NPR at the deYoung
NPR in front of Gerhard Richter’s “Strontium” at the deYoung Museum
Okay, back on June 9th we made a big deal about that being our last Radio Cartography broadcast, but Radio Cartography existed as one of Southern Exposure’s “Off-Site” projects. When Southern Exposure told us they were having a symposium to finish off the “Off-Site” series, and when Renee Baldochi who manages the deYoung’s public programs informed us we could set up a broadcast booth in front of Gerhard Richter’s gigantic “Strontium” print, well, we had to call up the troops and make something happen.
This time around we had the benefit of an inside connection. Our own Linda Arnejo’s Transistor Radio Theater is made up of many deYoung Museum employees. So it only made sense that we would ask Linda to gather her team to do an encore presentation of one of her radio plays, but this time it would be staff from the deYoung admissions desks and bookstore performing as part of the day’s program at the deYoung Museum. So After long time friend Dee Dee Russell offered some good natured harrassment of passing tourists, Linda and her crew reprised their version of Edgar Allen Poe’s “TheTell Tale Heart”.
Dee Dee Russell.. on crutches.. :-<
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DeeDee Russel
The NPRkestra
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incidental music by the NPRkestra
Ladies and gentlemen…the Transistor Radio Theater.
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Transistor Radio Theater
Matt Volla processing the sounds of bouncing ping pong balls.
And… for a grand finale Matt Volla brought a collection of ping pong balls and contact mics to generate a sonic interpretation of the giant print that we were assembled in front of. He had originally planned to bring a plexiglass box to bounce the ping pong balls around in, but apparently that flew off the top of his car as he was crossing the Bay Bridge and shattered into a million pieces. Matt, ever the improvisor, strapped his contact mics onto the concave benches that the public were sitting on and bounced the balls on that. Ping pong balls were flying all over the Wilsey Court, but spectators got into the act and started chasing them and throwing them “back into play” to keep the piece moving.
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incidental music by the NPRkestra
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Matt Volla’s version of “Strontium”.
After the broadcast we all moved into the lecture hall where NPR presented the fruits of the Radio Cartography project along side other Off-site artists like Rebar, Jeannene Przyblyski, Ledia Carroll, and others…. we hope to have audio of these symposium events, though we are not certain about whether they were ever recorded. More on that as we know it.