WOOM

Hey everybody!
We have some exciting news!
Next weekend we're heading to LA to master the record that we've been working on for the last year.  We're so excited to finish this music and get it out into the world.  In reflecting on what we've made, we've noticed that after the epic 2.5 month tour we did last fall Fertile Crescent stopped being Fertile Crescent and started being WOOM.  We think this happened somewhere between New Orleans and North Carolina, around the time of Eben's birthday, when we were doing some 17 hour days in the car.  When we reached our doorstep we were changed and the music we were making changed, too. It's called WOOM now. We have a new blog and will be posting with more frequency to it.
http://w-o-o-m.blogspot.com/

There's not much on it yet, but stay tuned for some music, shows, and tours that we'll be rolling out over the course of 2010.

Happy New Year!
Sara + Eben

Fertile Crescent show December 7th- CANCELLED

The Knockout 3223 Mission St San Francisco, CA Monday, December 7, 2009 at 9:30pm

Butchy Fuego (Pit Er Pat) - Sex Worker - Fertile Crescent - Los Gringos
4 bands $5!

Unfortunately we just learned that this show has been canceled due to a double booking issue. We were looking forward to it, but we'll do other shows soon.

Anecdote Archive by Joseph del Pesco

This is a video from the Anecdote Archive, a project of the amazing Joseph del Pesco which catalogs ephemeral happenings through word of mouth. He interviewed me at the Headlands, just north of SF in California, about a show we played on tour last fall at Woulds gallery, which was set up by David Wilson and included Avocet and Lucky Dragons and an incredible paper cave installation by David and Kelly Roth Best. Apparently I talk with my hands, especially when I describe things you cannot see.

I Never Told Anybody

There's a book by Kenneth Koch called I Never Told Anybody. It's about teaching poetry in an old folks home. Those of you who read this blog might or might not know that I'm very interested in alternative forms of education or "alternative pedagogies," as those in the know will say. I have consulted Koch's other book on teaching, Wishes, Lies, and Dreams, many times for inspiration for classes I've taught as well as for personal artistic inspiration. That one is about teaching to elementary-aged children.

Anyway, this morning I was eating rice and eggs and I opened I Never Told Anybody to a random page and began reading some poems. I was unprepared for how moving they could be. It amazes me how often the simplest, most unadorned language can have the most immediate emotional impact. It's something I always want to remember. It seems like something that "uneducated" people understand much more clearly that academic folks. So much of learning is unlearning.

I wanted to share a few poems with you:



To My Husband Frank

Honey dear, I want to tell you
How much I am lonely.
I am living by some friends
They treat me very good but
Not as how you would treat me.
Sweetheart dear, I wish you would
Come on home soon. Love, Mary.

Mary Tkalec



Poem

It feels good to make love when it rains.

Sam Rainey




Friendship

We were friends, that's all we were.
I thought of you and I thought I'd write
to see what you were doing.
I thought that by corresponding
we could tell each other whatever we felt.

You lived next door to me, and you went away
and I missed you. We used to read together, right here.
It wasn't a love affair
but you lived near me and I could talk to you, little secrets.
I'll leave it open to you to answer me.
I'd love to hear from you
So I can tell you my secrets, if I had any.
Right now I don't have any. Nadya.

Nadya Catalfano

Becoming Commons Show in Bolinas

Next weekend Fertile Crescent is playing at a retreat in Bolinas, CA in conjunction with a talk at the Headlands Center for the Arts about art collaboratives, communes, and generally working together. If you're in the Bay Area we hope to see you there! The retreat is being put together by the amazing Jana Blankenship and Erin Elder.
Info for the talk and retreat below:
Becoming Commons:
J. Morgan Puett with Brian Conley, Erin Elder & Allison Smith
Date: 9/24/2009 (Thursday)
Time: 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: Mess Hall Ticket Info: FREE Admission
http://www.headlands.org/
Becoming Commons is a clustering/swarming/gathering of people entangled in the complexities of everyday living and working together. Looking to historical models of communes, collectives, homesteads, experimental outposts, and other forms of collective barn raising, participants are invited to share their stories and ideas in an intimate exchange at the Headlands Center for the Arts. This town hall-style program is collaboratively conceived by interdisciplinary artist co-founder of Mildred's Lane , J. Morgan Puett (AIR '09), artist Allison Smith (SMITHS), curator Erin Elder and CCA professor Brian Conley. These collaborators invite the public to join them for an evening of conversation. This is the first in a series of conversations that will continue in 2010.

C O M E T O B O L I N A S : B E C O M E C O M M O N

Putting conversation into action, this retreat will build on the Headlands' hosted event "Becoming Commons" through an assortment of events, conversations, convergences, explorations and experiments. On the Bolinas Mesa, participants will collaboratively ask questions, share ideas, learn to forage, bake bread, make food, make music, build a structure, watch films, watch stars, and become friends. A series of informal workshops and activities, as well as the space for unscripted bliss, provides the setting for a deeper examination of what it means to become common.

DATES & TIME: Saturday, September 26 at noon until Sunday, September 27 at 6pm

LOCATION: Bolinas, details available with RSVP

RSVP: $25 for the weekend. All meals, live music and camping included. Space is limited! Email your reservation to Erin Elder -- mserinelder@gmail.com

Wildwood

We're in LA mixing our record while the fire rages in the background. We ate tacos on our back porch and watched the fires which are just over the hill, behind Dodgers Stadium. I said to Eben, "Should we get outta here?" He shrugged. I said "Should I take pictures of this?" Those are the urges we vacillate between...documenting and fleeing. It's really really close. On the radio they said "The fire is 5 percent contained" as if that's good news. Guess it sounds better than "95% out of control."

Anyway, last night I took a break (from mixing and fire-watching) and watched a movie called "Wildwood N.J." about the beach town where I went every summer growing up. It's pretty amazing. It was shot in the 90s, but looks like the 80s. The movie is a social documentary along the lines of "Heavy Metal Parking Lot," but with a little more depth and emotion. Being from the Philly area, and having grown up with people exactly like those in the film, it really brought me back.

SHOW WITH AVOCET

Last minute announcement:
We are playing 2 shows with our friend Meara who plays as Avocet. We're helping with video projection, percussion and vocals. This isn't a Fertile Crescent thing, just something we're helping with.
She's opening for Deerhoof and Busdriver tonight in Santa Barbara at Velvet Jones and tomorrow in LA at the Echoplex.
Hope to see you there!