Artist date

Tonight I went to see The BQE, Sufjan Stevens’ film about the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. It’s a pretty experimental film. I think I would have liked it more if I commuted on the BQE, if I knew more about it. This isn’t to say that I didn’t enjoy the film. I actually did. But that was because Sufjan is one of my absolute favorite musicians of all time. There were hints of “Detroit” and “All Good Naysayers” from “Greetings from Michigan” in the music, themes I’d heard Sufjan explore before. Plus what I can only call Sufjan’s flirtation with hip-hop. For me, it was exciting to experience new music from Sufjan. Plus, I enjoyed how he played with the images, the bridge in the music coinciding with running pictures of bridges, the almost cartoon mania of some of it, the kaleidoscope effects and just everything.

The film listed a bunch of musicians in the credits. And while that may be true, I’m also convinced that most of the piano, some of the horns and some of the drums were played by Sufjan. They just felt too much like his touch.

Tonight was what I call an artist’s date. While I love to create, I also am very aware of keeping my artist’s space “full” by going out and experiencing art in various forms. Like this icon — I took this picture as part of an artist’s date, going out and photographing fall leaves. (I took this picture with my phone, BTW. The quality amazes me.)

What do you do to help fill you up? Keep your artist fat and happy?