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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