project image
Brenna Murphy
WORM IN HEAVEN: AN IMPROVISATIONAL SCORE

first performed on October 12, 2021
No Fun Bar, Portland, OR
performed five times in 2021

JAN JULIUS / BLUE MCCALL

Portland, OR
yawnjewel@gmail.com
bluemccall.com

WORM IN HEAVEN: AN IMPROVISATIONAL SCORE
JAN JULIUS / BLUE MCCALL

Jan Julius is writhing on the floor towards me, wearing baggy Wrangler cargo pants and a pair of silicone tits. They want to vocalize into the mic, but I’ve taken it from them. I’m on the far side of No Fun’s crowded bar stage, dangling the microphone near the ground by its cable. Maximalist hyperpop loops inlaid with slices of lesbian porn audio play around us. Our score for improvisational movement got us here. We’re halfway through a short, energetic punk set at the Creative Music Guild’s Improvisation Summit. Julius is a pathetic worm on a trajectory of naked need, angling towards the microphone. I am busy attempting arabesques in stiff cut-off jeans, and fighting to breathe through my chest bound in cyberslut-green tape. Julius approaches me twice in huddled slithers. I shove them away. Aggression and pleasure are symptoms of seeking gender transition during the collapse of the state. Scores are used to guide or map improvisational dance. They can look like a drawing that traces movement across space, a set of instructions, a poem, a list, or a dare. Jan Julius and I write scores together before performing, bringing the Fluxus tradition into hyperpop.Our score for the Improvisation Summit at No Fun: 1. Pop Star builds a song using a MIDI grid controller balanced on a dancer’s back. Dancer is table top. 2. Dancer slips out from under the noise machine, while Pop Star sings over their beats and lesbian porn samples. 3. Pop Star and Dancer slink against each other, like in t4t club, then transition into fighting one another. 4. Dancer uses their body to physically prevent Pop Star from making sound in the microphone, and steals the mic if they can. 5. Pop Star must submit to being a worm to get the microphone back. They must display their desire for it. 6. Dancer and Pop Star achieve harmony by restoring the microphone to the singer.Harmony escalates to ecstasy. Pop Star builds a noise wall for Dancer to thrash in 7/7. They sustain movement together until they are beyond tired. Collapse. We are t4t, muse4muse. We are opposing gender fucked doubles. We inhabit the same place on a spectrum, but from different directions.