Category: news

Working summer becomes performing fall.

I’ve got a lot going on in the next four months—gigs booked in September, October, and November!

I’ll be playing at the super-amazing Electro-Music Festival 2014 in Huguenot, NY, a three day campout of unbelievable musicians performing, connecting, and collaborating up in the woods in NY state. It’s an immersive experience for musicians that’s just lovely and embracing and full of all sorts of electric music, played out in a great setting.

Electro-Music 2014

Last year was my first, and I just enjoyed the company and camaraderie, but this year, on Friday, September 5th at 5:30PM, I’m premiering a little work in progress, All Night Radio, a short cycle of spoken word storytelling on my love of noise set to the tune of digital modular synthesis.

I’ll be performing the work again in November, as part of the terrific Electromusic Festival at the National Electronics Museum in Linthicum, Maryland.

On Sunday, October 5th, I’m privileged to share the stage with the thoroughly distinct and delightful Keith Sinzinger (aka Fast Forty) for the second round of our collaboration, Fast Against The Wall, as part of the Sonic Circuits Festival 2014, taking place from October 3-5, 2014 at Pyramid Atlantic in Silver Spring Maryland.

2014: The big push

Howdy, my lovelies!

I’m making a point to get myself out there in 2014, and to that end, I’m starting a pledge drive of a sort. I’ve been writing since…well, since always, almost, but I’ve been doing spoken word/storytelling performances, with and without music, for twenty years, keeping a regular online journal for thirteen years, making slow, quiet music, exploring strange new worlds, making silly videos, and otherwise sharing the things I love about being a citizen of reality, but I have to admit I’ve not done it in an organized, comprehensible way.

I’m knuckling down.

I’m consolidating and streamlining, trying out some new outlets, and working to make it easy for you, the folks who’ve encouraged my raconteurship over the years, and new friends who’ve just come aboard for the ride. I cut my teeth online at Livejournal, but unfortunately, Livejournal’s not what it used to be, so I’m going to be primarily posting new material on a few sites and making my LJ a private space for my friends and family. I’d also made a stab at using the blogger platform, under the monicker “bluestarlounge,” but I had a hard time getting traction there, so I’m concentrating on new modes.

I maintain an info site at joebelknapwall.com. You may notice that I now have a middle name, and I’m using it because it makes it easier to find me on Google and other search engines, for which “joe” and “wall” are awfully vague search terms. It’s all part of the whole “branding” thing, which make me scowl at myself, but if I can’t be found, I can’t get my work to new audiences. The site will continue to be a general news and biographical info site, with archives of some of my favorite material for various media, announcements of events, projects, and other useful data. My previous info site, joewall.com, now links into this site, with all of the original material, as well as new material.

To make it easier to keep up in the Facebook age, I’ve created a special Facebook page linked to my info site and my twitter account, at https://www.facebook.com/joebelknapwall, which is a simple one-stop-shop to get updates on all my projects, events, and twitter updates.

To find my day-to-day writings, stories, music, and other updates, I’m using several outlets, which I’ll list here:

• Twitter — https://twitter.com/joebelknapwall

I resisted Twitter for a long time and for the usual reasons, in large part because I’m fairly described as “verbose,” but it is a splendid platform for linking one’s work, sharing one’s favorite things, and otherwise honing the fine art of the perfect Dorothy Parkeresque one-line party zinger. My Twitter feed tends to be a bit surreal, often amusing, and it’s a great clearinghouse for letting people know what I’m up to right now. I promise it isn’t all just announcements of what I’m eating, wearing, or am mad about (well, there’s some of that).

• Tumblr — http://www.tumblr.com/blog/joebelknapwall

Tumblr is an excellent resource for sharing all sorts of things, from stories to news to photos to videos to music. It’s visually spare and simple, and a nice outlet for storytelling

• Medium — https://medium.com/@joebelknapwall

I’m a fan of what the developers of Medium are doing, which is to set up an adjunct to Twitter for more detailed writing, with a nice clean design and the additions of a system for collective curation of topics and a helpful tag on each post with an approximate time it’ll take you to read the posting. I’ll probably be simultaneously posting to both Tumblr and Medium, with Medium more focused on the shorter stories.

[See below] I’ve embarked on a new project, dubbed “Nowhere Joe,” which combines the pitch I made to a travel network for a travel program about going nowhere, or otherwise using the idea of travel to make everyday life more interesting, and a sort of household-hints journal loosely organized around the idea of living well on little money. It’s a bit different from some of the excellent sites out there on simple living in that it’s not a compendium of tips and tricks as much as it is a means of sharing the why of a humble, adventurous life. I’ll definitely share my own little methodologies, recipes, and shortcuts, but more than that, I want to cover the rewards of making the best with what you have on hand.

• Nowhere Joe — http://www.nowherejoe.com

I’ve also created a corresponding Facebook page specifically for the Nowhere Joe project, and you can find it at https://www.facebook.com/nowherejoe. Like my professional page listed above, it’ll pass along my updates, links to new stories on nowherejoe.com, and relevant info. In addition, there’s a nice mechanism built into the site that will help you to share any post you found entertaining or informative—just scroll to the bottom of the post, and there’s little set of icons to share the post with your friends on a number of outlets. The green icon at the end offers an even more fully expanded listing of ways to share, so if you like something, pass it around!

[UPDATE 2017: I didn’t manage to get the Nowhere Joe project to go quite where I wanted to take it, and I was unsuccessful at generating an audience there, so I pulled back and have concentrated on this page, on which I’m sharing much of what I hoped to share on Nowhere Joe, and my solo ambient music page. Worth a try, though, I think, though ultimately it ended up as a distraction rather than a point of focus.]

The easiest way to keep up, if you’re on Facebook, is to “like” my professional Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/joebelknapwall, which will get you notifications of things I’m doing, my Twitter updates, links to new material posted online, and listings of upcoming events and appearances.

Here’s my pitch—If you like what I do, and enjoy my stories, music, and other things, please “like” me on Facebook, “follow” me on Twitter, Tumblr, and Medium, sign up for my email list, and otherwise share share share anything of mine that you enjoy with anyone you know who might like it. It’s easy, it helps me to build an audience so I can eventually spend less time in my so-called “day job” and more time writing and performing and telling you stories.

Thanks for reading,
Love, your pal, Joe Belknap Wall

Live at the controls of the Lotus Toolbox, 14 June 2013

I’m excited to be playing a live ambient set in Baltimore on Friday, 14 June 2013. It’s part of a two-day series of concerts curated by the Baltimore SDIY group, called the Baltimore Electronic Music 2013 Summerfest Concerts, on 14 & 15 June 2013 at Club K.

The line-ups for each day are available here:

Baltimore Electronic Music 2013 Summerfest Concert One [14 June 2013]
Baltimore Electronic Music 2013 Summerfest Concert Two [15 June 2013]

Club K is on 2101 Maryland Avenue Baltimore MD 21210, physically located at 2101 W. 21st Street, Baltimore MD 21210, two doors from the corner of Maryland Avenue & W. 21st Street. Admission is $5 per person per concert.

I’m in the line-up from 9:30-10:00 on Friday, but the events run from 8-11 each night, with an array of electronic musicians ranging from the experimental to the beatworthy. The SDIY group does a great job of mashing a lot of genres together in these events, so you’re almost certain to find something that stokes the fires.

I’ll be playing sort of cascading shambling digital slow music with electronics using the lotus toolbox, a stripped-down live rig I’ve been refining with the intention of getting my gear simplified to the point that I can fit all I need across the seat of a motorcycle.

C’mon down and see me!

a new blessing and upcoming notions

 

Performed my fifteenth psychotronic blessout of the holy rollers and their grimy feet at the American Visionary Art Museum‘s 15th annual Kinetic Sculpture Race in Baltimore last weekend and it was a blast. This is my best video yet, thanks to Will Wall‘s steady camera work, though with increased resolution comes a realization that I could stand to take an iron to my habit. I did double duty this year, being recruited to do announcements and color commentary at the water entry in the race, and it was a thoroughly fun and fantastically action-packed day, as usual.

A few old and new projects are in the works, and I’m gradually getting my old stale web presence dusted off for the year. I’ve written a script for a one act play, “Overdue,” based on a particularly aggravating phone conversation with a bill collector back in hairier days, I’m continuing to work on a new edition of my one man show, My Fairy Godmothers Smoke Too Much, with the intention of doing a little touring version sometime in the next year or so (drop me a line if you have a venue, please!). It’s expanded to the original script length, with new music and sound and the same old staging (me and a microphone). Will be posting some teasers as the completed version gets closer.

In the process of consolidating fifteen years of various web presences, I’m going to revive my stalled ambient music podcast, 12 Minute Travelogues, in order to get it back online and to finally air the final two episodes. It’s a nice, pastoral thing, consisting of twelve twelve-minute ambient experiments created between 2008 and 2013, so watch this page for an announcement of its reappearance. In a similar vein, I’m working on a new podcast of generative music pieces, to be described in more detail very soon.

Spinning more strands.

As the internet grows ever more complicated, I’m moving sideways to better connect with people who wish to follow what I’m up to at any given moment. I’m gearing up to add a lot of new content to this page, and related online sources, finishing up 12 Minute Travelogues #11, and working on a piece I’m planning to submit to the New York Times. In the meantime, I’ve added some new venues to my repertoire, including the following.

My interim outlet for ongoing writing projects and better pieces from the past:
bluestarlounge.blogspot.com

My “fan” page at facebook:
facebook.com/joebelknapwall

And last, and least, my twitter feed:
twitter.com/joebelknapwall

As usual, thanks for following along and giving me the space to work.

Love and kisses, Joe!

Another go-round at the Hexagon.

Joe at the BEM Summerfest 2010

Had another great gig as part of the Baltimore Electronic Music Summerfest 2010, an annual 13 hour festival of electronic, DIY, and unclassifiable music at the Hexagon. Great company, great music, and lots of fun. Yes, I am dressed as a nun. When your particular musical style involves long stretches of near-motionless attention to a small black box full of gear, you need a hook, don’t you think? To hear the set, click the arrow on the player above.

To set the landscape buzzing

It’s a little late this year, but I’ve got all the bees settling nicely into their hives. Once they’re really working, there’s nothing quite like the kind of calm you get, just sitting there, on a lawn chair in front of your beehive, just watching them coming and going, bringing nectar in, sending foragers out, a whole world of perfectly-choreographed activity laid plain.

Springtime rolls in

Sister Euphonia Oblivion of the Microscopic Sisters of the Burning Calves

[AVAM – Kinetic Sculpture Race 2010 – photo by Nick Prevas]

What a busy couple of months it’s been! I’ve been working hard at my no-longer-new job with the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts, where I am facility manager for two of Baltimore’s architectural and artistic treasures, the Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower and the School 33 Art Center. After three years of planning, grant-writing, engineering, and other detail work (much of which was done expertly before my tenure at the Tower, thanks to Kristin Grey, the brilliant staff at BOPA, and Azola and Associates), we restored the South face of the tower clock to full operation last month! Click here to watch a brief film of the project via Youtube (and please forgive my unusual state of awkward tongue-tiedness, as I was working with a bad cold that day, had been up since 3am, and wasn’t expecting to be on camera).

I’m happy to have been able to have the rents reduced at the Tower, so that our working studio spaces for artists now start at $320 (compare with studio spaces throughout the region—you’ll be pleasantly surprised). It’s a great place to work, and an honor for me, being able to be a part of such a cornerstone of the city. I also formalized the small performance space we have on the 11th floor of the tower, with the gracious and tireless work of our own Barbara Bryan, and the Studio11 Theater is heading into its sixth month now, hosting our resident troupe, Unexpected Theater, as well as a wonderful bi-monthly reading series by the Upward Spiral group. It’s just a room, right now, seating thirty in the city skyline, but we’re working on adding lighting, blackout curtains, and a screen for films to make a real little theater on the West Side, so we can host musicians, poets, storytellers, actors, filmmakers, and other performance-based artists.

Outside of the working world, I’ve been getting back to my music, writing, and performances after a bit of a break. I debuted my new nitro-glycerine Nun character at the Kinetic Sculpture Race at my alma mater, the American Visionary Art Museum, on May 1st, 2010, kicking off the race with my usual inspirational message and disco-dancing celebration of the joys of being on the outside of everyday life. This was my 12th year as the spiritual advisor to the race, and it’s been such a great ride, writing these little hit-and-run routines over the years. Besides, dressing as a nun and  riding a bicycle through the crowded city streets when you’re a husky fella with a mustache is just fun, and makes everyone smile. I could get used to this, but I don’t want to get in a rut, necessarily.

I’ll be performing a short set of spoken word/ambient electronic music from 6:30-7pm on Saturday, June 26th, 2010 at the Hexagon in Baltimore, as a part of the Baltimore Electronic Music Summerfest 2010 (admission $6 for the entire event). I’m working on some additional performances for the rest of the year and will post them here (and on a calendar page I’m building for this website). The manuscript for my essay collection, Scaggsville, is coming along nicely, after a stretch of frustrating inactivity, and I’m hoping to have a micropress edition available by the autumn.

Only three podcasts left in my ambient podcast, 12 Minute Travelogues, so sign up and enjoy! When I finish 12MT, I’m planning to create a remastered collection of the podcast, available on iTunes, Emusic, etc, and resume my older storytelling podcast.

Watch the skies, as they say!

Radio daze and other changes

I read a recent essay on WYPR 88.1 FM for their program, The Signal, and it airs at 12pm and 7pm today, 13 November 2009! If you’re not in the area, or if a radio’s not handy, you can go to the mp3 page at signalradio.org and listen online and/or subscribe to the program (which I heartily encourage—it’s a great show, and I’m not just saying that because I’m on it this week!).

It’s been a radioactive time for me, with two appearances on the excellent program The Falling Room on CFBU 103.7 FM in Canada in the last month. I’m a huge radio fan, and an enthusiastic supporter of both public radio and college radio, so it’s great to have people track me down to share my work on the airwaves. I’m really hoping to get even more airtime in the next year, on traditional radio and the new media, as well.

On that note, the next piece in my 12 Minute Travelogues podcast will be coming up soon, #9 in the series, and it’s going to be yet another evolution in the ongoing ambient experiment of the podcast. I try to do something a little different and find a new angle for each of these pieces, and if this one works out the way I’m expecting it to, it’ll be something else. Subscribe, if you haven’t already, and feel free to share the music with anyone you like—episodes of the podcast are released with a Creative Commons “attribution-noncommercial-share alike” license, which means you can share them with your friends, use them in your films and theater projects, and remix them for free, as long as it’s not for profit and you contact me and give proper attribution.

That’s it for now.

—Joe.