Why not make a bus or a train car a musical stage? A group in Toronto called TRANSIT believes this is just the place to foster their local music scene by creating a music performance series titles The Transit Tapes which seeks to support the up and coming Canadian talent by hooking up musicians with local film, photography and audio crews. This project combines my love for music, fostering local artistic talent and even my obsession with transportation in urban areas.

The videos, made possible by Astral Media Radio, have an interesting feel to them, in the documentary vein, while playing along in busses while moving through the streets of Toronto. I love that the drummer in the video from Gentleman Reg above is drumming on the metal bar on the seat.

Unfortunately, likely due to audio quality and the ability to control the surrounding, the ‘stages’ are without audience but I can’t help think how cool it would be if perhaps this project expanded to improvisational transit performances. It would be fun to see how people reacted to a full on band hopping on a train car, playing a full out song and then hopping back off again.

It reminded me of a project called In A Van shot around New York City’s lower eastside in September 2007. They shot one of my favorite bands, The Rosebuds…

In the spirit of my going away on vacation for a bit of relaxation and even a bit of sea kayaking…here’s a lovely video from The Rosebuds about taking their dog out to the lake set to “Nice Fox”, a track off their latest album. Enjoy and I’ll be back next week when the temperatures have returned to normal!

image via superpavel.com

I’m not accustomed to the triple digit temperatures. Everyone and everything is moving slowly, even the Portland MAX lightrail has a speed cap of 35mph in the typically high speed areas due to heat-induced cable sag. My already overactive imagination is running rampant in the heat….

I stared out the window of the train, watching the world pass by at a much slower pace than normal, like life in slow motion, set to the soundtrack on my ipod. I imagined the city catching fire in a somewhat random fashion…a garbage can, a bench, the side of a building…flames shooting up and running through the streets like dominos. No one panics. The streets are on fire, the sky grows black and the urban environment itself becomes a stage.

I hear a beat coming from the distance. I grab my violin sitting on the seat next to me, jump off the train and begin playing through the streets. Sirens blare in the distance and shadows dance on the buildings, produced by people dancing among the flames. I’m joined by others and people in the streets are banging on any available surface to provide percussion.

It’s an urban musical on fire.

Below, listen to the inspirational track from Bell Orchestre that I was listening to in moment through my headphones on the train. I love this live version because it captures a feel of musical chaos amidst dramatic lighting…

I have a horrible habit of not looking up but I suppose this is also something of a curse because of my profession, I’m generally paying more attention to what’s going on around me on the ground plane and perhaps a story or two above. A conversation recently with a relative who is a building inspector brought up the point that far too often buildings take this into account and only put the detail on the ground level. So it’s not just me, it’s society….as a whole, we don’t look up.

images via icopythat

Over the last couple years I’ve been trying to make it a habit to look up more and pay closer attention to what lies above me. I’ve discovered many interesting things. I even went back to my hometown and looked up only to realize that there was this whole world I had been completely unaware of for my entire growing-up life. What else have I missed?

This reminded me of a stunt my favorite public space shaker-uppers, Improv Everywhere, did awhile back in New York City’s Union Square called “Look Up More” designed to express this exact point…check it out….