Show 41: Johnson City, TN @ Projexx Studio

Turnout: 35 ish

Monetary Votes of Support: 67
Personal Injury Report: Ben: Elbow bruises, kicked in the head twice (once by audience, once by fellow actor), indigestion, Kate needs to be reminded how to do stage punches in the gut and she um kinda caught Ben in the zipper a little.
Kate: Knee cap accumulated more scrapes and is still all loose.

Show Description: This show was brootal! In addition to the long list of personal injuries we also played with Compulsion Analysis (fucking great audio visual assault) glad to play with them again and had some lip-licking delicious potluck food. Excellent.

Also, there were a bunch of strange internal things that happened, like during the show, there were moments when I would hear or notice the audience shift or adjust in their chairs which, being in a quiet room and at a bit of a loss for focus this show, made the self conscious part of my brain ramp up into medium-high tickish gear saying "why are you moving, oh no please don't leave, I will be interesting in just a second, just a second, I'll do something, alright, alright everyone just please stay in the room, I'm sorry, really very sorry."

Also, the gallery space was positioned perfectly to catch people who were walking by outside off guard. There were big glass windows facing the sidewalk and so we occasionally got to see people stop, stare and try to figure out what was going on during our set and Compulsion Analysis's.

Did you see this show? If you did, write a review, ask us some questions or comment on it. We'd love to hear it because we believe in artistic transparency.

Show 40: Charlottesville, VA, This Little Bird Studio

Turnout: 10/20
Monetary Votes of Support: $21 Merch: $2
Personal Injury Report: Nothing!

Show Description: Play play play. Part of what we're pursuing on our adventures is experiments in alternative, non-capitalist forms of life. Sometimes such experiments can take the shape of emphatically non-productive activities, also known as playing. Our show in Charlottesville, coincidentally near our always enthusiastic and gracious host Cindy Leal's birthday, allowed us to position our production of Ulysses' Crewmen in the middle of a wonderful playtime session. The first hour of the show was audience participation, improvised music, experimental video, contact dancing and various hoops, tubes, noodles, and other soft objects to play with. Then we
performed. Then people played some more.

It wasn't for everyone (some people who, I imagine planned on being only spectators left during playtime) but the openness and joyful energies of playing definitely informed and contrasted with our nasty oppressive play about the strife of living in capitalist society very well, making this a unique and exciting experience for us, and hopefully everyone else there.

We hope to have more pictures and maybe video from this show soon.

Did you see this show? If you did, ask us some questions, write a review or comment. We'd love to hear it because we believe in artistic transparency.

Nature Day!

Well, last nature day was eclipsed by Philadelphia. We spent it making copies of our merch, flyering and getting a parking ticket. 36 Bucks. Hurns. This Nature Day was better. We got to tour Twin Oaks, an Intentional Community in Virginia near Charlottesville.

They've been around since the 70's. 85 adults and 15 kids live there. The tour was quite informative and I have a lot to say about it but don't really know where to start. So, right now, I won't. That's all for now.

Show 39: Baltimore, MD at 2640 The Church

Turnout: 18

Our Cut (3/4) Door: 71

Personal Injury Report: Hmm, Kate rescued herself from having to act the whole show with her contact slowly and sneakily making its way into the depths of her eye. Also, she made sure the second gun hit looked and sounded really good by really doing it.

Show Description: This show went very, very well. The best part though, was the discussion afterwards. People talking about what brought them out that night and what they took away from the play led to some great discussion covering points on violence and non-violence, what violence itself entails, and the scope and consequences of our, here in america, ideas and recommendations regarding the sort of society we'd like to live in.

Ryan Harvey also played music before and after the show. I actually still have one of the songs stuck in my head as I write this. Man, it's great playing with him, besides similar political themes he also just has the same sort of relationship with the audience that we try to have-- close, honest and straightforward. It's really refreshing to play with music like that.

Did you see this show? If you did, write a review, ask us some questions or comment on it. We'd love to hear it because we believe in artistic transparency.

Show Report 38: Brooklyn, 13 Thames

Turnout: about 20 watched the whole thing.

Money: $30 door, $3.10 donations.

Personal Injury Report: We sat directly in front of SETH's fog machine, which was used somewhat excessively given the small space, our eyes were still itchy the next morning.

Show Description: Our first multi-media performance of the play! One of the 13 Thames guys hooked up a camera and video projection of us on the wall and ceiling. I guess the show was also being live-streamed online somewhere.

13 Thames is a great warehouse space in Bushwick, dingy punk squat atmosphere, radical slogans and vulgar graffitti all over the walls, bands in back and in the kitchen, a black dog named Blue and an orange cat that seems to like noise music. In addition to the projector the only other light was a weird blue cliplight that gave the show a nice subterranian feel. This was especially nice after performing in flat even bookstore lights the night before. I remain committed to performing under available lighting, but when the available lighting is cool it makes me waver in this commitment and think about bringing along a gelled cliplight or two.

Our performance felt so much better than the first night. Nearly flawless, which is pretty astonishing on Kate's part, given the circumstances. This was a noise show and we played first. Our expectations for audience committment at noise shows have been set pretty low. I'm not complaining, just stating a fact. People come out to these shows expecting a party with occasional bouts of blasting feedback, not an hour long, unamplified theatre performance. If our presentation of the totally unexpected can capture the full attention of half the people there for the duration of the show, we consider it successful, and this one definitely was. The astonishing part is we set up in the middle of the space, which meant people coming and going would need to walk across our tiny "stage" to go in and out, which they did, frequently. Again, I'm not complaining, just pointing out that Kate performed without missing a beat as people brushed past her to go chat in the kitchen. This is, in itself pretty impressive.

The 20 or so people who stuck around for the duration seemed to really enjoy it, and we had a couple great informed conversations with people afterwards*. One advantage of playing noise shows is seeing the bands, which were excellent last night. Opponents and Towering Heroic Dudes were personal favorites, but Kate and I enjoyed at least parts of everyone's sets. Coulda done with less fog machine though.

Did you see this show? If you did, please comment here. Write a review, share your thoughts, ask questions, we'd love to hear from you because we believe in artistic transparency.

*One of these conversations, about school occupations and thirdworldism was with someone we failed to get contact info from, and wish we had, so please, drop us a line here or at insurgent.ben@gmail.com or 414 305 9832. Keep in touch. (This invitation of course also applies to anyone who wants to contact us for any reason)

Show Report 37: Bluestockings, New York

Turnout: 35

Monetary Votes of Support: $43.45 (Bluestockings passed a hat for themselves as well)

Personal Injury Report: None for us. There was a very attentive and excited 7 year old who might have gotten nightmares.

Show Description: Great turnout at the wonderful Bluestockings bookstore. Excellent people, great selection of books, very friendly atmosphere, attentive audience, some of whom just happened in off the street.

We're really relieved to have the first show of tour out of the way, especially considering the number of stupid technical problems we had. No dropped lines or anything that ruined stuff, but we forgot the hood in our dryer back in Philly (had to use a lucky back-up, which was too loose and fell off easily) we lost one of the ropes mid-performance and forgot to hand out the programs (which probably makes the land of the dead part even more confusing).

Funny story: so Bluestockings is in the middle of Manhattan, and Kate used the front door as the exit. Which means twice she walked out onto Allen St with a realistic looking holstered handgun, startling passersby, who she just smiled at until they either felt comfortable, or walked the other way, wide eyed.

We were really nervous and uncomfortable and kind of botched the transition from play to discussion, which is really too bad. We had a couple good individual conversations, but I look forward to infoshop and bookstore shows as opportunities to have real group discussions. Plus, I guess Trey recognized Howard Zinn in the audience.

Did you see this show? If you did, please comment here. Write a review, share your thoughts, ask questions, we'd love to hear from you because we beleive in artistic transparency.

Ulysses' Crewmen Rides Again!

So, if what you do on New Year's Eve defines what you'll be doing for the whole year, we've got a busy year ahead, cuz we've spent New Years Eve preparing to leave for a two month tour. Actually, we spent the last three days doing little other than rehearsing, cleaning our room (we're subletting for two months, so we'll be living rent-free again) printing, doing some last ditch booking efforts, promotion work and assembling merch. My resolution: be on the road for 50% of 2010.

As always: this tour journal will feature full economic transparency and show reports. We are also going to make a point of having nature days. Spending our days off communing with what remains of the great american landscape. Last tour we started $495 ahead, after some rough times, long drives and car troubles (the tour pays 1/3 of car repairs and maintenance).

We'll track this tour separately and then roll up a total at the end. We've started a new spreadsheet with our initial costs (postage and printing supplies) here.

We're really excited about this tour, it's a pretty even mix of revisiting awesome shows from last tour, going back to places we haven't been since Paint the Town, and performing in completely new places. The general route is south, then west, then back up to Wisconsin for family and friends time (I miss everybody greatly) then back home to Philly. Then we turn around and head back to the midwest (couldn't turn down the invitation to the C.A.N. conference) which will include a trip to the north to play a couple shows in Ontario (thanks to Thor and Kelly!)

The calendar to the right is up to date with the details of all our shows. Most of the shows are free or donation based. None of them are more than $8, and if we have anything to say about it, no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

This weekend we're playing two very different shows in New York City, one at an awesome infoshop (Bluestockings) and one with a slew of kick ass noise bands (at 13 Thames).

Next week we head south, playing with friends in Baltimore (Red Emma's 2640), Charlottesville (This Little Bird), and Johnson City (Projexxx Studio), and meeting new people in Chapel Hill (The Nightlight). In Chapel Hill in addition to performing, we'll be leading a discussion of radical politics and theatre at the local infoshop (Internationalist Books). Our Nature Days will be spent checking out a nature reserve here in Philly, and touring the Twin Oaks Intentional Community outside Charlottesville (we're looking to maybe live in something like this).

There are some holes in the tour where we're still trying to confirm a show. Especially troubling is the week in February after we return to Philly but before we depart for the C.A.N. conference in Urbana, IL. We're looking for shows on the east coast, and since we're subletting the apartment, we'll need places to crash for some of those cold nights. Any suggestions or help will be greatly appreciated.

Wish us luck, see you soon, hope you're also entering the new year as aggressively as possible.