SNORKEL WELLES!

It's the end...

...of the Wolf mask template!

Over the course of the last few days the part I repaired crumbled leaving the mask in three quarters as seen in this previous post.

However, we decided to go with the three quarters and make it a Phantom of the Opera style mask and use the template as it was.

Alas... Mr Phizmiz didn't realise the template was on the table and put a large mask (this one in fact) right on top of it. I think some may have possibly heard my squeal from all the way over in Australia as I saw the neck of the hefty mask come down and slice the remains of the template.

Thanks Phizmiz!

So, it looks like I'll be starting this little Wolfy again. Perhaps in a different way, or just don't let Phizmiz near it. I was very nearly about to get the template fired too, so it wouldn't break again and would be sturdy enough to create the mask upon it.

Anyhow, a tad sick of this mask already now, but we have had great developments with the underwater scene. I'll just have to think of a better way of doing it and sharpish!

We, (Simon, Phizmiz and myself) filmed the sheep I'd put together in a spiral, to make a shoal of fish, t'other evening for it too...

We're all working on animating some special underwater creatures at the moment too, but you'll just have to wait and see for them right now, won't you!

Well, I've got a child bugging me to get on the computer and it's time for two Garg member's joint birthday party, so ta-ra!

Whale meat again!

Continuing on from the last blog entry, let me introduce the interior of the whale - part of the opium dream sequence - where the two intrepid detectives Ludo and Backgammon encounter an alcoholic Jonah and a very upset Pinochio.

And here are the animator and the choreographer enjoying the cooked whale interior with a white wine and mushroom sauce. Yum!

Day 3 of choreography rehearsals

Work has begun on the scene where we discover Jonah and Pinocchio inside the belly of a whale.
A fast moving combination of rapid movement music hall and Motown synchronicity.
We made good progress, but this is a long section which needs to be slick , so more work to do and a lot of practice needed. My boys are definitely up to it. I think they have the makings of a new dance troupe...
"Hair and Butter"

GARGANTUA - Tour Poster and Press Release

Gargantua

An Excessive Entertainment by Ergo Phizmiz

UK Tour – March 2013

Gargantua, a brand new 'vaudeville of the imagination' from the beautifully scrambled brains of UK polymath Ergo Phizmiz, tours the UK in March 2013 –full dates and info below.

A multi-sensory feast and genuinely unique patchwork of artistic disciplines, Gargantua plunders history and culture and places them in a boiling pot ready for explosion. A devilish mix of storytelling, performance, animation, puppetry, moving image collage and masks, all garlanded by an original music score that's equal parts contemporary electronic, medieval and 1930s British dance band.

If 'F is for Fake' then 'E' could be for 'Ergo'. This hallucinatory odyssey through time and culture tells three simultaneous stories: one a detective story on the disappearance of the giant King Gargantua, another of an adventure by French writer Francois Rabelais across Europe, the third a strange, elliptical board game that draws these threads together, in a story told by the more than reliable Gargantuan narrator Orson Welles...

As one portal gives you access to insider knowledge, a trapdoor opens and leaves you wonderfully displaced, and so it goes. Grey matter is constantly electrified and eyes lavished by Terry Gilliam-esque architectural constructs, political sensibilities are enlightened by meta-narratives, absurd social commentary echoes Thomas Pynchon or Felix Kubin and limbs and laughing muscles loosen as if being tackled by a crack tag-wrestling team of Andy Kaufman and Phil Kay. If you haven't visited before, welcome to

the world of Ergo Phizmiz.

The Gargantua blog features details of said board game, video/audio clips, remixes and pictures of the production in progress. Visit here - http://gargantuadisappears.blogspot.com – and get yer bookmarks out.

GARGANTUA by ERGO PHIZMIZ – UK TOUR MARCH 2013

March 16th Bridport Arts Centre (special guests Hacker Farm)

March 17th Soundart Radio, Dartington (special guests Clockwork Moth)

March 18th Depozitory, Ryde, Isle of Wight

March 19th The Marlborough, Brighton (special guest Vulnavia Vanity)

March 20th The Cube, Bristol (special guest Katapulto)

March 21st Mellomello, Liverpool (special guest UpItUp Records)

March 22nd Morden Tower, Newcastle (special guest Gwilly Edmondez)

March 24th The Waiting Room, Eaglescliffe (special guest Elvis Herod)

March 25th The Maltings, Berwick-Upon-Tweed

More info on Ergo Phizmiz

Ergo Phizmiz is a UK based radio producer, collagist, writer, composer, and filmmaker, who has worked across radioplays, installations, opera, songwriting, animations, and performance. His work is characterised by restless change and playful toying with history, art, music, science, and the limits between creativity & charlatanism, facts & fictions, copyrights & copywrongs, words & music. He likes Laurel & Hardy, and Kurt Schwitters, and Paul Klee, and Cervantes, and Morecambe & Wise.

His theatre work has included the experimental electronic multimedia operas “The Mourning Show”, "Fulcanelli's Shoes”, and “The Third Policeman” (based on the Flann O' Brien novel of the same name), which have toured UK & Europe to critical acclaim.

He has released critically acclaimed songwriting on Care in the Community Recordings, and has also released music with Soleilmoon Recordings, Touch Music, EgoTwister Records, Womb Records, Sonic Arts Network, and many others. His new album "Eleven Songs" was released in December 2012.

His visual art has included the collage exhibition "Families, Intimate Situations, Opium Architecture & the Behemoth" at the Depozitory, Isle of Wight, and the installations "Forest : Part One" for Venn Festival, "The Invention of Birds" for Soundart Radio's First Spark Festival, and "Reconstructing Scarborough" for Sonic Arts Network.

Among the artists with whom Ergo has collaborated are Pete Um, Patrick Sims, Denis Kundic/Vernon Lenoir, People Like Us, Frankie Boyle, Safety Scissors, The Bees, Hilary Jeffery, DJ Lenar, Oblivian Substanshall, Joel Cahen, The The, and Christian Marclay.

Press Quotes on Ergo Phizmiz

“I would be almost concerned if you had witnessed anything like it before. He is a burst of imagination, colour and noise, which has in the past left me sitting jaw collapsed on the floor, speechless as to how someone can so beautifully map out such madness” - Tom Ravenscroft, The New Statesman on “The Third Policeman”

“We can't decide whether he's the new Viv Stanshall, a young Eno, a British Zappa, or a replacement for Frank Sidebottom” - The Guardian

“A truly English original who we should cherish deeply” - Sound Projector

“Mad, but mesmerising” - The Times on “The Third Policeman”

"One of the most inventive composers around...a musical equivalent to Chris Morris" - BBC Radio 3

More info/images/press enquiries – handpressedinthewest@gmail.com

GARGANTUA Trailer 2

Catastrophe!!

The wolf template was finally dry enough to start making the mask from it, so I lathered it up with vaseline to create a barrier...

Shiny shiny nose

All lathered up.

Here I began to add the clay of the mask.

The mask complete.

But alas, catastrophe! The actual template split suddenly, leaving it nearly impossible to create a smooth layer on top and thus cracking the mask...

I did try to work around it and fill in the gaps with clay but the more I worked upon it, the more the template underneath broke.

So I decided to give up and fix the template before carrying on, which meant discarding the whole layer of the mask.

Poor Wolfy. He is dead.

And so, back to the beginning! Here is the template now fixed, but now I have the problem of clay drying at different speeds and not bonding with the original clay, making it flaky. 

So I think I'll have to make sure the template is fully dry again, perhaps adding another type of adhesive to make sure we don't have the same problem the second time around.

The poor Wolf head. He is crying.