Writings belong of David Finnigan

Thoughts on Chosei: Frozen Shape

Thoughts on a past project: Chosei: Frozen Shape.

In 2002, during our second year as independent theatre-makers in Canberra, myself and Nickamc and Muttley were spending a shitload of time together getting drunk and stoned in odd spots around the city, talking about theatre and making plans. The upshot was that when Jules Fleetwood, Amy Feldman, Nickamc and Muttley formed Opiate Productions in early 2002, Nickamc and Mutt straightaway flagged Opiate’s second show in November for the production of an original piece by the three of us. That piece, produced as Chosei: Eternal Life but known to all of us thereafter as Chosei: Frozen Shape, was paired with Jules’ adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe’s black comedy Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether.

From my perspective, the most interesting part of the play was the writing process. Cramming together the formulas from Jeff Noon’s Mappalujo and Cobralingus experimental texts and fitting them to our purposes, we agreed that each of us would provide a short story and we would mash the stories into one meta-work. The source texts we decided on were:

Continue reading Thoughts on Chosei: Frozen Shape…

Sun Drugs

image by frosty

Sun Drugs

This March, Australian writer, performer and theatre-maker Blind will tour to New Zealand to premiere new theatre show Sun Drugs.

Set in Manila’s flash-flooded streets, this grimy teen romance follows the attempts of two hip brothers to transform a geeky loner into the prom queen before an epidemic wipes out the entire city. Part-theatre show, part-science lecture and part DIY-vibrator making workshop, Sun Drugs crams all the exotic beauty and sweeping romance of The English Patient into 30 intense minutes and microwaves them.

Condensing the image-rich poetry of T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound, the vivid travelogues of Jack Kerouac, the fascinating science lessons of Carl Sagan and the hormone-drenched characters of every lurid Hollywood highschool romance you’ve ever seen into one free performance, Sun Drugs is a glorious celebration of everything good in this world.

Performances

March 2 - Auckland
Poetry Live
Thirsty Dog, 469 Karangahape Rd, Auckland Central
8.00pm Tuesday 2 March

March 3-6 - Wellington
The Pit Bar, BATS Theatre
1 Kent Terrace, Wellington
9.00-9.30pm Wednesday 3 - Saturday 6 March
(as part of the 2010 New Zealand Fringe Festival)

blind, aka david finig. image by Deye Aus.

Artists

Sun Drugs is written and performed by Blind and directed by Naomi Milthorpe.

Blind is 26-year old Australian playwright, performer and poet David Finnigan. Since forming his first company at the age of 17 in the Australian capital of Canberra, David has produced and performed his original work in venues and festivals throughout Australia. David’s playscripts have been produced by companies around Australia, in the Philippines and the United States.

In 2006, David was awarded a residency in Manila as Writer-in-Residence for Tanghalang Pilipino, the national theatre company of the Philippines, and his work continues to be performed by companies in Manila. As a spoken-word artist, David was one of 16 finalists in the Australian National Poetry Slam in 2008 and has been featured at the National Young Writers Festival (Aus) and the New York Mercury Lounge Slam (USA).

Dr Naomi Milthorpe is a theatre critic, performer and director. Her directing credits include Bring Me The Head Of Edgar Allen Poe (2007) and The House of Bernada Alba (2009).

Media

Hi-res images are available on request. Please contact davidfinig at gmail dot com with all media inquiries.

Reviews

‘David Finnigan is a revelation. His piece, half-jokingly entitled ‘All the pieces that weren’t up to standard’, was delivered in a rapid-fire, spittle-enhanced machine gun rattle, a flow of words so quickly delivered that one was laughing at stuff half a (not present) page behind this probable savant. Beginning with the lyrics of REM’s ‘The End of the World as we Know it’, Finnigan traversed a wide swathe of modernist verse and gonzoid ramblings, rushing from Hunter S Thompson (RIP) through Dylan, Brett Easton Ellis (and possibly others I missed) and back to Stipe with nary a pause, for breath or for anyone as uptake-challenged as I to catch up.‘
Nigel McRae, culturazi.com, December 2006

‘The performance in the new new readings [National Young Writer’s Festival, This Is Not Art] by David Finnigan was possibly the highlight of the festival, a frenetic tumbling collage of conversations with God & scatalogical riffing on pop lyrics and passages from famous novels.‘
Chris Caines, chriscaines.com, October 2007

blind, aka david finig. image by ‘pling.

Partners and supporters

North Belconnen Knife Fighting Pits 03

image from Wikimedia commons

The third edition of the North Belconnen Knife Fighting Pits is available for download NOW, in svelte PDF form!

Download The North Belconnen Knife Fighting Pits 03.pdf (3.2mb)

In 2007, the North Belconnen Knife Fighting Pits mourned ten years since the tragic loss of Princess Diana, Princess of Wales, the People’s Princess. Over four spectacular nights, the NBKFP held an all-styles fundraiser tournament to raise awareness of the press harassment which led to her death. The tournament featured local fighting identities A. WALKER, Pablo Latona, the Bohemes (Jackal Lloyd, Mutt Shaw and Mick Bailey) and Lucy Leaf, as well as The Human Cannonball Academy and blind. Their contributions, and the blood they shed, are included in this issue.

Other highlights from this edition:

• Jeff Goldblum’s opening remarks from the North Belconnen Knife Fighting Anti-Princess Diaen Dying All-Styles Cage and Blade Tournament 2007!
• Photoshopped still images from Dorothy Takes It All The Way In with Princess Diane and J.R.R. Tolkien’s faces photoshopped over the original cast!
• Hadley’s recipe for how he beat the bubonic plague!
• Max Barker’s journal of the years he spent running with a wolf pack in North America!

‘What is our responsibility to our public figures? As Jeff Goldblum, I’d argue that it is threefold. First…’ He goes on a bit, but it’s good stuff.

The Proxies

You are KGB, aren’t you? Image from Cryo Studio’s KGB. Do you like how the image runs into the right sidebar?

Good things sometimes happen! While in the malevolent haze that was the 09 Crack Theatre Festival, I happened to meet playwright and musician Ashley Walker (aka Relevant Elephants). Once away from the panic and police, we were able to talk in more detail and undertook a collaboration, with Ashley taking the scalpel to some of my words.

The result is JC Flavour, a marinated and lightly grilled reworking of my poem of the same name. You can hear the track on Ashley’s MySpace, along with a battery of other electronic morsels.

image by frosty

Locating this poem required excavating the old Mappalujo from which it was birthed. This collaborative effort, entitled The Proxies, was written by myself and Chris Finnigan in 2003. The Proxies is one one of the better Mappas I undertook (click here for a full description of the concept of a Mappalujo and to look at Jeff Noon and Steve Beard’s original), and from it I discovered this gem - Chris’ short piece Cryo Studios:

Ring ring
The phone rings
“Have you heard?
We have lost control of the Moon, attackers have captured Moon.”

You’re about to leave
The man leans on the door
“You can’t leave, they are searching your room.”

I can’t enter my room, they are in there
The room is empty, the bed is made up for the next visitor
You knot the sheets
Good work Lorric!

Hi, I’m Caitlin
Oh I love travelling with you
A little bit cold
hmmmm?

The bar is filled with dreary drunks, a stern barman stares at you intently.
Don’t forget we have to be at the park by 2:00!
uhhhh leave me alone
What do you want?
That will be 20
You drink the vodka, it tastes musty

The park is nice. There is a statue of Johnathon Montague in the center.
A little bit cold
You place the bomb on the chair
You wait…
The man in the blue coat is dead but the man with the briefcase runs toward the subway
You run but quickly lose him

You let the briefcase slip through our fingers! You’ve failed me one too many times Lorric! Now Marco Polo is going to know not to drop by here. Leave me alone! I need to think.

I’m not really doing an opinion poll.

Another sample from 22 short plays

I don’t know, I searched for ‘Carny’ on Wikimedia Commons.

So a brief while ago I posted up a free anthology of 22 short plays entitled 22 short plays, in which the guiding principle was that all the plays (there are 22 of them) are short. Thoroughly short. I don’t want to make any dumb references to the ‘Youtube generation’ or whatever it is that insane old fuckers refer to human beings as this century, but most of these scripts are in no danger of being longer than a page. The following is another brief sample from the collection.

Commercial for Jeans

Phil appears around the corner.

- Oh, hi John. What are you doing?

- I’m strangling a carnie.

- You’re strangling a carnie?

- Yes, I’m downstairs strangling a carnie.

JEANS

Same rule as always: this stuff is all rights-free, so long as you give me a heads-up about any performances you may be planning.

Download 22 short plays by david finig.doc

North Belconnen Knife Fighting Pits 02 - Dog and the Dirty Ocean

The second of four publications from the North Belconnen Knife Fighting Pits has arrived! The name of the game here is DOG! And the Dirty Ocean!

So that’s me, Dog. Five o’clock shadow at ten am, broad brow shouldered, avalanche voice, and fabulous breasts covered in hair.
Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Dog’s a knife-fighter; just another blade-twirling butcher from the Pits with no schooling and too many scars to be pretty. Who cares that he’s a transsexual? He can barely keep up payments for hormones and he’s been been wearing the same miniskirt for weeks. Dog’s got problems with his heart, problems with his agent and problems with finance, but when he rescues a beautiful young nun from a savage beating, his problems start to add up to a whole ocean of worry… a dirty ocean.

Dog and the Dirty Ocean was written by the North Belconnen Knife Fighting Pits’ most cherubic and velvet-skinned fighting duo: The Human Cannonball Academy and blind. This is the second of the four installments of the NBKFP’s publications. If you want to read the first one, click here - if you want to read the third and fourth, hold on to your hats. If you want to download Dog and the Dirty Ocean, do it right now.

Download The North Belconnen Knife Fighting Pits 02 - Dog and the Dirty Ocean.pdf (5.4mb)

Dig it like you’re digging a hole.

 
The Human Cannonball Academy and blind: yes, just as good looking in real life.

The North Belconnen Knife Fighting Pits

North Belconnen has an active and strong freeform martial arts, cage fighting and knife fighting scene. Throughout the 80s and 90s, a lot of great fighters and fight events were run in basements, backyards and carparks. Then in 2002, local hero Hadley (aka The Human Cannonball Academy) and former Shotokan black-belt turned switchblade champion David Finig (aka blind) joined forces to set up the North Belconnen Knife Fighting Pits, a home for knife fighting in Canberra.

The NBKFP has seen a lot of great fighters and artists come through its doors since its inception: interstate and international knife-stars, plus a lot of great home-grown fighters. And of course, our loyal grass-roots following of fight-fans and supporters who keep the whole organisation rolling.

Now, at the end of a great year for knife fighting in Australia, the North Belconnen Knife Fighting Pits is celebrating by releasing four publications from its last few years of life. These four publications look back on and celebrate some great years of fighting: some highs, some lows, some triumphs, some disasters, and a lot of great blood shed on our faithful wooden floor!

So hold on to your hats, keep your guard up, and get ready for four exciting issues of the North Belconnen Knife Fighting Pits!

Download:

The North Belconnen Knife Fighting Pits 01.pdf (1.7mb)

The North Belconnen Knife Fighting Pits 02 - Dog and the Dirty Ocean.pdf (5.4mb)

The North Belconnen Knife Fighting Pits 03.pdf (3.2mb)

The Human Cannonball Academy psyching out the photographer before running him through with a shiv!

This shot from 2006 was taken right after blind demolished his opponent but before he was disqualified for - well -

22 short plays

Who here’s sick of plays that are longer than two pages? I know, I know. When I’m thinking about kicking back and checking out potential scripts for future productions, the last thing I want is to be drowned in a swamp of pages, words, lines, plots, characters… those things have their place, and their place is not here.

What is here is a collection of 22 short plays, written over 2006-09. And by short I mean, well, here is an example of what I mean:

6. Disney Channel

-    Okay, here’s the bet. I reckon I can paint a picture of a hospital ward full of insomniacs before you can eat four tubes of toothpaste and a packet of cold and flu tablets.
-    It’s on.

Van Gogh - Ward in the Hospital in Arles (1889). Image from Wikimedia Commons.

To my way of thinking, any serious director / actors should be able to take that script and fill in the blanks themselves, without my going to the trouble of explaining exactly how it rolls out (or you having to read it). So, for your interest, if you’re interested, please feel free to download, read, and (if it’s of interest) to produce. Same rule as always: this stuff is all rights-free, so long as you give me a heads-up about any performances you may be planning.

Download 22 short plays by david finig.doc

So what’s included? The chapter listing is as follows:

1. commercial for jeans
2. cumgoblin
3. disease play
4. westpac atm
5. mother and daughter
6. disney channel
7. pharmacy security systems
8. roadkill play
9. teenage girls on the railway platform
10. sitcom in three different time periods
11. slave market at the top of a ski lift
12. unique punishments
13. eats tapes
14. TV guide
15. 13 angels
16. footprints: a parable of man and god
17. quarter snake
18. your kidneys
19. friction
20. ile and moondirt
21. teen prom movie
22. coat made of eyes

this is a photo of me from 2006-09 recommending you download and perhaps read these plays.

teenage girls on the railway platform

-    I’ve lost my discman.

pause

-    I think it was sometime tonight.
-    Do you reckon somebody’s taken it?
-    My discman, oh my god!

pause

-    …oh my god…
-    So where did you put it?
-    Well I swear I put it in my satchel, but it’s not in there.
-    Not in the top bit?
-    How could I have lost it?
-    I took it out today.
-    I know you did. I saw it on the floor but then I took it out today because I wanted to listen to it and now I don’t know where it is.
-    Do we have enough time to go back?
-    That’s really shit.
-    Maybe someone in the railway station would know. What about the campsite?
-    There could be enough time if it was there.
-    You seriously could have time if you run.
-    I’m not gonna run back.
-    Yeah, you run and we’ll wait for you.
-    I might just go, yeah.
-    You can just ring them and they’ll send it over.

soundtrack for a teen prom movie

image by Mike Gonzalez from Wikimedia Commons

Part four! Getting into the dirty pieces, the ones you wouldn’t pick up if you saw them on the street. This is soundtrack to a teen prom movie, and it’s a mix of words and music based around brothers Mouth and Throat’s adventures at the prom. Mouth makes a bet that not only can he transform geek dream Alexis Cobweb into Prom Queen in one week, he can keep her from setting anything on fire during prom night!

mouth: I bet I can! I bet she won’t strike a single match all prom night, from the time I pick her up to the time I drop her home!
throat: Deal. But if she sets fire to anything, whether it’s the school or a cigarette, I get your braces.
mouth: I need them for my defective mouth.
throat: Are you a chicken?
mouth: All right, deal. But if she doesn’t light a fire all night, I get your name. I’ll be Throat and you can be Mouth.

jesus I found this by typing ‘prom brothers’ into Google Image search. Bad times.

Now this is important: I have several other mixes up my sleeve (including Music for an epidemic and Music to hit animals to), but I really want to start building some new pieces out of sampled material. Obviously I can harvest the Enid Blyton novels I have lying around (see Trench becomes supermarket) or hijack existing work by writers I know without asking (see Be the assassin), but it would be ten thousand times cooler for any sound artists, musicians, poets or writers to throw me some stuff to sample. I’d like that. How would you feel about it? DO IT.

Download blind - soundtrack for a teen prom movie.mp3 (20.3mb, 25:36 mins)

Sampled:

Boards of Canada - 1969 (live at the Lighthouse)
Maker - Elephant strut
Ice Cube - Really doe
Doves - Darker
Mouse on Mars - Wipe that sound
!!! - Heart of hearts
Gorillaz - New genius (brother)
Yasushi Ishii - Logos Naki World (Hellsing OST)
Las Ketchup - The Ketchup Song