ZIPfest Outing

Last weekend, I went to Slavonice. I was part of an art and photography outing that ZIPfest sponsored and I was doing a short seminar on Flash animation.

The workshops were held at the new Institute Slavonice (also known as The Center for the Future). It's a great facility with a new, comfortable auditorium.

Also on the agenda for the weekend was a quick trip across the border to Austria. We visited an old textile mill that had been converted into a community arts center. I think it's called Gallery Kunstfabrik Groß Siegharts. Their web site doesn't have too much information. But they have music performances, exhibitions, and life drawing classes.

The main performance room has wood floors and huge support beams like an old barn. Everything is pay by donation - the beer, the wine, the food, the performance. We saw a couple bands play. The first band, The Shadowplay, had a singer that sounds amazingly like Gina X. Performance, one of the first German electro-pop singers from the 70's.

Poetry Hearing, Berlin

I spent this past weekend in Berlin, attending the Poetry Hearings Festival of English Language Poetry (November 20 & 21). The readings included Matthew Sweeney (IR), Alistair Noon (DE/UK), Mary Noonan (IR), Maurice Scully (IR), Donna Stonecipher (USA/DE), Tim Turnbull (UK), Andrew Shields (USA), Hanna Silva (UK), and Tom Chivers (USA/CH)

Poetry Hearings is a yearly event. This was the first year I was able to attend. Glad I did. This year's line-up of readers was exceptional. I particularly enjoyed Hanna Silva's performance, which reminded me a bit of Meredith Monk.

Monk is a singer/composer/choreographer/filmmaker who I used to revere, but hadn't thought of in some time. A little digging on the internet lead me to a documentary by the filmmaker Peter Greenaway, which included a great segment on Meredith Monk.

If you're the only one who reads your own blog is it still self promotion?

A 'magic' recording debut for Ken Nash
Alchemy organizer gets serious about his music with a wickedly clever CD

     photo: Walter Novak, Prague Post

American expat Ken Nash is a seemingly endless source of creative energy and activities: musician, fiction writer, graphic designer for such ubiquitous brands as Birthday Alarm e-greeting cards and Pilsner Urquell and the host of Prague's Alchemy Performance Series. Clearly, the man is doing things. But self-promotion is not Nash's style, which makes his latest venture - an album of original songs titled Magic Squirrels - all the more praiseworthy.  read more

Starting Over

Ken Nash blog 2.0

Okay. So I got off to a rather shaky start with this blog. Some of you have pointed out that the previous posts aren't entirely factual. Hey, do I look like a person who checks facts?

I've just relaunched my website (KenNash.com). As you may notice, I've moved some content off the site. Things like my cartoons and sketchbooks. That stuff is now bloggulated.

My Sketchbook
The Global Cartoon Project
My Gene Pool

But this here blog is the place to get an overview of things. And to find out what I'm currently working on.

So forget about all my old blog posts and start looking forward to some real good gossip about Flanna Sheridan.