Vanagallery

Running With The Night is a monthly event. Most recently, we held one Feb 21, 2010 in the Vanagallery, parked outside my studio on 3rd Street in Riverside, CA. See photos below to get an idea of the intimate epic-ness of our gathering.

MCed by Lee Tusman

Husni Abu Bakar

Ann Mazzocca

Karen Wilson telling a story

Aaron Freeman playing Doom 2012 (accompanied by Ryan Beal)

Electronic Wizardry by DEMONSLAYER


Yes, we had cupcakes. Expertly baked vegan and chocolate stout cupcakes by Talene Salmaszadeh.

Just received this official-looking proposal for a Mobile Skate Park and Art Show from Jeff Ribaudo. Ribaudo experiments with works on paper, especially collage and printmaking. Many of his prints fall between abstracted graphic elements and minimalist collage. He also does traditional and new media printmaking. In 2008, his work was shown in Riverside Art Museum’s project space galleries. He has an amazing series of minimalist skateboarder prints. Take a look at this awesome proposal.

Surprise (shh) performance in front of the Art LA Contemporary Fair Saturday at 1PM. FORT Vanagallery. Foot Sunshine (noise). A Roche (folknik). MC White Jewish Girl (bad rap karaoke), and maybe Producer Snafu (hard) and anyone else off the street. + live drums of destruction. In conjunction with jewish noise.

Buy the way, do you follow Vanagallery on Facebook? You should, or you’re missing out on fast announcements and cool articles like this.

Announcing a New monthly small show of rolling, raucous music:
RUNNING WITH THE NIGHT

New music (xprmntl, noise, drone, doom, abstract acoustic, 21st century classical, minimalism, etc)
REVOLVING VENUES (warehouses, speakeasies, VANAGALLERY, etc)
1st concert held @ the Adventist Speakeasy

(Look for Vanagallery parked outside; otherwise, you may not find the secret entrance)

TUE JAN 12
DOOR OPENS 6:45PM
STARTS AT 7PM SHARP (DOOR LATCHED FIRMLY)
Round-robin; each musician plays heavy 5 – 10 minutes
FINISHES BY 8PM
NO $ / Beverages OK

“Running With the Night” is a new program of new music meeting at various places with various people performing solo in many different styles, currently based in the Inland Southern California area (plans include shows in LA and other areas starting summer 2010). Concerts are small intimate and quick affairs. Arrive by 7pm to hear the show. Round-robin style: There is no pre-arranged lineup. Get there by 7pm or risk being left out in the cold. Each month we’ll have new music and new musicians. Get in contact for more info or to play a future show.”

In random order:
WEAK STREAM Joe Hill (ex-Spiderworks, ex-Alien Ant Farm)/stole_life (ex-Spiderworks) – LAPTOP/GUITAR
SERGIO CAMARENA (Mothers of Gut) – UNKNOWN???
FAKE SUNSHINE (fuck sunshine) – NOISE/GLITCH
AARON ROCHE – 21ST CENTURY ACOUSTIC
STEVEN LED – ELECTRONIC MINIMALISM

Quick note: Artist Jeff Ribaudo is now the Curator of “J and J Test Only Center,” a smog/repair shop here in Riverside, Southern California. Maybe house exhibits will become yesterday’s news and gas station galleries will become all the rage? Ribaudo has previously participated in Vanagallery’s Painting and Pizza Delivery nights and had a solo show that I curated at RAM last year. More info and photos here. I’m looking forward to seeing what future exhibits will be there. Definitely envision a collabo Vanagallery x J and J Smog Shop event down the line…

Are you down with Kickstarter.com? It’s my new favorite website. It lets artists, writers, performers, filmakers, and other creative people post their project online. The public can view these pages, learn about the project, and decide to pledge money to support it. If the total amount of money needed is not reached by the deadline, the pledges are rescinded and the project doesn’t happen. But if enough people feel it-really dig it-then the project is funded. Pledges allow you to help fund the project and get a cool gift in return.

My project is JANKY. JANKY is a mega-publication. It’s a package of cool stuff like glossy magazine, rough photocopied zines, handprinted photos, a SoundZine of experimental music tracks recorded over the telephone and more. A lot more. Check out my page on kickstarter, watch the video, and hopefully you’ll choose to support the project financially with a pledge. And help me spread the word. I need to get $2500 in pledges by February 13th, 2010 to make this a reality. Once funded, JANKY will be released publicly at pop-up Zine Fest/Release Parties in my Vanagallery on the West Coast and in funky art spaces on the East Coast too, and maybe other places too!

On a freezing cold night in the desert, an intimate group gathered to talk ART WORK. Seriously, this was really powerful. We had a deep group discussion about sustaining ourselves, finding and creating alternative spaces, generating income through collective action with inCUBATE-type practices, a history of “free box”-type projects in Riverside, straight talk about the problems in valuing one’s artwork/experience/time when bartering, and how to enact a cultural shift toward supporting artists. We even had a great debate about Randall Szott’s critique of artists as cultural WORKERS. And I can’t forget to mention our enlightening conversation about the homemade money art of JSG Boggs, the power of George Macunis in buying up property in soho, and a fine discussion of artists that don’t make “art.” Thanks to everyone who came out. And I’m looking forward toward more discussion in the future.

More photos can be found here.