constant narrator

A fun-filled day was had at the Saturday session of SXSW interactive. Such a change from the last time I attended in 2002, during the heart of the slump. It was the most depressing conference I’ve ever attended. It has grown over the years and the rooms are packed each session. Highlights were Kathy Sierra‘s keynote and Peter Merholz‘s “Stop Designing Products” for which he should have been given an hour. It was a shame his session was so short, there was lots of good content and I came away with a couple of ideas that will help with the software I’m currently redesigning. I saw plenty of geeks I knew and made friends with the visiting web/ux team from the New York Times (news junkie alert!) while we waited for the “High Class/Low Class Web Design” panel that Khoi Vinh (NYT design director) was (slightly surly, with good reason) on. After a dinner at Mekong River, Michael, Bug, Emily and I waited around to see Big Rig which was pretty good – thought provoking and some lovely editing and post production work. Tomorrow, more interactive panel goodness. And coffee. Lots of coffee.

Could that paragraph have any more parentheticals?

Tonight I went to a concert at the UT School of Music featuring concert cellist Bion Tsang who is in residence there as a teacher. I heard about the show at the last minute and what drew me to it was a piece by Tan Dun, the composer of the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon soundtrack. Tan does some really interesting things with percussion and this was the first time the piece, Snow in June, was to be performed in Austin. Tsang performed four very different works during the concert but the first half of the performance was much better than the second.

The first piece was breathtaking: Chaconne in D minor for two celli by Bach. Tsang played it with his wife, Amy Levine-Tsang, who is also a concert cellist. It was gorgeous and gave me goosebumps. It was also strange and moving to see a couple play it together. They gave each other sly glaces and nods, as if they were discussing nookie in front of the kids.

The second piece was Snow in June, which was performed with four percussionists, 65 odd instruments, a fair amount of newspaper and several sets of rocks. The instrumentation was awesome – I’ve never seen a marimba, vibes or xylophone played with wire brushes and the sound was incredible. The mallet texture kept changing from soft to thin-hard to thick-hard to metallic to hand-beaten. It was amazing how all these different sounds were drawn out of the instruments. The piece definately felt like a thematic forerunner to the CTHD score, lots of sliding notes and constantly playing with Asian scales but always with one foot firmly in a Western understanding of tonality. Tsang is a wonderful cellist and played beautifully. The percussion ensemble was hard working and having fun with the piece and I’ve now discovered a great marimba player in town, Thomas Burritt. The percussion ensemble at UT will be performing this piece again on Tuesday February 20th. I enjoyed it so much I may go again and try to bring some friends.

Having the luxury of not having to go to work in the morning, I stopped by I Love Video to peruse their collection. Not only did I bring home a VHS copy of Ang Lee’s first film Pushing Hands which I have been looking for forever, I also grabbed Round Trip because I’m trying to be more spontaneous in the foreign film section lately.

Round Trip is a 2003 Israeli movie in Hebrew and English about Nurit, a mother and bus driver who leaves her husband and takes her two kids from their small northern town to Tel Aviv. Upon getting there she finds it hard to care for them and so starts looking for a nanny that will work for room and board. Enter deliciously beautiful Mushibi, a Nigerian immigrant who sews clothes, works nights cleaning at a hospital and has a son in Nigeria. A relationship blossoms between the two and of course all sorts of complications ensue. The plot isn’t fabulously original, but the movie itself is lovely.

What I really liked is how low to the ground it is. It seems to have a fairly low budget and focuses on people who aren’t anywhere near making ends meet doing what they must to get by. It has excellent acting and characters that aren’t necessarily easy to like. All of this is rare in an American film so it’s refreshing. It’s worth checking out.

I just received a pleasingly fat package in the mail that contained my “advance copy” of Conversations with Texas Writers. I did an interview with Austin writer Katherine Tanney for the book and it’s finally been published after some delays. It’s really well done and pleasant to hold. They’ve used good paper. Cruising through it, there are some good pictures of the authors interviewed and some eye-catching quotes. I’m especially happy for Katherine because it will give her some more exposure and I really like her writing. It’s dark and funny and can make me squirm with recognition.

Yay, I’m stoked!

Sunday at ACL Fest: I bussed down alone to see the Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra. Happily it was in the pavilion, the only stage with shade, which was becoming critical: it was about 100 degrees at 4pm. They started and were OK. They had a tight horn section and a decent groove but each song was a 20 minute jam without enough variation to get me hyped about it. 15 minutes into song three I decided to eject from the pavilion in seach of Elvis Costello, who had just started playing on the other side of the park.

I didn’t even get close. Too hot, too many people – hey, I don’t even like Elvis Costello that much anyway. I turned around and headed to this little stage where I had heard something kind of yummy on my way to Elvis.

Oh my friends, how can I explain the joyous wonder that is Bobby Bare Jr. live? I am a convert. When he talked he shreiked. He was in a full black suit and tie and screamed: “Do you like my jacket? I melt in it for you!” The songs oscillated between psychelic sound walls with screams and sparse chords as backdrop to precious singing. “Do you like the rock and roll? DO YOU LIKE THE ROCK AND ROLL?” he screamed.

Yes. Yes I do like the rock and roll.

They closed with a schizophrenic version of Quiet Riot’s ‘Come on Feel the Noise’, where Bobby sweetly, softly sang the verses and then they rawked out for five minutes, then he reverted to folk-boy again. Good god, this man can come to dinner. And his drummer too.

http://www.bobbybarejr.com/