student blog

family gathering /Molly

   I have to admit that the overall feel of the Hancher kick-off season was similar to a heartfelt family gathering with lawn-chairs littering the floor and kids climbing on trees. The stage was the perfect centerpiece for a beautiful afternoon. I also applaud the Hancher folks for featuring this Canadian group, because what could possibly create any more warm-fuzzy feelings than friendly northerners? And we all know, warm fuzzies are more than welcomed, due to the awful flooding Hancher Auditorium has had to deal with. Still, the free outdoor performance merely served as a temporary disguise for the art campus's unfortunate state of affairs.
    ScrapArtsMusic wasn't able to show us all of their goods. Making a statement mid-show, they described their inability to play certain home-made instruments of the string/reed nature due to the hot temperature outside. In my opinion, this is what would have given them their edge amongst other professional percussion groups. When describing the instruments they *could* play, their spokesperson commented, "I'm not going to get too involved with what this is..." But it was plain to see what *this* actually was. Large structures of aluminum and stainless steel. They were not as complicated or interesting as the instrument rolled out for a short solo in the second half of the show. It looked sort of like a squid. From afar I wondered, "Balloons? Does it change the pitch? How are they connected to the strings?" Except for this single invention, I wasn't thrilled with the instrumentation.
    For a person who knows so little about percussion (me), why did this show fail so much when put up to my minuscule drumming standards? ScrapArtsMusic wasted no time giving me these answers. Upon visiting their webpage, I noticed their statement comparing themselves both to Stomp and The Blue Man group. Yes, I too noticed the similarities. ScrapArtsMusic used paddles on tubing and jumped around a few times. The thing is, as choreographed as they seemed, it lacked the flair. There was no group dynamic and playful interaction. The one female representative looked awkward in her high-school goth costume, and the others looked like frat boys in star-trek uniforms. Maybe I am being harsh, but when I realized the sole person in my vicinity taking pictures and nodding his head to the music was also wearing a bracelet which read "I heart boobies," the single-girl all of a sudden turned creepily smurf-esq. The Blue Man group, on the other hand, took the smurf thing and went with it all the way. This is why I love The Blue Man group. It's weird, but in a "I'm watching sci-fi at two in the morning and I'm okay with it" kind of way. Stomp, simply put, is just much cooler.
    I'm getting carried away. So, let's look at the positive. Musically, the group was very tight. I can't argue with that. What they didn't have was panache or charm, which I feel is as equally important, especially when you are calling yourself a family event. Now I see why those five year olds kept playing in the trees. They could still listen to the music without having to watch.

—Molly

grounded /Anne

I showed up to the Old Capital and took my seat on the sidewalk awaiting the performance by ScrapArtsMusic.  At an outdoor event people often forget to bring chairs, and I’m one of those people.  Once the show began my first impression was of their outfits, a combination of the Jetsons, Dr. Seuss and a hint of grunge.  However silly their outfits were, I enjoyed the overall performance.  The music was never boring and their theatrics kept me entertained. 

However, there was another element to the outdoor performance – people watching.  During the show I got to wintness children testing their parents patience as well as couples holding hands and enjoying the outdoor show.  I even got to hear a young boy being scolded by his father; he was grounded for an entire week from the computer.  Aside from the people watching, I found the performance to be very energetic  and enjoyable.

I asked some people in the audience for their opinions:

“Definitely! It was an amazing show I only wish we could've seen it in Hancher... =( The fact that they create all of their instruments all by themselves using scraps from their city just makes the music that much more cultural. They had amazing stage presence that made it possible for everyone to feel involved with the music. Awesome show!” –Molly

“Oh it was really cool. I wish it could have been at night or inside a theater but it was still amazing. And it was cute when they had the kids come up and play.” –Amanda

It was a great introduction to the Hancher season and I look forward to Kathy Griffin!

—Anne

precious, limited resources /Melea

You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension - a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into…

….The Hancher Interns Unleashed Blog. Okay, it’s not quite the Twilight Zone, but it’s close. Kind of.

Our goal in creating this alternative reality is to basically provide a service to you, the college students of the University of Iowa. Hancher is a great resource to our city, bringing celebrated artists from across the globe to the cultural mecca that is the IC. But your personal free time is also a precious, limited resource. And this is where we come in.

We are the Hancher interns, three current U of I students faced with many of the same scheduling fiascos, monetary woes, and day-to-day struggles as you (and if you think we’re lying and need to see photographic evidence of our ages and idiosyncrasies, check out our profile pages). We’re here to give you an honest impression of what the Hancher season has to offer- “honest” being the key term. We’ll post initial feelings on upcoming events, performance reviews, and anything else that we think will make your life easier when it comes time to decide whether or not you actually want to shell out $15 and give up your Friday night to see a show.

And to kick things off in a very honest direction, I’ll give you my one word review of ScrapArtsMusic, the percussion performance group that performed in the Pentacrest free of charge on Sunday: “underwhelming.” It’s very possible that I might just be a hater; there was a huge crowd and it seemed like most people were having a good time.

I think I probably would have been more impressed had the show been able to be on the Hancher stage. It seemed that a lot of the sound was unfortunately lost to the unforgiving outside environment (though in all actuality, it was a beautiful, sunny afternoon- especially for late September). The group seemed to lack energy overall, picking up only at the end after they had invited kids from the audience onstage to help them bang on their recycled stuff.

 
So though it was perhaps not the most enthralling of concerts, the price was right, and even for someone with a heart of stone like me, seeing a bunch of kids release their carefree aggression was pretty goshdarn adorable.

With that in the past, I look to the future with a smile on my face and a song in my heart: Kathy Griffin will be performing tomorrow night and I can not wait. For those of you who haven’t seen her infamous Emmy acceptance speech (or just need to be reminded of how awesome it really was), do yourself a favor and click on the link below. It’ll be a great warm-up for all of us stony-hearted cynics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgHxutPlxk8&feature=related

~Melea