Ordinary Madness: Musicians Meet Bukowski April 18, 2008

A quartet of Angeleno composer-performers pays homage to the city’s beloved dirty old man of poetry, Charles Bukowski, with a night of music performance and poetry based on some of his most incendiary writings. Performing under the direction of Joanne Gordon (Love Bukowski, Short Hairs and Long Shots), Martin Herman, Art Jarvinen, Amy Knoles and Marc Lowenstein dare the audience to feel as passionately as Bukowski did throughout his life and work. Neither sensational nor obvious, Ordinary Madness explores the complex nuances of Bukowski’s world -- violent and iconoclastic, charitable and tender. Baritone Paul Berkolds joins the composers on stage in this original event that raises questions of conformity and rebellion, class and sex war, cowardice and heroism -- and love. This is mature material and not for the faint of heart, but promises to delight Bukowski fans and inspire a generation of new ones.