Kudos to this year's Infringement performance by TRDC. A rather "quiet" piece compared to the usual hootenanny the cabaret is known for. "The Picture" exposed the hidden history of the infamous, mysterious and utterly divine Dorian Gray, beloved to both Styx, Bono Vox and Motley Crue (according to the word of wisdom wikipedia). I laughed. I laughed. I laughed. I almost cried but somehow it did not become a part of me. But all the same a truly remarkable performance even without the lovely Katie Young (absent at Sunday matinee due to globalization) and her OCD cement monologue. And this year's fashions! Miss Ronawanda you make Miss America look like peat bog. Throw her the towel (jacket)!!!!!
yours truly, sr
Monday, July 31, 2006
Scene Report: Day 4 (Sunday), Part One
Once the Real Dream show ended around 3 pm, I was finally free to get out and start seeing more of the festival. I was still pretty groggy, but I managed to make it to...
Subversations
Even though I was exhausted enough to want to fall asleep the minute I sat down at Squeaky, Brian Fending's long-distance collaboration with Ric Royer was so exciting that I felt totally energized when it was done. The project compiles recordings of 8 people telling stoies from their lives, chops each oral history into tiny chunks, and then recombines them in a random, computer-generated sequence (preserving the beginnings, middles, and endings in that rough order). This might sound really dry and electronic and inaccessibly avant-garde, and you might be expecting a lot of this:
But that only happened during the setup. The actual "performance" looked pretty much like this:
In other words, bare stage, no human interaction whatsoever. I realize that may sound even less appealing than watching a guy twiddle knobs, but trust me: it works, thanks in part to the voices telling the stories, all of whom are endlessly listenable. (The tales themselves seem to have something to do with cross-country travels, orthodox Jews, and a porn version of Tron, among many other things.) The concept owes a bit to the audio experiments of John Cage and Glenn Gould, but the end result is incredibly entertaining. If you're a fan of This American Life, you should love this. (And the producers of that show would be wise to pick up on this project, even if some of the best lines would have to be bleeped out.)
There's another performance of the show this Thursday evening at 7:30 at Squeaky, and Fending is doing a different project on Friday at Squeaky at 8:30. Based on this one, it promises to be interesting.
Palimpsest
Festival PooBah Kurt Schneiderman was sitting next to me during this movement piece at College Street Gallery by Brittany Murchie, and when it was over he raved, "This is exactly what Infringement is all about!" I totally agreed with his comment. Murchie is a relatively young dancer/performer trying out an idea, and that's why the festival exists. She is exploring terrain that many women artists before her have explored--which is why it didn't totally blow me away, but that's no reason why a new generation can't also give this material their own spin (and thank god somebody is still raising the issues Murchie raises in the era of Paris Hilton and Christina Agulera!). I don't want to reveal too much of what goes on, but here's a shot of the opening tableau:
Between this shot and the last one of Subversations, you're probably wondering if there are any human beings in this year's festival, but fear not-- here's Murchie in action:
The movement is impressive, the staging is just plain cool, and the piece has a wonderful soundtrack. I also appreciate the fact that piece is only about 15-20 minutes long; the dance makes its point and then ends without any extraneous filler, and it's a perfect appetizer-sized offering for an action-packed festival. You have several more chances to catch this, and it's well worth the visit.
College Street Block Party
This low-key affair offered free food, a chance to catch up with friends and festival peformers/organizers, and several bands. I caught one punk group (never learned the name) and then saw the Pamplemousse Explosion one more time. Totally different setting and crowd than Merlin's the night before, but once again they delighted the audience. Wish more people could have seen them; hope they come back to town soon. They say they're heading back to Montreal with fond thoughts of Allentown, the festival, and Buffalo in general. Next year we hope to have details on the block party in time to include them in festival materials.
Subversations
Even though I was exhausted enough to want to fall asleep the minute I sat down at Squeaky, Brian Fending's long-distance collaboration with Ric Royer was so exciting that I felt totally energized when it was done. The project compiles recordings of 8 people telling stoies from their lives, chops each oral history into tiny chunks, and then recombines them in a random, computer-generated sequence (preserving the beginnings, middles, and endings in that rough order). This might sound really dry and electronic and inaccessibly avant-garde, and you might be expecting a lot of this:
But that only happened during the setup. The actual "performance" looked pretty much like this:
In other words, bare stage, no human interaction whatsoever. I realize that may sound even less appealing than watching a guy twiddle knobs, but trust me: it works, thanks in part to the voices telling the stories, all of whom are endlessly listenable. (The tales themselves seem to have something to do with cross-country travels, orthodox Jews, and a porn version of Tron, among many other things.) The concept owes a bit to the audio experiments of John Cage and Glenn Gould, but the end result is incredibly entertaining. If you're a fan of This American Life, you should love this. (And the producers of that show would be wise to pick up on this project, even if some of the best lines would have to be bleeped out.)
There's another performance of the show this Thursday evening at 7:30 at Squeaky, and Fending is doing a different project on Friday at Squeaky at 8:30. Based on this one, it promises to be interesting.
Palimpsest
Festival PooBah Kurt Schneiderman was sitting next to me during this movement piece at College Street Gallery by Brittany Murchie, and when it was over he raved, "This is exactly what Infringement is all about!" I totally agreed with his comment. Murchie is a relatively young dancer/performer trying out an idea, and that's why the festival exists. She is exploring terrain that many women artists before her have explored--which is why it didn't totally blow me away, but that's no reason why a new generation can't also give this material their own spin (and thank god somebody is still raising the issues Murchie raises in the era of Paris Hilton and Christina Agulera!). I don't want to reveal too much of what goes on, but here's a shot of the opening tableau:
Between this shot and the last one of Subversations, you're probably wondering if there are any human beings in this year's festival, but fear not-- here's Murchie in action:
The movement is impressive, the staging is just plain cool, and the piece has a wonderful soundtrack. I also appreciate the fact that piece is only about 15-20 minutes long; the dance makes its point and then ends without any extraneous filler, and it's a perfect appetizer-sized offering for an action-packed festival. You have several more chances to catch this, and it's well worth the visit.
College Street Block Party
This low-key affair offered free food, a chance to catch up with friends and festival peformers/organizers, and several bands. I caught one punk group (never learned the name) and then saw the Pamplemousse Explosion one more time. Totally different setting and crowd than Merlin's the night before, but once again they delighted the audience. Wish more people could have seen them; hope they come back to town soon. They say they're heading back to Montreal with fond thoughts of Allentown, the festival, and Buffalo in general. Next year we hope to have details on the block party in time to include them in festival materials.
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Reviews, previews, and other festival talk
Here's another space for you to add your two cents. Just click on the word "comments" below.
The Real Dream Cabaret's "The Picture"
Hey all - Lynn here with a very quick report on a show I saw yesterday:
"The Picture" presented by the Real Dram Cabaret: it's their interpretation of the book "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde. Admission to the show is your hourly wage and it was well worth every hard-earned cent. I traded an hour of my work for an hour of theirs - I have to say I think they work much harder than I do though and their work is truly so much more enjoyable!
I never did read the book they adapted and now I think I never shall. While it was a rather loose interpretation, I'll still happily consider this show as my Cliff notes. If only all the books on my highschool reading list could've been this much fun! "The Picture" was just so creative and laugh out loud funny...there was some really beautiful singing, dancing, all manner of costume changes, a magic cat, even candy and jello shots...and oh, so much more...
Well, you'll just have to go see for yourself, but do it today - their last show is at 2 pm.
Now I'm off to see The Pamplemousse Explosion at Nietzsche's...
"The Picture" presented by the Real Dram Cabaret: it's their interpretation of the book "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde. Admission to the show is your hourly wage and it was well worth every hard-earned cent. I traded an hour of my work for an hour of theirs - I have to say I think they work much harder than I do though and their work is truly so much more enjoyable!
I never did read the book they adapted and now I think I never shall. While it was a rather loose interpretation, I'll still happily consider this show as my Cliff notes. If only all the books on my highschool reading list could've been this much fun! "The Picture" was just so creative and laugh out loud funny...there was some really beautiful singing, dancing, all manner of costume changes, a magic cat, even candy and jello shots...and oh, so much more...
Well, you'll just have to go see for yourself, but do it today - their last show is at 2 pm.
Now I'm off to see The Pamplemousse Explosion at Nietzsche's...
Saturday, July 29, 2006
The Pamplemousse Explosion
As Anthony Chase suggests in his Artvoice story on the festival, Infringement can be a chance to broaden your horizons, move outside your safety zone, etc. And so it was that for the first time in my 25 years of living in Buffalo, I found myself inside Merlin's tonight.
I was there to see the Pamplemousse Explosion, a Montreal band that came highly recommended by uber-Infringer Jason of Car Stories. Truly had no idea what to expect, and I was very pleasantly surprised by what I saw and heard: keyboard and drum duo (Anna Luisa Daigneault and Sam Vipond) playing a very catchy batch of musically sophisticated cabaret-ish art songs with a jazz vibe that sometimes took a turn toward punk/hardcore in intensity (well, as hardcore as you can get with electric piano as one of your main instruments). I thought at times of both Bjork and Zappa, though mostly I just enjoyed their thoroughly unique sound, peppered as it was with little flourishes of Tibetan chanting, funny mouth noises, and eccentric lyrics about eggs, dinosaurs, visitors from the future, and other surreal subjects. In less confident hands, this might get annoying or pretentious pretty quickly, but TPE have a wonderfully down-to-earth quality about them, and a playful sense of humor--to say nothing of some killer melodies--and they utterly charmed the small but enthusiastic audience in this legendary biker bar. Here's the obligatory crappy cell phone shot:
They are also playing the musical brunch at Nietzsche's on Sunday (July 30) at 2 p.m., and rumor has it they might appear elsewhere in town while they're around, too. If you like well-crafted, off-the-beaten-path music, you'd be wise to seek them out before they return to their native land.
Or maybe visit their MySpace page for some audio clips, and hope they return, soon.
I was there to see the Pamplemousse Explosion, a Montreal band that came highly recommended by uber-Infringer Jason of Car Stories. Truly had no idea what to expect, and I was very pleasantly surprised by what I saw and heard: keyboard and drum duo (Anna Luisa Daigneault and Sam Vipond) playing a very catchy batch of musically sophisticated cabaret-ish art songs with a jazz vibe that sometimes took a turn toward punk/hardcore in intensity (well, as hardcore as you can get with electric piano as one of your main instruments). I thought at times of both Bjork and Zappa, though mostly I just enjoyed their thoroughly unique sound, peppered as it was with little flourishes of Tibetan chanting, funny mouth noises, and eccentric lyrics about eggs, dinosaurs, visitors from the future, and other surreal subjects. In less confident hands, this might get annoying or pretentious pretty quickly, but TPE have a wonderfully down-to-earth quality about them, and a playful sense of humor--to say nothing of some killer melodies--and they utterly charmed the small but enthusiastic audience in this legendary biker bar. Here's the obligatory crappy cell phone shot:
They are also playing the musical brunch at Nietzsche's on Sunday (July 30) at 2 p.m., and rumor has it they might appear elsewhere in town while they're around, too. If you like well-crafted, off-the-beaten-path music, you'd be wise to seek them out before they return to their native land.
Or maybe visit their MySpace page for some audio clips, and hope they return, soon.
Scene Report: Day 1 (Thursday)
I will do my best to post report on shows I see throughout the festival, and I invite you to do the same. If you want to file regular reports like these yourself, email ronehmke@hotmail.com and I will send you an invite from Blogger so you can do so anytime you like. You can also just email me your reports and I'll post them for you as soon as I am able.
I've been so busy with the show I am part of that I haven't seen too much other stuff yet, and I probably won't get a chance to do any heavy-duty festival going until we wrap up ours on Sunday afternoon. However, I did check out one of the plays sharing the space at Squeaky Wheel with us: Morphine Hearts' production of Matt LaChiusa's Fred's Requiem, which runs off and on through August 4. (FYI and BTW, another show running at Squeaky now is Scott Kurchak's My Life as an Ape, which got some blog comments by several people last year.)
Requiem is an ambitious play for the festival and the space: about an hour and a half long, with a cast of eleven. It unfolds as a series of two- and three-character vignettes (many of which could probably stand on their own as self-contained mini-dramas), capped with one piece featuring most of the cast onstage at the same time. As always, my blurry cell phone photos don't do it justice, but here's a quick glimpse:
For a play that centers around a funeral, there's a lot of humor here (though I wouldn't exactly call the show a comedy, per se), and it's fun figuring out the various interconnections between the characters, who span three generations of working-class Buffalo.
Tried to make it to La Tee Da for the 10-11 pm Happy Hour, but it was not to be, so instead I stopped by Soundlab for the Kick Off Party. I was mainly there between acts, and most of the decent-sized crowd was outside, which gave me a chance to catch up with 2 of the acts who drove down from Montreal: Car Stories (which has a different cast and storyline this year) and The Pamplemousse Explosion. Jason from Car Stories (he's one of the founders of the Infringement movement) tells me that Buffalo's may well be the largest festival on the circuit this year.
Back inside, I caught a snippet of Axis of Evil, whose elaborate setup apparently involved four carloads of equipment,including a bicycle wired for sound:
Had a long day ahead of me the next day (which involved no festival-going beyond the Dream Cabaret), so I headed home. But the hoppin' scene outside Soundlab--punctuated by spontaneous percussion and singing by performers and audience members--was a sign that festival season is back, and not a moment too soon.
Amount spent on admissions for the evening (2 shows total): $5
I've been so busy with the show I am part of that I haven't seen too much other stuff yet, and I probably won't get a chance to do any heavy-duty festival going until we wrap up ours on Sunday afternoon. However, I did check out one of the plays sharing the space at Squeaky Wheel with us: Morphine Hearts' production of Matt LaChiusa's Fred's Requiem, which runs off and on through August 4. (FYI and BTW, another show running at Squeaky now is Scott Kurchak's My Life as an Ape, which got some blog comments by several people last year.)
Requiem is an ambitious play for the festival and the space: about an hour and a half long, with a cast of eleven. It unfolds as a series of two- and three-character vignettes (many of which could probably stand on their own as self-contained mini-dramas), capped with one piece featuring most of the cast onstage at the same time. As always, my blurry cell phone photos don't do it justice, but here's a quick glimpse:
For a play that centers around a funeral, there's a lot of humor here (though I wouldn't exactly call the show a comedy, per se), and it's fun figuring out the various interconnections between the characters, who span three generations of working-class Buffalo.
Tried to make it to La Tee Da for the 10-11 pm Happy Hour, but it was not to be, so instead I stopped by Soundlab for the Kick Off Party. I was mainly there between acts, and most of the decent-sized crowd was outside, which gave me a chance to catch up with 2 of the acts who drove down from Montreal: Car Stories (which has a different cast and storyline this year) and The Pamplemousse Explosion. Jason from Car Stories (he's one of the founders of the Infringement movement) tells me that Buffalo's may well be the largest festival on the circuit this year.
Back inside, I caught a snippet of Axis of Evil, whose elaborate setup apparently involved four carloads of equipment,including a bicycle wired for sound:
Had a long day ahead of me the next day (which involved no festival-going beyond the Dream Cabaret), so I headed home. But the hoppin' scene outside Soundlab--punctuated by spontaneous percussion and singing by performers and audience members--was a sign that festival season is back, and not a moment too soon.
Amount spent on admissions for the evening (2 shows total): $5
Friday, July 28, 2006
Art on Porches 2006
We got an email about this the other day. It's not a festival event, but it's during the same period and is certainly in the communitywide/DIY spirit of Infringement:
We are a small neighborhood art-festival in the Richardson Towers Community on the upper west side in Buffalo. This is the 4th year that we will promote local artists and showcase our neighborhood. You can find more info on our website. We have around 30 artists participating this year. They will set up on porches throughout the neighborhood on Saturday, August 5th from 11-5 pm.
We are a small neighborhood art-festival in the Richardson Towers Community on the upper west side in Buffalo. This is the 4th year that we will promote local artists and showcase our neighborhood. You can find more info on our website. We have around 30 artists participating this year. They will set up on porches throughout the neighborhood on Saturday, August 5th from 11-5 pm.
Could you see the Forest for the Trees?
Does anyone know if the street theater project Can You See the Forest for the Trees? actually took place Friday evening? It was poring down where I was at 7; I drove by the intersection of Elmwood and Forest at 8 but didn't see anything going on.
Calling all bodies!
Curt Bish of The Body Beautiful wrote to say he is looking for more bodies to beautify:
I will be located on the Nickel City CO-OP front porch (Phone 882-6003)
as I proceed to PAINT ON SATURDAY FROM 9 AM to NOON to 5 PM (for colors)
in support of my "The Body Beautiful" project.
We then parade onward to Rust Belt Books at 5pm & New Phoenix at 6:30pm; on Saturday the 29th, as scheduled, if I have enough people to paint. I am asking for help in rounding up anyone who may agree to be partially painted as contestants or as part of their own performances. Nudity is NOT involved. This is now an arms, shoulders, neck & face painting with non-toxic theatrical paints.
This could also mean that the theatrical make-up painting might possibly be available during the remainder of the Festival until August 6th. Though not as a scheduled performance, just an improvised drop-in & make-up gig.
I will be located on the Nickel City CO-OP front porch (Phone 882-6003)
as I proceed to PAINT ON SATURDAY FROM 9 AM to NOON to 5 PM (for colors)
in support of my "The Body Beautiful" project.
We then parade onward to Rust Belt Books at 5pm & New Phoenix at 6:30pm; on Saturday the 29th, as scheduled, if I have enough people to paint. I am asking for help in rounding up anyone who may agree to be partially painted as contestants or as part of their own performances. Nudity is NOT involved. This is now an arms, shoulders, neck & face painting with non-toxic theatrical paints.
This could also mean that the theatrical make-up painting might possibly be available during the remainder of the Festival until August 6th. Though not as a scheduled performance, just an improvised drop-in & make-up gig.
College Street Block Party this Sunday
The folks on College Street sent us this. If you're in Allentown for the festival on Sunday afternoon, stop by...
4th Annual College Street Block Party
Sunday July 30th, 2-8 pm
College Street (between Allen & Maryland)
LIVE MUSIC FOOD AND FUN
BRING A CHAIR AND SOMETHING TO SHARE
RAINDATE: August 6th
for more info: 716-882-9727
With a little help from Holley Farms, Flying Bison, Tops Markets The Meating Place and Washington Street Market.
4th Annual College Street Block Party
Sunday July 30th, 2-8 pm
College Street (between Allen & Maryland)
LIVE MUSIC FOOD AND FUN
BRING A CHAIR AND SOMETHING TO SHARE
RAINDATE: August 6th
for more info: 716-882-9727
With a little help from Holley Farms, Flying Bison, Tops Markets The Meating Place and Washington Street Market.
Aesthetic Meltdown: Help make a living documentary
Submitted by Jim at Gallery 141B:
Stop by Gallery 141B (141B Elmwood (in back, to the right) most weekday evenings and weekend afternoons/evenings during the festival and become part of a documentary about the whole event. Add your 2 cents about INfringe art/life/culture. You can talk about a show you've seen, one you're in, or the festival itself.
Click here for a list of times the gallery is open and more info on the project.
Stop by Gallery 141B (141B Elmwood (in back, to the right) most weekday evenings and weekend afternoons/evenings during the festival and become part of a documentary about the whole event. Add your 2 cents about INfringe art/life/culture. You can talk about a show you've seen, one you're in, or the festival itself.
Click here for a list of times the gallery is open and more info on the project.
Car Stories looking for Buffalo players
Got a request to post this from our pals in Montreal (who are now back in Buffalo). If you have something you want to post here, email it to ronehmke @ hotmail.com, minus the spaces.
Montreal's longest-running theatrical experiment is returning to the Buffalo infringement festival and playing Friday, July 28th and Saturday, July 29th, between 7pm and 10pm and Sunday, July 30th, between 2pm and 5pm, with a new show leaving from Mulligan's Brick Bar every 30 minutes.
We're looking for local players to join our group and be a part of this highly interactive theatrical experiment.
If you're interested, please e-mail optativelabs@yahoo.ca. If you have a car that holds at least 3 people and would like to let us use it in the show, please let us know that, too.
For more on the project, please visit our site.
Montreal's longest-running theatrical experiment is returning to the Buffalo infringement festival and playing Friday, July 28th and Saturday, July 29th, between 7pm and 10pm and Sunday, July 30th, between 2pm and 5pm, with a new show leaving from Mulligan's Brick Bar every 30 minutes.
We're looking for local players to join our group and be a part of this highly interactive theatrical experiment.
If you're interested, please e-mail optativelabs@yahoo.ca. If you have a car that holds at least 3 people and would like to let us use it in the show, please let us know that, too.
For more on the project, please visit our site.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Day One and beyond: your thoughts?
After 6 months of planning, the festival is a reality! The first wave of shows begins in multiple locations at once at 7 p.m. tonight.
Using this blog can be glitch-y sometimes, so I will be creating little spaces like this one every few days to allow folks to post reviews, previews, candid thoughts, and other feedback about the festival as a whole and/or individual events within it. You don't need to join Blogger or be a member of this blog to post a comment yourself in spaces like these. Just click on the word "comments" (immediately beneath the words you're reading right now) and type away.
Take it away, infringers!
Using this blog can be glitch-y sometimes, so I will be creating little spaces like this one every few days to allow folks to post reviews, previews, candid thoughts, and other feedback about the festival as a whole and/or individual events within it. You don't need to join Blogger or be a member of this blog to post a comment yourself in spaces like these. Just click on the word "comments" (immediately beneath the words you're reading right now) and type away.
Take it away, infringers!
Thursday, July 20, 2006
What's on your personal Must-See list?
Now that the complete schedule of events for the 2006 festival is available, what shows and other projects are you most interested in seeing? Post your picks in the comments section below.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Infringement on the air
1. Catch a segment on Infringement 06 during Off Beat Cinema on Channel 7 in Buffalo this Friday night/early Saturday morning. Not 100% when the show is airing--some sources say 1 a.m., others 2, and even 2:30 a.m. So stay up all night until you spot us!
2. And here is an hourlong MP3 of the WHLD show "speakEasy" about the festival recorded last Saturday, July 15. The first 10 minutes or so is general announcements about things going on around town, then host Theresa Baker interviews Kurt Schneiderman and your humble blogger here about the festival. After that, the cast of Tim McPeek's play The Staircase provide a sneak preview of their show in radio-drama form.
3. There will be another segment on the festival on ''Crossroads'' on Adelphia Channel 13, Wednesday, July 26 between 3 and 4 p.m.
2. And here is an hourlong MP3 of the WHLD show "speakEasy" about the festival recorded last Saturday, July 15. The first 10 minutes or so is general announcements about things going on around town, then host Theresa Baker interviews Kurt Schneiderman and your humble blogger here about the festival. After that, the cast of Tim McPeek's play The Staircase provide a sneak preview of their show in radio-drama form.
3. There will be another segment on the festival on ''Crossroads'' on Adelphia Channel 13, Wednesday, July 26 between 3 and 4 p.m.
Monday, July 17, 2006
Rehearsal stories?
Festival artists: anyone care to report on how rehearsals are going for your show? Post your behind-the-scenes sagas in the comments section below.
Ron E.
PS.: To create a post of your own here--as opposed to commenting on an existing post like this one--you have to receive and reply to an invitation from Blogger. I'll be sending these out to interested festival artists as soon as I can, but if you can't wait, you can just email your post to me (ronehmke@hotmail.com) and I will add it for you.
Ron E.
PS.: To create a post of your own here--as opposed to commenting on an existing post like this one--you have to receive and reply to an invitation from Blogger. I'll be sending these out to interested festival artists as soon as I can, but if you can't wait, you can just email your post to me (ronehmke@hotmail.com) and I will add it for you.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Preview party recap
Just got home a while ago from the preview party at Nietzsche's, during which ...
(in no particular order)
1. Julian Montague's stunning festival brochure was unveiled,
2. various festival acts gave one-minute sales pitches for their shows (one of which involved some rather lovely aluminum foil headgear),
3. Annette Daniels Taylor gave us a great glimpse of her talent with a few a capella numbers and poem/stories,
4. Paul Kozlowski and one of his many collaborators stopped the show with some virtuoso guitar (up to now I'd only seen him play electronic instruments--always a treat, but this was incredible--even if he did use a stack of our brand-new brochures as a foot stool!),
5. Lonesome Tom wowed us with his "Wild One" solo tribute to rockabilly greats (sadly, this excellent act really was kinda lonesome, because most everyone was still in the front of the bar while he played the back),
6. and a bunch of us handed out flyers for our shows to each other, met each other for the first time (or the thousandth), and vowed to see each other's work.
The whole thing got me right back in that delightful frame of mind from last summer, when the festival was at its peak and it was clear that all the months of work so many people have put into this festival have been worth it.
Okay, my list is just a cursory and highly personal one. I'm leaving out many, many acts that I didn't see, and maybe someone will describe them in a comment to this post. Many thanks to all the folks who loaned their talents to the evening, and especially to Matt LaChiusa for organizing and hosting this intimate extravaganza.
(in no particular order)
1. Julian Montague's stunning festival brochure was unveiled,
2. various festival acts gave one-minute sales pitches for their shows (one of which involved some rather lovely aluminum foil headgear),
3. Annette Daniels Taylor gave us a great glimpse of her talent with a few a capella numbers and poem/stories,
4. Paul Kozlowski and one of his many collaborators stopped the show with some virtuoso guitar (up to now I'd only seen him play electronic instruments--always a treat, but this was incredible--even if he did use a stack of our brand-new brochures as a foot stool!),
5. Lonesome Tom wowed us with his "Wild One" solo tribute to rockabilly greats (sadly, this excellent act really was kinda lonesome, because most everyone was still in the front of the bar while he played the back),
6. and a bunch of us handed out flyers for our shows to each other, met each other for the first time (or the thousandth), and vowed to see each other's work.
The whole thing got me right back in that delightful frame of mind from last summer, when the festival was at its peak and it was clear that all the months of work so many people have put into this festival have been worth it.
Okay, my list is just a cursory and highly personal one. I'm leaving out many, many acts that I didn't see, and maybe someone will describe them in a comment to this post. Many thanks to all the folks who loaned their talents to the evening, and especially to Matt LaChiusa for organizing and hosting this intimate extravaganza.
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Crash: it's not just a movie.
This year's festival features 13 acts from out of town, and we're trying to find lodging for several of them. If you've got a little extra space to offer to one or more people, click here to join the "Crash-Buffalo" Yahoo group, which is designed to connect traveling Infringers with a place to stay. It's a great way to support the festival and support a working artist at the same time.
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Infringement Preview Party: July 12 @ Nietzsche's
Get a sneak preview of the 2006 festival!
Sample upcoming shows and grab a copy of the full event schedule hot off the presses!
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
from 8 p.m.-1 a.m.
@ Nietzsche's
248 Allen St., Buffalo, NY
Just $5 to get in, and all the cash goes to support the festival!
music by
WILD ONE; Lonesome Tom; Tori Sparks: Praying For Oblivion;
Gabe Mayer; MC Vendetta; Paul Kozlowski & Dave Phillips.
+performances from the 2006 Infringement Festival by
Annette Daniels Taylor; Lara Grinchelle;
Locust Sympathizers; Exercises in Blasphemy.
+more!
Interested in performing? Contact Matthew LaChiusa at (716)884-4858 or email MLACHIUSA@AOL.COM.
Sample upcoming shows and grab a copy of the full event schedule hot off the presses!
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
from 8 p.m.-1 a.m.
@ Nietzsche's
248 Allen St., Buffalo, NY
Just $5 to get in, and all the cash goes to support the festival!
music by
WILD ONE; Lonesome Tom; Tori Sparks: Praying For Oblivion;
Gabe Mayer; MC Vendetta; Paul Kozlowski & Dave Phillips.
+performances from the 2006 Infringement Festival by
Annette Daniels Taylor; Lara Grinchelle;
Locust Sympathizers; Exercises in Blasphemy.
+more!
Interested in performing? Contact Matthew LaChiusa at (716)884-4858 or email MLACHIUSA@AOL.COM.
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