The Beastly Conveyance.

In 2010, I sold my Citroën. It’d taken me about eight years to come to grips with letting it ago, and if that says something about me, so be it. I’d put eighty thousand joyous, cantankerous miles on it, all up and down the eastern seaboard, from spending four hours stuck in a solid traffic jam on the Cross Bronx Expressway with the ARRET! light falsely warning me that the car was about to overheat to moments on Route 301 in South Carolina where I did the little mental arithmetic to translate kilometers to miles to confirm that I was indeed doing over a hundred on a lazy old trunk road. I’d lived out a French fever dream, but I went broke, the car developed a few faults beyond my means or technical ability to correct, and I fell into a premature middle age fugue state where I thought maybe, just maybe, I needed to grow up and stop living like a cantankerous continental eccentric.

I drove a practical four door economy sedan for eight years.

(more…)

Standing up at Stoop.

7 February 2017 – The Sex Show

Told a story as a part of the Stoop Storytelling Series – The Sex Show. The theme of the evening was sex, so I naturally shared a story of my own in which there was no sex at all, at least on my part, as I’m generally inclined to approach everything sideways, dealing reality a glancing blow.

I was honored to be invited to share the stage with nine amazing storytellers for an evening of lurid tales of the lascivious side of life, though my tale is less about actual sex and more about the tragic excesses of one’s early thirties, odd career choices, and the things you’ll do because of a crush.


You can listen to my story and the other wonderful tales from that night at The Stoop Storytelling Series – The Sex Show page, and you should do yourself a favor and subscribe to the Stoop’s fabulous and utterly free podcast via iTunes or your favorite podcast app. I can’t endorse Stoop enough—it’s just such a treasure for the Maryland region, and for storytelling wherever you are.

My Fairy Godmothers [Still] Smoke Too Much

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It’s less than two weeks to my first big show in a faraway city—I’m going to be telling stories in St. Louis, Missouri at the Kranzberg Arts Center, thanks to the HEARDing Cats Collective on Saturday, 10 October 2015, at 7:30PM.

The show page at Kranzberg Arts Center is Joe Belknap Wall at the Kranzberg Arts Center, and tickets are $12 for adults and $7 for students/artists.

The Kranzberg Arts Center is located at 501 N Grand Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63103.

[Warning: Show contains explicit content and adult concepts. Please note that Performer now comes with 82% more beard than pictured and will be wearing a nicer shirt.]

Out and about in 2015.

JBW at EM2015 no. 2I performed on Friday, 11 September, 2015, as part of the Electro-Music 2015 Conference at YMCA Greenkill in Huguenot, NY. I’m gearing up for a revival of my award-winning spoken word piece, My Fairy Godmothers Smoke Too Much, and shared an abbreviated episode of lopsided stories of unlikely fairy godmothers, dancing with distant strangers, and otherwise trying to make sense out of the senseless eighties, accompanied by a freewheeling electronic score.

• I’ll be performing in Saint Louis, Missouri at 7:30 PM on Saturday 10 October 2015 at the Kranzberg Art Center [tickets $12 regular, $7 students/artists].


[thanks to Hong Waltzer for the fabulous photo]

Having written


© 2015 Joe Belknap Wall
(originally posted to medium.com)

Kantoendrato vs. alternating.bit

kantoendratovsalternatingdotbit

Played a brief, but energetic, set on Friday, 27 February 2015 at Electric Maid in Takoma Park as part of the Baltimore SDIY group’s 2 day winter electronic music event. First go-round for my Kantoendrato alter-ego (to make PR a bit easier, I’m going to be going by Kantoendrato for my ambient and experimental electronic sets and by my given name for my storytelling work), and was delighted to work with alternating.bit for the set.

I predict big things for this collaboration in time.

National Electronics Museum – Electronica Fest 2014

I’m playing in this year’s Electronica Fest at the National Electronics Museum, in Linthicum, Maryland (near BWI Airport), on Saturday, 8 November 2014, in the 4:30-5:00 slot. The Fest is an amazing day-long celebration of electronic and electroacoustic music that runs from noon till ten o’clock and gives audiences an opportunity to hear a dizzying array of genres touched by the thrilling spark of electricity for a delightfully paltry ten bucks. The music ranges from the downright lovely to the down-home peculiar and the atmosphere just can’t be matched by anything else going on in the region. It’s a great Saturday for sound.

EFEST_Poster2014 editing with earth 500px

http://nationalelectronica.com/

Upping the voltage.

flyer - Sonic Circuits 2014

I’m thrilled to be playing with the inimitable Keith Sinzinger once again, this time as a participant in the Sonic Circuits Festival 2014, a three-day assortment of aural delights held from 3-5 October 2014 at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, 8230 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20910. We’re on during the final evening of the festival, on Sunday, 5 October, performing under our collective monicker, Fast Against The Wall, in a playful set of peculiar noises, particular grooves, and happy accidents. We’ll be in good company, and the folks behind Sonic Circuits bring together the best audiences for new and experimental music in the area and the best performers. I’m always delighted by the variety and quality of the music Sonic Circuits puts on, and I am happy as a dang lark to be playing.

Come on out and listen!