Learning to crawl

G1

G2

Ground zero

After some silence I publish a blog of silence.
This time, less than 5 and less than 2
Enjoy.

White night/ White heat

Yet another Parisian (among other places) tradition is a white night at October,
An all night Open art scene (which ,as discovered too late, is not backed up by public transportation or Taxi enhancement)
A special treat yesterday was to attend part of a 5 hour performance by Rhys Chatham and Joseph Ghosn

Below are the event drawings, and photos by a dear dear friend of mine.

Rhys is the most communicative avant-guard trumpet-and-guitar-player I know, and goes to extreme effort to introduce his partners (this time - J.Ghosn).

A small comparison table of this one to the last time I saw Rhys,

	Show #1	Show #2
With:	Will Guthrie	Joseph Ghosn
Density:	Crowded	Spacious
Places:	Standing	Sitting
Tickeys:	Non-free	Free
Location:	Boat	Heck of a space!
Duration:	20 Minutes	5 hours!!
Drawing:	Black on White	White on Black

A guided tour :) ...
A DJ with glasses and headphones looking down at the controls.

Guided tour...
DJ with his back to trumpetere

Till nextime!

Let there be (more) sound, any kind, nevermind.

Every year on the 21 of June (the day of the year with the most hours of daylight in the northern hemisphere as the good site says) the streets of Paris fill with free music, and it takes quite a while to the empty it back, so cars can pass.

This year we decided to help by taking some of it, so we headed to a Yemen Blues concert. 

Yeah-man à la moi

Below are some snapshots I took.

A short preview show a few days back

If you keep moving, the picture becomes blurry..

A drawing with two pencils, one by a two year old. one by a 47 year old
(but I was 46 at the time ...)

Remind me.. drawing about music is like dancing about what ?!

Ah, yeah! architecture

Well, the architecture was quite amazing as well (UTube remembers...)

Hand is quicker than the eye.

But Rony Iwryn (Percussion) is quicker...

And for something quite different, (well, not that much, really, still Paris, music, drawing and me...)

One of the most impressive exhibitions I've been to last year, was an immense Anish Kapur's installation called Leviathan at the grande-palais. (which becomes once a year a host to a grand-scale art project), 

Before the closing of the exhibit, I had the joy meeting my lovable Cousin at a Stockhausen Concert just at the foot of this shore-deserted whale, (in fact you can see my cousin, me and my sketchpad in this video on the 27th second if you use abitof imagination, Christ, is there ANYTHING that is not filmed these days???)

You dont expect me to play Stockhausen, do you...

I was expecting the show in the whale's belly, but the outside was just fine!

Little red rugs on the floor to accommodate the delicate assed audience
(using the instant coffee Shir recommended me to bring as a first-aid watercolor)

Erasing some, but even this doesn't capture the grandeur..

A no-punch one-liner

There was a great trumpet as well, but hey! you can't have it all!
(where would you put it?)

Enjoy the music! 

Till nextime!

No comments, yer honnor!

As I said several times, I am eagerly waiting for comments here.
Talking to several readers, it turns out comment submission is not a trivial technical task, 
So, in an effort to help you override your technical barrier, this post is a comments-submission tutorial.
Enjoy, (and send me comments! :-)

Step A: 
Below the post and the dotted lines, there is a section reading "X Comments" with lots of funny looking icons (facebook, gmail, etc.). 
1. Press the "X Comments" Link.
2. Wait for the next screen.

Step B:
You will see all the previous comments (if any) followed by 
    - a title "Post Comment"
    - a text box.
    - "comment as" box
    - "post comment" button
    - "preview" button
1. Write your comment in the text box.
2. Select "Anonymous" in the "comment as" box.
3a. To post the comment immediately, press the "post comment" button.
3b. To view your comment before posting, press the "preview" button, and press the "post comment" button right after seeing it (or change your comment)

Step C:
You will receive a message such as "your comment was submitted, and will be posted after approval" or the sorts.

Till nextime...


Me.

Xtatic dancing

I have a small confession to make.

It may come as a bit of shock to you (specially the ones who know me well), but it is time to say it...
I adore music!
...there, I said it!


As far as drawing is concerned, I found that drawing in the dark, or while dancing (which in my case, as a new-wave era veteran, is more of a series of semi-random-music-driven spasms) is fascinating, the energy of the music moves the pencil (like the way old records were made, if you like).


So, after last week's success of the reggea concert (even my wife liked it!), and after the VU post and the Pamelia Kurstin and Bill Frisell one, I invite you to a concert on a boat, follow me...

La Batofar, drawn in coffee.

There is a boat on the Seine which is niteclub/ concert hall, it is named the Batofar, and I was lucky enough to see a double-feature (actually a tripple-feature, but I'd rather forget that part...)

The first act (you can say warmup, but it says nothing about the quality, only about the length) was by Rhys Chatham (trumpet, electric guitar) accompanied by Will Guthrie on drums and acute good vibes. you can see an almost full video of this show here + here) , followed by Pere Ubu (segment - here)


I can assure you the videos bear no resemblance to the shows, Rhys is an oh-so-funny musician, while David Thomas (Ubu) is heart wrenching, Rhys's music is flowing, Ubu's is tight, and David Thomas sips his juice from a flask while sitting on a small stool when he is not singing. but they are both true to their art, and they both make noise that, (with the steady rocking of the boat) makes it hard to stand still.


So, there you go, hop right in... 

If you want some sound accompaniment to this post: 
A Pere-Ubu radio show 
A Rhys Chatham Radio interview

Rhys: Should I start w a trumpet or a guitar?
Audience: Trumpet! 

Rhys lays loop over loop, while the drummer battles the growing wall of noise

Wall of sound still growing

Guitar time

Standing close to the amp, soundwaves shake my pen.

Et Voila!

About two years ago I had tickets to Pere Ubu, but missed the show... 

This time I didn't!

David Thomas doesn't have it easy. 

His drummer is amazing (in factall the band is, see http://www.ubuprojex.net/faqs/timeline.html  - v9.3), and speaking to him after the show, (they open a CDs and T-Shirst case and sell them while soaking in sweat) they all seem to adore and protect the big guy.

Tons of noise, and David in a total let-go w his little bottle.

Sheet music
(wonder if they bought it, so they can learn how to play Pere Ubu music :)  

The band includes a Theremin/ KB/ whatever player, a Base player girl, the drummer a guitarist and David,
You can think of a resemblance to the pixies, but (seeing both), well... yo'll see me w Ubu nextime!  

As you can read in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pere_Ubu, they belong to the avant-garage movement which consists of a single band (not surprising, since David coined the term)

David plays the role of a grumpy, alcoholic, women hating grandad, (one of their discs is called "Why I hate women", Explaining the title, David Thomas wrote "Why I Hate Women is based on the Jim Thompson novel he never wrote but would have."  (thx, WIKI!)

He makes sound come out of sawed half trumpet, small electronic whatevers, and his sawed voice-chords and mind.

A rock star's life sure is glamorous! (kids: don't try this at home!)

A quote (Wiki): Rock music is mostly about moving big black boxes from one side of town to the other in the back of your car.

Shoutinging thru the half trumpet. 

Do your ears buzz? mine do...
Till nextime!