Majikthise

Darcy and Lindsay in the Wall Street Journal

Martin Johnson of the Wall Street Journal has a great piece on New York's burgeoning neo-big band scene featuring Darcy's band, Secret Society, and one of my photos.

What Israeli mercenaries and jazz musicians have in common

Cruise ship gigs! It's all fun and games until they take your passport, or make you fight pirates.

According to Ha’aretz:

Security work aboard cruise ships is very popular among young Israelis just out of the army; the job is seen as a chance to save money and travel at the same time. Hundreds of veterans and reservists of elite Israel Defense Force units, including the naval commandos, are employed in security work on cruise ships and oil rigs in areas subject to pirate attacks.

Newsweek raves for Darcy James Argue's "Infernal Machines"

Darcy James Argue, originally uploaded by Lindsay Beyerstein.

Seth Colter Walls of Newsweek gave Darcy's new album, Infernal Machines, a rave review.

Props to Seth and Newsweek for spotlighting a young artist working outside the commercial mainstream.

Listen to a preview of Infernal Machines on the New Amsterdam Records website. (LINK UPDATED)

"The transcendent mosh pit of the Sufis"

Aaron Huey is a brilliant photojournalist. You may have read about his stunning photos of the drug war in Afghanistan on Boing Boing today.

He's also a blogger at Argonaut Photo.

Here's a post Aaron wrote about the making of his series of photographs of Sufi Muslims:

I knew I was in pretty good with the Sufis when they started putting their snakes on my head. They don’t just give their snakes to anyone you know. It was Imam Hussein’s birthday, I was in Cairo, Egypt at the place his head is supposed to be buried, and I was 10 hours into my second night of dancing. I had meant to be there making photographs for a global look at Sufism, but 10 minutes into the first night I was dancing. For one thing it was the only way I was going to get to stay, but it was also a steady stream of some of the raddest beats I had ever heard. I'd even go so far as to call it one of the top ten dance floors on the planet. With a heavy metal violin, a distortion pedal for the echoing microphone, tambourines, and reed flutes raging on for 12-hour sets, the musicians created a religious Mosh pit the likes of which I could never have imagined. [...]

Read the original, and watch the laying on of snakes video on Aaron's blog.

Support your favorite Secret Society (hint: not the Masons)

Darcy, originally uploaded by Lindsay Beyerstein.

Secret Society fans will be excited to learn that the band is poised to record its first studio album, Infernal Machines, in mid-December.

You can download live recordings of the 18-piece steampunk jazz ensemble here, for free. It's all original material, composed by my partner, DJA, and performed by some of the most talented young jazz musicians in New York.

SecSoc is doing a fall fund drive to defray recording costs. If you'd like to contribute, please click here.

Thanks to all the loyal fans who have supported SecSoc over the years by coming out to shows, writing about the gigs, sending cash, and spreading the good word.

Darcy James Argue's Secret Society Joins NewAm Roster

Big news: Darcy James Argue's Secret Society signs with NewAm Records.

Are musicians owed royalties for performance of their music in torture chambers?

Good question...

Would that such questions didn't arise.

RIP: Utah Phillips

Beloved musician, activist and folk historian Utah Phillips died of congestive heart failure at his home in Nevada  City, California on Friday at the age of 73.

I've been a Utah Phillips fan since as long as I've been listening to music. I was deeply saddened to learn of his passing. We have lost a truly great American.

Amy Goodman pays tribute to Utah Phillips at DemocracyNow. Labor Beat released this video tribute to Phillips.

Ticketmaster is a ripoff

Generally speaking, I go to concerts where you pay cash at the door and get change from a twenty--but someone special has a birthday coming up, and Stevie Wonder is coming to town.

Do you know how much Ticketmaster charges to place an order online? Well, there's a "convenience charge" of $12.45 per ticket, plus a $5.15 order processing fee, plus $2.50 for the privilege of printing my receipt. That's a total of $32.55, or 27% of the cost of the tickets. A 27% markup for a service that failed the first time I logged in, sending me back to the end of the line.

How convenient.

These days, any schmo with a website can take secure orders online for next to nothing.

Amazon.com doesn't charge me a separate "convenience fee" to pick out a physical product from an inventory of millions of items. And they throw in the receipt for free, like everyone else in the capitalist system.

 

Traversing the Mushroom Kingdom

Inflatable DOB by Takashi Murakami at the Brooklyn Museum, originally uploaded by Lindsay Beyerstein.

More pictures of Darcy's debut at the Brooklyn Museum.