Moonblog

Audio

Tue, 22 May 2012 22:21:30 -0400

Marie Charpentier-Leroy, mezzo-soprano Frédéric Rubay,...

Mon, 21 May 2012 15:53:00 -0400

Marie Charpentier-Leroy, mezzo-soprano
Frédéric Rubay, piano

Conservatoire de Paris
December 9, 2011
Special thanks to Isabelle Guillaud-Kalvar

Filmed and edited by H. Paul Moon | Zen Violence Films | zenviolence.com
for the forthcoming feature-length documentary on Samuel Barber

Audio

Wed, 09 May 2012 12:37:05 -0400

Still frame from dance film collaboration with Jimmy Garver,...

Sat, 05 May 2012 02:37:00 -0400

Still frame from dance film collaboration with Jimmy Garver, Peter Kyle and Holley Farmer on April 28, 2012.

Generous thoughts and insightful connections from painter...

Wed, 02 May 2012 14:26:00 -0400

Generous thoughts and insightful connections from painter Heather McCaw, as she explores the use of light across mediums, citing my Paris film City of Light.

Greece (Photo Album at Picasa Web)

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 14:29:00 -0400

Greece (Photo Album at Picasa Web)

Photo

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 01:01:34 -0400

Piano Trio by Lembit Beecher Emily Daggett Smith, violin Karen...

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 12:28:00 -0400

Piano Trio by Lembit Beecher

Emily Daggett Smith, violin
Karen Ouzounian, cello
Lembit Beecher, piano and composer

Commissioned by David Ehrlich for the 15th Anniversary of The Southwest Chamber Players, and to commemorate the 100th National Cherry Blossom Festival. This world premiere performance was given on March 30, 2012 in Washington, D.C.

Filmed and edited by H. Paul Moon | Zen Violence Films | zenviolence.com

Backstage at the Eisenhower Theatre: I think this stagehand...

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 19:31:14 -0400

Backstage at the Eisenhower Theatre: I think this stagehand note says, “Remember, let your balls hang loose!”

Backstage at the Eisenhower Theatre: drama productions used to...

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 19:26:58 -0400

Backstage at the Eisenhower Theatre: drama productions used to be, like…smart! A lot of Tennessee Williams, Eugene O’Neill and David Mamet on these old walls.

Surprised to find that the trailer is getting viral hits,...

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 12:16:41 -0400

Surprised to find that the trailer is getting viral hits, because it was curated onto the front page at REDUX.com!

C Street S.W.: The golden hour

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 19:52:13 -0400

C Street S.W.: The golden hour

Philip Glass discusses his work at the Park Avenue Armory

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 21:50:08 -0500

Philip Glass discusses his work at the Park Avenue Armory

Tune In Festival for/with Philip Glass (at Park Avenue Armory)

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 18:34:36 -0500

Tune In Festival for/with Philip Glass (at Park Avenue Armory)

Did it ever leave? #perpetualpoison

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 15:14:23 -0500

Did it ever leave? #perpetualpoison

Björk / Biophilia

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 18:46:00 -0500

Björk / Biophilia

Anthony Izzo’s murder, photographed by Weegee (the source,...

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 15:29:00 -0500

Anthony Izzo’s murder, photographed by Weegee (the source, now I know, of John Zorn’s “Naked City” album cover)

In my neighborhood, a videotape transfer shop meets its timely...

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 13:36:37 -0500

In my neighborhood, a videotape transfer shop meets its timely death

Melissa Fogarty, soprano Marc Peloquin, piano Saint Luke in the...

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:06:04 -0500

Melissa Fogarty, soprano
Marc Peloquin, piano

Saint Luke in the Fields
New York City
November 11, 2011

melissafogarty.com/despiteandstill.html

Filmed and edited by H. Paul Moon | Zen Violence Films | zenviolence.com

For Valentine’s Day: Dedicated to all the morons of the...

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 02:39:00 -0500

For Valentine’s Day: Dedicated to all the morons of the world who often get the good ones.

At a conservative Christian college in the early ’90s, my Psychology 101 final exam included the option to interview people about what they desire for girlfriend/boyfriend hook-ups. At Week One of the finals period, a female classmate played a videotape of interviews with mostly male responses, and a typical scene played out (for me, at that place): most thought it was hilarious; I sat in shock. Mustering the small amount of courage I had at that age, I asked her after class for the videotape, promising I’d return it next week when presenting my work. So I ran the minor risk of breaking an honor code, by appropriating someone else’s work, or in any case, failing the class.

With the boundless energy of a teenager that I’ve since somehow lost, over the next few days I digitally sampled those answers, and constructed a whole experimental sound work. Around that time, I was obsessed with the musical genre minimalism, in particular the speech studies of Steve Reich that began with “Come Out” well before my time, and culminated in “Different Trains” that year with the Kronos Quartet. This interest in a musical lyricism implicit in ordinary speech, which led to my later interest in the Czech idioms of Leoš Janácek, found good company in minimalism. And the insufferable loops of what was said, apart from their musical qualities, became a narrative of mysogyny that would incite justice against last week’s laugh-in.

When my turn came to press “play” on the tape deck, my hands shook. I sat back down, and stared straight ahead. The guys on tape, looped over and over, were sitting in the rows behind me. By the end, our adjunct professor — a misplaced progressive — seemed to have found a voice for things she couldn’t politically say within that parochial institution, and she was elated. (She asked to keep the tape, and I obliged, which of course fed my adolescent crush on her.) Those guys behind me seemed to be rumbling for revenge, and although I imagined a scene of bulls scraping their hooves against dirt, I didn’t look back. After class, I remember hearing someone say, “you know they’re gonna kick your ass,” but I walked straight back to my dorm room — with the hugest grin on my face during an otherwise morbid period of rich creativity that I’ll never get back. I slept like a baby.

H. Paul Moon
Arlington, Virginia
July 25, 2011 (writing about this composition from the 1990s)