Leslie Singer Videos
Between my cassette releases Life is Too Funny — I Think I’ll $hoot Myself and In My Blood, I got caught up in making Super 8 films. In 1985 I began making videos, but in 1984 I first borrowed Clara’s box camera and then bought my own silent Super 8 camera. I made a number of short, slightly mawkish, droll films with inanimate objects like rutabagas and the piñata mentioned in "Picasso’s Ghost". I had a number of screenings at the SF Cinematheque in 1984 and 1985. Later on a few of my films were included in the Big as Life: An American History of 8mm Films survey at the Museum of Modern Art in 1998. Like William Davison mentioned in his comment in the Deprogramming Center Show posting at Electronic Cottage, Super 8 films are difficult and expensive to transfer to video so they remain tucked away in a box in my closet.
According to Leslie's Artist Resume (2003), these 8mm films were:
Selected Super-8 Filmography
"Picasso's Ghost," 1985, 3 minutes
"Dead Jailbird Languages," 1985, 3 minutes
"Bellyfull of Gasoline," 1985, 3 minutes
"The Eyes of Jean-Paul Sartre," 1984, 3 minutes
"A New Life," 1984, 3 minutes
"Blood Poisoning," 1984, 3 minutes
"After God 11," 1984, 3 minutes
"Fountain of Youth," 1984, 3 minutes
"How to Fuck Friends and Keep Them," 1984, 3 minutes
"Hebbie and the Cupcake," 1984, 4 minutes
According to Leslie's Artist Resume (2003), these 8mm films were:
Selected Super-8 Filmography
"Picasso's Ghost," 1985, 3 minutes
"Dead Jailbird Languages," 1985, 3 minutes
"Bellyfull of Gasoline," 1985, 3 minutes
"The Eyes of Jean-Paul Sartre," 1984, 3 minutes
"A New Life," 1984, 3 minutes
"Blood Poisoning," 1984, 3 minutes
"After God 11," 1984, 3 minutes
"Fountain of Youth," 1984, 3 minutes
"How to Fuck Friends and Keep Them," 1984, 3 minutes
"Hebbie and the Cupcake," 1984, 4 minutes
from the book
Radical light :
alternative film & video
in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945-2000, University of California Press, 2010
LS:
In a continuation of the way I distributed cassettes, in late 1985, I decided to put together four of my videos into a compilation that I entitled Freud’s Snack Bar. At the time, some of the same zines, that had been part of the cassette network, were beginning to run reviews of DIY videos. Magazines like Forced Exposure highlighted the work of the so-called Cinema of Transgression that was coming out of New York City’s Lower East Side and East Village during the mid-1980’s by such moving image makers as Beth and Scott B, Richard Kern, Vivienne Dick and Bradley Eros. I began with filming mini-endurance performance art pieces in Super 8 film and transferring them to video. Once on video, I added mashed up/psycho karaoke soundtracks. All the pieces were short, three minute pop song length. I would buy 45’s from Tower Records of classic pop songs and cut them up with samples from the Tom Tom Club, the B-52’s, in addition to other new wave songs that I taped off the rock of the ‘80’s stations that filled the airwaves in SF during that time.
In a continuation of the way I distributed cassettes, in late 1985, I decided to put together four of my videos into a compilation that I entitled Freud’s Snack Bar. At the time, some of the same zines, that had been part of the cassette network, were beginning to run reviews of DIY videos. Magazines like Forced Exposure highlighted the work of the so-called Cinema of Transgression that was coming out of New York City’s Lower East Side and East Village during the mid-1980’s by such moving image makers as Beth and Scott B, Richard Kern, Vivienne Dick and Bradley Eros. I began with filming mini-endurance performance art pieces in Super 8 film and transferring them to video. Once on video, I added mashed up/psycho karaoke soundtracks. All the pieces were short, three minute pop song length. I would buy 45’s from Tower Records of classic pop songs and cut them up with samples from the Tom Tom Club, the B-52’s, in addition to other new wave songs that I taped off the rock of the ‘80’s stations that filled the airwaves in SF during that time.
Freud's Snack Bar
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This digital version of Freud's Snack Bar
was transcribed from a VHS tape donated by Evan Cantor,
who received it from Leslie in the mid-1980s.
was transcribed from a VHS tape donated by Evan Cantor,
who received it from Leslie in the mid-1980s.
Leslie Singer's Notes on Freud's Snack Bar
Boiled Fish
So begins the weird food combinations/preparations. The fish was raw and so was the depiction of artist as narcissist. As Jean Cocteau said in the Testament of Orpheus, “Don’t try to paint that flower, you will only paint your own face.” The mirror in this piece fell and broke during the 1989 SF “World Series” earthquake.
Rotten Bananas
I couldn’t get enough of rotten bananas. First there is the Girls on Fire song and then this performance film to video piece with slight S&M overtones. I sing of Viva, a dominatrix based out of Folsom Street in SF. This was also during the period that the dance song “Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight” became a big club hit. Towards the end of this piece one hears the sound of a cow bleating. That came from one of those toys that make animal sounds. I wish I still had that sound maker. It’s great to have a cow sound in a can.
Wet Popcorn
Now for my Southern Goth/Country & Western era. Another weird food combination. A meditation on dental hygiene with a mash up of "Harper Valley P.T.A." and the Shangri-Las' “Give Him a Great Big Kiss.” There is also a mention of “All the Young Dudes” which we will hear from again in my video from early 1988, “My Life as a Godard Film by Whitney Houston”.
Refried Broccoli
I just want to add to my other blurb on this piece: I really rock the panty hose in this one. There is a wonderful live version that Iggy Pop does of his song “Run Like a Villain” that appears on a semi-legit release entitled, “Iggy’s Nuggets.” In it he says “You can ride the motorcycle, you can wear the pantyhose.” Nothing is forbidden, everything is permitted.
Runny Toast
My sister Danielle and I loved the 70’s film version of Ode to Billie Joe when it first came out and was aired on TV. The song that the film is based on, is of course, even better. I think that the ‘80’s was the last gasp of high artificiality in food. The squeeze bottle for ketchup and mayonnaise, the peanut butter and jelly combined in one jar and the chili filled hot dogs that I’m mashing into my bandaid covered eyes in "Runny Toast". I remember shooting this one Sunday at the 869 Capp Street apartment when all my roommates went out of town. When they got back into town, I showed them the video. They were aghast.
So begins the weird food combinations/preparations. The fish was raw and so was the depiction of artist as narcissist. As Jean Cocteau said in the Testament of Orpheus, “Don’t try to paint that flower, you will only paint your own face.” The mirror in this piece fell and broke during the 1989 SF “World Series” earthquake.
Rotten Bananas
I couldn’t get enough of rotten bananas. First there is the Girls on Fire song and then this performance film to video piece with slight S&M overtones. I sing of Viva, a dominatrix based out of Folsom Street in SF. This was also during the period that the dance song “Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight” became a big club hit. Towards the end of this piece one hears the sound of a cow bleating. That came from one of those toys that make animal sounds. I wish I still had that sound maker. It’s great to have a cow sound in a can.
Wet Popcorn
Now for my Southern Goth/Country & Western era. Another weird food combination. A meditation on dental hygiene with a mash up of "Harper Valley P.T.A." and the Shangri-Las' “Give Him a Great Big Kiss.” There is also a mention of “All the Young Dudes” which we will hear from again in my video from early 1988, “My Life as a Godard Film by Whitney Houston”.
Refried Broccoli
I just want to add to my other blurb on this piece: I really rock the panty hose in this one. There is a wonderful live version that Iggy Pop does of his song “Run Like a Villain” that appears on a semi-legit release entitled, “Iggy’s Nuggets.” In it he says “You can ride the motorcycle, you can wear the pantyhose.” Nothing is forbidden, everything is permitted.
Runny Toast
My sister Danielle and I loved the 70’s film version of Ode to Billie Joe when it first came out and was aired on TV. The song that the film is based on, is of course, even better. I think that the ‘80’s was the last gasp of high artificiality in food. The squeeze bottle for ketchup and mayonnaise, the peanut butter and jelly combined in one jar and the chili filled hot dogs that I’m mashing into my bandaid covered eyes in "Runny Toast". I remember shooting this one Sunday at the 869 Capp Street apartment when all my roommates went out of town. When they got back into town, I showed them the video. They were aghast.
Total Eclipse of the Sun
The ten videos below from 1985 to 1990 were ripped from a DVD-R
that Leslie Singer sent to Editor Hal McGee in Autumn 2018.
Leslie affixed a sticker to the ziplock bag covering of the disc that said Total Eclipse of the Sun.
Below are Leslie Singer's notes on all 10 videos.
that Leslie Singer sent to Editor Hal McGee in Autumn 2018.
Leslie affixed a sticker to the ziplock bag covering of the disc that said Total Eclipse of the Sun.
Below are Leslie Singer's notes on all 10 videos.
My Life as a Godard Film by Whitney Houston (1988)
Whitney Houston and I were the same age when I made this video: age 25. This is why I brought in the David Bowie penned Mott the Hoople song, “All the Young Dudes”. “Speed jive, don’t want to stay alive, when you’re 25”. I was wearing the wig referred to on the attached tag as the “Tina Turner.” In the video, I mention Tina as being a friend but I think that actually Chaka Khan was the friend.
This video is “for the children of Marx and Coca Cola” as Godard referred to the audience that he made Masculin Féminin for in the mid-1960’s. In 1988, we had me, a white woman, portraying an African American woman, who had an incredible voice but was stuck shilling for Diet Coke (a still fairly new product at the time.) Whitney’s wig in her 1986 Diet Coke commercials looks similar to the Tina wig I’m wearing. The main take away from this video is that I have my platinum (record) and my pussy (cat) and I’m happy.
This video is “for the children of Marx and Coca Cola” as Godard referred to the audience that he made Masculin Féminin for in the mid-1960’s. In 1988, we had me, a white woman, portraying an African American woman, who had an incredible voice but was stuck shilling for Diet Coke (a still fairly new product at the time.) Whitney’s wig in her 1986 Diet Coke commercials looks similar to the Tina wig I’m wearing. The main take away from this video is that I have my platinum (record) and my pussy (cat) and I’m happy.
Refried Broccoli (1985)
In follow up to "Rotten Bananas" (see Freud's Snack Bar), we now have the weird food combination/preparation of refried not beans but broccoli. The discourse around female subjectivity and body image especially with relation to food and obesity was just starting to get mainstream attention in 1985. This video, like many of the GOF songs, contains some autobiographical elements. At my job at the time, there were several colleagues who could never get my name right. Instead of Leslie, they would refer to me as Lisa. I had fond memories from my tween years and American Top 40 radio, of listening to the Jessi Colter song, “I’m Not Lisa”. Jessi, as well as being one of the few women in Outlaw Country, was married first to Duane Eddy and then Waylon Jennings, so I think that she knew a thing or two about many of the themes that I’m covering in Refried Broccoli. After the video, my roommates and I grilled up the steak, made garlic bread from the French bread loaf, had the leftover celery as crudité and the chocolate bar for dessert that I use as material in Refried Broccoli.
Hot Dog Fat (1986)
Have you ever noticed that when you boil up a mess of hot dogs, the orange tinted fat from the dogs rises to the surface? That is what inspired Hot Dog Fat. By this time, I had left FCA Asset Management and was working in the accounting department of a bike messenger service called at the time, Quicksilver Messenger Service. Yep, just like the band. The lyrics are totally autobiographical. My performance really brings out the dog in Hot Dog Fat. The stars and stripes vest was intended to invoke memories of July 4th hot dog eating contests.
Now I’ve got to tell a funny hot dog water story: According to John French (Drumbo) of the Magic Band fame, when Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band were touring with the legendary blues pianist Sunnyland Slim in the 70’s, Sunnyland would cook up hot dogs in an electric coffee percolator. He would then use the same hot dog fat water to make coffee. He served a cup of this coffee to Captain Beefheart, who took a sip and immediately commented that it was the best coffee that he ever had.
Now I’ve got to tell a funny hot dog water story: According to John French (Drumbo) of the Magic Band fame, when Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band were touring with the legendary blues pianist Sunnyland Slim in the 70’s, Sunnyland would cook up hot dogs in an electric coffee percolator. He would then use the same hot dog fat water to make coffee. He served a cup of this coffee to Captain Beefheart, who took a sip and immediately commented that it was the best coffee that he ever had.
Hot Dog Fat Contact Sheet
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Hal McGee's personal copy of the
radical LIGHT book
Hot Dog Fat (Leslie Singer, 1987)
by Peggy Ahwesh from the book Radical light : alternative film & video in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945-2000 University of California Press, 2010 |
The Madonna Series (1987)
This was originally going to be a video about Barbara Streisand but turned into a Philosophy 101 meets Madonna video featuring music by Your Mom Too. This was during the golden era of MTV and I had real fantasies of being a music video director. Thank god that never came to pass.
Thailand DMV (1987)
When I was a young girl, my father told me that in Bangkok, the traffic was crazy and that if one got into a car accident, if the party at fault was able to leave the scene of the accident and make it home without being caught by the police, then the guilty party was considered no longer at fault. Later, as a young woman, I became friends with a fellow video artist, Azian Nurudin, who is originally from Malaysia. Her older sister lived in Bangkok for many years and Azian corroborated this story as being somewhat true—at least for that time. What that has to do with me crushing some left over fudge under foot while my two roommates badly sing “Love to Love You Baby”, I’m not really sure but I can assure you that it made total sense to everyone involved at the time.
The Temptation of Wilma (1987)
Those two roommates are back to badly sing the Minnie Ripperton hit, “Lovin’ You.” Before Mariah Carey, there was Minnie Ripperton. Her daughter is the comic actor, Maya Rudolph. This a super 8 film to video collage featuring Paloma Picasso, scenes from Body Heat and various ads of cameras and sausages. It all culminates with a wonderful freaked out hair raising reaction from Wilma of The Flintstones which sums it all up beautifully as only Wilma Flintstone could do.
Smokie: Portrait of a Glitter Babe (1989)
I decided to start doing some characters/play acting. In this one I’m portraying a disco loving glitter babe by the name of Smokie. I had a lot of fun putting together the mixtape soundtrack for this video and the other character video, Flipper. This one opens with the Lou Reed song, "Oh Jim". I think that I also included a snippet from his song “N.Y. Stars” where he refers to the New York Dolls as being “fifth rate imitation whores” but all the Disco-Tex and the Sex-O-Lettes stuff may have overwhelmed that bit of commentary from Uncle Lou.
Hot Rox (1988)
Now we get epic. I do a video version of the entire Rolling Stones greatest hits album, Hot Rocks. To keep things even more raw, I use live versions of the Hot Rocks songs from Got Live If You Want It! and Get Your Ya-Ya’s Out!. I also included snippets of the Grand Funk version of “Gimme Shelter” as well as bits from the Jefferson Airplane and Iggy and The Stooges. This video features a glitter babe type of narrative arc from loving life and drugs, pregnancy, rehab, motherhood, suicide, death and reincarnation. My cast includes Bubba Budweiser (an inflatable Budweiser can) as my off and on again boyfriend as well as another inflatable character who I refer to as Mr. Brown, my off and on again drug dealer. This was shot in one take, one Saturday afternoon in the Your Mom Too apartment on 26th Street in San Francisco’s Mission District. My friend and former roommate Helen Nace, remarked upon viewing “Hot Rox” for the first time: “Wow, your neighbors must’ve thought you were on crack when you made this one.”
This piece was exhibit widely and included in a MFA class curriculum at UCLA in the early 1990’s. I heard that the students would say to each other “Have you seen Hot Rox yet?” To have seen Hot Rox was a badge of courage and battle worn experience.
This piece was exhibit widely and included in a MFA class curriculum at UCLA in the early 1990’s. I heard that the students would say to each other “Have you seen Hot Rox yet?” To have seen Hot Rox was a badge of courage and battle worn experience.
"Food, Sweat, and Jeers: The Art of Leslie Singer" by Patty Stirling, Puncture #16, Fall 1988
Hot Rox Contact Sheet
Flipper (1990)
Another one of my character studies, this time with a teenage NFL football fan, Missy. For the background mix tape soundtrack, I used the garage punk music of the late ‘60’s that I used to hear on the Mystic Eyes WGTB college radio show in 1978 and 1979.
Priscilla Presley's Bathroom (1988)
One of my last food and fun performative videos. The Stooges song, “Dirt” and Olivia Newton-John’s “Let Me Be There” provide the perfect soundtrack for a rather violent and cynical view of heterosexual and lesbian relationships. The pussy (cat) of “My Life as a Godard Film by Whitney Houston” meets her untimely demise along with a perfectly good papier-mâché whale that my old roommate, Michael De Noya, made for a school project at SF State. What Priscilla Presley has to do with this, I’m not sure, except, like Jessi Colter, I think that she could relate to the moral of the video which is: sometimes you’ve got to make a mess in order to clean your life up.
Editor's Note: For extensive documentation of Leslie Singer's life as a video artist please visit her
Artist Resume page
Artist Resume page