January 1 2016
Nice first day on the road to Idaho. Smooth ride with with very little traffic . We left Bayridge, Brooklyn at 7:56 & got to Maumee, Ohio 5:58PM. We drove 566 miles (910 kms) out of 2475 miles (3983 kms) to get to Boise Idaho. We crossed New-Jersey, Pennsylvania & two third of Ohio.
We made our coffees, teas, lunch (Braised d’Artagnan Berkshire Pork; Lentil Salad; Greens, Goat Yogurt w/ Cinammon/Stevia & Roasted Seeds) & dinner (Red Miso Soup with Oats,Rye & Farro; Pumpernickel Buttered Bread; Hard Boiled Egg, Carrot & Celery, Cheddar w/ Apples & Cashew Nuts.
We listened to France Culture, NPR, John Coltrane, Matthew Ship, Michael Bisio & Cheikha Rimitti.
Below is the photo reportage, stay tuned!
A Happy New Year to Y’all! May the force of health & creativity be with you!
Given our family’s nomadic proclivities, permit us a little résumé of ‘15 & a preview of ‘16 as we are readying ourselves to drive to Boise, ID at dawn on the New Year’s first morning. (We will therefore, sadly, not be able to take part in the 2016 annual Poetry Project Marathon readin’ & eatin’ fest for the first time in many years.)
2015 started with a late January trip for readings & performances to Israel & Palestine, that took us into February, followed in March by a trip to the West Coast, then in April we were in Minneapolis and after a few weeks home in Bay Ridge we lit out for two months in Alt Europa, specifically the South of France: Nicole had a show of her artwork in the Galerie Edouard Paradis in Marseilles, then at the May/June cusp a literary festival “Les Eauditives” in Barjol to celebrate the publishing of the French edition of Bi-Valve by Plaine Page, followed in early June by a collaborative performance at the “Jardin des 5 sens et des Formes Premières” in Aix-en-Provence, followed in turn by readings in Paris around the marché de la Poésie.
On 30 June we landed back in Nueva York & five days later flew off to Durango, Mexico to the Encuentro Internacional de “Escritores José Revueltas,” to celebrate the publication of Pierre’s Mawqif: Poemas y ensayos (Selected poems & essays). We then happily spent the remainder of the summer here with moult visits to Coney Island beaches.
Above is a 4 minutes résumé of Nicole & Pierre’s summer
Pierre would fly off to Paris & Luxembourg in early September to get to work on the first of his shows as resident author of the Luxembourg National Theater— a show that premiered in early late October to excellent notices form the Luxembourg media. Meanwhile Nicole had also returned to Europe & we both did readings and talks at the University of Mulhouse, and in late October a joint reading in Toulouse under the aegis of our good friend Serge Pey. It was fun once again reading in the Cave Poésie a place we had worked in many years earlier.
Nicole had already spent a few weeks in October in Luchon in pre-production of Things Fall Where They Lie a film she then shot during the first ten days of November: an amazing, tiring, inspiring experience with Nicole as director & Pierre as gofer & an excellent team including Steve Dalachinsky & Yuko Otomo, Eric Sarner and Katalin Pataki as protagonists and crew including Asa Westcott, Zia Anger, Agnès Mathon, Jean-Louis Peyrafitte & in co production with Ecran Sud. While Nicole stayed in Luchon for an extra week to wrap things up, Pierre went off to Paris to be interviewed for a film on Osip Mandelstam & Paul Celan & was thus in that City on Friday 13. We flew back to New York on the 22nd. Also in 2015 Nicole had great the opportunity to perform with Michael Bisio, Connie Crothers, Steve Swell, Jason Hwang, Trio Erms, Denis Brun, Armoire Normande, Yoshiko Chuma. And we are now preparing our 4-months move to Boise Idaho.
2016 Preview: At BSU Nicole will be teaching two courses, on on food and culture called What Do We Eat? Why Do We Eat It? Where Does It Come From? How Do We Cook It?& another one: Poetry Perfromance Practice, while Pierre teaches a grad seminar on poetry & poetics. We have already done out best to surround us with friends: in early February Jerry & Diane Rothenberg will be coming in to go to both our seminars & for Jerry to do a talk & reading; in late March Habib Tengour will come in from Paris for a 2-day conference Pierre is organizing around Arab literature & translation (More details t..b.a.).
While Nicole will be off to the Coast at some point for performance & readings, Pierre will be doing a talk & reading at the U of Oklahoma in March or April. We will both be performing at The New Orleans Poetry Festival on April 16.
Meanwhile, son Miles, who finished his first feature film, As You Are, in November, on which his brother Joseph is producer & post-production editor, had the film accepted at the Sundance Festival in the US drama section competition. We will drive down to Park City from Boise to witness the premiere on January 25.
During the first week of May we will drive back (the Northern route through the Dakotas) to Nueva York, where after 10 days or so we’ll switch suitcases and then Pierre will be off to Luxembourg for work on the second play, a 3-act drama, that will premiere at the LNT on 14 June, while Nicole will wing it to Luchon where she has a one month one-woman show of her art plus performances June1-30. Après, on verra… Home in Bay Ridge would, we are sure, feel very, very welocme by then. dreaming of Coney Island beaches…
Don’t worry, the car has been perfectly winterized, fitted out with 4 brand-new Michelin all-weather tires. We will of course keep you updated on the various twists our paths will take in 2016. We are planning to give updates of the road trip on Facebook/Blogs/Instagram….follow us!
Bona anada, feliz anno nuevo, bonne année, e schei’nt neit Jo’er, a nappy ewe’s ear, & however else you want to say it,
Now in Paris. I was still in Bagnères-de-Luchon, my hometown, during the November 13th massacre. Pierre was already back in Paris & I was relieved to hear that he was safe from the horror. At this point it looks like all our family & close friends are safe, though stories of friends of friends killed come up every day. Trying to think empathy vs sympathy.
The week before I wrapped the shoot of my new film Thing Fall Where They Lie. Most likely one of the most intense weeks in my life! It was a rich, surreal & beautifully crazy busy time with my exquisite cast & crew. The cast: Yuko Otomo, Steve Dalachinsky, Eric Sarner, Katalin Pataki. The crew: Pierre Joris, Zia Anger, Asa Westcott, Agnès Mathon, Jean-Louis Peyrafitte. We also had some great local talent & volunteers join our cast & crew. Our base for food, beverages & lunch interviews was Salon NºThé where the sisters Chantal & Kitou Doumenq took good care of us. Do not miss the diaporama below!
The film takes place in Bagnères-de-Luchon, this small town in the French Pyrenees where I was born & raised. A place where celebrities have come & gone since Roman times. They come to take the waters in the summer & enjoy winter sports in winter. Two of these visitors never left & never will. They both died prematurely in Bagnères-de-Luchon & had to be buried in the town cemetery. They are both “under investigation” in this film. From November 1-8 2015, we had a true cinéma vérité expérience. Everyone played along beautifully & together we embraced uncertainty. We filmed layers of temporal, spatial and cultural information combined with particulars about the two deceased, mixed with my biographical and cultural inscription in this matrix. I am looking forward to start the editing process and will keep you posted for sure. Meanwhile, here are some stills of the amazing week, the most beautiful way in which I have ever seen my hometown!
SUNDAY OCTOBER 4 at 8:30PM I am so much looking forward to this event. Please join us & bring your friends!
For the third installment of Cabaret Hérétique, I have invited Michael Bisio (bass) & Connie Crothers (piano) for a voco-musico-poetico-visual-comestible improv performance. The focus will be sentience as the core concept of our improvisation.
I am thrilled to be performing with Michael Bisio’s extraordinary tonal beauty & intensity of his very personal musical language of his double bass, & legendary Connie Crothers’ magical and brilliant piano promising spontaneous composition balancing traditional patterns & free improvisation.
Bowery Poetry Club 308 Bowery, New York, New York 10012
TICKETS: $12 online, $15 at the door http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2080887
Bio: Michael Bisio, bassist/composer, has eighty-five recordings in his discography, twenty -four of these are split evenly between leader/co-leader, ten of them document his extraordinary association with modern piano icon Matthew Shipp. Michael has been called a poet, a wonder and one of the most virtuosic and imaginative performers on the double bass. Nate Chinen in the New York Times writes : “The physicality of Mr. Bisio’s bass playing puts him in touch with numerous predecessors in the avant-garde, but his expressive touch is distinctive;…” As a composer Michael has been awarded nine grants and an Artist Trust Fellowship.Collaborators include Matthew Shipp, Joe McPhee, Charles Gayle, Connie Crothers, Whit Dickey, Ivo Perelman, Barbara Donald, Newman Taylor Baker, Nicole Peyrafitte, Rob Brown, Sonny Simmons and Sabir Mateen. http://michaelbisio.com/
Connie Crothers, pianist, has lived her musical life as performer, recording artist and teacher releasing the feeling—her source—into the music which realizes her range of expression, her virtuosity based in her love of the instrument and her desire to discover everything she can hear and imagine through spontaneous improvisation.
Connie was selected for a week residency at The Stone, from August 19 to 24 2014. She performed twelve sets, each set with a different lineup of musicians. “Concert in Paris,” a solo CD of selections from a solo concert performed in Paris, was released on the New Artists label in August. Earlier in this year, her quartet, with Richard Tabnik on alto saxophone, Ken Filiano on bass, Roger Mancuso on drums, released “Deep Friendship,” New Artists, their concert at William Paterson University. The quartet celebrated the [Connie Crothers bio continues…]
CD release in a performance at Roulette in Brooklyn. She often appears at the Vision Festival.Feature articles have appeared in Jazz Inside, Knack (Belgium), Jazz Podium (Germany), Cadence, The Village Voice, All About Jazz New York.Connie Crothers studied with and taught in association with Lennie Tristano. He wrote, for her first record, “Perception”: “Connie Crothers is the most original musician it has ever been my privilege to work with. ”Connie was a guest on Marian McPartland’s radio show “Piano Jazz.” She was honored by the Jazz Museum in Harlem by being featured in their series “Harlem Speaks.”In the centennial issue of Cadence, she was selected for the list of the most important and influential musicians in the last twenty-five years of the 20th century. http://www.conniecrothers.net/
Thank you to the inspiring audience who came.
Voilà! two extracts of the performance: the beginning & the end with the great Michael Bisio.
Thank you to Pierre Joris for the screen capture.
See you soon for more soon & as they say: Stay tuned!
