Do This Again, Every Year, for 10 Years
Last April 1, I wrote that there was a range of guesses at how far global greenhouse gas emissions had fallen as a result of the pandemic, snd that 40% was at far outer edge of a credible guess, which…
Betting Long
Martin Rees is a top shelf astrophysicist. England’s Royal Astronomer, Cambridge Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics, Royal Society Research Professor, foreign associate of both the National Aca…
Go to Your Room!
No one knows for sure how much global greenhouse gas emissions have fallen with the coronavirus pandemic, but it is within reason to think that it could hit 40%. According to the United Natio…
An Open Letter to Young Queers in the Time of COVID-19
Several younger queers have asked those of us who live through the worst of AIDS have any lessons from that. My answer is yes, and the lesson is that THIS IS NOT AIDS. Why does that matter? HIV is di…
THANKS TO HANK World Premiere
THANKS TO HANK, my first feature film, will have its world premiere June 27, 2019, 4:10, and the storied Castro Theater as part of Frameline’s San Francisco LGBT Film Festival. What a fitting venue. …
Thanks to Hank Kickstarter Launch
The Kickstarter campaign for my feature documentary on the life and work of Hank Wilson has launched! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/845108579/thanks-to-hank?ref=email Please give it a look an…
Understanding Nicaragua
I am often amazed at how quickly the present becomes a long gone past. Case in point: how even my news-savvy thirty-something friends know nothing of the Central American revolutions of the 1980s, and…
First THANKS TO HANK Fundraiser
Announcing the first fundraiser for the documentary I am making about beloved gay activist HANK WILSON. Comedy by Tom Ammiano, Karen S Ripley, and Laurie Bushman. Music by Blackberri Singer and Joe …
Charlie Haden, Pepe Guerra, El Salvador, and My Mistake
A musician in Berlin, Nicholas Bussman, is collecting revolutionary songs from throughout history, and asked if I would help him out by pointing him to songs from the Central American revolutions of t…
Thanks to Hank
With some reluctance, I should say that my next big project will be a documentary movie about the life of Hank Wilson. I usually don’t speak of my projects until they are done, but most of my project…
Nice piece in Blow Up
Thanks to Giuseppe Aiello for this extended profile in the Italian music magazine Blow Up. Giuseppe is also preparing the Italian translation of my book Creative Life: Music, Politics, People, and Ma…
My new hero
Rebecca Ferguson is my new hero. I’ve been asked and this is my answer. If you allow me to sing “strange fruit” a song that has huge historical importance, a song that was blacklisted in the United St…
Website of my “Say No More” project by Christopher Williams
Christopher Williams, an American musician and scholar living in Berlin, just completed his PhD dissertation, which is actually a website: Tactile Paths: on and through notation for improvisers Tact…
New Music Release: Wish You Were Here: World Tour 2015-2016
Pleased to announce the release of music from my a-year-a-month-and-a-day world tour from March 2015 through April 2016. https://bobostertag.bandcamp.com/album/wish-you-were-here Like most of my r…
Don Buchla, my friend
How strange. My previous blog post was about a private concert I performed for Don Buchla. My post today is about his death. But then, no one I have ever met was more comfortable with life’s strangen…
First interview in Spanish
As far as I can remember, this is the first time I have ever done a radio or podcast interview in Spanish. Recorded in April in Lima, Peru. http://cazartruenos.blogspot.de/2016/06/cazar-truenos-prog…
Synth Pioneers and Inventors
Two beautiful intimate concerts in recent days. First was a private concert for synth pioneer Don Buchla at his home in Berkeley California. I first encountered his instruments in 1975 when I played …
Publication of my fifth book
Happy to announce the publication of my fifth book. Sex Science Self: A Social History of Estrogen and Testosterone. If you would, order it from University of Massachusetts Press instead of Amazon. …
Lonely and Scary Times for Sexual Diversity in Indonesia
A recent New York Times editorial decried new laws against nongovernmental organizations that promote human rights and democracy in China, India, Egypt and elsewhere. In China, the new law comes as pa…
A Book of Hours – European Premiere in Prague
Just back from the European premiere of A Book of Hours at the vs. Interpretation festival in Prague. Not only was it the European premiere, it was the first time I had all three of the vocalists toge…
March 26+28, 2016: Montevideo, Uruguay
Two solo concerts in Montevideo, courtesy of the tireless organizing efforts of Nandy Cabrera. Nice gigs, and Montevideo turns out to be a very appealing, relaxed city. https://www.facebook.com/event…
March 24, 2016: Valdivia, Chile with Fred Frith
How wonderful to play a duo concert with Fred Frith after a year on the road. Fred is both my longest musical collaborator and my longest continuous friendship. We first met and played together in 197…
March 11, 2016: Living Cinema in Buenos Aires
Last night, Living Cinema, my long-time duoe with live animator Pierre Hebert, performed our most recent work, “Shadow Boxing,” at the Teatro Colòn in Buenos Aires. Love working with Pierre Hebert…
March 8-9-10-11: Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires
Whirlwind time in Buenos Aires at the Teatro Colón. Four concerts of my music in four nights. Many different projects. Two world premieres. Barely keeping up with it all. The most exciting part, for …
February 27, 2016: Denpesar, Bali
Informal concert at the Tukad Abu art space and general hang out zone in the capital of Bali, organized by Jonas Sestakresna, one of the quietest, kindest artists I have met. Tukad Abu is the cente…
January 31, 2016: Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia
Really nice and surprising show last night in Makassar. Everyone in Java was confused about why I was playing in Makassar. No one had ever heard of anyone playing in Makassar. “There is no scene there…
January 22, 2016: Jogja Noise Bombing Festival 2016
Mind Blown! Jogja Noise Bombing Festival 2016 was maybe the most fun, exciting, crazy, energetic, communal, punk rock nights of live electronic music I have ever experienced. Wow. Performers included…
Spectrum, Brooklyn NY. August 27, 2015
Played a set at the Spectrum, a way underground experimental queer arts and party space in Brooklyn. The kind of space that queer culture desperately needs but is in such short supply. Many many thank…
Performing “Sooner or Later” in El Salvador
Yesterday I performed my composition Sooner or Later in El Salvador at the Perquin Summer Festival. This is the music I made from a recording of a young Salvadoran boy burying his father. Perquin is …
Leaving Europe after Four Months
Leaving Europe. With the exception of a week in Beirut, I have been here four months. So many people to thank. Jon Rose and Gerry Hemingway who I played with in Nickelsdorf, Phil Minton who I played …
Rose-Hemingway-Ostertag at Konfrontation Festival, Nickelsdorf
Nice photos courtesy of Bogdan Edi Dimitriu. Thank you!
Interview published in Mexico
Interview by Mexico City-based musician Walter Schmidt today published in Spanish in Milenio, one of Mexico’s major national newspapers. Bob Ostertag: Periodista Radical y Músico Experimental
July 19: with Hans Falb in Nickelsdorf.
The Nickelsdorf festival was a joy. High points certainly included hearing Eddie Prevost’s set with John Edwards and Tom Chant, and hearing Olaf Rupp play in a trio with vibist Els Vandemeyer. After d…
July 17-19. Konfrontation Festival. Nickelsdorf, Austria.
In the tiny town of Nickelsdorf on the Austria-Hungarian border at the Konfrontation Festival. On the 17th I played solo. Tonight I play with my trio with Jon Rose and Gerry Hemingway. Lovely to pla…
Bar Florio. Cagliari, Italy. June 16, 2015.
Last minute concert at the Bar Florio in Cagliari, at the southern tip of Sardinia. Concert was outdoors in the plaza in front of the bar. Gorgeous public space. Toddlers running around. Older kids on…
Brno, Czech Republic. June 13, 2015.
Super fun concert in Brno. The grand plan was an outdoor concert in a field in a forest. Sort of a rave. A major wave of rain, thunder and lightening moved everything into an old stone building nearby…
Ausland. Berlin, Germany. June 12, 2015
Nice gig in Berlin at Ausland, one of the longest running clubs for adventurous music in Berlin. I often play there when passing through Berlin. The nicest people run the place. Very relaxed vibe. Nic…
May 30-31. Solo and Duo with Phil Minton. Serralves em Festa! Festival. Porto, Portugal.
Two concerts at the Serralves em Festa! Festival in Porto. First a solo. Then a duo with Phil Minton. Phil is one of my dearest friends and one of my longest time collaborators. I first played with h…
Noci, Italy. May 27, 2015.
Noci. Lovely time. Concert in a very old convent with Giuseppe Tria, Gianni Console, Donato Console, and Wetfootwolt Hold Off, the latter playing, among other instruments, a tuned and amplified br…
Giulanova and Termoli, Italy. May 23 and 25, 2015
After the Strozzi Palace in Florence I went to Giulianova for a small concert organized by Giuseppe Di Berardino, a small-town orthodontist who developed a consuming passion for adventurous music in …
Palacio Strozzi. Florence, Italy. May 21, 2015
Concert in Florence was a real high point. Played in the Palacio Strozzi, an icon of renaissance architecture and the city’s major venue for contemporary art. The concert was covered on Italian TV ne…
Rome, Italy. May 18, 2015
Another nice show, this time in Rome at a club called Dal Verme. This club seems like any other rock dive, with a black storefront, a small industrial looking bar, and then stairs down to the music cl…
Napoli, Italy. May 14, 2015.
Fantastic time In Napoli. Concert was at L’Asilo. Biggest crowd of the tour so far. Great space: vibrant, energetic collective of musicians and artists of all kinds. Napoli seems completely ungen…
Beirut, Lebanon. May 9-13, 2015.
Incredible time in Beirut, hosted by Sharif Sehnaoui. Three concerts and an hour-long radio broadcast. First concert was a solo concert with gamepad-and-virtual-synthesizer at the Yukunkun club. T…
Echofluxx Festival. Prague, Czech Republic. May 6, 2015.
Very nice to share a bill in Prague with Phil Niblock, who I believe I first met in 1978 in NYC. Even older than me!
Area Sismica. Forli, Italy. April 25, 2015.
Meet Piero Ruscelli. One of the 3 producers of my concert in For, Italy at Area Sismica. The only place I know where a man like Piero, who never went to college or high school and worked as a barber …
Resonate Festival. Belgrade, Serbia. April 14, 2015.
In Belgrade I played at a festival called Resonate, a hugely ambitious festival or art, music and technology. My participation is here. Lots of press for this show. Here is a lengthy interview from t…
Solo concert in Mexico City. April 10, 2015
Very informal concert at a bar in downtown Mexico City. Organized by a musician collective called Castillos en el Aire. Nice to play for my Mexico City amigos and many Mexican musicianshttps://www.f…
Solo Concert at Roulette, Brooklyn NY. March 17, 2015
Lovely start to the tour at Roulette, with opening duo of Ikue More and Jim Staley, both friends of 30 years. I played at the original Roulette in Manhattan many many many moons ago. The new Roulette …