Byways and No Baseball at All

Four years ago, I wrote Byways, but Little Baseball about an extremely enjoyable trip to North Adams that included a meager three innings of baseball. I recently reprised the itinerary and although I was traveling this time with someone who was enthusiastic about watching a collegiate summer league game, there was none to be had.

That's the thing about weather, it just keeps continuing.
Poor Westerners, round-trip on the bus from Danbury for nothing.

What follows is little more than a set list.

Music

before the banging began

Both trips were built around hearing a good portion of the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival, in this case the final weekend that included the concluding six-hour marathon.

"Ken Thomson: World Premieres for String Quartet and Clarinet/Bass Clarinet"

Perpetual (2010)
I. underlying
II. Bad Idea
III. Don Pullen says it's okay

Ripple (2017)*
Pall (2018)*
*world premiere

"The Music of Joan Tower"

DNA (2003)
Sixth Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman (2014)
Small (2017)
Noon Dance (1982)

"Corigliano/Gordon/Daugherty"

John Corigliano — Stomp (2011)
Michael Gordon — The Low Quartet (1985)
Michael Daugherty — Firecracker (1991)

"Bang on a Can Marathon with Steve Reich"

Iannis Xenakis — Akanthos
Jonathan Bailey Holland — His House is Not of This Land
Julia Wolfe — Cha
Pamela Z — Attention (with film, in the background in this video)
Steve Reich — Radio Rewrite
Dobrinka Tabakova — Such Different Paths
Andy Akiho — NO one To kNOW one
György Ligeti — Ramifications
Gregg August — Trio for violin, bass, piano
Missy Mazzoli — Vespers for a New Dark Age
Finola Merivale — Emma are Eye
David Lang — how to pray (with film by Bill Morrison)
Steve Reich — Sextet
Michael Gordon — Yo Shakespeare
Steve Reich — Runner

Art

What made this trip and the earlier one so rich is the full servings of both music and art, with some tasty food on the side, maybe a hike in the woods. Between the musical performances, I saw most of what was currently on exhibit at the sprawling campus that has grown in size even since my visit in 2014.

Cosmic Latte, Spencer Finch (2017)
Like a lot of conceptual art, knowing the concept
makes the installation both more and less interesting.

I was glad to revisit the nine installations that make up Into the Light. I struggled to see Hind Sight, a Dark Space from 1984 that Melvin and I saw in July. This time, I wore sunglasses all morning until I entered the installation and my eyes adjusted more quickly. I recommend others doing same.

At the Shrink's (a Fake Hologram), Laurie Anderson (1977)
Calling it a hollow-gram would be unkind.

I saw both of Laurie Anderson's virtual reality pieces; Aloft, which made me think that VR could be used to help people (like me) with a fear of heights, and Chalkroom, which will terrorize them. Thinking about the pieces, as well as the two hologram monologues and the "handphone" table that round out the exhibit, I had two reactions.

The first is that Anderson is often poignant but less frequently profound (which led to the pun in the caption above). My second thought, which builds on the first, is that whatever technology Anderson is playing with—and I fully endorse play— it often upstages the part of the art that is trying to connect with the audience on a human level.

an incomplete representation of an
Incomplete Open Cube, Sol Lewitt (1974)

What else? Lot's. In the order that I found them listed on the Current Exhibitions webpage:

Liz Glynn — The Archaeology of Another Possible Future
Dawn DeDeaux and Lonnie Holley — Thumbs Up for the Mothership

detail of a Dawn DeDeaux digital drawing

Louise Bourgeois
a deeper look at Jenny Holzer's Deeper Look pieces

From the original source for
Left Hand 0147-03 blue white, Jenny Holzer (2007)

Gunnar Schonbeck — No Experience Required (More banging!)
Robert Rauschenberg — Lurid Attack of the Monsters
Christopher Gillooly — Transition: Decade of Decision, 1989-1999
Anish Kapoor, Untitled (2012)

your narrator, confronting Kapoor in full-on Instagram mode

Chris Domenick — 5 O D A Y S
Bruce Odland & Sam Auinger — Harmonic Bridge
Julianne Swartz — In Harmonicity, The Tonal Walkway
It was rewarding to visit the last two pieces with a musician.

Dining

There are more places to eat and drink within the former Sprague Electric Company complex, which seems both a good and regressive development. The Tunnel City Coffee outpost at MassMocCA provides high quality with a minimum of pretentiousness. Bright Ideas Brewing is above average and the pizzas from crisp are mighty tasty. I am a little uncomfortable, however, with the cultural center keeping more of the tourist dollars to itself.

Just a few blocks away, PUBLIC eat + drink is always a safe bet for dinner and as it worked out, my companion and I ate there twice. We also had breakfast at Renee's Diner, which included a prolonged and intimate conversation with Renee herself. She is recently married and even showed my high school friend and me photographs of her wedding, so don't get any wrong ideas like my buddy did. Traveling with other people; it's always something.