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NEWS

2.28.2008

LEAP (YEAR) SHOW + TYLER BRITT'S 6TH BIRTHDAY PARTY!!!!!

THE LEAP (YEAR) SHOW
Friday the 29th of February at 7:30pm
at GOLDEN AGE
1500 W 17th Street, Chicago, IL
www.goldenagestore.com
www.dimeshow.com
$4

In celebration of Greeks who won't get hitched in intercalary years,
of the "Ladies' Privilege", of the Gregorian calendar that extends our
collective lives by one day for every 1460 lived, and of all y'all
birthday leaplings, Ben Russell and your pals at GOLDEN AGE are proud
to present an evening of Experimental Films Featuring Things That
Leap. We're talking FROGS and TOADS, of course - so hop on down to
Pilsen and check out our kino-swamp of frame-fluttering frogs,
animatronic amphibians, pixellated pipas, and truly terrifying toads.
Don't miss out - this is the sort of batrachian magic that only occurs
once every four years...

FEATURING: Frogland by Ladislaw Starewicz (8:00, 35mm on video, 1922);
A Frog on the Swing by Robert Breer (5:00, 16mm, 1989); Habitat
Batrachian by Rose Lowder (8:30, 16mm, 2006); Cane Toads by Mark Lewis
(65:00, video, 1988) TRT 86:30

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ALSO!

We are hosting a Birthday Party for artist Tyler Britt (our best customer) around 9pm at ALOGON Gallery: 1049 N Paulina #3r, Entrance on Cortez. He will be six.
Join us for birthday cake, dancing, beverages, and FUN!

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SYNOPSIS:

Frogland by Ladislaw Starewicz (8:00, 35mm, 1922)
Fleeing for his life following the Russian Revolution, Starewicz
settled in Paris and began to infuse his work with a subtle political
agenda. Sponsored by the expatriate Russian Art Society of Paris, this
short, sometimes entitled "Frogland," uses actual preserved frogs as
puppets to retell the fable of a group of frogs who demand Jupiter
send them a king. At first, he sends a log, which sits and does
nothing. Dissatisfied, the frogs plead to Jupiter (does he look a
little like Karl Marx?) to send somebody a bit more active. So Jupiter
sends a stork, who eats the frogs. Finally, Jupiter tops it all off
with a lightning bolt attack on the survivors. A conspicuous critique
of the recent political turmoil in Russia (from the disinterested tsar
to the vengeful Lenin), this beautifully animated work stands as a
political fable for any generation.

A Frog on the Swing by Robert Breer (5:00, 16mm, 1989)
This animated fable is centered around a backyard pond shown
intermittently in live-action scenes. A small child appears and
disappears in a ballet of crows, rabbits, monkey wrenches, and
goldfish. When the police arrive there are pot-shots at backyard
varmits, but the frog on the swing seems to survive it all. As usual
in Breer films, the soundtrack is often conspicuously out of sync with
the picture. Or is it vice versa when a crow goes "moo?"

Habitat Batrachian by Rose Lowder (8:30, 16mm, 2006)
In this film we move away from the notion of a work based on a
preconceived filming procedure adjusting the visual characteristics of
the image in order to approach the temporal dimension of a pond full
of frogs. In front of such creatures that tend to be elusive there
arises a question of more general interest as to how can one record
moments that are meaningful, how can one render visible, present a
moment that is alive and connect the items forming the different
recorded moments up together?

Cane Toads by Mark Lewis (65:00, video, 1988)
Cane Toads is a documentary detailing the spread of Hawaiian
sugar-cane toads (toads which live in the cane fields) through
Queensland and then into the rest of Australia following a
mis-informed attempt to introduce them to counter pests. Turns out
they wouldn't eat the 'cane grubs' but they would multiply like no
one's business... and they have no natural enemies in Australia at
all, partly due to their poisonous skin.

Curated By Ben Russell
www.dimeshow.com
www.magiclantern.org

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GOLDEN AGE -- 1500 W 17th Street, Chicago IL 60608 -- www.goldenagestore.com

Labels: Birthday, Frogs, Ladislaw Starewicz, Leap Year, Mark Lewis, Robert Breer, Rose Lowder, Tyler Britt