Wednesday, April 11, 2007



















Gearing up for a weekend with those wacky eidolons of current, the Voltage Spooks. Friday evening at Issue Project Room, a space I've somehow managed to avoid visiting until now. No excuses. Motoring down to Philly (a city I've actually never visited either, probably with better excuses) for a show to be preceded by a panel discussion with Keith, Jon and yours truly though what my contribution is expected to be, I've no idea. Drive back up late, go to the final show at the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center Sunday evening.

I don't get that many opportunities to hear an ensemble three times in a row like this, so I'm expecting to enjoy that aspect (presumably more besides). The Spooks travel on to Boston, Dartmouth, I think a couple other spots.

Finished Banville's "The Sea" which I enjoyed a bunch. Very sad, very effective at conveying a sense of bafflement at indecipherable events that nonetheless reverberate down through one's life. Began Zadie Smith's "On Beauty".

Working through Hofstadter's "I Am a Strange Loop" which, happily, doesn't seem to be skating quite so close to gooiness as I feared it might. With all his going on about feedback loops, he seems to be unknowledgeable about related things in contemporary music like Lucier's "I Am Sitting in a Room".

4 comments:

Richard Pinnell said...

Good luck with the panel discussion thingy, is anyone likely to record it? Would be good to hear.
Would think Keith, Jon and yourself would be good if presented from the perspective of musician, label owner, listener... just prepare a stock answer for "what counts as "Eai" and what doesn't?" right now!

Brian Olewnick said...

I know they're videotaping and recording the performance itself, dunno about the discussion. I expect to merely sit there and nod sagely.

Anonymous said...

well, I know that Keith and I are planning to mostly talk about Brian.

Brian Olewnick said...

That would be rather cool, actually, if you and Keith managed to twist every question around so that it had something to do with crosswords, clutch-hitting in baseball, French academic painters--something you'd both have to defer to me on.