Bliss Street Studios

Monthly Monologues: August (Belated)

admin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 23:31:34 +0000

Female Monologue from The Matthew Portraits

“. . . Take off your clothes. I want to paint you . . .”

Sorry I’m late on this one. Enjoy.

Female Monologue (Ruth) from The Matthew Portraits

The Matthew Portraits full text

Sunday Songs: Pentecost 15

admin — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 06:00:49 +0000

O Lord of Life

“…for He is thy life, and the length of thy days…” (Deut 30:20)

O Lord of Life (mp3)
O Lord of Life (pdf)

Sunday Songs: Pentecost 14

admin — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 06:00:22 +0000

Saints in Glory, We Together

“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8)

This week’s post in our ongoing Sunday Songs project can be sung as a three-part canon, in the grand tradition of songs such as “Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” “Three Blind Mice,” and other such gems.

Saints in Glory, We Together (mp3)
Saints in Glory, We Together (pdf)

ZAHA @Brooklyn Lyceum

admin — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 21:38:17 +0000

Before gearing up for a post-Labor Day shot-in-the-arm, you’re cordially invited to savor the last few strains of summer by coming out to hear ZAHA next Wednesday in Brooklyn. We’ll be playing at the Brooklyn Lyceum, a lovingly renovated theater/cafe that was a bathhouse/gym/warehouse in previous incarnations. In addition to some unfiltered Soundpainting, we’ll be performing the world premiere of an excerpt from Trigger’s Broom, an original composition created with the support of the Con Ed Musicians’ Residency: Composition Program.

ZAHA
Wed September 1
8:00 PM & 9:30 PM

Brooklyn Lyceum
227 4th Ave, Brooklyn, NY
718.857.4816
TICKETS: $10
Doors at 7:30 PM

Justin Wood (woodwinds) Nathan Koci (accordion, flugelhorn) Sebastian Noelle (guitar) Ryan Kotler (bass) Eric Eigner (drums) John O’Brien (drums)

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PS As a reward to our devoted fans, we’ve recently made our full-length record Shoot the Sun available as a “name-your-price” download – click here to git it in your soul…

Pea hen

admin — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 00:45:49 +0000

The pea hen is an unassuming

Unobtrusive brownish smallish fowl,

And yet the male, to woo her

Is undone.

Then,

Wouldn’t one think that I,

Being smallish and beige,

Would see feathers vying for my gaze?

Sunday Songs: Pentecost 13

admin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 06:00:10 +0000

We Have Not Come Unto the Mount

“But ye are come unto mount Sion…” (Hebrews 12:22)

This week’s post in our ongoing Sunday Songs project takes a bit of a different approach. Instead of setting a pre-existing text to an original melody, I chose to do the inverse: namely, take a pre-existing tune (in this case, an African-American spiritual) and use it to generate an original text. For this song, I adapted one of the lectionary scripture readings for this week. The words are set to a pretty common meter, so feel free to try singing these words to another melody.

We Have Not Come Unto the Mount (mp3)
We Have Not Come Unto the Mount (pdf)

Featured Artist: Matthew Newton

admin — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 13:25:13 +0000

We continue our Featured Artist Series here at Bliss Street Studios with Matthew Newton, our artist for August. We enjoyed viewing some of his interval paintings and vitrines at an open studio last year, and are happy to highlight him this month.

Below are his answers to our Seven Questions: enjoy!

Q. What has quickened your pulse recently?
A. I just read a John Ashberry poem that quickened my pulse: John Ashberry, “Syringa”

Q. What are you reading/watching/listening to these days?
A. Right now I’m reading Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and The Practice of Everyday Life by Michel de Certeau. I finished Madam Bovary recently and also “The Confidence Man: His Masquerade” by Melville which really captured my attention. I’ll probably read that again soon. In movies, I’m working my way through Kubrick’s early stuff. And for music, I recently came across a relatively new band called Big Troubles that I am really into. I also keep Natureboy, Masterface, Sam Amidon, and Sharon Van Etten playing consistently. I’ve also revisited Mazzy Star and early REM lately.

Q. What’s one of your guilty pleasures?
A. Floral prints.

Q. Whose work do you admire?
A. Lately the drawings of Dawn Clements have been on my mind a lot. Zoe Leonard is a consistent favorite and Keren Cytter has been important to me also. Although I paint, very few contemporary painters interest me. I also have portraits by El Greco and Goya beside my painting table right now that I look at each day. I admire my friend Kristen Jensen’s work.

Q. Where’s your favorite place to do creative work?
A. I am fortunate to have a really large studio in midtown through Hunter College which has become an excellent place to work. I also often work from home at a table set up in my bedroom, plus I take photographs out of my windows.

Q. You’ve been given a $5,000 budget for your next project. What would you do?
A. When I have resources, I think about building vitrines and tables. I have become fascinated with objects and how they function in the world as artifacts of humanity and existences in their own right. Display tables and vitrines become interesting moments of deliberate display and interaction with these objects. So, I like playing with those presentations and boundaries. With $5,000 I could come up with some pretty interesting tables, I think.

Q. How can we find out more about your work?
A. matthewstudio.com has images of my art but a studio visit is always best. I also keep an electronic notebook that anyone can peruse at matthewstudio.blogspot.com.

“Arcs and Lines”—Sol LeWitt at Dia:Beacon

admin — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 21:09:13 +0000

This weekend we hopped on the MetroNorth Hudson line and rolled on up to Dia:Beacon to get an eyeful of contemporary visual art. I was particularly moved by Joseph Beuys’ mixed-media sculptural environment/installation, Aus Berlin: Neues vom Kojoten (From Berlin: News from the Coyote). Beuys is a creative inspiration to me, and I was thrilled to stand next to this work. His installation was bristling with potential energy, and the despair of the rubble pile contrasted strongly with the warmth of the felt and straw.

I was also looking forward to checking out Sol LeWitt’s wall drawings (thanks to John O’Brien for turning me on to his work). LeWitt’s wall drawings consisted of preset instructions realized by two teams of assistants who worked at the gallery for four months. His instructions managed to balance form and freedom as they ranged from maddeningly precise phrases to suggestively cryptic koans:

#46: Veritical lines, not straight, not touching, covering the wall evenly. (1970)
#171: A line through the center of the wall toward the upper left corner and a line from the center of the wall to the upper right corner. (1973)

Here’s a video by Will Reynolds that documents the installation of Sol LeWitt’s art up at Mass MoCA:

Sol LeWitt: A Wall Drawing Retrospective

Runtime: 9:31
Views: 12,358

As a composer who works with improvisers, Sol LeWitt’s exhibition left me with plenty of brain-food to chew on. His wall drawing instructions demonstrate a discipline and rigor while they (paradoxically) leave the assistants quite a bit of leeway in how to interpret his blueprint. I felt like I was watching master improvisers riff off a lead sheet by Thelonious Monk: expressive players/draftsmen merging with the unique fingerprint of a composer/artist.

Next time you’re hankering for some contemporary art and find yourself in the Hudson River Valley area, head on over to Dia:Beacon. (PS the Warhol room was quite enjoyable as well – I’m realizing how influential his style has been over the past few decades of art & entertainment. And the couches are comfy, too.)

Sunday Songs: Pentecost 12

admin — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 06:00:01 +0000

O Young and Fearless Prophet

“I am come to send fire on the earth…” (Luke 12:49)

O Young and Fearless Prophet (mp3)
O Young and Fearless Prophet (pdf)

Things I miss

admin — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 18:15:58 +0000

Trains

Flights

Buses

Appointments

You.

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