that was a great show yesterday, here are some of the highlights: my apologies for sending bruce gallego (pbe guitar) on unexpected tour of east-la trying to find the gallery i was surprised that kathy hargraves (dangerous curve gallery owner) was able to kick a film shoot off her street because they didn’t have the [...]
principle of sufficient irritation @csuf 04/11/07
as time allows i’m going to start posting videos from our concerts. the first one up is from our recent march concert at csuf. next show is this saturday with dorian wood at the studio of known aim.we will be workshopping our new piece life’s too short as well as playing a the new version [...]
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.
past and future (good times)
thanks again to all who came out to last night. its great to play for such a big and enthusiastic crowd. where else can you see somebody serenade a ikea lamp, alt-classical garage band and band with balloon bass? thanks again to dorian wood and unpopable for their unique and wonderful performances. because of the [...]
weddings and funerals
i think i had my 20yr hs reunion last night? i’m still not quite sure how to process it? last night we shared a show with a long forgotten friend (from kansas) that turned out to be much more than i ever expected. you only expect to run into people like this at weddings and [...]
purcell's bitch
anyway, what do you think of the title. i overheard somebody talking a little shit about me the other day. mumbled something that my music was bad purcell. i took it as a compliment. now i want to write something to make it official.
its my friday and i already got a good start on my weekend by skipping my train this morning to get a few hours of writing before i drove into work at the last minute. its funny but i know its”writing time” where i’m a little pissed off about it. my good friend ryan kelly used to say it best. “my day job is getting in the way of my personal life”
that all being said, losing yourself in teaching classes is a good thing. i’m really happy with teaching this semester. i think i’ve made some good adjustments and there is much less stress than fall. next week my music ed students will be finishing up teaching 4 weeks of 4th grade music. you probably wouldn’t think it, but 4th grade is the ultimate music teaching experience. they are at the perfect place to be introduced to music performance (remember the recorder?). they also are a lot more honest and open (concrete stage of development) to good and bad teaching sequences and strategies. they will really let you know if they don’t think you are doing a good job. its a really great experience (and somewhat painful) for the pre-credential teachers. i’m really proud how the kept their heads up and took their first steps at teaching. it wasn’t always pretty, but now they have a sense of what the future is so now they can start focusing what the first years of teaching will really be like.
the women’s music festival last week was very interesting. it was fun to see ethel perform some great music and swap some stories in the world’s worst hotel bar afterwards. marc swed evidently liked it, although i’m not sure if he ever has aesthetically criticized much. its great that he is such a supporter and good writer about new music, but sometimes i wonder if we are at the same concert. my luck i’ll be the first one to really feel his wrath. oh well, what do they say… any press is good press. btw… it was mentioned in swed’s review that our vocal department doesn’t want meredith monk to give a clinic. wtf??? kinda too late, i think they can already hear her on tv.
i also just found another good one here
(click on the watch button after the flash introduction)
whole bunch of shows
the next two weeks have many shows worth seeing. this week at csuf we are hosting the merging voices festival. the rundown is as follows: Thursday, March 9th 8pmAlex Shapiro (and friends) yeah, yeah, yeah, bla, bla, bla… alex is my friend so she gets top billing in my blog.Guest Artist Shiau-uen Ding, pianist from [...]
lloyd rodgers group at occca, fri nov 18th-arroyo arts collective music festival and discovery tour, sunday nov 20th
the lloyd rodgers group is performing their new video/music theater spectacle this friday at the orange county center for contemporary art (occca) at 9pm. guns into mexico is a reworking of catastrophe of meaning, (2001) a collaboration of lloyd rodgers and video artist paul greenhaw. mp3s can be found on the website. the pbe is [...]
its all about distribution
over the weekend the la times music critic marc swed takes a tour of the counties major orchestras and makes the point that they all have one thing in common, they play inspired performances and engage their audience in interesting pre and post concert dialogue. swed also downplays the “old wine and in new bottles” [...]
channel surfing with mikel rouse
i just got back from watching mikel rouse’s music for minorities at uclalive. ian krouse’s new opera was just next door and we walked into it by accident. we were about to take our seats, but when i saw an orchestra in the pit i knew it was the wrong place. i also remembered the [...]
new york, part 1
last weekend in ny hit the spot. i spent my free time on saturday catching some galleries and shows. highlights: lamont young dream house i heard that this was closing down soon, i’m happy its still there. this is the second trip in a row i was able to drop by. the dreamhouse is a [...]
lloyd rodgers group
just got back from lloyd rodgers dress rehearsal of his new piece “guns into mexico”. it combines prerecorded found object audio and video (paul greenhaw), combined with modular improvisations for synth, bass guitar, and percussion (2 vibes and assorted snares and toms) i really like it, you should go see it and make up your [...]
