Quotes Part 1
This is part one of three posts showing just a small sampling of what people have said over the years about Frank, Frank’s work, performances, writings, music, etc.
“His stamina is unrelenting, and the music goes on and on. I am repelled but stuck: I can’t turn away.”
—San Francisco Weekly, 2001
“Best of the Bay Area!”
—S.F Bay Guardian
“....San Francisco’s legendary Frank Moore...(is among)...the best and most influential artists in the discipline.”
—L.A. Weekly 2003
“One of the few people practicing performance art that counts.”
—Karen Finley, performance artist
“Frank Moore is one of my performance teachers.”
—Annie Sprinkle, performance artist
“...one of the U.S.'s most controversial performance artists,....”
—P-Form Magazine
“...He's wonderful and hilarious and knows exactly what it's all about and has earned my undying respect. What he's doing is impossible, and he knows it. That's good art....”
—L.A. Weekly
“Resisting… the easy and superficial descriptions..., Moore's work challenges the consensus view more strongly in ways less acceptable than...angry tirades and bitter attacks on consumer culture."
—Chicago New City
“If performance art has a radical edge, it has to be Frank Moore.”
—Cleveland Edition
“Transformative...” Moore “is thwarting nature in an astonishing manner, and is fusing art, ritual and religion in ways the Eurocentric world has only dim memories of. Espousing a kind of paganism without bite and aggression, Frank Moore is indeed worth watching.”
—High Performance Magazine
“Surely wonderful and mind-goosing experience.”
—L.A. Reader
“In performance, Moore takes advantage of his disadvantage, becoming an unlikely guide into the pleasures of the body, taking audiences where they would probably never go without the example of his vulnerability and trust... That Moore should be the one urging us to stay connected to our physical selves is both ironic and poetic...”
—The Village Voice
“(The Cherotic All-Star jam) was frighteningly original!”
—Dirty Dave Sanchez, “Rampage Radio” KUSF, San Francisco
“Frank Moore isn't your average artist... one of the more provocative writers, film directors and - yes - performance artists around since the early 70's.”
—The Oregonian
“...the most oddly affecting performance I'd ever seen.”
—Jim Testa, Jersey Beat
“(Frank Moore is a) master reality bender”
—Magical Blend Magazine
“Art Event of the Year: Moore's 'Passions Play' allowed us the freedom to live out the potentials inherent in our lives, to freely explore the nature of our bodies and our collective experience as human beings. Using artistic techniques in a ceremony that broke the boundaries of art to become shamanic ritual, Moore challenged us to go deeper into the realms of the human spirit and physical body, reminding us that art is about living, exploring, and expanding our sense of what is possible in our lives.”
—Phoenix's From the Ashes
(Frank Moore is) “the most amazing human being I ever met. No one has been more inspiring to me in terms of what he created in his lifetime … and his presence was incredible. … He is/was such an amazing soul and light. His spirit lives on.”
—Sasha Cagen, author
“Just wanted to share with you how much fun I had at the free-form jam.... Holy Shit! I’ve been looking for new musical experiences since I was knee-high to an ewok. Not to brag, but I’ve prided myself on being open and unconcerned about form, style, etc., always listening for that special something that would raise the hair on me’ arms. I’ve probably played hundreds of such “shows”, but I have never heard anything like what we all went through the other night!!! Wow!! Thanks for bringing it all together, man.”
—Russell Kline, bassist “Formerly the No-No’s”
“At the Intimacy Performance Saturday nite, I did the most new things in one room in one nite I've ever done in my life, I'm pretty sure--and think about that, how often does that happen in anyone's life!?”
—Marie Kazalia, writer
“Next time Marilyn Manson comes to town, I'm going to tell him that his show is pretty normal, pretty ordinary. If he really wants to see something intense, he should come to San Francisco and see Frank Moore.”
—Audience member after see Frank Moore’s Cherotic All-Stars perform at Kimo’s in San Francisco
“We meant the night to be a gradual meltdown, but that was insane, that was beyond insane, it was great!”
—An events’ organizer after the Cherotic All-Star Band performed
“Started listening to some of your music reminds me of why I liked early Gong. You (and I am sure you realise this) are exercising far more freedom than the average man, very smart!”
—Steve Siddell, UK Teacher
“Again, it was an amazing experience playing with all of you.. The music was so damn good, the performance was so dreamy and the whole experience was extremely uplifting.”
—Carl F. Off, Refrigerator Mothers
“…wonderful red hot glowing ensemble wunderwork…opened eyes enlightened minds and basically rocked so fuckin hard. What a warm group of artists you embrace and collaborate with. Lotta love on that stage brother!”
—Rich Werner, producer of The Annual Hollywood Performance Marathon at The Theatre of Note, Hollywwod
“Frank Moore and his Cherotic Allstars”, words cannot describe the aural and auditory hallucinations, preparations and incantations that Frank and his merry band of musicians will astound and confound you with.”
—After Saint Stupid’s Day Parade, After Party Extravaganza Press Release
“Wow, Spit and Moore together! I met Vinnie in Syracuse, NY after drinking a bottle of cough medicine at his show in 1992, and Frank Moore in Wilmington, NC in 1999 during We-Fest. Vinnie is a crazy guy, and also a talented musician who plays 50+ instruments. Moore rides a perverted wave of performance and psychedelic prose. A good meeting of minds here.”
—Coydigga
“Frank Moore strips away the outer layers of sound with his music just as he unmasks the outer layer of culture and mind in his performances.”
—Wildknights
“Prepare to get ... uncomfortable. Frank Moore, shaman, disabled performance artist, and 2008 presidential candidate, merges music, dance, erotica, religion and improv to create an experience few people have an easy time describing.”
—San Francisco Bay Guardian
“We came, we saw, we read local performance artist-provocateur Frank Moore's poem… experience the joys of unsettled discomfort….”
—Kimberly Chun, SF Chronicle
“Frank Moore, a genius explorer of the frontiers of human affection.”
—www.reddit.com
“Mr Moore has amazing moral authority. His work is a revelation.”
—Anthony Greene commented on your video "Uncomfortable Zones of Fun, June 25, 2011
“Lauded and controversial shaman performance artist Frank Moore … will be sure to baffle your mind. Moore will attempt to re-imagine human emotion through the use of musicians, actors, dancers, and members of the audience. It's experimental performance art at its most experimental.”
—George McIntire, San Francisco Bay Guardian
“Frank is a consummate director. He recognizes the tactics of his performers. He provides incidents to support the action. Then, as a director, he uses the elements of individual performance to further his own vision. And all of this in an improv environment. WOW!”
—Al@1826, Vimeo Viewer & audience member Risk for Deep Love
“Frank’s beautiful performance art, is connected to hidden realms, other worlds, deep within---loving, primal, very pagan, and erotic. Something, sadly, a lot of humanity has lost to another time. Ancient, yet modern at the same time.”
—Daniel Griffin, artist
“I also presented highly challenging work, such as … controversial events by performance artist Frank Moore …. These daring artists were creating work that attacked the very notions of what art was. Or what was socially acceptable.”
—Michael Maxucci, EZTV curator
“Some of his performers are gorgeous but in the end you only feel the inner beauty of everyone, including yourself.”
—Tuppy Owens, sex therapist and author, about experiencing Frank’s performance Journey to Lila
“This is such a beautiful, loving trusting environment to be in... I wish there was a gathering / event like this here! Frank (and all you lucky people who knew him) really uncovered a whole new depth of Human passion both the erotic kind and the loving nurturing kind...”
—David Taylor, after watching video of Frank’s performance, “The Uncomfortable Zones of Fun”, February 27, 2010 on Vimeo
“I have a fondness for Frank and Bob (Madigan). I miss them dearly... the music scene is just not the same...its just fucking lame... ok, i’m getting upset and about to over turn my desk & computer....”
—Lance Ozanix, Skitzo
“My perception of performance art was drastically redefined the first time I saw a performance piece by Frank Moore in the mid-1980s.”
—Lynn Hixon, assistant professor in the Performance Dept., School of the Art Institute, Chicago
“Picture Joe Cocker with a beard and glasses in a wheelchair, with that look as he hits that one high note from “A Little Help From My Friends” (the one that sounds like tearing sheets).... Frank doesn't sing. He groans. Yet his attempt to belt out “My Way” (the Tom Jones version) WITH hand gestures (sort of), had the crowd mesmerized!”
—Raindog, The Casiotones
“Fuck Burning Man. This (Performance) is great!”
—Kim, artist (after attending “The Magical Gestures of Play” performance at Dr. Suzy Block’s Speakeasy Gallery, Los Angeles 9/2/00)
“Frank’s art inspired me and showed me how far it was possible to go in the direction of art as an engulfing experience, and of doing genuine, no-bullshit magic in the modern world”
—Fred Hatt, visual and performance artist and photographer
“Luv you guys. Performance art alone is compelling. Sexuality alone is compelling. Politics alone is compelling. Philosophy alone is compelling. Psychology alone is compelling. You combine all of the above! Does anyone else? Yet, the masses flock to movies with car chase scenes. Go figure.”
—Michael Rosenthal, audience member
“To me, the first time I heard Frank’s Jam at 848 S.F., it began somewhat tentatively and smoothed out gradually like a big taffy pull. It boiled down tighter and tighter and characterized by being ‘another planet’ music, or as old musician friends would have said ‘outer space’ – It’s ‘good grass’ in sound-form, everybody’s high and it didn’t coast a dime. The only one who would be ‘out of tune’ would be the one who was in tune, on time, counting the measures, waiting for a cue, and came with prepared arpeggios! It was mesmerizing...”
—Dorothy Jesse Beagle, musician, poet, etc.