Thursday, May 21, 2009

Concert Images: Tuesday, May 9th 2009

Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra





N.N.N. Cook


Jozef van Wissem




Monday, May 18, 2009

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 @ 8:30 PM: Jozef van Wissem, Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra, N. Nolan Cook


Jozef van Wissem (Maastricht, The Netherlands)
Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra (Saint Louis)
N. Nolan Cook (Saint Louis)

We are excited to host Jozef van Wissem, a Dutch composer / lute player celebrated for his integration of classical pieces, inventive compositional techniques (such as playing traditional melodies backwards, creating musical palindromes), electronic improvisation, and field recordings. His recent collaboration with British guitarist James Blackshaw, Bretheren of the Free Spirit, was released earlier this year on Important Records. Listen to his van Wissem's work at http://www.myspace.com/vanwissem

"Jozef van Wissem has been slowly reinventing the lute for the last three decades. Among the slew of fast-picking, fancy-fretting guitar players so prevalent today, his lute’s voice is a quiet oasis, and Stations of the Cross a small masterpiece”. - The Wire

“In The Mirror of Eternal Light, the Dutch lutist Jozef van Wissem catches his own reflection in tender, minimalist picking and gold-spray overdubs.”- Rolling Stone Magazine

Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra will be playing a score to accompany Buster Keaton's short film The High Sign
(http://www.myspace.com/ratsandpeoplemotionpictureorchestra)

N. Nolan Cook will play a set of improvisational electronic music.
(http://www.close-far.com/)

Hope to see you all there!

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

David Johnson and INTERSECT

Dave recently finished framing, hanging, labeling and stressing for INTERSECT, a group show at the Des Lee Gallery. The reception is this Friday...featuring new work by Dave himself, as well as Patrick Renschen and Jamie Kreher. Bring your ID, and you'll get a special wristband that allows you to have a glass of wine. Hope to see you there.

The details:

Please join us for a reception for INTERSECT at the Des Lee gallery. INTERSECT is a photography exhibit concerning the urban environment featuring St. Louis based photographers Patrick Renschen, Jamie Kreher, and David Johnson.

The reception will be on Friday July 11th from 6-9 pm
Des Lee Gallery is located 1627 Washington Ave.

Refreshments will be served.

If you are unable to make the reception we will have gallery hours on:
Wednesday, July 9 from 12 – 6 pm
Saturday, July 12 from 12 – 6 pm

Or by appointment: dgjohnso@gmail.com

Monday, July 7, 2008

Open Studio @ Open Lot

Open Studio is fast approaching. And while I'm sure everyone would like to know about how we decided who would clean what, where to put this or that, I'll just include the details:

A city wide event featuring artists from the greater St. Louis area, Open Studios is organized by the Contemporary Art Museum. Our scheduled day is Sunday, July 20th, from 10 am until 4 pm.

Our plans include a listening station with samples of music from bands we've hosted in the past, as well as a presentation about who we are and what we do. The best part? Up close and personal with the artists-what they do, what they're reading, favorite colors, you name it.

We hope to see you there, and more details will follow.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Northampton Purple House Presents




Personally, think this is going to be really amazing. I have never seen an event of this kind in St. Louis, and I certainly can't think of a better way to spend your Monday evening. P.S. crossword depicted is not the actual crossword of Ben Segal...but we have to have some imagery here.


Open Lot's summertime rash of activities continues Monday, June 23rd, with
just the kind of interdisciplinary mash-up that we all crave. Does it have
physics demonstrations? Yes, yes it does. Literature via crossword puzzle?
Yes, most definitely. Maybe some music? Yup.

Intrigued? Come see Northampton Purple House Presents:

Jim Atkinson- Jim is a physicist working on quantum computing at the Amherst
College Physics lab. He'll be doing various (and totally safe)
science demonstrations. It's going to be kind of like Mr. Wizard or Bill
Nye. Also, he can talk to anyone about quantum mechanics if they're into
that. And you know you are.

Ben Segal's new experimental prose book is being released in late Spring by
No Record Press. The book, 132 Stories, takes the form of a crossword
puzzle. Ben filled in each of the white squares on a standard crossword
puzzle with paragraphs. Each paragraph acts as part of an across and a down
answer, as in a traditional puzzle. Each of these 'answers' functions as a
short narrative, creating a web of 132 such narratives over a 20 sq. foot
grid. He will present the book (which is published in the form of a
fold-out, like a map) and also possibly reading from a tour-only collection
of short stories that have been previously published in small journals.

For a sample of Ben's writing, please visit: http://www.wordriot.org/template.php?ID=756.

Plus trumpet solos by Peter Bonos.

Quantum physics chats + Trumpet solos + Radical crossword narratives =
Seriously, how could you not come?

Monday, June 23rd

9 PM at

Open Lot
1310 South 18th Street
Saint Louis, MO 63104
1.314.588.2192
www.openlot. org
www.openlotblog. blogspot. com

To follow more activities and adventures of Northampton Purple House, please visit their blog: http://northamptonpurplehouse.blogspot.com.

Monday, April 7, 2008

Audrey Chen and Frederic Blondy

Saturday night we were the fortunate audience of Audrey Chen and Frederic Blondy, of Baltimore and Paris, respectively.

Chen plays the cello and Blondy plays the prepared piano. Watch the video and please check back in for future events you missed or want to relive here at Open Lot.





Monday, March 17, 2008

Paul Metzger and Tim Kaiser Tuesday March 18th @ 9pm

Duluth, MN. Tim Kaiser




Tuesday night's alright for fighting...and modified guitars, raga and banjo.





Minneapolis, MN. Winding raga style improv on 21 string modified banjo and modified guitar. "It isn't surprising that his banjo doesn't sound like what we expect, given that it looks like a mutant of its traditional form, modified heavily by Metzger to create a 21 string monster, sometimes bowed, sometimes plucked, that makes use of sympathtetic drone strings a la some manner of alien sitar."


Show starts at 9pm. Five dollars at the door.
Open Lot
1310 South 18th Street 
Saint Louis, Mo 63104