Oct
6
2009
Round 7 Video – Blessing of the Animals
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The Round 7 Challenge is different for each contestant. Each must incorporate the following (Word limit -- 600):
TESS: A Homicidal Clown (from Omar’s Story)
RHAE: An Assassination Plot ( from Tuck’s Story)
COCO: Dostoyevsky (from Igor’s Story)
UTAH: A Steak Knife (from Fyor’s Story)
NORA: The White House (from Fido’s Story)
OLAF: An Astral Projection (from Isis’ Story)
Outside Participants may select any one of the six.
Omar has been eliminated. For details, see the video, which includes footage of the Blessing of the Animals at St. John the Divine and Pete Seeger singing in Central Park. (*note: Rhae’s challenge is hard to read because of an editing glitch of white text on a white background. It should read: “Incorporate an Assassination Plot”)
Sep
4
2008
The Ugly Duckling
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Playing in Bloomsbury Theatre, London, 2008
ONE FRIDAY NIGHT in London some months ago I struck up a conversation on the 29 bus with a man who was heading to play a gig at a blues burlesque bar in Soho. As I had a few harmonicas on hand, he invited me to join the band for a song or two. An hour later I was on stage alongside two dancers in lingerie and nipple tassels who were gyrating to the harmonica solo in front of a crowd of cheering twentysomethings. My only other off-the-cuff performance as memorable as that one took place a few years ago while I was planting trees along a river on a Vermont dairy farm. I had just taken lunch and decided to practice a few blues licks before returning to the digging. Within moments of playing I was surrounded by a herd of Holstein heifers, each of them cocking an ear towards me and staring at me out of an unblinking eye. I am sure few musicians have ever had as attentive and wide-eyed an audience as I did that day. Keep reading→
