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:

Touch the Sound

At Pizza and a Movie last night High 5 screened a documentary about Evelyn Glennie, a very famous and profoundly DEAF percussionist.

How can that be, you ask?

In her words: "Hearing is basically a specialized form of touch. Sound is simply vibrating air which the ear picks up and converts to electrical signals, which are then interpreted by the brain. The sense of hearing is not the only sense that can do this, touch can do this too. If you are standing by the road and a large truck goes by, do you hear or feel the vibration? The answer is both. With very low frequency vibration the ear starts becoming inefficient and the rest of the body's sense of touch starts to take over. For some reason we tend to make a distinction between hearing a sound and feeling a vibration, in reality they are the same thing. It is interesting to note that in the Italian language this distinction does not exist. The verb 'sentire' means to hear and the same verb in the reflexive form 'sentirsi' means to feel. Deafness does not mean that you can't hear, only that there is something wrong with the ears. Even someone who is totally deaf can still hear/feel sounds."

TOUCH THE SOUND, directed by Thomas Riedelsheimer, explores the relationship of our senses, both visually and sonically.

In this clip (not from the movie) you can watch Evelyn discuss her ideas about sound and how that informs her as a musician. See also plays a beautiful piece on the xylophone at 27:22 so you can just skip ahead if you like. Enjoy!

Pizza + Movies = Good Life

Pizza.
A Movie.
(It's a surprise.)
Free tickets to the NYC theater, dance, music and art scene.
Good people.
Good times.

It's what you call the Good Life.

Don't miss Pizza & a Movie Night, Tuesday, Nov. 18th @ 5:00 p.m. Meet and mix with other High 5'ers, debate the finer points of cinema and score free tix to the best theater, dance and music NYC's got to offer. November's Pizza & a Movie Night will feature another great surprise film carefully chosen by moi and the illustrious Kevin Kilroy, High 5's Directors of Film & Pizza, new friends coming together, old friends uniting again, and, of course, pizza. Lots and lots of pizza. And juice.

What could better?

DIRECTIONS: Take the E/V to 5th avenue. Exit from the 5th Avenue exit (NOT the Madison Ave exit). Enter under the Dragon. He rests above the doors of 1 East 53rd Street.

SUGGESTED DONATION: $3 (and it's really only a suggestion....)

BE THERE OR BE A SQUARE SLICE.

High 5 promotion video....dig it

Let's see some art!

Fall TRaC has officially begun! Make sure to check out all the TRaC blogs below to stay up-to-date with what's going on in every art discipline all over New York City....

Ferris J. Bueller, Sloane Peterson and Cameron Frye strike a pose at the Art Institute of Chicago on Ferris's famous "day off." (John Hughes, 1986).

THEATER TRaC

DANCE TRaC

VISUAL ARTS TRaC

MUSIC TRaC

MULTI TRaC

The TRaC Review Compendium '07-08

It's here!

The first ever Teen Reviewers and Critics REVIEW COMPENDIUM, with collected writings and reviews from 40 of High 5's Teen Critics.

Click the image to take a look inside....

July Pizza and a Movie

Date: Wednesday, July 16

Time: 5pm - 7:30pm

Place: High 5 HQ, 1 East 53rd Street (between 5th Ave and Madison)

People: the Teen Reviewers and Critics, High 5ers, anyone between 13 and 18 who loves movies, pizza, and wants to meet our special guest, Ronnie Porto, a screen-writer and freelancer working in the TV and movie business. Find out how to break in!

Suggested donation: $3

RSVP: eric at eost@high5tix.org

Be there!

June Pizza and a Movie

Now, every month, High 5 will be hosting our already famous Pizza and a Movie Nights.

Next up: Tuesday, June 17th! (5pm-7:30pm)

Come Tuesday at 5pm for hot pizzzzza and a movie chosen for its proven ability to blow minds. More often that not, it'll be something you've never seen before. Which is nice.

As always, we'll be meeting up at High 5 HQ - that theater in the back of the lobby.

Our address is 1 East 53rd Street (between 5th and Madison). Look for the giant dragon above our door - you can see it through the glass facade!

The movie is, of course, a surprise.
:)

~eric,
director of pizza and movies

wall-painted animation by graffi-artist BLU

Take 7 minutes and check this out.
Done in Buenos Aires....


MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Blu's blog is here. His website is here.

If you like this, you've got to take a look at Czech filmaker Jan Švankmajer's short films, which we watched at the Kick-Off for TRaC in the fall of 2007. (You HAVE to watch MEAT LOVE. It's the best!)

Neo-Futurism at High 5 World HQ

No, we're not done yet....

How about 15 plays in 30 minutes to blow out the spring and usher in the summer?

Next Wednesday, May 21st, starting at 5pm, High 5 welcomes the NEW YORK NEO-FUTURISTS to our world HQ for our first ever in-house production.

In their signature show Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, the Neo-Futurists, a wild bunch of performers/writers/directors, bring you a theater experience that is "a fusion of sport, poetry, and living-newspaper." At the Krane Theater in the East Village every Friday and Saturday night at 10:30, people roll the dice to determine how much they pay, a new name is slapped on their shirt and they enter the world of neo-futurism. With a "menu" of 30 plays in hand, every 2 minutes you shout and scream for the title of the play you'd like to see. Some are serious, some funny, sometimes people get sprayed with water. And at the end, if all 30 plays are completed before the timer runs out.... pizza for everyone. Isn't that beautiful??

What is neo-futurism, you ask? In a nutshell:

• You are who you are.
• You are where you are.
• You are doing what you are doing.
• The time is now.

I have no idea what that means. But believe me, it's going to be cool. 15 plays in 30 minutes!

There'll be food, of course. We'll bring the pizza. You bring yourself. Friends and family are welcome, too, if you want to bring'em. We'll also bring you the High 5 battleplan for the summer - Pizza and Movie Nights, Summer TRaC, FUZE events..... lots to jump into. All FREE.

Email ERIC if you are coming to the FINALE! Let me know approximately how many guests will be tagging along. (I need to plan for pizza.)

Officially, summer is about to begin......
5pm
Wed.
May 21
High 5 HQ
1 East 53rd Street

Be There!

FUZE this Friday

Opportunity strikes. And the dancers might, too.

High 5 hosts a FUZE event this Friday with STREB S.L.A.M. Show. What that means: Bring a friend, see the show, meet the choreographer. Here's a clip from one of their previous shows....



Dance and Multi TRaC have already been. Check out their blogs for info and pictures. If anyone wants a ticket, I have a few available.

7pm in Williamsburg. Brooklyn, baby.

Just email me.

~eric