OMM Friendathon

Obsolete Media Miami’s November 15 “FRIENDATHON” offered a wealth of entertainment – to a live audience, on screen and behind the scenes. And scored some cash.

“No, it won’t be like an NPR pledge week, insisted Keven Arrow, co-founder/director – with Barron Sherer – of Obsolete Media Miami. “More like the opposite.” No disrespect for a fellow – and just slightly better known – media institution, but O.M.M. embraces, rather than abhors ragged edges, irregularities and off-color tonalities. This holds true in its vast audio-visual archive and in its recent eight-hour, live broadcast “Friendathon,” hosted at Barry University’s Miami Shores radio and television studios.

O.M.M.’s founding in 2015 began with the merger of collections (Arrow’s hoard of 35mm slides and projectors, Sherer’s multi-format films), accompanied by legacy cameras and projectors). Alongside their distinguished individual experimental studio practices, the media artists share a commitment to making their skills and resources available to fellow artists, scholars, archivists, students and even casual visitors to their Design District studio.  Workshops and private consultation provide artists with a collaborative laboratory to realize projects ranging from film animations to slide shows, zines and hybrid presentation formats – all that capitalizing on O.M.M.’S gargantuan library of sounds and imagery. O.M.M.’s work has been recognized and supported through Wavemaker and Knight Foundation grants and private benefactors. Museums and media institutions contract their specialized services in curating exhibitions and providing the legacy projectors and other devices to present them.

All this costs money, and this year O.M.M.’s directors chose to register and coordinate their fundraising efforts with Miami Foundation’s well-oiled annual citywide Give Miami Day event. Why not call on their broad talent network and throw a marathon party? A telethon, but quirkier than most.

Hosted by charismatic, well-matched artists Keaton Fox and Carlos Rigau, the Friendathon became an eight-hour continuous live broadcast, produced in collaboration with the enthusiastic and resourceful Barry University staff and students.  Department of Communications Media Center Manager John Musulin and Studio Lab Supervisor Vladimir Lescouflairat recognized the opportunity to challenge their tv and radio production students with coordinating a complex live event and agreed to partner. On November 15th, O.M.M. and volunteers staged a sometimes raucous extraordinarily wide-ranging and high level program of music, poetry, interviews, video and banter that aired over Barry’s community access television and radio stations and O.M.M. social media accounts.

Fox and Rigau – she more chirpily, he more ironically – “begged” for money, kibitzed with the performers, interviewed various culture producers about their respective practices, introduced video clips showcasing O.M.M.’s accomplishments and stretched the ever-game Barry students to the limit. A loosely scripted, but ever-shifting string of “acts” on the sound stage and radio studio required frequent improvisation. Instructors Musluin and Lescouflairat were ever-present, but didn’t “mother” their charges. The Friendathon far exceeded both the number of moving parts and duration of the students’ prior experiences, but Musulin emphasized that such “real world” trials grow muscles in ways that classrooms lessons cannot. Cries of “Oh no!” were occasionally heard in the control room, as cameras needed rapid and repeated repositioning and time gaps were filled with extended B-roll or conversation was stretched when a guest was late or setup ran long.

The day’s wrap consisted of giddy shouts and exhausted body flops on the stage floor.

The full talent roster of performers, staff, students and volunteers exceeds this space, however the entire program can be viewed online.

Give Miami Day is over, but O.M.M.’s acceptance of community generosity is unbounded by the calendar.

www.OMM305.org
info@omm305.org

O.O.M. will participate in this year’s Official Art Basel and Miami Design District Studio Tours Thursday, December 6, 2018 from 9-12 pm. The Madonna Building, 5 NW 39 Street, Loft 2

Yvonne Troxler in Performance at St. Bede Chapel

The cozy Saint Bede Chapel on the University of Miami campus provided the acoustic and spiritual ambience for pianist Yvonne Troxler’s intimate, but powerful piano concert. Swiss-born and Brooklyn-based, Troxler curated and performed a distinctive program of bold contemporary work at the invitation of the Foundation for Emerging Technologies and Arts (FETA).

Troxler selected a key composition that provided “magnetic“ links to those that would precede or follow it. FETA director Juraj Kojs’s 2015 piece “In the Mist,” presented in the middle of the program, served that role.

The evening began with Paula Matthusen’s “between charm and the constant law of motion,” performed jointly with Troxler’s finesse on the keyboard and Kojs working “under the hood,” bowing and plucking strings and operating mini electronics to generate the provocative vocal lyric. It established the program’s experimental orientation.

Troxler included a few electronics, but she did not emphasize digital technologies; rather, her sensitivity, concentration, abundant chops and extensive consultation with the composers – most of whom are contemporary colleagues – kept the performance mostly analog.

Kojs’s composition is loosely based on a poem he wrote and began with a leisurely passage of wide intervals. It then wound through strikingly different moods and techniques – virtuously managing to maintain coherence. There were dense, rapid tangles of notes, and insistent rhythms that Troxler drummed – sometimes gently, sometimes aggressively – on the keyboard, pedals, floor and rim of the instrument. Then, standing, she folded down the music desk and reached inside to strum and buzz the low strings in soft, spacious drones.

Troxler played a miniature “toy piano” (wood, not plastic) in two works. Julia Wolfe’s “East Broadway” evoked a playfully jangly, staccato pinball game effect. Later, playing Louis Andriessen’s composition “The Memory of Roses” – sometimes synchronous, sometimes alternating with the grand piano – she achieved a quiet, gamelan-like mood.

This wasn’t an evening of the “Gee whiz“ technology that FETA sometimes showcases. Indeed, the piano’s role as a percussion instrument was striking, and Troxler’s forté strokes rocked the house.

An accomplished composer for diverse instruments and respected performer of others’ piano works, Troxler had long hesitated to tackle composing for her own instrument. “It’s a big mountain,” she said.

But the premiere of her 2018, “Zwischenraum” demonstrated that her arduous “climb” up that mountain was worth it. The piece exudes intelligence, confidence and pleasure, featuring jaunty, rolling, wave-like arpeggios, brightly ringing percussive sections and numerous suspended passages of slowly fading harmonics. The title translates to The Space Between, possibly alluding to her memory of alpine meadows and the echoes of distant church, goat and cow bells?

Troxler is unhesitating about her affection for the piano, “I love that instrument. That’s my instrument. I think it’s the best instrument there is.” Bold assertion, which Troxler backs up beautifully.

Miami Performance International

A Shakespearean Rock Show Fit for a Queen

“What happens when a woman tries to rule the world?” This is one of the questions playwright-actor-musician Whitney White poses in “By The Queen,” her musical adaptation of a Shakespearean theme through the persona of Queen Margaret of Anjou. In a recent interview she readily acknowledged that “I’m not the only one interpreting Shakespeare through a contemporary lens,” but in this second of four one-hour plays that investigate his women, she stakes claim to her own voice.

White is currently profiting from a residency at Miami Theater Center’s Sandbox to extend her command of the “concert-play” form: an intimate blending of theater and music.

Collaborating with fellow graduates of Brown University’s Trinity Rep theater program, actor-writer-musician Billy Finn and director Caitlin O’Connell, she’s produced a brave and ambitious work-in-progress that’s gaining focus and power during a month of rehearsals and weekend performances.

Shakespeare needs no additional accolades, but White deserves kudos for her apt selection and re-combination of the original Tudor era texts that undergird the historical Queen Margaret’s complex story, which Shakespeare incorporated in four plays. White’s 21^st century jargon provides succinct – and often hilarious – contrast, while maintaining continuity.

The story is complicated in plot, but simple in theme – and timeless. It’s a contest of power among ambitious “noble” men and women, who encircle a pious, but weak King Henry VI, and attempt to influence or usurp his reign.

In brief, Margaret, a French King’s daughter, is wooed and “bought” by Henry’s emissary, the Duke of Suffolk, to come to England and become queen. She assents, kissing Suffolk – as Henry’s proxy – and declaring “A pure, unspotted heart I send the king.” This avowal blossoms into a lusty duo rendition of Janis Joplin’s “Piece of My Heart.”

En route to the English court, she fantasizes about her “hubby to be – the king of f****ing England!” Saucily strutting about the spare, red-lit stage, she sings, “I just imagined him in charge of everything, sitting on the throne.” A king like that has got to be hot, right?

Little does she anticipate, King Henry will prove a dud, falling far short of his delegate, the (unfortunately, already married) Suffolk.

Her disappointment with “a sad, shy, kinda crazy guy…. afraid of everything” contrasts with her passion for Suffolk, who is also her co-conspirator in vanquishing threats to the king – and herself. And enemies circle like vultures.

Whether wistful, ironic, conspiratorial or sorrowful, White and Finn’s readings of Shakespeare’s lines are nearly always effective and affecting, but the best treats are the contemporary lines that connect the play’s vignettes. For example, during one of their many intimate subterfuges, Margaret confesses, “Alright, just when we were getting to the good part of plotting and scheming, in walks my husband and half of those people I was just talking about – those people on my s***t list. In particular was Miss Thang, the Duchess. And, ok, yeah, I had a moment.” Her growling delivery drips with Chicago street attitude.

Crucial to the performance’s success, White and Finn intersperse both Shakespeare’s and White’s lines with soulful duets they deliver in matching strengths. The love, rage and despair (mostly the latter two) are powerfully amplified by Finn’s piercing guitar in duets like Willie Mae Thornton’s “Ball and Chain,” popularized by Janis Joplin.

“All I could see was the rain, rain, rain.

Something grabbed ahold of me,

Felt like a ball and chain.”

Darondo Pulliam’s 1973 ballad, “Didn’t I (treat you right)” is another highlight, plaintively underscoring the lovers’ tragic separation.

Later, as Margaret mourns the loss of her son, Edward, a poignant rendition of “Summertime” serves as her lament.

A red gel lighting effectively emphasizes the hot emotions that punctuate the drama, although additional fixtures might allow more nuanced effects and could better balance the clothes and skin tones of Duke and Queen. Similarly, a boost of Margaret’s audio levels and articulation could help the intelligibility of her spoken lines, specifically when she “competes” with Finn’s powerful guitar passages.

As tragic losses cultivate wisdom and resignation, she reflects, “All I tried was to have it all.” This is part of White’s shared ambition too. How far can a woman go? What boundaries can she push?

A week into the residency, director Caitlin O’Connell’s proposed script and staging revisions have been effectively absorbed into successive rehearsals and performances. It’s clear that this young cadre of dramatists is as ambitious as the characters they’re presenting here. Fortunately, absent the ruthlessness!

Whitney White’s “By the Queen” runs June 1–2 and June 9–10, 8:00 p.m. at Miami Theater Center Sandbox, 9806 NE 2nd Ave., Miami Shores; tickets $25; www.mtcmiami.org; (305) 751-9550.

Sankofa Jazz Festival Sustains Overtown’s Jazz Legacy

CULTURE SHOCK MIAMI Presents Another Inside Story: Meet YOLI MAYOR

She grew up in Miami and started singing before she could talk.

In August and September 2017, YOLI MAYOR was seen on the world stage when she sang
for NBC’s AMERICA’S GOT TALENT.

She made it all the way to the semi-finals and won the hearts of judges and audience alike.

Now, Miami- Dade’s newest singing sensation, YOLI MAYOR, has wowed audiences at Miami-Dade County Auditorium, where she performed Oct. 22.

The CULTURE SHOCK MIAMI Video Crew met up with Yoli before her performance at El Tucán in Brickell where she talked about her life, her music and her dreams . . .

CULTURE SHOCK MIAMI Presents Another Inside Story: New World Symphony

Celebrating 30 years of excellence, the New World Symphony, America’s Orchestral Academy, has contributed to making Miami-Dade County a world-class cultural hub.

It is a true leader for classical and symphonic music through its programs of live performance, education, community outreach, important composer commissions and world premieres, and by bringing top internationally-acclaimed artists to South Florida to both perform and teach.

Founded in 1987 by Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas and Miami leaders Lin and Ted Arison, the New World Symphony has grown to become an important incubator of creativity and a model for the classical music experience in our daily life.

Meet some of the people who help make the Orchestra a Miami-Dade treasure. . .

CULTURE SHOCK MIAMI Presents Another Inside Story: Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science

CULTURE SHOCK MIAMI Presents Another Inside Story: Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science

Produced by Stephen and Kay Belth, Arts Marketing Network

A planetarium, aquarium and science museum – explore it all at the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science, now open in Downtown Miami’s Museum Park. The Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science (Frost Science) is a leading science museum dedicated to sharing the power of science, sparking wonder and investigation, and fueling innovation for the future.

Discover Miami’s newest home for the ever curious and explore the world of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) in an experiential setting with interactive exhibitions and dynamic shows. Guests can learn about the core science behind living systems, the solar system and known universe, the physics of flight, light and lasers, the biology of the human body and mind, and much more.

CULTURE SHOCK MIAMI Presents The YOU Review: Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami

CULTURE SHOCK MIAMI Presents The YOU Review: Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami

Produced by Stephen and Kay Belth, Arts Marketing Network

South Florida’s newest ballet company, Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami, graced the Main Stage of the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center on July 8, 2017.

Founded by Artistic Directors and former Miami City Ballet Principal Dancers Carlos Miguel Guerra and Jennifer Carlynn Kronenberg, the company of professional dancers presented a mixed program by leading choreographers.

CULTURE SHOCKERS, students 13 to 22 years-old who love the arts, attended and shared their thoughts about the performance . . .

Karen Peterson & Dancers "Scrutiny"

By Carlos Ochoa

Subtropics: Unique Experimental Music Fest

By George Fishman