CricketToes

Join The Circus Of Fire

As one of the four elements, fire possesses unique characteristics that both attract and repel all sentient beings. Dangerous and beautiful, powerful and fragile, destructive and constructive, humans have long sought to control and understand its complex nature.

In the spirit of this endeavor, countless artists have explored our deep relationship with the hottest of hot stuff over the centuries. Miltown's own DanceCircus will join that list in one month through their own creative examination, but they need a few brave and talented folks--you're one of those, right?--to help them pull it off.

Right now DanceCircus is seeking one dancer and up to three fire spinners to join them in their upcoming performances of Playing With Fire, a collection of dance stories all about fire and us. Performances are scheduled for the weekend of April 30-May 2, 2010.

A strong, modern trained dancer of the male persuasion is preferred, but a female would be welcome as well. In a recent email artistic director Betty Salamun explained, "The dance draws on stories of fires the dancers witnessed and blended with sign language. A revival, the dance is choreographed and costumed for 4 dancers[:] 3 women, 1 man." Rehearsals have been going on for several months, so you'll have a bit o' catchin' up to do, but I'm confident that you're a super hard worker and you'll knock 'em all dead by showtime!

As for the fire spinners, up to three are needed to mesmerize and stun the audience with 5-8 minutes of fancy material. Since the performances will be held indoors at the DanceWorks Studio Theatre your flames need to be of the unreal but believable kind, 'kay?

If your skills match these descriptors and ya wanna get in on the steamy fun, contact Betty at dance at dancecircus dot org ASAP.

For those interested in attending one of the three performances, go to the DanceCircus website for more details. Live music from One Drum--check out their MySpace page to experience just how hot they are!--and a film by Brook Maroldi will also be presented.

(Thanks, Betty!)

Hold Your Horses! Art History Can Be Fun?

For decades, representatives of art's two main academic gangs--a.k.a. The Tweeds and The Hippies--have been noisily lamenting that the young kids don't seem to know squat about art history. While this complaint does have merit, they need look no further than themselves if they're seeking someone to blame. I mean, come on, people, enough with the dull slideshows and monotone narration already! You may as well flash a color bar test pattern accompanied by the soothing sound of a continuous 1000 Hz audio tone and call it a day.

Well, folks, it's time to stop all your caterwauling and denial of fault 'cause the Franco-American pop group Hold Your Horses! has come to save us all:

Truly, there is only one word for that: Fan-frickin-tastic!

Link (via The Observer's Very Short List)

Related:
JuxtaPacific: The Real Art of Fiji
A World of Culture on The Internets™

Virtual Choir Makes Actual Music

Composer, conductor and all 'round choral/symphonic/musical hottie Eric Whitacre recently posted the second edition of his Virtual Choir project on the Tube o' You, Lux Aurumque:

Quite the little mindblower, ain't it? And not bad for a massive flock of songbirds scattered across 12 different countries.

Maybe Whitacre should think about doing the next one live. The inevitable technical difficulties would make it the experimental music event of the year!

Link (via Thomas Cott's "You've Cott Mail")

iPhone App Answers Art's Most Pointless Question

As all fancy iPhone users know, there's a multitude of apps they can download to their gadgets should they desire to have the experience of time being relentlessly sucked through their fingers at light speed. In fact, everyday scores of teenagers get so engrossed in the virtual Game Of Life that by the time they look up they have no real life of their own.

Thankfully Deeplocal and The Mattress Factory of Pittsburgh, PA have come to the rescue with an app that's so monumentally important we just had to bring it to your attention: Is This Art?

That's right, people, no longer will you have to twist your noodle this way and that, striking cerebral poses normally achieved only by the world's most nimble gurus, in an effort to discern whether what your lookin' at is art or not. Just ask your iPhone and the mystery shall be solved. Spooky, yes? You're darn tootin' it is.

Actually, it's supposed to be a humorous little interactive thing whereby peeps take photos, submit 'em and--viola!--get back clever answers to the most subjective and pointless question ever. For example, "This work manipulates reality in a realistic but non-manipulative way, therefore THIS IS ART." Haha! Now we understand why complex algorithms were invented.

Go here to see photos submitted and answers given. Feel free to submit comments of your own to the site, which no doubt will soon be inundated with überserious art debaters who wouldn't know a joke if it physically shook their funny bone, shouting, "Laugh, damn it, laugh!" Here's hoping!

(via @The_Mint_Museum)

Drawing In Harmony

It's been many, many moons since I gave myself over to line and shadow, doodling to my noodle's content. I hadn't fully realized how much I missed it until I ran across an online drawing tool called Harmony this morning and gave it a go.

Created by designer/developer Mr.doob--a.k.a. Ricardo Cabello--Harmony allows you draw with your cursor, utilizing different brush styles to create your masterpiece.

I made a modest abstract example for your eyes only, entitled Sleeping Chicken:

Hehe, that was tons o' happy fun!

Now it's your turn, kids, so head on over to Harmony and doodle away!

(via Drawn!)

Theatre Editor Turns Prophet Of The Coming Apocalypse

David Cote, theatre editor for Time Out New York and well known critic, posted a nearly hysterical item at the Guardian yesterday, bemoaning the slash-n-burn techniques US publishers are employing to hand out pink slips to longtime, established critics. And when I say hysterical, I mean both in his delivery and in my own response of uncontrollable laughter.

Citing Variety's decision to cut loose chief film critic Todd McCarthy and chief theatre critic David Rooney on Monday--which is indeed sad--Cote's piece quickly spirals out of the realm of logic and into a diatribe of civilization-ending consequences should this trend continue.

He actually compares it with Alan Weisman's book The World without Us, stating, "You've seen the books speculating on what our cities would look like if humans vanished and nature were allowed to spread unchecked. Let's imagine a world without critics (please indulge my paranoid prognostication)." Well, yes, by all means, let's indulge him, shall we? Ha!

Combine that with his own less than stellar use of the English language--example: "... a parade of jobbing freelancers with little experience and even littler clout." Littler? Are you serious? Yes, it's a word, but that doesn't mean you have to use it. Sheesh!--and his analogy that "critics, reviewers, consumer reporters – call us what you will – are the dung beetles of culture. We consume excrement, enriching the soil and protecting livestock from bacterial infection in the process," and you've got the makings for a very public display of the crazies.

Now, don't get me wrong, kids, I do believe that critics play an important, if sometimes irritating, role in the health of the artistic community, but let's have a bit of perspective here. And for Pete's sake, whatever it is you're ingesting that makes you think it's an awesome idea to call the work that artists do "excrement"--the sole reason you have a job, btw--I suggest you put it down and phone a medical professional immediately. Be sure to ask for a lollipop on your way out.

Link (via Thomas Cott's "You've Cott Mail")

New Music Fest Helps Keep Summerfest Safe From Diversity

Word has come that those in charge over at Milwaukee World Festival Inc. have finally given up trying to make room for emerging and non-mainstream performers at Summerfest. The result of this throwing in the towel is a new music fest designed to feature acts generically categorized as "alternative" and "modern rock", guaranteeing that the world's largest music festival will remain predominantly lukewarm and providing hipster rockers with a summer home to call their very own.

Dubbed Verge--logo pending--the event will run for two days, June 4-5, as compared to Summerfest's eleven days. While that hardly constitutes separate but equal, organizers are clearly hoping to meet their goal of getting indie/alternative/whatever fans to stop whining about the lack of inclusion and shut the hell up.

In perusing the preliminary lineups, it appears both fests are thus far keeping to the established standard of ignoring music deemed too diverse and/or challenging--i.e. world, Latin, rap/hip-hop, experimental--with the exception of Public Enemy at Summerfest on June 25. I mean, who wants to be exposed to stuff ya wouldn't normally listen to, right?

Link (via BizTimes Daily)

Eat Chili To Stop The Madness!

I just got the Official Guide to the 8th Annual Rockabilly Chili Contest from WMSE 91.7 FM in my email box and it's a real dilly, kids. Pictured at left is this year's Rockabilly Chili mascot Francis, a truly astounding yet absolutely foul tasting ocean gastropod of the Nudibranch variety. Eew!

Beyond the obvious HIlarity of the name--haha! Nudi means naked!--there is no logical reason for this bottom-dwelling creature's presence at, near or around a pot of chili. The implication, of course, is clear: Miltown's premiere DJs have finally gone completely off the perilous deep end, bless their nutty little noodles.

So what is it that has turned our Frontier Radio heroes mad? Endless fundraising! And what can you do to help bring them back from the brink of insanity? Go to the 8th Annual Rockabilly Chili Contest this Sunday!

For just a $6 admission price and $1 per chili sample you can spare us this kind of nonsensical mascoting for the foreseeable future and help WMSE continue on with its musical broadcasting mission. Better yet, bring four or more non-perishable items for Hunger Task Force and get up to two chili servings. Whoot!

WMSE's 8th Annual Rockabilly Chili Contest will be held Sunday, March 7, 2010 from 11AM-4PM at the MSOE Kern Center, 1245 N Broadway in Milwaukee.

Do it for the DJs, do it for Francis, do it for us all.

Punk Lives On In The Cyber Universe

As we all should've learned in elementary school, the time it takes for the light of a distant star to reach us here on Earth is mind-blowingly huge. And so it is that the mere act of gazing upon celestial bodies places us in a cosmic time machine in which we see the stars as they once were and not as they are today.

In the frantic realm of The Internets™, however, one minute is equal to one light year, so when ya run across something that's been up for five years and documents a period from some three decades ago it's like looking at the brilliance of a star located an eternity away.

Just such a stunning experience happened to me last week when I stumbled upon Andy Rosen's "London Punks 1976-1984" photostream on Flickr, uploaded in 2005. Seeing as y'all know I cannot tell a lie, let me just say that I was so amazed and delighted to find these images that I nearly fell off my oh-so comfy chair!

Presented in all their fantastically dark and brooding glory are The Clash, Paul Weller of The Jam, Dave Vanian of The Damned, Glenn Gregory of Heaven 17, David Sylvian and Richard Barbieri of Japan, Johnny Rotten--band name not necessary--Siouxsie Sioux without the Banshees, Steve Strange, Midge Ure of Ultravox, Specimen, and my all-time favs Peter Murphy and David J of Bauhaus.

Just who in the hell are these musical/cultural rebels of a bygone era? If ya don't know, take Mom's advice and look it up!

Ah, good times, kids, good times. Reminds me a punk rock girl I used to know very, very well:

Unfortunately the link to Rosen's blog yields nada, but you can watch a 2006 video interview with him at Current.

Link (via Boing Boing)

Related:
Avant-Garde/Acoustic/Punk Never Felt So Right
That’s Pretty Underground

Help Make WPCA's New Home Sweet

Today I took a short jaunt down to the near South Side to get a gander at the new digs of Walker's Point Center for the Arts (WPCA). Erected in 1885 and made of solid Cream City brick, the two-story building at 839 S. 5th Street stands as testament to the fine craftsmanship of those who labored to create Miltown's now classic historic architecture. Also, at just 125 years old, it's still in a bloom of youth and clearly eager to face the next 125+ years as WPCA's home.

In order for this glorious thing to happen, the good folks at WPCA need your help. Right now they've put out the call for volunteers with carpentry and cabinetry skills, peeps who can remove nails/screws and are handy with a putty knife, and clean freaks of all kinds.

Those interested in volunteering should send an email to staff at wpca-milwaukee dot org.

Weekend and week days are preferred, but those with evening-only availability can be accommodated as well. If you have tools, don't forget 'em in the garage, please bring 'em with you, 'kay?

It's a whole building of potential, people, purchased by WPCA through financing by IFF, so any time/sweat investment you make now will come back to you and the community one kagillion-fold in the future!

Stay tuned to this Cricky channel for updates and intel on WPCA's official new home opening events.

Link (Thanks, Dorota, Kate & Gary!)