This week, passerby's smelled a super dank lily, Lia smacked tiny babies off Lexi, the audience played fill in the blank, Phil and Lexi created an extreme moment of actual awkward shame, and Ryan and Zane brought in the magic via white gloves.
Monday April 17th
Title: "Smell this lily, like actually"
Instructions: Put out the Lily your uncle victor got you for Easter that has two juicy, blooming flowers. Put up a sign that says "Smell this lily while I play piano," then play piano behind the curtain for 15 minutes.
Why? The lily smells so good.
Rehearsal Discoveries: Did not rehearse or warm up fingers much really. Had about 1 minute of a piano warm up which made the experience for me not so great in comparison to structuring or practicing piano more ahead of time. I debated about playing a metronome and leading people in a guided breathing exercise with the smell, but decided to go for the more hands-off approach. I'm very glad for the mystery of being behind the piano.
Performance Write Up: Janelle, shark guy dinosaur, and Lia were there encouraging passerby's to smell the lily as well. I could hear people talking and tried to stay focused on the task of playing the piano. I was judging my piano playing most of the time and stuck in a weird D Major G Lydian realm with random accidentals and fingers that weren't behaving the way I wanted them to. A little phlegmy today and sickish, so let's blame some of the mental fuzz on that. Damn, that lily smells so good.
View on youtube here-->> https://youtu.be/sBdozkR3wjY
Tuesday April 18th
Title: "Echeveria Slaps Back" Feat Lia Trageser
Instructions: This is a commentary performance/sequel to the show Echeveria Slaps . Lia's husband witnessed the show and recounted it to her back in July 2022. She had the idea of revenge plot twist where the Echeveria slaps tiny babies off a human instead o human slapping thick leaves off echeveria variety.
Why? Revenge, as detailed above. To bring to life any and all worthy ideas.
Rehearsal Discoveries: Before the performance, Lia and I discussed the concept of the tiny babies on me being imaginary. They are little tikes of potential, seen by the echeveria only, who wishes to produce evolution in the unbeknownst human.
Performance Write Up: This is circumstantially interesting, given the difference of life force, art energy gusto taking place in me, personally in July 2022 verses this time April 2023. I was definitely pretty beat up from this project plus minor levels of insanity, and reversing from the role of "she who inspires" to "she who is inspired" was pretty fitting. This was also Lia's first performance at Tenam, and she has been probably the most attended person since the start of this performance art series. Having witnessed so many, I wonder where her head was at about the meaning of it all. We've talked a lot about existentialism. She as a nurse, witnesses life and death scenarios often. I believe a part of her knows she was ritualistically calling me back into action.
View on youtube here-->> https://youtu.be/0a8H5mIAkhA
Wednesday April 19th
Title: "Wait a second"
Instructions: Play kalimba. Think of something to say which poses a fill in the blank opportunity for the audience. Once an idea comes to mind, interrupt kalimba playing to say, "Wait a second...." and follow with the prompt.
Why? This was originally inspired by a moment with Sergey where we spoke out loud these statements.
Lexi: Wait a second, is this, is this a delightful place? Is abundance everywhere?
Sergey: Is everything brilliant?
Lexi: Is it all just brilliant and delightful?
I thought the performance would be reiterating this, but somewhere in my mind, I was dissatisfied or unable to come to terms with performing that concept. It became a task of prompting the audience to fill in the blank.
Rehearsal Discoveries: The instructions were discovered the morning of since I could not get myself to perform original idea. I think I was struggling with authentic joy at the time.
Performance Write Up: Shark Guy Dinosaur was in the audience, so it was cute having an interactive audience member. It's a really sweet responsibility to have when you prompt the imagination of others.
View on youtube here-->> https://youtu.be/6KV8A-RrKyU
Thursday April 20th
Title: "Awkward Shame" Feat Phil Bowden and Lexi Pulido
Instructions: Lexi plays drums. Phil plays synth.
Why? We were jamming at Sergey's and Leah Bowden the drummer was there. I felt awkward shame playing the drums because I don't practice the drums.
Listen to this tale through the link below. It is QUITE a tale.
View on youtube here-->> https://youtu.be/CfCZwxlN2-8
Friday April 21st
Title: "White Glove Delivery" Feat Zane Alexander and Ryan Ebaugh
Ryan is watching a sleepy cartoon. A man on a mission (Zane) pulls his truck up to the nearest parking lot spot wearing white gloves (socks) to deliver a saxophone to Ryan. While Ryan sets up his saxophone, Zane drives away to later reappear after much sweet, sleepy saxophone music. The white gloved (socked) man reappears to play along with an arsenal of harmonicas. The two duet onward to the finale, a harmonious peak of summation.
Zane: What was your favorite part?
Ryan: My favorite part was that overtone I hit.
......*more dialogue difficult to hear*....
Zane: I liked switching between the harmonicas. I like that I went from G to Bb harmonica, to both of them at the same time, and then back to Bb and then G I think?
View on youtube here-->> https://youtu.be/J1Ude0O1tSQ
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