iPhone and iPad Player
Roll Call: Bay Area Arts and Culture
PLAYLIST
ENRIQUE, 1989–1999
From “Above And Beyond The Valley Of The Ultra-Showgirls”
(You Got) That Certain Something
Thunderpussy
Medicine
Arms & Legs
From “Cut The Cheese”
Mechanical Bull
Brad (The Red Hot Lover)
Supermarket Samba
Total Eclipse Out Of Hell
Orange Juice
Do It In The Dirt
About ENRIQUE band and musical productions (artist Jason Mecier’s is one of the brain child's behind this project) Born out of a go-go dancing duo in San Francisco, with the same name, Enrique, the 70’s inspired post-punk art-rock band played their first gig opening for the Average White Band’s reunion tour. Enrique went on to play in SF and across the country, always featuring their signature dance moves, game show inspired prize give-a-ways and large scale production numbers, including a chorus of dancing amazons, space battles and more than enough pelvic thrusts to keep the crowds coming back for more. The group performed a mix of cover songs, including “Hot Child in the City”, “Hell is for Children”, the theme from “The Rose” and even “A Little Bit Country/A Little Bit Rock-N-Roll” from the Donny and Marie Show; as well as originals like “Hair Pie”, “Calgon Take Me Away” and their college radio hit, “I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up”. There is no one story as to why exactly Enrique broke up, but Yoko Ono has often been blamed. To this day, legend has it, that on a full moon you can often see the many past member of the legendary group, now spread around the globe, feasting on Hostess snack cakes and frantically gyrating their hips to the distant rhythm of that one person left on Earth still using Suzanne Somer’s Thigh Master. *Some of the member’s of Enrique went on to be the Whoa Nellies (www.whoanellies.com).
INTERVIEW
Dj Margaret is joined by long-time San Francisco residents, artist and director ADAM JAY ANSELL and artist JASON MECIER on their practice, collaborations, and Adam’s current production RAT CREEK which premieres Wednesday January 11 through Sunday January 15 in San Francisco’s at the Exit Theatre.
In the twenty years that visual artist ADAM JAY ANSELL has been a theater director, he has developed a unique ability to coax original plays from any group of people, from preschoolers to transgender seniors in recovery. Adam’s poetic, painterly experimental performances that resemble plays, draw on his varied artistic background which includes theater, installation, writing, fashion, music, and painting. His passion and long-term vision is to continue to meld disadvantaged communities that have previously been ignored in the arts with the arts community, taking community theater and creating fine art. Adam also makes daring paintings that take the viewer into a bizarre and bold-colored world that may be identifiable. Adam’s edgy high fashion paintings are filled with contradictions: rugged and delicate, improvisational and meditational, spontaneous and labored, passionate and empty.
About RAT CREEK
A broken tale that trickles under the plastic welcome mats of a mobile home community. Listen as ordinary rigmarole scutters through the rank layers of muck, liquor, hairspray, and other chemicals. The riffraff skips awkwardly upstream, mumbling secrets, as the sewer of time randomly plops everyone into place. At Rat Creek, a reluctant janitor reads the trash. Stumbling down the alley, a used-car salesman passes a night nurse selling pills to a drunken brute. The bartender is barren. She wretchedly hunts for a baby, while a pageant daughter dreams of being Miss America. On the bank, a neighbor lady dumps her garbage. They’re all obliviously making an ideal playground for the rats. With its compelling cast and stylish production, Rat Creek crudely charts out an underground world. The script was generated by the ensemble using round-robin exquisite corpse language exercises, and then methodically collaged together by the director into a sense that was there all along. This new language challenges conventional ideas of authorship and narrative. Speculative fiction or political science? Ratman will tap into the network and get back to you on that.
Visual artist JASON MECIER, who gives new meaning to celebrity junk has spent over the last decade creating outrageous 3-D mosaic portraits from the celebrity trash of his favorite pop culture icons. Each portrait is created from objects such as make-up, candy, pills, food, condoms, and discarded junk donated from the drawers of the stars themselves! Celebrities include: Phyllis Diller, Elvira, Rosie O’Donnell, Farrah Fawcett, Pink, Mary-Louise Parker, Amy Sedaris, George Lopez, Parker Posey, Ricki Lake, RuPaul, Margaret Cho, Florence Henderson, Scissor Sisters, the Go-Go’s, Morgan Fairchild, Kathy Najimy, Barbi Benton, Tura Satana, Susan Tyrrell, Stepfanie Kramer, Joan Van Ark, Heidi Fleiss, and Paris Hilton! Jason’s artwork is featured in the new Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Book; Prepare to be Shocked!, and Taschen’s Illustration Now Portraits! Other clients include Wrigley’s, Ford, Quaker, Albertsons, The Food Network, Neiman Marcus, Aveeno, Corona, MTV, W Hotel, Rolling Stone, Showtime, Entertainment Weekly, People, Harpers, Seventeen, Nickelodeon, Cosmo Girl, Details, Soap Opera Weekly, The Advocate, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Jason hopes to one day trade art with Marilyn Manson, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Jane Seymore, and Yoko Ono. In 2008 a short film was produced by director Sari Staver titled Celebrity Trash: The Art of Jason Mecier. Jason’s work had been shown internationally.
For more on the artists Adam Jay Ansell and Jason Mecier visit:
www.adamjansell.com
www.jasonmecier.com
www.youtube.com/user/JasonMecier
Check out staircase masterpiece by Jason Mecier featured in “Ripley’s Believe It… Or Not!” 185,252 pencils, pens, markers (see photos and FAQ at Granny’s Empire of Art website jainabee.com) Granny’s Grannyboot is located somewhere between San Francisco’s Potrero Hill and your fanciest imaginations. Explore the many marvelous nooks and crannies, designed and assembled by her enchanted Grandchildren.
