|
 
presents
Tuesday Afternoon
at China Wong Buffet
DVD
- primary title running time: 2 hours 17
minutes
- video format: NTSC
- audio format: stereo ac-3
- region: not region-restricted
Their performance at electro-music
2005 is not
captured on this DVD, but it is somewhat similar -
relatively speaking.
Musique-concrete,
1970s-space-jazz,
and ultra-low-fidelity-electronica
meet in a dark alley.
Nonplussed, they wander around
together for a bit
and stumble upon
Plentiful Pseudoacting,
Creepy Black-and-White 16mm Short Films,
Detached Instant Messenger Conversations,
a Pointless PowerPoint Presentation,
and quite a few grains of salt.
tuesday
afternoon at china wong buffet is
an elaboration on a well-known fairy tale,
retold using conventions established by
20th century performance artists and composers.
the performances, which took place in spring 2004,
involved collaboration between more than fifty
students, faculty, and staff
of a wonderful little liberal arts college
and the surrounding community.
three performances of this
two-hour-fifteen-minute piece took place, involving
live and pre-produced music,
acting,
numerous short films,
instantmessenger conversations,
a powerpoint presentation,
and interactive video.
over the following year
— summer 2004
through spring 2005 —
post-production work ensued,
resulting in a DVD edition of the piece.
the DVD edition combines pre-production video,
video shot at all three performances,
and extensive post-production compositing
and computer graphics work.
Reviews
Torrent of sight, sound, and
psycho-challenge.
It's like watching a low-budget
performance
of a movie you have lived, but have never actually seen...
tiring, well-worn points worth leaving on the floor
next to yesterday's jeans.
-
Ryan T. White, MusicShopper
Responses
from Viewers Like You
Overall, it's very 60s.
I'm not sure I go back far enough for it.
Nietzsche.
Existentialism.
Really interesting video effects
and really well-done integration with the music.
It was vaguely like Maya Deren (of "Meshes of the Afternoon")
meets David Lynch (his "Eraserhead" phase).
I didn't find it the type of movie
that is a summer blockbuster
because those are just sit back, relax,
turn-off-the-brain-and-be-entertained-for-two-hours affairs.
TACWB lacks the turning-off-the-brain bit
and isn't a variant of the same couple stories,
unless I missed the subplot
where the protagonist saves Planet Earth
from utter and total annihilation.
I'm typically not an overly-critical
audience,
but I feel that this was a waste of my time.
It's a bunch of random jibberish.
And it's exceedingly boring.
What's the point?
I finished watching it a while ago
and thought it was interesting and entertaining ---
and well-written!
However, I just want to show some friendly concern
about your mental health.
I remember thinking that I wasn't
really understanding
what I was supposed to be understanding,
so I gave up trying to understand and just paid attention.
I remember not really what I thought about it
so much as the feeling that I had.
The acting was beyond reproach.
You freaking killed me.
A technique I call the
quickjerkywhoa camera movement
was one that I particularly enjoyed the use of.
The 16mm film shots were so incredibly powerful,
along with the underlying hard-hitting drum beats.
The complete lack of color solidified them
as beautiful visual pieces on their own.
I am completely convinced
it is completely meaningless.
This is a
professionally manufactured DVD in a plastic DVD case.
|
