EZTV's response

Hey Alan,

So. so sorry for the misspelling, that must have been my fault when I originally gave Highways the proposed evening idea, Deepest apologies on that. The program that will be printed for the show ( which we have full control and approval of ), will of course have correct spellings, bios, project descriptions, etc.

Of course, the artists split the admission money with Highways. Donna & her dancers do not take any of that money, as they are paid by the various grants that Donna and I have received to create and evolve our piece through it's various site-specific incarnations. Highways, and 18th Street, as most credible art organizations, believe in paying artists, and even theiri free events pay the artists ( as in the case when I was able to get Collage hired by 18th Street for the opening of EZTV's retrospective show). The money used to pay the artists for these free events, comes from specific project grants, and therefore is not an option in out Highways show. Therefore, the normal admission price ( which I actually also assumed would be lower) was listed. Like Alan, I'm not sure that we can get a sizeable audience, but whatever comes in, no matter how small, will be spilt by perfomers ( misus Donna and her dancers).

Yes, I also think that Donna should come to a jam meeting of ours. Great idea.

Since the show is still evolving, the shape and tone of it is yet to outlined, which is why the show description in the calendar is as vague as it is. I think that no matter what the show turns out to be, though, that the description will be pretty accurate. As we all agreed some time ago, when it was decided by group not to collectively work on a single theme ( i.e an opera ) but rather each take equal time and do separate things, the show would therefore be hard to describe ( especially since the specific projects and names of these projects was not yet said ).

When Alan first brought all of the talented people to the jams that he did, I made the mistake of thinking that they were all in the current incarnation of his group, especially since Jeff is on the new Collage DVD. So to me, to my delight actually, I thought that Collage had curated the larger portion of the evening, with three pieces ( Alan and Mona, Jeff, and Peter and Suji ). Kate & I have one piece each ( Donna & dancers is part of my piece, ). So to me, and I may be wrong in interpretinbg it this way, this is certainly not just an EZTV project, but an EZTV/Collage project. At any rate, I'm happy to have it be called whatever you want in the PR ( which goes out in mid-August ) and in the program. There is plenty of time to think about what/how to say things there, and to get it right.

Yes, the program calendar does not list any of our names specifically, just EZTV, Collage ( mispelled ) and Donna, whose work on the Santa Monica Arts Comission has brought Highways much needed funding and support. As you see in the calendar, some shows list some of the performers, some do not list any.

If many of you want to do installations, and not performances, I'm sure that we can work that out at the next meeting. That way, when the PR is sent out, it will reflect the actual show and the pieces involved, and not some unavoidable vague notion as in thre calendar.
What should be determined very soon, though, is how much performance time is actually being created, so that if some or many of you do not want to do regular performances on the Highways stage, then perhaps those that do can/should have longer performance times. We also would then need to work out the logistics of where the various installations would be staged.

On that note, one exciting possibilty is that earlier in the evening before our show is when 18th Street will have it's nexrt Art Night ( which is what I got Alan/Collage hired for ). If those of you doing installations want them to be viewable as part of that early evening (
6pm-8:30pm?) time, I'm sure that could be worked out. Anyway, once everybody has a specific idea on what thye'd like to do, then we can start to program what happens in what order, where it happens, etc.

Alan's final point is great- this is going to be an awesome collection of work. I can't/won't guarantee a sell-out crowd for it ( as I've been saying all along ), but we'll do our best and the most important thing is that we explore our individual ideas/pieces fully and to our creative standards. If you do not want to stick to the theme of multimedia as it relates to performance, then there really is no problem. The vast majority of the people that come to any specific event at Highways usually come from specific PR, and not the group calendar.

Best to all,
Michael,