On Saturday December 4th,  I participated to the event “Poetry-Sound-Music Intersections” at A Gathering of the Tribes organized by Chicagoan poet/trumpet Dan Godston. The performers included:
1st set: Kristin Prevallet (poetry) and Edmund Mooney (electronics)
2nd set: Nicole Peyrafitte (vocals, poetry), David Boykin (reeds), Dan Godston (trumpet).

It was a very fun gig. David and Dan created great music, I enjoyed weaving my texts through their complex and adventurous sounds. You can have the proof of the cream (no pudding here!) & listen to the first segment uploaded by Dan Godston here. Thanks to audience member and dear friend Paige Mitchell, we have a video of the event and I invite you to watch the last piece of our set at the end of this message… really, don’t miss it!

Whats cooking next? Voilà zee program for next week:

7pm - Vocal Improv Session # 7
Nora McCarthy (voice), Andrea Wolper (voice), Nicole Peyrafitte (voice), Francois Grillot (Double Bass)
8pm – Jason Mears Group
Erika Dagnino (poetry), Steve Dalachinsky (words), Jason Mears (sax and clarinet), Ken Filliano (bass), Satoshi Takeishi (drums)
9pm – Grassroots
Darius Jones (alto sax), Alex Harding (bari sax), Sean Conly (bass), Chad Taylor (drums)
10pm – Steve Dalachinsky & Ken Filiano Duo
Steve Dalachinsky (poetry), Ken Filiano (bass)

January 1st 2011
We will wish you Happy New Year at:
37th ANNUAL NEW YEAR’S DAY MARATHON READING
This year Pierre Joris, Nicole Peyrafitte & Miles Joris-Peyrafitte will be performing as a trio. We are scheduled between 3 & 4PM.
Also, I have done for the past three years, I will be making crêpes in the back and this year I will also make a soup ! Why make it simple when it can be complicated, right!
The event starts at 2PM and goes until past midnight and below is the impressive list of poets & performers:

The Poetry Project
St. Mark’s Church
131 East 10th Street
New York, NY 10003

Poets and Performers for 2011 include: John Giorno, Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye, Philip Glass, Suzanne Vega, Taylor Mead, Eric Bogosian, Anne Waldman & Ambrose Bye, Vito Acconci,  Foamola, Anselm Berrigan, Ariana Reines, Peter Gizzi, Liz Willis, Ted Greenwald, Bruce Andrews & Sally Silvers, The Church of Betty, Thom Donovan, Tim Griffin, Todd Colby, Tom Savage, David Shapiro, Jonas Mekas, Josef Kaplan, Judith Malina, Albert Mobilio, Alex Abelson, Maria Mirabal, Bill Kushner, David Freeman, David Kirschenbaum, Diana Rickard, Don Yorty, Dorothea Lasky, Douglas Dunn, Alan Gilbert, Alan Licht w/ Angela Jaeger, Charles Bernstein, Christopher Stackhouse, Citizen Reno, Cliff Fyman, Corina Copp, Aaron Kiely, Adeena Karasick, Bill Zavatsky, Bob Holman, Robert Fitterman, Rodrigo Toscano, Brenda Iijima, Brendan Lorber, Brett Price, Corrine Fitzpatrick, Curtis Jensen, Dael Orlandersmith, David Vogen, Derek Kroessler, Diana Hamilton, ARTHUR’S LANDING, CAConrad, Akilah Oliver, Douglas Piccinnini, John S. Hall, Samita Sinha, Sara Wintz, Secret Orchestra with special guest Joanna Penn Cooper, Shonni Enelow, Bob Rosenthal, Brenda Coultas, John Yau, Julian T. Brolaski, Evelyn Reilly, Filip Marinovich, Douglas Rothschild, Drew Gardner, Eleni Stecopoulos, Elinor Nauen, Eve Packer, Jo Ann Wasserman, Joanna Fuhrman, Dustin Williamson, E. Tracy Grinnell, Ed Friedman, Edwin Torres, Eileen Myles, Elliott Sharp, Emily XYZ, Erica Hunt, Erica Kaufman, Evan Kennedy, Joe Elliot, Joel Lewis, Frank Sherlock, Gillian McCain, Greg Fuchs, Janet Hamill, Jeremy Hoevenaar, Jessica Fiorini, Jibade-Khalil Huffman, Jim Behrle, Julianna Barwick, Julie Patton, Michael Lydon, Lisa Jarnot, Maggie Dubris, Marcella Durand, Marty Ehrlich, Merry Fortune, Michael Cirelli, Kristen Kosmas, Laura Elrick, Lauren Russell, Leopoldine Core, Nina Freeman, Paolo Javier, Patricia Spears Jones, Paul Mills (Poez), Michael Scharf, Mike Doughty, Karen Weiser, Lewis Warsh, Linda Russo, Penny Arcade, Peter Bushyeager, Rebecca Moore, Mónica de la Torre, Murat Nemet-Nejat, Nathaniel Siegel, Nick Hallett, Nicole  Peyrafitte, Pierre Joris & Miles Joris-Peyrafitte, Kathleen Miller, Katie Degentesh, Kelly Ginger, Ken Chen, Kim Lyons, Kim Rosenfield, India Radfar, Tonya Foster, Stephanie Gray, Susan Landers, Tony Towle, Tracie Morris, Valery Oisteanu, John Coletti, Rachel Levitsky, Edmund Berrigan, Jamie Townsend, Macgregor Card, Wayne Koestenbaum, Will Edmiston, Yoshiko Chuma, Nicole Wallace, Arlo Quint, Stacy Szymaszek and more T.B.A

General admission $20/Students & Seniors $15/Members $10.

And last, but not least, 4 large paintings and two framed collages are now at the Chancellerie of the French New York Consulate.  If you are French and  need to renew your passport or any other admin stuff you will  see them. I am very grateful to our consul, Mr Philippe Lalliot,  to have taken the initiative to have  contemporary art instead of posters! Merci to Mr. Le Consul and merci to his team for having my work displayed in their work space where 15 000 people come through each year. I have set up a webpage for information on the paintings here.

Voilà! And now Joyeux Noël and enjoy the whipping!

Sunday afternoon I was at the The Tenth Annual NYC International Pickle Day where  pickles from around the world were featured, celebrated and sampled—list of participants here. The event is organized by the New York Food Museum & The Lower East Side Business Improvement District. This year the Umami Food & Art Festival curated the first performance and art event at the festival where I was invited to offer some pickle poetry. My origins demanded that I focus on the cornichons a.k.a gherkins.

The video above features my cornichon poem written for the occasion and set to the music of the well know composer and  famous gastronome Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868). The title of the composition is: Hors d’Oeuvres III : Les Cornichons — and this is not a joke.  Quatre Hors d’Oeuvres et Quatre Mendiants are part of Rossini’s last sets of compositions called “Dernier Pêché Mortel, de Vieillesse” or in English:  “Sins of Old Age”. These unpublished late compositions (1857-1868), now compiled in 14 volumes, were meant to be performed at private occasions in the composer’s drawing room.  Below are the details of Volume/ Book 4:

Quatre (4) Hors d’Oeuvres:
[The Hors d'Oeuvres here refer to appetizers]
I- Les Radis - radishes
II- Les Anchois -  anchovies
III- Les Cornichons-  gherkins
IV- Le Beurre – butter

The Quatre (4) Mendiants:
[Mendiants refer to dried fruits and one of the Thirteen desserts of the Noel Provençal. Each fruit is supposed to represent the robe color of four monk orders]
Les Figues sèches – dry figs  — Carmel order
Les Amandes – almonds —Dominican order
Les Raisins- raisins —Franciscan order
Les Noisettes – hazelnuts — Capuchins order

This occasion lead me to reconnect with the marvelous Franco-Italian  singer-song writer Nino Ferrer (1934-1998). I learned his “Les Cornichons” and even if you don’t know French, do listen to it. Nino Ferrer was a very interesting artist who had quite a successful carrier. His background included studying anthropology with André Leroy Gourhan and accompanying jazz musicians like Richard Bennett & Bill Coleman. Voilà — and merci beaucoup to  Françoise Bevy for the photos. Enjoy!

We sure started the year “en fanfare”…that is: not so discretely! Our new year’s eve  adventures started at 6:30pm for hors d’oeuvres & cocktails at the house of good friends. Thanks god I passed on the very tempting Campari martinis and settled for white white.  The tasty and nurturing Zabar’s appetizers (great chicken liver paté), provided the healthy layer for the boisterous night to come!
Next stop was Pocha 32 —32th street in Manhattan— a quite exotic Korean drinking establishment decorated with fish nets and soju bottle caps. Soju is the Korean national drink. The main ingredient of soju is rice, almost always in combination with other ingredients such as wheat, barley, or sweet potatoes. Soju is clear-colored and typically varies in alcohol content from 10% to 25% proof. It was first known to have been distilled around 1300 A.D and believed to have been brought over to Korea by the Mongol invasion.  I have  a serious problems with Soju:  I have a tendency of drinking it at the same pace as wine and forgetting the alcohol content!

Fishnets and Soju bottle-caps decorations at Pocha 32 (32nd street NYC)

Expertly counseled by our daughter in law we also tasted a very refreshing —and treacherous— beverage: Mak Gul Li (막걸리). This traditional fermented, unfiltered & milky looking liquor is brought to the table in a tin tea kettle and served in bowls. We tried two kinds: one was made with rice and the other  with millet. The rice one looked, and tasted, like carbonated fermented sweet rice milk. The intense yellow/green millet one was a touch more bitter, richer with a more complex finish.

What can be better than spicy tripe and octopus dishes to enhance these potions? Maybe more soup? I got a taste of the fish cake soup (어묵탕), then came Seafood Pah jun (해물파전), spicy stir fried tripes (소곱창 볶음) , followed by spicy baby octopus with pork belly (쭈꾸미 삼겹살 볶음). Overall the food was decent but as I was in a party mood I might have missed some subtleties—though I did noticed the horrible mushy over cooked rice!

After a few hours of jolly time at Pocha, we felt the need to move and one of us had heard of a rooftop bar next near by. We had no trouble finding it and that is were we comfortably settled to toast the new year. The 14th Floor Roof Top bar of the La Quinta Hotel looks up to the Empire State Building —for which I wrote and recorded the French audio tour, and last I heard it is still on! To our surprise the place was not crowded at all but boasted the kind of eclectic bunch of people  only New York City can bring together. So it was with a motley crew of Puertoricans, Mexicans, Filipinos, Koreans, Japanese, French, Germans —and even a young man from Luxembourg,  to Pierre’s astonishment! — that we celebrated well into the night with bubbly clear fermented grape!

It was hard to wake up the next day,  and our stomachs felt a little unsettled, but we showed up right on time to set up my crêpes station at St. Mark Church for the 36th Annual Marathon Reading. Pierre read first and didn’t get my act together to film him —sorry!— The crêpes got sold out pretty quickly. It was really nice to have blog readers stop by say hello —Merci! The place was packed through out the day and despite much of my time spent in the back I got to listen to some very nice reading and music. Voilà! and let’s start the year with a touch of  Gascon language:

Bona annada, plan granada, e de hèra d’autas accompanhada!

THE DVD IS  OUT!
On November 7, 2007, Joe Girardullo, Pierre Joris & myself had molto fun presenting Sax, Soup, Poetry & Voice a multimedia performance at the The Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy N.Y. The original description of the show was:

A Harvest Celebration with multimedia artist Nicole Peyrafitte, saxophonist Joe Giardullo & poet Pierre Joris. The trio will celebrate, harvest, and gather together non linear momentum through their music, poetry, voice, visuals and yes, a soup! Nicole, who recently moved to Brooklyn, will cook an “Inner-State” soup that will be shared with the audience.

The quality of this recording is stunning. They made us look and sound really good! & you ou can almost taste the “Inner State Soup!”

This DVD series is not a commercial venture and The Sanctuary for Independent Media is eager to have it distributed widely. For that reason we offer it through Ta’wil Productions store for a modest $5 to cover shipping and handling. Spread the word & the DVD!

Please view video sample here

This DVD is part of a prestigious series (see below), however at this point we are only able to offer our DVD.
Our deepest thanks to the producers, crew & volunteers of the Sanctuary.

A Message from The Sanctuary of Independent Media:

Free Jazz from the Sanctuary Launched!
A 13-part series of jazz performance videos featuring some of the world’s most talented improvisers, recorded live in concert at The Sanctuary for Independent Media, is now available online–just click the links below! Each show is (or soon will be) available on DVD; details are available under each band entry.

The Free Jazz from the Sanctuary series will soon be available for non-commercial broadcast distribution.
Contact us for more information!

The Thirteenth Assembly
(Taylor Ho Bynum, Tomas Fujiwara, Mary Halvorson, Jessica Pavone)
Ethnic Heritage Ensemble
(Kahil El’Zabar, Ernest Dawkins, Corey Wilkes)
Fay Victor Ensemble
(Ken Filiano, Anders Nilsson, Michael TA Thompson, Fay Victor)
From Between Trio
(Michel Doneda, Tatsuya Nakatani, Jack Wright)
Michael Vlatkovich Quartet
(Christopher Garcia, Jonathan Golove, David Mott, Michael Vlatkovich)
Sax Soup Poetry and Voice
(Joe Giardullo, Pierre Joris, Nicole Peyrafitte)
Trio Tarana
(Sam Bardfeld, Ravish Momin, Brian Prunka)
The Ras Ensemble
(Clif Jackson, Dave Miller, Ras Moshe, Tor Yochai Snyder)
William Hooker
Empty Cage Quartet
(Ivan Johnson, Paul Kikuchi, Jason Mears, Kris Tiner)
Weasel Walter Trio
(Peter Evans, Mary Halvorson, Weasel Walter)
Splatto Festival Chorus
(Dave Barrett, Michael Bisio, Ed Mann, Todd Reynolds)
Amiri Baraka and Rob Brown

Free Jazz from the Sanctuary is a co-production of NY Media Alliance and the Arts Department at Rensselaer, made possible in part with support from the NYS Council on the Arts and the NYS Music Fund, established by the NYS Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisers.

Photographs of the show: Sax, Soup, Poetry & Voice  by Jon Flanders (11/07/07)

Only once in a blue moon do you get to have so much fun — and that was last night at the  Mongrel Vaudeville, Blue Moon in June! , an event masterminded and organized by the fabulous multitasking poet performer Julian of Nowherr (Julian Brolaski). I am thrilled to have been part of :
“Brooklyn’s newest, queerest variety show, starring hot divas, sideshow freaks and musical sundries!

There will be more shows, so stay tuned and follow the: mongrelvaudeville blog

Last night’s performers were:
Jasper James: Host
Country music outfit The Low and the Lonesome
Pop-rap phenom Badboss
Magician Gary the Great
Kyle Peterson, El Juglar / the Brooklyn Juggler
Queer diva provocateur JZ Bich
Escape artist, sideshow performer and contortionist Jared the Conjuror
Performance artist Nicole Peyrafitte w/ Peter Knoll
Electro-drag cabaret singer / shamanist Yozmit
R&B sensation Colin Steele

I was accompanied on guitar by Peter Knoll and we performed two deconstructed Edith Piaf songs, L’Accordéoniste & La Vie en Rose. Below, the video (by Miles Joris-Peyrafitte w/my small camera) of L’Accordéoniste and below the video more photographs courtesy of Stacy Szymaszek.

As blogged last week, this past Friday I set up my kitchen/stage at 5C Café in Manhattan. I  want to thank Michael Bisio who delighted us on bass, Pierre Joris, Yuko Otomo & Steve Dalashinky who read fun & beautiful food & Paris poems, Miles Joris-Peyrafitte who took  the photographs and helped set up/clean up, Adrien Aquilina for his  assistance on waiting tables, as well as Bruce,  Trudy  & the volunteers at 5C  for their graceful hospitality & for giving me the opportunity to cook and sing. Many thanks also to a sophisticated, warm & engaging audience. Please feel free to post comments about the evening if you were there. If you were not there: the menu, the recipe of the main course, & Miles’ photographs are below.
But first let me tell you about my next performance coming up this Thursday with Peter Knoll on electric guitar. No food this time, but singing 3 French songs. I am really excited to be part of the Mongrel Vaudeville, and looking forward to the various & extravagant performances.
Program:
Mongrel Vaudeville “Blue Moon in June”
What: Performance
Host: Julian of Nowherr
Start Time: Thursday, June 25 at 8:00pm
End Time: Thursday, June 25 at 10:00pm
Where: thru the swingin doors at Freddy’s Bar & Backroom
485 Dean Street Brooklyn, NY 11215
That’s the corner of Dean Street and 6th Avenue in Brooklyn.

Now Friday’s menu:
Appetizers:
Sardine Paté w/ pink peppercorns (see Sardine Tartine blog ; all I added were the pink peppercorns)
Syrian Cheese served with green spicy Turkish and black Moroccan lemon olives
Baguette
Main Course:
Summery Garlicky Beans & Kale
(Thank you d’Artagnan for the coco Tarbais beans)
Dessert:
Strawberry short cake w/ live whipped cream!
(Thank you Pierre Landet for the pan and the strawberries)

Photographs by Miles Joris-Peyrafitte

Summery Garlicky Beans & Kale Recipe

I don’t have exact proportions, and it is really up to you to make it the way you like. Though as a rough indication here are the ingredients and the proportional ratio.
Soak beans over night:  2/3 white (coco tarbais)   for 1/3 red beans (dark red pinto beans).
Cook your beans separately and reserve.
Sauté —in duck fat, or olive oil— enough diced onions  to cover the bottom of the skillet in which you will cook your dish.
Add a few ribs of diced celery and diced red pepper. Sauté for a few minutes.
Add the purple kale, about half the pot, sauté until wilted.
Add the green garlic cloves. Make sure you buy them with the green stalk attached. Use about 1/2 a head per person. Green fresh garlic is very mild, do not be afraid.
Add about 1 to 2 garlic scapes per person (see last blog for info on scapes). Make sure they are very tender, if not peel them and cut them like green beans.
Salt & freshly ground pepper.
Add stock or water to just cover your vegetables & legumes.
Cook for about 40/60 minutes depending how big your pot.
Just before serving add one tablespoon of a pesto —my “pesto” had only  basil/regular garlic & olive oil, but nothing prevents you to add pignoles and cheese. I just wanted to keep it light as the appetizer had cheese and the dessert, whipped cream.
Make it soon because the garlic ain’t gone be fresh for much longer.

A multimedia and multi-sensorial experience will happened this coming Friday June 19th, 2009 8PM at 5C Cultural Center, 68 Avenue C (corner of 5th Street), New York, NY 10009 (view map here).

I’ll set up my stage/kitchen at 5C Café. Not only Mike Bisio and I will perform from our repertoire of songs and contemporary poetry but I have also invited:
Yuko Otomo she will read  her Paris poems.
Steve Dalashinsky & Pierre Joris will read food poems.
and
I will cook you a 3 courses dinner (mostly live cooking!) of  seasonal and mostly vegetarian fares.
It is reasonably priced for dinner & entertainment: $12 at the door
Wine & beer extra available at the bar.
Details:
-”First come — first served” basis (limited to 30, no reservations)
-One menu (3 courses, only one option available and mostly vegetarian)
-We will start on time!

Looking forward to see you!

I walk along the Verrazano Narrows on Shore Promenade several times a week. On Memorial Day Shore Promenade was busier than usual so I decided to “catwalk” next to the water on the other side of the fence. It was low tide and I wanted to look at what had drifted into the boulders. Between 68th street and the Verrazano bridge there was only one patch of sea shells, but many, many clusters of empty plastic bottles. There is of course other junk, but the litter is mostly made of individual plastic bottles.
I work seriously on decreasing my use of plastic bottles, bags and packaging in general. I do have a few individual bottles saved, I fill them up with water from my filter carafe, keep them in the fridge and take one along when I leave the house. If I forget, I try to find a water fountain but occasionally I do buy a water bottle. Paying close attention to this insane accumulation along The Narrows increased my awareness and I’ll sure try to avoid the occasional bottle purchase as much as possible.

I try to imagine how did this place looked like before Giovanni da Verrazzano sailed through it in 1524. The Italian explorer, who was at the service of the French crown, wrote his employer King Francois 1er that he believed he had found the opening to the Pacific Ocean, therefore a direct route to China. It is reported that while anchored between Staten Island & Brooklyn, Giovanni da Verrazzano “received a canoe party of Lenape people”  and he called what today is called  The Verrazano Narrows in his honor: New Angoulème. The Lenape where hunter gatherers, not by lack of equipment or sophistication but most likely because the natural resources were so plentiful that they didn’t have to worry about planting, growing  or attending crop. It was all right there available for hunting, fishing & picking  (read Anne Mendelson Chapter “The Lenape” in Gastropolis: Food and New York City).

It is so painful to witness the current destiny of this so unique water-based environment. What was an osmosis between man and nature has became its antonym. Today, despite being one of the major water highways of the world — flanked with litter — The Narrows’ commanding views still moves me deeply. This is the mouth of the Hudson River, and one can feel the incredible elemental forces; remember that the Ocean tide is felt all the way to Albany!

The native name for the Hudson River is Mahicanituck, which means: the river that flows two ways. It was very shortly after I took my first walk there that I wrote the song that was in my CD The Bi-Continental Chowder / La Garbure Transcontinentale. I was still living in Albany and the next day I took the train back and kept filming along the Hudson. The video and the song are part of the live performance of The Bi-Continental Chowder / La Garbure Transcontinentale. Below is the recording and the video:

Percussion: Danny Welchel, Voice over: Ben Chadabe, Text/voice/video: N.P.

Another good reason not to buy bottled water is that beverage companies often take water from municipal or underground local resources: you are probably aware that about 40 percent of bottle water comes from the tap! Other negative factors are: transporting the bottles uses energy, increases landfill and and emits toxic chemicals.

Saturday May 16 2009
6:00pm -7:30pm

Concert CD release of:
“Whisk! Don’t Churn!”
Nicole Peyrafitte
(voice, video, electronics, whisk & sweets!)
Michael Bisio
(double bass)
&
with guest poet & producer
Pierre Joris
$8
Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery
New York, NY 10012
(212) 614-0505

CD Details: here
Read  reviews: here
Get the CD: here (though if you come to the release party Saturday the CD will be available on donation)

And you can always find out more about my works on:
Cooking Parties
Nicole’s Website

My grandfather, Joseph Peyrafitte, would always make Gnoki à la Romaine —French 20th century spelling— which are made with semolina. It was later in life that I discovered potato gnocchi and I love them. Below is the recipe I use, it is quite simple and though I served it here with with bacon & Parmesan cream sauce, you can use any sauce you like (for example tomato sauce). It is a very filling and soul comforting dish that will please many.

For 2:
2 lbs of potatoes (russet)
2 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups flour
salt, pepper, nutmeg
1 shallot
4 slices of thick bacon
1 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup of grated Parmesan
(I didn’t have fresh sage that day, but I used some in an earlier version and it is very tasty, just make sure not to put too much, sage can be overwhelming)

Boil the potatoes; when thoroughly cooked, drain them very well.  Put them through the potato ricer. Add the flour, the beaten egg yolk, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Mix the ingredients until you have a nice flexible ball of dough (gets a little messy but it is fun!).

Dust flour on a flat clean dry surface, take one piece of dough at a time  and using the palms of your hands make each piece into a thin long roll. Then cut roll into small pieces.

Cook the gnocchi in boiling salted water, let them simmer for a minute. Do not crowd them, cook them in batches, they need to “swim” comfortably in the water.  Scoop them out with a slotted spoon.

Sauce:
Sauté the (cut) bacon in a skillet, add the shallot, and sauté until translucent. Remove excess of fat. Add the cream, bring to a boil, reduce until it thickens. Reduce heat, add grated Parmesan, mix well, adjust seasoning, dump cooked gnocchis in the sauce and serve.