Happy 2014 !!

A Year Passes Like Nothing

Art by Gilbert Shelton and Édouard Manet


Thank you, persistent readers!
I appreciate your support during 2013 and 2014, especially since I haven't updated this blog since last spring.

Reason Number One:

Webmaster Michael is heavily involved with a historical site centered on the Alternative Scene in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Cosmic Aeroplane Memorabilia

I make sure that the Great Salt Lake Mime Troupe gets every appropriate mention, though!


Reason Number Two:

Michael spent another fabulous summer in Amsterdam assisting Katie Duck and Alfredo Genovesi with the Magpie Improvisational Workshop and Orgelpark Workshop.



Freakatoni's Witchy Weekends
(Videos of weekend performances at Studio Seven.)

Michael also showed 10 minute excerpts of Magpie videos on the full-sized screen at the Tower Theater, sponsored by the Salt Lake Film Society:

Katie, Justin, and Alfredo in San Francisco 2013
Christina and the City (San Francisco 2013)
Amsterdam Magpies at Orgelpark 2013



See the full hour-long Orgelpark performance HERE

Katie Duck's New Website is chock-full of videos. past and present, plus her biography and current agenda.

As of this writing, Katie and Alfredo Genovesi are traveling to India.
Katie will be doing a couple of solo workshops in the USA during May of 2014, including a history-making weekend in Salt Lake City, where the Mime Troupe first formed while we attended the University of Utah.

I have used the ubiquitous Facebook to try and keep up with the ever-evolving creative scene that touched on the old Festival of Fools. It is a lot easier to use than Blogger's interface, sad to say, and I can't promise when I'll update this page again, since I'll be busy continuing the work I started up above. However, I'll attempt a precis of some other artists and their activities down below:

Duck Allies

Miri Lee, Manuela Tessi, Julyen Hamilton, Vincent Cacalano, and Melvin Fraenk did remarkable performances at Amsterdam's OT 301.
Iris Van Peppin and Susan Van Den Berg did amazing improvisatory pieces elsewhere in Holland.
Gob Squad toured extensively in and out of Germany and made a movie out of one of their productions.
Ewan Downie and Anna Porubcansky did wonderful work from their base in Glasgow, Scotland.
Thalia Laric won an award in South Africa.
Jayna Cavendish, Abhilash Ningapa, Rakesh Sukesh, Mohan Nair, Chandana Sarma, and Swati Mohan traveled back and forth between India and the West. Sylvain Meret and Wendell Cooper were all over the globe!

The Footsbarn Family ...

... tours Europe and South America.

Footsbarn Traveling Theatre

Ton und Kirschen Wandertheater

Daniel Rovai alternates between Europe and Australia, sometimes working with Stan Haywood. Julie Biereye stars in her own band "White Crocodile." Rod Goodall is a producer in Galway, Ireland.

Nouveau Clowns

New York's John Towsen posted a remarkable guest-blog about the 1974 International Mime Festival, with drawings and words by Webmaster Michael, and several people of much greater prominence. John's Physical Comedy blog is one of the best on the Internet.

Pat Cashin does the New Captain Kangaroo in NYC. Mandy Dalton holds forth in Washington DC. Brian Bernhard moved to Los Angeles, and started winning awards for his clown documentaries. Karin Pipa Angermeyer is re-establishing herself in Germany. Johnny Melville has been enjoying summers in the Southern and Northern Hemispheres. Jango Edwards was bouncing around Europe and found himself bounced back home to Michigan temporarily before returning to Barcelona and the N.C.I. Former Friends Roadshow stalwarts Davey Norket, Ced Curtis, and Michael Colone have all played in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Across the Blue Horizon

Karen Quest performs at fairgrounds throughout the USA. Pete Weir makes England a bit more "Merrie," and his ole mate Justin Case does the same in Australia. Patsy Droubay teaches and performs in Salt Lake City. Paul Blackwell makes his well-crafted music in the East Bay. Debra Ryals, Matthew Child and Jan Fogel are doing various things in California. Gregg Moore plays and teaches in Arcata, California. David Carrillo lives on the East Coast of the USA. Alan "Gunga" Purves has been doing Music Education in Holland. (Michael Vatcher, Jimmy Sernesky, and Michael Moore continue to live and work there too.)

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Gone too soon -- Our bandmate Stuart Curtis (1954-2012)

In Memoriam: George Kugler

(Thanks to Johnny Melville)

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Look and listen to Gregg Moore's Ratty Old Tapes on Relevant Music. Great Salt Lake Mime Troupe (with Stuart!); Friends Big Band; Available Jelly; and even MOORE to come.

Funky Fellow Travelers

The wonderful Bindlestiff Family Cirkus advances the Variety Arts in New York.
West Coast Funkateers Katdelic and Rasa Vitalia are still shaking things up in San Francisco!
Webmaster Michael caught up with George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars at the Paradiso in Amsterdam.
Salt Lake's musical outlaws MiNX recruited Michael's pencil for Sketch Cabaret, rocked the Utah Arts Festival, and made two ever-funkier CD's in less than a year!

Michael's E-Portfolio