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Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Pecha Kucha recap
I'd hoped to have a picture or two to go with this post, but haven't received any yet. If and when I get some, I'll add them in. So... I couldn't stay for the entire event last night, so I missed about half the presenters. To be fair to all the presenters, then, I won't be giving an account of the other presentations. Rather, I'll be focusing more on what I presented. The them of the night was "Love," and while I kept that in mind while selecting stories to read, our authors aren't typically writing the kind of stuff you'd see in Valentine's Day cards. So my first criterion in selecting pieces was how strongly they opened. Since the format provides for only 20 seconds of reading of each piece, I wanted to ensure that every piece I read had some sort of hook to pull the reader (or in this case, the listener) in pretty quickly. I selected one piece from each of our first 18 issues. I also made the list without repeating any authors. Because we haven't done artwork to wallpaper size (or even for every single piece in the early issues), I enlisted Ellen Parker's help in creating artwork for each of these. For writers interested in studying strong openers or for attendees of last night's event who'd like to read the pieces in their entirety, here's the list (in the order they were read, from issue 1 through 18):1: Neighborhood Watch, Nance Knauer
2: Must Sign for Delivery, Jade Walker
3: Metallic, Ellen Parker
4: Remembering Elizabeth, Bob Arter
5: Gilda, Patricia Parkinson
6: 201 Feet, Andrew Tibbetts
7: All Over Again, Tom Jackson
8: He Wrote Sixteen Pencils Empty, Daphne Buter
9: Irvin Hammers a Cat House, Mike Young
10: Five Fat Men in a Hot Tub, Jeff Landon
11: A Blind Dog Named Killer and a Colony of Bees, Mary Miller
12: Ally's First Step, Paul Silverman
13: Daffodil, Kathy Fish
14: Vandals, Jennifer A. Howard
15: Copenhagen, Fred Spears
16: Heaven by the Highwayside, Mike Amato
17: My First Two-Headed Boy, Veronica Thorn
18: Display, Davin Malasarn
I had a great time once again, this time presenting first, rather than last. This meant that the audience was much larger, but also considerably more sober. For more information on Pecha Kucha, check out the official website. Special thanks to Ellen especially for her artwork, Ana Pinto da Silva for organizing the whole shebang, and Jamie Drzayich for picking up the flying pages. Can't wait to do it all again some time.
Labels: Dave Clapper, Pecha Kucha, Seattle, SmokeLong Quarterly
posted by Dave Clapper at 3:30 PM 1 commentsWednesday, February 06, 2008
Pecha Kucha Seattle v.05
I need to get caught up on posting about a LOT of publications that have new issues out, and will try to do that in the next few days. Right now, though, my focus is on getting ready for the next Pecha Kucha, coming up on February 12. I'll be reading 20 seconds each of one story per issue from our first 18 issues (since last time, I did all of issue 19). Because of the format, I've looked much harder at how quickly a story catches my eye. The amount of text that can be read aloud in 20 seconds isn't much, so it really requires that the author grab attention as quickly as possible. It's making me appreciate that much more those authors who have great strength in openings. Once I've decided which stories I'll be reading from, I'll post links to them all here, both because I think it's valuable for writers to look at strong openers, and so that folks who hear the pieces read at Pecha Kucha can quickly find links to read the rest of the stories that may have piqued their interest.There will be ten presenters this time, and it looks like an incredible lineup. If you happen to be in Seattle next week, it's a great event to add to your calendar. The image here is a link to the poster (which is gorgeous—kudos to Ana Pinto da Silva).
Here're the details:
Tuesday, February 12th
6:00 PM
See Sound Lounge
115 Blanchard St, Seattle, WA
Theme: LOVE
Presenters:
Linda Carlin, Senior Design Analyst, Frog Design
David Harrell, Fellow, Royal Institute of Public Health
John Grade, Artist, Seeps of Winter/Suyama Space
Allan Packer, Artist, Davidson Contemporary
Jon Taylor, Architect/Artist, Callison
Alex Maxim, Knowledge Manager, NBBJ
Dave Clapper, Editor, Smokelong Quarterly
David Ho, Architect, Gensler
Ryan Matthew Smith, Photographer
Shannon Wells & Jed Dunkerley, Slideluck Potshow
Labels: Dave Clapper, Pecha Kucha, Seattle, SmokeLong Quarterly
posted by Dave Clapper at 10:17 AM 1 commentsThursday, December 13, 2007
Reading in Seattle
Come warm yourself by the fiery words of Melanie Noel, Jared Leising, and Bret Fetzer! Thursday Dec. 13 at 7:00 PM at Tougo Coffee, 1410 18th Ave. at Union in the Central District."But there was the sensation of wind having been there. Tie my old shoes, Casanova. The laces are dying brown cosmos in your uncalloused hands."
Melanie Noel is a poet and lives in Seattle. Her poems have appeared in Fine Madness, Filter and on the audio magazine Weird Deer. She has written poems for the installations Partsong and Collocation, and as a live score for What Remains Unseen, an experimental documentary by James Merle Thomas. She is a co-curator for the dance, music and poetry series APOSTROPHE with Gust Burns and Beth Graczyk.
"This is how we talk, how we listen---in duendeandinnuendo. To say it straight would be easy"
Jared Leising, originally from the Midwest, received his MFA in creative writing from the University of Houston. His stories and poems have appeared in various Washington publications such as Pontoon, Crab Creek Review, Stringtown, as well as on Metro Buses and local radio. Jared has worked as a writer-in-residence for Ballard and Nathan Hale High Schools. Currently, he teaches English at Cascadia Community College and is a volunteer for 826 Seattle, a youth writing center in Greenwood.
"While scrupulous and diligent at his celestial task, on his own time the moon was lazy and prone to complain. Long were his stories of the slights he received from envious stars and comets."
Bret Fetzer writes plays and short stories. His collections of original fairy tales, 'Petals & Thorns' and 'Tooth & Tongue', are available at www.pistilbooks.com. He is the Artistic Director of Annex Theatre and curates Spin the Bottle, Annex's monthly late-night variety show. His ISO was published in SLQ issue two.
Labels: Bret Fetzer, Jared Leising, Melanie Noel, reading, Seattle
posted by Dave Clapper at 12:19 PM 0 commentsWednesday, December 12, 2007
Pecha Kucha Seattle recap
So I did the Pecha Kucha thing last night. I didn't know entirely what to expect, having never been to one before. I have to give huge props to Ana Pinto da Silva, who heads up the organization team for Pecha Kucha Seattle. My impression from visiting the official international site is that most volumes of Pecha Kucha in the world (currently in 80 cities, and growing) focus a whole lot on architecture and design. Ana and her team managed to put together a wildly diverse roster:Matthew Landkammer - Painter
Lulu Smith - Jewelry Designer
Myra Ganong-Varadi - Animal Rights Activist
Sage K. Saskill - Architect with S.A.G.E. Designs NW on sustainability (the bus depicted here once served as his home)
Aaron Briggs - Architectural Designer, on his trip to India
Gummi Brynjarsson - Photographer from Iceland
Sheila Siden - Fundraiser for Artist Trust
Ingrid Harten - Pathologist, researcher of Progeria Syndrome
Dave Clapper - that'd be me
For those unfamiliar with the format of Pecha Kucha (as I was), each presenter shows 20 slides for 20 seconds each and may verbalize in any way they wish during that time. Most of the presenters last night (but for a very few) spoke extemporaneously about the images in their slides and how they related to their larger theme. In my case, the first two slides were off-the-cuff discussions about SmokeLong in general, and about the upcoming issue specifically. And then I let folks know that my nose would be buried in text and that they should holler when the slides changed. For the next 18 slides, I read as much as I could of each of the 15 stories in our upcoming issue, as well as the first 20 seconds each of Nadine Darling's Aquarium, Melanie Rae Thon's Translation, and my own Spike. Resonance. (which, of course, has never been in SmokeLong, but I had the microphone, right?).
It was a blast. I went last and a lot of the crowd had cleared out by then, so the audience was fairly small, but they were really enthusiastic, for which I'm very thankful. They hollered as requested, and each time they whooped, I tossed aside the page I'd been reading from (often mid-sentence) and moved on to the next. The effect was often humorous, as the tone from piece to piece varied wildly, and where many of the presentations had a certain calm to them, my presentation was more frenetic. At the end of the twenty seconds of the twentieth slide, someone yelled out, "Keep reading!" Thank you, kind person, whoever you are. You were far too kind. But it would've been unbalanced to have given Benjamin Weissman more time than the other authors, so I thanked everyone and urged them to read the full issue when it comes out on Saturday.
Lots and lots and lots of fun. Ana has invited me to present again at the next edition, which will take place in February. The theme of that night will be love (it's happening a few days before Valentine's Day). For last night's, since we have an issue coming out so soon, the timing seemed perfect to do a sneak preview. For the next, we'll still be about a month away from our publication date, so our lineup won't be completely set. So...
What SmokeLong stories make you think of the theme love? I have some ideas, but I want to hear yours.
Labels: Aaron Briggs, Dave Clapper, Gummi Brynjarsson, Ingrid Harten, Lulu Smith, Matthew Landkammer, Myra Ganong-Varadi, Pecha Kucha, Sage K. Saskill, Seattle, Sheila Siden, SmokeLong Quarterly
posted by Dave Clapper at 3:28 PM 1 commentsTuesday, December 04, 2007
Seattle Pecha Kucha Vol.04
As one of the presenters at Pecha Kucha, I'll be offering a sneak preview of our December 15 issue. If you're in Seattle, come by for drinks and fun and say hello, won't ya?
Labels: Dave Clapper, Pecha Kucha, Seattle, SmokeLong Quarterly
posted by Dave Clapper at 10:52 AM 2 commentsTuesday, November 27, 2007
Pecha Kucha Seattle
I'm going to be presenting a sneak preview of the next issue on December 11 at an event in Seattle called Pecha Kucha. The organizer of the event just told me that two presenters had to bow out and she's looking for folks to jump in. Pecha Kucha started as a format in which architects could present their designs quickly to an inebriated audience. It's expanded substantially from its original discipline, and the Seattle Pecha Kucha is especially focused on a broad range of arts.
Each presenter shows 20 slides for 20 seconds each, during which (s)he can offer whatever commentary, performance, music, etc. (s)he deems appropriate. For more about Pecha Kucha, check out pecha-kucha.org.
If anyone might be interested in appearing at a very presentational (and fun--with drinks!) event, or if anyone knows of someone who might be interested in this, shoot me an email at dclapper@smokelong.com and I'll email back with more details on how it all works.
Thanks!
(I'll post a full line-up, location, time, and other details as more info is finalized.)
Labels: Dave Clapper, Pecha Kucha, Seattle, SmokeLong Quarterly
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