Monday, September 28, 2009
Breaking radio silence! My goodness, the world keeps turning. I'm still alive and working on creative stuff. I have my first show in quite a while, and I'm extra super excited 'cause I'm making a rare appearance outside the Midwest: I'm going to be playing a set and talking about circuit bending as part of the one year anniversary party for Noisebridge, an awesome hacker/DIY space in San Francisco.https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Year_1_Open_Hacker_House
Friday, October 2
9:15 pm
Noisebridge
2169 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
february is going fast It's kind of hard to believe it's going to be March next week already. February has been full of stuff!The Spark festival was fantastic, as always. It simultaneously makes me happy to live in such a great creative community and like I'm really not doing enough to contribute to it. I spent a lot of my Spark at the Bedlam Theatre, where, embarrassingly, I hadn't been since they changed venues. Their newer space is fantastic- bar, food, a main stage and a lounge, plus overflow space upstairs and a smoking deck! The sound system was great; it had been a while since I really pushed bass into the floor and it was really fun. (Getting a cheer for manipulating a cutoff filter sweep slowly from belly-rumble to audible range will always make me really happy.) I also had folks dancing. As I was the main room opener on a cold Wednesday night, that was likewise awfully satisfying. I'm having a lot of fun with newer, more beat-driven tracks.
Last night I played for What She Said to benefit the female slam poet champs' trip to Detroit for the Women Of The World slam. It was a good time. Good poetry and good beer. I also won a few pounds of nice coffee at the silent auction, so I will be kept in caffeine for a while, hooray! Thanks so much to everyone who came out.
March looks more empty for the time being, which is good- I'll be busy planning and scheming. Tour ideas are sprouting in my head, so please let me know if you think you've got a town I need to visit.
It is snowing like mad today. My evening commitments were canceled due to dangerous driving conditions, which instead makes tonight a night full of pizza and documentary-watching. I can't wait. I leave you with a favorite from one of the late great Minneapolis band Trip Shakespeare:
It's coming down...
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Yay! International fan mail is extra awesome!!Reminder- Spark festival next week. I'm playing at the Bedlam Theatre in Minneapolis starting at 9:30 on Wednesday night!
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Flux! Flux down in Rochester was super fun!! A whole Minneapolis crew came down for the show, which was awesome. The art exhibits were also really good (I especially enjoyed the huge found-object pendulums of local artist John Ready), and the DJ's Scott and David played really fun dance music to round out the night. There was a small but dedicated group of folks dancing to club beats with frenetic ballroom dance moves, punctuated with the occasional breakdance. Thanks to everyone who came out and who put the event together; I would do it all again in a heartbeat!One of my favorite things about spending time in a new city is checking out new restaurants. We stayed overnight before heading back up to St. Paul, which gave us time to wander around and get lunch and poke around some antique stores. So I looked somewhat longingly at really cool antique Edison players and a broken-but-still-awesome-sounding toy player piano. I'd never seen a toy player piano before! I also learned that the best portobello mushroom sandwich in the whole world can be had at Jasper's Alsatian Bistro, which is a nice thing to know, going forward. It might be worth the 1.5 hour drive just to go get that sandwich. It's rare to find vegetarian-friendly French food at all, let alone stuff that's so yummy, so Jasper's was a treat.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Bobby McFerrin! The awesome Chris O. called me last night saying he'd wheedled a ticket for me to see an hour long presentation by Bobby McFerrin at McNally Smith College of Music today. Neat! So, I took lunch early and went up into downtown to see him. The last time I saw Bobby McFerrin, it was as the conductor of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra at the UofM; he conducted two symphonies and did a solo vocal set in between, a retelling of the Wizard of Oz, which he ended by throwing a glass of water on himself and "melting". It was fantastic. It was as much a theatre piece as a musical one. I didn't realize until about halfway through one of the symphonies (Beethoven's 3rd, I think), that he was conducting without a score. I know pretty little about conducting, I only took one class on it and it's not my thing, but I know enough to know that that's pretty badass. He's a really amazing musician. I wouldn't hesitate to call him a genius. And from what I can tell, he's an amazing person as well.I didn't quite know what the event was going to be, as going was such a last minute thing, but it turned out to be very informal. He'd sing a little bit, and then have a Q and A session, and often questions would lead into musical examples and another little spate of performance and then back into questions. It was really really great, very inspirational right before my show next weekend too. His ideas and approach to performance and especially improvisation resonate with me a lot. I don't begrudge him any of his popular success, but I doubt that a lot of people who know Don't Worry, Be Happy know about the other work he's done, his experience with all these other kinds of genres of music or as an orchestral conductor, or the thoughtful development of his completely distinctive singing style. His thoughts on improvisation spoke to me the most because it's inherent in what I do, but the thoughts on how he developed his style, how he uses a microphone and room tone as instruments in and of themselves, how he uses his hands and chest and breath as percussion, how he developed his technique to imply incredibly complex harmonies with just solo voice. Super, super interesting.
Sorry I've been so quiet here, lately! Post album release was eaten by the holidays. February is going to be a busy music making month, looks like. I'm gearing up for the Flux show in Rochester next week- can't wait! Soon on its heels is the Spark Festival, and then I'll be performing as part of a Spoken Word event later in the month. Yeah!
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Music and Politics Today is an important day! It's the most important election day of my life so far, and it's also the release date of my very first album. The fact that my release day coincided with election day is sort of coincidental, but I rather enjoy it.I voted today. I hope all of you who are able did so as well. In many ways, I'm excited to see what the future brings.
