Re: FLUXLIST: Re: FLUX CAFE photos

2004-03-04 Thread Owen Smith
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>Carol Starr wrote:
>
>>hi josh
>
>>you are brave to do 'danger music #2'.
>>very inteesting event, thanks for the photos.
>
>Oh, it was hardly bravery. Foolhardy, maybe, but there was no danger in it (except to 
>my dignity).

I have actually found it rather an interesting piece to perform - I have been the 
shavee once and the shaver twice - in fact I have been contemplating doing an essay on 
this particular piece for several years now it is so filled with interesting
opposites - aggressive and passive, focused and dissipated ,etc. and if one really 
want to consider some of the early Fluxus work and the concept of action music it 
seems like sure a marker for both historical and performative reasons.

Owen




FLUXLIST: Re: FLUX CAFE photos

2004-03-04 Thread Josh Ronsen
Carol Starr wrote:

>hi josh

>you are brave to do 'danger music #2'.
>very inteesting event, thanks for the photos.

Oh, it was hardly bravery. Foolhardy, maybe, but there was no danger in it (except to 
my dignity).

-Josh Ronsen
in Austin, Texas







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FLUXLIST: Re: FLUX CAFE photos

2004-03-03 Thread Josh Ronsen
Owen Smith asks:

>Very nice Josh - so how did it feel to perform Danger Music No. 2?

It hurt! The electric clippers I borrowed were very old and it felt like my hair was 
being ripped out. I first tried to do it myself, without a mirror, thinking it would 
be buzz buzz buzz and done. It took a long time. Now I have no hair. I can't wait for 
it to grow back in.

The evening was a success. I think everyone, audience and performers, enjoyed it. I 
had asked members of the Austin New Music Co-Op (I play clarinet with them) to do some 
of the Fluxus "orchestra" pieces, and then decided to have them do other pieces in 
masse (like Ono's "Lighting Piece"). Some of them did not know anything about Fluxus 
except for my brief description in discussing the project. For the Cafe idea, I had 
two waitresses go through the audience and take orders (and money for each piece), so 
we had no idea what was going to be performed or when. We had to have a quick huddle 
backstage before each piece. "What are we doing" "Just go out there and at Bill's 
command [the conductor], hit your head against the wall." 

It turned out well. I will send the program list/menu in a later email.

Highlights included:
-Tying up the audience...
-The huge mess on stage...
-Walter's guitar solo he wrote me: but I, not knowing anything about firecrackers, 
picked a smoker, not a popper, so only a lot of smoke came out of my guitar, no 
sound...
-I wrote "Money Piece II" for the orchestra, in which the orchestra picks up change 
from the stage. Bill, the conductor, had decided that we would take the stage, the 
money would be sprinkled about, and at his downbeat we would start collecting. But one 
of the players, trombonist Nick Smith, went crazy at the site of two dollars in change 
and just lunged for the money without waiting for the command to start. I laughed. [in 
"Money Piece I" I ask for a dollar bill from the audience and then rip it up. This I 
did as well.]
-I have been studying Gyorgy Ligeti lately, and transcribing 2 interviews with him 
from French, and Elana Logsdon and I read the alphabetical insults from his 1977 opera 
Le Grande Macabre ("ravishing runt!" "swashbuckling swine!")
-Elana and Brandon Young read my play that I sent to the FluxList Box II with much 
pathos and overacting (perfect!)
-playing fruit baseball: Nick Smith hit a single [grapefruit], but then was tagged out 
while going to 2nd base.

In all, it was a lot of fun.

-Josh Ronsen
in Austin, Texas







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