Sundown Salon #14: Showdown! - MY BARBARIAN

My Barbarian presents "Nightmarathon 3: Web of the Ultimate," a tangled musical legend that reads the Schindler House like a Modern Da Vinci Code. Less period piece, more pieces of periods; this original play uses costume, video, song, and dance to channel the distant medieval, the murder-mystery twenties, and our own mysterious present. Collaborating with My Barbarian on costumes and props will be Pearl Hsiung, Mended Veil, Ujein, and whoever else turns up in the House.

BIO: My Barbarian is a collection of performers, musicians and songwriters based in Echo Park mostly. Malik Gaines (vocals, Rhodes, synths), Jade Gordon (vocals, dance), and Alex Segade (vocals, dance, glockenspiel, Micro-Korg) sing dramatic harmonies, propelled by the beats of Norwood Cheek (bass guitar, Mini Korg) and Andy Ouchi (drums). The tastefully dressed singers tell lyrical stories, airbrushing a style spectrum from Broadway disco to new wave prog, dancing out unicorn fantasy and urban memoir, in an opera-inflected improv performance style known as Showcore. Since 2001, My Barbarian has conducted musical performances in multiple venues around Los Angeles, including Purple Eyes: A Musical Fantasy, the Evidence Room, Los Angeles, Ca., 2004; Songs from the Monkey Machine performance (of music from the Malik Gaines play commissioned by Mark Taper Forum/ Blacnskmyths), Bricktop's, Los Angeles, Ca, 2003; Unicorns LA: The Video, included in REMOTE DVD Magazine screenings at M Bar and Cinespace, LA, CA, 2003; Nightmarathon II, (performance/music Halloween fest organized by My Barbarian & KXLU), Zen, Los Angeles, Ca., 2003; LACE 25th Anniversary Celebration, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, Ca. 2003; Nightmarathon: Halloween Hextravaganza, (performance at Sundown Salon), MAK Center, Los Angeles, Ca. 2002; Fairy Theatre at the Fisting Motel, performance at Outfest 2002, Platinum Oasis, Coral Sands Motel, Los Angeles, Ca., 2002; Song Poems, organized by Steven Hull, Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Santa Monica, Ca., 2002; X-Mas Special, performance at the homes of Allison Anders, Beck, Roddy Bottum, Renee Petropolous, Stephen Prina and others, Los Angeles, Ca., 2001; Song Poems, organized by Steven Hull, Cohan Leslie, and Brown, New York, NY, 2001.

www.mybarbarian.com

INTERVIEW:

01. what is the new black?
JADE: Fuchsia and turquoise stripes/dots/houndstooth, perhaps...? Tweed?
ALEX: Sequins.
MALIK: Purpura.
02. do clothes make the man?
JADE: Clothes make the man poor.
03. just what is it about clothing?
ALEX: Nudity is embarrassing.
03. What is the function of fashion?
MALIK: To create artificial bourgeois hierarchies that aestheticize class. To co-opt style, which is among the last strategies for individualization we have left, and commodify it into something icky.
ALEX: Fashion distinguishes the hoi polloi from the riff-raff.
04. Where does fashion begin and end?
ALEX: Fashion begins in Paris, France and ends in San Diego, California.
05. do you have a muse? why / why not?
JADE: Yes, several. The ghost of my mom as a 33 year old Art Nouveau hippie in 1978 Northern California. (She's not dead) Old pictures. Somewhere in Time / Pretty Baby. Laurel Burch and Emily Ann of Boca Raton...
ALEX: I have 9 muses.
06. who is your all time fashion hero?
MALIK: I have a soft-spot for the early 70s. Though maybe not fashion per se, the radical styles of Os Mutantes, Labelle, The Pointer Sisters, and The Cockettes all made incredible use of colorful theatricality and third-hand rags. Perfect.
ALEX: I agree with Malik, and would like to add my own favorites, from a variety of eras and epochs: Bob Fosse, Cecil Beaton, Jean Harlow, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Teri Garr, Laura Nyro, Morticia & Gomez, Liza Minelli, Richard Gere in American Gigolo, Mink Stole, Rudolf Valentino, Nijinksi, Dietrich & Von Sternberg, Penelope Tree, the Factory, Jack Smith, Anna Mae Wong, Ben Vereen, Jem & the Holograms, Stevie Nicks, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Valerie Harper as Rhoda, Kid Creole & the Coconuts, Alfalfa, Lucy Van Pelt, Cobra and the Baroness from GI Joe, all the elves in ElfQuest, Kate Bush, the X-Men, Diane Keaton & Buster Keaton and even Alex P. Keaton. Etc.
07. what is the sexiest garment of all?
ALEX: Dance belt.
JADE: Fringe.
08. what is your favorite color right now?
JADE: Translucent violet .
09. what is your biggest clothing turn-off?
JADE: Cheap fabrics.
10. who is the best dresser you know & why?
MALIK: Alex and Jade have so much style integrity, it’s an honor to stand next to them. Actress Karen Hallock has fantastic internal glamour, artist Eli Sudbrack has fun individuality, artist Kim Fisher knows how to wear official fashion with distinct elegance.
ALEX: Malik is the best dresser because he always looks effortlessly classy. I also really like to look at artist Lara Schnitger, who has made lots of costumes and set pieces for us, because she is a futurist euro-sprite.
11. what do you consider to be a fashion tragedy?
JADE: Stirrups. Where did they go? Why can't anyone look good in them?
MALIK: Fashion itself is a tragedy, in that irreconcilable forces, exacerbated by misunderstanding, lead to mutual ruin.
12. who do you want to wear the garments you make?
JADE: Me.
13. where does your interest in clothing come from?
JADE: The magical world of Fantasy. Deep-rooted childhood memories.
ALEX: I like costumes better than clothes.
MALIK: My mom designed clothes. I used to sit on the floor of her studio as she worked with mohairs, thai silks, velvets. What a fond memory.
14. what do you look forward to putting on in the morning?
JADE: Make-up.
15. what do you look forward to taking off at the end of the day?
JADE: Make-up.
17. in your whole life what item of clothing made you most excited?
JADE: My unicorn headdress.
18. is there a garment you want to make, but haven't yet? describe.
ALEX: I want a fancy suit of armor and a pointed helmet decorated with wings.
19. is the need and desire to clothe oneself uniquely human? explain.
ALEX: The need to dress may be uniquely human, although as I understand it, the ancient elf kings and queens wore fine raiment of iridescent ermine and velvet.
20. what is your all time #1 favorite thing about getting dressed in l.a.?
JADE: It doesn’t snow.
21. are straight guys dressing more gay & vica versa, if so what's up with that?
MALIK: Instructive here is the example of Paris, where straight guys walk around with their beautiful girlfriends and each are wearing fine linen pants and the best shoes and beautiful scarves. They look dignified, simple, and in love.
23. what item of clothing from your past do you have the strongest emotional attachment to & why?
MALIK: I like my Jesse Jackson 1988 T-shirt. I also have a row of early 90’s fashions in my closet, documenting the time I would spend maxing out my young credit cards at the brand new Barneys in Beverly Hills. These are currently unacceptable, but will hurl me onto the top tier of glamour once they bounce back.