The TRaC blogs and the HIGH 5 REVIEW

heyo,

Quick update on this blog.... and where to go in the future for updates.....

As of today, this blog will remain here to redirect people and as an archive, but we won't be updating it anymore. We are happy to announce the building of our new online arts-paper --- The High 5 Review (www.high5review.org). There will be a TRaC section in the newspaper that will pick up where this blog left off. Expect weekly posts about TRaC ongoings, TRaC reviews, event announcements, and much much more!


Events like first friday Pizza and a Movie Nights will continue to be announced on Facebook (become a fan of High 5 here) and the High 5 Review.   Both will have updates for free tickets to shows, news about special TRaC events, and random posts about random arts opportunities for teens.

And if you're not on High 5's e-mail newsletter, you're missing out on new shows, reviews and event announcements every week! Sign up here to get the inside beat on all things art in the city: www.high5tix.org/mailinglist

We'll see you out there at the shows!
(and on the High 5 Review)

Beatbox Brain Buster

How can these sounds come out of a person????

The TRaC Finale is on May 16th!

The TRaC Finale!!!
Saturday, May 16, 3pm
@ the STREB Action Invention Lab
51 N 1st St. Brooklyn, NY 11211

To celebrate the conclusion of another season of TRaC we'll be heading to Williamsburg to see Elizabeth Streb's S.L.A.M Show. That is, the STREB Lab for Action Mechanics....aka dare-deviling, acrobatic circus flying, pop action, anti-gravitational bodies in constant motion. It's all the madness. All current TRaC participants, TRaC Alumni, Freelancers and their friends are invited. To get your ticket, simply RSVP to eric at eost at high5tix.org. Limited number of tickets are available so email right away!!!


Elizabeth Streb and her Action Faction take a closer look at the ordinary, inanimate things around us in STREB at SLAM: CATAPULT, their spring home season show at S.L.A.M. (Streb Lab for Action Mechanics) STREB's spacious playground and launching pad for new ideas and new moves.

Don't miss your chance to see the Streb team fly through the air with greatest of ease!

David Van Tieghem's sinuous, evocative soundtrack is the perfect accompaniment to STREB's ongoing romantic adventure with gravity.

Visit www.streb.org for more.


Hope to see you there!!!!

YouTube's Latest Viral Hit: A Train Station Full Of Dancing Belgians

Flash mob.
Choreographed dance.
The Sound of Music.
Joy for all.

Free Music: NYC Electroacoustic Music Festival, April 2-4

There'll be some heady electronic music being made at the 1st New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival and Conference going down at the CUNY Graduate Center in Midtown next Thursday, Friday and Saturday April 2-4. People from all over the world will get together to talk, walk, and listen to electroacoustic music.

"What IS that?" you ask? Well, it can be lots of things, but I guess you can say that it's music that electronically explores "the art of sound." Here's Wikipedia's best shot at a definition.

Point being, the shows happening during the days of April 2-4 are FREE. Recommended for a stop-in if you're in the area, 365 Fifth Avenue @ 34th St., cuz you can check out -- at no cost -- the odd, wonderful sounds coming from a laptop, a shoe wired to a radio, or someone's live remix of a clarinet solo. Here's the full schedule.

-Kevin
the High 5 ticket guy

Toumani Diabate

Hey y'all. This is Kevin from High 5.
I'm the dude who gets arts organizations to donate tickets so that we can get YOU to the arts for cheap. Actually, for FREE (cuz if you're a member of TRaC you can get two free tickets for any event High 5 offers).

And I love hearing from you guys about shows you want to see and events you want to attend in NYC. Email me (kkilroy@high5tix.org) and I'll try to get you tickets for cheap. That's how we do it!

One of the best things about living in NYC is that musicians from all over the world come here to rock our ears. Toumani Diabate from Mali is one of the great musicians that grace our fair city from time-to-time. He's the world's leading player of the kora -- a harp-like instrument from Diabate's native country. He's performing at Le Poisson Rouge on Saturday, April 18th. Ears will rock.

Check him OUT.


High 5 doesn't YET have tickets for this show, but I'm gonna try my hardest to convince them to donate...

Give me a holler (kkilroy@high5tix.org) if there are any other shows you want to see. It could be anything: theater, dance, art exhibits, or Malian kora music.

in TRaC, we value safety FIRST!

Don't know what to do if there's a nuclear attack??

Well, in TRaC, we're always ready. In this important video, art and government came together to create a public service masterpiece. (We will, of course, be drilling in all the TRaC classes.)

Have a great day, and beware the flash!

Beethoven's "Fur Elise" - on two guitars at once

MEAT LOVE and other Jan Švankmajer shorts

Some of you asked where you could find the films we watched at the TRaC Kick Off. Ask and ye shall receive! Here are the two short films made by Czech filmaker Jan Švankmajer....

The first two YouTube videos I've posted are Dimensions of a Dialogue, Parts 1, 2 and 3 (1982):

this one is poor quality, but it's all I could find...


this is two-shorts-in-one - the 2nd and 3rd part of Dimensions of a Dialogue:


and everyone's favorite, Meat Love (1988):


Now those are different, eh?

We talked about what these experimental shorts are saying about communication. What happens when it breaks down? What happens when two sides say the same thing? (toothpaste is grinded by a pencil sharpener on a tongue, of course!) Even, what are the different meanings of the word 'communication'? The first two pieces are called "dimensions of a dialouge" so we are invited to interpret the work through that lens.

TRaC is all about communication: discussion, writing reviews and criticism, preparing questions for an artist.... what do these films say about us???

OR we could just think about the fact that those first videos were made start to finish by Švankmajer, by himself - all the filming, sculpting, editing, everything - and they took years to do. This 20 minutes of stop-motion was, yes, years in the making. Even the music of the films (he didn't write the scores) and sound effects (which he did) have their own strange dimension. (Fun fact: Švankmajer is known as the father of claymation. He's a god to all the Pixar guys). And though it's complex what he does, he deliberately uses household objects, showing them to us in new ways. We are disgusted sometimes and then find ourselves happy, for instance, when we see that Meat can turn on a radio and dance. Oh, happy Meat!

Many people consider Švankmajer do be a surrealist, his ideas stemming from the work of people like Salvador Dali, who painted The Persistence of Memory in 1931.

In case you want to dig deeper, here's Švankmajer's website: www.jansvankmajer.com ; his stats on the Internet Movie Database ; and his page on the New York Times, with a bio and several links to articles and REVIEWS!

Any other thoughts on these films or ideas?
Should we have more TRaC Meets and explore some other artists all together???
Feel free to leave a comment.

~eric

Spring TRaC has begun!

Check out the other TRaC blogs as we move along into the ten weeks to see what's going on.....

And just for fun,
for those who take issue with classical music,
check this out: