"He has comic timing tattooed to his genes" Scott Turner Schofield Saturday Night At Out North

Tonight night - Saturday, July 1,  7pm - Out North will be presenting  Scott Turner Schofield in "How I Became A Man."   Out North has transferred their old home in Airport Heights to Cyrano's and Out North is moving to the Alaska Experience Theater.  It will be there - 4th and C Street.

There's a lot of unsaid in that first paragraph.  I don't know the details, but the ADN had a story two weeks ago.  And Friday's paper had a story about Scott's show.

I just think that Scott is an amazing performer and I'd go see anything he was doing.  But let me give you some background on how my admiration for Scott came about through some links to old blog posts.

 I like to think that I have a good eye now and then, and with Scott I did.  I first saw him acting as an MC at OutNorth introducing the Under 30 acts.  That was Jan 3, 2010.  I wrote:

The performances were introduced by Scott Turner Schofield who is a visiting performer who will be putting on Debutante Balls Jan. 14 -17. He seemed totally comfortable onstage and I'm sorry we're going to miss his show, but we leave for Juneau on the 11th.

The next time I wrote about Scott was July of that same year.  Again, he introduced the act - Wu Man and Friends- and this time I was really impressed.

Scott Turner Schofield

"On the right is Scott Schofield, Out North's new artistic director after the performance.  Preparation for the performance began just as he arrived at OutNorth.  His introduction Wednesday was a pleasure to listen to.  His words were good, his delivery fluent, and he effortlessly rotated to acknowledge the audience members sitting behind him on the stage.  (See, there are some things I feel have some basis for evaluating.)  We're lucky to have him here and I look forward to continuing great nights like Wednesday at OutNorth."

Then that October, he mc'd Out North's coming attractions show.  I caught a bit of it on video and posted it here.  This was just a random couple of minutes, but even then you can see that he moves his body and expresses himself with a lot more fluidity than your average person.

The following September, 2011 Scott has been busy at Out North for a little over a year and here's a post about the introduction to the year.  It was a full house.  There's some underlying tension as Out North had lost some grant money.

Here's some video of that night. The first four minutes is Scott talking about Out North's evolution.



That November Scott performed 'Two Truths And A Lie."  It was his story.  Up until then I'd seen him only as an mc, but that night he performed and confirmed my original gut feelings.  Here's that post "He has comic timing tattooed on his genes" - Scott Schofield Performs at Out North, 
and it explains a lot of what tonight's performance will be about.

And then he quit suddenly and somewhat mysteriously.  Eventually he came back and did a show that explained it all.  I can't find a post about it, but it was powerful and for many of us an important closure and explanation of why he'd left.

In 2015,  we got news that Scott had gotten a role in the tv show "The Bold and the Beautiful."  My post on that was called My Fantasy:  Jim Minnery and Amy Demboski Meet Scott Turner Schofield.
Wouldn't it be great if they came tonight?

I'm excited we get another chance to see him perform.  As I mentioned, Scott has performed this in Anchorage already.  It's called, Becoming a Man in 127 Easy Steps.  At that time, it was Two Truths And a Lie.  As I recall, he was already talking about the 127 Easy Steps and each number between 1 and 127 had a story attached.  The audience got to pick numbers and he told the stories of those particular steps.  So each performance is different.  The ticket agency for the show tonight says he's done this all over the US and Europe and it will be made into a movie.  So this is an opportunity to see the movie before it becomes one.

Tickets are available here for only $25 which is a deal considering how good Scott is and how close you'll be to the stage at the Alaska Experience theater.

My Fantasy: Amy Demboski and Jim Minnery Meet Scott Turner Schofield

[REPOST due to Feedburner* problems][Scott was the artistic director of Anchorage's Out North for about two years.]

Melisa Green, posted a link to this New York Daily News article at Bent Alaska Facebook page. 

"The Daily News exclusively learned the latest transgender person to make a splash in the world of mainstream television is Scott Turner Schofield, who has joined the cast of CBS’ long-running soap opera “The Bold and the Beautiful” and will make his first appearance May 8 — bringing a real-life verve to an already controversial storyline.
Schofield is making his TV acting debut on the Emmy Award-winning daytime series, after winning raves in regional theater throughout the years."

Thanks to writing a blog, I can tell you when I first met Scott - January 2, 2010.  He was at Out North as a visiting performer and introduced the Under 30 production.  I was so taken by how he held himself, spoke, what he said, and his warmth, that I mentioned him with a shaky photo  in the post I did of Under 30 that he introduced that night.

In July that year, Scott had just become the artistic

Scott Turner Schofield at Out North Anchorage July 2010

director of Out North.  Again, he just introduced the main act, but it was one helluva good intro.   Here's what I said about him then, as part of a post about the performance he introduced - Wu Man and Friends.

"On the right is Scott Schofield, Out North's new artistic director after the performance.  Preparation for the performance began just as he arrived at OutNorth.  His introduction Wednesday was a pleasure to listen to.  His words were good, his delivery fluent, and he effortlessly rotated to acknowledge the audience members sitting behind him on the stage. "

It was only later that we saw him perform "Two truths and a Lie." and even later when he came back to perform his resurrection piece.

I try not to say "I told you so" but in this case I'm delighted to.  And I have the blog posts to prove it.

And while the Supreme Court uses the law to argue their personal takes on the issue of same-sex marriage and the Anchorage mayor's race is once again discussing LGBT rights, I think it's important for as many people as possible to watch Scott Turner Schofield's Ted Talk.

My fantasy is that someone gets Jim Minnery and Amy Demboski to watch this Ted Talk until they get it.  Maybe they can dig deep enough into themselves - the way Scott did - to discover why LGBT folks make them so crazy.   Those of you who didn't have the pleasure of seeing Scott while he was in Anchorage, this will help show you why I was so impressed.


 



*Feedburner note:  Feedburner relays new messages to subscribers and blogrolls so that they know there is a new post.  Usually it works fine.  But too often it doesn't.  Sometimes it's clear that there is lengthy code in something I've copied from somewhere else and if I get rid of it, Feedburner works.  Sometimes it's just mysterious.  Like this post.  I posted it yesterday, but it didn't get to blogrolls.  I posted it again last night.  This morning it still wasn't on blogrolls.  So I did it again this morning and it worked.  The only people this might irritate, besides me, are subscribers who actually do get notified several times for the same post.  My apologies to them.  This is why I'm writing this here.  It's a particular problem when I'm posting something that's time sensitive - like election results, or a note about an event coming up soon.  

"Picture Michelangelo with a briefcase and a beeper" - Songwriting With Dan Bern in Anchorage

Click To Enlarge

We had to write and sing a one line song to introduce ourselves.

Then we had to write lyrics in a

2

2

2

7

8

8

8

8

pattern - haiku like, 2 syllables, 2 syllables, etc - about a moose encounter.

And then sing it to the group.

Regular readers know that I can listen to music, but making it?  That stopped when I hung up the oboe in high school.  My talents clearly lay elsewhere.  But Dan Bern is such an incredible songwriter/singer, that I signed up for this songwriting workshop with the expectation that I'd just get to know more about him and where all the songs come from.

He writes and sings in the troubadour style of Woody Gutherie and Bob Dylan.  Long song stories that take you to on  unexpected places where you meet a surprising cast of characters.  And when it's over, you often have to gulp as you realize what it was all about.  He even has a song about Guthrie handing the torch to Dylan from his deathbed and how he (Dan) climbed in to sing to Bruce Springstein on his deathbed.  Here are the lyrics and here's a short audio clip.  He's written about lots of celebrities including Charles Manson, Marilyn Monroe, Tiger Woods, Joe Van Gogh (Vincent's son),

He writes songs about important issues of the day - True Revolutionaries, Gambling in Sports (he's a big baseball fan), Alien Abduction,  AIDS,  or Dan's first ten days as  President. 

Check out any of those songs and you'll see his imagination is not ordinary, and he's got music in his genes.


And Dan was Dan last night and everything he did  - including the introductions - was part of learning songwriting.  So I had no choice but to sing my intro, and while it was more talking than singing at first, I began to realize during the class that I've just had this image of me as not a singer all these years.  And there's no reason why I shouldn't liberate my inner singer.  Songwriter at least.

He also answered questions - about where inspiration comes from, writing groups, - with advice that's good for any creative process, like writing a blog even.  Like, you could write three lines (or three days) and when you hit the fourth, you nail it.  And have to toss all that came before. 

I first heard Dan long, long ago.  I'm not even sure, except it was at Loussac library and it was probably 1997 (When Dan Bern  - the CD came out.)  My son had heard Dan open for Ani DiFranco in Anchorage and essentially told us we had no choice but to go hear Dan Bern who was coming back to Anchorage.

And he was right.  By the last song of the evening - Estelle - I was in the zone. Such a wild and crazy adventure lament. (The link goes to a YouTube of it.  Still one of my very favorites.)  We've gone to quite a few Dan Bern concerts since, including the great pair of shows at Cyrano's November 25 (Mike, there's no year listed on the tickets, just the date).  In the last few years I haven't kept up with Bern's music so I'm looking forward to the Saturday night concert at Out North.  (There are concerts Thursday and Friday night too.  Check at OutNorth 270 8099 X 203.)

But I'm rushing this post out, even though it reflects my being tired, because there are still a few spots in the song writing workshop Tuesday night and Wednesday night.  While people are going to all three, you can go to just one or two.  Call Out North at 279-8099 extension 203 to get your space.  This guy is the real deal. 

If you look carefully at the second picture, you'll see we all got fortune cookies.  Our homework is to take something from the fortune and make a short song - use the fortune itself, or just one word, or the thought. 

I've put a lot of links to song lyrics (many of which have a 30 second audio clip and Estelle to a video and a lot can be found on YouTube) but this one - Art on the Run - seemed appropriate for a blogger who is trying to get this up so people can see it while they can still act on it. 

Take the best idea you got sprouting from your brain like cauliflower
Stick it in the microwave leave it for a quarter of an hour
Write poems on the freeway, write screenplays in between submitting faxes
Draw pictures at the Wendy's drive through window, on your way to do your taxes

Because you're not a child you're not a child
Days flash by, like numbers on a TV dial
Forget that novel, man; could be haiku is more your style

Making art on the run, art on the run, art on the run
Art on the run, art on the run, art on the run
Chopin in his Chevrolet and digital machine
Singing melodies while pumping gasoline
Picture Michelangelo with a briefcase and a beeper
When's the last time that you had a really good night's
SLEEEEEEP?   (All of Art on the Run is here.)

For those of you outside of Anchorage, he'll be in Palmer on Sunday.  And if you're Outside (of Alaska), here's his tour schedule.

Barbara, he'll be in Toronto October 18. 

It's late.  I'm going to open my fortune cookie now.

Let's see, do I write about loyalty or should I do one on numbers?

Inspection Run And OutNorth Revival Meeting Tonight

I  took advantage of the sunny (if breezy) weather to get a run in and see how the neighborhood fared the storm. Except for this one cottonwood that was covering most of the street nearby, things seemed to be ok.  Oh, the traffic light at MacInnes and 36th was still not working.  There did appear to be some trees down in the woods along the bike trail too, but they could have been like that awhile.

Thursday

[UPDATE  Friday, next day:  Here's what's left of the tree:

Friday]

There is termination dust* on the mountains. 

 

And the Chester Creek bike trail was still beautiful. 

*Termination dust, the first snow on the mountains, marks the end of summer for folks in Anchorage.

Also, want to remind people that OutNorth is having a fundraiser tonight.  It's $40 a person at the door which sounds steep except it includes food and drinks. (Well I expect they might charge for the alcoholic drinks.  It is a fund raiser.)

OutNorth continues to bring Anchorage the most interesting and often the most edgy performances by local and Outside performers and artists.  Really incredible stuff and sometimes things that don't quite work, but are interesting attempts.  So $40 including food isn't that much to help keep this theater/arts non-profit alive and well. 

Their website says 

Includes Midnight Sun beer, wine, food, edification, salvation, entertainment, and remarkable deals on art, objects, services, experiences and upcoming shows.

It starts at 5:30pm and will give you a chance to chat with artists from the many community groups affiliated with them - from Hmong high schoolers learning to play their traditional bamboo flute, to actors, musicians, dancers, visual artists.  You can get a sense of the eclectic mix at their radio station which went on the air this year KONR (KOutNorthRadio) at 106.1 FM.  They're doing a special program to coincide with the Revival.  From their website:

"Anchorage Augmented
On September 6th, KONR Out North Art House Radio will host an augmented reality mix tape of Anchorage featuring the recorded works of local musicians, poets and performers as augmented reality works of art. If you are a local artist, musician, poet or performer with recorded works of art that you would like included in this project please email them to us in mp3 format. Anchorage Augmented will be taking place as part of Out North's Season 28 Revival, festivities will begin at 5:30 at Out North Contemporary Art House."

Do I have vested interest in OutNorth? Yeah I do. I want to see the kinds of performers they bring to Anchorage and I want to see them using those performers to help our local performers - including kids - stretch their imaginations and talents and contacts. So getting the word out to get more people there increases the likelihood they'll survive and thrive. That's my vested interest. A dumb thing on my part was that I didn't start labeling posts about OutNorth events until recently, but you can look at some of the old posts about their events by clicking here.

AIFF 2011: Busy Sunday

A couple of minutes before The Flood so I'll just put up the pictures with minimum text.

The film maker forum at Out North at 11 am brought together some of the film makers here at the festival. 








 We saw the Stan Lee Story but no pics.  Afterward film maker Yuki Ellias (on the right in front) watched herself as they tested her film before the audience came in.

 The warm 40˚F weather and rain made the Out North parking lot a mess.













Then over to the Alaska Experience theater - Jorge and Nicole are in the upper left to watch their film In the Shadow.

Then for the Q&A.

Then back to Out North to see Apartment in Athens which started out to be the best film I saw today, but there were technical difficulties and the dvd kept stopping.  Here
s the technician trying to fix it.



More later.

Gergely Wootsch

[It's later, The Flood was good, we also got to see Gergely Wootsch's animated short, This is Not Real,  before The Flood.   I was at the Bear Tooth and hadn't eaten since breakfast and they brought my food just as Gergely's film started.  I loved the look, but I need to see it again, uninterrupted.


When The Apartment in Athens was shut down (it was a PAL format on the PAL machine at OutNorth, and they got a second disk, but it did the same thing about 15 minutes into the film - it just kept stopping.  So I went to the other screening at Out North and saw the last three in the short Horror program.  I wasn't too impressed until the last one - The Attack of the Killer Mutant Chickens.   Maybe I'm biased because I interviewed the director, but I liked it a lot.  The visuals were great and the story was fun.]

]

Interrupting Our Dysfunctional Society - The Interrupters and LeadON! Among Many

How does change happen?  At this point in the history of the US, change is not coming from the official political leaders.  But change is happening all around.  People are coming together and taking charge of their own lives.  Whether it's the people at Occupy events around the country, or businesses who are converting their structures and operations to be more energy efficient, or local food groups, or even people joining the Tea Party, people everywhere, mostly off of the media's radar, are coming together and speaking openly about how they feel and how to make life better.  Not only for themselves, but for everyone else.

In Anchorage this week, a group of kids from around the state got together to talk about how to make their lives better.  Although a group I volunteer with (ANDVSA) was the sponsor, I didn't get to the Lead On conference.  But the participants made their own videotape.




Here's what Meryl of Tenakee Springs wrote about it:

For the past two years I have been lucky enough to attend the LeadON! conference, and I’ve learned an awesome amount about my peers, my community, my state, my world, and myself. Despite the impact it has had on my life, I have a real difficulty describing what LeadON! is exactly. A leadership conference? (Yawn…another one?) A mini-summit? (Summit? To what? Everest?) A youth gathering? (Are we starting a cult?). Nothing really seems to do it justice, or make any sense. I find myself always tripping on my words when I try to explain it to people.
For me, LeadON! has been this incredible opportunity to actually gain the confidence I need to make positive changes. I’ve met people and made connections that have broadened my mind and pushed my life forward. I participated in workshops during the conference that were very, very far out of my comfort zone, and found myself actually enjoying being out of my “box”. I got to listen to speakers who were so powerful their messages still stick with me. I heard my peers tell stories about the rough parts of their own life, which made me brave enough to do the same.  Yes, it’s a lot for only a few days!
The most empowering part of LeadON! was the way everyone, the speakers, the adults, and the youth, spoke openly about a wide range of topics. I believe that positive change begins within ourselves and grows outward, and talking honestly about what we want to change is the first step. LeadON! gave me the chance to do that. While I may not always have the words to describe how LeadON! has influenced me, maybe that is actually what has given me the power to show the world what leadership is, instead of simply trying to slap a definition on it. We define it in our actions, every day. That’s what LeadON! has really shown me.
-          Meryl, Tenakee Springs

This year's conference is over.  But if you are (or know) an Alaskan Youth between the ages of 13 and 18 you can look at this year's application form and think about applying for next year. 


The Alaskan Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Abuse (ANDVSA), which sponsors LeadON!, is focused on PREVENTION.  That means working to prevent problems before they happen and opening opportunities to people who might not have otherwise known they had healthy and positive options. 

From the ANDVSA site:

What Do Youth Leaders and Community Partners Do at the Mini-summit?

• Youth-led workshops, nationally recognized speakers, and major fun!
• See what youth and community partners are doing across the state.
• Use theatre, art, and media to improve their leadership skills
• Share information and projects from your community.
• Have fun with musicians, actors, activists, business leaders, and Alaska youth
• Develop ideas to promote peace and equality in your community
• Learn more about youth and adult project partnerships.
• Hiking, outdoor activities, networking, and much more!

This week, we also saw the movie The Interrupters.  It follows a group of ex-gang members and ex-cons as they go through their dysfunctional neighborhood, interrupting violence, through the force of their personalities, experience, and fearlessness.  They too, offer people alternatives to killing, as a way to resolve differences.  Another example of people speaking openly.



This is a powerful film that takes you on an intimate trip into a dysfunctional neighborhood in Chicago, where violence is the learned behavior for dealing with violence.  Into this neighborhood a doctor joins locals who want to change things.  The doctor views this epidemiologically - as a disease that needs to be tracked down and stopped as you would any other disease.  It's not about bad people, but about people who are infected by things in their environment that cause them to behave in self-destructive ways.

And once you've been through the neighborhoods with different interrupters and seen how they gain the trust of those infected with violence and slowly offer them alternatives, after you see the humanity behind the stereoptypes we have of 'those people', it's easy to understand that ignorance that leads one legislator to call the National Guard to come pacify the neighborhood.  And if your brain is good at making connections from one situation to another, you realize the enormous foolishness of the National Guard and the US military trying to make force peace on Iraq and Afghanistan.  This is using violence to teach people peace.  The target already knows violence.  It's the interrupters, working slowly and tirelessly, with love and respect and intimate knowledge of their patients, who are using peace to teach peace.

It's people from the neighborhood interrupting dysfunction to solve their problems. 


This interrupting business is going on all over.  It's what Anchorage Healing Racism does by bringing people like Brent Scarpo to Anchorage. And what Penny Arcade does in an entirely different way with her show that's at OutNorth again Friday and Saturday night at 8pm, with an extra show added Sunday afternoon at 5pm.

Look around your community.  It's happening all around you.  You just need to pay attention, reach out, and connect to it.

Great Story Behind Incredible Lace

click to enlarge

As I looked into the gallery at OutNorth

my eye was drawn immediately to the lace. 

It was incredible.  I'm not a connoisseur, but when something is this good, even I notice.   My camera slipped itself out of my pocket and into my hand and started trying to  capture the exquisitely detailed beauty of this lace.  My camera and I were only moderately successful.  Between the light, the detail, the reflections, and how high up on the wall some of the lace was, and no tripod, this is the best we could do. (I saved the top photo in higher resolution than normal, so click on it for details, but I didn't want to make this page too slow to open, so the others are lower res.)  If you're in the Anchorage area, you can go see these masterpieces yourself.

Nothing was up about the exhibit except the labels with the name Beverly Bronner and descriptions like "Bobbin Lace (Belgian Binche), 140 cotton."  What did that mean?  I found Ryan who gave me the email of curator, Keren Lowell.  And she promptly sent me this reply:

"The lace was made by Beverly Bronner. She lives in Anchorage, and is an incredible person. She's older, and she got it into her head to learn how to make bobbin lace, which in its simplest form involves tracking the interlacings of dozens of little tapered spools of thread.

"The beginnings of the lace are pinned to a special pillow, which keeps the order of the threads in place while it is being made. Coarse lace is difficult to make even for someone used to the complex patterns of weaving, knitting and crochet.

"Beverly took a workshop in basic Belgian lacemaking techniques, and then taught herself how to make the work you saw in the gallery. It is made with the finest (thinnest) cotton thread made (140 count).  [For an interesting history on thread count, see Anichini.]  The piece that had a border of swans intertwined with lace took her three years to make. It was all done by hand, and as far as I can tell, is indistinguishable from lace made by masters.

"After she made the lace, she had to locate the cloth for the center. A place in Belgium sells the antique fabric, but would not sell it to her until they saw the lace in person, so she flew to Belgium to gain their approval.

             This piece was about 4 inches across

"After she bought the fabric, she had to find a lacemaker who knew how to stitch the lace to the fabric, and she found a woman in her 90s who agreed to do the work (for no pay). The rest of the pieces in the gallery have equally interesting stories, and Beverly would be glad to relay them. She is amazing. She just took up weaving and her first woven piece was something a weaver with several years of experience would be proud of.

So, there you have it.  Lucky folks in Anchorage can see this incredible work for themselves.  OutNorth is on Primrose and DeBarr (3800) - kittycorner from Costco DeBarr.  Their website gives their hours:

Gallery Hours
12-6pm Tues-Fri
and during events

 Thanks Beverly for sharing your passion, and to Keren for putting this show together and taking the extra time to give me that background. 

Some people might wonder about my breathless posts, but we have such talented folks in Anchorage who do such amazing things, that there's lots to be breathless about.  And I'm convinced that Scott Schofield, the artistic director, somehow manages to pull a lot of them into OutNorth.  And I tend not to write about things I didn't like.  There's enough good stuff to keep me busy.

By the way, the other fabric work in the exhibit was also worth looking at.  Here's a scarf by Clydene Fitch. 

And a yarn basket offered by Sherri Rogers.

Therapy Secrets Onstage, Here and Now, and Artistic Amnesty - OutNorth Season Preview 2

In part 2 of the video of the season preview you hear about Out North's dance classes, KONR - Out North Radio at 106.1 (coming soon), bringing therapy to the stage, Be Here Now - "a young artists theater group."  And then there's Corinna Delgado - a force of nature all on her own - talking about the Artistic Amnesty Project and One Soul. 




And I'll get part 3 (and there will probably be a part 4 too) up later.

Part 1 is here.
Part 3 is here.

What Makes Music Good? Wu Man and Friends in Anchorage

Wednesday night at Out North was like being in an avant garde little theater in Berlin.  And yet we were here in backwater Anchorage listening to an exciting concert at OutNorth.  Where can you hear music composed by two Koreans, a German, a Chinese, and a Japanese for pipa, cauyaq, gayageum, saxophone, trombone, and marimba played by musicians from China, Bethel, Anchorage,  Juneau, and Canada via Fairbanks?  Not just musicians, but good ones, including an international star who recently worked with Yo Yo Ma. 

Wu Man is one of the most acclaimed pipa player in the world.  The Wikipedia entry on pipa says this about Wu Man:

Prominent students of Lin Shicheng include Liu Guilian (刘桂莲, b. 1961), Wu Man (吴蛮, b. 1963) and Gao Hong (高虹, b. 1964). Wu, who is probably the best known pipa player internationally, received the first-ever master's degree in pipa and won China's first National Academic Competition for Chinese Instruments. She lives in San Diego, California and works extensively with Chinese, cross-cultural, new music, and jazz groups. [emphasis added]

Here's Juneau musician (how little that conveys of her bio in the program)  Jocelyn Clark introducing a piece by German musician Karola Obermüller.  She warned the audience not to use normal music criteria, in fact, to just attend to the sounds in space.  Clark played the gayageum which the program describes as a Korean zither.



There were sounds from the marimba, then short breaks before other instruments threw out some sounds.  Now I happen to enjoy music that doesn't follow our standard conceptions of music, but I did begin to ask myself, how does one determine whether this is 'good?'  Later I asked several of the music professors there variations of this question - is there a difference that you could notice between a piece like this and something someone like me with almost no formal musical knowledge could produce in Garageband?   One said, "Maybe, maybe not."
Another responded, "How do you know if food is good?"

[Photo from left:  Wu Man holding the pipa, Jocelyn Clark, Morris Palter (marimba and other percussion), Stephen Blanchett (voice and cauyaq -Yupik frame drum), Richard Zelinsky (Sax), Christopher Sweeney (trombone).]

[Wu Man showing someone the music after the concert]



Does it even make sense to talk about good here?  Some of these pieces seemed to be more experiments in sound and silence which deliberately attempted to do things that were beyond the normal rules musicians might follow.  Whether the intent was to see what they could get by violating such rules or these pieces were in them and they simply had to write them even if they didn't follow standard musical expectations or something in between, I don't know.  I didn't think of that question until later.

One form of good, as one of the music professors suggested, would simply be whether the musicians actually played what the composer had written. And that was another question I'd had while listening to The Oort Cloud because the composer was in the audience.  You can see Yoriko Hase Kojima introducing the piece in the second photo above. Since she was there, I wanted to ask her if there were any points where she went, "Oh no, they missed that"?

And I got the chance to do that at the reception afterward.  Here she is talking with Canadian born percussionist and UAF music professor Morris Palter. 

 She smiled at my question and said, no, they did it very well and she was very pleased with the performance.  She had flown in from Tokyo and was headed back the next day.

But that begs the question of whether the piece itself is 'good.'  This music forces one to confront the socially constructed nature of good.  How much is good simply related to what we are used to?  Asian music such as Chinese opera isn't something that most Westerners can appreciate on first hearing it.  What if we had heard this sort of music all our lives?  It would sound totally normal.  One professor said he'd need to listen to it several times to start getting a sense of it. 

Alaska composer Phil Munger was one of the people who got to sit behind the performers close enough to watch the saxophonist's music.  Here he is talking to Morris Palter. 

[Update July 4:  Phil follows up on this post and addresses these questions about good and bad music in a long post at his blog.]

[Trombonist and UAA music professor Chrisopher Sweeney talking after the performance.  Anchorage saxophonist Richard Zelinsky is behind him.]

I need to say that a number of the pieces were more traditional music - particularly Chinese classical music for pipa, such as the second Youtube of Wu Man from wumusicpipa below.  Wednesday night's concert was being recorded and I hadn't asked permission beforehand to record any video so I have nothing from the concert. 


The concert was a collaboration of a number of organizations.  It's a little hard to put them all together from the program, but CrossSound in Juneau was one and OutNorth here in Anchorage was another. [Update: Actually there was a thank you page in the program but I missed it.]  On the right is Scott Schofield, Out North's new artistic director after the performance.  Preparation for the performance began just as he arrived at OutNorth.  His introduction Wednesday was a pleasure to listen to.  His words were good, his delivery fluent, and he effortlessly rotated to acknowledge the audience members sitting behind him on the stage.  (See, there are some things I feel have some basis for evaluating.)  We're lucky to have him here and I look forward to continuing great nights like Wednesday at OutNorth. 


This YouTube I found of Wu Man playing with the Kronos Quartet gives a bit of the sense of what I'm talking about in terms of the more experimental music we heard, though this sounds closer to more traditional music than a couple pieces Wednesday.









 I also found one that gives a sense of Wu Man playing a traditional Chinese piece.

Life Interferes with Blogging - Fall Colors

Today was Our Time - the rap get out the vote project George Martinez is running. (See previous post.) I'll put up some video of that later, maybe tomorrow. The picture below is almost from the identical spot as the first picture in the previous post. But this morning there was fog burning off.
Then we'd agreed to a hike today with SH so I left Our Time - which had great energy going - and we picked up SH and went to Stuckagain Heights to hike over to the Wolverine Peak Trail. Pictures below. That was followed by a quick dinner at Thai Kitchen and a late, but just in time dash to OutNorth to see Manhattan Film Festival Finalists. So, here's Anchorage in all her glory on an exquisite fall day, that started out with heavy fog.




This is the rock that marks when you've reached tree line on the hike to Wolverine Peak. I've got pictures over the years of the kids sitting on this rock. Since M doesn't get here until Monday, I asked SH to take her place. J was still coming up the hill. You can see downtown Anchorage in the background past the sea of golden birch (mostly.) You can double click to enlarge any of these.

And looking up from the rock.

And there were still some delicious blueberries to be had.

These really are better bigger. Just double click.

Anchorage 2008 Pride Fest Film Festival - Eleven Minutes

There were about eight other people for Eleven Minutes, the feature documentary about Project Runway winner Jay McCarroll's first fashion show. There wasn't time to get bored as the film rushed through the year of preparation for the 11 minute show.



[June 27: I got an email from Rob Tate, one of the directors of Eleven Minutes in which he said that he didn't have the rights to post anything on the Video and directing me to take down the clips I had up. Since I've been in murky waters on this I took it down immediately. He redirected me to a YouTube trailer of this movie. I must say his email was very polite and decent. This does raise some issues of free speech. Book reviewers regularly put short passages of the book into their reviews. TV reviewers also put clips of the movies they review. Without the clips it is difficult to give the reader a sense of the movie. Some film makers from the Anchorage International Film Festival have linked to my comments (and short video clips) on their own websites. So some people do appreciate the coverage and overlook the video issue. I've assumed all along that what I did was pretty low on the priorities of the big film companies and for small film makers it would generally bring more attention to their films. But I will think about what Rob has emailed carefully as we try to work out how technology affects things.]
So why were so few people there? Some guesses.

1. It was too nice a day to go to the movies.
   We stayed for the second show - a series of shorts, some of which I didn't need to see and others (like "Tryout" the Israeli film about a father who has his kid for the weekend and his lover wants to meet the kid; or "Fabulousity", about parents who are about to have a special baby and the advice they get) were outstanding. Since we were the only ones who did stay, we offered to go home and let the projectionist go home early, but he said no. So we had the whole place to ourselves. By the time we got out from it was starting to rain for our bike ride home.
2. It was a Tuesday night.
   You get the theater to yourself.
3. So much else to do.
   So you won't get it all done anyway. Go see some mind stretching movies instead.
4. Tired.
   It's dark. You can sleep there.
5. Don't want to see gay movies.
   Well, none of these were 'gay' movies. They were movies that had a gay theme - some only barely. Gay marriage is a big issue these days still. Here's a chance for people on all sides of the issue to get to know what gay folks are saying, what their lives are like. There was nothing icky in any of these films - well there were some same sex kisses for the very squeamish.
6. Someone might think I'm gay if I go to these movies.
   Come on now. This is 2008. There are gay people who go to these films. But so do lots of straight folks. If this is a worry for you, then you really need to go. Get out of your comfort zone, live dangerously. And so what if they do? Keep 'em guessing.
7. It's too expensive.
   Online it is $6.50 a show, it's $7 at the door. Less than a regular movie discount price.

5pm Wednesday - Out Late - about gays coming out in their 50's, 60's, and 70s.

7pm Wednesday - Ask Not - Asks why the military lowers its standards to meet recruiting goals and takes in convicted felons, but not gays.

9pm Wednesday - Women Shorts - five short films.

For the whole list of films - the festival goes through Friday - go to OutNorth.

Moose, Goose Lake, UAA Science Building

When we biked over to OutNorth Thursday evening for the NW Film Festival shorts, we saw a moose on the north side of Northern Lights going and one at UAA coming back.








There was still ice on most of Goose Lake, and the new UAA Science building was looming large on the other side of the lake from the beach. If we had bigger trees in Anchorage, you wouldn't see it from there.

Wow!!! Bridgman and Packer! Best Show I've Seen in a Loooooong Time

We went opening night. That means if you read this right away, you can still get tickets for this incredible show on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.

Yeah, I know I don't like to see something that's been hyped as great because then I'll compare it to my high expectations. I had no idea what to expect. I didn't really read the details of the article in the paper the other day, but I just got a feeling that we should go to this. Besides, it was our anniversary. Sorry Ropi, they were in Budapest last April, so I guess you missed them.

My reactions:

Wow!!!
How'd they do that?
Damn, I feel like a hick. I didn't even know people did stuff like this.
Wow!!

You should go if you like at least three of the following:

Watching water ripples in a stream.
Magicians doing really amazing tricks.
Shadow leaves dancing on your sunlit white walls.
MC Escher.
A cello dancing with a human voice.
Surprises.
Precision.
Optical Illusions.
Hand drumming.

Wait. There is no rippling stream in the show. I'm just trying to give you a sense of this show without giving anything away.

If you took this list literally, maybe you shouldn't go see it. Or, if you can't stand stuff that is NOT:

Linear.
Predictable.
Melodic.
Clear and straightforward.


There aren't a lot of seats at the Alaska Dance Theater, which by the way was another neat surprise. I'd seen the building once and thought, hmmmm, that looks interesting, but this was the first time we've been inside. (Our daughter hasn't gone to dance lessons in many years.) Anchorage has a wonderful new venue that was just perfect for this performance. But,as I was saying. There aren't a lot of seats and they weren't all full!!!! Just because it was a snowy Thursday night is no excuse.

But if everyone there tonight tells five people (and everyone else seemed just as amazed as I was) you'll be lucky to get a seat for the next performances. Get tickets on-line at Outnorth.org
.

I don't really want to tell you more. Being surprised by what they do is part of the fun. The first piece was amazing. The next ones got progressively amazinger. Yes, despite the flesh in the ADN promo article, it's fine for kids. They'll love it.

If you must, go to the Bridgman/Packer Dance website. But it isn't nearly as good as the show.

Oh, and a tidbit about the cellist/voice guy, Robert Een (that's two syllables). He sang in one of the temples at Ellora in India. These are a set of magical temples carved out of the rock hillside over an 800 year period. Based on what Robert told me, I think it might be the temple in this picture I took in November 2006. The acoustics were incredible. It would be - I'm running out of breathless adjectives so pick your own favorite - to hear him in there.

I'm not really a hick, and I don't get this excited easily. These guys are first class.