collisionwork | Sep. 3rd, 2010

Out of the frying-Urbain Grandier pan, into the fire of Clown.

Today is opening day for The New York Clown Theatre Festival, 2010 edition, at The Brick. We've previously done full festivals in 2006, '07, and '08, and a mini-Amuse Bouche festival in '09 -- when we realized there wasn't enough new Clown work out there to really make this an annual fest, so we decided to go biennial, but we were committed (for funding purposes) to do one last year.

Berit and I weren't much involved in the first fest, but we were HEAVILY involved in years two and three, and somewhat involved in the smaller one last year. We actually wound up lighting and running board for the lion's share of the shows in '07-'08, but after the HEAVY summer we had, we've pulled back this year to just fulfilling our functions as Tech Directors of The Brick and supervising all of the techs for each show in the fest. So we're on that for the next few weeks, then we get a couple of weeks off to have our regular chill-out time in Maine, then we're back, earlier than I'd like, as we're both now working on Untitled Theatre Co. #61's adaptation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? going up at 3-Legged Dog in November/December (which screws up the Thanksgiving I wanted to have, but oh, well . . .).

So, I've spent the five days since we closed not resting, as I would have liked, but working to get The Brick ready for the Clowns and supervising techs. Most of the August shows are now in the car, though I still have things to shove in there today (the robot legs, breakaway chair tops, and televisor panels from Spacemen from Space). So I'm in a rush right now to finish this, empty some of the car, shower, shave, and rush to The Brick to be ready for the pie fight that opens every year's ClownFest -- as with the '08 Fest, I made up the backing CD of songs that will score the various fights, so we get to see pie fights accompanied by "Kung Fu Fighting," "Yakety Sax," "Crazy Train," "O Fortuna" from Carmina Burana, the Vulcan Fight Music from Star Trek, "Adoration of the Earth" from The Rite of Spring, "Beat on the Brat," and many others, ending with the finale of the 1812 Overture. This is always fun. But all time-consuming.

So, no time to consider the summer and the future just yet. We will in a few weeks. Though some ideas about what to do and change for next year are already bubbling.

But, in any case, here's the regular Random Ten out of the "Brandnew Bag" playlist of 2,781 tracks in the iPod that haven't actually been played there yet, with video links where possible:

1. "Cheap Emotions" - Rich Kids - Ghosts of Princes in Towers
2. "Terrible Lie" - Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine
3. "Downtown Soulville" - Chuck Edwards - Soulin' Vol 3
4. "Train Kept A-Rollin' (BBC session)" - The Yardbirds - BBC Sessions
5. "Down By The Sea" - Strawbs - The Very Best of Strawbs: Halcyon Days (The A&M Years)
6. "First Line (Seven the Row)" - The Deviants - The Electric Lemonade Acid Test vol. 2
7. "Two-Faced Love" - Richard Thompson - Mock Tudor
8. "APA Style" -Tom X. Chao - Micro-Podcasts
9. "Don't Cry Wolf" - The Damned - Music for Pleasure
10. "Last Song" - Marianne Faithfull - Before The Poison

And here's the full video playlist:

And Berit took some cat shots at home while I was working this week. Hooker found a new "fort" under the couch cushion, and Moni had to be nearby, and jealous . . .