Zero-Point is the New Il Corral
Rowdy 'Feminine Oddities' Show Inspires Old, Old Ideas
By Ron Garmon
In the two years it lasted, Il Corral was little short of a civic miracle. Hidden behind a routine length of vine-covered brick just off an ill-lit stretch of Melrose, the now-defunct club was less a rock venue than an irregularly-scheduled Temporary Autonomous Zone. The giddy avant-basement experimentalism of their scene was compressed into 40 Bands in 80 Minutes, a splendidly punky documentary documenting little of the chummy human tumult that attached itself to the space. Sure, you can hear well-crafted pop or prog-nosed rock whilst posing by the bar at any leading-brand Westside clipjoint, but how many of these invite patrons to swing across the floor on a rope?
Halcyon daze, to be sure, and unlikely to see revival anywhere near Hollywood anytime soon. Despite tolerant neighbors, effective DIY security, and dueling norteño decibels from two nearby dance halls, some residual hillbilly-moonshiner’s sense of the possible told me the place was impermanent at best. Like Al’s Bar, Zamakibo!, and the Garage, Il Corral joined the ranks of the padlocked, closing late last year in the usual white-noize Yuletide blizzard, only to reopen as Zero-Point last month in the even less-trendy precincts of South Downtown. Again hidden in plain sight (on the second floor of a barnlike warehouse off S. Central), the space is well-suited to partners Christie Scott and Stane Hubert’s announced ambition of inviting artists from various media into “three ring circle acts” and “salon-style rowdiness,” like the one-off multimedia “Feminine Oddities” show last Saturday night.
The seeming idea was to hurl burly-q hoofers, girly punks, femme-flavored art, and a platoon of miscellaneous beautiful women – including Playboy model Foxy Natalia – into a crowd of downtown bohos and await the combustion already well underway by the time we arrived. My date, a pink-haired model who occasionally suffers her nude body to be painted with leopard spots for Art, did her innocent best to blur the line between spectator and exhibit, as intriguing images on the walls subtly raised the ambient sexual temperature. Debra Haden’s spread-legged, fish-netted Medusae jostled with Bryan Barnes’s bosomy death’s-heads and Mary Macker’s goth moppets for attention, as inhibitions relaxed and patrons began to paw and nuzzle discreetly. Indeed, my girl and I were on the verge of indiscretion ourselves when a peremptory feedback skronk redirected our attention to the ad-hoc performance space.
Fallopian, an all-girl punk act from the disaffected proletarian hellhole of Santa Monica, set up an overamped clatter sounding less like every trick in the chickpunk book than the book itself stuffed into an elderly, sputtering woodchipper. These tubular belles, delectable in thrift-glamour couture, didn’t stint on audience by-play, even mixing in a little self-promo. “Hayley Duff loves us!” shouted the guitarist, bidding the rest of us follow her example. The audience yipped and bawled in delight, naked of inhibitions and earplugs as an old-timey mosh pit, but infinitely better looking.
My date and I exited and walked around the block in a self-generated marigasmo haze, returning in time to see Fallopian’s boy groupies laboriously wrangle the band’s designer gear to the pavement. Upstairs, red-haired Foxy was shaking her well-made kewpie ass at a battery of photographers, as poses of other kinds had been long since abandoned by the congenial crowd. The über-hip governors of the place were beaming as the Hollywood Pin Up Girls strutted out. This “retro feel-good cabaret” consists of a gaggle of undeniably lovely ladies tripping Fosse-like to canned chestnuts like “Le Jazz Hot” and David Rose’s “The Stripper.” It was cheesy and about as un-serious as gallery showings get, but it worked like Wonka. As we edged to the door, the wolfish leers we saw plastered all over the room told of the power of art to stimulate ideas.
2008-02-07
Published: 02/06/2008
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Comments
Great job Deb! Can't wait for the next one! Wooo!
hey debra, great job with the event! please, when is the next one???? :)
Way to go Debra Haden(aka Feminine Oddities) for putting on such a great show, it was awesome. :D