May 2006 Archives

Wandering down the quiet Greenwich Village street you’ll discover a humble handwritten sign advertising “Bluegrass Tonight” outside the leaf enshrined door of the Derech Amuno Synagogue at 53 Charles Street, on the corner of West 4th. Pull open the heavy wooden door and take a few steps down to the library/basement of the temple and you’ll find about twenty folding chairs are set up in rows of three and four. It’s quite an intimate setting to see a musical innovator of Andy Statman’s stature. When not on tour or in the recording studio you can find the mandolinist/clarinet virtuoso blending strains of bluegrass, free jazz and klezmer every Monday and Thursday night at the shule. For six and a half years now the low-key biweekly gig has allowed him to experiment with fresh ideas, while drawing from a batch of the city’s best improvisers, which has included such guest stars as David Grisman, Mike Marshall and Bela Fleck.

It's tough sluggin' it out with the big wigs like Camille Paglia, Greil Marcus, Bob Christgau and David Ritz, but Sharkforum's own John Kruth did get honorable mention this year in Da Capo's Best Music Writing Anthology for 2005 for his article Townes Van Zandt: the Self Destructive Hobo Saint published in Sing Out! 2004. Congrats to John, and kudos to Editor Paul Bresnik for his exceptional good taste! Go to www.johnkruth.com for that article and more.

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Twenty new photos will be on display from June 3-30 at the Rainbo Club, 1150 North Damen (at Division).

Editors note: On this Memorial Day we pay tribute to a man known not for his military accomplishment and sacrifice, but for artistic vision and courage. The first offering is sent by Don Suggs, a long-time friend of Mr. Heinecken and a serious, accomplished artist in his own right. Our second piece comes from our very own Lynne Warren, a curator at the MCA in Chicago, who curated a major exhibition of his work at the MCA. We mourn his passing and celebrate his lifes accomplishments. - Ed.

I don't know that I am qualified to eulogize Bob Heinecken. My friend Stan Mock (photographer and sculptor, who was very close to him) would be a good choice. I can ask him, if you like. I can say that my memories of Bob personally are Bogartian. I knew him long, though little. I can see him as the Photo prof. at UCLA, cigarette in hand (always), the only faculty longhair in the 60's, a singularly masculine short man who, along with Dick Diebenkorn, embodied for his students the mystery of authentic accomplishment as an artist. Or later, for many years, across the table at the ritual of the monthly poker game, plumed in smoke (occasionally grabbed by smoker's cough), a poised player, impossible to read. Even after he and Joy(ce Neimanas) moved to Chicago, he would return to the poker game whenever they were in L. A. When they attended my opening at McCormick in 2000, he and I had a good chat, and then he wandered off. Joy had to retrieve him from the sidewalk. It was the first sign I had seen of any change, though we had all known about the Alzhemer's for awhile. He was still, when we talked then, acutely observant about the work, still wryly humorous. The last time I saw him was at one of the poker games (2001?) Joy came with him to the game, for the first time, and he sat beside her as she played the hands. He smoked, talked a little, we had some laughs, and she ran the table.

Don Suggs

Here's a portfolio of photos from the exhibition by Maya Bringolf and Mark Staff Brandl at Project Space exex in St. Gallen Switzerland.

Robyn Schiff's poetry collection, Worth (Kuhl House Poets), which was honored by a Greenwall Award from the Academy of American Poets, was published by the University of Iowa Press. Her poems have appeared in various publications, including Verse, Volt, Kiosk, and Fence, and her work was recently anthologized in Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century. Schiff holds an MA in Medieval Studies from the University of Bristol in England and an MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She is a visiting assistant professor at Northwestern.

Good-Bye Finch

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Stars are Falling by Daniel Work

...the SpenJohnny were playing the Caucus,
Samera was graduating,
Ainjel had already moved away.....
It was the ending of one of my favorite time spans,
and some greatness about to begin....

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I've gone to the far reaches of the earth - where not a single back-issue of Artforum casts its frumpy blobs of hyperextended text, nor does an Artnews drape one in 'just-the-facts-ma'am'.

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Wes Pope has worked as a photojournalist for twelve years and is currently a staff photographer at the Chicago Tribune. He has a B.A. in cultural anthropology from the University of Washington. We're proud to include him as a guest artist. - ed

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In the year 2000 philanthropist Gary Comer hired more than 200 photographers to create a record of Chicago at the millennium. Called CITY 2000 (3 Book Publishing, distributed by UIC Press), I was one of a lucky handful who worked on the project throughout the year. The archive is now housed at UIC.

The following set of photos does not appear in the book. It is a small sample from the half million in the archive that didn't make it in (not an indictment of the book, it is nicely done). I spent a week documenting the last days of Lounge Ax. I am from Seattle and spent my rock-and-roll youth at the Crocodile Cafe, RCKCNDY, OK Hotel, Moore Theatre. Caught a few shows at Lounge Ax after my arrival in Chicago, but am sorry I missed most of the fun.

A lecture for the book will be held Sunday, June 4 at 2 p.m. at the Harold Washington Library. A complete list of book fair events can be downloaded as a PDF here.

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dad // documentarian spencer tweedy

Betty's Blue Star Lounge
1600 W. Grand Ave.
Greenlight, Banking Hours, Coupleskate
Thursday, May 25th 9pm, $5

Sharkforum's very own Andrea Bauer plays guitar and sings in Coupleskate. Word is she's no relation to Jack. - ed.

Figures leave shadows, not faces. Shadows are faceless.

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It’s already six years into the decade and one has to wonder what legacy the Naughts will bring. If previous times were defined by grunge, punk, new wave, psychedelia, rock and roll, and swing; there seems to be nothing new in the millennium. The hot bands these days are all reminiscent of what was going on twenty-five years ago; bands that existed twenty-five years or thirty years ago are regrouping to tour. I suppose that if anything, the naughts will reflect the sound byte culture we have grown accustomed to. Where I used to sit gazing at a gatefold sleeve while I listened to an album, I’m now more apt to include music in some multi-tasking scenario (and I don’t mean drinking a six-pack while listening). It is an exciting time for bands and consumers though; technology is causing massive shifts in the music business, and it remains to be seen if it’s the consumer, artist, or record company that reaps the most benefit. If I were a betting man, I would put my money on the corporation. You can count on the fat bastards to conspire with the government to squeeze anything that’s good out of the new industry.

The idea of photography as a documentary medium did not interest Mr. Heinecken in the least. He once said:

"Many pictures turn out to be limp translations of the known world instead of vital objects which create an intrinsic world of their own. There is a vast difference between taking a picture and making a photograph."

The New York Times obituary can be found here.

Monday, May 22 ‘06 at 7 PM
Preston Bradley Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington
312·744·6630
FREE!

I first learned of U. Shrinivas many years ago when I discovered a strange double album of Carnatic mandolin music with a photograph of a skinny Indian boy holding what looked like a funky looking baby electric guitar on its cover. The record jacket boldly announced the arrival of the 12-year old “Adorable Child Prodigy.”

I adore photographing women!
I adore these women.
My photos are imperfect.

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THE BOWERY POETRY CLUB PROUDLY PRESENTS:
Reckless Optimism

featuring:
JOHN KRUTH – “The Madman of the Mandolin” – SF Chronicle

DAVE DREIWITZ – The Face of the Bass

STEVE BEAR – Perplexing Percussion

With a Special Mystery Guest or 2!!

SATURDAY, MAY 27TH @ 8 PM - $8

THE BOWERY POETRY CLUB
308 BOWERY, NYC
(X the street from CBGB)

(image of a typical postmodern installation)

Yes, we are in a manneristic, academic, transitional cultural period. We all hope to come of age in a time such as the High Renaissance, the peak of Modernism or the like, but unfortunately it cannot always be so. For every Renaissance there is a Mannerism, for every Baroque a Rococo, for every Classicism an academy. We have, and are, PoMo. Furthermore, no matter what a barrage of architects have begun to assert , there is no "reverse" on this dashboard. Anything that appears to return is reborn dramatically changed. There may be a Neo- or Pseudo-Modernism, although I hope not. There will certainly be a Post-Postmodernism, under another name. But there will be no return to Modernism, or pre-Modernism.

Enough has been written about The Shark's friend Alejandro lately to fill a shark infested bay. What I haven't read enough about is how Alejandro with Orchestra is one of the top bands in the world to catch right now.

It's late but not so late and I walk face forward into mist.
World a blur. Directions? Directionless. Where are you pointing?

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Four big shows (by three artists) to push this week, all Sharkforum approved:

Thursday:
Eleventh Dream Day w/ Red Eyed Legends at Empty Bottle
Alejandro Escovedo at Martyrs'

Friday:
Alejandro Escovedo at Martyrs'
Twilight Singers at Metro

You may now rock around the city.

These are images from May 2006.
The people you see here are part of my Austin family.
"Google" the ones that don't have links....
I am not being lazy. There are just alot more interesting things about them when you do a search.

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We took a walk upstream the other day, with the Rhine up to near-normal levels after recent rains. Following a period of record low water— and the reappearance of old sunken boats, and bodies long disposed of and forgotten— this was our first walk together since my return from the north. I pulled my sports shoes from the closet—the brown ones, still practically new—we’d bought back in December in Houston at the Academy store. I sat down and laced them up, waiting while she checked her hair, then we went down the stairs together. Out on the street we turned down the hill, then right towards the river, following the creek that runs by the Unterhof, a small restored castle and grounds. Refurbished as a conference center and hotel, the ground floor houses a restaurant, with outside tables set up in the summer months. The street goes on past a row of houses, with a stretch of trimmed sycamore trees fronting the river before emerging at the one-lane bridge that goes across to Gailingen. Past another stretch of row houses, the road goes through an arched passage, and on down another block before it narrows to a walking trail, past the swimming area. The Badi, the Swiss call it; they put a li on nearly every noun, a playful diminutive, the way the Mexicans like to affix ito or ita to the tail end of nouns. Across the river in Germany a similar bathing area is called the Strandbad, with heavy-footed, consonant-ending. In similar fashion, across the river the musical Swiss greeting Grüezi becomes Grüss Gott, or Guten Tag for Good day.

Anne Winters is the author of The Displaced of Capital (University of Chicago Press, 2004 ), which was awarded the William Carlos Williams Prize and the 2005 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. She recently received a Guggenheim fellowship for the 2006/2007 academic year. Winters is also the author of The Key to the City (1986), which was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her translations of contemporary French poet Robert Marteau were awarded Poetry Magazine’s Jacob Glatstein Memorial Prize. She has published poems and essays in The New Republic, The New Yorker, Paris Review, Poetry, and The Yale Review. She teaches at the University of Illinois—Chicago.

East Eleventh Street: Three Images

It should come as little surprise that Chicago's own Wilco will make an appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien tonight. The show has been taping at the magnificent Chicago Theater all week, and there's just no way they could make a mark here without the inclusion of Chicago's current indy-rock (!) kings, right?

What's less predictable, but certainly much more auspicious, is the recent flash that Chicago's own (and Sharkforum fave) Mucca Pazza will be closing the show!

Many Sharkforum readers will recall that Mucca Pazza was one of the acts at our inaugural Sharkstock.

LOCAL HEROES: A WEEKLY COLUMN ON MUSICIANS AND HAPPENINGS IN THE CHICAGO AREA MUSIC SCENE

Eleventh Dream Day turns `Zeroes and Ones' up to 11

Andy Downing
Published May 12, 2006

The idea of "ones and zeroes" is something that author Thomas Pynchon explored on more than one occasion, writing in "Vineland": "If everything about an individual could be represented in a computer record by a long string of ones and zeroes, then what kind of creature could be represented by a long string of lives and deaths?"

For more click here.

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(Getting that sheen powdered off my nose before meeting the press has become ritual at this point.)

Artist and theorist C Hill has recently created a new term to give a clear identity to a new artistic phenomenon. The appellation is gallery comic. The second expression, iconosequentiality, is my own creation for a compositional form concomitant with gallery comics.

Srikanth Reddy's first collection of poetry Facts for Visitors was published by the University of California Press in Spring 2004. His poems have appeared in various journals, including American Poetry Review, Fence, Grand Street, Ploughshares, and Verse, and his critical prose has been featured in The New Republic, The Chicago Tribune, and American Literature. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and doctoral candidate at Harvard University, Reddy currently teaches poetry and literature at the University of Chicago.


Thieves' Market

noticing I haven't sewn enough wrinkled chiffon to the old
back of a slip, threatening to need the heat
dressed in scarves, I'll wake up with a bee comb
for a mouth instead of new eyes to seed
the outside air. A stark mirror for a vintage sun.
I'll wake up a widow tapping her cane, my braid
a tight tomb when the air dries.

Not to be missed:
Sunday, 5/7/2006 - 9:00 PM - $12.00
Fruit Bats with
Amandine and
Orso
Click here for the Pitchfork review.
(The following is courtesy of the Schuba's web site - ed.)

"Fruit Bats started out in the mid-nineties as Eric Johnson (not the virtuoso guitar player nor the Archers of Loaf guy) sat in his bedroom like so many other young people at that time and discovered the joys of the 4-track machine. He went on to form the short lived band I Rowboat, whose Velvet Underground-ish sounds managed to win no more than a small Chicago fanbase. One day Johnson and two other Rowboaters, guitarist Dan Strack and drummer Brian Belval decided to dip their collective toes in folk music. This side project was dubbed Fruit Bats, named after a type of large, flying, fruit-eating tropical mammal. Years later, after line-up shifts galore, many tours, and a deal with the fabled Sub Pop Recording Concern, Fruit Bats' sound has evolved and then un-evolved and then evolved back again. What was once weirdo folk tinkerings became cinematic pop which became something else."
Buy tix here.