In a Village Voice piece previewing the initial production of their Discover AtlantASS project, the musical duo Talibam! dropped (coined?) the term "post-goof", which is not a bad way to describe something that features the production values of a grade-school play, music that combines substantial chops with sub-juvenile humor, and includes, among other attractions, a more-than-healthy amount of simulated sex with stuffed animals, including a Muppet-like crab (and yes, they seize the opportunity for a "crabs" joke) who is actually something of a major character.
Kevin Shea as Franklin, the boy who comes from "the surface" with his magic pillow to save Atlantis (further plot summary would probably have diminishing returns), brings the same manic energy to acting as he does to drumming. Even with all the other strange things happening on stage, he's hard to look away from. Musical interludes are frequent, often taking the form of pop song-length, plot-related pieces with Kulik most often on vocals and either bass or trombone, and the Talibam! duo on their usual instruments, drums and effects-juiced keys (though all three contribute vocals, sometimes shifted an octave up or down). If the idea of avant rock/jazz/improv dudes performing songs like "Squeeze My Nuts in the Barnyard" while wearing funny pants sounds like your kind of thing (and I didn't realize it was my kind of thing until I saw it), I'd certainly recommend checking out AtlantASS if it's ever staged again. If that doesn't happen, there is a CD/comic book package available.
The show had various "opening acts" throughout the recently concluded run upstairs at St. Mark's Church. I was lucky enough to see Christopher Meeders' performance of Ursonate ("Ur-sonata"), the proto-sound poem by collagist Kurt Schwitters. It was virtuoso stuff, both hypnotic and funny, and seemed to put the audience in the appropriate anything-can-happen frame of mind to appreciate what followed.
Showing posts with label poetry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poetry. Show all posts
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Symphony of Souls, etc.
Symphony of Souls at Brecht Forum
Last Saturday, I saw Jason Kao Hwang's Symphony of Souls performed by the composer and his 38-piece "improvising string orchestra" Spontaneous River. The room at the Brecht Forum (on the far western edge of the West Village) was small enough that the orchestra took up about half of it. Even if every seat had been filled, the audience to performer ratio still would've barely topped 1:1. While I enjoyed watching the musicians at close range and being immersed in the sound, it is a shame that we don't live in a time and place where a piece like this could've been played in a big hall and touched off a Rite of Spring-like riot.
Though it has been done by Braxton and others, it still seems like a major accomplishment to put together this large of a group of musicians who can creditably improvise while making their way through a complex score. Yet this wasn't a Dr. Johnson's dog-walking-on-its-hind-legs type of thing, but a fully-realized, powerful piece of music that moved confidently through improvised and written, fragmented and unison sections, producing thrills and surprises that seemed to be shared by audience and performers. In his composition, Hwang seems to have handled the basses (there were 6 bassists) and drums particularly well, deploying them to power some strongly rhythmic passages that provided effective contrast to the relatively open spaces featuring acoustic guitars (which I'm tempted to describe as "post-Derek Bailey") and solo improvisation. Although individual solos were not a dominant part of the work, I thought the violins stood out in this area, with a particularly fine solo early on from (I believe) Mazz Swift.
A few more things heard and seen recently:
This East Village poetry walk audio guide, written up by the NY Times and featuring a soundtrack of John Zorn music and narration by Jim Jarmusch, makes for good listening even if you're not actually walking the route. If you're not up to speed on the so-called "Second-Generation New York School", this will put you on the path (literally and figuratively).
All too appropriately, soon after listening to the poetry walk, which talks about the changing neighborhood, I heard that the Lakeside Lounge is closing at the end of this month. The Lakeside, just off the corner of Tompkins Square Park, was a place I never went to enough, but I did see some excellent shows there and the jukebox certainly lived up to its reputation.
I'm not a big fan of Charlie Rose (I can't completely trust a man who rocks the loafers-with-no-socks look), but I have to commend him for putting together a fine hour of TV in tribute to Christopher Hitchens. The panel was made up of Hitch pals Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, Martin Amis, and the poet and journalist James Fenton. As to be expected, the anecdotes flow like Hitchens' favored Johnnie Walker Black.
Last Saturday, I saw Jason Kao Hwang's Symphony of Souls performed by the composer and his 38-piece "improvising string orchestra" Spontaneous River. The room at the Brecht Forum (on the far western edge of the West Village) was small enough that the orchestra took up about half of it. Even if every seat had been filled, the audience to performer ratio still would've barely topped 1:1. While I enjoyed watching the musicians at close range and being immersed in the sound, it is a shame that we don't live in a time and place where a piece like this could've been played in a big hall and touched off a Rite of Spring-like riot.
Though it has been done by Braxton and others, it still seems like a major accomplishment to put together this large of a group of musicians who can creditably improvise while making their way through a complex score. Yet this wasn't a Dr. Johnson's dog-walking-on-its-hind-legs type of thing, but a fully-realized, powerful piece of music that moved confidently through improvised and written, fragmented and unison sections, producing thrills and surprises that seemed to be shared by audience and performers. In his composition, Hwang seems to have handled the basses (there were 6 bassists) and drums particularly well, deploying them to power some strongly rhythmic passages that provided effective contrast to the relatively open spaces featuring acoustic guitars (which I'm tempted to describe as "post-Derek Bailey") and solo improvisation. Although individual solos were not a dominant part of the work, I thought the violins stood out in this area, with a particularly fine solo early on from (I believe) Mazz Swift.
A few more things heard and seen recently:
This East Village poetry walk audio guide, written up by the NY Times and featuring a soundtrack of John Zorn music and narration by Jim Jarmusch, makes for good listening even if you're not actually walking the route. If you're not up to speed on the so-called "Second-Generation New York School", this will put you on the path (literally and figuratively).
All too appropriately, soon after listening to the poetry walk, which talks about the changing neighborhood, I heard that the Lakeside Lounge is closing at the end of this month. The Lakeside, just off the corner of Tompkins Square Park, was a place I never went to enough, but I did see some excellent shows there and the jukebox certainly lived up to its reputation.
I'm not a big fan of Charlie Rose (I can't completely trust a man who rocks the loafers-with-no-socks look), but I have to commend him for putting together a fine hour of TV in tribute to Christopher Hitchens. The panel was made up of Hitch pals Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, Martin Amis, and the poet and journalist James Fenton. As to be expected, the anecdotes flow like Hitchens' favored Johnnie Walker Black.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
The Most Fascinating Cultural Figure of Our Time
Isn't James Franco amazing? He's in something like four different degree programs and he's hosting the Oscars and he played Allen Ginsburg (pretty well, actually) and he does weird art videos, etc, etc, etc.
Well, you know who's more amazing? BILL M****RF***IN' MURRAY, that's who.
So Franco's way into poetry. Well, so is Murray.
Franco was on a soap opera. Bill Murray signed on to be the voice of goddamn Garfield because he thought the script was by Joel Coen! (Turns out it was Joel Cohen.)
And let me ask you this:
When was the last time you heard about James Franco winning a major professional golf tournament, LIKE BILL MURRAY JUST DID?!?!?!?
Well, you know who's more amazing? BILL M****RF***IN' MURRAY, that's who.
So Franco's way into poetry. Well, so is Murray.
Franco was on a soap opera. Bill Murray signed on to be the voice of goddamn Garfield because he thought the script was by Joel Coen! (Turns out it was Joel Cohen.)
And let me ask you this:
When was the last time you heard about James Franco winning a major professional golf tournament, LIKE BILL MURRAY JUST DID?!?!?!?
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
The Resurrectionists
In an admittedly brief search, I haven't been able to find much information (almost none, actually) about The Resurrectionists, a shadowy poetry/art/provocation collective that I discovered via a post on Luc Sante's blog. Their main gig seems to have been cutting up works up fiction to produce poems, often with the intent of mocking the original author by selecting particularly ridiculous lines from the source work.
The example posted by Sante is apparently atypical in that it seems somewhat respectful of the source material (an Ellery Queen novel), but reading it and the list of authors the group managed to piss off (including Ayn Rand and Michael Crichton) has made me eager to read more. Unfortunately, searching for "resurrectionists" turns up lots of results about grave robbing with a few bands thrown in. I'll have to dig deeper. Maybe there are still a few mysteries whose solutions lie beyond the internet.
But please, if you know of any good sources of info on this group or, especially, any collection of their works, please post it in the comments section or send me a message.
The example posted by Sante is apparently atypical in that it seems somewhat respectful of the source material (an Ellery Queen novel), but reading it and the list of authors the group managed to piss off (including Ayn Rand and Michael Crichton) has made me eager to read more. Unfortunately, searching for "resurrectionists" turns up lots of results about grave robbing with a few bands thrown in. I'll have to dig deeper. Maybe there are still a few mysteries whose solutions lie beyond the internet.
But please, if you know of any good sources of info on this group or, especially, any collection of their works, please post it in the comments section or send me a message.
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