Detroit Grime

CIRCUS8: An Ultraviolet Masquerade - Reeecap!!

2010-12-21T23:28:00.000-08:00

WOMP WOMP WOMP - Are you officially CIRCUS8ED?

Huuuuuuuuuuuuge hugs to everyone who came out to support on Saturday night. The Majestic Theater went offfff!

You all looked beautiful by the way, your costumes and painted faces were truly galactical! I really believe we took the circus community to a new level on Saturday night. Together, you guys glowed as one ethereal blanket of neon goodness - so surreal to see live, and especially cool to view from the stage. The theme of blacklight provided each person with a giant opportunity to actively participate in the CIRCUS8 experience., instead of just kick back and observing the thing as usual. So moving to see how many people were down for this cause. Ya'll provided a very special energy to us as performers and producers, so thank you once more.

Big ups to ANA SIA for travelling to Detroit to come rage the circus with us. Cirque du Womp looks forward to bringing yo more of the freshest in muzak very soon (Summer Festival is inthe works, blagghhh!) We feel honored to have had Ana headline CIRCUS8 for us, as she has inspired many of us on crew, and hopefully she inspired you in some way on Saturday night:

Here's a few photos of all the action, in case you missed any shennanigans:

Our NextAid donation efforts were a success as well! We are proud to be donating a large portion of our proceeds to the NextAid Project, an initiative which uses the dance music scene as a platform to raise funds for projects in Africa. For more information, go to www.nextaid.org.

Thanks to our media crew: Paul Johnson, Veronica Ludington, Rachel Dwyer, Jordan Berger, Joshua Hanford & DetroitExposure crew, and Justin Grose and Patty Rooney on the video cameras. Final cut video of CIRCUS8 will be released this week, so keep an eye out for a seriously insane video!

Always a pleasure to properly womp with you, Cirque du Womp has got a whole lot of exciting shit in store for 2011. Stay tuned, and follow us on our Facebook: www.facebook.com/CirqueDuWomp.

Much Love n Light,

angela, grant, & scotty

Dubstep Circus #6: Recap!

2010-09-28T13:29:00.000-07:00

Waaaaaaaaaaaah-hooooooooooooooooooo!!

HOLY HOPPIN' HOOPERS!

Dubstep Circus #6 was set to be our first outdoor festival, and due to circumstances beyond our own control, we had to find a new venue (and new everyyyythingggg) last minute.

So yes, we scrambled. But we did it! And it was fun!

I love this motto: "Everybody is trying their best." I like to repeat it every so often so that I can be brought back to our roots of collaboration and a genuine love for building community. The people who come together to make these events happen are wonderful and loyal and crazy-talented! They sacrifice lots of SLEEP FOR ALL OF YOU!

They also sacrifice sweat and passion and creative hands and ungodly amounts of time, so thank you thank you thank you, to everyone who makes this thing what it is.

Speaking of gratitude, we are blessed to have photographers on our team. Joe Le and John Wiley captured some truly awesome moments from the night:

Loooook at these photos, hell yes! I feel really proud, I know Grant and Scott do too, and probably you if you're reading this, for what we've created. It is not perfect, it is not without faults, but everybody is trying their best, working with what we've got, and still the support is overwhelming - so yay for all of us weirdos!

Our community outreach excites me too. Together we raised over 1,000 children's books for Sampson-Webber Academy in Detroit. We've already handed many of them out, mostly to 2nd and 3rd grade students, and gosh they just absolutely freakkkk over these books. It's awesome to hear about how positive and anxious they feel about getting their hands on a good book. Thank you to all who came out and donated.

We were also able to donate a nice amount of money to Motor Moms and Dads, a cool local project that is committed to the "development of basic motor skills which are important for the achievement of early learning success in kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade." In other words, they promote acitivity in early elementary age children, because studies have shown that an active childhood is positively correlated with success in the classroom. Motor Moms also truly needs the money to vamp up their resources and improve the conditions for the project. For example, their balance beam exercise right now is a ten foot long 2 x 4 on the ground. Our donation of a portion of our financial proceeds is going to help them greatly - another yay!

Dubstep Circus #6: A Festival for the Freaks turned out to be a jolly ole time. Cirque du Womp looks forward to taking the upcoming production to a whole new level. We are pushing ourselves HARD on this one, from the community outreach to the visual stimulization to the performance to the ambiance to the music. We are refocusing our efforts and working to get back to our original vision of spreading love and inspiring positivity within the community.

Lots of tune-ups and improvements to be made, and we can't wait to show you what we got in store on this next show.

****************************

ULTRAVIOLET UNTZ: A Higher Octave of Art, Music, & Movement

November 6, 2010

Majestic Theatre, Detroit

9pm - 4am

**********************************

See ya at the Untz!

-angela

Dubstep Circus #6 Outreach Project : Back to School Book Drive

2010-09-15T17:49:00.000-07:00

The Dubstep Circus is coming back to Detroit! Swing by Bert's Warehouse on September 18, 2010 for a frenzied freakshow. Here are some photos from our last event, the Dubstep Circus #5 at Majestic Theatre, Detroit:

We are very excited to host our Back To School Book Drive at the upcoming Dubstep Circus #6.

The last time we held a book drive, you all helped to raise over 2,000 gently used and/or new children's books for Sampson-Webber Academy in Detroit. Our generous donation and activist work was greatly appreciated by the students and the organizers of the Sampson book warehouse.

And so we ask you to bring the books again! We figure with school starting back up, now is the best time for this literacy outreach.

The outreach will allow for Detroit schoolchildren to access a variety of books which they would otherwise probably not have access to at home. The book drive also provides you with a chance to enter the circus for a few less dollars. Entry fee is $17 at the door or $14 with a minimum of 3 children's books, reding level k-8, either gently used or new condition. The condition of the books is more important than you may think - remember the underlying message we may send the children...

TAKE CARE OF YOUR LITERACY!

Please read some select quotations from Sally, the woman who first taught me about Motor Moms, and who also heads up the book warehouse at Sampson-Webber Academy:

"We plan on continuing to give books out to all grades to build home libraries and encourage literacy. We also plan on using some to begin a "leveled" library for K-4. This will give the kids an opportunity to learn how to use a library as their school library is not functioning at this time. We are currently trying to set up a library/motor mom room to accomodate this."

"We passed out books last week already to first and second grade. I took a couple women with me who want to go down weekly. They loved it (both my friends and the kids!). I was amazed how many kids said they went to the library over the summer. Not sure how many actually did but even for them to feel the desire to respond that they did is a positive in my eyes. Thank you so much for your help in this. I really do believe it will have an impace on literacy in the lives of these kids. Slowly, but surely..."

In addition to our book drive, we will be donating a portion of our proceeds to The Motor Moms and Dads Project. This project seeks to stimulate activity and encourage motor skills in young schoolchildren. Right now, their resources are scarce and/or bare minimum. We can help them out, and so we will!

Click here for more detailed information on the Motor Moms and Dads Program.

Our work and our activism matters, and together we really can make a difference in the life of a child in our city. So please don't forget to bring your children's books this Saturday to Dubstep Circus #6 at Bert's Warehouse!

See ya there!

Signing Off...

~ angela

Dubstep Circus #4 : Mini Reeeecap!

2010-04-14T14:11:00.000-07:00

Dubstep Circus #4 was absolutely nutty.

New venue (twas HUUUGE!), more lights, bigger boomin' sound too, of course.

The freaks 'n weirdos WOMPED out from alllll over: Grand Rapids, East Lansing, Chicago, Eastern Ohio, and locally. Thank you for your support on this event, we have gotten 100% positive feedback so far- what a relief, what a total blessing.

Dubstep Circus #4 was an utter fit of madness, all night long. I was starting to think that we mighta scared the house lighting guy, but then I turned around to find him entering stage left to participate in the fire hoopers' burlesque performance. Oh yeah ladies! He's from Brazil, he runs parties on the beach all week out there, and he was blown away by our production - gah!

We learned a lot with this event, so that we can, again, make even more improvements on the next one (my favorite part). Dubstep Circus #4 had a jam-packed schedule filled with a variety of stellar solo acts: fire hooping, slam poet, contortion, sexy lyra duo, gypsy fire eating routine, electric violin, and more! Can't begin to explain how proud I am of our troupe, our organizers, and our community. Everybody looks out for one another, everybody is honest with each other, and everybody is makin' new friends, which is always a plus, right?

Check this link (DO IT NOW I SAY!), I can't even describe how insanely beautiful this video work is. Big love and thanks to Mister Chris Hutchinson, master of videography, you own us!

DUB LOVIN,

AngelaOohLahLah

Dubstep Circus #3

2010-02-10T00:54:00.000-08:00

In case you haven't heard, we've been running a DUBSTEP CIRCUS in Detroit for some time now. And you need to get your wompin' ass out to it next time.

Here's a photo of the lobby. These kids are waiting to enter the event. Notice the lack of organization, the absense of an adult line. This photo does not show the 15 foot wide, two flights of stairs, the downstairs hallway, or the other side of the lobby. This photo does not show the packed ballroom either, where the party was going offff!

Here's some hotness for you to enjoy staring at for a moment:

Sexy Mamas all over, Yowwwza!

I do have to admit, we bring some of the most beautiful people out of their homes every month.

It's great!

*Big Spankin' Sorry* for those who did not get in to the coolest, most unique event of this year yet! We hope to see you out next time, where *we promise* that everything will be all good in our circus hood! (We have a venue meeting tomorrow- Fingers crossed for us please!)

Our community outreach was absolutely BANGING.

Yeah, books were a total hit, yeah, books you so legit.

I'm pretty sure I've got at least 2000 children's books for Sampson-Webber Academy!

Here are the two book winners, sorry you don't get a prize.

Harry Potter humungous pop-up book.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland- totally epic!

Don't be mad if I didn't pick your book.

During the helter skelter lame-ass line chaos, I was dealing with the door and trying to make sure all the pretty boys and girls didn't get trampled over on their way in. I didn't get a chance (here comes the pity party) to stop and appreciate all the high quality books that we were getting in. But after the event, when I was counting through the first batch of 500, I realized how excited these kids are going to be when they get to pick from this high quality selection, forreal. Be proud of yourselves!

I am really very *HAPPY* to see what we are doing- together!

We have loads of potential to do something phenomenal with each other,

and we are off to a helluva start. You guys did a hell of a job, thank you so, so, so much.

And for those who helped pile up the shipwrecked mass of books as everyone was stampeding out of the ballroom:

GOOD LOOKING OUT.

YOU PROTECTED OUR COMMUNITY.

THANK YOU. WE LOVE YA.

The books that got trampled on amount to about another 75 and will be donated to a local Good Will shop. We wanna make sure the kids at Sampson-Webber get nice, clean books so that we can teach them how important it is to own and take care of your literacy.

Books are something to treat with respect!

On another note, our party was just getting warmed up...

Big hugs and thanks to Joe Le of Joe Le Foto & of Detroit Grime Blog and John Wiley of Photastic Images for taking all the photographs that night! (These boys better get in a picture together next time, they're really cute.)

You guys showed up in big numbers to shake your bootys to the dirty beats.

So yeee-haw we'll see you next time for a totally EPIC show in a way larger venue, no doubt!

We Love You (really), and thanks for allowing us to do what we're doing.

Womps To Ya,

AngelaOohLahLah

of Detroit Dubstep

Detroit Dubstep Circus Number Two

2010-01-01T13:15:00.001-08:00

Look at this first image and you can see for yourself the madness that is DETROIT DUBSTEP. This crew puts their heart and soul in to each event. Not only to put on a grimy, womping, wobbling of a night, but also to feed and clothe those in need in the detroit area.

There was so much more going then just music. With live painting, massage, hulla hoopers, and fire performers, there was always something going on.

No one can question the success of this event. There was so much improvement from one month to another, that this event will only get better at bring that real dubstep, and more to the Detroit music scene.

As you can see resident DJ KATDOG gets the crowd hyped up just before knocking them to the floor.

More images from that night can be found at the link below
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2049429&id=1301019350&l=e2ac8ed06f

GRIMY INC.

The Dubstep Circus, 12/12: Reeeeecap!

2009-12-18T09:56:00.000-08:00

Holy Mackerel!!!

We in the Detroit Dubstep Labs cannot express our deep appreciation and respect for all those who came out to support our wild circus extravaganza.

Many thanks to the gorgeous Leland Ballroom, Larry Love, Johnny5, Source Audio, Burners Without Borders, Detroit Fire Guild, Rick Falck, Evan Fitzgerald, Michael Abernathy, Aaron Helisek (POPSH!T), Detroit Exposure, Joe Le & Kristi Radbourne, Photastic Images, and most importantly: YOU YOU AND YOOOOU, OUR INSANELY BEAUTIFUL LIL' COMMUNITY OF TOTAL FREAKS!!!

(Do you know how genuinely beautiful you guys are? Ahhh...)

Thanks for jammin' with us!

Hi- I'm Angela. I was "stuck" at the door all night. Did you say hi to me? Hug me? See me? Well, at the time I was stressin' because I thought I was really missing out (which I was!)

Am I yelling? Naw, I'm not yelling.

But after much rest and mulling over the word "stuck," I realize that the door was the absolute best spot in tha HOUSE cuz I got to see all of your beautifully adorned faces and bodies and costumes and smiles and ohhhh my, was it friggin SAWEET to meet all of you people!

See me in tha purple with tha hat on? Do I look like I know what I'm doing? (photo credit to kristi radbourne)
I also got to experience loads of lovin' for my girl Doxie's Homeless Project. Warm kudos & special spanks to:

Burners Without Borders

Follow the Detroit Chapter on FB here: http://www.facebook.com/#/pages/Burners-without-Borders-Detroit/139544484100?ref=ts. Truly an awesome initiative always looking to reach out and inspire the community. Proud to be working with them.

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

Moving on to the madness which ensued on 12/12: We were fresh out of a hip-hop DJ and had to scrammmble last minute for some sort of noise to play as ya'll were walking in. How did we do? That's what I thought. Can I seriouslyyyy get a HELL YEAH for... K@Tdog & POPSH!T:

Concentrating harrrrd for you freaks. Aren't they kinda cute?

Between the two of them they played for like uhhhh...SEVEN HOURS...how did that work out for you fine-lookin' folks? I know I was certainly shaking my sweet booty in that lobby for the entire eve.

Another HELL YEAH YEAH for Mister Scott Sutterfield, the magic man with the lights and the mongo computer monitor and the visual enhancements and YESSS he is still rocking the PC Tower watchu' know about dat!

Seriously focused- the beautious Scott! Who loves this geeky guy- we do.

The next morning was a remarkable mix of serious euporia, deilirium, and frenzy.Scott, Angela, and K@tDOG (are we keeping him unnamed or something? lemme know) were awakened by a very professional Leland Hotel phone call at 12:15 pm. "Hello will you be extending your stay with us today sir?" And Sir Scott is all "No, we shall be departing shortly." Then it was to the lobby where I almossssst forgot about our grand pile of donations- that huuuuuge cardboard box (do you remember it, big red thing w a shiny bow?) Anyway, the donations box had a whole side ripped open from our overflow of lovin. AWWWWW, SHUCKS GUYS!

I know the glare is blocking zee eyes, but Angela is a very happy girl here. This is generally good for everybody.

Together we raised over 200 items for the homeless in Detroit. Doxie hugged me nice and big, it felt fuzzy, teehee. We are gonna put some backpacks together after the new year, and your donations will be used in this process.

Gratitude, gratitude, gratitude, forreal.

THANK YOU. THANK YOU EVERYBODY. We are about to help soooo many people on the cold, wet, streets, makes me so happy and I wanna do MORE when we can...hint hint 12/26 hint hint...

After loading up my baller status van, it 'twas back to my pad for some serious hunger control. I fed the boys (we ate like kings-- eh hem-- AND QUEENS) and we rambled on about how silly, fun and utterly inspiring the previous night was...

Mz. Antha is bringin sexy back. In a VERY non-lame, totally neat way!

The Beautiful Baker ;)

That's mah girl doin' her thing! Ain't she purty?

Rick Falck- this guy is badass! Bonkersss!

Evan Fitzgerald- love him! FB friend this guy, he vows to work out any ole' kink of yours.
Flec Mindscape- anyone else spellbound??

Ya'll look wicked! Rockin it :)

To be totally honest, we still can't believe we pulled the thing off- HA!

We have major things in store for 12/26- Dubstep Circus #2.

Four DJs, no scramblin' this time (we hope, tah-dah, ya never know, tha show must go on!)

Get ready for another Burners Without Borders drive. This time we'll be collecting GLOVES ONLY, so take note immediate and come prepared! We have mad amounts of *love* for you guys and we are truly blessed to have been able to form such kickass community of kids so quickly. Makin' friends has never been so fun!

THANKS FOR HANGING OUT WITH US.
Until next time, be Good.

Love,

Detroit Dubstep

The Dubstep Circus = Bizerkness!

2009-12-02T07:33:00.000-08:00

Yowzers! The Detroit Dubstep Circus is coming your way on 12/12/09 at The Leland Ballroom. We invite you to participate in any way you can! Are you a performer? Artist? Community Organizer? Musician? Total Freak?

Check out the dope scenario we are creating special for you:

-Detroit Fire Guild Performance

-UV & Fire Hula Hoopers

-Burlesque Dancers

-Interpretive Live Painters

-Two story visual & lights

-Sound by Source Audio (6 subwoof woofers)

**Currently searching for stilt-walkers, body-painters, & B-boys / B-Girls**

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Da' Music:

1. DJ Commerce spinnin' old school hip hop. 10-12

2. POSH!T spinnin electro dance. 12-1:30am.

3. DJ K@td0g spinning tha dirty dub. 1:30 - 4:30 am.

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VIVA LA BASS

Dubstep Circus: Community Outreach Aspect!

(Angela's favorite part, duh)

We (hmmm..."we" don't have a name really yet- "Detroit Dubstep" I guess for now- any suggestions?) worked harrrrd to keep the event free, but unfortunately we were unable to do so. In result, we have come up with a donation system and awesome community outreach opportunity thanks to Doxie from Detroit's Burners Without Borders (BWB) :

$7 for 18 & up.

$5 for those who bring a 3+ item donation of: gloves, socks, or canned protein (ie beans, sardines, meat only)

Just in time for the holiday season, we are super uber duper stoked to be able to come together as a youth culture, and use this dubstep circus event as a vehicle to channel an inspiration for positive social change. Very grateful to be collaborating with BWB- an awesome local initiative (also a nationwide org)!

PS- Cheers to the Freaks!

****Interested in performing or getting active? Contact "Angela Pal" on Facebook, or email me at angelaoohlahlah@gmail.com for more details.***

Free Detroit Dubstep In Review...

2009-11-23T14:01:00.000-08:00

What a wild night in Detroit! We knew ya'll would git down with us, but we had no idea how many were truly down with our git ta git down!

All apologies for the limited space & access at Studio 54 on Saturday night. Thank you for bringing some key things to our attention- we are excited to improve this event with each opportunity and we love your feedback.

The early shut down was not cool, and some fellow dub-lovers were unable to get into the venue, which is even more uncool. W.T.F. WE ARE SO SORRY! We wanted to play with you, bad, like really bad. Joe Le was crying about it for a good 20 minutes on the couch by the live painter. And then somewhere around 3am (a good hour before expected curfew) I get a burly man next to me and he's all "there too many kids here, we gotta cut this party off." And I'm all smiles like "woah man, we wanna stay, what do we hafta' do for ya, you're not having fun with us?" And he's all puffing his chest out and maybe it was supposed to be hot and distracting. He must not have fully understood the power of dub. So I was all "Come look at this sweet live painting over here" And he's all "Baby, we gots to start gettin people out." No budge, huh...Rawr. So then the pout face went on and I'm all "You guys want me to leave?" And he's all "No baby, we want you to stay, you guys are awesome, let's get this proper next time." And I'm like "Oh, word. Thanks for the compliment, I know we are sweet, look at all this blacklight paint on me, let us stay" cough cough and all that. And he's all "It's time, we're filled over capacity, we gotta' shut down." Eventually, I just hugged him and said thanks for being so understanding, and kinda' walked away with a grin because that lil' negotiation shredded us another half hour of dirty dubstepping. I'm smart. Tee Hee.

Next event on 12/12 is in The Leland Ballroom and we will have MORE THAN ENOUGH SPACE & TIME to hoop, bounce, paint, massage, play, and rage.

Big ups to the baddest man DJ Commerce who brought that raw Wu-Tang style ruckus to start the night off proper. His set repped hard: Gang Starr, Big L, Nas, and on and on and on. Hafta' ask- did that boy blow a speaker super early? Or was it just the tripped out kid by the speaker who claimed he couldn't feel his ears? Anywho, just after 1 in tha mornin' DJ KatDog took to the booth and got bodies sexy swaying to Portishead's "Numb" dubstep remix -- some Saul Williams sampling there was also treating us right. The night ended with a beautiful sing along moment of Bob Marley's "Is Th is Love" dub remix. The whole crowd was huggin' and holdin' hands and aw shucks, even I was singin' -- I wanna love ya and treat ya right!

Lights by Scott "Synjektion" ... He did some major work to get this event together for ya'll. Thanks to him and http://www.highervibes.net/ for throwing all that spectacularnastyness down and for keepin' it FREE FREE FREE. Mongoooo loads of love to the freshest female artist I know- ALI MANION. Check her work out here. If you are a performer of any kind, we welcome you. Contact us if you want to participate and perform at our next event!

Oh yeah, almost forgot. This was happening too, at 8 in the morn, Room 1654:

Did anybody else get this delirious in the Leland Manor?

Muahahaha...

We are stoked to play with ya'll again on 12/12, and do it all proper. Expect awesome gothic looking ballroom venue with mad space, steady lights & sound, late curfew, and loads more performances. And bring about the feedback, we love to hear from you because you rock. Duh.

Consider this past Saturday an "advertisement."

Peace & Love to You Freaks.

Up and Coming

2009-11-15T08:16:00.000-08:00

Grimey Detroit will attending Boombox, at the Crofoot in Ponatic, MI. on November 21st. Detroit's own Inkface and The Digital Dream will be opening. There is also be a FREE dubstep after party in south west Detroit. Check back in next week for photos

Joe Le

2009-11-12T14:33:00.000-08:00

Detroit Grime is proud to have Angela Palaian contributing. Stay tuned for articles, interviews and photos, as we bring whats happening to you

-Joe Le-

2009-11-12T14:26:00.000-08:00

2009-09-12T11:09:00.000-07:00

Papadosio The Russell Detroit MI
I Love Dinosaurs The Blind Pig, Ann Arbor MI
Modest Mouse The LC Pavilion, Columbus OH

2009-09-04T13:35:00.000-07:00

2009-09-04T11:25:00.000-07:00

2009-09-04T09:02:00.000-07:00

2009-09-02T12:48:00.000-07:00