Las Vegas burns, Angel Kiss barely escaped,
and we say goodbye to Tina Marie
Continued from Page 4a The kind Navajo shepherd dropped us off at
the departure area of Denver International
Aiport (DIA). Before boarding the plane at DIA for New
York, where we were to meet our fellow Moove
Cruise guests, Mela made a call to BMG Productions
to check in with the Blue Man Group. Blue Man Group along with the String Cheese
Incident were scheduled
to play a show with
Angel Kiss in Hvar,
Croatia before we attended
the Milan Fashion
Show. The Crystal Angel
had chartered a spectacular
Yacht for both
bands and I was really
excited about hanging
out with these great
musicians. "That's great, we will see you on the
docks", Mela said before hanging up.
"They are as excited as we are",
Mela told me. "Wanna bet", I replied.
Mela then told me that the concert had three
times the number of tickets sold as had been
expected. BMG agreed to donate all the proceeds
from the concert to the Avatar Rights Movement
which I thought was totally kewl.
We decided not to take Angel Two since it
was busy flying around the world gathering
our Cruise Vacationers. We got settled into
first class and I spent the time on the flight
reading the press kit sent to us by BMG. What is Blue Man Group? Blue Man Group is
a creative organization dedicated to creating
exciting and innovative work in a wide variety
of media. BMG was founded by Phil Stanton,
Chris Wink, and Matt Goldman and is centered
on three mute performers, called Blue Men. They perform in blue grease paint and make
themselves look bald
by wearing latex.
Blue
Man Group's concerts
use rock music, wierd
props, major kewl
light shows, and
a bunch
of paper.
Like those attending shows by the comedian
Gallagher, audience
members in the front
rows are given plastic
to protect them from
messy items sprayed
and thrown from the
stage. Blue Man Group is best known for their wildly
popular theatrical shows and concerts which
combine music, comedy and multimedia theatrics
to produce a totally unique form of entertainment.
The party like atmosphere created at their
live events has become the trademark of a
Blue Man Group experience. Currently, their live stage shows can be
seen in New York, Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas,
Berlin, Oberhausen, and Orlando. The Orlando
production is in the Universal Orlando® Resort. BMG applies its unique creative process
to a wide variety of projects, including
the recording of three albums; the Grammy
nominated "Audio", "The Complex",
which became the musical basis for "The
Complex Rock Tour" and more recently
the "How To Be a Megastar Tour 2.0"
which is currently touring 105 U.S. cities,
and Live At The Venetian ® - Las Vegas,
which is available exclusively on iTunes.
Blue Man Group has also ventured into toy
development (with their Keyboard Experience
and Percussion Tubes, produced by ToyQuest),
film and TV scoring, commercial campaigns,
television programs (like Scrubs and Arrested
Development), and a
children’s museum exhibit, Making Waves,
which is currently touring the country
. BMG began in 1988 when Phil, Chris and Matt
were working at Glorious Foods, a caterer
in Manhatten. The three would perform on
the street in their trademark blue costumes.
In 1987, they performed "Funeral for
the 80's" and began to get gigs at underground
theaters. Reviews were always very positive and shortly
thereafter, Meryl Vladimer, the Artistic
Director of one of the underground clubs,
hired Blue Man Group to create a full-length
show which they did and called it Tubes.
It was a HUGE hit and BMG became more and
more popular
. In 1999, the group released their first audio
recording called
Audio (LOL). Although
it
included some of
the music from their
highly
successful stage
productions, it really
was
not a soundtrack
but more like a collection
of full-length songs.
All with a heavy
percussion
influence.
BMG took a new direction In 2002 when they
joined with the "Area2" tour. This
took BMG in a more rock-oriented direction
and theatrics were downplayed somewhat. This
tour helped create many of the songs on the
2003 CD, "The Complex". Whereas "Audio" was an instrumental
mind-trip, "The Complex" featured
guest musicians and singers including Tracy
Bonham, Dave Matthews, Gavin Rossdale, Adrian
Hartley, and Venus Hum's singer
Annette Strean (who I am soooo in love with).
The CD gave birth to the 2003 tour, the first
tour to be headlined by Blue Man Group. They
were now mega-stars. BMG has performed in Mexico City, Guadalajara,
and Monterrey, Mexico;
Buenos Aires, Argentina;
Sao Paulo and Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil;
and
Santiago, Chile.
The popularity of the Blue man Group Since
can be seen in their many guest appearences
on television shows,
movies and in advertisements. BMG has appeared
on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno 17 times
and on Live with Regis and Kelly 4 times.
At the Grammy Awards in 2001, Moby collaborated
with the Blue Man
Group and Jill Scott
to
perform his song
"Natural Blues."
In December 2005, Blue Man Group appeared
at the Royal Variety
Performance in Cardiff,
where they performed
"I Feel Love"
with Katherine Jenkins
on vocals. I love that song. They also created a piece of Yves Klein-inspired
art by daubing comedian Joe Pasquale in paint,
attaching him to a pulley, and swinging him
against a large canvas. Finally, Blue Man
Group performed their
popular "spin art/marshmallows"
skit Wanna be a Blue Man?
According the press
kit, Blue Man is
always
looking for great
musicians and candidates
to be Blue Men.
A Blue Man performer has the unique opportunity
to utilize their
artistic abilities in an
exciting and dynamic
experience unmatched
by any other stage
production. Trained actors, musicians, clowns and/or
dancers who fit the
physical specifications
required by the job
are legitimate candidates.
The role of Blue
Man may be the perfect opportunity
to showcase your
performance skills in this
exhilarating and
innovative show. Performers
who do not fit the
specifications of a Blue
Man may want to check
out the Musician opportunities. The Musical Instruments
.
As Blue Man evolved, they developed a set
of custom musical
instruments, many designed
from the observation
that common materials,
such as PVC pipes,
make interesting noises
when struck. LOL
PVC Instrument
The PVC Instrument
is made out of 2"
PVC pipe. The pipes
are cut to exact
lengths
and the Blue Man
plays the instrument
by
striking one of the
open ends with a
closed-cell
foam rubber paddle.
PVCs are somewhat based on the bamboo instruments
used in Gamelan joged
bumbung & Gamelan
jegog ensembles.
In the live shows,
three
separate PVC instruments
are used, one for
low, mid, and high
octaves. This instrument
also comes in a "backpack"
variety
for portability,
which comes optionally
equipped
with confetti/streamer
shooters. The "floor" PVC units are generally
painted with fluorescent
dye invisible under
normal
lighting conditions, but of visibly different
colors under ultraviolet light. During a
performance, levels of such are generally
adjusted to give the PVC the appearance of
changing from white to colorful.
Along with the tubulum and drumbone, PVCs
can be classified as plosive aerophones.
A prime example of a PVC style instrument
is the Thongophone. Tubulum
Similar in concept
to the PVC, the Tubulum
['tub.ju?l?m] uses
4" PVC pipe and has
cardboard or rubber
"reeds" on
the end that are
struck with drumsticks.
This gives the Tubulum
a more "updated"
sound than the PVC;
in fact, the synthesizer-like
sound quality of
the instrument inspired
Blue Man Group's
cover of "I Feel Love"
by Donna Summer.
The Tubulum is designed
for playing bass notes, so the tubes must be sufficiently
long to generate the low sounds.
Because of the unavoidably large size of
this instrument,
the performance venues
for
the theatrical shows
in New York, Boston,
and Chicago are not
physically large
enough
to contain it. A
more compact instrument
was used on the Complex
Rock Tour and in
the video for "I
Feel Love";
the
tubes twist around
for extra length,
below
the frame that holds
the tube "heads".
Backpack tubulums, with the same streamer-launching
abilities of the
backpack PVC, were
used
in the Las Vegas,
Berlin & Toronto
shows.
Another variation
of the Tubulum is
the Paddle
Tubulum, which allows
the Blue Man to play
bass notes with the
ease of paddles,
as on
a PVC; this instrument
was used on The Complex.
Airpoles
Airpoles are hollow
fiberglass boat antennae
of various lengths.
The instrument is sharply
swung to create a
"swoosh" sound.
These instruments
come in three varieties.
Sword airpoles are
short and held on the
end like a sword.
Wiper airpoles are longer
versions of sword
airpoles. Angel airpoles
are very long and
are held in the middle
so that both ends
move in unison to create
syncopated rhythm.
This is supposedly one of the most difficult
Blue Man instruments
to learn, as it requires
very precise muscle
control that can
take
a long time to develop.
Unlike most of the
other instruments
listed here, airpoles
were
not, strictly speaking,
"invented";
they were discovered
when one of the founders
of the group swung
a boat antenna through
the air while experimenting
to find new instruments.
Drumbone
The Drumbone is another instrument made from
4" diameter PVC; this one uses two movable
sections to alter the pitch. One Blue Man
plays the instrument with drumsticks, another
moves the horizontal slide, and the third
Blue Man moves the vertical slide. It is
also capable of being taken apart into two
separate instruments which harmonize with
one another. Curiously, when disassembled, the horizontal
slide section is held vertically, and the
vertical slide section is held horizontally.
The Drumbone is only used in the song of
the same name, an audience favorite, due
to the fact that all three Blue Men are needed
to play it properly and are unable to play
any other instruments during the song. Blue
Man Group used a special Drumbone shaped
like the number 4 for the Intel Pentium 4
commercials. Drumulum
The Drumulum consists of a drum and a length
of PVC pipe (or "ulum") over the
drum. The length of the tube, when in harmony
with the pitch of the drum, creates the sound
heard at the beginning of the hidden track
"Mandelbrot 4" on The Complex as
well as part of the opening track "Above".
Hammered Dulcimer and Cimbalom
Although they are
not inventions of Blue
Man Group, these
instruments are played with
drumsticks rather
than the usual felt hammers.
This gives the instrument
a much more aggressive
sound with a sharp
attack. Because of the
nature of Blue Man
Group's music, only a
few notes of each
instrument tend to be used
on any given performance;
to minimize the
odds of sour notes,
multiple adjacent strings
are generally tuned
to the same note. Chapman Stick
Used in the backup
band, the Stick is most
notably heard in
the "Mandelbrot"
series of songs (of
which there are 4), "Synaesthetic",
"Your Attention",
and the main
riff in "Utne
Wire Man". In addition
to "tapping"
the instrument, the
Stick player also
"bows" the lowest
two strings (with
a .110 gauge bass string
cut approx 10"
long) in the "Mandelbrot"
songs. Zither
Along with the Chapman stick player &
drummer(s), the zither player fills out the
"basic" backup band for Blue Man
Group. Blue Man Group uses a custom-built,
81-string electric zither originally
designed by Brian Dewan. Dogulum
This instrument is
"played"
by
taking Chris Wink's
dog and stroking
him
rhythmically until
the dog enters a
state
of Zen-like complete
contentment; the
dog
is then recorded,
and the vibe is included
on the album mix.
The Piano Smasher is a piano stripped down to its frame and
stood up on its side.
It is played by hitting
the strings with
a large soft mallet,
resulting
in a clangy, almost
discordant sound.
In
live performances,
this instrument is
generally
played with a MIDI
system, using sensors
behind the strings,
as the instrument
goes
out of tune very
quickly. Each Piano
Smasher
is tuned to only
one note, as it would
be
otherwise impossible
to get anything resembling
a musical tone from
the instrument. Shaker Gong
A Shaker Gong is
a matrix of ball
bearings
inside a steel casing,
suspended from a
frame
by surgical tubing.
It is struck with
a mallet
to produce a sharp,
lingering sound vaguely
reminiscent of a
rattlesnake. Gyro Shot
This was a failed instrument from the Audio
sessions. It consisted of ball bearings inside
spinning
tubes. Although it looked futuristic, the
only sound Blue Man Group managed to get
from it was a weak rain stick-like sound.
Aronophonic
The Aronophonic was
invented by Blue
Man
Group instrument
technician Aron Sanchez
in order to reinvent
cymbals, shakers
and
other high frequency
percussive instruments.
It consists of multiple
pieces of metal laid
out on a rack so
the drummers can
hit them
with drumsticks and
allow the pieces
of metal
to stay together.
Electric Dog Toy
Blue Man Group took
a dog toy that had
a
whale sound sampled
in it and moved it
in
different ways near
an electric guitar
pickup.
The result was a
high-pitched squeal
that
can be heard at the
end of "Drumbone".
Dumpstulum
Two steel garbage
dumpsters lying on
their
sides. They are played
by having drum army
rhythmically jump
on them, or hit them
with
hammers, drumsticks,
or large mallets,
as
demonstrated on the
Discovery Channel's
"Daily
Planet" show.
The Dumpstulum is
heard
in Stomp Your Feet
(Clap Your Hands).
Information contributed by Wikipedia and
BlueMan.com
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All Coding except where noted is owned by
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Contact Us: CrystalAngelFashion@earthlink.net
The kind Navajo shepherd dropped us off at
the departure area of Denver International
Aiport (DIA). 
