This Is A Performance

I’d write something brilliant, but this week I’m not really sure where to start. What’s missing is my motivation. All my musical and comedic friends have had all their gigs cancelled. You can’t even go to a café anymore. My artistic vision is in the doldrums and it’s hard for me to write my essay online. Seems like the big question in the lecture this week was whether a musical performer should focus on himself and his instrument, or just be a conduit for the composer. Never mind that, I’m wondering whether there will be any opportunities for live performance in this brave new world at all.

Looks like I’ll need to get the Facetime camera on my phone fixed so I can live stream on Facebook or YouTube. I wonder if anyone will watch it though? Talk about being stuck on an artistic plateau.

So for my first reference this week, I’m going with Rich Hall’s performance of his song about Bob Dylan. It makes me laugh, and we could all use that right now. I particularly like the relationship he has with his harmonica and the way he uses it as a focal point to capture the imagination and attention of the audience. He’s certainly the epitome of what Glenn Gould was talking about in the video in the lecture this week:

And secondly, I think Soul Asylum’s song Misery captures the quintessential essence of the authoritative reading of the sacred scripture of a musical score. Or perhaps it just relates to how I’m feeling this morning. Is anyone even reading this?:

I think I’d better go write a song in F# major.