The Cell Phone Sing-Along

I had a blast at the Ingenuity Festival on Friday afternoon, doing my Cell Phone Sing-Along. The sing-along part included placards so the audience could sing along with the chorus, to the tune of "My Darling Clementine":

O MY CELL PHONE, DARLING CELL PHONE,
MODEL OF TECHNOLOGY --
IF I LOST YOU IN A CYCLONE,
IT WOULD BE THE END OF ME.

I also asked people to take pictures with their cell phone and to send them to our Dark Room email address. Somebody actually did -- it's blurry, but there I am with my accordion.

The Ingenuity tech folks did INCREDIBLE things to that space in one week! They created a beautiful stage with color washes on backdrop screens and comfortable, raked seating for the audience. And with the 90-some degree heat + humidity outside, it was surprisingly cool inside.

I think the combo platter of comedy, drama, poetry, and songs plus patter by host Chris Johnston gave the audience a really good feel for the kind of work we do in the Dark Room.

I spent plenty of time Thursday evening at Ingenuity as well. I loved the Symphony of 1000 Drums, the sound installation, and particularly the large-format photos by Jenny Jones. I think the All-Go Signs events at the McCrory building are pretty cool, too.

On Thursday night Prospect Avenue was quite the community crossroads. I got a chance to talk to everybody from Mayor Frank Jackson to little kids to foundation mavens to a tattooed biker-trucker from the old CPT "Brew Crew", plus a bunch of artists and performers I haven't seen in a while. That's one of the things I love about events that local impressario-art genius James Levin runs -- there's always an intriguing, populist slant to things.