Bio:

“John Patrick Donahue” by Beard Harmonica was longer than that and I clearly remember hating every last second of it. To his credit, the artist actually submitted an honest-to-goodness film this month, but then he proceeded to make the presentation totally obnoxious by recruiting ten friends from the audience to play one note repeatedly on harmonicas from different parts of the theater. I understand some art is meant to make you feel uncomfortable, and if this was the intent…mission accomplished, sir. But, there’s also a fine line between being an artist, a pretentious artist, and just being a dick. And, I was totally feeling like whoever made me sit through this ‘art’ was probably just being a dick. It sure the hell wasn’t entertaining or fun. The audience must have agreed with me on some level, as this one got a GONG almost immediately after its allotted three minutes.

Member Since:

September 02, 2005

Members:

JOKE?

aka

jokeharmonica

aka

JOk?

aka

Christop Donahue

is :::

... giant roll of paper. You rock and unroll and roll and unroll and your infectious enthusiasm never wanes. And this paper rock gets bigger but never heavier. It’s largely about the show of it. And it's partly about that it looks like a rock and feels nothing like one. It is the exercise we're in it for – not some thing we hope to accomplish at the end. love you.
Captain Jim (Diana Stapleton)

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...let me see........................................
Pete Yates Hodshon, May 2009

!!!!!Jellified!!oranges!!kipping!!enigmatically!!!Haphazard!!animals!!reassure!!millions!!of!!Neanderthal!!incubators!!crying!!artistically!!!!!
Matthew Lee Knowles, March 2009

joke is swinging from a tree in my pixelized world, divine and simply outrageous. the melody from his harmonivoice and guitarisations are a type of gracious rendering of a medium long lost in lo-fi-isationing sensations. friend from the outer world, peering into us, leaping towards the unknown. the secrets gargle in his voice, feedback in his heart, guiding us blindly but fearing nothing. the tree from which he dangles, jangles in my ears.
- frank!!! of PRADADA

What I like about joke-harmonica-face is that his hair bends and twists in ways that the human mind cannot handle. Also he makes good fucking sandwiches...like this one time I ate this sandwich he made-fuck I don't even know what was in that fucker, but it tasted so delish that I pissed myself like ten times over again...then I got a boner...then I cried...it was like a rollercoaster of awesome. So in short I hate joke-Harmonica-face because he smells like shit...you know the kind with a hint of broccoli in it...the end.
-Jeff

Joke is the core of the experimental music scene in north New Jersey! he is a shining example of art for arts sake! He is one of the most hyper inspired people i know and he has an amazing and broad body of work that grows bigger and harder with every thrust till he explodes in your face with a huge load of compassion!
~BBQwhore

An extreme Chunk of clam relaxed nowave birdspeak, with a touch of hippy art swill only made stronger by tape culture. Without joke's presence, none of my past bands would have had first shows, and I would have never had a string of fear induced nite-mares about a busdriver, and old lady, and all of sussex county pitched 3 octaves up, talking about parts one-13
-john from CINEMAS

Steve Pfunds from TWMWK wrote. Myspace will never be the same since The When Mcgruff Was King commited profile suicide.... :(


"Jock? is the kinda guy you either wanna rape until he bleeds to death or chomp on his neck like a cheetah until you chew right through and take his head off. He's been a cocksucking axxhole since I met him over ten years ago. But livin in the ghettoes of Dover, AND Lake Neepaulin can do that to a brotha. His lyrics are hard, like life. His haircuts are stylish, yet rugged. His musical talent rivals that of greats like Mandy Moore, William Shatner, and O.D.B. His flair for fashion is only matched by his lust for teenaged puzzy holes. Jock? is the man you want next to you in a dark alley at 4 in the morning. He'll suck you dry and ask for seconds and won't charge you more than the change in your pocket. I've always wanted to be as insane as Jock? but it'll never happen. The guy pushes it to the limit. He'll go down as the greatest artist that Sussex County has ever produced and we'll all just have to study his work and try to go on in his shadow. JOCK? is COCK. "
Trobl

.. " Joke is a giant, flaming ball of inspiration and the kind of guy who will always find the time to show others what he knows and then gets the fucking ball rolling, Joke came up last summer and we collaborated on some projects and although I cant prove it I think he fingered my cats ass a couple times when I wasn't looking but that's o.k. though, because I would gladly sacrifice the virgin assholes of a thousand cats for the artistic avenues he has opened up for me"
Jon Long
..

.. Joe Carmonica, the studiously weird Loft regular, took it to the next level with his short film “Suntan.” He turned his short film into performance art. Carmonica got up on stage, insulted the crowd, then began generating freaky noises with some sort of amplified speaker device, and proceed to throw glow sticks into the audience as the his film, a very tight shot of his own face and eyes, lit up the screen. I have to give Carmonica full props. If he has any particular intention, I don’t think any of us mere mortals in the audience can comprehend it, but the whole bad-acid experience broke all barriers of expectation. Along with many others in the crowd, I was captivated, amused, annoyed and disoriented – most art can’t match that experience.

08/04/2009 12:40 PM Shipherd Reed

Joe Carmonica suffered a speedy GONG! but we’re glad he was there. 09/03/2009 12:01 AM Shipherd Reed

Stalwart experimentalilst Joe Carmonica and his trusty muse Diana Stapleton screened “Mischief Night at the Central Arts Collective,” which was hard to watch and mercifully roused the GONG! and we moved on.

by Shipherd Reed, via AZNightbuzz.com THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2009

Joe Carmonica from the Art Center Design College brought “You Look Taller,” in which a giant animated bird follows a live action guy around. Concertedly odd, funny, and charming.

Written by Shipherd Reed Apr 01, 2009 at 03:47 PM

The third film up was some sort of multi-media experience called “Opera Storyboard” by director Joke Harmonica. In short, the director stood in front of the screen and described strange hand-drawn screen-shots that involved some adventure that I’m afraid I wasn’t quite medicated enough to join him on. I think I heard the phrase ‘Butt Boats’ at one point. My work-appointed-photographer, Breezy, commented that it reminded her of when her five-year-old nephews talk about Pokemon. ‘There’s a lot of energy and excitement going on…but it doesn’t make a damn bit of sense!’

It was time for a refill.

I returned from the concession stand ushered in by the sound of a GONG, with double-beer and double-wine in hand. The Loft serves doubles now, so less trips mean more tips, I always say. (‘A double? Of WINE?’ asked Breezy in her usual slurry fashion. I had to keep her entertained and otherwise occupied, since she was beginning to heckle the man that she assumed was the last film’s director, but in fact was just Max Cannon trying his best to brave her insults. I can’t take this girl anywhere!)

Next a ringer played that involved an old “Walker: Texas Ranger” clip starring Haley Joel Osment, Wilford Brimley, and a piano-playing cat. Oddly enough, the film topic was a serious one, and I won’t spoil it for you if you find it online. Suffice to say, it was a hit.

“Antithesis of the Human Condition (remix)” by Diana Stapleton was the next film to play, and while it was clever and satirical, it didn’t go for laughs or pander to any specific audience. It seems this filmmaker had something to say about gender roles and society, and while I’m not sure I completely ‘got’ it, the audience let it roll for its entire duration and it escaped elimination. I didn’t hate it, but I’m not sure I’d watch it again.

R.J. Cavender TUESDAY, MARCH 16, 2010

Of course at any “First Friday Shorts”, there are those who give up even trying to please the crowd, and instead make films that are shorter then three minutes. There were a handful of those, and one of them was actually pretty good. It was comprised of several quick cuts of close-ups of various tools at a construction site. The fast pace kept it interesting, even though it really wasn’t about anything. When it was over, Mike Sterner pointed out a lesson we could all take home with us: if your movie is cut extremely tight, it will be interesting.

Another art film that impressed me was “Movement Andante”. This entire black-and-white silent film consisted of a closeup of a fleshy hairy crack. I couldn’t tell if it was a closeup of someone folding their arm, or if it was a piece of carpet. It was also undulating in a repetitive way, giving the illusion that something sexual was happening on the screen, but it was actually a very abstract closeup of something flexing and contracting over and over again. The audience watched it for the entire length of the film, obviously seduced. But there’s no way that a minimalist art film is going to win the $200 prize! But it was a memorable part of the lineup.

Saturday, July 3, 2010 First Friday Shorts, July 2, 2010 - Howard Salmon

Sounds Like:

YOU

Record Label:

VNR / SCAG / Brennan