June 2011
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Month June 2011

Entries 5 Total

Phantom Limb’s 69˚S

Jun 23, ’11 7:05 PM

These evocative marionettes were made for a new production called “69˚S.” by a New York puppet company called The Phantom Limb. This project has been in the works for a few years now and just a few days ago they got their last bit of funding.

I was excited to see this new work from them after hearing about this project from the artists who sat on a Henson Foundation panel I got to see in New York City last year. On the same trip I saw the Phantom Limb productionThe Devil You Know directed by Ping Cong.

I especially like the texture and detail in the costumes, it’s extraordinarily tricky to make fabric look like clothing at such a small scale. I love the sober expressions on the plainly formed heads. My first impression was that they were cut from blocks of gray styrofoam, then I thought maybe they were cast concrete. Now I’m convinced I have no idea what their made of, but I love their black eyes.

During the panel talk Jessica Grindstaff talked about the history of the company and how this project represented a lot of what they had learned from past productions. They got their start with some spectacular shows involving massive . She made special mention of the icebergs, and the creative thinking involved in creating the illusion of mass on stage.

Phantom Limb (Jessica Grindstaff & Erik Sanko, Co-Artistic Directors) is joined by an extraordinary team of multi-disciplinary collaborators. Synthesizing theater, dance, puppetry, photography, film, original contemporary music and an unconventional acoustic palette creating a stunning and evocative series of tableaux vivants that follows a group of gentlemen frozen (literally) in crisis.

Watch the video and you’ll see she solved the problem beautifully using fabric suspended from the fly. Stilt walking puppeteers are a bonus! Thanks to Taylor from the clown class for the link.

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Zhenya in Detroit

Jun 21, ’11 1:02 PM

I met Gene (AKA Zhenya, Euvgene) in 2005 when we both worked at the Paramount in Wellington. We were fast friends and collaborated on a few projects together. (Maybe you remember this?) We’ve been in intermittent contact since I moved off the Long White Cloud.

Gene’s visited the U.S. a few times since then, but every time he’s been stateside I’ve either been too far away or too broke to see him. But a few weeks ago Gene ventured outside of New York City and went on an impromptu tour of some great American cities, Baltimore, Detroit, Chicago.

I jumped on the chance to meet Gene in Detroit, a city that looked close enough on the map to justify jumping in without much of a game plan. I meant to spend a day with him but we ended up spending the long weekend together.

THE SPIRAL

Gene filled me in on what he’s been up to for the past few years. Back in Wellington he had been performing a little, collaborating on a few shows, he started a theater company, produced some plays and even flew a director in from New York out for a production. But he told me, “I made a hundred bucks man, it just wasn’t worth it.” He swore theater off and focused on making music.

After several months of producing music and DJing in Wellington, Gene found himself in a Commedia del’Arte workshop given by this mad man. The work was powerful enough to inspire taking a significant risk, so after talking it over with Giovanni (the mad man) and Gene’s long time partner Erin, he took the plunge and for the past six months has been studying at Helikos, a small physical theater program in Florence, Italy.

As it turns out, the woman who gives the amazing red nose workshops I’ve been taking in Chicago, Paola Coletto worked with Giovanni to develop the previous incarnation of the school in the early 2000s. Small world right?

 

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Hurdy Gurdy Girl

Jun 19, ’11 12:06 PM

Listen to this strange instrument.

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Bike Lanes

Jun 13, ’11 7:01 PM

My sister sent me this video, she knew I’d like it. Maybe because she knew Mike Potts and I loved crashing our bikes in to stuff when we were boys. Maybe she was taunting me, knowing I am bike-less in a bike city. Maybe she wanted to remind me of the responsibility I still hold to the Push Bike Safety League.

I don’t know the exact reason you sent it, but I do like the video very much. Thanks sis!

Here’s an outlandish protest video from Casey Neistat, professional viral video maker (of the Neistat Brothers show on HBO). In it, he films himself getting a ticket for not riding in the bike lane in New York City—an NYPD practice I brought to light on Transportation Nation, and GOOD a few months back.

To demonstrate why a cyclist in NYC might need to ride outside the bike lane, Neistat proceeds to crash into anything and everything that blocks a bike lane from construction barricades to trucks to… Well, just watch till the end. Johnny Knoxville would be proud. , GOOD

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Free Day

Jun 12, ’11 11:48 PM

I’m in a workshop at Columbia College which gets me right down on Michigan Avenue every weekday. Last Wednesday was free day at the Art Institute of Chicago and I had a great walk through there with my friend Thomas. Here is a video of what it was like.

I was most struck by this Rodin bronze, Head of Pierre de Wissant. The slack-jawed sorrow on his face surprised me when I passed by the case. But I’ll have to come back because I only got a quick look at a case full of these hilarious little bronze heads.

I haven’t been able to articulate for myself what it feels like to see in person the paintings I’ve seen reproduced and riffed on a thousand times before. The closest I can come is that it’s like meeting a celebrity—the thrill of recognition but without any other familiarity.

Nighthawks is beautiful in person, but I didn’t get a long look at it. My sister  used to have print of it hanging in her room when we lived on Billings Avenue. The 10-12 year old me was particularly fascinated with the 5¢ PHILLIES sign and unsettled by the ghastly redhead and skeletal waiter. Seeing it in person I didn’t look at the ghouls at all, only at vibrant area to the right of them. I noticed two details: one of the samovars in empty, and the door has a  single brush stroke for a push plate. Now I feel like all I have is a he’s way shorter than I thought he would be story.

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