High Zero Festival High Jinx 9/1 - 9/13

[composer.samuel.burt]

Baltimore Jinxers,

The High Zero Festival is looming upon us, and with it bursts a
celebratory circus scattering musical mayhem across our city. Now is
the time to begin planning your High Zero High Jinx concepts. You can
perform them at any time during the year, but we would like to
saturate the city during the month of September and make its citizens
look around in bewilderment.

Concepts can be as simple as getting a few friends to play music on a
corner, or as elaborate as staging a makeshift dadaist play in a
downtown Burger King with Ubu Roi paper crowns. Your photo might wind
up on the highzero.org documentation website, as you can see at
http://highzero.org/2008_documentation/photos/#highjinx. If you would
like to connect with more musicians and documentarians, send your
ideas here, in advance, and we can post them on our calendar, so
others can go participate and observe. Alternatively, we will soon
have a webform like last years at http://highzero.org/2008_site/highjinx/
where you can easily post your high jinx.



There are many ways to participate. What does High Jinx need?

Directors:
People who can decide on an event, organize it (what, where, who
and when) and then follow through and execute it. This can be a simple
event with one director/performer standing on a street corner or a
complex event with many involved.

Performers:
People who either have skills which satisfy the needs of a
particular performance or people who want to perform in something that
doesn't need specific skills

Places:
A great site can dictate what should be performed there (ex.
crossing over). Or, a great site can be perfect for anything you put
in it.

Documenters:
Video cameras, journalists, poets, photographers, sound
recordists, spys.

Creative thinkers:
High Jinx is almost "anything goes". Simple ideas can make
beautiful events. What can you amplify? (knitting needles) Take the
mundane and over emphasize it (ultrareductionist library band). Make
music out of almost nothing by merely changing the context of existing
sounds (honkers). Just act silly (the hat band). Be visual (folded
paper). Be weird (crossing over). Be conventional (music games). Show
off your basement projects (invented instrument)

Promoters:
People who'll tell people what's happening, where and when, post
to email lists, put up fliers. People who will bring more people to
get involved.



Here are some previous High Jinx to stimulate your creative potential:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=plmQhPChooFoAjse1BlQqew&hl=en

Remember that all street performances are at your own risk,
unsanctioned, guerrilla style activity. This is not an opportunity to
foment the ire of law enforcement. This is an opportunity to bring
new types of fun to people that didn't know they needed it.

Happy jinxing,
Samuel Burt