I play rochambeau with ghosts, take photos of space, and ride my bike in the bus lane.
Got stuck in this graveyard for an hour because I dropped my camera through the fence. I played rochambeau with the ghosts. Before this, I was hanging out with Cal and Lisa and I saw Trevor Dunn perform at The Stone and talked with Buzz from Melvins for a bit.
At Lincoln Center yesterday, there was a graduation ceremony for Juilliard students. I found it odd they couldn’t turn the fountain on as part of the festivities — all those snapshots of parents and new graduates in their fine clothes and lint-free graduation gowns made lacklustre by some cost-cutting bureaucrat.
The refurbishing of Alice Tully Hall across the street is magnificently successful. Looking a little dangerous, right on the corner, a public bleacher with glass edges juts out of the sidewalk at a knife-like angle. Presumably, there will be pleasant jazz trios (avoiding hard bop and free jazz) performing at the base for lunchtime enjoyment. The roof that parallels over the outdoor bleacher now houses the new balcony area of the hall inside.
The glassed-in public lobby dovetails nicely with a Slavoj Zizek talk I heard recently. Zizek argues that new architecture for public performance spaces is a bonafide outreaching to different classes for dialogs in high-brow and low-brow culture. They have by necessity become these goofy institutional public/private spaces made special by good architects and well-meaning underwriters for the arts. Unfortunately, the café counter in this lobby only seems to be serving drinks and food directly before performances. (I could be mistaken.)
The hall itself is generally more woodsy than before and the acoustics are superior. I don’t like that the new seats lack a spring to make the seats raise by themselves when letting fellow patrons get to their own seats although the burgundy color works with the wood.
A Crimson Grail rehearsal, 2008
It was a sad night last year when 216 guitarists and bassists were told three days of rehearsal were all for nought due to rain.
Wordless Music is thankfully remounting it again this year on Saturday, August 8, 2009, with precautions in place that’ll make sure the show goes on, rain or shine. There was a contingency plan last year to do it in the rehearsal church with the threat of rain and if you ask me, they ignored the weather forecast.
Anyway, click here to apply! It’ll be a blast!
I spent the weekend in Oak Hill which was a little subdued because half the family is under the weather and the weather is a little under itself. Spring comes two or three weeks later up here than in the city. It was my friends’ daughter’s fourth birthday and they had a swim party at a YMCA which was fun even though it’s really hard not to snark at basting and swimming in Clorox®.
We missed a wedding at the Twelve Tribes compound. The ceremony is said to be full of ritual reverance and divinity. Couples in the Tribe are not allowed to even kiss before they get married there although they may hold hands. I would hope they have elaborate forms of handsies and arm wrestling to go with the sweaty palms. The honeymoon suite near the creek gets lots of spring and summer action.
I’m going to try and come up to the Grey Fox bluegrass festival again this year. There’s an Irish music festival in nearby East Durham at the same time. The hills will ring of droney folk music while the people dance like chickens.
I had the pleasure of attending one of the most unusual and beautiful concerts last night at the Manhattan School of Music. Andy Akiho’s compositions combine steel pan drums with a harp, cello, and chamber orchestra in gorgeous and unexpected tableaus. He’s off to Boston to study with David Lang. This kid is already going places. (Apologies that he is absent from the snapshot above taken between pieces.)
I had a great time at Minton’s Playhouse the other night. It felt like Augie’s (now SMOKE) back in the day. On April 29th, they’ll be celebrating Duke Ellington’s 110th birthday. Performing is Darby Dizard and the Blue Millenium Orchestra, featuring several alumni of Duke Ellington’s Orchestra. Git it in yer soul.
The Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival is happening there again so you best be showing the love. They served me the best corn chowder I ever had. Besides some good sandwiches.
The Ding Dong Lounge hosted a ‘zine fair on Saturday. They didn’t do a very good job of promoting it as it seemed like only ‘zine publishers were in attendance slapping each other on the back and outnerding each other. If you want bar regulars to come in and hang around, you may not want a naked old guy with distended testicles and large man boobs walking around your zine fair. I know it’s a pagan sort of act, but it’s really grody.
I didn’t take notes but a couple of the zines I looked at were interesting and some had great color graphic work. I also looked at a couple that might’ve been done by fifth graders. You shouldn’t charge $8 for your zine if it looks like it was done by fifth graders. Given the proliferation of blogging, publishing a zine is sort of like making yourself breakfast every day and tossing it in the garbage. I threw out all of my friends’ zines from the 80s and 90s. They’re not worth anything.
Unless you’re Dave Eggers and can produce something as slick (or nearly) as McSweeney’s or n+1 or… you know what I’m talking about– don’t bother. Definitely do it in color. Maintain a nice website/blog and pass out cards with the URL. Take it multimedia people. Once you’re hipper than Dave and get an audience, you might consider charging Kindle subscribers.
The band Wolfhaven performed and Chet messed up by introducing them as Wolverines. They played really nice blues rock sort of like Masters of Reality. I like that they have “333” in their myspace URL. That means they’re half-evil.
Even though I’m mostly Irish, I usually end up hiding out on St. Patrick’s Day. I’m just not a big fan of the kelly green plastic crap, “kiss me I’m Irish” buttons, Irish sports bars, or fake Irish accents.
WFMU has launched its video podcasts with this stunning debut. I hope you donated to the station if you ever listen.
Video Quest from WFMU Episode 1
If they’re blooming everywhere, maybe we should eat jellyfish! Asians specialize in clear or white base foods that don’t taste like much: cellophane noodles, tofu, and rice, so you also have all the great spices, sauces, and pickling techniques. It’s only a matter of time before I order some jellyfish in chinatown though the texture scares me. Full disclosure: I got stung pretty badly by jellyfish as a kid which resulted in my shunning the ocean altogether for a few years. Nobody peed on me.
If the AIG executive bonus scandal has been good for anything, it’s brought what’s been wrong all along with how the Obama administration has handled the bailout / stimulus by putting faces on the corporate welfare recipients. Over at kos, barbinmd has proposed some simple policy guidelines for executives who remain with bailed out institutions: “Executives at a failing company don’t get a bonus. Executives at a failing company don’t get a raise.” Simple answers to simple questions.
Oh man. So many of my friends are so busted.
Having been in a few bands, I know how clubs can rip off the artists and keep most of the door money. Knowing that I probably didn’t do all I could’ve to promote the show, I gave almost all the money to Pagoda and Investigative Reports. So much for being a promoter. Seriously though, we’re going to get the Sunday matinees going one of these days.
Talking to people later, some people liked Pagoda more and some people liked Investigative Reports more. (By the way, if your band is hard to find on the internet, you need a new name.) Different strokes for different folks as Mom and Grandma used to say. I liked them both. Hanging out with Michael Pitt afterward was pretty cool. I forgot my camera but got a kick out of some Columbia kids getting their picture with him. Rather disappointing that he threw his voice out so soon and played such a short set. I know someone was shooting video and taking pictures so as soon as I find those, I’ll update this.