Recommendations: Arts
Theater Oobleck, Chicago
Experimental theater
by Theatre Oobleck. Jeff Dorchen certainly
makes a convincing Dick Cheney.
Theatre Oobleck Website
I took a year off my studies at University of Michigan in the early 1980s and became a prop artist for a small theater group called Streetlight Theater. They touted themselves as a communist theater with no director, that was dedicated to promoting various leftish social and politacal agendas. One fine day, the whole theater troupe picked up and moved to Chicago leaving me behind to finish my degree.
The group is now known as Theatre Oobleck and has been successfully surprising, antagonizing, and inspiring the people of the Chicago area and beyond with their work. Some of their works have even been produced off Broadway and over seas.
Here's a spot from their Manifesto:
Putting the burden of innovation on the director is like putting the prime minister in charge of the revolution, for the director, insofar as he remains a director, cannot help but defend that kind of theater in which he has a place of importance, suppressing those ancient models of the theater which do not require his services.
Posted on 09/29/11
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Alchemy Open Drawing/Sound Software
Sound + Chaos = Inspiring Visual Seeds
Painter X software
At first, I thought this was a silly novelty, but after inspecting a little further, I see this as a fantastic creative tool for the generation of form and pattern.
My work is pretty stodgy- figurative sculpture - but I can envision this tool thoroughly entiching my conception of gesture, fabric flow, and composition.
I can also see this tool as having fantastic power to unstall someone who has white canvas block.
All this, not to mention that this tool is free - the code is open - it's designed and implemented to make the world a better place. It's Mac/Windows?Linux compatible. Take a gander: al.chemy.org
Posted on 07/07/11
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Stunning Molecular Biology Animations
Brining Science to the people in an understandable way.This is great stuff. It makes science more accessible to people. It's one of the most important callings for an artist today.
Posted on 04/14/11
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Winifred Atwell
Pianist and Personality
her upright piano.
Born Una Winifred Atwell in 1910 or 1914 in Trinidad and Tobago, she showed much promise in her early years. She was challenged to perform Boogie-Woogie by American Servicemen according to the Wikipedia.
In the 1946 she was inducted in to the Royal Academy of Music, being the first woman to be awarded the highest marks for musicianship.
She developed her own style of Honky-Tonk piano, preferring her familiar slightly out-of tune upright to concert grands.
Posted on 04/13/11
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NPR
It's a sad day.
My Government's Senate no longer supports public radio. I made a donation and will make more. Support your local NPR station. http://www.npr.org/stations/donate/
Posted on 03/17/11
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Gerald Self, Harpsichord Maker
Custom built Harpsichords and also a radio show about harpsichord music
by Gerald Self.
When in negotiations to purchase a harpsichord kit from Gerald Self, it rapidly became apparent that Mr. Self knows not only about building instruments, but also about the music that they make. He works with materials and parts from of Marc Ducornet and The Paris Workshop. He imports kits, and also sells finished instruments. If you have any questions about harpsichords of are thinking about building one, an adventure I strongly recommend, Gerald can get you set off in the right direction.
Posted on 03/17/11
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No. 4 Street of Our Lady
A documentay film about a woman's heroic efforts to save two families
Based on the diary of one of the survivors and featuring personal accounts of many of the survivors living today, this documentary showcases how one individual, Francisca Halamajowa, and two families with insurmountable will power endured World War II. The film has won many awards at competition and is beautifully filmed and structured. The film left me with a feeling that I can and should do things to change the world. Go to the website.
If you happen to notice the maps in the film, I helped out with these. They are a combination of inkwash and digital manipulation.
Posted on 03/15/11
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Consilience by E.O. Wilson
The Unity of Knowledge
This book is a valiant and successful effort to demonstrate the interconnectedness of all branches of knowledge, from physics, to biology, to psychology, and art. Although interdisciplinary is a buzz-word on campuses today, in practice means geochemists speaking to biogeochemists or artists talking to designers. Wilson spreads his wings here and brings current knowledge back to its roots in Classical and Renaissance thought. A definite must read for all academe.
Posted on 03/14/11
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