cartesian nostalgia

from a performers point of view this weekend’s RealNewMusic 2008 festival was one one of those rare events that was a joy to participate in from start to finish. no backstage drama, rivalries, one-upmanship or back handed compliments. walking in to soundcheck and seeing scott mcintosh (pbe partner in crime) playing in john mahr’s group (brother mallard) brought back a wave of nostalgia from when the three of us used to play in csuf’s diverse instrument ensemble (d.i.e.)

also performing sat night was steve moshier’s liquid skin ensemble. both steve and janine livingston (who were members of the original cartesian reunion memorial orchestra ((crmo)) and have been playing together for close to 25 years). this was the first show that we ever played together and i was happy to finally hang out with steve and have a chat longer than a handshake or a online exchange.

thanks again to shane cadman for bringing in another successful year of producing the RNM festival. i also need to thank shane for pushing me to apply for the redcat spring studio. i usually don't have pieces (new and unperformed) that fit those more "official" festivals and thought it would be an interesting experience to write something on a pretty quick deadline for a change. (like many of my movie brethern)

its also worth pointing out (and getting back to the nostalgia) that before becoming the new music impressario that he is today, back in the 80's shane (as well as scott and john) used to play in the illustrious theatre orchestra (ito) that was playing gig’s at royce hall and getting regular airplay on kcrw and kusc (which used to have a great alt-classical radio show hosted by bonnie grice). although i really miss the crmo and the ito, on saturday night it was easy to see and hear that the "carteisan school" is alive and well in all of our groups.

RealNewMusic 2008

RealNewMusic 2008

Saturday, June 21, 2008, 7:00 pm

Tickets $10.00 / $7.50 / $5.00 (students & seniors)

The Ruth B. Shannon Center for the Performing Arts

Whittier College, 6760 Painter Ave., Whittier

Box Office: 562.907.4203

Google map to the Shannon Center

featuring:

PBE

is an alt-classical garage band that plays the music of a variety of living and dead composers. it was created as a d.i.y forum outside the usual and limited channels of art music presentation.

Sylvia Desrochures, mezzo soprano

Paul Cummings, bass

Bruce Gallego, electric guitar

Paul Bailey, kaossilator/ableton live

(Requiem for a High Homicide Enclave)

is a deconstruction of Purcell's Funeral Music for Queen Mary (1694) based on excerpts from the from the LA Times Homicide Report which documents every murder that takes place in Los Angeles County using blog posts, comments, and Google Maps.

link to trailer

blog

website

Steve Moshier's Liquid Skin Ensemble

The Liquid Skin Ensemble is a 7-member post-minimalist acoustic/electric chamber ensemble that has been performing composer Steve Moshier's work extensively in Southern California for over ten years. Previous performances included evenings at the Getty Center, the Luckman Theater at Cal State LA, Highways Performance Space, the John Anson Ford Theater, the Japan America Theater, Los Angeles Theater Center and in 2004, international exposure with Hae Kyung Lee's Dancers at the LG Arts Center in Seoul, Korea. For the past four years, the group has bi-annually performed at the AH Gallery in Chinatown, downtown Los Angeles.

John Marr / Brother Mallard

Brother Mallard is a four person ensemble assembled by John Marr in order to perform The Continuing Story of Counterpoint (TCSOC) by David Borden. Aside from "Part Nine," none of the remaining eleven movements have ever been performed on the West Coast. Borden originally wrote the music for his group, Mother Mallard (the inspiration for Brother Mallard's nom de plume ) which consisted of three keyboardists. The group's ultimate goal is to create a functioning ensemble that will present new music to all listening ears.

Lauren Baba: Violins

Audra Blackner: Voice

Ralph d’Ignazio: Electric Guitar and Electric Bass

Scott McIntosh: Winds

Satomi Otsubo: Keyboards

John Marr: Keyboards

also with music and words by:

Susan Asbjornson Ziegler

Brian Kehlenbach

Melody Versoza

Sean Gunning

high homicide enclave, 01/01/08-06/15/08

i just got done updating my custom google maps of the la county homicide statistics from 01/01/2008-06/14/2008.

since the beginning of the year there have been 362 homicides in los angeles county.


View Larger Map

so far this year the homicide rate is actually down 5% for the year. this time last year there were 372 homicides in la county.


View Larger Map

the crazy thing is that crime is down year over year since 1992.

Homicides, L.A. County

1991 2,054
1992 2,113
1993 2,070
1994 1,816
1995 1,789
1996 1,535
1997 1,295
1998 1,053
1999 965
2000 1,076
2001 1,161
2002 1,231
2003 1,142
2004 1,131
2005 1,152
2006 1,085
2007 968*
*estimate based on annualized figures, Jan-Aug. '07

and as the unemployment goes down so does the homicide rate rate
Unemployment rate

1991 8
1992 9.9
1993 10
1994 9.3
1995 8
1996 8.3
1997 6.9
1998 6.6
1999 5.9
2000 5.4
2001 5.7
2002 6.8
2003 7
2004 6.5
2005 5.3
2006 4.7
2007 4.8*
*estimate, avg through Aug.

violent crime is also down.

Violent Crime Rates 1989-2005


yet 15 people were killed in weekend homicides between june 6th-8th. did you hear about it? why do you think that is?

la times reporter jill leovy explains the concept of the "high homicide enclave"

A crowd of at least 100 gathered Thursday for a candlelight vigil to mark the driveby-shooting death of 15-year-old Dovon Harris in the Nickerson Gardens housing project. LAPD Southeast Capt. Rick Jacobs announced a suspect was in custody. The crowd cheered and clapped.

Unlike many homicides cases reported on The Homicide Report, this one benefited from numerous witnesses cooperating.

As covered previously here, the reluctance of witnesses to cooperate with police, especially in the context of black and Latino urban poverty, is central to high-homicide dynamics.

It works like this: Witness reluctance affords killers impunity, and gives them power to essentially become underworld lords, ruling lawless ethnic enclaves created by the inexorable calculus of housing segregation and poverty. Within such enclaves, violence becomes a kind of currency that people ignore at their peril, and formal legal protection does not exist. Men and boys, in particular, experience extreme pressure to demonstrate they too are capable of violence. If they appear weak, they risk falling on the wrong side of the violent transactions that organize this underworld. They must walk tough, talk tough, and cultivate a reputation for being dangerous if provoked.

Elsewhere in America, it's not like that. In, say, Beverly Hills or Encino, people dwell in a world where the state has a monopoly on violence. Violence and power are still inseparable, but the violence is inchoate--conserved within the apparatus of the state. The state's monopoly on violence remains invisible, but it governs conflicts. When people cross each other, as they inevitably do, the legal apparatus of the state influences how their quarrels are resolved. Business or neighbor disputes end up in civil courts. Fights over girls or insults play out around unspoken calculations of possible state intervention: Kill your rival, and you're likely to end up in jail. Better to just punch him, or show him up at the next office meeting.

But in a world where the state has lost its authority, and power is diffused among violent individuals, even the mildest, most passive individuals must make uneasy compromises with killers, and the percentage of people--especially men--who actively embrace violence to resolve conflicts expands.

This reporter has interviewed many churchgoing, working, middle-class homeowners--fathers and mothers with no criminal histories and little inclination toward violence--who, nonetheless, seriously consider lethal retaliation when their sons are killed in South Los Angeles. They are not insane for doing so. They are not simply depraved individuals with a yen for "senseless violence," to quote that overused cliche. Rather, they are human beings who have suffered real injury in a context where state power is missing in action. They are experiencing the ultimate interpersonal conflict in a world where witnesses don't cooperate, cases go unsolved, and those who hurt others gain power. Think about your son's killer living near you, enjoying impunity, even exerting influence, and you may see their point of view. Now imagine how the same thoughts might be resolved in the mind of a teenage younger brother of that same murder victim.

ars antiqua

"unison, fourth and fifth. all other intervals are shit!"

the beginning is a little slow, give it about 90 seconds.

thanks to david ocker at mixed meters

REDCAT spring studio 2008

its been a good run since the middle of april that culminated in two great shows this weekend at REDCAT. for me it was very strange to be backstage without a trombone in my hand (or any instrument at all) it was easier to keep the laptop and kaossillator plugged in onstage, but i found myself actually a bit nervous without anything in my hands.

the path of bringing a piece from an idea to a premier is quite a journey. but at some point you have to go forward with what what you got and see how it works 'live'. on the 2nd night, somewhere in the last third of the requiem i realized that i was asking my vocalists to sing at the a full fortissimo at the top of their range for a good 6 minutes. while i was watching them brilliantly pull this off i knew there was there was a much better way to write this. its funny, before the show i did warn the singers (sylvia desrochers and paul cummings) that were were going to take it up a notch, but their looks of surprise and fierce determination to match our energy level was something i wont forget that soon. the fact that they rose above the limitations of my writing and pulled it off was a testament to the great musicians i get to work with. with all that being said, i'll have time to make those edits when we will be performing it in a few weeks at the shane cadman's REALNEWMUSIC in whittier on June 21st.

there is quite a bit to be happy about and some other great stories that i'll eventually tell (naked curtain call), but after sitting around the house in daze yesterday its time to get back to real life. yesterday i couldn't really answer emails and return phone calls. after you get home from a show you don't really know what to do with yourself. there is nothing that you have to do and nowhere you have to go. one of the things they don't ever tell you is that the creative process can terrorize you other responsibilities and relationships. luckily we have been through this before and my wife deb knew the drill; keep me in clean clothes and fed and we will get through it.

i started the day by filling a trash can just going through the mail that had piled up the last 6 weeks, not to mention my change oil light started blinking about two weeks ago and i haven't even started grading finals exams. all i can say is that i'm really lucky to have the support from my family and by the end of the week i'll be ready to start the process all over again.

he was mad against this life

REDCAT Spring Studio
May 17 & 18, 2008, 8:30 pm
Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater
631 W 2nd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012

The latest edition of REDCAT's ongoing performance series brings
together a dynamic range of six emerging and established Los Angeles
artists to launch new projects, investigate new forms and experiment
with new ideas. Curated by Leslie Ito and George Lugg, the evening
features:

PBE: REQUIEM FOR A HIGH HOMICIDE ENCLAVE
Fusing a deconstruction of Henry Purcell’s Funeral Music for Queen
Mary (1694) with source material from the Los Angeles Times Homicide
Report, including blog posts, comments and google maps, The Paul
Bailey Ensemble (PBE) performs an audio/visual eulogy for the
homicide deaths in LA County in 2008.

Featuring:
Sylvia Desrochers, mezzo soprano, Paul Cummings, bass, Bruce
Gallegos, electric guitar, and Paul Bailey, laptop, kaossilator and video.

trailer, homicide report and links
http://www.vimeo.com/936614
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/homicidereport/
http://www.paulbaileyensemble.org/

and also performances by:

CYNTHIA LEE: I LONGED TO GO BACK TO THE BEGINNING…
Live tabla and cello accompany a trio of dancers in this movement and
music investigation of sam in Hindustani rhythmic tradition: the
moment where musical tension is released and begins again, where
union and loss coalesce.

MIWA MATREYEK: DREAMING OF LUCID LIVING
Using projected animation to enliven objects, transform space and
illuminate live performance, this work is a hypnotically layered
construction that seamlessly melds the fantastical with the real, and
the seductiveness of cinema with the immediacy of the stage.

SARAH PAUL OCAMPO / ADVANCED BEGINNER: ROOMS
Leading a six-person orchestra playing everyday objects—comb, cheese
grater, flyswatter, and more—Ocampo, on guitar, sings a four-song
cycle that evokes a stifled domestic world of tattered hearts and
longing.

PEGGY JO PABUSTAN / AMANDA ALFIERI: SERIOUS WORK
The collaborative team of Pabustan and Alfieri play with, and prey
upon, a wealth of influences from the history of video and
performance art in a work that is both traumatic and healing,
feminist and exploitative, playful and very serious.

WU INGRID TSANG: LAMENTO DELLA DRAG
Performing three vocal selections of mixed-genre repertoire alongside
musician Giles Miller, Tsang's manifests an elaborate and
extravagant Diva who sings traditional and baroque compositions, and
intertwines the histories of opera and queer identity.

it was my third year

as i said before requiem for a high homicide enclave is my attempt to make sense of the latimes homicide report. i first encountered the blog, comments and maps reading about the death of los angeles high school band member michael pena and reading his story it brought back a lot of memories that i had long ago pushed aside.

i was teaching music sometime in 1997 or 1998 at john marshall high school in los angeles. the los feliz/silverlake area had been one of the more affluent parts of los angeles, but high home values and an aging local population created a dramatic change in the schools demographics starting in the late 80's. by the time i started teaching in 1995 many parents from the area were sending their children to private schools and the typical marshall student came from the densely populated apartment rows in echo park or hollywood. it was a challenging but rewarding job which alternated between some of the highest and lowest moments i have experienced in the classroom.

by my third year i was very happy with the way the program was growing. we (my wife was teaching dance and colorguard) both had grown accustomed to teaching in an urban school; for the most part kids are kids, its just when something goes wrong with them there is no "safety net", like when somebody gets really sick, it can throw a family into turmoil. not only do they have to deal with the lack of access to proper medical care, but then how they will pay the bills while a parent is sick. what happens next is that your student might just stop coming to school and start working to pay the bills.

by this time i though i had seen most everything, but teaching that day started as a real shocker. sometime in the morning word got back to me that 3 of my best students had beaten the living bejesus out of a freshman band member. i was in shock and really mad at those kids, mainly because it challenged everything i thought i had "taught" my students. there was a lot of crazy things that happened outside of school, but i thought we had created a culture where it was clear that "we don't do those things in our band". i was proud to show off to anybody who would listen that my kids were respectful of each other and knew that more was expected of them when they joined my program.

i was so upset and didn't even send them to the office. i just told them to go home and i didn't want to see them at rehearsal after school. for most kids this was the worst punishment i could give, being at home usually meant becoming the primary child care provider for their siblings. the next day all three students showed up and wanted to talk. after 4-5 minutes of ranting how they let me down and said something like, "in what world can you use violence to solve anything?" one of them sheepishly said "we had to do it, he is going to get us killed".

that is when i stopped talking and started listening.

the three of them took turns explaining the situation; they ride a number of city busses to school and everyday the same thing unfolds; as they are waiting for their next bus the local gangbanger harasses them and to which the freshman always has a quick comeback. over time the harassment escalates and of course my older students quickly realize where this is going. as they see it its too far to walk and there is no other way to come to school. they have tried to talk to the freshman, but he thinks its all fun and games. and then they explained there was only one thing the could do.

so i pulled in the freshman and we all talked it out. or i should say, they talked it out. at that point it really sunk in that no matter how much i though i knew about these students, i could really never fully understand what their lives were like outside of school.

the police and the mayor

Today at 4pm I'm going to talk with Martin Perlich about my REQUIEM FOR A HIGH HOMICIDE ENCLAVE and its source material; the latimes homicide report, blog comments and google maps on KCSN 88.5 (05/14/08)

the sandbox

after another long day of composing and video editing the wife unit looks over and states "its an addiction, right?" i nod silently in her direction and realize its probably a good time to stop for the day. although we have been married 15 years, i don't think we have had the conversation that followed. composing is something i do, but really this blog is one of my few outlets to "talk" about it. calling it an addiction is probably technically true, but we did agree that over the years i have become more a more functional human being in the process.

i used to be pretty bad and could easily ignore everybody for days trying to get a project started (and i even asked her to leave the house a few times) just so i could write. it seems silly now and i'm pretty embarrassed about it. over time i have learned to trust my instincts and as long as the ideas are flowing i cancel everything else and write until as much and as long as i can.

right now i am in what i call "the sandbox". its the stage when i have a fully realized idea. every morning is another opportunity to 'play'; build new castles, and tear down the old ones that the tide is starting to wreck. its a very satisfying place to be.

first there is the idea (sometimes i sketch them out, or write them down for a later date), and if wake up the next day and still think it is a good idea i'll start to make it real. this is where the most unpleasant and painful part of the process is. until that idea is "real" and becomes a full piece i usually find myself in a focused mad dash to get as much of it on paper as possible.

sometimes the ideas are quick fully formed (life's too short, retrace our steps act II, summerland and principal of sufficient irritation) other times the initial idea seems strong, but somehow the realization feels a little off (fearless leader, retrace our steps act I, myinnersatan).
why and how this happens, i don't know? i think pieces are like kids, and i want to see them all grow up and be successful, but in the end you learn to accept their strengths and weaknesses as part of the human condition. one of the stranger recent developments is that i have noticed that some people have much higher opinions of some of my "kids" than i do. both pieces have had many versions (awkward teen years) and though my group really enjoys performing both, i still flinch and shuffle my feet during various sections.

there is a strange process in which the initial "idea" becomes a composition. all i can say is that it is a gut feeling and you know when it works. sometimes i have to confirm it in rehearsal, but these days my intuition is getting better. this is the problem solving part of the process, a little nip and tuck here and there, from that original idea a universe is implied and i get to live in it for the duration of the creation of the piece. this part is wonderful. you know you are here when you can walk away from the piece and come back in few days and still are interested in the same things. no matter which metaphor i use (playing in the sandbox, living in matrix...) this is very much like a video game where you get to live inside of the world you created.

the next step is taking it rehearsal and seeing how everything translates to the real world. over
time this has become easier and usually have an idea of what will work and where the problems might be. the first few readings are very important and feel that if a group of intelligent adults dont "get it" within a few hours then i really need to look long and hard to answer those "why's?" (that is why i tape all my rehearsals") i think there are two sides to this coin. on one side we reasonably only have 2-3 rehearsals before a show and need to be able to put something out in a short amount of time. if there are problems i know that we can smooth over the initial bumps and i can make some changes over the next few months, but its very important to be able perform the new works in a timely matter so you can always be rotating in new repertoire into the show.

its a strange dichotomy; when i'm writing i'm thinking about performing and when performing i'm thinking about writing. i'm not sure how to turn that switch off and afraid what would happen if i could.

soiveheard #2, wallpaper endangered REPOST

since i can't seem to find this anywhere on the interwebs i will repost this. its from alan rich's new blog (soiveheard.com) which seems to be down...

soiveheard#2 by Alan Rich

Wallpaper Endangered: According to one survey or another, anywhere from 30 to 50,000 people listen to classical music all day. That number can include doctors’ secretaries trapped in their offices (I speak for my friend Addie, prisoner of KUSC) as well as people who just can’t find the on/off switch and have come to regard music as a form of wallpaper. It also includes a large number of people who care what they’re hearing, who value a station that offers the stimulation of music chosen across the broad historical band, including the so-called “difficult” repertory on which the ink may still be wet, or the paper wrinkled after many centuries.

Just as we need more than one critic in town, we need more than one music station. KCSN-FM, the station of Cal State Northridge, is hard to hear in some parts of town; I hear it on one side of my house in West L.A. and less well on the other But their programming is excellent: Martin Perlich’s classical choices during the week, intelligently chosen Bluegrass and other, for me, mind-expanding stuff on weekends. Martin has brought composers onto the station, including young unknowns. As I understand the current crisis at KCSN, Martin’s job is not immediately threatened; other jobs have already been lost, that have given the station its uniqueness, and it looks to me – as someone recently bruised in this whole tragic shrinkage in the realm of culture -- that nobody is safe anymore. The following report from the battleground pretty well sums up the KCSN situation, and you may extrapolate far and wide.

So I hear: In an ominous move officials at Cal State Northridge have taken the unprecedented step of cancelling the Pledge Drive of KCSN-FM, the feisty little public radio station for which they hold the license. The station, which was awarded “Best of LA” by Los Angeles Magazine in 2006, calls itself ÁRTS & ROOTS Radio” offers the most exciting classical music programming in the city (and maybe the country) – often presenting music by living composers as well as an unusually generous amount of 20th century music (as well as ancient music, rare and ‘difficult’ music and daily chats with a broad group of members of the Arts community (cutting-edge composers, musicians, writers, choreographers, filmmakers, playwrights, jazz players, etc. by acclaimed interviewer Martin Perlich (author of The Art of the Interview).

While classical music is presented every weekday 6am – 6pm, weekends are occupied by unique “Roots” programming: “Bluegrass, classical country, singer-songwriter, world music, blues, a 2-hour program devoted to Bob Dylan and more.

Recently University Management, through KCSN’s GM Fred Johnson, fired Les Perry, the station’s best programmer and fundraiser, and other popular shows. The subsequent outcry from listeners and members -- 90% of the station’s operating budget is provided by listener-members -- has caused new Dean Robert Bucker (backed up by CSUN president Jolene Kester and Provost Harry Hellenbrand) to cancel the Pledge Drive out of “sensitivity to ‘the community’ which, responding negatively to the program changes, will negatively affect progress on CSUN’s new $125 million-dollar Valley Performing Arts Center whose groundbreaking was celebrated last week.

Observers believe that in cutting off funding through cancelling the Drive, the University higher-ups have signaled their long-expressed desire to change KCSN’s format – possibily handing off (as KPCC recently did) to large national pubcasting networks like Minnesota Public Radio, Wisconsin Public Radio or a similar entity, leaving Los Angeles with one classical station, whose classical programming is far less enterprising than KCSN’s

CSUN President
Jolene M. Koester
818-677-2121

Jolene.koester@csun.edu

Dean of Arts, Media, and Communication
Wm Robert Bucker
818-677-2426
robert.bucker@csun.edu

CSUN Provost & VP of Academic Affairs
Harry Helenbrand

818-677-2957

harry.hellenbrand@csun.edu

breeding stock

i just heard from martin perlich that next week's pledge-drive at KCSN has been canceled and this probably signals the university wanting to change the format and ship all the programming to a syndicate like minnesota public radio.

most of this town is already run from elsewhere, we have seen how that is working with first the latimes, the the laweekly and now this. for research on my latest piece i have been reading mike davis's prescient 1990 "City of Quartz". the following line stuck in my head this morning and now i know why.

"The steller success of Los Angeles as a real-estate, media and technology mecca is overwhelming its traditional upper classes, diminishing their autonomy and clout. This is not to suggest they are somehow becoming pauperized- indeed they are becoming wealthier-, but rather that they are surrendering power, which is different from mere money, to others strategicially established in the new circuits of lnad monopoly and global finance. LA 2000, despite offical hype about being 'THE city of the 21st century' will largely be an entrepot for megabanks and technology monopolies headquartered elsewhere. It will also continue to be the urban equivalent of the Spanish Main for the corporate buccaneers and nottori-ya from all over the world. Its old WASPish elites, especially, recumbent in their luxury, may linger primarily as consumers, comprafores, or just breeding stock. "

CSUN President
Jolene M. Koester
818-677-2121

Jolene.koester@csun.edu

Dean of Arts, Media, and Communication
Wm Robert Bucker
818-677-2426
robert.bucker@csun.edu

CSUN Provost & VP of Academic Affairs
Harry Helenbrand

818-677-2957

harry.hellenbrand@csun.edu

tagged x2

i'm it. and since i'm done for the night i can play along with this meme...

1. pick up the nearest book.

ok, on my left is my full bookcase... that's shooting fish in the barrel. many a book i could pull show how "serious" i am. (ohh... rameau's treatise on harmony would make me look smart, but i still have yet to read more than a few chapters)

if i go behind me on the right is a bunch of just graded theory 1 papers (much desperation in that pile) and a great book by author latimes writer sam quinones that is obliquely connected to my latest project

(i read the story, wrote the author, i heard the podcast, read his book, and read this article that pointed me to the latimes homicide report)

2. open to page 123
3. find the fifth sentence
4. post the next three sentences
5. tag five people and acknowledge who tagged you

True Tales from Another Mexico: the Lynch Mob, the Popsicle Kings and the Bronx
by Sam Quinones

And in L.A Zapateco basketball, Zeus Garcia is the high priest. For it he has sacrificed everything, including two knees, two women, and one set of children. For he has bridged divides within his own community.

now i pass this meme elsewhere across the internets and point you towards the following:

john pippin's new blog: sound scenes from his opening post it looks like he will have much to add to the alt-classical discussion.

daniel wolf's impressive green chile metaphor

the rambler has submitted his phd dissertation. those of you not having flashbacks and cold sweats rejoice! the others breath deeply and repeat, "they can't make me edit it anymore"

david ocker has been blogging about his 30 year association with the ICA (Independent Composers Association) and its Second Second Story Concert Series in los angeles

ryan nunes contemplates there is no spoon

and finally.... the latest pbe CD 'Retrace Our Steps' is john schaefer's pick of the week on WNYC. its is still available as free download.

cake for everyone!