dr_phil_physics: (perfect-winslet)
I suppose everybody has That Story. Some magical moment which, at least for a while, changed their life.

For me it happened in high school. Greensboro NC. Some middle of the weekday. My mother was having a meeting that night, probably her Preceptor Chapter of the Beta Sigma Phi sorority. So I had to clear out of the front of the house. My father probably was outside in his shop. I was in my room. Now, I didn't have a stereo or even much of a radio in my room. But because I was back in my room, I had borrowed the kitchen radio and had it tuned to probably the Wake Forest classical station.

And they started playing something which simply blew me away. I had been typing on the old Royal portable typewriter with the chemical keyboard. And at some point I just stopped and listened. For forty minutes.

Aaron Copland's Third Symphony, Leonard Bernstein conducting.

I wrote down the title and I'm not sure when I got the album, but I think it was the Fall and so I put in the request for Christmas. My mother was always big on getting lists of things we wanted and it was pretty rare in those days to find something that wasn't in the Nikon catalog. Or maybe my birthday. Either way, when I got it I played it a lot. I believe this was my senior year in high school. As I prepared to go to Northwestern, I didn't have the money for a stereo -- it had all gone into Nikon equipment -- but I did buy a $29 Panasonic portable cassette tape recorder and some quality Memorex tapes and put it in front of our stereo at home and recorded several favorite albums. Including the Third Symphony.

Some day I will track down that tape. Our dachshund Nikki came by to check out what I was doing on the floor, and you can hear her tags jangling. It's the only known sound recording I have of her.

Later I made a better tape when I did get a stereo. And in the CD era, I ended up getting two versions -- a London Symphony recording with Copland conducting, but it just wasn't the same, and a St. Louis Symphony recording, which was better. But still not Bernstein. I since had read that Bernstein did Copland better than anyone, including Copland. And I have to agree.

The other day I decided I should either rip my St. Louis CD or see if I could find the Bernstein recording on Amazon. It was a mixed bag of things, but then I realized I'd searched it as "Aaron Copland's Third Symphony" and not "Copland Symphony no. 3". And that's when I found it -- not the same album I had from high school, but the same recording.

Copland: Symphony No. 3 - Symphony for Organ & Orchestra.

Product Description (Amazon.com)
Leonard Bernstein's performance of Copland's Third Symphony has had to wait a long time before finally appearing on CD. Part of the delay no doubt stemmed from the fact that DG released a second, later recording with the same orchestra, in digital sound. Comparing the two versions, both of which are very good, one prefers this first performance. Not only does the music move a bit more quickly, with sharper rhythms and a stronger sense of the dance (never far from Copland's musical thoughts), but the sonics are more naturally pleasing. The coupling is a terrific performance of the early Organ Symphony, which the composer wrote for his teacher, Nadia Boulanger. --David Hurwitz
Here's the crazy part.

The MP3 album in $9.99. The CD album is $7.29. But if you buy the CD you can get an AutoRip MP3 of the album, for download immediately when you order. Why buy the MP3? (Other than possibly being not quite as good an MP3 recording, but who knows?) On top of that, if I ordered Slow Boat Free Prime Shipping, I would get a $5.99 credit for Amazon market basket service or something like that. Don't know if I can use it, but I'm still saving big bucks over the MP3 pricing and I can wait on the CD itself, because I've got the AutoRip MP3.

As a bonus, there's also Copland's First Symphony, written twenty years earlier in 1926 and the organ part is played by E. Power Biggs himself -- I am a huge fan of his.

This is WIN multiplied.

I used to joke that the Third Symphony should be titled Aaron Copland's Greatest Hits, and if you know any of the Copland music, you'll recognize everything from Rodeo to Fanfare For The Common Man. At Northwestern, I was afraid that the music majors and aficionados I knew would make fun of this as overblown schmaltz, but in general they respected the work. They just didn't agree with me that it was The Finest Symphony Ever -- and I can respect that. Like everything else artistic, it's going to be a matter of taste.

They only had four copies this evening, and only two an hour or so ago. So someone else bought it today. (grin) But if you've never heard this, and you're into classical music, I highly recommend this recording. Not sure you even want to spend $7.29 if you have Amazon Prime? The Wikipedia article linked up at the top has links to a video of the whole symphony.

UPDATE 4/2/2015 -- A padded envelope arrived today from Amazon. Hmm... what had I ordered that was thin? Oh, it's the CD I got free for buying the MP3. (grin)

Dr. Phil
Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal
dr_phil_physics: (princess-of-mars)
War of the Worlds Musical

Partial Recall, a blog on SF/F in Finland, announced:
In January 2013, Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds will play at Hartwall Arena in Helsinki. The producers promise good music and lots of special effects, including a 10-meter tall Martian Fighting Machine and a hologram Liam Neeson. Sounds entertaining. Tickets will be sold starting March 26.


Alas, the weblink is in Finnish, so I looked up "wikipedia war of the worlds musical". Huh. This isn't new? Just a new production:
Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds is a 1978 concept album by Jeff Wayne, retelling the story of The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells.[1] Its format is progressive rock and string orchestra, using narration and leitmotifs to carry the story via rhyming melodic lyrics that express the feelings of the various characters. The two-disc album remains a bestseller, having sold millions of records around the world,[1] and was the 40th best selling album of all time in the UK with sales of 2,561,286 by 2009.[3] It has since spawned multiple versions of the album, computer games, DVDs, and live tours.
Why did I not know about this? The 1978 album had the Journalist spoken by Richard Burton! My dormmates clearly dropped the ball on this one -- too mesmerized by Hotel California methinks.

I tell you -- the world can sometimes be a magical place.

Dr. Phil
dr_phil_physics: (the-one-ring)
A Friday Night Out

It's rather unusual for us to go out on a Friday night. Working at two different universities in two different cities, coordination becomes complicated. But one must make allowances for some things. After dropping Mrs. Dr. Phil off at GVSU's Allendale campus in the morning, we met up again at the downtown Grand Rapids campus. I picked up a pair of Jimmy John's sandwiches along the way -- the food service closes up early on a Friday -- and we had a pleasant supper sitting in the sort of indoors/outdoors street cafe commons area. Palm trees (!) and red London telephone boxes... and South Park on the telly a number of students were watching. (grin)

The light snow which had fallen might as well have been rain, as it was still 39°F. Then a long drive across the bridge and glacial progress all to go one mile to the parking structure by DeVos Auditorium. GVSU's President's Ball and the Boat Show seemed to be going on at the same time...

The Grand Rapids Symphony in Concert
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Friday 17 February 2012, 7pm, DeVos Performance Hall, Grand Rapids MI
Loge Left, Row D, Seats 10-11, 2×$67 (Sold Out)



The 200-some musicians, choral and youth chorus members, plus our featured soloist voices, take a well deserved bow afterwards.

It was Friday 16 October 2009 when we saw the first installment of the LOTR trilogy with live symphonic and choral accompaniment (DW). A year later for the second act. And now, the war itself and the denouement of Mister One-Ring-To-Rule-Them-All.

Of course by now we've seen all the movies, including The Return of the King (19 December 2003) many times. Alas, this is the theatrical length version and not the Extended Editions, though, really, the orchestra has over two hours of music to play over nearly four hours including the intermission, so let's not feel bad about this.

Whether it was because we were so much closer to both speakers and orchestra, it was good they had the subtitles on, because the full on score overwhelmed some of the dialogue at times -- but this is not a complaint. Howard Shore's score is lovely. In particular, the violin solo theme for Rohan, introduced in The Two Towers, whether alone or against the orchestra, was gorgeously played by the GR Symphony's concertmistress. And the flutist on the penny whistle brought her themes high above the fray as well.

One of my favorite scenes, oddly enough, is the lighting of the beacons. And I couldn't be happier with the result.

Mezzo Soprano Kaitlyn Lusk has been touring with both the concert and film/symphony versions of the LOTR since she was 14 and her singing fits the moods of the film so well. She even belts out a pretty convincing Annie Lennox during the credits.

I am so pleased that I have been able to see all three movies with full symphony and chorus. Grand Rapids is one of the few cities in the world which have been given permission to do this, bringing in the soloist and conductor who has done most of these productions. Not to say that the movie score on the DVD is in any way shabby, but this was special.

Sigh.

The Hobbit with or without full symphony anyone? (grin)

Dr. Phil
dr_phil_physics: (the-one-ring)
Speaking of Confusion...

This fall and winter has thrown me around parts of the southeastern United States dealing with one thing or another and so I wasn't around when single-event tickets went on sale. So when I heard a radio ad for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King with the Grand Rapids Symphony, I hoped I wasn't too late.

Since I last posted about this in July 2011 (DW), they'd added the second show on Saturday 18 February 2012. But I wanted to stick with the Friday night performance, because we already have tickets on Sunday the 19th to see Anthony Bourdain and his buddy Eric Ripert at the same venue.


An Evening with Anthony Bourdain & Eric Ripert

Join Anthony Bourdain, chef, author of Medium Raw and host of The Travel’s Channel’s No Reservations and Eric Ripert, renowned chef of Le Bernardin, author, host of “Avec Eric” on PBS and regular guest on Bravo’s Top Chef as they share stories and muse on the place of food in our personal, community and global life. It's an evening of storytelling and observation providing frank and provocative insight into what really goes on behind the kitchen doors.

Anthony Bourdain has been dubbed “the bad boy of cuisine” for his rock star look and blunt observations about the world of restaurants, chefs and cooking. Bourdain, the Chef-at-large at New York’s famed bistro Les Halles, is the author of the bestselling novels, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, and most recently Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook. His show on The Travel Channel, No Reservations, has been nominated for an Emmy and recently concluded filming its seventh season.

Eric Ripert’s Le Bernardin continues to receive universal critical acclaim for its food and service and the Zagat Guide has recognized the restaurant as the “Best Food” in New York City for the last seven consecutive years. Ripert has also served as guest judge (and “fan favorite”) on Bravo’s Top Chef for the past four seasons. This past fall, Ripert published his fourth book entitled, Avec Eric: A Culinary Journey with Eric Ripert in addition to his previous titles: On the Line and A Return to Cooking and the Le Bernardin Cookbook.

A limited number of VIP tickets are available, which includes premiere seating within the first six rows, access to an exclusive meet and greet session with Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert, complimentary hors d’oeuvres, a VIP tour laminate and a limited edition poster. Grand Rapids' acclaimed Bar Divani is pleased to be the Official Restaurant Sponsor of the evening, and will be providing an innovative selection of appetizers for VIP Reception attendees.

Copies of Bourdain’s new book, Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook, and Ripert’s Avec Eric: A Culinary Journey with Eric Ripert along with other titles from their back catalogs will be available for purchase on site from Schuler Books and Music, the official bookseller for the event.

Tickets are on sale now and are available at the DeVos Place convention center and Van Andel Arena box offices, online at ticketmaster.com, by phone at 800-745-3000 and Ticketmaster locations.
Event Times: Sun, Feb 19, 2012 7:00 PM
$35, $40, $45, with a limited number of $127.50 VIP tickets

But I digress from the MAIN EVENT:

Friday 17 February 2012, 7pm, DeVos Performance Hall, Grand Rapids MI
One Ring to rule them all,
One Ring to find them.
One Ring to bring them all
and in the darkness bind them.

The Grand Rapids Symphony is doing a live orchestra performance to the film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Yes, this is the continuation of the 2009 concert of the glorious The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings and the 2010 concert of the haunting The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

The battle for Tolkien's Middle Earth ignites in this epic cinematic masterpiece and final installment of the timeless trilogy! Watch the complete film, projected in HD on a huge screen above the orchestra, as more than 200 musicians perform the lush and mystical score.

Mrs. Dr. Phil couldn't come to The Two Towers film/concert, but we will be able to complete the series together. If anyone is interested in attending with us -- let me know. We've got Loge D (Left) seats 11 & 12, which should be spectacular for watching the orchestra. You can call the GR Symphony Ticket Services directly Monday - Friday, 9 am-5 pm at 616/454-9451, Ext. 4.

Dr. Phil

Say What?

Sunday, 25 December 2011 20:54
dr_phil_physics: (xmas-kate)
Posted By A Friend On Facebook

I've never seen this before, though I've known the song forever...

Eat them up! Yum! This video was named as one of the top 100 videos of all time by Rolling Stone magazine. "Fish Heads," by the duo of Art and Artie Barnes (a.k.a. Robert Haimer and Bill Mumy). Bill Paxton directed and co-starred in the video.




I'm stunned.

Dr. Phil
dr_phil_physics: (ophelia-mirror)
Royal Albert Hall, London, England

One of the finest theatres in the world, we were there Sunday afternoon-- via technology. (grin) The other year we saw one of the New York Metropolitan Opera in HD broadcasts with Madame Butterfly and it was glorious and well-attended at the Holland 7. This show? We had great seats along the centerline (no center aisle) in the back with plenty of legroom for my leg, along with about 40 other people.

Phantom of the Opera 25th Anniversary LIVE
Holland 7, Theatre 3, 2pm (7pm London), 2×$20.00

We've seen Phantom of the Opera twice -- once in Toronto in a theatre specially rebuilt just for Phantom and once at MSU's Wharton Center with a touring company. We also once saw Sarah Brightman in concert here in Grand Rapids. Phantom is a glorious musical, and though not quite as compelling a story as Les Miserables IMHO, it's full of theatre magic in both story and performance, as well as deep resonant emotions. So when we realized that a couple of movie theatres in West Michigan were doing the satellite live broadcast of the 25th Anniversary performance from the Royal Albert Hall in London, we figured we had to go.

This is also a difficult musical to cast. Carlotta, the overblown diva, was wonderfully overportrayed with great gusto -- a true delight -- and her tenor was equally good. The Mutt-and-Jeff team of the two new owners, Monsieurs Firmin and Andre, were perfectly stupidly out of their league. The Ballet Mistress Madame Giry played it much more in sympathy, if not partially in league, with the Phantom that I recall, which was very effective. And Raoul, Christine's former childhood friend and now patron and love interest was very strongly played.

But Phantom is about Christine and the Opera Ghost. Back when they were casting the movie, there was some talk of using Kate Winslet, which of course I would've applauded. No question after Titanic that she looks good in long red hair, though most people don't know how well she can sing. Well, Sierra Boggess was perfect this afternoon. She has the full range of voice from strong low to melodic sustained highs. And while we had the advantage of closeup camera work in HD, when under the Phantom's spell, this Christine managed to drain all the movement and emotion out of her face and still sing like an angel. Svengali never had it so good.

And then there was Ramin Karimloo's Phantom. Played, methinks, with more cruelty and meanness than we'd seen before. You really feel his control of his young protege. His mask was different than the ones we'd seen before. Larger and smoother, covering more of the forehead, but with a curved outward facing edge, making it easier to remove -- and also hide a second mike. The color was more platinum than white. Indeed, given its smooth impassive features and color, it reminded me so much as if Brent Spiner's Data was playing the Phantom. Or perhaps Lore. (evil grin)

This was an enormous cast -- there were probably a hundred people on stage for the masquerade and other big scenes. The sets were cleverly done. Two large broad curved staircases on both sides, the orchestra was not in the pit, but partially hidden on a bridge covering the whole width of the back of the stage, forming the top of a series of arches. From the latter they could hang screens which they could project video images -- the mirror in the dressing room, for example. And they had video projection behind the orchestra as well. Indeed, the actual audience was projected for Christine's triumphant debut curtain call so that the curtain in the rear could close over them and we were "backstage". Clever.

What was left of a thin crescent of orchestra pit I eventually saw served two functions. First, there were several video monitors so that the cast could see the conductor, who was otherwise hidden behind them on stage. Second, there were remote control HD video cameras which could move for closeups without interfering with the audience's view.

Having seen the show twice, I was a little disappointed in two bits of stagecraft. One, the chandelier, which hung over the audience in the Royal Albert Hall, was not rigged to slide down and crash on the stage, but merely blew up pyrotechnically. Second, they used thrown or wirerigged fireballs as the Phantom's means of attack or intimidation before. This performance used a hand gesture followed by flames shooting out of the floor. It was effective, I'm sure, but less so if you'd seen the previous staging. On the way home, Mrs. Dr. Phil and I figured that both of these may have had to do with accommodations for the old hall.

But that's picking nits. We had a marvelous time. It'd been some time since I've heard the whole soundtrack CD and so it was a delight to revisit all the lines and the music when done by a first-rate company.

The Encore

Those people -- and there are always those people -- who got up and left while the cast took their bows wasted a big chunk of their $20 tickets. Because they brought out Andrew Lloyd Webber, who talked graciously for a couple of minutes, and then introduced the surviving cast members of the original London company. Including Sarah Brightman. Including Michael Crawford, who apparently had to race over from the Palladium Theatre. And then Andrew said that Sarah would sing for us.

But not just Sarah Brightman. Or Michael Crawford. There were FOUR former Phantoms on the stage. And later, the current Phantom, back in elegant dress and mask, came in. And they were backed up by the full casts of the original and current London casts. And later the current Christine.

It was stupendous and overblown and everything you wanted in an Andrew Lloyd Webber 25th Anniversary party. Epic along the scale of having nineteen Jean Valjeans in concert.

If you've missed this and still would like to see this production, there are encore performances at many movie theatres this week, although I'm not sure all 500-some theatres doing the live show today are doing all the rebroadcasts. And I guess in November this performance will come out in DVD and Blu-Ray. But it's not quite the same as going to the theatre -- even a movie theatre.

Dr. Phil
dr_phil_physics: (the-one-ring)
Friday 17 February 2012, 7pm, DeVos Performance Hall, Grand Rapids MI
One Ring to rule them all,
One Ring to find them.
One Ring to bring them all
and in the darkness bind them.

The Grand Rapids Symphony is going to do a live orchestra performance to the film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Yes, this is the continuation of the 2009 concert of the glorious The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings and the 2010 concert of the haunting The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

The battle for Tolkien's Middle Earth ignites in this epic cinematic masterpiece and final installment of the timeless trilogy! Watch the complete film, projected in HD on a huge screen above the orchestra, as more than 200 musicians perform the lush and mystical score.

While the other two movies were shown in October and with two shows, this one is one show in February. Not sure when tickets go on sale for non-series purchases, "Single tickets on sale later this summer." But I swear if the weather is bad we'll get a downtown hotel room. (grin) If anyone is interested in attending with me -- let me know.

(And I bet you thought I was going to talk about Harry Potter, didn't you?) (palantir-grin)

Dr. Phil

Happy Pi Day

Monday, 14 March 2011 12:04
dr_phil_physics: (tron-legacy)
3.14159 26535 89793 23846 26433 8...

For some peoples around the world, March 14th is "Pi Day", as they display the month-day as 3/14, or I suppose to be more mathematically correct, 3.14 . (grin) For much of the world, 14 March is 14.3.2011, so it doesn't make a lot of sense. However, no one has ever accused Americans of not being biased about the way they do things.

Above is pi given to 31 decimal places -- 31 3.1 get it? -- which was featured on NPR's Morning Edition with a musical composition based on assigning these digits to both notes and chords. The result is oddly musical:



The link to the story on NPR this morning is here.

By the way, this is not to be confused with "The Pi Song", which is a variation on the song "American Pie" which itself had nothing to do with non-terminating non-repeating irrational numbers. I shan't put a link to that song, because after I viewed one version on YouTube, my system slowed to a crawl and Task Manager report that setup.exe was busy doing something, and I clearly hadn't intended to install anything, so killed it and got my computer back. Stupid bastards.

Anyway, have some numbers.

Dr. Phil
dr_phil_physics: (kates-first-oscar)
Missed Most Of The Emmy's Last Night

We had company and later on, PBS had the first new Series 3 Inspector Lewis. I did see a little, and JImmy Fallon as host was doing things with guitar songs in the audience -- amusing. Anyways I missed the opening number until I read the article in today's Grand Rapids Press daily email briefing and they had the following YouTube link:



Cast from Glee, Tina Fey, Betty White, Tim Gunn from Project Runway, Hurley from Lost, etc. And the best part was the tribute to The Boss. Actually pretty funny -- I love musical parodies.

Enjoy.

Dr. Phil
dr_phil_physics: (hal-9000)
My Physics Classes Are SO Getting Linked To This

Not only clever lyrics, but impressive graphics skills. Even on TI Graphing calculators!


I Will Derive

Thank you, Michelle!

Dr. Phil
dr_phil_physics: (the-one-ring)
Friday-Saturday 15-16 October 2010, 7pm, DeVos Performance Hall, Grand Rapids MI
One Ring to rule them all,
One Ring to find them.
One Ring to bring them all
and in the darkness bind them.

The Grand Rapids Symphony is going to do a live orchestra performance to the film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Yes, this is the continuation of the 2009 concert of the glorious The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings.

Alas, Mrs. Dr. Phil can't go this year, but I shall be ordering tickets Real Soon Now through WLAV-FM before they go on general sale. If anyone is interested in attending with me -- let me know ASAP.

(And you might want to pencil mid-October 2011 on your calendar, because as you recall, LOTR is a trilogy.) (palantir-grin)

Dr. Phil

@17

Friday, 25 June 2010 15:36
dr_phil_physics: (what-if-winslet)
A Beautiful Voice, Heartbreaking Lyrics

Funny how you misremember things. I might've thought it was older, but apparently it was 1975 and I was in high school when Janis Ian came out with the iconic song "At Seventeen". I've always loved that song, being a geeky loner isn't reserved just for seventeen-year-old girls nor is the song's resonance, and during a 1978 trip in his van, my college buddy Rick and I toured New England and parts of Canada -- what was it, 4200 miles in 17 days? -- and Janis' album Between The Lines figured prominently in the music rotation.

And in another one of those things you keep forgetting, I was reminded that the other year when they re-ran the very first Saturday Night Live, there was Janis Ian singing "At Seventeen".

For The SF/F Fans, A Genre Version

Even amongst those who were huge Janis Ian fans 30-35 years ago, not so many know she's still out there plugging away -- and is also a SF author and attends SF cons. I either caught of glimpse of her at one of the WisCons I attended, or else am remembering the pictures including her which ran in Locus. (grin)

Anyway, at the 2009 Nebula Awards, Janis not only served as Toastmistress, but came out with a SF/F genre version of "At Seventeen". She's recently released mp3s online of this SFWA anthem with just her and her guitar and with backing accompaniment.

No one can annunciate serious vocabulary like Janis Ian. Seriously. (happy-grin) And her voice is still absolutely lovely. (sigh)

Not sure of the lyrics? The song created quite a lively discussion at "Janis Ian Filks Herself" on Snopes.com. But you can go here to see Janis' annotated deconstructed lyrics so you'll become one of the "in" crowd that knows all the subtlety.

Note that this isn't the only alternative version of "At Seventeen" that Janis has done. She did a version about Jerry Seinfeld and his then girlfriend for Howard Stern. Wikipedia, however, is not hip enough to mention the new Nebula version. (grin)

Finally...

I had a Borders Gift Card lying around -- wait, there's another one, and... actually make that three cards, including one with a partial balance -- so I took care of that little pending detail and ordered a bunch of Janis Ian CDs. You can't buy all your favorite old music (and new music) all at once, but sometimes you just have to say, "You know, I'm thinking about it, so let's do it now." (grin) Thanks, family members.

To everyone, enjoy!

Dr. Phil
dr_phil_physics: (dr-phil-nikon-f3-1983)
May Have Posted This Before...

There's a meme wandering around Facebook about posting pictures from when you were younger. This is a picture from 1983 in Champaign IL taken of the Not-Yet-Dr. Phil by the Not-Yet-Mrs. Dr. Phil, contrasting with a picture from the January 2009 ConFusion:

This is the first of my two Nikon F3 cameras, as noted by the red dot on the cover to the flash synch -- the second one had a bright blue dot. The picture was taken with a Nikon Nikkormat FT3, which had a yellow dot. (grin)

Mothers Of Invention
A friend at the GVSU Library found this poster while scanning things for the archives from 1975. I would've been in my senior year of high school in Greensboro NC at the time:


Enjoy!

Dr. Phil
dr_phil_physics: (Default)
I Give You, The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody



Your moment of Zen for today.

Dr. Phil
dr_phil_physics: (galadrial-lotr)
Friday 16 October 2009, 7pm, DeVos Performance Hall, Grand Rapids MI
One Ring to rule them all,
One Ring to find them.
One Ring to bring them all
and in the darkness bind them.

The Grand Rapids Symphony is going to do a live orchestra performance to the film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings. How cool! I might have to go see this. Ticket prices are from $32 to $90.

Take this once in a lifetime journey through Tolkien’s Middle Earth.
Experience the epic film Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring like never before with live orchestral accompaniment. Watch the visually stunning full-length film projected above the orchestra and chorus as they perform Howard Shore's unforgettable score live!


A Long Time Ago, In A Galaxy Far Away...

When I had graduated from Northwestern and worked first delivering Chicago Tribunes and then for a couple of years at the Northwestern University Library, there were times when I didn't have a lot of money. And one regret I have is that the Chicago Symphony did a live concert to the epic 1927 silent movie Napoléon -- this would probably be the "USA:235 min (1981 restored version)", because the performance ran for 4 to 5 hours, included two intermissions and you could order boxed lunches, as I recall. Alas, tickets were like $100. But dammit, I should've gone anyway.

Dr. Phil
dr_phil_physics: (what-if-winslet)
Surprise!

Right at 10am, on my drive towards Kalamazoo, WLAV-FM began a new round of its Classic Rock A-Z -- playing every damned song in the house. Only this time they mean it. They've spent weeks putting everything onto hard drives and archiving it all so they won't lose it. (grin) They've done this at least twice before -- I thought I'd blogged about it before, but couldn't find the entry.

Anyway, it's a joy for next two weeks plus, and as they say, "even we don't know how long this will take." Normally I have the sound off in the office, but got to listen to Alice's Restaurant during lunch. (evil grin)

Classic Rock A to Z

Classic Rock 97LAV proves it has West Michigan's largest on air library by playing it back in alphabetical order!

We have just completed archiving 100's of songs from LAV's historic past to our already massive on air library! From "A day in the Life" to "Ziggy Stardust" & everything in between. Listen for your old favorites that are unique to WLAV & West Michigan. Try & guess what song is coming up next for cool prizes. Listen for your chance to grab passes for you & a guest. You must be at least 21 years old! Celebrating LAV's increadable musical past with CLASSIC ROCK A to Z!


It's not oldies if you lived back then!

Dr. Phil
dr_phil_physics: (darth-winslet)
NPR, PBS, Merlot, James Taylor, Judi Dench, Gary Trudeau...

There's a good chance that a lot of the small number of readers of this blog are, to some people, a bunch of elite liberals. Or at least SF/F/H writers and readers. (grin) But I think you might concede not a natural fan base of country music.

So I thought I'd tell you of something brewing locally in country music, which I think is going to come as a surprise to some people.

Capturing The Anger

There's a new country song called Shutin Down Detroit. The refrain: “In the real world, they’re shuttin’ Detroit down/While the boss man takes his bonus and jets on out of town.”

This Week In America

The song came out on Tuesday. Also we heard of $18B in bonuses by Merill-Lynch paid before Bank of America bought M-L with bailout money -- and some M-L employees are bitching about the size of their bonuses, in a year when M-L lost about as much as Exxon-Mobil announced in profits. Which was $45B. Scalped from Americans when they unnecessarily paid $4+ per gallon gasoline. And the Republicans didn't find any votes for a Stimulus bill, because only tax cuts can create jobs -- and we know how well that works.

I tell you, there are a whole lotta pissed off people in the country and I don't think some in business or politics have a clue.

Dr. Phil

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