It’s a sad sad world, when “Good news, Pogo is being prepared for deportation” really is good news.
Archive for the ‘arts’ Category
Sad sad world
Monday, October 17th, 2011Free Pogo
Monday, October 10th, 2011Amazing video-music artist Pogo is sitting in an American jail, thanks to an incompetent booking agent for his U.S. tour.
bummer
Frank Vignola @ Jazz Alley
Wednesday, September 7th, 2011Went and saw Frank and friends at the Jazz Alley last night. He brought rhythm guitar and violin, a sparse setup on stage of three little sound cubes, only the violinist having a pedal to fiddle with. They started out fast and just kept getting faster. He is truly amazing when he gets going. It was a very funny and energetic show, with covers of Led Zepp, ballet, and opera, alongside the expected Django renditions. Every once in a while, they’d thrown in a synchronized physical flourish, like little faux ballet moves during the ballet cover, and guitar-kicks during the rock numbers. Which is not to say it wasn’t a jazz show, with intimate audience interaction and banter with a recognized regular in that oh-so-knowing tone of who-remembers-when-best-oh-weren’t-those-the-days. He had this funky little tuning device on the end of his guitar, looked almost like a prism, and would change colors between red, green, I think yellow, and blank, as he played.
Foodwise, the spaghetti and meatballs was it’s usual tasty, but for whatever reason, our waitress never gave me a chance to order dessert, oh well. I suppose if I’d really had to have some key-limey-ness, I could have stopped by Whole Foods on the way home, but I was hurrying to get my Chocolati fix on.
2nd Kickstarter completion
Sunday, August 28th, 2011Haley Harris & Ben Nippes just sent out the link for the album I helped fund, Whirlwind. It turned out really nice, a short simple affair full of passion, reminding me of summer loves I’ve never even had, sometimes hopeful, sometimes sad, but always quite tuneful. Still waiting to find out which song they end up covering.
Different definitions
Friday, June 17th, 2011I find an album on Rhapsody titled “Best of College A Cappella” and start streaming it.
The first track is a glee-style cover of “Don’t Stop Believin’”, complete with drums, keyboards, and bass.
This word, I do not think it means what you think it means.
Don’t get me wrong, they sound like they are doing a decent job, they just aren’t singing without accompaniment.
Connie Evingson with Pearl Django at Jazz Alley
Wednesday, June 8th, 2011I don’t remember how long ago it was that I made the reservation, but when it came up on the calendar, I did what the google told me to do. I did not lead myself wrong. I’m quite fine with recent rise in gypsy-jazz style bands, what the kids are calling “hot club jazz” these days. Connie Evingson has a very jazz singer-y voice, smooth and strong, and a very good match for the material chosen.
Magic Flute @ Seattle Opera follow up
Wednesday, May 11th, 2011I have been meaning to write up a review of Saturday night’s Opening Night performance, covering my delight and realizing two of my favorite songs from the Amadeus soundtrack are part of this opera, my annoyance at the people who snuck into the box seating area during intermission with a noisy kid who nearly dropped stuff over the edge (instead he dropped it on me), the amusement of seeing Razor scooters on stage, etc etc. Then I got a phone call last night, trying to sell me more tickets. I could have sworn that at the point in the check-out process where they asked for a phone number, they assured me it was not going to be used for marketing purposes, but looking at their printed Privacy Policy, I see that they saw “We will not trade or sell your phone number or e-mail address to any other business or organization”, leaving themselves open to misuse your information for their own benefit. But then I saw that in the section on how to opt-out of that usage of your information, they imply that the above statement is actually a hollow promise, that doesn’t include “your mailing information traded to other arts or non-profit organizations.”
Now I’m conflicted. Part of me feels strongly that any business that uses cold calling sales should be punished for their arrogance and anti-customer attitude, but I like the opera and want to go again. I think the best I can do is continue to buy single-show tickets to operas I want to see, while purchasing a subscription to some other arts group, and sending the receipt of said purchase to the marketing director of the Seattle Opera, along with an explanatory note of why I will not be making a direct contribution to them, nor letting them benefit from the 100% matching my employer would make.
Rocky Horror at OCT
Monday, April 11th, 2011Went and saw the 4pm Sunday production of Rocky Horror at the Open Circle Theater in Belltown. The show was sold out, with a fair number of people paying for the upgraded ‘VIP’ experience. In the end, we didn’t get any special seating, but we did get a couple of crackers and a handful of cheese, with our bubbly. Our ‘surly’ service was amusingly provided by Magenta (Terri Weagant), who also provided the title song. I found it especially amusing to overhear one guy, before they’d opened up the house for seating, asking his date, “so, I’ve never seen the movie, what’s this all about anyways?” Then again, I didn’t get to see it in a theater with all the trimmings when it would have been age appropriate myself either.
They used a live band, complete with Theramin. At times, they overpowered the on-stage singers, but eventually the sound guy found a zone where things seemed to be working OK.
Andrew Murray was a very sexy Rif Raf, must catch him in more productions where skin will be involved =p He does a very good sneer and leer. Josh Hartivgson’s Frank N Furter was interesting. He made a suitably shocking transvestite, tall and decidedly masculine no matter what he was wearing. Full of enthusiasm for the part, he made a good centerpiece for the production. Tadd Morgan and Monica Wulzen provided good straight-men performances as Brad and Janet, and Peter Farrar was definitely a well-muscled Rocky.
There’s blood on the stage when Eddie (Billy Hollman) makes his brief appearance, and again when the bag of what’s left stops by, and lots more when the end comes to the aliens left on earth, leading to a perfectly placed puddle for the final spotlight to iris into darkness upon.
An excellent production of a classic musical tale, all involved performed admirably. I was suitably entertained for sure.
Viva Oz Vegas at Triple Door (review)
Friday, March 25th, 2011So I think I’ve learned to avoid the early show at the Triple Door, at least for something like burlesque; this review covers the 7pm showing on Thursday 3/24/2011.
Food first – I decided to go against habit and tried the evening’s special, a lamb curry that was supposed to be spicy-hot. The portion size for the ‘full’ order was good, and the sauce was a very tasty curry, but not hot at all. The veggies were minimal which wouldn’t have been a bad thing if the meat had tasted fresher/less-game-y. In the end I ate less than half the meat, but all the rice/sauce/veggies I could. It was a disappointing start to the evening.
I was a little put off by the way they started the show with what seemed like at least a half hour of the band singing cover songs. Well, maybe they were singing. Everyone but the drummer looked to be lip-syncing and faking their instruments, but maybe it was just the aural dissonance of seeing such a Johnny-Cash-esque-bass come out of such a small guy. Either way, I was really surprised at how long they kept the stage dancer free. When they did finally bring in dancers, the guy side of the cast was underwhelming to say the least. Usually a Can-Can show is fun for watching both guys and girls, but not this one. The girls did have very realistic showgirl attire, but it was hard not to compare against the Nutcracker show I saw last Christmas, which was much more elaborate in sets and costumes.
Three ladies performed a nice set on the rings, and came back again to perform on hanging ropes during the second half of the show. Which brings me to another WTF moment, getting back to my seat after intermission, looking at the clock and seeing 8:16, when the show is supposed to be over by 8:30. And it was over by 8:40, so they did a 10 minute intermission before a 20 minute set? I have to assume the balance of musical and dancing numbers is better during a late show. And I also assume that in the late show you see more skin; you got a brief peak at “Marilyn’s” covered nipples at the end of the 1st half of the show. There seemed to be a lot of missed lighting cues during the entire evening.
Frankly I was underwhelmed. I expected more out of a Can-Can show on the Triple Door stage. Don’t get me wrong, I think all the performers put in a good effort with the material they were working from, but it seemed like a half-hearted attempt on the part of the director. It could be just an effect of cutting down the 10pm show for time and age (I notice the 7pm show is listed as just 17+), but still seemed like they could have done better. I was also confused by how comparatively gay/bi unfriendly the show was for something with a Wizard of Oz theme, and seemed very out of character for the Can Can shows I’ve seen before. I don’t me unfriendly in the sense that they did gay-bashing-jokes, but rather in a if-you-are-gay-dont-bother-coming-nothing-to-see sort of way.
And to the Triple Door itself, this marks the second time I’ve been recently where I felt like the service level has declined noticeably. They did at least take my drink order this time, but it took 20 minutes to arrive, on a night where they weren’t anywhere near capacity. And I found it really skeazy that when they found out I hadn’t come up with a date for my second ticket, they tried to sell my second seat to someone, without planning on giving me my money back. I can live with a no-refunds policy, but if I paid for two seats, but come alone, as far as I’m concerned I paid for a $20 coat check that I can keep an eye on. Certainly not without at least asking me if I mind some stranger sharing my table, ON MY DIME, while you take their money as well.
I think the biggest lesson learned is that there’s a difference between “can can presents” and “the can can castaways present”. I will be paying closer attention next time.
Cash The Check
Friday, February 25th, 2011Dear Charities,
When I send you a check for my donation, to save you the transaction fee costs of using a credit card style payment, it would be really nice if you could deposit that check within a month of my sending it. I’m sure the reason you aren’t getting to the bank on a timely manner is that you are overworked, but the impression it gives me is that you just didn’t need the money as badly as you claimed up front, and it discourages me from donating to you next time, in a small and subtle way. Its hard to deny that there aren’t people with a more immediate need than you.
X