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Delicious Evening at Deep Listening Space
Delicious Evening
The Gallery at Deep Listening Space
75 Broadway, Rondout, Kingston
Wednesday, October 20, 2004, 8 PM
 
Price is $7, $5 Students and Seniors
Tickets for the Dream Festival may be purchased at The Gallery. 

For information call  (845) 338-5984 
email 
  oliverosfd@aol.com  or
  iodreams@deeplistening.org,  
or visit the Dream Festival Web Site at 
http://www.deeplistening.org/ione/dreamfestival04.html

  • On Wednesday, October 20, 2004 at 8PM, Nancy Graham and Henry Lowengard performed Delicious Evening: Somniloquies - Poetry, Animation and Music from the Edge of Sleep as part of Ione's Ninth Annual Dream Festival. A series of "somniloquies," or sleep talk, recorded by Graham while falling asleep reading aloud anything from Thoreau to the Equal Rights Amendment, formed the backbone of the pieces presented. "The somniloquies afford a way of exploring the dynamic interaction between a text and the reader's unconscious," says Graham. "The results can be funny or surprisingly moving, dominated by denial, flights of fancy, nonsense or even political resistance."
    A sneak preview of a few of the pieces was performed as part of the Marathon of Dreamers on Sunday, October 17, 2004.

  • Program and original texts:
    Circle
    text by Rumi
    A digital Duet between the edited original recording of Nancy's somniloquy and a live synthesized construction of the quotation using RGS, on an ancient Amiga 3000.
    Hear Circle as it was performed on Oct 20, 2004, as an Mp3 , 8.8Mb. Run Time: 6:25
    Bedtime Story
    text by Margaret Wise Brown
    Nancy read the somniloquy aloud, with accompanying mixed up samples of the original text played semi-automatically on the iMac.
    Delicious Evening
    "This is a delicious evening, when the whole body is one sense, and imbibes delight through every pore."
    from Walden, by Henry David Thoreau
    Animation using Vapor Paint. Run Time: 5:10
    See Delicious Evening as a quicktime, 10Mb.
    Hear Delicious Evening as an Mp3, 7.6Mb.
    Hear Delicious Evening's end title piece as an Mp3, 520Kb.
    The Blackbirds of Heaven
    "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex."
    Section 1, the Equal Rights Amendment
    A responsive reading between Nancy and triggered recordings of somniloquy variations.
    Hero of My Own Life
    "Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born (as I've been informed and believe) on a Friday, at twelve o'clock at night. It was remarked that the clock began to strike and I began to cry, simultaneously."
    from David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens
    Final Cut Animation, with images from various Dickens Illustrators. Run Time: 3:42
    See Hero Of My Own Life as a quicktime, 2.9Mb.
    Wandering
    "As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place where was a den, and laid me down in that place to sleep, and as I slept, I dreamed a dream."
    from The Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan
    Reading by Nancy.
    Climate Change
    "Climate change is not just another issue. It is the overriding threat facing human civilization in the twenty-first century, and so far our institutions are doing dangerously little to address it."
    from Boiling Point, by Ross Gelbspan
    Video by Nancy Graham. Run Time: 8:56
    ClimateChange-web.mov See Climate Change as a quicktime, 7Mb.
    Little Red Rowboat
    A sleeptalk collage based on readings from "Hansel and Gretel" by the Brothers Grimm, "Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault," "The Owl and the Pussycat" by Edward Lear, and "A Systems View of the World" by Ervin Laszlo.
    Hear Little Red Rowboat as an Mp3 , 6.9Mb. Run Time: 6:25.
    Note: This is a Binaurally processed file - use headphones for the full effect!
  • Graham, a writer and artist, and Lowengard, a computer programmer, international multimedia artist and composer, moved with their children to Kingston from Brooklyn two years ago. Graham's somniloquy, "Tangible Things Patriot Act Somniloquy, 7-16-04," appeared in the September 2004 issue of Chronogram, and her art and writing based on dreams have been featured in the pioneering webzine Word and the comics zine Bloody Wymmin.

    Lowengard authored the Amiga animation program, Vapor Paint, used for the animations he created with Graham for Delicious Evening. He has published articles, shown work and made presentations related to Vapor Paint and audio programs he authored at international conferences and galleries. He is active in the free-form radio, microtonal music and homemade instrument communities as a performer, musician and webmaster.

  • Please bring a portable FM radio receiver- with headphones if possible! At least one of the pieces involves some audience participation!

Publicity and Media:

A review excerpted from the blog of our friend "Smartmom"
Delicious Evening

Deep Listening Space in Kingston, New York was the site of a delicious evening of animation, poetry and sound compositions by Upstate Pal and Dadu.

Upstate Pal, Dadu and family moved to that small city near the Catskills in 2002. For years, they'd talked about leaving Brooklyn longing as they were for a house, a backyard and ample space in which to homeschool their children and engage in a wide range of creative endeavors. After September 11th, their desire to leave intensified and they decided that Kingston, which is only 100 miles from New York City, was where they needed to be.

On their very first "exploratory" trip to Kingston they found their dream house. Listed on the National Registry of Historic places, it's a grand old abode with enormous rooms and high ceilings. There are two staircases and a dining room large enough for a banquet. The house also has historical detail up the wazoo and an enormous stained glass window that at a certain times of day makes the foyer sparkle with color and light.

Who could blame them for leaving their co-op in Prospect Heights for this voluptuous yellow house on a tree-lined street?

Well, Hepcat and Smartmom weren't exactly thrilled when their constant companions decided to up and leave. It was a huge adjustment for Hepcat, who has known Dadu since 1986 when they met at Amiga Computer User's Group. The two became soulmates and techno/creative co-horts.

And for Smartmom, losing Upstate Pal was like losing a limb. The two were pregnant at the same time and gave birth five weeks apart. The early years of their friendship was a non-stop stoller hop from Music for Aardvarks to playgroups to Music Together to the Third Street Playground to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and elsewhere. They even started a discussion group for mothers called, Manifesto Moms, which was a safe space to kvetch about the travails of motherhood and postulate revolutionary reforms. Their shared interests include writing, meditation, in-depth analysis of just about everything, and running.

But great friendships survive with effort and love. Distance is no obstacle for those willing to do whatever it takes to stay in touch. Smartmom and Hepcat think nothing of driving up to Kingston for a fun weekend of inter-family togetherness, Sometimes, they spend hours standing at Dadu's grand player piano in the parlor, singing their favorite show tunes. E-mail and the telephone have also been instrumental in keeping the love alive.

Luckily, Upstate Pal, Dadu and family also make frequent trips downstate. They are always welcome to sleep in Smartmom and Hepcat's living room on borrowed Aero mattresses whenever they feel the need to catch up with old friends and grab some Brooklyn cultcha.

So as you can see, missing last night's event was out of the question. Even if it was the middle of the week during one of the busiest Falls in recent memory.

For months now, Upstate Pal, a talented writer and visual artist, has been recording herself reading from various texts, including "Walden," "David Copperfield," and "Good Night Moon" at bedtime. On the cusp of sleep, she reads outloud and finds herself unconsciously changing the text, adding words and phrases. Transcribing these tapes the next day, she is always surprised to hear what her unconscious mind has come up with. Upstate Pal edits these transciptions into poems, or as she calls them, Somniloquies.

Dadu, a cartoonist, musician, composer, animator and computer wizard, took these tapes and made them into sound compositions. Together, Upstate Pal and Dadu created sublime animations using a legendary program invented by Dadu called, Vapor Paint.

A crowd of close to 20 people, including two of Dadu's brothers, and lots of new, local friends, gathered to sit on floor pillows. Upstate Pal, with her short blonde hair, looked striking in long black dress and a reddish-orange. shawl. She stood at a candle-lit podium and read the somiliquies. What began as Good Night Moon, the bedtime classic was unconsciously transformed into : "In the great green room there was a triumph of Oz, and a red balloon, and a picture of -- There were several things there, How about the cow jumping under the moon? That'd be good, Or a sea cow?"

Dadu, looking fetching in turquoise Chinese pants made for him by his precocious 7-year old, sat at a table in the back operating two computers (including an Amiga) and a video projector.

During the performance, Upstate Pal and Dadu were a picture of marital artistry. They reminded Smartom of legendary couples like Charles and Ray Eames, Faith and John Hubley, John and Yoko, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, heroes all for their ability to create transcendent work together.

In the case of Upstate and Dadu, it is a testament to their passion for one another that they are able to weave together their disparate but deeply complimentary sensibilities into a cohesive whole. Actually, it was downright romantic to see their creativity intertwined at the Deep Listening Space.

After the show, Smartmom and Hepcat went back to the big house to pick up OSFO, who was a-quivver with fun after hours of play with her good old friends. She slept on the the drive back to Brooklyn, which was fast and traffic free. Hepcat and Smartmom listened to the now-historic Yankees and Red Sox game on the radio and were back in Brooklyn before one in the morning.




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© 2004-5 Henry Lowengard.