Last night was the (first) performance of Aquapuke and the Industrial Transsexual, a piece based on the story of German pop singer Kim Petras. Clint and I aimed primarily to create a ritualistic feel for the piece, focusing especially on coming of age, the movement between genders, and of the consumption of the body via the media. Basically, while I was shredding away on a solo, Clint served communion. Body and blood, indeed. It seems to have been a pretty big hit, and hopefully a worthy piece to end the 2009 UCSD Spring Festival.
I’ve been feeling myself edge closer and closer to either a heart attack or a stroke in preparation for the IASPM conference next weekend. My heart has literally been beating above its normal resting rate for most of the last two weeks. On a few occassions my vision has gone blurry. I’ve often had to stand up, and oppositely sit down, for fear of passing out. Is this normal in the run up to a conference? Nancy tells me that conference papers “are fun,” but of course only after you’ve done it God-knows-how-many times. I’ll definitely be ready to reprise Industrial Transsexual later that night, at which point I’ll get wicked drunk and pass out 4 rlz. It’s been a long time coming.
I got a phone call yesterday, a couple of hours before the Aquapuke show, about a gig in La Jolla today. The very nice gentleman told me it would be for a company that trains life coaches. Interesting. One of their corporate rules, in jest of course, is “no tuba playing.” Another, as it turns out, is “no nudity.” Interesting. So initially the request was for a semi-nude tubist, but I put my foot down ever so gently and we went with fully-clothed tubist. Basically the gig was: show up, play for a few minutes, and then go. All in all it was a lot of fun. Everyone was incredibly nice and seemed to like the performance. And because they were life coaches (I assume), they had very, very, very, very, very positive things to say. Quite an uplifting, albeit weird, experience.
