Composers of Concordia University

Working with talented young composers, to me, is always a fantastically exciting privilege. The process is, from a personal perspective, delightfully stimulating, like taking time to introduce various espresso brewing styles and discuss their distinct features. Café au lait, café noir, caffè latte, cappuccino, breve, doppio, ristretto, wiener mélange, affogato. In no time, they are all happily brewing their own brands of coffee and you can smell the lovely music aroma long before you talk into the classroom.

November | 2009 | Theron Jenkins
Holly Peterson, Megan Heideman, Caledonia Gerth, Lindsey Auten: soprano; Katie Wollman, Rebecca Kaaz, Julia Gremer, Bethany Kuhnle: alto; Robert Cody, Eric Gross, Andrew Van Velsin, James Jensen: tenor; Paul von Kampen, Michael Palomaki, Chad Wilshusen, Nick Lee: bass; Theron Jenkins, conductor.

Blessed | 2009 | Stephanie Christensen
Lindsey Auten, Megan Heidemann: soprano; Bethany Kuhnle, Lindsey Schmitz: alto; Andrew Saenz, James Jensen: tenor; Josh Heirigs, Michael Palomaki: bass; Caledonia Gerth, piano; Jessica Dussault, cello; Stephanie Christensen, conductor.

No Comments / Dec 10.09 / Music / by Jen-Kuang Chang

The Strategic Air and Space Museum

Spending this sunny morning with Milan Kundera’s Nesnesitelná lehkost bytí (The Unbearable Lightness of Being), Magnus Lindberg’s cello concerto, an endless bag of Kettle Brand Sea Salt & Vinegar Potato Chips, and few happy cups of Espresso con Panna was very much my kind of Saturday-morning-extravaganza. After few hours of reading, though, it was starting to feel somewhat outlandish to exclusively sync with Karenin, the dog of Tomáš and Tereza, inside of Kundera’s beautiful maze of philosophic narratives. I kept myself still by checking weather forecast as usual, while allowing Bret and Jemaine of Flight of the Conchords doing their funny-ha-ha songs in my old-fashioned CRT TV. It turned out that the snow was scheduled to invade this city tomorrow morning. Oh my. I grabbed my camera and hit the road to treasure the sunlight and warmth before the inevitable state of winter hibernation plaguing the city.

I reached the Strategic Air and Space Museum with the image of Antony Gormley’s A Case for an Angel II sculpture continuously jittering in my mind. No Gormley’s, of course. What greeted me were three large missiles soldiering outside of the museum’s glass atrium like harmless sculptures. Historical aircrafts tranquilly filling in two large hangars, I walked around the gigantic Boeing RB-52B Stratofortress and paused. Peace, I silently prayed.

The Strategic Air and Space Museum began as the Strategic Aerospace Museum at Offutt Air Force Base in 1959 and was later renamed as the Strategic Air Command Museum, known as SAC Museum. In 1988, the collection of strategic airplanes was moved to the current location near Ashland, Nebraska. The architect for the new museum space, featuring a glass atrium, two large aircraft display hangars, and an aircraft restoration gallery, was Leo A Daly with Kiewit Construction Company serving as the general contractor. In 2001, the museum was renamed as the Strategic Air & Space Museum.

The Strategic Air and Space Museum

Comments Off / Dec 05.09 / Photo, Travel / by Jen-Kuang Chang

Plastic Bottle Screaker

I don’t normally purchase drinks packaged in plastic bottles. Environmental consciousness aside, the existence of plastic bottles, in my little everyday-codex-for-JK-behaviors-of-normalization, has the potential of becoming a great sonic distraction. For some reasons, I don’t seem to be able to put those maddeningly screaky bottles down without some off-speed Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On unstoppably echoing in my head. Distraction for being normal. A quick invasion of the concept of the plasticity of these bottles very often triggers one of those profound but infuriatingly infinite conversations with myself. Distraction for being normal. Finally, the screakiness of these bottles attacks my every single nervous cell with my everyday-honorable-failure to make them as historical incipit for everyone to see. Oh, those screaky-screaky-screaky sounds. Distraction for being normal, I second that.

Plastic Bottle Screaker | 2009 | Jen-Kuang Chang

No Comments / Dec 02.09 / Found Sound / by Jen-Kuang Chang

Particle

Waking up from a motionless dream around three o’clock in the morning, I was physically and emotionally prickly like a baby polar bear being carried around inside of a mommy Kangoroo’s pouch for a week. I closed my eyes for five minutes, pretending that I was just dreaming about waking up within a dream. Gee. It didn’t work. I was wide-awake. What made the situation worse was that I, little by little, was intellectually aroused by the possibility of getting up to read Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude under the dark, cold night sky. I gave in. Took a mini shower. Brushed my teeth. Counted my fingers and head. Still just one average-looking head fragilely attaching to my average-looking neck. Excellent. After making a fine cup of café au lait to get myself into the reading mood, I was very upset to find out that I was no longer aroused by Márquez’s lines!

The temperature was bitingly low. Still. I silently yelled. Oh, no.

This episode was immediately followed by the production of Particle, a series of photos shot in my apartment. It was a very revitalizing experience to shoot photos in a close-to-zero-light-condition, free of a tripod, in a Jackson-Pollock-ish fashion.

No Comments / Dec 01.09 / Photo / by Jen-Kuang Chang

Seward, Nebraska

Walking around the neat town square of Seward, Nebraska in a sunny morning with an over-espressoed mind filled with lines from Max Frisch’s Homo Faber was a guileless oddity. Frisch’s timeless brawl of technological omnipotence versus fate was briskly fused with Volker Schlöndorff’s cinematic brilliance flashing in my head. What would be his directorial attitude if Schlöndorff were to include the second part of Frisch’s novel into the film, I wondered, what would be Sam Shepard and Julie Delpy’s acting interpretations? Crispy morning sunlight soon blocking my thoughts, I looked up to admire the gorgeous structure of Seward’s Courthouse, and, with some luck, I might be able to transcribe the pleasant melody that the building was soundlessly singing to me, all morning long.

Seward, designated as “Nebraska’s Official 4th of July City,” has sponsored a yearly 4th of July celebration since 1868. The Neo-classical Revival Courthouse in the town square was built in 1905 and was supervised by architect Goerge Berlinghof.

Comments Off / Nov 29.09 / Travel / by Jen-Kuang Chang