All About Numbers

As the video on their site will tell you, in the past 9 years Artistic Fraud has called for:

• 81 school desks
•  32 flourescent semaphore flags
• 790 maps
• 36 vibraphone keys
• 2400 square feet of polyester wedding dress lining
• Over 300 performers.

You can see a short film about the relatively small production Fear of Flight on YouTube now, and hear the ensemble as they blend and create their vocal stagescapes (score by Jonathan Monroe). It’s fascinating how the score backs up the dramatic collaboration of the characters on the stage…

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We need more fine artists in politics, obviously. And I’m not talking Reagan & Schwarzenegger…

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• That Song in my Head
• Jimmy Ray McGee
• Hide Your Matches

You can hear excerpts and learn more over at JulianneSings.com .

But Wait, There’s More!

Because I love you all so much, and because I visited my friends over at Fred Astaire Dance recently, I can share with you a coupon code that you can use for a free download at Julianne’s site. It will also enter you in a drawing to see her perform live. The one rule is: if you win, you have to take me with you.

Ok, maybe not. But it would be nice. The code is:

ACAAHC26

Have fun!

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In the category of “stage to screen” I could probably somewhat justify Al Gore’s famous slideshow, An Inconvenient Truth. After all, it went on to become not just a book but also a Nobel-Peace-Prize winning movie. Well, ok, Mr. Gore got the prize, but it wasn’t for his work as V.P.

Turning It Up to Eleven

Now, however, it’s going the other way, as Giorgio Battistelli of Milan’s La Scala opera house is going to undertake to turn it into an opera, set to debut in 2011. Yes, that’s right, an opera about global warming.

Battistelli is no stranger to difficult tasks. Given an opera containing a cast clad all in underwear, wearing masks of prominent politicians and swimming in Iraqi oil, he was asked to “take out the satirical parts”, according to the Independent. He didn’t – but ended up with an opera that got a seven-minute ovation. Not too shabby.

I confess, while it seems ludicrous to me at first, I can see why it might work, and I can’t see someone of his stature taking on a project without a pretty amazing inspiration as to where it can go.

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Then this statement caught my eye:

“…while Jansen won’t make a prurient spectacle of herself, we’re reminded that she could (and pull it off, visually, like Mae did) if she wanted to.”

This is apparently in comparison to Vanessa Mae, another concert violinist who has the audacity to blatantly take advantage of the fact that she is a beautiful woman as well as being talented.

Airs on a G-String

Ok, so there aren’t any actual g-strings in evidence on either site, I just couldn’t resist the pun. What there are on both sites are galleries – only a few pictures on Vanessa’s, quite a few more on Janine’s. There is, however, quite a bit more cleavage, skin-tight curves, and phallic imagery with the violin on Janine’s site. Vanessa’s site hardly shows the violin at all, with glamour photographs that certainly have a greater edge to them – the kind of look that would appeal to my 16 year old daughter, for example, and get her to listen to classical music because she would feel some connection to the person playing it (as opposed to, say Itzhak Perlman).

Not that there’s anything wrong with using that imagery – I know that sex sells, and I don’t have a problem with that. But to pretend that somehow Janine is “above” such things and Vanessa’s use of choreography in her videos is “semi-pornographic” is just unrealistic prudery. As any burlesque performer will tell you, almost-seen skin is much more sexy than bare, and by that principle Janine Jansen is making far more use of her looks than Vanessa.

Virtue or Vicissitude in Violinists’ Videos?

Vanessa Mae’s Toccata & Fugue shows the kind of traditional (even in a non-traditional arrangement) style that she is capable of. But let’s view samples of each artist on YouTube, and you tell me: which one is going to draw in the new audience, the younger audience, the MTV generation that classical music so desperately needs? If adding choreography and a different costume than the traditional evening gown will help spread classical music to a wider audience, then let’s have it!

I’m not experienced enough to be able to point at one or the other and say “Yes, she’s obviously better!” But if I can’t, then will the average listener be able to, either? And isn’t there enough room for us to like them both? Perhaps Vanessa’s red-hot videos will be the gateway drug for a new batch of listeners to come to Janine’s. And certainly the men who created the music these women are playing were no paragons of virtue; they were the rock stars of their day, as much into drinking, carousing, and scandal as any metal-head.

To say that there is some virtue in supposedly chaste (but not quite) dress, or that this has any bearing at all on the talent and skill of either artist is a symptom of what I like to call our cultural adolescence, and I wish we would somehow move beyond the giggly embarrassment of a 14 year old boy seeing a flash of nipple and into adult acceptance of the beauty of the human condition in all its forms, whether grinding in skimpy leather or gliding in an off-the shoulder cream silk gown.

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It hangs on my wall, taken down now and again for pleasure and (recently) to go into the burlesque show with me. So I understand something of what David Garrett felt when he tripped and fell on his Stradivarius:

“When I opened it, the violin was in pieces. I couldn’t speak and I couldn’t get up. I didn’t even know if I was hurt – I didn’t care. I’ve had that violin for eight years. It was like losing a friend.”

I love that he didn’t think “Oh, shit, that’s a million pounds down the drain.” He didn’t think “Everybody’s going to hate me!” He mourned the loss of his friend. Someone he’d never hear sing again. He’s good enough that they flew in another Strad (with a 3-man security team) for him to play the next concert…but I wonder if it felt like cheating? If it felt like someone that just wasn’t the same and good enough?

I wonder if there are any other objects that feel like they get as close as an instrument?

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However, when your beat is “performing arts”, it’s not quite that easy. Sure, you could just say “Wouldn’t you like a valentine from Ethan Steifel?” but the realm is so large, the pool of people so vast and yet so specialized (for example, unless you are a balletomane you probably don’t know who Ethan is) that it makes it a little too vast.

So instead I’m going to make a recommendation, and then ask you a question, and hope that the combination makes this Valentine’s Day just a little more special for you and the ones you love.

The recommendation? Slow live jazz. Sure, you could go to a symphony, you could go see the Lion King (as I did last night in Milwaukee), you could watch Le Corsaire on DVD while sitting in front of a fireplace, but for my money, there is nothing in the world of performing arts as aesthetically intimate and powerful as sitting in a dimly lit club, watching the curly hair of a pianist bob up and down hidden behind the loose sheets of music as he wends his way through a jazz standard. Add in a smoky-voiced beautiful woman in a long black dress, holding a microphone and closing her eyes as the words pour out of her soul like the dark petals of a perfect rose…maybe a bassist so lost in the chord progressions that his grizzled face is contorted and almost comical save for the fact that he is so into the music that when his solo is done he looks surprised at the applause, as if he forgot the audience was even there.

There is something about that atmosphere that just sets the romantic mood like nothing else. When you’re sitting there at the tiny round table, a candle lit between you, and you are both feeling the music wash over you, there is just no way not to reach out, to take the hand and smile into the liquid eyes of your date, reflecting not just the candlelight but also feeling the words of the songs and taking them in.

Because the jazz standards are all about love. Joyful love, sorrowful love, lost love, hopeful love, but oh, they are about love. Here’s some examples, in case you’re lucky enough to suggest a tune or two to the band:

• • Autumn Leaves
• Unforgettable
• Don’t Get Around Much
• Dream a Little Dream
• As Time Goes By

and my own personal favorite:

All of me, why not take all of me
Can’t you see I’m no good without you…

You may wonder how I know this is the ultimate romantic event. Simple: a couple of nights ago, my girlfriend was invited to sing with a jazz combo at the Hilton here in town. So I sat there with a glass of Johnny Walker Black, neat, and listened to her sing it out…and it was the most amazingly romantic environment I could have imagined.

So take it from me, kid. Put away the chocolates, don’t spend the money on the tickets to see Wicked. You can do that any time. Find yourself a little club, a little up-and-coming jazz combo put together by some community members who just have to get some of that good stuff out of their souls, and take your sweetie there. I guarantee you a night you’ll both remember and treasure for years to come.

And for those who already know about this little romantic secret: what songs did I miss? What do you think is the most romantic thing to hear as you toast to the cupidity of love?

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Tonight I’m going to be running a video camera for the Mad Rollin’ Dolls, the Madison Women’s Flat Track Derby team.  And as it happens Jane Wiedlin, the pixie voiced singer for the Go Gos, will be the singer of the National Anthem for tonight’s bout.

I can’t claim to be a diehard fan, but I do like them better than the Bangles, since they were more of the pioneers of real all-girl bands. If it wasn’t for them, I doubt we’d have bands like the 5-6-7-8’s, for example…and so I’m really hoping to come away with a picture with her.

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” Teaching himself the guitar at the age of twelve, Mike began playing earnestly, but being self-taught, it took him a lifetime to learn what theoried guitar players learn in weeks and months of formal study. Realizing that, though eventually finding his own style, he concentrated on what he is best known for now: song writing. The result produced what could be argued as a sound that is perhaps best summed up as pre-legendary. He adds “I see my music as a vehicle for promoting healing and building community consensus.”

Or, as my client describes him, a “hippie guitar kinda guy.” Still, it should be a fun way to keep a cold Michigan evening at bay. You can hear his music and more at his website, MedicineCrow.net.

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