Scene report: Day nine

I cannot tell a lie: after a long workweek, finding the weather unexpectedly pleasant, I came very close to sitting out one of the biggest nights of the festival--and knew I would regret it if I did. Still, I made time to listen to this 1985 interview with the late Merce Cunningham and this one with John Cage from the same year on Fresh Air while working on a fresh batch of Self-Infringement instructions. It's pretty safe to say there would be no Infringement without these two fearless pioneers of Art Under the Radar, and I wish there was some way to salute them during the festival. So: "saaaaaaa-LUTE!," as they used to say on Hee-Haw.

After a quick stop at Rust Belt, I paid a quick return visit to Mrs. Squandertime, who was back in action after taking a night or two of rest. I see she has company in the window of 224 Allen now, too, in the form of a witty computer installation called eyeMacs (by another of my WoyUbu colleagues--represent, y'all!):



One window over is another cool-looking digital project whose name escapes me, but I'm told it's the work of 224's owner. There's an interactive component, and if I remember, I'll add more details about that here later:



I got to the Albright-Knox just in time to miss all of the Infringement festivities in Gusto at the Gallery, but I heard good reports from many people about the poetry and the dance. I did manage to make my way through the museum's two current exhibitions, one devoted to (allegedly) "subversive" work in the permanent collection and the other a lovely tribute to Ed Ruscha, another of those precursors who gave everybody else permission to do weird stuff in the name of Art. Walking around the upstairs galleries gave me a nice opportunity to think about how "subversive" work bubbles up from spaces like most of the other venues in BIF into mainstream cultural institutions like the AKAG about 20-30 years later, or doesn't, and how sometimes lately that process is sped up by a couple of decades. Some subversion gets forgotten after a good night's sleep, and some ends up accompanied by a child-friendly wall text in a major American museum. My tour of the show also gave me yet another chance to marvel at just how much money Matthew Barney makes for his often gorgeous, always completely hermetic jibberjabber. Plus, he gets to date Bjork!

While I saw no actual BIF work at the Albright, I consider the costumes of Euphraxia and Red Moon to be art objects in themselves, not so far off from Barney's elaborate getups. The dancers looked astounding in the bright lights just outside the museum's entrance. Because I am not David Lynch, I lack the ability to take a photo of them that captures the surreal glory of the moment:



Headed from the AKAG to Days Park for the first of three performances this weekend by Pyromance. I shot video of their fire dance, but haven't yet figured out how to upload it, so you'll just have to get to the park Saturday or Sunday to see them in action. (They promise a new show every night, so go early and often.) While waiting for them to set up, I ran down to La Tee Da to catch another snippet of Pho Malpica, which is shaping up to be the word-of-mouth hit of BIF09. I escorted the newly arrived cast of Car Stories to it, and then crossed paths with them again later during the aptly named Yet Another Cool Showcase at Nietzsche's. I was very happy that I got to catch ROJOMOJO's set: straightforward blues, an excellent country-flavored original (something about the grass being bluer on my side--I don't remember the chorus, but it was a damned catchy song), and covers of Marvin Gaye and James Taylor, all performed without a shred of rockstar pretense. Anybody who thinks Infringement is nothing but bizarre, out-there oddness (not that there's anything wrong with that!) is missing the fuller picture: it's a celebration of homegrown creativity in all its manifestations, from Cunningham-influenced weirdness to feel-good party music.

To coin a phrase, it's all good.

Phó Malpica: The Last White Elephant

I had originally planned to attend several Infringement performances yesterday, but due to my own over- booked schedule, was only able to attend one. And, to be honest, I think it's probably the best "piece" I've seen at Infringement 2009.

It's called, "Phó Malpica: The last White Elephant", and it's taking place every evening, at 10:30, in the alley next to La Tee Da. Every, single evening, rain or shine.

Creator, Angela Lopez, brings to life this story, in a way I have never seen a piece done before. I don't want to spoil it, because it's short, emotional, textured, fresh, and intense. And, it's something you should experience, live. But, I will include some photos I shot, to give you a bit of an 'appetizer'.

The Iffys are back!

In time-honored INfringement Festival style, we invite you once again to help us recognize excellence throughout the most excellent 11 days of the year by means of THE IFFY AWARDS, the ultimate DIY awards for the ultimate DIY festival.

Simply head over to Rust Belt Books (202 Allen) anytime between now and Sunday afternoon and look for the Iffys Box. Reach in to the front part, grab a paper plate, and write down BOTH a category AND a winner, then put the plate in the back part of the box. (These are not nominations, these are the actual awards, so please write clearly and be sure to include both category and winner or you will be made fun of at the awards ceremony.)

If you're too lazy or too busy to do that, you can also post your category and winner in the comments section below.

Then head over to the Closing Night Party on Sunday at Nietzsche's, which starts at 7 PM. The awards are usually given out within about an hour of that time, and the party continues till the wee hours.

Infringement Film Festival @ Sugar City, Tuesday night

Not sure how to write about this one; I've been putting it off for the last two days. Here are a few thoughts:

1. Arrived midway through Ghostlights, the LaChiusa brothers' and Bob Kupczyk's doc about the ghosts allegedly haunting several WNY theaters. Knew a lot of the interview subjects, which helped me think that the film's greatest interest lies in its unstated subtext: a portrait of a closeknit local arts community and the way stories travel from one part of it to another.

2. A Grim Touch, a comic short about the Grim Reaper's newest employee, may have a one-joke premise and a lot of telltale student-film traits, but it got me to laugh a time or two.

3. Lord knows both of these, for their own reasons, are good fits with Zombie Loves Vampire, possibly my favorite project title in this year's festival. Plot's pretty self-explanatory. Really nice camerawork and lighting, especially for a $400 15-minute opus.

4. Between those last two came Wasted Talent: The Neighbors from Hell. I'd seen a few (okay, TWO) minutes of this in the Samples @ Sample press preview event, and that pretty much covered the highlights. Wanted to like it, because the filmmaker seemed like a nice/bright guy, and ya always wanna encourage the younguns, but I gotta say, the full length version upset me like nothing I've seen in any Infringement past or present. I looked hard for anything resembling art in the movie, but after a nicely animated prologue, it just looks like a blatant ripoff of Jackass stringing together a bunch of particularly mean pranks, many of them involving guns, car air bags, weaponized body waste, and/or other quasi-legal acts of vandalism, in an especially incoherent way. (VERY hard to tell what the hell is going on in most of the segments.) I couldn't find anything very funny about most of them, and when the handful of other people in the audience laughed at a bit in which one of the exploding air bags is detonated on a bike path purely to scare the hell out of an unsuspecting passerby, I got pissed off. I wanted to yell, "How would you feel if you were the guy on the bike?" What's the point of all this?

I was fuming the rest of the night, and at one point it hit me: at least since high school, I've seen DIY art--and music, and movies, and humor--as one of the main refuges of the meek against the bullies of the world. Wasted Talent puts the camera in the hands of the bully. Thanks, YouTube!

4a. I don't even want to complain about the movie, because I have a sinking feeling its maker takes every negative review as a badge of honor, as if he's really sticking it to the Powers That Be. He's not. It's an incoherent mess. A big part of what annoys me so much about this thing is the title. I know the guy is young, but rather than joking about how he's wasted his talent, he might want to think about convincing us he has talent, and then do something with it. Life is too short, and art too important, to dick around, no matter how young you are.

5. You know it's a special kind of night when the work that moves me the most comes from the notorious Josh Strauss. If you know the guy, you won't be surprised to learn that his performance on this particular evening consisted of showing part of a German bondage porn tape, then random excerpts from a vast stack of DVDs strewn all over the floor, before settling on The Lucky Strike Revolution, a short in which we are treated to a man taking a dump in a ... dumpster. But I'll be damned if the film doesn't also contain some incredibly beautiful shots (often of incredibly ugly things). A provocateur in the tradition of Buffalo's own Paul Sharits and the late great Jack Smith, his work is absolutely not for everyone. Most of it is not for me. And yet, I have no problem finding an aesthetic at work in it.

6. Uh, guys, any chance you might all want to loosen up a little on using the word "bitch" every two seconds? I know everyone does it these days, and you're gonna tell me that it's not sexist anymore, that it's just a word, but that's bullshit, bitches.

Tail End of Wednesday

VERY long day of work, etc., but I did make the effort to end my day with a few Infringement events.
First (well, it didn't really feel FIRST), off to Soundlab at 10 for the last show of "Oscar and the Hooker" which was described as a short musical one act about the adventures of a young man in a downturned economy. This was written/scripted/produced by Evan Courtin, who I am familiar with from Peanut Brittle Satellite. A number of musicians (many from the band), a handful of actors, and a very familiar narrator collaborated on executing this piece.
Either these guys have a lot of friends, or word-of-mouth was good, because the place was packed.
The music was very good; serious, almost orchestral. Contrast the play; a silly/sophmoric romp that was unfortunately a little difficult to hear. In any event; well-received.
I headed over to Burnwood for the end of their acoustic showcase. I was actually planning on being there briefly, more a nod to the venue (which I adore) than anything else.
I arrived mid-set for Janna Willoughby. We all may know her better as MC Vendetta, or as a member of the Blood Thirsty Vegans (who I caught for ABOUT 30 seconds earlier this week doing a drive-by during the Lawn Disco). I remember seeing her 2 years ago doing some more traditional poetry, and was struck by the ability of her non-persona persona.
Once again. Although she confessed she had not practiced in awhile (with the resultant stress on her callus-free fingers), she moved from song to song with an easy familiarity that illustrates her versatility. Lovely work.
Next (and last) Claire Fornarola. Obligated to stay for this show, as Claire has been helping me out as one of the venue czars over @ Nobody's. I was feeling pretty comfy in one of Burnwood's generous couches. Claire is currently pairing with a young man whose name I unfortunately forget, but will find out soon as they are planning on continuing to work together.
Wow!
I had seen Claire play before, but tonight was truly special. I must admit a weakness for singer-songwriters who can not only make pretty music, but are adept wordsmiths as well. I think she's got a future. The venue really suits her, as well. The bats were out to play.

Brazen-Faced Varlets: And now for something COMPLETELY different

No full-fledged Scene Report today, since I only had the time/energy for one BIF event. But even it was two--two!--shows in one, so there.

By my thoroughly unscientific estimation, Buffalo Infringement is now (and for the last two or three years) about two-thirds music acts, which is fine by me, since a lot of them interest me and the mix of art forms is absolutely true to the vibe of WNY. But my heart will always be with the kind of theater that was the (or at least an) original focus of the festival, both here and elsewhere. Amazingly, I hadn't been to a single sit-down play till today, and that just didn't feel right.



There was no way I was gonna miss the latest Brazen-Faced Varlets show if I could help it, and the news that they'd be performing an early play of Holly Hughes's sealed the deal. I've been a fan of this (primarily) lesbian-focussed theater company since the first time I saw them, in the 2006 festival doing Ramona and Juliet, and one of my companions at the show tonight reminded me that I first met Holly 23 (!) years ago, when I brought her and other members of WOW Cafe (some of them members of the original cast of The Well of Horniness) to Hallwalls. A marriage made in heaven, assuming heaven is more welcoming of same-sex alliances than we mortals appear to be.

You'll notice I've used the name of the group as the subject line and haven't even mentioned the title of the show yet. That's because "HERstrionics! A HERstorical and HERsterical Hour of Homosexuality" is a clunker of an omnibus name that I doubt many people can remember. All you need to know is that this is the latest group undertaking by one of Buffalo's finest ensembles.

Well, you should probably also know that they're working outside their, and their audience's, comfort zone this time. If you've seen either of their two Shakespeare de-/re-constructions (or, I assume, Catholic School Girls, which I missed), you know they're collectively blessed with terrific comic timing. Apparently they're feeling comedy is too limiting, because they've paired Hughes's ultra-broad (pun not intended but appropriate) soap opera parody with--brace yourself--Kim Yaged's ultra-serious, ultra-didactic one-act about the fate of lesbians in the Holocaust. I'm hard pressed to think of two plays that have less in common; the only link I can think of is the fact that both playwrights love to play with language--but let's face it, Hughes's way with words, even in an intentionally tossed off sketch like this (it was born as an ongoing serial for WOW's teensy club/theater in the East Village in the early 80s) is on an entirely different level than Yaged's in Vessels.

OK, so the other connecting thread is that they're both well performed. Vessels does showcase the talents of three of the four main Varlets, Heather Fangsrud, Kelly M. Beuth, and Lara Haberberger. (Katie White is otherwise engaged with Shakespeare in the Park this summer, though her spirit does make a kind of cameo I won't spoil.) They each embody aspects of The Lesbian Experience in the Weimar Era (and yes, the script pretty much obliges them to describe themselves in roughly that way) in a loosely plotted tale that is undeniably moving, but so heavy-handed that you feel like it's straight out of a Women's Studies conference from the mid-70s. I'm glad someone has documented the period, and there are some powerful parallels to the current era in the play's observations on the price of apathy in the face of totalitarianism, but this is the kind of art that feels like it's Good for You, like eating your vegetables, rather than the kind of art that shakes you to the core and transforms the way you live, which is what I suspect it aspires to do.

Hughes's raunchy Well of Horniness doesn't set out to change anyone's life, either, but one never knows--its shoestring aesthetic and anything-goes spirit just might inspire another generation or two of young queer theater artists, as it has been doing for the last two decades. (When I first encountered Holly's work, it felt like a huge breath of fresh air after years of plays like Vessels.) (I realize my continually pitting these two playwrights against each other violates the non-competitive nature of both art and feminism, but the juxtaposition wasn't my idea in the first place.) The core trio is joined by Bethany Sparacio (a born Varlet herself) and Amelia Kraatz (a worthy grounding force for the "herstrionics" of the others, as she's used here) in a show tailor-made for this cast's considerable gifts. Everybody plays multiple roles, and plays them with irresistible energy. I won't bother you with the plot; trust me, it's not really the point, just a springboard for all manner of hilarity. (Obligatory disclaimer to non-homos of either gender: you absolutely do not have to be a member of the "Tri-Bad" sorority to laugh your ass off here.)

Ah, hilarity and the Holocaust: what a double bill! I don't mean to hate on the serious half; I'm sure its content will be a revelation to many audience members, and I can't fault the company for venturing beyond what they do best. (Besides, it's only thirty minutes long.) But when a certain phone call arrives half an hour into the proceedings and the tone changes radically, allowing the Varlets to do that voodoo that they do so well, I think you'll agree that a good belly laugh is sometimes more subversive than a heartfelt lecture.

PS. Exciting news! More Brazen-Faced Hughes ahead, since the company's next production has Haberberger directing Beuth in the monologue Clit Notes at Rust Belt, Oct. 1-10.

Photos - Days 3 & 4

"Far Away" // Spiritwind Internal Arts // "The Hairy Ape" // The Miraculous Rhythms of Sankofa // Bob Z // "the GREAT SHINER'S show" // The Bloody Noes

Chris chimes in: the first 3 days

I'm not sure how or why Chris Uebbing's Scene Report ended up as a comment to an empty post by somebody else, but it's too good to miss, so I'm reposting it for her here. -- Ron E

My first comment is related to my rusty brain's inability to start my own topic...

More importantly, a summary of the last 3 days...

Friday (opening night), I made a point of getting to Nietzche's early to see Dotson Moon. Friends of a friend, I'd listened/quite liked much of their stuff from their MySpace page, but hadn't seen them play.I believe they come out of hiding only for Infringement.

They've had an addition of a very strong vocalist since I'd listened much,which has altered their focus. Used have a dreamy, ambient-pop sound; things are earthier and more accessible now.

Glad I made the effort.

Friday was busy. I started over at the 464 Gallery on Amherst, a new venue for BiF this year. This is part of the Blackrock contingent that also includes the Yard near Buff State. I needed to put name to face with Marcus Wise, who owns 464.

This was the opening event for the MINDWEB members show, plus Abnormal Growth #s 1 & 2. I was particularily struck by Marcus's photos, some fibre-based sculptures, and one-of-a-kind painted furniture pieces.

I stayed for the first few songs by Android's Dream. They started with "Me and my Rythym Box" which was covered from an early 80's cult/sci fi flick "Liquid Sky." I am quite certain I was the only one in the audience who had seen this movie in the theatre on first-release. Meagan Breen had the appropriate dead-pan delivery which I found very amusing.

Had to leave to bring the neccessary cheese/crackers/fruit to Gateway Gallery for their opening party. Nice crowd,LOTS of space for the visual artists, excellent line-up of bands. I was there largely for my son's "There is No Title", a modest collection of ink comics, still-lifes, and a self-portrait, with Brooklyn price tags (he studies @ Pratt Institute). My review has no objectivity whatsoever; I love the self-potrait because A. it looks like him, and B. it's well-executed.

Totally split Infringement after an hour at Gateway to see Mark Eitzel on Marty Boratin's porch in Hamburg (navigated there and back with no mishaps), and wrapped up @ Gateway to pick up what remained of my portion of the spread. No four-cheese pasta for me;cheese all gone.

Yesterday was spent trying to beg/borrow/steal for venue coverage @ MANNY FRIED (thank you, all), then off to Nobody's for their electronica show (missed WNYBA opening, much to my chagrin; I was caught in a downpour in Clarence)

Started off there with Android's Dream once again (and no, I am not stalking them; despite the assertions of the conceited David Anderson). Heard the cover of a favorite Laurie Anderson (no relation;whose hairdo I have been trying to emulate for ABOUT 25 years), plus the much ballyhooed "Cougar", which allegedly struck close to home with some audience members the previous night.

Stayed through City of God, an electronic dance band that I really enjoyed, but had to cut short, as we were running late. (I was czaring for Melissa @ Nobody's while she escaped to see something OFF-SITE.

Sorry I missed This is the Sun (@ Soundlab later today) and Modi Sines, who I will see at Grant Street Gallery next weekend.

Later.

Scene report: Day four

Garden Walk and personal commitments kept me from doing much on the Infringement side Sunday. I only had time to make a brief appearance at ...

•A sound check/rehearsal/hangout session by Grammar School, a supercool noise/punk band whose members look to be about 10-12 years old apiece, outside Lagniappe's. If Sonic Youth had a Saturday morning cartoon where they were depicted as pre-teens, they would surely look something like this:



I especially enjoyed the look and attitude of the Mini Kim Gordon. I heard no actual music but would in no way be surprised if they end up dominating avant-rock in the 2010s. They were apparently next in line to perform at

•the College Street Block Party, which is always a good time. When I was there, I saw the Global Village Idiots



and watched kids making a glorious mess with paint (much to ringleader Klinger's delight).



•I ducked into Nietzsche's for Mimi Loco, only I missed her entire set. Said hello. Seemed nice enough. Drove here from DC just for Infringement.

•Final stop of the day was the Yard for Zombie Fest. I've driven by the big graffiti'ed text reading "The Yard" on the side of an industrial building off the Thruway (where Niagara splits off with Tonawanda St.) for at least a year now and wondered what it was. And now I know: yet another archetypal DIY Buffalo venue! You pull up to the back of a warehouse, sit on i-beams (which carry the music directly through your body, via your ass!), and marvel at Bflo's Rust Belt legacy. THIS PLACE WAS MADE FOR METAL! If Penelope Spheeris ever directs another installment of her ongoing Decline of Western Civilization doc series, she should film concerts here:



Me, I'm not that much of a metalhead, but I enjoyed the three songs I saw from the Phoenix Resistance (which included one by Alice in Chains and one by GNR, neither of which was one of those ironic indie covers I was just going on about) as much as I possibly could. Mainly I enjoyed the only patch of truly great weather of the weekend. I was in the right spot at the right time, along with about six other audience members, only one of whom could accurately be described as zombie-clad.

Scene Report: Day three

Saturday was one of those days that makes WNY such a special place to live; in addition to Infringement, I spent some time on the outskirts of both the Canal Fest (still probably my fave of all the area's many small-town summer festivals) and Garden Walk. Between those two and Infringement alone, there must have been at least 400 things to see and do yesterday, even with the crappy weather, so at this point in my life, I'm pretty much convinced that anyone who claims Buffalo is boring is too stupid/boring to waste my time on. If you don't get what's remarkable about the place you live, don't bitch to me about it! So here--on my way out of the house and back into GardenFringementLand for another day, is a quick recap of just the Infringey things on my itinerary yesterday:

First up was Nobody's Estro-Acoustic Showcase and Potluck, where my husband and I saw most of Lara Buckley's set and the first three songs from Erin Sydney Welsh before the ticking clock sent us to our next few non-festival stops. I know Buckley mainly from her always-memorable guest appearances with the Real Dream Cabaret, but this was my first chance to experience a fuller set (and from the audience instead of backstage), and I loved what I saw and heard. In this incarnation, she was performing songs that reminded me of Phil Ochs's material in the way that her lyrics invest topical subject matter with heartfelt ultra-personal meaning--only with a voice far more acrobatic than Ochs's, and accompanied by loops of nature sounds. The terms "freak folk" and "psych-folk" get bandied about a lot these past few years, but they seem to really fit Buckley's work almost literally. Undercutting the acoustic prettiness of the music is the sense that the singer (or at least her songwriting persona) is a woman on the edge. Highly recommended. So is Welsh--at the tender age of 13, she's got the confidence and stage savvy of a far more experienced performer. If you've ever wondered what it must have felt like to catch Ani DiFranco as an unknown teenager in a Buffalo bar, this may be the closest you'll ever come:



I often assume music scheduler Curt Rotterdam's titles for showcases are tongue-in-cheek, but this really was a potluck, and the pulled pork was particularly yummy. This was my first time to Nobody's, and the venue encapsulates much of what thrills me, as well as much that annoys me, about Buffalo's ongoing DIY art scene--it's clearly a labor of genuine love, absolutely in line with a rich tradition of artist-run live/work spaces in this town, deliberately beneath the radar but radiating a passion for art. At the same it's not exactly what I would call inviting to a first-time visitor: intimidating entrance, pitch-black interior, no ventilation (until I stumbled upon an ancient air conditioner in the back), almost no seating, and just plain dirty in that punk-rock way that gets a little old as one reaches a certain age. I was originally planning to head back after midnight for Nobody's Electronic Showcase" but the thought of hanging out with total strangers in total darkness in somebody's (er, nobody's) living room made me opt for my own home instead. I'm sure if I was in a different mood, or 20 years younger, or both, I would have gone back, and probably loved the show. (Call me bourgeois, but I've got my own Autechre albums to listen to, and A/C to boot!)

After a few detours, it was off to an opening at the WNY Book Arts Center. 'Twas my first time there after reading and hearing a lot about the place, and it's safe to say I was blown away by the joint: street-level gallery and gift shop, incredible collection of (working!) vintage printing equipment in the basement, future home of Just Buffalo on the second floor. There is a lot I want to say about this place and my maiden voyage to it, but in the interest of time I will vow to post those remarks elsewhere, later. Just go check it out, pronto--and tell 'em Infringement sent ya.



We headed next to Gateway Gallery (yet another first visit--does Buffalo know how to crank out new spaces, or what?) for Walri but they were still setting up when we got there, so we braved the rain for a quick bite at Sample (this was exactly the kind of situation Sample was born to address!) and then caught a good chunk of Phó Malpica: The Last White Elephant in the alley next to La Tee Da. This butoh-influenced site-specific dance/audio/video piece is the first example I've seen this year of the kind of work that suits Infringement best. Sure, it could be performed at any time in any location, but it fits its impromptu venue like a teeny-tiny glove and uses the festival setting to generate critical mass. Being a bit of a butoh-phobe myself, my favorite thing about the performance is the way it creates an audience for itself, and then inadvertently makes them part of the spectacle. Every time someone walked out of LTD or simply headed down Allen, they came across an oddly configured clump of onlookers staring at ... something, but what? How could you resist the temptation to investigate for yourself, in the process discovering a delicate, moving piece with both aesthetic and (subtle) eco-political impact? Don't miss this one.




We nearly missed all of Walri's set as a result, returning to Gateway just in time to hear the Rochester-based band play "Ziggy Stardust." Taken out of context, it was hard to tell at first whether this was that indie-rock staple, the Ironic Classic Rock Cover, or we'd stumbled upon a Monroe County cover band. (Spoiler: it was option A.) There were only two songs after that, and I loved 'em both enough to buy a CD on the spot and to mark my calendar for their next BIF show, this Wednesday.

WNYNM

Photo Report - Day 2

Scene Report: Day one!

Given how little of last year's festival I got to see and write about, I vowed to start early this time around. Didn't see or do a lot tonight, but I'm glad I forced myself out into the rain and onto Allen Street.

*Stopped at Rust Belt to deliver the Self-Infringement box which Brian Milbrand and I have filled with a fresh batch of audience instructions/scripts. (On my laptop I still had most of Brian's contributions from last year, so I started by creating "remixes" of all of them--tweaking his ideas in subtle or drastic ways--and then came up with some wholly new ideas.)

*While at Rust Belt I ran into several people who had headed to Lafayette Square for the Neko Case/Jason Lytle show that got rained out. I felt perversely relieved about this, because it was the first show I've really wanted to see at TATS in at least 3 years, but the weather scared me off, and I was feeling guilty about wimping out. Come back again soon, Neko!

*Quick bite to eat, which gave me time to start studying the beautiful job that Artvoice did with the thankless task of laying out the complete festival schedule. This is the first year I didn't end up proofreading that beast, which may add to my joy and surprise at its final form.

*Next up, a stop at Nietzsche's for the annual kickoff party, which was a chance to catch up with a lot of the current organizers. (Here's a badly lit photo of one of them, Josh Smith, involved in some sort of Mad Libs activity with the emcee between sets:)




Since I am not really among their numbers anymore, I can say without any hint of back-patting that these organizer dudes and dudettes look like they're doing a phenomenal job with an undertaking that keeps growing exponentially; I was truly impressed at how smoothly the party seemed to be going. I walked in on the middle of a lengthy instrumental by Rochester's X-Planet Id, a jammy jazz-fusion-y trio:



Not normally my cup of tea, but I soon found myself really liking them and ready to recommend them to a friend who really goes in for rock/jazz hybrids. I wasn't as fond of the vocal numbers that followed, but they seemed like an ideal First Festival Act for moi. (They were not the first act to play, mind you--that honor went to Pat O'Keefe, whom I've only seen in action during the annual "Samples @ Sample" press preview. I gotta catch a set of his this year!) I wanted to stay longer but had bill-paying work waiting at home, plus I felt like I needed to start mapping out my weekend, pronto. Forgive me, MC Vendetta, for missing what I have no doubt was yet another stellar performance of yours. (There were lots of other acts, too, and for all I know, one of them is still playing at this very minute, but I have an appointment with a mattress and pillow now.)

*On my way back to my car, I noticed that the video projection screen filling the window of Space 224 was now active. (Full disclosure: I thought it was incredibly beautiful earlier in the evening, when it was showing nothing but bright blue light, which I originally assumed was the piece, and I was perfectly happy with that.) Took me a few seconds to realize that what I was seeing was not a slideshow but video, and then to marvel at the elegance of the (slowly changing) image, and then to read the accompanying text (highly recommended if you want to get what's going on), and finally to realize that the creators of this work are none other than my friends and collaborators Dave Pape and Josephine Anstey. The installation is called Mrs. Squandertime--love the title, love the premise, and I look forward to visiting the window at 224 Allen many more times during the festival to see what Mrs. S is up to next.



Speaking of squandering time, it's looking like I will be attending little if any of the festival on Day Two, so I am counting on you, dear reader, to fill me in on what I missed.

Start your engines!

The 2009 festival is just around the corner. Maybe you've seen the full schedule of events or noticed this exciting preview in the Buffalo News.

So tell us: what are you most looking forward to about this year's festival? Are there artists you saw last year you can't wait to see again? New stuff? Let us know! Share your thoughts in the comments section of this post.

New event this year!

This year, I've set up a showcase of talented writer's, The Creative Well: Well SPoKen, to read their creative works, both poetry and short stories, to a new crowd at the Festival. We're excited to perform on Sunday July 26th at Gateway Gallery at 8pm and ALSO at Rust Belt Books on Thursday July 30th at 7pm. There will be different writer's featured on different nights so be sure to check us out a couple of times at least! LOL

And check out the FREE haiku bookmarks we are giving away!

So far, the undertaking has been manageable, but there is still a lot to do. Because the show not only features myself but 9 other writer's there is organizing and co-ordinating aspects, besides the usual prep for a show. Communication is key, so I've been doing my best to keep them all informed every step of the way. Also, trying to think about their needs and how to get them prepped so the show runs smoothly. And if I do say so myself, I'm doing a pretty good job so far. You can ask them after the show if they agree. :)

And a little PS for all you readers out there: I'll be participating in Urban Smackdown! at the Albright Knox Gusto at the Gallery on Friday the 31st, so come and check out how I fair against some of Buffalo's Finest Poetic Talent!
~Denise Amodeo Miller