May 23, 2008
Kitchen Uke Party
My neighbor hosted Yan Yalego, a french ukeleliste who travels the world to play ukelele in kitchens. He does play "normal" venues as well, but he makes a point of finding kitchens to play as an "anti-show" which I find to be a beautiful way of making music matter. In the intimacy of a kitchen, there is nothing but audience and performer (and stove and sink) and the music takes on an intensity rarely experienced in traditional venues. It is truly Homemade Music. Here are some recordings from the event, which also included the ukelele stylings of Michael Wagner and myself.
Michael Wagner-The Heartbreak Song
May 18, 2008
Fifth Ave Street Fair
I love the Brooklyn that comes out in full force every year at the street fair. It is such a diverse population in the borough and the vendors similarly represent all walks of life. Big inflatable moonwalks filled with ecstatic children, DJs and bands blasting a cacophony of sounds, sizzling sausage trucks and mozzarepa vendors making sweet scents and hungry people happy. It is fully saturated culture. It is beautiful Brooklyn.
Blake has a camera. I have a guitar.
May 15, 2008
Jollyship The Whiz-Bang
Pirate Puppet Rock Musical. Yeah! Alaina is Stage Managing this new show that just started previews at Ars Nova and is a highly hilarious piece of entertainment. A band in search of "Party Island", stuck on a pirate ship helmed by mad puppets, rocks their way through the meta-journey with great FUN. A party needs good energy and the band supplies it in abundance; not only with the music, but with absurd dialogue and crafty puppetry. The audience responds more as a rock crowd than a theatre crowd, but the intimate venue allows more subtle (and not-so-subtle) visual gags and focus on stage. The result is intoxicating. This is a quality evening of Good Times. Enjoy.
May 11, 2008
The Fifth Column
Lost amongst his great novels is a single play by Ernest Hemingway. It was written in a hotel in Madrid during the Spanish Civil war and stars a writer living in a hotel, doubling as a resistance fighter, who falls in conflicted love with another American reporter, reportedly based on Hemingway's third wife whom he had recently met at the hotel. In the Mint Theatre's revival of this play, Franco's fascist army bombards the city and its newly-elected Republican government with terrifying explosions throughout. How fortunate am I to have never lived through a war in my backyard; it is easy to forget that bombs drop every day in some parts of the world and seeing a play can make it seem a little bit closer to home. Art works... But still, how horrifying to think that many of those bombs are produced in the place I call Home.
I would love to hear someone convince me that war is necessary so my conscience can be cleared: I can't think of any reason why any human should ever need to kill another, except possibly for direct self-defense, and in that situation, the person attempting murder obviously has no legitimate reason to be killing in the first place. The worst but most popular, yet oft unadmitted, reason for murder: Money. Ugh. And the most sickening aspect is that I PAY FOR IT! My taxes go directly to the manufacture of weapons and to the soldiers who use them. On a list of ways I would spend my money, murder is dead last. And yet, I do. Crushing.
Takka-Takka
This band is about to release an album that could make some noise. They write some excellent tunes and are all skilled performers, as evidenced by their show at Union Hall on Friday night. I have heard a few tracks from the upcoming record, Migration, and look forward to hearing the full album next month.
Full disclosure: Nicole Shalhoub, who stars in The Fifth Column, and Rene Planchon, who rocks the guitar in Takka-Takka, are my favorite couple from high school.