September 5, 2007
Welcome to Oakland
So this evening I rode with some folks from Mills over to Telegraph - just slightly below the Temescal area - to eat at a Korean place that specializes in the boiling black pots of spicy tofu. As we get out of the car a white van and two cop cars pull up out of nowhere and screech to a halt beside our car. A team of Oakland cops with vests and guns drawn storm towards us. One waved a hand at us and said “DON”T MOVE! STAY THERE!” and then proceeded to bust into the house we were standing in front of. I felt like I was in an episode of The Wire, about to watch a situation that usually seems to go horribly wrong on television. As we heard the cops screaming at their suspect we gathered our collective wits and ran down the block to the restaurant. Apparently it was over by the time we got there without a shot fired. I wish I had a photo but it didn’t seem like the best time to take snapshots…
Otherwise, things are going fairly smoothly. I’m settling into student life and am having fun in spite of having no idea where I am going to find time to get everything done or the money to pay the bills. I’m studying with Roscoe Mitchell, Zeena Parkins, Chris Brown and Pauline Oliveros.
Here is a piece I wrote for the first assignment in Zeena’s class, Issues in Contemporary Performance and Improvisation. We were assigned a 90 second piece in response to visual artist Agnes Martin’s essay “The Still and The Silent.”
Filed by chuck j at 11:21 pm under sounds
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