Friday night Carlos and I drove to the local eco-village for a dinner and open mic. I did my proformance during dinner while noone was expecting it. We sat with Ted and Megan and ate a great veggitrian meal with homegrown salad and homebaked cookies! I engaged Megan in bantar and almost killed her with humor. One of my faviorate things about new people is that they don't know if I am joking or not untill I lead them into a whole world of half truths and fantasies.
The open mic follewed the dinner. Tony sat upon a stool to introduse his novel idea to a crowed of 10-15 young men and women. Most open mics are set to be an atomsphere for unpolished preformers to gain experience being on stage, ussualy showcasing there best finnished pieces. In contrast to that Tony wanted to create a space where artists could come with unfinished and experimental works to get feedback from their comunity. He offed a song as an example. It sounded like it could have been finished. The song told a story of love lost. His voice and gitar playing were profesional quality. Afterwards he critiqued the song and asked for feedback. Tony agreed that the song could bennifit from a naritive and emotional climax and sung a 30 second blurb he was thinking about including. I was intreged by the idea that he has probably spent days revising and editing the song. Several more people made comments and sugestions and he thanked them and introduced the next artist.
Art for artists sake was not ment just for singing or even prefoming arts. He incoraged all artists to come if they were interested in feedback. When asked by a craftsman what kind of art he would like he replied "woodcarving".
Tim was interested in the court favorite, Jesting and Joking. Starting with a bad joke while juggeling to set the tone and incorage low standards he had us all laughing by the second joke. Bringing out his crystal ball and turning on some trance he contact juggled while techno dancing. Another guy, Mathew, did a sort of buddhist who's on first. Comicly trying to find the self throgh a conversation between me, I and Manthew.
Carlos did an impromtu play of sorts. Asking for two volenteers and passing the skit out amongst the audience he lead us through a journey of healing and adventure. I was impressed at how well it came together. Everyone in the audience was partisipating exept for me and the volenteers who had individual parts sounded particularly good. Everyone loved the Idea and Carlos had an oppertunity to test out his revolutionary idea. On the way home we talked what happened compared to what he expected and where he could go with the idea.
Saturday night Carlos brought me over to Ryan's house to see Dan and Ben preform. As we walk in I hear Dan declare "this is a hitchhiking song". I felt at home immediately. My faviorate song of the night was Saint Patrick's Battalion. It is an unlikely but touching true story about a group of Irishman who joined the Mexicans against the USA.. I stared out the window as I listened and thought about the powerful transending nature of music and tried to reach across the distance of time and space and identify with a man I could never have known.
Near the end of the first act 2 people walked in and sat down in the back. I glanced back and though I couldn't see them well I commented to Carlos about the boy having great energy. Durring the intermission several people came to introduce themselfs to me. "Are you the fabled Daniel?" I was asked... I should have said that "I would be prefered to be known as infamous". Disapointed with the choice of words I lamely responded with "maybe." At least half of the crowd was already standing around me which is a situation I could appriciate. When the two I had noticed earlier came by I was happy to ignore the rest and talk about indian music with my new sitar playing friend. Unfortunatly Mike is going to India soon and we will not get to know eachother.
After the consert there was a nice conversation about politics and global issues followed by getting to know you time with our host Ryan, Carlos and I.
So far I am really enjoying Northampton MA.
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