Youth has its say in music, essays
Marc Shulgold, Rocky Mountain News
Published April 12, 2007 at midnight
From Bach to Beer Pong in a matter of minutes - accompanied by the intermittent whoosh of a latte machine.
Only in Boulder.
Serving as chirpy host before a gathering of a few dozen 20-somethings in Boulder's Laughing Goat Coffeehouse recently, Jennie Dorris introduced "Guilty Pleasures" - a program combining amusing essay-readings about pedicures and beer pong (we'll explain that game in a bit) with the serious playing of chamber music.
Dorris, 27, is co-founder with violist Liz Dinwiddie of these words-and-music events titled "Telling Stories" - a monthly series that resumes at the Laughing Goat on Friday.
As kooky a concept as it sounds, Dorris seems to think she's onto something, and last month's full house in this intimate hang-out on the Pearl Street Mall seems to reinforce that.
"Our audience has been engaged with these shows, because of the mix of shorter pieces and the fun essays," she said in an earlier interview. A percussionist with a master's degree from the University of Colorado, Dorris performed challenging pieces by Arvo Part and Christian Woehr.
She also recited her charming essay, Barbie Girl, about a young outcast music student at a summer camp who finds favor by creating an arrangement of a pop hit. Following on the heels of a solo-violin Bach piece played by Michelle Davis, her reading clicked - despite the odd juxtaposition. Or maybe because of it.
While a music-only evening of mostly contemporary composers might scare away coffeehouse denizens, the inclusion of witty, incisive essays by locals kept things light and breezy.
The "Guilty Pleasures" program featured readings by Dorris and by a couple of her pals: Paul Salamone and Dave Burdick. The latter, a local comic, provided a shot-by-shot description of that beer-pong contest, in which players must toss a ping-pong ball into a cup of beer - followed, naturally, by the consumption of said beverage.
Not exactly Emersonian in depth. But then, that's the whole point. "We're all in our 20s," Dorris observed. "We can laugh at ourselves.
"Everything is always so serious when you write an essay," she said. "As I was putting these programs together, I thought, 'What if someone read something that made people laugh out loud?' When I presented the idea to my musician friends and my writer friends, there was no convincing needed."
In December, "Telling Stories" debuted at the Laughing Goat, and has been growing in popularity ever since. The "Guilty Pleasures" installment provided ample evidence why.
The musical offerings were intriguing and the three spoken-word essays - though only casually touching on the evening's theme - added a welcome respite from the music.
Apart from that rude latte machine, the room was respectfully silent as Dorris and her musician friends offered decent performances.
The youthful players and listeners understood that the music was hardly filler. That's paramount to Dorris.
"I'm passionate about classical music," she said. "But I saw that the audiences were getting older, and I thought, 'Where can we go?'
"The idea was hatched while I was working at a chamber-music camp in New York last August." That summer at the Luzerne Music Center also inspired the story she tells in Barbie Girl.
For now, her passion for music and essay-writing is keeping her excited about "Telling Stories." Which is to say that there's no money in it.
"I've employed an all-volunteer army of 20 players," Dorris said. "I'm hoping to pay them in the future. But they're committed to this - some have given up paying gigs."
Admission to the programs is free. That probably won't change, unless the coffeehouse becomes too crowded. "I'm hoping this will grow," she said. "Maybe we'll have to move to a bigger venue."
One thing that won't change, Dorris promised, is the relaxed ambience.
"What I love about these shows is that the audience is young - a younger crowd than I've played for. And they really listen. They listen hard. I feel that they trust us. I think they want to learn about this music.
"I always tell them that it's OK to clap between movements."
Telling Stories
• When and where: 7:30 p.m. Friday and May 18 in the Laughing Goat Coffeehouse, 1709 Pearl St., Boulder.
• Cost: free
• Information: 303-440-4628
• Of Note: "Defining Moments" on Friday lists music by Beethoven, Rebecca Clarke, Missy Mazolli, Anthony McFarlane and Matthias Schmitt, plus essays by Jennie Dorris, Paul Salamone and Jeanine Fritz.
Telling a Story
An excerpt from " . . . Johnny sat with the girls and painted his finger and toe nails magenta. He liked the polish, which somewhat matched his pink baseball cap that he wore every single day.
"One afternoon we were supervising some noncompetitive softball, when we saw the ball had dropped with disregard for interest in Johnny, who was wiggling around in the corner of the softball field. There was an arc of campers giggling around him, and someone had produced a small tape recorder.
"Earshot revealed that Johnny was singing Barbie Girl, a hit electro-pop tune by a fast-fading band called Aqua. For those that don't know the lyrics of Barbie Girl, the chorus reads:
"I'm a Barbie Girl, in a Barbie world. Life is plastic, it's fantastic. You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere; imagination, life is your creation."
"After Johnny finished singing it the first time, he stopped. Then he moved the brim of his cap, which sat a bit to the right side, over to the left side. He proceeded to sing Barbie Girl in Spanish."
Reprinted with permission. Visit RockyMountainNews.com/spotlight to read the complete essay.
Marc Shulgold is the music and dance writer. Shulgoldm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5296
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