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!

Another peek at the barrel, (part 2)

Not much text this time. but two new guitar things...

Back to mine

Slanted paris or me

Waiting room

Outlaw lunch room

Waitin on a train

David

Back to back

Barrel Scraping, part 1.

In the unforgettable scene in Blade-runner, I am sure Batty said "Time, need more time" as he pierced his palm with a rusty nail, but alas, could'n find the quote in IMDB, and don't have the time to search elsewhere.
All this to say, though sketch I do, I have no time to scan, so going back and looking for some scanned stuff I thought I'd make a theme with, here is a some-of-this some-of-that version of Take5 (no time for the 2...)

Rose asleep

One of the drawings I love most, a little girl of our dear dear friends had a sleepover. I know it is hard to see but she is there in between the smudges, along with her blanket, dreams and teddy...

We're jammin

Our kid's Circus teacher (yup...) invited us to a reggae concert by his band, first time I drew while dancing (but not the last), meant to keep it to a future music post, but (as they say in these regions) - viola!

Close-eyed and painless

A long long time ago, in another planet called India, I had some time off (or perhaps it was just the clock that stopped ticking for a week), as a drawing meditation, I tried looking real hard, breathing all the image I could absorb, and than holding my eye's breath, and putting it all on paper with my eyes widely-shut.

Never going back to my old school

Getting back to the almost present, a tiny while back I was invited to an 8th grade class reunion. Was too far away and (as mentioned...) no time, but I had an idea for a project: take an empty photo album and fill it with drawings of photos. 
Didn't get past the second page, but it is a fascinating process, since the further you go, the more you are at risk of ruining the drawings on the same page. anyway - based on a photo by a great photographer that apparently was in a parallel class, I drew the back of my classroom (that turned out to be another building altogether, goes to show you how fickle memory is...)

Shut-eyed and trainless

Time... need more.....   time.

And finally, as you may know, I joined a metro-sketchers community (delignesenligne - translated perhaps to lines on line), and though, as some clown once told me, drawing sleeping people is not fair, I like drawing them anyway.
These are two rejects.
The guy may have had narcolepsy, he sat in front of me, and suddenly dropped into deep sleep in a sec. The gal was just trying not to let the daylight creep in before it is absolutely necessary.


So there you go, an Italian reader I know said she likes the stories so I blabbered a lot this time.


Drop me a line (or a composition of a few)


OMG! it is past midnite! the monitor is turning into a pumpkin!!!


nite!

Ella in five steps

In the continuous effort to make my small animation, here are five stages of one Ella sketch:

Till nextime!

water all over

OK, back from a great vacation in the Loire, with a first attempt at water colors...

Enjoy,

Till nextime!