4.20.2005
music, mostly
music's been on my mind this month, with the kickoff being our april 1st salon. it was interesting to hear how so many of us came to music, and in a group of folks who mostly don't play instruments we were surprisingly devoted listeners. compared to those of us who described surviving high school as geeks by memorizing songs, artists, labels, and band histories, I'm hardly "obsessed." when I hear that I think of the greek guy I knew in england who had over 1,000 cds in little plastic jackets and archival bins, which didn't stop us from only ever listening to bob marley, autechre, or the pulp fiction soundtrack.
nonetheless, I still drool every time we go into our new local record store, and end up leaving with several things I've scrounged from the used shelves. this tendency to be overwhelmed with selection, and therefore drop more than we plan, is likely why we don't go that frequently. it's sort of like being a vegetarian for years and getting used to only ever having one option for dinner, and then living in the explosion of all-vegan cafes. too many choices. being unashamedly delighted with the new wave revival, though, I'm happy to finally be able to rock out at work with folks like the killers. saturday's trip ended up being dominated by bands beginning with "the," with me being likely the last person on earth to finally pick up things I've just been mooching off people I know for years, like the strokes and the mescaleros. shopping from the used shelves is, however, the advantage to being always just that good bit behind the times. and of course, every time we stop in we get to hear about upcoming shows, the latest news being that gang of four is coming to town at the end of the month. which means my tour of duty with bands that haven't toured in over a decade will continue into 2005, with a kraftwerk show figuring prominently (gang of four and the pixies are different, since, you know, I like them).
our other musical adventure of the weekend was seeing the magic flute at the kennedy center. it was a really lovely performance, made all the more entertaining by what the critics might refer to as its timelessness. often this means that it's classic and traditional, but here it was more that we kept wondering (1) what year it was written in and (2) what year it was designed in, since both answers seemed like they should be "1967." the costumes were amazing and colorful, and the set was really well-designed, they were just a lot more on the psychedelic side than we were expecting. not having read the libretto, I didn't know the story was as fantastical as it was. that's not entirely true, I suppose -- I did know it was about a prince who uses a magic flute to go on a quest to save a princess. it was a lot of fun to discover just how fantastical the production was, and it made us laugh to hear the teenagers a few rows down exclaim at the intermission "this should be called the magic flute on crack!"
as a point of reference, the show was quite reminiscent of the "blue snake" performance at the end of the company, which is generally a boring film that I don't recommend. but the dancing is good, and the visuals of the final performance are beautiful. I likely wouldn't have rented it at all, but domingo rubio was one of the dancers in the ballet hispanico performance that I saw a couple of weeks ago, and I was curious about the mention of the film in the program.
nonetheless, I still drool every time we go into our new local record store, and end up leaving with several things I've scrounged from the used shelves. this tendency to be overwhelmed with selection, and therefore drop more than we plan, is likely why we don't go that frequently. it's sort of like being a vegetarian for years and getting used to only ever having one option for dinner, and then living in the explosion of all-vegan cafes. too many choices. being unashamedly delighted with the new wave revival, though, I'm happy to finally be able to rock out at work with folks like the killers. saturday's trip ended up being dominated by bands beginning with "the," with me being likely the last person on earth to finally pick up things I've just been mooching off people I know for years, like the strokes and the mescaleros. shopping from the used shelves is, however, the advantage to being always just that good bit behind the times. and of course, every time we stop in we get to hear about upcoming shows, the latest news being that gang of four is coming to town at the end of the month. which means my tour of duty with bands that haven't toured in over a decade will continue into 2005, with a kraftwerk show figuring prominently (gang of four and the pixies are different, since, you know, I like them).
our other musical adventure of the weekend was seeing the magic flute at the kennedy center. it was a really lovely performance, made all the more entertaining by what the critics might refer to as its timelessness. often this means that it's classic and traditional, but here it was more that we kept wondering (1) what year it was written in and (2) what year it was designed in, since both answers seemed like they should be "1967." the costumes were amazing and colorful, and the set was really well-designed, they were just a lot more on the psychedelic side than we were expecting. not having read the libretto, I didn't know the story was as fantastical as it was. that's not entirely true, I suppose -- I did know it was about a prince who uses a magic flute to go on a quest to save a princess. it was a lot of fun to discover just how fantastical the production was, and it made us laugh to hear the teenagers a few rows down exclaim at the intermission "this should be called the magic flute on crack!"
as a point of reference, the show was quite reminiscent of the "blue snake" performance at the end of the company, which is generally a boring film that I don't recommend. but the dancing is good, and the visuals of the final performance are beautiful. I likely wouldn't have rented it at all, but domingo rubio was one of the dancers in the ballet hispanico performance that I saw a couple of weeks ago, and I was curious about the mention of the film in the program.
