MySpace - lucci & remedios the squirrel cub - 60 - Male - BROOKLYN, New York

KARAOKE ICE:
an orifice of adventure.

Proper Pop Protocol:
10 Steps to Achieve Karaoke Wonder

1. Resist the urge to stare at your feet. You’ll miss the cue from the squirrel.
2. When attempting to sing Hey Ya by Outkast, remember that vowels too can be words.
3. Avoid gazing directly into the mirror ball.
4. If you lose your place, make it up.
5. Try the “Wedge and Pry:” signature dance move of the oyster shuck.
6. Bring friends. Safety comes in numbers.
7. Try turning Ring of Fire into a sing along.
8. Save the stage diving for the pool.
9. Aretha Franklin has soul. You may not. So what.
10. Take precaution when attempting to Flip It and Reverse It.

Lucci and Remedios:
a tale of two friends

My name is Lucci, Yes, I go by my last name only. My friends joke it sounds so much like louche; you may be vaguely aware that louche is from the French louche, "shady, suspicious," from Old French losche, "squint-eyed," from Latin luscus, "one-eyed." The name names me well as you will soon see, for I only respect stray facts, manic theories, and well-told lies.

I am both conjuror and illusionist: a woman of the world who has fallen down an elevator shaft into a pool of mermaids.

My companion. A handsome one he is. We travel, surrounded by warm, bright and often humorous incident, the textures of a life well lived, on which we doodle and jest, nibble at the edges of our own desires. I speak, of course, for I know nothing if not that observation matters and I have no problem letting others know what I think. Words I covet: deshabille, disorderly, bombshell, tidy, fit, eunuch, all the serious “s” words like solemn, sullen, somatic, slumbering. The lively rhythmic variety of Italian curse words: che cazzo! Che schema! La bruta! una bella fica.

And why not? I grew up under the watchful eye of Tranquilina Lucci, my father’s mother’s mother, who by the time that I knew her, had lived so long she’d lost track of her age. Lusty and combative, a former vaudeville stripper turned seamstress, the fascination she felt for accordion players with their traveler’s serenades became her way of speaking, lines of non-sequiturs softened through song.

At night we dream of numbers, lots cast through chance calculation. Seven returns twice but tells no one of its secret.

The days I remember best are those spent in the dark together, stowed away in cabinets beneath the bathroom sink, under beds, behind doors, in closets, to conspiratorially huddle against space and light, sharing stories and avoiding the teeming masses of children milling about. I imagined that the hole in the closet ceiling led all the way to the roof, and pictured it as an orifice of adventure out of which my future would eventually be birthed. Remedios, the resident squirrel cub, most certainly put this hole to the best possible use, in performing broken magic tricks that never failed to delight.

At the stroke of one, five, nine, came an announcement: “I feel a song coming on!” which signaled our escape to reason. Scamper then from inside the sink/closet/bed and head to my room, a smallish space with a large picture window, throw the shutters wide, and sing our lungs out, accompanied most days by one of twenty-one records kept for such occasions.

August nights she ventured out, to perform private solos under the ruined lights of the ancient theatre across the street, sultry burlesque routines combined with a bit of soft shoe. She acted in my own private fictions dancing in concert with the stories I told myself about a squirrel, in a color-encrusted suit, swimming to the moon. Made of the thread of hundreds of unraveled kerchiefs stolen from the trunks of traveling troubadours, a cacophony of memory and texture, color and story, glitter, wool, and light.

There was a sense that nothing after these impromptu performances would ever be the same.

We learned to believe in the magic power of shimmer and string for with a needle and a few clever tricks it could be used to repair the damage—of small spaces, large families, of lost and forgotten children. With it we played cat’s cradle in spring; in winter it was knit into conical caps with colored flaps to keep our ears warm. In summer the hats were refashioned into breezy hammocks hung in the narrow space between buildings. In it we swung, side-by-side, escape artists on a magic carpet ride to nowhere. String was our claim to forgiveness.

Now. My own temporality suspended, indefinite, my sense of future concatenated, flattened, and folded. It is the cliché of my age that hurts me most.

If the preceding posts are simply a compendium of mass misconceptions—a confusing jumble of mythology, gossip, jest and hoax—what, you must ask yourself, can you believe?

Get Your Tinklepop On

*Watch a home movie from our San Jose 2006 tour

*Gaze at amazing photos from our San Jose 2006 tour

Want to Practice in Privacy?
Prepare to get your karaoke on. Check out 22 gems from our tinklepop archive. If a squirrel can do it, so can you.

*The Tinklepop Menu*

RING OF FIRE, Johnny Cash. 1963, Abilene
YOU REALLY GOT ME, The Kinks. 1964, Erie (PA)
THESE BOOTS ARE MADE FOR WALKING, Nancy Sinatra. 1966, Loveland
RESPECT, Aretha Franklin. 1967. Kansas City
LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS, Beatles. 1967, Portland
SUPERSTITION, Stevie Wonder. 1973, St. Bernard
THE HARDER THEY COME, Jimmy Cliff. 1974. Traverse City
HOTEL CALIFORNIA, The Eagles. 1977, Chula Vista
I WANT YOU TO WANT ME, Cheap Trick. 1979. Bollingham
YOU SHOOK ME ALL NIGHT LONG, AC/DC. 1980. Bozeman
I WANT TO BE SEDATED, The Ramones. 1980, Dubuque
HEART OF GLASS, Blondie. 1981. Providence
BLISTER IN THE SUN, Violent Femmes. 1983. Rapid City
MATERIAL GIRL, Madonna. 1984, Pontiac
KISS, Prince. 1989, Baltimore
KILLING ME SOFTLY, Fugees. 1996. Truth or Consequences
IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT, REM. 1997, the Jersey Shore
HURT, Nine Inch Nails. 2003. Macon
HEY YA! Outkast. 2003, Oakland
CREEP, Radiohead. 2004, Evanston
WORK IT, Missy Elliot. 2005. Murfreesboro, TN
freestyle beat track, Missy Elliot. 2005. Murfreesboro, TN

Especially for Los Angeles, we are unearthing two more freestyle beat tracks and three classics of tinklepop from the archive:
GOOD VIBRATIONS, Beach Boys. October 10, 1969, Torrence
LOSER, Beck. 1994. Glendale
GIVE IT AWAY, Red Hot Chili Peppers. 2005. Los Angeles

LOOK FOR US IN L.A.
August 30-September 3 and Sept 6-9, 2007

Venice Beach, Watts Towers, Silverlake, Santa Monica; a car wash, boardwalk, street corner--we'll be all those places and more. Go to LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions) for the complete two-weekend tour schedule.

CREDITS:
Concept, design and realization (on vocals): Nancy Nowacek, Katie Salen, Marina Zurkow
Producers: Nancy Nowacek, Katie Salen, Marina Zurkow
Music produced and arranged by: Lem Jay Ignacio
Costume fabrication: Scott Paige
Remedios the Squirrel Cub: Adrian Mejia (San Jose) / Jean Spinoza (L.A.)
Lighting design: Marcus Doshi
Wiring & installation support: Ministry of Transport
Engineering & electrical consultant: Bob Grimm
Tech Consultant: Julian Bleecker
Needlepoint: Carol Stakenas
Knitting: Knitta
Lucci's voice: Michael Portnoy
VO engineering: John Dylan Keith at Harmonic Ranch, NY
Technology Intern (San Jose): Diem Dang
CD Mastering: Andy Snavley/Bendy Music

Karaoke Ice was designed and produced in collaboration with students and graduates of the San Jose State Cadre Laboratory for New Media.
Cadre Laboratory Team (the believers):
Joel Slayton, Executive Producer
Michael Weisert, Line Producer

Web Development Team (html funk):
John Bruneau
Bruce Gardner
Kristin O’Friel
Michael Weisert

Software Development Team (code connivers):
John Bruneau
Kristin O’Friel
Corrie Tse
Michael Weisert

Build Team (heroes of heavy metal):
Thomas Asmuth
Sarah Lowe
Owen Premore
Ben Ward

LACE team:
Carol Stakenas, Executive Director
Bridget DuLong, Managing Director
Enrique Castrejon, Program Coordinator/ Lucci driver
Franco Castilla, Administration
Sarana Mehra, KI Stage Manager
Dwight Carey, Membership Coordinator
Elizabeth Spear, KI intern
Zoë Chao, Getty Intern/KI intern
Mengning Li, Getty Intern/Archives
Vincent Ruiz-Abogado, Board Member/Lucci driver
Polly Baranco, KI Intern/Fellow
Holly Witham, Bookkeeper
Chisari Watanabe, KI intern
Kelly Bishop, Intern
Katie Arntzen, Intern

Special Thanks:
Mike Berk
Chris Bregler
Louis Brossard
Greg Brown
Cory Clarke
Dan Core
Dave Della Costa
Steve Dietz
Marcus Doshi
Ernie Fertado
Scott Flora
Bob Grimm
Lem Jay Ignacio
Adrian Jones
John Keith
Gordon Knox
Steve Landau
Criswell Lappin
Lawyers for the Arts
Paul Leduc
Dan MacAuliff
Paul Makovsky
Metropolis Magazine
Scott Paige
David Pepe
San Jose State Foundry
Rijin Sahakian
Dave Sardy
Score
Joel Slayton
Carol Stakenas
Bob Stockwell
Michael Sweet
Beau Takahara
Cynthia Taylor
Katharine Wallerstein
Ben Ward
Wanda Webb
David Wilhoit

Extra Special L.A. Thanks to: Zoë Chao & Enrique Castrejon

Special Thanks to our LA Community Partners:
Mark Allen, Machine Project
Preston Bautista, Japanese American National Museum
Ben Caldwell, KAOS Network
Cheryl Grace, African Marketplace and Cultural Faire
Andrew Campbell, Plummer Park, City of West Hollywood
Hamp Simmons, City of Santa Monica, Cultural Affairs
Rogelio Acevado and Rosie Lee Hooks, Watts Towers Arts Center
Rose Cano and Maria Jimenez, Plaza de la Raza
Jason Brown, Betalevel
Sean Dockray, Telic Arts Exchange
Pompea Smith, Hollywood Farmer’s Market
George Magallanes, Field Deputy, Macarthur Park
Lisa Figueroa, Chapman & Associates
Daryl Chou, Firecracker at the Grand Star Restaurant
Chris Ronnie, Ronnie’s Auto Service
Nisan Pirian, Hollywood Carwash
Lisa Melandri, Santa Monica Museum of Art
Jeremy Faulkner, Belmont Village of Hollywood Hills

LACE Board members:
David Burtka
Chad Clark
Deborah Hong
Blake Koh
Sean McDonald
Jan McFadden
Tony Payne
Synderela Peng
Glenn R. Phillips
Bryan Rabin
David Richards
Linda Taalman
Brian Wills
Grace Kim

Karaoke Ice is made possible with generous support from Alamance Foods, Blik Surface Graphics, CADRE Laboratory for New Media Chapman & Associates Charitable Foundation, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, the City of West Hollywood, ColorKinetics, Cool Neon, Marcus Doshi Lighting Design, Eovia, Extra Space Storage, The Getty Foundation, Bob Grimm, Hanger 18 Studios, The James Irvine Foundation, Ministry of Transport, Montalvo Arts Center, National Endowment for the Arts, New York University, Sally and Don Lucas Artist Programs, D. Sardy and Symbol Technologies.

Additional support for LACE and its programs comes from The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Izze Beverage Company, Jockey Hollow Foundation, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, Morris Family Foundation, Stone Brewing Co. and the members of LACE.

(Get your own Player)

Lucci + Remedios’ Friends:

LOVE US, LOVE OUR TRUCK.
Or just our stuff. Become a member of the Karaoke Ice Squirrels for Girls glee club by purchasing one of our snazzy tshirts

T SHIRT in S, L, XL, XXL.
$10 plus shipping.
To order, email karaokeice@yahoo.com

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