Nancy Andrews is an animator of wonderful films that explore perception and consciousness through bird-woman cyborgs, space monkeys, and spiders with faces that are equally inspired by the physiology of insects, the intersection of nature and technology, and her own brush with death. She just premiered a new short film at REDCAT at a screening of two of her latest animations, “Behind the Eyes Are the Ears” and “On a Phantom Limb.” She speaks now from the coast of Maine about her early days making earrings out of photos of slabs of beef, what she learned from floating between life and death, and why she wants to be friends with a crow. This interview by Lainna Fader.

“On a Phantom Limb” brings us into your near-death experience during surgery, with black paper ripped away to reveal the words, “I thought I’d died” scrawled under. I read something online about your brush with what-lies-beyond, and I was wondering what you felt when you “thought you’d died.” Were you scared?
It was like a great party. I felt incredibly drunk without any of the bad side effects, I was floating around the room looking into people’s faces and I felt connected to everyone.
But you weren’t afraid when you thought you were dead?
No, I felt great. It was a great party, and I felt totally drunk. The overall experience was horrible, but that particular feeling was fantastic. I had to use my imagination to understand what it is. I have to either base it on—’I’ve heard that sound before, it is this.’ Or ‘I haven’t heard that sound before,’ and then you try to work out what it is. At some point you start adding in what you already know with what you don’t know and a lot of things we just ignore because we know already what it is. Whenever you’re in a less certain situation, you have to participate in reading your environment.
Do you believe that during those moments when the difference between life and death are at their most arbitrary, there’s a vision of truth unavailable elsewhere?
I think life and death are always arbitrary. We think we control such things, or someone controls such things, but I don’t know, it might all me dumb luck or no luck.
What do you know about reality that the rest of us don’t, having little or no experience floating between life and death?
Reality, I think, is less stable than we like to believe. Not only is it incredibly subjective—we might agree on certain things but we probably see most things differently, through our own lens of experience and sensory focuses, but also after hallucinating a lot and believing those hallucinations to be true, I realize there is almost no way to prove the reality of any moment … how do we know that we are not dreaming? Or in a hallucination right now?
You’ve said “Monkeys and Lumps” is about our relationship to the unknown. What is your relationship to the unknowable? How does it make you feel to not be able to know something?
I think it would be incredibly boring to think you knew everything. And it’s one of those—I’m interested in science and what we can learn from it but I’m also very suspicious of that as a steady diet and not recognizing that there are other ways of knowing and not know. I guess I love mystery—life without mystery is boring. I don’t want or need to know everything about the unknown but I like to think about what we don’t know, and all the assumptions. We live in a society where you can Google almost anything and therefore we can know everything. But the fact is there’s an awful lot we don’t know. We know very little bit about what’s in the ocean, for example.
Why are people more interested in looking to outer space as an alternate place to live instead of looking into the sea?
It’s a sense of adventure, I guess, that people wanna go somewhere where they think can hold promise, whether it’s going to California in the westward movement or exploring the arctic regions or the Europeans exploring Africa when they didn’t know what was there. I think we tend to think of the ocean as known but I don’t think it is known and I just think people think of space as maybe somewhere they could live in a comfortable way. I don’t think people think of living underwater as being very comfortable.
Where would you rather live?
I love where I live right now.
Hey! If you had to choose between going into space or going into the ocean.
Oh my god. It’s a nightmare, I think. I’m kind of exploring it a little in this new comic book I’m working on. The moon, I guess. The moon—that’s the current subject for me.
What made you begin to make films?
I became interested in Super 8 when I was a kid. My father would document family events—holidays, birthdays. I saw movies when I was 11 and 12 years old—Charlie Chaplin on PBS—and my 5th grade teacher in Thousand Oaks, Mr. Grossman, was a huge influence. He brought films and theater into the classroom as part of our studies and as a treat. Mr. Grossman was friends with Larry from the Three Stooges and I think he was also friends with the Marx Bros. At that time these gentlemen were getting quite old. We made Larry hand-puppets with paper-maché heads, and my teacher brought Larry to class. Larry was in a wheelchair. I have a picture of us together. We also watched cartoons. In college I was a photo major. This was in the original punk and new wave eras of the late 1970s. I went for a junior year in England in a pretty conservative school in the post-Ansel Adams era when beautiful pictures of the moors were considered the only way for fine art photography. I was taking pictures of sides of beef hanging at the market and making earrings from the photos that I cut out. I also made a jump suit with clear pockets for pictures related to plastic surgery. My teachers were not so impressed. For my senior project I did a series of pictures that I took before and after my open heart surgery. Again, teachers not so impressed—except for Ann Fessler, who was very supportive and a big influence at the time.
What films inspire you?
There are so many films that inspire me. My favorite era is probably the 1930s. People were just figuring out the genre thing and transitioning from silent to sound and from theater and vaudeville to film—there are so many fun, funny, great films in that decade. Also, I love Georges Melies, Alfred Hitchcock, Agnes Varda, John Waters, Yuri Norstein, Jan Svankmajer, Looney Tunes Cartoons, and Fleischer Bros. animations, and film noir.
What are you interested in outside of the art world?
Books, things I observe in nature, neurology, mysteries of psychic phenomenon, history, outer space, new technologies that interface with humans. I love music, so many artists—Stevie Wonder, Sergio Mendez and Brasil ‘66, Janelle Monae, Staple Singers, Al Green, Herb Alpert, soul music/gospel, Michel Legrand, Jackson 5, the Carpenters, Linda Smith, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton, Adelle, Gnarles Barkley, Carl Stalling, Nino Rota, George Gershwin, Kurt Weill, John Cage, Pierre Henry.
A computer just beat two champions at jeopardy. What do you think or hope will happen when computers gain the power of creative thought?
I’m not convinced that that’s ever going to happen. I don’t think computers will ever really be able to be artists and have a mind to be creative. I think people would like to think that, but I don’t see that ever happen. Computers can do all kinds of things, but gaining the power of creative thought? I’m not so convinced.
What was your most memorable encounter with a spider like?
My brother collected a huge tarantula on a picnic when we lived in California. He brought it home in a tupperware container and released it in the backyard, I was terrified to go in the backyard—for weeks I thought it was out there waiting for me.
What is your attraction to birds? What’s your favorite bird and why?
Birds became an important image to me after the ICU. I saw them as a go-between of earth and heaven and perhaps life and death. The crow has long been a symbol of death, and birds had spiritual significance in Egyptian art, and in Christian art they often carry banners that direct us to other worlds and to heaven. We have a group of crows near our house, and I am interested in animals that live close with humans, animals that we barely take note of because they are just there, but I would love to have a crow as a friend, but it hasn’t happened yet.

SEE “THE BIRDWOMAN AND HER DREAMS: ANIMATED WORKS BY NANCY ANDREWS” PROGRAM AT REDCAT ON TUES., MARCH 8. NANCY ANDREWS’ “ON A PHANTOM LIMB” AND THE IMA PLUME TRILOGY IS AVAILABLE ON DVD AT NANCYANDREWS.NET. VISIT NANCY ANDREWS AT NANCYANDREWS.NET.

ROY AND EDNA DISNEY/ CALARTS THEATER PRESENTS TEMPEST: WITHOUT A BODY ON SUNDAY APR. 3RD AT THE MILLION DOLLAR THEATER, 307 SOUTH BROADWAY, LOS ANGELES. 8:30PM/ $25/ ALL AGES

—Drew Denny

[View with PicLens]

This past weekend Killsonic gave three sold out performances of their opera Tongues Bloody Tongues, written by Joseph Tepperman, at REDCAT. This excerpt of their larger street performance version included all the shock and awe tactics of musical warfare that you’ve come to expect from them. Breaking the mold of traditional theatre performances, Killsonic began with an explosion of sound in the lobby. Coming in from the parking lot, the horn, accordion, and percussion section, accompanied by the women’s choir equipped with megaphones, gave everyone a taste of what was to come and proceeded to the theatre.

From here Saddam Hussein gave the somber narrative, speaking on the history of Iraq and the story of Gertrude Bell, all while the band played ominous sounds at one point and chaotic explosions the next. The choir wore many hats, parrots interrupting Saddam’s monologues and deadly sirens singing of the sorrows and troubles of Gertrude. The musical direction helped set the mood strongly with the “orchestra” being so willing to take risks that paid off nicely.

The whole set and costume design of the performance had this vivid black and red post-apocalyptic feel to it that was aesthetically pleasing. From the Tower of Babel to the wall of tongues, the twisted and bizarre set enhanced the dark and dramatic performance. The cast all had a Tim Burton feel to them with their almost wax-figure-like makeup; and the choir looked as if they were all grabbed out of a couture version of Road Warrior—except the choir was definitely better looking.

The music took the opera through the highs and lows of the story quite well. Michael Anthony Ibarra showed his chops as a musical director and it did not disappoint. The musicianship and versatility of the band soared, giving everyone a taste of what a large-scale band can do when they don’t stick to traditional methods. Leah Harmon, who portrayed Gertrude Bell, was a definite highlight as well with her operatic singing and troubled ramblings.

Just as abruptly as the show began, it ended just the same. When the climax concluded, Killsonic walked off stage, the lights dimmed, and the crowd applauded. Yet everyone waited in their seats hoping they would come back for more.

—Zachary Jensen

From REDCAT:

I Nyoman Wenten can be anybody! Born in a small Balinese village, Wenten studied traditional Indonesian music, dance and acting with his master-puppeteer grandfather. He now holds an MFA from Cal Arts, a doctorate from UCLA and is chair of the World Music Program at Cal Arts. where he and his wife Nanik promote the gamelan every day to students who enter curious and exit entranced. He and his ensemble Gamelan Burat Wangi will perform the Indian epic Ramayana tonight and tomorrow at REDCAT. This interview by Drew Denny.

What’s the function of gamelan in Balinese society? What kinds of events and ceremonies require a gamelan?
I Nyoman Wenten (director): I like that question! Of course, so many ceremony in Bali! You know like baby born, three-months-old baby is very big ceremony—sometime parents hire gamelan player to celebrate the ceremony of three-months-old baby. Then of course tooth file ceremony! All the rites associated to humans as social beings—called Manusa Yadnya. Related to faith, Hindu religion. Temple ceremony, cremation… so gamelan play, dance and perform! And many different type of gamelan, not only the one you see it here. We have thirty different ensemble. Each ensemble has its own instrumentation, repertoire, function and so forth. Quite a variety of gamelan in Bali especially.
How old is gamelan?
I Nyoman Wenten: Of course they have a type of gamelan—you categorize it as ancient, middle age, or modern gamelan. Ancient—what we call gambuh or gambang marching gamelan. Gambuh is a big flute—huge three big flute, small drum for accompany dance. Said it was in existence in 14th century, maybe even before. Also suling, made out of iron is considered very ancient gamelan. Then we have modern Balinese gamelan called gong kebyar—we have it here. Gong kebyar, yeah!
How do you describe the sound of gamelan to someone who’s never heard it? I don’t know what words to use to talk about those rhythms!
I Nyoman Wenten: I will tell them gamelan is very nice melody, a variety of rhythm, tempo-wise some time very slow sometime quick fast, a lot of dynamic changes, have to have very good technique to play, and fun!
What’s the relationship between gamelan music and dance?
I Nyoman Wenten: Fantastic question! You haven’t studied dance here yet? You have to next time! Music and dance has very close interwoven relationship because without music just movement is not complete. Dance has to be within a space and accompanied by music. Each style of dance has its own musical accompaniment. Of all thirty types of gamelan, some accompany dance, some just instrumental pieces but a quite a few ensembles be able to accompany many different types of dance.
What are your favorite dances?
I Nyoman Wenten: Of course I start to learn Baris—they call warrior dance—then mask dance then the new modern Balinese dance. Mask dance is my favorite dance! I can perform by myself all different characters by change the mask—they call Topeng Pajegang.
What do the masks look like?
I Nyoman Wenten: Masks very close to human. Of course many different color. Strong male characters have a red mask, white big eyes, maybe open mouth. Refined character has small eyes, smile, close mouth. Many different type of villager, buffoonery… I can make a mask about you! I take a picture and tell the mask makers, ‘Would you make a mask like this lady here?’ And then I practice your walk, your laugh, and then I perform the next day—Drew, you come to my performance and say, ‘Hey Wenten! Sound like me! Laugh like me!’
So you can be anyone?
I Nyoman Wenten: Anyone!
That’s a good feeling, eh? What character will you be in Ramayana?
I Nyoman Wenten: I will be the evil king Ravana! Oh, he’s very strong character, very proud and nobody stronger than him or more powerful than him—he can fly actually!
You’re gonna fly?
I Nyoman Wenten: Yes! The feeling to fly. I kidnap the princess—I admire I really love the Sita. Ramayana is the old very ancient Indian epic supposed to be from 4,000 BC.
That’s an old story—Who’s the princess?
I Nyoman Wenten: The princess is my daughter! So I kidnap her! But of course it’s a play. We change personalities. We become the characters.
How did you meet your wife?
I Nyoman Wenten: When I graduated in Bali from music conservatory, I love to study in Java. One reason I be able to watch the Javanese music—before I decide to go to Java, I was a member of presidential group of artists chosen to go culture exchange to many different country. So Javanese group from Sumatra join with Bali group, about 85 of us. So many of us from many different parts of Indonesia touring to China to Japan to perform for Mao Tse-Tung and Kim Jong-Il… I was a member starting 1964-67 and when the president pass, they say no more. So I was lucky. I was still very young. 17 years old. Opened my mind. Beautiful dance, that Javanese dance. I thought, ‘I have to go to Java!’ So I go to Java, and that why I met my wife. She’s from Yokyakarta, central Java.
She’s an amazing dancer!
I Nyoman Wenten: She’s a court dancer. She studied in the palace! Her father is from royal family.
You’re royal?
I Nyoman Wenten: I’m trying to climb but I am falling down… aaaaahhh! OK! It’s OK I’m down here.
What were the mid-’60s like in Indonesia? That was such a tumultuous time here…
I Nyoman Wenten: Believe it or not, maybe global! Indonesia as well. I didn’t feel it until the so-called communist coup but who knows who’s behind it? Real communist coup or just a plot to destroy one another. It was a bad situation in 1965. They call it September 30th accident—no, massacre. One million people all over Indonesia killed.
What’s the political climate in Indonesia now?
I Nyoman Wenten: Now, oh the last ten years the government a little bit more open—so called democracy is considered very strong in Indonesia. People can vote openly for president or criticize the president. Through the parliament, you can voice your idea. So it’s a little bit more open, just in the last fifteen years or so.
Did you see or experience any oppression as an artist during the years following the coup?
I Nyoman Wenten: In certain part of Indonesia, yes. In Bali because the art of music and dance is always close knit into our culture and the religion—they believe in Hindu religion—we don’t feel that much pressure but of course, the rest of Indonesia is always dealing with some government restriction. Now we have what they call ‘pornography rules’—people not allowed by the law, but who know when they really do this? But you cannot wear sleeveless shirt. Or short skirt and so forth, and for dance you should cover more… so they try to make it difficult for artists to express their inner selves, to create. Woman and man. Who knows if this will work?
Where do you go when you take the Cal Arts ensemble to Bali?
I Nyoman Wenten: We got a grant from the NEA to perform Ramayana so luckily enough we have those people who are very serious about studying Balinese music who wanna go to Bali. We went twenty total—about fifteen Cal Arts students. I put them in the village called Ubud, not too far from my house so we bus them every day to my house to practice. We have a gamelan in my house. Almost every day from 11 to 5 o’clock we practice but we break for lunch. Next year you come!
I’m there! What comes next after Ramayana?
I Nyoman Wenten: Spring concert here at Cal Arts. Maybe we do different program but part of the Ramayana so Cal Arts community can see us perform. Always Nanik and I think about new programs, not only same dance. Different Balinese dance or maybe we create a new dance, based on traditional dance from Bali of course. I perform Javanese dance also so always we create new dance drama for Java. I want you to dance—why not study some!
It was your idea to combine tap and gamelan, yes?
I Nyoman Wenten: Tap! The tap dancer with the gamelan—the name of the group is Rhapsody in Tap, very famous group in LA so they get a grant for me and gamelan for two years for touring. We went to Bali, New York, Canada, many different L.A. venues like Japan American National Museum.
How does the Balinese community react when you bring your ensemble from LA?
I Nyoman Wenten: They always very supportive. To see Americans play or westerners play gamelan, they say ‘Wow! They on TV! We have to study hard because they play well. We don’t wanna study gamelan in America!’ They worry—quite a few people say ‘Pak’—they call me ‘Pak’ like a ‘guru,’ they say, ‘Pak Wenten, in the next ten years the children here don’t wanna play gamelan so… I’m afraid to come to America to study gamelan!’ I say, ‘It’s OK, don’t worry! As long as we have the same faith—the Hindu faith—we have an art and we have music and dance so don’t worry.’
You have a doctorate in ethnomusicology—what other forms did you study?
I Nyoman Wenten: When I was a student here—I got my masters here in ’75—I studied modern ballet, composition, and world music like African music and dance and Indian music. Then they hired me to open the Indonesian program here. I still dance modern, off and on I perform modern dance up until now. Yes, still! I’m older person now! Still dance! Then I get opportunity to study at UCLA. I get my degree 1996. Ethnomusicology degree. So there also I study Persian music, Brazilian yeah. I enjoy that so much because there’s so much to learn! Then I have opportunity to learn something beyond gamelan so I took this opportunity. I came to Cal Arts back in the ‘70s. I was invited to teach a summer workshop here—1972 just after Sylmar earthquake—big earthquake. 7.2. I came for eight weeks and taught the all-star gamelan with performers from many different universities. Then I went back, brought the students to Indonesia for three months—we have a big huge grant to bring the people to have a tour to Bali!
When you first came here, did many Americans know about gamelan?
I Nyoman Wenten: Not that much. There were existing gamelan programs at UCLA—started ’61, department called Institute of Ethnomusicology. They offer gamelan—both Balinese and Javanese. There was Wesleyan, Michigan, then us here in ‘72.
You’ve been here since the beginning!
I Nyoman Wenten: Since the beginning—I went back to Bali. Then they offered me a job. They said ‘Wenten, you wanna come back to Cal Arts? Maybe also you can study, get a degree?’ and I very excited about that. I came back to get my MFA, my second degree. I finished spring of ‘75.
When did you start playing gamelan?
I Nyoman Wenten: I start dance first when I was maybe six years old—so cute! The Baris Warrior Dance—you play it in class! Because I have a gamelan in my house—my grandfather and father own gamelan—so naturally, I try gamelan when I was young. I was probably seven years old. At first I play just round the house. My grandfather and my father taught me. Of course, I go to grade school and then I go to conservatory. I study at school from many different teacher who came from many parts of Bali to teach. I was lucky to meet many different great teachers! This was 1962-65.
Where are you from on Bali?
I Nyoman Wenten: I am from small village called Sading. Very close to capital of Bali, about five miles north of Denpasar. Probably about 2,000 people.
Do those other forms of music influence the way you work?
I Nyoman Wenten: Oh definitely! To see so many different art form here—only in America you be able to see the best Korean court dance and Argentine tango… Who ever imagine you see Ravi Shankar, sitar performer, the best Indian musician, the best African group—global! You never be able to see this back home in Indonesia because here they can afford it to bring them. Of course, visually I see and I listening. So many different music influence my feeling inside me, it come out! Maybe I’m a little bit unique than my friend in Bali when I dance. Like our visiting artists who come here from Bali, they say, ‘Wow, it’s so different!’ I also dance with the best dancer in Java and show them a video. They say ‘Pak Wenten, I never imagine you can dance like that!’ So I can contribute something for Bali because I experience thirty years—not away from Bali but you know… I observe so many different cultures, then I go back to Bali every summer for three or four months. I do collaborations there. People see me and say ‘Where you get this?’
So gamelan evolves?
I Nyoman Wenten: Like a snowball! You cannot just stay still. Roll the snowball! Get bigger!

I NYOMAN WENTEN AND GAMELAN BURAT WANGI IN RAMAYANA: AN INDIAN EPIC ON SAT., NOV. 7, AND SUN., NOV. 8, AT REDCAT, 631 W. 2ND ST., DOWNTOWN. 8:30 PM / $18-$30 / ALL AGES. REDCAT.ORG. VISIT I NYOMAN WENTEN AND GAMELAN BURAT WANGI AT MYSPACE.COM/GAMELANBURATWANGI.

On the night of the show, Perhacs greeted Redcat smiling. “In the spirit of the ‘70s, we’re going to have a very special night,” she said, smoothing her purple dress. For the first performance ever of her music, her 1970 album Parallelograms was presented in its entirety by Dublab-selected guest bands.

“Parallelograms” went twice. First, a full band—including hippie-dancing older women—accompanied Linda Perhacs’ calm, gentle, angelically pronounced math terms—”quadrahedral, tetrahedral, mono-cyclo-cyber-cilia.” Suddenly a fantastic void leaps open mid-song. Haunting chimes. Vowels. Voices slip through a vortex before the song resumes course. The reprise performed later by Ladies Choir had one guitar and many lady handfuls. The Choir entered holding long dresses above their ankles. They stood arranged by fabric color from high to low vocal range; circles painted on their cheeks. Once again, an eerie sensation when the song breaks elicited great pleasure.

Nikki Randa—the Blank Blue siren—and Mia Doi Todd’s voices warmed the tide during “Sandy Toes.” The girls swayed. A bohemian lady with exposed nipples twirled on a beach behind them.—No Dublab event is complete without videos. Artists contributed video to each song, projected on a large screen. “Toes” had nipples. I failed to notice more than desert dunes about Daft Punk’s video for “If You Were My Man.” My eyes followed the live dancers. Flesh colored fabric stretched across their bodies, curves complimented by Ryan Heffington’s choreography. The dancers came back later to enliven a new Perhacs song called “I Dance For My Brother.” “We dance when there’s a need for greater energy,” she said.

Such energy got dark deep with We Are The World’s interpretative “Moons and Cattails.” A wide blue haze undulated above their heads. Their arms extended into pointy wooden limbs and they had no eyes. They swooned as though they lost themselves and had become only their clothes.

The cup became half full when Tom Brousseau filled a wine glass with his magical song. No band; just Tom, the glass, and a few meaningful hand gestures commanded “Porcelain Baked Cast Iron Wedding.”

Linda said Julia Holter blew her away. This girl weaved a watery tapestry using loops. It was a while before she sang; then she let the words linger. The young Holter yearned bravely, “Oh how delicious. Oh how I want this.” Desirous. “Oh how I want you…now.”—A hot line to declare for several hundred eyes fixed on you, and make them feel it.

Rio En Medio fit right in, accompanied by a cymbal tapping, dreadlocked playmate. She, Holter, Todd, and Randa make us believe they “see silences between leaves in the Chimicun rain,” so to speak. Repping outer space, Hecuba shoots by on a hot, loud time-bending comet. So what was Crystal Antlers doing among the fairies, ghosts and rainbows? Rocking a psychedelic “Paper Mountain Man.” Johnny’s scratchy vocals channelled raw flower power. My thoughts formed flared pants and hippie cloaks on the band.

“Thoughts build like a pendulum,” Perhacs explained. “Put a pen down and spiral out.” Thought creates energy creates colors creates thoughts. Shapes and colors reflect the natural world in a way that music can show us. Just close your eyes and listen to Parallelograms, and you’ll see the light, so to speak. When you open them up again and look for magic in the same way. The experience reminds us that reality is trippy without licking a sheet of acid.

—Daiana Feuer

Download: Linda Perhacs “Parallelograms”

(from Parallelograms out now on Sunbeam)

Linda Perhacs sees colors. The psychedelic nature of reality follows her around and tugs at her pant leg for attention. On Parallelograms, her singular psychedelic gem from 1970, she captured the waveforms of color through sound, and now she’s been called back to do it at REDCAT with Dublab and some of the most wonderful weirdos making music today—for her first live performance ever. Her palette is physical light, and her brush is the sound of music. The hills are alive with electromagnetic radiation. This interview by Daiana Feuer.

Does higher power have a shape or color that you can see?
Linda Perhacs: I have to answer that on two levels. This higher energy is in every living thing. A portion of this incredible energy fills all that is alive. There’s also the opposite—I’m going to get pretty deep here. But during specific times I have both seen and heard that which did have a shape and a message to deliver and help me understand. In general when I speak of light, I speak of light that we see in all life—sunset, rainbow, the face of someone in love. That light fills all life but it’s more amorphous. It’s still a wavelength—a sea. It’s always there. If you want to send out energy you have to work with rules of the world or block bad energy. If you’re in the ocean, you’re in trouble if you don’t follow the rules of how to swim and conserve energy. That fear is its own ocean and you have to know how to navigate. A sound wave produces an effect when you touch someone with it. An X-ray is invisible light, for instance. Everything in life is a form of a wavelength of some kind—everything is a sea of energy. A galaxy or you and I talking or your intimate partner or just the air we breathe. Everything is based on wavelengths and energy. A sea of all these complex different wavelengths. But during specific lessons or messages I’ve learned from the energy realm, I’ve seen form and heard voice and had to discern between two things—is this a positive loving animation or is it not? If it’s not, I want to block it or get away from it.
How can we recognize a positive message?
Linda Perhacs: Always ask what’s coming in the energy field if this is positive or negative. If it comes in the imminence of higher love, it’s very discernible though not describable—kind, loving, and it’s got an immense energy. The first question is not a demand—what is it that you want? It’s very important to allow people to have freedom of will or choice. You can’t receive a message of ‘do it my way.’ Anything that is really good for you is going to come in such a way of peacefulness and love that you will be very comfortable with it. It’s faith to live it and absorb it and focus on what’s being said. It’s coming in love. I remember how far I was from understanding anything of that kind when I was younger. I don’t think things can ever go wrong when focusing on nature or love or energy in that capacity. Most people feel comfortable in those waters until they reach a deeper understanding. People feel comfortable when you talk about their health. Disease is lack of ease—lack of harmony. You have to discuss what produces the harmony in your body to dispel disease or disarm it. Bringing in more love and joy can overwhelm that in the body.
Can joy be the best medicine?
Linda Perhacs: Most of us are not masters of rule or change. We need some help sometimes to deal with whatever the problem is. But as soon as possible you want to get rid of the artificial things. If you’ve got a major problem—a cancer—you need joy and peace and happiness for a while. That will knock it out faster than anything manmade. That’s on record with Norman Cousin. He was a journalist who was in Russia and got a blast of jet fuel or something in his face. After that he didn’t feel right. Next thing he knew he had something rare and bad and they couldn’t help him. He left the hospital, put himself in a hotel and played fun movies like Charlie Chaplin. In a very short time he completely conquered the problem by infusing the body with joy and laughter. The end of the story—he left the physical plane, he was older, but he was the head of the oncologist department of the medical center treating people who have nothing to be done. He had become credible enough to have that stature so they would send patients to him. He would encourage them. If meds aren’t doing it, use natural medicine—joy, laughter, and happiness. He proved it. The famous test involved thinking of everything that is negative in your world for five minutes and then taking a blood sample. Then they asked him to do the opposite—think of joy and loving and then took another blood sample. To his astonishment, during negative time, he produced everything in his blood that produces illness. In the time of joy, he pivoted enough to find all the things that are good, and shot way up. Not everyone can do it that fast. He had trained for thirty years. All he did was the same thing that the yogis did for centuries. You can control your heart beat—your blood pressures—with your mind.
Can you reach Timbuktu with a thought?
Linda Perhacs: If we would tune into the potential of the cell phone that we have to connect with the universe versus the texting with one person… that’s all that prayer techniques ask of us. Connect with the energies within—not only for our benefit but to benefit others. It’s an inner mechanism that belongs to everyone. Most don’t use it. But it’s there for free. It’s far superior to our cellphones. Cellphones have taught us we can communicate over long distances. All these things give us the idea of transmission of energy and closeness—with our inner cellphone. I have many friends and vice versa who call me at the exact moment that I think of them. Many of us experience that. I had occasion to be close enough to people where I am conversing with them and not talking. Some of us can do that. I have some musical friends where they will know and I will know what we are communicating. Maybe I am prayerful at the moment or listening. I’ve been aware of hearing them say, ‘Not now, I’m buzzing around.’ Or they will walk into my presence and say, ‘I knew I needed to talk to you.’ Someone will call and say, ‘I need to cheer you up.’ I have felt your vibes this week, Daiana, since we met. ‘She is thinking—she is trying to put together her thoughts. As soon as she finishes her project, she will move on and that transmission will be interrupted.’ This kind of thing I became more familiar with when I started to do my music and meditation. Now it’s so normal I don’t even think about it. It just becomes.
How do you use music to harness energy?
Linda Perhacs: As it relates to music, I wasn’t so far into this when I did Parallelograms. I was beginning to learn about it then. Everything I do now, I am very aware of the influence of music or when you speak, and I want an imminence to reach people that has the power to awaken them—to help heal and energize them. I would never want it to have a negative effect or intentionally angry. I want something to reach them that would open their life more. The most beautiful quality of something out there. Gossamer and lovely. Electronic touches are good, and some sculpting and crafting elements—which is my favorite thing. I love to do that. Where you’re taking the voice and literally creating something that is like watercolor or impressionistic painting or moving sound from spot to spot. Taking sound as your medium to create shapes and effects, like a gossamer sheen or aura over a room. A song has verse chorus verse chorus. Our modern music has a certain texture we expect to hear, but I’m talking about something a little different. I love energy so much. I absolutely don’t feel this is my first time here. You have to be drawing on previous experience to have the depth—the vastness.
When were you able to most clearly grasp your visions?
Linda Perhacs: Certain things were coming to me in that era by surprise. But as a child I saw choreography. I didn’t tell my mother. I wouldn’t tell my mother that I was breathing, right? It was so normal that I wouldn’t stop and talk about them. I probably started to break it down in ways to describe it as an adult. This whole series of clues, there was something going on at toddler age. The adults around me said they would be surprised I would sit in a corner and not get dirty—just sit in a reflective way. By 5 and 6 I am composing choreography through visions. It all has a pattern. It’s pretty sophisticated and complex, not childlike. I walk to the teacher and say, ‘I am here to bring my group and we are going to do a show for you.’ And I was told not to do that. Now I am an adult well past 40 and getting up there and I am doing the same thing, but this time, and for my first performance, they have said OK to do it my way. Full choreography, full lyrics, full composition, working in the energy sphere and painting with music—and I want to keep doing it, provided I can get in the studio and someone knowledgeable about technology to work with.
How were you able to become open to realizing your full potential?
Linda Perhacs: I can see now that it was a natural gift and I need to call it that and that I was born with it. I didn’t understand it as a younger woman. Let me tell you as a story. In Topanga Canyon, one night, I was conversing with Paper Mountain Man. We were in my little studio and heard a knock at the door. In comes his closest friend whose name was Peter. Peter was a dramatic, artistic man. He walked in the door with a rolled up piece of paper. Peter said to him, ‘Read it if you have the patience to read it. It’s about you. I was on a mountain with my typewriter trying to deal with my own things. I couldn’t do it until I typed two pages about your life, your weaknesses, your strength, and what is in your future. I know you are stubborn. Don’t toss it aside.’ Paper Mountain Man read it a second, and tossed it. I read it and said, ‘This is you! This is on the mark.’ It had a section on me that said, ‘Linda will be a great help to you but the help she will be has been dormant. It will flower out very strong. It’s coming very fast. It’s been there all along but dormant.’ I didn’t know what he was talking about. This facet—the music, the energy, the intuitive awareness—that development had not surfaced yet. Once it surfaced, it was an explosion. Sometimes when we don’t know where we’re headed, we don’t know what our gift in life is. There’s a point in life when we don’t know what’s there. There could be incredible gifts just waiting to surface. I had no clue. I was well trained in the medical world, in nature because my young husband was a genius in nature. He was such a teacher to me. My knowledge was nature and medical. It hadn’t gone into the ethereal realm of meditation prayer and energy from that dimension. But the preparation of understanding medicine, physics, and nature—that prepared me to understand those higher energies. Peter was right on. It came on fast and strong when I opened those doors. I want that to be encouragement for you and others, that your timing may be very close. You could be months or days away.
That would be cool.
Linda Perhacs: Daiana, you were chosen for this because you were the best choice. There’s a reason why you’re able to talk to me like this. Obviously this is something you can handle. With other people, I know I need to say nothing. You’re very receptive and able to handle it. I hope mostly that whatever both of us do in the dimensions of our lives, it will touch other people. I don’t know how many more years I will be here on the physical plane. You get to a point in life when it is more important to help others. You want to give other people a chance for their years to be as fruitful as possible, as expanded as they’re capable of being. I just had a birthday. I was very happy to say, ‘It’s so cool, it’s my birthday, I am so busy being creative, I don’t know what number I’m at.’ I just hope I get to do everything I want to get done. I represent a beautiful era with awfully good energies. Put me in studio and I will show you that the spirit is vital as a child. That part does not age. That part is what I will still be working with when I am not on the physical plane. When I was in the hospital in the year 2000 with pneumonia—30 days on respiratory—I felt so vital. I was literally creating in that state. I could hear every word. I was chattering away in my mind creating thoughts, so alert and vibrant. ‘I got to get out of here and get moving!’ Yes, it can travel. Energy is energy—it can go through walls. We are highly keyed lasers. We have great powers. I say that in a good way. We haven’t even begun to find what is in our capacity to do good.
Why do you believe in the internet?
Linda Perhacs: In the era when Michelangelo did his sculpture, if it weren’t for the Medici family, the artists would not have been able to do what they did. Our flowering of art comes because something is allowing it to. Now, thanks to the internet, this is a new situation. Prior to that, we needed the Medici family. Now you guys have the privilege of doing incredible things on lower budgets. Facebook is the biggest marketing tool. The interconnections are not stoppable. We’ve never had this before. You have a whole new arena for all that’s happening inside each of you. I can’t wait to see what you are going to do with it. You guys are swimming in it like little ducks. This is your water. Enjoy. I am here cheering you on. You have a huge potential to reach the world, unless someone knocks out the circuits. The power is huge, but use it with discretion. There’s a few of us who are here pushing for all of you to do just that. Leonard Cohen—74 years old—he is on tour in Europe. He is an incredible poet that reflects what is going on. He’s been a wonderful mouth for all these years and he is still on top of his game. He is masterful at what he does. How encouraging is that? He couldn’t be more considerate of his musicians and his audience. There’s a rare soul and he spent 5 years as a monk. Then he came down off the mountain and is still giving and inspiring. I was telling Devendra that he needs to think about the world. He has to use his capacity to focus on the world and the things going on. He is young and has his heart somewhat in those waters. But I felt the need to come out and say it: ‘Write differently.’ I am not just a woman going into my songs anymore. Parallelograms was about my personal relationship and love for nature. I’ve grown beyond that now. I am more concerned with issues that affect you and affect your generation—those that are going to inspire the world in a huge way.
What do you want us to do?
Linda Perhacs: Do everything you can do to be innovative and creative and put it out there. Hopefully in a positive way. It will find its mark. It will touch others. That is the whole point of the REDCAT evening. We will share, give, and do what we can. Frosty is wise. He insisted on using his people in the musician choices. He didn’t want super pro people. He wanted his people to do this celebration. So the whole evening is aimed at encouraging, not just that group of artists there that night. I want to encourage the people watching or who hear it later. Let us know what you’re doing. It’s for everyone. It’s a circle of energy. Jessica Hunley, the event leader, her people, they all think like this. They are wonderful. There’s hundreds of them out there. It’s just nonstop beautiful people. This is what the world needs. People who create their own venue, create their own energy and go create more. Jessica is an expert at what she does. Frosty is an expert.
What makes music such a big deal?
Linda Perhacs: Because it makes us feel different. Why? It makes you feel because it is carrying the energy from the composer, the energy from the instruments, the person at that keyboard or bass—it’s carrying the energy if its electric or acoustic. There’s an input there that you are receiving—that multiple input, and your body is reacting. That input is multifaceted. There are wavelengths that are high frequency, those that are slower, those high enough to go through walls—the 900 foot cloud image I showed you from Thought Forms by Annie Bessant, that the artist saw rising out of a church into the sky—it had to go through the church walls to go into the sky. Her text says it lasted for hours and floated and covered a community. And had an effect on that community for hours. Some music makes us want to run out of the room. Some is healing or increases love capacity or makes you feel cheerful. It all depends on the human beings behind that music. But the energy is so powerful, it can be like a bomb or a window. Energy is received, processed through the mind, re-enters the sound created and enters the mind of whoever is listening.
Must we be careful of the energies we’re exposed to?
Linda Perhacs: If my family members are playing a violent video downstairs and I am upstairs with earplugs and tuning out, totally out of it—all of a sudden I bolt out of bed, my legs kicking like a football player. I come out at a full kick. I take the earplugs out and it’s The Gladiator scene where they’re slicing people up. I tell them, ‘Please don’t watch that when I am asleep!’ It is going in their minds and coming up to me because I am sensitive. I pick up the brainwaves. I don’t feel sorry for Linda, though. What about the tiny children? A little baby feels a lot. Toddlers. If it’s temporary, OK. They’re used to TV and that’s the world they’re going to live in—a certain tolerance has to be built in them so they can live in this world. But the flood of it is something we should think about. The kids get sick and we don’t know why. The kids are raised on media. Let’s give some thought into what we’re feeding them. I am an adult and sound asleep and I come out with a kick—what about the two-year-old? Violence in the family. No food, no continuity in their lives—all these things affect them. When I was a child, let me tell you, the vibes I had to absorb—Bonanza, Perry Como—there was no 24-hour-a-day computer. Television was watched for two hours and never turned on the rest of the time. No radio. No telephone. And I was in a middle-range conservative normal household—post-war, dad at work, mom at home. It was quite average. Nothing overly rich or poor. The kids at high school, it would be similar except for some of the very artistic or intellectual families—those had all walls lined with books. And they were way ahead of me in facing the world. In grammar school I probably spent 2 or 3 hours a day in nature alone. I would leave school and delay and be with the trees and flowers. Lots of hours of total surrounding with trees and beautiful nature. And I don’t know why my mom allowed it but I didn’t question it. I knew it was a privilege and I absorbed it. I did not come home to rock and roll and TV and a computer. I spent hours in nature. Vashti had a lot of outdoors in Scotland. Devendra, he has been in Latin America a good portion of his life. And all over the world. He has a huge input from all cultures, even as a young man. I had lots of contemplative time in my pre-college time. A lot of quiet, a lot of nature. I didn’t ask for a baseball team or gymnastics. It was post-war America. I just went around in nature. I felt that was my most comfortable part of the day. Not in school, not in my family. The least pleasant experience was in my home. That was tense. Nature was preferable and I enjoyed school. Kids are aware now. They’re at the computer. They have an unlimited choice of music. It can be good or life-altering in a way that you might say, ‘Gee, maybe they should get out in nature more.’ Nature provides balance. It’s a wonderful teacher. People who are pre-Depression, raised on farms, their balance is unshakable in old age. I think it comes from closeness to the sky and earth. Recently arrived people from Africa, they know when storms are going to occur.
Is it selfish to figure yourself out creatively? To let heartbreak and stuff be fuel or to even seek it out?
Linda Perhacs: You have to remember how important your first real attempts at love are when you are guiding the ship. That’s the first experience in depth with God, too. His world is higher order, but many people when they work on themselves, they want to get rid of their flaws—the first experiences are usually through relationships. The first time they really challenge and test them are through lovers. These are important years. You have to figure yourself out creatively. You’ve got to go through that or you have nothing to give the world. Is it selfish to learn how to walk or run better? No, you have to go through that. Simultaneously with the music that we generate, the writing, the talking to one another, the vibes that we generate. I am certain the power of the internet, whatever you’re going through in your learning experience, you can share it with the entire world. You’ve got a huge audience! The potential to impact is phenomenal. As an artist, if you have food for the day, a place to live, some stability, then what you have to offer to the world is immense. There are so many who don’t have that and can’t take the time to share their reflection with the world that needs it. All you need is a little. Then you can give a lot! Remember this—there’s energy that’s flowing through me. That’s the good influence. I have to make sure I am a clear channel. If I am in love with someone who is hurting and clouding me, it’s a good lesson and let it be one, but the time will come that you are free.
What is the artistic responsibility to provide the world?
Linda Perhacs: Gorbachev said one of the main reasons he had to allow the Berlin Wall to come down was because his people were demanding to know who the Beatles were. They were used to existing with the meager food and apartments and the transportation they had. They were demanding to know what was going on in the arts. They knew there was something happening out there and they wanted to be aware what that buzz was that they were being blocked from. Gorbachev said, ‘Ok, the West can come in.’ He had to cooperate because he had no choice. They weren’t asking what kind of cars were being driven. It was the event of the explosion of creativity that they insisted on knowing about. To have the privilege to be aware. And in Los Angeles simultaneously during the Beatles era we all used the word ‘happening.’ We said ‘It’s a happening, go there—that special energy is there.’ You guys are in the midst of an even greater possibility with energy. You are the happening right now. In the era of Haight-Ashbury, the Beatles—all the things, it was a mysterious explosion of something uncharted. There were negatives—partying to the extent of using things and doing things that were not healthy—but there were also arenas that were interested in the clothing, the food, the meditation, the doctoring—new things we had never been exposed to—poetry, love, music—that explosion in our time was huge. But I am telling you it’s small compared to what is in your hands now. It’s not going to be large studios that are going to control the world. It’s the small scale of the minds like Frosty, like you—you have all the power you need. Me and some of the others have been called back from history to encourage you to do the best you can. You have the creative power. You can do this. It’s not just a study tool. It’s not a chit chat tool. It’s huge. I can’t go where you can go. Sit in your bedroom and create. Frosty is a great example. He is fully equipped to do this. He loves musicians that are trying their best to give their best. There’s so much more yet to come. This is just the beginning. Use it and enjoy it—harness your inner energy and the energy streams that the world provides to deliver who you are. You’re not small; you’re big. I’m cheering you on.

DUBLAB PRESENTS ‘AN EVENING OF THOUGHTFORMS AND PARALLELOGRAMS’ WITH LINDA PERHACS AND HECUBA, CRYSTAL ANTLERS, MIA DOI TODD, RIO EN MEDIO, TOM BROSSEAU, ARIANA DELAWARI AND MANY MANY MORE ON WED., OCT. 7, AT REDCAT, 613 W. 2ND ST., DOWNTOWN. 8:30 PM / $25 / ALL AGES. DUBLAB.COM FOR COMPLETE LIST OF FILMMAKERS, MUSICIANS AND ARTISTS OR REDCAT.ORG. LINDA PERHACS’ PARALLELOGRAMS IS AVAILABLE NOW FROM SUNBEAM. VISIT LINDA PERHACS AT LINDAPERHACS.COM.