Bookmarks for June 18th through June 21st
i cast fireball! -pbe vibraphonist ryan nunes 2nd open mic night ever (pretty funny and very NSFW)
“ASPEN 20” – SR-71 – Groundspeed Check great flying story… “There were a lot of things we couldn’t do in an SR-71 Blackbird (The Air Force/NASA super fast, highest flying reconnaissance jet, nicknamed, “The Sled”), but we were the fastest guys on the block and loved reminding our fellow aviators of this fact. People often asked us if, because of this fact, it was fun to fly the jet. Fun would not be the first word I would use to describe flying this plane – intense, maybe, even cerebral. But there was one day in our Sled experience when we would have to say that it was pure fun to be the fastest guys out there, at least for a moment.”
The Adventures of Wang: That’s what she said “For me, the attraction of being a performer came from the endless persuit of perfection: perfectly exact sentiment delivered through perfectly precise techniques. It’s like a bunch of people running in one direction towards an infinite goal. I enjoyed the communication , the comadery, and the expressive aspects of performing, but what really got me hooked is the fact that I am running towards an ending that exists only in theory. But as I grow older and closer to a [potentially temporary] end of my training in performance, I realized that all serious pursuits in life is a run towards an infinite goal, and perfection is defined only by what human minds are capable of imagining. When we are all running in one direction, our pursuits become not “perfection” but the upper limit of the best of us.”
Eating L.A.: First L.A. Commons tour picks Highland Park -funny that they are giving $20 tours of my neighborhood. i do it every day for free. “From 12pm-4pm we will tour Highland Park, providing tour goers with opportunities to sample unique street foods from the regions of Mexico and Central America. Highlights will include a stop at the famous Blue Taco Truck and tasting cemitas (little sandwiches from the region of Puebla) at an old local haunt. The tour will include a guided walk around the neighborhood, complete with historical trivia (do you know which donut-maker originated in Highland Park?) peppered throughout and conclude with an introduction to Chicken Boy by Amy Inouye, tour guide, gallery owner and mom to Chicken Boy. The tour has an optional visit to the “smokin’” Highland Park car show, where art meets the street.”
brenner and bailey's digital circus
both of these shows are going to be a bit different than usual. since last may’s performance of the requiem for a high homicide enclave i have been using a wide variety of digital controllers in performance and this is our first big step in figuring out what works in front of a live audience. both shows are going to be laid back and probably similar to watching a comedian work out new material.
welcome to the new site (alpha)
i am in the process of moving and combining my dreamweaver site and blogger blog into one new home. so this will be very alpha for a week or two. the good news is the importing of my old blogger posts was painless. Be the first to like. Like Unlike
the russian and the clarinet
found during routine blog maintenance… not sure why this was unpublished (original date 8/14/04), but a very funny early story of the pbe. it must have been last spring, we had a pretty crappy rehearsal at the ave 50 studio in highland park. the rehearsal details are kind of sketchy, but i vaguely remember being [...]
how things change
the last few days have been great to step aside from performing to catch up with my friends artistic work. i realize its been quite a while since i have been in the ‘audience’ and have more than observed that life doesn’t stop even though you haven’t been paying much attention.
highland park galleries
since the pbe has been rehearsing on sat nights and i have been unable to make any of the nela 2nd saturday’s gallery openings since the summer. what used to be a few galleries has grown to a full fledged scene which make a great evening stumbling around the neighborhood.
the private gallery of clare graham (mirrors) really caught my eye tonight. in what used to be a old grocery store and roller rink was one of the most interesting private galleries i have ever seen (ok, i haven’t seen much but who needs museums when you have a space like that)
i also really enjoyed fellow arroyo arts collective member/den mother suzanne siegle’s collection of women’s slips that depict a my favorite emotions (yearning, regret, deception…)
theatre in la
fri night was spent watching my friend’s nova jacobs and john sinclair’s short plays performed by the theatre of note company in hollywood. i freely admit that i haven’t attended much theatre in la and my limited attempts to find good theatre have mostly been unsuccessful.
this production of 10 short one-acts was an unsuspected diversion. the show, a lick and a promise, did have its requisite ‘theatre’ aftertaste, but did have a few diamonds and the acting was much better than i expected.
my main complaint of 99 seat theatre is the two dimensional conversations that pass as dialogue. both john and nova’s productions were very natural and conversational. nova goes right for the carotid artery and doesn’t let up. her audience and her character’s don’t get a pass and no lessons are learned. john’s scene plays the other way, using what could pass as situational comedy a grandmother and her grandson make limited attempts to communicate, but without bending over for the easy jokes. mom and grandson are both lucky to get home with only hurt feelings.
don’t get me wrong, i enjoyed the other shorts, i just like mine with a little less ‘theatre’ flavoring. the audience was rolling in the aisles all evening. i look forward to see how these pieces age over the 6 week run and plan to take my wife before it closes.
upcoming projects
as for the pbe i could still use a few bands for our nov and dec shows, but other than that playing once a month has its benefits. over the last few weeks i find myself much more productive and have been able to write a first draft of my next big work. i hesitate to call it a vocal piece because in the past few days its started to become a film. we are going into rehearsal of the instrumental parts next week. i’m looking forward to workshopping it on our november show at mr. t’s (sun, nov 12th). by dec we should be able to add vocals and video and if all goes well the full premier should be at csuf in march.
