Back from Albany (Capital City of New York State!)

Back from Albany (Capital City of New York State!)

Mike Bisio and I whipped cream at Justin’s on Thursday night. We had a big, wonderful and most of all very attentive crowd. The best audience I ever had at Justin’s so far. We mostly performed originals, contemporary poems with only a dash of French songs and jazz standards. Mike played two incredibly moving solos, one was John Coltrane’s Alabama & the second was a piece he created on September 11th, 2001 – as he was in the studio that day. By the way Mike Bisio will be playing next Saturday, 9/20 at The Clean Feed Fest at the Living Theatre with Basso Continuo : Stephen Gauci, Nate Wooley, Ken Filiano and Mike Bisio. Starts at 9pm. I will be there!

I also wanted to note that on Wednesday my younger son Miles Joris-Peyrafitte had his first solo public appearance as a singer/songwriter at the famous Tess’ Lark Tavern open mike hosted by the rock goddess of Upstate New York: Mother Judge. Miles did very well: he also accompanied me on guitar on my song the Brooklyn Bridge & on a poem by his father, Pierre Joris. After that he played drums for his long time friend, the very talented Lindsey Rogowski.

One of the poems Mike Bisio and I performed on Thursday was by Mustafa Benfodil. I met Mustafa at the Festival “Voix de la Méditéranée” in Lodève and really liked his work. With his permission I would like to post the poem I translated and performed with Mike Bisio on Thursday. Voilà for now, enjoy this short, but intense poem and THANK YOU so much if you were in the audience on Thursday & always THANK YOU to the wonderful crew at Justin’s for their graciousness –and I know this week was very hard for them as their were dealing with the sudden loss of one of their very dear co-worker. Merci à tous!

Lune de miel à Baghdad
Nous nous sommes connus à Gaza
Nous nous sommes aimés à Ramallah
Nous nous sommes embrassés à Beyrouth
Nous nous sommes mariés à Alger
Nous nous sommes envolés à Baghdad
Nous sommes morts sous les bombes
Et nos coeurs ont fondé une ONG
Pour la protection des amours à haut risque
Et la continuation de la passion sous les tombes!

Honey moon in Baghdad
We met in Gaza
We loved in Ramallah
We kissed in Beirut
We wed in Algiers
We flew to Baghdad
We died under the bombs
& our hearts founded a NGO
for the protection of high risk love
& the continuation of passion under the tombs!

Poem by Mustafa Benfodil translated by Nicole Peyrafitte

ManyBody 2

ManyBody 2

Very hot in NYC today.
I will probably stay put and work on my on going series “ManyBody”, unless I can’t resist a short trip to Coney Island and refresh in the Ocean!
My post today : “ManyBody 2”. See the section “Paintings/Drawings” in the “categories” to see more of these. Some have titles some have numbers. Stay cool!

Ovid, May & Fava Beans (I)

Ovid, May & Fava Beans (I)

It is time to brush up on our Latin, celebrate the month of May & eat fava beans!
According to Ovid the origin name May, could derives from maiores –the elders. The ritual he describes in the Fasti’s book V –transcribed and translated below– certainly supports it.

OVID FASTI LIBER V
“Cumque manus puras fontana perluit unda,
Vertitur et nigras accipit ante fabas,
Aversusque iacit; sed dum iacit, ‘haec ego mitto,
His’ inquit ‘redimo meque meosque fabis.’
Hoc novies dicit nec respicit: umbra putatur
Colligere et nullo terga vidente sequi.
Rursus aquam tangit, Temesaeaque concrepat aera,
Et rogat ut tectis exeat umbra suis.
Cum dixit nouies: ‘Manes exite paterni!’,
Respecit et pure sagra peracta putat.”

“Once his hands were cleansed with spring water, he turned around and took the black fava beans. While throwing them one by one behind his back he says: ‘I offer these fava beans, with them I redeem myself and my people.’
He says it nine times without turning around. Meanwhile, without being seen, the shadow is supposed to collect the fava beans. Then he touches the spring water and rings the Témésa bronze. Now he commands the shadow to live the house. For that he will say nine times: ‘ Out, manes of my fathers‘”.

The drawing/collage above titled V (May) is part of a series of 12 drawings-collages developed into a performance piece: “The Calendar”, I premiered in 1997. The performance consisted of a computer projection of an animated version of the drawings and the singing of texts accompanied by musicians. For the first six months Ovid’s Fasti primarily inspired the texts. In this case directly connected to the rituals Ovid describes in Liber V (verses 419-445) cited above.

Next post will be a simple recipe of fresh fava beans. Happy May!

Limulus Polyphemus

Limulus Polyphemus

The Limulus Polyphemus -or horseshoe crab- is coming from the age of “visible life” that is the Paleozoic era (440 -248 million years ago).
They are older than dinosaurs, older than flowering plants, they have ten eyes, spawn on the beach, molt around 17 times in 9 to 10 years & can live up to 20 years. These days, extracts from their blood are used by the pharmaceutical industry. Their eggs — laid on the beach — are essential to migratory birds who feed on them from nests that have been disrupted by waves and storms. The feeding of shorebirds has no adverse affect on the breeding success of the horseshoe crab.
They fascinate me. Below some pix taken Saturday at Coney Island and a painting of larvae & juvenile.
For more info check this wonderful site : Limulus Polyphemus

http://www.horseshoecrab.org/

Back up!

Back up!

The taxes, a cold and problems with my ISP server kept me from posting for almost 2 weeks. I am over and done with cold & taxes but I still have not yet solved all the problems with my IPS server and the WordPress learning curve is a bit challenging for me! Anyhow, thank you for your patience and you need to know that I am really determined on posting regularly.

My offering today is a drawing/painting part of a new series that I am working on titled: ManyBody. This particular piece is dedicated to François Bedin who passed away a few weeks ago. In my hometown of Luchon, François was mostly known as “Petit Pois” -Little Pea-! The story goes that when in boarding school –with my older brother Pierre– he ate such a big plate of “Petit Pois” that he was almost never called by his real name again! He was a great friend and a very a smart and funny character.

ManyBody-Petit Pois

A higher resolution available at: https://www.nicolepeyrafitte.com/manybody/petitpois.jpg

1 … 8 9 10 11