Coming to America
(L to R) Melvin Fraenk and Katie Duck at OT301 in Amsterdam December 2013.
I have been passing out these postcard sized flyers (above) at various coffee houses around Salt Lake, and speaking with some interesting people in the course of promoting this workshop.
April Showers
Centerville Tulips 2014 — Photo by M.E.
The local deer don’t graze under certain bushes, so we have a few bulbs flowering in the neighborhood. There are also Quail and beautiful Goldfinches!
No fools of any month at Ladies That Rock in April 2014
A full set of Acoustic MiNX capped a perfect spring day.
Ladies That Rock was billed as all-acoustic show, a welcome context for MiNX, who have often been at their most elegant and/or raw singing around a wooden guitar. The night began with Spoken Literature and Slam Poetry, with high qualities of performance, literary quality, and intense imagery, informed by Feminism.
(Top) Stephanie Novack, our MC — When She Speaks I Hear The Revolution.
Notice the poets who are reading — one is using paper, others are using smart phones:
I can only WISH I knew everybody’s name!
OK — it was a BIG challenge to follow that, no matter who you were!
(Top) Kelli Moyle had the “star spot,” and worked it until closing time. (Lower Left) Chanda Charmayne played Raffi’s own guitar — lucky lady! (Lower Right) Nirvana Huntington’s amazing voice really RIPPED through the Woodshed.
What about MiNX?
Ischa and Raffi did fine in their acoustic set, but it surprised me that they performed so many songs that they didn’t write. I have heard these so-called “covers” piecemeal since I’ve followed this band, but there were many more than usual in a single offing this Friday night.
Twenty four hours later I was surprised again when they STARTED with an electric set and FINISHED acoustically at another venue.
I ain’t crazy, I’m DIFFERENT … at Fatts Grill on Saturday April 5, 2014.
Raffi played a new Fender Stratocaster that night, finished in Hot Rod Pink — and made it ring with great enthusiasm!
Acoustic MiNX made the crowd cheer with appreciation.
Impressive as full-track electric MiNX was, the audience totally fell in love with their reinterpretations of songs by famous people as sung by Ischa accompanied by Raffi’s hollow-body guitar, through the P.A. system.
Hanging on, in quiet desperation is the English way, the time is gone, the song is over, thought I’d something more to say.
Home — home again I like to be here when I can, when I come home cold and tired, it’s good to warm my bones beside the fire.
Far away across the field, the tolling of the iron bell calls the faithful to their knees to hear the softly spoken magic spell …
Day-UM — I’m so glad I was there that night!
Check out MiNX’s original acoustic and electric music at MiNXband.com
More art, but from another time
When I was in elementary school, C.B. DeMille’s biblical epic Ten Commandments impressed moviegoers everywhere, and the production paintings by Arnold Friberg also impressed me and others around Utah, where he’d moved after the movie wrapped up in Los Angeles. Until this year, I’d only seen them as prints, but the actual paintings were put on display by his family in Downtown Salt Lake City.
Sample from my own Friberg portfolio.
My art teachers at the University of Utah preferred less built-up textures of paint on the canvas, but we still went for anatomy and color in similar ways. Friberg sure liked orange, red, and yellow Cadmiums!
From my Friberg portfolio
(Below) The Egyptian princess discovers infant Moses in the bulrushes along the Nile River. Nina Foch played said princess in DeMille’s movie, but I swear that the lady in the painting also resembles Anne Baxter.
From my Friberg portfolio
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Speaking of movies
(L to R) Nortje Kohne and Vilbjorg Broch in performance at Orgelpark.
My own video of Manson II is based upon subjective interpretations of history by the cast, but the improvisatory concert is a piece of history on its own. Watch it HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNWYysB8Q2c
Credits: Katie Duck — Choreographic Score and Direction
Jakob Lekkerkerk — Musical Direction and Church Organs
Alfredo Genovesi, Freak Musbach — Electric Guitars
Nortje Kohne — Viola
Vilbjorg Broch — Soprano
Miri Lee — Patricia Krewinkel
Carla Behal — Leslie Van Houten
Manuela Tessi — Susan Atkins
Alekszander Szivkov — Tex Watson
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Interplanetary Overdrive
Mars and Earth are close, and it is summer in the northern hemisphere of Mars.
The Curiosity team named this place Mount Remarkable — photo from the surface of Planet Mars via NASA/JPL/MSSS/Emily Lakdawalla.
————————————————————————————————————————————————
Online Versions of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom Novels:
REMINDER: Research this prolific author on ERBzine.
A Princess of Mars ; The Gods of Mars ; Warlord of Mars ;
( 1911 to 1913 — The heart of the Pulp-Classic world of Mars/Barsoom.)
And thereby hangs a tale As good luck would have it As merry as the day is long At one fell swoop … (We’re stealing from Elizabethan/Jacobean Theatre, like Shakespeare did.)
Read my very personal review of 004’s CD State of Affairs: HERE
Buy one through RAUNCH Records’ Facebook page!
Michael's Blog: Beat The Devil 
Leave a Reply