homecoming 2004, chengwin vs. chunk

the surreal sporting event i ran into last weekend is now online with pictures.

new york, part 2

after hitting the galleries we got dinner and hit the local timeout ny to choose our evenings entertainment.

the prospects looked pretty good for the evening:

steve reich and friends- great show but... $35 for tickets is too much for even a diehard fan.

in your ear festival, evan ziporyn and gamelan galak tika $20- i really like his music, but would rather see him with bang on a can.

if either of these shows traveled to la, i would probably go. but for a night on the town in ny, i don't want to sit around that long in one place.

along those lines i guess bang on a can had a not very successful performance of philip glass's at royce hall last week. (mark swed, la times)

The Glass pieces were "Music in Similar Motion" and "Music in Fifths." These are scores that when Glass first started playing them with his ensemble of winds and electric keyboards had the distinction of either expanding your consciousness or driving you mad. The repetition is numbing; the additions and subtractions of notes or beats can be barely perceptible. They went on for a really long time, and the players' concentration inevitably lagged. But the missed entrances and even outright ensemble train wrecks were often memorable.

well back to last saturday night. both concerts didn't really compute into our money/interest/cheap drinks equation, so we decided on the following plan.

we would go to a freebie and pay for one.

we were in luck. the free show was just down the street at the luna lounge. multiple bands and free music never go wrong.

as we walked in the first band almost ruined our night. at first we thought they were doing the weezer/geekband thing, very wrong. besides having a trombone/theremin double (did they want him in because he has the trombone, theremin or truck?), they were great at emptying out the room after one song.

next band... my new favorite

stupid

somewhere between x/weezer/pixies, they gave a show that made me forget i write/play music.



anytime i can stop analyzing a performance and get into the moment is rare, but i worship the groups who get me to that place.
any description of the show doesn't do it justice... go see for yourself

on second thought i will try to explain what did it for me. their music is the perfect combination of raw energy/theatrics/good songwriting. any group that can put that much energy on the stage while still performing gets me everytime.

the rest of the night is pretty easy to figure out... its not possible to see two great bands in one night. we slunk on to tonic to see what now sounded like a bad idea

the concept...

acoustic drum and bass

not in the jazz way, but electronic music performed by acoustic instruments.

the best i could say is that they had the crowd with them for the first song, until the one switched from his bleep/blop magic machine to trumpet. no matter what you do, its hard to get out of miles's shadow from bitches brew. i'm sure the crowd knows who miles is, but the vibe was like; you worked up a bitchin groove for the last 8 minutes for that? at this point i had to get my money's worth so i started the inappropriate big man dancing. it didn't make me feel much better.

who would have known acoustic drum and bass would miss...

were all suckers

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 place where i like to go and find my center. in the main room there are four large speakers hung from the ceiling on each corner, each playing its own tone. the combination gives every space its own unique combination tone frequency. as you walk around the room you hear either more of the high or low tones. for the first 15 minutes i heard mostly the high. i walked slowly through the room until i got the tones to "line-up" into a consonance. once i found that spot, i closed my eyes and let the sound overtake me. the funny thing is that the low tones began to overtake my breathing. after about 10 more minutes the high tones had disappeared and i could only hear low. now walking around the room had a whole new feeling. i repeated the process until i found a consonance of low tones. after i let the sound in, i felt "centered"
what a great place.

chengwin vs. chunk parade/football game



we wandered into the end of this parade/performance art piece near canal st.
when we came upon it there were two life size goal posts in the street.



then came the chunk(i think)and the marching band

this was a truly postmodern spectacle mimicing the sporting rituals of pagentry, pregame posturing, and mindless devotion to hollow slogans.

the crowd/band came around the corner, the "cheerleaders" led the way and while the band played a large crowd gathered. the "game" began just when the cops came, at this time the street was filled with 1/2 spectators and 1/2 "fans".



it was the most effective street performance art i have ever seen. i think the only thing we have here like it is the doo-dah parade. but coming upon something unexpected is much cooler than waiting for something irreverent.

on to the galleries:

leo koening inc.
j-peg twister-the name was far better than the art

deitch projects gallery
the art in here was pretty good, the video in the basement was really good. not much info around on any of the artists. looks like they were cleaning up from a big party the night before.

we also speedwalked through a few other galleries in the area with questionable content. the art in one gallery was so bad, the plain handwritten 3x5 notecards that identified the pieces were more interesting than any of the art.

mary boone gallery
porn stars are real people too, more spectacle than art.
i guess i forgot about my crappy life for a minute and felt lucky not to have their problems.

gagosian gallery
wasps-blue paintings-basketball players with logos erased
yawn... starting to see a pattern, skip any gallery with a guy in a suit who looks like a broker. these galleries look more devoted to investment banking than art.


fuse gallery
my favorite in ny, not only is the art right down my alley, but this place is a 2nd cousin to my favorite gallery in los feliz. i had never made it to a juxtapoz group show before and it was like water in the desert. all my favorites were there; sas christian, derek hess, seonna hong and joe coleman..

man i really like joe coleman's work, but this altarpiece really kicked me in the head. maybe because of its smaller size and direct combination of images and text. it burned right into my skull.

Altar to Sex Violence and Death (2001).

violence:
you entertain us with your spectacle and comedy
but our cheers and laughter are soon choked
when we become your next victim

sex:
you are the world’s greatest sorcerer
your trick, the taste of your glorious illusions
which leave behind wailing stinking parasites

death:
you spoiled brat
god’s favorite
you always win, you never lose
and you get everything in the end

more later...

in the nyc

been in the nyc since friday night.

living in new york is finding a way of enjoying the darkness -john cage

more later....

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 mind for yourself. the music lies somewhere between terry riley and radiohead. the video is a combination of sex, technology, and the banality of daily life. it is similar in construction to reich's three tales and it initially makes a much stronger impression (although i have only seen it on dvd).

for mature audiences only-not a family show

thursday, november 11th 8pm
cal state university, fullerton
pa 118 (music building)
free

extra note: lloyd is my mentor and good friend, he is a true technophobe and i wish he had a bigger online presence. you can get and idea of some what his music is like from here
one of these days we will get him to put his stuff online. until then i will probably put up a portion of his music thru my site.

phyrric victory

most of my friends are talking about how we are going to get through the next four years. i hope it is that simple. i'm really concerned about how easily people have been manipulated by the empty 'family values' rhetoric. i'm getting the idea its a new spin on an old game.

i have been reading "it can't happen here" by sinclair lewis, and have been struck by the parallels to today.

are we descending into fascism?

quick update... we are

i had a talk with my old music teacher in kansas before the election. he is a very reasonable guy and i was struck about how upset he was about abortion and the media. there wasn't anything to talk about after his initial statement of:

the media sucks
i can't vote for anybody who supports abortion
and
how can you hold bush responsible for the missing weapons?

when i left kansas in 89, i always thought it was a progressive state. no matter what people were much more tolerant and accepting of social issues than i was used to (compared to indiana and oklahoma other stops along the way in my childhood), there was less racism and more tolerance for social issues.

in what's the matter with kansas (which i now have to read), thomas frank makes the case that reasonable progressives have been manipulated by wedge issues to embrace an archconservative political agenda.
at the end of the day the republicans have created a "constant moral revolution" that always promises and never delivers.

also currently reading chain of command by seymour hersh.
don't know where to start on this book. it seems the less politically motivated, and more a documentation of what really is going on with the neocons.
if you keep up with the new yorker, harpers, or even read the newspaper you probably have heard many of these incidents mentioned. the book gives more details, and starts to connect the dots. if his observations and experiences are true, we are really forked.
like in a roman empire sort of way.
we might eventually be a new footnote for pyrrhic victory.

a mentor of mine said this reminded him of when nixon won in 68.

we cannot retrace our steps
going forward is the same as going backward...
gs

upcoming projects

now that the fall concerts are starting to wrap up, its time to get back to composing. over the next few months i'm going to try and document my progress on a few projects, as well as update my program notes for my concert at the cerritos center. much has been said here and here about the pablum that is printed in concert promotion and program notes. i'm going to give a wholehearted stab at writing something that will demystify my music and make it more accessible to the audience. i'm also planning a slew of new instrumental pieces as well as writing the libretto for my next vocal/instrumental piece.

one of the best things of having an ensemble is the time between composing and rehearsing is pretty short. i've performed/rehearsed summerland and retrace our steps enough times to have learned some lessons. besides fixing problems in my technique, its become important to write music that is nearly-playable out of the box, right now there just isn't the time to obsess about ornate counterpoint or intricate musical puzzles, unless the demand is lowered a bit. i feel through this process i'm becoming a more practical and more focused composer.