EMPAC has announced their first ever summer season, which runs from May 5 to Aug 16. As usual for EMPAC, there’s a wide array of music/sound performances, talks, workshops, and film/video viewings.
I’m particularly excited for May 26’s Elysia Crampton performance.
Be sure to check out the video below, which is an awesome recap of their Spring 17 season, and don’t sleep on checking out the summer programming!
There’s only three events left at EMPAC for this semester’s programming. And as usual, they all sound really interesting and worth checking out.
On Monday April 24, Mariam Ghani will be introducing several films from the Afghan Film Archive as part of her ongoing research project What we Left Unfinished. Learn more here.
On Tuesday April 25, Trajal Harrell will be presenting The Return of La Argentina, which is a dance performance that mixes postmodern/voguing with the Japanese dance/theater form “butoh”. Learn more here.
Lastly, on Wednesday April 26, they are screening NASA’s first 4k video stream from the ISS. Insane. Learn more here.
Also, they have on offer a five-day summer workshop focused on Wave Field Synthesis and High-Order Ambisonics. The workshop is full, but there are now lecture-only components. Learn more, and register or jump on the waitlist as soon as you can if you are interested as space is very limited.
Superior Merchandise in Troy has announced their spring semester of coffee classes. In addition to learning about brewing at home, they’ve added a fun sounding Intro to Home Roasting class. This will be held on the back patio and will show attendees a demo and tasting of coffee roasted in a hot air popcorn popper, and talk about the process from green coffee to roasted coffee.
The class shedule is as follows:
April 3: Intro to Coffee Tasting // 6PM // $25
April 10: Advanced Coffee Tasting // 6PM // $30 (“Intro to Tasting” class strongly suggested*)
May 1: All Things Aeropress // 6:30PM // ($25, $50 with aeropress)
May 15: Brew Better at Home // 6PM // $30
June 5 (raindate — June 12): Intro to Home Roasting // 6PM // $25
Learn more about Coffee School and other fun events they’re putting on SMCo.’s events page.
According to the TU, Vic Christopher and Heather LaVine have purchased Bradley’s Tavern at 28 Fourth Street and are planning on turning it into “some version of what it was, a dive bar”. The building itself is beautiful, and with almost every other kind of bar in the area, a low key dive will be a welcome addition to Troy’s nightlife scene. The upper floors, which are vacant, would make for killer apartments.
On Friday November 4, EMPAC is hosting an awesome night of music with Jlin and Qrion.
From the event site:
Jlin is one of the most prominent female electronic producers of the current generation. She grew up in Gary, Indiana, and made her first tracks while working at a steel mill. Drawing on the legacy of RP Boo and DJ Rashad, she has advanced the Chicago-oriented style of footwork into dark and creative new dimensions. Though her earlier work relied on sampling—often from horror movies—she now refuses to, opting instead to compose her dense, frenetic tracks from all original source material. Her 2015 debut record Dark Energy was named the year’s best by a number of publications, including The Wire.
Hailing from Sapporo, the snowy capital of Japan’s northernmost island, Qrion released her first two EPs via SenSe while still attending high school. Internet acclaim and the anticipation of her softly-lit, melancholic melodies eventually led to SenSe’s servers being overloaded during the free release of 2014’s「sink」, a download-only mini album. Later that year, a high-profile collaboration with electronic producer Ryan Hemsworth exposed Qrion’s music to a global audience. She is currently preparing to release her first full-length album later this year.
The folks at EMPAC have been kind enough to offer a pair of tickets to give away to a lucky reader of this site. If you’re not the contest type, tickets are currently on sale for the event. Enter to win below!