Yahoo Tuning Groups Ultimate Backup tuning someone posted this to the gamelan list/thought i would forward

>From LA Weekly,ARTstuff by Doug Harvey

I always thought that gay drunk hobo Harry Partch (also a noted
composer,
inventor of new instruments and purveyor of mythological spectacle)
should
have had as big an influence on contemporary classical music as say,
Stravinsky. Kraig Grady seems to think so too, but rather than campaign
for
a change in the contemporary musical landscape, Grady simply invented
his
own. As liaison for the Isle of Anaphoria, a sort of ideal Indonesian
atoll
apparently populated by an anarcho-syndicalist collective of artists,
theater people, experimental musicians and ethnomusicologists, Grady has

overseen the dissemination of Anaphorian culture in the L.A. area for
just
over a decade. This has entailed a broad range of activities including
performances and recordings of Anaphoriaï¿½s droning or percussive
traditional
music, the voluminous and endlessly fascinating Web site at
www.anaphoria.com, and, most recently, a series of shadow plays
reenacting
Anaphorian mythology.

As a fan of both microtonal music (where instead of 12 tones in an
octave
you have 24, or 96, or 666 or, if I understand correctly in this case,
12
slightly different tones) and imaginative narrative umbrellas that
collect
wide-ranging art practices ï¿½ la the Museum of Jurassic Technology, I was

well-prepared to enjoy Frenzy at the Royal Threshold at the Norton Simon

October 24. The music was amazing, particularly the deep ringing notes
of
the enormous xylophonelike Mt. Mesa instruments ï¿½ only the most
impressive
of the homemade instruments used in the performance. It was hard to
believe
that the complex music ï¿½ emerging from behind the backlit scrim ï¿½ was
live,
partly improvised, without electronic amplification, and performed by
the
same people handling the puppets backstage. The visuals were almost as
impressive, ranging from cut-out puppets similar to the familiar ancient

Indonesian variety to swirling optical effects suited to psychedelic
light
shows of the ï¿½60s. The narrative ï¿½ a sweet mishmash of the kinds of
Hindu
love stories Joseph Campbell was always spewing ï¿½ was a little fuzzy in
spots, but the fact that much of the dialogue was ad-libbed gave the
performance a thrilling improvisational edge.

Afterward, the performers emerged from behind the screen lugging
puppets,
some instruments and even one of the patched-together light boxes.
Frenzy
finally won me over by the fact that it was so strongly reminiscent of
the
kind of theater that I encountered in public school in the 1970s ï¿½
grant-funded multicultural puppetry performed by DIY hippies that was
far
stranger than it seemed at the time. Itï¿½s a form that deserves reviving,
and
the Shadow Theater of Anaphoria has nailed it ï¿½ right down to the
informal
Q&A. The oddest thing is that they only do these performances
occasionally
and seldom repeat material. The next oneï¿½s set for the Pacific Asia
Museum
in May. Mark your calendars now.

-- -Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island
http://www.anaphoria.com
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU 88.9 FM WED 8-9PM PST

hi Kraig,

congratulations on the nice write-up!

-monz

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, kraig grady <kraiggrady@a...> wrote:
> >From LA Weekly,ARTstuff by Doug Harvey
>
> I always thought that gay drunk hobo Harry Partch (also
> a noted composer, inventor of new instruments and purveyor
> of mythological spectacle) should have had as big an
> influence on contemporary classical music as say,
> Stravinsky. Kraig Grady seems to think so too, but
> rather than campaign for a change in the contemporary
> musical landscape, Grady simply invented his own.
>
> <etc. -- snip>

someone posted this to the gamelan list/thought i would forward

🔗kraig grady <kraiggrady@anaphoria.com>

🔗monz <monz@attglobal.net>

🔗Joseph Pehrson <jpehrson@rcn.com>

🔗Alison Monteith <alison.monteith3@which.net>