"THE BQE" At BAM

PHOTOS: "The BQE" at the Brooklyn Academy Of Music, Thursday, November 1, 2007. Five performers with Hula-Hoops, and overhead visual projections accompanied the 30 piece chamber orchestra with Sufjan Stevens and his band. The 30 minute orchestral piece contained a wealth of new melodic material. The program contains an essay explaining the significance of the Hula-Hoops, including the obvious connection to the wheel and motion, staples of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.

Sufjan Stevens on stage at the conclusion of "THE BQE"

A Great Concert AT BAM

The photo is a little dark (click it to enlarge,) but it gives you the idea. Singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens brought his band and a 30 piece chamber orchestra to BAM to perform a commission entitled "The BQE." Stevens is at the piano in the photo. The 30 minute orchestral tone poem, done with overhead projections showing the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, traffic, and neighborhoods, and also accompanied at times by five performers, two guys and three women with Hula-Hoops, was sort of a "Koyannisquatsi" for Brooklyn yuppies. In fact there are many echoes of Philip Glass-like minimalism in Steven's music. The house was packed and the audience roared its approval. After an intermission, Stevens and all the musicians performed selections from his previous albums, including the wonderful "Illionise." I had to leave a few minutes early to make my bus connection back to Philadelphia, but the trip was surely worth it. Stevens is a true musical genius.

Jim

Sufjan's "BQE" In Brooklyn

This afternoon I'll be heading up to Brooklyn for a concert featuring singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens. I'm a big fan and have been for about the past two years. His music is hard to describe. It's an eclectic blend of folk and rock with classical influences and more. Tonight's concert feature a 30 minute composition entitled "BQE," which focuses on the roadway by the same name that cuts through the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens in New York City. Here's some of what the Brooklyn Academy Of Music has to say about the work, which BAM commissioned:

BAM presents singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens
in the world premiere of the 25th Next Wave
commissioned work The BQE—a 30-minute
symphonic and cinematic exploration of New York
City’s infamous Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.
A controversial roadway since its inception in
the 1930s, the BQE tears through 11.7
miles of Brooklyn and Queens, severing neighborhoods,
pillaging industrial yards, and contouring waterways with the brute force of modern urban planning.

I'm sure it will be a fantastic concert. All three performances have been sold out.

Jim

A Democrat I Could Support

Eight years of Bill Clinton's broken promises and cowardly behavior in matters concerning gay rights has left me even more leery of Democrats and the Democratic Party than I was before. I agree with what some African American leaders say about the Democrats: they get lip service from them but little else. Gay and lesbians are even worse off when it comes to the Democratic Party. However, the newly elected governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, has made good on his promise to introduce a gay marriage bill in the state assembly. He knows it won't pass initially, but he's doing it anyway because it's the right thing to do. Hillary, of course, is opposed to gay marriage and has never renounced the hateful "Defense Of Marriage Act" that her husband signed in to law. Too bad Spitzer isn't running for president instead of Hillary.

The photo is of Sufjan Stevens at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia taken last fall. It was a great concert.

My Episcopalian friends are justly proud of their leadership in standing firm against the anti-gay bigotry of the reactionary elements within the Anglican communion. It's interesting to watch this play out. The big disappointment is the Archbishop of Canterbury, who has sided with the bigots. He knows better.

I had a brief discussion at dinner the other evening with a friend. The topic was power in relationships. He feels that, in relationships one partner has the most power and the other is "needy." I don't think it's quite that simple. I think a partner that has a lot of power power can be needy, and the "needy" partner can have quite a bit of power. Successful relationships play out over time and lots of interpersonal "territory," and shifting dynamics of power and need.

We're off to the Big Apple today to enjoy the Metropolitan Opera's new production of Puccini's "Il Tritico."

Jim