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Harvey’s Kitchen: The David Wax Museum

harvey — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:47:08 +0000

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. This trio from Boston came into our kitchen with homegrown produce and organic chocolate and a willingness to help begin the restoration of our ad-hoc badminton court in the backyard. They’ve opened for the Avett Brothers and their album, “The Carpenter Bird” was listed by the Boston Globe as one of the top ten Boston area albums of 2009. They’ve also been featured by NPR. We were lucky to have them and such kind and generous people to boot.

David Wax traveled to Mexico for 3 years in order to study various forms of Mexican folk music and you can definitely hear the influence, following the lead of previous hybrid indie rock bands such as Beirut.

Here they are performing The Persimmon Tree in our Kitchen and yes that is a donkey jaw bone. We’re very much looking forward to hearing more from The David Wax Museum, perhaps even as part of the Save the Monkeywhale Festival 2010. Suz’s dress was designed by Melanie Renee.

Credits:

David Wax

Suz Slezak

Jordan Wax

Behind the Scenes: Joshua West

carolyn — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:27:56 +0000

Joshua West braved the kitchen on a hot day waaaay back in July. Notice green trees and healthy plants in his video. (Luckily he’s a patient man. And longtime friend of Harvey.) Joshua’s music is downright lovely and if you live in North Carolina you might have been lucky enough to hear him play at various fine establishments over the years. Josh has an electric band, too, and word on the street (or his Twitter feed to be exact) is that finishing touches are being put on a new album. We are looking forward to it. Here are a few shots (with more on our flickr site) from Joshua’s visit last summer. A fun afternoon all around.

Joshua West, Harvey's Kitchen

It is what it is

harvey — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 22:11:55 +0000

For the past year or more the hot buzz words and phrases such as, “literally” “at the end of the day” have been able to lend credence to otherwise nonsensical statements of nonfact or just plain made up points of opposition on what we now call the news. It’s been fun. If the term or words enter into discourse you can be pretty certain that the speaker is either making it up or so supremely confident of their position that they’re ignoring any other evidence to the contrary.

Well, a new term has arisen. “It is what it is.” I rather like this. It pretty much sums up just how miserably disappointing our economy and the consequences thereof can be. It’s a sign of the times. It is what it is. Of course as we delve deeper into the use of this expression of general apathy a pattern of not explaining things fully has emerged.

From pundits to celebrities to the commentary on national and international disasters, it is what it is. Not preventable or avoidable. They all simply are.

Keep your chins up.

It is what it is

Harvey’s Kitchen: Joshua West

harvey — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 21:28:47 +0000

Back in the days, Joshua and I used to do what we called “work” at a pizza joint. Work usually consisted of running a pizza in the morning for breakfast, collecting cigarette boxes and 20 oz bottles of soda in our cars and when it was really slow Josh would bust out his Saxophone and play a few tunes. Ah. The good days. Filled with crank calls ordering pizzas whose toppings spelled out the word ‘orgasm’ (the place we worked used a one letter abbreviation for each topping) and then asking if they could deliver it quickly, or asking the new guy to go into the cooler to find the dough patch kit to repair a hole in a pizza crust.

We were the ‘Clerks’ variety of slackers but one thing has always been consistent for Josh, his love of music. After all those years, Joshua moved on to the world of marketing and design and became a terrific father to his children and a great husband to his lovely wife. Joshua West. Still Rocking.

Thank you Josh.

Existed: Leonardo Drew

harvey — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 03:18:04 +0000

Here’s something I’ve been looking forward to for months. Thanks in large part to our neighbor Heather and the kind staff of the Weatherspoon Art Museum we gained access to the inner workings of the art installation process and were able to interview Leo in our kitchen.

This was a collaborative effort as part of our new collective, MWP, shot together with Mark Wagoner Productions.

I’m sure it wasn’t easy having 3 camera operators in the museum with the constant clicking of shutters bouncing off the clean white walls and a dolly moving all about the place. So, I want to thank Xandra (curator of exhibits) for her patience along with the rest of the staff who do some pretty amazing work.  The exhibit is a survey of Leo’s work over the past 20 years with pieces on loan from all over the country.  This is something you shouldn’t miss.

Praise for Leonardo Drew:

In the second gallery, Leonardo Drew is showing new rust-covered reliefs and sculptures that, despite their look of neglect and decay, are overworked. Time hangs heavily, and theatrically, on these pieces. One, a series of distressed glass and wood boxes, each containing a little bit of detritus, suggests reliquaries.

The largest piece, more characteristic of Mr. Drew’s work, is a wall-size relief whose small compartments are packed with paper, small objects or closed off with little squares of fabric or colored-paper collages. Toward the work’s center, one box contains a carved, gargoyle-like face.

These works are so seductive as to be manipulative, part of the manipulation being that it is hard to tell if Mr. Drew’s rich patinas are the result of artistic intention or time’s inexorable march. In the end, one leans toward artistic intention, which then implies a toxic level of artifice. It’s like looking at a stage set whose effects are meant to be read from a distance and thus seem overwrought when viewed more closely.

Roberta Smith, The New York Times

MWP Meets Leonardo Drew

carolyn — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:48:54 +0000

This week Monkeywhale and Mark Wagoner Productions joined up (you can call us MWP, in fact) for a very exciting shoot at the Weatherspoon Art Museum documenting the artist Leonardo Drew during the installation of his current touring exhibit, “Existed”. To say we have been inspired by this project is an understatement. The exhibit itself is huge and complex and breathtaking and to get to witness firsthand the artist who created it working closely with the tireless Weatherspoon crew to bring the whole thing to life, has been an amazing experience. We are so thankful to our dear Monkeywhaler Heather who helped get this project underway for us. Heather and her co-workers at the Weatherspoon are a wonderful sight to see in action and we are very grateful to them for putting up with us all week as we attempted to document a process and an artist who are like nothing we’ve ever seen before. Of course we offer special thanks to Leonardo Drew who welcomed us (and our cat Leo) with open arms and has been more thoughtful, kind and gracious than we might have ever hoped for.

Tomorrow night kicks off opening night of the exhibit with a sold-out artist’s lecture at 6pm followed by a reception from 7-9pm. If bad weather keeps you away (which we hope it won’t) the exhibit will be up until May 9th and I promise you that you don’t want to miss it. Be prepared to lose your mind a bit. That’s what it’s all about, right? Here are a few sneak peeks from the last few days. Video coming soon.

Leonardo Drew, "Existed", Weatherspoon Art Museum

Leonardo Drew, "Existed", Harvey's Kitchen

Leonardo Drew, "Existed", Weatherspoon Art Museum

February 1

carolyn — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 04:37:53 +0000

It’s been a long time coming, Greensboro. A LONG time. But this morning, looking at the joy on people’s faces, as they shivered in the early morning light after getting up at ungodly hours and braving icy roads, it was clear that something great has happened here. For 45 minutes this morning, Greensboro pushed aside it’s ugly politics, bitter rivalries, and endless finger pointing to celebrate bravery, progress, history, and our collective future. The International Civil Rights Center and Museum is officially open and though it holds images and memories from a dark and turbulent time, it looked beautiful from where we were standing.

There were a lot of inspiring people on Elm Street today and a lot of people who’ve seen this city through all sorts of rough times. It seems only fitting that the best quote of the day came from Franklin McCain, one of the original Greensboro Four: “Never request permission to start a revolution, ” he said. There’s an attitude we can all get behind. As we trudged through crunchy snow and shimmery ice all the way home, it was hard to ignore the stunning morning that had unfolded. February never looked so good.

More photos can be seen on our flickr page.

Farewell 2009. Hello 2010.

harvey — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 11:27:42 +0000

Sitting in the same tiny room for twelve months can make you a bit stir-crazy. Carolyn and I, on more than one occasion, have asked ourselves “what the hell have we been doing all day? all week? all year?” Sometimes the dishes will pile up or the dust-bunnies will start hopping about the floor, which admittedly, I’ve been less than attentive to lately. It’s easy to get a little melancholy when it gets dark around 5pm and you work out of your house.

So, I said, why don’t we just take a look at what Monkeywhale has done this year. Surely we haven’t been as lazy as we THINK we’ve been. So, here goes. A quick recap as a list in no particular order followed by a long thank you list in no particular order:

1. worked out of our house

2. Shot a documentary as part of the international documentary challenge

Post Production on Saving the Monkeywhale, 2009.

3. Shot, produced et al., an award-winning 48 hour film which also happened to be a musical

Mike working on the storyboards for Love is Dead. 48 hour film festival, 2009.

David taking a nap after shooting for 24 hours straight. 48 film festival, 2009

4. Put together a very successful 3 day MUSIC FESTIVAL

Holy Ghost Tent Revival. Save the Monkeywhale Festival, 2009

Bruce Piephoff. Save the Monkeywhale Festival, 2009

Matty Sheets, Katharine Whalen and Josh from House of Fools. Save the Monkeywhale Festival, 2009

5. Participated in the 2nd Annual ArtBeat Festival by interviewing:

i. Dmitry Sitkovetsky, conductor of the Greensboro Symphony and the European Strings

ii. Preston Lane, artistic director of Triad Stage

iii. Elena DeAngelis, Managing Director of the Greensboro Opera Company

iv. Josephus III, spoken word artist

Shot 4 dotmatrix project performances and posted 3 videos.

Shot, edited, and posted seventy-seven Harvey’s Kitchen Sessions. Yes. Seventy-Seven. We actually shot more than 77 but we’ve only POSTED 77.

Here’s a list of those 77 plus ones I haven’t edited yet:

The Radials, Martha Bassett, Citified, Josh Neas, Molly McGinn, Pete Schoth, Holy Ghost Tent Revival, Sirius B., Eric Robertson, Mike Tourek, Big Bang Boom, The Crap Rock Allstars, The Tremors, Laurelyn Dossett, Joe Garrigan, The Garrigan Brothers, The Alcazar Hotel, Katharine Whalen’s Lucky, Come Hell or High Water, Brian O’Sullivan, Sam Frazier, Frank Stasio, Justin Catanoso, Bruce Molsky, Corporate Assassins, Bart Trotman, SeaHorses, Blind Pilot, Andy Coon, Filthybird, Hiram Ring, Lost in the Trees, Brenda Schleunes, The Never, Sam Quinn + Japan Ten, The BuzzKillz, Albina Savoy, Ray Burnett, Jeri Rowe, Irata, Stephen Van Vuuren, Brian Clarey, Lovinder Gill, Ed Cone, Richard Clabaugh, Samantha Crain, Frontier Ruckus, The Lake Isle, Jim Avett, A Tribute to Mark Sandman w/ the Alcazar Hotel, Stephaniesid, Now You See Them, Invisible, Josh West, Hope for a Golden Summer, Tim Betts Band, House of Fools, Colin Hay, Emily Moore Band, Jill Andrews, Steel Train, The Waybacks, Nate Nelson, Thayer Sarrano, Lyndsay Wojcik, Pearl and the Beard and a number of others …

We also appeared on Frank Stasio’s show, The State of Things, for WUNC, were listed as one of the web’s best out-of-context concert series by Paste Magazine (helping create an entirely new Meme), appeared in Go Triad, Yes Weekly and the News and Record, and garnered an audience of over 78,000 viewers. Our sessions appear on over 33 different websites including Muzzle of Bees, Paste Magazine, German, French, Australian and English Music blogs. Many of our sessions get more than a thousand views in the first day of posting. Oh, and we’re now syndicated via Roku and Boxee which means our audience is increasingly watching the sessions on their televisions.

All that along with doing our commercial jobs which pay the bills.

So what does all this mean? I have no idea. Carolyn and I still work out of our house which we rent. We have lovely neighbors and we just adopted two very special cats named Leo and Eleanor and no we haven’t been approached about a reality television show.

Here’s the thing. We’ve met some really fantastic people this year, people we would not have met had we not gone headlong into these projects, so even though the year was something less than a financial success the personal rewards were great. There’s also no way we could have accomplished any of these things without a great deal of help from some really fantastic people.

BIG 2009 MONKEYWHALE SHOUT-OUT

Anna Pearsall and Michael

Chris Johnson

Shanti Calabrese

Matthew Morrison

Katharine our neighbor

Matt Thomas

Ueli Schweitzer

Matty Sheets

Barry Staples

The spirit of Baffi Lungi

The spirit of Sharky

Heather Moore

Donna Smith

Kara Green

Alex and Jenny Maness

Joe Garrigan

Heineken

Badminton

The Flat Iron

John Rudy and Europa Cafe

Zach Hadgraft

Adam Braun

Driveway Moore

Rosemary and Owen McGee

Myles McGee

Mark Wagoner

James Marshall Owen

William Dawson,

Katharine Whalen

Cece Mathis

Don Ravon Gaye

Josh Neas

Lisa Dames

David Butler

Jennifer Dalton

Emily Stuart

Emily Sulecki

Kit Dean

Mikey Roohan

Tom Ehlers

Stephanie Mirabelli

Jimmy Rhine

Jamie Coggins

Nine Mile Records

Compass Records

Ramseur Records

Trekky Records

Family Records

Good Ship Records

Doc at Blind Tiger

Wendy Lou and Fred Gillespie

Molly McGinn

Chris Jackson

J Eric Ussery

Diego Diaz

and Frank

Jim Avett

Sean Coon

Andy Coon

Jeri Rowe

Ryan Snyder

Brian Clarey

Christian and Courtney Reynolds

Julie Welch

Ashby Pettigrew

Carole Perkins

Frank Stasio

David McLean

Pete and Anne Schroth

German Valle

The good people at 223 Post

Mike Tourek

Emily Moore

Betsy Blake

Joshua West

Wayne Reich

Mark and Janis Dougherty

Altina Layman

Danielle Wagner

Mike Lowe

Chuck Folds

Dan Kelly

Stephen Van Vuuren

Matt Mandarano

The King’s English

Decoration Ghost!

2010 is shaping up to be an interesting year. I’ll begin it with the resolution that we’ll only produce a total of 24 kitchen sessions as we focus our attention on new projects. That’s 2 a month. We’re already booked through April with bands playing from as close as Greensboro and as far afield as the United Kingdom. I resolve to read more, to create more art, and to finish pre-production on The Pongist whilst simultaneously paying the bills through better commercials and documentaries. Who’s in for the 48 hour film festival in 2010?

I hope you all have a great New Year and thank you for supporting us. The “you” also includes David Moore who took the Aycock Historic District Badminton Trophy away from Aycock this Thanksgiving, buried a venison sausage in the snow, and braved an entire bottle of ginseng eyedrops for “science.”

Harvey’s Kitchen: Pearl and the Beard, Lost in Singapore

harvey — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 03:25:40 +0000

Two songs just aren’t enough. They came to our kitchen, braved the cold and the drizzle in the back yard and ate Indian food with us before returning to Brooklyn, NY. Fear not, they’ll be returning to Greensboro on March 13th as part of our Monkeywhale presents series …

Many thanks to Jocelyn, Emily and Jeremy for a fabulous time and for the countless hours I listened to these songs over and over again.

Pearl and the Beard: Behind the Scenes

carolyn — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 02:12:51 +0000

Pearl and the Beard are cool. There, I said it. And when I say cool, I don’t mean “too cool for school”, not gonna talk to you at a bar, blowin’ through this little town straight back to Brooklyn, cool. I mean cool in the way that bands with three people who wear glasses are cool. Cool in the down to earth, funny, caring for each other, interested in what you’re doing, wanting to go out and eat Indian food after your session, way.

When people put on cute dresses for their Kitchen session and bring us cd’s and adorable tote bags (featuring three pairs of glasses!) and are really lovely and don’t mind standing around in a cold, damp backyard at night and then tell all their friends to tweet the hell out of their video once it’s up, they earn big points with me. In Pearl and the Beard’s case, they didn’t even need the points. Their music is so beautiful and interesting and unique that they could have been jackasses and I’d still have to tell you to check them out. Luckily for us they were just the opposite. So take a listen and watch their videos and keep your fingers crossed we can get them to come down here again and play a show somewhere fun.

Pearl and the Beard, Harvey's Kitchen