the dog did it

Sitting in a burt brothers tire shop getting a new tire put on our old car. Had to put a can of green slime in the tire and bend back the rear windshield wiper to get here and hopefully our beater will pass the not very restrictive car inspection here. Half listening to the Casey Anthony trial and her father (I think) was talking about a burying a dog or some shit and my partner in crime here waiting for his audi to be fixed looks at me and says "the dog did it. I'm sure of it."

That said, I've been going to concerts lately and seen some really good music, so let's hit on that for a hot minute. May 12, Katie Porter, Dominic Lash, and Barry Chabala played some great music in a small room in brooklyn called the Presents Gallery. The set included the "Peckinpah Trios" by Antoine Beuger and some John Cage I think. It was a beautiful set and well played by all, with the simplicity of the music shining through.

I also attended the opera INNOVA by Object Collection, which was also terrific. Travis Just's score (tho everything is so interwoven it's hard to say that the music accompanies per se) and Kara Feely's direction as confidently proposed by a well rehearsed cadre of performers seemed to challenge just about everything that could be challenged and more. It's hard to go into here without citing specific examples but I highly recommend checking out any of their productions. I'm always drawn to the advance scouts of art pushing the boundaries while retaining a high degree of integrity and these guys are going to do that and they are giving no indication of doing anything but that.

I was also asked to perform on a concert with music by John Lely, Tim Parkinson, and James Saunders, which is also some good music to check out. It is nicely forward looking.

Finally I saw a set of music by Christian Wolff performed by Robert Black, Douglas Perkins, Christian Wolff, and Larry Polansky. This set of music, which included some old and some new, really gave me hope for the future.

We're heading out to Salt Lake City for the school year and I'm beginning my PhD in composition out there. It's funny that right before I'm about to leave I found this pocket of well played, well thought out music and I'm glad I found it before we got out of Dodge for a second. At the same time, I put on a bunch of concerts and ended up with a $1,000 bill in parking tickets and was pulled out of a van and harassed by the NYPD trying to return a rental timpani. Also, some guy tried to break into my car DURING THE DAY.

hmmmm....