The End

[ateolf]

The performance! It's of Pauline Oliveros's "Rock Piece." We try to form a circle inside but there's not enough room so we go out onto the patio. While going out I walk right past Jamie Stewart who was in attendance! Too bad he didn't go out with us or I could have said I've played with Jamie Stewart. Yeah. Okay, enough dorkiness. So we all form this huge circle. First we do this hand squeezing around the circle thing but then we get these rocks someone had gathered ("resonant" rocks or something). So we're supposed to find a rhythm and keep that rhythm irrespective of anyone else's rhythm and if we happen to sync up with someone we need to stop and find a new rhythm. Okay, there's a rock shortage so I just pick one rock and I'm going to hit against the concrete (instead of two rocks against each other). I almost immediately crack the rock in two. Well, that kind've solves the problem. I now have two rocks to hit against each other (though one piece was much smaller than the other). Anyway, that was a lot of fun. Oh, also those podcast people were there and we talked with them a bit more before the panel. Next we walk across to the Knoxville Museum of Art for Flicker & Wow 1 (a screening of experimental short films). It was good, a couple were really good. Between the next screening Nief-Norf was playing again with Michael Pisaro playing a few of his pieces. Very minimal. The first was a solo for snare drum that consisted of rubbing a series of things against it and later pouring various (solid) things on it. Then a few more pieces. This is a day I'm very tired so maybe not the best day to appreciate this, but it was pretty good. Not the best of the experimental kind of performances, but still good. Then Mary Beth went to see something that sounds like it was amazing and I'm sad I missed (it was her favorite show the whole festival) and I stayed for Flicker & Wow 2. The first one in this was the best of the shorts. It was called...crap. I kept the program but I can't find it. Let me check my memory. I think it was by someone named Christina Nguyen. Okay, memory failed me for the title but google didn't (I did get the name right though): Parallel Inquiries. Okay, after that I have a little time so I walk to the square and eat at this bar called The Stock & Barrel. I ate a burger with benton bacon and blueberry jam. It was good though maybe so over the top gourmet all the awesome elements almost cancelled each other out? Anyway, it was a big ass burger and I was hungry. I walked down to the Tennessee theater to catch Deathprod. Mary Beth ended up making it over there after me and I switched seats to be next to her. It was very dark. The whole stage (and a very tall stage it is) was filled with fog machine (Supersilent used a lot of fog as well, a Norwegian thing?) and he sat alone at this small table with a laptop. A single spotlight shone down through the fog and distance amidst the stark darkness. It was a pretty awesome visual effect. Very minimal but very striking, especially given the height of the theater. It was a pretty great drone set. At a few points he hit hard with these very loud, very noisy stabs. A few people left, but some people moved even closer. After it I went right over to the Bijou to catch Henry Threadgill. There was a line outside so I got in. This old couple behind me also came from Deathprod and were talking about it. It was pretty endearing. They were talking about it to some friends of theirs and were saying they were up in the balcony but came down to the floor because they had to feel the physical vibrations. They said they couldn't call it "mood music", "all mood but no music, there wasn't any music to be found." So they had this interesting takeaway that was slightly confounded by it but also positive, they didn't "understand" it but they enjoyed the sheer force and power of it on a possible physical level. And I don't say this talking down on them. I think it's pretty awesome they allowed themselves to get out of their comfort zone and find something to appreciate in a music that's typically alien to them. And I think that somewhat demonstrates a lot of what I feel about more experimental or extreme music, most of what turns people away is a lack of familiarity more than anything else and if people are willing they can get past what's unfamiliar and it might even be possible to appreciate the pure sound of what they might not even consider music. A lot of that is what I'd LIKE to accomplish with my festival, but I'm rambling now. Henry Threadgill was a good show. It was another unusual setup for a jazz band: drums, cello, tuba(/sometimes he played trombone), acoustic guitar and Henry mostly conducted/orchestrated but sometimes he played (mostly flute or double contrabass flute [I had to look that up, never seen nor heard of] and a little saxophone). It was more composed than the other jazz I saw, but it still had "free" elements. And it was kinda angular/jagged in a way though closer to being more traditional, it still wasn't quite that. It was kinda unique and didn't quite sound like much I could put in my vocabulary other than it did sound like jazz. It often had fusion elements, especially in the drumming. Alright. Then it was back up to the Mill & Mine for Xiu Xiu's final performance. We got to watch them sound check. Jamie just sang "meow meow meow" for all his vocal checks. We got right up front center for this one. Okay, this was a great fucking show. Probably my favorite of the whole festival. They were only a two-piece (they were a three-piece for the Twin Peaks show, Angela was at that one but not at this one). Oh, I forgot to mention how awesome Shayna's drumming was on that first Twin Peaks show (when she drummed, sometimes she played vibraphone and with the Twin Peaks score, there was a lot of vibraphone). Anyway, it was still awesome at this show though she didn't play a full kit, she was standing up, no bass drum though now there were gamelanish cymbals and she could dance around while drumming (though she almost kinda did with the sit-down kit). Jamie was very theatrical and, again very Jamie Stewart. A few songs he freaked out in the most amazing way. "I Luv Abortion" was amazing. There was another song he freaked out on and I forget which. They did the best version of "Fabulous Muscles" I've heard. The version of "Sad Pony Guerilla Girl" was incredible. It was all just very very good. Damn. Hard to go into. I was very happy after that show.

Anyway, I'm back home now. To get there we drove back home! Slept in a little this morning and got some much needed catch-up sleep. Stopped and had breakfast at this place in Knoxville called OliBea. We were standing outside deciding whether to go there or the tamale place across the street and a guy walking buy heard us and insisted that it was really good and we should eat there so we took his advice. It was good though maybe a little overly fancy. The biscuits were amazing in the technical feat of how soft and fluffy and melty they were, but the best biscuits have SOME heft to them (I'm sure difficult to do, but they're heavy things with a lightness infused into the heaviness, makes no sense I know but it's like taking the quality that makes the best biscuits so good and taking it so far that they're no longer biscuits, I shouldn't try to be a food critic, again they were good but it seems like in being fancy they missed something of the point somewhere, but then again I guess it's good both things can exist, but they can't outdo Bryant's biscuits with pure fanciness). Then we had the best of both words 'cuz we got tamales to go for the drive home. That was pretty uneventful. We stopped at a point to at the tamales. First attempt I turned off on Cuba Landing exit to find a place to stop and eat but we took a turn down a small road by a redneck nutjob's house and were turning around to head back when these dogs kept getting in front of the car. Managed not to hit them and hit the road and stopped to eat later. The rain was bad around then. I also took a route I'd never taken before, I-840. Saw something about taking it to avoid downtown Nashville. Well, it was the middle of the day on a weekday thought that might be a good idea. Not sure if it saved time or was the same time or what. It was very scenic. Okay, back home to Trudy and post this stuff and I'm losing coherency. If I can remember any of the stuff I've forgotten I'll post it up here later!