Debbie Does Dallas the Musical Set Design First Draft

So, now that Yuri's Night 2008 is officially in the books, I have no more excuses for procrastinating on getting to work on post-YN projects. First at bat is Debbie Does Dallas the Musical, for Landless Theater.

Debbie Does Dallas the Musical Set Design first draft

Photoshop and Pencil

Hopefully my Internet research on cheap astroturf has not lead me astray. Landless has traditionally tight budgets, so an extravagance like, well, scenery, has been difficult to obtain. I have seen Home Depot advertise the "outdoor carpet" for under $4 a square yard...I'll need at least 32 square yards for this show...

There are lots of little surprises in the design that I have not put into the rendering, so, providing that they survive the scrutiny of the director, you will get to see them in person when the show opens on June 5th.

The other major development that I have been avoiding is Art-o-Matic 2008. I have a space, and will eventually pull something together...but I haven't really put the nose to the grindstone about that just yet (in fact, I haven't even been back to my space since site selection on the 12th!) I have my first volunteer shift on Sunday, so next week I will be able to report more fully on the status of the show.

Yuri's Night 08 | World Space Party PHOTOS!

Thanks to everyone who came out to Yuri's Night 2008 at Art Whino in Alexandria!!! We all had a great time, and it shows in the pictures:

As promised, the final result for the Neptune Bar

Chris Bishop and Cosmonaut Jared are "thumbs up" for launch!

Dustin, Kirstra and Lindsay all enjoying the Venus bar

Gary Gutter and Lil' Dutch take in the moonlight (or should I say moonshine)

At one point we were boarded by imperial troops under the command of Lord Vader...fortunately, we were able to get some of our droids into escape pods...

Master Uranus chats up the tin foil dress twins and an actual astrophysicist, Ethan

Cosmonaut Jared enjoys a coke with Mouaz (I just hope they have air conditioning in space)

Some of the Gilded Lilly gals showing off future fashions

Vulcan gang signs by petty officer Weldon, Mrs Saturn and Mab

KT and Scott Brooks (six eyes between them!)

Kirstra and Jaya on Mars

Ellen, KT's Mom wondering how Barbarella keeps her hair perfect in space...

Flash, Booger and Red Vinyl spacebabe

Scott molts, Robert is amazed

Master Uranus and KT

Kirstra and Sara...frustrated cigarette girls, because in space, no one can hear you smoke...

KT letting you know that in the future the silver sequin will be a precious metal

Miss Saturn and an audience assistant

KT's Dad trying to keep cool in the hullabaloo

Mike proves to Alan that being probed by an alien isn't all bad

These red Ikea chairs became sentient during the party...they are plotting our demise!

DJ Red Pancho Space Bear keeps Flash Gordon and the space tunes spinnin' in the Mars room

Petty Officer Weldon and First Mate Heidi keep order in the transporter room

Yes, we sold lots of tickets...

Bambi and Paco keep it surreal on the dance floor

They never knew it was coming!

Shane admits he may have a drinking problem...

The jump to hyperspace was unexpected at the Neptune bar...

Mr. Moccasin sets up to play

Spacebabe Queonna is happy to keep you hydrated during the flight!

Thanks again to everyone who made this party possible...Please send me any and all photos that you have of the party! See you next year...T Minus 358 days and counting!

T-Minus 24 HOURS and counting to YURI'S NIGHT 2008!

If you haven't gotten your tickets yet, you are cutting it really close...we will be ending presale tickets at 12 (noon) on Saturday (tomorrow) So if you want to save five dollars, go immediately to:

www.outofthisworldparty.com

And for your insiders peek (this will be a short post today, because I am immediately going to Art Whino to install the final details for TOMORROW, right after this posting) I have a picture of Chris Bishop standing in front of the backdrop for the burlesque show at Yuri's Night. He (Chris Bishop) Scott Brooks and I knocked this baby out in record time!

Do you think its spacey enough? (click for larger image)

Okay kids, I expect to see every single one of you tomorrow!!!!

T-Minus 8 days and counting to YURI'S NIGHT 2008!

"I COMMAND YOU, PUNY EARTHLING, TO GO TO
WWW.OUTOFTHISWORLDPARTY.COM
AND GET TICKETS FOR NEXT SATURDAYS YURI'S NIGHT PARTY!!!!"

So, as you can see, even the our alien overlords are planning to attend the party...

As promised, below are the progress shots from the different "planet bars". First we have the finished product for the Venus bar:

Venus Bar for Yuri's Night 2008

Acrylic on Luan

I think she turned out pretty well. I was, and am always, concerned about making women's faces look convincing, yet somewhat nontraditional. Since I don't have any specific models to copy, I aim towards a direction for beauty and hopefully get there. I started out, in the sketch, with a youngish, innocent type for Venus. So, I started going in that direction. In the end I probably wound up hitting a "Molly Ringwald" sort of beauty (with a hint of vixen)...needless to say, I know how to quit while I am ahead...

The next planet from the sun (excluding earth, of course) is Mars. After an aborted start, I decided to try working out all of the other connotations of Mars....

Mars Bar for Yuri's Night 2008
Acrylic on Luan (still in progress)

The little green men idea seemed to be thing that inspires me most about Mars. So, I just decided to throw all the best little green men together. I really hope that the cease and desist orders don't start coming in...I want Warner Brothers to know that I grew up with Marvin, and I have the utmost respect for his visage (it has been over used at every flea market in the world) and only try to represent him here as a sort of homage to a great character. I hope that the lawyers out there will realize that I am in including him as a Renaissance painter would have included John the Baptist in a painting about Jesus...Speaking of "Jesus", that role is being played by another copyright skirting visage, The Head Martian from Mars Attacks! I really couldn't see Yuri's Night that I put together without a reference to this great set of trading cards painted by Norm Saunders! AKK AKK AKK AKK!!!

Photo of both bars in progress at the shop

I am still trying to make the Saturday deadline for completion of Neptune...here's the sketch:

Neptune Bar Sketch
Pencil and Photoshop

And here's the progress so far:
So, Hopefully, I will get all these done in time to begin painting the ArtWhino Space all next week. I will post progress on the backdrop and other party prep as it becomes available...

T-Minus 16 days and counting to YURI'S NIGHT 2008!

What you, the loyal readers of Between The Tines, deserve is more "inside scoop" reporting. So here, exclusively to BTT, is the floorplan for Yuri's Night 2008 at Art Whino:

Yuri's Night Party Floorplan
Photoshop and Vectorworks 12

The event is going to have one bar in each "room", one for every drink concoction that Stoli will be serving up. We are themeing them as three of our favorite planets, Mars, Venus, and Neptune. I have been working on fabricating "signs" to go behind each of the bars...below is the sketch for the "Venus bar".Venus Bar Sketch

Yuri's Night 2008, Pencil & Photoshop

Below is an aborted sketch of the Mars Bar. I was hoping to contrast the girlyness of the Venus bar with a more masculine theme, after all, Men are from Mars and Women are...

Sketch for Mars Bar
Yuri's Night 2008, Pencil and Photoshop

I thought that it would work out that he could be the god of war (the shield and spear are what are represented in the mars symbol) and still be a "little green man from mars"...what he wound up being was He-Man. So, I have tabled that line of reasoning for now, and am working on a new sketch for Mars...perhaps more on that next week.

Please get your tickets early to this show...we are actually a bit afraid that we will have a large mob at the show, because of all the positive feedback we have been getting. So, be sure to go to:

www.outofthisworldparty.com

to get your tickets today!

You can also always visit www.yurisnight.net, to get the scoop about all 119 (and counting) parties across the globe!

Yuri's Night 08 | World Space Party promotion begins!

In case you hadn't noticed, I am organizing a Yuri's Night at ArtWhino...Perhaps you have seen some of the promotional material?Or visited the website www.outofthisworldparty.com ?

Or the Press release?

Press Release ART WHINO AND ABJ ANNOUNCE: Yuri's Night '08 World Space Party FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Shane Pomajambo, Press Relations Shane@ArtWhino.com 703.462.4135 Alexandria, V.A. Art Whino (www.artwhino.com) in partnership with ABJ Productions (www.artbyjared.com) launch Yuri's Night '08 World Space Party, April 12th, 2008 from 8pm to 2am at 717 N. Saint Asaph St. Alexandria, VA 22314. Tickets are now on sale, $20 in Advance or $25 at the Door. Admission price includes entertainment and 3 drink vouchers good for Stoli Vodka's cosmic-concoctions. Cash Bar available all evening. To purchase tickets, visit www.outofthisworldparty.com This is a 21 and older event. Yuri's Night '08 - World Space Party Join Art Whino for an OUT OF THIS WORLD experience as we celebrate Yuri's Night, a World Space Party commemorating Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, and the first human space flight. Yuri's Night is like the St. Patrick's Day or Cinco de Mayo for space. It is a day when the world comes together to celebrate the power, beauty, and party potential of space. So dress yourself in your best celestial attire (prizes awarded); come see an art exhibition of other-worldly magnitude, and enjoy a Vodka of space themed libations by Stoli Vodka. Cosmic burlesque performances featuring Miss Saturn, spaced out Russian-style post-punk music by Mr. Moccasin, spacey DJ sets, and more will temporarily elevate you from your daily earthly existence. Performances by: Miss Saturn, Gilded Lily Burlesque, L'il Dutch & selected scenes from Landless Theatre Company's Space Battles the Musical will orbit throughout the night, hosted by the enigmatic Master Uranus. "Circling the Earth in my orbital spaceship I marveled at the beauty of our planet. People of the world, let us safeguard and enhance this beauty — not destroy it!" Yuri Gagarin, 1st human in space. SPACE - Space themed art show Art Whino artist come together to present SPACE a space themed art show: Alan Defibaugh Arabella Proffer-Vendetta Bryan C Brandi Read Chris Bishop Jared Davis Jason Snyder Julie Steiner Olivier Defaye Papermonster Scott G. Brooks Shawn Huddleston Todd Gardner

Band Perfomance by: Mr. Moccasin Mr. Moccasin, the brainchild of Hanna Badalova, 23, and Jared Fischer, 27, performs world music-inspired post-punk. Badalova, born in Azerbaijan (a part of the former Soviet Union), is a fluent Russian speaker and sings in both her native language and English to enhance the emotional contexts of the songs. Prior to Mr. Moccasin, Fischer, a Baltimore native, performed in several experimental, lo-fi punk bands including Fridge A, Salad Days and Food Tit. Now in a new rambunctious seven-member ensemble, Mr. Moccasin combines drastic chord changes, big riffs, Eastern-tinged violin, cello and mandolin, and a constant barrage of bilingual, hallucinatory lyrics. Additionally, in 2007 Badalova and Fischer contributed their voices and original music to the animated CBS television series Creature Comforts (produced by Aardman Animations, creators of the popular Wallace & Gromit claymation series), and some of their space cred includes being a spaced-out horse and mule couple in all seven episodes. Current lineup: Hanna Badalova, vocals; Jared Fischer, guitar and mandolin; Chrissy Howland, bass; Sine Jensen, violin; Greg Hatem, drums; Stephen Reichert, keyboards; Colin Campbell, cello; Dave Chrismer, percussion.

Miss Saturn Miss Saturn is truly an original. Time Out New York says it best, "(She) personifies the sequined forces of vaudeville and comedy." She has been a mainstay of New York City's top burlesque and Vaudeville scene for the past 8 years and has wowed audiences across the city and the USA traveling with the Bindlestiff Family Circus as well as opening up for the bands Modest Mouse, Reverend Horton Heat, The Faint, The Walkman, The Dresdon Dolls, Los Straight Jackets, and Velvet Revolver. She recently performed with Moby in the Jonthan Ames and Moby Show. No matter if you see her at a late night comedy show or an afternoon children's show she is sure to entertain. "There is something ineffable about Miss Saturn. Actress, comedienne, dancer, and clown, she hula-hoops her way through New York's Burlesque Revival – Saturn, rings, got it, right? – always leaving a dash of titillating mayhem in her wake."—The Pepper of the Earth Blog http://www.misssaturn.com

L'IL DUTCH L'il Dutch is a DC-based burlesque artist, producer and an ardent fan of all things atomic and space age - as well as boomerangs. Bringing a mix of traditional, modern and campy performance style to her work, she performs in and produces a monthly burlesque show, The Dutch Oven. This bonanza is held the first Thursday of each month at The Palace of Wonders showcasing new and established talent rocketing to burlesque stardom along with audience participation and prizes that are out of this galaxy.

Gilded Lily Gilded Lily Burlesque is a troupe of six ravishing and bawdy beauties. Gilded Lily's artistic mission is to preserve one of the most unique and quintessentially American forms of performance art- burlesque. Always careful to keep their saucy acts just this side of scandalous, the ladies of Gilded Lily celebrate feminine beauty, wit, power, sexuality and freedom… never forgetting to keep it smart, keep it funny and keep it HOT!

Space Themed Drinks - By Stoli Carefully distilled, then filtered four times, Stolichnaya has a smooth and velvety character which has won it loyal fans around the world. Born and bred in Moscow, the drink is part of Russia's heritage. The name is Russian for "of the capital city". Today, Stoli leads the way internationally. Classic Stoli with its red label is the leader of a family of products – with eight flavoured vodkas and the super-premium Stolichnaya Gold. http://www.stoli.com

NOTE TO EDITOR:
Links to High Res Images:

Additional High-res digital images of art and bios of the artists are available upon request.

I hope you all can come out to the show...please buy your tickets early, I dont want to have to turn away folks at the last minute!

Next week I'll have photos of progress on the scenery for the event!