Below is our busy Spring schedule.
For all the clickable links go to: Spring schedule
If you are smart phone savvy then : voilà le QRCode!
Happy Spring to y’ll & we sure hope to see you here or there.
PJ & NP
From Pierre Joris’ blog Nomadics:
Ody Roos’ Homage to Chris Marker
August 20th, 2012 · Film, Homage, ObituariesOn the way back to NYC from the Pyrenees we stopped over in Paris for two days & spent a fair amount of time with my old friend, the Luxembourgian film maker Ody Roos. Talk of course went immediately to the sad news of his friend Chris Marker’s death — then Ody pulled a thumbdrive from his pocket & handed it to me. It contained an homage video he had put together on/at the funeral. He couldn’t put the whole thing up on Youtube as he had projected, because of objections by some of the included persons, but allowed Nicole & me to extract the scenes in which he talks about Marker’s art. We subtitled them & here it is:
Homage to Chris Marker from Tawil Productions on Vimeo.
N.P from “Bi-Valve” Series: “Concha Brava” 2011
Hello to you all!
How have you been since the “Infinite Views”? I have not been able to post & you will find out why below. I hope to be able to post while in New Orleans as I would like to continue the series I started there: Temps/Oralité #I & Temps/Oralité #II. Pierre & I will be there for a week during MARDI GRAS! On Thursday April 23rd Pierre Joris, John Sinclair and his Blues Scholars, & I will be reading/performing at the infamous 17 Poets Series!
Thursday February 23th 7:30pm
17 Poets Series
The GoldMine Saloon
701 Dauphine,
Corner of St. Peter and Dauphine
French Quarter
New Orleans
After the reading we will take a few days to travel to the Bayous. Pierre as been commissioned to write a libretto for a choir project coordinated by Donald Nally & involving the composers Chris Jonas, Joby Talbot & Gene Coleman. The topic of the project is about the BP Oil Disaster, & Pierre is trying to meet with communities of various ethnicity that have been affected by the spill.
There are two projects that have kept me away from the blog: the first one is Bi-Valve, a series of texts, paintings & recipes. The painting above is part of it. If you miss the Nola performance save the date for the New York City installment:
NICOLE PEYRAFITTE : BI-VALVE SOLO
Monday April 23rd
Evolving Voice / Evolving Music
107 Suffolk Street
Clemente Soto Velez – Educational & Cultural Center
New York, NY 10002
And the second project is cinematographic:
Late last fall I was commissioned by the Friends of Basil King to produce & co-direct with Miles Joris-Peyrafitte a 22-minute film depicting the intimacy between writing and painting in Basil King’s work, called BASIL KING: MIRAGE.
The camera will focus on drawn and written lines, and on images of his paintings that are reflections & counterpoint to a number of consequential periods in King’s life: his childhood during WWII in England, his four on-and-off years at Black Mountain College, his relationship with other writers such as Frank OʼHara and Paul Blackburn and with painters such as Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline…
Watch the 1 minute trailer below:
Basil King: Mirage Trailer on Vimeo.
The film will be premiered on September 22nd at the event celebrating Basil’s Arc: The Paintings & Poetics of Basil King. Meanwhile the Committee of the Friends of Basil King is raising money in order to finish the movie.
We made the trailer to give you a little taste of the film & if you would consider a donation (big or small — every little bit helps) you can DONATE HERE. Donors will be invited to the premiere. More info at: http://www.blog.basilking.net/
Voilà for now & looking forward to “Laissez le bon temps rouler!”
This summer has been very wet & overcast in the Pyrenees. I love being here no matter if it rains or shines, but some hikes require clear skies to be able to experience the 360 degree panoramic view of the Pyreneen mountain range. My friends Lori & Tom were visiting from Ithaca for a week, the skies were scheduled to be crystal clear for two days — perfect timing to get out & to the summit!
To be able to see the sun rise over the mountain range, wake up call is at 4:30am so we can leave the house by 5am. We are on schedule, a thermos of hot coffee, goat cheese, bread & a nice croustade from my favorite bakery in Luchon (rue Nérée Boubé) are all in the backpack. Hiking shoes & stick on hand, I slam the door shut, start walking towards the car when a sharp pain enters my foot: a roof nail punctured my sneakers and my foot!
Back to the house to remove shoe, nail, socks and notice that the puncture is not too bad. Once thoroughly disinfected, bandaged and foot secured in the hiking shoes I’ll be fine and can begin the journey. We drive to the port the Balès, park the car and start the hike in the night. The moon is already gone, the sky still very bright with stars. I am granted 3 beautiful shooting stars that I truly welcome as a healing omen after the nail in the foot! We will not make it on time on the top to see the sun break over the mountains but still I want to get to the top to get the full view. Lori is more eager to take picture of the rising sun from the Peirahitta (you can listen to the song I wrote about that place here) plus she is concerned about my foot — which is a bit sore, but the overpowering drive to get up there and experience the view that my ancestors have been looking at for thousand of years is irresistible.
We are on top of the Mont Né mountain at 2147m or 7049 feet high. The sun is just above the horizon the colors on the peaks are spectacular, the sun diffuses strokes of light slowly revealing the contours of the mountain range’s layers. A true sense of infinity.
The night before I left for a workshop with rhythm master Bernard Lubat in Uzeste, I made a tourin in our fire place. This soup of humble origin is mostly known as tourin à l’ail —sopa de ajo in Spanish or garlic soup in English. Many variations are possible & in this case I used the ingredients available in the house: 1 tomato, 1 head of garlic, 1 onion, old bread & goose fat.
In a cast iron dutch oven I thoroughly sauteed the thinly sliced onion in goose fat. Meanwhile I crushed 3 cloves of garlic & a sprig of fresh rosemary in the mortar. After adding them to the pot, I removed the latter from the heat to avoid bitterness — over-sauteed garlic becomes bitter. I crushed the tomato in the mortar & added it to the onion garlic mixture. With no stock available, I added plain water to obtain the desired consistency. Coarse sea salt, freshly ground pepper & a dash of piment d’Espelette are added for seasoning & then the pot is returned to the open fire for about 15/ 30 minutes.
With thick slices of old country-style bread rubbed with garlic & drizzled with goose fat lining the bottom of the plate, hot soup is poured in et voilà! le tour est joué & you get a magnificent & most satisfying soup. A beaten egg is often added before serving; this is especially enriching if you have only garlic to make the soup. Whoever needed canned soup? Pas moi!
