“_ SN Warning: The following is a rave review. All nihilists, bitchers, whiners, negative creeps and Morrissey-lovin'- black-on-black types may find the following enthusiasm and gushy "Ooh, I just loved it" comments offensive. Or at least nauseating. "Forewarned be ye," says I. Saturday July Ist, Performance i Works Well, I do believe the Hard ’ Rubber Orchestra (HRO) and Kokoro Dance ensemble have come up with the answer to the question, "How much really, really cool shit can you fit into a single evening of entertainment?" Much. The HRO kicked it off with 1 trumpeter Bill Clark's amazing fill-in- avante-garde-classification-here composition, Typhoon, a vivid, at times even harrowing, depiction of some badass ocean weather. It proved to be a visually entertaining piece, as well, with WELL, SUMMER IS IN FULL SWING, SO WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU STILL DOING IN SCHOOL? I ALWAYS SAY, IF YA GOTTA SUFFER, SUFFER BOLDLY. JUST TO RUB IT IN, OUR BEVY OF OTHER PRESS REPORTERS HAVE BEEN TO SOME OF THE BEST (AND NOT-SO-BEST) EVENTS THAT VANCOUVER HAS TO OFFER. CHECK ouT KEvIN SALLOWS' REVIEW OF WuiTtE Hot CORE BELOW. OR HOW ABouT JASON KuRYLO'S COMMENTS ON Kiss OF THE SPIDER WOMAN, ON PAGE Clark literally throwing himself into the performance as he led the band. Trombonist Rob McKenzie's more reserved approach didn't calm the waters any. His composition, Bala de Plata, had all the fire of a great Latin piece and featured a truly ripping trumpet solo courtesy of Brad Turner. John Coltrane's Naima rounded out the HRO set. Which brings us to the >buzzword alert< multimedia collaboration between the HRO and the Kokoro Dance crew which made up the second half of the evening. White Hot Core, choreographed by Barbara Bourget ad Jay Hirabayashi with music almost all written by HRO founder and conductor, John Korsrud, is a fascinating glimpse into the complex emotional workings of the human animal - our loves and desires, pains, and the way we interact with one another. In the bold opener, Jguana, five dancers slowly advanced onto the stage dressed only in white body paint and white-dusted hair. They had the appearance of living statues and the comic mannerisms of a strange, alien race. Vocalist Jennifer Scott breathed new life into Burt Bacharach's Look of Love while the dancers left the stage and wandered through the audience. This was as much acting and comic improvisation as it was dance. Each of the dancers took on a distinct and utterly convincing character made up of hilariously exaggerated movements and mannerisms. Spotlights followed these cartoon-like caricatures as they courted and cavorted with individual audience members, playing off the reactions they got from each person. Barbara Bourget and Miroslaw 8? ALo Zydowicz were all strut and swaggering bravado in the confrontational pseudotango, Tangle, outflashing each other to the point of collapse. A beautiful bit of 4 classical music set up before breaking into a Pr a2 ats, percussion-driven groove strong to make an Amish grandmother bust a move. Venus (Ziyian ™-" Kwan) exuded sensuality. Itrolled off her as she performed the most stunning, tension-filled strip I've ever seen. Drums throbbed in the background, John Zorn-ish solos careened and flailed over top, tension built and built to the point where the Venus = enough D OF THE LATEST IN eo ae Kokoro Dance and Hard Rubber Orchestra white hot | Moving performance converts Kevin Sallows to modern dance audience was transfixed by the image of what was no ‘longer simply a e dancer playing a role but Venus herself | standing bathed in strobe light. MY GOD! If this is modern dance then I'fm an instant convert; White Hot Core moved me as nothing else has for some time. It was laugh-out-loud funny, beautifully sensual, painful, playful, provocative. Much applause and huge, huge shoutouts to both the Hard Rubber Orchestra and Kokoro Dance, two of the most exciting and entertaining ensembles in Vancouver. & By Darin Clisby I’ve been reading up on Andy Warhol and I have a problem. Everyone seems to be so focused on his art that they forget to in- vestigate the artist himself. In my reading I found that Warhol, as a personality, is much more interesting than Andy Warhol, the art- ist. So, to fill in his biographical gaps, here is Andy Warhol - in brief. Andy Warhol used to be called Andy Wahola. He may have changed his name for a variety of reasons. One possibility: as a re- sult of living with a group of dancers and actors, he was left holding a substantial phone bill. In order to remain connected to the out- side world he changed his name to reconnect his phone and thus get by his bad credit with the phone company. Another reason may have been that upon moving to New York he was ashamed of his ethnicity and so changed his last name to avoid embarrassment. The rea- son Warhol himself gave was that clients regularly dropped the last vowel in pronun- ciation and so changed his name to adapt. Warhol was very resourceful. He would gather young, intelligent, creative minds around him and feed off them. He probably saw these young people as close to the source of trend that he could measure or foresee where the popular breezes were blowing. He would also get them to perform more mun- dane tasks for him as well - like coloring fly- ers and doing his silk screening (after approv- ing them). He did things just because they were fun. He would do anything to get a rise or reac- tion from someone. He had one of his friends sign a series of silk screens with an X and give the excuse that Andy didn’t sign his name because he couldn’t write. He sent one of his friends on a national autograph sign- ing tour because he didn’t want to go. His friend masqueraded for him so well that years later when he was on TV his fans didn’t be- lieve it was really him. He would encourage drug use (he re- frained from drugs and heavy drinking) so as to observe other's behaviour. He painted what he painted because it was diametrically opposed to the popular style of the day (which was Abstract Expres- sionism.) He chose the subjects because they were mundane, overexposed, desensitized and common images. He silk screened these images because it was easier for him to achieve his own brand of overexposure through repeated images. Who was this Warhol fella? Who he was and how it affected his art As an artist, Warhol was very ambitious and highly energetic. He convinced everyone with his tenacity and quiet charm that he was a serious artist addressing a serious subject. But, according to his friends, his only wish was to be famous. He wasn’t very serious about do- ing serious artwork. On the contrary, his art- work is not serious at all. Andy Warhol became his art. He was com- mercialized, overexposed, desensitized and publicized. Who was Andy Warhol? Who knows? He was and will remain an enigma. If you want to find out more about this colourful artist, visit the Van- couver Art Gallery’s summer show on Warhol’s drawings, paintings and silk screens. They will be shown until October first along with eight interpretive skits, ‘Ask Me About Andy’ guides, a re-creation of ‘the Factory’, and many other activites. There will be a $4 surcharge at- tached to any regular admission charges. Members get in free.