Metro, 7/28/06

Interview today (page 22) with Jesse Kudler and Tim Albro of local lowercase experimentalists HZL, who play a Bowerbird show tonight with Bonnie Jones and Andy Hayleck from Baltimore.

Citypaper, 7/27/06

Just when I thought I was through with obnoxious gay-themed comedies, TLA pulls me back in. The Gay & Lesbian Fest's opening night feature, the American Pie parody/rip-off Another Gay Movie, opens wide this week, and I have a review.

Trumpeter Baikida Carroll, a member of the St. Louis-based Black Artists Group in the late '60s which spawned Julius Hemphill and Oliver Lake, shows up with Tim Berne and a pair of his usual compatriots, Michael Formanek and Tom Rainey, in a quartet dubbed Faux Faux for an Ars Nova show on Sunday.

Also, a brief mention for the Mingus Big Band, Friday at the Art Museum, and a CD review for local drummer Tony Deangelis, who has a CD release party Saturday night at Chris'.

Metro, 7/27/06

Small piece about Grover Silcox, a local comedian/actor who will be performing a dramatic reading of Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart" this weekend at Eastern State Penitentiary. But can he match the Iggy Pop version?

Metro, 7/21/06

Two pieces in today's Metro weekend section, both of which were trimmed down a bit on the way to print.

The first is about Saturday's Exhumed Films double feature pairing Cannibal Holocaust and City of the Walking Dead. The second is about Fuzefest, a weird daylong event at World Cafe on Sunday with workshops on belly dancing and jamming, then a performance by world-fusion ensemble Animus.

Here's the whole issue in PDF; I'm on pages 21 and 24.

Citypaper, 7/20/06

I'm all over the paper this week.

The Israeli-Lebanese conflict unfortunately cancelled a planned weekend of shows featuring four Lebanese improvisers being brought to town by Soundfield's Gene Coleman. I had interviewed Gene and Dustin Hurt of Bowerbird, who was co-producing the Philly leg of the project, and the story was filed mere moments before I heard of the bombs falling. Of course, the event was postponed, and I quickly scrambled to write this updated piece.

And there's a preview of Sunday's Ars Nova show headlined by experimental noisefreaks Death Unit.

I also interviewed Matt Gaffney, author of a new book on crosswords and their creators.

You want movies? I've got five reviews for flicks screening in the second week of the Philadelphia International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival (ten for the first week are here), and one for the rollicking soccer doc Once In A Lifetime.

No wonder I haven't seen the light of day lately.

Starting off with a bang

Welcome! I've decided to occupy this dark, musty little corner of the web, largely in order to direct those few interested parties out there to my published ramblings, and post whatever else crosses my mind.

And what better way to start than with scandal and controversy? A little piece I wrote on jazz trumpeter Maynard Ferguson for last week's City Paper garnered a slew of letters to the editor and much vitriol on the offical Maynard fan forum. The CP's blog links to both the letters and the board.

I'll give Maynard credit for having fiercely loyal fans. Those folks have obviously found a depth and personal connection to Ferguson's music that I don't, at least not in his live performances of recent vintage. This piece being a concert preview, that's all I meant to address, and what I've seen consists of a lot of pyrotechnic virtuosity that impressed crowds with athleticism more than musicality. But that's just what I hear, and there are some heartfelt tributes posted on the board that make the opposite case eloquently. It's unfortunate that the few articulate, well-reasoned responses get lost amidst the personal insults, but that's internet discourse for ya. (Threatening a man's dog is beyond the pale. I'd be even more offended if I actually had one.)