On Saturday we ran into Clark Warner and his wife Liz Copeland at breakfast.  I finally met their adorable baby. A few hours later radio goddess and new mother Liz Copeland opened up the festival with a really lovely set of what she defines as baby listening music.  Melodies from Air and Brian Eno and other ethereal treasures consumed our ears, as ravers of all ages started to show up for the first day of the festival.  Other highlights of my day were killer sets from Nikola Baytala and Steve Bug.

Clark Warner and his baby in protective ear gear or maybe he is listening to death metal?

an adorable Lolita raver

more candy ravers

At night we threw the Detroit version of House n Home (my flyer).  I finally had a chance to meet the lovely DJ Cassy.  Here is the fist shot I took of her.  She was all smiles during her amazing set. I wish more DJs smiled when I photographed them.

Photos by Seze Devres

It is always hard for me to sum up a trip. I have been going to Detroit every year for the past 4 years. This year was a bit different because we threw 3 parties at the beautiful dark wood lined club Oslo. So it was less of a rave vacation and it was more about working and party picture taking.

Our trip started out with a delicious techno family meal at Roast. I ate the best marinated smoked salmon ever to cross my lips. Chef Jeff made sure I had plenty to eat as everyone else munched on meaty treats like beef cheek and bone marrow.

Gratia, Eric, Jan

We ate like kings before The Bunker Detroit party with Jan Krueger, Derek Plaslaiko, Spinoza performing. I managed to take these photos in almost total darkness.

…and at the party I met this lovely celebrating couple that met exactly a year ago in Detroit

photos by Seze Devres

For the past two years my favorite food podcast has been the Splendid Table.  Even if you are not a big foodie the host Lynne Rossetto Kasper’s laugh and amazing personality is enough to keep your interest.  And every week she has the fabulous Jane and Michael Stern talk about their Road Food adventures.  You can download to her very informative podcast here.   She is not to be missed!

Oh yes, I think I can handle listening to Atom Heart talk on a panel about music while I sip tea.

www.extremeicesurvey.org

James Balog and the Extreme Ice Survey were featured in a one-hour documentary on NOVA/PBS on March 24, 2009. The film follows James as he photographs spectacular landscapes in Alaska, Greenland, and Iceland and, with his team, collects images from his time-lapse cameras.

These photo are all stunning.  It was hard for me to just pick a few for my blog.  I can’t wait to see the documentary later this month.  Be sure to check out the gallery on the site.

Photograph by Elliott Erwitt, Paris, 1989

Bryan and I were invited to Colorado to play and document the Communikey Festival. I had a fabulous time catching up with old friends, visiting a gorgeous part of the country, eating yummy food, and hearing really good music.

Friday night at B-Side
with David Day, Ejival, Spinoza, Nordic Soul

Saturday night after hours Dirtybird Showcase
with Christian Martin and J. Phlip

Saturday Communikids workshop

Sunday in the Park with Communikids

Communikey Festival Site

I just returned back from a weekend of deep listening in Boston. It was amazing to see my old Boston friends and meet some of my favorite musicians. I am thankful to Jon Whitney for putting this festival of strange and wonderful music.

The Brainwaves festival started on Friday sharply at 8pm with JG Thirlwell’s Manorexia project, a symphonic mix of strings and electronic sounds that sway from beautiful to haunting. Manorexia was the highlight of the Friday performances for me. JG Thirwell is a good friend of mine and I love the direction his music is going in these days. Each day Steven Stapleton of Nurse with Wound fame, played some songs in between acts. I was not sure why he did not perform in the festival but it was great to see him hanging around all weekend. I made it my mission to get to know him. I have been listening to the strange surreal music of Nurse with Wound for over 20 years. His is a kind and modest man. I learned that Stapleton is a shepherd living in the countryside of Ireland where he works on his music and art. When I asked him how many records he put out he said he had no idea. He may not know his own discography since 1979 but knows exactly how many sheep, chickens, and goats he has living on his farm.

The highlight for me was meeting Steven Stapleton/Nurse with Wound. Photo by Bryan

On Saturday I was most excited to see The Threshold HouseBoys Choir the new project of Peter Christopherson from Coil. His performance did not disappoint. I was super excited to meet him and shake his hand. Part of me wanted to go on and on about all how much I love his music, but I spared him what he already knows.

Threshold HouseBoys Choir

Little Annie AKA Annie Anxiety’s quirky cabaret performance of standards, was a nice break from all the experimental music. Little Annie has collaborated with Nurse with Wound, Marc Almond, Coil, and dozens of other people. She was like a gothic Edith Piaf on stage. Brainwaves ended on Sunday with a luscious dreamy performance by The Stars of the Lid. I saw them perform at a church in NYC a few months ago. Their Boston show was totally different but just as good.

Stars of the Lid

Lovely Video Projections at Brainwaves

Meat Beat Manifesto played a great set at Brainwaves but the whole time I was wondering of I was a decade too late on seeing them. Their sound might not have aged well but there were plenty of gorgeous video eye candy to keep me entertained.

Meat Beat Manifesto

I went to Boston for the Brainwaves three day music festival.  On Saturday I took a break from the dark theater of warm sounds and went on an excursion to the newly built Institute of Contemporary Art.  The ICA is a gorgeous temple of light, a perfect place to look at art.  The architecture truly rivals the art.  Plus they have the best museum elevator I ever rode on.  I was delighted to see that they had a very extensive show of Tara Donovan’s sculptures.  Donovan makes beautiful futuristic structures out of very common materials.  I was only able to take a few photos in the museum.

Be sure to look at the rest of her work on the Ace Gallery site.

ICA interior photo by Seze Devres

Close up of Tara Donovan’s sculpture by Seze Devres

Close up of Tara Donovan’s sculpture by Seze Devres

ICA Boston site

I just found my ATP photos so I wanted to post them even though the concert was weeks ago.  Sorry better late than never!  Bryan and I mostly go to techno parties and performance so it was a nice breath of fresh air to leave the city, barely know anyone in the crowd, and hear some classic guitar bands from our youth. Plus we convinced my parents to buy tickets and come to the festival too. The All Tomorrow’s Parties festival was great but it did not compare to the first time I saw My Bloody Valentine perform when I was 15, and at the time it was one of the loudest shows I have ever been to. Spectrum’s set was the highlight for me.

All photos by Seze.

My parents at the cafe, they actually were having a great time.

Sunday line up

Spectrum performing an amazing set

Bryan listening in pink light, he is wearing his Neu shirt from high school

My Bloody Valentine

creepy “Flowers in the Attic” painting in the lobby of the country club

Kutshers Country Club in Monticello, New York

Kutshers Country Club in Monticello, New York

One morning we work up at 5am and headed to the beach in Cirali,
Turkey. We met up with a scientist who helps the sea turtles get
through the sand and make their way to the sea after they hatched.
He let us watch the process.
It was an absolutely beautiful sight.

link to the full gallery

Audubon Insectarium opens in New Orleans, NY Times Article

Insect photograph by Seze Devres taken at the Reading Museum in Pennsylvania, 2005

I just came back from this heavenly place.

I just watched the lovely Paris Je T’aime, 18 short films about the people of the marvelous city of Paris. Each film was delightful but the last one by Alexander Payne was the most heartwarming. Highly recommended.

The films were directed by the following:
Olivier Assayas
Frédéric Auburtin
Emmanuel Benbihy
Gurinder Chadha
Sylvain Chomet
Ethan & Joel Coen
Isabel Coixet
Wes Craven
Alfonso Cuarón
Gérard Depardieu
Christopher Doyle
Richard LaGravenese
Vincenzo Natali
Alexander Payne
Bruno Podalydès
Walter Salles
Oliver Schmitz
Nobuhiro Suwa
Daniela Thomas
Tom Tykwer
Gus Van Sant

I ended up having more fun at the smaller festival Mutek because of the intimacy of the events. We were only there for the last two days of the festival. Saturday night we headed over to Metropolis for an amazing line up. I was excited to see Chloe live but for me the best act of the night was a debut dubby set by Code 9 and Space Ape. This normally isn’t even the kind of music I like but there was something really transcendent about their performance. After their set ended DJ Olive said “Wow that was like Sun Ra!”

The real highlight of the weekend was the outdoor Picnic Electronique with Mathias Kaden & Onur Özur djing together. We danced all day in the foggy wet light rain. No one seemed to be phased by the crappy weather because the music and the vibe was so unbelievably good. In their totally creative set Mathias Kaden & Onur Özur mixed strings and horns into techno tracks. Plus they were super cute to watch as they picked records to play and danced together.

Here is David Last’s amazing photo documentation of Mutek 2008 on Flickr

Me and my new fellow pink haired new artist friend Megan, we instantly became friends after I walked up to her. Photo by my dear friend David Last

We arrived at Metropolis right when the night started, the empty dance floor filled up soon thereafter. Photo by Seze

The visuals were gorgeous and totally different for each act. Photo by Seze

Bunker Bryan with Philip Sherburne, one of my favorite music writers and a super nice person as well. Genevieve & Matt (Portland Techno Promoters Kulture Szene) and Derek are behind them.
Stupid snapshot by Seze

How lucky we are! We danced under a Calder sculpture all day in the rain.
Photo by Seze

I love the pee pee dance logo by Picnic Eletronik
Photo by Seze

I spent the two long weekends at electronic music festivals. The first was the Detroit Electronic Music Festival (DEMF) and the following week I went to Montreal for Mutek. The line ups at both were excellent and though it was really exhausting I had an amazing time. I can barely sum up the weekends in words or pictures.

Here is a list of my favorite performances, moments, and memories from Detroit in no particular order, even though Alex Smoke was my favorite performer:

• Alex Smoke live
• DBX -live (even though his secret gig at Bunker was better)
• enjoying Derek Plaslaiko’s set with all my friends from NYC
• meeting Egyptian Lover in my hotel elevator
  (their shirts were so totally insane, I am so mad at myself for not taking their photo)
• hearing Heartthrob play live while laying on the grass outside
• feeling like I was at a goth club (age 19) while listening to Kill Memory Crash play live
• being blown away by Par Grindvik live
• melting at the beauty of Scott Pagano’s gorgeous visuals during Speedy J’s live set
• Mathias Kaden live
• John Selway‘s 45 surprise minute fill in DJ set
• The Accelerate After Party with Dan Bell, Zip and Sammy Dee
• Hanging out with Bruno Pronsato making bad jokes
  
• Dethlab’s amazing acid warehouse party:
  Too Far Gone… presented by Dethlab with Adult, Perspects, Dethlab, Cowboy Mark (tagteam DJ set), Motor (DJ set)
  No Way Back presented by Interdimensional Transmissions
  Derek Plaslaiko, Mike Servito, BMG of Ectomorph, Patrick Russell, Carlos Souffront
• meeting G.O.D. at the acid party
• Finally eating at Slow’s BBQ and not bing disappointed.
• And it was a true highlight to finally not stay at a crappy hotel.

My friend Andy wrote an excellent article on his experiences at Detroit based on the music and architecture: http://www.avclub.com/content/blog/detroit_electronic_music_festival

Random photos (not a faithful documentation of the weekend) by Seze

Detroit patches pants dude.

Kate Simko performing an excellent set

We may be getting older but we are still having fun!

My super stylish buddies Bethany & Doyle of Dethlab hosted the best party
of the weekend “Too Far Gone… No Way Back” at their warehouse studio space.

Phases of the moon wall at Slows BBQ outdoor seating area

I was totally blown away when I saw pictures of the Merry Cemetery in Sapanta Romania.

In 2003 I had a solo show in Marsellies, France. Abi, Kim and I bought last minute tickets to France to attend my opening. It was one of the best decisions we ever made. We had an amazing time together and the best part was the few days spent in Paris. One day Kim and I randomly wandered into one of the oldest and most elegant tea salons in the world, Ladurée. I was vegan at the time but there was no way I could resist the rose petal adorned pastries and floral scented teas. ahhhhh…

Marie Antoinette (2006) directed by Sofia Coppola