For the Fans

Alicia Keys played a surprise show last night at Joe's Pub for her fans. The show was announced in the morning during her appearance on Good Morning America and then via Twitter. Some tickets were distributed at the Good Morning America appearance and another hundred or so were sold at the Pub--one per person with a valid ID.

Ms. Keys has played the Pub before, many years ago when her career was just starting. In fact, one of the essential early shows in her rise to super-stardom was a showcase at Joe's about the time she originally released her debut album, Songs in A Minor. Since yesterday was the re-release of the album and since Joe's is closing for a few months for some interior re-design, Ms. Keys had the notion to return to the scene and celebrate the moment with some lucky fans.

Accompanying herself on a piano alone on a candelabra-decorated stage, Ms. Keys delivered a tour de force celebration for her admirers. With a voice at times ragged from the grueling demands of her album-release schedule, she nevertheless offered an unforgettable and generous night of hits, influences and favorites to a small crowd composed mostly of folks who woke yesterday morning with no idea of the way their day would shape up.

Bonnaroo

(The photo-pit during The Head and the Heart's Bonnaroo set.)

A few weeks back, I was invited to Bonnaroo to do some drawings. Most of the 35 drawings from the weekend were posted in several photo galleries over on the Bonnaroo Facebook page during the Festival weekend, which was kind of the realization of a dream for me--covering an event in real time with drawings posted almost as fast as I could draw them.

I was drawing and uploading so many so quickly that a few of them fell through the cracks and didn't get posted and so I include them here, but check out the full galleries over on Facebook (with drawings of Eminem, The Decemberists, My Morning Jacket, Robert Plant, Bela Fleck, Daniel Lanois, Mavis Staples and many others).

It's a hot, dusty, amazing and funky (in all senses of the word) couple of days and, if you ever get a chance to go, you should jump at it.

(Jim Henson's Stuffed and Unstrung Muppet improv over in the comedy tent.)

(The Low Anthem at Bonnaroo)

(Cheer Up Charlie Daniels)

The Cunning Little Vixen

Yesterday, I got to sit in and watch the final rehearsal for The New York Philharmonic's whimsical production of Leoš Janáček's Cunning Little Vixen which opens today. It's a lovely transformation of the space over at Avery Fisher Hall, and I reckon the scenery and Doug Fitch's magical costumes--which are at once representational and ad-hoc, a fantasia of fabulous junk which transforms a delightful cast into forest creatures--will be missed in the international radio broadcast. The glorious score and singers however will be well represented.

It's an absolutely delightful production.

There are a few more drawings from the rehearsal over on the Facebook page for Just Drawn That Way. You can check them out via the link to Facebook on the side of this page.

(Isabel Bayrakdarian as the cunning little fox at the center of the show.)

This Guy Can Shout