Author: Fara

ATA and Alternative Tentacles present:
The Widower (7pm)

Terminal City Ricochet (9pm)

DVD + CD soundtrack release

One of the most asked-about Biafra-related projects finally seeing the light of day! Never available on VHS and rarely shown outside of Canada, this dystopian vision is as timely as ever. Jello Biafra will appear in person for Q&A.

Come at 7pm to see cult classic “The Widower,” and stay for the 9pm screening of “Terminal City Ricochet,” followed by a Q&A.

Welcome to Terminal City—one of only five livable places left on Earth.

Telegenic Mayor Ross Glimore (Peter Breck, The Big Valley, Shock Corridor), is king of all media, and rules as a virtual dictator. To maintain his grip on power he must stage an election, and for that he needs fresh fear. Enter Alex Stevens (Mark Bennett), a fed-up, cynical newspaper delivery boy who happens to witness Glimore run over one of his own supporters in his car, and leave the scene of the accident.

Glimore and his Rove-wellian henchman Bruce Coddle (Jello Biafra) hatch a plot to brand Alex “the #1 terrorist threat” (based on his connection to rock‘n’roll music which, along with meat, is banned) to cow Terminal City into submission and steal another tabloid election.

Alex flees underground, where he stumbles into a resistance movement led in part by his newfound friend Beatrice (Lisa Brown), and a fugitive brain-damaged goalie from the Glimore-owned hockey team, unforgettably portrayed by two-time Genie Award® winner Germaine Houde (Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, Les bons Débarras 1980, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, Un Zoo la Nuit 1987).

Alex finds himself caught up in a plot to bring Glimore down, with the not-so-secret police (D.O.A.’s Joe Keithley and pro-wrestling legend Gene Kiniski) hot on the trail.

The DVD package comes with the soundtrack CD featuring Jello Biafra, DOA, Nomeansno, Beatnigs, Evan Johns and the H-Bombs, Nomeansno, Gerry Hannah (from the Canadian band called the Subhumans), the Groovaholics, I Braineater, Jello Biafra and D.O.A., Jello Biafra and Nomeansno, Jello Biafra and Keith LeBlanc. The Jello Biafra/D.O.A. tracks ended up being expanded into the full-length called “Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors” (virus078) also available from Alternative Tentacles.

“People should watch this before every American election.” —Jello Biafra

Featuring:

PETER BRECK as Mayor Ross Glimore

MARK BENNETT as Alex Stevens

GERMAIN HOUDE as Ace “The Savior”

GENE KINISKI and JOEY “SHITHEAD” KEITHLEY as Cops harassing Alex

The Widower
Canada, 1999
Directed by Marcus Rogers
Approx Run Time 79 Minutes, Unrated

Starring Shawn Milsted, K. Ramona Orr, Irene Miscisco, Tim Trylinski, Darren Andrichuk
with appearances by Jello Biafra, Nardwuar The Human Serviette, Joey “Shithead” Keithley

The Widower is a surreal black romantic comedy from director Marcus Rogers. Rogers has created an instant cult classic inspired by the sinister visions of David Lynch and the colorful, comic book camp of John Waters. The film is a cartoonish world of decay in a timeless, nameless city, where the very fringes of reality are starting to unravel. This is especially true for Milton, the nebbish romantic widower who is unable to face the reality of his wife’s demise… But why should he? She still talks to him.  The Widower is a creepy, kitschy comedy about love and death, blood, cops, and donuts, that has some surprisingly sweet touches among the corpses, punk rock and out-sized characters!

Bill Hsu works with electronics and live animation systems. He has performed in the United States, Europe, and Asia. He is a founding member of the Beanbender’s collective, which organized over 150 concerts of new music in the San Francisco Bay area. He teaches and does research at San Francisco State University. Website: http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~whsu/art.html

Gino Robair is an American composer, improvisor, drummer, and percussionist. In his own work (as a soloist and in improvisation ensembles), he plays prepared/modified percussion, analog synthesizer, ebow and prepared piano, theremin, and bowed objects (polystyrene, customized/broken cymbals, faux daxophone, metal). Although Gino is often referred to as a jazz musician, he grew up playing both rock and concert music. Gino Robair was an editor of Electronic Musician magazine, and runs Rastascan Records. Website: http://www.rastascan.com

Guitarist John Shiurba is a composer and guitarist whose musical pursuits include improvisation, art-rock, modern composition and noise. Shiurba has recorded and toured the U.S. and Europe as a member of the bands Eskimo, The Molecules and Spezza Rotto, as a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and the SFSound Ensemble, and in various improv settings. Shiurba has composed works for his own Triplicate and 5×5 ensembles, for the SFSound Ensemble, and for various soloists. As a guitarist Shiurba has developed a unique and personalized approach to the guitar. Through the use of extended techniques and unusual preparations, he expands the traditional sound range of the instrument, producing stunning, often unrecognizable results. Website:  http://www.myspace.com/shiurba
Oboist Kyle Bruckmann’s creative work spans a dizzying aesthetic range, from a classical foundation into genre-bending gray areas encompassing free jazz, electronic music and post-punk rock. International touring and appearances on more than 40 recordings have led to his recognition as “a modern day renaissance musician” and “a seasoned improviser with impressive extended technique and peculiar artistic flair.” Website: http://www.kylebruckmann.com/
Video:

Particle system: http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~whsu/PSHIVA/
Audio-reactive systems: http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~whsu/ARFlock/

Ernst Benkert participated in the breakthrough exhibition of “OpArt” at MoMA in 1965, “The Retrospective Eye.” Despite, or perhaps because of, his sudden notoriety, Benkert moved away from the big time art world. Inheriting Eva Hesse’s studio, Benkert’s exploration of the grid became an obsession he suffered and exulted in for years before breaking free just as he was losing his sight. Benkert’s illustrations of crazed, neurotic and hilarious characters began as doodles he did while talking on the phone. Part Otto Dix and part “Tijuana Bibles”, Fone Art eventually pointed a way out of the confines of the purely perceptual. His stackhead series represent a hard-won synthesis of abstract rhythms and delightful misanthropy. The New York Times recently reviewed his work as presented by D. Wigmore Gallery: “alarming, hallucinatory.” (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/arts/design/11galleries-003.html)

features favorites like the underground laugh riot “Deep Fat Fried Grinder”, “Britney Buddha” (his collaboration with Underground Britney which documented the defacement of Ms. Spears’ posters in the New York subways) and the haunting “Body Count” mashed-up with new work including “Tiger Woods, Serial Killer,” micro-documentaries on his father’s last days and his sister’s ill-remembered lover, along with 99’s challenging expansion of rev.99’s “Everything Changed After 7-11.” A pastiche of styles, sounds, moods and ideas, Attention Deficit Gift nevertheless delivers a coherent, at times hilarious, and deeply felt sense of everyday American schizophrenia.

99 Hooker:

An active member of the ImprovCore and experimental art scenes of the Bay Area in the 90s, 99 Hooker’s “ferocious” saxophone is featured in ths program with legendary jazz butchers “Fracture” and Bible Launcher – the infamous Tzadik release even John Zorn had to pull from the shelves. Other Bay Area artists featured in the program include Thollem McDonas, LX Rudis (label mate on Ernesto Diaz-Infante’s SF PAX Recordings), and Oakland’s late great The Molecules.

Since moving to New York, 99 Hooker founded the multi-media performance collective rev.99 (2001) and has had his work shown/performed at the Hirshhorn Museum, Anthology Film Archives, Museum of Art & Design, MoMA, Walter Reade, Bowery Ballroom. Performances in Europe include Musique Action (Nancy, FR) and Netmage (Bologna). He has produced with a wide variety of artists including Martha Colburn, Abraham Incorporated, DJ Spooky, the Yes Men, Benton-C Bainbridge, Donald O’Finn, Glenn Spearman, Borbetomagus, Jack Wright, The Dramatics, Ron Anderson and many others.