Franklin Furnace’s Goings On
December 9, 2004
CONTENTS:
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1. Heidi Arneson, FF Alumn, nominated for Alpter Award, and more
2. Barry Wallenstein, FF Alumn, at Cornelia St. Café, Dec 22, 6 pm
3. Billy X. Curmano, FFAlumn, at the Lantern, Winona MN, Dec 11, and more
4. Simba Vangala at Satala, NY, Dec 31st
5. Peter Grzybowski, FF Alumn, in Krakow, Poland, Dec 10 – 11, 6 pm
6. Mike Asente, FF Alumn, in Brooklyn and Brussels, Belgium, thru Dec 11, and more
7. Harley Spiller, FF Alumn, in The New York Times, Dec 8
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1. Heidi Arneson, FF Alumn, nominated for Alpter Award, and more
Greetings.
Heidi Arneson, a Minneapolis solo performance artist,has been anonymously nominated as a candidate for the prestigious 2004-2005 Alpert Award in the Arts for Theater.
The Award in Theater is one of five $50,000 prizes given annually to an early mid-career mid-career artist who is engaged in making well, how to say this: in short, astonishing work. The other Awards are being given in Dance, Film/Video, Music and Visual Arts.
Ten experienced artists and arts professionals working in Theater from around the country have each recommended two outstanding candidates for the Award. These nominators were selected for their knowledge of contemporary art practices and their integrity as well as for their aesthetic, ethnic, geographic and gender diversity. They remain anonymous. Ms. Arneson is one of twenty artists nominated in for the Alpert Award in Theater from across the US. The final recipient of the Award will be announced in spring of 2005. for further info, contact www.alpertawards.org
and
Next Heidi House Workshop: January 3-24, 2005, 4 Mondays, 6:30-8:30pm, Patrick’s Cabaret, 3010 Minnehaha Ave S, Mpls. Cost: $100. Further info follows: The Heidi House Performance Workshop How do we create live performance? The Heidi House Performance Workshop, led by artist Heidi Arneson, is a safe space where people of all levels write and perform solo work for the stage. Each class consists of physical and vocal warm ups, writing and relaxation exercises, and live performance. The main purpose of the workshop is to free the creative spirit. This workshop is ideal for adults who wish to break through barriers, take risks, expand their voice, and improve public speaking skills in a supportive, process-based atmosphere. Participants include writers, dancers, visual artists, actors, teachers, community organizers, and people with no previous experience onstage. The focus is on creating performance, but the workshop often has a therapeutic effect.
“Transformative! I learned to tap into my creative energy, relate to an audience and test my ideas with a nurturing group of classmates.” -Susan Lieberman, Executive Dir., Leland Johnson Common Vision
“Liberating! This Workshop made me passionate and enthusiastic, enlivened my spirit and improved my speaking ability 100%.”-Joe Selvaggio, Founder of PPL
“The best class I’ve taken yet! Heidi created an energy and vitality, a sense of support and warmth among the participants that I’ve never experienced before.” -Amy Salloway, Writer/Performer
Next Workshop: January 3-24, 2005
4 Mondays, 6:30-8:30pm, Patrick’s Cabaret, 3010 Minnehaha Ave S, Mpls. Cost: $100. 612 333-6816 or Heidihouse1@yahoo.com To reserve space, mail fee to: Heidi House, 1916 S 8th St #1 Mpls MN 55454. Full fee due first day of class. Wear comfortable clothing; bring notebook, pen and water. Class size limited to 12.
Heidi Arneson is a multi-disciplinary performance artist renowned for one-woman plays about childhood, sexuality and American archetypes. She has performed as featured artist at Franklin Furnace and Dixon Place in New York, N.A.M.E. in Chicago, Cleveland Performance Art Festival in Cleveland, The Bug in Denver, Ace Arts in Winnipeg, Wagon Train Project in Lincoln Nebraska, and at nearly every venue in the Twin Cities, including the Weisman, the Walker, The Southern, the Jungle and Red Eye. She is a recipient of the Bush Artist Fellowship, Franklin Furnace Emerging Artist Award (NY), Core Alumna of the Playwrights’ Center and 2005 Theater nominee for the prestigious Alpert Award in the Arts (CA). A section of her work will be published in the fall of 2005 in New Monologues for Women by Women, (Heinemann Books). She has taught led her workshops since 1994, for colleges, artist meetings, elementary schools, churches and forums on diversity, at Augs burg College, Mpls College of Art and Design, the College of St. Thomas, The Loft, Patrick’s Cabaret, Dixon Place, Grace Trinity Church, Mercy College and Tesseract International School.
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2. Barry Wallenstein, FF Alumn, at Cornelia St. Café, Dec 22, 6 pm
THE CORNELIA STREET CAFÉ presents An Evening of Poetry and Music
John Hicks (piano)
Barry Wallenstein (poetry)
plus
The Eric Plaks Five
Ken Simon – tenor sax
David Walker – guitar
Eric Plaks – piano
Ariel de la Portilla – bass
Jon Panikkar – drums
Wednesday, December 22nd, 2004 6pm
Cornelia St. Café
29 Cornelia St.
(Between Bleeker St. & W. 4th
just west of 6th Ave.)
(212) 989-9319
[$10 cover ( includes one drink)
$7 for students]
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3. Billy X. Curmano, FFAlumn, at the Lantern, Winona MN, Dec. 11, and more
Art Works USA and The Green Lantern are pleased to present the New X: Xmas; Gala Holidaze Show, December 11, 8 p.m. at the Lantern, 571 East Third Street, Winona. Festivities begin with a round of experimental music followed by a free jazz concert from the latest incarnation of the New X Art Ensemble featuring the Amazing Tess Toster Tones.
When you’ve finally had enough commercial Christmas fare – nobody – but nobody – deconstructs Christmas like New X. Arguments, and nearly a fist fight, broke out in the isolated farm house that serves as the world headquarters for the New X Art Ensemble – at just the thought of a Christmas recording. That was until it was plain to hear it wouldn’t be just another Christmas cash cow – or God forbid – a “sell out” – not even an Elvis Christmas. It would take a decidedly different twist and be recorded right there in the living room on a boombox and good old Fostex four track.
It turned out the boys in the band liked it so much they decided to re-release it on compact disc with all its low tech anti-commercial charm. Their engineer was aghast, at first thinking, filter this; filter that – until he got it – and realized he had too preserve the spirit of deconstruction and retain that funky, down home farm house quality.
Here’s what Mike Starling had to say about the 1993 cassette only release of “New X: Xmas” in the indie rag, “LAX”:
“Xmas is the follow-up to last year’s cassette, ‘Culture Run Amok’, and features the same blend of low-tech spoken word/avant garde jazz pieces and odd instrumental versions of well known classics (in this case, songs like ‘Silent Night’ and ‘Little Drummer Boy’ which with New X becomes ‘Little Drummer/Insane Drummer Boy’).
“A word of caution: If Bing Crosby singing “White Christmas” or Andy Williams singing about chestnuts and open fires is your cup of Christmas carol tea, avoid this tape! However, if musicmakers like Ornette Coleman and the Art Ensemble of Chicago appeal to you, this may be just the weirded-out take on holiday music you’re looking for.”
They’ve added some graphics for the CD Re-release, but retained the smart black & white cover from the original cassette recording along with the disclaimer:
WARNING! BOOMBOX RECORDING! CD SISSIES NEED NOT BUY!
It was recorded in the living room at the eXperimental Art Research Terminal (XART) of Art Works USA on boomboxes and a little ol’ Fostex 4 track. But don’t be alarmed, unless you’re a techno sound purist, “Xmas” is sure to charm. It includes the Christmas favorites: “Li’l Drummer/Insane Drummer Boy”, “Endless Xmas Medleys” I, II and III and “Thgin Tnelis”.
New X is an evolving free-jazz collective founded by Curmano, Hunt and Smith. It expands and contracts easily and currently boasts the area’s most avant garde horn section “The Amazing Tess Toster Tones”. For the 1993 recording, New X was: Billy X. Curmano: Drums and Vibraphone; Shawn Dalton: Bass and Conga; James B. Quick Degnan: Trumpet and Horns; D.L. Hunt: French Horn and Steve Smith: Reeds. There were vocals and incidental percussion contributed by most everyone and exciting backing vocals on Comfort & Joy from RANDOM HARMONY.
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4. Simba Vangala at Satala, NY, Dec 31st
Hi every one
I know it the end of the year you’re receiving a lot of e-mails and right now i feel like one of the telemarketer but this is good.If you are looking for the best way to finish this year you should come at Satala on December 31.The band from Zaïre/Democratic Republic of Congo, Soukous Stars will be shakin New York City to the beat of Soukous music.And i will be performing with them you can’t miss this.
Here is the address:
37 W 26 Street,NYC
B/T 6 AV & Broadway
(212) 576-1155
Advance Tix: www.smarttix.com
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5. Peter Grzybowski, FF Alumn, in Krakow, Poland, Dec 10 – 11, 6 pm
‘Kesher Pe Gimel’
New performance art project in Poland. Cutting edge performances in Kazimierz, historic Jewish section of Krakow. Featuring: Dariusz Fodczuk, Pawel Gorecki, Artur Grabowski, Peter Grzybowski, Angel Pastor, Jed Speare, Antoni Szoska, Artur Tajber
Friday, December 10 and Saturday December 11, 2004 at 6 PM
‘3 po 3’ pub, ul Berka Joselewicza 6, Krakow, Poland
Curated by Peter Grzybowski
more information: www.grzybowski.org/kesher.html
kesher@grzybowski.org
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6. Mike Asente, FF Alumn, in Brooklyn and Brussels, Belgium, thru Dec 11, and more
Mike Asente
MoltiMultipli – group exhibition of multiples
Center for Contemporary Non-Objective Art (CCONA)
11/26 – 12/19/04
5 Boulevard Barthelemylaan, B-1000 Brussels
T & F: (32-2) 502 69 12
E: ccnoa.annex@belgacom.net
11/26 – 12/19/04
And
The same multiple(mine) available in Brussels will also be available at GV/AS in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. One weekend only, December 10-11-12. Everything is to be under $100 at this gallery’s Xmas show. 140 Franklin St. (corner of Greenpoint Ave.) Brooklyn Gallery hours: Fri-Sat-Sun, 1-7pm www.gv-as.com (718) 389-6847
Moltimultipli opening 26/11/2004, 18.00 – 21.00 27/11/2004 – 19/12/2004 Friday – Sunday . Vrijdag – Zondag . Vendredi – Dimanche 14.00 – 18.00 CCNOA Center for Contemporary Non-Objective Art
5 Boulevard Barthelemylaan
B-1000 Brussels
T & F: (32-2) 502 69 12
E: ccnoa.annex@belgacom.net
W: www.ccnoa.org; www.earwitness.de.vu
CCNOA is pleased to announce the group exhibition molti multipli featuring multiples and editions by 65 Belgian and international artists. Some of the works have been especially conceived for the CCNOA Publication Program and will be published on our web-site www.ccnoa.org from December 2004 on.
The exhibition is organized in cooperation with Galerie Bernhard Knaus, Mannheim (D), Galerie de Multiples, Paris (F), Galerie Paolo Boselli, Brussels (B), dependance, Brussels (B), Radcliffe & Brothers Publishers, Knokke-Heist (B), Rocket Gallery, London (GB), and Vous Etes Ici, Amsterdam (NL).
artists
Matilde Alessandra (I/B)
John Armleder (CH)
Mike Asente (USA)
Tim Ayres (GB)
John Beech (GB/USA)
Marcus Bering (D/B)
Maria Blondeel (B)
Lucia Bru (B)
John Cage & Lois Long (USA)
Jeanine Cohen (B)
Christoph Dahlhausen (D)
Julian Dashper (NZ)
Pierre Delaunois (B)
Alexandra Dementieva (R/B)
Simona Denicolai & Ivo Provoost (I/B)
Dialogist-Kantor (E/B)
Lieve D’hondt (B)
Rudolf de Crignis (CH/USA)
Willy de Sauter (B)
Lise Duclaux (F/B)
Günter Förg (D)
Robert Fosdick (USA)
Zipora Fried (A/USA)
Agnes Geoffray (F/B)
Jerome Giller (F/B)
Robert Glaubit (USA)
Daniel Göttin (CH)
Kyle Jenkins (AUS)
Imi Knoebel (D)
Tilman Küntzel (D)
Monique Luchetti (USA)
Ingo Meller (D)
Gerold Miller (D)
Müller – Emil (CH)
Annick Nölle (D/B)
Blinky Palermo (D)
Lucie Renneboog (B)
Benjamin Riviere (F)
Perry Roberts (GB/B)
Gwendoline Robin (B)
Gerwald Rockenschaub (A/D)
Rombouts & Droste (B/PL)
Kurt Ryslavy (A/B)
Karin Sander (D)
Andreas Karl Schulze (D)
Rebecca Smith (USA)
Chris Straetling (B)
Dominique Thirion (B)
David Thomas (AUS)
Tilman (D/B)
Günter Tuzina (D)
Alan Uglow (GB/USA)
Jan van der Ploeg (NL)
Freddy van Parys (B)
Philippe Van Snick (B)
Angel Vergara (E/B)
Piki & Liesbet Verschueren (B)
Emmanuelle Villard (F/B))
Lars Wolter (D)
Laetitia Yalon & Marc Rossignol (B)
Max Yawney (USA)
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7. Harley Spiller, FF Alumn, in The New York Times, Dec 8
This week’s New York Times “Dining” pages ran a feature story (text repeated below) involving Harley Spiller, FF Alumn. The story, with photographs, can be viewed for free through December 14th at http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/08/dining/08MARC.html
Hold the Risotto, Make It Fried Rice, by William Grimes
When Marcella Hazan comes to New York, Italian food is not uppermost on her mind.
She teaches it, of course, as she did recently at the French Culinary Institute. And she eats plenty of it, at the ceremonial meals honoring her role as perhaps the premier interpreter of Italian cuisine for Americans. She talks about it nonstop, especially these days with the publication of her sixth book, “Marcella Says,” (Harper Collins, $29.95), an outpouring of her classroom thoughts and advice.
But whenever she gets a chance to break away from the risottos and braised veal, she and her husband, Victor, eat Chinese.
It’s no exaggeration to say that if it weren’t for Chinese food, there would be no Marcella Hazan as the world knows her today. (More on this in a moment.) So when I heard that the Hazans would be in town for two weeks, I jumped at the chance to tear them away from the usual round of all-Italian celebrations and head down to Chinatown.
For assistance, I called on Harley Spiller, who has made a life’s study of the local restaurants, and who recently organized an exhibition of his Chinese menus at the Museum of Chinese in the Americas. I wanted to spring some surprises, and Mr. Spiller, I knew from experience, has a lot of them up his sleeve.
First, the Hazan-China connection. Almost 40 years ago, while living in New York, Mrs. Hazan and her husband were treated to a meal at Pearl’s, one of the city’s finest Chinese restaurants. It was love at first bite for Mrs. Hazan. She signed up for cooking classes with the renowned Grace Chu, the wife of a former Chinese Nationalist official who had attracted a devoted following among the city’s well-to-do eager to penetrate the mysteries of Chinese cuisine. Unfortunately, Madame Chu, as she was known, left abruptly for China, abandoning her class. But in the meantime, she had planted a seed.
“I learned that you could teach cooking,” Ms. Hazan said as we drove toward Canal Street. It was a good lesson to learn, because her fellow students, desperate to continue their culinary education, decided that Italian food would be fun. All eyes turned to Mrs. Hazan, who, overnight, made the leap from student to teacher.
There were a few bumps along the way. “I didn’t know anything about Americans,” Mrs. Hazan recalled. “Can you imagine, I wanted to cook lamb kidneys.” She laughed at the memory. “I brought a bowl of squid out one day, and people just screamed,” she said. Before too long, Craig Claiborne, then the food editor of The New York Times, got wind of Mrs. Hazan’s classes and dropped by for a visit. The rest is history, which Mrs. Hazan has commemorated by dedicating her book to Madame Chu and Mr. Claiborne.
Fast forward to the present, corner of East Broadway and Forsythe Street. With Mr. Spiller in lead position, we headed in a pack down the stairs of the indoor mall below the Manhattan Bridge. There, deep in the back, are a small kitchen counter and a few tables and chairs. English is not spoken, but Mr. Spiller, a regular, put together a plate of stuffed seeded buns (the house specialty), a heap of noodles, and a cold appetizer of crab on vinegar-braised seaweed. As a palate cleanser, he ordered a bowl of unidentified broth.
The buns, a kind of Chinese bagel, fried rather than boiled, are large, chewy and fresh, with an even coating of sesame seeds. The two stuffings on that day were mustard greens, chopped into small pieces, and cabbage braised in Chinese red wine. They were a hit. The mustard greens, which retained a fresh crunch, delivered a nice fiery bite. The cabbage oozed with syrupy red wine sauce, a kind of vegetarian barbecue. “This cook really knows how to fry,” Mrs. Hazan said.
Mr. Spiller, who offered a running commentary as we ate, said: “They make these in northern China and stuff them with seasonal ingredients. I’m confused, though, because the cooks here are from Fujian.”
The buns seemed Italian to Mrs. Hazan, but so does a lot of Chinese food. “There are a lot of similarities, much more so than between French and Italian,” she said. How so? “Well, for one thing, the French don’t have pasta,” she said. In Italian cooking, sauces season the pasta, which is also analogous to the Chinese approach. “And stir-frying is a little like the way we deal with sautéed vegetables.” Like the Italians, she added, the Chinese do not create a hierarchy among dishes, whereas French meals coalesce around a main course. Later, she pulled out a Kleenex and folded it delicately into a tortellini, then a won ton wrapper. “See?” she said.
The crab, chopped into small pieces with the shell still on, is a Shanghai dish, although spicy in Shanghai and sweetly vinegary here. The flat, fettucine-like noodles put both Hazans in home territory. There’s nothing to the dish. Peanut butter is thinned down until it becomes a thin glaze coating each noodle, resulting in a much more pleasing texture than the usual cold, gummy sesame noodles. The broth is mysterious. “To tell the truth, I don’t know what’s in it,” Mr. Spiller confessed.
Mr. Hazan did not mind. “In general, you shouldn’t ask what’s in broth,” he said.
Onward to Dumpling House on Eldridge Street. Fried dumplings, five for a dollar, make up 90 percent of the menu here. The star attraction is a long crescent-shaped dumpling stuffed with pork and chives, cooked by the batch in a huge wok until it browns on the bottom and is crunchy at the edges. The chef has mastered the technique of grabbing five at a time, gently squeezing them between his fingers, and arranging them quickly in concentric circles in the wok. Dumpling House is narrow, barely large enough for us to squeeze in. It’s more like dumpling hut. Mrs. Hazan, who had managed to sneak outside for a cigarette, surveyed the surroundings and zeroed in on what looked like a pizza going by. It was a Beijing-style flatbread fried on the bottom, sprinkled with sesame on top and, at Dumpling House, sliced open and stuffed with a sort of tuna salad jazzed up with minced carrot, cilantro, Worcestershire sauce and a half dozen other ingredients. It was served in triangles, and it was delicious.
Mrs. Hazan disapproved. “I don’t feel like I’m eating Chinese food,” she said. “I don’t like it when a restaurant does things because they think the clients want it that way.” It’s a lot better, however, than the Chinese food available in Long Boat Key, Fla., her home for the last four and a half years. “They have three Chinese restaurants, and each one is worse than the other,” she said. Now 80, she has had to abandon her beloved Venice. Too many steps. But she found a small hint of it when we headed to Yogee Noodle on Chrystie Street. Mr. Spiller ordered sliced conch in a sauce with yellow chives and sliced carrots, a heaping platter of sautéed snow-pea leaves with garlic, fish dumplings and rice baked in parchment paper with dried scallops, chicken and squid.
The conch, sliced very thin, brought back pleasant Venetian memories. When the Hazans visited Venice not long ago, they played host to Nobu Matsuhisa, showing him, for the first time in his life, the city’s fish markets. Mr. Hazan regarded a slice of conch and reminisced. “We have smaller ones there, called garusoli locally,” he said. “In Italian, they’re murici. They’re the size of a large thumb, and they have a livery taste.”
The fish dumplings, in fish broth, were an intriguing failure. Fresh fish is worked into the dough, for a double-fish effect, but the day we were there, the dough was heavy and chewy. Mrs. Hazan looked distressed. The explanation might lie at the next table. It was going on toward 3 o’clock, and the chefs were all eating next to us.
“I think the dishwasher might have made the dumplings,” Mr. Hazan said. This is a private Hazan joke, based on an eating disaster at an Italian trattoria many years ago.
Mr. Hazan’s palate, and his ear, are crucial to the Hazan enterprise. It works like this: Mrs. Hazan cooks, experiments, tries new ideas and doesn’t write down or use any measurements.
“We decide what is the subject, and I’ll write some notes,” Mrs. Hazan said. “I am very impulsive, and I do it very fast, otherwise I’ll lose the thread.”
Mr. Hazan brings method and order to the process, measuring and translating stovetop creativity into the written recipe, with Mrs. Hazan’s commentary.
When the last of the snow-pea leaves disappeared, that was it. A three-stop lunch seemed like the limit. Mrs. Hazan got Mr. Spiller’s phone number for future tips on places to go. Lately, she has been sticking with Chin Chin on East 49th Street, convenient to her New York pied-à-terre, where she dotes on the lemon chicken. But East Broadway and environs have been a revelation. She may be back. Mrs. Hazan headed outside for a last cigarette, which she puffed tranquilly on the sidewalk, then linked arms with her husband and headed back uptown.
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Goings On are compiled weekly by Harley Spiller
Click http://www.franklinfurnace.org/goings_on.html
to visit ‘This Month’s World Wide Events’.
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