So every town has it’s own Art Walk these days. Usually the first or third Friday of each month. Once, in Ashland, my truck broke down just as I was going to hit the art drag. A bunch of friends and I pushed it through as all the folks around couldn’t figure out if it was a broke down Ice Cream Truck or an art piece. Ha.
Friday night in Long Beach, FLOOD took it one step further with their Second Annual
Soundwalk. Four square blocks in the downtown arts district were converted to everything art. Picture shows are fun but why not incorporate pictures with sounds and booze. (or Maté if your bored). Parked the ice cream truck in the old SST parking lot and rounded to corner to find my way into a couple galleries. The first was art obsessed with the Simpsons and the second was displaying works by Robert Fontenot. Mike Brown brought in what looked like the innards of a WWII submarine. Oscillators and Dials and doo-dads created a swirling hypnotic soundscape that was hard to leave. Especially with Robert’s cool embroidered art pieces making words like Slut, Bomb, and Falter beautiful. Ran into Scott, who helped put everything together for the exhibit, and Joseph X Negro out side chatting it up. Joe handed me a piece of paper that said “The sound of a telephone ringing”. Dope….
So far, So great. Wandered down the street a bit and noticed a cat tucked away in some shadows creating more beautiful noise. A spinning wheel with overflowing water had to be spun. Then, little alien like chirping lunch box thingees were blinking from a nearby tree. Some other artists were camped in front of a local cafe making art on the fly.
One of the highlights of the night was Koo’s. Normally a place I’d go to see a rock show, it had been extensively transformed just for Soundwalk. An over-tweaked piano greeted everyone upon entrance then a shack that looked like it might have been the Unabombers played creepy old style news reels. There was sound coming from everywhere. Not loud or annoying, more blippy and trippy. There were a set of stairs you could walk up and down that responded with appropriate tones. One of the coolest pieces was in the far back room. After listening to it explained a couple times, I’m still not sure what it is/was. Basically you walked inside the cylindrical cloth exhibit with video being broadcast on it. Then, as you moved around, little lites tracked your movements and filled in the necessary soundtrack. ????, got a cool pic of it though.
Some other weirdness lie around every corner. Sneezing Spirituality, folks lying/frolicking on a gallery floor, a computer redesigned to produce random noises that somehow became coherent music, everyone had their own different take on what Soundwalk was supposed to be. That’s what made it all work. Nothing was quite the same. And it shouldn’t be. Can’t wait to get Bessy in there next year. With enough planning, I think we can blow some socks off, and of course, give away some ice cream. Good job. Go Long Beach!
Ended up at Prospector a couple hours late to check out Telomere Repair, something I’ve been needing to do for a while. Blistering, ear bleeding, destruction was the perfect ending to a night devoted to new, strange, and different sounds. Looking forward to seeing them again, just won’t forget the earplugs next time. Bar napkins just don’t cut it.
