While this isn’t technically performance-related, the MIX Festival is great and you should check it out. They’re having a big fabulous launch party. See below and after the jump…

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MIX NYC, the non-profit media arts organization behind the annual New York Lesbian & Gay Experimental Film Festival will kick off its 2006 fundraising effort, The Naked Eye Celebrity Camera Auction, with a blockbuster launch party, presented by award-winning filmmaker/actor John Cameron Mitchell and The L Word’s Daniela Sea!

In keeping with MIX NYC’s mission to promote, provoke and celebrate artistic experimentation, the organization sent out brand-new disposable Kodak cameras to artists far and wide-maverick filmmakers, indie rockers, sci-fi novelists, Hollywood lights, East Village club kids, porn auteurs-asking each of them to expose the film, but return the camera undeveloped. These unprocessed cameras-unique objets d’art created by dozens of the most exciting luminaries in the arts today-will be made available in an exciting online auction, starting at the launch party.

Collectors, fans and friends will have the opportunity to bid on eBay for cameras shot by Gus Van Sant, Laurie Anderson, Alan Cumming, Lucy Liu, Debbie Harry, Scott Heim, Jill Clayburgh, Charles Busch, Todd Oldham, John Cameron Mitchell, Peter Berlin and more than a hundred others!

The launch party, to be held Tuesday, May 16th, 2006, at 7 p.m., at the new Leslie/Lohman Art Gallery at 26 Wooster Street, in New York City, will be hosted by Murray Hill, with live music performances by Bitch, Bora Yoon, and Michael O’Neill, and an acrobalancing performance by Rose Calucchia, Alison Bear, and (M) Lollo. Guests also will have the chance to win fantastic prizes, like a free haircut from Tease Salon, free brunch from Prune, COLT studio DVDs and more.

Proceeds from the auction will benefit MIX NYC, producer of the New York Lesbian & Gay Experimental Film Festival, the longest-running queer film festival in New York City and a decisive launching pad for emerging talents-including some of the best-known names in cinema today.

Today, MIX NYC is growing: the organization is ratcheting up its community-screenings program across the five boroughs, connecting with new audiences, and launching an ambitious new youth education program. This auction will help to support a bigger and brighter future!

MIX has always aimed for the jugular: a ruffled New York magazine critic once wrote of the festival, “[It’s] definitely for the serious filmgoer; probably not for the prude.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves! In MIX NYC’s notoriously edgy, experimental style, The Naked Eye Celebrity Camera Auction promises to be an exciting, not-to-be-missed cultural event in itself-“the kind of non-traditional tradition New York needs right now like a tonic,” as HX magazine quipped-sure to push buttons.

Admission to this benefit event is $20, and includes the giveaways, an open bar, free hors d’oeuvres, and hobnobbing with the celebrity photographers, and more! Tickets will be available at the door. DJs at 7 PM, and performances begin at 9:30 PM.

MIX NYC sponsors include Kodak, HX, GO, Soho Letterpress, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

A full list of celebrity photographers and performers is attached.

Press Contacts:

Stephen Kent Jusick, Executive Director / skj@mixnyc.org
André Hereford, Co-Director / andre@mixnyc.org

MIX Office: 212.742.8880 / www.mixnyc.org

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Complete list of Celebrity Photographers

We’ve asked 150 celebrities & artists to shoot a disposable camera. Now we’re auctioning off these cameras-before they’re developed! You get the camera containing the unique mystery photos (& negatives!) from your favorite celebrity! Here is a list of confirmed participants, as of April 24, 2006. Check www.mixnyc.org for updates.

Mike Albo
Laurie Anderson
COLT Man Jake Andrews
Buck Angel
Michel Auder
Alison Bechdel
Peter Berlin
Cass Bird
Bitch
Justin Bond
Kate Bornstein
Charles Busch
Bush Tetras
John Caffery/Kids on TV
Jonathan Caouette
Tammy Rae Carland
Rick Castro
Matt Cavenaugh
Michael Cerveris
Patty Chang
Mark Christopher
Will Clark
Jill Clayburgh
Kate Clinton
Jem Cohen
T Cooper
Carlo Cox
Howard Cruse
Alan Cumming
Mark Dalton
Vaginal Creme Davis
Jake Deckard
Damon DeMarco
Adam Dexter*
Mike Diana
Diane DiMassa
Kyle Douglas
Daisy Eagan
Erase Errata
Harvey Fierstein
Thom Fitzgerald
Glen Fogel
Fredrick Ford
Andersen Gabrych
Luke Garrett*
Robert Gluck
Marga Gomez
Noam Gonick
Claudia Gonson
Katy Grannan
John Greyson
Philip Guichard
Mary Harron
Debbie Harry
Johnny Hazzard
Scott Heim
Keith Hennessy
Murray Hill
Thorn Kief Hillsbery
A.M. Homes
Hunter James
Antony (of the Johnsons)
Miranda July
Randal Kleiser
Wayne Koestenbaum
Theo Kogan
Terence Koh
Cory Koons
Bruce LaBruce
Del LaGrace
Lucy Lawless
Miguel Leonn
Lesbians on Ecstasy
Jonathan Lethem
Lez Zeppelin
Glenn Ligon
Lucy Liu
Michael Lucas
Taylor Mac
Guy Maddin
Mike Malinin
Douglas Martin
Carlo Masi*
Heather Matarazzo
Mattilda
Gus Mattox
Leah Meyerhoff
John Cameron Mitchell
Richard Mitchell
Rick Moody
Ace Morgan
Michael Musto
Eileen Myles
Todd Oldham
Tony Oursler
Peter Paige
Pansy Division
Buckshot Man Brad Patton
Lori Petty
Kembra Pfahler
Martha Plimpton
Amy Ray
Robert W. Richards
Ira Sachs
J.D. Samson
Will Schwartz
Daniela Sea
Tony Serrano
Jake Shears
Jenny Shimizu
Michelangelo Signorile
Brian Sloan
Jill Sobule
Alec Soth
Donita Sparks
Scott Spears
Will St. John
Todd Stephens
Tabboo
Tristan Taormino
Scott Treleaven
Triple Creme
Rose Troche
Carmelita Tropicana
Guin Turner
Gus Van Sant
Miguel Villalobos
Jonathan Weinberg
Gage Weston*
Buckshot Man Josh Weston
Chris Wide*
Parker Williams
B.D. Wong
Skye Woods*

*COLT Man Exclusive

ebay auction begins May 16, 2006 — Check www.mixnyc.org for auction Links

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Michael O’Neill will perform original music, with a dance routine in a 90s techno dance remix party time Broadway musical dance jam song and dance style.

Michael O’Neill is a performance artist from Brooklyn. He performs in a number of musical groups, including the psychedelic dance band Princess. For tonight’s performance he will be presenting an original song and dance routine. Something along the lines of ace of base meets a chorus line.

Acrobalaning Performance by Rose Calucchia, Alison Bear, and (M) Lollo
Rose, Allison, and Lollo are united in their common goal of performing death defying feats with the sheer force and wit of bodies coming together. The acrobats you see here tonight and the one missing component would like you all to know that acrobatics is infinitely more inspiring when prepared for the queers. We love you!!! We also love LAVA for the inspiration and insight so generously bestowed upon us.

BORA YOON
“…operatic and intense, genre-scrambling and iconoclastic…confessional, poetic, smart and different?. A cut or three above the rest.” — NOISE Art Mag

Bora Yoon is a phonating multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and audiophile with a twisted musical identity that spans the classical, avant-garde, electronic, folk, jazz, and sound design realms, garnering awards from the John Lennon Songwriting Contest and Billboard, Arion Music Awards, and a music video broadcast on MTV Networks. With an artillery of skills on the piano, electric violin, guitar, she siphons instrumental nuances into the vocal medium enhanced w/ live samples and loops, making her NYC’s late night go-to girl for musical architecture for collaborators and composers of the genre gamut. Her penchant for the iconoclastic has led to work with Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble members, multimedia artist Emile Bennett (DCA, STEIM) to create generative vocal music with original software design, live collaborations on voice and electric violin with media philosopher DJ Spooky, and live experimental sound design for NY Fringe. Operatic and iconoclastic, she’s toured festivals and venues nationally and internationally with her original songwriting, premiered new music with emerging and distinguished composers, played benefits for Amnesty International, and prepares scores for various artists in the NYC area, including Meredith Monk’s Basket, performed by the Western Wind this January.

Upcoming projects include multimedia poetry performances with American Harlem-born poet Sekou Sundiata and the 51st (dream) state, tour dates with DJ Spooky and Subliminal Strings, a site-specific sound installation at the McCarren Park Pool, a film score for feature Killing Mr. Right (AprilFilms), and experimental collaborations with various artists for press and the stage for 2006.

BITCH bio
Armed with an electric violin, a ukulele and a bass guitar, Bitch (formerly of Bitch and Animal), is on the road and rampage again with a fistful of new songs from her upcoming debut solo release, Make this/Break this. She is an entertainer and songwriter who has pulled audiences to their feet worldwide with her politically charged and personally wrenched lyrics, her atypical instrumentation, minimalist sound and wildly dramatic stage persona.

Her former band, Bitch and Animal, released three albums together. Their first album, What’s that Smell?, was released on their own label, and quickly caught the ear of Ani Difranco. Ani co-produced and released their second album, Eternally Hard, on her own Righteous Babe Records. Robert Hilburn of the LA TImes voted it one of the top ten albums of the year in 2001. Their third album, Sour Juice and Rhyme (also on RBR), was produced by June Millington and got them nominated for album of the year by the GLAAD Media awards, along with Rufus Wainwright, Peaches, and Me’shell Ndegeocello.

Bitch has toured all over the world and has been featured in Spin, The Advocate, The Village Voice, Playboy, Girlfriends, and many other publications. Setting out on a new solo road, Bitch is following her vision of making music that is symphonic, beatworthy, break your heart balladry, and raise the roof revolutionary.

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MIX NYC
79 Pine Street, PMB 132
New York, NY 10005

Phone (212) 742-8880
Fax (212) 742-8882

www.mixnyc.org

MIX Festival * MIXtv * ACT UP Oral History Project
community screenings * education * filmmaker resources