VR Home |
News |
On Stage |
Press and Media |
Mailing List |
Photos |
Guest Book |
Contact |
About Us |
Music/Downloads |
Shop |
Grants and Awards |
S.I. Headlines |
North Shore Blog |
North Shore Biz |
Links |
Bio & Statement |
|
The Return of the Great Blue Heron II
June 21, 2008, 8pm, Gallery 6, 30 Beach Street, Stapleton
Join Trish and Christoph and the Staten Island Freak Corps for their latest North Show sequel, the Return of the Great Blue Heron II, on June 21, 2008, 8pm at Gallery 6, 30 Beach Street in Stapleton, SI.
|
 |
The Staten Island Freak Corps Members for June 21, '08:
Lars (Christoph) Mayer,
a native from Göttingen, Germany, moved from Cologne and Berlin to
Staten Island in 2000 in the course of his studies in Music Theory at
the Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany. He worked as Management
Assistant for the not-for-profit arts and technology organization ASCI
(asci.org) until 2005. Christoph studied classical guitar since the age
of 10 and wrote and recorded music for film, fashion, art and drama. Since
2004, Christoph and his wife Trish Strombeck perform and record songs
about life on Staten Island’s north shore, involving film, photo,
comedy and special guests. They received recognition in numerous
newspapers, including an in-depth feature in the NY Times (Bohemia by
the Bay, Oct 7, 2007). Their version of a 2007 Blue Staten Island Xmas
received notable mention on the famous NJ radio station WFMU.
Trish Strombeck,
a native from Kingston, NY, moved to Staten Island from Brooklyn 2002.
She learned the flute early and occasionally plays it on recordings. On
stage and in the studio she sings lead and harmony and plays percussive
instruments such as buckets, saw blades, drums and glockenspiel. Trish
works as Vision Specialist on Staten Island.
|
Opening act Sweet Soubrette
is New York artist Ellia Bisker. She plays the ukulele and sings and
writes songs about love (mainly the doomed kind), with a sound that
brings to mind artists like Regina Spektor and the Magnetic Fields. She
got her start in show business the old-fashioned way: by running away
with the circus. A stint with the offbeat Bindlestiff Family Circus
developed her gift for spectacle. Bust Magazine recently described her
as "Brooklyn's fishnet-clad femme fatale," and it can't be denied that
her dangerously seductive songs are an irresistible invitation into
deep new waters. www.sweetsoubrette.com
|
Arrow Mueller
is a preparator/art handler/registrar of art work at the Leo Castelli
Gallery in Manhattan. Arrow also helped install the tugboat exhibition
at the Noble Maritime Collection at the Snug Harbor cultural center. He
received a Junefest grant in 2006.
|
Ginger Baker
trained in myriad dance forms from ballet to flamenco to salsa, and
everything in between. She was drawn to burlesque as a way to combine
her love of dance with her passion for positive sexuality. Ginger
brought in 2008 by performing at the Slipper Room, a world famous
burlesque performance space. When she arrived home two hours of travel
later, she looked around and realized that Staten Island's thriving
cultural scene was curiously devoid of glitter, sequins and tassels.
She immediately set out to remedy this tragic situation, bringing a
monthly extravaganza of sassy striptease, vampy vaudeville and shocking
sideshow to the Forgotten Borough. Of course, she still squeezes in
time to perform in the city! http://www.reverbnation.com/candyappleburlesque |
Sam Williams was drafted into the Freak
Corps after a series of music-themed conversations with Christoph in
2005-2006. His past artistic pursuits have included the books, "Arguing
A.I.: The Battle for 21st Century," published by the Random House Books
@Random imprint, and "Free As In Freedom," a biography of free software
pioneer Richard Stallman and the 1990s television show "High Country
Climber." He currently works as an algebra teacher at Curtis High
School.
Mona Le Roy
is trained primarily in Brazilian and Middle Eastern Dance. She danced
with Mystical Motion, Caribbean Rose and PURE. Mona produced
experimental choreographies and performed them all over NYC and in the
Netherlands. Through her solo work she began to incorporate kitsch and
humor in her dance and costumes. As she was exploring non-traditional
dance she began performing physical comedy with the Department of
Correctional Dance and Kendall Cornell's Soon-To-Be-World-Famous
Women’s Clown Troupe. Mona has performed at the American Museum of
Natural History, Rakkasah East, the World Culture Open Diversity
Festival at Lincoln Center, Dance Theater Workshop, at a special
performance for the Cirque du Soleil, La MaMa Experimental Theatre
Club, and at the West End Theatre to name a few. Mona also teaches
traditional Brazilian and Middle Eastern Dance as well as off beat
choreographies from cult films and music videos. http://www.monamoves.com/
|
Wilder Selzer is a singer and actor. He has performed with They Might Be Giants and
The Violent Femmes. He performed at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival
alongside Mario Cantone, promoting the Sony Pictures Film "Surf's Up". http://www.myspace.com/wilder_selzer |
_____________________________________________
The June 21 Show The Return of the Great Blue Heron II
is a musical revue that includes music, narration, guest dancers, film
and photo. Like all shows by Trish and Christoph, it is about life on
Staten Island as we know it, with all its funny, annoying, tragic and
beautiful aspects. Staten Island, like no other borough of New York
can claim such a variety of typical American lifestyles; suburban row
houses next to Victorian mansions and urban projects. There is
expansive woodland, golf courses, board walks and even rodeo. In this North Show sequel, we will look into cases of numerous UFOs
sightings that have been reported locally and into a potential
connection to
strange bird species. With the help of courageous volunteers, we will
celebrate the vast variety of local wildlife and once again, try to
make sense of the abundance of vinyl siding and the shapes of town
houses.
The North Show
The North Show is derived from Trish and
Christoph’s Songs from the North Shore and stands for their musical
multimedia performances, which are subdivided into different episodes
and sequels.
The Staten Island Freak Corps
Is a varying assembly of special guests, dancers, musicians, artists,
etc. that appear for different episodes of Trish and Christoph’s North
Show.
Gallery Six,
on 30 Beach Street, just around the corner from the old Paramount
Theater, is a one-year-old 5,500sqft special projects venue that allows
for large-scale exhibitions and performances.
Stapleton and the North Shore of Staten Island
Stapleton, the long-time commercial center of Staten Island, has
struggled to revive after several decades of neglect following the
building in 1964 of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, which shifted the
commercial development of the island to its interior. By 1970 most
piers alongside the Stapleton Waterfront had been demolished. In 1983
Stapleton was chosen to become a navy homeport as part of the military
build up ordered by President Ronald Reagan, which resulted in further
loss of civilian jobs and businesses. The still incomplete and always
controversial base was cancelled in 1993 after years of debates and
major cutback in military spending. On
October 26th, 2006, the New York City Council approved a massive
redevelopment plan for the site. It will be transformed into a new
community with 350 housing units, restaurants, parks, a recreation
center and farmers' market. The City Council pushed the project through
its final regulatory hurdle when it approved the $66 million blueprint
for the former Navy base. In 2007 a report from the Center for
Urban Future, a public policy think-tank, predicts that, "without a
change in direction," Staten Island is in for "an economic decline and
a significant deterioration in its quality of life", with younger
people skipping the island for trendier neighborhoods. This, in turn,
will attract one-sided business types in social services and downscale
retail.
Cultural life on Staten Island’s North Shore
While there’s been a lot of talk of revitalizing the north shore of
Staten Island, locals however tend to hover between modest optimism and
blunt skepticism. For some residents the area had to endure too many
nose-dives in the last 25 years. Confidence in the promises of public
elected officials and business leaders is modest at best despite a
66-million-dollar plan to restructure the former navy base and vast
stretches of waterfront. Even with 450,000 inhabitants, a number that
constitutes a large American city, nightlife on the north shore (which
local leaders consider “Downtown S.I.”) is still confined to a
relatively small number of often under-visited bars. So
is live music and entertainment, which mainly takes place on less than
a handful of stages and rarely attracts bands from other boroughs.
Young people on the lookout for the real New York nightlife are mostly
Manhattan- or Brooklyn- bound, while the local scene remains
unchallenged by the outside world. At
the same time abandoned waterfront property, squalid Victorian homes,
defaced antique facades and vacant new buildings are common sight.
Whatever the reasons are, bulky bureaucracy, poor communication between
business owners and community leaders, the North Shore surely has great
potential for the development and enrichment of its own communities.
In
the spring of 2008, the artists’ community is finally claiming its deserved
spot on the local map. Aside from the Staten Island Freak Corps’
musical revue at Gallery 6 in Stapleton, three local
organizations, the Staten Island Creative Community, the Council on the
Arts and Humanities for Staten Island (COAHSI) and the ArtLab already
cut a deal with local real estate agents and will move into the old
“Fishs Eddy” building, on 139 Bay St., for two weekends of arts and
performances, between June 14 and June 21. Simultaneously the revived
St. George Theatre, a Rococo-style vaudeville palace from 1926, one of
the largest of its kind in the New York area, and the nearby Public
Library will host spoken word by poets, writers, and performing
artists. And on June 14, Staten Island will have its first installment
of “Rock The Harbor” at the grounds of Snug Harbor Cultural Center,
with a wide array of local acts, headlined by the internationally
recognized “Budos Band”.
Sources:
http://www.nycfuture.org www.artbytheferry.org http://cinematreasures.org/theater.php/1864/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stapleton,_Staten_Island http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2007/04/staten_island_wants_you.html http://www.forgottenny.com/NEIGHBORHOODS/rosebank.stapleton/stapleton.html http://www.statenislandusa.com/pages/sandy_ground.html http://rocktheharbor.net/
Directions
Beach Street is just a 3 minute walk from Stapleton station, two stops with the SI Railway from St. George Ferry Terminal.
Bus numbers: S78, S76, S51.
Click here for Google map
Support
This event is supported by the Council on the Arts and Humanities for Staten Island and is made possible in part by funding from the New York City Department of Cultural affairs.

|
Last Update 2008-06-15 | Copyright© Christoph Mayer 2009  | 
|
|
|
 The Return of the Great Blue Heron 2.1 Snug Harbor Veterans Memorial Hall, May 30, 2009
 The Myth of a True Story Incredible true stories, Oct. 24, 2008.
|
| whiteout
|
|
Site activity:
|
|
online: | 0 | today: | 1 | yesterday: | 2 | total: | 205757 |
|
|
|
|
|