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Greetings from Kalamazoo!
Nov. 9th, 2007 11:31 pmI am loving it here, as always, and am starting to get my voice (and energy) back - which is good, as tomorrow (Sat.) at 5:30 pm is the premiere of our stage show, and I have the biggest part! (If I'm a bit hoarse by the end it's OK, as my character has been locked in the evil Polish count's cellar for 2 days.) Our first rehearsal was today. The folks from All Ears Radio theater are terrific - their director brought in all sorts of SFX from his personal collection, including a smallish "jail door" (3' x 3' ?) complete with locks & chains - cool enough on its own, but it gets better: it's the original one used on WOR for classic shows like "The Shadow"! (Who know what evil lurks in the hearts of men....?) We got to touch it and all.
Delia & I had a superb time talking at the various colleges about fairy tales, writing and diversity. The folks at Kazoo Books gave us a very warm welcome, and we had a lovely crowd there, including 2 young women from K' College who happily waited til the crowds had gone so we could "geek out about the Campion family," which we did, with gusto. And the bookstore had a copy of the 1889 Scribner's edition of Sara Crewe, or, What Happened At Miss Minchin's at a very reasonable price. Caroline Stevermer gave me my copy years ago, so this is for someone else. But I am very happy to have it.
The concert I MC'd last night (was it only last night??!) was excellent - I loved the "multi-faith" section where 4 musicians each did 5 minutes, with me introducing them. OK, it was a bit like a setup for a shaggy dog joke, but honestly, if you ever get the chance to hear any of these performers, run straight to it! David Schrader ("Anglo-Catholic"), organist - played "heavy metal" classical church organ that brought the house down! Buddhist shakuhachi player Michael Gould (now based in Cleveland, of all places, so keep an eye out!); Dawud Wharnsby, who does folk-style tunes with guitar based on the precepts of Islam; and of course, my own Yale Strom, singing and fiddling his way to nirvana with a Jewish nigun his grandfather taught him. The real treat was moderating a panel with these 4 guys afterwards - each was articulate, passionate & insightful about his own traditions and music in general - it was a Dream Panel, and I wish someone had been able to tape it. Maybe I can get them together again sometime. I was delighted and impressed. Michael Gould said that the Zen shakuhachi tradition holds that all music is constantly around us, and that we are just pulling a little of it from the air when we need it. A moving and delightful image - and even more delightful to find all these guys, from such different backgrounds & disciplines, nodding and agreeing with him. Something good to take away from all this.
Hate hotel restaurants, so found a wonderful little local lunch-counter-y place down the street for our eggs and toast this morning - very blue collar downtown place, which made our waiter even more of a trip - he had stepped in out of the wrong movie, and was a gay guy who called us "ladies" and kept asking if the food was to our liking! The sweetness of dissonance. Love it.
Tonight was the Take 6 concert - amazing! Tight arrangements, flawlessly performed (Click for samples), with a patter that was similarly tight and entertaining. Turns out they're also interstitial: program notes explain they have just launched their own label because "Traditional record companies want to lock you into a particular category. If you are slightly askew of that [as in"3 parts Gospel + 1 part Jazz + dash of Pop + 1 touch of R&B"] , they really don't know what to do with you."
This is where I meant to write an impassioned sermon about the extreme superiority of experiencing any live music over recorded, however good - but I must go to bed instead. Big day tomorrow. So just take my word for it, OK?
And so to bed.
Delia & I had a superb time talking at the various colleges about fairy tales, writing and diversity. The folks at Kazoo Books gave us a very warm welcome, and we had a lovely crowd there, including 2 young women from K' College who happily waited til the crowds had gone so we could "geek out about the Campion family," which we did, with gusto. And the bookstore had a copy of the 1889 Scribner's edition of Sara Crewe, or, What Happened At Miss Minchin's at a very reasonable price. Caroline Stevermer gave me my copy years ago, so this is for someone else. But I am very happy to have it.
The concert I MC'd last night (was it only last night??!) was excellent - I loved the "multi-faith" section where 4 musicians each did 5 minutes, with me introducing them. OK, it was a bit like a setup for a shaggy dog joke, but honestly, if you ever get the chance to hear any of these performers, run straight to it! David Schrader ("Anglo-Catholic"), organist - played "heavy metal" classical church organ that brought the house down! Buddhist shakuhachi player Michael Gould (now based in Cleveland, of all places, so keep an eye out!); Dawud Wharnsby, who does folk-style tunes with guitar based on the precepts of Islam; and of course, my own Yale Strom, singing and fiddling his way to nirvana with a Jewish nigun his grandfather taught him. The real treat was moderating a panel with these 4 guys afterwards - each was articulate, passionate & insightful about his own traditions and music in general - it was a Dream Panel, and I wish someone had been able to tape it. Maybe I can get them together again sometime. I was delighted and impressed. Michael Gould said that the Zen shakuhachi tradition holds that all music is constantly around us, and that we are just pulling a little of it from the air when we need it. A moving and delightful image - and even more delightful to find all these guys, from such different backgrounds & disciplines, nodding and agreeing with him. Something good to take away from all this.
Hate hotel restaurants, so found a wonderful little local lunch-counter-y place down the street for our eggs and toast this morning - very blue collar downtown place, which made our waiter even more of a trip - he had stepped in out of the wrong movie, and was a gay guy who called us "ladies" and kept asking if the food was to our liking! The sweetness of dissonance. Love it.
Tonight was the Take 6 concert - amazing! Tight arrangements, flawlessly performed (Click for samples), with a patter that was similarly tight and entertaining. Turns out they're also interstitial: program notes explain they have just launched their own label because "Traditional record companies want to lock you into a particular category. If you are slightly askew of that [as in"3 parts Gospel + 1 part Jazz + dash of Pop + 1 touch of R&B"] , they really don't know what to do with you."
This is where I meant to write an impassioned sermon about the extreme superiority of experiencing any live music over recorded, however good - but I must go to bed instead. Big day tomorrow. So just take my word for it, OK?
And so to bed.