G O D C L U B

Now that it's cold, it's weed hat season again.

This past Sunday, a few of us attended Guillermo Gomez-Pena’s “Mapa Corpo: Interactive Rituals for the New Millenium” at the DIA. The performance was a collaboration between Gomez-Pena and a few other performance based artists, one of which being Violeta Luna. Taking place in the DIA’s Rivera Court, Colonial and Neo-Colonial representations of ethnic and gendered Others were displayed on four screens while three stages displayed the physical performances of Gomez-Pena and his collaborators. The three stages were dedicated to demanding the consumption of imagery based on fetishized, ethnic Others while at the same time flipping these images onto their heads by making the audience witness the ways in which western colonialism—specifically U.S. cultural/political/physical-geographical imperialism constructs notions of the Other. At the same time, these performances based themselves on the ways that gender and sexuality (sexuality in the sexualized-bodies/owning one’s own sexual autonomy sense--not homo/hetero expected trash here; something more theoretical, structural) are intertwined within both the construction of the Other and the lived experiences these constructions create.

Tonight, and every Sunday at the Detroit Eagle (1501 Holden at Trumbull, Detroit, MI 48208), DISCO / SECRET presents a fabulous mixture of all things elegant enough to make you yearn for the glorious-yet-gone good old days of Italian discotheques and Eurotrash danceterias, even if you're too young to have experienced them.

Couple-dollar cocktails, a multi-level bar/nightclub jam-packed with homoerotic ephemera (picture a masculine, rustic queer Applebee's on ketamine with a poppers bottle in hand), a jumbled mix of pre-digital electronic gems and noveau anthems, a steady cast of attractive resident deejays, a Bose soundsystem (who would've thought? Oh, Detroit and your hidden marvels...), and more, topped with free entry.

Need I say more? Oh, okay.



[Thanks, Mr. Justin Ruppel, aka vipfake on youtube, for sharing.]

Links:

DISCO / SECRET (secret mixes to download and a flyer gallery)
DISCO / SECRET's myspace (much more)

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As an aside: Please login to myspace and send a literary turd to good old Tom, regarding the recent unfounded and abrupt removal of DISCO / SECRET's original myspace account, for simply uploading a tasteful butt shot.

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And another: That video really makes me miss GOD CLUB's good friend, Sam Consiglio. Here's a full perfomance video of this troupe, PERFECT WEINERS AND BUTTS.

STEVIE has been perplexing midwestern audiences for going on five years with his weirdo-audio-visual-electronic-punk-barrage stageshow, which consists of self-centric, erotically charged, improvised video projections, live singing and beat manipulation, thrashing, and clothes taking off, along with many more constantly changing elements. He's released tracks on two cult label comps, a fistful of promos, and most predominantly, in uncharted novel arenas, such as one-time-only releases crafted for specific gallery shows and internet spamming. Today, for your pleasure, we'd like to offer you a demo, entitled "LETDOWN."

I THOUGHT I'D take the opportunity to formally start off this open-ended editorial which we'd like to call the GOD CLUB DAILY REPORT. My name's David Blunk, II. I'm a twentysomething, gangly, odd-haired, unabashed electronic punk multimedia artist living in Detroit, USA. My co-conspirators and I, collectively known as GOD CLUB, after more than a year of planning and production, have decided to start presenting you with items, artists, ideas, sounds, videos, etc. that we find relevant for quite a few reasons. Here's a list of the most important ones:

• (SUB) CULTURAL VALUE: We tend to dig deep to find the degenerate, hyper-productive, scarily in-your-face fringe of renegade creative output, and want nothing more than to help those that create said output gain a wider exposure and access to critique and discussion.
• WAYWARD IDEOLOGICAL/POLITICAL/APOLITICAL STANCE: We passionately desire to highlight and exhibit, along with the output of, the stories behind individuals we encounter who are doing, living, breathing, and ACTING OUT outside of normativity.
• TACT & HUMOR: Much like ourselves, we wish to give you access to others who make quite a serious and valid statement with what they do all while maintaining a thought-out balance of earnestness, lowbrow/bathroom humor, well-kept, classy tact (heretofore referred to as CLACT), and openness.

WE AIM TO expose you to something new (or at least new to you) at the very least, daily. We have an intital loose deadline of one of our contributors posting to the REPORT by each day's evening. Keep in mind, we are virgins to "web-logging (heretofore referred to as blogging)," and this loose deadline could, in fact, be highly conceptual. This should have no reflection on our true, ever present desire, need even, to keep this REPORT relevant, even avante.

WE'LL ACCOMPLISH THIS in a multitude of ways (we have a lot of tricks up our glittery, flouncy, well-tailored sleeves...). We'll be highlighting individuals, labels, collectives, movements, darlings and dandies. We'll be interviewing movers and shakers, rabble-rousers, juvenile delinquents, slutty debutantes, writers, accordionists, and the occasional pet cat. We'll be uploading radio shows, songs, and deejay mixes by ourselves, our friends, and our idols. We'll be pointing you to videos, other blogs, interactive art, and galleries that provoke, entertain, chide, disdain, and illuminate. And, finally, we'll be showcasing our own individual projects, events, happenings, accolades, and epiphanies when they...well, happen.

ALL OF THIS, to initiate and introduce you to one of our main slogans, FOR YOUR PLEASURE. As your moderator, please consider this: If you're so inclined, always feel free to send your thoughts and comments to me via commenting on an individual post, clicking my name in the "CONTRIBUTORS" sidebar and shooting off an email, or prodding me for a personal postal address. This is an ever-standing offer. I, and we, are here for YOU. If you'd like to know more about the theology and reasons behind what we're doing beside those that I've outlined here, please follow the link in the sidebar to godclub.org.

I look forward to what's to come.

With love,

David S. Blunk, II

INFORMATION FROM THE RUSSELL INDUSTRIAL CENTER PEOPLE'S ART FESTIVAL VIA VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION: