First Blood at the Program Launch

Right!

I'm sure word has reached most of you already, but last night You Are Here Festival managed to have what was probably the most exciting program launch that has ever taken place.

Canberra finally got to see the mysterious Mr B and his accomplice X in the flesh, the latter stamping people's programs to confirm their acceptability, and the former sharing a beer with members of the audience before opening the launch with what probably would have been a very illuminating speech.

I say probably because moments into the speech two costumed hecklers in the front row revealed themselves to be none other than T-Bone and Mac and proceeded to storm the stage.

Any question of the upcoming conflict betweent he two arts scene heavyweights being a peaceful was was immediately thrown out the window as T-Bone's violent threats were countered by X pulling a gun on him.

Yes a GUN. A big one too.

Mac immediately leapt into action performing sort of advanced martial-arts manuver to disarm X, but before these two femme fatales could come to further blows Mac seemed to recognise X. I believe she called her Betty? I'll look into this.

T-Bone ordered a hasty retreat, but not before a third member of their team, the mysterious Bird leapt onto stage and stole a document from X.

Mr B seemed rather concerned at this, ordered X to give chase and then apologised to the audience before leaving himself. The poor You Are Here producers then went ahead with the launch, probably thankful not actual blood had been spilled on their stage.

Does this all sound too unbelievable?

Well fortunately for you I've managed to source some footage of the event.

Watch it now, I've got the feeling the BMOA are going to do their best to have this taken down.




So three things to take away from all this:

• Firstly: AWESOME!
• Secondly: What was that document? Why was it such a big deal? Was this whole scenario devised to help T-Bone or the Bird steal it? I'll be doing a bunch of research into this soon, stay tuned.
• Thirdly: Again with this Bird, who is she?

It should be noted that the program was launched, it looks lovely, and is full of all sorts of crazy fun arts events that you should probably go check out. It's free, it's fun, it's art, plus now there's a good chance of a firefight ocurring at any given one of them.

As always, I'll be there keeping you in the know.

In closing: CANBERRA IS BRILLIANT AND I LOVE IT.

Make sure you keep checking out the #artctrl hashtag on twitter.
For those of you on Facebook it seems this page here has started up to keep track of what's going on. Have a peek.

Current Mood: All shaken up!
Current Music: Meat Loaf - All Revved up with No Place to Go.

Escalation!

A storm is coming art lovers and I doubt we could stop it even if we wanted to.

I really don't want to.

It's fascinating watching the pieces stack together.

The controversy, the government response, the rebellious elements rising up, the quizzes, the threats... the escalation.

A lot has happened in a very short amount of time and so this post is going to rush fairly quickly through these developments. I apologise. Each of these little plot points are worth an essay by themselves themselves, but I will have to settle for making sure you're up to date with the big events that have happened.

Firstlt it's worth noting that the You Are Here Festival has now been passed as "acceptable".

Good news for YAH and fans alike.

You've hopefully seen it by now but if you haven't check out the nomadic and volatile artist T-Bone's open declaration of war against Mr B and the BMOA:


Like with the interview between Andrew Galan and Mr B I believe we catch a glimpse of the BMOA's mysterious enforcer Ms X at the end.

We can only assume T-Bone and Mac got away from Ms X in order to post the video.

T-Bone's blog has been updated also.

This is only the start.

The BMOA have released The Doctrines of Acceptable Art Informational Quiz which local artists have been scrambling complete in a way that deems them "acceptable". Rumour has it that completeing the quiz "correctly" rewards the artist with... something? The stories are vague and people seem hesitant (perhaps frightened) to tell them.

Give it a go.

Speaking of rumours; the Bird has been making some noise on twitter, and I do mean noise.

She's said very little of value so far, but there are stories circulating that she's going to be a major player in the events to come. This alone makes her very very interesting to me.

Whose side is she on? I can't wait to find out.

Lastly we may have finally seen the face of Mr B, the new poster/logo of Acceptable Art has been revealed.

This image has been popping up around the place connected to BMOA approved events and posts. Is this the face of Mr B?

I guess we'll find out tomorrow at the You Are Here program launch at Smith's! I am so excited, I will be there covering the event, I hope to see all you art lovers there also.

If you can't make it I'll be live tweeting the event so keep an eye on the hastag #artctrl!

My scribe-sense tells me tomorrow is going to be big, lets hope T-Bone makes an appearance!

UPDATE: As I was writing this post T-Bone's site appears to have been hacked by the BMOA! It now features the face of Mr B and a statement delcaring the website was "unacceptable".

FIRST BLOOD! FIRST BLOOD!

How will T-Bone respond?

Can't wait for tomorrow!

Current Mood: Mildly concerned about how excited I'm getting about the chances of seeing a fight.
Current Music: Barry McGuire - Eve of Destruction

It's on like Donkey Kong

I love the smell of drama in the morning... evening,...11.30 at night... Whatever! I LOVE DRAMA ANYTIME!

The rumours are true, T-Bone is back in the ACT!

T-Bone's twitter account sprung back to life today and he wasted no time getting right back into the thick of it.

 

Threats, caps-lock, promises of change,  it's all here. I just know I won't be able to get to sleep tonight for all the excitement.

T-Bone is also making it very clear that the is personally targeting Mr B, the mysterious man behind the BMOA movement. I was expecting this, but actually hearing it has gotten my blood pumping.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, conflict creates art and it looks like we're in for some wonderful conflict.

On his (stunningly retro) blog, T-Bone said:
"I REVEAL, the PHONY who calls himself “MR B”. the BMOA will FALL & the LIZARD will RUN! I AM returned to THE CANBERRA."

What a wonderful wordsmith.

Interestingly You Are Here has commented on the matter, their official twitter account suggesting T-Bone take his complaints to LiveJournal instead of airing them on Twitter. Ouch!

Does this mean YAH has chosen its side in the upcoming conflict, or are they simply trolling T-Bone? I noted that the interviews embedded in the latest post on the You Are Here site all state that they are "Benevolent Ministry of Art Approved", the last interview being with Mr B himself.

IMPORTANT POINTS TO NOTE:

• Mr B states that they are still looking at the YAH program, maybe they're not approving all the events right away in order to have some leverage over the festival?
• Mr B says there is no chance that T-Bone will return, has word not reached him? Is he in denial? (Or more likely this interview was recorded before T-Bone made his announcement.)
• Is that Ms X we hear at the end bullying YAH interviewer Andrew Galan out of the room?

It seems I was right in assuming that the #artctrl hashtag would become the "official" place to keep up with what people are saying so make sure to direct your twitter client there to have a look.

Or, you know, just keep coming back here.

I am your man on the scene after all.

Current Mood: Ready for a scrap.
Current Music: P¡nk - So What

BMOA STARTING TO MAKE NOISE

Welcome back art lovers,

Our "Benevolent" Ministry of Art has posted an update on this Acceptable Art things they're gunning for.

Have a peek if you've yet to spot it.

There's not a huge amount of information there yet, but what is there is interesting. Apparently a public report was made on the findings of a survey into the effects of the acceptable art doctrines (WHERE WAS MY INVITE TO THE PRESS CONFERENCE BMOA?) highlights included an "Uptake in Voluntary Reduction in Theatre Production Edginess and a Diminishing Rate of Audience Tension during Musical and Poetical Performances."

It seems the BMOA are already claiming victory in this war, stating that the arts scene is already converting to their ideas on acceptable art. I wonder what T-Bone might have to say about this?

I note they didn't mention the recent controversy at the Fringe Festival surrounding the acceptability or non-acceptability of the Sass & Tease Collective's burlesque show there. Was that acceptable BMOA? Any comment there?

My favourite part of the article is this little gem:
"A Spokesperson who cannot be Named for Reasons of Security."

Really? This is the world we live in now? People commenting on arts legislation now need protection from reprisal? What kind of terrible dark cyberpunk-esque (ARTPUNK?) future do we find ourselves in?

THIS IS AWESOME.

Ladies and gentlemen this whole topic seems to be heating up and I will continue to keep you up to date with the latest info on the subject.

Follow me on Twitter: @theonescribe to keep up with the news.

Actually while you're at it following this @official_msx who is updating the BMOA site would probably be a reasonable idea too.

But mainly follow me, I mean I am your man on the scene.

Mood: Super excited.
Music: Bonnie Tyler - Holding out for a Hero.

Settling down in Canberra Town

Things are afoot in Canberra, and I feel a need to document them.

Anyone who has allowed even the smallest fraction of their attention to drift towards the arts scene here in Canberra can probably tell you that things are happening. I only recently found myself relocated here and I'm overwhelmed by all the activity around me. Wordsmiths, musicians, dancers and performers line the streets and new marvelous works seem to spring forth from the collective art-mind of this city daily. Art is booming, or perhaps 'escalating' is the word we should use.