This weekend, I went to a rock concert.
I went with a friend of mine, who is also a doctoral student. I'm studying Irish-American theatre history; he's looking at the Roman empire around the 4th and 5th centuries. We both are the recipients of a prestigious fellowship and have presented at numerous professional conferences. In a few years, if all goes well, we'll both be professors. And this weekend, we went to see the Northern Irish heavy metal/punk band Therapy?, at a small crowded sweaty bar. We headbanged, screamed along with the songs, threw up the horns, and generally rocked the fuck out.
Really, I spend too much time being a Responsible Adult, focused on spending my time in grad school being a Young Professional. I spend so much mental energy learning to be an academic that I sometimes forget that I have a whole 'nother side... a side that likes to go to rock shows and headbang. Letting that side out once in a while is good for the soul.
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
zip, zip, zip
Since last we spoke I posted, I have been in Cork... again! The Orchestra went down to Cork two weekends ago, for a concert. The experience was mostly similar to last year's concert in Cork-- we even stayed in the same hotel!-- with two main differences.
1. We didn't play at the UCC campus, but rather at St. Finbar's Cathedral.
It looks gothic and medieval, doesn't it? It was actually built in the mid-19th century! So only about 150 years old. It's a beautiful building, though the acoustics left something to be desired, very echo-y and hard to hear fellow players. That's the only picture I took of the Cork trip, anyway; the pictures from last year's trip pretty much cover the rest.
2. At the after-party, this time I got to be a part of the trad session! I brought my ukulele down, and it was a total hit among the orchestra. Early in the party, when people were taking turns singing or playing songs, I played an Amanda Palmer song for the orchestra; then, when the session started up, I played along, even though the ukulele is not exactly a trad instrument! It was a ton of fun.
The following weekend-- this past weekend-- we had another concert, in Galway. This one was at St. Nicholas' church, which is actually a medieval church and has a delicious lingering melty acoustic. I love playing there! The concert went well, too... though it was a bit sad for me, because now Orchestra is over until the fall. I love playing music, and having that outlet is something I look forward to every week. Oh well, I guess I'll have to tide myself over playing pop songs on the ukulele.
This coming weekend-- tomorrow, actually-- I am going to Dublin for a conference! The conference, held at Trinity College, is put on by the Irish Society for Theatre Research. In other words, professionals in my field! It's a big conference, one with multiple talks going on simultaneously, and will take up part of Thursday, all day Friday, and all day Saturday. Plus a dinner on Saturday night. I'm giving a paper, though not in an actual talk; instead, it's part of a "working group," a session with maybe 6 or 8 people talking reading each others' papers and giving advice on them. A workshop, basically. I'm looking forward to it; the workshop should be really helpful, and the conference itself sounds exciting. My advisor, Lionel, is actually going to be at this one, too, since he's organizing the working group I'm a part of. It'll be nice to have a familiar face in such a big conference!
Speaking of which, I better get back to reading those papers.
1. We didn't play at the UCC campus, but rather at St. Finbar's Cathedral.
It looks gothic and medieval, doesn't it? It was actually built in the mid-19th century! So only about 150 years old. It's a beautiful building, though the acoustics left something to be desired, very echo-y and hard to hear fellow players. That's the only picture I took of the Cork trip, anyway; the pictures from last year's trip pretty much cover the rest.
2. At the after-party, this time I got to be a part of the trad session! I brought my ukulele down, and it was a total hit among the orchestra. Early in the party, when people were taking turns singing or playing songs, I played an Amanda Palmer song for the orchestra; then, when the session started up, I played along, even though the ukulele is not exactly a trad instrument! It was a ton of fun.
The following weekend-- this past weekend-- we had another concert, in Galway. This one was at St. Nicholas' church, which is actually a medieval church and has a delicious lingering melty acoustic. I love playing there! The concert went well, too... though it was a bit sad for me, because now Orchestra is over until the fall. I love playing music, and having that outlet is something I look forward to every week. Oh well, I guess I'll have to tide myself over playing pop songs on the ukulele.
This coming weekend-- tomorrow, actually-- I am going to Dublin for a conference! The conference, held at Trinity College, is put on by the Irish Society for Theatre Research. In other words, professionals in my field! It's a big conference, one with multiple talks going on simultaneously, and will take up part of Thursday, all day Friday, and all day Saturday. Plus a dinner on Saturday night. I'm giving a paper, though not in an actual talk; instead, it's part of a "working group," a session with maybe 6 or 8 people talking reading each others' papers and giving advice on them. A workshop, basically. I'm looking forward to it; the workshop should be really helpful, and the conference itself sounds exciting. My advisor, Lionel, is actually going to be at this one, too, since he's organizing the working group I'm a part of. It'll be nice to have a familiar face in such a big conference!
Speaking of which, I better get back to reading those papers.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
for when your life is just not epic enough
I am really busy these days, trying to finish a chapter in the next two-ish weeks. An important part of keeping focused while writing, I've found, is the proper music. I need music that will cover up any distracting sounds in the room while at the same time not being too distracting itself. For this purpose, I have found movie and tv soundtracks to really work. They are typically instrumental, so no distracting lyrics, but engaging enough to not get boring. The Doctor Who soundtracks, the Lord of the Rings soundtracks, or anything by Danny Elfman all are good choices.
My favorite for writing, though, is the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack! I find it to be incredibly inspirational. It makes even the most mundane activities feel absolutely epic.
That music always reminds me that, no matter what you're doing, do it with confidence and style. Even if what you're doing is sailing into port on a sinking dinghy.
This is apparently a pretty timely post, actually... I guess Johnny Depp just got voted Sexiest Man Alive for the second time. I definitely agree, and have thought this for years. I've really thought this since I was eight years old, though I might not have used the word "sexy" back then.
My favorite for writing, though, is the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack! I find it to be incredibly inspirational. It makes even the most mundane activities feel absolutely epic.
That music always reminds me that, no matter what you're doing, do it with confidence and style. Even if what you're doing is sailing into port on a sinking dinghy.
This is apparently a pretty timely post, actually... I guess Johnny Depp just got voted Sexiest Man Alive for the second time. I definitely agree, and have thought this for years. I've really thought this since I was eight years old, though I might not have used the word "sexy" back then.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
on beer and music, not in that order (in which our heroine drinks beer she doesn't like)
I didn't post last weekend, did I? Oops. Well, I didn't do much last week. Since getting back from Canada, I have mostly been working a lot. I need to write the first chapter of my thesis by Christmas! Scary! And Lionel wants the first ten-or-so pages by October 23. I spent a year reading and researching, and still I don't feel prepared to actually start writing the thing... eesh...
Other than that-- which really takes up a lot of my time, even though it doesn't make for a very interesting story-- the only 'blog-worthy thing that has happened lately was last night. My friend Jenn called me up and offered me a free ticket to "an outdoor concert" in Galway for Saturday night, somewhere "down at the docks." I had not seen one piece of advertising or heard one word about this, but I agreed, because hey-- free concert! So I went along with Jenn, her boyfriend Brian, and our friend Brianne.
It turns out that the "free concert" was the Coors Light Peak music event. Like I said, I hadn't seen any advertising for this thing, so I had no idea what was going on or what to expect. I kind of vaguely imagined a small crowd and a small platform for a couple performers. It turned out to be a huge extravaganza-- a "music event," as they called it. There were dance bands, and rock bands, and at one point a drum line standing along the walls of the stage area! There was a pretty good-size crowd, as well, with lots of people dancing. The show itself took place by the harbor, with a serious outdoor stage set up. I was surprised by the location of the concert, but the signs all said that they were playing "in the heart of shipyards and ports across 5 cities." (The other cities being Limerick, Cork, Waterford, and Dublin.)
It's actually a pretty genius marketing idea on the part of Coors Light. Get smaller bands that will play for cheap or free, just to get exposure. Play in outdoor areas that don't typically host concerts. Give away free tickets... and then only sell Coors Light to the attendees. The drinks were €5 apiece, which isn't that much more than you'd pay in a pub, but also enough that I'm sure they made a huge profit.
Of course, I don't actually like Coors Light. I bought one, just to have something to sip on during the show, but it tasted like watery pee. Then when I had about 1/3 of the pint left, Brian went and bought us all another round. I appreciated the gesture, but I also didn't want another one! So I finished the first drink quickly, which gave me a stomachache. I never finished the second pint. I'm not a beer snob, really-- I just don't like beer that tastes bad. And I happen to think that most lagers and pilsners, especially the big brands, taste bad. I'll stick with my ales and porters, thank you!
Other than that-- which really takes up a lot of my time, even though it doesn't make for a very interesting story-- the only 'blog-worthy thing that has happened lately was last night. My friend Jenn called me up and offered me a free ticket to "an outdoor concert" in Galway for Saturday night, somewhere "down at the docks." I had not seen one piece of advertising or heard one word about this, but I agreed, because hey-- free concert! So I went along with Jenn, her boyfriend Brian, and our friend Brianne.
It turns out that the "free concert" was the Coors Light Peak music event. Like I said, I hadn't seen any advertising for this thing, so I had no idea what was going on or what to expect. I kind of vaguely imagined a small crowd and a small platform for a couple performers. It turned out to be a huge extravaganza-- a "music event," as they called it. There were dance bands, and rock bands, and at one point a drum line standing along the walls of the stage area! There was a pretty good-size crowd, as well, with lots of people dancing. The show itself took place by the harbor, with a serious outdoor stage set up. I was surprised by the location of the concert, but the signs all said that they were playing "in the heart of shipyards and ports across 5 cities." (The other cities being Limerick, Cork, Waterford, and Dublin.)
It's actually a pretty genius marketing idea on the part of Coors Light. Get smaller bands that will play for cheap or free, just to get exposure. Play in outdoor areas that don't typically host concerts. Give away free tickets... and then only sell Coors Light to the attendees. The drinks were €5 apiece, which isn't that much more than you'd pay in a pub, but also enough that I'm sure they made a huge profit.
Of course, I don't actually like Coors Light. I bought one, just to have something to sip on during the show, but it tasted like watery pee. Then when I had about 1/3 of the pint left, Brian went and bought us all another round. I appreciated the gesture, but I also didn't want another one! So I finished the first drink quickly, which gave me a stomachache. I never finished the second pint. I'm not a beer snob, really-- I just don't like beer that tastes bad. And I happen to think that most lagers and pilsners, especially the big brands, taste bad. I'll stick with my ales and porters, thank you!
Monday, April 6, 2009
People's Republic of Cork
So this weekend I went to Cork with the orchestra! We performed the same concert as last week, again with the choirs from Cork and Clifden, at University College Cork. And we stayed at a 4-star hotel, which was definitely one of the nicest hotels I've ever seen! The rooms were super-comfy, the shower was gorgeous, and the food was fantastic. (The included breakfast buffet was amazing! Hot food, lots of fresh fruit, even a smorgasbord platter with fancy cheeses and meats and smoked salmon.) The Orchestra Society must have gotten a lot of money for the trip, because it only cost each of us €70 for two nights and meals.
I've been to Cork before, and it is a very urban city-- it's the second largest city in Ireland, but is only 1/10th the size of Dublin. (Dublin is about 1,500,000, and Cork is about 150,000.) I always sort of think of Cork as being like Dublin, but compressed to 1/10th its size; squeezed between two hills onto islands in the River Lee, the city seems to have all the energy and conflict of Dublin, but pressed closer together. There are sketchy alleys coming off the posh pedestrian shopping streets, and medieval cathedrals butting onto dodgy Chinese markets. And lots of graffiti, especially political graffiti. (Cork likes to pretend that it is its own country; t-shirts that say "Cork Republic" are popular [I have one!], and I have a friend who says he's from "the People's Republic of Cork.")
Given this impression, I was expecting the UCC campus to be a very urban one. So I was very surprised to see that it actually looks a lot more like what I think of as a "college campus" than other colleges I've seen in Ireland. It actually reminded me somewhat of MSU, with wide grassy spaces and footbridges over the river and exotic trees with little identifier plaques. The architecture, of course, is much more European; I heard people comparing it to Cambridge. It was very pretty, and the auditorium where we performed was all high dark wood ceilings and bookcases and stained glass windows.
Of course, the best part of the weekend was the after-party. Musicians are the best people to party with. We started drinking in the hotel bar around 10:30, and at midnight the instruments started coming out, and suddenly there was a trad session on. There was a guitar, an accordion, a bodhran, a double bass, a penny whistle, and about nine violins! The highlight, for me, was the jam session of "Summertime." It was awesome-- everyone playing took a solo, and it had an almost klezmer sound. Anyway, they jammed until after 3am, when I went to bed... and I guess they started up again at 4:30! Irish people are crazy, and musicians are crazy, and Irish musicians are the craziest. :-)
One weird thing from the weekend, though... I shared a hotel room with two British girls, one (violinist) from Yorkshire and one (cellist) from Belfast.* (That's not the weird part.) I always used to pick up lots of the speech patterns of whoever I talk to, but I don't really do that with Irish people for some reason. But after spending three days talking to the Brits, I found that I was using a lot of their syntax and inflections. It culminated Sunday afternoon when I said "pavement" instead of "sidewalk!" I don't know where that came from...
*I realize that calling someone from Belfast "British" as opposed to "Irish" is contentious and politically charged, but that is what she considered herself. I think she's Protestant. Oh, Northern Ireland...
I've been to Cork before, and it is a very urban city-- it's the second largest city in Ireland, but is only 1/10th the size of Dublin. (Dublin is about 1,500,000, and Cork is about 150,000.) I always sort of think of Cork as being like Dublin, but compressed to 1/10th its size; squeezed between two hills onto islands in the River Lee, the city seems to have all the energy and conflict of Dublin, but pressed closer together. There are sketchy alleys coming off the posh pedestrian shopping streets, and medieval cathedrals butting onto dodgy Chinese markets. And lots of graffiti, especially political graffiti. (Cork likes to pretend that it is its own country; t-shirts that say "Cork Republic" are popular [I have one!], and I have a friend who says he's from "the People's Republic of Cork.")
Given this impression, I was expecting the UCC campus to be a very urban one. So I was very surprised to see that it actually looks a lot more like what I think of as a "college campus" than other colleges I've seen in Ireland. It actually reminded me somewhat of MSU, with wide grassy spaces and footbridges over the river and exotic trees with little identifier plaques. The architecture, of course, is much more European; I heard people comparing it to Cambridge. It was very pretty, and the auditorium where we performed was all high dark wood ceilings and bookcases and stained glass windows.
Of course, the best part of the weekend was the after-party. Musicians are the best people to party with. We started drinking in the hotel bar around 10:30, and at midnight the instruments started coming out, and suddenly there was a trad session on. There was a guitar, an accordion, a bodhran, a double bass, a penny whistle, and about nine violins! The highlight, for me, was the jam session of "Summertime." It was awesome-- everyone playing took a solo, and it had an almost klezmer sound. Anyway, they jammed until after 3am, when I went to bed... and I guess they started up again at 4:30! Irish people are crazy, and musicians are crazy, and Irish musicians are the craziest. :-)
One weird thing from the weekend, though... I shared a hotel room with two British girls, one (violinist) from Yorkshire and one (cellist) from Belfast.* (That's not the weird part.) I always used to pick up lots of the speech patterns of whoever I talk to, but I don't really do that with Irish people for some reason. But after spending three days talking to the Brits, I found that I was using a lot of their syntax and inflections. It culminated Sunday afternoon when I said "pavement" instead of "sidewalk!" I don't know where that came from...
*I realize that calling someone from Belfast "British" as opposed to "Irish" is contentious and politically charged, but that is what she considered herself. I think she's Protestant. Oh, Northern Ireland...
Monday, March 30, 2009
I like my Mozart like I like my men... (Musical excitement part 2)
... gloomy and ecclesiastical? I dunno.
Background information: I have played the clarinet for 14 years (!!) and currently I'm in the NUI Galway Chamber Orchestra, also known as "Orchestra Society" or "orchestra soc."
So orchestra soc had our second concert yesterday. We put on a concert with two choirs, playing a bunch of Mozart, as well as a (choir-less) Schubert symphony. Normally, we rehearse once a week for an hour and a half. This week, in order to get things together with the choirs, we also rehearsed for 2.5 hours on Saturday and 3 hours on Sunday, before the (hour-and-a-half) concert Sunday night. The stamina in my facial muscles is not what it once was, and so by the end of the 3 hour rehearsal on Sunday afternoon I was really sore. --Sidebar-- Something that non-musicians might not know is that playing an instrument, especially a wind instrument, is painful! It can be a fairly strenuous activity. Anyway, all the extra long rehearsals did a number on me, and I had a hard time holding my embouchure by the end. And I bit through my lip callus, too,* so I had to resort to the old trick of putting a bit of wax paper over my lower teeth. That was fine for the concert-- although holding a bit of paper in my mouth makes me salivate a lot more, which causes its own set of issues-- but today it's still really raw, and drinking hot coffee kind of hurt.
But aside from all that! The concert was in the medieval church in town, which was really cool... except we didn't get to rehearse there until Sunday afternoon, and that place has weird acoustics. (It's really hard to hear the people around you, but out in the audience it sounds great.) Getting used to that was hard, and so our rehearsal on Sunday afternoon was brutal. Hugh, the conductor, was getting pretty pissed by the end. But, somehow, we brought it together for the concert! The performance went really well... the pieces with the choirs were simply gorgeous. I didn't play in a couple of the movements, so I got to just sit back, close my eyes, and listen to some glorious Mozart being played in a medieval church. Beautiful.
Our Schubert symphony, sans choirs, went quite well too. We've performed it once before, and this concert was at least four times better than the last one. The oboes were in tune, the flutes didn't make me want to kill someone (which counts a "good"), and I nailed all my solo bits. Yay.
Next weekend we are going to Cork, about threeish hours away, for our final performance. We're going down Friday, performing Saturday afternoon, and returning Sunday. It should be a fun time!
In conclusion, it has been a very musically exciting weekend, which has left me feeling rather regenerated. Music really is part of my soul. The downside, of course, is my carpal tunnel syndrome has been flaring up like crazy, and today I am wearing my wrist brace which I normally only wear to sleep. I can type surprisingly well with it, though I can't really handwrite effectively. Anyway I should stop rambling about music now, because I had actually planned on getting some work done today...
*Something else non-musicians might not know: playing a wind instrument is kind of gross.
Background information: I have played the clarinet for 14 years (!!) and currently I'm in the NUI Galway Chamber Orchestra, also known as "Orchestra Society" or "orchestra soc."
So orchestra soc had our second concert yesterday. We put on a concert with two choirs, playing a bunch of Mozart, as well as a (choir-less) Schubert symphony. Normally, we rehearse once a week for an hour and a half. This week, in order to get things together with the choirs, we also rehearsed for 2.5 hours on Saturday and 3 hours on Sunday, before the (hour-and-a-half) concert Sunday night. The stamina in my facial muscles is not what it once was, and so by the end of the 3 hour rehearsal on Sunday afternoon I was really sore. --Sidebar-- Something that non-musicians might not know is that playing an instrument, especially a wind instrument, is painful! It can be a fairly strenuous activity. Anyway, all the extra long rehearsals did a number on me, and I had a hard time holding my embouchure by the end. And I bit through my lip callus, too,* so I had to resort to the old trick of putting a bit of wax paper over my lower teeth. That was fine for the concert-- although holding a bit of paper in my mouth makes me salivate a lot more, which causes its own set of issues-- but today it's still really raw, and drinking hot coffee kind of hurt.
But aside from all that! The concert was in the medieval church in town, which was really cool... except we didn't get to rehearse there until Sunday afternoon, and that place has weird acoustics. (It's really hard to hear the people around you, but out in the audience it sounds great.) Getting used to that was hard, and so our rehearsal on Sunday afternoon was brutal. Hugh, the conductor, was getting pretty pissed by the end. But, somehow, we brought it together for the concert! The performance went really well... the pieces with the choirs were simply gorgeous. I didn't play in a couple of the movements, so I got to just sit back, close my eyes, and listen to some glorious Mozart being played in a medieval church. Beautiful.
Our Schubert symphony, sans choirs, went quite well too. We've performed it once before, and this concert was at least four times better than the last one. The oboes were in tune, the flutes didn't make me want to kill someone (which counts a "good"), and I nailed all my solo bits. Yay.
Next weekend we are going to Cork, about threeish hours away, for our final performance. We're going down Friday, performing Saturday afternoon, and returning Sunday. It should be a fun time!
In conclusion, it has been a very musically exciting weekend, which has left me feeling rather regenerated. Music really is part of my soul. The downside, of course, is my carpal tunnel syndrome has been flaring up like crazy, and today I am wearing my wrist brace which I normally only wear to sleep. I can type surprisingly well with it, though I can't really handwrite effectively. Anyway I should stop rambling about music now, because I had actually planned on getting some work done today...
*Something else non-musicians might not know: playing a wind instrument is kind of gross.
Tell me, is something eluding you, sunshine? (Musical excitement part 1)
(This past weekend, I had a lot of musical excitement! So much I'm doing it in two posts. Here is the first part...)
I don't really have favorites. I enjoy a lot of things, and I feel like ranking them devalues the inherent enjoyment in some way. If you ask for my "favorite" anything, the best I could probably give you is a top 5 list in no particular order. The major exception to this is that Pink Floyd is my number 1 favorite band ever-- not that my other "favorite" bands are lesser, but that the 'Floyd is just that much greater. So when I tell you that this weekend I saw a stage adaptation of Pink Floyd's The Wall, you can understand my excitement.
Holy. Crap.
It was, well, a stage adaptation of The Wall! It actually reminded me a little of the live version of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, where it's kind of a play and kind of a rock concert. Or maybe a play disguised as a concert. The plot and imagery were the same as the movie-- it actually used some of the movie's animations ("Goodbye Blue Sky," "What Shall We Do," and of course the infamous flower sex.) They used camerawork a lot, too; there were some pre-recorded sequences, and at least five camerapeople running around shooting different angles of the show. This stuff was shown on two big (12'x 9') projector screens on either side of the stage.
The stage stuff was mostly very faithful to the movie, although there were some artistic interpretations of certain scenes. All the characters were quite faithful... the one that deviated most was Pink himself. The actor was a guy in his 50s, slightly overweight, unshaven and with hair that was long and disheveled for most of the show. He worked really well, though. The Mother was excellent-- the part in The Trial where she ran down the stage singing "Baaaaaaaaaaaabe!" was perfect! And the Schoolmaster was spot on. He seriously looked just like the guy in the movie, mustache and angry Scottish accent and all! And he very obviously had fun with the part.
Musically-- oh man. So good! There was a 5-piece band (lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass, drums, and keyboard) and a full 25-or-so-piece choir to back them up. The choir had excellent soloists, including one really lovely tenor and one guy who sounded a LOT like Roger Waters. The lead guitarist was fantastic-- his sound was very, very similar to David Gilmour's. His solos in Comfortably Numb were gorgeous. (And he also played the recorder during "The Trial," which was hilariously fitting.) The whole performance sounded almost scarily close to the album! Having a rock band backed by a choir is really the only way to do justice to Pink Floyd. And they all obviously loved it. I was watching the band at the transition moment into "Another Brick in the Wall pt. 2," and as they ripped into "We don't need no education!" the bassist had a huge grin on his face. The choir, also, did a lot of head-bobbing and dancing in place.
What else to say about it? There was a high platform at the side of the stage from which Pink shouted at the audience during (both versions of) In The Flesh-- and during the second one, two uniformed choir members started marching up and down the aisles, and then attacked a woman and started beating her with batons! Stage "beating," of course, but I'm still not sure if she was a plant or not. They built a wall across the stage right before the intermission, each brick probably 4' x 3', and until "Comfortably Numb" (where they knocked a hole in it) they just used the cameras and shot the action going on behind it. Which was mostly Pink standing facing the wall playing the guitar, or sitting in the armchair looking crazy.
At the end, they did an encore, playing "Comfortably Numb" with the whole ensemble onstage singing and encouraging the audience to sing-- and I'm pretty sure that everyone in the room made the same little finger-flick gesture simultaneously after "OK! Just a little pin-prick!" If you know the song, you know what I'm talking about. (*Ding!*) They then ended with "Another Brick pt. 2," during which the Schoolmaster chased the little boys around the audience and threatened audience members (including me!) while the cast danced onstage and everyone sang and clapped. I really can't stress how much fun the whole thing was. And musically excellent. I would have felt I got my money's worth even without the play, the band was that good.
If you wanna find out what's behind these cold eyes, you'll just have to claw your way through this disguise...
I don't really have favorites. I enjoy a lot of things, and I feel like ranking them devalues the inherent enjoyment in some way. If you ask for my "favorite" anything, the best I could probably give you is a top 5 list in no particular order. The major exception to this is that Pink Floyd is my number 1 favorite band ever-- not that my other "favorite" bands are lesser, but that the 'Floyd is just that much greater. So when I tell you that this weekend I saw a stage adaptation of Pink Floyd's The Wall, you can understand my excitement.
Holy. Crap.
It was, well, a stage adaptation of The Wall! It actually reminded me a little of the live version of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, where it's kind of a play and kind of a rock concert. Or maybe a play disguised as a concert. The plot and imagery were the same as the movie-- it actually used some of the movie's animations ("Goodbye Blue Sky," "What Shall We Do," and of course the infamous flower sex.) They used camerawork a lot, too; there were some pre-recorded sequences, and at least five camerapeople running around shooting different angles of the show. This stuff was shown on two big (12'x 9') projector screens on either side of the stage.
The stage stuff was mostly very faithful to the movie, although there were some artistic interpretations of certain scenes. All the characters were quite faithful... the one that deviated most was Pink himself. The actor was a guy in his 50s, slightly overweight, unshaven and with hair that was long and disheveled for most of the show. He worked really well, though. The Mother was excellent-- the part in The Trial where she ran down the stage singing "Baaaaaaaaaaaabe!" was perfect! And the Schoolmaster was spot on. He seriously looked just like the guy in the movie, mustache and angry Scottish accent and all! And he very obviously had fun with the part.
Musically-- oh man. So good! There was a 5-piece band (lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass, drums, and keyboard) and a full 25-or-so-piece choir to back them up. The choir had excellent soloists, including one really lovely tenor and one guy who sounded a LOT like Roger Waters. The lead guitarist was fantastic-- his sound was very, very similar to David Gilmour's. His solos in Comfortably Numb were gorgeous. (And he also played the recorder during "The Trial," which was hilariously fitting.) The whole performance sounded almost scarily close to the album! Having a rock band backed by a choir is really the only way to do justice to Pink Floyd. And they all obviously loved it. I was watching the band at the transition moment into "Another Brick in the Wall pt. 2," and as they ripped into "We don't need no education!" the bassist had a huge grin on his face. The choir, also, did a lot of head-bobbing and dancing in place.
What else to say about it? There was a high platform at the side of the stage from which Pink shouted at the audience during (both versions of) In The Flesh-- and during the second one, two uniformed choir members started marching up and down the aisles, and then attacked a woman and started beating her with batons! Stage "beating," of course, but I'm still not sure if she was a plant or not. They built a wall across the stage right before the intermission, each brick probably 4' x 3', and until "Comfortably Numb" (where they knocked a hole in it) they just used the cameras and shot the action going on behind it. Which was mostly Pink standing facing the wall playing the guitar, or sitting in the armchair looking crazy.
At the end, they did an encore, playing "Comfortably Numb" with the whole ensemble onstage singing and encouraging the audience to sing-- and I'm pretty sure that everyone in the room made the same little finger-flick gesture simultaneously after "OK! Just a little pin-prick!" If you know the song, you know what I'm talking about. (*Ding!*) They then ended with "Another Brick pt. 2," during which the Schoolmaster chased the little boys around the audience and threatened audience members (including me!) while the cast danced onstage and everyone sang and clapped. I really can't stress how much fun the whole thing was. And musically excellent. I would have felt I got my money's worth even without the play, the band was that good.
If you wanna find out what's behind these cold eyes, you'll just have to claw your way through this disguise...
Monday, February 16, 2009
weekend update
Wow, I actually had an interesting weekend, for once!
Saturday I wasn't planning on doing anything, but then my friend Bri invited me over for movies with some friends from the Medieval Studies department. I brought over a bottle of shiraz and some Fererro Roche dark chocolates. We watched American History X (a totally appropriate Valentine's day movie) and talked about racism, and then watched Music and Lyrics and talked about how good Hugh Grant looks without a shirt. (Conclusion: very.) Nothing exciting, but it was nice to be out with friends for Valentine's day.
I'm not sure if I've mentioned it here before, but I am in the NUIG Orchestra Society. We had a concert last Monday, actually, playing a Schubert symphony. Anyway, yesterday, we had an extra-long rehearsal. Usually we meet for 90 minutes on Monday nights, but Hugh (the conductor) wanted us to take a whole afternoon because we were learning new music. We're playing some Mozart pieces, which we will eventually combine with two choirs. The rehearsal was in Esker Monastery, about 20 minutes outside of Galway. That was cool. It was a beautiful secluded building, and the monks kept popping their heads in to tell us that the music was lovely. There were some snags, because none of the parts I had were actually written for B-flat clarinet. (NB: your garden-variety clarinet is in the key of B-flat and probably 98% of music is scored for it.) One was written for an A clarinet-- this isn't too unusual, I have run into A clarinet scores before. But two were written for C clarinet! I've never even seen a C clarinet. Transposing that is easy, though, and the pieces were really simple, so I was able to do it by sight. Transposing from A to B-flat is a lot more difficult, though, and the piece had four flats already. Luckily, Hugh knew someone who lived nearby that had an A clarinet, so we took a 10-minute break from rehearsal and went to get it. And man, that was so fun! I'd never played an A clarinet before. It's just a little bigger, so that took some getting used to, but the tone is just gorgeous. Hugh is going to try transposing that movement to B-flat, but I'm hoping that we can just find an A clarinet for me to play. Yay music.
Anyway, after rehearsal we all went back to Hugh's house, and he made dinner for all 25 of us! We ate lasagna and drank wine and hung out with his wife and two little kids. Overall, it was a really nice night. I'm really happy that I decided to join Orchestra Soc. I've been playing the clarinet for 13 years, and when I'm not in an ensemble I start to get stir-crazy.
Saturday I wasn't planning on doing anything, but then my friend Bri invited me over for movies with some friends from the Medieval Studies department. I brought over a bottle of shiraz and some Fererro Roche dark chocolates. We watched American History X (a totally appropriate Valentine's day movie) and talked about racism, and then watched Music and Lyrics and talked about how good Hugh Grant looks without a shirt. (Conclusion: very.) Nothing exciting, but it was nice to be out with friends for Valentine's day.
I'm not sure if I've mentioned it here before, but I am in the NUIG Orchestra Society. We had a concert last Monday, actually, playing a Schubert symphony. Anyway, yesterday, we had an extra-long rehearsal. Usually we meet for 90 minutes on Monday nights, but Hugh (the conductor) wanted us to take a whole afternoon because we were learning new music. We're playing some Mozart pieces, which we will eventually combine with two choirs. The rehearsal was in Esker Monastery, about 20 minutes outside of Galway. That was cool. It was a beautiful secluded building, and the monks kept popping their heads in to tell us that the music was lovely. There were some snags, because none of the parts I had were actually written for B-flat clarinet. (NB: your garden-variety clarinet is in the key of B-flat and probably 98% of music is scored for it.) One was written for an A clarinet-- this isn't too unusual, I have run into A clarinet scores before. But two were written for C clarinet! I've never even seen a C clarinet. Transposing that is easy, though, and the pieces were really simple, so I was able to do it by sight. Transposing from A to B-flat is a lot more difficult, though, and the piece had four flats already. Luckily, Hugh knew someone who lived nearby that had an A clarinet, so we took a 10-minute break from rehearsal and went to get it. And man, that was so fun! I'd never played an A clarinet before. It's just a little bigger, so that took some getting used to, but the tone is just gorgeous. Hugh is going to try transposing that movement to B-flat, but I'm hoping that we can just find an A clarinet for me to play. Yay music.
Anyway, after rehearsal we all went back to Hugh's house, and he made dinner for all 25 of us! We ate lasagna and drank wine and hung out with his wife and two little kids. Overall, it was a really nice night. I'm really happy that I decided to join Orchestra Soc. I've been playing the clarinet for 13 years, and when I'm not in an ensemble I start to get stir-crazy.
Monday, October 6, 2008
What I've been up to, part 3: social life
(In which our heroine makes new friends and says goodbye to old ones.)
On Saturday 27 October, I went to Dublin for a concert. I was seeing Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls, who has just released a mighty fine solo album. I went alone, not having any friends here that listen to her music. I was a little nervous about this, because I've never been to a concert alone, but I know Dublin pretty well and I was confident that I could find ways to entertain myself. I took the train down to Dublin on Saturday afternoon and booked a hostel near the venue. I hadn't made hostel reservations in advance, so it actually took a couple tries before I found one with vacancies. Citi Hostel had availability, though, and it was only €15 a night! (Most Dublin hostels are at least €25/night.) I'll just say this: you get what you pay for. It was the sketchiest, dirtiest hostel I've ever seen in... but, it had beds and a roof, so really what else do you need for one night.
Anyway, I went down to the venue about an hour before the doors opened, and right away made a friend in the queue! I was standing right behind a nice young (18-year-old) Welsh guy named Dominic, and we struck up conversation almost immediately. He too was there alone-- he had friends who originally were going to come, but then backed out at the last minute. We chatted for the hour before the doors opened, and then we became concert buddies, finding places to stand together-- there were no seats, just open standing room. Dominic, as it turns out, was doing a guest DJ set at a goth club after the show... and that club was right around the corner from my hostel! After we'd been chatting for a while, he invited me to the club. I accepted, figuring that since it was so close to my hostel, if it was boring or he got creepy, I could just leave without a problem. As it happens, it wasn't boring at all and he was a perfect gentleman, so we had a fun time chatting and dancing all evening. And now I have a friend who lives in Waterford!
Anyway, as for the concert itself... holy crap.
It was one of the greatest concerts I have ever seen. She just put out a solo album, called Who Killed Amanda Palmer?, and the whole premise of the show was that Amanda Palmer has been killed and this was a wake. There was an emcee who announced the opening acts, saying things like "We are gathered on this sad occasion to mourn the passing of our dear friend..." There was a table onstage with wine bottles surrounding a framed photo of Amanda, and both openers kept up the wake idea, dedicating songs to Amanda's memory. The first opener was a badass cellist called Zoë Keating, who played beautiful haunting instrumental cello pieces, and the second was a guy called Jason Webley. Jason Webley plays the accordion and sometimes guitar, and reminds me of a cross between Tom Waits in weirdo-mode and a crazy homeless man. (I loved him.) After the openers, the emcee made another speech, eulogizing Amanda Palmer, with a background of eerie violin and cello music, while the backup crew did slow interpretative dancing.
My attention was fixed on the emcee saying "But her spirit will always be with us, and perhaps if we all concentrate she will one day appear among us again..." when I felt hands touching my back and arm. I turned to see a ghostly, ethereal female figure, a gray lace veil covering her to the waist and a gray ruffled skirt trailing behind her. She moved slowly and silently through the crowd, between Dominic and I. We both stared, and then Dom whispered "Hi Amanda!" After she had vanished between the people ahead of us, Dominic and I looked at each other, identical giddy looks on our faces, and shared a moment of fangirly glee, pointing and mouthing "Amanda Palmer touched me!" and suppressing uncontrollable giggles. I would like to reiterate that: Amanda Palmer touched me! She made her way like to the front of the crowd, while the haunting violin-cello music played and her crew did their slow dancing. When she got to the foot of the stage, the crew reached down, pulled her up, lifted her over the piano, and set her on the bench. Then she ripped off the veil, flung it behind her, and began jamming on the piano. Best. Entrance. Ever.
The whole show was wonderful. She is an amazing performer with an absolutely mesmerizing stage presence. She played "I Google You," a song that (my favorite writer) Neil Gaiman wrote for her! The last song she did was "Umbrella"-- yes, the Rhianna song-- and she played a sparkly pink ukulele; then, for the encore, the openers came back on with her and they played Bon Jovi's "Livin' On a Prayer." Hilarious. Someone has kindly put together a youtube video with clips of the performance, so you can see bits of the whole show, including her fantastic entrance.
I returned to Galway the next afternoon, with just enough time to eat dinner before going out again. One of my great friends here, Meg Ryan (no relation) moved back to New York on Tuesday 30 September, so she, Jenn, and I decided to do a pub crawl before she left. We only went to about five or six places, and it was a pretty early night, but I did go to some pubs I'd never seen. The next night, Monday, I went over to Jenn and Meg's apartment (now Jenn and Bri's apartment) for dinner and movies and hanging out one last time. Meg made meatloaf and veggies, then we made caramel popcorn together for desert. The whole evening was full of loud jokes and rather edgy laughter. We were having fun, true, but the whole time we were fully conscious that Meg was leaving the next morning. Sure enough, saying goodbye was very, very sad, and we both were on the verge of tears when I finally left after midnight.
Meg is now back in Rochester, looking for jobs. I'm hoping that I'll be able to visit her sometime in the next year, perhaps next summer. Because when your friends and family get scattered to the winds, it's just an excuse to travel and see them.
On Saturday 27 October, I went to Dublin for a concert. I was seeing Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls, who has just released a mighty fine solo album. I went alone, not having any friends here that listen to her music. I was a little nervous about this, because I've never been to a concert alone, but I know Dublin pretty well and I was confident that I could find ways to entertain myself. I took the train down to Dublin on Saturday afternoon and booked a hostel near the venue. I hadn't made hostel reservations in advance, so it actually took a couple tries before I found one with vacancies. Citi Hostel had availability, though, and it was only €15 a night! (Most Dublin hostels are at least €25/night.) I'll just say this: you get what you pay for. It was the sketchiest, dirtiest hostel I've ever seen in... but, it had beds and a roof, so really what else do you need for one night.
Anyway, I went down to the venue about an hour before the doors opened, and right away made a friend in the queue! I was standing right behind a nice young (18-year-old) Welsh guy named Dominic, and we struck up conversation almost immediately. He too was there alone-- he had friends who originally were going to come, but then backed out at the last minute. We chatted for the hour before the doors opened, and then we became concert buddies, finding places to stand together-- there were no seats, just open standing room. Dominic, as it turns out, was doing a guest DJ set at a goth club after the show... and that club was right around the corner from my hostel! After we'd been chatting for a while, he invited me to the club. I accepted, figuring that since it was so close to my hostel, if it was boring or he got creepy, I could just leave without a problem. As it happens, it wasn't boring at all and he was a perfect gentleman, so we had a fun time chatting and dancing all evening. And now I have a friend who lives in Waterford!
Anyway, as for the concert itself... holy crap.
It was one of the greatest concerts I have ever seen. She just put out a solo album, called Who Killed Amanda Palmer?, and the whole premise of the show was that Amanda Palmer has been killed and this was a wake. There was an emcee who announced the opening acts, saying things like "We are gathered on this sad occasion to mourn the passing of our dear friend..." There was a table onstage with wine bottles surrounding a framed photo of Amanda, and both openers kept up the wake idea, dedicating songs to Amanda's memory. The first opener was a badass cellist called Zoë Keating, who played beautiful haunting instrumental cello pieces, and the second was a guy called Jason Webley. Jason Webley plays the accordion and sometimes guitar, and reminds me of a cross between Tom Waits in weirdo-mode and a crazy homeless man. (I loved him.) After the openers, the emcee made another speech, eulogizing Amanda Palmer, with a background of eerie violin and cello music, while the backup crew did slow interpretative dancing.
My attention was fixed on the emcee saying "But her spirit will always be with us, and perhaps if we all concentrate she will one day appear among us again..." when I felt hands touching my back and arm. I turned to see a ghostly, ethereal female figure, a gray lace veil covering her to the waist and a gray ruffled skirt trailing behind her. She moved slowly and silently through the crowd, between Dominic and I. We both stared, and then Dom whispered "Hi Amanda!" After she had vanished between the people ahead of us, Dominic and I looked at each other, identical giddy looks on our faces, and shared a moment of fangirly glee, pointing and mouthing "Amanda Palmer touched me!" and suppressing uncontrollable giggles. I would like to reiterate that: Amanda Palmer touched me! She made her way like to the front of the crowd, while the haunting violin-cello music played and her crew did their slow dancing. When she got to the foot of the stage, the crew reached down, pulled her up, lifted her over the piano, and set her on the bench. Then she ripped off the veil, flung it behind her, and began jamming on the piano. Best. Entrance. Ever.
The whole show was wonderful. She is an amazing performer with an absolutely mesmerizing stage presence. She played "I Google You," a song that (my favorite writer) Neil Gaiman wrote for her! The last song she did was "Umbrella"-- yes, the Rhianna song-- and she played a sparkly pink ukulele; then, for the encore, the openers came back on with her and they played Bon Jovi's "Livin' On a Prayer." Hilarious. Someone has kindly put together a youtube video with clips of the performance, so you can see bits of the whole show, including her fantastic entrance.
I returned to Galway the next afternoon, with just enough time to eat dinner before going out again. One of my great friends here, Meg Ryan (no relation) moved back to New York on Tuesday 30 September, so she, Jenn, and I decided to do a pub crawl before she left. We only went to about five or six places, and it was a pretty early night, but I did go to some pubs I'd never seen. The next night, Monday, I went over to Jenn and Meg's apartment (now Jenn and Bri's apartment) for dinner and movies and hanging out one last time. Meg made meatloaf and veggies, then we made caramel popcorn together for desert. The whole evening was full of loud jokes and rather edgy laughter. We were having fun, true, but the whole time we were fully conscious that Meg was leaving the next morning. Sure enough, saying goodbye was very, very sad, and we both were on the verge of tears when I finally left after midnight.
Meg is now back in Rochester, looking for jobs. I'm hoping that I'll be able to visit her sometime in the next year, perhaps next summer. Because when your friends and family get scattered to the winds, it's just an excuse to travel and see them.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Culture
First, I have an academic update (I am in school, remember.) I have an adviser for my MA thesis! Dr. Lionel Pilkington will be supervising me for the next six months or so. I met with him on Friday, and he seemed very excited about being my adviser. I still don't have an actual thesis question, but our meeting helped me refine my nebulous "something to do with Irish theater and colonialism" to "something to do with late 19th century Irish melodrama and colonialism," so at least I have a bit of a focus now. He gave me a list of authors and books to look at, which I've been doing this weekend, and we'll meet again in a few weeks, at which time I will hopefully have a stronger sense of an actual topic. Exciting!
In non-scholarly news, this week was one full of culture for me. For starters, this week held the Múscailt arts festival at NUIG, so there were many events for that.
Tuesday night, I went to the Múscailt poetry slam. I got to see some terrible poetry and some great poetry. Notably, one of the best readers was a boy who looked to be about ten or eleven years old. By objective standards, his poetry was good, though not great; given his age, however, he was awesome. (One of his poems involved the words "shit" and "fuck," which didn't appear to shock anyone in the audience, including his mother; the Irish have what I feel to be a much more sensible attitude toward profanity than Americans, and no one really cares about swearing in front of children or if children swear.) The winner of the slam was actually this boy's mother, a woman named Mags Treanor, and she was excellent. I also got to see Stephen Murray, who I have seen on a couple occasions; he is still one of the best readers and slam poets I've ever seen, and it's always worth watching him read.
Thursday night, still a part of Múscailt, our class had tickets (that were graciously provided by the Centre for Irish Studies) to the Traditional Music concert. "Traditional Music" is really just the start of what we saw: a band with a fiddle, accordion, and classical guitarist; a sean-nos singer; an Uilleann piper; a storyteller; two sean-nos dancers, one a 14-year-old boy and one a pregnant woman (accompanied by the fiddler and accordion player from earlier); a contemporary singer (accompanied by the fiddler, accordion player, and guitarist); and a grand finale with the all the instrumental musicians and the dancers. Everything was absolutely excellent, and it was a lovely evening.
Friday night, I went to the "Over the Edge 2007 Poetry Showcase." This was a reading from the 10-or-so Galwegian poets who published books in 2007. It took place at Sheridan's wine bar, which is a wonderful classy little bar/store. There is a cheesemonger's below, and the wine bar upstairs is about the size of a kitchen, with three walls devoted to racks of wine. The "kitchen" atmosphere was highlighted by the long wooden tables and blue tiled walls. When the room was packed with well-dressed literati, all of whom were standing around holding glasses of wine, it made us1 feel like we were at someone's fancy dinner party. The mayor of Galway was there, as well, wearing his mayoral chain, and he gave an address. Each of the poets read three poems, so it was almost like a poetry sampler. Mags Treanor, from the slam on Tuesday, read, as well as my friend Neil McCarthy. After the reading, Brianne, Quincy, and I went with Neil and a couple of the other poets to Freeney's, one of Galway's top old-man pubs, and I managed to get a signed copy of Neil's book for the price of three kisses on the cheek.
In conclusion, I love Galway's art and poetry scene. It took me a while, but I finally feel like I have an established "social circle." The fact that it's comprised mainly of poets and academics makes me happy.
1: I went with my friends Brianne, Meredith, and Jen; we met our friends Quincy and Stephen there, as well as seeing our Irish teacher. It was quite a social event.
In non-scholarly news, this week was one full of culture for me. For starters, this week held the Múscailt arts festival at NUIG, so there were many events for that.
Tuesday night, I went to the Múscailt poetry slam. I got to see some terrible poetry and some great poetry. Notably, one of the best readers was a boy who looked to be about ten or eleven years old. By objective standards, his poetry was good, though not great; given his age, however, he was awesome. (One of his poems involved the words "shit" and "fuck," which didn't appear to shock anyone in the audience, including his mother; the Irish have what I feel to be a much more sensible attitude toward profanity than Americans, and no one really cares about swearing in front of children or if children swear.) The winner of the slam was actually this boy's mother, a woman named Mags Treanor, and she was excellent. I also got to see Stephen Murray, who I have seen on a couple occasions; he is still one of the best readers and slam poets I've ever seen, and it's always worth watching him read.
Thursday night, still a part of Múscailt, our class had tickets (that were graciously provided by the Centre for Irish Studies) to the Traditional Music concert. "Traditional Music" is really just the start of what we saw: a band with a fiddle, accordion, and classical guitarist; a sean-nos singer; an Uilleann piper; a storyteller; two sean-nos dancers, one a 14-year-old boy and one a pregnant woman (accompanied by the fiddler and accordion player from earlier); a contemporary singer (accompanied by the fiddler, accordion player, and guitarist); and a grand finale with the all the instrumental musicians and the dancers. Everything was absolutely excellent, and it was a lovely evening.
Friday night, I went to the "Over the Edge 2007 Poetry Showcase." This was a reading from the 10-or-so Galwegian poets who published books in 2007. It took place at Sheridan's wine bar, which is a wonderful classy little bar/store. There is a cheesemonger's below, and the wine bar upstairs is about the size of a kitchen, with three walls devoted to racks of wine. The "kitchen" atmosphere was highlighted by the long wooden tables and blue tiled walls. When the room was packed with well-dressed literati, all of whom were standing around holding glasses of wine, it made us1 feel like we were at someone's fancy dinner party. The mayor of Galway was there, as well, wearing his mayoral chain, and he gave an address. Each of the poets read three poems, so it was almost like a poetry sampler. Mags Treanor, from the slam on Tuesday, read, as well as my friend Neil McCarthy. After the reading, Brianne, Quincy, and I went with Neil and a couple of the other poets to Freeney's, one of Galway's top old-man pubs, and I managed to get a signed copy of Neil's book for the price of three kisses on the cheek.
In conclusion, I love Galway's art and poetry scene. It took me a while, but I finally feel like I have an established "social circle." The fact that it's comprised mainly of poets and academics makes me happy.
1: I went with my friends Brianne, Meredith, and Jen; we met our friends Quincy and Stephen there, as well as seeing our Irish teacher. It was quite a social event.
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