Time Machine: A Weekend at Miller Theatre

Fireworks Ensemble performs at Miller Theatre

Even in New York, where a routine weekend includes dozens of can’t-miss arts events, it’s rare for a single presenter to swing from orchestral noise rock to a cappella motets within 24 hours. That’s exactly how I spent my weekend, though—my fourth since joining the marketing department at Miller Theatre.

On February 5 and 6, Miller hosted a pretty unique double-header: a Composer Portrait of Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music on Friday and an Early Music series concert by Vox Vocal Ensemble on Saturday. It sounds like a weekend that might induce musical whiplash, but the concerts were oddly complementary.

When Metal Machine Music was released in 1975, it was greeted with widespread critical disdain. I don’t think Reed could’ve imagined that 35 years later he’d find himself fêted on the Miller stage, receiving a standing ovation from an audience of hundreds that had turned out to hear a live orchestral performance of his legendary sound experiment. Fireworks Ensemble performed the piece, artfully transcribed for amplified classical instruments by musical director Ulrich Krieger.

In a word, the concert was remarkable. For about 75 minutes, the audience was confronted with an almost constant wall of sound that averaged about 110 decibels. (For reference, that’s somewhere between a jackhammer and a jet takeoff at close range, in terms of sheer volume.) It was loud, but it was also immersive, almost meditative. Every once in a while, a string harmonic or an overblown woodwind, imitating the high-pitched feedback of a guitar, would cut through the roar of noise. But for more than an hour, we were bathed in sound that was impossible to ignore and difficult to wander from mentally, the musical equivalent of Bikram yoga. Precisely because the piece had little identifiable musical form, I found my mind letting go of the anticipation that often distracts me in classical concerts; there was no listening for the recapitulation, no trying to trace the harmonic progression. For a while, time seemed to stand still.

Music director Ulrich Krieger (left) and Lou Reed applaud the performance

When the performance ended, around 9:15, we all leapt to our feet, and I was taken by the incredible diversity of my fellow listeners. The 20-something guy behind me sported a nose ring and a spiky black hairstyle, the couple to my right were seniors who regularly attended new music concerts at Miller. Whatever our individual experience, we’d all had an evening we wouldn’t soon forget.

The next night was notably softer, but no less memorable. In a program of a dozen or so bite-sized choral works, Vox surveyed the evolution of the musical canon over seven centuries, exploring works by Byrd, Tallis, Mozart, Brahms, and Webern. Fleeting dissonant cross-relations in the earlier works gave way to Webern’s barely-tonal canon, which ended on a surprisingly consonant G major chord, as if to say, “We are playing with the limits. How far can we take it?” It’s the same question Reed would ask a few decades later, when he decided to release a record of guitar feedback.

I hope you’ll come push your own limits with us at Miller Theatre this spring. There are still a number of exciting programs—jazz, early music, world premieres—all listed on our website. Best of all, this exploration will not set you back much: tickets for Columbia students are just $7. I hope to see you soon.

*****

Charlotte Landrum
Associate Director of Marketing and Outreach
Miller Theatre

Photos by Diana Wong

When You’re Good To Mama Brady

America’s favorite “lovely lady” is back…giving J Lo a run for money.

Today’s video of the day highlights Flo Hen’s sultry side in addition to foreshadowing her musical return to Joe’s Pub this Friday and Saturday.

Florence Henderson: All The Lives Of Me…A Musical Journey – Celebrating Valentine’s Weekend.

Tickets sold separately…whip not included. Sorry, Tiger.

“Vagina” Is Not A Bad Word

Vagina. Vagina. Vagina. One of the many goals of The Vagina Monologues is to make people comfortable saying the word “vagina” and openly discussing sexuality. Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues will be performed this weekend in Roone Arledge Auditorium this weekend (February 12th-14th) as a part of the nationwide V-DAY movement to stop violence against women. Colleges across the country are putting on productions during the month of February to benefit a number of charities committed to ending violence against women. Eve Ensler began the V-DAY movement in 1998 in New York City. The Vagina Monologues is a collection of monologues linked to the vagina through themes of sex, menstruation, love, and abuse. This particular production includes twelve monologues.

Producer Kimberley Mackenzie (Teachers College) is pleased with the cast of mostly newcomers to the Columbia/Barnard production of The Vagina Monologues (including herself). Their enthusiasm for the production and its cause is infectious. The Columbia/Barnard V-DAY production of The Vagina Monologues includes a mix of seasoned actors and women who have never set foot on stage. Maya Nair Noonan (BC ‘13) has performed in The Vagina Monologues twice at her high school and is excited to perform for the third time at Columbia/Barnard. She said her hope for the show is to allow others to feel comfortable to discuss gender, sexuality, and violence against women issues as openly as her previous productions have allowed her to. Colette McIntyre (BC ‘12), who performed in last year’s production, said she loves performing in plays on campus, but particularly enjoys participating in The Vagina Monologues because it is “theater with a cause”.

CUArts will be hosting a free talkback with cast and crew members on Saturday, February 13 at 6:30pm in Lerner 568 before the performance to continue the conversation the V-DAY movement hopes to start. Performances are Friday, February 12, Saturday, February 13 at 7:30, and Sunday, February 14 at 3:30.The Valentine’s Day performance will include an introduction by Barnard President Debora Spar. Tickets are $7 with CUID, $12 without CUID. Proceeds from ticket and chocolate vagina sales benefit The Center for Anti-Violence Education. More information is available on the facebook event and the Columbia/Barnard V-Day group.

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Alison Goldberg, BC ‘12.

Art in Your Coffee Cup

Art can come in almost any medium- even coffee! Skilled barista artists can turn your steamed milk into a mini masterpiece in your cup. Sam Corra, known as bacco555888 on YouTube, posts videos of some of his creations. My favorite collection is what he calls the “latte zoo,” a series of animals created out of just espresso and milk:

*****

Darcy Zacharias, CC ‘10

Social Media in Higher Education: Two Perspectives

Recently, Darcy and Chad attended a panel discussion on Social Media in Higher Education at McGraw-Hill as part of Social Media Week. We thought we’d bring our thoughts on bringing social media to your classroom via a dialog – a first for the CUarts blog. We each have different perspectives on the issue – Darcy as a student and Chad as an administrator – but we found a lot of common ground.

Darcy: We hear a lot about the differences between generations when it comes to social media technology. Young people are so accustomed to having an online life that it is second nature to share (sometimes too much) with friends, acquaintances, and the friendly void of cyberspace. While this tends to not come as easily to people who grew up before the iPod, there is one area in which social media can be beneficial to both generations: education.

Chad: Couldn’t agree more. Education, like social media, is a two-way street. Both require a high percentage of listening and responding in a way that takes multiple perspectives into account. You could be the teacher in one instant, and a student in the next.

Darcy: Exactly. Education and social media are both in the business of sharing information. One takes place online, in real time, available at the press of a button on a mobile device. The other demands much more time and focus and in return yields a greater depth of knowledge. The overarching question of this conference was how can you merge these two approaches into one educational experience.

Chad: Enter Twitter. At the panel, the moderator was taking questions for the panelists from the live twitter feed posted behind them. Admittedly, some of these were questions we were live tweeting ourselves from the audience, but I was thinking how one could use this application in a classroom. TAs could take questions from students in the classroom and other people contributing via a hashtag.

Darcy:  This could be especially valuable during exam time when everyone has late night or last-minute questions. Students can help each other, or have a TA check in and respond to the questions.

Chad: There’s also the Facebook fan page idea. Students are already accustomed to sharing their academics and personal life through this platform. You could create a fan page for your class and create tabs for sharing multimedia clips and online articles.

Darcy: And you could have a forum tab for class discussions or assignment reminders. Start a discussion thread around key topics or final exam review. There’s also flickr to aggregate photos! This would be especially good for a visual arts or architecture class. Post images of the works of art you discuss in class, and ask students to post their own. You can also search flickr for other users’ images and supplement what’s available in the book.

Education isn’t just about receiving information. It’s about absorbing that knowledge through engagement with the work and discussion. Social media can help continue the conversation outside the classroom in a way that is easily accessible and utilizing technology that students already use all the time.

Chad: Social media is also a way that students can drive the conversation. The classroom experience should allow for students who are the experts in a field to share that knowledge with others. If you’re well-versed in social media, use your next office hour with your professor to talk about germane ways in which you can incorporate social media into your classroom. Twitter and Facebook already exist, so that’s an easy place to start. The real dynamic adventures, however, are only an idea way and will come from this and further waves of students who are building the new interactive classroom – the millennial generation’s answer to the open-concept school. iPad, are you listening?

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Chad Miller, Events and Outreach Manager and GS ‘07
Darcy Zacharias, CC ‘10

For a full transcript of the Twitter feed from the conference, please click here.

Go Fish! Using The Web to Find Volunteers

Convincing people to commit their time and effort to your organization is never easy. To even have a fighting chance in staffing, you need to let people know exactly what sort of opportunities you have on the table. Thankfully, there are many great web 2.0 options for volunteer recruitment that make printing forests of fliers a thing of the past.

1) Ask Your Beneficiaries: Time, rather than money, is easier to come by for artists and many will be more than willing to lend you a hand if you’ve supported their work in the past. Maintain a mailing list for easy access to everyone and anyone involved in your organization.

2) School Websites: Whether high school or college, students everywhere are hungry for experience and credit that will set them apart from their colleagues. Most institutions offer some sort of career services that will provide assistance in filling your more prestigious internship positions.

3) Website Directories Websites such as idealist.org provide a wonderful tool to connect the volunteers to organizations. Simply fill out the form, submit your listing and your volunteer opportunity suddenly became accessible to thousands of candidates.

4) Use the Social Capital of your Members Social media profiles (i.e. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter) allow you to not only connect instantly with your members but also to leverage the social power of your supporter’s networks. Encourage your members to re-tweet and share your volunteer opportunities and allow special consideration friend’s of your supporters to add an incentive for the promotional help.

*****

Michelle Madejski, SEAS ‘10

Futuristic Fashion Predictions From 1930s

There’s a lot to worry about when we think about the future – the economy, global politics, climate change. But perhaps the most important question of all: what will we be wearing? This vintage clip from the 1930’s examines the future of fashion, projecting what fashionistas would be wearing in the year 2000. While most of it is amusingly bizarre, they did some things right: the novel suggestion that someone would wear a telephone on them at all times!

What do you think people will be wearing in the year 3000?

*****
Darcy Zacharias, CC ‘10

The BodyCartography Project: 1/2 Life

The BodyCartography Project combines dance and video to create innovative, socially relevant works. Their latest work 1/2 Life will be performed at Performance Space 122 next weekend. In their own words: “The performance hovers geographically at the edges of the Pacific Ocean – connecting nuclear super power USA, atomic survivor Japan and nuclear free New Zealand. Performers from these three countries team up with a physicist to pursue experiments in objectification, understand the
 physics of nuclear power through interpretive dance, build contemporary folk dances, translate data into movement and distil reality into to a series of marks on a chalkboard.”

Here’s a glimpse of this new work and the creators behind it:

The New York performances will be February 10-14. Tickets are just $15 for students with CUID and CAAL members, $20 full price.

*****
Darcy Zacharias, CC ‘10

Lincoln Center Theater to Build New Black Box

A computer rendering of the new black box theater that will be perched atop the Vivian Beaumont. Michael Klausmeier Inc.

The Diana Center isn’t the only new black box theater in town. The New York Times reports that Lincoln Center Theater has announced plans to build a new black box theater on top of the existing Vivian Beaumount Theater.

The theater will be the new home to LCT3, a program started in 2008 that features the work of new and emerging theatre artists. Currently Lincoln Center rents the Duke Theatre for LCT3 performances. The creation of the new space is designed to bring that program, with its emphasis on the development of new artists and audiences, into Artistic Director Andre Bishop emphasized the importance “that it not be way off on west something-or-other street, not be a stepchild.” Tickets will be just $20 each, a welcome price for cash-strapped students and young professionals. Bishop clarifies the mission of the black box:

“This is our way of finding writers and directors and designers to come here and work here on all our stages. The only way for theater to survive is to constantly renew itself.”

The new space shows a dedication to emerging artists on the part of Lincoln Center Theater. While such a focus has always been a part of the theater’s mission, the highly successful revival of South Pacific, which has been running for nearly two years now, has relegated all other newer works to the less-publicized Mitzi Newhouse Theater in the basement. Lincoln Center’s reaffirmation of support for the development of new theatre is a welcome change from the increasingly stagnant programming that has been seen in nonprofit theatres around the country.

Construction is scheduled to begin in March, with a completion date of late 2011 or early 2012. For more information, including specifics about the architecture of the new space, check out the Times article.

*****
Darcy Zacharias, CC ‘10

BIG BOOKS.

What do all Columbia University students have in common? We read books!

A LOT of books. So if you are a prospective CU student and you are reading this blog – BE WARNED – if you don’t like books DON’T COME HERE.

I, like many of my peers, love books. I love the way they smell, the feeling of the pages between my fingers. Sometimes, when I’m alone at night, I even take one to bed with me.

A few days ago, when I heard about Apple’s new product – the iPad – I felt a cold chill run through my veins. The iPad – a glorified Amazon Kindle/iPhone/Laptop – may bring about the extinction of books as we know them. When iPad’s reach their full potential (certainly within the next year or two), CU students won’t have to go trekking to Book Culture through the cold to stock up on several pounds of books. They will simply download books on their iPad’s, and WAM! BAM! Digital books in the comfort of their own dorm rooms! Comfortable, maybe, but when has comfort ever made a MAN out of anyone?

That copy of Invisible Man lying on your bed-side table may actually become invisible. It will be found encased in glass in a museum. In fact, books are already in museums. This summer, the British Library is putting on an exhibition about maps, which includes the BIGGEST book in the world!

Hey Columbia students – you hear that? The BIGGEST.

It is the 350 year old Klencke Atlas, presented to Charles II on his restoration.

This book could take War & Peace or Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows any day.

Containing 37 maps in the Klencke Atlas, it is almost absurdly huge – 1.75 metres (5ft) tall and 1.9 metres (6ft) wide – and was given to the king by Dutch merchants and placed in his cabinet of curiosities.

Along with the Klencke Atlas, the exhibit will display 100 other maps, some considered the greatest in the world, three-quarters of which are going on display for the first time.

So if you DO like books, and maps, and ostensibly iPads (even though the name, is pretty dubious – do any women work at Apple? Steve? Helloooo…) book a flight to London to see Magnificent maps: Power, Propaganda and Art is at the British Library from April 30th – September 19th, 2010 and “Explore the World’s Knowledge!”

*****
Rosie DuPont, BC ‘10