Roscoe Mitchell at REDCAT 10/2/2011

with James Fei, a fellow Mills College faculty member, on more wind instruments and William Winant on a variety of ordinary and extraordinary percussion instruments performed at REDCAT in LA on October 2, 2011.

During this incredible evening of circular breathing and sonic poetry, my 2 non-musician friends were out of their element and confusedly unconnected, but I was enthralled and basking in continued enlightenment.



These are the beats, the poets, the legends of this time, this age we are in and their message is right

Trio of Roscoe Mitchell on woodwinds (wooden keyless flute, bass sax, bass flute, etc)
Roscoe's bio on the Mills College Music Dept. website states: "His instrumental expertise includes the saxophone family, from the sopranino to the bass saxophone; the recorder family, from sopranino to great bass recorder; flute, piccolo, clarinet, and the transverse flute." and he brought and played a lot of those instruments at REDCAT.

 

NYC Installation in Poor Taste

Isn't this installation in NYC in poor taste?

Paola Pivi, an Italian born artist who lives in Alaska, made this installation of a rotating Piper Seneca plane which was installed under the auspices of Public Art Fund in NYC at 60th Street and Fifth Avenue debuting on June 20, 2012 and removed July 18, 2012 due to a technical problem with the rotation.

Considering the lives lost in 9/11 and to a lesser extent the narrowly averted disaster of the "Miracle on the Hudson", it seems insensitive to turn a seemingly out of control plane into a silly kitschy arty thingamajig in the middle of Manhattan.

On top of the inappropriateness of the imagery, the artist titled the piece "How I Roll". Which calls to mind the words "Let's Roll" said on 9/11 by the heroic passengers on United Airlines Flight 93 as they took on their hijackers giving up their lives to prevent the plane from being used for destructive purposes by the terrorists.

Is this a photo op for tourists - so they can align the plane with the tall building in the background and take their shot making it look like the plane is crashing into the NY skyscraper?

I am surprised that there doesn't seem to be any commentary that this installation was thoughtlessly inappropriate. It is in such poor taste. Quotes from the artist I've read state that it has nothing to do with anything - she simply had a vision; so there is no relation to its context.  What a stupid piece. And what an ugly structure: it is connected to an I-beam; and situated next to a cyclone fence. Bad visual execution and very badly planned in terms of concept. So glad it is gone.

Helen Levitt photo

Above photo put to good use: