A Mere Outline for One Aspect of a Book on Mystery Catalysts, Guerrilla Playfare, neoism, booed usic, Mad Scientist Didactions, Acts of As-Beenism, So-Called Whatevers, Psychopathfinding, Uncerts, Air Dressing, Practicing Promotextuality, Imp Activism, CircumSubstantial Playing, etc..
in Roanoke:
While BslTimOre (1953-1994) & Pittsburgh (1996-the present) have been my 2 main home bases &, therefore, the places where I've conducted the most Mad Scientist Didactions, etc, ROANOKE has recently risen to prominence in my life because it's a place where I seem to be more welcome than I curently am in either BalTimOre OR Pittsburgh. As such, it seems to me that Roanoke deserves to enter the pantheon of places where I've presented myself frequently. Thank you, Roanoke friends.
445. "88 Instruments +"
- Art Rat Studios, Roanoke, VA, us@
- Sunday, June 12, 2022E.V.
- During the time of the QUARANTYRANNY most opportunities for me to present my Low Classical Usic &/or Sprocket Science in front of actual human beings has been by & large squelched by the climate of fear. People who previously would've been inclined to sponsor me are now terrified of appearing to not be in their approved subculture - in other words, I'm censored as 'unsafe' - not just as a 'disease carrier' but also as a dis-ease provoker, as a challenger to the almost completely omnipresent brainwashing.
Having gotten thoroughly SICK of this utterly insane state of things I decided it was time to play a gig somewhere. I started with trying to arrange one in my hometown, Pittsburgh. Alas, the zombies have almost completely taken over. Pittsburgh's a neoilliberal town par excellance, the artists & political activists are too incapable of analysis & too willingly enslaved to ASTROTURFING to dare to support aything that might challenge the norms of the Medical Industry Police State, no matter how subtly. 'Better Safe than.. Alive' might as well be the motto.
SO, I decided to visit a friend of mine in Tampa, FLA. Then I decided to visit a friend in Savannah, GA, & another in Roanoke, VA. The next obvious step being to try to arrange a gig in all 3 places. My friends in Tampa could arrange one but not on the short notice I was giving them. I tried contacting 4 venues in Savannah, explaining that I'm the most prolific moviemaker in the entire 127 year history of moviemaking. None of them even had the courtesy to reply.
In Roanoke, my old friend Brian Gentry hooked me up with Ralph Eaton at Art Rat Studios. Ralph initially discouraged me somewhat from presenting either of the 2 programs that I had in mind. Adaping to his input, I simplified my plan to at 1st be a free improvisation duet. Then my duet partner was essentially told by his wife that he wasn't allowed to go with me because, of course, he would 'get sick & die' from being in the car with me. Regardless of how irrational that fear was my friend was too weak to not let his wife dominate him so I was on my own.
The night before the gig I only got 4 hours of sleep. The quantity of gear that I took with me was so heavy I could barely move some of it but I managed to get the car loaded. It took, 6.5 hours to drive there. After a little R&R time I then spent 1.5 hours setting up. The UNCERT was only 24 minutes long. It took another 1.5 hours to tear down &, of course, I was also trying to sell merch. That night I also only got 4 hours of sleep & then it took me 7 hours & 10 minutes to drive back. I was profoundly exhausted at the end of it all. At age 68 I was proud of myself for being able to persevere but I don't know how much longer I can keep going at such a pace - not much longer, I'm sure.
Ralph's Art Rat Studios has a fantastic setting made of 'corrected' stuffed animals. His psychedelic light show is truly impressive. The GoBos are wonderful. Rather than projecting my own movies I decided to use his environment as my stage set. Wearing a Kuba Elephant Helmet Mask from the Congo, I started off by pushing a Faventia miniature street barrel piano on its miniature cart out of the 'backstage' area, playing, in a deliberately disjunctive manner, Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine". After I wheeled that out, I stood up (I had to kneel to wheel out the piano) & introduced myself & said a few words about the "60 & over Club", the name I was using for the presentation. Then I read this text:
MOTTOS & SLOGANS: Anything is Anything / No More Punching-Bag Clowns! / Neoism Now! & Then! / Kill Normality Before It Kills You! / The Revenge of the Impotent is to Try to Neuter the Fertile / Before You Decide Against Biting the Hand That Feeds You, Ask Why It Has So Much Food in the First Place / When MONEY is GOD, the POOR are HUMAN SACRIFICES / WE are all UNEQUAL under the LAW & THAT is its PURPOSE! / USICIAN, Use Thyself! / Better a Psychopath than a Robopath / Better a Thought Criminal than the Thought Police / Better a Free Thinker than Thoughtless / Better Thought-Provoking than a Secret Police Provocateur / Nurture your Resistance to Medicalization & Iatrogenesis / Dreams, Instinct, & Intuition are more important than your new Techno-Toy / Would you rather be feeble-minded or a Force of Nature? / The Medical Industry compromises your IMMUNE SYSTEM & then gets rich renting you an inferior substitute /Mind Control succeeds when you're afraid to express a different opinion on Social Media / The Medical Industry has become a CANCER crowding-out HEALTH to make room for WEALTH / Live Fast, Die Old / Your mind is a vestigial organ, leave the driving to us / You've been ASTROTURFED into committing CIVIC SUICIDE / History Belongs to the Victor, but only the Loser Believes It.
SELF-DESCRIPTION: Mad Scientist / d composer / Sound Thinker / Thought Collector / As Been / PIN-UP (Postal Interaction Network Underground Participant) / Headless Deadbeat of the Pup tENT Cult / booed usician / Low Classicist / H.D.J. (Hard Disc Jockey) / Psychopathfinder / Jack-Off-Of-All-Trades / criminally sane / Homonymphonemiac / Practicing PromoTextual / Air Dresser / Sprocket Scientist / headitor & earchivist / Explicator / Sexorcist / Professional Resister of Character Defamation / Proponent of Classification-Resistant What-Have-Yous / tOGGLE nUT cASE / Princess of Dorkness's Right Hand Man / Human Attention-ExSpanDex Speculum / Imp Activist / SPLEENIUS / Cognitive Dissident / Criminally Sane
SOCIAL ASSOCIATIONS: nuclear brain physics surgery's cool founder & graduate / Krononaut / Church of the SubGenius Santa / Neoist / Anti-Neoist / Pregroperativist / talent scout for Olfactories Organized / S.S.S.B.ite (Secret Society for Strange Behaviour -ite) / A.S.S.S.B. (Anti-Secret Society for Strange Behaviour Asshole Son-of-a-Bitch) / member of the I.S.C.D.S. (International Stop Continental Drift Society) / 1 time supporter of the ShiMo Underground / Ballooning One in the Fructiferous Society / founder & president of the N.A.A.M.C.P. (National Association for the Advancement of Multi-Colored Peoples) / co-founder of the S.P.C.S.M.E.F. (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Sea Monkeys by Experimental Filmmakers) / Borderline Kneelite in the KNEEHIGHS GANG / emphatic member of the No-No Class / Street Rat Liberation Front / Money Against Capitalism / What?! Collective / Info Desk / HERETICS
After I finished reading the text, I went to behind the keyboard that I had set up with my "88 Instruments" score/map in front of it. I removed my African mask & started playing the samples.
Sustaining a looping sample chord I revealed a bronze Dali melting clock sculpture & played it as a percussion instrument with metal mallets intended for Crotales.
I returned to the sampler & played for another few minutes before sustaining another looping sample chord - this time using a Schalmei sample. Revealing the same Schalmei I played it while walking out ino the (v)audience.
I returned to the keyboard again, playing more & sustaining a sample chord loop that included the barrel piano. From there, I went to the barrel piano & played a bit of that returning, once again, to the sampler. Eventually, I sustained & looped some samples & switched to a piano voice in order to play a brief more 'pianistic' passage. For the finalé I reverse-wheeled the barrel piano back into the 'backstage' area, came out & stopped the sampler loop sustain.
- "roanokeydokey"
- shot in Roanoke, VA, at Ralph Eaton's Art Rat Studios on Sunday, June 12, 2022; uploaded on June 14, 2022
- 1920 X 1440, 30fps, Stereo
- 25:28
- on my onesownthoguhts YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/jfaokqYcEVY
- on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/roanokeydokey
- June 15, 2022E.V. recollection from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
446. "Consciousness Expansion Score Movie"
- Art Rat Studios, Roanoke, VA, us@
- Saturday, August 13, 2022E.V.
- This gig exemplifies the degree of my dedication to my work. From October, 2020, to October, 2021, I built an addtion on my house the primary purpose of which was to double the size of my (M)Usic Rm. I documented this process with 6 detailed documentaries:
"Consciousness Expansion - Phase 01"
"Consciousness Expansion - Phase 02"
"Consciousness Expansion - Phase 03"
"Consciousness Expansion - Phase 4: The Winter of 2021"
"Consciousness Expansion - Phase 05"
"Consciousness Expansion - Phase 06"
2 audio sessions were recorded in the new expanded space & these were also documented:
"Consciousness Expansion Kenny & tENT"
All of these documentaries were then reduced to one single one:
THIS was then reduced further & turned into a Score Movie, a movie meant to generate its soundtrack:
"Consciousness Expansion Score Movie"
A rehearsal was held using this Score Movie & that, too, was documented:
"Consciousness Expansion Score Movie Rehearsal 1"
I then revised the Score Movie, eliminating most of the introduction:
"Consciousness Expansion Score Movie (revised)"
A larger group then rehearsed with that & that, too, was documented:
"Consciousness Expansion Score Movie Rehearsal 2"
A version of the revised Score Movie was then made using the soundtrack from the 2nd rehearsal. This could stand for the finished product:
"Consciousness Expansion Score Movie (revised) (w/ soundtrack)"
Now the time had come for the premier performance. SO, On Saturday, August 13, 2022, Eric Lipsky, Devin Sherman, & I (tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE) presented the premier of "Consciousness Expansion Score Movie". Eric played, cello, guiro, & Tibetan cowbell; Devin played guitar & cymbal; & I played ASR-X Pro sampler, micro-Korg synthesizer, Korg Kronos sampler, crotales, bongos, devil's fiddle, ratchet, Chinese gong, vibra-slap, & flex-a-tone. This was documented with 8 cameras, one of them operated by Ralph of Art Rat.
All in all, it was a phenomenal premier. Devin & Eric both contributed generously to the event, investing themselves heavily in it in support of my vision. I am deeply grateful to them. The playing was a challenge but I feel that we did an excellent job. It was as if we'd been airdropped onto a moving roller coaster, entrusted with the task of painting & oiling it as it moved with a prodigious speed (OK, so I exaggerate a tad). Thanks go to Ralph Eaton & Bill Counihan of Art Rat for the pleasant art ratmosphere.
Brian Gentry, an old friend who was generous enuf to host Eric & myself & who attended the premier wrote this email to myself & other relevant people expressing his analysis of the event & I gave some partial explanatory replies (in red):
Aug 20, 2022, at 11:38 AM, Brian Gentry wrote:
It was a privilege to witness this performance. While I imagine that as a performer it would be great to have had a larger turnout,
Indeed, yes, I wish there had been more people - but as is often the case w/ unusual events attracting small (v)audiences the (v)audiences are usually extraordinary people & such people are rare enuf to count for more than just one measley human.
I can attest that those in attendance were mesmerized.
Thank you for saying that.
I remember when the Willem Breuker Kollektief played at the 14 Karat Cabaret in BalTimOre in the early '90s there was a small (v)audience there. Possibly most of that (v)audience were in my big band, the "Official" Project (short version of the name). The Kollektief were booked for 2 nights, as was typical Cabaret practice, but after the 1st night they were considering cancelling the 2nd night b/c of the (v)audience sparsity. I talked to them & told them that while the 'crowd' was small they were some of the best musicians in BalTimOre & they definitely appreciated the music. SO, they played the 2nd night & the same people were in attendance again.
I wish that a few of the other Art Rat regulars and fans of tENT's work had been able to be there, such as Olchar, but that was down to the luck of the draw rather than lack of interest. Donnaah was completely amazed. IMO, it was a near-perfect setting - great space, comfortable seating, intimate and up-close.
Here is my official/unofficial expert/clueless insightful/rambling non-participant review, suitable for publishing!
& here's where a side of my personality comes to the fore that's probably a source of annoyance to many: what seems to be my 'contrarian' side but what's really my penchant-for-accuracy side.
I have been ruminating and kind of processing the performance since it happened. In my opinion, this is a sign of the best kind of work - one that leaves you coming back to it again and again. Not always in an analytical or thinking modality (though I have been doing that, too), but in a more experiential way. I suppose one could call it wrestling or engaging with the performance gestalt. One aspect in particular that I addressed in questions to tENT was the deliberate exceeding of sustained reaction time of the participants.
Brian & I did talk about this somewhat at the time but I didn't really explain it thoroughly.
1st, it's important to understand that while a great deal of information is fed to the (v)audience thru text in the Score Movie the players have actually rc'vd even more information in advance. The original Score Movie:
681. a. "Consciousness Expansion Score Movie"
- 1920 X 1440, 30fps, Stereo
- 1:26:49
- on my onesownthoughts YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/YBYB_jfJR0s
- on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/consciousness-expansion-score-movie
was 6:55 longer than the revised version presented at Art Rat:
b. "Consciousness Expansion Score Movie (revised)"
- 1920 X 1440, 30fps, Stereo
- 1:19:54
- on my onesownthoughts YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/OoyP35lrIhI
- on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/expansion-score-revised
The missing material was more explanatory bits at the beginning that were mostly just introductions to the terms used in the movie & were, therefore, felt by me to be excessive at the beginning. I removed them b/c I felt like the explanatory introduction was too long. This is the gist of what's left that's relevant to this discussion:
This is a Score Movie.
That means that the movie
is a score for the
production of its soundtrack.
In the movie there are
the following types of activities,
imagery, conditions, & objects.
Each of these is intended to
trigger correlative types
of playing & expression.
Instructions are presented in
roughly the order they 1st
appear in the Score Movie.
Most meaning(s) of scenes
are presented in writing.
There will be times when 2
or more meanings are present.
One can be chosen, or more
if possible.
Players aren't expected to respond
to every instruction but are,
instead, expected to go at the pace
of change that they feel comfortable with.
However, the more scored changes
they manage to respond to, the
stronger the overall form will be.
dates = motifs
Motifs should be no longer than 4 seconds.
A new motif can only be played when a
new date appears but a motif can continue
over the appearance of a new date.
The player can use a minimum of 2 motifs that
alternate OR use as many motifs as occur to them
OR use the 6 provided motifs OR use a
combination of these 2 latter. These motifs
are like templates, they can be transposed
in any way, to any octave. If played by
a sampler or any instrument that's not
necessarily conventionally pitched they
simply function as key-down instructions.
Their goal is to potentially produce
synchronicity & simple harmony without
having such results be mandatory.
The middle 3 of the above paragraphs were also removed. If I had kept them in & people had read them then what was happening wd've been clearer but I thought that they provided too much reading so I stripped the intro text down to just motif basics.
The video score simply moved too fast for anyone to keep up for an hour and twenty minutes.
SO, to quote from the excluded (edited here) paragraphs:
"Most meaning(s) of scenes are presented in writing. There will be times when 2 or more meanings are present. One can be chosen, or more if possible.
"Players aren't expected to respond to every instruction but are, instead, expected to go at the pace of change that they feel comfortable with. However, the more scored changes they manage to respond to, the stronger the overall form will be."
To digress on a musico-historical note: It's common in avant-garde classical music for composers to be sd to be challenging the players beyond their capabilities. That was sd, e.g., about Franz Kamin's piano music & probably about the piano music of Pierre Boulez & Karlheinz Stockhausen. Brian Ferneyhough's music has probably been similarly described.
As you can see in the above instructions, that wasn't my intention. When I was building the addition to my house I shot something like 700 hrs of footage. I made multiple documentaries from this that were discursive. These were all laboriously whittled down to produce the Score Movie. The result was intended to show all of the relevant building activities w/o necessarily producing a discursive narrative along the lines of the other documentaries already made.
These building activities were then described in musical terms, primarily but not entirely expression markings. These terms were interpolated into the movie simply where they were relevant - they weren't placed w/ any convenience or inconvenience to the performer considered. It was never my intention for the players to try to follow every instruction. In fact, some instructions are only relevant to certain instruments, others are simultaneously occuring contradictions, etc. Hence, "There will be times when 2 or more meanings are present. One can be chosen, or more if possible."
This resulted, from my pov, in a kind of phasing in and out of stricter adherence to the score and deviation from it. This was not periodic (as far as I could tell at the time), but rather seemed to be very much influenced by the interaction between performers,
The interaction between performers is not really of the conventional sort. There's very little spontaneous interplay - although that happens. For the string players there's the "Soli", a time when the string players were instructed to play Motif 1 in unison. They don't always notice when "Soli" appears. There was also a time when I played Morif 1 in unison w/ them as a deliberate deviation from the rules. There's also an instruction, "Bartok Pizzicato", when the string players are instructed to play pizzicato by pulling up their strings & causing them to slap on the neck. As I recall, there were 2 instances when this happened. There're also other instances when a following of instructions might seem like conventional interplay: e.g., players are instructed to play percussion. This is basically to provide a change from the more frequent tone colors. This happened fairly often. But, mostly, what might've seemed like conventional interplay was more likely players being simultaneously on top of the instructions. E.G.: I tend to use the excuse of "Melisma" to play intricate figuring & Devin seemed to play hammer-downs in response. Also, it was my impression that Eric & I both played:
painting = cantilena
a vocal melody or instrumental passage
in a smooth, lyrical style
once or twice & possibly more times together - but, again, that was more in response to the score than it was interplay. This is not to downplay interplay, wch I enjoy very much, but to emphasize that one of the challenges of this score is to try to respond mainly to the score rather than to meander off on other paths.
so that one or more of them could temporarily influence the direction. This seemed to include initiation or directing tempo or tone or instrumentation as well as a kind of counteraction of a (usually short-lived) dominant direction. Sometimes all three performers were clearly playing in a manner that could best be described as entrained (though not in lockstep), and at other times one or two or all three were either "doing their own thing" or appeared to be out of step or otherwise not coherently or cohesively connected in any way I could fathom. But keep in mind the time scale here - this was happening very fast so as soon as I had what I thought was an identifiable insight it had most often changed and they were on to another thread.
All in all, we responded to the instructions that we found easiest to respond to. The
hoisting = doit
Jazz term referring to a note that slides to
an indefinite pitch chromatically upwards
& the
dropping = drop
Jazz term referring to a note that slides to
an indefinite pitch chromatically downwards
were absent b/c those are best played by a saxophonist or trumpeter.
As far as I know, we all played all 6 motifs, wch is fairly simple to do. I, personally, responded to the following instructions:
still = held note
lifting = ascending pitch
sawing = Sforzando (sfz)
Loud sudden attack
drilling = Rubato
Not in a strict tempo
time-lapse = Prestissimo
As fast as possible (180 + )
building = Maestoso
Majestically (80 -104)
moving = Andante
In a walking tempo, moderately slow (80 96)
hammering = Marcato
Marked with distinctness, every note accented
opening = Fortepiano (fp)
Loud then immediately soft
raining = Agitato
carrying = Piu mosso
more motion; a little faster
drawing = Espressivo
With Expression
safety glasses = Lento
Slow & calm (but not as slow as Largo) (50)
screwing = Melisma
Ornament ordinarily held notes
cutting = tronco, tronca
Broken off, truncated
snowing = calma
Calm; so con calma, calmly. Also calmato
meaning calmed, relaxed
sweeping = alla valzer
In the style of a waltz
unrolling = Accelerando (Accel.)
Gradually increase the tempo
vacuuming = Fortissimo (ff)
Very strong or loud
ratcheting = playing ratchet
For the purposes of this Score Movie this
instruction is for a percussionist only & means
to literally play a ratchet
cleaning = morendo
Dying (i.e. dying away in dynamics, and
perhaps also in tempo)
insulating = Diminuendo (dim.)
Gradually softer
peeling = arpeggio
A chord in which the notes are not played
at once, but in some more or less consistent
sequence. For the purposes of this Score Movie
this can mean that instruments incapable of
producing chords must be temporarily
substituted for those that can so that the motif
can be played as a chord OR electronics can
be used to add an extra harmonic layer.
showing = bravura
Boldness; as in con bravura, boldly, flaunting
technical skill
spraying = triplet
For the purposes of this Score Movie, 3 notes
should be substituted for every two, keeping
those 3 in the same duration that the two
previously were.
installing = percussion
Switch briefly to playing percussion,
if not already a percussionist.
assembling = Ad Libertum (ad. lib.)
At the performer's discretion, improvisation
raising = Crescendo (cresc)
Gradually increase the volume
taping = bridge
For the purposes of this Score Movie,
spontaneously create a transitional
passage connecting the current motif
& the next one to be played.
painting = cantilena
a vocal melody or instrumental passage
in a smooth, lyrical style
tarring = bellicoso
Warlike, aggressive (English cognate is
"bellicose")
weed-wacking = Forte (f)
Strong or loud
stirring = Animato
In an animated style
sewing = tremolo
A rapid, measured or unmeasured
repetition of one or more notes.
unlocking = stornello
Originally truly 'improvised' now taken as
'appearing to be improvised'. For the
purposes of this Score Movie, the player
should have a stock phrase to use.
shelving = abandon
free, unrestrained, passionate
credits = tacet (Lat.)
Lit. "he/she keeps silent": do not play
But w/ varying degrees of success. E.G.: my "Abandon" was not necessarily distinquishable from my "Bravura". Other instructions were ones that were too hard for me to pull of quickly so I tended to pick the ones that were easiest for me. My "Bellicoso" was too simple-minded. Those criticisms of myself aside, I felt like I pulled it off impressively well. Eric & Devin tended to stay closer to the provided motifs, wch is as it shd be, but I tended to just try to be expressive & to return to the motifs as a sort of default. The combination of those 2 styles of playing tend to nicely compliment each other.
After a short time this resulted in a kind of cognitive dissonance that can be a very nice place to reside if you can relax and let yourself sit with it. It can be uncomfortable and I think a lot of folks don't like it,but I sure do.
For me, this rapid-fire phasing brings to mind as an analogy the complex interplay of excitatory and inhibitory inputs in neural networks in which very subtle intermediate states between extremes can be achieved. It makes me wonder about the role of stochasticity
I wdn't say that stochastics were involved - at least not in a Xenakis sense.
and randomness in the process
nor wd I call it 'random'.
(i.e., notions of 'structured improvisation').
Structured Improvisation, for me, is a way of upping the ante in a way that Free Improvisation can't & doesn't. It generally discourages players from falling back on their standard tropes - including conventional interplay (in this instance). At the same time, it's intended to be free enuf so that players are making creative decisions on a constant basis. This makes the process more fun for everyone - (v)audience & players alike.
From one perspective, each player interjects random elements from their own interpretation adding a stochastic or "noise" element (pun intended). From another, one could question whether or not these interjections are truly spontaneous, as they could be directly attributed to very immediate outside influence. Of course, they could also be due to other internal influences, such as a performer's feet starting to hurt that results in shifting around, a sense of boredom or lack of enthusiasm with a particular thread, a distracting itch, a perverse desire to mix things up, etc. It raises questions about sentience and self-consciousness, and to what extent we are really in control of anything or just responding to inputs at such a level of complexity that it appears as 'free will' because the process happens at scales that exceed our ability to differentiate the inputs, outputs, and nodes in the network. Perhaps it was an emergent phenomenon, and the distinction between these perspectives does notapply. As I often like to say, maybe that's asking the wrong question. However, going down these kinds of rabbit holes is a good way to not get invited to parties, to seriously reduce your number of friends, and to annoy your partners, so engage in this kind of speculation at your own risk. But if this is your cup of tea, it comes highly recommended.
brian
THX again for yr thoughtful analysis,
yr pal,
tENT
**********
On Aug 22, 2022, at 2:10 PM, Brian Gentry wrote:
But I have found that claiming one's ignorance and asking any sort of thoughtful question is usually better than remaining ignorant, as I am sure you would agree.
Indeed. If people did this more often there wd be less ignorance.
This brings up questions about the extent to which you did influence one another,
That's a hard one to answer accurately. Trying to stay on top of the score is pretty demanding but I'm sure there were times when one player's playing one motif wd influence another player's choice of motif at that time - either choosing the same one or a different one. That's, essentially, built into the piece.
Second, I am still curious about randomness and noise, but this shifts what I was thinking. Now I wonder about apparent vs. actual randomness. In short, oftentimes it appeared random to me,
For me, none of it's random but that's a matter of how one defines what's happening. 1st, the Score Movie has a narrative trajectory: it's built around the progression from no addition to completed addition w/ related parts such as the pants, instrument case, & vest. Then the expression markings are simply tagged onto the actions depicted. The motives provide a sort of melodic glue - they're composed to work to my satisfaction both horizontally & vertically, in sync or out-of-sync. The parts of the soundtrack that're kept in are all construction sounds or other sounds that contribute to the overall sound - speech is excluded. As such, if the appearance of hammering, e.g., seems 'random' in terms of a musical form that's conventional but not in use here it's NOT random b/c it fits into the narrative trajectory. I didn't take it out of that trajectory & put it into a particular location for 'musical effect', I left it where it was. The player's choices of motives might seem 'random' but that's only b/c their timing was chosen by them for reasons not obvious to the (v)audience. E.G.: I might choose Motif 6 (the one w/ the 2 glissandi) during a Prestissimo section b/c it's conducive to speed. OR I might choose Motif 1 b/c it's the easiest for me to play when I'm trying to plan something else.
I would imagine the structure to be very much more apparent to the performers than to the observer,
Eric & I had rehearsed it twice before, Devin had rehearsed it once. During the rehearsals I'd clarified things that the players had questions about. They also have hard-copies of the score that're enormously informative resources.
at least at first. Or maybe this is just my experience. What would be cool would be to see it performed multiple times, and with different players. Would the players rely less on their easiest motifs and begin to try others with more "practice?"
Well, of course, I try to 'master' some aspects 1st & then try new parts w/ each new iteration. I imagine everyone else does the same. I'm sure that every time I play it I'll tackle more challenges. It's fine, tho, if I/we don't b/c it's challenging & fulfilling enuf just to get thru it at all. None of the people I'm fortunate enuf to play w/ are lazy so there's no gratutitous irrelevant playing.
I wonder if it would still produce a Lem-like situation in which it is never fully grasped by the observer, or if there would be some kind of deeper understanding eventually.
'Fully grasping' it wd require telepathically following the process that every player undergoes. I don't expect that to happen. To me, it's probably most thrilling for the (v)audience to just pick up on relations between the score & the players's actions to whatever degree their alertness (or lack thereof) enables. That is a sort of oddball sport, a sport where there's plenty of action but not necessarily any aggressive competition.
695. "Consciousness Expansion Score Movie @ Art Rat Studios"
- 1:24:57
- 1990 X 1440, 25fps, Stereo
- shot at Art Rat Studios, Roanoke, VA, on August 13, 2022
- edit finished August 16, 2022
- on my onesownthoughts YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/VQy-6Su-JUI
- on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/2022-highest-128k
- Art Rat Ralph Eaton's footage: https://youtu.be/IVip-ASP-JM
- August 21, 2022E.V. recollection from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
450. "Be Blank Consort"
- AfterMAF, Art Rat Studios, Roanoke, VA, us@
- iniated & led by John M. Bennett
- Saturday, June 24th, 2023E.V.
- Poems by John M. Bennett & Jim Leftwich performed by an impromptu group of readers that consisted of Warren Fry, C. Mehrl Bennett, William Repass, Reid Wood, Olchar Lindsann, Cilla Vee, Paul K (Colapsing), tENTATIVELYa cONVENIENCE. The main reading styles were 1. as a canon, 2. simultanously. The Leftwich poem was read slowly at 1st & then at 4 times that speed. Speeding it up turned it into somewhat of a tongue-twister.
- The relevant excerpt from my documentary about the festival entitled "Caress of the Periphery of the After-Margin" sarts here: https://youtu.be/H_L3xPNLqm8?t=5516
- July 12, 2023E.V. recollection from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
451 "Deluxe Hat Band"
- AfterMAF, Art Rat Studios, Roanoke, VA, us@
- conceived of by Owen Smith; iniated & led by C. Merhl Bennett
- Saturday, June 24th, 2023E.V.
- Catherine Bennett read a text by Owen Smith while a quarter of plastic bowler hatted men lifte our hats depending upon the length of the word said. Reid Wood was the Bass hat-tipper, I was the tenor one, a person whose name I never learned (was it Owen Smith?) was alto, & Olchar Lindsann was soprano.
- Ralph Eaton's front & center video of this is here: https://youtu.be/3VvlB1jw56E?t=359
- The relevant excerpt from my documentary about the festival entitled "Caress of the Periphery of the After-Margin" sarts here: https://youtu.be/H_L3xPNLqm8?t=9878
- July 12, 2023E.V. recollection from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
452. "Pinball (sortof)"
- AfterMAF, Art Rat Studios, Roanoke, VA, us@
- initiated & led by tENTATIVVELY, a cONVENIENCE
- Saturday, June 24th, 2023E.V.
- I've come to think of this as possibly my 1st dance piece.
This festival was organized using a Google Doc that potential participants could add themselves to - specifying a date & time & requesting housing & amplificatin assistance. I took advantage of the Google Doc to propose a group collaboration with the following:
"Since there're going to be so many interesting people collected together for this I propose that we do something together as a group. Thinking about it, I personally don't want to do a typical free-form improvisation b/c I've been free-improvising since 1972 & prefer something fresher, so I was laying in bed in the middle of the night trying to think of something simple we cd do that wd give everybody rm for doing their own thing but still impose a restriction that might make the overall result more interesting. Here's what I came up w/:
"Pinball (sortof)
"As many of the After-MAF participants who want to participate (preferably at least 50%) stand in staggered lines facing the audience. Hence, if there're 20 participants, there wd be 7 people in the front line, 6 in the middle line, & 7 in the back line. Participants wd be separated by roughly 3 ft or whatever distance is practicable. Participants wd be dressed in their ordinary clothing OR costumes OR naked. Any combination of those possibilities is fine. Participants wd also wear something to occlude their sight: a mask (I can bring many) either provided or of their own, blindfolds (I can bring many), or simply shutting their eyes. While simply standing participants wd have their arms at their sides & be standing upright w/ their legs together.
"At the sound of a whistle, everyone starts to perform - either thru motion, playing an instrument, or speaking or whatever. It's recommended that motions be cautious & gentle in order to avoid hurting one's self or other participants in the chaos of limited sight. As soon as a participant touches another participant they stop & resume the standing non-performing position. As soon as they're touched by someone else, the participant resumes performing. The piece ends at the 2nd sounding of the whistle. I'm imagining it taking 10 to 15 minutes."
Reid Wood, who I'd known through Mail Art for decades, & John M. Bennett, who I'd know similarly long, & C. Mehrl Bennett who I'd known of but not corresponded with until more recently, & Cilla Vee, who was new to me, & Warren Fry + Tomislav Butkovic + Olchar Lindsann (from Roanoke) all volunteered. (So did Collapsing but I didn't get to know who he was in time) I had bought 2 bustles & attached 4 styrofoam heads to them & put ltex masks on the heads. I wore a raincoat overtop of that & a Freddy Kruger mask over my head. Tomislav & Warren both wore blindfolds that I provided. John wore an old man mask I'd brought. Olchar & CillaVee wore masks from Olchar's collection that Olchar might've made. Reid wore all black, including a black mask over his eyes. Catherine wore a costume of her own devising made out of things like a plastic dry-cleaner's bag. John & I could see, in a highly limited way, out of our mask eteholes. Everyone else was basically sightless.
When in action, Tomislav read from William S. Burroughs's "The Soft Machine" by looking down through the crack between the bottom of his blindfold & hi face. Olchar prformed sound poetry & swing hi arms. Reid proceeded very cautiously, as did the Bennetts. CillaVee danced. Warren went through various histrionics. I danced & swing my bustles so that the masks would be clearer to the audience. I had a timer running so that I could keep track of our duration - which was intended to be no more than 10 minutes. As it was, I blew the stopping whistle around 8:35. Form what I could see through my mask eye-slits the uudience were all smiling & laughing. After it was over, everyone seemed surprisingly happy. Apparently the randomness of the suspense for the audience of watching us come close to touching but then not necessarily doing so was thrilling. .
- Ralph Eaton's front & center footage is here: https://youtu.be/iB0ZpVtm9zM
- The relevant excerpt from my documentary about the festival entitled "Caress of the Periphery of the After-Margin" sarts here: https://youtu.be/H_L3xPNLqm8?t=10060 . Some of my Pittsburgh prepatory footage is included before the main event.
- July 12, 2023E.V. recollection from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
453. "Pan-modernist Bouzingo Revival Meeting"
- AfterMAF, Art Rat Studios, Roanoke, VA, us@
- iconceived of & scripted by Mark Bloch; somwhat prompted into existence by tENTATIVVELY, a cONVENIENCE
- Saturday, June 24th, 2023E.V.
- Mark Bloch, another long-term Mail Artists of my acquaintance who I've known since the 1980s informed the festival folks that he couldn't be there but asked for tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE; Olchar Lindsann; John Bennett; Reid Wood; Warren Fry; & Cathy Bennett toprform a script of his. A boxful of relevant materials was delivered to Olchar on the 1st day of the festival, June 23rd. Since I had agreed to be a coprformer, I got a vopy of the script s soon as I could from Olchar & talked with the other performers, all of them the people that Mark had specified. Aside from scripts, Mark's box included literature to be distributed as a part of the prformance. I read the script in spare moments when I wasn't busy during the day & then read it thoroughly that night. The next day I learned that the other performers hadn't had time to look at it yet. During the few moments when we could dicuss our plan, John suggested that I steer the prformance & I just went along with what anyone suggested.
I was to represent the author as ages 0-2, Olchar at ages 2-5, John at 5-10, Reid from 10-12, Warren from 12-16, & Cathy from 16-18. 3 paragraphs were read collectively before the 1st distribution of literature by Olchar. The intent was to have me (tENT) read the 1 & 2 letter words, Olchar to read the 3-5 letter words, etc. John's eyesight's being impaired combined with the conufsion of last-minute planning led to a rather stultified reading. Nontheless, we pulled it off.
Then each of us had specific paragraphs to read based on our 'ages'. I read:
"From afes 0 to 2I was The Bouzingo. I hosted parties where clothes were banned and wine was consumed from human skulls"
All in all, it was quite chaotic but the humor & imagination of Bloch's script was communicated successfully.
- Ralph Eaton's front & center footage is here: https://youtu.be/Ys83PxSzidw
- The relevant excerpt from my documentary about the festival entitled "Caress of the Periphery of the After-Margin" sarts here: https://youtu.be/H_L3xPNLqm8?t=11484 . Some of my Pittsburgh prepatory footage is included before the main event.
- July 12, 2023E.V. recollection from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
454. "Not So Still Life #1"
- AfterMAF, Art Rat Studios, Roanoke, VA, us@
- solo presentation by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
- Saturday, June 24th, 2023E.V.
- I introduced this as "40 years of my life in 30 minutes".
To quote from the notes that accompany my movie of this as uploaded to YouTube & the Internet Archive:
""Not So Still Life #1" @ AfterMAF": Starting in 1987, I've made multiple movies intended to be fast-motion encapsulations of my life & work, generally intended to be used in performance. The 1st was a super-8mm film & was called "15 Hours of Video at 23 Times Its Original Speed", the 2nd was in video & was called "My Life Flashing Before You" (1989). Both were technically unsatisfactory. In June, 2022, I decided to try again under better conditions so I started a series called "Not So Still Life". The 1st of these consists of stills from movies of mine, each still presented at 1/5th of a second. The presentation of these movies, they range from 10 to 150 minutes long, is malleable.
"For the 1st presentation of one of the series I decided to premier it at the wonderful AfterMAF in Roanoke at Art Rat Studios on June 24, 2023. I added a soundtrack called "Photo Albums for Duchamp", originally an over-the-phone performance for the 100th anniversary of Marcel Duchamp's birthday called in to the SCP (Society for the Conservation of the Present) at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I added the use of an electronic tanpura/tablas that drove, by pitch-to-MIDI, a Korg Volca FM (also manipulated manually). A Landscape HC-TT (Hand-Controlled Tape-Transport) was additionally used to manipulate the original tape recording of the phone call. The projection was at an angle from the side to make the image skewed. Given that this was my 5th performance of the day & that it was slightly technically challenging because I was trying some new, to me, techniques, all went sufficiently well & I was quite happy with the result. My document of the full festival is here: https://youtu.be/H_L3xPNLqm8 (YouTube) & here: https://archive.org/details/caress-of-the-periphery.. (Internet Archive)"
- Ralph Eaton's front & center footage is here: https://youtu.be/lBouMiKvf6A
- My multi-camera edit is on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/not-so-still-life-1-after-maf
- July 12, 2023E.V. recollection from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
459. "Conversation Piece"
- as part of AfterMAF
- Art Rat Studios, Roanoke, VA, us@
- Saturday, June 29, 2024E.V.
- "Conversation Piece" - 1080p HD, 59.94p, Stereo - 5:30
- "Conversation Piece": I performed twice at Art Rat Studios in Roanoke in 2022. This was thanks to the welcoming Ralph Eaton whose space it was. In 2023, I performed 8 times in one day (June 24, 2023) as part of AfterMAF (After Marginal Arts Festival), also at Art Rat Studios. I had a wonderful time & was delighted to find such a friendly & creative community to be part of. Alas, by 2024 I was too poor to travel much & was substantially in debt from just paying bills. Still wanting to participate in AfterMAF somehow, I asked Olchar Lindsann if he'd be willing to perform an old text piece of mine that I'd just unearthed while working on a book. He agreed & enlisted Tomislav V. Butkovic to be the 2nd reader. Even though the text looks simple I suggested that rehearsals would be necessary to not fumble a reading of it. Olchar & Tomislav DID rehearse it - then they performed it for AfterMAF on June 29, 2024. Ralph Eaton shot footage of it & was kind & generous enough to send that footage my way so that I could then add titles & it put it on my own online sites for such things. THANK YOU TO RALPH, OLCHAR, & TOMISLAV - I miss all you other AfterMAF folks too & hope you enjoyed this excursion into derailed auto-speech. - July 24, 2024 notes from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
- Tags: tENTATIVELY a cONVENIENCE, Olchar Lindsann, Ralph Eaton, Tomislav V Butkovic, experimental writing, conversation, Art Rat Studios, AfertMAF, Roanoke, June 29 2024
"Conversation Piece" (probably not originally titled - this title provided April 22, 2024)
- tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
- originally written January 1981 or earlier
- reading clarification April 22 & 23, 2024
[This is to be performed by 2 people: P(erson)1 & P(erson)2. The interaction should be as if they're friends or acquaintances who've just met casually. All intonation should follow the pattern of the 1st stanza - ignoring the disruptive placement of words. Therefore, e.g., "What's much, what's new with you?" would be said in the same way as "Not much, what's new with you?". There should be a slight pause between each stanza - as if the conversation were starting over again. The only other instruction appears before the last dialog line in brackets "[ ]" & should not be read aloud.]
P1: "Hi, how are you?"
P2: "Fine, thank you, how are you?"
P1: "Good."
P2: "Good."
P1: "What's new?"
P2: "Not much, what's new with you?"
P1: "Not a whole lot. Whatd'ya think of this weather?"
Olchar rang a bell at the end of every 'stanza'
P1: "Not, how are you?"
P2: "Hi, thank you, how are you?"
P1: "Fine."
P2: "Good."
P1: "Good new?"
P2: "What's much, what's new with you?"
P1: "Not a whole lot. Whatd'ya think of this weather?"
P1: "Not, how are you?"
P2: "Not, thank you, how are you?"
P1: "Hi."
P2: "Fine."
P1: "Good new?"
P2: "Good much, what's new with you?"
P1: "What's a whole lot. Whatd'ya think of this weather?"
P1: "What's, how are you?"
P2: "Not, thank you, how are you?"
P1: "Not."
P2: "Hi."
P1: "Fine new?"
P2: "Good much, what's new with you?"
P1: "Good a whole lot. Whatd'ya think of this weather?"
P1: "Good, how are you?"
P2: "What's, thank you, how are you?"
P1: "Not."
P2: "Not."
P1: "Hi new?"
P2: "Fine much, what's new with you?"
P1: "Good a whole lot. Whatd'ya think of this weather?"
P1: "Good, how are you?"
P2: "Good, thank you, how are you?"
P1: "What's."
P2: "Not."
P1: "Not new?"
P2: "Hi much, what's new with you?"
P1: "Fine a whole lot. Whatd'ya think of this weather?"
P1: "Fine, how are you?"
P2: "Good, thank you, how are you?"
P1: "Good."
P2: "What's."
P1: "Not new?"
P2: "Not much, what's new with you?"
P1: "Hi a whole lot. Whatd'ya think of this weather?"
P1: "Hi, a are you?"
P2: "Fine, how you, how are you?"
P1: "Good."
P2: "Good."
P1: "What's thank?"
P2: "Not new, what's new with you?"
P1: "Not much whole lot. Whatd'ya think of this weather?"
P1: "Hi, much are you?"
P2: "Fine, a you, how are you?"
P1: "Good."
P2: "Good."
P1: "What's how?"
P2: "Not thank, what's new with you?"
P1: "Not thank whole lot. Whatd'ya think of this weather?"
P1: "Hi, new are you?"
P2: "Fine, much you, how are you?"
P1: "Good."
P2: "Good."
P1: "What's a?"
P2: "Not how, what's new with you?"
P1: "Not thank whole lot. Whatd'ya think of this weather?"
P1: "Hi, thank are you?"
P2: "Fine, new you, how are you?"
P1: "Good."
P2: "Good."
P1: "What's much?"
P2: "Not a, what's new with you?"
P1: "Not how whole lot. Whatd'ya think of this weather?"
P1: "Hi, how whole you?"
P2: "Fine, thank are, how are you?"
P1: "Good."
P2: "Good."
P1: "What's new?"
P2: "Not much, you new with you?"
P1: "Not a what's lot. Whatd'ya think of this weather?"
P1: "Hi, how what's you?"
P2: "Fine, thank whole, how are you?"
P1: "Good."
P2: "Good."
P1: "What's new?"
P2: "Not much, are new with you?"
P1: "Not a you lot. Whatd'ya think of this weather?"
P1: "Hi, how you you?"
P2: "Fine, thank what's, how are you?"
P1: "Good."
P2: "Good."
P1: "What's new?"
P2: "Not much, whole new with you?"
P1: "Not a are lot. Whatd'ya think of this weather?"
P1: "Hi, how are lot?"
P2: "Fine, thank you, you are you?"
P1: "Good."
P2: "Good."
P1: "What's new?"
P2: "Not much, what's how with you?"
P1: "Not a whole new. Whatd'ya think of this weather?"
P1: "Hi, how are new?"
P2: "Fine, thank you, lot are you?"
P1: "Good."
P2: "Good."
P1: "What's new?"
P2: "Not much, what's you with you?"
P1: "Not a whole how. Whatd'ya think of this weather?"
P1: "Hi, how are how?"
P2: "Fine, thank you, new are you?"
P1: "Good."
P2: "Good."
P1: "What's new?"
P2: "Not much, what's lot with you?"
P1: "Not a whole you. Whatd'ya think of this weather?"
P1: "Hi, how are you?"
P2: "Fine, thank you, how Whatd'ya you?"
P1: "Good."
P2: "Good."
P1: "What's new?"
P2: "Not much, what's new with you?"
P1: "Not a whole lot. with think of this weather?"
P1: "Hi, how are you?"
P2: "Fine, thank you, how with you?"
P1: "Good."
P2: "Good."
P1: "What's new?"
P2: "Not much, what's new Whatd'ya you?"
P1: "Not a whole lot. are think of this weather?"
P1: "Hi, how are you?"
P2: "Fine, thank you, how are think?"
P1: "Good."
P2: "Good."
P1: "What's new?"
P2: "Not much, what's new with you?"
P1: "Not a whole lot. Whatd'ya you of this weather?"
P1: "Hi, how are you?"
P2: "Fine, thank you, how are think?"
P1: "Good."
P2: "Good."
P1: "What's new?"
P2: "Not much, what's new with think?"
P1: "Not a whole lot. Whatd'ya you of this weather?"
[Olchar & Tomas missed the following last stanza - This might've been a mistake in what I sent them]
P1: "Hi, how are you?"
P2: "Fine, thank you, how are think?"
P1: "Good."
P2: "Good."
P1: "What's new?"
P2: "Not much, what's new with you?"
P1: "Not a whole lot. Whatd'ya think of this weather?"
[simultaneously: P1 says "wind" as in "hurricane wind"; P2 says "wind" as in "wind my watch"]
P1: Mildly interesting wind.
P2: Mildly interesting wind.
462. "DOOMSDAY DOOMSDAY DOOMSDAY audience participation"
- AfterMAF, Art Rat Studios, Roanoke, VA, us@
- Friday, June 27, 2025E.V.
- I'd previously witnessed DOOMSDAY DOOMSDAY DOOMSDAY at the 1st AfterMAF I'd participated in in 2023. I liked them very much & was happy when they gave me a chance to be an audience participant using a siren handed to me. All in all, I loved the complexity, the wildness, thr humor, the comic morbidity, the chaos - & the obvious joy that the members got out of it all.
For this performance, before it even began, one of the members, Grayson, gsve me a task sheet:
I was delighted to be invited to participate. As they began, the audience was informed that it was all going to be precusely timed & Zora started a projection that included countdowns. At some point, audience members were handed out an "Intro Text" sheet:
I still hdn't figured out who the Food Kid was so I hadn't started with my "task". The audience was asked for a volunteer to be the "Secretary" so I was happy to do so. I was placed behind a desk, facing the audience, with a cell-phone. The number of the phone was displayed on a sign at the front of the desk & the audience was encouraged to call. The Food Kid was made obvious:
As far as I could tel, the Food Kid was meant to be an overeater who wa being exploited by the othr performers. I shouted encouragement to him. The cell phone rang & Ianswered it saying something like: "DOOMSDAY, How many I direct your call? I'm sorry, they're in a meeting." I didn't have a chair so Catherine Mehrl-Bennett apparently took pity on my & provided me with one. The Food Kid started protssting his exploitation.
I rejoined the audience, taking the mall table & the cell-phone with me. I called the provided cell-phone with my own & played with them to produce feedback. Catherine noticed & took some footage. Another volunteer wa called for, I wanted to do it but didn't want to hog the opportunities, &, eventually, a neighboring audience member went to a wate tub & stuck his bare feet in it. Ella immersed herself in the tub as well.
My recounting of all this is woefully incomplete. For a movie of this chaos, see Ralph Eaton's document: https://youtu.be/a0yIVxbXaS0?si=PTTDSHvus9I0EPzs .
- July 13, 2025 recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
463. "Jim Leftwich Memorial Readings: Poetry"
- AfterMAF, Art Rat Studios, Roanoke, VA, us@
- Saturday, June 28, 2025E.V.
- Jim Leftwich was very important in establishing the cultural scene that became AfterMAF. He moved away a few years ago & went on the road. He died earlier this year. I hadn't planned on participating in this Memorial because, while I'd known him, I din't now him or his work well enough to feel adequately qualified. Nonetheless, at the time that this was about to begin, Cathrine Mehrl-Bennett offered me a choice of Jim Leftwish masks that I assume she made that had Leftwich poems on the backs of them & I was so delighted that I picked one. The one I slected was a list of single words each having the same ending. I explained that I was planing to just read one word at a time.
The reading began with John M. Bennett. After he was done,the floor was announced open & I went * stood behind & to the audience left of John & read my 1st word & stopped. The audience seemed expectant of my reading more. One of the other readers realized that I was waitinf for them & jumped up to join in. I added the 2nd word. Other readers started getting into the spirit of the thing until all the readers were on stage & reading interactively. We moved around.
Witness Ralph Eaton's footage here: TXtH2oSnI?si=cWkrLHmDFRd0KWAf
- July 13, 2025 recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
464. "Fencing"
- AfterMAF, Art Rat Studios, Roanoke, VA, us@
- Saturday, June 28, 2025E.V.
- My friend Julie Gonzalez shave upside-down Facial Hair on the back of my head so that when I'd bow at the end of this the face would show right-side up.
"Fencing" - 1920 X 1440; 30fps, Stereo - 1:20:24
https://archive.org/details/fencing_202507
"Fencing": When I attended a community college from 1973-1974 I took such classes as "Obstacle Courses" & "Fencing" as well as the more obvious "Music Theory" & "Music History". I was particularly fond of Fencing & even gave a demonstration at a nearby high school. 50 yrs later, I learned that competitive fencing now uses an electronic system for scoring in which the lamé (the vest) has a metal mesh that's grounded to & in which a button at the tip of the sword (in the case of what I use, a foil) that, when depressed, sends a signal to an electronic scoreboard that judges consult to see if a hit has been made. This inspired me to acquire some fencing gear to modify so that the foil can be used for triggering electronic sounds. I demonstrated this nascent idea to my friend & collaborator, Roger Dannenberg, in a brief improvisation that we played at the bottom of a waterfall.
Roger was then inspired to build some Fencing Electronics Boxes that contained a microprocessor that enabled a signal from the foil to be turned into a MIDI signal. When this works, a depression of the button triggers a random pitch, a button on the box triggers a random 5 note sequence out of a 6 note pitch-set, & contact between the foil tip & the lamé of one's opponent triggers a fast sequence. In reality, this has never worked quite right - probably because the fencing's vigorousness is quick to disconnect & otherwise disturb connections &, perhaps, even the interior of the Electronic Fencing Boxes. Nonetheless, Roger & I put quite a bit of work (& imagination) into working toward the desired end. My ultimate goal was to present this at AfterMAF 2025 (in Roanoke at Art Rat Studios).
Roger was unable to attend the festival so I was fortunate enough to have my old friend Brian Gentry be willing to be my fellow fencer. Somewhat surprisingly, he, too, had been a fencer when he was younger (as well as a martial artist) - ensuring that our fencing wouldn't be completely without vigor. Originally, I had imagined someone acting like a feeble old woman as the 3rd character in this event but I eventually decided for this character to be evocative of "Blaster" Al Ackerman's "Hebephrenic", a face well-known to those familiar with Blaster's work. Olchar Lindsann agreed to this role. The sign on the front of Olchar's walker reads: "It's Always 6 O'Clock - Do You Know Where Your Parents Are?". This sign & walker were originally designed to be part of my action at the 40th anniversary of Neoism in Montréal in 2019. I was both censored out of the festival by Monty Cantsin (Istvan Kantor) because he was afraid I'd oppose his desire to be the world leader & because I was too poor to get there. As such, this Fencing action is intended to be a wry commentary on Neoism, delayed until 6 years later.
In the actual AfterMAF presentation, my electronics regularly flew off my arm. This was unintentional & had never happened before but while it was happening I grew to welcome it because of its humorous effect. It's not like my life has always gone my way. The (v)audience seemed to enjoy it in the same spirit. This movie documents the entirety of the growth of this action, some may find it tediously detailed, others may relish its thoroughness. I even throw in a bit of an "irrelevant Interpolation" with Claire Elizabeth Barratt & Tomislav Butkovic because I was very entertained by it & because it wasn't on the official AfterMAF schedule & was, therefore, likely to've been missed by most of the attendees.
Tags: fencing, electronics, Usic, tENTATIVELY a cONVENIENCE, Roger Dannenberg, Brian Gentry, Olchar Lindsann, "Blaster" Al Ackerman, AfterMAF, experimental, Neoism, Anti-Neoism
The above are the notes I wrote for the appearance of the "Fencing" movie online. It's worth mentioning additionally tht whenever my electronics flew off my electronics sleeve Brian, my 'opponent', politely stopped & didn't take advantge of my weakness to score a hit. This was an indicator of what Brian's & my attitude was, we weren't trying to 'win' we were trying to enjoy the dance. It's also worth noting that Ella, of DOOMSDAY DOOMSDAY DOOMSAY, gave us a standing ovation. I'm glad she enjoyed it so much. Olchar E. Lindsann did an excelletn job as the 'Hebephrenic' interupting the fencing action.
- July 13, 2025E.V. recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
465. "The Ticket that Exploded @ Art Rat"
- Ralph Eaton's Art Rat Studio, Roanoke, VA, us@
- Saturday, April 4, 2026E.V.
- When I was 15 years old I 1st heard the band The Soft Machine on the radio with their song "Hope for Happiness". I loved it, I was also a bit astounded because the rock radio station I was listening to at a friend's house wasn't one that I expected quality music from. It wasn't until something like 5 years later that I saw William S. Burroughs's novel "The Soft Machine" in a chain bookstore & realized that that was where the band took its name from. I bought the book & read it & found its subversiveness extraordinary. I was 'hooked' on Burroughs. To this day, 57 years later, I stil enjoy te band & listen to the many recordings I have of them from time-to-time. It's probably been decades that I've daydreamed about starting a band called The Ticket that Exploded both in homage to the band The Soft Machine & to the Burroughs novel that came after "The Soft Machine" novel.
At the beginning of 2020, I finally started the project with a band that consisted of myself (tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE( on ekectronics & percussion, Ben Opie of Alto Sax, Roger Dannenberg on trumpet, & Jeff Weston on contrabass. I lined up a paying gig for us at the Music Department of the Carnegie Public Library & TWO paying gigs for us the Children's Museum. Things were looking good. I made a movie of our 1st & only rehearsal:
611. "The Ticket that Exploded Who Unit? rehearsal January 18, 2020"
- featuring: tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE: Ben Opie; Roger Dannenberg; Jeff Weston
- 1:06:37
- 1080p HD 29.97, Stereo
- edit finished January 30, 2020
- on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/612.-ticket-rehearsal
& of the library event:
612. "The Ticket that Exploded @ the library"
- featuring: tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE: Ben Opie; Roger Dannenberg; Jeff Weston
- 1:05:59
- 1080p HD 29.97, Stereo
- edit finished February 1, 2020
- on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/613.-ticket-library
& then the QUARANTYRANNY hit & our gigs at the Children's Museum were cancelled. The 2 weeks rhar rhe lockdown was announced to be dragged on for years & The Ticket that Exploded ceased to exist.
SO, finally, I decided to try to regain a little momentum & I arranged this gig to happen at Art Rat Studios in Roanoke, a place that welcomes the avant-gard more than anywhere else I know of. In the past, I've rejected the label of avant-garde for various reasons: 1. I didn't want to refer to the military, 2. I wantd to be newere than the avant-garde. Now, for better or worse, I accept the label - largely because people who like the avant-garde (an increasingly rare sunculture) like what I do & I'm happy to have their company.
SOO, The Ticket that Exploded as reborn with members in Pittsburgh: myself (tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE):electronics, moviemaking, violin, etc; Eric Lipsky: violin; Roger Dannenberg: trumpet & computer; &, In Roanoke, Richard Dannenberg: electric violin, cello - with a special guest appearance from Olchar E. Lindsann: voice.
See the info below about where my movie of this gig can be witnessed & where Ralph Eaton's movie of it can be found on his YouTube channeL:
793. "The Ticket that Exploded @ Art Rat"
- finished April 7, 2026
- 1920 X 1440, 30fps, Stereo
- 1:36:26
- on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/793.-ticket-art-rat
- Ralph Eaton's footage: https://youtu.be/eIjA5mU2m-E
In addition to the main purpose of this UNCERT being to revive The Ticket that Exploded, ir was alos my desire to premier 5 new pieces of mine + one of Roger's. Hence, the program consisted of:
"THE TICKET", a movie of mine presented with its own soundtrack & no additional live element
The original movie is here:
609. "The Ticket"
- the 'theme song' for the Usical Group "The Ticket That Exploded"
- 10:00
- 960 X 720 / 60fps
- edit finished December 10, 2019
- on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/theticket10min
A 'costume change'
"mud", my interabilities violin quartet presented, alas, as a trio
My solo realization of "mud" is in movie form here:
776. "mud"
- an interabilities violin quartet performed by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
- 1080p, 29.97fps, Sereo
- realization made December 11-13, 2025
- 6:16
- on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/776.-mud
"ELECTRONICS", a movie of mine giving 88 examples of my ELECTRONICS work from 1976-2024 with its doundtrack turned off & a live soundtracked provided solo
The original ELECTRONICS movie is here:
734. "Electronics"
- 4K 30p Stereo
- 44:14
- edit finished February 8, 2024
- on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/electronics-final
"Pointillsm", a piece of mine intended for a minimum 0f5 players but presented here with only 4
"Inflection Reflection", a piece of Toger's for trumpet echoed & accompanied by sounds produced by Roger's software
"11 Minute Ticket", a piece of mine with a 4 minute section originally composed by me to be played by Ben, Roger, & Jeff but now played only by Roger
The original movie can be found herez:
614. b. "11 minute Ticket (revised)"
- edit finished April, 2020
- on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/615b.-11-minute-ticket-revised
An additional element, not called attention to, were a sign I posted & costume changes. I'd recently purchased a t-shirt, some hoodless sweatshirts, & some hooded sweatshirts. They all have flashy designs. I wore those & a kimono & took one element off at a time to expose something equally as flashy underneath until I got to the t-shirt for a bowling league. The kimono was hung over the back of a sign that read: No Loose Clohting While Operating Machinery but, thanks to my collaging, the "machinery" is a theremin. I'm not sure anyone in the audience noticed.
- April 13, 2025E.V. recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
466 "Rasps"
-AterMAF, Ralph Eaton's Art Rat Studio, Roanoke, VA, us@
- Friday, June 26, 2026E.V.
"Rasps" @ AfterMAF 2026" - 1920X1440, 30fps, Stereo - 13:57
https://archive.org/details/803.-rasps-after-maf-2026
"Rasps" @ AfterMAF 2026": Approximately 15 years ago I became aware of a hollow wooden percussion instrument sculpted to look like a frog with ridges on its back played by rolling a stick over them. I call them "Frog Rasps". I liked them so I acquired 6 differently sized ones. It was probably in 2012 that I then made a movies called "Rasps" in which I used all the frog scenes from a horror movie (credited at the end). I edited in animated footage of my frog rasps, going to the trouble of placing them on black fabric that I shook to give a vague impression of a watery surface. I also added excerpts from a record by Charles M. Bogert about frogs & an audio session that my collaborator Michael Pestel & I played around a small pond lively with frogs. The result mingles my enthusiasm for frogs with the intention of having my frog rasps played at the same time. I conceived of this performance & then never enacted it - partially because I was thinking of a specific venue that was somewhat unavailable.
14 years later I was working on getting closure by presenting pieces of mine that've waned in obscurity. "Rasps" was one of them. For this, I erected 2 front/rear screens to somewhat close off the performance area so that both are for projecting the movie onto & to project shadows of me playing nature-related percussion.
Warren Fry wore an outfit that he made/had of a vaguely authoritarian nature & directed a flashlight at me as if he were a policemen investigating strange goings-on in the woods. I wore astro-turf slippers, sculpted camouflage pants with 3D leaves, a somewhat psychedelic sweatshirt with a tree image, a camou vest with a seat cushion on its back, & a hat shaped & otherwise made to look like broccoli. I played an Envirascape device that has a waterfall & various nature recordings, the 6 rasps, a turkey call, a duck call, a whistle, a crow call, another whistle similar to the crow call, an 'Aztec Death Whistle' (shaped like an animal skull), an ocsrins, & a Peruvian Whistling Vessel (with a bird sculpture on its end), & a device that I got from the National Aviary that plays bird recordings.
Warren aimed the flashlight at me & himself that created our shadows, mainly highlighting my playing. When the movie ended, we continued this for a short while & then I signalled Olchar & Tom to slowly tilt the front screen back. This gradually revealed Warren & myself as we continued our actions. When the screen landed on the ground we continued under a blue-tinted light & a green-tinted one that we'd just turned on. I ended with the Peruvian Whistling Vessel.
This edit gives a sort of 'ideal' vision of the action, showing both front screen (shot by Art Rat (the space we were in) proprietor Ralph Eaton) & 'back-stage' views (shot by myself, tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE). I'm very fond of this performance as a sort of gentle quirky bit of evocative nature-positive nonsense.
- July 3, 2026E.V. notes from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
Tags: tENTATIVELY a cONVENIENCE, frogs, frog rasps, Art Rat Studios, AfterMAF 2026, percussion, Warren Fry, Tomislav Butkovic, Olchar E Lindsann, Ralph Eaton
466 "SEE-SAW"
-AterMAF, Ralph Eaton's Art Rat Studio, Roanoke, VA, us@
- Sarurday, June 27, 2026E.V.
"SEE-SAW @ AfterMAF 2026" - 1920X1440, 30fps, Stereo
https://archive.org/details/804.-see-saw-after-maf-2026
"SEE-SAW @ AfterMAF 2026": In the summer of 1985, my girlfriend Joan D'Art made a see-saw that both went up & down & also went around. This went on exhibit as part of an Ad Hoc Fiasco, an alternative to the more mainstream arts festival, ArtScape. I made sandwich board signs for riders of the see-saw to wear. On the front was a stylized image of ocean waves with the word "see" on the front. On the back was an inversion of the stylized waves image, this time intended to look like saw blade teeth. Inside that image was the word "saw". I shot a movie fo the see-saw in action by shooting regular-8 film in a 16mm camera. I then had that processed split as 8mm film. The visual result is an alternation of the top left of the original 16mm image followed alternately by the bottom left. After that side's done the laternation takes place between the top right & bottom right. Thanks to persistence of vision the tops & bottom seem overlapped but they aren't. I'm the only person I've ever seen to use this technique. This is not to be confused with shooting 8mm & having it processed unsplit & projected as 16mm. That's a technique I, & many others, have used commonly.
I wrote the script hereby performed to be the soundtrack for the film but I wasn't satisfied with it so I just used sea sounds & sawing sounds - with the sound of wood falling at the end of each of the 4 sections. 41 years later I decided to finally perform this piece at AfterMAF 2026 with assistance of Warren Fry, Olchar E. Lindsann, & Tomislav Butkovic. It's a sortof tongue-twister round in 26 languages. At the time I wrote it I had just acquired "The Concise Dictionary of Twenty-Six Languages in Simultanous Translation" compiled by Peter M. Bergman. For this performance we tried rehearsing but there were many problems nonetheless.
I neglected to emphasise to the performers that we wouldn't start until after at least a minute had elapsed in the projection. I neglected completely to tell the people at the Art Rat Studio where we performed that the performance wasn't over until the film had finished projecting. Because of this, the houselights were turned on after the performers went backstage. As such, I've edited this movie in a way that improves on some of the live mistakes.
- July 3, 2026E.V. note from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
Tags: Joan D'Art, tENTATIVELY a cONVENIENCE, SEE-SAW, AfterMAF 2026, Art Rat Studios, Warren Fry, Olchar E Lindsann, Tomislave Butkovic, Ralph Eaton, round
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