CHAT: musical mayhem (was Re: Perfect Pitch)

In a message dated 2000/07/26 04:41:29 AM:

>> One of my worst pitfalls in trying to learn soprano bone is whipping
>>the slide right off the end.
>
>Now _that_ sounds interesting! :-)
>
>>>DaW.  (who once broke a clarinet in half during marching practice)
>
>>Hm. I managed to break a piano hammer once. It's still sheathed
>>with copper pipe, awaiting a repair.
>
>>Padraic.
>
>Hey, remind me to be extra careful if I ever jam with you guys!  :-)
>
>Dan Sulani
    *gigglabyte*

    When I was still living in Houston, TX, I did a performance art piece in
the Warehouse District. I got a small amount of grant money to do this
performance - solo percussion, in which I played a battery of cymbals. At
this time (even with the grant money) I couldn't afford new cymbals or
stands, so I made do with pawnshop cymbals and "re-conditioned" cymbal stands
(held barely together with electrical tape, chewing gum and other sticky
substances).
    This particular evening in a converted warehouse had several perfomances.
The audience was a broad spectrum of Houston's art and music "fans" and
critics.
There were several performances before me and all seemed to be putting the
audience to sleep.
    My performance came up. Part of my performance was me just setting up my
cymbals on stands... & sporadically playing the cymbals. Also using the metal
columns of the warehouse (that woke the audience up a bit).
    As soon as I was set-up, I started performing fiercely and overpoweringly
(no one could sleep through that!)
    Then one of the cymbal stands came apart. (The show must go on...)
So I kept going by "playing" the large ride cymbal by spinning and banging
the cymbal on the concrete floor. Sometimes picking up so much momentum that
I could spin it & bounce it on the concrete.
    I had noticed an unfriendly, up-tight art/music critic from the big daily
newspaper in the audience.
    I decided to have some mischief at her expense and I chased her out of
her seat and around and around the warehouse with the cymbal.
    I ceased when she lost her heel of her high heels.
    I got a standing ovation and much giggling, laughing, etc...  I had
brought the house down.
    The next day, the big daily newspaper ran the unfriendly, up-tight
art/music critic's review of that evening's performances. She didn't mention
my performance art attack on her, but she asked rhetorically what is the Art
World is coming to when juvenile antics can be considered "High Art."
    Later that week, the local art&entertainment weekly ran an article in
which stated my "unpretentious, gleefully malicious" performance was the most
memorable of all the evening's "artsy-fartsy" events.

    zHANg, musical mad scientist, Anti-Art terrorist, and lingua-mangler

recommended music websites:
    www.oddmusic.com
    www.windworld.com/emi