Love Fungus

I made a DVD this evening of one of the first of the “Grindhouse-A-Go-Go!” shows at Surf Reality, called “Tinea Tricolore: The Love Fungus“, written by Doug Black (aka The Purple Organ). I’m bringing it to school tomorrow at the request of my Art/Core professor, and thought I’d share it here as well. We performed it in 1999 and features me as a fresh-faced young 34 year old, along with Faceboy, Reverend Hank, Purple Organ, and the rest of the original Grindhouse crew. Watching it again, I had forgotten how political this particular piece was, and how it still somehow doesn’t feel that dated, even 9 1/2 years later.

WARNING: This is NOT safe for work – there is outright, in-your-face, full-frontal and full-backal nudity. If you are offended by that, please DO NOT watch this video.

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“Tinea Tricolore: The Love Fungus” was the third production in the infamous “Grindhouse-A-Go-Go!” series, a late night performance/party that was held at midnight at Surf Reality in NYC’s Lower East Side in the late 90’s-early 00’s. This show, performed in October of 1999, was by far the dirtiest (in terms of outright nudity) and probably our most political as well. Rudolph Giuliani was still mayor, and the show satires his campaign to “clean up New York” by shutting down strip clubs and replacing them with Disney stores, Banana Republics, K-Marts and Starbucks. Other issues of the day that make an appearance are: the toilet-plunger sodomy by the NYPD, the killing of Amadou Diallo (an unarmed man shot 41 times by police bullets), enforcement of NYC’s archaic cabaret laws and the gradual “whitening” of the city by selling off the island to the highest bidders – squeezing minorities out of their neighborhoods through the process of gentrification.

The performance features: The Purple Organ (also the writer), Jonny McGovern, Faceboy, Tom Tenney, TV Head, Ebony & Chiara, Eris Migliori, Ivan Ulz, and Reverend Hank (Hank Flynn) and was directed by Robert Prichard.