Reports are coming in fast and fervent from several friends who attended this year’s Tribal Fest in Sebastopol that the following duet between Rachel Brice (featured many times on Coilhouse) and Illan Rivière (also featured here previously) was one of the most electrifying performances at the diverse and thriving event:

Illan’s solo performance and Rachel’s group piece with her PDX troupe Datura are inspiring to watch as well. In fact, the entire video list for Tribal Fest 2012 over at YouTube is chock full of beauty and splendor and kinship. It would be easy to lose hours watching all of these wonderful dancers.

By the bye… a reminder that print Issue Six of Coilhouse Magazine features a beautiful in-depth feature about Brice and the modern tribal belly dance movement. We still have copies available for sale in the online shop, and when you buy that way, you also get a free, high quality download of a Rachel Brice music video that was produced for Coilhouse by the wonderful folks at Purebred Pro.

Guh… buh… WHAAAA:

This is footage of Arkansas-born tricking phenom Brandon “Li’l B” McCuien, rumbling and tumbling at Loopkicks Camp 2011 in San Jose, California. Utterly bonkers. (And the random tacked-on ending is hilarious.)

Previously on Coilhouse:

• Tricker Hit Parade and the Hastening Heartbeat
• The Ross Sisters: Solid Potato Salad!
• Briohny Smith for Equinox
• SAMPARKOUR

LA-based imagemaker/mover/shaker Sequoia Emmanuelle has just premiered this video of dancer Auberon Shull (definitely watch it full screen):

Filmed, edited and directed by Sequoia Emmanuelle
Dance by Auberon Shull
Hair and makeup by Ashley Joy Beck
Costumes by Tiffa Novoa and Auberon Shull
Music by Distance and Adventure Club

Auberon is a powerhouse. Sequoia, too, is a force of nature who has shot countless portrait series and fashion editorials with all manner of West Coast lovelies: Skingraft, Eskmo, Zoe Jakes and Rachel Brice (for Tawapa/Wild Card/Five and Diamond), Galareh, Kucoon, Beats Antique, Lucent Dossier Vaudeville Circus, El Circo… the list’s about a mile long. In addition to her photography portfolio and video work, Sequoia’s also got a well-established background in fashion design (check out her S&G Clothing line), wardrobe styling, painting, and graphic design.

Recently, she took the time to answer a few questions about her collaboration with Auberon, and to let us know what’s coming next. (Thank you, Sequoia! Always a pleasure.)

Much of the Coilhouse readership is already familiar with your photography, but this may be the first time many of us have (knowingly) watched a video by you. Can you tell us a bit about the differences and parallels between your creative process shooting/editing film and your photography methods?
Sequoia Emmanuelle: I grew up watching music videos, [they're] a huge inspiration to me, and I have always planned on getting more involved with film/video as well as photography. In the last year I have been working on several videos for fashion, music and dance. It feels very natural to the way I see things for photography, but of course it is very different, too. For one thing, everything you shoot needs to be horizontal, so it changes the composition of how you set things up. Your lenses change, and lighting changes. You can’t use strobe lights for video, so you have to set things up quite differently. When it comes to editing, it’s quite involved, because you have to pay attention to all the moving details and make your cuts flow in an interesting and creative way, not to mention syncing up the music. Right now I am focusing on simple ways of creating artistic videos… using less is more for the time being, and I’ll surely get more experimental as I keep working at it.

In this advert, an exquisitely beautiful and powerful yogini, Briohny Smyth, clad in fetching skivvies, moves through her acrobatic morning practice in a million dollar Manhattan apartment for all us wistful voyeurs while her oblivious bedroom companion snoozes away in the background:

Well played, Equinox. Manipulative as hell –as many have noted– but still. Well played, ye bastards.

(Not your scene? There’s always “Cat Helps With Yoga Routine“!)

“I had some kind of epiphany about not chasing something in the above-ground world. Something happened in me that I no longer wanted to be in a band that wanted to be famous and go on tour. I just wanted to do something that was ours. I guess it was firmly planting myself in the underground, not after some kind of success that my parents would like.

…In the olden days of New York they had bands and dancing. Dancing and performers of every kind — spoken word, circus, whatever — in the same venue. Places like the Mud Club or Danceteria had a lot of different spaces and a lot of different installations and all kinds of different people went.

And then this weird thing happened when it suddenly became all giant discos and little rock bars. And those people never went to the same place anymore. It seemed like when we started doing Rubulad that people really wanted to be in the same space. They wanted to watch a band and go dance. And be happy.”

~Sari Rubinstein, co-founder of Rubulad, interviewed by Nonsense NYC

Photo via the Essentialist.

Oh, loves. We cover a lot of micropatronage drives on da ‘Haus, but the Rubulad Kickstarter project is especially near and dear. They have been an indescribably huge inspiration to many, many people involved with Coilhouse.

What is Rubulad? Back in 1993, two lovely souls named Sari Rubinstein and Chris Thomas took out a lease on a 5,000 square foot basement in south Williamsburg. Maybe a dozen other people got in on that initial deal, mostly artists and musicians in need of a cheap communal space where they could spread out and work. They all started building up and decorating the space communally. Soon, it became a fun, subterranean hang-out location that drew all sorts of kindred spirits together for dinners, readings, rehearsals, etc.

After a while, Sari, Chris, and their cohorts started throwing parties to cover each month’s rent. Over the course of the next few years, Rubulad (cleverly named with touch-tone letters that corresponded to the space’s phone number)’s space began to evolve, to literally bloom (with vibrant paper flowers, glittering murals, rope vines, colored glass, paper mache sculptures), and the parties developed into these elaborately themed bohemian blow-outs. They. Are. Fucking. AMAZING. For seventeen years now…

(Hang on, let’s take a moment. Seventeen. YEARS.

Yeah.)

…Rubulad has been instrumental in planning and throwing all kinds of events. They’ve already had to move their main warehouse space twice, but their warm, inviting DIY ethic has never faltered or changed; it’s only grown stronger.

Via DJ DeadBilly.

Dapper band nerds + waterfowl = ZOMGSQUEE. Who knew?!

It’s a momentous week for Coilhouse Magazine and Blog. Please be sure to check in often, as we’ll be making a lot of important announcements over the next few days. The first of which iiiis…

THE NEW PRINT ISSUE. It’s so close. Eeeee! Better late than never, right? We couldn’t have pushed through and gotten it completed, paid for and printed without the tremendous support our readers, contributors and friends have given us. Once again, huge gratitude to every single person who has helped out.

Today, we want to extend a special thank you to two volunteer videographers who captured footage of our big fundraising birthday party in New York City last August: Keith Jenson and Abigail Amalton. Keith and Abi have shot and produced not one, but two gorgeous video mementos of the event. Here they are:

“On August 21, 2011 Coilhouse left the cozy comforts of their west coast catacombs to throw an epic fundraiser at the Red Lotus Room in Brooklyn, New York for the release of Issue 6 (of their oh-so-beautiful print magazine) and to celebrate their fourth birthday! Over 300 people turned up to the Gemini & Scorpio-presented event for a dancey, glittery, silk/fire/trapeze/music-infused evening full of wonder and awe and love.”

Keith and Abi are sweethearts with quite the squee-inducing origin story! At the Ball, they told Mer that Coilhouse actually played a substantial role in bringing them together; when they first met, Keith noticed some of Abi’s Coilhouse schwag, and they bonded over their mutual appreciation for the site and the mag. (SWOOOON.)

Thank you so much for coming out and documenting that wonderful night, you beauties.

Keith & Abi at the Ball. Photo by Steve Prue.

Also see:

• Steve Prue’s B & W & R Photo Booth Portraits
• Coilhouse can’t stop saying THANK YOU!

EDITOR’S NOTE– This installment of Kim Boekbinder’s ongoing Occupy Everywhere series is supplemented by our longtime chum, photographer Neil Girling. Neil recently traveled from California to New York to document various aspects of the Occupation there. Check out his Flickrstream for dozens more OWS/NYC pictures.

All photos and photo captions for this post © Neil Girling.

I’m sitting on a wall in the South West corner of Liberty Plaza, across from a solar energy truck and a CNN van, listening to snippets of conversations as people pass me by.

“I’ve been waiting my whole life for something like this to happen” is the thing I hear the most.

“This is so much nicer than a protest.”

“This is the real America.”

“This is leverage.”

The weather is beautiful and the park is full of people, jam-packed today; it’s too many to be comfortable, but the growth of the movement is amazing. Tourists and hippies are all together: arguing, dancing, taking pictures of each other.

An estimated 3,000 showed up at Zuccotti Park at 6am Friday morning (10/14/2011) to defend the occupation against the intended eviction by NYPD.

Everybody is talking to everybody else here, and they are not always agreeing.

Next to me, a woman from Armenia explains that poverty is the fault of the people who are poor. Not only that, but people who are poor are poor by choice; they want to be poor. The man she is talking to has large hoops in his stretched ears, he holds a sign that says, “Fuck: money, war, police brutality…”

Protester, Times Square (10/15/2011).

The drum circle is jubilant and loud. Attractive and dirty young people lounge on plastic-wrapped mattresses, smoking hand rolled cigarettes. There are lots of funny haircuts and piercings. Some of the people sleeping here look like they’d be sleeping on the street anyway.

Occupy Wall Street is a political carnival, a free-for-all of information, misinformation, good times, protest, and personal political expression. The drum circle never stops, not even for the General Assembly. It’s annoying and frustrating to some organizers. But it’s not any louder than NYC is at any time – subways, hovering helicopters, sirens, jackhammers, traffic.

Guy Fawkes-masked protester. October 14, 2011.

There are people here trying to end capitalism, people who want to end Columbus Day, people who want to end meat-eating, war, or the war on drugs. There are artists and musicians, politicians and writers; there are mini-celebrities looking to enhance their image, activists looking to garner support for their own objectives, hippies just getting high on the revolutionary life. Everybody is trying to co-opt the movement, for fun or profit or cool factor or political gain.  But Occupy Wall Street shrugs them all off: all of the celebrities, all of the politicians, even the free-loving, drum-circling, dreadlocked occupiers.

While Occupy Wall Street embraces the spectacle it has become, it is also not letting the spectacle undermine its status as a powerful agent of change.

GEMINI & SCORPIO Present: The Black & White & Red All Over Ball. (Flyer by Nadya & Nicole, inspired by Courtney Riot. Imagery courtesy of Helen White & Amelia Arsenic.)

For years and years and years, we’ve been talking about throwing an epic Coilhouse party in New York City. There’s a lot to celebrate: our vibrant family of East Coast-based Coilhouse contributors and compatriots, the four-year anniversary of the Coilhouse site, and, of course, the imminent release of Coilhouse Issue 06… which is gorgeous, by the way! (It’s visually unlike anything else we’ve attempted thus far. So much hard and occasionally heartrending work has been poured into this issue over the past year, by a big team of devoted staffers, contributors, interns and editors.)

In keeping with the distinct color scheme of Issue 06, and with a cheery nod to the slapdash, seat-o-the-pants times Coilhouse currently finds itself in, we’re calling our Coilbash The Black & White & Red All Over Ball. We are striving to make it the fanciest, most weird and wonderful costume ball of our career thus far. And, quite frankly, we’re not only hoping for, but counting on a healthy turnout, in spite of the short notice-ness. We really hope to see you there. It’s not just about the Benjamins. Honestly, we’re aching for a proper Big Apple shindig. We dearly want to meet and greet and hug the stuffing out of all our East Coast lovelies, and then maybe dance the night away, if that’s all right with you? We feel like it’s way past due.

With a little (actually a LOT) of help from our friends, we’ve been getting the word out, and lining up an incredible array of art and performance. Two dozen fabulous silent auction items have been donated by Coihouse featured artists, friends and contributors. We’ve locked down a lavish venue, and we’re ready to rock your socks off. HOLY SHIT. GUYS. LET’S DO THIS.

Please do read further for more details.

Our beautiful venue, the Red Lotus Room.

First of all, check out the space! We shall be getting our boogie on in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, at the sumptuous, sprawling, velvety Red Lotus Room, home of the legendary Shanghai Mermaid speakeasy. When Mer first sent out a big “CALLING ALL CARS” email to her NYC crew, several people recommended we get in touch with the lovely Juliette, who runs both the space and the speakeasy. Juliette is a kindred spirit for sure, deeply committed to DIY community and the arts. Asian lanterns and chandeliers, exposed wood beam ceilings, red velvet-draped walls… oh my!

Upon arrival at the Red Lotus Room, revelers will enter a secret, lush cabaret universe to an extravaganza of live music, dance and circus performances. Aerialists… fire… projec​tions… Dadaist spectacle… surprises galore. Dance to rollicking sets from DJ luminaries. Bid on silent auction items donated by longtime supporters and featured Coilhouse artists: a splendid array of autographed prints and books, and one-of-a-kind art objects. (PS: we’re working to see if we can’t arrange for this to be an international auction, to make things more interesting!) Mix and mingle with Coilhouse staff and family of longtime East Coast contributors, including Molly Crabapple, Clayton James Cubitt, and Jeff Wengrofsky. Angeliska Polacheck is even flying in from Austin for this! Plus, partygoers will get the first glimpse of Coilhouse Issue Six, and an opportunity to pre-order it at a discount. There will be tea ceremony, there will be booze, there will be belly dancers and cabaret, flaming poi and flying trapeze. Most of all, there will be a whole lotta love in the dang room, because the night of August 21st is all about Coilhouse celebrating its birthday, and most importantly, its community.

So, yes. As you can see, the space is amazing. Then there’s the phenomenal party production team, Gemini & Scorpio, who are presenting the evening’s festivities. G&S have stepped up in the most gobsmackingly incredible way to help us to list, promote, organize, cat-herd and co-curate this shindig.  Run by “two artsy New York City gals and creators of G&S’ Fabulous Guide to Online Dating (old, but useful!)” our cherished and generous G&S team are: “Smart, creative, funky and different, just like the people we are here to meet. Our email list spreads the word on underground happenings in NYC you’d otherwise never hear about, and our own–sometimes unbelievable–parties bring our thousands-strong creatives’ community offline.” Holy macaroni, they’re badass.

With their help, combined with the counsel and kindness of our dear friend Shien Lee of Dances of Vice (be sure to scroll down and take note of the DoV/Coilbash two-event deal!), and the wisdom of the aforementioned Juliette and Shanghai Mermaid, we have been able to reach further and deeper into the NYC underground than we ever could on our own from way over here in sunny Cali. Our lionhearted comrade and champion, Molly Crabapple, has also been helping out tremendously with backline support. In the midst of all of this last-minute chaos, whenever we take a brief moment to catch our breath, we feel like we’re swooning in the outpouring of love, support and advice we’ve received from all of these women, their extended networks, and beyond. (Thank you, lovely ladies. THANK you, thank you, thank you. We can never say it enough. We are so darn grateful to all of you.)

With their help, and in cahoots with countless other members of da ‘Haus’s own extensive tribe in NYC (who will undoubtedly be getting a ton of blog shout-outs and love over the next few weeks), we’ve been able to confirm a lot of fantastic talent over the past couple of days, with more acts to be added over the next week. Here’s the current roster:

Kim Boekbinder. Photo by Marianne Bijou.

Franz Nicolay. Photo by Konstantin Sergeyev.

Brian Viglione. Photo by Ethan Miller.

The Fishtank Ensemble (Promo photo.)

MUSIC: Kim Boekbinder (Vermillion Lies) Our beloved genre-defying songstress of murderous waltzes and epic pop ballads will woo us with voice, guitar, looping pedal and a bag full of mystery. In Coilhouse’s review of her album The Impossible Girl, Mer described her as  “a bravely vulnerable, electrifying lightning rod of a woman.” She is all that and more. The wondrous Fishtank Ensemble (fellow Californians who just happen to be in NYC this week) will give us a blissful, heartmelting, booty-shakin’ dose of their signature blend of Roma, Serbian, flamenco, manouche, Turkish and Greek music, plus original compositions! Franz Nicolay (World Inferno, Hold Steady, Guignol) is a dashing moutsachioed multi-instrumentalist, composer, and the hardest working boho-accordionist in NYC. Brian Viglione (Dresden Dolls, World Inferno, Gentlemen & Assassins), who will be providing us with an assortment of unfettered, theatrical DRUM SOLOS throughout the evening, is an energetic, expressive, percussive powerhouse. Thomas Negovan, bless his beautiful heart, is flying all the way from Chicago to give us a delicious taste of occult-tinged, erotic, 1920s cabaret songcraft. Kelvin Daly, builder of unique musical instruments, will favor us with mysterious and elegant performances. Theremina (yes, that’s Mer’s stage name, shhh!) will humbly provide a wee bit of wistful, theremin-drenched ambient music to sway and swoon to. Ooo, and then there are the DJs! Wengrofsky – Scrappy and eclectic vinyl wizardry. PUREVILE! – Sets of new wave, dark glam, new romantic from the co-founder of DISKO NOUVEAUX.

Sarah Hassan

Sky Claudette. Photo by Jeffrey Grossman.

Our ringmaster, SF SLIM. Photo by Jacob Appelbaum.

DANCE/CABARET: Our darling, delicious blog contributor, Sarah Hassan, will be taking the stage as a Bellow Dancer & Bedouin Showgirl. Paige & Ahnika (recently ‘Haused here) will provide a set of electrifying, emotive, empowering belly dance. LeRoi Prince is bringing us a bit of Weimar drag/burlesque genderfuckery with swagger and class. Liron & Daly, a bewitching husband and wife team, will give us aerials performed to live musical accompaniment. Eros Fyre – Sky & Vlad will perform feats of fire magick. Ian Baker of Interpretive Arson will be bringing out the fire rope dart. Our Master of Ceremonies is the one and only SF SLIM. Slim’s been a friend of ours for years; he’s a charming collaborative culture evangelist and a nattily-dressed Joy-Facilitator who “eats concepts and makes things”. We’re overjoyed that he’s agreed to be our ringmaster, in addition to helping out behind the scenes.

Muffinhead! Photo by Gabi Porter.

Some of Empire S.N.A.F.U.’s unsettling art.

PUREVILE!

MISCELLANEOUS SPECTACLE & ODDITY: Some sort of gorgeously unsettling, as-of-yet-determined “art incident” courtesy of EMPIRE S.N.A.F.U will occur. S.N.A.F.U. is “a feverish visual and theatrical mélange of dystopian technology, sexual obsolescence, and implied religion,” painstakingly assembled from a vast and unsettling assortment of found materials. Muffinhead - Lavishly costumed, colorful performance absurdist; a spectacular cartoon imaginary made real. The PUREVILE! girls – Exquisite living dolls unearthed from some great-great-auntie’s steamer trunk, bedecked in bespoke post-apocalyptic Victorian finery. Three-minute theremin lessons from Mer, if you’re game to make some woo-woo noises. AND! Last but not least, a Black & White & Red All Over Photo Booth.

SILENT AUCTION. Items will include art donated by Diamanda Galas, Molly Crabapple, Jessica Joslin, Paul Komoda, Jason Levesque & Xeni Jardin, Century Guild, Disinfo, PUREVILE!, Kate O’Brien, Nicole Aptekar, and Asha Beta. There will also be a full set of the out-of-print, highly collectible back-issues of Coilhouse (Issues 1-5).

COSTUME SUGGESTIONS: Sharp curves in black and white and red, in keeping with the German Expressionist/Bauhau​s/Constructivist color palette of the upcoming Coilhouse print issue. Think decadent Weimar, 1920s Soviet Union, Klaus Nomi, origami-inspired, architectural, Metropolis, or De Stijl fashion. Polar Bear & Penguin? Nun in red fishnets! Valentine’s Day Zebra. Vampire and Midnight Snack. Anything in the color scheme goes, as long as you GO FOR IT.

VIP TICKETS: Donations over $30 will grant patrons 5 pm admission for an East-meets-West tea service, and first access to the silent auction. The tea service will be from 5-7. Enjoy live acoustic music and crackling wax-cylinder ambiance, private salon performances, and cozy conversation with Coilhouse co-founding editors Nadya Lev and Meredith Yayanos. Depending on donation level, there are many goodies to be had! VIP pricing structure is as follows:

• $30 Coilhouse buttons + stickers + baubles
• $50 Coilhouse buttons + stickers + Coilhouse I/I/I coffee mug
• $75 Coilhouse buttons + stickers + plus codes for DRM-free, high res PDF downloads of Coilhouse out-of-print back issues 1-5 + Coilhouse laptop vinyl.
• $100 All of the above + limited edition “Interstellar Vanguard” print by Zoetica Ebb. (Print exclusive to this tier.)
• $150 Everything in $75 gift bag + free pre-order of upcoming Issue Six print mag + a signed one-of-a-kind magazine proof from a past issue of Coilhouse.
• $200 All of the above + second printer’s proof + a trip to the COILBOX to pick out a final “mystery merch” item worth $30 – $50
• $300 All of the above + acknowledgment in print Issue 07 as a Coilhouse Print Patron + personalized thank-you card from Nadya Lev and Meredith Yayanos.

GENERAL ADMISSION. The main event starts at 7:00 and goes until midnight. Entrance is $15.

Admission to the main party event is included with all VIP tea service and salon tickets.

SPECIAL DEAL FOR DANCES OF VICE ATTENDEES! The DoV Enchantment Under the Sea Dance is happening on Saturday, August 20th. Why not make a cross-pollinating, bohemian art and culture blow-out of the whole weekend? We’ve teamed up with Shien and Co. to offer a special ticket to those who attend both events. For $25, you can be a guest at both parties. This will gain you general admission entrance to both events.

LOCATION. Red Lotus Room. 893 Bergen (between Classon and Franklin). It’s a wee bit off the beaten path, but hey, aren’t we all?! There is a subway stop close by, and we’re arranging to have some clear (and possibly quite entertaining) signposts up for all folks coming by public transit from the train station to the venue.

WHAT NOW? All that’s left is for you to buy tickets and RSVP! See you there, loves.

• Buy Tickets Here
• RSVP on Facebook

Jocelyn Marsh wearing a headdress by Tiffa Novoa. Photo by Brion Topolski. 2005.

Recently, Jenka Gurfinkel –a longtime mover/shaker in the California indie cirque scene– wrote “Why You’re Wearing Feathers Right Now”, a fantastic personal essay that happens to dovetail nicely (pun intended) with the extensive Tiffa Novoa love fest we ran in Coilhouse Magazine last year. Gurfinkel’s unique take on the current exploding trend of plumage in both indie and mainstream fashion is a deft mix of memoir and cultural nodal point-mapping:

“In the summer of 2011, feathers have become a staple of every sartorial and tonsorial aspect imaginable. The other day I was asked my opinion as to where this current ubiquity of feathers has come from. But as it turns out, I happen to have something better than an opinion: I have an explanation.”

El Circo performer at Burning Man, 2005. Photo by Siouxzen Kang.

“Just two years out of college, I stumbled into the role of production manager for a newly-formed, L.A.-based vaudeville cirque troupe called, Lucent Dossier. Through that initial involvement with Lucent I would meet many other circus groups, including El Circo, who were by then based in San Francisco along with The Yard Dogs Road Show and Vau De Vire Society. There was also March Fourth Marching Band in Portland, Clan Destino in Santa Barbara, and Cirque Berzerk, and Mutaytor in L.A. As these acts grew, the I-5 Freeway became a central artery of culture, pumping a distinct combination of art, music, fashion, and performance up and down the west coast. A social scene evolved around these circus troupes the same way the punk subculture sprang up around the bands that defined it.”

Full page Issue 05 Coilhouse spread of performer Joshua David wearing a Ernte feather headdress by Tiffa Novoa. Photo by Spencer Hansen.

“In the early to mid-aughts (when the photos above were taken) the feather was as de rigueur a cultural signifier within the circus scene as the safety pin was for punks in the late 1970s and early 80s. In fact, back before it was so commonplace as to lose meaning (or induce a national feather shortage), condescending terms for those sporting the look sprang up within the subculture: “Feather mafia,” was one I heard thrown around; ‘Trustafarian peacock‘ even made it into UrbanDictionary.com. And then, something else began to happen…”

View the full essay at Social Creature dot com.

As far as this ubiquitous trend of wearing feathers goes– if you adorn with birdie bits, please consider researching where they come from! Buying ethically and responsibly is beautiful. Here are some great resources:

• Feather Drop: For the Advocacy and Collection of Cruelty Free Feathers
• The Happy Rooster
• Cruelty Free Feather listings on Etsy
• Frogworks Jewelry