Oriana Fox and 70s feminists get mashed up with comedy, sex in the city and lots of nude hair painting

I am a fan of Oriana Fox (for a visual image of her - think a slimmer, prettier version of Mel from Flight of the Conchords). I went to the best night out ever last night. Not only were we on the massive windowed seventh floor of the Tate Modern overlooking everything in London but there was wine, wine, food, more wine, nude (fit) men, nude (fit) women, food painting, rapping, huge fabric pussies and people tied up with pieces of string - all in all a perfect night out. So much wine was flowing that the joyful sound of the odd broken glass dropped into the performance towards the end of the evening as the audience happily slipped into oblivion.

The night was all about re-enacting famous feminist art performances (and protests) - a "hommage" to the much slagged off 60s/70s/80s wimmin who watched themselves being watched by men and tried to climb out of the frame. But Oriana also added her own knowing wink and little comedy twists. One of the best features was a performance which re-enacted Judy Chicago's "Cock and Cunt Play" (1970)using a huge fabric pussy but incorporating 2 new characters - including a very eloquent talking cervix (the "eye"). Oriana's original 2003 Goldsmiths work "Our bodies, Ourselves" linked 70s feminism and the ever popular "Sex in the city", pointing out that the "SITC" girls are staging their own little feminist protest, just under a different guise .
My other favourite item was Oreet Ashery's "Hairoism" performance. A reworking of Eleanor Antin's 1972 video The King in which the artist slowly adds facial hair and clothes to make herself a slightly underconfident monarch. Oreet had all her hair shaved off, then reglued it to make herself look like both the head of the Israeli Defence Forces, then a leader of Hamas, then the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, then Yasser Arafat - successively. All simply through different haircuts and a bit of glasses wearing (and she did surprisingly look very similar to them). Then she had hair glued all over her body-scary.

The night ended with a full on rap whilst three young men stood nude, covering themselves in polka dots, (a part piss take of the Heyward Gallery's current red and white polka dotted trees / installations by Yayoi Kusama just upriver?). Lilibeth, the artise, proceeded to do Shigeko Kubota-style vagina painting, dragged her hair up and down the floor also adding to the painting in a Pollock-stylee whilst rapping angrily about "vagina painting with a penis brush" and over-recycling of the past.

Everyone should see this stuff - it is awesome.

Photograpy: Hitomi Yoda.

DUKKES play Bristol, with Team Brick and the Defibrillators hoorah - our first gig outta town

we played a gig outside goldsmiths for the first time. in a warehouse in Montpellier, the graffiti-squat party cool area of Bristol. and i broke a plate, 2 glass ashtrays and a really annoying coffee mug with a large hammer. niiiiiiiiiiiice. Team Brick and the defibrillators played too. and they were awesome. and we all got drunk in a jamaican bar to reggae then played guitar hero - world tour after at our mate Josh's extremely messy flat... sweet

Captain Najork's Hired Sportsmen: "post-feminist industrial noise pop"

http://www.gold.ac.uk/news/week-with-the-warden/

"post-feminist industrial noise pop"

Well despite my guitar breaking the night before, having to borrow my mate Blake's "Big Muff" pedal (cue dirty jokes from engineers all round), accidently destroying my bike, and someone unplugging me just before I was about to play - it seems the warden of Goldsmiths himself did actually love Stacey and I's performance. He came to see us on Friday, allegedly loved it (I have to get a CD together) and has even included us in his weekly blog, as "post-feminist industrial noise pop". See http://www.gold.ac.uk/news/week-with-the-warden/ Thanks Geoffrey! Anytime if you want us to play your lounge or any Goldsmiths events - we are ready. All we need is one drumkit, one electric guitar, some crockery and a loud amp! aaaaaah bliss www.myspace.com/DUKKESMUSIC. I think those capitals are vital...

we broke lots of crockery

Staz and myself had our first gig as the newly named DUKKES on Friday as part of the Pure Gold Festival and the glorious Albany, Deptford. And apparently the songs went down rather well.

I took most of the kitchen china with me and a large hammer. We didn't like the idea of doing a big theatrical posh shiny "show" so we decided it was going to be just like a rather chaotic home rehearsal. We brought a carpet and we made a set which looked a bit like a bedroom/lounge (complete with uplighter), broke a lot of crockery, and dismantled the drumkit whilst still playing it.

We got interviewed by a film crew so shortly our loverly mugs will be immortalised somewhat on utube, both jumping around on stage and rabbiting on a bit about the music. We were desperate to get a beer after the show so we are slowly edging towards the bar during the interview.

The warden of Goldsmith's is apparently a fan. If he wants us to play his lounge at home we will, any time. Simon, our mentor and teacher at college, when asked exactly what genre of music we belong to, described us as DIY, post-feminist, noise pop rock. We are not sure about the post-feminist. Maybe post-ironic is more apt? We are thinking of inventing a logo / coat of arms which somehow integrates "By appointment to the Warden of Goldsmith's". It is gonna be awesome...

Band naming headaches

I formed a new band with my mate Staz and we went on myspace www.myspace.com/DUKKESMUSIC along with 3 trillion other bands.

We spent about 3 years trying to work out what to call ourselves. There are some terrible band names out there. Think the worst two I can remember are: Crispy Ambulance; Shitgoblins. Having said that, "The Beatles" doesnt sound like a great name when you think about it. Who wants to be called after a bunch of insects?

We wanted to be called something which wasn't:

- about the fact we are 2 girls (we hate "girly" band names like something -ettes or girls something or pink or any girls names)

- not about the fact we are 2 girls (something really boyish or macho - as if we were a bunch of macho dykes)

- lesbian sounding. We are not lesbians. A fact that apparently is not clear if 2 girls get on stage and play together. Apparently everyone will think we are lesbians. (Or so says our gay mentor, Simon). Why? Do we need to tattoo "we are not lesbians" on our foreheads? Or hand out little flyers to the audience clarifying that we are not lesbians? Or make some kind of announcement? rubbish. Is this because of Tegan and Sara? We don't even have acoustic guitars (just a guitar and drums). Thinking about it, there aren't actually that many lesbian bands. Apparently the original members of 4 non blondes were and of course there is Lesbians on Ecstasy but we hadn't actually heard of them...

Naming is such a nightmare. Weird thing is, after only 4 days on myspace, this really cool DJ guy called Teambrick or team bric (www.myspace.com/teambrick) offered us a gig in Bristol, supporting his album launch. Brilliant. Anyone who says myspace doesn't work is lieing. It is, apart from anything else, a great place to collaborate with other musicians. God I sound like "Tom" the happy virtual myspace welcome bloke (I reckon he doesn't actually exist but has been devised in photoshop from a merge of all the faces of the shady people running myspace).

Hoorah for rock and roll.

North Korean rocket launch - but where is it going to land?

Am I the only one who is disturbed by the launch yesterday of the North Korean rocket? The news seems to be reporting only that the rocket was launched and they every nation in the world is "disgusted" (cue big philosophical discussions about North Korea, rockets etc etc). But during the whole of the news reports they seem to be missing out one rather important piece of information - WHERE ON EARTH IS THE ROCKET GOING TO LAND?

Call me old fashioned but from an everyday, sitting in our tenement in South London perspective, this seems rather important. Is it coming down on our heads next? Should we run? Is it aimed at Japan (again?) Apparently the last ones just went over Japan. That must have been comforting. Can someone please tell us where it is going to land so that we know who should be panicking / running away very fast / crouching in a corner with a bag over their head. It won't help anyone but it would just be nice to know.

Please.

That is all.