arty noisey music, kittens and pasta
so... saturday i made the trek from the oc to la for a day with the wery sisters. paige has a show coming up at leora's gallery in september and wanted an opinion on the progress of her pieces for the show. without giving too much away i have to say i’m really excited for her opening. we ate enchiladas and had an afternoon marggie (margarita)-after all it was kind of a vacation. and sat on the patio talking about art, relationships, people and generally how weird life is-the constant topic between paige and i. 
paige's feet and her art skirt...
jill in paige and parris' backyard...
me napping on paige's bed- very rare!
jill and spasso - the new kitten
some poeple waiting for a bus...
then we went to il capriccio on vermont for the most delicious italian food and then headed over to the steve allen theatre for an art performance paige convinced us to go to.
here’s what i thought of the show….
nicole: i don’t get it… what do people like about this noise?
jill: it makes you think.
that’s the conversation i had with jill sitting on the patio of the steve allen theatre in hollywood on saturday night after we listened to and watched the dewan brothers perform with their dewantrons.
the dewan brothers performing
we had just spent the past 2 hours in a dark theatre, willing victims to the chirps, buzzes, bleeps and other weird noises produced by leon and brian dewans creations (inspired by clocks chiming at particular intervals) that some people call music and other call noise and some juts find annoying.
their creations, dewanatrons, are instruments constructed out of components and appliances… some looking like big wooden bread boxes, or an inside out 8-track player, others combination pulpit and podium but all fashioned with knobs to control the noise or lack of noise.
the dewanatrons create noise at set intervals and the brothers leon and brian control the noise by walking back and forth between instruments set-up on the stage turning the knobs. i’ve listened to noise before… nabukazu takemura who has entire songs consisting of only reorganized noises from a casino. it’s interesting the first time around but i wouldn’t bring it with me on a road trip.
it’s a bit more difficult to find the melody in the dewans music than in takemura’s but as i listened trying to decide how long i could take it i thought does there have to be a melody? it’s so human to try to find something that makes sense in the chaos and that’s what i was trying to do. until at some point i decided to stick it out and let go- let my mind wander, and the music provided the perfect background for that a sort of white noise with just enough color to inspire my mind to wander from memory to idea from the past to the present. i wondered what these brothers now standing on stage in levis and thrift store ties were like as kids. i wondered if they had day jobs in offices and if their coworkers knew that they garnered artistic fullfillment from standing on a stage and making odd facial expressions and gutteral vocal emissions. (here i must admit i didn’t know much about them-i hope they don’t have day jobs-they probably don’t as i’ve now learned they’ve performed all over the place and seem to be quite respected in the art world.)
in between their music we were privleged to see their narrative filmstrips… my favorite part. 
FOCUS-notice the photo isn't focused jill watching the film strip
they began with a simple slide that proclaimed focus, which became more than just a chance for the operator to make sure the image was clear and more a directive for us the audience. focus indeed i thought… a reminder that it was time to let the monkey mind encouraged by the music go and just pay attention. i listened, and was entranced with brians naïvely perfect comic drawings complete with the beep noise between slides to make the whole elementary school filmstrip experience complete. the innovation themed narratives philosophized about life and creation and they way we do and see things. they told us to be be innovative …”try writing with the eraser…”. they asked questions…”how do we know things? lick, taste, hear.” they encouraged us to do something different…”stay up all night.” though the notions were simple i appreciated the suggestions because sometimes i get a bit caught up in adult life and forget to be noisy, to do something that perhaps no one has done before, to observe or to let my mind wander freely. sometimes the best way to get your message across is to live it… so thanks for the hint.
1.looking across sunset from dusty's where we had breakfast sunday morning.
2. driving back tot the oc
3. delilah and gustavo int he hammock sunday night... we sat in the hammock for hours and deliah told me all about her trip to turkey a few years ago.
hi nicole!
it sure was nice seeing you the other day.
thanks for stopping by the gallery and mentioning paige's show
in your rad blog.
~sigh~ another thing i gotta read....i wish there were 34 hours per day.
see you soon!?
love, leora lutz
Posted by: gallery revisited | September 06, 2007 at 06:09 PM
hi nicole!
it sure was nice seeing you the other day.
thanks for stopping by the gallery and mentioning paige's show
in your rad blog.
~sigh~ another thing i gotta read....i wish there were 34 hours per day.
see you soon!?
love, leora lutz
Posted by: gallery revisited | September 06, 2007 at 06:11 PM