Bluish Barn

This is the official post about the 24 Hour Theater event that happens one month from today, Cinco de Mayo, at the Bluish Barn. You might have noticed the page I put up a few weeks ago on the sidebar. Since then, we’ve had about a dozen or so people volunteer, and the event is taking shape. But we still need one more writer, three more directors, and 7-11 more actors.

The nice thing about this project is that it all happens in one day, meaning there is very little time commitment. Everyone puts in a few hours that day until their part is ready, and at 8:30pm the show happens with whatever amount of roughness or polish it has. A recipe for fun. Interested people should contact the organizer Onna at onnalyn AT gmail DOT COM.

Here’s her writeup:

24 Hour Theater is an experimental performance piece in which the entire process of a theatrical production is condensed into one day. Between the hours of midnight and 9 a.m., four playwrights will each create a 10 to 15 minute play to be performed by three actors. The actors arrive at 10 a.m. to memorize and rehearse the scripts. By noon, costume and set designers, technicians and crew will be sewing, painting, wiring, as time gets short and the energy mounts. The curtain rises at 8:30 p.m. In this experiment, the product is secondary to the creative process. The time frame calls for a level of improvisation, collaboration, and resourcefulness that will encourage spontaneity and creativity in every step of production. All of the artists involved will push the limits of their imaginative and physical stamina to create a public performance of intensity, originality and perhaps mass chaos.

It all happens Saturday May 5th [changed from April 28th] here at the Bluish Barn. Any interested writers, directors, actors, costume and set designers, or general helpers should email onnalyn at gmail dot com.

The time has come once again to make your suggestions for movies to screen when we start back up sometime this Spring.

Think of movies that would be good to see on the bigger screen out under the stars in our backyard. Truly independent movies, local movies, or impossibly artsy movies that deserve to be screened at a microcinema. Plus, we always try to fit one documentary and something foreign into each schedule.

If you’ve never posted a comment here before, your first post will be delayed for approval by the moderator (me). After I know you’re not spam, your comments get posted automatically. And you can always email me at timothy at bluishbarn dot com.

Here’s a list of some films we’ve screened already, to give you a taste of what we like:

July 19: The Cruise
July 27: The Warriors
August 3: Badlands
August 11: If…
August 18: Instrument
August 25th: Stand By Me
August 31: Breaking Away
Sep 14: Papillon (McQueen and Hoffman in classic prison escape flick)
Tues Sep 19: [Bollywood night] (to honor Twitch microcinema; curated by Vinh/Zack)
Sep 21: City of God (Brazil; growing up gangster in poor Rio de Janeiro)
Sep 28: Titticut Follies (Wiseman doc about mental institution talent show)
Oct 5: Wizard People, Dear Reader (Harry Potter re-narrated)
Mon Oct 9: Who is Bozo Texino? (secret history of hobo graffiti; $5-$10 sliding scale to Bill Daniel, travelling filmmaker)
Oct 12: the Celebration (Denmark; Dogme #1; family dinner gone wrong)
Oct 19: Plague Dogs (animation; escaped lab dogs hunted as Bubonic carriers)
Oct 26: the Fearless Vampire Killers (Polanski vampire spoof)
Nov 2: Ann Arbor Film Festival pre-screening screening
Jan 11: Assasination Tango - all Robert Duvall; with Argentinian food served by housemates just back from Argentina
Jan 18: Dead Man - Jarmusch directs, Depp stars, Neil Young scores
Jan 25: Madisonfest: A Documentary - premier of Shawn Wernette’s documentary featuring one song by almost every single performer at last summer’s local music fest
Feb 1: Zardoz - ridiculous 1974 sci-fi drama featuring a young Sean Connery in heels
Feb 8: A Thousand Clowns - how can you argue with the tagline: “lift for the spirits, laughter for everyone”
Feb 15: Elevator to the Gallows - Louis Malle directs, Miles Davis scores
Feb 22: the Beaver Trilogy - no link; it’s best not knowing anything about this before you see it; an experience
Mar 1: The Falcon and the Snowman - young Hutton/Penn as real-life spies Boyce/Lee
Mar 8: Death and the Maiden - Polanski’s takek on Dorfman’s play about justice and revenge; riveting
Mar 15: the Idiots - Dogme #2; Lars Von Trier directs a social experiment of ‘idiots’

Thesis Talk: 8 PM on Monday, April 2nd at the Bluish Barn. The talk will focus on the role of the artist as entrepreneur and uses for geolocative technologies other than finding a restaurant with good reviews. A guided walking tour will commence at the conclusion of the talk.

Exhibition: Online at Plugfinder.com, a website for ‘Finding & Using Open Electricity Outlets in Your Urban Environment’. A collaboration between Zack Denfeld and Hawker and Shill, this interactive mapping tool takes a look at the invisible infrastructure of the city, and turns the sidewalk into a place where things requiring electricity can happen.

I’ll be playing a short solo acoustic set, for the first time in about six months, this Saturday at my friends’ house.  Come, it’s free.

March 31st 7pm at the Island of Children’s Children (1508 Jewett)

Michael Anne Erlewine
Timothy Mephi
The Blades of Grass
Boxcars

FREE, all ages

The next Shadow Art Fair will be Saturday, July 14th, from noon to midnight, at Ypsilanti’s Corner Brewery. Mark your calendars.

Artists can submit an application by April 14. We’ll let you know whether or not you’ve been accepted by May 1.

Designers can submit a poster design and win $50, their design screen-printed by VGKids, and a few copies of the poster. For details, click here.

This time the music will happen outside under a tent in the beergarden. Confirmed acts so far are Annie Palmer, Lyman Rhodes, and Martes Martes. Interested bands please email timothy at mongo deco dot com.

Media people can read our lastest press release.

So I’d been meaning to write a roundup of Ann Arbor microcinema offerings when I find out a few weeks ago that the Current has gone and done their own little “Cheap and Free Film” writeup. Well, turns out they missed a few things, and not just the Bluish Barn. (Actually, we’re trying not to promote our screenings much until the Summer, when we can handle more guests.) Anyway, here’s a slightly more exhaustive list of alternative movie options in and around Ann Arbor. All events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.

The Smithee Award Ceremony is held (semi-?)annually in Ann Arbor. The Smith-ka-teers present scenes from the year’s worst films and audience members vote for the winners in several hilarious categories. I went to the last one, and let me tell you, this is a rollicking good time, especially for dorks like me.

A few microcinema options might have been left out of the Current’s article because they don’t appear to be screening much at the present moment. But check the websites of Projectorhead and Cinema Guild for more information, because both of these student groups has been up to much good in the past.

Also not mentioned: WCBN hosts Free Movie Night on the second Tuesday of every month (this semester at least) at Live @ PJ’s.

Cinema Slam, in addition to screening mostly local short films at the Screening Room of the Michigan Theater the second Tuesday of each month (tickets are $5), also has some part in running the Microcinema Gallery in the lobby of the Michigan Theater. The Microcinema Gallery screens “work by visual artists working with moving pictures around the world”, especially work “which would be more appropriate in a gallery setting”. Local filmmakers are encouraged to submit your own work to both of these venues.

This one’s almost too obvious to mention, but the Ann Arbor Summer Festival’s screens big family-friendly Hollywood hits during Top of the Park from June 15 - July 8th outside at Ingalls Mall, in front of Rackham Auditoriium. Bands play before the films.

And here again are the rest of the offerings that the Current’s article did mention:

EMU Office of Campus Life screens “big movies before they’re on DVD” now through April at the EMU Student Center Auditorium Friday nights and Monday middays. FREE for EMU students, faculty, staff, and their family and friends all fall and winter semesters. Schedule.

M-Flicks, the U-M student group, screens anything “from special sneak previews to older (20+ year old) classics” during Fall and Winter semesters at various campus locations, usually Angell Hall and the Natty Sci.

The Center for Japanese Studies screens Japanese films well-curated into various Series during the U-M Fall semester at Askwith Auditorium in Lorch Hall.

The Center for Chinese Studies screens Chinese films occasional Saturdays 7pm at Angell Hall Auditorium A. Schedule.

The Center for Russian and Eastern European Studies sometimes has a Film Series as part of their department events. This term it’s three Wednesdays in March 7pm at Angell Hall Auditorium A.

And then there’s our house, which screens whatever the hell we feel like screening during 8-10-week programs each season, usually Thursdays 9pm.

Let me know if I’ve left anything out or gotten anything wrong.

Next Thursday January 25th 9pm is your chance to hear one song by almost every single performer at last Summer’s Madisonfest. (One person declined to be filmed and the footage of two others was ruined somehow.) Local filmmaker Shawn Wernette was there with his camera during the entire local music festival, and he’s premiering his finished work here at the Bluish Barn.

Of course, if you missed the Madisonfest, this is your chance to get a sense of what happened. But what I like about the format is that it performs a sort of leveling to what can be a confusing and seemingly impenetrable local music scene for people who might not have ever heard of Madisonfest. You don’t have to be part of the scene to know about some obscure house show where one of these artists is playing. You don’t have to stay up late in a smoky bar or sit awkwardly among a bunch of reverent scenesters. And you don’t have to be assaulted with reminders about merch for sale or feel weird about leaving to go to the bathroom - or just leaving. People ignorant of the local “folk” scene - or whatever it’s called - can judge the performers alongside each other onscreen, one song at a time.

It’s incredibly mediated, but incredibly convenient, like many modern pleasures. Come get to know a huge chunk of Ann Arbor’s local music scene in 2 hours in the comfort of the Bluish Barn parlor room.

UPDATE: As I write this, a small army is working to cut the limbs that fell in our neighbor’s backyard and restore power by tonight!  (The friendly workers even agreed to let the wood drop onto our side of the fence so I could cut it up into firewood.)  So tonight’s screening of Dead Man is on!

Huge thanks to our new hardcore roommate Christina and Girl Next Door for sticking it out with me for 4 days of 40-degree temperatures inside our house. All our other neighbors were smart - though unadventurous - and left.

Now I’ll be the first to admit that 40 degrees doesn’t sound all that cold. We’ve all spent a night or two camping in that kind of weather. But when it’s inside your house, all day long, and the high outside is in the 20s, and there’s no light for most of the time, it can be very taxing.

And in the middle of all this, what arrives in the mail? An energy bill from DTE. Sorry if I don’t exactly hurry to pay that one.

So anyway, we’ll be truly celebrating tonight. Come join us.

ORIGINAL POST:

When freezing rain hits just before a deep freeze, everyone has a good few days to pull out our phones - I mean our cameras - and take pictures of things like this:

But something like 36,000 powerless DTE customers also have a good few days to freeze our asses off. Mid-day temperature reading inside the Bluish Barn today: 40 degrees.

40 degrees! We can see our breath quite well.

DTE says - but doesn’t promise - that power will be restored by Thursday afternoon. If it’s not, Thursday’s 9pm screening of Dead Man might have to be cancelled.

Here’s the movies we’re going to screen this Winter. The rule about always screening movies at least one of us has seen went completely out the window. Half of these were recommended by regular guests and will be fresh viewings for us. Come join us, it should be fun. Every Thursday, 9pm, free, BYO.

Jan 11: Assasination Tango - all Robert Duvall; with Argentinian food served by my housemates just back from Argentina
Jan 18: Dead Man - Jim Jarmusch directs, Johnny Depp stars, Neil Young scores; Western
Jan 25: Madisonfest: A Documentary - premier of Shawn Wernette’s documentary featuring one song by almost every single performer at last summer’s local music fest
Feb 1: Zardoz - ridiculous 1974 sci-fi drama featuring a young Sean Connery in heels
Feb 8: A Thousand Clowns - how can you argue with the tagline: “lift for the spirits, laughter for everyone”
Feb 15: Elevator to the Gallows - Louis Malle directs, Miles Davis scores
Feb 22: the Beaver Trilogy - no link; it’s best not knowing anything about this before you see it; an experience
Mar 1: The Falcon and the Snowman - young Hutton/Penn as real-life spies Boyce/Lee
Mar 8: Death and the Maiden - Polanski’s takek on Dorfman’s play about justice and revenge; riveting
Mar 15: the Idiots - Dogme #2; Lars Von Trier directs a social experiment of ‘idiots’

Please arrive on time and be respectful of our house and neighbors. Thanks.

We will not be having a New Year’s party this year here at the Barn. The basement just isn’t ready for dancing right now. But we’re helping to organize something with our friends at the White House. Join us for a tribute to James Brown and more.

Come as early as 10pm or as late as 2am.  We’ll be there.