The Straw That Stirs The Drink | Dan Smalls | TEDxUtica
Dan talks about reviving a somewhat stagnant upstate concert scene - looking at it from new eyes and in a new way. About breaking down walls of how it used to be done and creating partnerships with venues, national touring acts and their managers, agents, and saying no to the status quo --- breaking the luddite rules of an ever changing industry. About finding a place to thrive under the corporate mindset that dominates an industry... About creating something from the ashes and embers of something that once was in Ithaca and now growing that to the entire northeast.
Dan Smalls is the president of Dan Smalls Presents, a concert promotion company based out of Ithaca New York. His company books shows from Boston to Buffalo in venues like the State Theatre, Brewery Ommegang, Ani Difranco’s Asbury Hall, Daryl Hall’s club in Pawling and so on. His career has spanned over 25 years in positions from talent buyer to booking agent to festival producer, most notably part of the team that produced Phish’s first 6 festivals. His philosophy is to produce small but perfect events and work with acts he respects and that share his passion for the experience of the fans and artists alike.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at
Rethinking Pei: A Centenary Symposium, Panel 2: Spatial and Formal Practices I
Panel 2 Participants:
K. Michael Hays, moderator
Daniel M. Abramson: “Vexing Government Center”
Stuart Leslie: “I. M. Pei's Modern Monastery: the NCAR Mesa Laboratory”
Thomas Leslie: “Brutal Grace: I. M. Pei’s Early Art Centers”
Delin Lai: “Defining the Present Perfect Tense of I. M. Pei’s Space”
A two-part symposium examining the work and life of I. M. Pei from multiple vantage points. Organized by the Harvard GSD with M+, Hong Kong, and the Faculty of Architecture, The University of Hong Kong.
Ieoh Ming Pei is one of the most celebrated yet under-theorized architects of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Although Pei’s six-decade career is mostly identified with his unwavering interest in cultural synthesis and the power of pure geometrical form, his modes of practice demand further investigation of their intertwinement with the multiple historical and discursive moments of modern architecture. The two-day symposium will include panel discussions and scholarly presentations that showcase new research on Pei’s manifold contributions to the built environment. Notable alumni from Pei’s office will discuss the emergence of a new kind of architectural practice in the postwar era. Among the topics to be addressed in the paper sessions are technological innovations with concrete, the glass curtain wall, and structural designs; Pei’s longstanding affinities for China’s landscape and vernacular traditions; his legacy on major urban spaces in Boston and other cities around the world; and the increasingly global and transnational conditions of architectural production that Pei successfully navigated. Organized with M+, the new museum for visual culture being built in Hong Kong, this symposium is part of a yearlong celebration of the 100th birthday of Ieoh Ming (I. M.) Pei MArch ’46. Both I. M. and his wife, Eileen Pei GSD ’44, studied at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, as did their sons Chien Chung (Didi) Pei, AB ’68, MArch ’72, and Li Chung (Sandi) Pei, AB ’72, MArch ’76. Pei was also an assistant professor of architecture at the GSD. In March the GSD held a panel discussion, led by Harry Cobb AB ’47, MArch ’49, which focused on the formative years of I. M. Pei’s career as well as some of his special friendships, influences, and projects.
A second symposium, co-organized by M+ and the Department of Architecture at the University of Hong Kong, will be held in Hong Kong on December 14-15.
These two symposia are made possible with the generous support of the C Foundation.