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Hark! The Charleston odyssey continues, and each ongoing day the prospect of heading back to Houston becomes more and more depressing! At the moment, the plan is to seal ourselves in an icy lair whilst watching movies and cooking great food for about 3 weeks.
As for Charleston, we’re now at the tried and true stage, having made our way through 90 percent of our food list, sights list, and shows list. We’re having a blast, and I guess it should be nothing but a pleasure that grabbing coffee and a pastry and heading out to 2 or 3 shows a night has become the norm.
Last night I went and saw Proserpina for a second non-dress-rehearsal show, with Bella along and this time, with a real live audience. And it was stunning! Whereas I was somewhat overwhelmed the first time around, by the angst and the swaying music and bare stage directions, this time I got completely lost in the lushness of the music, the women’s chorus that veered somewhere between medieval and morton feldman, the tuba/trumpet/flute trio that signified all the men in the play, Jupiter and Pluto and a sense of unspeakable evil. What really boggled my mind was that this music was written last year, and yet it sounds different than most any other contemporary music I’ve heard. It sounds memorable. I’ve heard music like it before, but Rihm collects styles, effects, and colors and makes them complete in a way that is incredibly rare. So much contemporary music seems suffused with a spirit of nonchalance or flippancy or crippling immodesty, but Rihm’s music felt important. And that counts for something big.
On the flip side of things, we went and saw Die Roten Punkte, a comedy-cabaret-punk act consisting of two australians (there, the secret is out!) who are pretending to be a german brother-and-sister punk act, modeled on the White Stripes. (Their name translates as the Red Dots…) I went because the concept seemed so strange. What kind of crossover is there between German culture, punk music, and comedy? More than I thought, at least. They put on a show that was eclectic and fun, with jokes centered on sibling rivalry, alcohol consumption, and ridiculous song lyrics. They used audience interaction, having us dance and talk, as well as ruthlessly mocking those who thought fit to slip away mid-performance. But…it never fully came together. I was rooting for them, for their bravery and daring, trying for a new concept. But their songs hit one note of laughter and then kept at it like those awful skits on SNL. One song was entitled “oh my god, yeah,” which, sung in a spirited pyschotic way by drummer Astrid was almost surreally brilliant but also slightly annoying. Another was entitled, “I am not a robot, I am a lion,” and after the 4th roar, well, I got it.
Ah, to brighter things. We also saw the polish jazz pianist Leszlek Mozdzer play a really nice hour-long set in a small theater on the College of Charleston campus. It was smooth jazz meets Chopin meets piano cluster meets John Cage. He couldn’t help but put all sorts of objects inside the piano, from a rag to a bottle to books, and sometimes the results were great, especially when used for synth-like effect with these Euro-jazzy ostinatos, acting as bass, percussion, and melody. Though Bella thought the music got a little tired at a certain point, I could listen to piano improvisation all day!
And we found the edge of the world, in Charleston. A little lighthouse at the edge of Folly Beach, overrun by pelicans and dolphins, and absolute beauty.
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