1995-03-20 Fluffy Pagan Echoes

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Video Description: Colour video, medium long shot, then zoom into medium closeup of the stage at Bistro 4 (Quatre) (4040 St. Laurent, Montreal, QC, H2W 1Y8, Canada). A single mic stand. The stage, slightly below street level, is set against a full-wall window looking out onto the St. Laurent Blvd. traffic---with both pedestrians and vehicles regularly passing by. On the windows, the words "enough said."

[Ibolya "Ibi" Kaslik announces the duo will perform unplugged. Amy Millan corrects the pronunciation of her last name. Kaslik introduces their first piece is titled "Show me" and is an original composition. The duo performs "Show me," with Kaslik leading the vocals. Applause.] | Video Description: Medium shot as the duo Edith's Mission enters the stage, sits, picks up their guitars, and plays a first song. Ibi Kaslik holds a black acoustic guitar and wears black long-sleeved shirt, long light-brown hair parted in the middle, two hair clips. Amy Millan holds a light brown acoustic guitar and wears a gray long-sleeved shirt and long dark hair.

[Duo performs a song beginning with the line "Well, today," with Amy Milan now leading the vocals. Applause.] | Video Description: Medium shot as the duo Edith's Mission performing a song.

[Duo performs a song including the chorus line, "I know he's somewhere out there," with Ibi Kaslik leading the vocals this time. Applause.] | Video Description: Medium shot as the duo Edith's Mission performing a song.

[Duo performs a last song, called "Every Day," Ibi Kaslik leading the vocals. Applause.] | Video Description: Medium shot as the duo Edith's Mission performing "Every Day." The duo then stands up and leaves the stage while carrying their guitars.

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[Vocalizes and grunts into the mic, performing a piece beginning with the lines, "I've got this thing on my. Don't mind me. I've just got this grinder sitting on my shoulder." Applause.] | Video Description: Medium closeup then closeup as Kate Alsterlund enters the stage and performs a piece. Alsterlund wears a long-sleeved white turtleneck-style blouse with a cutout between neck and bust, neck-length light brown hair, and round dangle earrings.

[Noise of a bench being dragged. Introduces himself and announces he will read some poems, the first one about someone reading a poem at a cafe, titled "No poems about sex, please." It has end rhymes. Applause.] | Video Description: Closeup as Tom Chamberlain drags a bench to the mic, sits on it, then performs a poem. Chamberlain wears a red-and-blue plaid shirt over a white t-shirt, and short blond hair.

This is a deconstructionist poem, so feel free to take it apart [laughter]. It's called, "This poem contains content" [laughter]. It's like those sex ads at night, where the woman comes on TV and says, "Are you lonely? We are" [laughter]. [Performs "This poem contains content." Laughter throughout. Applause. Thanks the audience.] | Video Description: Closeup as Tom Chamberlain performs a piece.

This is a poem about how Montreal winters can affect you, (?) drive inside your apartment, inside yourself. You implode and then it's spring, so. It is spring. Tonight it turns spring while we're sitting here. (?) This is called "The winter of my discount tent" (sic.). [Performs "The winter of my discount tent." Thanks audience. Applause.] | Video Description: Closeup as Tom Chamberlain performs a piece.

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[Video resumes mid-sentence] manifestation of their worldly business. So, I'm gonna bring the lights down. I want everybody to sit down and enjoy the Fluffy Pagan Echoes. [Applause.] | Video Description: Cuts to medium long shot of the stage, with Lee Gotham standing by the members of the Fluffy Pagan Echoes (Justin McGrail, Vincent Tinguely, Scott Duncan, Victoria Stanton, and Ran Elfassy), plus an audience member helping set up equipment. Gotham wears a dark button-down long-sleeved shirt and shoulder length light brown hair.

[Ambient noise (audience talking.) Ran Elfassy shouts "OK! I've got something to say" and initiates a collective poem, with each member of Fluffy Pagan Echoes repeating the line "The solstice came at nine-fourteen this evening."] | Video Description: Medium long shot as the five members of Fluffy Pagan Echoes stand side by side and perform a collective piece without mic.

[Elfassy salutes the audience, asking several people "How are you." Breathes into the mic. Sets up his piece as if in a play, saying "Now, a young man enters, stands, takes his space." Performs the first part of a piece inspired by television, beginning with the line, "The television surveys the audience."] | Video Description: Medium long shot of Ran Elfassy as he picks up some papers and walks to the mic to salute the audience. Elfassy wears a long-sleeved striped shirt over a darker t-shirt and buzz cut hair. Walks away and then back to the mic, as an actor entering the stage in a play. Performs a piece while the four other members of Fluffy Pagan Echoes, side by side, stand behind him. Elfassy gesticulates as if pressing a remote control towards the audience.

[Elfassy performs the second part of his piece, beginning with the dedication, "This is for all of those of you who bleed." Scattered laughter after some lines.] | Video Description: Medium long shot of Ran Elfassy performing the second part of his piece. Elfassy often gesticulates, acting out lines of the piece.

[Elfassy performs the third part of his piece, beginning with the line, "If you don't believe in abortions, you shouldn't have one."] | Video Description: Medium long shot of Ran Elfassy performing the third part of his piece.

[Elfassy performs the fourth and last part of his piece, beginning with the dedication, "Slogans passing out." Scattered laughter after some lines. Applause.] | Video Description: Medium long shot of Ran Elfassy performing the fourth and last part of his piece. Walks back into the row of Fluffy Pagan Echoes members standing upstage.

[Ambient sounds, scattered audience laughter.] | Video Description: Medium long shot as Justin McGrail takes off his beret and puts on a jacket borrowed from Scott Duncan, while the other four members of Fluffy Pagan Echoes leave the Bistro 4 through the full-wall window and start making funny faces at the audience.

[McGrail performs a piece beginning with the line "In viewing the castles of (Paris?)." Audience laughter throughout. Applause.] | Video Description: Medium long shot of Justin McGrail performing a piece. McGrail wears a black blazer over a white shirt and dark brown hair. The other four members of Fluffy Pagan Echoes make funny faces and gestures at the audience, right outside the full-wall window of Bistro 4. The camera zooms into and pans from right to left, showing the performers behind the window. At some point we see Ran Elfassy making faces at a pedestrian passing by. At the end of the piece, McGrail turns to the window and bows to the performers, who bow back from behind the window.

[Ambient sounds, scattered audience laughter.] | Video Description: Medium long shot as Justin McGrail returns the blazer to Scott Duncan, while the other four members of Fluffy Pagan Echoes file back into the Bistro 4 and form a row behind Duncan. Duncan searches for something in the pockets of the blazer and finds a folded piece of paper.

[Duncan performs a piece beginning with the line "I love art, I hate art galleries." Audience laughter throughout. Applause.] | Video Description: Medium long shot as Scott Duncan performs a piece. Duncan wears a black blazer over a plaid button-down shirt and short curly dark brown hair The four other members of Fluffy Pagan Echoes, side by side, stand behind him. At some point, Ran Elfassy sits down on the stage.

[Duncan performs a piece beginning with the line "Dear Scott" and a quote from Barbara Woodhouse: "Never pat a dog on its forehead. Such activity will result in the dog developing a superiority complex." Audience laughter. Following Woodhouse's quote, Duncan reads what appears to be the piece's subtitle, "Gaudí's cathedral postscriptum." Applause.] | Video Description: Zoom into medium shot as Scott Duncan performs a piece, while some members of Fluffy Pagan Echoes remain visible, standing side by side, behind him. At the end of the piece, the camera zooms out as Duncan folds and returns the piece of paper to his blazer pocket, then rejoins the row of Fluffy Pagan Echoes members upstage.

[Tinguely introduces piece by quoting Ann Diamond, from a May 1992 issue of the Books in Canada magazine: "If ignorance is bliss, then Hell, with a capital H, is consciousness." Following the quote, the piece begins with the lines, "This made me ask some questions: how conscious is conscience?" Applause.] | Video Description: Medium long shot as Vincent Tinguely performs a piece, while the four other members of Fluffy Pagan Echoes, side by side, stand behind him. Tinguely wears a white plain t-shirt, round glasses, and white short dishevelled hair. Upstage, Justin McGrail passes a glass of water to Scott Duncan, who in turns passes it to Victoria Stanton. The camera zooms into a medium short, alternating it with different degrees of closeup as Tinguely performs. Tinguely uses several paper bags as props, wearing them as hats and gloves, and drawing different symbols on them (e.g., a hammer and sickle, a swastika, a gender female sign) to represent different types of consciousness. At the end of the piece, Tinguely rejoins the row of Fluffy Pagan Echoes members upstage as the camera zooms out to a medium long shot.

[The group performs a sound-poetry chorus by repeating the word "seesaw" in different speeds and tones. As a solo against that background chorus, Ran Elfassy then performs a piece, beginning with the line "I swear I saw it with my own eyes." After Elfassy finishes his piece, the background chorus continues for a few more beats. Applause.] | Video Description: Alternating medium long shot and medium shot as four members of Fluffy Pagan Echoes stand side by side and perform a sound-poetry collective piece without mic. In front of the group, Ran Elfassy performs a solo piece against the background chorus. Elfassy wears a black and white striped long-sleeved shirt over a brown high-necked shirt and dark buzzed hair. Both Elfassy and Justin McGrail use hand gestures as if conducting the audience. At the end of the piece, Elfassy tilts his head down, in silence, while the

[Ambient sounds (voices.) Stanton performs a RAP piece beginning with the lines "Smash the windows, take the clothes / don't deny me the right to my fashion freedom." The other members of Fluffy Pagan Echoes join Stanton in reciting the repetitions of the opening line, as a refrain. At some point, Justin McGrail starts beatboxing in the background. Applause.] | Video Description: Closeup as Victoria Stanton sips water and talks to Vincent Tinguely. Stanton wears a dark sweater and neck-length dark hair with bangs and a hair clip. Alternating medium long shot and different degrees of closeup as Victoria Stanton performs a piece, while the four other members of Fluffy Pagan Echoes, side by side, stand behind her. Some nod with the beat of the poem. At some point, Justin McGrail starts beatboxing in the background.

[The collective performs a sound-poetry chorus by repeating the words "Toy Boat," each member initially reciting it in different speeds and tones, then gradually converging. Applause.] | Video Description: Medium long shot as the five members of Fluffy Pagan Echoes stand side by side and perform a sound-poetry collective piece without mic.

[The five members of Fluffy Pagan Echoes say each other's first names, amid applause: Justin, Vincent, Scott, Victoria, and Ran.] | Video Description: Medium long shot as the five members of Fluffy Pagan Echoes stand side by side and introduce each other by rotating who speaks at the mic: after the first person on the left is introduced by the second, the first walks behind the group to the fifth position, until all are introduced.

[McGrail performs a piece opening with the line, "It was a crucifix, (but?) it was made of star." Applause.] | Video Description: Alternating medium long shot then different degrees of closeup as Justin McGrail performs a piece. McGrail wears a long button-down white shirt, two rings on the left hand, earring on the left lobe, and short dishevelled dark hair. The four other members of Fluffy Pagan Echoes, side by side, stand behind him.

[The group performs a collective piece. Each member says the line "It's all about" and completes the sentence with a different final word; when Ran Elfassy adds, "And letters," the collective interjects "Eh?" Elfassy then leaves the stage, walks among the audience, and returns to the group asking, "See? Did you get it?" A dialogue ensues, about the possible meanings of the sound "C/See." The group then plays several games with different parts of the audience, before returning upstage and saying, in unison, "What we have here is a Cafe. Resistance is reasonable. Thank you for your cooperation." Applause.] | Video Description: Zoom out to a medium shot as the five members of Fluffy Pagan Echoes perform a collective piece. At first, each member says one line, then Ran Elfassy leaves the stage, walks among the audience, and returns to the group, at which point the piece becomes a dialogue between Elfassy and the other four members of the group. The group then moves about the stage, playing several games with different parts of the audience, then returns to a row upstage to thank the audience. The camera zooms out to a medium long shot as the some members of the group drink water amid applause, then the group leaves the stage.

[Asks where Lee (Gotham) is. Someone in the audience says, "What are you waiting for?," which McGrail repeats into the mic.] | Video Description: Cuts to Medium long shot as Justin McGrail speaks into the mic while several Fluffy Pagan Echoes members block the camera's view while leaving the stage.

[Thanks Fluffy Pagan Echoes, citing their book, "A word circus" (Montreal: Egg Sandwich/Sandwich aux oeufs, 1994). Thanks the audience and makes announcements.] | Video Description: Cuts to a zoom into Lee Gotham on stage. Long-sleeved kimono-style wine patterned shirt, long brown loose hair, beard. Gotham makes final remarks, first looking at Vincent Tinguely, who is gathering objects on stage. Zoom out to a medium closeup, with Gotham holding a glass while continuing his remarks, with Tinguely visible behind him.

[End of recording.]