The night began with the best table of snacks you've ever seen....the audio included:
1) a piece from an acoustic ecologist Leah Barclay. You can check out her work here:
http://leahbarclay.com/
We listened to the biosphere sounscapes: a sonic image of day break expressed through recordings moving across the globe, from mic to mic, gathered from audio streams around the world in the direction the sun rises. An international dawn chorus day. The audio started on the prime meridian.
https://www.facebook.com/biospheresoundscapes/?hc_ref=PAGES_TIMELINE&fref=nf
We also talked about artist Barbara Hutchinson and her commitment to marking the day with a bell. And exploring topics and interpretations of personal vs group meditation, performance art, community participation etc.
http://dailybell2008.blogspot.com/
Hutchinson brief bio: “Over the years, her projects have becoming increasingly performance oriented. In 2008, as a reaction to the political situation in the U.S., she started The Daily Bell, in which she—and anyone nearby willing to join her—rings a bell at sunrise and sunset every single day. As she says, “sunrise and sunset are things you can’t argue about.” For the first year she documented every single ring, and now continues the tradition with less documentation, but with no less enthusiasm.”
http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/brenda-hutchinson-expanding-the-ordinary-moment/
We talked about how our ears never shut/turn off at the end of a long day (though attention certainly can).
What exactly is ear fatigue? Real or in our minds not our ears...?
With mentions of the “Sleep with me” podcast http://www.sleepwithmepodcast.com/
- boring stories told in soothing, sleep-inducing monotone.
2) Next we heard a piano performance from the National Gallery- musician Margaret Leng Tan
debuted new works by Crumb and demonstrated piano with extended technique through the works including classic avante guard compositions from Cage and Cowell.
This one we heard was called Tides of Manaunaun – god of motion, by Irish Composer Henry Cowel.
http://www2.cortland.edu/news/detail.dot?id=32fe22c3-6010-4088-aebd-29c78a43d488
https://vimeo.com/174946172
-Lizzie mentioned Little Salon performance events – she's helping to put on the next
and in collaboration with Erik Moe- history of neighborhoods, future cartographers' society.
http://erik.moe/future-cartographic-society/
3) We had a small whimsical musical interlude from Lizzie. A steel drum all-star band from.... Maine. Flash in the Pans (50-70's) of Blue Hill Maine. It began when one resident travelled to Trinidad, fell in love with the sound, read advice about how to make a steel drum from Pete Seeger and badaboom-badabing...Cruise ships from Nova Scotia started disembarking in Maine to the beautiful Caribbean sounds...Now a huge jam happens in town weekly (its a town of 2000 in summer, 1000 in winter). The town has a total of 4 steel drum bands.
Listening was basically a DCLL dance party
The back story of the band was noted to in some ways be like the opposite of Cool Runnings...http://www.flashinthepans.org/
Rene brought up his interest in following up with a former radio host who was an inspiration to him but later ended up in prison and how to reconcile the interest in a follow up with the sense that it could be misinterpreted as a motive of voyeurism or disaster-indulgence.
Quotation of the night:
“People lie to me all the time.” Rene, insurance appraiser.
4) The night wrapped up with Jocelyn playing some of the 20k.org episode she wrote and produced. She had played the rough draft version a few Lounges back.
Thanks Lizzie for hosting!
Next DCLL will be JUNE 13th at Vashti's place near U-ST Metro. Details coming.