Robert Carrithers

Berlin Cabaret 2011

From Prague to Berlin... Monika Pokorna has been a performer since she was 17 in Prague and is now known as Monique La Fleur in Berlin and is in the Berlin cabaret show Modern Cabaret Noir Soriee. The emcee and singer Count Koroptieff takes us into into another world with his singing and monologue and Monika... I mean Monique takes us into other dimensions. Berlin infamous Steve Morell DJs throughout the show and Berlin once again is recreated into the cabaret of the twenties into the new century. Look at these photos and it speaks for itself.... I could not or would not want to do anything with photoshop with this. It is too good for me. You tell me: [email protected]  It is all in the hands.... New Cabaret is alive and well in Berlin!

New York Portraits 2010: M. Henry Jones, The Mad Art Scientist of the East Village

M. Henry Jones has been the resident mad art scientist of the East Village in New York City for over three decades now. He goes into his laboratory called SnakeMonkey Studios and creates and gives new life to his creations with the help of his fellow snake monkey mad art scientists. He scientifically and artistically creates amazing 3D image artwork, animation, innovative TV commercials, short films, web animation and a host of experimental 3D work. Henry lives out the dreams of a twelve year old. He is the founder and director of SnakeMonkey Studios located in the East Village of New York City. Henry has been working with 3D since the 1970s way before it became popular. They also sell limited edition art work and handmade T-shirts out of the studio. They do sculpture with 3D photography that he calls fly eye photography. It is a combination studio and friendly store-front shop on Avenue A, NYC. 

Henry grew up in a little town north of Buffalo New York. He got involved in making experimental puppet films and from that point on he was making animation in an extremely obsessive way. Henry has exhibited at international museums and many galleries. He loves film to an extreme extreme. Henry thinks of film as a moving painting. He likes to capture moments and freeze them like in a dream. Henry was heavily influenced by underground filmmaker Harry Smith who later became his mentor. Henry made films with bands starting all the way back in 1979. He worked with the New York band The Fleshtones and made the ground-breaking film called Soul City. This inspired many bands to start making music videos way before the existence of MTV. Henry and his team have been creating various freak characters that they put in animated films, photos and t-shirts. Sometimes it is a family affair where Henry's son gets involved with creating some of these freak characters and Henry's wife Rachel Amodeo who also contributes fairy creatures with her art work. Henry's does unique work with what is called a Stroboscopic Zolo. He creates or uses figures that are animated with strobe lights firing on them. The strobe freezes the moments. He made a series of 3D manifestations of artist Kyle Jenkin's Killer Baby painting and continues this work with his or other artists creations.  

I went into his shop last October to look around. Henry was working on one of his experiments, but stopped when he saw me. He looked at me with a strange look and I found myself in some kind of time warp. I left his studio two days after. I discovered that I had bought a 3D Killer Baby, a 3D Woman Alien and lots of T-shirts. Henry talks to one and all who visit his shop studio... except if he is involved in one of his mad art scientist experiments, but be careful when he has that mad gleam in his eyes, you might become one of his experiments. Visit his shop for the experience in New York City at 202 Avenue A. Please click on the highlighted words above for further information.

A Prague Ghost Story with the help of Einsturzende Neubauten: The Drumming Ritual

Alexander Hacke and Andrew Chudy played drums on stage at the Meet factory in Prague on the night of April 1rst, 2011. It was the night of the 31rst Einsturzende Neubauten anniversary party. They then asked audience members to join them and start playing drums on stage and also on the drums and metal objects set up in front of the stage. The people eagerly started drumming. The drumming went on for quite awhile. It reached a frenzied peak. Things started to distort and go blurry. Time slowed down and images were repeating themselves. A cold chill descended throughout the room and a door to the spirit dimension opened up. Spirits and assorted ghosts started to enter the room and upon hearing the drumming started to dance.

 

A Prague Ghost Story with the help of Einsturzende Neubauten: Jochen Arbeit

 

The drumming started to subside and Jochen Arbeit came on stage and played a magical set of electronic music and guitar. Normally the ghosts and spirits would have gone on their way by this time, but the music was so powerful and enchanting that it even caught the attention of the likes of them. They stayed and swayed to the music like spirits and ghosts always do with music that they enjoy.

A Prague Ghost Story with the help of Einsturzende Neubauten: Dancing Ghost

After Jochen finished his set the ghosts and spirits hung around a bit. They were starting to get restless. They wanted to have drinks and get drunk like the living were, but that was simply impossible. Luckily, Alexander Hacke got on stage and started to play some incredible entrancing electronic music. The ghosts and spirits stopped being restless and wildly started to dance. There was a fog machine spewing out smoke. Alexander yelled out for more fog. There was one spirit that was not so nice. He could not dance and did not know how to have fun. He only enjoyed mischief. He saw some kind of fire extinguisher that was normally used for putting out electrical fires. This little evil spirit laughed to himself and said," So he wants more fog, does he?"

The little evil spirit grabbed the metal object, hit it with all his might and made it explode emitting a huge cloud of dust. The people kept on dancing at first thinking that this new smoke was just part of the show, but when the powder cloud engulfed the whole room people could not see and started to cough. Surprisingly, no one panicked and the people slowly left the room. Once outside, people looked at each other. They were all covered in a grey white powder. Some people were upset, but most laughed and told jokes about how they all looked like zombies. The ghosts and spirits found this evil little spirit, took him back to the spirit world and kicked the unliving shit out of him. The ghosts and spirits were upset, but later made jokes about the situation. They all agreed that all it takes is one asshole to ruin a good night. Please look at the video below to see the powder cloud that descended on the dancers.

Hitman's Heel

I was filming Einsturzende Neubauten for two nights last November 2010 Divadlo Archa. On the second night I filmed Hitman's Heel. It was difficult. I wanted to stop filming and watch. It was something new for me. When Danielle de Picciotto and Alexander Hacke create something together it is always a magical experience that incorporates music along with mix of multimedia images. When I saw them perform their show "The Ship of Fools" in Prague years ago I was entranced by the various layers of music and images swimming together. Their new project Hitman's Heel, but... it is also a band with Chris Hughes as drummer and assorted guest musicians. I would like to describe their music, but do not know where to begin. It is a visual experience with Danielle's art being projected as they play a sort of mystic carnival sound of... well you decide. Click on the highlighted names to go to other pages for further information. They are currently on their Burn Baby Burn European tour with Julie Cruise, Khan and Kid Congo Powers. I am looking forward to watch how they develop as a band and what they will do next. 

Einsturzende Neubauten at Divadlo Archa in Prague November 2010

These are photos that I took of Einsturzende Neubauten at Divadlo Archa in Prague November 2010. It was a celebration of three decades of Einsturzende Neubauten and it was for two nights. I could write a lot, but the photos should tell the story.

Iggy and the Stooges seen through a camera that took acid

Usually I would never publicly show photos where I made mistakes or things went wrong, but some times mistakes become true creativity. I certainly do not know if this is the case with the these photos, but you be the judge and read this story with it. I took these photos July 2010 and it took me this long to post these photos. I will explain. I went last July to the music festival Colours of Ostrava. Someone had set up for me to photograph Iggy and the Stooges in concert. This was something I had always wanted to do. I grew up on the music of the Stooges and it was very important for me to do this. I saw the Stooges when I was a kid in Chicago and was blown away. I had several run ins with Iggy at various times in my life. I was once at a party in Chicago and I heard a huge crash in the kitchen. I went in there and a drunk maniac fell over and smashed lots of bottles, glasses and crashed the table in pieces. He left in a huff without a word to anyone. I later found out it was Iggy. Another time in New York I was at a particular club late at night in a toilet stall with a French girl. Don't ask why. She was talking rather loudly and a loud male voice in the next stall repeatedly screamed for her to shut up. When he finally screamed for the tenth time, "Shut up you fucking French bitch!" I came out to confront him. I came face to face with Iggy, laughed, walked away and forgot all about the French girl. I never saw her again, but I certainly saw Iggy on a number of occasions and always regretted i never ever took a photo of him. Here was my chance. 

I got to the festival and got settled. I met some friends. I also took my 17 year old son and his friend to the festival. I wanted them to discover the live music of Iggy and The Stooges. OK, The band is old, but they sure know how to play raw high energy music better than anyone and it is something to experience. The night before I tested the 7D camera out on a wild kebab kosher punk horn Finnish band called Alamaailman Vasarat. (please click on their highlighted name to find out more about them) They were really good and I was satisfied with the results. The time finally came to photograph Iggy and the Stooges. I got a press pass through a good friend which was not an easy thing to do. I got in the mosh pit in front of the stage and all looked good. The Stooges came on stage and then Iggy appeared and it was as amazing as I remembered. I photographed away and enjoyed the whole experience. Afterwards, I met with my son and his friend and they loved it. Mission accomplished or so it seemed. I got back to Prague and the next day I went through the photos and was shocked and totally crushed. The photos were all screwed up. This had never happened to me before. I was really depressed for awhile. How did it happen? Either my camera took some strong drugs at the festival that night. From the looks of the photos, it seemed like acid, but then again maybe it was the curse of Iggy! Well, you judge the photos and tell me. I hope there will be another chance to photograph them. I will watch after my camera better!

New York Portraits 2010: Richard Lowenstein

I was in New York last October to be in and to help curate the Club 57 Art Show and to film the Mudd Club reunion. I did as much as I could in New York with the time that I had. I found out, much to my surprise, two days before leaving, that Richard Lowenstein was in New York. Last year Richard sent me on an Odyssey through Prague, Vienna and Berlin filming interviews for his documentary film about Rowland S. Howard. I battled with an Icelandic volcano to interview Lydia Lunch from Prague to Vienna. I struggled with technical difficulties and the decadent debauchery demons of Berlin (Chris Hughes being one of them) to interview Oliver Schutz, Christoph Dreher, Mark Reeder, Mick Harvey, Thomas Wydler, John Murphy and Steve Morell. I completed the interviews in Prague with Phil Shoenfelt, Pavel Cingl, La Petite Sonja and Hank Manchini. I enjoyed the journey very much. I was able to discover some really fascinating special people and got to know them. Some of them are friends, so it was nice to work with them and I also made new friends as a result. All in all it was work, but a nice experience. It was a pleasure to work with Richard and for me it was and is most important to help and contribute in some way in the memory and total respect of the unique talent and personality of Rowland S. Howard. 

It was totally unexpected and amazing to meet Richard in New York. It was my last night in New York. I had a small going away party at the Horse Shoe Bar on Avenue B and 7th Street in the East Village. Those last few days in New York were hectic and I was in contact with Richard by email and let him know about the going away party. I did not expect him to turn up that night because of his busy schedule in New York, but sure enough he was there. It was nice to finally meet him. We had never met before. We were only in contact by email and phone. This was our first face to face meeting. I was very exhausted from all the running around, but got a second wind that night. It felt like some circle had been completed. He introduced me to some of his friends and I introduced him to fellow filmmaker Nick Zedd. Australian cinema visionary meets East Village cinema of transgression. An interesting combination to watch. That was my memory of that night anyway and I hope to meet Richard sometime soon when I have had some sleep. 

What to write about Richard? For me he is a filmmaker who is a true visionary and he was way way ahead of his time. (ten years to be exact) He made his film "Dogs in Space" in 1986. It has a strong chopping chaos that captured the turbulent world of musician's lives in Melbourne. Richard made this film ten years before the film "Trainspotting" that very much works with the same sort of themes and styles. He made ground-making films prior to that with "Evictions" and "Strikebound" and won numerous awards. In between and after all this Richard made a lot of music videos and worked closely with the bands INXS and U2. Richard won five MTV Video Music Awards in 1988 for his work on INXS "Need You Tonite/Meditate" music videos. He went onto make what I consider another revolutionary film "He Died with a Felafel in His Hands" from the John Birmingham novel. It was incredible that Richard was able to make a film out of a series of anecdotes about living in share houses in Brisbane and other cities in Australia. It was considered unfilmable. The film with it's wonderful cinematography (Andrew de Groot), captures the psychology of each Australian city and the youth of each city with their day to day existence. He has co-produced the satirical australian music TV series John Safran's Music Jamboree and John Safron Vs God. Richard is a partner in the Melbourne based production Company Ghost Pictures and is also a partner in the feature film production company Fandango Australia Pty Ltd with Italian producer Domenico Procacci. There is so much more to write about Richard. I am just touching the surface here. Please click on the highlighted name/words above to find out further information. I am pleased to write that Ghost Pictures is producing the film "Rowland S. Howard: Autoluminescent" and that I am happy to be involved in it. If anyone can make a film about Rowland S. Howard, certainly Richard, the filmmaker wizard of Oz is the only one and the right one who can make that magic happen.

New York Portraits 2010: Bernd Naber

I went to an art gallery opening while I was in New York and of course I saw Bernd Naber. I would be disappointed if I didn't. I remembered Bernd from early 80's New York through the 90's. Every time I went to a happening gallery opening, a club opening or some really special event, Bernd would be there. I always thought that he had several clones running around New York City. I did not know how he managed to be in so many places at once. So, when I was back in New York, I was very pleased to see Bernd at every happening that I went to New York. I would have been severely upset if I did not see him. He is originally from Hamburg. Bernd is an artist and has been living in New York since 1975. He is always learning and enjoying. Please click on Bernd's name above to find out further information about him.