The Things They Carried By Tim O’Brien

Wednesday, November 2, 7:30pm Bowker Auditorium

General Admission: $15; FC, GCC, STCC and 17 & under $10

In this masterwork of contemporary literature the author Tim O’Brien shares his experiences surrounding the Vietnam War. He presents a blurred line between truth and reality, fact and fiction that makes his journey unforgettable.

This Literature to Life original features sixty minutes of verbatim performance from a unique and important piece of American Literature. Having been developed and premiered at Playhouse Square in Cleveland in collaboration with Mr. O’Brien, the actor leads us through five of the short stories from the book including The Rainy River and The Man I Killed.

In the book, The Things They Carried, the protagonist, Tim O’Brien, catalogs the variety of things his fellow soldiers in the Alpha Company brought on their missions. Several of these things are intangible, including guilt and fear, while others are specific physical objects, including matches, morphine, M-16 rifles, and M&M’s candy.

The Things They Carried is the 2011

On the Same Page Northampton book selection, a series of public events based on the themes of O’Brien’s work.

The Things They Carried stage presentation is supported in part by the Veterans Education Project .

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It takes a village to entertain visting artists

What a pleasure to have hosted Joshua Abrams, Frank Rosaly and Lisa Alvarado, Josh’s wife,  the last two days, culminating in a wonderful, intimate concert in the cavernous FAC Concert Hall on  Wednesday, Oct. 26.

When things go awry, it is certainly easier for producers who deal with improvisers to solve problems. When it was discovered that Bezanson Recital Hall was double-booked with a UMass Music Department concert, the Solos & Duos Series picked up stakes and moved (audience and performers alike) to the Concert Hall stage. With stage curtains drawn, and 80 of us on risers in a semi-circle around the musicians, the space was trance-formed into a deep listening room. When Frank Rosaly missed his flight (the drummer was at O’Hare, his plane was at Midway), and was on stand-by for the last flight out of Chicago that would get him to Amherst on time, Josh and I brainstormed about possible substitutes (Susie Ibarra, Cooper-Moore, Luther Gray). Thankfully, Frank made the flight, but that roll-with-the punch mentality made the potential crisis feel more like an opportunity.

It takes a village to entertain visiting artists. The night before the concert, Marty Ehrlich, the great reed player and Hampshire College professor, had dinner with Josh and Lisa before Josh led Marty’s music improvisation class. It was a rich two hours, and included a wonderful demonstration and lesson by Josh on the guimbri, the three-stringed animal hide bass traditionally used by the Gnawa of North Africa in healing ceremonies, a masterful duo improvisation between Marty (alto sax, clarinet) and Josh (bass), and the student ensemble performing with Josh as featured soloist. In response to a student’s question, they also listened to and dissected, Abrams’ piece, “Neb Nimaj Nero”, released on “Cipher” (Delmark, 2003). In stark contrast to much jazz pedagogy, this class had an open, creative-friendly feel. A good percentage of the students were in attendance for the concert.

Josh and Lisa’s trip to Northampton during the day yielded a sizable purchase at Feeding Tube Records and a chance hang with music luminaries, Byron Colley and Thurston Moore. A visit to Hungry Ghost Bakery, where Kieran Lally, official cook of the Solos & Duos Series, works, resulted in a healthy bread exchange.

The concert was a revelation. Abrams pieces on bass, including a tribute to his late mentor Fred Anderson and a composition of the great South African bassist, Johnny Dyani, had convincing blues sections and intricate rhythmic patterns, but by and large featured open, pan-tonal playing. The pieces played on guimbri, which few among us had heard before, featured Lisa on harmonium and resulted in endless, galloping, ever-evolving Saharan grooves. Rosaly’s drumming was busy but never over-powering, adding pulse and drive to an already intense situation. Rosaly, who I’ve heard on recordings with Aram Shelton, Dave Rempis and others, was an eye-opening experience. The bare bones kit he played was transformed by a parade of forks, rattles and gongs, into a tasty sound factory. Every scrape of the drum head, every dampened smack of a cymbal seemed essential, adding color and momentum to our collective ride.

Joshua Abrams and Frank Rosaly, calling themselves “Natural Information Society”, not only gave us a deeply moving evening of improvised music, but gave us every confidence that jazz has lost none of its voracious appetite for new instruments and traditions in its quest to transform human consciousness.

Glenn Siegel

Shantala Shivalingappa Swayambhu

Swayambhu

Friday, October 28, 8pm, Bowker Auditorium

Reserved Seating: $30, $15; FC, GCC, STCC and 17 & under $10

“Like the dancing glow of a flame which enlightens us”

–VOGUE, Paris

Treasured in both India and Europe, Shantala Shivalingappa is an acclaimed dancer and choreographer of kuchipudi, a 2,000-year-old classical style based on the Natya Shastra, an ancient codification of dance, music, and theater. She will perform Swayambhu her latest work bringing her background in Kuchipudi and the skills she has learned from the masters to a program of contrasts, at the same time swift and suspended, earthly and ethereal, symmetrical and asymmetrical. She will be accompanied by four classical musicians from Chennai, India

Swayambhu: (that which manifests by itself or, which appears spontaneously). In Sanskrit, this term refers to a stone or rock whose shape naturally resembles the features of deities, such as Ganesha, the elephant-headed God, or Shiva the Lord of Dance. On a more subtle note, Swayambhu is the spontaneous and sudden experience of an altered sense of reality. It is a moment of absolute lucidity, where Reality reveals its true nature: an infinite field of Unity, Fluidity, Energy. The dancer becomes an artisan-alchemist. She opens up her tool-kit, each element finely sharpened, weighed, admired, and then handled with infinite care, gentleness, love. She seeks the right combination of materials, which will give rise to a pure expression. A vision whose light has been calling, but whose form has never clearly shown itself, and which may now appear spontaneously, thanks to the magic of alchemy: for a fleeting moment, watch the veil of Illusion (Maya in Sanskrit) fall, and reveal the Infinite… It all depends on the success of the alchemy….

Born in India and raised in Paris, France, since the age of 13, Shantala has had the privilege of working with some of the greatest artists of our times: Maurice Béjart (“1789…et nous”), Peter Brook (for whom she played Miranda in “The Tempest” and Ophelia in “Hamlet”), Bartabas (“Chimère”), Pina Bausch (“O Dido”, “Néfès”, “Bamboo Blues and Sacre du Printemps ), Ushio Amagatsu (“Ibuki”) and the Kuchipudi Guru Vempati Chinna Satyam and from her mother Savitry Nair, also a noted Indian dancer.

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