Actress and Comedian Livia Scott hosts this monthly variety show, where dead celebrities are brought back to life and stellar guest performances contribute to the experience of Livia’s Castle of Enchantment at the UCB Theater East.

I attended Livia’s Castle of Enchantment on Tuesday, April 24, and was pleasantly taken on a whirlwind as Livia morphed into the dead celebrity of the evening: Mike Wallace. Livia’s portrayal as Mike Wallace was as respectful as it was funny and had the crowd laughing throughout the show, highlighting her skills in stand-up, improv, and impersonation.

Livia (ahem … Mike Wallace) was joined by three special guests: Mike Milazzo, Bamboo Silva, and Seaton Smith. These acts were woven throughout the show, giving each performer a space in which to shine, while being incorporated into the total experience of the evening’s enchantment.

Seaton Smith did a riotous comedy set, enthralling the audience with his edgy humor, thoughts, and observations.  Mike Milazzo and Bamboo Silva rocked the theater with solo acts, and then collaborated in an improvisational jam that had the audience shouting with excitement and electric applause. As Livia said, “the ferociously heartbreaking guitarist + Bronx beatboxer beyond Thunderdome = together they’re unlike anything you’ve ever seen.”

Overall, Livia’s Castle of Enchantment is a fun, organic variety show. Each month brings a new dead celebrity host via Livia and amazing guest acts to round out the experience. The show starts by 7:30 and lasts about an hour. At only $5, you won’t want to miss this kind of enchantment.

More about Livia Scott:

Livia is an actress, comedian and character powerhouse who’s appeared on Law & Order, Late Night With Conan O’Brien, the Comedy Central series Honesty, the upcoming feature film Snatched as Andrew McCarthy’s nurse and she pulls a Peter Sellers by playing about 7 different roles in National Lampoon’s Dirty Movie directed by Christopher Meloni.

She’s an ensemble player in The Shushan Channel by writers from The Daily Show With Jon Stewart with guest appearances by Will Forte, Scott Adsit, Rachel Dratch, John Oliver and Joel McHale, and MEAT, the critically acclaimed all-female sketch phenomenon hailed as “One of the nation’s best groups” by THE ONION.

Livia also writes for MIRTH Magazine, hosts the celebrated variety experience Livia’s Castle Of Enchantment at UCB and is a double ECNY Award nominee for Best Emerging Comic of the Year and Best Solo Show for Goodnight, OJ, her adaptation of real letters written to OJ Simpson which ran for a year at UCB and was directed by Baron Vaughn.

She’s been featured in The New York Times, Backstage, The New York Post, The NY Daily News and The Apiary.

Livia won the 2011 Channy Award for Best Villain in a Web Series & the 2010 Channy Award for Best Actress.  She was recently named “One Of Our Favorite 53 Female Comedians” along with Tina Fey, Amy Poehler & Sarah Silverman by THE HUFFINGTON POST.

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The Lambda Literary Foundation has selected 119 finalists for the prestigious 24^th Annual Lambda Literary Award, which identifies and celebrates the best of lesbian and gay books in the year of their publication. Finalist readings are being held in San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis, New York, Toronto, and Los Angeles.

On Friday, May 11, Lambda Literary Award Finalists will be reading from their selected works in NYC at  Bluestockings Books, 7:00 pm.

Confirmed authors for this event are: Anton Dudley, Paul Legault, Barbara Browning, Michael Schiavi, Bil Wright, Barry Brennessel, Glen Retief, Sacchi Green, Sally Bellerose, Dawn Lundy Martin, Jonathan Tolins, Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, Rafe Posey, Steven Haas, Colm Toibin, Michael Hames-Garcia, and Jafari S. Allen.

The awards, now in their twenty-fourth year, celebrate achievement in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) writing for books published in 2011. Winners will be announced at a Monday evening, June 4th ceremony in New York at the CUNY Graduate Center (365 Fifth Avenue) with an after-party at Slate (54 West 21st Street).

Books from major mainstream publishers and from academic presses, from both long-established and new LGBT publishers, as well as from emerging publish-on-demand technologies, make up the 119 finalists, culled from a submission pool of approximately 600 titles represented from about 250 publishers.

More than 90 booksellers, book reviewers, librarians, authors, previous Lammy winners and finalists, and other book professionals volunteered many hours of reading time, critical thinking, and shared discussion to select the finalists in 24 categories. To view the full list of finalists, click here.

The Lambda Literary Foundation nurtures, celebrates, and preserves LGBT literature through programs that honor excellence, promote visibility and encourage development of emerging writers. For more about Lambda Literary, check out their website.

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Best Erotic Romance (Cleis Press, 2012) offers a sampling of work from some of the best authors writing in the erotic romance genre today. Editor Kristina Wright introduces Best Erotic Romance by saying, “These are the stories that touched my heart and ignited my libido, that made me think about the nature of desire and the unpredictability of the human heart. Each of these seventeen stories weaves love and passion so tightly that one cannot be separated from the other. And isn’t that what a lasting relationship is all about?”

Well written and provocative, the stories in Best Erotic Romance touch upon many different aspects of our sexuality and our expressions of sex within the context of our most intimate relationships. This is a book that celebrates the role of sex in our lives, and the need we have for intimacy, love, and passion. As a whole, the collection supports conversation, communication, and self-reflection. In the foreword, Shayla Black encourages readers to “embrace these stories for what they are: a true mirror of our inner needs, our longing to combine souls, to discover our truest selves. Explore. Fantasize. Wonder.”

Best Erotic Romance offers a wide range of stories which explore and reveal our most intimate connections, encompassing a vast array of situations, characters, and settings. The relationships in these stories are mostly heterosexual and vary from long-term marriages to first encounters. The characters range from unattached singles to divorced parents to married couples with children. These stories take place across the world, and are rooted in our relationships with the erotic, body and mind, heart and soul.

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Best Erotic Romance

Edited by Kristina Wright. Cleis Press, 2012. Foreword by Shayla Black

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What Happened In Vegas by Sylvia Day skillfully balances the genres of romance and erotica, combining traditional romance with scorching hot sex.

First Night by Donna George Storey explores the concept of marriage and anticipates the subtle changes that such a deep commitment can bring.

Another Trick up My Sleeve by Heidi Champa finds humor and depth in a couple’s quest to bring excitement back to their sex life.

Drive Me Crazy by Delilah Devlin is a lusty story about attraction and the push and pull of two characters as they reveal themselves to each other.

Once Upon a Dinner Date by Saskia Walker is a delightfully playful story that feeds upon the sensual exploration of sex.

He Tends to Me by Justine Elyot searches the place of love in a Dominant/submissive relationship dynamic.

Guest Services by Angela Caperton explores sex as self-empowerment, as the main character learns to take what she wants.

Memories for Sale by Andrea Dale is a story about a couple in a broken relationship opening up to communication and healing.

Blame it on Facebook by Kate Dominic finds the main character reconnecting with her past, and finding a path to her future.

The Draft by Craig J. Sorenson explores the powerful need for connection between two strangers who meet by chance.

To Be in Clover by Shanna Germain is a beautifully written story encompassing the wild, boundless nature of our sexual selves.

Honey Changes Everything by Emerald explores sex as a place of empowerment, as a couple finds strength in each other during a difficult time.

Cheating Time by Kate Pearce is a hot, heady story which engages and shows the love, passion, and sheer lust between a couple who take time to rediscover and reignite the fire between them.

Our Own Private Champagne Room by Rachel Kramer Bussel explores pop-culture sexuality and self-awareness as the main character actualizes her fantasy.

Till the Storm Breaks by Erobintica is a story about sexual openness and acceptance, as a married couple finds erotic pleasure between them rekindled through a threesome.

The Curve of Her Belly by Kristina Wright explores the concept of beauty and body image, as the main character struggles to see herself as the beautiful, sexy woman her husband sees, revealing a story of love, intimacy, and desire.

Dawn Chorus by Nikki Magennis is a story about the primal, emotional, natural expression of sex, as two characters crash into each other’s dark worlds, bringing to light the deep need we all have for connection with another.

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About Cleis Press

Cleis Press publishes provocative, intelligent books in the areas of sexuality, gay and lesbian studies, erotica, fiction, gender studies, and human rights. The largest independent queer publishing company in the United States, Cleis Press was founded in 1980 by Felice Newman and Frédérique Delacoste. Brenda Knight is Associate Publisher and Kat Sanborn is Editorial Associate.

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About Kristina Wright

Kristina Wright is an award-winning author whose fiction has appeared in over seventy-five anthologies. A member of the Erotica Readers and Writers Association, Romance Writers of America, and Passionate Ink, Kristina received the Golden Heart Award for Romantic Suspense from RWA. She is the editor of Steamlust, Dream Lover, and the bestselling Fairy Tale Lust.

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‘T’il Love Do Us Part is a dark play about love, life, and death, written by Andrew Hall and directed by Cameron J. Marcotte. Part absurd, part realism, and part cautionary tale, the whole of this play centers upon the relationship between John and Virginia Walker. The audience is taken on a journey through their seventy year relationship, which begins and ends with death. After a chance meeting at the same cemetery where John’s father and Virginia’s mother are being buried, the two characters find each other, each alone and lost, desperate to connect with another person. A casket holds the center of the stage as a constant reminder of death, as the two characters try to heal, to love, and to live in the fractured and flawed world between them.

The play begins with another character, an unnamed young girl, unseen by the two main characters. She enters the stage dancing and wide-eyed, and appears to be an angel or a spirit, witness to the couple’s attempts to love as they navigate the broken places inside themselves and between each other. This character, played by Marshall Louise, successfully translates the emotional terrain of their relationship, as she watches the characters fall in love, then fall and break, wanting to see them truly love, helpless to stop them from hurting each other.

John and Virginia Walker are played by Robert Latrenta and Abigail Milnor-Sweetser, who both conveyed a range of depth and emotion while attempting to portray the life-span of these two characters, who literally “love each other to death.” At their first meeting, they are both painfully awkward and shy; they struggle to open up and reveal themselves to another person. As time passes, a lively, antagonistic banter develops between them. Their sexual relationship also speaks to the development of their aggressiveness towards each other; they begin by kissing shyly, tenderly, then progress into a sexual scene which is suggestively rough and forceful, almost violent in the attempt to connect.

After twenty-seven years together, John says, “This wasn’t what I wanted.” He says that he had given up his dreams in order to be with Virginia. To buy a house for her, he took a job he hated; he had become someone he never wanted to be – his father. He resents that they are childless, and feels that he wasted his life trying to save someone who could not be saved. A terrible fight ensues and their hostility and anger, both within and towards each other, spirals into viciousness and violence. This confrontation offers an opportunity to grow closer. Virginia finally talks about her feelings about her mother, and how her mother had damaged her as a child. She did not believe herself capable of being loved until she met John. She says that her mother must have been right. John says that he loves her. He says he does not want to leave her, he can’t leave her. He has nowhere else to go.

Neither of these characters have anywhere else to go, save for the unmistakable casket that takes center stage in each scene and stage of their relationship. One wants these characters to find a path together where love doesn’t mean giving up their dreams or becoming stuck and trapped in a relationship that is broken, a dead-end, a place that doesn’t allow them to expand or grow. One wants these characters to love themselves and each other in ways that can heal instead of hurt. ‘Til Love Do Us Part offers a very interesting look into relationships symbolized by the ever-present coffin. Yes, this is a dark play. It is also a play that provokes thought into how we love, how we live, and how we die, both literally and figuratively; these threads are woven into the play in different ways that intertwine and affect us all.

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Cast (alphabetical):

John Walker: Robert Latrenta
Young Girl: Marshall Louise
Virginia Walker: Abigail Milnor-Sweetser

Creative Team:
Playwright/Composer: Andrew Hall
Director: Cameron J. Marcotte
Dramaturg: Nathan “Nati” Avni-Singer
Choreographer: Jillene Johnson
Costume Designer: Elise VanderKley
Lighting Designer: Nia L. Adams
Sound Designer: Ido Levran
Makeup and Hair: Meg Murphy
Production Stage Manager: Mackenzie Meeks
Assistant Stage Manager: Anne Ciarlone
Creative Consultants: Daniel Talbott and Alex Keegan

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The 2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL will run February 22-March 4 at The Kraine Theater & The Red Room (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1st Ave and Ave A). Tickets to all shows may be purchased online at www.FRIGIDnewyork.info or by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444.

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Initium / Finis is “a sensual tale of violence and revolution born in a futuristic metropolis. Theatre Reverb combines media, red-light cabaret, live music, Judeo-Christian and Hindu myth, and classical Indian dance-theatre to envelop spectators in a lush sci-fi noir.” This Frigid Festival performance is an excerpt from a larger work,  which will be two hours in length and is scheduled to be presented in 2013.

Initium / Finis is an ambitious project, carried by Kristin Arnesen’s performance throughout, as the story expands in many layers, as well as many directions, including an interesting sci-fi premise, sub-plots of intrigue, and cabaret-style entertainment. The play is  supported by live music, visual images and written information in montages of video, and the use of screens to paint pictures with light and shadow. Kristin Arnesen pulls all of these elements and more into a riveting performance; she is a delight to watch on stage as she illustrates the story, demonstrating her evident talents as a performer.

There are many visually stunning moments throughout this play. In the beginning sequence, a video montage of the beginning of creation, as told through Hindu myth, is displayed as backdrop on the screen. In front of the screen, Kristin Arnesen performs a ritualistic dance, retelling the myth in the spirit of classical Indian Dance-Theatre. Her facial expressions tell the story as much as her body does, engaging the audience with allure and humor, taking them through both light and dark. Towards the end of the dance, a scroll of canvas screen is held in front of her, illustrating the remainder of the myth in song and shadowed movement, creating a mesmerizing effect.

A series of cabaret-style performances are woven into the play and comprise some of the most interesting and engaging moments throughout; the role of fetishistic entertainment in this futuristic metropolis is demonstrated and explored, and Kristin Arnesen shines, revealing her amazing ability to hold the audience in her thrall, rapt, willing to go wherever she is going to take them. Initium / Finis is a multi-sensory, funny, serious, erotic, and fascinating piece of theater, which takes the audience on a journey into the complex landscape of a futuristic world.

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The 2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL will run February 22-March 4 at The Kraine Theater & The Red Room (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1st Ave and Ave A). Tickets to all shows may be purchased online at www.FRIGIDnewyork.info or by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444.

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Judge, Yuri, & Executioner is a simple, straightforward, character-driven play, and therein lies its brilliance. Written by Ed Malin, directed by DeLisa White, and starring Mac Rogers, this play is the work of three formidable talents. Incredibly strong writing and stellar acting carry the play forward, captivating the audience with wit, humor, and intelligence, as the character of Zach searches his past to find meaning in his present, illuminating the narrative with wonderfully told and expertly woven stories from his life.

Mac Rogers (photo by Lauren Arneson)

The play begins in the audience, with Zach descending towards the stage, stopping and laboring to catch his breath, moving slowly, carefully; though Mac Rogers is young, he captures the feeling of being a man of advanced age. On stage, he appears in the light wearing a leather collar, a leopard print robe, and fishnet stockings. He surveys the stage, holding some rope, looking for a place in which to hang himself. We soon discover that Zach is an 85 year old masochist whose lover has left him. He is in despair, wondering if he, a kinky senior citizen with a penchant for dominant older women, will ever be able to find happiness again.

He decides to leave a note, and thus the play unfolds, revealing Zach’s journey of self-discovery, exploring the path of his life by examining his deepest desires, as he searches for a reason to continue living. Judge, Yuri, & Executioner is an exceptional play; it is theater stripped to its barest essentials: excellent acting, strong writing, head, heart and soul. You won’t want to miss this one!

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The 2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL will run February 22-March 4 at The Kraine Theater & The Red Room (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1st Ave and Ave A). Tickets to all shows may be purchased online at www.FRIGIDnewyork.info or by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444.

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If you haven’t heard Eden and John’s East River String Band yet, then you are in for a treat! Based in the East Village in NYC, Eden Brower and John Heneghan have been entertaining audiences in America, Canada, and Europe for the past several years with their versions of 1920s pre-war blues, jazz, pop, and country songs, recreating and reviving a new world of “Old Time” music.

Their unique sound and authentic vibe are a fresh breath of air in contemporary music. By bringing to light this world of old music, they bring us back to a time where the love of playing is as important as technical skill, as they share a catalog of old time songs infused with feeling, emotion, and energy.

Eden Brower and John Heneghan

Since 2006, the band has released four albums: Sweet East River, Some Cold Rainy Day, Be Kind To A Man When He’s Down, and Drunken Barrel House Blues.

While Eden Brower (vocals, ukulele, guitar & kazoo) and John Heneghan (vocals, guitar, mandolin & kazoo) make up the backbone of the band, the duo has guest musicians play with them at gigs and on recordings. They’ve played with some amazing musicians including Terri Waldo, Dom Flemons, Eli Smith, R. Crumb, and Pat Conte. Artwork by R. Crumb has graced their last several LP/CD covers, and their first album features cover art by Sophie Crumb. Their CDs and LPs are sold through Red Eye Distribution and on eBay. They are recording their fifth album, Take A Look At That Baby, which they plan on finishing in the South of France this summer.

Read on as I interview Eden Brower and John Heneghan, the dynamic duo behind Eden and John’s East River String Band!

Michelle Augello-Page: What was it like to discover a new world of old music? And then further on, to not only to discover, but to recreate and revive some of these songs?

JH: I found a reissue of a Charley Patton record by the company Yazoo in a used bin at a record store. The thing that struck me about it was that all the song titles had the word “blues” in it. By the bad photo on the cover, you couldn’t tell if the guy was white or black and the dates on it were from the 20′s. It hadn’t occurred to me that blues was being recorded that long ago. It was all brand new to me. My whole life I collected records but I wasn’t like a typical collector. I tried punk, jazz, classical, everything. Funny, I wasn’t even sure if I liked the music at first. It was so weird to me. So foreign. I had never heard anything like it. But after a few minutes of listening to these old records I knew immediately that I had found what I was looking for.

EB: Covering these old songs makes us feel like we are preserving a part of history. We tried to play note for note at first. There had been a long history in America of people passing these songs down from generation to generation. They would alter them and do their own thing with them. So, while they are covers, we do our own interpretation of them and are happy with the reception we have been getting lately. Not everyone knows what they are listening to – some think we wrote the songs or ask where we heard a song from. When we explain they are songs from the 20′s, people who have never heard that kind of music are surprised and interested in learning more.

Where do you draw your inspiration? What are some of your favorite pre-war musicians? How has this music have helped shape not only how you play, but your mindset as well?

EB: For old pre-war blues some of my favorites range from Memphis Minnie, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Mississippi John Hurt, and the Mississippi Sheiks, as well as some lesser known artists like Geeshie Wiley, Two Poor Boys, Robert Wilkins, and Hattie Hart. The list is endless really. There is simply nothing like this music in the world for me, in terms of the emotion, fun, and energy that comes with it.

JH: My favorite musicians right now tend to be of the rural tradition and genre. Charley Patton, Hayes Shepherd, Joseph and Cleoma Falcon. I also really like songsters and minstrel style musicians like Chubby Parker and Gus Cannon. My mindset right now towards music is to play these old songs that were passed down from generation to generation, and try to render them in a personal way, which was kind of the standard way that musicians played in this country up until the 1940′s and 50′s.

EB: This music sucked me in with it’s pure honesty and raw emotions. I can listen to a song John has on a scratchy old 78 and get chills from how much it moves me. Some songs have actually made me tear up and I will feel emotional and in a dream state for the rest of the day, just from being so deeply moved from something. Good music and art to me is anything that makes you deeply feel something. Even if it is sadness. Actually I prefer the sad songs myself. I like the depressing blues stuff – raw, pure emotion laid bare.

Many people are very interested in John’s 78 collection – I’m thinking that you pull a lot of your material from this collection? David Fricke observed that the band has “a natural flair that suggests loving study and a respect for the hard lives and fight for joy on the original records” What do you think it is about these sounds and original recordings that resonate with you, and continue to resonate with other people?

JH: As for my 78′s, there is something about this music that is just 100% sincere. People then were not manipulated by the media or marketing or image, and all the other things that seem to be what music is about today. Popular music today is solely determined by how much money can be made from it. Music from the period that we listen to existed for the sole purpose of entertainment and for people to tell personal stories. It really had very little to do with making money, compared to today.

We definitely pull much of the stuff we cover from my 78 collection. Other then a few reissued CD’s, everything we do comes from my collection. We were very pleased when Fricke reviewed us and chose us at a pick of the month in Rolling Stone. I think a lot of people like the music we are doing because maybe they haven’t heard this type of music before. They connect with the honesty and emotion of it – it’s genuine and not commercialized. There is just something real about it.

ERSB Eden and John with R. Crumb playing “So Sorry Dear” off the last album … recorded in their apartment live for WFMU.

Since 2006, you’ve released four albums and each one seems to be getting bigger. You’ve played with Terri Waldo, Dom Flemons, Eli Smith, Pat Conte, and R. Crumb. What was it like playing and recording with these musicians?

EB: When ERSB first started it was five musicians, then it became John and I and guest musicians sitting in from time to time. Pat Conte is an amazing player who played in the Otis Brothers and The Canebreak Rattlers – he also has art done by Crumb on one of his albums too and they are friends. Eli Smith is from the Dust Busters who performs and records with John Cohen and are doing really well. Terry has played with tons of people including Leon Redbone and Woody Allen’s jazz band. Dom is in The Carolina Chocolate Drops, who won a well deserved Grammy last year and are constantly on tour. Recording sessions are really just fun for us. John records it all live so if someone messes up we have to start over, so it’s a challenge, and when we are done we all go out and celebrate with dinner or something.

R. Crumb also did the cover art for most of your albums, besides playing on the last two. What was it like to collaborate artistically and musically with such an icon?

EB: Crumb has always loved and been very supportive of our music. When we first met Robert, it was really a great honor that he liked us because he is such an expert on old music. Crumb had been jamming with us just for fun and it sounded good and natural so it was an easy step to ask him to play on the albums … he is very modest and asked, “Are you sure you want me?” He plays left handed mandolin upside down and plays by ear. He has been playing for a long time and sounds amazing. We were like, “Uh, YES we want you to play! Are you nuts? You sound great!”

Now he’s just such a pal to us it’s just like playing with any other guy in our band. Him doing the artwork seemed a natural step. He has done the artwork for three so far starting with Some Cold Rainy Day and up to our last release Be Kind to a Man When He’s Down which is the album that he plays mandolin on. He is also going to play on the one we are recording right now which we plan to call Take A Look At That Baby.

Recording with Crumb was so much fun. We did it in France last year and had one day of practice and used the entire next day to do about 8 songs. We recorded in his drawing studio, closed the door and windows and just didn’t leave for hours, then we listened to some of Robert’s incredible collection of 78′s and talked about what we would record next time. The songs we like are just never ending and we kept coming up with more and more and saying, “DAMN! We forgot that one! We HAVE to do that one next time!”

This year we will be in Europe touring, so we will have over two months to practice with Crumb and will be able to take our time and really get some great tracks. So I expect when we go back in June the recording will be a fun, exciting project and our choices will change daily until we are all satisfied!

You play a lot of gigs and festivals, both in and out of the states. What were some of the unexpected reactions to your music outside of an American audience?

EB: In New York, We love playing at Jalopy Theater which is THE place for old timey music, and a wonderful space where they also repair and build instruments and have classes – all in the old time genre. They even have their own record label now.

Playing in Europe, like Italy or France, is so different from playing in the states! We played in Italy at blues fests a bunch of times and at the first time we did we were worried a little. The other bands booked spoke the language and were electric. You have to really not talk when we are playing as we don’t plug in. It’s very hard to hear us, even with mics, if there is a lot of talking going on. The crowd at this one festival in Italy were drunk and boisterous … Then as soon as John started picking, they went dead silent! We looked up after the song and they were applauding and going nuts.

They are just very polite and respectful in other countries towards artists and musicians. Even at airports when they see we are carrying instrument cases they flip and are so impressed we are traveling to play music. Security in Dublin wanted us to stay there and play shows one time when we got stuck there for a night! Here, if you are in a band or try to make a living playing, you are a bum. There, you are looked at with admiration and respect. I really liked that!

What are some questions or comments that you often hear from fans? Do you have any stories to share that made you realize how your music affects other people?

EB: Fans always ask about R Crumb of course … how we know him, how he came to play with us, can we pass along their etching so he can say if they are good or not … haha! We get that A LOT! But the nicest comments are when fans say we sounded “authentic” or that our cover of a particularly hard or well-loved song came out great.

We did “Last Kind Words” by Geeshie Wiley on one of our albums and that song is just so moving, it rips my heart out every time. Whenever we do it people react to it, “I have NEVER heard ANYONE do that song!” “I can’t believe you played that one!” They always say we did it justice which makes me happy. It is an intimidating song to cover – it is just such a wonderful masterpiece – in our minds and in so many others’ minds too!

Lately, we have been getting fan mail asking will we please com to their city, state, country to play. I love those too. We write back “Send along some places we can email with our press kit and we may come!” It’s so nice to be asked to play somewhere from a total stranger who emails out of nowhere saying they love our stuff.

How have you seen the reception to your music change over the past several years? How have you grown/changed as musicians? What have you learned?

EB: John’s playing is beyond great and he has grown a lot in terms of playing more loosely and gaining a better feel for the music. This music relies a lot on the feeling of the song, as well as the technical finger picking, which is very difficult on some songs we do. You have to get the hard stuff down while at the same time sounding loose and laid back.

As a singer, I have really grown to love being on stage and belting out these songs. Nothing makes me happier than playing a gig. I like when the audience is a challenge and you have to win them over. It’s really fun and challenging to pick out a song you want to do then go about interpreting it your own way while not losing the emotion and power it had to make you want to cover it in the first place.

We got asked to play the Chicago Blues Fest a few years ago. We were on the “Old Time” stage with Dom Flemons and our friend Blind Boy Paxton. Other stages had electric music while we didn’t. We had a big audience – hundreds of people came over to hear us. We decided to have fun and play round robin style. At the end we all played together and we were a huge hit.

I think each album we do gets better and better. They are all different from each other. The first one had piano. The second and third we added bones, fiddle and banjo. The new one will have our friend Ernesto Gomez on harmonica … He is a great, great player. I have moved on to trying to play guitar now, along with the uke and kazoo. We are maturing with each recording.

The reviews we’ve gotten are very flattering and many say what Rolling Stone said – that we sound “natural” and not “put on”, forcing the old time vibe out – that we just naturally have that vibe. That is truly the best compliment  – that we sound exactly like an old time string band. The fact that we are white and do a lot of old black blues and that we look weird, covered in tattoos while donning old time clothes for when we play and in everyday life, just adds to the character of our duo.

With Crumb playing with us, we get to play bigger shows than usual and the crowd we get in can be overwhelming. Robert does not like the spotlight and we try to play in mellow places where he will not be surrounded by crazed autograph hounds. I am the only person in the band who is thrilled to sign autographs!!! John is shy about that stuff but I enjoy it.

We are in the middle of recording Take A Look at that Baby, our new album, and will finish it up in France over the summer. We have shows booked in France where we will be playing with Crumb, and we also have booked some in Italy and in the surrounding countries. We will be in Europe for two and a half months starting June15th and we expect that more festivals will contact us to play as that always happens when we go to Europe. We book a show or two then someone asks us to play a festival in their village or at a cafe somewhere. It’s going to a be a fun and productive experience!

The thing that we have learned mainly over the years as we have gotten a bit more well known is just to keep making sure you have fun. And practice a lot! But always love what you are doing or what’s the point really?

~~~

For more about Eden and John’s East River String Band, check out their website and keep up with them via facebook!

More about Eden and John:

John Heneghan has an online show, Old Time Radio Show, which features music from his 78 collection. John also has a comp on Dust-to-Digital called Baby How can It B? Songs of Love, Lust and Discontent. It is a 3-cd disc set of songs from his 78 collection dealing with those topics, available on ebay and through the label Dust-to-Digital. He is currently working on a comp called Wait For Me, which will feature love themed songs from his 78 collection, and will be put out by East River Records. It will be at least a 2 disc cd set with lengthy liner notes explaining the history of each song.

***

Eden Brower has a blog (http://slumgoddess.blogspot.com/) where she writes about her life and her neighborhood (the East Village and LES). She is also an actor and enjoys doing sketch comedy. She loves writing and has had some interest from publishers about turning her blog into a book. From touring with the Grateful Dead  to squatting in the Lower East Side for almost 12 years, to hopping freight trains across country to being in an old time string band and playing music around the world, Eden has had many unique adventures and many a tale to tell!

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A benefit concert is being held to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Ghar Sita Mutu - “House with a Heart” – a charity that offers a children’s home, a children’s learning center, a women’s training center, and a family outreach program to those living in extreme poverty in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Ghar Sita Mutu Benefit Concert

The Ghar Sita Mutu Benefit Concert is on Monday, November 14 at the Theatre for the New City. 155 First Ave, NYC.  8 pm – 11:30 pm. Suggested donation at the door is $15. There will be performances by musicians, actors, and comedians, including Anacoustic Mind, Khaled Dajani,  Michael Birch, John Grimaldi, Mike Milazzo, Mark Normand, Sharon Jane Smith, Lord Lorax, Cathryn Lynne, and Sagar Bhatt.

Ghar Sita Mutu

While on a trip in Nepal, NYC resident Beverly Bronson found two children, Krishna and Babu, aged five and two, huddled in front of a tin hut after being abandoned by their mother. Beverly tried to help the children find a home, and in doing so, was faced with an opportunity to help others in a very direct, immediate, and positive way.

Beverly Bronson

Nepal is a country struggling with poverty and political instability. The per capita income is just $322, and there is no government safety net for citizens. Few charitable groups operate where so many people are in need.  Ghar Sita Mutu was founded as a non-profit, NGO (Non-Governmental Organization)  by Beverly Bronson in 2001 to help the women and children of Nepal.

The status of women is low in the society, contributing to frequent abuse and abandonment of wives and children. Few employment opportunity exist for women and childcare is not available; sometimes babies are shut up in a room, left alone for long hours. It is not unusual to see children too young to even care for themselves left in charge of their younger siblings. Children as young as five are indentured.

Countless children live on the streets of the capital Kathmandu, having run away from indentured servitude or been abandoned by parents. Education is not compulsory and only families who can afford to do so send their children to school.

Programs at Ghar Sita Mutu

Children’s Home. Ghar Sita Mutu provides a safe, loving and enriching home for up to 20 children. The children attend a local school with the tuition paid for by sponsors. The home also provides employment for several local people, including a house manager, part-time gardener and watchman.

Children at Ghar Sita Mutu

The Children’s Learning Centre provides daily classes for children whose parents can’t afford to send them to school. Forty children are currently served in the program.

Women’s Training. Free sewing, knitting, felt making, and candle making classes are taught to local women, who in turn are making items that are marketed mainly in the U.S. Many women don’t have time to take the classes because they must earn a living, so a program has been started, where some women are paid to take classes five days per week with a goal of making the women self-sufficient.

Family Outreach Program. Ghar Sita Mutu provides emergency help to families in need, as well as more formal charity programs such as our Goat Project, which provides a goat to a family to raise and breed, helping them to raise their standard of living.

The Story of Baby Abhaya

by Beverly Bronson on Saturday, September 17, 2011

Today Dev Kala, one of our staff members, came rushing into the house saying ‘Mummy Mummy, come quickly. You must help!’ She took me to a small room where there was a two day old baby girl and mother with two older children sleeping on the floor in a tiny room. The mother gave birth in the room and has not seen a doctor. She planned to throw the baby away today and go back to her village.

Baby Abhaya

I have promised help but all she wants to do is throw/give away her baby. I am checking with my lawyer whether or not we can take her into our home. The state orphanage has stopped taking in new children. The baby needs to be seen by a doctor, but the mother refuses to take her to the hospital. Baby was naked, wrapped in a shawl. She has an eye infection and is not eating. Mother is trying to feed the baby cold milk with a spoon out of a cup. I insisted the mother put baby to breast for the colostrum telling her I would not take her if she didn’t. I bought some meat and milk for the mother, and eye medicine and bottle for the baby and promised to return tomorrow.

How can I take more kids when I am struggling to support the ones I have? How can I leave her there to be thrown on the rubbish pile on the mother’s way out of town …

Read Beverly’s account of the days and weeks following the dramatic rescue of Baby Abhaya here.

How you can help

If you would like to help Ghar Sita Mutu in their efforts to enrich the lives of the children and women in Kathmandu, Nepal, please visit the Ghar Sita Mutu website, where you can donate and purchase handmade gifts online.

Also, you are invited to attend Ghar Sita Mutu‘s upcoming events:

Ghar Sita Mutu Benefit Concert on MONDAY, NOV 14 at the Theatre for the New City. 155 First Ave, NYC.  8 pm – 11:30 pm. Suggested donation at the door is $15

Ghar Sita Mutu 10th Anniversary Party. SUNDAY, DEC 18 at Dixon Place. 161A Chrystie St (Between Rivington & Delancy), NYC. 5 pm – 10 pm

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To celebrate a decade of songwriting and playing music, Joe Yoga has put together a Retrospective NYC Tour – five venues, seven days, ten years of songs. Each show in the tour is centered around a different theme, signifying the stops and signposts along his journey over the past ten years.

Joe Yoga

As a singer/songwriter Joe Yoga regularly plays venues all over NYC. He released his most recent album, Life Out East, in September 2010. Joe’s album of earlier recordings collected from now-unavailable releases, The Dreamless Sea, is available for free download at bandcamp.com.

On November 1^st, the tour began at the Sidewalk Café with songs from The Dreamless Sea. The intimate setting was a perfect compliment for this collection of songs. On stage, Joe Yoga stood alone with his acoustic guitar, delivering a performance that was powerful, honest, and captivating. Raw emotion, heartbreak, frustration, and sudden joy broke through these songs, as Joe shared music from the dreamless sea, revealing poetic lyrics, sincere melodies, and the landscape of his heart.

Find out why Joe Yoga is one of NYC’s beloved musicians as he continues the rest of his retrospective tour, taking the audience through his own evolution as an artist over the past decade. You do not want to miss the rest of these shows!

Joe Yoga Retrospective NYC Tour dates:

Tuesday Nov 1 @ Sidewalk Café. 10pm – THE DREAMLESS SEA

Thursday Nov 3 @ Gizzi’s 7-9pm – RARITIES / B-Sides / Never-Before-Played (with special guests Marlon ‘Marbar’ Kaltenborn and Brooke McGowan)

Thursday Nov 3 @ God Tastes Like Chicken. 10:30pm – WILD CARD

Saturday Nov 5 @ Underground Asylum – LIFE OUT EAST

Monday Nov 7 @ Niagara – ALL NEW SONGS

More about Joe Yoga …

In addition to his solo work, Joe Yoga plays regularly in NYC with his band Downward Dogs.  He is also part of the performance-art comedy mock rock supergroup Kill the Band and plays in the greatest rock and roll band in the world, Coach, his side project with Andrea Tarka.

As a stage performer, he was featured in Natalie Underwood’s Buckle Up, in Kill the Band (Audience Choice Award Winner, 2010 Frigid Festival) and in Ramblings of a Gentleman Scumbag (Imperial Award / Donor’s Choice, 2010 Frigid Festival).

Joe Yoga is a regularly featured performer at John Murdock’s God Tastes Like Chicken. He also writes poetry and schedules spoken word performances and readings of his work at various venues in Manhattan and the NYC area.

Joe produced “Grudge Match: Music vs. Comedy”, which featured the best up and coming musicians and comedians in the NYC. He also produces the annual Christmas spectacular, “A Very Yoga Christmas”, a holiday staple in the NYC arts scene, which will be celebrating its 4th year in 2011.

Visit Joe Yoga’s website at www.mrjoeyoga.com for a full calendar of his events, shows and performances, and “like” his page on facebook to keep up to date with Joe’s various projects!

Life Out East can be purchased from iTunes or amazon.

The Dreamless Sea is available as a free download at bandcamp.

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Today The Happiest Medium shines the spotlight Somewhere in The Dark, in this interview with Danish filmmaker Mads Jeppesen.

“Somewhere in the Dark is an insightful cinema verite documentary that encompasses the raw undiscovered talents within a plethora of individuals and their hunt for somewhere to create and express their art through the dark and underground of New York City.  This documentary depicts the essence as to why people are drawn to this capital of the world and conveys a deep, rich and compelling insight into the people that work to realise their dreams and their passions. To strive for a destiny, or find fulfillment in the dark, this piece captures the journey and the struggle it takes to find a way when you’re somewhere in the dark.” ~ Mads Jeppesen

Mads Jeppesen

In November 2010, you came from Denmark to New York City and started filming the underground arts scene. What first brought you to the U.S.?

MJ: I came to America to work for a well-known Danish film producer. I spent much time on that project, but I ended up having some free time, and then my film project really began to grow. It started just like a little film meant for the Internet. That all changed somewhat when I met Tony Kaye, who said that my idea was brilliant! (laughs)

How is the underground arts scene in NYC different from that in Denmark?

I must admit that my curiosity for the artistic underground occurred in the U.S. We have underground artists in Denmark, but not in the same way. The widely accepted artists are paid by the state to make art. Then we have all the others. I think the biggest difference between U.S. and Denmark is that, in the U.S., if a guy wanted to make playing music a way of life, but had to work on the side, he would still call himself a musician … I just saw something here that I had to shoot. It’s crazy here. It’s truly amazing.

Tell us about your artistic vision for Somewhere in The Dark.

Well, Somewhere in The Dark is actually my first serious film project. After I got curious for the arts in NYC, I decided that I simply had to document it.

The film reflects the talent going around New York’s underground and the people who try to fight their way to the limelight, for money or just a better life. The film is also a reflection of the tendencies we see in our society where people are looking to become famous just for the fact of being famous. I would like to try to portray that as people who bring art to a different level and really have something to say.

For me the film represents something very special. It shows a very special passion and that’s the reason I have fallen in love with the environment and the city. People really pursue  it here! I love it and think it’s cool. It’s very rare we see this kind of passion in Denmark. Here we all are guaranteed an education and it is more usual to focus on that and get a 9 to 4 job afterwards.

An example from the film, as it looks now, is the focus on the acclaimed film director Tony Kaye (American History X, Detachment) and Penny Pollak, who hosts Penny’s Open Mic (UNDER St. Marks Theater). Tony and Penny are interesting because they represent two different environments with very different backgrounds, but they are both artists, expressing themselves somewhere in the dark.

Tony is a great and world known film director who is financially secure. Yet, he throws himself into completely new areas, risking more than people would imagine. He’s actually very nice and a shy gentleman who just wants to be recognized and respected for his art. Conversely, we have Penny, who is a contrast to Tony. She is super outgoing girl and an artist who doesn’t have a lot of money. She hosts Penny’s Open Mic and from there, a huge network of artists expands who all know each other and are all trying to succeed with their art for various reasons.

There’s so many people out there expressing themselves through art. I would like to interview everyone who has something to say! But the film is far from finished, and I want to come back to the U.S. for a minimum 6-months to continue filming and finish the project.

Somewhere in The Dark – CPH:DOX trailer from Mads Jeppesen on Vimeo.

You have an IndieGoGo fundraising campaign to help finish the film…

The IndieGoGo campaign is running alongside this project, and it will help us to kick start it all. If we can raise just half of the $ 18,000 goal, we can have sent me to NYC to finish filming, and it won’t be that difficult for the production company to find money to finish the film. We just have to start it up. But there is a long way to go.

God, I really hope this film will be completed. It would mean so much to me and it would really be a movie for all the people in it, and all the underground artists who struggle to have their voices heard. I really like the idea to immortalize some of these artists. Many of them are so damn talented, but let’s be honest, only a part of them will succeed. I really feel a lot of these artists deserve to be remembered for who they are and what they do. Have you seen underground artist Mike Milazzo play? Damn! Go to Penny’s Open Mic, you can hear him every Tuesday! We hear the legendary stories about such people as Bob Dylan coming to NYC all the time. We hear how they started out and became big and famous. What about the thousands of thousands of people who are struggling somewhere in the dark? It’s them we want to hear about!

You filmed Somewhere in The Dark at several open mics in NYC (Caffé Vivaldi, Lucky Jacks, Penny’s Open Mic, Pete’s Candy Store, R-Bar, Sidewalk Café, etc). What was it like filming in the open mic environment?

Frankly, I have not really experienced anything uncomfortable while shooting. I’ve focused on a few places, but the original intention of documenting what an open mic is, is no longer the goal of the film. Now I have found myself a story and that is what I’m coming back for … Well, I guess I had to cross a limit to stick the camera up in the faces of people at first, but it actually ended up being perfectly normal. I’m sure many can’t remember my face, but they can probably remember me as a lens with a very bright light on top of it! (laughs)

In addition to working on Somewhere in The Dark, you have done a few music videos. (Heidi Mattsson, Mike Milazzo, Trine Jørck Petersen) What other projects are you currently working on?

Well I’ve made some music videos before, but it’s mainly something I do to develop myself. It is not a business for me and it is more about art. I certainly don’t do it for everyone. But I really don’t have the time anymore. I’m working a lot to raise the money for the film instead. I actually found a producer at production company who wants to help me finance the film, but everything is very uncertain yet, but I think it all looks really good. There’s a very long way to go but I have never felt so confident regarding film. This might actually end up being a dream coming true.

Right now I’ve got two short documentaries in I need to do before I come back to New York. They are both already financed. One will be sold to TV if all goes well and the other is about Danish rock band who have booked me as a director to make a short documentary about them as a band, accompanied with their debut CD. But this is just small project to keep me warm. My real baby is Somewhere in The Dark.

~~~

Support Mads Jeppesen and the talented underground artists in NYC who are struggling to have their voices heard somewhere in the dark!

You can donate to the making of this film through IndieGoGo. Also, check out some of Mads Jeppesen’s videos on Vimeo, view the attention the film has already received on Danish television, and be sure to “like” Somewhere in The Dark on facebook, to show support for this project, receive more information, and keep up-to-date about the developments of this exciting film as it unfolds!

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