Owen Pallett (formerly Final Fantasy) live at Webster Hall!

When I last checked in with Owen Pallett, his band was still called Final Fantasy and he was playing with the Brooklyn Philharmonic at BAM opening up for a little Brooklyn band called Grizzly Bear.  The show was promising, but at times the full orchestra felt a bit bombastic playing against instead of in support of Pallett’s overtly theatrical and melodramatic songwriting.  Pallett’s choices for orchestration on record are consistently spot on and his confessional, sometimes nearly whispered vocal stylings were lost at times under the sound of all those loud, lush interments.  He was not swallowed alive however and his performance left me in a very hopeful place.

A few months ago Pallett decided to change Final Fantasy’s name to his own and he released a new full length record, “Heartland,” to impressive critical response under his new moniker. This past Thursday night, Pallett played at New York’s Webster Hall to a full but easy to sift through crowd, playing many songs solo and being joined for others on guitar, percussion and vocals by the extremely talented Thomas Gill.  Prior to Thursday night I felt myself really liking his new album, but finding it hard to fall in love with as deeply did with his previous full length “He Poo’s Clouds.”  I’d realized that the album had an evolved sense of confidence and that it pushed his music forward in terms of both production and conceptual structure.  I’d also realized that it contained a beautiful and deft  sense of confidence that is unquestionably an improvement from his earlier work, but there was still something that wasn’t clicking.  Thursday’s performance however changed all of that for me.  The immediacy of the new “Heartland” material in this stripped down setting, with spot on sound and a devoted audience was exactly what I needed to see in order to “get” what I’d been missing.

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Ariel Goldberg Gives A Press Conference on Photography at the Marin Headlands

“This is a press conference on the current state of photography. This press conference treats current photograph production as urgent events. This press conference hopes to track the mass of pictures through a group of characters who have meditated heavily on lots of pictures.

This press conference is conducted by a group of characters who write about these photographic encounters, to explore the information, the misinformation, and their imagined information. This press conference is a series of enactments of performance scripts.”

Ariel Goldberg is a favorite of ours and I’m enthusiastically spending the weekend at the Marin Headlands helping her get her Press Conference on Photography off the ground. I’ve been doing wondrous work like hiking in the hills (I’ve seen wild turkey’s, tadpoles, frogs, snakes, lizards, lots of birds, wildflowers, deer, and still on the look out for bobcats), eating lots of healthy food and rehearsals, and moving stacks of things around for her. It’s gonna be a great show and I’m really thankful she’s allowed me a few days at the Headlands to hang out and watch the process all the artists are going through as they get ready for this weekends open house.

The show is Sunday April 18th from noon-5pm. Ariel’s Press Conference is at 1:15pm sharp at the Headlands in the Rodeo Room in the Main Building.

Headlands Center for the Arts

944 Fort Barry

Sausalito, Ca 94965

I don’t have a car. Can I get to Headlands by bus?
Headlands is reachable by bus from San Francisco on Sundays, when the MUNI 76 operates in the Marin Headlands. If you have a bicycle, you can either take the beautiful scenic ride all the way across the Golden Gate Bridge, or take your bike on the Sausalito Ferry or on the bus using Golden Gate Transit.

brokenbrooklyn performance: Talya Epstien and J.T. Ross give a preview of their upcoming performance piece!

Kind readers,

I have not performed physically in anything for quite a few years now.  However, in the past I always said that if the piece I was presented with called for my participation I would take part.  Now, after years in hiding, I have started work on a new theatrical performance piece entitled “In Syndication”.  Talya Epstien, an extremely gifted dance performer and close friend of mine, has been generous enough to partake in this joint effort with me, our first ever collaboration.  The work technically speaking falls somewhere in between dance, theater and performance art and I can safely say it is unlike anything else either of us have ever done before.  The piece is technically a trio between the two of us and an old television.  Thematically it touches on isolation, pacification and our ever growing co-dependancy as a people.  It’s still a baby, but we have hopes it will grow into something pretty exciting.  The performance will take place at Judson Church (which is just south of Washington Square Park) on Monday April 26th at 8:00 pm as part of the Movement Research program held there on Monday nights.  Please come join us and give us your feedback.

Much love and thanks,

J.T. Ross (brokenbrooklyn)

“In Syndication”

Part of Movement Reasearch at Judson Church

55 Washington Square South

Monday April 26

8:00pm

BentBoyBooks Reads: my first reading for my new book GHOSTS

BentBoyBooks Reads! This
Friday, April 9 – 8:00PM at Dog Eared Books in the Mission District of San Francisco..

Join Jennifer Blowdryer, Stephen Boyer, Drew Cushing and John Sakkis for a night of poetic outburst, stories of all variations, and hopefully a bottle of wine or five. And a few possible superstar surprise guests if the universe pulls through.. Continue reading