November 12, 2009 was the celebration for the 500th performance of the ZAIA show by Cirque Du Soleil in Macau, China. Cirque founder Guy Laliberte flew in for the performance and toasted the artists and crew. Family and friends were also invited for the occasion.
Conrad Askland (ZAIA keyboards and assistant bandleader) and Guy Laliberte.
I recently updated DNS on websites that are not active to point here to my personal site. Thank you to the person who emailed me about that. Over the years I had many websites on different servers and I didn’t update DNS on websites I wasn’t using. When those old IP’s were reallocated, new owners would load their websites onto them. In plain english that means that when people would go to an old website of mine I wasn’t using any more they would end up on a different random site like “Norm’s Bait and Tackle Shop”.
Continue reading “DNS Updates or How Did I Get To This Website?”
Did you know that the latin root of “to entertain” means “to hold between”? (Official dictionary definition at the end of this blog post). When an audience is no longer held, they are no longer being entertained. The mighty brass ring for any theatrical production is to keep the audience engaged so they are not looking at their watches and counting the minutes until intermission.
View Conrad Askland – Cities I’ve Visited in a larger map
Had fun messing around with Google Maps. This is a list of cities that I have visited.
I keep messing it up – now I’ve got two maps posted, each with half of the cities I’ve visited. Arghh! I give up, it’s boring now…
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVvqFqITYlY
I’ve seen several videos of street performers in Strasbourg that are just incredible. I enjoyed this piece very much. Is his name Luc Arbogast?
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVU4IkzMNIo
12 year old Shaheen auditions for the judges on Britains Got Talent 2009 singing Whose Loving You by Michael Jackson.
There’s a great lesson in this video clip. There’s a tendency to think of artists as having a certain talent level – like someone has great talent or mediocre. It all depends on the application; artists that excel in one area may be weak in another.
So the secret lesson for artists is this: Identify your strengths and weaknesses and try to place yourself in the area you shine most. Of course, you can also choose to be in the one that is most satisfying rather than the one where the bulk of your talent lies.
Being a musician my entire life I’ve had the unfortunate experience of doing performances that were not to my optimum level. I imagine every trade has that same experience. But with artists the mindset is so important to garner the vision and drive needed to push each project to success.
Proper selection is paramount. Go to where you are drawn to, where life is sweet. It will give you unimaginable strength to reach for the next plateau. And there is always another plateau available if you desire it. 🙂
“Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.”
– Stephen Sondheim
A dwarf can see farther than a giant if the dwarf stands on the giant’s shoulders. With that idea I turn to the mind of Stephen Sondheim for insights into creating new works for musical theater.
I also have the great gift that one of my current co-workers has worked with Sondheim and will purportedly give me more insight into his work habits and ideas.
Here are my favorite excerpts from the Stephen Sondheim interview posted at:
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/son0int-1
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86x-u-tz0MA
This really hits home. Recommended viewing for artists and creators.
“Eat, Pray, Love” Author Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses — and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person “being” a genius, all of us “have” a genius. It’s a funny, personal and surprisingly moving talk.
**Update 092909 – I have gone back to incorporating the concept of a Daemon in my creative process and have found it to be incredibly productive.**
Continue reading “Elizabeth Gilbert: A new way to think about creativity”
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duZhnbjris8
A friend told me about the Bach improvisations by Bobby McFerrin. Here’s one of them.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYIIhis6jfI
And here’s McFerrin doing the Gound/Bach Ave Maria.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S0vZh-v5eI
Australian Stage interview with Stephen Schwartz – the multi award winning creator of “Wicked The Musical”, “Godspell” and “Pippin”.