mellysblog

You may have noticed that I haven't been posting lately. This is for two reasons:
1. I've been insanely busy with shows.
2. I've been insanely neurotic about my writing...

Fuck that. From a review of my 8/18 - 8/23 run of the Newspeak Non Sequitur show at the Flea:

It should come as no surprise the most transportive piece was that of composer David First's adaptation of Ansel Berrigan's dark and lyrical " Let Us Sample Protection Together." David First, one of Philadelphia's founding father's of experimental ambient sound, elevates Mellissa Hughes' vocal to hallucinogenic heights. "...Protection Together" felt like the longest single performance of the evening, but may have been surpassed in length by the cheerfully disjointed closing piece, "What Remains". If there can be any complaint, it is that Hughes' Sarah Brightman-esque vocals favored operatic stylings in favor of elocution; we could not always understand Berrigan's words, which is a shame since they convey perfectly the ambivalence of the outsider artist struggling to survive:
I won't belong to this scripted conversation/Though I might play along.

I HATE Sarah Brightman....tremendously. This is HILARIOUS. I think by operatic stylings they mean I used a little bit of vib above the staff, like once or twice to get through a phrase. I don't vib if a composer specifally says not to, because the human voice is actually capable of doing both... however, la voce was really really really tired, and it's just easier up there to let her rip when I start feeling tight. But interesting because so many people commented on how they could understand every word, even when the range was extended...hmmm.

My theory: my purple dress and sparkle leggings and Aqua-Net sprayed CURE hairstyle brought this to mind?

Tonight's the last chance to catch "NYC's new music supergroup" SIGNAL performing You Are Variations and Music for 18 of Steve Reich @ LPR, my home away from home this past week. Last night was pretty magical, despite how long the set change took. There was one guy heckling about a sound issue before we began, and I admit he was really getting to me, but he was quiet once we started, and was actually one of the first up on his feet as soon as it was over. I've never performed a one hour piece of that intensity before, combine that level of concentration with literally hundreds of people standing or sitting on the floor, completely surrounding the ensemble, it was pretty freaking awesome. The music itself is not so much difficult, it's just really taxing (there are three movements where I sing the same pitch for five minutes each, not hard, just EXHAUSTING) and, even scarier, it can unravel at the slightest waver in concentration. I worked my ass off on that piece. I can't remember the last time I was left speechless after a performance, just emotionally, physically, mentally spent, and in desperate need of a beer, well several of them. I grabbed the one pic I could find on the web this morning for ya. So Percussion lays down a mean groove, and groove we do. My friend commented that it was the best performance of 18 he had seen yet, and that Europeans need to hear this type of Reich as their performances tend to be highly accurate but square. Plus, when you're playing with 18 (technically 20) of your bad ass friends, it's hard not to groove your ass off. My God, this group needs to tour!!

Tix are $25, I know, I know... And there are 27 of us playing You Are, so no comps, but come on, it's Music for 18, how often do you get to see that live?? Steve Reich will be in attendance this evening, so come on out!!!

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the new buzz word is seminal people....

If only feminism had realized 40 years ago that the struggle for equality would have over if we wore skirts and bred like stock pigs.

Elroy Riggs, esteemed op-ed writer for the Central Kentucky News Journal has unlocked the mystery of the rising divorce rate.... The Pillsbury Doughboy.

He harkens to a time when good little wifey's rose early to make homemade biscuits for their husbands.... now the saddest sound in the world is the pop-pop-pop of the perforated can as "apathetic" women allow a plump doughboy to fulfill their wifely duties.

It is time, women of America, to come to your senses. Halt the alarming increase in the divorce rate. Bring the homemade biscuit back to your breakfast table. We can all work together. You make 'em, we'll eat 'em. What could be more fair? I must insist on taking a hard line on this matter.

Fair? What could be more fair?? Hmmm.. how about Elroy making breakfast more frequently than Mother's Day? That might be the inklings of the utter beginnings of fair. He then goes on to list several cookbooks he's found that seem to have decent authentic biscuit recipes, and exclaims how inexpensive and relatively easy and quick they would be to assemble.... Only 12 minutes to bake!!

Who has 12 minutes to bake biscuits every morning? Maybe on Christmas morning, or your birthday if biscuits are your kind of thing, but every morning? Perhaps Elroy should try making them himself, and experience first hand the joys of cooking with yeast, which can be real finicky. My guess, Elroy's wife (assuming he has one) has some very good reasons for not rising early to make the biscuits...

Growing up, the toaster was my best friend at breakfast time, and my sis and I packed our own lunches as soon as we were old enough (around 9 I think). This was mainly to give my Mom a break because my father to this day *can't* fix anything for himself, so my she rises early and makes him breakfast, packs his lunch (usually leftovers in tupperware) and makes dinner when she gets home from work. I'll say that again, when SHE gets home from work.

When I'm home, I cook dinner to make things run smoother for everyone, and because I LOVE cooking in Mom's kitchen, (my vagina is agreeing with me as I type) but I would have clubbed my father over the head with a griddle a decade ago, and he knows it. He is one of many men out there who are still mystified by the kitchen. Elroy, I'm guessing, like my folks, is of the mindset that women keep the home, even if a large number of those women are also working...It's just soooo outdated, even if it is somewhat cutesy.

You make 'em, we'll eat 'em Mr. Riggs???? Dude, you want 'em, you make 'em!! Honestly, what could be more fair than that?