Road Post: Katrina Events in Buffalo, NYC
ROAD POST: We are in NYC after our show at The Tank last night and at The Church in Buffalo, NY the night before. The events have been small but very good. We also left our camera in Buffalo at the performance space - so no pics from the show at the Righteous Babe space until we get the camera back.
After stopping over in Richmond, VA with family (thanks Baird and Nancy for the comfy bed, good beer, social debate and the audio senstivity training!) we arrived in Buffalo on Sunday night. Making the obligatory trip to Niagara Falls on Labor Day we were very surprised to see tourists crawling all over a statue of Nikola Tesla.
Reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged was one of my baptisms into adulthood. I read it in my early 20's when I was learning that life was much, much harder to manage than anyone had ever let on as I was growing up. Somehow Ayn Rand could make work, ambition and achievement romantic in a way I had never seen before. As I have grown older I have realized that more balance than she advocated is neccessary for happiness, but when you are just getting used to the "real world" it does not hurt to have role models that work as hard as her characters did. And who worked for the deeper reasons not understandable yet. I was working 18 hour days at the time, nearly every day, trying to teach myself how to move through the world and her heroes helped me.
Nikola Tesla is the closest thing to a real life John Galt / Ayn Rand character I have ever learned about. A character of magnificent proportions. I wonder how many people know his story who smile in front of his statue.
We met some incredibly nice people at Rigtheous Babe Records and appreciate the help from Bill, Misha, Sara and all the others on the team there. They were installing a massive PA system for Ani's upcoming concerts on Sept. 10-11 and the stress level was pretty high, but everyone was very helpful. We have some cool pics we will post once we get our camera back. I will do a separate post on RBR, but suffice to say it was inspiring to be in Buffalo.
We had a great conversation with Ani's manager, Scot and got to see some great pieces of Ani DiFranco history. Unfortunately Ani was in New Orleans and was not arriving in Buffalo until later this week. We are coordinating to have a table at a couple of her shows in Europe in October (we will be there for some other business) and are trying to do her whole tour in November. RBR is very supporting of our efforts and we are excited to continue our dialog with them.
Managing the crew putting in "Ani's Rig" into the Church was a gentleman named Klondike who lived in New Orleans, did sound for the New Orleans Jazz Fest for over ten years and now lived in Buffalo. He was still so upset by the situation in New Orleans that he did not engage with any of our film or content as he felt it would be too upsetting. This is not unique. We have seen this on several occasions from people still struggling to come to terms with what happened in New Orleans. Some folks have just "given up" on the expectation that things will be like they were before and others have not.
We also had visits during the daytime show from several people who had some connection to New Orleans. One, leaving the video booth, simply said - "Who are you angry at? That's a good question."
The doc screening brought out an incredibly diverse crowd (students, missionaries, professionals) and the post-show Q&A conversation was great. Many in the audience had their own connections to New Orleans either post or pre-Katrina. It is really hard to go anywhere and not find people who have a passion for New Orleans.
We drove late into the night stopping bleary-eyed near Binghamton, NY and arriving in NYC on Wednesday after lunch. Thanks to the very nice lady at the hotel who got us into our room early so we could shower before setting up the show at The Tank!
NYC
The show at The Tank was very small, but again was an important crowd. I explained to Randy (our host) that at this point in OPP's young life - the kind of people that show up at our events are more important than the quantity. I really believe that. We feel like we are at the beginning of something that will gain momentum and people who care are what makes that happen.
The building is an old burlesque hall in SoHo and is definitely the epitome of "underground". Takashi (the artist who Farrah met in the 9th Ward and whose New Orleans sculpture exhibit is currently in Queens Socrates Park) came to the show. Other members of the crowd had seen his sculpture. It was interesting to see the audience talking to one another about using art to experience the emotion of what is happening in New Orleans from so far away. That is what artists do...and it is important work.
Today we pay a visit to Google's NYC campus and try to get some excercise. I really don't see how the rock stars do it...
outside the Tank on Church St. / Tribeca
post katrina portraits exhibit at The Tank
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