Wednesday, February 20, 2002
Tuesday, February 19, 2002
Last night at SideWalk I received the reminder of where the innovative songwriters go.
I heard cool music coming from the system. It was Joe Bendik's new CD.
Testosterone Kills opened with a Korg Moog accompaniment.
Then Jen sang about the "can of sleep" that I'd like to open and pour into my aluminum stovepot.
Prewar Yardsale took the stage with I am the Life of the Party. I am Alone at my party. All my friends left, or were clumsy to fall through a trap door. A great song. They played a rhythmic version of the Nirvana song with the line, "with (your) eyes so dilated, I become your pupil."
I thought the line was theirs, but there's a 35th birthday event that they're participating in at the Knitting Factory, playing the whole well-recorded album, "nevermind," apparently that pupil song's on it. Hey, that album returned my attention to popular music. The Olive Juice crowd participating may have picked up a few songwriting pointers and you'll see them if you, like I, plan to go to the Nirvana Knitting Factory evening this Wednesday.
Steve Schiffman asked, How come everyone's getting married (song one), then played his hit song, "I don't want to spend a day..."
Jeff Lewis with his decorated although not exceptionally crafted in appearance guitar performed Living in the Graveyard. It's an unbelievably favorite song of mine, fitting into a Lenny Molatov favorite category because of the unique sounding tuning guitar twang. I miss Jeff's mother's little brown Martin, but this guitar sounds great. What a fun song!
Tamany reintroduced herself, she was arrested in Seattle with Seashepard, a group that rams boats, and I mistook the boyfriend influence element to be reference to Sam Shepard, and she said he can ram into her anytime. Sugar pills and peroxide seemed to be part of her first song's prescription. In the second, for the lesbians, she acknowledged someone as being "so down for me."
November Rain, Don't Cry, these are favorite guns and roses songs. The subject of G&R came up when Joie DBG appeared in a Tumbling Dice at Vegas Guns and Roses t-shirt. He sang Rock Star Junkyard with audience yelps, connecting with the brilliant Lach crowd control. We remembered a guns and roses blue and red double cd, "Illusions, Use them or lose them"
The "Down" lyric ("so down for me") continued with Major Matt's double, "Come on Down" and "The Whole Way Down" followed by Cockroach's "Calm Me Down." There was some variance when Cockroach's next song featured the line "Hold Me In."
Dave of Dave's place popped in with a reminder of grammar school classmate of mine that he met.
I was sitting with Brer Brian and Baby Skins.
Dave Deporis sang, "Watch as my country goes to war again." He prepared a guitar and sang possessedly. He also had a line about Onion Breath. He drew the longest applause of the night.
Dina sang, "No that ain't tea in Grandma's cup" in Hold up the Night, a great song with the I II IV progression strummed in a new rhythmic way. Her voice and that song are exceptional. What natural ease! I miss the Flowers is another note I have in my little memo book, what do you think? I remembered any of this? I'm just typing out my notes in a semblance of sentences. Actually, I remember it as I write it, not otherwise, though. Our sensory perceptions stay in the brain as memory but we need stimulation to access them.
"Why you sitting over there when you got a warm place to share IN THE PRINCE'S BED" asked Adam Green. Uh, well, a memorable new song.
Jordan overwhelmed the blues wailers of the past, my favorite of her lines being "Go get the nipple of your goddess moon."
Kimya played two beautiful songs, and yes, by not writing memory lines and simply gushing with acknowledgement over how wonderful her set was, I'm left commentless... Her brother's coming back. She had an evolving pattern in the chorus, her strumming fingers worked like a centerpede upon the strings.
Pab, the Argentinian Cellist singer songwriter, sang I don't cry for Argentina, but for my family living over there!
It was president's day and Lach was asking who's your favorite, and with regard to Argentina, being that the terms there have run in the weeks, we reached a funny new awareness of the differences in the world. His second song had a great rhythm.
I played at some point in the night, Take Me Love, and the song I'd recorded that day with Major Matt entitled "Don't Leave me Behind," which by now you'd think I'd know. "Unlawful combatants, Unwilling Detainees, just call us Prisoners of War." Maybe next time I'll actually sing that. Lach dispelled my notion of the kinder than Guilliani Bloomberg with 30 tickets for postings on public property of a gig at The Sidewalk. He didn't have the number of the artist who posted (or who had directed his lackey's to do so for him) so SideWalk gets the tickets. Major Matt sings eloquently on this subject, a flyer upon a flyer upon a flyer, and everyone represents a dream.. to paraphrase...
I heard cool music coming from the system. It was Joe Bendik's new CD.
Testosterone Kills opened with a Korg Moog accompaniment.
Then Jen sang about the "can of sleep" that I'd like to open and pour into my aluminum stovepot.
Prewar Yardsale took the stage with I am the Life of the Party. I am Alone at my party. All my friends left, or were clumsy to fall through a trap door. A great song. They played a rhythmic version of the Nirvana song with the line, "with (your) eyes so dilated, I become your pupil."
I thought the line was theirs, but there's a 35th birthday event that they're participating in at the Knitting Factory, playing the whole well-recorded album, "nevermind," apparently that pupil song's on it. Hey, that album returned my attention to popular music. The Olive Juice crowd participating may have picked up a few songwriting pointers and you'll see them if you, like I, plan to go to the Nirvana Knitting Factory evening this Wednesday.
Steve Schiffman asked, How come everyone's getting married (song one), then played his hit song, "I don't want to spend a day..."
Jeff Lewis with his decorated although not exceptionally crafted in appearance guitar performed Living in the Graveyard. It's an unbelievably favorite song of mine, fitting into a Lenny Molatov favorite category because of the unique sounding tuning guitar twang. I miss Jeff's mother's little brown Martin, but this guitar sounds great. What a fun song!
Tamany reintroduced herself, she was arrested in Seattle with Seashepard, a group that rams boats, and I mistook the boyfriend influence element to be reference to Sam Shepard, and she said he can ram into her anytime. Sugar pills and peroxide seemed to be part of her first song's prescription. In the second, for the lesbians, she acknowledged someone as being "so down for me."
November Rain, Don't Cry, these are favorite guns and roses songs. The subject of G&R came up when Joie DBG appeared in a Tumbling Dice at Vegas Guns and Roses t-shirt. He sang Rock Star Junkyard with audience yelps, connecting with the brilliant Lach crowd control. We remembered a guns and roses blue and red double cd, "Illusions, Use them or lose them"
The "Down" lyric ("so down for me") continued with Major Matt's double, "Come on Down" and "The Whole Way Down" followed by Cockroach's "Calm Me Down." There was some variance when Cockroach's next song featured the line "Hold Me In."
Dave of Dave's place popped in with a reminder of grammar school classmate of mine that he met.
I was sitting with Brer Brian and Baby Skins.
Dave Deporis sang, "Watch as my country goes to war again." He prepared a guitar and sang possessedly. He also had a line about Onion Breath. He drew the longest applause of the night.
Dina sang, "No that ain't tea in Grandma's cup" in Hold up the Night, a great song with the I II IV progression strummed in a new rhythmic way. Her voice and that song are exceptional. What natural ease! I miss the Flowers is another note I have in my little memo book, what do you think? I remembered any of this? I'm just typing out my notes in a semblance of sentences. Actually, I remember it as I write it, not otherwise, though. Our sensory perceptions stay in the brain as memory but we need stimulation to access them.
"Why you sitting over there when you got a warm place to share IN THE PRINCE'S BED" asked Adam Green. Uh, well, a memorable new song.
Jordan overwhelmed the blues wailers of the past, my favorite of her lines being "Go get the nipple of your goddess moon."
Kimya played two beautiful songs, and yes, by not writing memory lines and simply gushing with acknowledgement over how wonderful her set was, I'm left commentless... Her brother's coming back. She had an evolving pattern in the chorus, her strumming fingers worked like a centerpede upon the strings.
Pab, the Argentinian Cellist singer songwriter, sang I don't cry for Argentina, but for my family living over there!
It was president's day and Lach was asking who's your favorite, and with regard to Argentina, being that the terms there have run in the weeks, we reached a funny new awareness of the differences in the world. His second song had a great rhythm.
I played at some point in the night, Take Me Love, and the song I'd recorded that day with Major Matt entitled "Don't Leave me Behind," which by now you'd think I'd know. "Unlawful combatants, Unwilling Detainees, just call us Prisoners of War." Maybe next time I'll actually sing that. Lach dispelled my notion of the kinder than Guilliani Bloomberg with 30 tickets for postings on public property of a gig at The Sidewalk. He didn't have the number of the artist who posted (or who had directed his lackey's to do so for him) so SideWalk gets the tickets. Major Matt sings eloquently on this subject, a flyer upon a flyer upon a flyer, and everyone represents a dream.. to paraphrase...
Saturday, February 09, 2002
Tuesday, February 05, 2002
Ah. Another opinion just in, Polly Paulusma, singer songwriter from London, with whom Major Matt Mason USA and I shared the bill at Spice of Life. "Peter, I LOVE Pro-Choice on Mental Health. You get me at that crying/laughing cusp."
Monday, February 04, 2002
Ah, returning to the office this morning after our London trip I found the following on my desk, the first review of the Pro-Choice on Mental Health CD and it's terrible. It's so bad that I must put it on the website, linked to the PConMH project page, and here it also is:
It's the 4th of February, 2002. The following criticism leaves the reader with no doubt that it is a negative review of the Pro-Choice on Mental Health CD.
Applause! Applause! Volume VIII, Issue 2 Dr. Thomas Robert Stevens Editor in Chief, Tel/Fax: 718-357.7075 A subscription publication
John Patrick Schutz
Pro-Choice on Mental Health - Peter Dizozza
CD Review (CVII Recordings)
As the album cover states, "Pro-Choice On Mental Health - A Seven Song Cycle with Monologues and Mini-Play" originated on a Strange Folk Sunday at Lach's Fort at SideWalk in January of 1996. Somehow though only thirty-seven minutes and twenty seconds long, the piece seemed to me to take at least two or three geological ages of the world. Then I actually had to listen to it AGAIN in order to review it properly. I would love to sue to get that hour and a half of my life back. To be fair, I am unsure whether this performance art piece is to be taken seriously or considered a satire of the mental health system in this country. If seriously, I am very frightened for the artist, and suggest that he get a new therapist and get off the medication he claims on the album they are prescribing for him. If this is indeed satire, I failed to find the humor. Yes, our mental health system leaves much to be desired, and yes, the "magic pill" for every problem in your life may have created a generation of insecure neurotics who think peace of mind can only be found through chemicals. Unfortunately, this piece doesn't find any recognizable humor in these foibles. The monologues are abrupt and lacking in focus, and the songs are recorded with the singer off-key against a sythesized score with a mechanical rhythm device. Again, extremely unfortunate if serious and extremely annoying if purposeful.
The song lyrics are simplistic and without clear direction; "Thank you doctor, you heard all of it, and your pills they do not hurt a bit. I have been caught in time, to sit with dreams benign. But come the clear sign, I lash out like lions - in their prime." And so on, and so on. If you care to listen to someone else's therapy, perhaps this album is for you. As for me, in ten years of reviewing, I have always strived to find something positive to say about any work I review, no matter how unpolished or incomplete. It hurts me to do so, but unfortunately, the only positive thing I can find about "Pro-Choice On Mental Health is that having listened to it twice, I will never have to listen to it again. The album appears to be available through www.cinemavii.com.
Peter Dizozza comment: It appears from a web search that John Patrick Schutz is a 2 time MAC nominee Cabaret Performer (The Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs gives out MAC awards.). He has worked with Neil Burg, a songwriter music director whom I know from the BMI Music Theatre Workshop. Although his review is dismissive, I find no fault in it. I question whether the literal meaning of the word "listen" applies when he uses it, since it is my position that if he had listened he would have enjoyed the album. His quote from The Song of Laughter and Forgetting is representative of my lyric writing. I do not claim to take medication in the album. Although he states it as obvious, his well-worded statement, "Yes, our mental health system..., Yes, the 'magic pill'...." accurately summarizes the album's intent.
Here's you're chance to get a copy of your very own. (The new edition is enhanced with an MPEG scene from The Last Dodo and bonus tracks, alternate takes of songs from other CVII recordings, featuring my controversial vocals.)
It's the 4th of February, 2002. The following criticism leaves the reader with no doubt that it is a negative review of the Pro-Choice on Mental Health CD.
Applause! Applause! Volume VIII, Issue 2 Dr. Thomas Robert Stevens Editor in Chief, Tel/Fax: 718-357.7075 A subscription publication
John Patrick Schutz
Pro-Choice on Mental Health - Peter Dizozza
CD Review (CVII Recordings)
As the album cover states, "Pro-Choice On Mental Health - A Seven Song Cycle with Monologues and Mini-Play" originated on a Strange Folk Sunday at Lach's Fort at SideWalk in January of 1996. Somehow though only thirty-seven minutes and twenty seconds long, the piece seemed to me to take at least two or three geological ages of the world. Then I actually had to listen to it AGAIN in order to review it properly. I would love to sue to get that hour and a half of my life back. To be fair, I am unsure whether this performance art piece is to be taken seriously or considered a satire of the mental health system in this country. If seriously, I am very frightened for the artist, and suggest that he get a new therapist and get off the medication he claims on the album they are prescribing for him. If this is indeed satire, I failed to find the humor. Yes, our mental health system leaves much to be desired, and yes, the "magic pill" for every problem in your life may have created a generation of insecure neurotics who think peace of mind can only be found through chemicals. Unfortunately, this piece doesn't find any recognizable humor in these foibles. The monologues are abrupt and lacking in focus, and the songs are recorded with the singer off-key against a sythesized score with a mechanical rhythm device. Again, extremely unfortunate if serious and extremely annoying if purposeful.
The song lyrics are simplistic and without clear direction; "Thank you doctor, you heard all of it, and your pills they do not hurt a bit. I have been caught in time, to sit with dreams benign. But come the clear sign, I lash out like lions - in their prime." And so on, and so on. If you care to listen to someone else's therapy, perhaps this album is for you. As for me, in ten years of reviewing, I have always strived to find something positive to say about any work I review, no matter how unpolished or incomplete. It hurts me to do so, but unfortunately, the only positive thing I can find about "Pro-Choice On Mental Health is that having listened to it twice, I will never have to listen to it again. The album appears to be available through www.cinemavii.com.
Peter Dizozza comment: It appears from a web search that John Patrick Schutz is a 2 time MAC nominee Cabaret Performer (The Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs gives out MAC awards.). He has worked with Neil Burg, a songwriter music director whom I know from the BMI Music Theatre Workshop. Although his review is dismissive, I find no fault in it. I question whether the literal meaning of the word "listen" applies when he uses it, since it is my position that if he had listened he would have enjoyed the album. His quote from The Song of Laughter and Forgetting is representative of my lyric writing. I do not claim to take medication in the album. Although he states it as obvious, his well-worded statement, "Yes, our mental health system..., Yes, the 'magic pill'...." accurately summarizes the album's intent.
Here's you're chance to get a copy of your very own. (The new edition is enhanced with an MPEG scene from The Last Dodo and bonus tracks, alternate takes of songs from other CVII recordings, featuring my controversial vocals.)
Sunday, February 03, 2002
While in London, I bought Time Out London's number 1640 & 1641.
Here are their Dizozza descriptions.
Number 1640
Friday 25, * Peter Dizzoza + Conrad Vingo + Overwater + Liam Moore + Andi Neat Up All Night at Spice Of Life W1. Unsigned talent showcase, headlined by funny anti-folk fella Dizzoza, who plays keyboards for Major Matt Mason USA and here promotes his new CD, 'Pro-Choice On Mental Health'.
Number 1641
Wednesday 30 * Peter Dizzoza + Amy Thomas + James Henry + Toph Up All Night at River Bar & Brasserie S#1, Dizzoza is the latest (and possibly strangest) star of downtown NYC's anti-folk scene to make it across the pond. Imagine a nerdy John Turturro playing Woody Allen and chanelling Harry Nilsson and you're half way to grasping the Sondheim meets Burroughs vicissitudes of new CD, 'Pro-Choice On Mental Health'. Maybe he'll perform his sublime, hysterical 'miniplay', 'Self Rape Among Tubing'.
Here are their Dizozza descriptions.
Number 1640
Friday 25, * Peter Dizzoza + Conrad Vingo + Overwater + Liam Moore + Andi Neat Up All Night at Spice Of Life W1. Unsigned talent showcase, headlined by funny anti-folk fella Dizzoza, who plays keyboards for Major Matt Mason USA and here promotes his new CD, 'Pro-Choice On Mental Health'.
Number 1641
Wednesday 30 * Peter Dizzoza + Amy Thomas + James Henry + Toph Up All Night at River Bar & Brasserie S#1, Dizzoza is the latest (and possibly strangest) star of downtown NYC's anti-folk scene to make it across the pond. Imagine a nerdy John Turturro playing Woody Allen and chanelling Harry Nilsson and you're half way to grasping the Sondheim meets Burroughs vicissitudes of new CD, 'Pro-Choice On Mental Health'. Maybe he'll perform his sublime, hysterical 'miniplay', 'Self Rape Among Tubing'.
Thursday, January 17, 2002
Heroes is Marvel comics contribution to the World Trade Center Disastor Relief Fund, the Twin Towers Fund, and the comic may even mention the idea of someone organizing an auction of the original drawings. Thanks to Mr. Kay, (first name?) the auction took place this evening at Club 101 at 101 Park Avenue. I piled four country's food atop a plate and took my seat by Coleen Delaney and there I remet my friend, John Sturner, who has moved from his DuRona studios (he made children's comercials in the Yonkers terrytoons studio) into collecting, and his collecting includes comics. The auction was beautifully conducted by filmmaker Kevin Smith who bid against the audience for the last piece and went home with it, THEY DIDN'T EVEN give him a bag, actually there were bags there, he was just carrying it out to show people its splendor. It's of a firefighter appearing out of the carnage THANK YOU to save us (The artist is Brian Stelfreeze). You may know Kevin's alter ego, Silent Bob, who conducted the silent auction, one of the items there being a Mercedes Mountain Bike. I wonder who got that.
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