Stuff I'm doing this summer: a poetry series, computer dance, and lots of weddings!

Experiments in Revision: Poetry

You know how it feels to write or make a first draft of something, then rework it until it shines like the top of Chrysler Building? You know how you kind of want to burn that first draft, so that no one will ever know the embarrassing wreckage of over-obvious, trite, and self indulgent ideas you have put down to the page only to be edited out? Well imagine that that first draft gets published online for everyone to read. That's the foundation of The Splinter Generation's Experiments in Revision series. Seeing as no one else was self-effacing and brave enough to undergo this grueling process they chose me! Over the months of June and July they are publishing a series of poems I have written, which culminate in one final (hopefully) awesome poem, which demonstrates that I did learn something after all. Apart from my own scattered first poem attempt I explore my Tanka, List Poem, and hybrid poem styles.  You can read the latest poem here. Keep your eyes on Splinter Generation, who will be posting the follow up poem and my process post over the summer. When I'm not writing poems I also write articles for Shamonica Magazine on music, tech, and design.

She Was a Computer: Play

She Was a Computer is a super funny tech-rich theater/dance piece from the masterful mind of Cara Rose DeFabio. I can't tell you what I'll be doing exactly, except to say that I think I am having a conversation WITH a computer on stage. Here is a bit on the piece: Drawing text from obsolete operational manuals, cyborg feminist theory and artificial intelligence programs, She Was A Computer looks for historical perspective on our current online identity issues. Record players, rotary telephones, and even the audience’s cell phones will be used for this interactive investigation of how technology affects our social selves. @ Counterpulse Theater in SF: JUL 20-22, FRI-SUN at 8PM, JUL 22 matinee at 2PM

 Lots of Weddings!

The funny thing about my thirtys is it seems like EVERYONE is getting married now and whats more, it seems like they all want to get married this year. Maybe its the whole Mayan Calendar thing or the Global Warming crisis, but whatever it is, it seems like people are eager to tie the knot before we say farewell to 2012. What does that mean for me? I get to drink free wine and make a lot of wedding mix tapes and DJ the receptions. Well the DJing thing is really just this weekend, so far, but there is some serious celebrating that is going to have to happen between now and December. Since not all my friends are invited to every wedding, I am DJing in the everyday world for the rest of you. Check out me and DJ Lady Bacon at Bacon/Styxx at St Mary's Pub every third Saturday of the month.

Nailzz

I'm also getting weirdly way into nail art. Inspired by this tutorial from Taylor Watson of Party Nails I took to painting my nails like a bat out of you know. Anyway, below are a few designs I have painted recently.

That pretty much sums up the fun stuff about my summer. So drop me a line, email, or Facebook if you want to connect!

Tartuffed!

I was lucky to have been invited to Rapid Descent's version of Moliere's Tartuffe by a Ko-llaborator and  friend who was performing in the piece. It was directed by Megan Finlay, who formed the company two years ago, to explore the combination of movement and text with live music. Tartuffe is a classic French comedy, first staged in 1664 and censored by the king and archbishop of Paris on the grounds of the questionable virtue of the swindler, Tartuffe. Rapid Descent's Tartuffe was playful and precise. It was whimsey and rhyme wrapped in an exaggeratedly physical container. The performers were working in sync to complete tumbles over and under couches, out windows, and through each other's arms. All the while this near constantly choreography continued, the performers were delivering precise and rhyming text. Meandering through the scenes was a trumpet player, playing music for the audience and sometimes playing with the performers in the scenes. The speed and tension of the play just, worked. The characters were directed and bold and the energy of the piece flowed fast from one scene to the next.

The show had some notable performances. Brian Livingston as Tartuffe managed to sleeze and ooze over the stage at Elmire, Orgon's wife. He had a loose and open physical language punctuated by moments of tension and rapt prayer. Orgon, played by Zack, simpered and hyperventilated in one moment then gracefully tumbled and flowed the next. Addie Ulrey as Dorrine held the first act of the play together with her quick delivery, steady energy, and witty physical banter with the musician onstage.

The space, Shotwell Studios, which lends itself to dance pieces and small theater well, was reconfigured and the back wall painted a bright (almost garishly so) color, but it worked to create the livingroom wall, with windows and all. The couch the company used for the piece must have been forged in the fires of Mordor, because it took a beating! They stomped, fell, lept, skipped, stood, jumped and tumbled over and onto that couch.

The crowning moment of the piece was immediately after the intermission. The trumpet player had set up a series of live loops of trumpet to start out the piece. One by one the performers filed onto stage and began performing a series of movements without words, which I quickly realized were the exact movements from the first act. They performed a fast take of every single movement from the first act at a blinding pace and it was hysterical.  They say comedy is drama sped up, but what happens when you speed up comedy? This great piece of theater, that's what.

I will keep my ear to the ground for Rapid Descent and I hope to see more from this emerging company.