Lovesexy25

This week marks the 25th anniversary of the first (and second) time I saw Prince. August 18 and 20, I believe. Here's a pod about Prince's greatest album from the good peoples at the Collabo Xperience.

Do or die.

Big thanks to Emma Ball.

Duke

New Work City

An imitation from New York,
New York, New York big city of dreams,
Everything in New York ain’t always what it seems
New York’s alright if you like tuberculosis
You could cut off all your hair, I don’t think they’d care in New York.
I wouldn’t live in New York City if they gave me the whole dang town.

New York City
Go Go Go Go Go Go Go Go
Funky Town
New York’s a go-go and everything tastes nice
New York City, just like I pictured it
Skyscrapers and everything

New York, New York,
Forty-second Street, hustlers rustle and pimps pimp the beat
Back in the New York Groove, in the New York Groove
The police in New York City
They chased a boy right through the park

Darling here I am,
The only living boy in New York.

These streets will make you feel brand new
Big lights will inspire you
Let's hear it for New York, New York,
New York

Send Me Your Insect Duets! WFMU 17-Year Itch Special Forthcoming!

UPDATE: If you don't live on Brood II turf, I will also accept recordings with other insects! Now lick out the bug jams!
UPDATE: The broadcast on Miniature Minotaurs on WFMU will be June 21, the first day of summer.

I want to hear you sing with the cicadas! They're out in DC and starting to emerge in Jersey. From what I've been able to discern there's little agreement about where they'll be in NYC. Definitely Staten Island, maybe the north Bronx. Some say Central Park is possible, though most say no. But we do know Brood II is huge and will be singing around the Northeast for a good part of June.

So I'm asking you to jam with the bugs and help them celebrate their 17-year itch, then send me the files for future broadcast on WFMU. The only rules are:

1. Start with your own original cicada recordings. Collaborations with other humans is OK, of course, but I want you to go out and have an insect interface. You can take your axe with you, or lay a vocal or instrumental track over it later, or record and remix as you please, but please, go out and meet your collaborators.

2. Include the process with the submission. Tell me where you made the cicada recording and what your part in it was (instrumentation, multi-tracking, etc.). Also tell me how you'd like to be identified publicly. If you're interested in only doing field recordings, let me know and I'll try to match you up with someone to remix. But right now I'm not looking for straight field recordings to broadcast.

Send your files and info to miniature.minotaurs @ gmail . com

I'd like to have most of the submissions by June 15 or so. I will take them later but they might not be included in the big cicada showdown on WFMU's Miniature Minotaurs.

Also, check out the Cicada Tracker at RadioLab. And you can listen to my interview with David Rothenberg, author of Bug Music, here.

The 'thon is On! Please show your love for WFMU and Miniature Minotaurs!

2 Performances in which I won’t perform, a story for Valentine’s Day and a humble plea for support

Dear Friends,

I hope you all have plans for this shortest month Black History Valentines, eh? The weather sure has been what one expects for this time of years on some days and then not on others, eh? Especially in the area you live! And how about those sports games? Pretty exciting! On a more personal note, I’m sorry about that situation that came up at your school or place of work. I agree that your cohorts weren’t being fair with you about the whole thing.

Have I mentioned some exciting news to you already? No? Well, I have two performances this month and the best part is I won’t be performing in either of them!

On February 16, my play Under a Scar-Filled Sky: The Buddy Zinn Mysteries will be staged at Dixon Place in Manhattan’s storied Lower East Side. This is very exciting because 500 days ago I didn’t even know I was a playwright. But after a lot of work and the remarkable support and encouragement of co-producers Kristen Persinos and Urania Mylonas and director Mahayana Landowne, it seems this thing is on its way to becoming a play. Which is good news because we told Dixon Place that it was. We have a fantastic cast (which includes live music from Charlie Waters) and are hip-deep in rehearsals.

Which brings me to another point. We can’t really afford rehearsal space, not to mention costumes, props and subway fare. So please, if you’ve not, have a glance at our Indiegogo page and consider pledging your cash money love. You will get books, CDs and cocktails in evidence of our gratitude, which also you’ll receive.

The second performance I won’t perform in this month will be The Audience vs Ecstasy Mule vs John Cage vs Ecstasy Mule vs The Audience on February 24 at Willow Place Auditorium, 26 Willow Place in Brooklyn Heights as a part of the Transient Series. This will be a logical extension of Ecstasy Mule vs John Cage vs Ecstasy Mule, a performance construction situation based on a half dozen or so John Cage scores which was performed in September at the Stone and then in December in the RipRig series in Philadelphia. For this iteration, Len37 and myself will be sitting on our asses doing nothing while the entire audience figures out how to play it. Really! It’ll be fun! And it’ll be free.

The time for the first event is 10 pm. The time for the second event is 3 pm. On different days, of course. Don’t mix that up.

Meanwhile, and less specific to the metropolitan New York area, the next of my holiday stories is posted at Lulu. As some among the more faithful of you may recall, I am working on a book of holiday tales and am posting some of them along the calendrical way. Toward the end, “The St. Valentine’s Day Mackerel” is now available for your entertainment for less than a ride on the bus.

Lastly – not forever, just for now – I’ve posted a new track over at SoundCloud. It was an experiment that went awry, a sketch for something that will happen next month. The first person to guess the source material will get a factory sealed reward carrying a Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price of greater than $10.

As always, if you’re getting this crass commercial mass email and we haven’t talked in a while, get in touch! And, if you’re getting this and we have talked recently but you want to talk some more, get in touch! And if you don't want to be in touch, just say so! But mostly if you can, please come to Dixon Place on the 16^th.  A strong showing there could help us get a full and proper run, just like the theater folks do!