Date: May 20, 2005
Subject: Weirdos making me happy!
Oooh, it's a big day. No playlists and no self-promotion. Honestly, I'm kinda sick of hearing myself talk. Just slightly off the beaten hipster Straight No Chaser we're-so-cool brukbeat path, all worn and grassless, a couple random things making me smile, and I hope that one or more will do the same for you:
Cyro Baptista
Nobody does weirdo like Brazilians do weirdo. What a fun show! Somehow I managed to sleep on this guy for years and last night saw his band of merry noisemakers. Originally from Brazil and now living in NYC, Cyro's Beat the Donkey project is like part Tom Ze, part Parliament, part Timbalada, and part Konoko n.1. I hate to even invoke such a lame comparison, but they are kinda like what Stomp would like to be when it grows up. I found myself going WOWOWOW when Cyro came out dressed in a big blue nasa suit and a fuzzy russian hat, standing next to an instrument made of PVC pipes and played with flip flops, making whirry noises with toys, then going into a drum and bassy kinda thing on some really bassy drums. Really super fun.
There was tap dance and bodies-as-percussion, a respectable stab at some martial art with a sword, and even a bit of gamelon, woohoo! There were also nods to the afoxe stilo, you know putting drums in the air and all, plus forro, bumba meu boi, maracatu, samba/bossa, a berimbau solo in a cool time sig, some fancy pandeiro playing, and classic rock...!!! Mostly it was about making noise on anything and everything, and by the end I'll have to admit I was a little weary of the performance which, while bombastic till the end (and generously including Philly experimental woodwind royalty Elliot Levin on sax whose playing is amazing but whose 3-foot poop-dread I simply can't condone), seemed to kind of devolve into a lot of great musicians in silly costumes (fuzzy blue and pink polka dot halter top, pope outfit with a name tag saying "Sex Instructor", and so forth) making noise on everything around them. But that's kinda cool in its own right--actually, it's really really cool, and refreshing among all the slick laptops and knobby boxes buzzing around lately. (Speaking of which, Autechre sucked live.) I give it a thumbs up. Check out the madness:
www.cyrobaptista.com
DJ Kiva
Lemme say that again.... DJ Kiva DJ Kiva
DJ Kiva DJ Kiva DJ Kiva v DJ Kiva DJ Kiva DJ Kiva DJ Kiva DJ Kiva DJ Kiva DJ Kiva DJ Kiva DJ Kiva DJ Kiva
DJ Kiva DJ Kiva DJ Kiva DJ Kiva DJ Kiva DJ Kiva DJ Kiva DJ Kiva DJ Kiva DJ Kiva
DJ Kiva DJ Kiva DJ Kiva DJ Kiva DJ KivaDJ KivaDJ Kiva DJ Kiva DJ Kiva DJ Kiva
YAY!!!!! *lub lub lub*
Kiva is a classic Brooklyn-style weirdo, making celestial-sounding sounds with roots in earthy things like, well, the earth, and cuban drums and cartoons and stuff. I met him b/c I happened to play a Troubleman track in 3/4 at a party a few months back and he lost his $h1+ because lo and behold, that's his specialty...broken, bassy, spacey stuff in non-4/4 time signatures. *GUSH GUSH GUSH* But then he dropped me some stuff off his hard drive, from brand new and unfinished all the way back to several years old, and the range and diversity combined with a consistency of overall mood (playful, pensive, detailed and slammin) is just so impressive. Everything from plaintive meditiations on the human condition over tight, urgent jazz drums with brushes, to ruff dancehall tings with serious MC work, to a silly, strong, and really fun theme song for a cartoon about futuristic Latino robots in outerspace, ese. He makes the music that's been rattling around my brain, and is currently my biggest inspiration. Also, watching him work is great fun. He beatboxed some crazy complex riddim into the mic, and over the next 2 minutes there were strange and beautiful sounds bouncing all through wonderful machines and around the living room. Additionally, he has film festivals in his back yard and does precolumbian-inspired graf. Like wow, Scooby. Also, he's playing at Kingsize in NYC tonight as part of Andrew Edward Brown's Building Bridges party whihc looks to be a weekly killer in its own right. If I were 20% less geeky I would be there. If I were 20% more ballsy, I'd actually have bells on. SOMEBODY SIGN THIS GUY!!!!! Diaspora? Omoa? Loungin'? Are you listening???
www.adiosbabylon.com
Gloria Justen, Tim Motzer, and VJ Kaboom
I am really lucky to have access to this kind of talent. Gloria is a violinist with the Phl orchestra, a composer, and sometimes-member of various experimental bands. Tim is a guitarist who did that riff on "Change For Me" and is all over the experimental set, and worked on King Britt's fabulous new project with recordings of Sister Gertrude Morgan (http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/features/karlins/karlins4-9-04.asp). He also looks just like my Uncle Michael when he used to play drums and do sound. VJ Kaboom (Ricardo Rivera) is one damn impressive videologist who I first met when he was doing video projections at raves and stuff. Now he is all big time and does installations all over the country. The three of them plus a bunch of other talented mofos (including dj Crasta, whom I have never seen so motivated, positive, and on-it!! Yeah!!!) put on this amazing show under the Arts in Motion org to augment the ooh-la-la Salvador Dali exhibit here at the Phila Museum of Art. Check out the show at http://www.artsinmotion.org/dali_setlist.html. This performance was so good! The hall that it was in made you feel like you were in the shallow end of a pool looking into the deep end, and the video projections were monstrous and enveloping. They may be re-performing chunks of it, so keep an eye out. Also check out Kaboom and the Klip Collective at www.klip.tv
Well, last weekend Gloria did a recital (http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/index.php?pageID=1895), most of which I missed b/c I am a schmuck, but I did catch some Bartok. Other pieces included one she composed using spoken word and recordings of birds she collected in Australia. Gloria also re-performed a part of a piece she wrote with Tim for the Dali thing called Ants in my Trance (!!!). She has promised me recordings, so if I get them, I'll do my best to pass them on.
Kaboom is going to be part of a thing I just found out about over memorial day weekend that looks really cool:
Next Weekend, Thursday May 26- Sunday May 29
Kate wawa will be premiering THE MENTALIST in Old City (phl)
Q: What is THE MENTALIST? you ask...
A: a hybrid performance installation
part dance performance
part grafitti writing
part fashion and hair show
part music installation
part video animation
part punk poetry
Join a kick-ass crew of dancers:
Devynn Emory
Bethany Formica
Meg Foley
Olase Freeman
Alex Holmes
Kate Wawa
and 2 punk poets:
Adiel Reckly
Shaun Walker
as they transform an empty room on-site, blasting the
space with acrobatics, sound bites, video paintings,
live grafitto, and breath taking dancing..
.
THE MENTALIST: a performance installation
choreography: kate watson-wallace
grafitto: carrie powell
poetry: shaun walker
music: daud sturdivant
video: ricardo rivera
costumes: linda smyth
hair design: tracey olkus
THURS MAY 26 8PM
FRI MAY 27 8PM
SAT MAY 28 9PM
SUN MAY 29 2PM
@ Samuel Machinery Company
135-37 North 3rd Street (between Arch & Race)
Admission: $10.
4 NIGHTS ONLY. SEATING ID LIMITED SO ARRIVE EARLY.
RESERVATIONS: katewawa@yahoo.com
Tied and Tickled
Next, how did I sleep on Tied and Tickled Trio???? Yeesh!!! I think I heard a blip or 2 on NPR or something and I honestly meant to investigate, but then a birdie dropped some things on my hard drive and now I will have to drop some cash to fill in the discog. Is it jazz? Is it spacey-soulful stuff like Radiohead and Suba? "All of these things, and more, and more, we are."
Video game music
Have you caught onto the latest thing that the kids are doing, making music on Gameboys and Playstations? I'm fascinated by examples of technology being hacked to make music. So I saw a show of it here a couple months ago, and you'd be surprised the kind of bass you can get out of a Game Boy! Also love the sort of seat-of-our-pants, punk rock aesthetic that necessarily comes with doing a show on devices that randomly crash and stop making noise. I got a kick out of the guy who niced up the dance by yelling, "All the muhfukkas in the house who program in assembly code say HOOOOOO!!!!! Hack the bootprom!!!!" But he was a little cocky, as boys tend to be, so when his game boy crashed, I took maybe a little too much pleasure in yelling back, "Where's your eprom now, beeotch?" I wonder if I can make a midi drum out of an etch-a-sketch. There are surely kids doing something like this in your town, so keep an eye out. I have only started to touch on this world so I don't have a lot of names to drop, but look me up on myspace, click on Advanced Idea Mechanics, Retrigger, Geoff, or any "friend" who looks odd, and begin stumbling down the path.
To seed your search, here's the first useful article that came up in google. No idea if it's any good: http://www.mp3.com/story/feature_gameboy.html
Pink hair!
I gotta give major, major props to my Hair Grrrl, Leslie at American Mortals at 7th and Walnut, Philadelphia. This girl is a frickin' genius and it gives me such intense pleasure to go in with a head full of floppy over-growth and say, "Do WHATEVER you want." This time I came out with little spindly icicles of curls emerging randomly and chunks of blond and flamingo pink!!! YES! Never before has pink hair been so classy. Book a cut there!
American Mortals
Whimsy
Last weekend after the sun came up, my friend D spotted these things wistfully painted on a building that I think is probably an abandoned cheesesteak joint:
Too Fast
Stop The Vowels
Then we found a little crown made of tin foil and foam stars hanging on a nail in the door.
Linky dinks
Have you seen Ubercoolische? It's hilarious. Time and place exist in blurry indistinct partnership!!!! www.overheardinnewyork.com is also internet crack, ranking up there with www.ratemykitten/puppy/bunny.com. Also, I can't stand Bright Eyes, like really *can't stand* but his performance on Jay Leno a couple weeks back was pretty impressive. More impressive is that he wasn't ripped limb from limb right on stage. Thanks to Sirka for making me watch this. http://www.prefixmag.com/Bright_Eyes_(Leno)(05.02.05)_(high).php
Grrrr
In other news, the US government still sucks, and the astoundingly broad diversity of its suckiness only continues to grow. I don't even want to go into it. Feh. If you find yourself in a position to do something about it, I encourage you to do so. International friends, please send help. Oh and um, "love it or leave it" is wrong. What they mean is "love it or FIX it." Screw the whales, save the democracy! And what is up with that pope???? Hi Vatican, ever heard of Africa and Latin America? Apparently, they are small islands off the coast of Your Ego. And a (luke?)warm re-welcome to the UK Labour party. You know, maybe you could win by more than a milimeter next time if you go from poodle to pitbull. Or at least german shepherd. Something. The pound is smashing all other currency, man! You run tings, do whatcha want!
"And finally, fully sated and purged of enthusiasm, our hero contentedly settled back into the daily routine, an empty vessel awaiting new (and old) things to be excited about and share the next time, with anyone who cares to tune in."
Yours in all that makes us daydreamy and starry-eyed,
99
P.S. - Bjork says, "When in doubt, give."
