November 2007 25th Next Wave Festival

Mikhail Baryshnikov, VOOM Portrait by Robert Wilson, 2004

BAM 25th Next Wave Festival is sponsored by:

ENCOREThe Performing Arts Magazine Altria 25th Next Wave Festival

Brooklyn Academy of Music

Alan H. Fishman William I. Campbell Chairman of the Board Vice Chairman of the Board

Karen Brooks Hopkins Joseph V. Melillo President Executive Producer presents The BQE

Approximate BAM Howard Gilman Opera House running time: Nov 1-3, 2007 at 8pm one hour and 50 minutes, By including one intermission Part I THE BQE World premiere

-intermission-

Part II SUFJAN PLAYS THE HITS

The BQE commissioned by BAM

BAM 25th Next Wave Festival is sponsored by Altria Group, Inc.

Music Programming at BAM is made possible by a generous grant from The State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.

Additional support is provided by the Cowles Foundation.

Endowment funding for The BQE has been provided by The Andrew W Mellon Foundation Fund for Opera and Music-Theater. The BQE

Music and film by Sufjan Stevens Cinematography Reuben Kleiner and Sufjan Stevens Editors Malcolm Hearn , Reuben Kleiner, and Sufjan Stevens Conductor Michael Atkinson Audio engineer Christopher Colbert Projectionist and video artist Deborah Johnson Costume design Caroline McAlister Lighting design and engineer Alban Sardzinski Production manager Lisa Moran Production stage manager Mary Susan Gregson

BAND Casey Foubert electric guitar, bass, vocals Yuuki Matthews electric bass, vocals James McAlister drums and percussion Sufjan Stevens , guitar, banjo, celesta Shara Worden vocals, celesta, guitar

CHAMB ER ORC HESTRA Beth Meyers viola Corrina Albright viola Matt Moran percussion Tim Albright trombone Jane O'Hara cello Pico Alt violin Suzy Perelman violin Hideaki Aomori clarinet Damian Primis bassoon Michael Atkinson horn Theodore Primis horn Kiku Enomoto violin Jody Redhage cello Mat Fields bass Kyle Resnick trumpet Josh Frank trumpet Hiroko Taguchi violin Alan Hampton bass Arthur Sato oboe Marla Hansen vio la Miranda Sielaff vio la Jay Hassler clarinet Alex Sopp flute Maria Jeffers cello Leigh Stuart cello Benjamin Lanz trombone Naho Tsutsui violin Olivier Manchon violin Arnie Weiss violin vio lin Sato Moughalian flute

HOOPERS Elaine Tian Lindsay Brickel Anastasia-Dyan Pridlides Stefan Pildes Matthew Krueger The BQE

BAM presents singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens songs referencing Chevrolet trucks, back seats, in the world premiere of the 25'h Next Wave hatchbacks, and car factory jobs. But this is commissioned work The BQE-a 30-minute not the typical machismo fascination with symphonic and cinematic exploration of New York cars-horsepower and acceleration-but rather a City's infamous -Queens Expressway. metaphysical romance with movement, progress, A controversial roadway since its inception in and the American landscape, wrestled out with the 1930s, the BQE tears through 11.7 miles of the politics of transportation and car companies. Brooklyn and Queens, severing neighborhoods, The automobile has come to symbolize one of pillaging industrial yards, and contouring the most efficient mechanisms of the American waterways with the brute force of modern urban Dream, the machine by which drivers achieve planning. their own Manifest Destiny. In this context, The BQE seeks to uncover, through soundscape and For the unacquainted driver, the BQE is a beast cinematography, the countless characteristics to be reckoned with. Unlike the high speed of that Manifest Destiny when converged with Autobahn or the prestigious New Jersey Turnpike, urban blight. As a musical and visual expedition, the BQE is a battered and baffling roadway The BQE forages cement surfaces, badly marked plagued by relentless constriction and inexplicable exits, stilted bridges, spectacular city views, road traffic jams. Pot holes, steep grades, sharp turns, workers, commuters, and construction sites for traffic cones, detours, and a parade of big rigs systems and patterns of mass movement that map and Mack trucks create a rollercoaster obstacle out an epic legend inscribed in the twists and course for the unsuspecting commuter. Crumbling turns of city life. The BQE presents a consensus concrete, rusted buttresses, and a persistent cast of abstract patterns of movement and sound of billboards advertising big cars and Hollywood personified in the snakelike meandering of roads , movies convey less an interchange of traffic and evoking a narrative pattern in traffic, in the effects more a post-modern joy ride through the carnival of weather and pollution, in the constant activity spook house of Brooklyn and Queens. of automobiles, the music of the car horn and the hydraulic brake, and the reverent hum of For Stevens, the expressway is not an the combustible car engine thumping for miles unlikely love interest. Born in Detroit, MI, his around. preoccupation with the automobile is apparent in The Hula Hoop vs. The BQE

by Sufjan Stevens

What does a Hula Hoop have to do with a crowded urban expressway? Much like the automobile, the hoop relies on the basic laws of physics administrated by the simple machine of the wheel , the greatest of human inventions. Notably, there are no macroscopic wheels to be found in animals or plants . It is a purely human construction. And yet the wheel has come to symbolize spiritual transcendence , reincarnation, yin and yang, Chakra , the wheel of life, the calendar, the seasons, astrology, and divinity. We are contained by the rotations of the planets and moons around the sun; we are all cosmically connected by vast circular motions in the solar system. Is it no wonder, then , that this geometric phenomenon has been appropriated both for the modern convenience of the automobile and for the amusement proffered by a plastic toy?

Perhaps a creative exegesis of the hoop might begin to unravel the bureaucratic mysteries of the interstate roadway, the automobile, and the Hula Hoop's unlikely nemesis: Robert Moses. A renowned critic of idle recreation, Moses often orchestrated his park projects around more competitive, athletic endeavors: mammoth swimming pools, diving boards , baseball diamonds, and tennis courts . These hefty, utilitarian designs were modern responses to Frederick Law Olmstead's romantic topography intended for less strenuous activities: afternoon strolls, Sunday picnics, and , perhaps, Hula Hooping. Of course, there was nothing natural, bucolic, or egalitarian about Moses's park designs: blocky, The BQE - Additional Who's Who

Corrina Albright (viola) is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music. She is heard frequently with such diverse groups as DiCapo Opera, Chelsea Opera, Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, Ionization New Music Ensemble, and is a member of Brooklyn-based rock band La Strada . Recently she has played with jau bassist and composer Ike Sturm, jau pianist and songwriter Anna Dagmar, and jau trombonist and composer Alan Ferber. Albright is on Extended Day faculty at the Berkeley Carroll School in Park Slope.

Tim Albright (trombone) is a chamber musician and a cutting-edge jau artist. He is a regular member of many New York ensembles including Atlantic Brass Quintet, Argento New Music Project, and the Riverside Symphony. Albright is also a long-standing member of renowned saxophonist Steve Coleman's group, Five Elements, widely considered one of the most challenging gigs in jazz. He can be heard on numerous recordings and has toured extenSively throughout Europe, Africa, Asia, and the US. Other appearances have included the Intemational Contemporary Ensemble and the Maria Schneider Orchestra. He is frequently heard in the orchestras of current Broadway shows. Albright attended the Eastman School of Music.

Mlo "Plco" Alt (violin) entered the Juilliard Pre-college division at the age of ten and graduated with a BM from the school in 2005. She has attended music festivals all around the world and performs frequently in the area.

Hldeakl Aomorl (clarinet, saxophone) is a mUlti-instrumentalist freelance musician specializing in classical, jau, and popular music. Past collaborations include performances with Sir Roland Hanna, Tito Puente, Ron Carter, Sufjan Stevens, Kennedy Center Opera Orchestra, and Moscow Chamber Orchestra. A native of Japan, he majored in clarinet performance at The Juilliard School, jau saxophone at Queens College, and is currently completing his doctoral degree at Stony Brook University. His past teachers include Ayako Oshima, Antonio Hart, and Dan Gilbert.

Mike Atkinson (conductor, french horn) has performed throughout Europe and the US with Sufjan Stevens playing French hom. He has also adapted tracks from Sufjan's Enjoy Your for the string quartet Osso, which were premiered at the 2007 Music NOW! Festival in Cincinnati. Atkinson plays principal hom in the orchestra for Broadway's production of Les Miserab/es, and received his BM and MM degrees from The Juilliard School.

Christopher Colbert (audio engineer) was raised by raccoons in eastern Los Angeles. They taught him much about music and audio engineering. The flashing lights and brightly colored knobs keep him happy and quiet.

'Mat Fleldes (bass) is equally comfortable in jau, rock, hip-hop, R&B, and classical genres, Fieldes has collaborated with such luminaries as Joe Jackson, John Gale, Omette Coleman, Steve Vai, Peter Erskine, Paquito D'Rivera, Krist jan Jarvi, Joe Williams, Arturo Sandoval, and Toni Tennille, among others. His recent appearances include The Dream Engine-the latest vehicle for legendary songwriter Jim Steinman. In 2006 he performd with the acclaimed crossover hip-hop virtual band Gorillaz, live at the Apollo Theater, and hip-hop luminary Jay-Z at . In 2001, he performed on Joe Jackson's album, Symphony, which won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental.

Casey Foubert (guitar, vocals, piano) is a multi-instrumentalist, engineer, and producer who lives in the area. He has toured and recorded with , Richard Swift, Sufjan Stevens, Jeremy Enigk, TW Walsh, Crystal Skulls, , and Pedro the Lion.

Joshua Frank (trumpet) performs and teaches in New York City. Frank has performed with Riverside Symphony, Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, Long Island Philharmonic, New Haven Symphony, New World Symphony, and many others ensembles. In past summers he has been a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center. Frank received his Bachelor's Degree from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Raymond Mase and Mark Gould.

Alan Hampton (bass) studied Jau Performance at the New School and was at The Thelonious Monk Institute at USC, where he found opportunity to study and perform worldwide with jau icons such as Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Jack DeJonnette, Clark Terry, and many others. He graduated from The Thelonious Monk Institute in 2005 and returned .to New York where he has found himself in a variety of musical situations.

Marla Hansen (viola) is a violist and singer-songwriter. She is a member of the string quartet Osso, and has worked with , The National,lnlets, The New Pornographers, Oneida, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Duncan Sheik, Alice Coltrane, and of course Sufjan Stevens. Her debut EP, Wedding Day, is available on Standard Recording.

Jay Hassler (clarinet) is a graduate of Manhattan School of Music. He performs as a clarinetist in a wide variety of groups throughout the world. He has been featured as a soloist with the L.:viv Philharmonic in Ukraine as well as the national orchestra of the Philippines. He has worked with many notable music figures from many different genres including Wayne Shorter, Andrea Bocelli , Randy Newman, and Anna Netrebko.

Malcolm Hearn (film editor) first discovered his language was film while interviewing a gravedigger in Liberia. Since then, he has wandered the earth with his passion for filmmaking and now calls Brooklyn home.

Maria Jeffers (cello) is a natural born Rock Star. She was born in Los Angeles. On her seventh birthday, she asked for a My Pretty Pony, but instead received a cello and her love was born. When Jeffers isn't rocking out with Sufjan, she loves to play Bach , Beethoven, Brahms, The Beatles, and she is quite partial to Belgian Beer.

Deborah Johnson (projectionist, video artist) is Brooklyn-based and has designed live video accompaniment for Wilco, Lambchop, Calexico, and Sufjan Stevens, performing around the globe in such legendary venues as Radio City Music Hall, Madison Square Garden, The Fillmore in San Francisco, The Ryman in Nashville, and Wiener Konzerthaus in Vienna, Austria. She has collaborated with a number of renowned visual artists in the creation of these sets, including painter Fred Tomaselli for Wilco and filmmaker Jarnes Clauer for Lambchop. Collaborations with artisVprogramrner Siebren Versteeg on visualization and animation programs can be seen in her recent work with Stevens, including two of his forthcoming music videos. Later this month she will be performing with the Japanese pop-duo Chocolat & Akito in a "lounge club" next to Tokyo Disneyland. She is super psyched.

Reuben Kleiner (cinematographer) is an award-winning Cinematographer with experience in narrative, documentary, and experimental film. In 2006 he ranked among the top nine student cinematographers in North America by Eastman Kodak for his 16mm short, Birth of the Box . A graduate of Pratt Institute, Kleiner pairs his emotional sensitivities and abstract thought to enliven even the most mundane settings.

Benjamin Lanz (trombone) has toured and recorded with Sufjan Stevens; performed, arranged, and recorded with My Brightest Diamond; performed with the Kennedy Center Opera Orchestra; and has given two solo recitals, as well as performed with many other prominent musicians and groups this past year. He is associated with the contemporary music ensembles Companion Star: For the Living and the Dead (including an annual residency at Malardalen University in Vasterils Sweden); ensemble, inc.; and Magnetic North and is currently working on projects focused around the expansion of solo trombone repertoire through the commissioning of new works by young composers. Lanz completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Stony Brook University in spring of 2007.

Olivier Manchon (violin) also plays viola, saw, guitar, piano, and is a mean recorder player. He is undeniably French. He is a member of string quartet, Ossa, which often accompanies Sufjan Stevens and My Brightest Diamond. Manchon arranges and performs with Clare & The Reasons and his own band, The Orchestre de Chambre Miniature. Currently, Manchon plays violin and guitar for the Broadway show Spring Awakening.

Yuuki Matthews (bass) is a Seattle-based multi-instrumentalist. He has played with several Seattle bands including Pedro the Lion, Crystal Skulls, and Seldom. He is currently working on a soundtrack for an upcoming independent film and material for a new album of his own. Caroline McAlister (costume designer) is a costume and apparel designer based in Seattle, WA. She is a graduate of the Apparel Design program at Seattle Central, where she debuted her conceptual Spring 2008 line, URI URI. Her first collaboration with Sufjan was in 2006, creating the Majesty Song Bird and Butterfly Brigade. She accompanied his North American tour as "Wing Master," where she resurrected broken wings. She is honored to collaborate once again on The 8Q£.

James McAlister (drums and percussion) has recorded, toured, and collaborated with Sufjan Stevens since 2004. He plays drums on Illinois, The Avalanche, and Songs for Christmas . He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Percussion from the University of Tulsa, and has toured Intemationally since 2000 with the rock band Ester Drang and songwriter Richard Swift, among others.

Beth Meyers (viola) performs in janus (flute/viola/harp trio), QQQ, (a Norweigen folk music-influenced quartet), and Clare and The Reasons. She also sings the music of Steve Reich with So Percussion and Alarm Will Sound. She lives for good new music, good food, and the great outdoors.

Rob Moose (violin) moved to New York in 2000 to pursue a violin performance degree at Manhattan School of Music. In 2005, he joined , playing guitar, violin, and singing for world tours including shows at Royal Albert Hall and Late Night with David Letterman. Since playing on the album Illinois, Moose has continued to work with Sufjan Stevens, including conducting and co­ orchestrating his concert at the Kennedy Center Opera House. He's played and recorded with Jay-Z, Duncan Sheik, My Brightest Diamond, Savion Glover, James carter, Alice and Ravi Coltrane, Burt Bacharach, Linda Thompson, and The Walkmen.

Matt Moran (percussion) is an indispensable part of a wide range of groups, from his own brass band Slavic Soul Party! to John Hollenbeck's Claudia Quintet, from new music vibraphone to piano-pop drumming, from jazz quartets to Greek zouma music. Moran received a master's degree from New England Conservatory, where he studied with visionary composer and improviser Joe Maneri.

Sato Moughallan (flute) a chamber musician and soloist with the Diaghilev Festival (Perm, Russia), Moussem Culturel d'Asilah (Morocco), Festival de Prades (France), and has played at Pablo casals, Skaneateles, , Cape May, Adirondack Festival of American Music, Bar Harbor, Music from Salem, Mohawk Trails Concerts, and Costa Rica International Festivals. She has offered classes in such diverse places as Tblisi, Georgia, Beijing, China, and Cali (Colombia) . She is a member of the Quintet of the Americas, American Modern Ensemble, and has appeared as guest flutist with numerous groups including Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Richardson Chamber Players, New York Chamber Ensemble, Counterlnduction, and Amadeus Virtuosi. She is the solo flutist of Gotham Chamber Opera, L.:Opera Fran~ais de New York, New Philharmonic Orchestra of NJ, St. Patrick's cathedral, Colonial Symphony, and guest principal with American Ballet Theatre, American Symphony Orchestra, Long Island Philharmonic, Westfield and Stamford Symphonies, and Sao Paulo State Orchestra (Osesp). Moughalian co-founded MAYA, and is artistic director of Perspectives Ensemble.

Jane O'Hara (cello) is originally from Ireland. Now based in Brooklyn, she is in the Syrius Trio and plays with The Knights, Wet Ink, and Quartet T. She has also played with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble in concerts at Zankel Hall and Ozawa Hall.

Suzy Perelman (violinist) can be heard playing in Brooklyn Philharmonic, Long Island Philharmonic, and various Broadway shows. She is also the teacher of fifteen young violinists ranging in age from four to twelve. In her spare time, Perelman loves rollerblading, word games, playing chamber music, long walks, concerts, and trapeze.

Damian Primls (bassoon) is skilled on bassoon and contrabassoon, performs extensively with the Princeton Symphony, Absolute Ensemble, Barge Music, Handel and Haydn Society, Brooklyn Philharmonic, New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theater, Orpheus Chamber Ensemble, Queens Symphony, and Long Island Philharmonic. In 2003 Primis went on an international concert tour with the Orchestra of the 18th Century under the baton of Frans Bruggen performing the complete Beethoven Symphonies on period instruments. Primis completed his masters degree at The Juilliard 35 School, where he also completed his bachelor's as a scholarship student of Frank Morelli and David Carroll.

Theodore Prlmls (french horn) is originally from Alaska and came to New York to study as a scholarship student of Jerome Ashby's at JUiliiard. Primis performs extensively in New York as a freelance musician playing everything from movies to performing with many of the area's top orchestras. He is also currently principal horn at Wicked on Broadway.

Jody Redhage (cello) is a composer and vocalist and a passionate proponent of new music and chamber music. She has premiered over 100 pieces, and especially loves to Sing and play cello at the same time. She has performed with artists as diverse as the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Neil Diamond, Jay-Z, Enya, Guster, Duncan Sheik, the Flux Quartet, and has worked with composers George Crumb, Michael Gordon, David Lang, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Julia Wolfe, and Lois Vierk. Redhage recently released a CD of new works for voice, cello, and electronics, All Summer in a Day.

Kyle Resnick (trumpet) is a multi-faceted New York-based musician who has performed or recorded around the globe with artists ranging from Placido Domingo to Shakira . At home, he plays in venues like Carnegie Hall and the Bowery Ballroom. In his free time he usually is thinking about what he wants to have for dinner.

Alban Sardzlnskl (lighting designer) is passionate for the arts and has worked with many artists including Wilco, Linda Ronstadt, Thursday, , Vertical Horizon, and Killswitch Engaged. Currently he is with See Factor Industry Inc. as a sales associate.

Arthur Sato (oboist) appears regularly with Cygnus Ensemble and Second Instrumental Unit and has collaborated with Herbie Hancock and Alicia Keys. In 2006, he was chosen as a founding member of The Academy, the resident chamber music and outreach ensemble of Carnegie Hall. Sato has performed as principal oboe in The Juilliard Centennial Tour Orchestra and Richmond (IN) Symphony, and has appeared with Oregon Symphony and Haddonfield Symphony. He holds a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School, and a Bachelor of Music from Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music.

Alex Sopp (flute) lives, loves, and plays all genres of music in New York City. She performs, premieres, and records with NOW Ensemble, Philip Glass, The National, , The Knights, and ACME, and recently appeared with the and the Mark Morris Dance Group Music Ensemble. Sopp is a graduate of The Juilliard School where she studied with Robert Langevin and Carol Wincenc.

Hlroko Taguchl (violin) has toured with the Dixie Chicks, East Village Opera Company, and appeared live on stage with such artists as Wynton Marsalis, , Donna Summer, Ray Lamontagne, and many others.

Naho Tsutsul (violin) is originally from Japan, received her BM from North Carolina School of the Arts, and both her MM and DMA from the Stony Brook University. She is a member of the Hyperion String Quartet and is on the violin faculty at the Bloomingdale School of Music in Manhattan, as well as the Kinhaven Music School in Vermont.

Arnie Weiss (violin) plays with the Knights Chamber Orchestra, Allsar Quartet, Columbia Composers, and the improvisation group, Eunoia. In the past year, she toured internationally with the Bill T. JonaSAmie Zane Dance Company, Youth Orchestra of the Americas, and Ensemble 21, and appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night with Conan O'Brian with singer Teddy Thompson. The 2007-D8 Season includes performances at the Museum of Biblical Art in Manhattan, National Gallery of Dublin, The Stone, and The Seattle Rhetoricians Union.

Shara Worden (vocals, celeste, guitar) received a BM in vocal performance from the University of North Texas. In the present day she has a band called My Brightest Diamond , and has released two on Sufjan's label, Asthmatic Kitty. She lives with two sassy white rabbits. The Hula Hoop vs. The BQE

boxy cement landscapes that resembled more prison yard than public park. Indeed , his roadways often took this aesthetic to the extreme. Like most highway projects of the time, the BQE was an execution of bullishness mixed with economic fastidiousness, a project that championed commerce, cars, and the commuter work force in spite of the "disorderly" charm of Brooklyn's network of villages and neighborhoods, settled long before the automobile.

Much like the interstate highway, the Hula Hoop came of age in the 1950s, at the height of the post-war road building enterprise, coinciding with other idle pastimes more closely associated with the automobile: drive-in movies, drive-through diners, and tail gate parties, to name a few. But the hoop is actually an ancient artifact, used by children and adults alike in ancient Greece and Egypt over 3000 years ago. But it wasn't until 1958 (just a few years before the completion of the BQE) , that a company called Wham-O released the first commercially manufactured version of the hoop in the U.S. Inspired by the choreography of Hawaiian hula dancers and their resemblance to the movements of hoopers, Wham-O trademarked their toy Hula-Hoop, a proprietary name now considered a misnomer, since hooping and hula dancing have no relation at all. Regardless, the hoop was a hit. Wham-O sold over 100 million hoops in two years (outselling automobiles worldwide), and a few years later, hit it big with another circular "invention": the Frisbee .

But the hoop couldn't be more at odds with the principles of modernity. Americans of the 1950s were linear people, hard working, and industrious. They fought world wars, drove big cars, and built mammoth roadways in the name of progress . Their popular sports reflected the same: baseball and football were competitive and strategic games organized around angular and grid-like fields , positioning bases and end zones against a series of linear movements. The hoop couldn't be more different. It required no teams. It wasn't competitive . It wasn't linear. It was philosophically personal and metaphysically absurd, a gratuitous recreation built around a simple circular tube of plastic meant for nothing more than idle enjoyment and exercise.

As a symbolic construction, the hoop is an existential goldmine. Insulated against the world, the hooper resides within a circular plane, a tube of plastic, shielding himself against the world. Like the driver of an automobile, the hooper is contained within a physical habitat, a moving object, the hoop. But while the automobile traverses a finite linear path, the hoop is hypnotized in perpetual and circular motion going nowhere, a planet revolving around its sun, the hooper. The wheels of a car instigate forward movement through time and space, signifying the path of progress. But the hoop makes momentary points of contact around the body with affectionate twists and turns, transfixed in centrifugal motion by the dance of skin. In this sense, it makes no progress at all, but instead continues its quiet meditation on the human body, the object of affection. Excerpts from the BQE Travelogue

by Elizabeth Meister homeland, early Brooklynites had thrown nature horribly out of balance. THE HOUSE SPARROW: Official Bird of the BQE* Desperate for a solution, Brooklyn turned to the motherland. So it was that in 1850, a group of residents released eight pairs of English House *Radio journalist Elizabeth Meister accompanied Sparrows in Brooklyn. They knew that back Sufjan for one week this summer scavenging the in Merrie England , their beloved sparrows did mysteries of the BQE. The following are excerpts the trick on the caterpillars and other garden from her travelogue-in-progress. pests. Unfortunately for the new Brooklynites, the first batch of immigrant sparrows turned More than three centuries ago, the area of Red belly up. Not to surrender, Nicholas Pike of the Hook now severed by the Brooklyn-Queens Brooklyn Institute sailed across the ocean to fetch Expressway used to host a series of tidal 100 more, direct from Liverpool. In 1851, half estuaries and marshes. The air was thick with immediately took wing in Brooklyn, and the other now-lost birds like Eskimo curlews and passenger 50 lucky immigrants were assigned a private pigeons, and muskrats patrolled where cars now caretaker and bred in the tower at Green-Wood creep down the Atlantic Avenue exit. But by the Cemetery. mid-nineteenth century, industrious Americans had dispensed with the wetlands, dumping They flourished. old sailing ships and excavated dirt into the marshy depressions, decapitating ancient hills One hundred fifty-seven years later, skyward of and leveling the land in favor of city blocks and a stalled Gowanus-bound lane, a particularly cobbled streets. observant BQE driver might notice an untidy nest of twigs and shredded garbage bags squashed With muskrats and birds on the run, the land into the end of the support for the traffic light at forever altered, a plague of caterpillars, tent the corner of Hicks and Kane. For here, where worms, and the like began devouring the trees. bird could live (not even a pigeon l ), In the process of "civilizing" their adopted four miniscule fresh-born House Sparrows are Excerpts from the BQE Travelogue

pecking their way into a steamy afternoon. They bringing along a few Old World friends of its own , join 150 million other House Sparrows, who over namely bedbugs, lice, and an impressive array the last century-and-a-half have proven a lot less of germs and bacteria, including tuberculosis. interested in caterpillars than they are in eating House Sparrows are one of only three songbirds farmers' grain, "recycling" household rubbish, not protected by the Federal Government (the defecating on front stoops, and picking off the others: European Starlings and Rock Doves) , eggs of bluebirds, chickadees , and other more and Americans have spent decades trying to get delicate, unsuspecting natives. In fact, look again rid of them, including a brief and nauseating and you might see, triumphant, the new mother period in the 1870s when sparrow fricassee pacing the blacktop in her righteous, defiantly was all the rage . But the immigrant sparrow, the giddy march, pecking at forgotten cheese curls Great American , has survived, even flourished , and half-eaten Nathan's hot dogs, haute cuisine where lesser birds have gone extinct. As we pave for her eager children. our roads and drive our SUVs in the name of progress, celebrate the masked one who thrives Homesick Englishmen probably didn't count on on the discarded debris of city projects and urban the fact that the House Sparrow might act as roadways- the House Sparrow, official Bird of a sort of Avian Death Squad of a different sort, the BQE! Excerpts from the BQF TraveloglJe

Brooklyn! Queens ! Here lies your 9. Your Chinese menu. Apparently, you weren't detritus, as found during the NYPD quite dexterous enough to hold the menu , dial the number, and dodge the Geo Metro that so 76th precinct BQE patrols: rudely cut you off.

1. Your cloth-and-speckled-rubber dot work glove, 10. Your tricycle which lasted through two weeks of day-labor 11. Your car tire construction gigs, jobs you got while standing 12. Your wicker chair at the corner of Flushing and Classon Avenues 13. Your dead goldfish inhaling the sweet odors of BP Petroleum tankers 14. Your Chinese menu rumbling over your head. 15. Your driver'S license 16. Your seat cushion 2. Your action figures. Bendy Spiderman with 17. Your screwdriver bite marks, former fascination of your teething 18. Your milk carton toddler? 19. Your comb and brush set 20. Your running shoe 3. Your wedding album! Photos of you and your 2l. Your romance novel man together, a lovely African-American couple, 22. Your dinnerware seeming happy .. . but perhaps the album is a 23. Your grill record of a day that was something less than 24. Your air conditioner your dream, a union that was something less 25. Your volleyball than forever? Picked up by the NYPD, and the 26. Your Nerf ball cops can't help but wonder: what happened in 27 . Your stuffed animal your car that day, as you sat in traffic with your 28. Your condoms, used, unused bumper pressed against another? What became 29. Your coffee cup of your memory then? 30. Your car seat 31. Your dead squirrel 4. Your cane. Why walk, when you can drive the 32. Your bike pedal BQEI 33. Your fan 34. Your stapler 5. Your chicken nuggets, half-eaten. Did you 35. Your hutch finally come to terms with industrial food, and 36. Your old purse think better of your culinary choice? Or did you 37. Your half-eaten donut simply overindulge on the special limited edition 38. Your house key McRib and run out of room for deep-fried chicken 39. Your shell casing byproducts? 40. Your jewelry 4l. Your wristwatch 6. Your used plastic water bottle, now holding 42. Your toy airplane mysterious yellow liquid. Perhaps Robert Moses 43. Your Wiffle ball should have considered rest stops? 44. Your briefcase

7. Your dead . Actual dirt in which to bury things is at a premium in Brooklyn after all. Perhaps cremation was too expensive?

8. Your mattress. Leave your bedding on the BQE, and the bedbugs most definitely won't bite.