Every few months I go on a weird Flickr run for photos of Marfa and Ballroom, and it’s a total rabbit hole, because seeing the place you live and work through others’ eyes is suprising/exotic/refreshing/strange/mesmerizing. Yesterday I found this photo of Sunand Prasad’s weather balloons from Carbon 13, courtesy of Yelp Bham, and a great one from Phil Elverum/Mount Eerie, who played at Marfa Book Company back in September, and this Prada Marfa photo, courtesy of anand_modi. More favorites here.

May have already posted this but, if not, download immediately: Townes Van Zandt, live at the University of Minnesota’s Whole Coffeehouse in late 1973. Courtesy of our pals at Aquarium Drunkard.

Cynthia Hopkins’s one-woman show, This Clement World, which she performed as a work-in-progress as part of our visual arts exhibition Carbon 13, will have its world premiere at New York’s St. Ann’s Warehouse on February 5 and run for two weeks.

In 2010, Cynthia sailed on a three-week Arctic expedition with Cape Farewell, an experience she calls “life-transforming.” This Clement World is her response to the trip — from the perspectives of several original characters, including a ghost of the past and a visitor from the future, Cynthia weaves fictions with beautiful documentary footage and a 15-member chorus and band, while combing hard-nosed truths for solutions.

Listen to a new song from the show, and buy tickets here.

Photo of Cynthia Hopkins performing the work-in-progress This Clement World in Marfa, September 2012, by Alex Marks.

We were so lucky and honored to have the Sebastian Ensemble play for us Saturday on their way to El Paso for their performance at the El Paso Museum of Art. The trio — based all over the country (Mississippi, New Mexico, New York) — played a 70-minute set in our north gallery, showcasing Barqoue chamber music from 1600-1800. They play on actual instruments, or replicas of instruments, from the 18th century, and their approach to performing is meant to transport them, and their audience, to that time. Lovely. (The harpsichord is hiding in the background, but wow! What an instrument.)

Special thanks to the trio (Stephen Redfield, Susan Patrick and Katie Reitman) for their graciousness, good spirits and incredible performance, as well as Lesley Brown, Hilary duPont & Rosa McElheny, Roseland Klein, Marfa Public Radio, Tom Michael, and the Thunderbird Hotel.

Portrait of the Sebastian Ensemble by Alex Marks.

Nigerian musician William Onyeabor — a new discovery, courtesy of pal Laris Kreslins.

We just had a snowstorm in Marfa last night, and woke up to 10″ or so of snow (random guess) (could’ve been 4″). Check out this lovely Ballroom snowman that our fine friend Henry Wotowicz crafted. Ready to sweep!

In other non-snow news, we’ve been perusing best of 2012 lists, and our first stop was WFMU, which always has unknowns and discoveries, especially Liz Berg’s Top Picks of 2012, which is available at WFMU and the Free Music Archive (truly a cool project, read about it here). Already it’s great, and have only heard one song (Sharon von Etten’s “Leonard (Live at WFMU)”).

Download the mix here, and support WFMU and Free Music Archive forever!

Marfa Public Radio just aired their interview with Stephen Redfield of the Sebastian Ensemble, who are playing tomorrow at Ballroom Marfa — if you missed it live, it’s already up on their site for listening. It’s a great interview, and Stephen really illuminates the work that the ensemble is doing. Thanks to Tom Michael, Roseland Klein, and Stephen for the great discussion, and we are gearing up for tomorrow’s performance!

Noveller, 30 December 2012. Photo by Alberto Tomas Halpern.

Noveller, 30 December 2012. Photo by Alex Marks.

Noveller, 30 December 2012. Photo by Alex Marks.

Another realllllly great New Year’s film this year, featuring Noveller scoring the 1921 Swedish film, The Phantom Carriage. Here’s one shot by Alberto Tomas Halpern, plus two shots from our Polaroid series by Alex Marks. Special thanks to everyone who came out, most especially Jennifer Bell, Rob Crowley, Tim Crowley, Cuca Flores, Beto Halpern, Alex Marks, Gory Smelley, and performer Sarah Lipstate.

First of all, happy new year! Here’s to a great 2013. Second, was browsing through our Polaroid series by Alex Marks, and happened upon this shot of Peter Brötzmann & Jason Adasiewicz, which somehow escaped me the first time round. Kind of amazing. Noveller portrait coming soon.

The Passion of the Weiss’s best hip-hop songs of 2012. Recommend going through the list and reading and watching/listening as you go. (via wigger mortis)

Just a quick post to say, hope your holidays were merry (and get even merrier over the next five days). Be sure to listen tomorrow to Marfa Public Radio‘s Talk at Ten interview with Noveller, who will live score the Swedish silent film The Phantom Orchard for our annual pre-New Year’s celebration this Sunday, December 30. You can listen live on 93.5 KRTS or streaming on the web. All the gory details about the performance here.