Cubelog

I just found this tale and thought I’d share it, hope that’s okay Ali.

From: zuleika <>
To: ali jones <>
Subject: Re: [Cubeadmin] send reinforcements!

>
> it would be lovely to have some synopsis on cube activities.
> any takers?
>

Well, Ali, perhaps you’ve had some polite replies from the others but Ithink you deserve to hear the real story so here goes:

After you left we had a three week mourning period, all in black with cuboid veils. We only drank Guiness and smoked liquorice paper rollies, we painted the cube black and generally took on an emo style. Finally on the 21st day we tore off our blackness in a fine display of fireworks, funny foam, ticker tape and superglued hundreds and thousands all over our bodies (leading to some impressive multi-coloured rashes). We danced around to We Are Family and found it a very healing process.

In MArch we showed Pan’s Labarynth five times a day for the whole month.
We made Â2, 000, 000, 000 and invested in teabag recyling. Which was a shame because that’s when it all happened…

The April showers have been pretty bad this year. The hole in the roof reopened and suddenly, during the Small Squeaky Noises Night, we were flooded from floor to ceiling. Myself and Polly in a superb effort of combined Blusheretting and Synchronised Swimming managed to pull everyone out and nobody died (although Leslie Smith suffered from tinitus for
several weeks). The only option was to turn the Cube into a spectacular Water World Cinema, showing Esther Williams films, Life Aquatic and the like. The Snorkel Sundays have been particularly popular. We are hoping we dry out by high-summer.

On a personal note, I had an intense affair with Leslie Smith and we were briefly engaged until he found me in a compromising embrace with a Ukranian rabbit juggler one Tuesday night. Nevermind, it was worth it.

Well, that should fill you in.
Hope all’s spectacular and this hasn’t cost you hundreds of dollars in
web-time.

Underwater love,
Zuleika xxx

The Cube’s 9th Birthday and the fourth cabaret took place at the end of a rather nostalgic cube week for me.

Saturday the 29th was my fith anniversary of Cube and Billy Childish was back (that gig was actually my first shift). Rounded off suitably by a late night, early morning dance-off. Then there was the tour on Tuesday. Then the birthday, with all the familiar faces and watching S&H films just to add to the memories.

The Cabaret went well, I enjoyed putting a Russian slant on Ziegfeld. We had some great acts designed specially for the night (thanks to Richie for his amazing bookings).
I was really pleased about the amount of costumes and the effort put into making them.

At one point the beroller-skated I went into the auditoium to check out The Man from Uranus and presented with a scene of madness. There was a free for all on his theremin and much dancing (a rare thing in the auditorium itself). There were black robot knights, day-glow aliens, cosmonauts and silver galor.

Wonder what will happen when we are ten…

Last week I enjoyed one of the best nights out at the Cube for a long time - the “Cube Cola all spirits night”. This was the ‘first’ Cube Cola birthday party - though, slightly confusingly, not their first year - it was, according to the exquisitely James-Vickery-designed programme, “celebrating almost 4 years on the path to food science enlightenment”. The Cube Cola project is by Kate Rich and Kayle Brandon . . .

. . . and is based around providing a viable alternative to branded cola, manufactured from scratch. There is more info here, and here. The evening also celebrated many other home-spun products: food stuffs . . .

. . . some presented quite straightforwardly and deliciously, others with a bit more attached ( notably Jelena Stanovnik’s extremely good pie-chart Chocolate cake, which marks out the proportions of recorded religions in the UK as part of the ‘Life In The UK’ project by Jelena, Kate and Rasha Shaheen - who I’d previously seen give their presentation at Spike Island and Blackout at Shambala ); and also some clothes - in the form of some very versatile garments by Sylvia Zidek, including her specially designed trousers that level the pissing-field to make dignified street-urination as easy for women as men.

Kush DJ’ed infectious afro-beat in the bar . . .

. . . and Suffolk band The Pancakes played on their home-made instruments in the auditorium . . .

. . . creating a very warm village fête type feel, though with their casual references to murder, along with a live on-stage demonstration of the aforementioned feminist piss-pants, it was all kept just on the right side of too cosy.

There was a healthy crowd despite stiff competition from a sort-of homecoming gig by The Goxxip ( Cube associates Local Kid memorably brought them over here before they blew up in the mainstream ) and everything just seemed to fall into place to make a perfect entertaining and thought provoking evening that I couldn’t quiet imagine happening anywhere else . . . thank The Cube !

Later in the week, and probably because it was mid-week, the tribute night for Anthony H Wilson, wasn’t so well attended. Possibly just as well as the promised Karaoke Orchestra couldn’t make it, and my proposed contribution ( a compilation of YouTube clips transferred to DVD ) wasn’t ready too . . . not unlike the various mythologically-behind-schedule-Peter-Saville-moments chronicalled in ‘24 hour Party People‘, which we did get to screen from the DVD with Tony Wilson’s commentary ( a great idea from Hog ), after showing some performances recorded in the Haçienda from the FAC71 vhs I bought second-hand as a young teenager.

Having searched around the net for bits and pieces the pretty obvious parallels in attitude, and more than occasional ineptitude, between the Cube and the Manchester music scene Tony Wilson was so associated with, seem even more blatant to me, and hopefully we’ll schedule another more party friendly, and suitably irreverent celebration night later in the year . . .

. . . meanwhile here’s links to a little gem I uncovered that was made for Channel 4 in the 80’s [ it’s split into 7 parts ] . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyk5FwrbcgQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffeORmsUKL0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VnGxoz5RZk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laD5czT58gk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93qAiUIFysE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FveqO3T-2to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An013JKUgcY

. . . which, if nothing else ( presuming you’ve seen 24hr Party People ), should draw attention at just how good Paddy Considine was at playing Rob Gretton !

As circulated by Ed Siebert, The Cube and Bristol got a mention in Bizarre magazine.

see scan . . .

If you’re straining to read that, the bit about The Cube follows . . .

THE CUBE

The Cube is Bristol’s very own Microplex, an underground one-screen fleapit cinema, mixing internationally renowned live music,film,webcasts, DJs, performance art and some of the weirdest shit you are likely to find. Run by a ragtag team of bo-ho artist type volunteers pandering free-trade coffee and organic beer, its free-spirited chaos is its charm, even if the 1960’s projector might break down every other screening. Current regular nights include Movieoke (where you pick a film, have a rummage in the dressing-up box and step up to the stage to become a star) and To Hell With Hollywood (fucked-up mondo movies to give you night terrors).

Cubecinema.com

Word is . . .

> That article is written by early years Cube
> projectionist and memorable office ‘presence’ Mark
> Berry aka Alan Smithee.

From Venue Magazine No. 736, 13 - 22 October 2006

Ahh… The Cube - the mini cinema-cum-music venue-cum-centre for all manner of offbeat fringe performance and haphazard chaos that lurks just off Stokes Croft. Defined more by the bunch of passionately constructive volunteers and performers that pass through its doors as much as any statement of corporate intent, there is quite simply nowhere else quite like it. Its inclusion as some kind of anthropomorphic entity in this list might appear odd, but the personality of The Cube is such that, well, it just feels like a slightly eccentric old friend. And, true to form, when Venue picks up the phone for a quick chat about the years gone by, our questions end up being answered by about 10 people, many of whom repeat and contradict each other. It’s wonderfully uncoordinated. But since its factory conversion into a theatre in 1964 (The Cube itself was born in its current guise some 34 years later), the place has somehow managed to pull off a rampaging weekly programme of screenings, art exhibitions, cabaret, workshops, gatherings, gigs and parties. Yet despite two entrances, the cinema and the colourful Cube-ist graffiti adorning the outer walls, many people still aren’t aware it even exists. You used to have to enter the place through a Chinese restaurant but even with the face-lift, you can’t help but feel you’re part of a secret special club when you go in.

The films on rotation include shorts, independents and some of the more interesting, lowbudget flicks that avoid mainstream billing, but that’s not to say yer Wallaces ‘n’ Gromits, Sin Cities and Donnie Darkos of this world don’t get an airing too. The rest of the eclectic event list ranges across just about anything you can dream up, from masked balls to virtuoso piano recitals to political debates to Elvis-themed Christmas parties. The only link that ties it all together is a core desire to develop a centre for free-thinking, uninhibited imaginations where people can get inspired and inspire others. The volunteers pick up skills - barmen become projectionists and ushers become sound technicians - and whether it’s after a fresh cup of homebrew cola or some off-kilter event or leftfield film; it’s hard to imagine anyone leaving The Cube exactly as they went in. It’s a lesson in what you can collectively achieve with a bit of hope, imagination, skill and gaffer tape.