I will not tell a lie: it was a bit of an ordeal getting out to the
Headlands Center tonight, what with the epic traffic generated by the Bay Bridge closure. But as soon as I was sitting in the Mess Hall at a table with other friendly faces, enjoying Keith Mercovich's gorgeous Indian-inspired vegetarian dinner, all the exhaust and gridlock was instantly forgotten. After cones of homemade double-vanilla ice cream the program continued upstairs with a presentation by Aaron Ximm of part of his work-in-progress
MARINCELLO UNSOUNDWALK. Ximm explained that in the mid-'60s a huge development had very nearly been built right across the Gerbode Valley from the Headlands Center, and then he played a series of seven field recordings captured around the Bay Area that demonstrated everyday sounds we might have heard had the dread Marincello come to pass. Ximm made it clear that we would be the only group of people to ever hear these sounds, so I closed my eyes and brought an extra degree of presence to my listening as wastewater burbled, golfers thwacked balls, traffic zoomed, and children shrieked. Then as if to drive the point home about remaining in the moment Ximm took shears and cut up the only copies of the recordings right in front of us. The theme of immediacy continued with a performance by dancer/choreographer Kara Davis in which she did live improvisation with three other dancers and also a trio of musicians to demonstrate the principles of connection central to the martial art Budo. Similar to aikido, Budo seeks to transform moments of conflict into peaceful resolution, and it was a beautiful thing to behold the dancers and musicians spontaneously play off each other with both music and bodies twisting this way and that. Afterwards I walked through the starry starry night over to Ximm's project space for a repeat viewing of his
RODEO SUNDIAL which I'd seen at the Center's fall open house a couple weeks ago. Utilizing a 12-hour field recording Ximm made of a full tidal cycle down at Rodeo Beach on his first day out at the Headlands, the piece also features 12 jars of water and sand from the beach set in a circle and tiny LED lights that flicker in the darkened room in response to the sounds of the waves. Ximm offered to make pancakes in the morning for anyone who wanted to stay for the whole 12 hours, but I relegated my experience to a slightly shorter span of time.