18 March 2011

SHOWS! BIRTHDAYS! SHOWS!

MELA
COME AND CELEBRATE MY BIRTHDAY WITH ME!
Tuesday, April 12th
Barberry, Williamsburg
7pm

Friday, April 15th
with Laura Dunn and the Ghosts of xmas Past
Los Kabayitos Theater
8pm

Sea Teeth
Singing lead with Dana Levin's blues band
Monday, April 25th
Philadelphia, PA

3rd Rail
Saturday, April 30th
Bar East/Underscore, Upper East Side
7-9pm

13 February 2011

DATE CHANGE: Mugby Junction presents: MARCH Good Vibes Jam Session

NOTE: THIS EVENT WAS CANCELED LAST WEEKEND AND IS NOW HAPPENING SATURDAY, MARCH 5TH!

Mugby Junction, that is, Melanie Closs and Becca Schall, (a newly formed casual musical duo) present the second ever Good Vibes Jam!

We jammed out last month and I think all four participants agree it was a lot of fun and musically satisfying. We created some magic that night, let's do it again!

The way it works is, someone starts a groove or a chord progression, and we feel it, and we improv, and we don't worry about playing the ...wrong thing because HEY it's never been played before...

Bring friends/significant others, instruments, food/drinks, we'll all jam it out. beat boxing, vocalists, freestylers, flamenco, tap and belly dancers welcome! I have a bunch of instruments too- guitars, keyboard, ukulele, strumstick, recorders, egg shakers, a djembe and random percussive instruments...

The day: MARCH 5TH
The time: 7-11pm
The Place: My house (rsvp for details)

Please rsvp so I know what to plan for.

with HARMONY and GOOD VIBES-
Mel

Before Class

I feel so much so inside everything maybe a little so sure and so pure and
Never waiting only saying inside me there is a word, not my heart not my mind
It’s something deeper stronger more real than a soul to the depths of marrow
The underbelly of all that sings
All the sounds of vibration and all rolled into the Om of the fans and electricity generator
And crickets and echo school hall
The Om of students thinking and teachers complaining
The Om of the Great Holy Ganga and the boys and cows bathing to purify their own injustice of the touch to the woman or the slap of the wife of the anger of the girl child or the fantasy of the girl next door
Who I can never even touch because she is married.
If I wash it all away with all the other garbage in the city, then I will be pure
Holy
One with Om
(written in Anupshahr, India, June 2010)

27 January 2011

Green Theatre Collective Update



From the Green Theatre Collective newsletter:

Dear Friends,

I'm thrilled to tell you that Green Theatre Collective continues to grow. Keep chart of our progress via the GTC blog as we chronicle our activity over the next seven months. Our blog is now located on our website and can be found at: http://www.greentheatrecollective.org/blog.html.

Some quick GTC updates as well.

* On Wednesday January 26th(yesterday) GTC brought it's educational workshop The Green Scene to the kids in the after school program run by Kids Orbit at P.S. 8. The Green Scene seeks to inspire and empower younger generations to create theatre that has minimal impact on the environment. (Check out the attached picture of us embodying a forest of trees:)

* Our dates and locations for our summer production of As You Like It have been finalized. We're set to perform in Brooklyn on July 14th and 15th in gorgeous Prospect Park at the Music Pagoda. Other dates include July 9th and 10th when we'll be hosted by Theater in the Open (www.theaterintheopen.org) in my hometown of Newburyport, MA, and on July 23rd and 24th when we'll be hosted by Franklin Stage Company up in the Catskill Mountains (www.franklinstagecompany.org).

* GTC is introducing a new community outreach program entitled Artists for their Communities or AFTC. Our goal under the AFTC program will be to serve the Brooklyn community we live in, and the surrounding communities of New York City as well. From utilizing our artistic talents in the fields of theatre, education and music, to getting involved with community projects, environmental or otherwise which are in need of assistance. Have an idea or suggestion for GTC's first project under AFTC? Email me! We'd love to hear from you.

We hope you'll continue to follow GTC in the months ahead. It's certainly an exciting time! Best to all!
--
Hal Fickett

23 January 2011

Anupshahr

It’s like the twilight of a sunset
A lavender and periwinkle blanket
That covers the world in a hum
And the smell of an open fire
And the taste of the spiced Chai
The peacocks meowing
And the hum of generators
Motorbikes and crickets
A distant wedding blasts
Hindi Bollywood love songs
And fireworks

Anupshahr, India, June 2010

12 January 2011

Good Vibes Jam Session

I have been presented with the fortunate situation of having my parents apartment (which is where I live anyway) to myself in a few weeks. I have been dreaming for a long time of bringing all my musically talented friends together for a hootenanny- and I don't mean the kind where we have sheets of paper with lyrics to 60''s folk songs and chord charts. I mean someone starts a groove or a chord progression, and we feel it, and we improv, and we don't worry about playing the wrong thing because HEY it's never been played before...
We'll all squeeze into my parents living room and jam it out. Beat boxing and vocalists welcome! I have a bunch of instruments too- guitars, keyboard, ukulele, strumstick, recorders, egg shakers, a djembe and random percussive instruments...

The day: January the 28th (Friday), the time, 8pm.

with HARMONY and GOOD VIBES-
Mel

02 January 2011

Dancing Water

DANCING WATER

a troupe of little vagrants of the world
leave your footprints in my words
the world puts off its mask of vastness to its lover
it becomes small as of the eternal
the sands in your way beg for your song and your movement, dancing water
will you carry the burden of their lameness?

(A poem on a cup in a restaurant in Xidi, China, 5 April)