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Apr. 28th, 2017 11:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Just finished watching Chess in Concert on Quello Concert App, which has a 7 day free trail before you have to subscribe. I don't think I will. There's not a lot on it.
Chess is the probably the reason I ended up watching Head on Buffy, but who knows? I saw him as The American, Freddy Trumper in the London Cast edition of Chess in the summer of 1988.
Here he is singing Pity the Child from that performance, except you just get the voice recording. I fell in love with him. And when he popped up in the Taster's Choice commercials and then later VR5, followed him. Wasn't really interested in Buffy that much, having seen and been disappointed in the film version, but at that point I was a fan of ASH and basically following him around the television set. VR5 (which had also starred Lori Singer or Darly Hannah, Michael Easten, and Head, was cancelled. Head popped over to Buffy, and so did I.
Anyhow, Chess and I have a bit of a history.
In 1986....strands of it floated from a boy's dorm room on same floor I was living on. He was the first person I met on that floor. And I can still remember the hefty smell of his cologne. Think Freddy Mercury meets Clark Kent by way of Adam Ant. Pitch black hair. Clark Kent glasses. Muscles. 6 foot. I was in love. To this day, I can't decide if it was because he had a broad collection of musical CDs and VHS tapes or knew all about it. His looks didn't hurt. Or the fact that he liked comic books, and books in general, was political science major, with a music minor...(I realized recently, I'm attracted to music nerds, for some reason.) Anyhow, I vividly remember him telling me that I couldn't possibly understand or follow the musical Chess without first seeing the show. (In retrospect, the boy was a bit of a jerk to me, I have no idea what I was thinking. Outside of the fact that he was hot and we had similar interests. He had his issues though and I had mine. And I think I confused him. Also I think he may have been gay or bisexual. Not because he liked musicals, because of a few other things that didn't make sense back then but do now -- the 1980s were a difficult decade for LGBT. More difficult than now, believe it or not.) No clue what happened to him or if he's still alive. He's one of those people who just disappeared from my life, as so many do. We don't get to choose who sticks and who leaves...not really. Or not always. Anyhow, as it turns out, in 1988, I did see "Chess" -- which was created by ABBA and Tim Rice. The boy at CC had the concert album.
The original production much like this concert version (which stars Idina Menzel, Josh Groban, and Adam Pascal) is not very coherent. Some of the songs don't make a lot of sense, and it reminds me a little of Mamma Mia in that regard. There's just not a fluidity between songs, and the plot sort of meanders.
The story is about the 1979 and 1980 World Championship Chess Matches between the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. During which, the Soviet champion defects to Britain, after the US competitor concedes the match. It's a story about the political power struggle between the two countries as typified through a chess competition, and the woman caught between them -- representing the people caught between, I think.
While the plot and story don't quite work or make much sense. The musical has some amazing songs.
And I love ABBAs orchestrations, not to mention Rice's lyrics. I actually prefer the songs in Chess to Phantom of the Opera, believe it or not. And I saw both on the London stage, with their original casts in the 1980s, along with Les Miserables. Of the three -- Les Miserables was the best.
The take-away songs from Chess are: 1) Nobodys on Nobody's Side, 2) I Know him so well, 3) Pity the Child...
Groban is good here. Menzel isn't as good as Elaine Page, her voice doesn't quite have Page's range. Pascal isn't quite as good as Head, whose voice really smashes into you and has a charisma that blew me away.
2.) Started reading Witches of Karres by John Schmitz and surprise, surprise, I'm actually enjoying it. Was a little worried after all the good press, that I wouldn't. I went in with low expectations. It feels vaguely familiar in places, which is either because various sci-fi writers have ripped off the plot or I read it when I was a teenager and have forgot. Probably the latter.
Did read a lot of books by Andre Norton that I've forgotten the names of and most of the plot. Have vague recollections of them. The only ones I remember usually resonated for me in some way or really stood out because they were different or they were made into a movie or play.
* Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit (movies and play, I was in the Hobbit in the 6th Grade, played the Great Goblin. I was a very tall sixth grader and I can pitch my voice deep. I'm a deep alto. Wasn't going to cut it as a dwarf. And I towered over the high school boy (wickedly cute) who played the Hobbit.)
* CS Lewis Chronicles of Narnia
* The Westing Game
* The Witches of Worm by Zelphia Keatley Snyder -- it scared the shit out of me at the time, that's one creepy novel
* The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephan R. Donaldson
* The Dragon Riders of Pern
* Restoree by Anne McCaffrey
* Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey
* Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Quinn
* Dune by Frank Herbet
* Escape to Witch Mountain
* The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
* The Darkest Rising Books by Suzanne Cooper
Don't remember the rest. I read a ton, and pretty much everything I could get my hands on. I read all my parents books, all my brother's books, all the books at my grandparents house, at the library.
See, I had troubles learning how to read and desperately wanted to learn. It wasn't until the second grade when my teacher decided to experiment with three of us and jumped away from "phonics" which was the method they'd been using. She went back to the old Dick and Jane - see and speak books. Where you see a picture, see the word. Sound it out. And I don't know what happened exactly, but a switch went off in my brain and I could read. But I had troubles finding good books in West Chester, Pa in the 1970s for kids my age. I read all of the Nancy Drew series. Every animal book I could find. Every horse book. My best friend Marcy got me into the All Creatures Great and Small series, Old Yeller, Where the Red Fern Grows, and another friend hooked me on the Black Stallion. Marcy also took me to a traveling book store -- called the book mobile, where you could borrow all sorts of cool books. Read or had read to me the Little House on the Prairie novels, EB White, Ronald Dahl -- they read Dahl in school to us.
But it really wasn't until I moved to Kansas City in 1979, or thereabouts, that I really discovered reading. Around the 5th and 6th grades -- that's when the real switch went off. And I began to devour books. I didn't read them fast though. My eyes skip, and I have to go back. When I read, I often will read a sentence three times. That's why I don't tend to re-read, because technically I've read the book three times already. I skip the line, go back, then go back again. Automatic. I don't even realize I'm skipping the line. It's completely unconscious. A poetry teacher caught me doing it in college when I was reading a poem aloud. I sub-vocalized the wrong line, stopped. Caught myself. Went back up. She said I was dyslexic. I was shocked. And said no. And she said, yes, you are -- I know because I am, and you are doing the exact same thing I do. are. And even all of that? I'm not certain of. I thought I was just a slow learner. Turns out I was playing the game with a handicap.
Anyhow, the school system was better in KC. So...I was exposed to better books. Plus my aunt visited us and gave me half her collection of sci-fi novels. And my grandparents had a library in their attic. And I was reaching the stage that I could read my parents books...
I am the sort of person who always has a book in her hands or with her. And I have a fondness for the underdogs, or belittled genres...like romance novels, superhero comic books, pulp sci-fi/fantasy...
because well, underdogs.
Chess is the probably the reason I ended up watching Head on Buffy, but who knows? I saw him as The American, Freddy Trumper in the London Cast edition of Chess in the summer of 1988.
Here he is singing Pity the Child from that performance, except you just get the voice recording. I fell in love with him. And when he popped up in the Taster's Choice commercials and then later VR5, followed him. Wasn't really interested in Buffy that much, having seen and been disappointed in the film version, but at that point I was a fan of ASH and basically following him around the television set. VR5 (which had also starred Lori Singer or Darly Hannah, Michael Easten, and Head, was cancelled. Head popped over to Buffy, and so did I.
Anyhow, Chess and I have a bit of a history.
In 1986....strands of it floated from a boy's dorm room on same floor I was living on. He was the first person I met on that floor. And I can still remember the hefty smell of his cologne. Think Freddy Mercury meets Clark Kent by way of Adam Ant. Pitch black hair. Clark Kent glasses. Muscles. 6 foot. I was in love. To this day, I can't decide if it was because he had a broad collection of musical CDs and VHS tapes or knew all about it. His looks didn't hurt. Or the fact that he liked comic books, and books in general, was political science major, with a music minor...(I realized recently, I'm attracted to music nerds, for some reason.) Anyhow, I vividly remember him telling me that I couldn't possibly understand or follow the musical Chess without first seeing the show. (In retrospect, the boy was a bit of a jerk to me, I have no idea what I was thinking. Outside of the fact that he was hot and we had similar interests. He had his issues though and I had mine. And I think I confused him. Also I think he may have been gay or bisexual. Not because he liked musicals, because of a few other things that didn't make sense back then but do now -- the 1980s were a difficult decade for LGBT. More difficult than now, believe it or not.) No clue what happened to him or if he's still alive. He's one of those people who just disappeared from my life, as so many do. We don't get to choose who sticks and who leaves...not really. Or not always. Anyhow, as it turns out, in 1988, I did see "Chess" -- which was created by ABBA and Tim Rice. The boy at CC had the concert album.
The original production much like this concert version (which stars Idina Menzel, Josh Groban, and Adam Pascal) is not very coherent. Some of the songs don't make a lot of sense, and it reminds me a little of Mamma Mia in that regard. There's just not a fluidity between songs, and the plot sort of meanders.
The story is about the 1979 and 1980 World Championship Chess Matches between the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. During which, the Soviet champion defects to Britain, after the US competitor concedes the match. It's a story about the political power struggle between the two countries as typified through a chess competition, and the woman caught between them -- representing the people caught between, I think.
While the plot and story don't quite work or make much sense. The musical has some amazing songs.
And I love ABBAs orchestrations, not to mention Rice's lyrics. I actually prefer the songs in Chess to Phantom of the Opera, believe it or not. And I saw both on the London stage, with their original casts in the 1980s, along with Les Miserables. Of the three -- Les Miserables was the best.
The take-away songs from Chess are: 1) Nobodys on Nobody's Side, 2) I Know him so well, 3) Pity the Child...
Groban is good here. Menzel isn't as good as Elaine Page, her voice doesn't quite have Page's range. Pascal isn't quite as good as Head, whose voice really smashes into you and has a charisma that blew me away.
2.) Started reading Witches of Karres by John Schmitz and surprise, surprise, I'm actually enjoying it. Was a little worried after all the good press, that I wouldn't. I went in with low expectations. It feels vaguely familiar in places, which is either because various sci-fi writers have ripped off the plot or I read it when I was a teenager and have forgot. Probably the latter.
Did read a lot of books by Andre Norton that I've forgotten the names of and most of the plot. Have vague recollections of them. The only ones I remember usually resonated for me in some way or really stood out because they were different or they were made into a movie or play.
* Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit (movies and play, I was in the Hobbit in the 6th Grade, played the Great Goblin. I was a very tall sixth grader and I can pitch my voice deep. I'm a deep alto. Wasn't going to cut it as a dwarf. And I towered over the high school boy (wickedly cute) who played the Hobbit.)
* CS Lewis Chronicles of Narnia
* The Westing Game
* The Witches of Worm by Zelphia Keatley Snyder -- it scared the shit out of me at the time, that's one creepy novel
* The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephan R. Donaldson
* The Dragon Riders of Pern
* Restoree by Anne McCaffrey
* Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey
* Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Quinn
* Dune by Frank Herbet
* Escape to Witch Mountain
* The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
* The Darkest Rising Books by Suzanne Cooper
Don't remember the rest. I read a ton, and pretty much everything I could get my hands on. I read all my parents books, all my brother's books, all the books at my grandparents house, at the library.
See, I had troubles learning how to read and desperately wanted to learn. It wasn't until the second grade when my teacher decided to experiment with three of us and jumped away from "phonics" which was the method they'd been using. She went back to the old Dick and Jane - see and speak books. Where you see a picture, see the word. Sound it out. And I don't know what happened exactly, but a switch went off in my brain and I could read. But I had troubles finding good books in West Chester, Pa in the 1970s for kids my age. I read all of the Nancy Drew series. Every animal book I could find. Every horse book. My best friend Marcy got me into the All Creatures Great and Small series, Old Yeller, Where the Red Fern Grows, and another friend hooked me on the Black Stallion. Marcy also took me to a traveling book store -- called the book mobile, where you could borrow all sorts of cool books. Read or had read to me the Little House on the Prairie novels, EB White, Ronald Dahl -- they read Dahl in school to us.
But it really wasn't until I moved to Kansas City in 1979, or thereabouts, that I really discovered reading. Around the 5th and 6th grades -- that's when the real switch went off. And I began to devour books. I didn't read them fast though. My eyes skip, and I have to go back. When I read, I often will read a sentence three times. That's why I don't tend to re-read, because technically I've read the book three times already. I skip the line, go back, then go back again. Automatic. I don't even realize I'm skipping the line. It's completely unconscious. A poetry teacher caught me doing it in college when I was reading a poem aloud. I sub-vocalized the wrong line, stopped. Caught myself. Went back up. She said I was dyslexic. I was shocked. And said no. And she said, yes, you are -- I know because I am, and you are doing the exact same thing I do. are. And even all of that? I'm not certain of. I thought I was just a slow learner. Turns out I was playing the game with a handicap.
Anyhow, the school system was better in KC. So...I was exposed to better books. Plus my aunt visited us and gave me half her collection of sci-fi novels. And my grandparents had a library in their attic. And I was reaching the stage that I could read my parents books...
I am the sort of person who always has a book in her hands or with her. And I have a fondness for the underdogs, or belittled genres...like romance novels, superhero comic books, pulp sci-fi/fantasy...
because well, underdogs.
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Date: 2017-04-29 02:32 pm (UTC)