I got the chance to interview John Gilkey in his Hollywood backyard this week. If you’ve ever seen Cirque Du Soleil or the Oscar-winning movie Ratatouille, then you’ve seen John Gilkey’s amazing work. A clown and performer for over 30 years who’s performed for over 3 million people, and a creative force behind the comedy in Cirque shows like QUIDAM, DRALION, VAREKAI, and most recently, the IRIS show in Hollywood, John has incredible things to say about clowns—their comedy, their danger, their anarchy, and their truth—and why we need them more than ever. Hear it this Sunday on Jimmy’s Potpourri, LA’s #1 underground radio station. Tune in from 9AM till noon online from anywhere at www.killradio.org

 UPDATE: the John Gilkey interviews are up on Soundcloud. Listen below!

I guess I’m on a Bukowski kick, because I’m back on the JIMMY’S POTPOURRI radio show this Sunday 9AM-Noon Pacific where I’ll be playing live recordings I made at some of Charles Bukowski’s L.A. haunts. PLUS: recordings of Bukowski reading, the band Wicked Saints live in studio, host James Gautier’s surrealism, Derek Reynolds’ killer rare music you won’t hear elsewhere, and much more…. Listen from anywhere Sunday live online at www.killradio.org

I built this little toy years ago, and it still cracks me up—a poetry generator that draws upon the vocabulary and syntax culled from works of Charles Bukowski. The generator can emulate Bill Gates or your average joe too, but the Bukowski ones are my favorites. Here’s one it made today (capitalization & punctuation added afterward):

Losing, she breathes through dogs
like shriveled dictators lapping,
the high heels,
tongues swatting cautiously I am
of the rundown Dickens——
    she is divorcing blue,
or a scroll cumming,
flakes are mumbling orgasms;
could I utter inward, a snake,
or whack these cloven singers?
Cumming they are,
guzzling when they're around, a shakey aroma,
watching . . .

Scotch Wichmann doesn’t always do performance art, but when he does, he does it wearing ice shoes. I skated out onto stage wearing these beauties during last night’s Ice Fish Fur show, and they were slippery as hell—thank god I was sober. I was able to hold out for almost 2 minutes before my toes went numb—not bad! See them in action on YouTube. Shoes sculpted by KayDee Kersten.

I’ll be doing some bits on JIMMY’S POTPOURRI underground LA radio show again this Sun., 9am-noon. My SOUNDS OF LA segment is back with jazz recordings I made this week on the streets of downtown LA, plus tune in for eclectic tracks, interviews, poetry, & more! With James Gautier and Derek Reynolds, plus special guest, poet & performer Brooke Jean. Will stream live at killradio.org — see you there!

Come catch my new performance art work ICE, FISH, FUR at HIGHWAYS in Santa Monica Friday, September 14, where I’ll be doing unspeakable acts with ice, fish, and fur (how ever did you guess?) in a surreal, linguistically limber, and painfully autobiographical piece about murder, madness, ancestry, magic, and more….

This is part of Solo Dolo, an evening of new solo works that’ll also feature Philip Littell, Megan Therese Rippey, and Johnny Ray (who looks like he *might* be doing something wild with mud or some other amazing slop–I can’t quite tell from his photo, but I’m sure it’s going to kick ass!!!).

If (1) it’s been awhile since you’ve seen performance art, (2) you’ve never seen it, or (3) you never want to see it again (but you can’t help yourself because you crave it like an auto accident lookie loo), then this is for you, served fresh on a golden platter (or more likely, a honey-drenched hunk of leather plastered to the side of my face). Ah yes, I like to think of Highways as the West Coast’s Carnegie Hall of experimental live performance, so don’t miss this chance to see bloody fresh solo works for only $10 before they tour the 2013-2014 fringe festival circuit.

The Solo Dolo show at HIGHWAYS. 8:30PM. Tickets $10 online or at the door (show may sell out, so I’d recommend buying online). 1651 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA (1/2 block north of Olympic).

Catch me this Sun. 9AM-12 PDT on JIMMY’S POTPOURRI, L.A.’s #1 eclectic underground Internet radio show featuring James Gautier w/Derek Reynolds & the Zuu Crew. Hear interviews I recorded this week of artists living and working on the streets of downtown L.A., learn how to promote yourself online for free if you don’t have a website, plus hear genius music, comedy, poetry, & more. Live at killradio.org. UPDATE: THE SHOW ROCKED. Will post the podcast of it soon. Will be back on the air on Sept. 9!

The full 5-minute video footage of “Seed” — my psychic-surgery-with-citrus performance I unveiled in Ventura last month — is finally up on YouTube.  I had no idea a grapefruit could make sounds like that….

Is our “twitterization” making us spill more details than we should? Have we exchanged our interior voices for external ones? Are we becoming masters of telling at the expensive of showing? Come find out this Friday when I unveil Seed, my new performance art work with citrus, surreal psychic brain rewiring and more! Fri. July 6, 2012, 8PM at the Sylvia White Gallery in Ventura, CA. FREE! Let’s operate!

Dear Diary,
I’m sorry I’ve neglected you. I’ve been crazy-busy getting more comedy and videos in the pipeline, directing my first short, putting the final editorial touches on my novel, getting engaged, working on an exciting new film script outline, and—the very latest—carving out a new performance art piece about kindness, rocks, and my unconscious-unfurled for your horror-pleasure-horror. You’re invited to come watch the antics at the Sylvia White Gallery in Ventura on Friday March 2, 2012 at 8PM. It’s free. It’s going to be wild. And I’d love to see you as usual.
Yrs in the making,
–s