Saw some fucking art last night. Mixed bag but it felt good. I'm not and never have been into the "scene" -- and that goes for every other "scene" out there -- but I do like the sometime sense of community that accompanies really good performance. I know some talented people.
Frank the Enabler struck hard before hand and we showed up to the show very very very high, as well as being wet from biking in the rain. I'm still not entirely comfortable being stoned in public, but I do like showing up places dripping wet and lightly sweating. Helps me tap into the man-juice.
While I didn't expect to be as high as I was, I also -- as HST writes -- need to learn how to deal with smoking marijuana in polite company. However you cut it, I was too stoned to network, which was a setback. It's ok, but I would have liked to more affably commune with some of the people there. Make plans. Promote axiom a bit.
The show itself was a lesson in how to be a good perfomace artist: work hard and have a point which you can communicate. Art is for the audience, not for the performer. At least, that's what I believe. I saw my old classmates Kieth Biesack and Maggie McBrian do something that could have been so much more than it was. I also saw a work of sheer genius pomo storytelling by Zack Steel and Adam Carpenter; two men who I deeply respect as performers.
Then there was some film and some dancing that had a lot of senseless pussy, which was something of a drag. I detest pointless nudity. If you just want to show your cunt or your tits off that's fine but please either treat it as a fun/beautiful thing or have some context around it. This is art, not a nudist colony, and if you take off your clothes it should mean something.
It all culminated in an extremely unsafe and loud solo dance piece by some stranger. It had potential (some really interesting bits of humor and rhythm) but it was also abusive to the audience (aggressive cooch-in-face action) and frankly dangerous (almost hit audience with swinging microphone cord). I'm all for danger, but it needs to be the kind of fantastic danger that the stage makes possible, not real physical danger, and it needs to be used carefully.
I'm hard on these people because they should know better. The don't have my training, but so what? They're older than me, and they made the choice to get up on stage. They should know better. Hopefully they will learn.
But Zack and Adam were so brilliant it made the whole evening well worth it. I ran into Zack back in May at Ren Fayre of all places. Just made a little small talk, but he mentioned that he and Adam were working on stuff. It was quite something. A testament to hard work and talent. Some of us, at least, are professionals.
