Reading Anne Makepeace book on Edward S. Curtis, I was surprised to learn that Curtis produced a live music event in New York to pay for his photography book series. I am folding that into the clay that is to become The Pueblo Girls project, a rock band ala Sleater-Kinney or riotgirls that would in part honor the heritage of these Southwestern civilizations. Most people think of pottery, rugs and jewelry before they think of music, in these parts, but there’s still time to fix that and I am just the guy destined to help.
Here’s a passage I found from a handy site sussed up via the search-injuns:
As a means of raising much needed funds for The North American Indian, Curtis creates an elaborate ‘picture musicale’, combining hand colored lantern slides and motion pictures with live music. He takes the show to cities throughout the Northeast, including a sold-out performance at New York City’s Carnegie Hall. Despite enthusiastic reviews and large audiences, production costs exceed ticket sales. From Eric Keller’s Soulcatcher Studio of Santa Fe website.
Here is a link to the Anne Makepeace book, for National Geographic:
By the way, I find it auspicious that this is post number 505 as Plastic Alto — 505 being the area code for New Mexico. Did I mention here that my producing partner for The Pueblo Girls is Jody Naranjo the master Santa Clara potter and business woman? Talk about “picked to click”!
Not to digress too far down that canyon but Timothy Egan also has a new book on Edward S. Curtis with which I will have to confer:
Well, I tried to give equal time to that other site but it does not format as nicely as
I hope to get sponsorship from leading Native cultural institutions but I will also think about naysayers like Elizabeth Hutchinson who wrote “The Indian Craze” pretty dismissive of the whole scene, sounds like (and I knew her slightly in her SF days and took her to Cirque de Soliel “Allegria” or maybe we went “dutch”):
Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss 