HIGH EVIL

"High Evil"

Saturday, November 2nd, 1996

a building (now demolished) on Fifth Avenue in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh

"I (tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE) was invited by Edgar Um Bucholtz to participate in a rave/Halloween Party/whatever called 'High Evil' that was organized by tcrps/Bass Culture. One of the advertisements for it was a fluorescent orange sticker with the following text:

'HIGH EVIL!!

They killed S.P. Dinsmoor and Jeff McKissack, they killed James Hampton, they want to destroy the Garden of Eden, the Orange Show, The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millenium General Assembly! Where There Is No Vision The People Perish! Join us to expand the earth's field intelligence, expose their hidden hand! All Hallow's Eve, Dia de los Muertos show the gate; join us the second day of November to explode the locks! Come save the world! 456-BASS'

I (tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE) loved the advertising but, alas, I didn't have any fun at the actual event. Providing improvised sound were Sharyn Lee Frederick: child's violin, measuring cups, voice; Michael Johnsen: saw, amplified oboe, baritone sax; Greg Pierce: records, intercom, guitar, alto sax, dictaphone; & Dave W(Ho)le Shim: 4 track cassettes. I contributed projected video mixing. This was an experiment in combining vaudeos of mine ("My Life Flashing Before You" & "Something That Dissolves The Shadow Of Something That Was Next To Something That Combusted Twice. Once") with live drawing using a "VideoPainter". This latter device is a toy with a touch-sensitive screen that sends out a video signal. It can be drawn or written on & has various ready-made images targetted at a young user - such as pictures of a robot, a car, a dragon, a fairy, etc.. I scribbled on it, drew faces with parts made out of the ready-made images, wrote the words "Deeper & Deeper" when a recording of a hypnotist's spiel played (mixed in with sexual penetration footage), mixed the video with VideoPainter ready-made landscape images, etc.. There were various technical problems (such as my inability to get the preview monitor to work properly & the video projection cutting off my view of some of the necessary VideoPainter controls) & this was probably the WORST "performance" I've ever presented." -->tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE, some years ago

"On Saturday, November 2nd, 1996, I (tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE) participated in an event in Pittsburgh entitled "High Evil" organized by Edgar Um Bucholtz that took place in a building that's now demolished. This event was significant for me as one of the 1st shows I participated in after moving to Pittsburgh & as possibly the only time I ever used the toy VideoPainter as a video improvising tool. Since I've been too poor most of my life to afford 'professional' equipment, I've often used toys & borrowed &/or broken equipment. The broken equipment in this instance being a WJ MX-12 AV mixer that I STILL use & that's STILL broken. Providing improvised sound were Sharyn Lee Frederick: child's violin, measuring cups, voice; Michael Johnsen: saw, amplified oboe, baritone sax; Greg Pierce: records, intercom, guitar, alto sax, dictaphone; & Dave W(Ho)le Shim: 4 track cassettes. I contributed projected video mixing. This brief movie is probably a simulation of the visuals done at home - since the actual conditions of the show probably didn't involve any video recording." -->tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE, 2010

For more info from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE, see entry 201 @: http://www.fyi.net/~anon/MereOutline1996.html

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I (Edgar Um Bucholtz) will scan and upload the flyer for this event once i track it down in the tcrps archives. the flyer was a small letterpress edition on recycled paper. Dan Bidwa designed the flyer and printed it at Third Termite.

the building that this event occurred in had a sign on the front that read "M. Stahl Plumbing." at the time, it was rented by Lauri Mancuso.

tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE video performance/projection and the accompanying improvised music performance occurred early in the evening from 9:30pm to 10:30pm.

this was followed until the early hours of the morning by a number of DJs playing drum and bass, downtempo and experimental tracks on the main floor and in the basement. i believe the DJs included: Dan Strange, Soji-Fu, Spaed and Farmer Tea.

no other documentation of this event is known to exist.

"Life In Aliquippa" (1993)

This is video cutup primarily features footage of Michael Johnsen, Brian Dean Richmond and Edgar Um Bucholtz performing in Aliquippa, PA in 1993 as part of Michelle Illuminato's Aliquippa Embraces Art. The venue for this trio performance was a large empty, decrepit department store in downtown Aliquippa.

For his performance, Edgar Um Bucholtz spent many days researching the story of the town of Aliquippa (at the Aliquippa Library, at the Carnegie Library in Oakland and in the Labor archives at Hillman Library.) For example, he learned of Queen Aliquippa (for whom the city is named and whose name translates as "large hat" for which she was famous for wearing), a leader of the Seneca tribe of American Indians who became an important British Ally leading up to the French and Indian War. He learned of the many African-American families who were moved en masse to Aliquippa in the 1970's to work at the Jones and Laughlin Steel Mill--only to be left mostly without jobs after the collapse of the Steel Industry in the 1980s.

In the performance, he read this text he compiled about the origins and history of the city of Aliquippa. He sat at a table in the middle front of the large space. His voice was sent via microphone and cable to the very back of the room into a 30 second delay and then into an amplification speaker system. The very apparent delay between his live reading voice and his amplified delayed voice was disorienting.

Michael Johnsen also sat at the table with a brass microscope & some video equipment (all equipment, including Bucholtz's was powered via one dangerously warm 200 ft blue extension cord dressed through the wet and sagging floor). On a small monitor, visitors were able to observe the teeming microscopic "Life in Aliquippa" contained in sample of ditchwater collected behind the venue. These were tough times for people in Aliquippa, reflected in the general tenor of the other work in the show, but the protozoa seemed to be doing quite well. Some children asked if "they" were predicting the weather.
Michael also projected a 16mm black & white film loop of sow bugs.

After Edgar Um Bucholtz finished reading his text, he, Michael and Brian Dean Richmond repeatedly played and improvised on three tone rows. Michael played clarinet. Brian played trombone. Edgar played cornet. Edgar Um Bucholtz derived these tone rows from the letters in the various spellings of the name Aliquippa using a alpha-tonal transcription method he devised.

This video cutup also also features bits and pieces of a video by Edgar Um Bucholtz called "Noise In System." The video ends with a bit of Christian evangelical TV re-edited by Edgar Um Bucholtz.

Thurs. May 28th: improvised sounds of JACK WRIGHT + BOB MARSH and more...

Thursday May 28th

an evening of improvised electro-acoustic sounds at The Nerve

with

JACK WRIGHT + BOB MARSH
improvised reeds + cello/voice
http://www.springgardenmusic.com/

MICHAEL JOHNSEN + MARGARET COX
home-built electronics, saw, magnetic cards, etc.

FUCK TELECORPS
(Steve BOYLE + Edgar UM BUCHOLTZ + Jim STORCH)
improvised percussion/etc. + cornet/etc.

JOSH BEYER
homemade guitar manipulations

$7 or so

admission begins at 6pm.

live sounds begin at 7pm.

performances will finish by 10pm.

The Nerve: an art and performance venue
500 Dargan Street (at Minerva St.)
Pittsburgh, PA 15224

"Playing together since 1986, Jack Wright (alto & soprano saxophone, contra-alto clarinet) and Bob Marsh (cello, violin and processed voice) really convey how theirs is an "improvisational music that reflects and celebrates the mutual dependence of the players", to quote the liner notes (of their Birds in the Hand CD release.) There's an almost physical feel of strict interplay between the instruments, though in a realm of sonic cubism, with broken lines, abrupt changes and jigsaw dialogues; and the key word must be joy, the joy of creative jamming bewteen two long-time friends. Something clearly audible even if you're not a jazz expert." - Eugenio Maggi

Telecorps live on New Year's Eve 1992 (rough edit)

this is a two camera edit of a live performance by Telecorps in the basement of the Turmoil Room in Wilkinsburg/Pittsburgh on New Year's Eve 1992.

a projected film-loop by MIchael Johnsen accompanied the performance.

on this occasion Telecorps was:

Edgar Um Bucholtz - voice, cornet, orders, timing clock, jumping about
Missy Galore - voice, tinsel
Raq V.B. - voice, ass cheeks, candle-phallus
Ray C. Ray - drums, skree-tar, fx
Sharyn Frederick - bass, hair
Buffy Um Kollar - bowed dulcimer, dominatrix outfit
Ian Williams - guitar, thrashing about, drums
Jen Saffron - violin
Catherine Randecker - electric blinking bug alien
Gary Miklusek - rhythm guitar, hat flaps
Michael Johnsen - film-loop

plus

taunting by Damon Che

video by Gern and a tripod assisted by Michael Johnsen(?)

The Feral Family play in the background at the beginning when Michael is speaking.

This video documents the only time Telecorps rocked in a live setting. It was an accident.

Ray C. Ray plays drums on the first half with Ian Williams on guitar. For the second half, they switch.

Thanks to Brian Dean Richmond for asking us to play this gig.