- Dan Ibarra of Aesthetic Apparatus. He gave a talk in the Schafer auditorium yesterday that was most excellent. I was inspired, and got some wicked screenprints for my empty depressing workplace walls.
The concept was to draw attention to the hats of Oscar Wilde's men and women. I think that to the contemporary audience the costumes are a major draw for a show like Earnest. The hat also serves as a nice metaphor for how we assume different roles - or in our protagonists' case, assume different identities (whether they are aware of it or not.)
Once the general direction was established I generated the lady-version of the poster, which turned out to be my favorite of the two by far. I then became obsessed with refining the original to live up to the lady-versions' stature. The male version, much like the rest of us, can't quite match his female counterpart, but it's rewarding to spend a life trying.
So there's kind of a lot going on in my neighborhood this Spring, musically speaking. This post is to serve two separate yet equally important goals:
See, in my "Syracuse period" I've developed this BIZARRE habit of intending to go to shows but not actually attending them. I even bought tickets to see Fun in 2010 and then didn't go. (Get ready for a novel on that in a bit). So let's do this. Who's with me?
1.) SBTRKT / the Westcott / April 5
SBTRKT (Subtract, get it?!) was one of my favorite Spotify discoveries this summer, when it was new and chic (in the US, at least) and the ads weren't exclusively for Proctor and Gamble products or Country Music award shows. I spent many hours painting walls in the warehouse basement, alone but for these cool, clean blips and beeps.
I had no idea I was inadvertently participating in this dubstep thing the kids have been talking about. Anyway, should be a great show, he wears African masks (because white dudes always need African masks), plays drums (a plus for the former drummer in me) and does some stuff on a laptop or something.
I think this will play even better in the Westcott Theater.
2.) Fun (I reject typing "fun." in lowercase with superfluous period. deal.) / Water Street Music Hall (Rochester) / April 20 (I want to make a joke here, but I've got nothing).
As mentioned, we bought tickets to see them about a year ago at this very venue and didn't go. To be fair, Rochester is almost 2 hours away. And it was snowing. (No, seriously.)
That said, I think my lack of winter driving courage had a lot to do with the fact that the Format had recently split (ok, it had been, like, two years) and I was still wounded. They'd been introduced to Liz and I during a visit to see her much hipper-than-I cousins in Tempe, Arizona.
All of them well-listened, cousin Alex had Tempe-based bands of his own and in my fuzzy memory they all had either gone to school with the Format guys or played gigs with them or both. When cousin Jewel and Liz and Alex's girlfriend picked me up at the airport in Phoenix the Format was easing out of the speakers like a friend I never knew I had.
It's a common American kid musical experience, right? The "I knew them when" sort of experience? We came back from Arizona and I got my hands on their LP, then their EP, then everything Format related that followed. We saw them multiple times a year at just about every little venue in Fort Collins, Denver, and once, notably, at a dive bar called the Navaho Hogan in Colorado Springs.
Ok, blah blah blah. So they were / are my favorite band ever. Maybe they were your favorite band too, I don't pretend to have exclusivity on how much it sucked when, of course, they broke up.
I've no idea why the breakup happened, but my guess is it was life, I guess? I get the impression it wasn't any more dramatic than that, just lives moving in different directions. (To show what a stalker I am, you can read former-Format manager's experience of the break up here.)
Then Nate, Format lead singer, put together a new record with members of some other awesome bands we loved (Anathallo and Steel Train, both introduced at Format shows). They called the collaboration "fun."
Before the record came out we caught Fun in Denver and it was ... awkward. Like what I imagine seeing an old girlfriend at the high school reunion would be like sort of awkward. Plus they were relegated to opening that night for Manchester Orchestra* and the kids were clearly not there to see my band. They were there for their band. It seemed everyone was moving on.
And for all melodramatic reasons just described, I resisted change. The Fun record came out, it was good, but I was still sad. Now we have a new Fun record, and I think largely due to the healing power of time it's weaseling its way into my cold, cold heart, glossy "Fueled by Ramen" sheen and all.
You just need to be able to take what you love from it and roll your eyes at the rest. This next video seems to make my "oh come on already" meter hit the red line, but ... whatev. So that's my long, boring tale of why I think I'll go see Fun in Rochester, this time for real. Even if it's snowing.
*Once we were not in an enclosed space with 19-year-old-drones, Manchester Orchestra totally became more appealing.
3.) The Avett Brothers / State Theater (Ithaca) / April 21
These tickets might be sold out. They've come up to CNY a few times and I haven't been able to get to wherever they are. Come to Syracuse already! What's that? I'm lazy? Touché.
4.) Rubblebucket / the Westcott / May 5 (practically still April!)
I don't remember how I came by these guys, but they released their album for free last year and it was great. Favorite track:
Their live show is supposed to be bananas. I sort of love the hybrid of awkward and fantastic in this next video ... (apologies for the terrible quality here) Seriously, I dare you not love these guys. And with that, I'm going to a drink some beer. Adieu.
Another fella to follow - Mr. Hipp. Nothing but goodness.
Couldn't resist, here's another:
I started working at the Warehouse in October 2010 ... is that right? Yes. October 2010. I walk under these bridges almost every day, actually. (I park in those "scary" parts highlighted in the first part of this video :)
As a designer in love with type solutions I've always been pretty fond of these "signs," often having to come to their defense to my fellow Syracusians. Obviously they bring a fresh coat of paint to some deteriorating infrastructure, but also, like Christo and Jean Claude's wraps, gates, et al. ...
... they can create a heightened awareness of our every day environment. I did wonder about the value of the message "nothing to do is everything with you," but a little context goes a long way. Honestly, I don't know why it hadn't occured to me before that the message could be viewed in the positive - in other words, "all I need is you."
I love the COLAB floor in our building, it's like a playground for designer types. Actually, anyone. It's a playground for everyone. Having been in the building for over a year, it's pretty silly I'd never headed to colab.syr.edu, I'd never seen this video, and I had no idea COLAB was involved in those trestles. My school is freaking cool, man.
The COLAB is undergoing a transformation, of sorts, so a lot of these people are no longer at the helm, unfortunately - but this video made my heart swell with pride. I'm really, really happy to be where I am right now.
Why didn't I think of this before? I have access to a LASER CUTTER. I am so doing this. The urban outfitters version goes for $60-80.
I'm a graphic designer, actor, and cat-wrangler currently headquartered in central New York. My wife and best pal Liz writes this bodacious food blog.
