Because Russ Says So

Life on the island of Jeju gets better and better.  I’m dumping all my energy into my music these days and I’ve managed to meet some of the most incredible musicians I’ve ever played with.  My friend Jocelyn Yang is a music major at Jeju University and we’ve started a band called Furry Monkey and the Gimbap Stop (gimbap is a delicious sushi like snack.)  We’re a boring band, perhaps the most boring band in the world, this is our goal anyway.  Our tongues are shoved deep into our cheeks and the irony is thick as a brick.  We’re having way too much fun being boring, and you can come be bored with us at our first show on September 27th at a little amazing bar called Led Zeppelin.  The face of boring music will never be the same.  Are you listening Kenny G?  Yanni?  Are you?  You best move over.  If you can’t make the show you’re probably on the other side of the world, but you can come visit any time and see me four nights a week singing with the house band called Little Wing at the local blues bar, Just Blues.  I was hired after a heart felt performance at their Sunday open mic and it’s the best part time job I’ve ever had.  Loud, rockin’, sexy blues, all the time.  It’s the perfect Ying to the Yang of the boring band and it feels so good to sink myself into songs again every day.  Am I getting any writing done??? Uh, no.

Big changes have been afoot in the often random life of Russ. After playing the starving artist card for about a year and a half in the Big Stink of Toronto, I’ve pulled up my not so deep roots and have blown into the breeze again. Mostly due to the fact that it’s time to work again, write again, and I have so much piling up. I’ve produced most of the drama; the stuff that works has been done to death, and the stuff that doesn’t needs much love. So I just decided move. I could sit in dirty metropolis and write, or mix it with some high adventure, world travel, and weird new experiences. I went through a bit of red tape and landed on a strange and beautiful Island off the Korean peninsula, about half way to Japan in the middle of the Yellow Sea called Jeju. It’s so amazing out here, the Island is only about 70km across and about 40km wide and it’s home to the tallest mountain in Korea, a volcanic spectacle called Mount Halla. I’ve only been out here for a couple weeks but I’m having a fantastic time. I’m close to the beaches, the bars, the resort town novelties, and I’m meeting people from… everywhere. A twenty minute hike and I’m into some of the nicest forests, hills, and riverbeds I’ve ever explored. The whole island is just an ancient pile of molten lava. Jeju is a wonderland. I’ve picked up a gig teaching English to these amazing little rugrats who have no idea how lucky they are to live on such a miracle of an island. I love it. This is the smartest thing I’ve done in years.

And here I am. And so begins the next chapter in the life of Russ. Artist, writer, and now educator. The next big project is finishing the Island of Women. This one’s been through so many drafts and changes over the years I really do need to stick a stake into it. I’m living inside the set of the movie right now, so it feels like now is the time to do it. Me and the Baron have been talking about a graphic novel from the screenplay and we plan to begin production by the new year. And then a new stage play… a one man show for touring upon my return to the west… perhaps about a Sasquach… perhaps about a Sasquach from Mars.

I found this cheesy video with some great shots of the island. The song is actually kind of fitting. Any educated bum can get a job out here. Plus Russ love.

My brother the Baron is at it again presenting his latest series of works. New creations that examine the one and only Baron Von Reilander mythology of intergalactic rebels and trouble makers, The Space Pirates. And I’m going to be in Calgary for this one before it closes! I was intrigued by the life size busts he put to together for this show and he wrote me this in an e-mail when I asked him about them:

“I have finished off three insane life-size old-scool, biker, punkrock, space monster pirates! They look fuckin gnarley!!! Ha! They even come with accesories like one has crazy old german war goggles, another has a flask that if you wanted too could stash away yer secret elixers. The other has braidable hair. Ha! Good times. Every thing on them is real… Authentic militaray antiques like helmuts, naval hats, goggles and other shit like that. Plus they are wearing real clothes that I chopped down to size fer ‘em. Leathers and denim. Stylin’! They’re even air-brushed with special latex paint to give them a skin-like appearence. Creepy fer cheapy.”

Dave The Baron Von Reilander was recently featured in an article on Low-Brow art in Avenue Magazine and has been garnering a cult following for his special blend of campy craziness and artful unpretentiousness. You want a pirate bust by your fireplace. I know I do. Space Scum runs all through April at The Looks Could Kill Art Boutique in Calgary

The Revolving Restaurant is spinning out of control!

Hold onto your horses, the big opening for Rhonda’s Revolving Restaurant quickly approaches. Come on down to pivitol(arts) WriteNOW! Festival of New Works, it opens on March 17 and runs to the 22nd at the Alchemy Theatre, 133 Tecumseth St, Toronto. They will be featuring the new Rhonda’s Revolving Restaurant show along side three other really amazing plays; The Curative by Thomas Bryce, Hearts and Stones by Ashlee Ferreria and Johnny Jackson and His Heavenly Passion by Robert Gontier.

I’ve been having a blast showing up to as many rehearsals as I can. Kate Bethell is directing the piece, we worked together to much comic success making Island of Women in 2005, and Rhonda’s Revolving Restaurant carries her tongue in cheek approach my work nicely. The cast is amazing and full of great and hilarious energy.  Freya Ravensbergen plays Agnes the maître d’, Haley McGee; Shelly the chef, Rory O’Neil; Bingo the busboy, Illya Konstantin; Nater the waiter, Clinton Lee Pontes; !Xibu, a revolving restaurant repair person, Kathleen Jackson as Rhonda, the restaurant’s new owner, and Toni Maggio as Rainwater, Rhonda’s daughter. It’s a big cast, and scheduling is never fun, but it is fun to get this many characters spinning in a farce, and it’s coming along beautifully. Eat light if your planning to come, this play will make you lose your lunch.
Come for the thrills, stay for the spills.

CALLED DUE TO EXTREME SNOW FALL!

…I love being a Canadian artist…

The fundraiser has been postponed until February 15.  Come find us at the Rhino, 1249 Queen St. West, Toronto.

Come join me at Havin’ A Fair. This is a fundraiser for pivotal(arts) theatre company’s 2008 WriteNow! Festival of New Works. The festival will be featuring my newest stage play Rhonda’s Revolving Restaurant, as well as three other really great shows. The fundraiser will include a silent auction, a raffle, door prizes, games, popcorn, chips, candy… maybe pop. And performances from Slowking, Opal Blue and DJ Sleaze. Come find us at El Mocambo, 434 Spadina Ave, Toronto at 7:30. Ten bones with a non-perishable food item. Hope to see you there!

Leon Redbone performs three really great songs.

This looks pretty amazing.  My good friend Jim Olsen is an electronic multi-media based artist and internet guru who is on the brink of forever altering the way the world projects it’s light.  This new project has me intrigued.  It looks like some kind of brain inside of a wall of astroturf, cozy.  I kind of wish this was my living room.  I also wish I could be in Victoria, BC, 8pm November 23, 2007 at the Ministry of Casual Living for the unveiling of this, the Astroturf Cocoon.  Jim will also be launching his new book that night, Universal Mail.  Visit Jim Olsen and see his art @ robotoverlord.

I’ll be recieving a staged reading of my new stage play Rhonda’s Revolving Restaurant on Friday November 9th, 8pm at The Rhino in Toronto.  I’m really looking forward to it.  It’s continuing to be a great experience working with Shawn Murphy, Amanada Ballard, and pivotol(arts) on this project.  Our process is very similar to how it was originally developed in that it’s still being based on improvisations by actors.  Our workshops are bi-weekly and we’ve been getting it on its feet and playing out the scenes that haven’t been written yet.  It’s very organic and a lot of fun to write this way.  We’ll see how the restaurant spins on the 9th.  Going up in the reading as well are three other plays that I am beyond curious about; Johnny Jackson and His Heavenly Passion by Robert Gontier, Hearts and Stones by Ashley Ferriria, and The Curative by Thomas Bryce.  Come out if you’re in town, pay what you can.  The Rhino’s at 1284 Queen St. West and we’ll be upstairs.  

I’ve met some pretty sassy artists over the years, but none quite as sassy as Casey ‘Sassmouth’ Kohlman. A textile artist with a monstrous twist and an awesome penchant for scary stitches. Vintage monsters, classic creatures and damsels in distress, all stitched with love into your favorite wearables with yummy B-movie style. I know what I want for Christmas. If you’re even close to Calgary in the month of October you must see her show at the Looks could Kill Art Boutique, lower level Art Central, 100 7th ave SW. Show opens on October 6th with uber-entertainment and runs fittingly until Halloween. See her featured in the prestigious FibreQuarterly magazine, and what… Juxtapoz magazine too?

A new project has been vollyed into my court and I can’t wait to get working on it. Rhonda’s Revolving Restaurant has been selected to be featured in Toronto’s pivitol(arts) WriteNOW! Festival of New Works in March 2008. This is a stage play that began in a workshop with Japanese Playwright Oriza Hirata about a year ago, and and was originally developed based on improvisations by Ming Hudson, Sarah Pelzer, Jade Chang, Julia Cameron, Amitai Marmorstein, Raquel Mann, and myself in Victoria, BC. This play’s been on my list of projects to finish for a while. Being based on and written directly from improvisations it’s a little clumbsy right now, but carries a great energy. The first draft will be a good start point to work out a tight little farce. I’m looking forward to working with pivitol(arts) in getting this one on the stage.