feel those ideas get received
I know I'm alive
And it's a good feeling that...
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Cottonmouth.org.au
Didn't get much sleep coz i put everything off till the last minute, so didn't really prep till 11 last night.
Work all day, training course actually that was a little full on.
Bought typewriter ribbons then home to eat and rest.
Get to the Rosie at 7.30 for 8. Kinda empty , kinda scared but at least I can busy myself with setting up; hanging Tawd's poster, putting out the polishes, making sure I find a good pozzie for the table and the secrets jar.
It's a performance poetry, music and writing gig. Tawds is gonna do a secret wrap up at the end after doing a bunch of punters' nails.
Here's my intro:
Hi Cottonmouth
I’m Tawdry Heartburn and I’m a nail technician
I do your nails if you give me a secret (assumed names only)
I'm going for a world unburdened by secrets; a world without
secrets that one set of nails at a time
heartburn is tawdry don’t you think
Then again, Dorothy says ‘Confession is weakness’. She
goes on, ‘The grave soul keeps its own secrets and takes its
punishment in silence.’
Though Ben says, ‘Three can keep a secret if two are dead.’
Of course Sigmund says, ‘He that has eyes to see and
ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can keep
a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his
fingertips; betrayal oozes out of every pore.
Zola says if you shut up the truth it gathers explosive power
and bursts threw blowing up pretty much everything in it’s way
Geewiz google is fun huh?
For me the jury is still out so I pretty
much pick my battles, burden being foremost, and suck it and
see
And my clients tonight and I’ve done a bunch of them???
Lets see what’s keeping them awake shall we?
I took up about 8 secrets to read (all posted on www.aworldofsecrets.com soon!)
Some were funny some sad. Didn't have to be rude or cutting about them. I think underplaying ti worked better and for me is much more respectful.
But it worked and people responded well and I know my structure is right (performatively speaking)
I could do a little get it off your chest dance at the end too, might be silly
I could do a spontaneous 'everybody turn to the person next to you and blurt out a secret!
Probably if I had a bunch of my own that I could rapid fire vomit up each getting progressively worse it might be funny. Specially if I hyped up the crowd before to get all 'walk over hot coals with me' and they leave me high and dry...
Shoulda started with, "What if you could tell your deepest darkest and get away with it, really get away with it. No one would ever ever know it was you? Would you?
With the 'I have no secrets' variations that seem to come in with each gig I think I can respond with lots of silence and then maybe a questioning, this is your big chance to get rid of the shit that's been hanging over your head all your life, keeping you downtrodden with guilt and fear and shame and you... (re-read secret very dead pan)
Hmmm so I was feeling crappy beforehand as usual but had a good night. A big bunch of folks I know showed up and some newbies had some nice things to say. All in all, pretty good.
The MC introduced me as a woman which was kinda fun but I coulda made more of that. Still I know it's kinda obvious but I am gonna pat myself on the back for going through with it. For being open to learn new stuff and see new ways Tawds can grow.
Had a convo with a artist who's nails I did this eve and who has a sibling who is also an artist. Long story, long history but the gist is the sibling isn't winning the making war atm. That is to say fear is winning and no work is being made. I know that story. I know it well. I found the discussion sad but also re-affirming. It's never gonna not be scary, and that's getting more and more ok.
Work all day, training course actually that was a little full on.
Bought typewriter ribbons then home to eat and rest.
Get to the Rosie at 7.30 for 8. Kinda empty , kinda scared but at least I can busy myself with setting up; hanging Tawd's poster, putting out the polishes, making sure I find a good pozzie for the table and the secrets jar.
It's a performance poetry, music and writing gig. Tawds is gonna do a secret wrap up at the end after doing a bunch of punters' nails.
Here's my intro:
Hi Cottonmouth
I’m Tawdry Heartburn and I’m a nail technician
I do your nails if you give me a secret (assumed names only)
I'm going for a world unburdened by secrets; a world without
secrets that one set of nails at a time
heartburn is tawdry don’t you think
Then again, Dorothy says ‘Confession is weakness’. She
goes on, ‘The grave soul keeps its own secrets and takes its
punishment in silence.’
Though Ben says, ‘Three can keep a secret if two are dead.’
Of course Sigmund says, ‘He that has eyes to see and
ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can keep
a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his
fingertips; betrayal oozes out of every pore.
Zola says if you shut up the truth it gathers explosive power
and bursts threw blowing up pretty much everything in it’s way
Geewiz google is fun huh?
For me the jury is still out so I pretty
much pick my battles, burden being foremost, and suck it and
see
And my clients tonight and I’ve done a bunch of them???
Lets see what’s keeping them awake shall we?
I took up about 8 secrets to read (all posted on www.aworldofsecrets.com soon!)
Some were funny some sad. Didn't have to be rude or cutting about them. I think underplaying ti worked better and for me is much more respectful.
But it worked and people responded well and I know my structure is right (performatively speaking)
I could do a little get it off your chest dance at the end too, might be silly
I could do a spontaneous 'everybody turn to the person next to you and blurt out a secret!
Probably if I had a bunch of my own that I could rapid fire vomit up each getting progressively worse it might be funny. Specially if I hyped up the crowd before to get all 'walk over hot coals with me' and they leave me high and dry...
Shoulda started with, "What if you could tell your deepest darkest and get away with it, really get away with it. No one would ever ever know it was you? Would you?
With the 'I have no secrets' variations that seem to come in with each gig I think I can respond with lots of silence and then maybe a questioning, this is your big chance to get rid of the shit that's been hanging over your head all your life, keeping you downtrodden with guilt and fear and shame and you... (re-read secret very dead pan)
Hmmm so I was feeling crappy beforehand as usual but had a good night. A big bunch of folks I know showed up and some newbies had some nice things to say. All in all, pretty good.
The MC introduced me as a woman which was kinda fun but I coulda made more of that. Still I know it's kinda obvious but I am gonna pat myself on the back for going through with it. For being open to learn new stuff and see new ways Tawds can grow.
Had a convo with a artist who's nails I did this eve and who has a sibling who is also an artist. Long story, long history but the gist is the sibling isn't winning the making war atm. That is to say fear is winning and no work is being made. I know that story. I know it well. I found the discussion sad but also re-affirming. It's never gonna not be scary, and that's getting more and more ok.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Time Marches On
A whole month nearly, but if you discount these ramblings, then months have passed. OMG...
initial interest and early momentum have waned and the choice is obvious.
What is going on with the Manic Cures Project?
Where is Tawdry Heartburn now?
Happy to report he is around and though almost dormant, not quite!
In fact, in a few days time he's gonna be out and about doing nails again, getting secrets and doing a live 'secret report' at the end of the night at a Cottonmouth gig.
www.cottonmouth.org.au
Spoken word performance and the like every month at the Rosemount Hotel in North Perth...
How will it go?
How will the new aspect of reporting work?
Suck it and see. That's what Tawdry usually says in these situations.
So, if you are around and you wanna 'Get it off your chest"
Come see Tawds at the Rosie Hotel this Thursday from 8pm
Chookas
TH
initial interest and early momentum have waned and the choice is obvious.
What is going on with the Manic Cures Project?
Where is Tawdry Heartburn now?
Happy to report he is around and though almost dormant, not quite!
In fact, in a few days time he's gonna be out and about doing nails again, getting secrets and doing a live 'secret report' at the end of the night at a Cottonmouth gig.
www.cottonmouth.org.au
Spoken word performance and the like every month at the Rosemount Hotel in North Perth...
How will it go?
How will the new aspect of reporting work?
Suck it and see. That's what Tawdry usually says in these situations.
So, if you are around and you wanna 'Get it off your chest"
Come see Tawds at the Rosie Hotel this Thursday from 8pm
Chookas
TH
Friday, April 24, 2009
Constituional Boredom
It starts with a bit of a head throb, then feeling somehow low, then the voice starts to croak as the eyes and nose get runny, finally the body temp goes outta whack and the next thing I know, I'm down for the count.
When I get sick, with a cold/flu it usually means two to four weeks. Sound alarming as I write this, but having just emerged from the latest bout, it is pretty much what happened. I had a week off work canceled interstate flights and schlepped through work feeling crap for ages. Such a waste of time.
What happens to Tawdry's dreaming and scheming in that fog? It takes a hit too.
I wish I could cut it off at the pass and prevent the huge shutdown of my life's good stuff but I haven't yet found a way. so much for the weight loss, get fit detox thing I had done (two months of it) prior.
Still and all, I'm back and looking forward to getting the secrets project back on track. So onwards and upwards Cottonmouth will be the next gig I think. More of that later.
Not trying to whinge or carp on here, but put the experience (which has been a very common one in my life) down in bytes for the first time. Worst part, as mentioned above the waste of time and resources. Best bit, the up swing of mood, energy and ideas coming out of it.
Glad of that...
When I get sick, with a cold/flu it usually means two to four weeks. Sound alarming as I write this, but having just emerged from the latest bout, it is pretty much what happened. I had a week off work canceled interstate flights and schlepped through work feeling crap for ages. Such a waste of time.
What happens to Tawdry's dreaming and scheming in that fog? It takes a hit too.
I wish I could cut it off at the pass and prevent the huge shutdown of my life's good stuff but I haven't yet found a way. so much for the weight loss, get fit detox thing I had done (two months of it) prior.
Still and all, I'm back and looking forward to getting the secrets project back on track. So onwards and upwards Cottonmouth will be the next gig I think. More of that later.
Not trying to whinge or carp on here, but put the experience (which has been a very common one in my life) down in bytes for the first time. Worst part, as mentioned above the waste of time and resources. Best bit, the up swing of mood, energy and ideas coming out of it.
Glad of that...
Monday, March 30, 2009
In Between Gigs
The photos are not back from the last gig.
I haven't got the public liability insurance yet for the next gigs.
The website isn't where I want it to be developmentally.
SO WHAT...
The idea of the manic cures project is still good enough to get me out of bed in the morning.
That's the kewl,
the rest will follow...
soon enough
TH
I haven't got the public liability insurance yet for the next gigs.
The website isn't where I want it to be developmentally.
SO WHAT...
The idea of the manic cures project is still good enough to get me out of bed in the morning.
That's the kewl,
the rest will follow...
soon enough
TH
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Cenzo's Pic
So, last Tuesday night, 3rd of March 2009 was my last gig at the Blueroom Theatre foyer as part of their 25 Summer Nights festival, and though I am now in Sydney for a week of frivolity and friends for the annual Mardi Gras mayhem, the secrets instillation still adorns the walls of the theatre foyer. (Picture from the season courtesy of Vinn P, ta for that Cenzo!))It's been a rather amazing and large personal experience out of something so inconsequential as do free manicures. Here's what I know.
People love to tell their secrets especially if they think they can 'get away with it'
I have loved that the performance aspect of this project is very intimate and strictly one on one
I love Perth, although I am not a native of that city, because it never fails to provide me with opportunities where I can play and try out stuff
Many grateful thank yous to Janis, Diana, Sally and everyone at Blueroom for giving me the opportunity to have a go
I am finally able to just relax and enjoy the moments of a project such as this and not laden each
experience of it as it develops with some ridiculous ambition or agenda for the project as a whole
By which, i think i am saying that I am finally comfortable with the here and now of The Manic
Cures Project; it will be whatever it will be. I really don't have to worry about that so long as I
simply show up and focus on the bit of it I'm doing right at the time I'm doing it
I owe a debt of gratitude to my friends who just came along and 'showed up', who didn't blow smoke up any ones you know what; they just embraced the ideas, showed faith and gave support in many different ways: Jude C, Jamie L, Shaun S, Nikki J, Zarin D, Deidre N, Zoe W, Danae G, Vinn P, Tracey H, Steve H, Tim B, Monica M, and many others...
Cheers I'm very grateful...
Finally, now that this first gig is done I'm looking forward to organizing some more around Perth and beyond...
Stay tuned and check Tawdry Heartburn's Facebook page for details - the place I really wanna set Tawds up in in public places with regular peeps who are walking by... Who knows what secrets they may have to share...
Who knows if they will dig it or dis it...
Maybe the shoeshine thing will work maybe it will die a quick death...
Only one way to find out he he he
Cya real soon
TAWDS
Friday, February 27, 2009
Lightbulb Moment
So, I was in town on my way to a physio appointment and along the way, I wandered by a Festival of Perth event which was some street theater done by a French street performance group. Well, group, it was two women who sew the clothes of passers by while they are waiting, alterations, additions whatever but the women have their sewing machines on the back of their bicycles.
The cool thing was that when someone wanted something done to their clothes, they had to hop on the bicycle and peddle to provide the power for the machines to work!! It was very interactive, visual and a fun idea that had gathered a big crowd of people in Forest Chase ( downtown Perth CBD). No mean feat in a place that usually is too paranoid to embrace public art in any major way, much less show tacit acceptance or a public display of approval. Don't get me wrong I'm not bitching about this city. I'm an exile here and I love it. But generally the locals don't go gaga in public over anyone except a movie, music or sports star.
What's this got to do with light bulb moments? Well, not long after I left the peddlers and sewers(with a bit of a puzzle). I hadn't seen what happened to somebody on the street who wanted their dress sewed. In as much as, what did they wear while they were generating power on the bike? And, I did see dresses having lace added to them and riders wearing, presumably, not their own dresses. Perhaps the French seamstresses gave each participant a stunt dresses to wear.
Anyway anyway... Back to Tawdry and the light bulb moment. Tawdry as a nail technician, does people's nails in exchange for secrets, however, it's mostly (but not exclusively) women and girls. And if I wanna hit the streets with this little performance/instillation/website thingey after the relative safety of a risk taking fringe theatre audience and interact with the general public, then how do I make it more engaging for men who may also have secrets they want to get off their chest? For in Australia certainly, a lot of men would find it next to impossible to sit down at a table in a public place and have their nails done and then be expected to write or type a secret to give to a virtual stranger. This is even more critical if I want to take the show to country and remote areas of Australia (and maybe other countries eventually)
So, it's summer here, it was hot in the mall (Forest Chase) and I was late for my appointment, but as I left the street performance and made my way through the crowds the idea popped into my head. Shoe Shine... What if I alternated? One time Tawdry would do free nails for secrets and the next time I would do free shoe shines for secrets. Hmmmmm I can see the possibility. Given the ubiquitous nature of trainers, I may have to make it shoe cleaning. But...out in the country, men and particularly older men wear shoes or boots. Old men with secrets to get off their chest!!!
Yes... I think I can work with this idea... Stand by for more. I'll keep you posted.
For now, here are some secrets from last Tuesday's gig 24/02/09 at the Blue Room theatre in James Street Northbridge Perth WA...
Cya soon TH!
The cool thing was that when someone wanted something done to their clothes, they had to hop on the bicycle and peddle to provide the power for the machines to work!! It was very interactive, visual and a fun idea that had gathered a big crowd of people in Forest Chase ( downtown Perth CBD). No mean feat in a place that usually is too paranoid to embrace public art in any major way, much less show tacit acceptance or a public display of approval. Don't get me wrong I'm not bitching about this city. I'm an exile here and I love it. But generally the locals don't go gaga in public over anyone except a movie, music or sports star.
What's this got to do with light bulb moments? Well, not long after I left the peddlers and sewers(with a bit of a puzzle). I hadn't seen what happened to somebody on the street who wanted their dress sewed. In as much as, what did they wear while they were generating power on the bike? And, I did see dresses having lace added to them and riders wearing, presumably, not their own dresses. Perhaps the French seamstresses gave each participant a stunt dresses to wear.
Anyway anyway... Back to Tawdry and the light bulb moment. Tawdry as a nail technician, does people's nails in exchange for secrets, however, it's mostly (but not exclusively) women and girls. And if I wanna hit the streets with this little performance/instillation/website thingey after the relative safety of a risk taking fringe theatre audience and interact with the general public, then how do I make it more engaging for men who may also have secrets they want to get off their chest? For in Australia certainly, a lot of men would find it next to impossible to sit down at a table in a public place and have their nails done and then be expected to write or type a secret to give to a virtual stranger. This is even more critical if I want to take the show to country and remote areas of Australia (and maybe other countries eventually)
So, it's summer here, it was hot in the mall (Forest Chase) and I was late for my appointment, but as I left the street performance and made my way through the crowds the idea popped into my head. Shoe Shine... What if I alternated? One time Tawdry would do free nails for secrets and the next time I would do free shoe shines for secrets. Hmmmmm I can see the possibility. Given the ubiquitous nature of trainers, I may have to make it shoe cleaning. But...out in the country, men and particularly older men wear shoes or boots. Old men with secrets to get off their chest!!!
Yes... I think I can work with this idea... Stand by for more. I'll keep you posted.
For now, here are some secrets from last Tuesday's gig 24/02/09 at the Blue Room theatre in James Street Northbridge Perth WA...
Cya soon TH!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
ON AIR
Here's the interview I did with the wonderful DANAE GIBSON on Morning Magazine courtesy of Perth's RTR FM last Friday...
Self explanatory i reckon
Cheers,
Up Late
Wednesday 1am 25th/02/09
sat at the nail table in the Parlour of the Blue Room Theatre in Northbridge WA and did people's nails from 7pm until 11.40 pm.
The diet coke and the anti exhaustion eye balm didn't work so well...
But, again I learned if you show up and do the work, surprise surprise, progress and perhaps even change happens. Nothing is immovable, who knew???
How have I managed to not metabolise this simple fact for sooo long.
I have ideas but now I commit to them and even when I'm tired or not up for it so much
Because I show up and because I stay in that place even for a small while
I get results...
Penultimate 'show' for Tawds this evening at the Blue Room in little old Northbridge WA and yet again I was busy all night doing nails and having the best chat's with peeps and came away with more than 40 secrets (loose definition there) point is, it will happen, and because it happens it inspires me I have a great night and along the way more ideas pop up and furthermore, I have a clearer idea of 'where to next'
Yeah , I worked two gigs of 15 hours with just over an hour off, whose complaining?
I got to prove my existence
I got to talk with people about stuff, not random, not all flippant, much of the talk was a kind of mutual delving and quite revealing but entertaining and re-affirming.
WHAT WERE PEOPLE UN-BURDENING TONIGHT?
I still am jealous of them
It'll be 7 months since they got together
when i was young my bike got a flat tire and instead of pushing it all the way home i threw it in the bush and told my mum it got stolen
i got a new bike and the next day that got stolen
i'm afraid my life will come to nothing, what a waste
My brother used to beat me up at the bus-stop
the girl of my dreams doesn't dream of me
I'm not really ALLERGIC
I just DONT like SEAFOOD
and more besides these...
Check the website www.aworldofsecrets.com for the full archive of all the secrets collected from the 25 Summer Nights Festival
There is much more to write about this silly little project that is creating it's own life and direction but at this point I gtg get some rest. One more post and I'm done...
PS Silver is the new black on boys' nails LOL
Keep it to yourself though, it's a secret
sat at the nail table in the Parlour of the Blue Room Theatre in Northbridge WA and did people's nails from 7pm until 11.40 pm.
The diet coke and the anti exhaustion eye balm didn't work so well...
But, again I learned if you show up and do the work, surprise surprise, progress and perhaps even change happens. Nothing is immovable, who knew???
How have I managed to not metabolise this simple fact for sooo long.
I have ideas but now I commit to them and even when I'm tired or not up for it so much
Because I show up and because I stay in that place even for a small while
I get results...
Penultimate 'show' for Tawds this evening at the Blue Room in little old Northbridge WA and yet again I was busy all night doing nails and having the best chat's with peeps and came away with more than 40 secrets (loose definition there) point is, it will happen, and because it happens it inspires me I have a great night and along the way more ideas pop up and furthermore, I have a clearer idea of 'where to next'
Yeah , I worked two gigs of 15 hours with just over an hour off, whose complaining?
I got to prove my existence
I got to talk with people about stuff, not random, not all flippant, much of the talk was a kind of mutual delving and quite revealing but entertaining and re-affirming.
WHAT WERE PEOPLE UN-BURDENING TONIGHT?
I still am jealous of them
It'll be 7 months since they got together
when i was young my bike got a flat tire and instead of pushing it all the way home i threw it in the bush and told my mum it got stolen
i got a new bike and the next day that got stolen
i'm afraid my life will come to nothing, what a waste
My brother used to beat me up at the bus-stop
the girl of my dreams doesn't dream of me
I'm not really ALLERGIC
I just DONT like SEAFOOD
and more besides these...
Check the website www.aworldofsecrets.com for the full archive of all the secrets collected from the 25 Summer Nights Festival
There is much more to write about this silly little project that is creating it's own life and direction but at this point I gtg get some rest. One more post and I'm done...
PS Silver is the new black on boys' nails LOL
Keep it to yourself though, it's a secret
Monday, February 9, 2009
The Haul From The Crab Pots
I'm loving the learning that comes by way of a project that evolves along the way
I'm having fun seeing what it offers up and throws back
Sometimes it feels like I have to go and 'check the crab pots'
Have been allowed to leave a secret box at the theatre for the duration of the season and people have been adding to it on other nights when Tawdry isn't in the Parlour
No. I'm not Frank Warren and yes, his ideas and work with the whole Post Secret thing is mind blowing and humbling and gorgeous
But I was inspired by one of the secrets in his book published in 2007 where the writes of the post card basically said they used to write secrets for post secret but not send them whereas now they tell their secrets to friends and family
Kewl... I wanted to do a user friendly performance that could allow but not require the opportunity for people to tell their secrets.
Additionally, I have been doing manicures in performance since 1995 and it seemed like a kewl way to bring these things together...
So, here's a little of what has come up so far, and they are already up and on display at the theatre and soon to be on www.aworldofsecrets.com though they will be better presented on the there...
: - ) TH
I'm having fun seeing what it offers up and throws back
Sometimes it feels like I have to go and 'check the crab pots'
Have been allowed to leave a secret box at the theatre for the duration of the season and people have been adding to it on other nights when Tawdry isn't in the Parlour
No. I'm not Frank Warren and yes, his ideas and work with the whole Post Secret thing is mind blowing and humbling and gorgeous
But I was inspired by one of the secrets in his book published in 2007 where the writes of the post card basically said they used to write secrets for post secret but not send them whereas now they tell their secrets to friends and family
Kewl... I wanted to do a user friendly performance that could allow but not require the opportunity for people to tell their secrets.
Additionally, I have been doing manicures in performance since 1995 and it seemed like a kewl way to bring these things together...
So, here's a little of what has come up so far, and they are already up and on display at the theatre and soon to be on www.aworldofsecrets.com though they will be better presented on the there...
: - ) TH
After 13yrs as a performer I'm too scared to ever perform again.
*
I'm scared I won't make a difference
*
I have NO idea what anybody thinks of me. This scares the shit out of me!
*
I was once a stayer...
Now I'm the minute man...
I fear this could be forever.
*
I jerk off at least four times per day at work just to cope with the stress
*
I hate my job and I am not a people person!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*
Prostitution paid for my HECS fees
Thanks boys!
*
I text and drive and hate the thought of other drivers doing that
*
when i was 8 i stole a watch from a boy in my class
the next day after everyone had looked everywhere
i was rewarded for having found the watch
this i have never told till now
*
I love leather even though I look like the cow that lost it in the first place
*
if my father-in-law asked me to f..k him
I would in a heartbeat
*
Is it bad I think all the secrets are about me!!!
*
Thanks perth for having the guts to have a go at getting it off your chest!! TH> xoxox
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Mum, Check The Paper Page Fifteen
Do we ever stop seeking approval, really?
It's a group shot about the entire 25 Summer Nights Festival in the state rag and frankly it could have been better
It does however serve to spur me on because if I'm gonna really do this thing then I have to show up and really do this thing
Not sure really where the Manic Cures Project is going but I have to say that I am enjoying doing this project differently than others I have done in the past
It wasn't produced as a finished entitiy and as such it is roughly some type of dialogue regarding the evolution of ideas and reaction to changing circumstances.
There were traffic flow problems last night in the Parlour space.
The audience who knew what to look for where fine but the passers by were kinda bemused
Not everyone could get their heads around the concept
Almost no one read the fine print but that's kewl coz it's early days...
Still and all (love that phrasal conjunction) stuff is being done
photoshoot on the way
website upgrade on the way
re jig of the space at Blueroom, done
other gigs, in discussion
kewl
Friday, January 30, 2009
And She Said Coz It Feels Good
I bumped in
I did the press photo
We all sweated in the uncommonly humid Perth 4.30 styled afternoon
Lucky I had a hand fan coz it was more than moist
Lucky I wasn't in drag coz it all would have been in my lap within half an hour
In a small theatre complex inhabited by independent theatre practitioners and arts workers in the world's most isolated large(ish) city, a twenty five night festival got under way.
Dedicated following, and a good feeling.
And Tawdry Heartburn in the Parlour??
What your to be the old bar of the theatre is now a kind of inner foyer to the main theatre space and characterised by the famous and much loved mural that adorns pretty much all most of the wall space. Round cafe tables. A collection of old lamps. Comfortable couches and red velvet chairs. Theatre flats painted white or black becoming progressively more covered with the secrets I pull out of the secret jar and add to the walls. All the secrets from this five tuesdays of Tawdry Heartburn's Manic Cures well get onto the secret archive on www.aworldofsecrets.com
I was nervous but hey we are talking about a skill I have been using since I did a truely-ruley nail technician's course in the mid-nineties. (Long story but, seemed like a good part-time job to train for at that time, so I could support myself as a freelance art-wanker type)
So now, the 'show' is up and running, all the random experiences over 14 years and more specifically the last 3 months of work have come to some kind of constructed but not fully intended piece
I am resisting the urge to control it too much, what I wish for is that it takes me on a journey rather than the other way round
In case you missed it, the concept is pretty simple.
DO SOMETHING FOR SOMEONE IN EXCHANGE FOR A SECRET AND PROVIDE A METHOD FOR THAT SECRET TO BE GIVEN ANONYMOUSLY
Why Tawdry Heartburn?
Because heart burn is tawdry
Vision: a world without secrets
Mission: un-burden the world of its secrets, one set of nails at a time
So I did about twenty people and got perhaps a few more secrets than that - some just wanted to add a secret, others, wanted to add two
there were some cool insights and some funny moments
i loved that people got it and seemed to dig it
i love that feeling more than anything as far as i know
anyways one of the 'clients' was a performer I have admired the times I've seen her work but, i had never me her
she was very cool and i loved how different she was compared to any of her onstage personae
she does stand up very very well amongst other things and im fascinated by the concept of it but have no desire to walk onstage with that kinda pressure -be funny or else- on me
so i wanted to know why she would subject herself to that kind of cauldron of potential scorn
she was so elegant in her answer
'coz it feels good'
i had to agree...
it's been so worth it , even to get to this point and now im looking forward to seeing how this TH gig plays out...
stay tuned and see you soon
for now i gotta sleep
chookas TH
I did the press photo
We all sweated in the uncommonly humid Perth 4.30 styled afternoon
Lucky I had a hand fan coz it was more than moist
Lucky I wasn't in drag coz it all would have been in my lap within half an hour
In a small theatre complex inhabited by independent theatre practitioners and arts workers in the world's most isolated large(ish) city, a twenty five night festival got under way.
Dedicated following, and a good feeling.
And Tawdry Heartburn in the Parlour??
What your to be the old bar of the theatre is now a kind of inner foyer to the main theatre space and characterised by the famous and much loved mural that adorns pretty much all most of the wall space. Round cafe tables. A collection of old lamps. Comfortable couches and red velvet chairs. Theatre flats painted white or black becoming progressively more covered with the secrets I pull out of the secret jar and add to the walls. All the secrets from this five tuesdays of Tawdry Heartburn's Manic Cures well get onto the secret archive on www.aworldofsecrets.com
I was nervous but hey we are talking about a skill I have been using since I did a truely-ruley nail technician's course in the mid-nineties. (Long story but, seemed like a good part-time job to train for at that time, so I could support myself as a freelance art-wanker type)
So now, the 'show' is up and running, all the random experiences over 14 years and more specifically the last 3 months of work have come to some kind of constructed but not fully intended piece
I am resisting the urge to control it too much, what I wish for is that it takes me on a journey rather than the other way round
In case you missed it, the concept is pretty simple.
DO SOMETHING FOR SOMEONE IN EXCHANGE FOR A SECRET AND PROVIDE A METHOD FOR THAT SECRET TO BE GIVEN ANONYMOUSLY
Why Tawdry Heartburn?
Because heart burn is tawdry
Vision: a world without secrets
Mission: un-burden the world of its secrets, one set of nails at a time
So I did about twenty people and got perhaps a few more secrets than that - some just wanted to add a secret, others, wanted to add two
there were some cool insights and some funny moments
i loved that people got it and seemed to dig it
i love that feeling more than anything as far as i know
anyways one of the 'clients' was a performer I have admired the times I've seen her work but, i had never me her
she was very cool and i loved how different she was compared to any of her onstage personae
she does stand up very very well amongst other things and im fascinated by the concept of it but have no desire to walk onstage with that kinda pressure -be funny or else- on me
so i wanted to know why she would subject herself to that kind of cauldron of potential scorn
she was so elegant in her answer
'coz it feels good'
i had to agree...
it's been so worth it , even to get to this point and now im looking forward to seeing how this TH gig plays out...
stay tuned and see you soon
for now i gotta sleep
chookas TH
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Night Before
It's nearly midnight.
Most of the prep is done for the first preview tomorrow night in little old Perth Western Australia.
I'm struggling with the home page content but it will get done. Trying hard not to repeat myself while another part of me is just wanting to stay focused and on message.
And now the more I think about it, the more what I want to write about is drying up. Think I'm at the point where I have to trust the ideas that were part of the original concept and even more so the experiences that perhaps brought about the concept in the first place.
What's the concept?
Easy.
Do something for someone in exchange for a secret they have never revealed and find a way to make the documentation of that secret completely anonymous.
Why?
Because heart burn is a tawdry...
And it's amazing how it feels to have actually 'said' something unsaid for the first time...
Oh, and by the way, HAPPY NEW YEAR all you oxen...
Ciao,
Tawdry
Most of the prep is done for the first preview tomorrow night in little old Perth Western Australia.
I'm struggling with the home page content but it will get done. Trying hard not to repeat myself while another part of me is just wanting to stay focused and on message.
And now the more I think about it, the more what I want to write about is drying up. Think I'm at the point where I have to trust the ideas that were part of the original concept and even more so the experiences that perhaps brought about the concept in the first place.
What's the concept?
Easy.
Do something for someone in exchange for a secret they have never revealed and find a way to make the documentation of that secret completely anonymous.
Why?
Because heart burn is a tawdry...
And it's amazing how it feels to have actually 'said' something unsaid for the first time...
Oh, and by the way, HAPPY NEW YEAR all you oxen...
Ciao,
Tawdry
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