jams for dollars

Imogen Heap rocks out for Buffalo Bayou Partnership

Imogen Heap, musician
Imogen Heap/Facebook
Buffalo Bayou
Photo by Jennifer Gaines

That most singular of singer-songwriters, Imogen Heap, stunned Houston audiences last night at Verizon Wireless Theater with her whiley vocals, and an unexpected shout-out to local nonprofit, Buffalo Bayou Partnership.

It's all part of her $54,000 campaign to raise cash for local charities on her current North American tour — but the tactic has its own Imogen-edge.

During each performance, she composes and plays a completely improvised piece of music, influenced by the audience's suggestions on key, tempo and time signature. The song is then made available as a digital download after the show, with proceeds given to a chosen local charity suggested by Imogen's fans.

A simple e-mail to Imogen by Buffalo Bayou Partnership's director of development Jennifer Gaines earned that non-profit the spotlight yesterday evening.

"She's assigned an instrument and loops it back," explains Gaines, who is an avid Imogen fan. The artist works with a Monome, the open-source beat machine pioneered by Daedelus, in her lap, to produce majestic layered sounds. Minute microphones decorate her wrists, capturing the sounds of her medley of instruments.

"The crowd picked the sound of a chirping bird," says Gaines, "and Imogen began jokingly whistling, 'This is annoying.' Her use of technology is stunning."

"We were completely shocked when we saw her put Buffalo Bayou Partnership on display," says Brian Thorp, a patron of BBP. "It revealed what an urban oasis the Bayou's become as a place where people can play sports, or just for dreamers to go escape from the concrete jungle.

"The show itself was terrific," Thorp attests. "She has an amazing presence."

After the show, Imogen gratefully tweeted, "Thanks for those who came tonight in Houston. We had a great time even with a bird in improv choice. Silliness. xxx."

Last night's tune is not yet available, but once it's up, it will only be on the Web site for two months. To date, the tour has raised $2,754 for various charities, including Detroit's Urban Farming, Orlando's Sea Turtle Preservation Society and the Lower East Side Ecology Centre of New York. Heap donates $1 to the charity each time a fan downloads the track.

Such generosity is all the more impressive considering the artist's own economic straits: Last week, she revealed that she may stop touring because it is too expensive and "not easy keeping afloat in this climate."

"I need to feed myself and this isn't going to help me, if I keep touring till the end of the year like I wanted to," Heap told BBC before performing in Miami, adding, "I just can't afford it. I'm going to be broke." The Grammy-winning Londoner is a classically trained pianist and recipient of the prestigious Ivor Novello songwriting award. It's a formula that encourages word-of-mouth mania, but doesn't necessarily fill stadiums.

The banks of Buffalo Bayou were merely yards away as Heap performed her latest self-produced album, Ellipse, at Bayou Place.

The Buffalo Bayou Partnership is responsible for developing and facilitating improvements to the Buffalo Bayou greenway system. In the past seven years, it has raised and leveraged over $45 million for improvements along a 10-mile stretch of Buffalo Bayou from Shepherd Dr. to the Ship Channel Turning Basin.

What's more, the organization has developed a 20-year master plan, Buffalo Bayou and Beyond, three miles of trails east of downtown, Sesquicentennial Park, the North Side Trail and the purchase of over 35 acres of land in the East End for future parks.

unspecified

Movie Review

Daniel Craig shines in Queer, an unapologetic tale of love and loss

Photo courtesy of A24

Drew Starkey and Daniel Craig in Queer.

As recently as the late 2010s, if a movie was made about an LGBTQ+ character, it was more than likely about their coming out experience. Romance, if it existed, was typically chaste, and actual sex was almost completely out of the question. Things have changed dramatically in the 2020s, to the point that a major movie star has no issue starring in a film called Queer.

Based on the 1985 novella by William S. Burroughs, the film features William Lee (Daniel Craig), whom everyone calls just Lee, a writer living in 1950s-era Mexico City who spends most of his time haunting local bars with friends like fellow writer Joe Guidry (Jason Schwartzman) and hitting on younger men. His early interactions in the film seem to indicate that Lee has a bad reputation within the local gay community, as multiple people avoid him or give him odd looks.

Lee senses an opportunity when he encounters a newcomer, Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey). Despite some awkward interactions, the two of them start spending time together, although Lee has much more invested in the relationship than Eugene does. Their hit-and-miss bond continues until Lee, who’s starting to get into drugs in addition to the booze, convinces Eugene to accompany him on a trip to South America.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes (making their second straight film together after Challengers), early on the film seems to be mostly about the divide between an older person who’s grown comfortable in his ways and a younger person who’s living a relatively carefree life. The introduction of drugs into the plot changes things, though, with Lee searching out more ways to open his eyes to what the world has to offer.

Guadagnino and his team use some interesting visual storytelling techniques to introduce ideas that may not be present in the actual script. The most successful, demonstrated in multiple scenes, is the superimposition of movements by Lee over what’s actually taking place in the scene. The subtle overlay gives the audience insight into Lee’s true feelings, showing what he can’t or won’t say out loud.

Music also plays a big part in how the plot is perceived, with the use of anachronistic songs from Nirvana and Prince serving to heighten certain moments. The score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is not as in-your-face as the one they did for Challengers, but it complements the film well, especially when the plot starts to get trippy in its final half hour.

Craig, who appears sweaty and disheveled for much of the film, is about as far from the suaveness of James Bond as you can get in this role. He takes multiple risks with his performance and almost all of them pay off. Starkey’s character is subdued by comparison, but still comes off well. Schwartzman and Lesley Manville are given showy roles, with both using altered appearances that make them nearly unrecognizable to deliver memorable performances.

Queer is not as accessible as Challengers was storytelling-wise, but the fact that it tells a story about gay men living their lives as they see fit with no interference or questions shows how far the film world has come in a short period of time. It also continues Guadagnino’s streak of making audacious films in a way that few other filmmakers are willing or able to approach.

---

Queer is now playing in theaters.

movies film

jams for dollars

Imogen Heap rocks out for Buffalo Bayou Partnership

CultureMap Emails Are AwesomeGet Houston intel delivered daily.

We will not share or sell your email address.

Movie Review

Daniel Craig shines in Queer, an unapologetic tale of love and loss

CultureMap Emails Are Awesome
Get Houston intel delivered daily.