Me and Thorne are in Miami at the

Here is the link to the blog (http://vice.typepad.com/vice_magazine/2008/11/chicago---daily.html).

And just in case you don't feel like clicking, I'll post the article here.
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CHICAGO - DAILY LIFE SUCKS

Yony Leyser spent a couple years documenting places most people would consider total scumholes: Ida, a utopian vegan transgender commune in Tennessee; Christiana, an anarchist village formed in 1969 in Copenhagen; and Kopi, Europe's largest squat. Yeah, yeah, you've seen tons of photos of punks and most of 'em feel overly nostalgic for safety pins, or square and clueless and borderline judgemental, or like some kind of dirt-ass jock gangbang full of total nonfunny fucking idiots. But we talked to Yony about his photos (click below for that) all he's doing is showing contemporary crusties at their finest. (Yes, that girl above is smoking weed out of a noodle.) His show opens at Heaven Gallery in Chicago tonight at 7 PM. Grant Hart from Hüsker Dü is appearing out of the ether to perform, as is 4AD's Anni Rossi.

Vice: Sometimes I see this stuff and feel like, "Thank god that's not me," and sometimes I see it and I'm like, "FUCK YEAH!!!" Do these photos make you sad or make you feel more punk or what?

Yony Leyser: I think each photo sparks a different emotion in me. Mostly, they just remind me that there are a lot of people under the radar, most of them hiding out in Europe. I got to meet everyone from an aging punk who demanded to be naked and claimed she had the first pet rat. The rat had babies and she gave them to the Sex Pistols and other punk bands, sparking the trend; to nine-year-old runaway anarchist kids. The name of the show came from the tattoo you see in the photo above. There was a punk who was passed out on a rock at 3 PM in Christiana. He had a big red Mohawk and the words "Daily Life Sucks" on his head. Yeah, in a way it can be depressing. But when I ask myself why it is depressing, I'm not sure. I think it has to do with the rigid square goggles that we are all trained to wear that lead us towards success, straight life, and to offices on the tops of skyscrapers. So I really don't know who I feel worse for, sexually frustrated business people stuck in traffic in their SUVs or passed-out punks. The show is more for those business people who have no idea any world exists out of suburbia or their yuppie bars, or the office Christmas party. We need to diversify our surroundings.

Did you know your subjects?
I did get to know many of my photo subjects. That meant hanging out in very unsavory environments. Some of them were really not cognizant most of the time.

I heard you're a fancy reporter sometimes.
No, but I've been working on a documentary about William S. Burroughs. That's how I met Grant Hart. They were good friends. Burroughs was friends with a lot of punks for some reason. Well, many happened to be good-looking guys. I've been working on the documentary for four years. It all started in Lawrence, Kansas. I've interviewed Sonic Youth, Iggy Pop, John Waters, David Cronenberg, Gus Van Sant, Hal Wilner, Laurie Anderson, Genesis P-Orridge, George Condo, Diane DiPrima, Anne Waldman, James Grauerholz, Peter Weller, the worlds largest deadly snake collector, and many other interesting characters that were friends with Burroughs. It should be out early next year.

Heaven Gallery Screening in Linz 10/23/08

Linz is the third largest city in Austria. On the banks of the Danube, Linz is unbelievably nice and clean.

Also there is the special reason that Heaven visited Linz...

One of Chicago's favorite Austrians-Gregor Graf. Heaven had a super awesome show that showcased the work he made during his Chicago residency 2 summers ago. We served brownies.

www.gregorgraf.net

We had our Heaven Video Show at the Kunstraum space.

Here is a still from the show

"What Hits the Moon" by Lilli Carre

Here is a still from a film that was not in the show

Here is some Deutsch vocabulary

Deutsch-German
Deutschland-Germany
Österreich-Austria
Wien-Vienna
Wein-Wine
Kunst-Art
Berlin-Awesome

Being in Linz was great. There is a lot of Art there and people doing interesting things. Gregor and Kathi were the perfect hosts and most specially they took me to a mountain my last day. We climbed a real Austrian mountain!

My Hosts Gregor and Kathi

Katherina Lackner helped set up our Heaven show. She is a good friend and artist too.
www.kathilackner.net

Join our Facebook group!
http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=30587433723

In France screenings are called "projections". The Paris Projection was hosted at artist Caroline Breton's cozy petite maison. We drank wine and Euro Cider ;). No one had heard of the exotic American cider that comes from Apple Orchards and is warmed on the stove.

still from M. Stenerson's "Heart's Breaking in Slow Motion"

still from M. Scherer's "I Love You"-which the French appreciated :)

a wine sipping viewer

Hostess Caroline Breton and her boyfriend Francois.
Francois is a great photographer and he evidently is from a region in France known for their crepes, and he prepared some before the screening-oui, tres bon!
This is how Caroline looks in her art

photo-Clélia Schaeffer
this is her website-www.carolinebreton.fr

My Parisian host Cleo Biasini-Bisou!
here is her website
http://biac.free.fr/

The Heaven Europe Tour Premiers Heaven's Brand New DVD with work by:
Matthew Stenerson
Mary Scherer
Jim Finn
TV Sheriff
Eric Fensler
Doug Lussenhop
Shayna Connelly
Nick Bahr
Rebekka Kressley
Bobby Ciraldo
Jon Bollo
Animal Charm
Laura Klein
Eric Henry
Yony Leyser
Catie Olson
Ryan Kortman
CHris Hefner
Lilli Carre

DVD design and production by Jay Rajeck

Heaven Europe Tour
Paris-10/10/08
Linz, Austria-10/23/08
Berlin-10/28/08
* DVD's will be for sale in the NTSC format for 20 Euro

Paris
The Heaven Cloud Will hover near the Eiffel Tower
Heaven Gallery presents Select Videos and premiere of the new Heaven DVD

Heaven in Paris
October 10th, 2008
@8pm
Caroline Breton
26 rue des tourelles
75020 paris
code A 1789
1er étage
+33 (1) 77 12 65 68

*please RSVP for Paris this is a small space
clara@heavengallery.com

Still From Chris Hefner's Birdcatcher

Heaven in Linz (Linz is known as being the home of Gregor Graf)
@ Kunstraum
10.23.08 7pm
Goethestr. 30, 4020 Linz
www.kunstraum.at

Flyer design and programming assistance by Katherina Lackner

Heaven in Berlin
@ Babylon-Mitte
10.28.08 8pm 6,50 Euro
Rosa-Luxemburg-Str. 30, 10178 Berlin, Germany - 030 2425969
www.babylonberlin.de

Poster Design by Jay Rajeck and Aleks Herzog

Sure, Dave says that the economic crises is not real...

But I'm pretty excited about Alex Blumberg's blog and podcast explaining the real estate bubble burst and other issues that are hard for an arty animator/curator/performer/street artist to get her head around.

Planet Money Blog
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money

Planet Money Podcast
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_detail.php?siteId=94411890

Also, This American Life has an older episode covering this issue. You can listen for free here:
#355: The Giant Pool of Money
May 09, 2008
http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=355
Ira has a raspy voice. hee hee.

This friday This American Life is broadcasting an episode about the financial crises and what has happened the past couple of weeks. I listen to this and believe what they say because they use true stories to illustrate what is happening, and of course...I trust them to tell the truth.

#365: Another Frightening Show About the Economy
October 03, 2008
http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=365

NEWS:

Quartet Solo Series (sm0001) is now available for purchase.

During the past several months, the label has been working on the final details regarding the release of four solo works composed and performed by four different composers. The recent release of these four works is the first in a series the label has dubbed its Quartet Solo Series. The idea behind the label’s Quartet Solo Series is to release four composers’ solo works as four separate “albums” on one CD. The first release in this series took place in May 2008 and includes works by Jonathan Chen, electronics; Andrew Raffo Dewar, soprano saxophone; Marina Peterson, cello; and Phillip Schulze, electronics.

Flagpole article by Michelle Gilzenrat: Striking Mechanism

www.strikingmechanism.com