10.50
Hotel Acceptable, Westbury, CT.
From Douglas Baldwin…
NYC Ethical Culture 11/1:: Posted by Coyote on November 02, 2007
May I share a personal highlight during the concert? I know this is beating a real dead horse on this forum, but the bursting of the bubble by photography and other media remains a phenomenon which I continue to explore with great curiosity. How can we of the rational Western world explain just what happens when this crap occurs? Well, here’s my take:
I came to the concert with no conscious intention of observing the bursting of the bubble. Like the majority of the audience, I was hoping no such bursting would occur. Then, in the midst of the performance, I had this sensation that the music had gone flat - two-dimensional. I felt as if I was suddenly watching a screen on which the performers were being projected instead of listening to a concert. This lasted for perhaps five or ten seconds. Then I saw Tom Redmond, House Maintainer, asking a person two seats away from me to put away his cell phone. So there it is. I now carry a beginning model of "that’s what the burst balloon feels like." I have a good collection of similar observations and experiences in my life that I can coordinate with this new one, and so my bubble-bursting detection apparatus is much improved. The aphorism is given by Stephen Gaskin of The Farm: "The volume knob on your telepathy is your morality."
The poster may be known to DGM visitors as the author of Play Guitar by Ear: An Innovative Guide to Listening and Learning.
Rarely do I get verification for “preternatural sensibilities” this clearly & directly (cf this Diary for 2 days ago in NYC. Many thanks to The Coyote.
11.13 Yow! Oh no! The computer has gone blackscreen! This doesn’t happen on a Mac!
11.53 Fired up once more & e-flurrying the KC calendar for 2008.
Lobby Call for departure at 13.00. I am riding in the League Transporter with the team.
17.23 The Egg, Albany.
Meeting punctually in the lobby…
… and outside into the Transporter…
On the road…
… to Albany I…
II…
III…
IV…
V…
On the approach into Albany, almost entirely surrounded by motorway & elevated highways, nestling into a point within traffic noise, there it was – a Holiday Express Inn. Inside, no doubt all was cheap & cheerful: a professionally organised & presented accommodation. But almost all views from guest rooms will have been of elevated highways & traffic. The economy is made in the siting of the hotel. In Westbury, we are pretty close to the centre of town, with busy roads on 3 sides, but not quite so close as to feel in the centre of & surrounded by constant highway traffic - on my side. The main view (over parking & air conditioning units) from the other side of the building to my room is less congenial - but then, I’m the Star: I get the best.
The Egg I…
II…
Parking is underneath…
Out of the Transporter…
… and an elevator to the performance space above where the Team are preparing the auditorium I…
II…
Mr. Beefy…
… gives you…
… the Solar Voyager…
The LCG soundcheck I…
II…
III…
IV…
V…
Mr. Beefy sets the controls for the heart of The Egg…
Dressing room of the Star I…
II…
… with Beaudoux Electric Beast…
Two particularly interesting SoundSculptures today: the first at soundcheck, the second currently running for the walk-in, both with different parameters + processing for SoundSculptures to date. The titles:
The Egg: Birth To The Pain Factory (at soundcheck);
The Egg: Conception currently underway for walk-in music.
I was hoping to record these for DGM hot tickles, that they might merit selection by Mr. Stormy for a Monday release, but Mr. Beefy was having difficulty bringing quad to realistic stereo on today’s monitor desk. SoundSculptures have to be heard in quad to realise their effect, but a balanced stereo can hint & point in the direction of true wonder.
01.51 Hotel Acceptable, Westbury, CT.
Our performance space in The Egg was, sonically, a good place to be. But the architect (or the committee that overrode his design) failed to take the practicalities of performance into account. So, the two entry-doors to the auditorium, on either side of the back-stage, were entry zones for audients & performers both. Assuming that audients had entered prior to the performance, and were seated, this would not have been ideal but might have worked. However, with a constant flow of late arrivals, what should have been a settled space was unsettled, with constant motion, a juxtaposition / intermingling of public-private, with audients & performers entering simultaneously, and didn’t work. And couldn’t work. This was a fundamental problem: the space was not properly defined for the function it discharges.
Our no photograph request, in seven languages (Japanese, Bengali, German, Italian, French, Spanish & American-English) was made at 19.55 to a milling-filling-auditorium.
I went onstage punctually at 20.00, entering along with a stream of audients, and played walk-in music for perhaps 5 minutes prior to the LCG walking onstage. Motion & audients finding seats continued during the next 4 pieces. Then, at the beginning of The Driving Force: 3 infra-red flashes straight into my eyes from a rear-ish row stage left. I followed my feet as they carried me off the into the auditorium, to where Marcello took a camera from the innocent audient into whose hands it had fallen & gone off, 3 times in succession. Returning to the stage, I rejoined & walked off with The LCG, lead by Sr. Nunez.
A question to the Egg Person at the side of the stage / backstage / public entry zone: when will the house be ready for the performance? This was a question too far, one he was unable to answer; although he offered to contact the Director. So, I returned alone to the stage & addressed the audience without a microphone, and suggested that we begin again. A beginning, to any process, is important. And The LCG / RF are punctual, having acquired a reputation for punctuality over many years. But life is hard, parking & security access to the Egg may have been difficult. For those audients who were not present for the no-photog announcement, and even had there not been the refrain-request announcement in 7 languages, courtesy requires that we refrain from photography.
So, shall we begin again? There was an audience consensus of assent to this suggestion / question, and Director Nunez lead us back to the stage where we began-again with The Driving Force.
There were infractions; but overall this was a very supportive audience. Senor Nunez spoke with several young people outside the venue afterwards & felt that they had been genuinely moved by the performance.
In the audience: Doug Arthur, creator-artist of Tales From The Dougside and two pals from the Fifth Course at Sherborne House.
A stunning Indian supper, selected by Road Manager Dev, the he-who-announces in Bengali.
An ffter-returning to Westbury in the Beef Wagon with Mr. Beefy.
The clocks are moving back one hour tonight – hooray!
"Before we do something, we do nothing."
