LiveBliss

Next Show: Monday 8/2 @ The Tank

I'm performing this Monday, August 2nd @ The Tank (NYC; 45th St. b/w 8th & 9th) as part of the ongoing Creative Music Incubator series, which unites experimental sonic artists on the first Monday of every month to share creative concepts, explore new sonic possibilities and collaborate in new line ups and in unique situations. Each month is curated and hosted by a member of the NYC experimental music community.

Aug 2nd Curator and Host: Amber Brien

Line up:
Amanda Ray (vocals, electronics)
John Fell Ryan (hand percussion)
Kaoru Watanabe (fue, flutes)
Barbara Merjan (percussion)
Conrad Sparnroft (ebow guitar)
Mitch Blank (dulcimer)
Doug Principato (ebow guitar)
Mike Durek (theremin)
David B. Penn (cello)
Jennifer Leigh Aschoff (keyboards, flutes)
David Tamura (saxophone)
Thomas Bell (bass guitar)

Visuals presented by Christina deRoos

Cover $8 (donation to "The Tank" - a non-profit theatrical space) Not to worry, the drinks are super cheap.

This month there will be multiple mini groups created from the pool of musicians participating. Each mini-group will perform 5 to 10 minute mini-sets. The first half of the night will consist of groups whose members have performed together at some point in the past. The second half will consist of groups whose members have never performed together, ensuring new collaborations and sonic discoveries.

"Do You Know You're Being Recorded?"

Performance of work in progress 7/10/10
Arts@Renaissance (St. Nick's Alliance)
Bklyn, NY

Spurred by the common question: "what is and what isn’t art?," Do You Know You’re Being Recorded aims to create an experience for all involved that blurs the boundaries between stage/audience, music/sound, performance/life.

Do You Know You’re Being Recorded is a site-specific piece that will ultimately be 4 to 6 hours long. During development and when complete it will take place in traditional and nontraditional art spaces, including galleries, supermarkets, theaters, vacant lots...and we hope JFK (the airport).

Laura Arend / Thomas Bell / Christina deRoos

Born and raised in France, Laura Arend’s career began with study at the prestigious Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique et Danse de Lyon. She spent a year as a dancer at the Youth Ballet of Lyon and arrived in New York in March 2010. Arend is currently working with Judith Sanchez Ruiz, and Korhan Basaran. Since May 2010 she has also been a member of the dance company « F521.i » in Paris.

Musician and visual artist Thomas Bell leads Oxygen Music Collective, consisting of over ten different musical projects dating back to 1999. The collective follows an improvised compositional approach, with past projects heavily steeped in the traditions of Funk & Free-Jazz, with tinges of Drum n Bass, Hip-Hop, & the experimental avant-garde. He also curates the Creative Music Incubator experimental music series at The Tank, and founded Spread Art, an artist-run creative space designed to foster new works through collaborations with artists and curators from around the world. twin72.com spreadart.org

Christina deRoos is a visual artist (photo/video, mixed-media, installation) who splits her time between NY and Mexico. She frequently facilitates creative projects that invite public participation and encourage community dialogue and individual self-reflection. In 2009 she founded Live Bliss, a yoga, art and community space in La Manzanilla, Jalisco, Mexico. She is also co-director of Spread Art. christinaderoos.com

*Special thanks to Chez Bushwick & Jonah Bokaer for affordable rehearsal space and equipment, and Center for Performance Research for additional low-cost rehearsal space.* chezbushwick.net cprnyc.org

Mixing Life

For my recent dive into live visual improvisation, I turned photographs I've taken into videos. Not having tons of time to prepare, I decided to pull together as diverse (albeit small) a range of content as possible. Below is what I put together, which ended up feeling/looking like a solid representation of how I experience the world - one part abstract/inexplicable perception, one part beautiful/intense travels, one part frustration/disappointment with the machinery of injustice. 

Check out the previous post if you want to see the final result, which drew from the videos below plus a few short clips of a video game, a tree, a circuit board, all mixed real time with some effects for good measure.

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Photos-->Video-->Live Performance

Video...you have been on my radar for a long time, and yet somehow we never quite introduced ourselves.

With The Tronic performing at Bent Festival, and my having 3 VJ gigs and a week of Isadora experience to my credit, I added live video improvisation to the interesting mix that is my creative output. Around this time next year I'm told there will be a video of this year's Bent Festival. I'm curious to see where this new path will have led me by then.

A week after Bent Festival opportunity knocked again...and I managed once more to make it through a set without crashing my computer. Here is a video of gig #2: Oxygen Ensemble at The Tank on May 2nd.

Note - this video has SOUND - improvised, beautiful, fresh squeezed sound - so check that your volume isn't up uP UP lest you get blown out of your chair.

Oxygen Ensemble / The Tank / NY, NY
Part of the monthly Creative Music Incubator series

Musicians:
Gregg Jarvis - drums
Thomas Bell - bass
Chris Mariner - guitar
Jason Polise - sax
On Davis- guitar
Lars - sax

Visuals:
Christina deRoos

Yoga Retreat in Mexico // March 13 - 20

Hello there!

The yoga retreat in La Manzanilla, Mexico is just around the corner: March 13 - 20! I invite you to sit back and savor the full details that are below!

There is an option for a Spanish Plus Yoga retreat with excursions, accommodations and whole lot more...there is an option for a yoga and meditation only retreat that allows you to make your own arrangements for accommodations and leaves you tons of free time to enjoy the beach and slow pace of La Manzanilla...and there are a variety of options in between. Mix and match to find what works best for you, and if you don't see what would be ideal, let me know and I'll do my best to put it together for you.

As retreats go this one is particularly affordable, and it seems there is an airline fare sale going on at the moment so flights may be extra reasonable as well. The nearest airport to La Manzanilla is in Manzanillo. An often less expensive alternative is to fly in & out of Puerto Vallarta, although that adds a few hours trip by bus to the travel time.

Happy (almost) spring. Please contact me if I can answer any questions. I look forward to seeing you in Mexico!

Thank you to La Catalina Natural Language School for this collaboration.

La Catalina Natural Language School

Treat yourself in 2010…

Reawaken Your Mind, Body

and Spirit!

JOIN US FOR OUR SPANISH

PLUS

YOGA & DREAM WORKSHOP RETREAT IN PARADISE!

 

March 13^th - March 20^th, 2010

La Manzanilla, Jalisco, Mexico

 

  

COMPLETE SPANISH PLUS YOGA & DREAM WORK RETREAT INCLUDES:

•      8-day/7-night stay in beautiful Mexican cottages

•      Healthy gourmet vegetarian breakfasts, lunches & dinner daily

•      Spanish classes at La Catalina Natural Language School & Spanish learning materials

•      Yoga Classes & Meditation

•      Dream workshop

•     Temezcal sweat lodge ceremonial ritual

•     Bay cruise & Tenacatita snorkeling excursion

•     Guided nature hike excursion

•     1-hour full body massage

•     Reiki healing session
  
  

PRO-RATED RETREAT PRICING:

Package #1: COMPLETE RETREAT (SEE COMPONENTS ABOVE) Cost: $1370 - Shared bedroom with individual bed in a shared guest house           $1480 - Private bedroom in shared guest house           $1690 - Private studio apartment or one bedroom guest house

Package #2: COMPLETE RETREAT (MINUS LODGING IN MEXICAN COTTAGES) Cost: $1000

Package #3: COMPLETE RETREAT (MINUS LODGING, SPANISH CLASSES & SPANISH LEARNING MATERIALS) Cost: $900

Package #4 COMPLETE RETREAT (MINUS LODGING, SPANISH CLASSES & EXCURSIONS) Cost: $825

Package #5 YOGA, MEDITATION, DREAM WORKSHOP & 2 PRE-SELECTED MEALS PER DAY Cost: $450

Package #6 YOGA & MEDITATION ONLY (Approx. 20 hours) Cost: $190

Package #7 DREAM WORKSHOP WITH DINNERS ONLY ON M-F (10-hour workshop & 5 dinners) Cost: $170

Package #8 DREAM WORKSHOP ONLY (10-hour workshop) Cost: $120

SPECIAL OFFER!

Local or seasonal La Manzanilla Residents (who spend at least 1 month in La Manzanilla receive FREE registration and 10% discount off the package of their choice!!!

 

Refer a friend and get an additional 10% off your retreat price.

 

$200 deposit required at time of registration.

Space limited to 12 participants.

 

For more info on our Spanish Plus Yoga Retreat,

please visit the following page on our website:

 

http://www.lacatalinaschool.com/spanish-immersion-mexico/spanish+yoga-retreats.htm

 

Contact Us A.S.A.P. to reserve your spot at:

 

Email: la_catalinagroups@hotmail.com

Telphone: 011-52-315-351-5362

Website: www.lacatalinaschool.com

 

 

Namaste.

I <3 Mexico

I'm back in Mexico for a 3 week trip, and am grateful for every second I get. Returning to NY this summer after 18 months south of the border has been an intense ride. I'm hopeful that a few weeks back in La Manzanilla will shed light on the roller coaster I've experienced, most of which has been raw emotion without any specific memories or thoughts attached (making it just a touch difficult to figure out what's going on...My processing has been mostly "inhale_exhale_inhale).

After a few days in PV, tonight was my first evening back in La Manzanilla. The sight of a guy riding his burro through town just after sunset made me cry. Yoga students beware...my emotions appear to be a bit close to the surface!

Speaking of yoga, I expect to be teaching 10am classes on Wed & Fri of this week, and Tues & Thurs the next two weeks. Same location as last season: Live Bliss on Playa Blanca. Email with any questions.

I've posted photos from the trip so far here and will continue to add images that grab my attention.

Bushwick Is...2009

I was wandering around Bushwick today with a canvas, Sharpies, crayons, and a desire to see how folks would respond to "Bushwick Is..." Thomas Bell and I left Spread Art around 1pm with the canvas showing the boundaries of Bushwick way back when (1800s) and the boundaries of Bushwick today. We made a few stops (a pharmacy, a laundromat, a bodega) and received great input on our journey to Maria Hernandez Park (named after a woman who was shot and killed in 1989 for fighting to rid her block of drug dealers).

In the park we were overwhelmed with kids 
and also a lot of adults wanting to participate. Among them was a veteran (Iraq and Afghanistan), whose reflections on his experience returning to Bushwick, and the words he added to the canvas ("god forgive me can you") are unlikely to leave my mind anytime soon.

After the park we made our way to Brooklyn Fireproof to share the community dialogue that had happened so far and invite further participation. Brooklyn Fireproof was a location of today's BETA spaces event, described as "a one-day festival of independently curated, collaborative group exhibitions."

The "Bushwick Is..." canvas is part of an ongoing project begun in 2006 by Erin Partridge, Thomas Bell and myself. The project aims to facilitate community dialogue and self-reflection and to document moments in time as Bushwick experiences rapid gentrification.

I will add more to this post soon, but for the photos are going to have to speak for themselves as I'm in desperate need of a good night's sleep. See gobs of photos from today here.

 

Electro-Music 2009

Just before Halloween I found myself in a van heading to New Jersey for Electro-Music Fest. The destination - Bloomingdale, NJ - was as middle of nowhere as I've been in quite a long time (and that's saying something given where I've been time the last couple years)...but who cares about location when there's mind-blowing music and video? Plus the creepy deserted campsite location made for some interesting evening landscapes.

See more photos here.

Watch video of The Tronic (Gregg Jarvis & Thomas Bell) here.

HK:ArtiST

I've been providing some behind the scenes guidance to the founder of this weekend's Hell's Kitchen Artist Studio Tour. It is shaping up to be a great weekend. Check out the map of participating artists below, & learn more on the website.

"Numbers" Installation @ Chashama Film Festival

Today I finished the Numbers installation for the Chashama Film Festival. A collaboration with Thomas Bell, Numbers highlights human costs of the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan that are rarely reported in mainstream media. See photos of the process of installation as well as the final result here.

The installation consists of flag draped coffins and numbers stenciled on paper then covered with bubble wrap. The width and placement give viewers a choice between walking across and popping bubbles or making a small but extra effort to jump across and avoid interacting. This parallels the ability those of us in the United States have to avoid witnessing the impact of the government policies carried out in our name. It requires a bit of effort, although not much, to avoid the messy reality of our ongoing policies in Iraq and Afghanistan.

*****

Numbers used include:

32,907 Weight in tons of bombs dropped by the U.S. Air force in Iraq & Afghanistan through 2007

6129 American and coalition military casualties in Iraq & Afghanistan

120  American military casualties since Obama was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2009

46% The percentage of air raid casualties that are women are girls

766 The number of journalists and academics that have been killed in Iraq

1395 The number of contractor employee deaths in Iraq

102,083 Documented civilian deaths from violence in Iraq (Estimate is 93,552-102,083)

39% The percentage of air raid casualties that are children

>100 thousand The number of American military wounded

$7500 The amount the U.S. Army paid to two children whose mother was killed inside a taxi that ran a checkpoint. Both children were also in the taxi, and were shot and injured.

Thank you to Iraq Body Count, AntiWar, and iCasualties for maintaining databases that make these and many more numbers readily available.

*****

Popping bubble wrap generally evokes enthusiasm from people regardless of age. With Numbers, the excitement of walking, jumping, or otherwise popping bubbles is tempered by the reality of stepping on representations of victims of violence.

Numbers also presents an opportunity for participants to reflect upon the myriad impacts of war, including responses to loud or surprising sounds, such as the pops of bubble wrap. For child and adult survivors of war, loud noises can trigger intrusive memories, nightmares, hallucinations or flashbacks, sometimes resulting in exaggerated responses. As one Iraq veteran explains, "any little noise and I'd jump out of bed and run around the house with a gun." In the same way, the sound of an airplane flying overhead can cause stress for survivors of aerial bombings, while it is of no consequence to others. 

Lastly, Numbers is provides a visual reference point for the ongoing violence as the total number of bubbles in the installation is approximately the same as the total number of tons of bombs that have been dropped on Iraq and Afghanistan to date.

Numbers
On view Thursday, October 22 - Monday, October 26 
Part of the Chashama Film Festival
Final Cut Lounge
679 Third Avenue (at 43rd St.)
One block from Grand Central
Subway: 4,5,6,7