Re: Transmissions Festival in Chicago

[Gregory Taylor <gtaylor@xxxxxxxx>]

Okay. I should mention that I spent the week as a volunteer
staff person for the Transmissions Festival right up front, so
that there's no confusion. I got in touch with someone up front
about buying a festival pass [which I thought, at the time, was
a complete *steal* at $75. My last experience was the off-ICMC
in Berlin, and it was quite in line with that experience], which
led to some involvement on the part of the people alongside whom
I work (Cycling '74), and wound up with me working as just
another staffperson, hauling stuff up stairs, punching ADAT
buttons, and so on. This means that I didn't always have the
luxury of sitting still and listening as one would in the audience,
but I've no complaints. The person in question could, I think,
have simply made a phone call or two, done some useful work
with a really nice group of people, and seen whatever.

So I didn't pay to see stuff. I would have done so in a second.
I'd have dropped the price of a CD to see just about any 2 of
the 3 to 5 persons on the bill any night, and am frankly perplexed
by r's outbursts. He's certainly entitled to kvetch about nearly
anything he wants, but my mileage varies. A lot.

Are all other shows in Chicago $3 or something? What
*should* a ticket for, what? six sets and Kevin Drumm
djing cost, for Pete's sake? That's just silly.

Mr. Warchol is only slightly mistaken on the performance
order for the evening. It was Sutekh, Kit, Noriko,
Dettinger, *Kevin Drumm* turning in an incandescent
DJ set which appears to actually have people edging
upstairs from the relentless bleeding technothump
downstairs to see what was going on, Monolake, and
then Hecker, whose set he probably missed. I should
also mention that our reviewer omitted mention of the
video by Sue Costabile, Giles, and Kit Clayton, along
with whoever produced Noriko's video stuff.

One of the more interesting features of the evenings to me
personally involved the juxtaposition of performances over
a given evening. It seemed quite clear that some real attention
was given to structuring the sequence of performances. I
enjoyed the conceptual crosstalk greatly.

I sure hope there's another one next year. If so, I'll be
digging trenches to lay lightpipe for 'em. If I don't, I'll
be happily paying for it, and figuring that my Europals
will be green with envy at the lineup and the nice tix
prices. I came curious. I leave a partisan.

Finally, one other serendipitous discovery which may
prove to be worth the price of admission at some future
point - the ever-debonair Richard Chartier's illumination
solution, which was news to me. What an utterly elegant
solution to something that dogs me every time I go out
into the world. Why didn't *I* think of it? I'd be sipping
Booker's and branch on the terrace at Cafe de Jaren as a
man of leisure, happy in the thought that I'd done something
useful for humanity.

http://store.powerbook1.com/mceusbflex.html

gregory

P.S. I finally know how loud Richard Chartier's work
should be! Hoorah!
_
knowledge is not enough/science is not enough/
love is dreaming/this equation/Gregory Taylor/
WORT-FM 89.9/Madison, WI/ http://www.rtqe.net/