I got to see Babka performed by Suchu Dance this past weekend at Barnevelder in Houston. It was very amazing. I wish I had better photography to share with you, but here's a link to a slide show from Suchu. The word "slide show" sounds so antique, but this one actually does a good job of recreating the feel for the odd reality created by the work. Congrats to Jennifer Wood, the troupe, and the staff at Suchu Dance.
David Byrne keeps a great blog. You can also buy things there.
A new one by the Young Dubs is out, out, out. This is the time of year when I start wishing I were going to the Vancouver Festival. Rock on.
In the "Cross Media" issue of Unlikely 2.0, you can find five compositions by the Be Blank Consort. The Consort is a collaborative group of experimental writers dedicated to the creation and performance of sound-texts. You can see their compositions and 
listen to them performed as well.
Here's some of their self-description: 'The Consort was formed to perform various kinds of
texts, many of them created collaboratively, in ways that would reveal
new resonances and possibilities in them. Some of the pieces are poems
that were written by one of them and scored for multiple voices by
another. A few are entirely written and scored by one person. Many more
were written in collaboration between one or more of the performers and
others. The goal is to highlight language as music and sound, in
addition to its function as a carrier of meaning, and to this end, they
have devised various strategies of simultaneity, breaking up of lines,
stretching out of words, choral arrangements, and many others. All of
them are also visual poets, and many of the pieces designed for
performance are also visual poems. '
Visual artists and poets of the Be Blank Consort include: Harriet Bart, John M. Bennett, Michael Basinski, Kathy S. Ernst, Philip Gallo, Scott Helmes, Carlos M. Luis, Michael Peters and Wendy Collin Sorin.
Check out the latest issue of Born Magazine.
Check out this mixed media art at Born Magazine. Tisha b'av is written by David Harris Ebenbach. Jonathan Gould did the design work.
Hidden Love Song, by Arlete Castelo and Melissa Mongiat (who had previously created Gamelan Playtime) is an 18m long silver rub-off fresque. As passers-by scratch it, they uncover musical and visual love messages hidden through a world inspired by Mark-Anthony Turnage's concerto Hidden Love Song.
The sound collage is made of scratching noises, extracts of Turnage's musical piece and children voice speaking of their impression of the theme. People can create their own piece as they play with the installation.
Second installation for the Royal Festival Hall Education Centre "Keeping in touch" project. London.
Londoners could play with the installation in January but the Royal Festival Hall is to propose a new interactive piece from 18 April to 25 May: 16 Frames are giant flip books and zeotropes that are animated as you pass by them.
Read about an amazing art-thing at Milk and Tales. My source: rhizome.org.
Another great issue of Born Magazine has arrived on their web site. Index by Ander Monson is definitely a movable feast.
If you develop an ear for sounds that are musical it is like developing an ego. You begin to refuse sounds that are not musical and that way cut yourself off from a good deal of experience. --John Cage
A great new issue of Born Magazine is up on the web. I really like Wayne Miller's poem called "Notes on the Night Highway II" and the art and music inspired by it.
Have you checked out the cool new art & poetry collaborative projects at born magazine yet? Their winter issue is on their web site now. The poets featured include Michele Glazer and Bob Hicok.
I read once that the music we listen to between the ages 18-24 is the music we revert back to for the rest of our lives. It provides us a measure for what music should be. It defines us. Is this true for you?
For me, this music would be what we called "college radio." Is that term ever used any more? It was the 80s, and I listened to R.E.M., The Talking Heads, and the B-52s, Elvis Costello and Laurie Anderson. I do still listen to them, I must admit. And although I continue to find new tunes to groove by--The Roots, Wilco, Radiohead, and Ani DiFranco--there is something central about the music of my youth. What was the first concert you attended?
