Blog Entries

jaki levy auto-blogs on new media, iTV, and performance on the web. what’s that? he doesn’t know.

Live Dance on The Web

For those interested in Arts + Technology, I’ll be webcasting The A.W.A.R.D. Show from the Joyce Soho [via UStream].
The winner of the A.W.A.R.D Show will win $10,000 to develop new dance work.

You can watch right here, on UStream, or on the mothership site (Joyce Soho)

You can also catch past performances of the A.W.A.R.D. Show on the UStream Archives.


Here’s the information for the June 20th performance:

THE FINALISTS from each preliminary performance will be posted on The Joyce website each morning following the performance by 11am: www.joyce.org/about_specialevents_awardshow.html

THE WINNER of The A.W.A.R.D. Show! 2009: New York City will be announced directly following the final performance on Sunday, June 21.

SATURDAY, JUNE 20
Garnica LEIMAY
Monica Bill Barnes & Company
Emery LeCrone
Tami Stronach Dance
with post-performance discussion moderated by: Linda Szmyd Monich

Alive I
Choreography by: Ximena Garnica (Garnica LEIMAY)
Performance by: Irem Calikusu, Stephanie Lanckton, Denissa Musilova and Ximena Garnica
Composition and Live Music by: Roland Toledo
Video Artististry/Co-creation by: Shige Moriya
Costume Design by: Garnica LEIMAY

I feel like
Choreography by: Monica Bill Barnes (Monica Bill Barnes & Company)
Performance by: Anna Bass, Monica Bill Barnes and Deborah Lohse
Music: “Suite No. 4-IV. Sarabande” by Johann Sebastian Bach; “Get up (I feel like being a) Sex Machine” by James Brown, Bobby Byrd and Ron Lenhoff
Costume Design by: Kelly Hanson

Aphorismós
Choreography by: Emery LeCrone
Performance by: Victoria North, Kimi Nikaido and Ted Seymour
Music: “Black Heart Pull,” an original composition by John Melville Pratt and “Proverb (Alex Smoke Remix)” by Steve Reich
Original Costume Design by: Emery LeCrone (created by Candice Thompson)

But It’s For You
Choreography by: Tami Stronach (Tami Stronach Dance)
Performance by: Lindsey Dietz Marchant and Joe Poulson
Music: Original score commissioned for But It’s For You by Karinne Keithley
Set Design by: Joe Levasseur
Costume Design by: Olivera Gajic

Biographies:
XIMENA GARNICA is a dancer, emerging choreographer, director and installation artist. Artistic Director of Garnica LEIMAY and Director/Co-founder and Co-curator of the New York Butoh Festival, Garnica is also Co-director of CAVE Organization, an experimental art space in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York.

Garnica LEIMAY is an interdisciplinary company/project and laboratory of performance founded in 2005 by Ximena Garnica in New York City. The work of LEIMAY is rooted in Butoh dance, particularly in its approach to thinking about and questioning the meaning of the dancing body. LEIMAY synthesizes—through the body, the voice and other arts—a performance experience that is designed to sharpen the senses, both for the artists who engage in the creative process and for the audience who relates to the performance. The transformation of a given space has become a key element for these experiences; in that sense, the body—at times dancer, actor or object—is fundamental to LEIMAY’s work. (www.leimay.org)

MONICA BILL BARNES: Monica Bill Barnes & Company has been awarded several extended artistic residencies, including the Dancenow/NYC Silo Project (2006, 2008, 2009), the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (2007/2008), and a Joyce SoHo Artist Residency (2004-2005); and participates in college guest artist residencies. Barnes is thrilled to share the stage with long time company members: Deborah Lohse and Anna Bass. Lohse hails from Northern California and when she is not dancing to Bach, she makes dances with her own company, ad hoc Ballet, and teaches ballet at Dance New Amsterdam. Bass is originally from Forest, Virginia and holds a BA in Dance from James Madison University. She has had the pleasure of working with Kelly Bartnik, danah bella DanceWorks, Alexandra Beller, Christian Canciani, Donna Costello, Aviva Geismar/Drastic Action, Shannon Hummel/Cora Dance, Jill Sigman/Thinkdance, and Teri & Oliver Steele. (www.monicabillbarnes.com)

Emerging choreographer EMERY LECRONE was born and raised in Greensboro, North Carolina. She trained at the North Carolina School of the Arts under teachers, such as Melissa Hayden, Warren Conover, and Nina Danilova. Ms. LeCrone also attended several summers at the School of American Ballet on full scholarship.

Upon graduation in 2005 Ms. LeCrone was accepted into the apprentice program at North Carolina Dance Theatre, where she performed in works such as George Balanchine’s Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Serenade, and Walpurgisnacht (Faust), Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux’s Carmina Burana, and Salvatore Aiello’s Nutcracker. She also worked closely with resident choreographer Dwight Rhoden. She created her first ballet for North Carolina Dance Theatre II in 2006.

Since then, Ms. LeCrone has created several works including Pulling to Break, Figurine, Concerto 3 in G, and most recently Aphorismós, which premiered for the Columbia Ballet Collaborative on April 3rd, 2009. Claudia La Rocco of The New York Times wrote “…her Aphorismós is a ready for primetime knockout…hinting at dark undercurrents that beg for second looks. More, please, Ms. LeCrone.”

Ms. LeCrone has worked with dancers from North Carolina Dance Theatre, the New York City Ballet, Ballet Met, the Los Angeles Ballet, Ballet West, Eugene Ballet, Richmond Ballet, Nashville Ballet, and the American Repertory Ballet. She has participated in several choreography competitions, including the National Choreographers Initiative under the direction of Molly Lynch and Ballet Builders 2008.

In August 2007, Ms. LeCrone moved to New York City, where she performed with Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company in its inaugural City Center season and was hired to dance with both the Metropolitan Opera and Miro Mangaloire’s New Chamber Ballet.

Ms. LeCrone remains in New York City and continues to dance and choreograph. She will premiere new works this year for The Columbia Ballet Collaborative, the Greensboro Ballet, and the newly formed Novaballet. (www.emerylecrone.com)

TAMI STRONACH was born to archeologist parents—a British father and an Israeli mother—and spent her early years in Iran before settling in the US. She formed Tami Stronach Dance (TSD) in 2000 to create works that integrate her extensive artistic influences, which include dance, theater and vocal work. The New York Times called her work “wickedly observant,” while Dance Insider called her “a choreographic doctor of the human condition.” Stronach received a Thayer Fellowship for Excellence in Choreography upon graduation from SUNY Purchase with a BFA in Dance. After graduating, she became a featured performer with Neta Pulvermacher and Dancers. She also worked with choreographers Monica Bill Barnes and Kate Weare and went on to join the internationally acclaimed Flying Machine Theater Company, touring extensively throughout the US. Other acting credits include the role of The Childlike Empress in the film The Never Ending Story. She guest teaches at Dance New Amsterdam and at universities around the country. (www.tamistronach.com)

SATURDAY, JUNE 20:

LINDA SZMYD MONICH has been hosting Dance Talks for The Joyce Theater since 1998. She is a guest lecturer for Manhattanville College’s Dance Theatre Department and the Walnut Hill School’s Ballet Program. She was a Teaching Artist in Dance for Lincoln Center Institute for 14 years, and also worked as a Consultant/Teaching Artist for New York City Ballet’s Education Department. She has written about dance and taught dance history at Connecticut College, The Juilliard School and Manhattanville College. In addition, she has worked in administrative jobs for American Ballet Theatre (Administrator, Ballet Theatre Workshop/Assistant to the Director Ballet Repertory Co.), The Metropolitan Opera (Performance Manager) and The Joffrey Ballet (Assistant to the General Manager/Interim Company Manager, Joffrey II).

General Information:

The A.W.A.R.D. Show! was founded in 2006 by choreographer Neta Pulvermacher/The Neta Dance Company and producer Marisa König Beatty in response to a need for a lab-like space in which working dance artists can engage in an open dialogue with the audience about the work presented. The A.W.A.R.D. Show! is now administered and produced by The Joyce Theater Foundation and has been expanded from an annual series held in New York City at Joyce SoHo to a multi-city format in 2009. This year, The Joyce Theater Foundation has partnered with The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and On the Boards (Seattle) with additional series taking place in Chicago (June 24–27), in Philadelphia (September 15–19) and in Seattle (December 10–13).

The twelve choreographers and companies participating in The A.W.A.R.D. Show! 2009: New York City, as well as those participating in Chicago, Seattle and Philadelphia, were selected by representatives from The Joyce Theater and each of the host organizations. The presenting partners in each city are The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and On the Boards (Seattle). The 2009 expansion into Chicago, Philadelphia and Seattle is made possible by a generous grant from The Boeing Company. The A.W.A.R.D. Show! 2009 awards in New York City at Joyce SoHo are made possible through a generous contribution from Scott Kasen.

Audiences will evaluate the work according to the same P.O.E.M. criteria utilized by the Joyce panel when selecting the participating choreographers:

• Potential: Does the artist have potential and seem to have the maturity to take advantage of an award at this point in his/her career?
• Originality: Does the artist have a personal and unique voice? How singular are the artist’s movement language, concept and vision?
• Execution: Were the performers committed, well-rehearsed and capable of carrying the intricacies of the artist’s vision?
• Merit: Can a value of the whole be assigned based on the combination of the work’s Potential, Originality and Execution?

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Dot Matrix Scanner plays Bohemian Rhapsody

For those who are in NYC, make sure to hit up the NYU-ITP show

In tribute to my alma mater, I submit to you, my wonderful readers this wonderful video (found via Erik Fabian of GoodMeet)

Description:
This is dedicated to all fans of Queen and hey let’s not forget about Mike Myers and Dana Carvey of Wayne’s World.

No effects or sampling were used. What you see is what you hear (does that even make sense?)
Atari 800XL was used for the lead piano/organ sound
Texas Instruments TI-99/4a as lead guitar
8 Inch Floppy Disk as Bass
3.5 inch Harddrive as the gong

HP ScanJet 3C was used for all vocals. Please note I had to record the HP scanner 4 seperate times for each voice. I wanted to buy 4 HP scanners but for some reason sellers on E-Bay expect you to pay $80-$100, I got mine for $30.

I keep hearing parts of the song are out of tune. Keep in mind the scanner and floppy drive are not musical instruments. These are mechanical devices whose motors tend to drift and can cause some notes to be out of tune.

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Outsourcers outsourcing

After hiring a virtual assistant, and experimenting in outsourcing, I’ve come to pay attention to all things outsourcing…

Here’s a recent video from the Onion about outsourcing:


More American Workers Outsourcing Own Jobs Overseas

If things keep going like this, “The poorest man in India will soon be doing 80% of the world’s work”

gotta love the onion

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A Pluralistic Passover : The Obama Seder

My entry for the Matzah Diorama Contest on JCarrot. Please view the photo on flickr – it has secret embedded notes.

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Outsourcing your work, life

[originally posted this on my other site, Arrow Root Media ]

A few months ago, I discovered The Moth podcasts. The Moth is a non-profit, and essentially an open-mic for storytelling. A.J. Jacobs, one of The Moth storytellers, recently told a story about outsourcing, which is where I first heard about Virtual Assistants. While you’re reading this, click play below. Take some time and watch the podcast.

The podcast, though, is only a summary of the article A.J. wrote for Esquire.
[read the full article here]

So after hearing this podcast, I was a little conflicted. Should I really hire a virtual assistant?

There were some practical questions. For example, if I hired someone, what should they do? Should I hire someone to handle work I should be doing? Afterall, if I can’t get something done myself, is it worth doing?

I put my conflicts, worries, and anxieties aside. I was inspired. At first, I really wanted to hire Honey from India, the assistant that A.J. Jacobs worked with. What firm did she work for? With that question, I was off. I started my search. There were many more options than I could ever hope for. I looked around for a while, and signed up for a few but finally settled on BPOVIA.

Unlike AJ’s outsourcing firm, BPOVIA is based in China, not India. What’s truly amazing is that you not only get 1 person, but a whole team of people.

After signing up for 10 hours of help and assitance, I received a confirmation email from Yvonne within 24 hours. In addition to doing repetitive tasks like data entry, they also provide many other services, including Graphic Design, Accounting, Invoicing, and even Tax Prepartion!

BPOVIA uses Basecamp to manage tasks, to-do’s and store files. I’ve been using Basecamp to run things on my end for over 1 year, so I was very pleased to see they use the same online software.

Above all, they are incredibly kind, and apparently can do everything. I mean EVERYTHING! For proof, take a look at my chat transcript below.

bpovia

I still have another 9 hours to go with BPOVIA and am already considering getting more time…

Check back for another update at the end of my 10 hours.

In the meantime, here are few other links I pulled up…

Other firms
http://www.taskseveryday.com/
http://www.catchfriday.com/payment.php (based in phillipines)

Other Articles

http://shainemata.net/2008/01/26/i-hired-a-virtual-assistant/

http://www.backbonemag.com/Backblog/1_10100701.asp

http://thegrowinglife.com/2008/04/49-decent-virtual-assistant-personal-outsourcing-resources/

And of course, you can always google “Virtual Assistants” if you’re really curious.

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Call for Proposals | Twitterate

New modes of communication create new meanings, and new narratives. With the rise of the twitterverse, new vocabulary has given way to new modes of dialogue.

a canary torsi is currently commissioning the creation of a new work using Twitter + Twitter’s API. Participants will be asked to take 2 existing twitter feeds of 2 fictional characters and develop a new art work in the form of:

1. an installation
2. website, micro-site, or web app
3. data visualization
4. or any other suitable medium

The (fictional) Twitter feeds (@Doghebitedme and @Darkbloom8) are connected to a live dance performance that takes place in public bathrooms. They are the two characters in the piece. The dance is set to premiere in New York at the Gershwin Hotel in June 2009. If selected, your piece will be shown in conjunction with the June performance and will be promoted with the staged show.

We want to see projects addressing these questions + themes:
How are asynchronous conversations taking place online?
What is public and private information?

The winning proposal will receive $1000 to create their work.

How to Submit:
1. Download the applications here: http://arrowrootmedia.com/twitterate.doc
2. Email your completed proposals to acanarytorsi@gmail.com

Proposals are due by March 16, 2009.
Notifications will go out April 1, 2009.
The project will be expected to launch by May 30, 2009.

Links:
http://twitter.com/doghebitedme
http://twitter.com/darkbloom8
http://www.yaniracastrocompany.org/flash/index.html

About the Author: The twitter feeds are written by Rozalia Jovanovic, a writer in Columbia University’s MFA program who was a recent fellow at The MacDowell Colony. Her writing has appeared in Guernica, Elimae and Esquire.com, and is forthcoming in The Believer.

About a canary torsi:
a canary torsi is a new structure under which Yanira Castro makes work alone and with others. It is a repository, a card catalogue, a way of inciting others, housing the things we make and making them available to you. It is a way of presenting.

Yanira Castro is a director/choreographer living in Brooklyn. She has made dance installations for theaters, warehouses, bathrooms, a cellar, a former bathhouse. She is interested in constructing scenarios for people that engage different ways of experiencing live performance: you are separated from your companions upon arrival; you are given your own headphones to overhear a surgery; you watch a live performance from a TV in your hotel room; you are shut inside a bathroom with two people having an emotional exchange. She forces a personal encounter with the work. Yanira is the instigator of a canary torsi and is currently engaged in the creation of interactive cyber-environments that act as stand-alone works and are connected to a live performance.

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The Inauguration on the Web

I attended the inauguration with a great group of folks (about 2 million of them). We couchsurfed in DC with Dan, who hosted about 15 other couchsurfers from around the world. There were many other people in DC who hosted 10+ people.

Read this great CNN article on Couchsurfing + the Inauguration.

I’ve included a rundown of my own personal experience, along with a rundown of interesting takes on the inauguration from the mainstream media.

Personal Videos + Photos (shot by Rob Moon)

Photos of the Inauguration on Flickr

on the mall

Video of the Inauguration on YouTube


I love this video – we saw this amazing woman from Memphis after the Inauguration speech. She sang to us.

My Photos on Facebook (uploaded from my iPhone)

I also shot video on my iPhone + uploaded it to the web using Qik. For more videos of the inauguration, visit the Qik Inauguration Page.

For a fascinating look at Obama’s speech, simply type in a keyword in the video player below, courtest of Delve Networks

Below is a tag cloud of keywords Obama said in his Inauguration Speech, courtesy of Read/Write Web.

Obama Tag Cloud


Mainstream Coverage

And now a rundown of great inauguration mainstream media + resources

The Inauguration Speech on NYTimes.com

Washington Post’s Moving Video of the Inauguration and Beyond

Online Video of Inauguration Sets Records (NYTimes.com)

400 Newspapers across the world featuring the inauguration (going.com)

China Censors Part of Obama Speech (NYTimes.com)

CNN’s AMAZING Photo-Multimedia Collage of “The Moment” – a must view

Incredible Hi-Res Photos from The Boston Globe

And finally, a roundup of resources I found on AlumniBlender:

Data Visualization of the Inauguration speech

An analysis of CNN Live’s integration with Facebook

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