_____________
2019: Wanda City Chengdu Theme Park (Chengdu, China)
At a total investment of 55 billion yuan, Chengdu Wanda Cultural Tourism City, situated at Binjiang New District, Dujiangyan City, Chengdu, occupies a 310-hectare site with gross floor area of 5 million square meters. The project will include a Wanda Mall, outdoor theme park, stage show, a hotel cluster and a Binjiang bar street, among others. The Chengdu Wanda Theme Park will feature a ski park, a horror park, a movie park, a shopping mall and much more.

 

______________
2019: Whirligig Woods (Saxapahaw, North Carolina)
A former designer for Disney parks and Busch Gardens has officially announced plans to bring an all new family entertainment experience, Whirligig Woods Amusement Park and Treehouse Resort, to Saxapahaw, North Carolina, to include an entire section dedicated to Halloween.

Theme park designer and Raleigh resident Bob Baranick, who has worked on projects around the world including Disney World, Disney Land, and Busch Gardens, is turning his dream for a North Carolina theme park into a reality with his proposed Whirligig Woods, which he plans to build on a 21-acre site in Saxapahaw, located in Alamance County on the Haw River less than 20 miles west of Chapel Hill.

The new theme park would include thrill rides, a tree house resort, and, most exciting, a Halloween-themed haunted land that Baranick tells us will be called Spooky Hollow. According to the report, Baranick plans to break ground in 2018, with the first phase of Whirligig Woods opening in 2019.

 

______________
2019: The Sketch (Orlando)
As you can see, this coaster is CRAZY, and very compact, which is completely understandable, as the new theme park it’s destined for will open within only 7.7 acres.

 

______________
2018: The Electric Eel (SeaWorld, San Diego)
Making good on SeaWorld’s promise to add more thrill-oriented rides, the San Diego theme park is announcing plans today for what it is calling its tallest and fastest roller coaster yet. The Electric Eel, which would make its debut in early summer of 2018, proposes a combination of loops, twists and a nearly 150-foot high ascent followed by an inverted roll that will offer riders an upside-down view of Mission Bay.

 

_____________
2018: The Titanic Experience (20th Century Fox World, Dubai)
James Cameron’s classic film Titanic will be depicted from beginning to end in the new ride Titanic Experience to allow fans of the film to feel as if they are really on the sinking ship, from their first board to final goodbye. The ride will feature “an immersive experience that includes motion theater simulators and will allow you to experience what it was like to be on the Titanic in an exciting way.”

 

______________
2018: Polercoaster (Atlantic City Boardwalk)
The Polercoaster, a proposed vertical roller coaster to be built on the site of the old Sands casino, has received approval from the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, The Press of Atlantic City reports. The envisioned coaster will sit on one acre of land and tower 350 feet high. It will be located on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Mount Vernon and Kentucky Avenues. Florida developer Joshua Wallack, who is building a similar amusement complex in the Sunshine State, has big plans for the Jersey site. “We’re obviously going to have a bar there,” he said.

 

______________

2018: Cirque du Soleil Theme Park (Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico)
Have you ever found yourself sitting in the back row under the blue-and-yellow Cirque du Soleil big top and thought to yourself: “The only thing that could make this better would be a three-hour line and $14 hamburgers!” Well, your wait may finally be over in 2018, when the first-ever Cirque de Soleil theme park opens at the Vidanta resort in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico.

The Park will fuse Cirque’s immersive entertainment with Vidanta’s luxury vacationing, creating a fantasyland where families can explore and get away from it all. It will have three hotels feature a range of components — a mix of interactive theater with water features, VIP hydrotherapy circuit for adults, experiential and interactive entertainment experiences, and embedded CDS actors. The park is meant to look like it sprouted up from the ground and will be overwhelmingly lush and green. What you won’t find: plastic tubing, slides, stanchions, etc.

 

______________
2018: Valkyria (Liseberg, Gothenburg)
In the mighty shadow of the valkyrie you are chosen for the ultimate challenge. Summon up all your courage and strength, because in order to rise you must first fall. Straight down! Europe’s longest Dive Coaster, with a vertical 50-metre-drop. Just as you are about to go over the edge the ride suddenly pauses. Before you plunge vertically into an underground tunnel at a speed of 105 kph!

 

_____________
2018: ErotikaLand (Piracicaba, Brazil)
A new theme park in Brazil called Erotikaland will open in 2018. It’s pretty much similar to Disneyland, minus the cutesy characters and only more sex. There are countless plans underway for the park, one of them being genitalia-shaped amusement rides. All of the elements of the park will be related to sexual organs or activities.

Don’t expect to walk around with a tub of popcorn or a stick of cotton candy. The park will only offer aphrodisiac snacks and the restaurants will only offer meals with aphrodisiac foods. Despite being sex-themed, guests aren’t allowed to have sex inside Erotikaland. There’s going to be a hotel within the park itself for those who can’t hold it any longer. If they prefer, park officials will also be operating motels outside of the park for a fee.

A 7D cinema will be erected within the park. It will include vibrating seats that will surely tittilate the senses of those who want to watch something inside the theatre. You won’t be able to find mouse ears inside Erotikaland’s souvenir shop. You can probably get vibrators, plugs, clamps, and sex dolls for sale, along with some souvenir items emblazoned with the park’s logo. There’s a huge possibility that those who are under 18 won’t be allowed inside.

 

______________
2018: Unnamed Hyper Coaster (Energylandia, Poland)
You may remember Polish amusement park Energylandia announcing that it will be adding either an Intamin or a Vekoma hyper coaster for the 2018 season. The winner has been decided! Energylandia will be adding an Intamin hyper coaster for the 2018 season. It will be the world’s tallest (262 ft), fastest (86 mph) hyper coaster. The ride also features multiple airtime moments, a panoramic wave turn, and a water feature.

 

______________
2019: Grand Texas (New Casey, Texas)
Building a theme park from scratch is like riding a roller coaster. Monty Galland knows. He’s developing Grand Texas. “Things are going well,” said Galland from the construction site near the intersection of Highways 242 and 59 in New Caney. “They’re moving along much faster now. There’s a lot of activity.” Grand Texas will eventually be a more than 600 acre complex with a theme park, a water park, sports fields, hotels, restaurants and more.

 

______________
2019: The Pearl of Dubai
The Pearl of Dubai, set in the shallow waters of The World Islands development off the coast of Dubai, has been modelled after the mythical lost city of Atlantis and inspired by the look of the Hollywood films Pirates of the Caribbean and Avatar, according to Reef Worlds, the Los Angeles-based underwater tourism design company developing the project.

The five-acre park, billed as the largest sustainable underwater tourism site, will be accessible to swimmers and divers of all ages and levels who can view the site near the surface of the sea by snorkelling or explore it deeper underwater by scuba diving. The company hopes to create a park where “everybody can be satisfied”, with children able to snorkel, while parents go diving and teenagers explore the waters in a semi-submersible. “Ideally, we would be looking for somebody to be able to walk down the sand and right into the structure”, said David Taylor, director of development.

 

___________
2018: Time Traveler (Silver Dollar City, Missouri)
Silver Dollar City fans are buzzing with excitement over the recent construction taking place at the park. Footers are being poured and a building, presumably the ride’s station, is being erected. The ride is rumored to be the first Xtreme Spinning Coaster model from Mack Rides, meaning it could feature a launch and one or more inversions. Considering that the construction is taking place on a hillside, the coaster’s layout is likely to closely follow the terrain. In terms of theme, Herschend Family Entertainment, the chain owning Silver Dollar City, recently filed a trademark for the name Time Traveler. In a guest survey, the park revealed that a potential theme for the coaster would be a time machine that launches riders back in time to the Roman Empire.

 

_____________
2018: Six Flags Las Vegas
The world-renowned Theme Park chain will be adding the city of sin to their roster come Summer 2018! This new attraction is said to be located at the edge of town, off of Blue Diamond road. The park will take up around 262 acres, and the attractions will be themed with some familiar characters, along with some new characters that will be revealed in cinemas shortly.

 

____________
2019: Six Flags Dubai
Six Flags has released new details about its Six Flags Dubai project, which is scheduled to open in late 2019 as part of the second phase of the Dubai Parks and Resorts development initiative. Six Flags Dubai will feature 27 rides and attractions. The park will include “world-record breaking roller coasters, water slides, shows and a variety of food offerings.” Guests will enter and exit the park through an impressive, state-of-the-art (and fully air-conditioned!) promenade which will offer a VIP mezzanine, space for private and catered events, as well as retail and dining. The area will be home to three attractions including the park’s signature roller coaster that will encircle the promenade.

 

_____________
2019: Gold Nugget Theme Park (Deadwood, South Dakota)
With no other major theme park or large-scale family entertainment center in the region, principals of the proposed $40 million to $80 million Gold Nugget Theme Park revealed their plans at a public meeting Monday in Deadwood. Ideas for the park include The Lost Mine Sluice, a themed water park attraction; The Hickok House, a dinner theater with live entertainment along with dining and cocktails, with a seating capacity of 1,100 to 1,500; The Winchester-Remington Lodge, an upscale Lodge and Restaurant; The Miners Camp, 100 log cabins; Conestoga Campground, 240 RV parking spots; The Great Sioux Powwow Grounds, 50 teepees for camping; and The Deadwood and Gold Nugget Railroad, an 1870s steam train through the Gold Nugget property with a final destination in downtown Deadwood through Whitewood Canyon.

 

_____________
2018: Toy Story Land (Walt Disney Studios, Orlando)
In Toy Story Land, you’ll find yourself shrunk to the size of a toy to explore the world of Andy’s backyard with your favorite Toy Story characters, including Woody and Buzz. There are two new themed attractions being developed for Toy Story Land.

The first – Slinky Dog Dash – will be a family coaster attraction you’ll want to ride again and again. The attraction features a coaster track that Andy has built all over his backyard using his Mega Coaster Play Kit, but as you know, he has a pretty amazing imagination, so he’s combined it with some of his other toys, according to Imagineer Kathy Mangum. On Slinky Dog Dash, you will zip, dodge and dash around many turns and drops that Andy has created to really make Slinky and his coils stretch to his limits.

The second all-new attraction in Toy Story Land will be Alien Swirling Saucers. This attraction is designed as a toy play set that Andy got from Pizza Planet, inspired by the first Toy Story film. Aliens are flying around in their toy flying saucers and trying to capture your rocket toy vehicle with “The Claw.” As you rotate around the toy planets and satellites as part of the game, you’ll swirl to the beat of fun “Space Jazz” music developed just for this experience, Mangum said. The music, the lighting, and the sound effects will add to the flurry of your adventure while “The Claw” looms ominously over you.

 

_____________
2018: Ocean Park (Hong Kong)
Hong Kong is set to welcome a new water park in July 2018, almost two decades after a previous one was closed. A ceremony to mark the beginning of the construction of Tai Shue Wan Water World was held at Ocean Park on Thursday. Ocean Park Chairman Leo Kung Lin-cheng said that the new water park will be able to host 1.5 million visitors a year. It will feature multiple outdoor and indoor swimming pools as well as water slides and a sea turtle exhibit area, according to a government planning document.

 

_____________
2018/2019: Metsä (Japan)
A brand new theme park based around Tove Jansson’s much-loved Moomin characters is to open in Japan in 2018. ‘Metsä’, meaning ‘forest’ in Finnish, is a joint venture between Tokyo’s FinTech Global Incorporated (FGI) and Moomin Monogatari Ltd. Its wooded location on the shores of Lake Miyazawa in Hanno is intended to evoke the Moomins’ Finnish homeland. The new theme park will incorporate two zones. Metsä Village is scheduled to open in Autumn 2018, and MOOMINVALLEY PARK will open in Spring the following year.

Metsä Village is being designed as a Northern European lifestyle country park. With no admission fee, visitors can relax or pursue outdoor activities in the park’s natural setting. Additionally, there will also be a covered European style market selling fresh local produce as well as arts and crafts. Accommodation will be offered in the form of lakeside glamping and a hotel with en-suite saunas.

At MOOMINVALLEY PARK, guests will be able to immerse themselves in the unique world of the Moomins. Landmark buildings recreated from the original stories will include the family’s Moomin House, the lighthouse and the bathing hut. The park will also feature a number of attractions, plus a restaurant and a Moomin store selling original park products. Japan’s new Moomin attraction is being designed to deliver ‘Six Experience Values and 3 Guidelines that Lead to a True Sense of Contentment’:

1. The experience of adventure, of discovery, of learning new things.
2. Natural experiences – a gentle breeze at the lakeside, soft grass under foot, the changing seasons.
3. The satisfaction of achieving goals through one’s own effort.

 

_______________
2018: Asgard Viking Adventure Park (Haugesund, Norway)
Prepare to embark on a fun-filled adventure at Asgard, where the Age of the Vikings comes roaring back to life. Celebrate the Viking spirit with thrilling rides, dazzling shows, extraordinary dining, and marvelous shopping opportunities. You’ll be immersed in an amazing world of heroes, monsters, and magic…action and adventure…gods and giants…high courage and low treachery…strange beings and wondrous places…primeval creation and cataclysmic destruction. It’s a one-of-a-kind, year-round destination with indoor and outdoor experiences that will engage every member of your family as it triggers the imagination and inspires participation. And it’s all presented on authentic Viking land.

 

_______________
2018: Koma (Walibi, Belgium)
Walibi Belgium, the famous Belgian amusement park of the Compagnie des Alpes, will offer in the summer of 2018 a new sensational attraction to its public, a brand new roller coaster Bolliger & Mabillard. Walibi chose a name for the less original, since it will be called “Koma”, in reference to the clinical state of abolition of consciousness and vigilance. Without inversion, type “Hyper Coaster”, this one proposes a course of 1450 meters full of surprises, of which 9 points of airtimes. Built by the well-known Swiss manufacturer Bolliger & Mabillard, “Koma” will culminate from the top of its lift at 61 meters, which will allow its 3 trains composed of 7 cars each for a total of 28 passengers per convoy, Speed ​​of 117 km / h. The “Koma” circuit will be largely above the lake, integrated into a new area that will cover 2 hectares encompassing the Radja River and including shops, as well as a food court. The “Cobra” you will take the road to France, the redemption by the Parc du Bocasse for 4 million euros should be signed in the week. A soundtrack will also be specially created for the attraction and will be broadcast in the train station, in the waiting line as well as in the lift. Sound and visual effects are also provided and will be activated during the passage of the trains. Lights will also be visible at night on the sides of these. With “Koma”, Walibi Belgium will thus hold the highest, and the longest roller coaster in the Benelux.

 

_______________
2018: RMC Mean Steak (Cedar Point)
So what’s going on with Mean Streak? I posed the question ten days ago and The Point has been completely silent on the issue. Meanwhile construction continues on site at the park with new RMC style track being set into place, and some interesting new changes being made that promise that whatever is happening to Mean Streak will truly be something special when it does open.

 

____________
2019: Nagatino Theme Park ‘Dream Island’ (Moscow)
Construction has recently begun at our project Nagatino Theme Park ‘Dream Island’ which is set to be a new world class amusement park and “Moscow’s version of Disneyland”. The territory of the new theme park covers 100 hectares and will include the world’s biggest theme amusement park, multifunctional concert hall, multiplex, 4 star hotel, yacht club and children’s yacht school. Much of this territory will be developed as a public park, including a pedestrian zone along the bank of the Moscow River. “Dream Island” is currently one of the largest social projects in Moscow and its development is highly supported and welcomed by the government and citizens. The architectural concept for the park was initially developed and designed by Chapman Taylor. Nagatino Theme Park is expected to be visited by up to 4 million people annually.

 

_____________
2018: International Space Center (Ashdod, Israel)
Israel isn’t known for its amusement parks, but that could change soon as a new space-themed park is set to open in Ashdod. The International Space Center will feature displays, movies and activities all connected to space travel, with special shows and events featuring space industry personnel and astronauts from Israel and abroad.

Among those activities will be the 3D space experience, in which participants will have the opportunity to participate in a simulated space flight, with interactive displays to help visitors learn about the planets and the future of space travel. There will also be space-themed rides, games, snack bars – and, of course, a gift shop – to provide visitors with an “out of this world” experience.

Besides fun space stuff, the park will feature a more serious side, hosting an incubator for early-stage start-ups working on space-related technology. The site will also be home to the Israel Space Cadet Training Center, designed to be Israel’s premier academy for astronautics, aeronautics and space science.

 

_____________
2018: Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi
Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi, an indoor theme park spanning 1.65 million square feet, will feature 29 rides, shows and interactive attractions. Currently, theming is underway throughout the park. The park will feature characters from its portfolio of DC Comics Super Heroes universe including Batman, Superman and Wonder Women and cartoons such as Bugs Bunny, Scooby-Doo and Tom and Jerry. Factory acceptance testing for all rides is nearly done, and delivery and installation of rides has already started. Warner Bros World Abu Dhabi will be situated alongside other theme parks in Yas Island including Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, Yas Waterworld, CLYMB, and the recently announced SeaWorld Abu Dhabi – which is set to open in 2022.

 

_____________
2018: SW8 (Alton Towers, UK)
Alton Towers has submitted a planning application for a wooden rollercoaster, scheduled to open in 2018. According to Ride Rater fan page the project is currently dubbed SW8 and will be built by American manufacturers Great Coasters International (GCI).

 

________________
2018: Ferrari Land (Port Aventura, Spain)
Ferrari Land, about an hour southwest of Barcelona, will feature five rides based on the sports car brand when it opens next door to the PortAventura theme park. The 19-acre Ferrari Land will be about a third the size of the original Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi and about as big as a single themed land at PortAventura. The $140-million budget for the entire park is less than Disney or Universal spends on some individual attractions.

Visitors will enter Ferrari Land by way of a checkered flag plaza with a fountain sporting a statue based on the carmaker’s prancing horse logo. Display models of the Spider, Italia, Berlinetta, California and Speciale sports cars in Ferrari’s signature red will ring the entry plaza. The park will feature five rides: a launched roller coaster, a pair of drop towers, a miniature motorway, a race car simulator and a whip ride.

The Vertical Accelerator coaster will rocket riders from 0 to 112 mph in 5 seconds up a 368-foot-tall top hat spike. The ride is billed as the tallest coaster in Europe, besting the 249-foot-tall Shambhala next door at PortAventura. The Ferrari Land coaster won’t be as tall (456 feet) or fast (128 mph) as the similar Kingda Ka at New Jersey’s Six Flags Great Adventure.

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** Steevee, Hi. Well, there you go. If it’s gotten to the point where Malick’s critics are so divided that a place like the Voice runs dueling reviews, then that only speaks to his work’s admirably confusing power as far as I’m concerned. I’m not sure about Dominowe’s influences. Is there not an interview with him out there somewhere? Very cool about the ‘Scum’ release and even more about your piece on Clarke! Congrats, I can’t wait to read it! ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. Well, you were speaking a while back about current queer film having lost its daring, and Reinke is a good example of queer film, or video in his case, really going for it. ** Dóra Grőber, Hi! Me too. We really need to have that big problem behind us asap. We’re swamped. Like I think we’ve talked about, ‘Trainspotting’s’ language in the original is tough even for an English speaker, or at least a non-Scottish person, but just go with the music of it, is my suggestion, and let it make sense when it does and be garbled-seeming when it doesn’t. Great novel. My guess is that ‘PGL’ will ultimately be a little longer than ‘Cattle’, but it’s really hard to tell until we get into the editing. That’s when you figure out what the movie is or needs to be. That’s my very favorite part, no surprise. I hope you’re feeling less irritated today. The good thing about irritation is that a decent night’s sleep can sweep that kind of circumstantial stress away. Hope it did. Kate Monica: the name seems kind of familiar me, but I don’t think I’ve read her. Of course I’ll go see what I can find about her today. Thank you! My apartment is warm! And my showers will now be hot! It’s weird how exciting that feels, ha ha. Yesterday involved mostly just starting to unpack boxes and conferring with Zac about the film stuff progress. It seemed to just kind of happen and eventually end uneventfully. How did Wednesday turn out for you? ** Alistair, Hi, A! Very lovely to see you, my friend! I’m so happy you liked ‘Cattle’ so much! That really is so great to hear and means so much coming from you! I’ll copy and paste your comment and zip it to Zac. The music in scene 2 is ‘Get Out 3’ by Pita (aka Peter Rehberg). It’s on his album ‘Get Out’. That scene changed a lot between the original plan and what we ended up shooting. Originally, it was going to be the singer of a noisy rock band (initially I planned to ask Sonic Youth to be band, but then they broke up) playing a gig in a club. He was going to be singing a song rather than doing spoken word. The same thing was going to happen — audience members attacking him sexually and dragging him into the audience to molest him. But in that version, the rest of the band going to enter the audience, surround the assault, watch, and spontaneously score the assault by playing improvised, noisy music while the singer contiunued to try to sing the song while being attacked. But it was just too logistically ambitious and costly to do it that way, so we had to shift it into an electronic/spoken word performance, and we slotted the ‘The Worst’ text in for the obvious reason — the creepiness and volatility of a guy being assaulted as he recounts the most horrible things that have happened to him in his life — which worked out okay. Really, thank you so much, Alistair! That’s really, really great to hear! How are you? What’s up with your novel’s path to us? Big love, me. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. I’m glad you liked the Reinkes. I thought you might, so that’s cool that you did. How’s stuff? ** Jeff Coleman, Hi, Jeff! Wow, it’s already available? I’ll see if New Juche is up for pushing the ‘welcome’ post’s timing up to asap. New Juche, If you see this, should we do the ‘welcome’ post for your book soon? I’m way into it, if so. Everyone, New Juche’s new book ‘Mountainhead’, which is amazing, is already available to order now even though it technically won’t be out for a while. I’m going to do a welcoming post for the book soon, but, if you can’t wait, Jeff Coleman has alerted us that you can order the book right now by using this link. Thanks a bunch, Jeff! ** Misanthrope, Hi. ‘Good different’, yep, aren’t we all hopefully, ha ha. Thanks about the title. Yeah, not bad, right? And it does cool things re: the film and its story, I think. Pass along the G word on ‘Closet Monster’ please? Bon day! ** S., Hi, man. The move was a success, I guess, although until I unpack everything, it still feels like it’s happening, which isn’t a terribly good thing, although not bad either. New Cantrell? I’ll go hear that. I guess life is always weird, but we only notice that once in a while? Strange. ** Bill, Hi. I’m happy my post did its appointed job then, cool. The good thing about pokes is that they function at almost any speed, I think. Jesus, what the hell was I just trying to say? More coffee for me. ** Right. Today you are being subjected to my amusement park fascination/fetish as you occasionally are, and I guess that’s that. See you tomorrow.

 

‘The inventory is key to Steve Reinke’s practice, in which semi-confessional videos assemble musings on critical theory and pop songs, desires and fantasies, historical events and pornography, offering him endless permutations of ways to make ironic but pointed juxtapositions. Andy (1997), for example, contrasts a man listing his dull decorating choices in minute detail (colour scheme: cream, ivory and off-white) while appearing in different choices of underwear, rubbing his cock for the camera as though proffering a series of pornography options.

‘Reinke pounces on the moment when the presence of two items in a list creates a levelling of unlikely objects. In his Anal Masturbation and Object Loss (2002) he is shown gluing together the pages of the texts ‘Oral Autoerotic, Aggressive Behaviour and Oral Fixation’ and ‘Anal Masturbation and Object Loss’ (an act that gained unexpected resonance after reading in the last issue of frieze (issue 120) about the censoring of a homo-erotic text by Cerith Wyn Evans, by gluing its pages together after the catalogue was printed).

‘In the video Reinke explains that he is preparing a library for his new art school, in which discourse will be limited to three subjects: classical rhetoric, theosophy and Martin Heidegger – and Heidegger ‘not as a philosophic system but as a series of provocative compound words’. Following on from this move from philosophy to words, the commentary then considers the relation between meaning and physical space occupied – for example, by glued-together books or the projection of a video in a gallery – while also lampooning Heideggerian etymological riffs and the desire for a precision of meaning (‘I would like anal masturbation to refer only to anal masturbation’) so drastic that ideas turn from sculptures to objects to placeholders (‘Object Loss’). The film is a tour de force.

‘In a recent gallery exhibition, Reinke arranged photographs of American servicemen who died in Iraq in order of their looks (The American Military Casualties of the Second Gulf War for Whom Photographs Were Available as of November 6, 2006, Arranged by Attractiveness, 2006), again provocatively inverting conventional organizing principles but also pushing to an extreme his persona as gay aesthete, interested only in ‘flowers and boys’, as he puts it in one film, or even as gay pervert, delivering immodest confessions and fantasies in his friendly, almost hokey, Canadian accent.

‘Such an alter ego – or just ego in extremis – is one of the most interesting aspects of Reinke’s practice, suggesting not only a sustained project of construction of the self (similar to his penchant for turning individual videos into larger projects – such as ‘The Hundred Videos’ or his current series ‘Final Thoughts’, which will continue, he says, until he dies) but also his investigation of the way in which art theory, the diaristic form of avant-garde cinema and home use of videos has developed a rhetoric of conflating the technological apparatus of the video with one’s own ordering and remembering capacity: mind as machine, memory as pop songs and Super-8 reels, happiness as photographed flowers. By trespassing and acting within these genres Reinke’s videos push to the limit the capacity of the videotape to function as a means of ‘making sense’ of material, whether this material is a library, a philosophical system, sexuality or the self.’ — Melissa Gronlund

 

____
Stills

 

____
Further

My Rectum Is Not A Grave
Steve Reinke @ VIMEO
Steve Reinke @ Video Data Bank
Steve Reinke at Isabella Bortolozzi
Steve Reinke – The 100 Videos (2002)
Steve Reinke: The 100 Videos, a monograph
Steve Reinke @ Facebook
Steve Reinke @ IMDb
Two New DVD Sets by Steve Reinke
THE GENITAL IS SUPERFLUOUS: FINAL THOUGHTS SERIES FOUR
Lonely Boys: Steve Reinke in the Company of Some Other Men (John Smith, George Kuchar & Joe Gibbons)
Podcast: Episode 361: Steve Reinke
A Bit of This and a Little of That: Steve Reinke at Gallery 400
Everybody Needs a Friend: Queer Journeys with Allyson Mitchell and Steve Reinke
Talk Shows and Case Studies: The Hundred Videos by Steve Reinke (1997)

 

_____
Extras

Final Thoughts Series Four (The Natural Look), Steve Reinke

THE GENITAL IS SUPERFLUOUS: FINAL THOUGHTS, SERIES FOUR with Steve Reinke

STEVE REINKE, IMPAKT EVENT Integral

Fan Letter to Steve Reinke

Interview Steve Reinke about “A Boy Needs a Friend”

 

_____
Interview

 

How do you assemble your works? Text first then footage, or footage first, or a combination of both?

Sometimes the text comes first and I have to search for the image or make an animation. But finding compelling footage first and then using writing as a way to explore it — to find out why it is interesting — happens just as often. Mostly I work in chunks, crafting the chunks into chapters, moving stuff around. Sometimes I just come across the footage, which is great. But increasingly, it is really quick to do specific searches for online stuff. Sometimes the British artist James Richards sends me great clips, like the baby and dog making out in the new piece.

A Boy Needs A Friend is part of your series Final Thoughts. What is the Final Thoughts project?

Final Thoughts is name of my ongoing series of video essays. Thought replaces thought — shifting, contingent — in a chain that finds an endpoint only in my death. Rather than being diaries, though each is quite personal, the “thoughts,” like diaries, contain a lot of the quotidian. But Final Thoughts is not meant primarily to document my day-to-day life. The video subtly mocks — and also validates — our culture’s mania for the “authentic.”

In most of my work, I’ve mocked and played around with any notion of authenticity. A Boy Needs A Friend is actually more personal, closer to a kind of confessional mode [than previous works]; though never one that would presume that the artist/narrator has any solid, authentic core, just a cycling through various masks and positions. But these masks and positions are a bit closer to me than usual.

The “carnivorous leopard urine” section plays around maybe most clearly with this — the claim to have determined someone’s psychic core by looking at them, yet having that projection still hold possibilities that might be true. The passport section does this, too.

In your early works you played a kind of gadabout, a gay ingénue. Now you’re a 50-something wise daddy!

Yep, the persona has changed, often from work to work. The stuff from 10 or 15 years ago, like Anthology of American Folk Song often had an unstable voice, sometimes personal, sometimes cold. Starting from 2014, the narrators have become more grounding, with more charm and humour, but also a kind of looseness and a willingness to speculate, philosophize, spin nonsense.
Has your method of recording your own voice changed with “the persona,” as you put it?

I used to use a voice over booth, but now I just have a mic at my desk. I rehearse the texts half a dozen times, getting the pauses and intonation down. Then I record — usually in one take, maybe two. I often keep little mistakes and the sound of breath and spit. I want to seduce viewers with my voice, seduce them and slap them around, although the slapping is more often through images and non-vocal sound.

You’re mellowing, perhaps?

I do feel a bit different. I have become much warmer, more emotional (though still not terribly emotional) and social, even occasionally outgoing. For me the video is more about intimacy and queer intimacy. Most of my actual friends, for instance, are women and have no place in this video. The video has my husband and some sex buddies, but not really many friends or friendships.

How has living most of the last 20 years in the United States changed your practice?

Hmm. I never wanted to live in America, but I couldn’t get a job in Canada. Likewise, if I had to live in America, I wouldn’t have chosen Chicago, but I keep getting jobs here. And now I have property, tenure and a husband who loves Chicago, so I’m stuck here. One of the nice things about being a young artist in Toronto was that marginal practices (that is non-commercial) like audio art and experimental film/video seemed central to the scene. In America video art — unless it’s in a fancy gallery — can be dismissed as quaint. I also like Canadian audiences more as they get the work — the sense of humour and literary ironies, the McLuhanesque aphorisms — better than other audiences.

 

________________
21 of Steve Reinke’s videos

________________
Excuse of the Real (1989)
‘Once I went to a party, far across the city and got drunk. When it was time to go the subways had stopped, so I began walking. I knew the general direction home, miles across the night. I was very drunk, all those houses, all those streets. I came across a row of town houses under construction, the basements dug were out to be garages and I climbed down, the earth was hard and cool and I slept for twenty or thirty minutes, awoke and was thirsty, wanting a glass of water and to cup some in my palms and bring it to my face, splashing. I came to a street of large houses. I went around back to one and entered a side door, which should not have been left unlocked. I proceeded up the stairs. Dawn was approaching, a blue and grey light all shadow but I could see a man lying in bed and next to him, on the floor, a German shepherd which looked at me, wagging its tail. The man was facing away, he would not turn around. Is that you, he said. Have you come back to me?’ — SR

 

_____________
Family Planning (1990)
‘My grandmother kept her legs clenched while sweeping. She did not believe in science, but she believed in the possibility of air-borne sperm. And who can be blamed for their beliefs? She was Catholic, but found the rhythm method unacceptable, waiting into the night for the right-tempo song to come on the radio. After five children she began using things around the kitchen as IUDs, common household utensils which would not be missed. Bent spoons and salt shaker bottoms disappeared through her cervix, never to be seen again. They were absorbed, integrated into her internal genitalia. She installed a new one every two years. Tea figurines illustrating famous nursery rhymes. The coroner paled.’ — SR

 

_____________
Barely Human (1991)
‘I think it’s true: sexual pleasure is located in the head — specifically the face.

‘They are barely human. They verge on the angelic. I guess that’s how they get away with it, why it doesn’t kill them.

‘I am not so much interested in the rest of their bodies. I am glad for the erectile tissue of the nipples, the blood-gorged shaft of the glans and penis, as well as there little dilating assholes, but when the cum spreads all over their chests and bellies, it is only their faces I want to gaze upon.’ — SR

 

______________
Michael and Lacan (1991)
‘Michael: Stephen, is the camera rolling? Hi. I’m here. Still. This is my home.

[genesis of the ego: imaginary identification]

Suzie: Is there sound on it?

Michael: There’s sound. Of course there’s sound. Is there sound? Yeah, okay. Aren’t I great looking.

Suzie: Okay where’s my empty glass?

Michael: I love this camera.’ — SR

 

______________
Speculative Anthropology (1992)
‘It wasn’t very long ago that the imagination could make its way into the world as an autonomous agent of seemingly repressed desires. I want to return to that time when the world was an unfinished ethnographic map and it was possible to imagine a tribe with a specific set of characteristics and be fairly confident that they would eventually be discovered, naked and scarred and superstitious. But now that hope has degenerated into faith. Now that we have found whatever is out there and can successfully determine what they will develop into, the imagination is useless.’ — SR

 

_______________
Instructions for Recovering Forgotten Childhood Memories (1993)

 

________________
Sleep (1993)
‘It is my true desire, Thom, to ascertain your true desires. I want to know exactly what you really want. I didn’t bother to ask you, because I knew any answers you could give me would at best be partial. I wanted to capture the truth in its rarest, most primal form. Little animals of desire burrowing into the deepest layers of your psyche, I want to cup their shivering little bodies in my hands and bring them into the light. So I’ve been watching you as you sleep. Even though your slumbers look very peaceful, I know that inside you are seething. After all everything of importance happens in our sleep, below our dreams. So I whisper things into your sleeping ear, possible desires transcribed into verbal form, and I watch. I observe you to see which ones give you an erection. I must admit I was surprised how well my methods worked, but one of your erections looks pretty much like another so I could not tell which of my whispered fantasies really really turned you on and which turned you on to a lesser degree. As it happened, almost everything I whisper into your ear does give you an erection. So what my system of desire-retrieval needed most was a ranking system.’ — SR

 

_______________
Artifact (1993)
‘These images are from a film the CBC made in the early seventies. It’s part of a series about children from different parts of the world, although I’ve only ever come across this particular episode. It’s about an elephant boy from Sri Lanka. I was a child on the brink of puberty when I first saw it, and I guess you could say it made a deep impression. I remember it very well, or at least parts of it. Of course I can’t claim to remember it exactly in its entirety. Memory is just a sub-routine of desire, so what I’ve tried to do here, and I’ve been pretty successful, is to re-create for you the edited version of the film that desire has consigned to my memory. So what you are looking at is a rare and genuine artifact of the psyche. I’m not going to make any attempts to interpret this artifact-any attempt would at best be partial, half-true. It’s enough I think that I have been able to discover and re-create this precious artifact.’ — SR

 

_________
Child (1993)
‘This child has confused the concept “angel” with the idea “snowman.”

‘The warm air is shot through with small icy arrows.’ — SR

 

______________
Love Letter to Doug (1993)
‘I think it’s true what they say in all those songs: falling in love requires overvaluing the tiny ways in which one individual varies from another. It’s true, but also beside the point. When I say I value your tiny ways, cherish is the word that could be substituted. I like things better when you are around. You are my preference. If I were ever to replace you, for whatever reason, however much I liked the new person, there would be a space, a lack, left from your departure that would remain forever empty, unfilled.’ — SR

 

_________
Box (1994)
Oprah: When you were at his home, there was a time when you were at his home after he had moved to Milwaukee, I know we’re skipping a lot here.

Lionel Dahmer: My mother’s home.

Oprah: At your mother’s home. And you had gone to look at a box and he had said, “Don’t open the box,” because their was what, pornography in there?

Lionel Dahmer: I had found some pornographic material prior t that and I thought there was pornographic material…

Oprah: By this time you know your son’s a little off though, right.

 

______________
Assplay (1994)
‘Recently my psychiatrist dismantled his practice in favour of becoming a baker. My interminable analysis had been going on since the first days if his practice so I had hoped to get the brown leather couch which my shoulders and back had worn into their likeness. There was no more comfortable in the world for me. Instead he gave me the rough notes for a paper he’d been thinking of working on, “Ass Play: Anal Eroticism as Transformative Agent in Disney’s Pinocchio” in the hope I would complete it.’ — SR

 

__________
Corey (1994)
‘Dear Corey,

I am sorry you lost the tournament to that pimply-faced guy. You are really the better player and deserved to win. I was rooting for you the whole time. When is your birthday? Is this the last year you will be able to play in the youth league? It looks like you are pretty much a man to me. Do you have any pen pals? I used to have a few, but I got tired of them. I guess when you start to get older its time to re-assess who you want to spend your time on. Anyway, I’m looking for new pen pals. I don’t use a pen any more though, as you can see. Now I use a computer. I have over a hundred fonts, but I only ever use Courier and Helvetica. This is done in Helvetica. Do you have a girlfriend? You are so good looking you probably have lots. I don’t have a girlfriend or anything like that. I am not so good looking, but I have plenty of other good qualities.’ — SR

 

_____________
Talk Show (1995)
‘If I was ever on a talk show, the topic would most likely be: People whose life has been so uneventful they have no other reason to be a guest on a talk show. And when the host asked how it felt to be me, I wouldn’t repeat what I had said in the pre-interview. Instead I would say:

‘Every human, Rolanda, is exactly interchangeable. By this I don’t mean that everyone is born equal, born with the same human rights, or anything as confusing as that. I simply mean that we are all exactly interchangeable.

‘Perhaps this is most demonstrable on a genetic level. Slight chemical variations diverge into individuals recognizable enough to be named. Soon the technology will be available to let this genetic information flow more easily between individuals. Then we will finally know what democracy is. Then we will live in a Utopia of endless unsolvable crimes. Love will completely cover the white-noise hum of anxiety and death will become meaningless. And talk shows will be able to use the same guests everyday and we’ll never know the difference. We’ll be seeing ourselves on the television.’ — SR

 

______________
24 Jokes (1995)
How do you stop a black guy from drowning? Take your foot off his head.

What do you call two Ethiopians in a sleeping bag? Twix.

What’s green and smells like bacon? Kermit the Frog’s fingers.

Why did the native Indian have such high cheek bones? (puts hands to face) Wonder when the liquor store’s opening?

How do you circumcise a Newphie minister? Slap the choir boy in the head.

 

______________
Why I’ve Decided to Become a Painter (1996)
So the pink one turned out okay.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about orange.

It’s not that I consider these pieces small. It’s more like they’re affordable.

 

_____________
Amsterdam Camera Vacation (2001)
‘Completed while in residence at Smart Project Space in Amsterdam. The artist refuses to see any of the sites and rarely leaves the abandoned research hospital where he is staying, but speaks in compulsive and frantic monologues.’ — SR

 

_____________
J.-P (Remix of “Tuesday and I” by Jean-Paul Kelly) (2001)

 

______________
Ask the Insects (2005)
‘Part home-made science (before it became doctrine and law), part animated video reverie, Reinke’s brief and episodic compression is an incendiary release which opens by announcing the death of the reader, of any audience capable of pulling its fragments together, or better, of dissolving into its tissues, of allowing the body to change shape, to identify, for instance, with an insect. Or a stone. It begins with the death of the reader and ends with the death of the author, and between he stops along the way to muse on rain falling up, the “useless bio-diversity” of insects (meaning life is mostly decoration), signal deconstruction and beautiful noise, and burning books. His style is abrupt and associative; he jumps and jumps again, producing these small beautiful abysses which no one can see. He has produced something invisible to treasure, an impossible movie, which refuses to adhere to memory’s sound-byte continuums. It is waiting for a new body to store or restore it. And while it is waiting it speaks, like a lover on the phone.’ — Mike Hoolboom

 

______________
My Rectum is Not a Grave (To a Film Industry in Crisis) 2007
‘The sixth component of “Final Thoughts, Series One,” this video uses film footage Ivan Besse shot in his town — Britton, South Dakota — in 1938/39.’ — SR

 

______________
Untitled Siobhan Video (2011)
’11th component of “The Tiny Ventriloquist: Final Thoughts, Series Two,” condenses and re-frames a video shot by my niece Siobhan on her mother’s iPhone.’ — SR

 

 

*

p.s. Hey.  ** David Ehrenstein, Top of the morning to you! And thank you! ** Steevee, Hi. Maybe it’s the just stuff I tend to listen to, but Throbbing Gristle and Ride are not unusual things to hear, influence-wise. Didn’t Armond White used to be kind of an interesting critic some years ago? Am I misremembering? I haven’t read his critiques in a long time though, I don’t think. I’m glad you liked the Dominowe. It’s a cool EP, I think. The new Malick seems to be easily as divisive as his last several films were. Three people whose opinions on Malick I trust loved it and think it’s his best film in a while, so there you go. Same old cleaved reaction, I guess. I’m about 100%+ positive that, whatever it is, I will not think it’s a terrible film, that’s pretty absolutely for sure. Or that I’ll think it’s homophobic. Anyway, you thought the new Dumont was terrible, so … ha ha. But, hey, one never knows. I’ll let you know what I think when I see it. It hasn’t opened here yet. ** Dóra Grőber, Hi, Dóra! Oh, well, the actor we auditioned and liked but who probably doesn’t have time came via our producer who’s worked with him in other films that he’s produced, and it happened quickly so I don’t think the actor knew anything about our film or when it’s going to be shot when he showed up. That was an usual situation. Thanks, yeah, I think we’ll do a bunch of auditions for ‘Tim’ on Friday and just hope desperately that one of them is perfect. Yes, supposedly my gas/heat will be turned on this very morning! I might even have to interrupt the p.s. for a bit to help the technician do that. Cool, I’ll see ‘T2’. I saw a clip from it, and, if nothing else, I loved seeing Spud, who was my favorite character in the original. Working on your book is, of course, the very opposite of uneventful, but, yes, writing doesn’t tend to generate interesting anecdotes, ha ha. Yesterday there was a big film meeting where we started figuring out the exact schedule of the shooting, and, boy, is it going to be an extremely tight fit with ultra-long days. Our ‘script girl’ — horrible term, but that’s what she refers to herself as — worked out a guess at how long she thinks the finished film will last, time-wise, based on the script and on our description of the pacing we want to use, etc., and she came up with 1 hour 27 minutes. I think it’ll be longer than that, though. Then I came home and had my internet turned on by a technician. Then more film stuff. We’ve been hoping to work with the sound guy who did most of ‘Cattle’ ‘cos he’s great, and it’s looking like that might work out. And other phone calls and technical matters. That plus talking to friends sort used the whole day. It was good. And you and Tuesday? How did you two get along? ** Chris dankland, Hi, Chris! Always a great pleasure to see you. Nothing but pleasure on my part about the gig. Interesting that you’re back into rock. I’ve been looking for a way to get back into rock. Rock has become pretty marginal to me, which is weird ‘cos I was such a rock guy for a long time. I love Alex G. I’m going to try those bands you referenced. Has it been ten years since the initial era of New Times Viking and No Age and etc.? That’s trippy. That was a good rush of a phase. I don’t think you could be boring if you bribed boredom to manifest inside you. Me, I’m busier than a bee, and I’m doing good. Awesome to get to talk. ** Grant Maierhofer, Hey, Grant! Huh, I’m reading the Charlie Fox book right now too. I’m liking it a lot. Funny, comparing reading it to the blog experience. That’s very interesting to think about. Cool. I promise I’l get to those emails pronto. Nutsy time over here at the moment. Take care! ** _Black_Acrylic, Cool, yeah, I just recently discovered the Kleistwahr project. Very interesting indeed. I’m looking forward to those exact same three albums. People have said the new Adult is quite different. Curious about that. ** Jamie, Hey there, buddy! Awesome, I’m glad the gig hit some of your marks, yay! My Monday was the flavor of busyness, not surprisingly. Which means, hm, kind of spicy but utilitarian. Mexican food spicy? Yeah, office life … never have had to do that. It must be weird. It’s even weird for me that artists have studios where they go to make their paintings or sculptures or whatever. I don’t think I could even do something like that, much less work in an office. I’m sorry your emotions are acting erratic. When you’re even-keeled, or I mean when I am, I tend to get romantic about the times when my emotions are combustible. It’s weird. Do you know what’s making that happen? I hope finishing the cartoon will dot some kind of ‘i’. Where are you in that process today? Me too about getting heat, shit. I’m feeling very romantic about the concept of showering and shaving. It should happen any minute, ‘God’ willing. Today, mm, means a possible bit of a break in the film stuff, although that probably won’t pan out. I have to go finish cleaning my ex-apartment in hopes of getting my deposit back. Catch up on some non-film stuff, hopefully. I haven’t wandered around and checked out my new neighborhood yet, so I’d like to take a tour and see what’s what in my vicinity. Stuff like that. Office de-regulating and amusement park-izing love, Dennis. ** Jeff J, Hi. I saw on FB that you saw Braxton. Fantastic! I haven’t seen him perform in decades. So great, Braxton. I will watch for him playing here. France/Paris is unusually very into jazz, as you probably know, and everybody comes through here, so no doubt he’ll show up at a festival if not a ‘solo’ gig. Mm, I can’t think of a particular Simon Fischer Turner to recommend. I have heard all of the new one. It’s really all over the place. A little of everything. A nice thing to play-through. Oh, gosh, ‘The Erasers’ and ‘La Maison de Rendezvous’ are quite different. It’s probably a matter of whether you feel like cleaner, early Robbe-Grillet (‘Erasers’) or more dense, lush R-G (‘LMdR’). Both are great. ** Misanthrope, Hi, G. Me too: busy. But I somehow end placing one hand on the blog’s steering wheel almost every day, I don’t know how, ha ha. So you did the ‘LCTG’ experience, thank you! Thanks about how good it looked. Kiddiepunk gets the lion’s share of credit for that. Lovely description of its themes. I’m honored, thank you, George. Yeah, it was made to work as a whole. The scenes collecting and changing your perspective on the earlier as you watch. I think one doesn’t really get how the overall film works until you get to the fourth scene. That’s what we worked for anyway. Well, you know orginally the first scene was going to be graphic, but it just wouldn’t have worked, we realized, or I mean it wouldn’t have done what we wanted the scene to do. Our upcoming film ‘Permanent Green Light’ is … well, certainly not traditional, but it has a single story and characters that run all the way through the film, so it’s going to be at least close to the kind of film you were asking about. It’ll be quite different from ‘Cattle’. And it will be much more like a ‘real’ movie, I guess you could say. Anyway, thank you again so much! I’ll alert Zac to your words of wisdom, and I know he’ll be very appreciative too. I know nothing about ‘Closet Monster’ except the name, so I will be interested to hear about it and your take on it. ** Bill, Hi, Bill. Thanks, man! I hear you. I’m either crazy busy or using my short spates of non-film prep work to try to catch up with everything else. I sure hope that you get to poke. Please poke. Excellent Tuesday, whatever that ends up meaning! ** Okay. I have my buddy Zac to thank for today’s post because he was a student of Steve Reinke’s when he was at university in Chicago, and he turned me on to Reinke’s work, and, at longish last, I’m passing my discovery and interest in Reinke’s work onto you today. See you tomorrow.