Godspeed You! Black Emperor @ Terminal 5 NY 03/14/11.

This past weekend I went to New York to see Godspeed You! Black Emperor, a band I would label as post-rock (instrumental) who have basically been on hiatus since 2003. I was familiar with them beforehand, but my interest in them was never too strong. I had purchased the tickets at a gift to my boyfriend, who is a huge fan. My ticket options were limited, because by the time I found out tickets for this tour were on sale, they had all but sold out. The band added this show after the initial round of ticket sales, and I snatched up tickets. I will say that Terminal 5 is a pretty terrible place to see a show, especially considering this epically-scaled band went on to play in the Brooklyn Masonic Temple and the Church of St. Paul the Apostle later in the week. As a venue, going to Terminal 5 is like a seeing a band inside a three-floor garbage can. Anyway, GY!BE certainly made the most of it, and I think the experience has turned me from a casual listener into a fan. Visually, this show was far from disappointing. The band utilized projections through the duration of their 2-hour (!) set, something which they have traditionally done, which they say provide context for their wordless songs. Their songs also feature sound clips, from interviews which they have conducted. For a band without any real lyrics, it was helpful to have some frame of reference for their music.

I was stuck pretty far back in the crowd and didn't get to take any photos, but here are some videos from others--

Adam Taylor @ Fuel Coffee Shop, New Haven.

I went to see my friend's brother's art show, "A Priori," in February, and I was glad I did. Adam Taylor is a painter, illustrator and sculptor whose main subjects seem to be deranged-looking half-cute/half-creepy children, and usually the kids are enjoying or lusting after some kind of sweets. His paintings were very tiny--most were no bigger than 6x6" or so. I enjoyed them a lot, but they were all lined up on the wall and the presentation of them wasn't very interesting or exciting. However, there's a limited amount of space to do anything in a coffee shop, so I'll chalk it up to that. It is difficult to see in the images on his website, but he used some kind of glossy paint or finish to make it look as though the children were crying, either tears of joy or sadness, and I thought that was really cool. I don't know a lot about painting materials or techniques, but I liked them a lot.

My favorite was a little girl watching a donut fly away with tears in her eyes.



Overall these were cute, funny, and not too serious. I liked his style.

Dismemberment Plan @ Webster Hall NY 01/29/11.

I am the kind of person who's been really, really excited about the slew of indie rock bands who've chosen to reunite in the past couple years. It has a lot to do with being just a few years too young to have seen them the first time around. I'm not sure if seeing them in this context makes it a more or less "genuine" experience, but when the opportunity arises to see one of my favorite bands for the first (and possibly only) time, I'm going to jump on it. This show was almost ruined by this winter's snow, which wreaked havoc on the Metro North train schedule. Metro North decided to run the trains on a Sunday schedule this day (it was a Saturday) and my only option was to take Amtrak home at 2:45 in the morning after the show ended at 11. It was still worth it.

I really like to snap photos of bands, but my camera lens isn't really up to snuff. I'll be investing in a new one soon, and hopefully it'll make things a little easier. I tried anyway though!







The Dismemberment Plan has a song called "The Ice Of Boston" where, historically, they invite anyone in the crowd to join them onstage to sing along. It's pretty fun. Here's someone's video actually taken onstage from this show--



At the end they played my favorite song, which is really all anyone wants when they go see one of their favorite bands, right? That was pretty exciting for me. Here is someone else's video of it--



As far as the performance as a whole goes, this show was really great. There weren't really any bad moments. Webster Hall has really good lighting compared to some other venue's I've been to, including these crazy green "digital" looking seizure-inducing green lights. One downside was that the singer is a pretty energetic guy, but the bass player and 2nd guitarist didn't really follow his lead. They spent most of the show looking a little bored about the whole thing. Another downside was that immediately following the show there was a dance party at the same venue, so the band really had to stop sooner than they would have wanted, which was a little disappointing.

Composites.

Here are three composited images I made for class.

The first is loosely based on Leonardo Da Vinci's "The Last Supper." My subject referred to is as "The Last Breakfast." I would have liked to include more of him, but my kitchen table is very small.



The second is based on a painting by Annibale Carracci titled "Two Children Teasing A Cat." I picked this painting because it is ridiculous. Two children are teasing an annoyed-looking cat with SCORPIONS. Who does that?? I didn't have any scorpions handy, but I used a small toy octopus instead.



The third is based on a woodcut by Albrecht Durer, "Adam And Eve." Honestly I chose this woodcut because there was a cat in it (my weakness) but my cat refused to pose.

The Mappist.

I had a really strong gut reaction to "The Mappist." At first I thought that people like Benefideo are probably a dying breed, or worse, a breed already gone. His need to make maps that showed layers upon layers of the earth's cultural and geographic history is really something that not many people would take on nowadays, at least not to that degree. Satellites and internet maps and all those other things really make us forget that there was a time when everything had to be done by hand, when people had to really get in touch with the land they were mapping because there literally was no other way.

I have known a few people in my life who would rather draw a map before resorting to a Google map or something similar. I always thought that was kind of an oddity, because why would you draw a map when a computer can do it for you? But I think I understand the need to be in direct connection with the area you're trying to describe a little better now.

Walk in the park.

I decided to explore Wooster Square Park, a park I spend a lot of time enjoying in the summer, but not so much in the winter. It was very cold and I'm sick right now, so I had a hard time with this assignment. However, it was a good experience anyway. I never really stop to pay attention to all the little things happening in the park, and it was nice to finally give myself the time to do that.

Laura Roberts, "Montreal Winter"

Icicles question,
breath hanging in air shatters.
Cold, clean fear of death.






[http://buttontapper.com/2010/01/31/winter-haiku/]