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Jun. 12th, 2005 12:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatTaking today off as a bit of a me day - done quite the slew of socializing this weekend, which I won't bore you with. I know I just scan or skip completely journal entries that do nothing but list social bits. Honestly, we only care about that which we can relate to directly, don't we?
Saw Common Rotation this weekend for the first time. Had listened to one of their CD's previously - so at least this time, I knew that I liked the music before deciding to see the band. Unlike Ghost in the Robot - where I didn't have much of a clue and discovered much to my regret that it was little more than horribly loud white noise to my critical and oh so sensitive ears. Not much into garage bands with loud amplifiers, I'm afraid. I only refer to Ghost, because last year at this same time - during the Belmont stakes, I saw Ghost. Have to saw I enjoyed this outting much more. For many reasons - 1) Much better venue, the Bitter End is a quaint little bar, located in Soho, just below an Asian restaurant, an excellent Asian restaurant, I might add - Chojoko's(I think is the name of it). Four wonderful things about the Bitter End: 1) You get drinks at your tables (okay you have to buy at least two drinks if you sit at the tables - but hey, who doesn't get thirsty during these things?), 2) You can bring in food and eat at the table. 3) It only cost $10 cover for the band. (Drinks came to the usual $10 total per person, Gin and Tonic - $6 (that's normal for New York), and bottled water $1-2, also normal. ) While it is warm at the Bitter End - they have ceiling fans, not airconditioning (although I was comfortable), you can hear the music - the acoustics are quite good, which is unusual in most of these venues. Usually I'm lucky if I can hear two words. Ghost, in comparison, was at a wretched country-western sports bar, with black stage in front, tables way in back, and a bar near the stage. We call it the Donkey Show - for that reason. Bitter end is the opposite, stage, tables - bar towards the door, standing area away from the stage. Much more conducive to music appreciation. Plus the added bonus -You can actually listen to the music, without feeling as if you were about to be stampeded by a crowd of obnoxious kangeroos at any given moment - most live bands I've been to, seem to engender that. Add to this, that there wasn't a huge number of people in attendance - the bar can't handle that many for starters - so there was space between the tables and around each table. And you could get up, go to the bathroom, still hear the band and watch the band. The problem I had with Park Slope's band shell and the Ghost in The Robot Country-Western Sports Bar - was you can't get up to go to the bathroom and still hear and see what's going on and if you do, you're lucky if you still have a seat or can find where you were sitting. Too big a venue, too many people, music hard to hear - I hate it. Much prefer the more intimate sittings. ) 2.) the music - a jazzy/folk sound that is reminiscent of Simon and Garfunkle meet They Might Be Giants meets a Jazz band (having heard the two disc CD of They Might Be Giants - I much prefer Common Rotation. More diverse in their song selection in my opinion.) Not really sure what type of music Ghost in The Robot was going for, what I heard I wouldn't call music. Also the food was better - last year we went to some huge diner - you know the places where they serve you the equivalent of five portions on one plate? The burgers are the size of flattened softball, and you have enough fries to last you a week? (And people wonder why half of the US is overweight? These types of restaurants.) At the Asian place, I ordered a very nice selection of fresh sushi, over jasmin steamed rice and miso soup. Much tastier and I didn't feel as if my stomach was going to kill me afterwards.
Do I recommend Common Rotation? Depends on what you like, I guess. If you like jazzy/folk music with the twang of harmonica, a bit of horn, some acoustic guitare, and a capella, you'll like Common Rotation. If you like songs that talk about death, in a dry sarcastic way, make fun of American Patriotism, and love - this might be for you. One song starts with the lyric: "Satan is real..." The instruments used ranged from a trombone, harmonica, accordion, to a sax and of course the standard guitare, bass and drums. Interesting sound. The audience wasn't as attentive as I'd have liked, but it was an odd crowd, lots of fangirls in the bunch (Common Rotation is a band put together by Adam Busch and his friend Eric, they've been playing since high school - so you had the usual Buffy fans in attendance, some regulars waiting for later gigs, the bar crowd, and music lovers/Common Rotation fans - the group I was with was a mixture of the Buffy/Common Ro fan.).
I also seem to be watching a lot of bio-pic's lately, which amuses me greatly considering I'm not overly fond of bio-pics.
Saw Kevin Spacey's pic on Bobby Darin in Beyond the Sea last night. Similar approach to De-Lovely the pic staring Kevin Kline about the songwriter whose name embarrassingly enough escapes me. Spacey wrote, directed, stared, sang and danced in the picture. And his approach was that Bobby Darin was directing and filming the story of his own life. Interesting approach. And it is an entertaining film - Kevin Spacey can really sing and dance. And sounds a lot like Bobby Darin (for those who've never heard of Bobby Darin - Darin was a singer and songwriter during the 1960s who patterned himself after Frank Sinatra. He is best known for his rendition of "Mack The Knife", which he won a Grammy for, and for writing the songs "Beyond the Sea", "Splish Splash" (that anyone whose ever watched Happy Days probably knows). In his lifetime he wrote over 163 songs. And next to Sammy Davis Jr. was considered the best Night Club entertainer ever. His other claim to fame was he married Sandra Dee. ) The problem with the film? You don't like Bobby very much. He comes across as a self-absorbed arrogant ass who only cares about his career and what would further it. His wooing of Sandra Dee - seems to be more to further his career than because he actually cares about her, which leaves one to wonder, why in the hell did she fall for him and why is she still in love with him - long after his death? Spacey doesn't show us why. And that's the problem. The film comes across at times as little too self-indulgent on the part of the director - and the self-indulgence hurts the flow of the story, hurts our ability to get inside Darin and why people cared about him. To be honest this is a problem I have with most bio-pics, the director/filmmaker is a tad too self-indulgent - too into their subject matter, so that instead of showing us this person's life the way they might show us the life of a fictional made-up character such as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver or the stuttering villian in Usual Suspects, we get either an idealized or negative tribute to them. They tell not show.
The best bio-pic of the bunch, may still be Finding Neverland - whose subject is not so much James M. Barrie, as it is the creative process or how a writer finds his or her story. The movie Ray is certainly the most emotional of the musical bio-pics, and like Beyond The Sea, it does show us a negative view of its subject matter - but it is also almost too by-the-numbers in how it is told. De-Lovely is the most innovative - literally turning the story into a musical, and instead of telling it chronologically or linearally - telling it through out-of-sequence emotional tid-bits, as if the character is literally experiencing the moments that influenced his path and who he is, whether he wants to or not, on his death bed. Beyond the Sea falls somewhere between Ray and Delovely - like Delovey, the approach to the subject matter is new and innovative, but unlike Ray, we feel distanced from Darin, don't feel the urge to know him or revisit his music. Ray on the other hand, allows one to see why people loved Ray Charles, even though he was almost impossible to live with, and makes you want to go out and buy his music. I certainly did. Beyond the Sea, well, you love the songs, you appreciate their artistry, but they are like so many other pop hits - they lack the emotional resonance, the thing you can relate to at that emotional level, that makes you want to come back for more. The film is somewhat the same way - it lacks some of the emotional resonance that Ray had. Yet in both films - the subject is shown to be arrogant, nasty to the people who love them the most, and difficult to live with. But in Ray - you are shown enough of the other side, to appreciate why his wife loved him, not so much with Bobby, whose wife feels at times more like a beautiful trophy that he carries around for show.
That said - there is one line in Beyond the Sea that is quite apt and has stuck with me: "People hear what they see." Which is demonstrated in the movie, when Bobby attempts to go the protest/anti-war song route towards the end of his career. He learns that he can sing the new songs - but he has to do them in the tux, with the orchestra, as the night-club singer, not in the hippie look. Demonstrating that it is, as Simon Colwell said in a recent Entertainment Weekly interview, about packaging. But so is the movie, theater, book, and art world - it's how you market the material to the audience that gets them to look at it. Your work could be brilliant, but if you don't market it right - you're completely lost. By the same token - it could truly suck but if you find a great marketing person to market it to the right audience - you could be making millions. Whether the work lasts on the other hand - has to do with quality. Whether it is seen or listened to - marketing. Something to keep in mind, as I continue to work on my own writing.
Saw Common Rotation this weekend for the first time. Had listened to one of their CD's previously - so at least this time, I knew that I liked the music before deciding to see the band. Unlike Ghost in the Robot - where I didn't have much of a clue and discovered much to my regret that it was little more than horribly loud white noise to my critical and oh so sensitive ears. Not much into garage bands with loud amplifiers, I'm afraid. I only refer to Ghost, because last year at this same time - during the Belmont stakes, I saw Ghost. Have to saw I enjoyed this outting much more. For many reasons - 1) Much better venue, the Bitter End is a quaint little bar, located in Soho, just below an Asian restaurant, an excellent Asian restaurant, I might add - Chojoko's(I think is the name of it). Four wonderful things about the Bitter End: 1) You get drinks at your tables (okay you have to buy at least two drinks if you sit at the tables - but hey, who doesn't get thirsty during these things?), 2) You can bring in food and eat at the table. 3) It only cost $10 cover for the band. (Drinks came to the usual $10 total per person, Gin and Tonic - $6 (that's normal for New York), and bottled water $1-2, also normal. ) While it is warm at the Bitter End - they have ceiling fans, not airconditioning (although I was comfortable), you can hear the music - the acoustics are quite good, which is unusual in most of these venues. Usually I'm lucky if I can hear two words. Ghost, in comparison, was at a wretched country-western sports bar, with black stage in front, tables way in back, and a bar near the stage. We call it the Donkey Show - for that reason. Bitter end is the opposite, stage, tables - bar towards the door, standing area away from the stage. Much more conducive to music appreciation. Plus the added bonus -You can actually listen to the music, without feeling as if you were about to be stampeded by a crowd of obnoxious kangeroos at any given moment - most live bands I've been to, seem to engender that. Add to this, that there wasn't a huge number of people in attendance - the bar can't handle that many for starters - so there was space between the tables and around each table. And you could get up, go to the bathroom, still hear the band and watch the band. The problem I had with Park Slope's band shell and the Ghost in The Robot Country-Western Sports Bar - was you can't get up to go to the bathroom and still hear and see what's going on and if you do, you're lucky if you still have a seat or can find where you were sitting. Too big a venue, too many people, music hard to hear - I hate it. Much prefer the more intimate sittings. ) 2.) the music - a jazzy/folk sound that is reminiscent of Simon and Garfunkle meet They Might Be Giants meets a Jazz band (having heard the two disc CD of They Might Be Giants - I much prefer Common Rotation. More diverse in their song selection in my opinion.) Not really sure what type of music Ghost in The Robot was going for, what I heard I wouldn't call music. Also the food was better - last year we went to some huge diner - you know the places where they serve you the equivalent of five portions on one plate? The burgers are the size of flattened softball, and you have enough fries to last you a week? (And people wonder why half of the US is overweight? These types of restaurants.) At the Asian place, I ordered a very nice selection of fresh sushi, over jasmin steamed rice and miso soup. Much tastier and I didn't feel as if my stomach was going to kill me afterwards.
Do I recommend Common Rotation? Depends on what you like, I guess. If you like jazzy/folk music with the twang of harmonica, a bit of horn, some acoustic guitare, and a capella, you'll like Common Rotation. If you like songs that talk about death, in a dry sarcastic way, make fun of American Patriotism, and love - this might be for you. One song starts with the lyric: "Satan is real..." The instruments used ranged from a trombone, harmonica, accordion, to a sax and of course the standard guitare, bass and drums. Interesting sound. The audience wasn't as attentive as I'd have liked, but it was an odd crowd, lots of fangirls in the bunch (Common Rotation is a band put together by Adam Busch and his friend Eric, they've been playing since high school - so you had the usual Buffy fans in attendance, some regulars waiting for later gigs, the bar crowd, and music lovers/Common Rotation fans - the group I was with was a mixture of the Buffy/Common Ro fan.).
I also seem to be watching a lot of bio-pic's lately, which amuses me greatly considering I'm not overly fond of bio-pics.
Saw Kevin Spacey's pic on Bobby Darin in Beyond the Sea last night. Similar approach to De-Lovely the pic staring Kevin Kline about the songwriter whose name embarrassingly enough escapes me. Spacey wrote, directed, stared, sang and danced in the picture. And his approach was that Bobby Darin was directing and filming the story of his own life. Interesting approach. And it is an entertaining film - Kevin Spacey can really sing and dance. And sounds a lot like Bobby Darin (for those who've never heard of Bobby Darin - Darin was a singer and songwriter during the 1960s who patterned himself after Frank Sinatra. He is best known for his rendition of "Mack The Knife", which he won a Grammy for, and for writing the songs "Beyond the Sea", "Splish Splash" (that anyone whose ever watched Happy Days probably knows). In his lifetime he wrote over 163 songs. And next to Sammy Davis Jr. was considered the best Night Club entertainer ever. His other claim to fame was he married Sandra Dee. ) The problem with the film? You don't like Bobby very much. He comes across as a self-absorbed arrogant ass who only cares about his career and what would further it. His wooing of Sandra Dee - seems to be more to further his career than because he actually cares about her, which leaves one to wonder, why in the hell did she fall for him and why is she still in love with him - long after his death? Spacey doesn't show us why. And that's the problem. The film comes across at times as little too self-indulgent on the part of the director - and the self-indulgence hurts the flow of the story, hurts our ability to get inside Darin and why people cared about him. To be honest this is a problem I have with most bio-pics, the director/filmmaker is a tad too self-indulgent - too into their subject matter, so that instead of showing us this person's life the way they might show us the life of a fictional made-up character such as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver or the stuttering villian in Usual Suspects, we get either an idealized or negative tribute to them. They tell not show.
The best bio-pic of the bunch, may still be Finding Neverland - whose subject is not so much James M. Barrie, as it is the creative process or how a writer finds his or her story. The movie Ray is certainly the most emotional of the musical bio-pics, and like Beyond The Sea, it does show us a negative view of its subject matter - but it is also almost too by-the-numbers in how it is told. De-Lovely is the most innovative - literally turning the story into a musical, and instead of telling it chronologically or linearally - telling it through out-of-sequence emotional tid-bits, as if the character is literally experiencing the moments that influenced his path and who he is, whether he wants to or not, on his death bed. Beyond the Sea falls somewhere between Ray and Delovely - like Delovey, the approach to the subject matter is new and innovative, but unlike Ray, we feel distanced from Darin, don't feel the urge to know him or revisit his music. Ray on the other hand, allows one to see why people loved Ray Charles, even though he was almost impossible to live with, and makes you want to go out and buy his music. I certainly did. Beyond the Sea, well, you love the songs, you appreciate their artistry, but they are like so many other pop hits - they lack the emotional resonance, the thing you can relate to at that emotional level, that makes you want to come back for more. The film is somewhat the same way - it lacks some of the emotional resonance that Ray had. Yet in both films - the subject is shown to be arrogant, nasty to the people who love them the most, and difficult to live with. But in Ray - you are shown enough of the other side, to appreciate why his wife loved him, not so much with Bobby, whose wife feels at times more like a beautiful trophy that he carries around for show.
That said - there is one line in Beyond the Sea that is quite apt and has stuck with me: "People hear what they see." Which is demonstrated in the movie, when Bobby attempts to go the protest/anti-war song route towards the end of his career. He learns that he can sing the new songs - but he has to do them in the tux, with the orchestra, as the night-club singer, not in the hippie look. Demonstrating that it is, as Simon Colwell said in a recent Entertainment Weekly interview, about packaging. But so is the movie, theater, book, and art world - it's how you market the material to the audience that gets them to look at it. Your work could be brilliant, but if you don't market it right - you're completely lost. By the same token - it could truly suck but if you find a great marketing person to market it to the right audience - you could be making millions. Whether the work lasts on the other hand - has to do with quality. Whether it is seen or listened to - marketing. Something to keep in mind, as I continue to work on my own writing.