February 1, 2003

This is the first performance of the 00’s series at the University of California Berkeley. Actually this was the only “legal” performance of the series, sponsored by the art department. This was after I was a guest lecturer at an art class [it turned out that both the art and theater departments taught about my work]. But after this performance, the local paper did a major cover story about me with a lot of nude photos [including the cover photo by Annie Sprinkle of nude Linda and clothed me (see http://www.eroplay.com/ebx/index.html )]. And the art department got cold feet and withdrew their sponsorship dramatically. In fact we had to “trespass” in order to do the second performance! Then I found a radical student who was willing to front for the series.

.......................
A DANCE RITUAL
by Frank Moore
1/26/03
Lower the lights. strobe lights.

Squat in the center of the room, holding yourself very tightly, rocking, fully dressed, maintaining boundaries, making whatever sounds, all tight, all "self-contained."
When you are ready. It doesn't matter how long this takes.let yourself expand into the room, while still squatting and rocking. Relax.

Let yourself expand into me when you are ready. It doesn't matter how long this takes.and take me into you when you are ready. It doesn't matter how long this takes. All the while squatting and rocking.

When you are ready, move around the room, making deep sounds within a relaxed freedom. Slowly remove your clothes. When you are ready. It doesn't matter how long this takes. Let yourself expand outside of the studio, taking everything into you.

When you are ready. It doesn't matter how long this takes. Dance with me, drawing everything in the room into the rapture state of our combine being, making deep sounds within a relaxed freedom.

When you are ready. It doesn't matter how long this takes.sit on me and rock/rub our combined being into a rapture state, making deep sounds within a relaxed freedom. Remain in this state.
.......................

She went deep into gentle erotic intimacy with me...pulling the whole room into the rapture of just being human together. at some point, linda joined us to rock her. jack the drummer slowly circled us, ritually hitting a gong, deepening the trance. the ritual ended with a reading of...

wrapping and rocking
copyrighted 1986/1995
by frank moore

the two nude figures sit in
time and space.
one upon the other.
rocking together.
rocking in their cave.

two magic figures
rocking together against time.
rocking back through time.
back and forth.

mother rocking her baby.
rocking against sickness and tears.
rocking back into love and peace.

in the cave,
unseen except by the spirits,
the holymen rock out of this reality
of personal isolation of greys.
rock until they rock
into the pulse of pure light.
back and forth until at-one-ness came,
until atonement came...
not just for them...
but those outside the cave.
magic rocking.
passion rocking.
almost sexual,
not quite...
very sexual...
beyond sexual.

two bodies rocking together,
rubbing isolation away.

grandpa sits in his rocking chair,
slowly holding onto creaking passion of living.
lovers dance,
rocking back and forth to the music.
sometimes fast.
sometimes slow.
passion rises warm and comforting.
pain and grief disappear.
a kid holding onto a blanket,
rocks back and forth,
holding onto the wrapping
that holds us all together.
colorful ribbons of our cocoon.
the 2 lovers pumping
hard on the swing, working together
to get the highest
thrilling flying and swooshing drop
on their bellies
and, yes,
in their loins.
almost sexual,
but not quite....
very sexy...
beyond sex.
mere sex would get
in the way of
the child-like melting
of earth and sky.
back and forth,
up and down,
wrapping us together
in brightness
and softness
and the magical commonness.

a girl laughs
on a big old rocking horse.
a g.i. holding his guts in,
blood oozing out,
rocks on the battlefield...
rocks to keep life in
and pain out.

light pulses,
reflected off tin and plastic.

daddy rocking baby to sleep on his lap.
cozy togetherness in ribbons,
rocking by the fire
far away from reality.

the arab woman,
on her knees beside
the unrecognizable remains of her husband
rocking to handle grief and pain.
a crazy rocks
on the street corner,
talking to beings from another reality.
wrap us up cozy.
wrap us warmly.
maypole dancers with ribbons.
admit that we all are wrapped up together
in see-through ties.

the gypsy woman,
eyes closed,
rocks back and forth,
giving master spirits
her voice and her body
to speak through.
rocking in her tent.

the boys rocking
uncontrollable from laughter
at their childish pranks.

rocking surrealistic in the darkness,
in their colorful bonds,
the two nude figures,
using magical passion to melt together,
rock like the blind,
like the insane,
like the holy men,
like lovers...
and the magical melting spreads out of the cave
and into the world.

it really felt like that was what was happening. and of course the actress and i are getting together to create!


(from left to right) Linda Mac, Frank Moore, Kirsten Rose after the Dance Ritual
.......................
last night (2/14/03 @ UCB) was amazing. there were CANCELED signs all over the place! we replaced them and went in. my plan was to talk to the people who came to the performance in the hall outside the room. BUT THEY WERE WAXING THE HALLS! but the janitors, who recognized me from the first week, said we should go into the room...which was open, lights on...so, as i sometime do, i did as i was told! as each person entered, i warned them: "ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK. THE SERIES HAS BEEN CANCELLED. THIS PERFORMANCE IS ILLEGAL. WE ARE TRESPASSING!" only the first couple hightailed it. the rest [maybe 12 people] just sat down outraged! and as we talked about the two censorings in one week...they got more outraged! i started reading the poems that i read outside the cafe. things got magical when i had different people read my poems while sitting beside me. marie read sexy. but things went beyond the frame when a guy....maybe of arab stock, maybe a slight c.p....read TORTURES. each event in the poem boiled his emotions more and more...so much so, he sometimes had to scream before going on! and when he got to the last line ["but all in all, life has been good!], he laughed deeply, almost out of control, in relief that life is indeed good! (we got all of it on video!)
DANGEROUS STUFF!

In Freedom,
Frank Moore
2/16/03

.......................
Sent: March 4, 2003
Subject: February 28, 2003 UCB Performance

The imposing granite or limestone (?) structure of Wheeler Hall looming--the trip down into the basement to room #30, an institutional/military academy looking classroom full of antique wooden desks, soon forgotten, as the room was transformed with the bright figure paintings on fabric by Michael La Bash hung covering-over blackboards and dull bare walls. I thought how great it would be to have classrooms full of color and openness like this all the time--how fun school would have been for me and countless others who'd spent years made to sit tedious hours in rooms like this dull bare classroom just now transformed. It really struck me and I said wow!

Well, Frank has often said his performances are never the same way twice--and this time was different, yet amazing--watching Frank Shamanizing (I got that word variation from one of his press clippings of years gone by that I've been reading of late) anyway listening observing his Shamanzing conversations--people in rapt attention and thought...seated on chairs and on pillows and blankets spread over the floor...

one woman, an interested near-heckler, couldn't seem to control her verbal outbursts--Frank invited her, was begging her he said, to get up and dance and she finally did.

one guy present, took things from about the room and made "dangerous sculpture" as he called it, engaged Frank in a conversation that seemed to be perhaps about testing out things he'd heard from other sources, or some of his own feelings, with the Shaman--and received unexpected answers, real answers, from Frank-- the fact of which didn't surprise me... fascinating to listen to...
Another woman talked about Joseph McCarthy--all part of and yet none of it distracting Frank, in the least, from his purpose(s)---one of which was locating
the actress/dancer he'd spoken to via e-mail--- he searched her out and found her and then she sat beside him and talked about her experiences in the UK studying Shamanism--the dancer/actress seemed extremely sensitive and a searching type of person, searching for important answers in her life--most of her conversation with Frank now slips my mind, for I've had similar thoughts as hers at a similar young age, and now my thoughts are gone/have been answered--so it's hard to regrasp them again, as her words...

the near-heckling woman called out, *do you have your power animal yet?* Frank pointed out that there are many different kinds of Shamanism, and I felt the collective thinking that went on around that, inside the room ... around that powerful idea/statement..

the dancer agreed to do the dance ritual--but she did it so very slowly--at her own slow pace while another woman played Sitar and occasionally a young man, who'd come in later, played a muted trumpet-- another woman back in the darkness hummed rhythmically from time to time--she was never located/identified--

the dancer finally did remove her clothing and move to Frank sitting nude in his chair-- she sat in his lap rocking a little--as Linda read Frank's rocking poem, then joined them, hugging and rocking more--beautifully different than the last time I saw this dance ritual performed--slow--powerful-

I felt the magical energy rise in my guts--build, dissipate,-- a few times that night--

afterward Frank asked people who'd stayed what they thought--one woman said she was speechless, and Frank pointed out the letters on his board *me too* --
the near-heckler woman said most people were afraid of her and she never got invited anywhere--that's when Frank invited her to come back to the next performance in the series...she responded enthusiastically, thanking Frank, saying she would definitely return-- this I personally enjoyed seeing/hearing very much--this woman so accustomed to negative treatment (as she kept describing) due to her *condition* (whatever that is) her unusualness, that this unexpected acceptance and love coming her way so very emotional for her and caused some healing for her and others in the room...

my part in this performance was very different this time--I helped lift Frank in his chair a couple times--as Linda undressed and then later redressed him--I lifted him with me on one side and Mikee on the other, I lifted him amid a good kind of energy--sharing what was necessary--like I had some needed muscle (I have very strong arm muscles) to put to use for the task, that I received their trust to lift Frank to participate in it all, and that was how I worked in the body of the whole happening!

Marie K

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Sent: Saturday, March 15, 2003 8:46 PM
Subject: performance #4 in series Exploring of Possibilities of Passion...

INTER-RELATIONS PRESENTS THE EXPLORING OF POSSIBILITIES OF PASSION performance art series, #4 in the series, Friday March 14th on UCB Campus Wheeler Hall

...hotly subversive Frank Moore and friends...

Frank rolled in Linda Mac in back pushing his chair -- *the crew* as Frank called us all there, hanging Mikee’s bright fabric paintings setting up lights and mic and sound system etc (Mikee showed up a few minutes later) and I wondered if the slightly delayed arrival of FLM planned or happenstance--one never knows with Frank--but their arrival this way did seem to set a different pace--yes, and Frank didn’t spend the first hour *boring* away those not really interested, asking the audience questions, as he often does, and I wondered if this was because most of the *audience* contained familiar faces/ repeat participants--and so Frank asked, who here is a hero?--Linda #2 said, I am--and I wanted to say yes too, but then I wondered what other options Frank would offer, when I asked, he said if he told that, then hero would be defined (?) is that what he‘d said exactly?--and then he asked if all the rest of us were sane--and I said no I definitely was not that (thinking of the definitions the world has tried to foist upon me--the therapist who’d tried to tell me that sanity is a 9-5 job--not the work, but the conformity...he believed conformity=sanity, and so I’d fired him and Frank made me glad I had...reinforcing my realization that that had been the right move to make...).

Then the blind dancer Maia and companion Ron Jones (of the Wave) got up and did a mini-performance with a roll of paper on the floor--Ron Jones talking some improvised words combined with some other words rhythmically, as Maia rolled herself up in the paper then tore off a sheet of paper and placed it on Frank’s head--they played that way for a few minutes and ended by wadding up paper and tossing it about the room as if bombs. I laughed, heard others laugh.

Then Frank asked Teresa and Linda #2 to sit together and vocalize without verbalizing, and me to read selections from his writings-- Linda Mac handed me a heavy binder of Frank’s poems and articles-- heavy so I decided to sit at the mic with it on my lap and began reading Frank’s poems selecting ones I’d never read before--while Frank, Linda Mac and Kirsten went out to "change into their costumes" --they all returned nude--strobe lights put on flashing --Mikee video-taping-- Linda Mac handed me a small flashlight to see the pages in the darkened room--the band arrived and set up equipment(near the door) unfamiliar to me black boxes began emitting electro-techno sounds--I varied my pace of reading and rhythm and emphasis so as to connect into things going on--this performance had a very different feel for me than the last--faster intense

I glanced up to see Frank nude in his chair (moving his arms enthusiastically) direct Linda Mac to "make it hot" on pillows on the floor ero-playing with Kirsten --another glance up Nicole (the room proxy) removing her clothes too--another glance up Linda Mac and Kirsten on floor pillows playing legs laced together-- the intensity I was feeling getting into Frank’s words reading their meaning and how certain phrases especially related to what was going on in the room and/or my thoughts of how certain audience members may need to hear that just then especially --my feelings and intuition on all that thrown in/sensed from others there--sometimes I heard the sound from the band more strongly but at others the sounds of Teresa and Linda #2 reached me --or voices of people talking in the corner of the room--and soon I noticed Nicole dressing--the dancer Maya leaving with her guide-dog and Ron Jones--

then Linda Mac approached touching me rubbing my head, shoulders down and up into my clothes pulling my shoes off--when I got to the end of his Out of Isolation prose-poem piece Frank indicated I should stop reading and Linda Mac tugged me to join her on a big pillow on the floor--I helped her pull off the remainder of my clothes--we ero-played there--I closed my eyes and really got into it--at one point felt myself on the verge of a familiar sexual excitement when Linda Mac was on top of me lightly humping (but this was no lesbian sex act--and I recalled just having read Frank’s words on the limitations in meaning of *sex* and *orgasm* the way most people use those words) ---at one point I began thinking--wow! am I really doing this?! are we really getting away with this! on a classroom floor on this hard tight strict campus!? I felt a shudder go thru Linda’s skin and now the intensity of our touching lessened-- each time I glanced up I saw Kirsten doing something different--dancing with a wooden pole(?) or broom--then on the chair in Frank’s lap-- then standing in front of him-- then down on her knees in front of Frank-- then standing again, ah she did have a costume on, a waist chain--Mikee moving closer with video camera--Linda #2 (fully dressed) standing/moving about our bodies moving her hands over us in the air--then I guess Linda Mac opened her eyes and Frank indicated to her he needed a drink of water--so we stopped and Linda Mac got up and bent down and looked into my eyes "that was fun!" she said--I sat there smiling and my eyes seemed really opened and glowing and my brain--especially the outer (new) layer stimulated and yeah, real fun! wow!


Frank Moore, Linda Mac and Marie K playing in center, Linda #2 on the right.

Frank told Kirsten next time don‘t hump that particular leg--she’d forgotten--Frank’s leg hurt was bothering him--but, "It was worth it!" he said --I could sense the room emptier and wondered if any who left early would complain and try to end (so typically there always seems to be a complainer around--hopefully not...) to what Linda Mac later described as *subversive* and wow wasn‘t it tho--Linda Mac said she’d been thinking how amazing that we were doing this here--and so she and I had shared similar thoughts on the floor together too--Linda said that hearing my voice reading Frank’s work fade in and out of her awareness as she played on the floor with Kirsten had been *surreal* --how she’d caught certain phrases that related to what was happening as she heard the words read--
and all this so necessary the eroplay to keep open that opening in the not-so-airtight (they think, ha!) after all--slipping beyond those limitations assumptions controls in place out there--and yes this is what I’ve always wanted to be part of--the real thing--truly radical--not some fashionable political passing trendy phase altered re-dressed-up every decade--but real art that *Bitch art* as Frank had written and I’d read --real art you support and grow old with and it will take you into the depths of what’s real--heal the world a little with every doing--This is what needs to be done-- I can still feel that need that doing that opening up expansion--every university needs this kind of experimental truth like a nuclear bomb there exploding open all the ever-tightening power strictures--hay there really is something true and real in the world where everything seems to have gone pre-programmed fake----

Frank asked Mikee what he thought, and Mikee said he’d loved it-- it was beautiful, he said, and then Frank asked the band what they thought and band leader(?) Dr. Oblivious said wow-- the nude women were incredible and that he’d really liked the *spoken word* combined with his sounds and that he’d be back for the upcoming performances but bring a different musician to accompany him each time--

and a little while later one guy in the audience who’d stayed made some amazed exclamations about how he’d seen it all *close-up* asked Frank *the rules* of how to get in on the playing--and Frank told the guy next time to take his own clothes off...

...and so my description of many of the things that stayed with me after the performance...

Marie K

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Sent: Saturday, March 16, 2003 8:46 PM
Subject: performance #4 in series Exploring of Possibilities of Passion...

yes, it was an amazing night. there was also a great blind black poet (the one who talked through your reading) who recited a poem at the beginning.
but the heart of the performance was connecting music and random text with another state/trance of physical erotic play which i have been exploring/experimenting with starting during jennifer's intensive. but the work with both you [marie] and Kirsten made it possible to fully go into that state in a public performance to such a degree. i just coined a word for this state: PANTAN. pantan combines various kinds of orgasm (explosions of energy) with ontonse (a regular implosion of energy) within an intensely small/intimate nonlinear play. that's always there when linda m. plays with me in public performances. but this was the most expanded, heated-charged highly focused explicit release of pantan in my public work. kirsten has an amazing ability to actively/focus surrender physically into pantan during dancing/playing. and linda #2 added the right element of danger to the mix. and the music by dr. oblivious and nate captured and amplified pantan. pantan melts reality, which combines things in new, softer forms...forms which remove power and control...which is why it is dangerously subversive...especially now! the student putting on the nude dress was a powerful act of revolution!

HEY, JEN NEUBER...DID I DO ANYTHING YOU WOULD NOT DO? I DOUBT IT! WE ARE DOING SOMETHING EXTREMELY IMPORTANT, RADICAL, DANGEROUS WITHIN THE SERIES! THANKS! I HOPE WE CAN CONTINUE IT!

The l.a. performances will be much more deeply hot because of the series...and because of the expanded core...lob, raindog, dr. oblivous, jennifer, kirsten...and who knows who else!

In Freedom,
Frank Moore

.......................
friday (April 4) was the u.c.b. performance...an all-star affair! eric kroll, one of my favorite protographers, and the lovely adriana walked in BOTTOMLESS [we didn't get that on video!]. nude kirsten led us in a powerful keening (1 a : to lament with a keen b : to make a sound suggestive of a keen 2 : to lament, mourn) about the death, suffering, and repression caused by the on-going war against us the people. then jen n. talked about her sadness in knowing that some people she met in palestine may be now dead. i said everything we do in the performance...no matter how silly, sexy, or wacky...is a powerful part of the struggle against repression. then i had jen pull down her pants and lean over the desk to get a traditional birthday spanking...hey, it was her birthday! ok, it was a whipping, and nude adriana did the whipping...and jen got great presents...didn't you, jen? there will one more gift next performance!

then eric and i admitted that we are creative addicts...eric doesn't like to admit that what he does is "art." then he started pushing me in my wheelchair through the "audience" and the band [dr. oblivious, lena the jawharp queen, and chris] forcing them to keep moving. at one point i asked a huge guy with sideburns to take his clothes off. he refused. [mmmm...was he?...nah!] i had him help take off my clothes. i asked "does anybody know LOVE ME TENDER?" linda s. did her version. i asked adriana to whip me...which she lustifully did...as the huge guy sang LOVE ME TENDER along with the band trance music! i asked the student couple...who decided to come to the performance instead of going to the movies after seeing the flier...to put on our ribbon dresses. they agreed, surprising themselves! then they...as well as nude dancers [linda mac, adriana, kirsten and i] and linda s. in her sexy costume started dancing to the big guy singing SUSPICIOUS MINDS and IN THE GHETTO [he handled the mic well]. this was when things shot into the depth of surreal heart at rollercoaster speed giggling in the rare air as the band played IN THE GHETTO trance style! when the room cleared out, i joined the band...as linda mac and kirsten, the student couple, linda s. danced on. DAMN DANGEROUS STUFF!

Frank Moore
April 7, 2003


Frank spanks Adriana


.......................
the room was full of eager people willing to go into magic...like the first performance of the series....really the whole series has been like that...but last night was packed with people of possibilities. kirk lumpkin started the night off reading/singing/chanting poems basically about magic. at some point, linda s., who was sitting behind him, pulled out a whip and starting gently whipping him. A TOUGH CROWD! but in that room, whipping AN IMPORTANT POET was the thing to do. it was a roomful of coyotes. kirk did his coyote poem...coyotes are untamed magic that civilization always tries to kill, but always fails. it's the muse of creativity, a lusty beast that will eat your cat and fuck your dog!

the whole series has been like getting deep behind enemy lines and doing a whole lot of damage. there has been a community developing around the series. i asked the guy who has come to most of the series to describe the series. he said it was the only place he found that freedom and creativity...and sexuality...are allowed to fly and dance without being "cleaned up"....he said when he leaves the classroom (after each performance), he is filled with joy and hope. he is a computer professor in his 50's from argentina...last night he brought his woman friend...a straight-looking translator who wanted her frame expanded! and they loved it! EXTREMELY POWERFUL STUFF!

after linda s. made her very successful debut as a public poet[!], i had something to give jen neuber who is the force that makes the series possible at u.c.b....who lives and breathes revolution, is one of the most effective/committed agents of radical change i have met! so we awarded her THE LUVER AWARD! yep, THE LUVER AWARD continues...even though MADAM X'S grant ran out. but we felt the powerful forces of the underground must be honored and encouraged...so....

then...and this shows how full the room was with top quality artists/weirdos/dangers...i called up michael peppe, who is a twisted scat vocal master, to do his thing. well, he is a diva...he didn't want to do a solo...ok, i accompanied him in a very high-energy, very physical duet...with a great band backing us. in the band were dr. oblivious, nate, kirk, xtian without his loincloth, kirsten doing vocals in one of her pantanic costumes. but when linda s. started dancing "outside the lines," we reached the critical mass that allowed us to escape into the wacky surreal trance state that destroys everything but a cosmic giggle! kirsten and the nude mikee danced, as linda s. flew erotically around, flashing, spreading unseen pixie dust around. nude me danced with topless jen. for half of the dance i was trying unsuccessfully to pull her pants down. JEN, YOU ARE EVIL! finally she pulled them off!

all too soon, it was the time to end[?] that stage of the journey. but it looks like there probably will be a couple of "summer specials" at u.c.b. called THE RADICAL INTIMACY OF THE FORBIDDEN! stay tuned!

AND JEN, SOMETIME THIS SUMMER, I WANT TO PLAY WITH YOU IN MY STUDIO!

In Freedom,
Frank Moore
4/19/03


Jen on the right!


.......................
It was on our local University of California Berkeley campus, in a basement room with Frank Moore and Friends. He's an Avant Garde Erotic Improv Performance Artist and Choreographer, who just happens to be in his 50s, in a wheelchair, and with cerebral palsy. And yet this guy has naked women and sometimes nude men writhing in his lap to the beat of music, which could be hypno-trance or sitar or clarinet or whatever the band brings....

I myself finally read an erotic poem to the crowd, plus told them of my dream to be a sexual performer and musician, etc., etc....

Also lap-danced for a man from Argentina, wore a black g-string under my long velvet skirt plus my leopard-skin bra, and basically showed off my bare buttocks, flashed my panties at the crowd and at Frank, "Mr. Argentina", and enjoyed dancing with one naked man (Michael the Camera Guy) and Kirsten Rose the naked woman.....

Also finally got to gently fondle her bare breasts, spank her butt, and make "mouth music" on her stomach and Michael's back....

Found out how to rub against people's bodies with my tits....everyone was aroused and laughing....Kirsten's tits felt SO good and soft in my hands....

Pressed pelvises and pussies with Linda Mac, Frank's girlfriend, assistant, roommate, and interpeter (he cannot communicate without a pointer attached to his head plus the lap-board with letters and words to spell out)....

And laid on the cushion on the floor in front of Mr. Argentina, and touched my breasts and cunt, and opened my legs at him and others.

Giggled, made jokes, made others laugh and smile, ran around....sang parts of "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin....

It was incredible....

I praised Jen's tits...she was bending over backwards half-nude on Frank's lap....

I had also helped undress him earlier....he also works in the nude after the first 2 hours of the 3-hour performance....

This was the last of a series....we are now on hiatus....
I hope to be in his upcoming video....he's making a casting call....gotta talk to him about that....had to leave

right at 10 last night to catch the night bus....

Buses are scarce after 10pm on Telegraph & Bancroft and the kids, drunks, punks, partiers, junkies, and weirdoes are all out in full force....great caution and courage and alertness advised.....so I can't stick around long to chat to the cast or audience.....

Love, Linda (#2)
4/19/03

ps I am very, very happy I did this....AND to top it all off, this stuff gets on video tape and sometimes in photos.....

I will send his website URLs as soon as I recall what the heck they are!!! He's been doing this for decades....Dr. Suzy the Sex Talk Show Therapist of L.A., told me of him...thanks, Suzy....!