DIKARYA PRODUCTIONS

JOHN BELLOWS Farewell Tape Release

This is John Wheatley in highschool, shredding through Nirvana songs in the grassy courtyard after class. Teachers haul off the skinny kid on bass when he gets too rowdy. John screams on, some boys in t-shirts mosh, some girls are caught on camera miming "we're not worthy", Wayne's World style.

Chicagoans may know him better as John Bellows, sometimes a heart-wringing acoustic act, sometimes an ear-splitting satanspawn on bass screaming, HEY! I WANT TO MAKE YOU DIE.

His songs are incredible. He is amazing. And now he's going away.

John brought me a documentary he recorded years ago on VHS as well as some of the oddest footage he had saved up over the years. We concocted a VHS program of his short films and old performances, full of fabulously stupid surprises and beautifully awful tracking and magnetic stripping. He called it, JOHN BELLOWS IS JOHN WHEATLEY.

We will screen a good portion of JOHN BELLOWS IS JOHN WHEATLEY at John's farewell party/ Dikarya tape release, at The Peanut Gallery on Nov. 25th!
Gossip Wolf mentioned it.

You can't miss it.
Listen to this song.

Notes and Bolts Podcast

So much in the works! Stay tuned. In the meantime take a listen to this podcast interview if you've ever wanted to know how to pronounce 'Dikarya'. You can hear the first half of Halle's audio book on tape and a little snippet of dialogue from The Funny Things You Do by Jason Ogawa. Thanks to Kriss from Notes and Bolts! It was a good time talking while trying to balance your cat and rat.

Notes And Bolts DIKARYA Interview

Some Photos

Here are some pictures from the event last Wednesday, at the incredible Big Forever DIY house in Chicago. If you didn't get the chance to watch Halle read you can pick up a copy of her book on tape, for sale online very soon.

Otto Splotch doin cool stuff

Halle Butler, reading 'The Restaurant Business'

John Bellows and The Imaginations

Basement looping film program featuring Jason Ogawa, and shorts by local animators and filmmakers Simon Allen, Vicky Yen, Sam Lotti, Lori Felker, Pablo Lorenzana, Derek Weber, and Campbell Logan.

Photos by Katy Albert ❤

Halle Butler at Big Forever

Come to this show to see a fantastic program of short films (including one by Dikarya alumn Jason Ogawa, and a few by future feature animators like Simon Allen, Bill Bacarella, and Pablo Lorenzana) and to see some amazing sets, including a performative reading by Halle Butler!

Soon, Butler will be releasing a book-on-tape through Dikarya. Her stories are sitcoms blown out of proportion, the mundane serving as a perfect backdrop to her ugly and inadequate characters' lives. The tape will feature a reading of her story, The Restaurant Business, and it will come with the book itself, full of Halle's fantastic pencil scribbles.

Don't miss watchin her read- and don't miss the other acts either. Otto Splotch is a prolific comic artist whose work is as smart as it is totally gross. John Bellows is performing with his new band, and Brett Koontz of Problems gets epic and weird. Great!

Surprise Release! The Funny Things You Do

In honor of his two upcoming screenings here in Chicago and just cause we like him so much, DIKARYA is releasing Jason Ogawa's feature length film, The Funny Things You Do on VHS. This 100T tape includes some wacko bonus material and feels a lot like taking a warm bath in redneck-themed surrealist weirdness. Ogawa's films revel in clumsy acting and silly video effects, but graced by mindful editing and unlikely visual gems, unfold epically.

SOON: Sweatlodge, Spaceship.

So excited about the upcoming release, Sweatlodge, Spaceship. - a collection of short films by brilliant and profoundly weird filmmaker, Jason Ogawa. Soak in Ogawa's dark world of spirituality: you can expect some stop-motion frozen dinner animations, lovingly shoddy video effects, and for all its silliness a breadth of work that is dark and thoughtfully self-referential.

J FERNANDEZ MUSIC VIDEO DOUBLE FEATURE VHS

Chicago musician J Fernandez's new 7" was released earlier this January through Lake Paradise Records. It was accompanied by two promotional music videos, available together on this new VHS release!

ON THE NEW WHITE 10T VHS DOUBLE FEATURE TAPE:

The music video for Fading Out, by Jenna Caravello

(This video got a nice shout-out on the yvyvyl tumblr today)

And...

The music video for No Luck, by Randy Sterling

$6 + shipping

WALLPAPER LAKE VHS / DVD / AUDIO CASSETTE

Out Now: WALLPAPER LAKE, an evolving electronic project of Jake Acosta's (Famous Laughs, Teen River tape label). You can get his new 32 minute audio cassette accompanied by a DVD or VHS of...

CURRENT UNDERWATER WEATHER: a composition of hand-drawn animation and found footage by Jenna Caravello (DIKARYA).

DVD / Audio Tape (shipping included): $10

VHS / Audio Tape (shipping included): $12

Teen River is a record label in Chicago - check out their soundcloud page.

TORSO by Whitney Allen

Out Now: TORSO by Whitney Allen

A full-color collection of 25 drawings from anywhere between 2003 and 2012.

Featuring! Smudgy flesh lumps, mutant portraits, delirious waitress scribbles,

delicate mazes of line, and fields of color.

ALSO: Buy TORSO at the C.A.K.E. (Chicago Alternative Comics Expo) Unofficial Afterparty tomorrow, 6/16 for $3. 2065 W. Coulter (Blue Island and Damen) at 9:00.

JUMBO DOG TORNADO

Out now: JUMBO DOG TORNADO Volume 1

A collection of drawings by Jenna (DIKARYA) and Jake (Teen River), edition of 14.

Teen River is a record label in Chicago - check out their soundcloud page.