Acoustic day at the Fringe

So today is our first official day of markets at the Fringe site, deep in streetfest territory and tomfoolery here in Montreal. (check out all out events via indyish.com/events). Today is also the first official day of plays and performance for the Fringers, and the first day of music and food and beer (oh my!) in the park on Rachel and St.Laurent, and it’s also the day of Car Art: we’ll be lining cars and vans up in the street outside the tents, introducing the excited / nervous owners to the 10 artists Peru has selected from dozens, and watching the new mobile murals, spray into existence.

As of late last night we had 2 more vehicles sign up which brings us to 5 in total- 3 vans and 3 cars. We may need to have them come in in shifts! Peru has got a spanish language TV crew coming to check it out, and it’s actually sunny and warm today in Montreal, so the street will be ramjamerpacked with Formula 1 folks in town to see highend cars go fast. Over on our end of town, we’re turning pretty old cars into community art, and I think it’s great that the crowds will merge and meet eachother. Don’t worry- we should have footage and photos going up tonight or tommorrow.. these may document our disastrous downfall if shit hits the fan =) but I think it’s more likely to be the usual joyful chaos our Indyish events tend to precipitate. Cross yer fingers!

Yesterday in our little Indyish tent inside the main Fringe tents, I talked with a lot of different artists - I had conversations about how to find others to bounce ideas off of, how we all need to be shook up and edited by other smart eyes and instincts sometimes (this in the context of Assembly2.0 art relay), and why we do all this Indyishness in the first place.

After giggling with TJ Dawe, getting excited about the Assembly art relay swelling with scripts and illustrations and actors as we speak, James Finnerty and I had a quiet smiling moment talking about joy.

Bear with me now, you eyebrow-raised hipsters and socialites flinching, because joy is at the crux of why artists can’t help but do what they do (and it’s why they’re sometimes tortured - when we can’t allow ourselves the right to have such a good thing bc the world is less then joyful for most people, confusion and the stereotypical artist angst set in). Joy is the simple thing that gets lost too often in the hussle and shuffle, and it’s the thing that differentiates between good and great art, I think. Resolve that guilt in your brain and give your joy like it’s a gift and tadah, better art. I think that’s how it works … but then I also think anything done with love and joy becomes art, so I may be too cheezy to take seriously on this subject. Still, this is a pretty classic debate from philosophers like the great Charles Taylor in The Malaise of Modernity; about authentic happiness, and whether it’s such a shallow thing to look for after all: If we can only be profoundly joyful when we’re in good balance with others because we’re inescapably connected, then do we have to look for something more important then being happy in what we do? It’s a fun one to argue in the late evenings with beers and guitars.

I know this much, uncomplicated joy is what I’m looking for with Indyish and with everything. I think we should only take on projects if we’re loving them; we should only get ourselves into things we feel really happy about, not obligated. We try to create contexts for joyful, unscripted creative encounters between lots of really different people, encourage them to embrace the wierdness of working with others and relax and delight in how odd we all are, and try not to worry too much about making successful product. Interestingly, studies have shown that the work that’s done in the gift economy is generally of higher quality then paid work. When we choose to do something out of love, or because we just like it, it’s usually better then when someone has paid to make us do it. Not that I think the gift economy is the be all and end all; just a hugely important and difficult to quantify force.. and one that’s increasingly relevant as open source continues to surge.

Anyway- for a dose of music made for love today, and inspired by the idea of just giving joy, and art you don’t have to pay to partake of, come down to the corner of St.Laurent and Rachel today to see James Finnerty play in the acoustic fringe line up, and then check out the art on the cars. Bring some cash if you want to shop form the incredible indie artists who’ll be their selling their wares, and then come find me in our little tent and we’ll wax philosophic and cheezy and probably also have a dumb giggle. Because that’s how we roll.
ACOUSTIC FRINGE
James Finnerty, Kyrie Kristmanson & Ewok Folk Sessions
Parc Des Ameriques (Rachel & St. Laurent)
FREE!!!