The Festival was not as radical (so far) as what I expected. The pieces were all pretty approachable. I was hoping to be challenged a bit more.
Nearing Velocity
- A short play by Liz Gilbert.
- In fragments, we see all the people who were involved in a car accident at Richmond and Montrose.
- One driver Mallory is now paralyzed, a man, Boyd [sic], in the other car paralyzed with guilt.
- It was a strong opener, with good actors and a play that unfolded in an interesting way.
- I now realize that they bookended the opening night of festival with their two best pieces (of the night).
- It might be my old age, but I sometimes had to strain to hear what the cast members were saying.
- Three women dancing.
- Supposedly about life after death. Music combined with a tape of someone relating a after death experience.
- I have a preconceived notion that all dancers are perfect physical specimens, strong but elegant and beautiful women.
- (See Olga Khokhlova and Lydia Lopokova of the Ballets Russes, for example.)
- But one of these women was a bit on the chunky side.
- People in glass houses should not throw stones, yet this slightly disturbed me!
- The piece was long (it seemed) and by the end, I was in a pleasantly hypnotic state.
- Despite having not understood it at all.
- This short film was mildly amusing, but not particularly "fringe."
- Office Space was a better movie on a similar theme.
- The second play of the evening had a tepidly surreal premise.
- A former circus performer's 12-year-old daughter has hair on her chest.
- The girl, Baby Girl, was actually played by a little girl, who did a hell of a job.
- But the play's point was lost on me--it seemed silly without being all that entertaining.
- This dance piece seemed a little more what I would expect from a dance piece than "Beyond the Sphere."
- At least, so it seemed to my dance-virgin eyes.
- I was impressed but the dancer's skills, but not particularly engaged by them.
- But again, maybe that's just me.
- I don't know what to look for really.
- This was a rather astonishing piece of appropriation.
- Kuliman took bits and pieces of solo music uploaded to YouTube.
- (Often these were music lessons, sometimes they were musicians showing off some of their skills.)
- Out of all these disparate bits of music, he created coherent, multi-instrumental songs.
- The lyrics were often based on spoken-word YouTube videos auto-tuned.
- I recall Thomas McEvilley discussing Hellenistic poetry that consisted of appropriating different poets lines into a single poem.
- McEvilley was making the point that post-modernism's practices of appropriation was an ancient practice.
- But this piece reminded me very specifically of those ancient Greek poems.
- The skill shown in finding and mixing these fragments is astonishing.
- But the results, while perfectly good, are not great.
- This is a complaint that can be made about much OuLiPo-style art.
- i.e., art that puts a really complex, limiting constraint on the artist with the intent of fostering new, creative ways of making art.
- It's amazing, for example, that A Void was written at all.
- The fact that it is also a great novel is a fucking miracle.
- Kuliman's mixtures are totally listenable--but won't stick in my mind.
(There is an art show along-side the Fringe Festival. The artworks are for sale. Stephanie Toppin, for some insane reason, is selling her drawings for $25 apiece. I personally think this is a bargain. I encourage anyone who liked her work at Diverse Works and Box 13 to pick up a drawing or four, before Toppin comes to her senses.) (Toppin, not "Tobbin"--corrected now.)
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