shelton in new york 4-11-2005

the trip conitinues - grey ghost played at the tonic on sunday the 10th - it was a show with two rock type bands, bear in heaven and other passengers. jon philpot of bear in heaven put the show together - i had met him in chicago at an impetus series concert that dragons 1976 played. he's a super nice fellow - i'm glad he took the time to get this show together. crawford came out with giselle on saturday, we went out to the brooklyn museum to see the new basquiat exhibit, which is nice, though on that day it was a bit too crowded so it was difficult to take your time in looking at the pieces. we were supposed to have sound check around 5:30 and we decided to meet up at tonic around 4:30, johnathan coming from brooklyn, me from the upper east side. unforatunately our sound check was pushed off to about 6:30, so plans for a relaxed dinner before the show were nixed. what can you do. we played fully through the pa, which is unusual for us, but the sound person seemed quite good, so we went for it & i think it was worth while - usally i don't trust sound people to balance the sounds, but it was good - i didn't feel like the sax mic was too hot, though it's strange when you can't hear the house pa - you have no control over what people in the crowd are hearing - but in some ways i guess you never do....
we were quite different than the other bands - all the fellows in bear in heaven are nice ones & they were into our music, bauder had come to the show with jessica pavone, i went and talked to them for awhile during the second set, but got to see bear in heaven, which was quite good.
on monday i played with matt bauder, rueben radding & a cellist named lorien. it was matt's piece we had played in chicago at the impetus series (funny how two things that did impetus series months apart in chicago played two nights in a row here). we played at lorien's loft in bushwick - a really beautiful space with nice windows and a view of the higher buildings in that part of brooklyn. we rehearsed the piece and then played it, recording it to minidisc. it would have been nice to have a performance, but i guess out here there aren't too many series having that kind of new music to be performed. advantage chicago.

shelton in new york 4-9-2005

so i've come out to new york for a trip - ten days total, going to do some playing with folk who live here and with grey ghost. i've had the idea for coming out here to visit for awhile, as i have a very nice aunt & uncle who live on the upper east side who let me stay with them while in town. whenever i stay with them up here it makes me feel in a small way that i am in a salinger book. they live just a few blocks from the met & central park, an express subway line so it's easy to get around the city. i took amtrak in from chicago - it was a 22 hour trip that wasn't so bad - i had a good book to read - fool's progress by edward abbey - and my ipod - if you're in a hurry the train is no way to travel - you have be let your patience take over your whole though process. and never ask what time it is & always expect to get to your destination later than is scheduled. but hey, a $40 ticket for a 1000 mile trip isn't so bad either.
the first couple of days here went by nicely - i got some work done at the public library here - they have a great study room with 40 foot ceilings, long wood tables, comfortable chairs. it kind of feels like you're outside but it is nice & quiet. i worked on some patches in max for the shows i'm doing here - a good way to spend an afternoon in new york, and costs nothing. my first show here was at this space the glass house gallery. i did two short improvised sets with mark denardo - he of the game boy. the way the night worked was that there were 5 different groups & each played two twenty minute sets about an hour apart. a group woul dplay, another would join, then the first would stop playing - it was a nice way to go in between musical styles without needing to have a set break - one group was made up of some free jazzers, another was this mixing board fellow wearing an orange hood that looke like a puppet elephant, the third was a trio of sampler, ketboard and outboard effects, the last was a duet of cello & percussion interjected with vocal samples. lots of creative stuff. the space was a bit off the beaten path in williamsburg, near the river - reminded me of the buddy space in chicago, without the goofy-try a little too hard-hipster scene & with kind of a creative re-use store feel - just tons of stuff allaround creating an installation of randomness. williamsburg is pretty funny - unfortunately it has the post-college party town feel - same as wicker park in chicago - which is good for some things - like if you want to go out to see other young folk, but also makes it seem like a drunken disney world. denardo & i hit a party afterwards - lots of folk, met a nice fellow named daniel who turns out to be another floridian. went home late on the subway - listened to a little dexter before going to sleep -