Category Archives: The Podcast
Reporting from the other side
Is it over?
For the first time in three weeks, a day in my Google Calendar is completely, utterly empty. There’s nothing there but the date – June 11 – and a blank expanse of white space. My brain is fried, my innards are pickled, my back is killing me, and my culture tank is fully [...]
Buzzcast central
On Friday, the Lowbrow slipped away from morning coffee for a duck into the ersatz podcasting booth at The Post and Courier, where he and fellow CP blogger Jonathan Sanchez became one with an entourage of that paper’s present and former Spoleto reporters and bloggers. Listen to the resulting “bloggers summit” podcast here.
After the big [...]
Buzzcast: Aurélia Thierrée
After seeing Aurélia Thierrée’s dreamlike Oratorio at Emmett Robinson Thursday evening, I was delighted to be able to sit down with the performer and co-creator of the remarkable work (with her mother, Victoria Thierrée Chaplin) for a conversation about it, fitting into a chest of drawers with two other people, and being a granddaughter of [...]
Liberté, fraternité, egalité
The Lowbrow’s heading into the lion’s den this morning. Earlier this week, I proposed a dual-podcast to my blogging compatriots at The Post and Courier, and Geoff, Dan, and Janet seemed to think it was a swell idea. I’d been struck by a post Dan wrote on Monday about blogging as a meta-narrative that has [...]
Big Bang
Last night’s program was exactly the prescription needed to heal what’s been ailing this Spoleto Buzz blogger in the past eight days. Faustus and L’ile de Merlin both tousled festival audiences’ hair in their ways, but so far Spoleto 07’s been absent any real, knock-your-hat off-and-lick-you-up-and-down surprises. We got it Thursday evening with the Foundry [...]
Buzzcast #8: Shen Wei
Yesterday I had the opportunity to sit down with Shen Wei, the Chinese-born choreographer, painter, and filmmaker whose company Shen Wei Dance Arts returns to Charleston this season to perform his acclaimed dance work “Connect Transfer,” in which he and his dancers use their bodies as living paintbrushes, tracing patterns on a canvas floor. Trained [...]
Blame Canada!
Next Wednesday, on June 6, Spoleto Festival audiences will see the American premiere of composer and minimalist pioneer Philip Glass’ new music theatre work Book of Longing, which is one of the 2007 festival’s gold-plated gotta-sees. Spoleto loves to premiere new works, which is part of what makes the festival an international presence. But note [...]
Buzzcast #7: New Music Collective and Katrina Ballads
The premiere of Katrina Ballads is Thursday at 6pm. Have a listen to my conversation with New Music Collective founder and musician Nathan Koci and Katrina Ballads composer Ted Hearne.
buzzcastkatrina.mp3
The festival catches its breath
After four wild days of nonstop, balls-to-the-wall, pedal-to-the-floor intensity, both Spoleto and Piccolo Spoleto take a breather today, and thank god. The big operas all have their premieres behind them. The main play, The Constant Wife, settles into its 19-show run with a clutch of hyperbolic reviews in its pocket. Chamber Music and an [...]
Getting forensic on Spoleto 2007
The 31st Spoleto Festival USA is officially in the past tense. It’s now time to get forensic on the thing. But that’s less easy than it sounds. Part of the difficulty in summing up the festival after the fact lies in its nature; as Mayor Riley noted during the mid-festival tribute to founder Gian Carlo [...]