Saturday, November 12, 2011

Before we got lost


Branches Overhanging Ridge
Originally uploaded by Dill Pixels

This was taken in familiar surroundings where we had hiked before on my birthday last year.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Discovery on birthday hike


Terrace Seep
Originally uploaded by Dill Pixels

There is a slow, slow creek which only seeps. And it forms flat stepwise terraces of mineral deposits. I only got to see it because we got somewhat lost on our hike.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Official ReCardiacs Fly photo!


Take a moment to pity poor ReCardiacs Fly.  For no matter now diligently they rehearse or how many plastic surgeries they endure, they will never be real Cardiacs.  Memento non Cardiacsi.

(Photo by Tom Djll)

Monday, September 19, 2011

Tom's review of "I, Norton"


Tom doesn't usually review shows he is in, or that I am in, but Gino's opera was such a special, out-of-this-world experience, he made an exception just this once for Paris Transatlantic.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

The latest piano music from Tom



Wednesday, September 07, 2011

Save the date for joyously deranged art-pop!


The members of Reconnaissance Fly and their pals are ready to cram themselves into a phone booth once again and burst forth all suited up and makeup-caked as ReCARDIACS Fly! Their set list has bloated up to over twice its first-gig size! And they've lured the delicious Dominique Leone and the wacky Wiener Kids to share the bill with them in a joyously deranged art-pop spectacular! Spread the word to everyone you know in the vicinity of the Starry Plough Pub, Berkeley, California, USA.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Thank all the gods.

We have something incredible to celebrate today -- that the West Memphis Three have been freed.  Damien Echols' statement below is excerpted from the article on this thrilling news in The Wild Hunt.
“To all my friends and family, my attorneys and advocates, and to those of you from every corner of this earth who have stood beside us these long years, please know that I will forever be indebted to all of you for helping me to become a free man. Each and every day I was the beneficiary of acts of kindness and humanity from people of all walks of life, of all ages, nationalities, religions and political persuasions. The enormity of the support Lorri and I received throughout this struggle is humbling.

I have now spent half my life on death row. It is a torturous environment that no human being should have to endure, and it needed to end. I am innocent, as are Jason and Jessie, but I made this decision because I did not want to spend another day of my life behind those bars. I want to live and to continue to fight for our innocence. Sometimes justice is neither pretty nor is it perfect, but it was important to take this opportunity to be free.

I am not alone as there are tens of thousands of men and women in this country who have been wrongfully convicted, forced into a false confession, sentenced to death or a lifetime in prison. I am hopeful that one day they too will be able stand with their friends and family to declare their innocence.

This whole experience has taught me much about life, human nature, American justice, survival and transcendence.

I will hopefully take those lessons with me as I embark on the next chapter in my journey and along the way look forward to enjoying some of those simple things in life like spending Christmastime, Halloween and my birthday with those I love.”
 As Star Foster puts it bluntly in her own article on Pantheon, " ‎"Being Wiccan is not a crime. Being a goth doesn’t make you a murderer." 

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Amar's brief account of our Sacramento gig in June


It was a hot day, yes.  The FPR Trio were wonderful, yes.  It was a good debut for the new lineup, yes.  I like the photo, and yes, it makes it look like there was a lot more room on the stage than there really was.  Read all about it!

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Memory Select review of the Art of Composition



When I see Craig Matsumoto in the audience I know there will be a thoughtful review to come.  Here's what he thought of last night's Outsound Summit installment.

Me in the Aguascalientes Ensemble


Polly Moller 2
Originally uploaded by michaelz1

Last night in the Outsound Summit's third night, The Art of Composition. We played Gino Robair's new suite inspired by the skull and skeleton paintings of Posada.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Report on the Outsound Summit so far


We've had two free events at the Outsound New Music Summit so far -- the Touch the Gear expo and the composers' discussion panel which I moderated, shown above. Here's Amar's report.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Friday, July 01, 2011

The latest iteration of "I, Norton" on July 5th

Gino Robair's opera "I, Norton" morphs to fit any situation, and this time, it's one of the public events hosted by the American Guild of Organists' annual convention in San Francisco.  It takes place at the Episcopal Church of St. John the Evangelist at 110 Julian Street in the Mission District.

I will be a part of the wind section, contributing to the beautiful and spooky atmosphere on flute and bass flute.  Kyle Bruckman (oboe/English horn), Matt Ingalls (clarinets), Tom Djll (trumpets) and Krys Bobrowski (French horn & gliss glass) will be lined up with me.  Also look for me heterodyning with Matthew Goodheart on e-bow piano. 

Tom Duff stars as Emperor Norton and Gino will conduct.  Dave Hatt will play the 1902 organ and the Cornelius Cardew Choir will sing and hoot on bottles.

Seating is limited and a donation of $5 is requested at the door.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Just found out


The lads and I as Reconnaissance Fly are playing on the Nebraska Mondays series at Luna's Cafe in Sacramento this coming Monday the 20th at 7:30 p.m. But we only just found out who we're sharing the bill with: the FPR Trio of Phillip Greenlief, Frank Gratkowski, and Jon Raskin. Saxophonic royalty! What a treat!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Reposted in honor of Bloomsday

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Outsound's annual fundraising dinner is June 27th

Outsound Presents is putting on its 3rd annual "Monday the Month Before" fundraising dinner to benefit the Outsound New Music Summit.  This year we take a big leap forward, taking our dinner into the beautiful Numi Tea Garden in Oakland, with music by Vorticella, and dinner by chef Miles Ake.  Here's the chef's description of the feast:

"The list of ingredients when put together form a classic Gazpacho. This will function as a prompt or an armature that dishes can be built upon. The root of the word Gazpacho is derived from a Mozarab word caspa, meaning "residue" or "fragments," which refers to the small pieces of bread and vegetables in a Gazpacho soup. throughout the meal the gazpacho as an entity wil go through a series of fractured movements. This fracturing is not a means to disconnect, but rather as a process of extraction, distillation and isolation of distinct parts. The structure of the menu is an anagrammatical game or a rewinding (moving backwards in time to replay a track) while simultaneously moving forward without redundancy in form/texture/taste using to compositional terms (verse, refrain, notes, scale, etc....) to build a lexicon of culinary elements."

I invite you all to view the full invitation and RSVP for the event.  Hope to see you there!

Monday, May 09, 2011

We rocked ourselves silly for Tim Smith.

Photo by Tom Djll
Yes we did.  ReCardiacs Fly was one of 6 artists and bands (Amy X Neuburg, Wiener Kids, Grex, Inner Ear Brigade, us, and the Dominique Leone ensemble) amassed for the occasion at Cafe du Nord.

This photo by Tom Djll too.
Left to right: percussionist Suki O'Kane, saxist Chris Broderick, me, guitarist Marc Laspina, and bassist Tim Walters.  Moe! Staiano is behind the drums and keyboardist Amar Chaudhary is in the dark depths.

Our set was:
To Go Off And Things
Too Many Irons In the Fire
Hello Mr Sparrow
R.E.S.

It's the morning after!  The shadowy forces in charge of the benefit concert are counting the money raised for Mr. Smith's care.  The members of ReCardiacs Fly have reluctantly removed their makeup and unhyphenated their names from -Smith, and are waiting for the audio and video recordings to surface.

Friday, May 06, 2011

Interview with Erik Ehn about Cordelia

These are the playwright's thoughts presented with a slideshow of images from the play and a little bit of my flute music.

Cordelia Interview with Erik Ehn from Theatre of Yugen on Vimeo.

Thursday, May 05, 2011

Amar's review of Cordelia

There are just three performances left - tonight, tomorrow, and Saturday.  Tickets can be ordered online from Brown Paper Tickets.

Here's Amar's review which I really like, especially the photos.  That's me with the bass flute and the hat on.

Tuesday, May 03, 2011

ReCardiacs Fly rehearsing


This is from our rehearsal on May 1st.  From left to right it's Suki O'Kane on the xylophone, Marc Laspina on guitar, Tim Walters on bass, an empty microphone where I would be standing, and Chris Broderick on sax.  Set up next to where I'm taking the picture is Amar Chaudhary on keyboard, and around the corner from Suki where you can't see him is Moe! Staiano, drummer and benefit concert ringleader!  We hope to play for lots of you on May 8th at the Cafe du Nord.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Review of Cordelia by Gaetana Caldwell-Smith


Click here to read it.  Anna does not, in fact do any singing in the play.  We teased her about that all last evening to the effect of, "Well, Gaetana said so, so now you have to sing!"

Friday, April 15, 2011

Cordelia opens on April 20th

And I will spend all day tomorrow in tech rehearsal. The show runs for three weekends, with 12 performances. Here's where to buy your tickets online, and I hope to see you in the audience!

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Excerpt from Penelope



Amy Likar commissioned this piece from me, and she is playing it in this recording from December 18th. The music has three lines, one for piccolo sounds, one for vocal sounds, and one for footsteps. It's good to hear a piccolo player make all the sounds they're capable of! Or maybe just most of them.

Sunday, April 03, 2011

Live recording of Alcyone from December 18th, 2010


Laura Malouf-Renning, mezzo-soprano
Phillip Greenlief, clarinet
Cory Wright, bass clarinet
Lisa Mezzacappa, contrabass
Suki O'Kane, percussion

Friday, April 01, 2011

Blog post about the music of Cordelia

Theatre of Yugen board member blogs about the music of the upcoming play Cordelia, its basis in Noh tradition, and its modern innovations.  And there's a picture of my back, rehearsing.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Next up after Cordelia: ReCardiacs Fly!

On May 8th, three of us from Reconnaissance Fly (me, Tim, and Amar) will be joining ringleader Moe! Staiano, Suki O'Kane, Chris Broderick, and Marc Laspina to play a set in tribute to Cardiacs. Moe has organized this benefit show at Cafe du Nord to raise money for Cardiacs frontbeing Tim Smith's medical expenses.

We will be playing a four-song set under the name of ReCardiacs Fly. I am going to have to eat my Wheaties. And take my vitamins, and put in a few more hours a week at the gym, in order to do this music justice. Hope you will all be there!

Monday, March 07, 2011

Cordelia coming to NYC

I like when I know what I'm doing 1.5+ years in advance!

Theatre of Yugen's Cordelia will be staged in New York City in November 2012 as part of the playwright, Erik Ehn's, Soulographie cycle.

17 plays will each deal with a facet of the terrifying gem that is genocide.

Friday, February 25, 2011

At CNMAT, Berkeley on March 4th

I'll be joining Amar in a duo set, as part of his Regents' Lecturer Series part II. Here are full details:

Friday, March 4, 8:00 - 10:30 pm

Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT)
1750 Arch Street
Berkeley, CA

CNMAT and the UC Berkeley Regents' Lecturer program present and evening of music by Amar Chaudhary.

The concert will feature a variety of new and existing pieces based on Amar's deep experience and dual identity in technology and the arts. He draws upon diverse sources as jazz standards, Indian music, film scores and his past research work, notably the Open Sound World environment for real-time music applications. The program includes performances with instruments on laptop, iPhone and iPad, acoustic grand piano, do-it-yourself analog electronics and Indian and Chinese folk instruments. He will also premier a new piece that utilizes CNMAT's unique sound spatialization resources.

The Regents' Lecturer series features several research and technical talks in addition to this concert. Visit http://www.cnmat.berkeley.edu/ for more information.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

All about Theatre of Yugen's Cordelia

Theatre of Yugen has a new blog, and they've posted an overview of their world premiere play Cordelia, which I'll be playing music in.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Saturday, January 01, 2011

My next performing project





This is what's up next for me. I will be playing flutes and chanter, and percussionist Anna Wray will play piccolo snare and shruti box, to accompany this modern Noh play and its interpretation of King Lear, sideways through the eyes of Cordelia.

On this day in history...

...my life ended, and somehow inexplicably, kept going on at the same time.