Boppin’ to the Beat at GroundBeat

Ear to ground, feet to beat … the first GroundBeat Performance Series at UNB was a cool swing into Groovesville with Johnny-o and myself pompositing upon the pillars of Mem Hell grinding out mots array into the red swollen night.

Daddy-o.

On the other hand, I never could talk that way … and I used to hang with the beats (my brother and I … way back when Yorkville was cool and all the world was a soap box), but Johnny-o’s soul was marinated in the 50s, stewed in the 60s and spewed in the 70s … and he read from the Cheap Red Wine Manifesto.

They made me read with the whole hall horizontal.

I read Driving to the End of the World … my angry young statement on the nature of packing things you don't want into cars that turn into chariots.

Matte Robinson was forced to read with his ass horizontal and the rest of his body vertical.

Jeannine Gallant was forced to read as a 37 foot tall shower statue.

Chris was compelled with the task of calming her with Ode to Inna Godda Da Vida in G Minor for Clarinet. He was successful until he stopped playing … at which point he was trampled to death. At which point he played the rap version of Strangers in the Night for the rest of the night. In A Major.

Andrew Titus prayed in spontaneous BeBop for Chris’s soul. Chris ascended to Beatitude. Andrew was swallowed by howling smoke. He reappeared later and was busted by security for leaving the scene of the scene.

Meanwhile, in the gallery, Joe Blades continued to write into the night somewhere in Serbia unmindful of the knowledge that his office had been moved from his home on York Street and deposited in Mem Hell.

The GroundBeat Performance Series are presented by the UNB Arts Center and the College of Extended Learning. Here’s the folks who made the Beat Night happen … The HepCats (Emily Carter, Mandy MacLean and Shannon Mann), the Tune Pushers (Gonzo & the Key of Z Choir, P. Lockhart, A. Titus, M. Nason, I. MacGregor, J. Gallant, M. Robinson, M. Winchester and C. Giles) and the Crazy Cats (Jacqueline, Joyce, Mike, Marie, Lori, and Noa). The next GroundBeat is January 23 … Rap Night!

BTW, all but the first and last pictures were taken by Lori Morse.