Marvin Hamlisch concert 12/31/12

Marvin Hamlisch concert

I suppose people who saw this concert on TV actually saw more of it than I did.  It seems silly to review what everyone already saw on TV, so I'm just going to comment on the things I saw that weren't on TV.

One thing that might not be apparent from the video, though shouldn't be surprising for those of us who know Josh, was that Josh was the only adult vocalist not to try to join the chorus line at the end.   He just sort of came on at one point & tipped his hat.  The camera made it look like he might have been dancing, but he wasn't.  

I was up in the third tier in a box on the side.  When I asked the lady in the box office whether this seat had an obscured view, she said no.  She lied.  The only way I could see the entire stage was to stand up and lean out over the railing -- a bit nerve-wracking given how far up we were.

Audra, the hostess, was in the extreme corner of the part of the stage I could not see, so sometimes I did stand up to see her.  She sounded especially impressive to me, though, obviously, everyone did a great job.

Still, despite the obscured view, the sound was, for the most part, excellent, except for the very first solo, where I could not hear the vocalist over the orchestra for part of the song.  They seemed to get that fixed as the show went on.  I heard all of the vocalists after that.  I have to commend the sound people who figured out that something was wrong & corrected it.  I've been at concerts where they don't do that.

I thought the high notes Joshua Bell's solo were particularly beautiful.

It was somewhat interesting watching the cameramen on stage.  I suppose they weren't visible on TV.  They were quite intrusive live.  They hopped on the stage intermittently and seemed to prefer backing away from the performer of the moment.  I always thought that cameras making that type of motion needed to be on wheels to avoid jiggling about, but these guys were just carrying the cameras.  I suppose they must have known what they were about.  The cords seemed to be a huge tripping hazard.

There was a larger camera installed in the orchestra that I could see.  There might have been another one under me.  That one was truly huge.  It looked more like a canon than a camera.

I did remember to bring my binoculars to this concert.  It's interesting to me looking at the videos afterwards and comparing what I was seeing through the binoculars.  I think I got better sound quality than what you get on TV, but somehow looking down on Josh from above, even with binoculars, just does not convey his stage presence the way looking at him head on does.  For instance, that one gorgeous, sparkling smile that he flashed at the camera during the chorus line number I never saw at all.

I had been quite concerned about the temperature up there in the 3rd tier so I dressed with layers: halter top, short-sleeved sweater with coordinated long-sleeved sweater, and a second sweater that was also mid-thigh length.  I ended up in the short-sleeved sweater, never having to strip down to the halter top.  The ventilation was good, not at all stuffy.  I keep my house absolutely frigid, so I get hot easily.  I could have put on the first long-sleeved sweater, probably.

I got there early and saw Josh go in.  There were only two of us Grobies out there.    

I tried to give him a present that i had brought for him, but he said he couldn't take it at that point. 

Josh was dressed casually with glasses and was accompanied only by a security guard.  He wasn't wearing a hat or scarf, which especially surprises me, now that I learn, reading twitter, that he was ill at the time; but he was not outside long.  There were no reporters that I could see.

Then I muffed things by checking my coat & using the bathroom on the way out, so I missed him & couldn't try again to give it to him.  I felt pretty stupid about that, given that I had been planning to give him this particular present for months.  

At least I got to see Megan Hilty and maybe Audra McDonald (not sure) come out & was able to congratulate them on a great show.   I didn't even think of getting them to autograph my program. I'm too focused on Josh.   

There were no ushers at this performance, so I had to go around and hunt up a program afterwards. Looking at the program I picked up, I seem to have missed the critical insert that had the bios of the performers, anyway.

I feel like a totally incompetent fan.

My neighbors in the box could not speak English.  Some were Asian and the others seemed to be Italian.  That was interesting to me.  I guess foreign tourists are more likely to go to concerts on New Year's Eve than locals. 

It was also hard to find my seat without an usher, especially since the ticket said box 8F, but there did not seem to be any indication of "F" anywhere about, though perhaps it was redundant, merely indicating that box 8 was in front of box 10.

I did use those binoculars to scan the audience to see if I could find any of Josh's friends or family, but I did not see anyone.  This doesn't mean anything though.  First, it's hard to recognize people from the tops of their heads.  Second, about 1/3 of the audience was obscured from view, from where I was sitting.  He could have had 30 people there and I might not have noticed.

Leaving Lincoln Center, I walked back to Grand Central Station.  I started walking down Broadway, but it was barricaded starting at Columbus Circle.  Barricades kept me from walking south until I got over to Sixth Avenue.  There were people lined up trying to get through the barricades to walk to Times Square, but I think their effort was futile, as I think you have to get there 5 or 6 hours early if you want to get to see the ball drop in person.

I thought about hanging around on Sixth Avenue looking towards Times Square until midnight, but I decided not to.  I did pick up a vuvuzela horn, which I had been interested in since Josh tweeted about them in the context of soccer.

re: The Mayan Apocalypse and my Quixotic Quest

(also posted on Bad Grobanites, today) 

I am very intrigued with this Mayan apocalypse phenomenon.  It really captured the attention of people all over the world.  

Connie Talbot, who I follow, is currently in Asia.  One of the Asians who interviewed her asked her what she would do if the world was about to end.  She said she would sing & spend time with family.  Nice answer.

A neighbor of mine came out with a single celebrating the event.  She's 22 & and trying to become a singer songwriter.

Love Me Like It's the End of the World - Single by Grace Dangeritunes.apple.comPreview and download Love Me Like It's the End of the World - Single on iTunes. See ratings and read customer reviews.

People from various countries gathered in Mexico for some kind of spiritual get together.

This is reminding me of my Quixotic Quest for the world anthem. 

When I originally started thinking about this topic, it was in the context of singing Michael Jackson's song "Heal the World."  I wrote a letter to Josh that I posted on this forum back in 2010.  I decided I should put it up on my blog for historical context, for me

http://straightarrow372.blogspot.com/2012/12/letter-to-josh-of-october-2010.html

Now I'm starting to think of this Quixotic Quest a bit differently, more in that in order for the world to have peace there has to be some sense of common culture, some common holidays, some common songs, and so forth.  

This year I was intrigued with the way "Gangnum Style" took the world by storm.  

The Mayan Apocalypse thing was similar, a kind of informal international celebration that huge numbers of people observed.  Not too many people took it seriously, but it was intriguing to think about.  There have been a lot of humorous posts since then with the name "worst apocalypse ever."  It is something that almost everyone could laugh about.

I like seeing this kind of thing.  It gives me hope for the world.

letter to Josh of October 2010

The following is a copy of a letter I wrote to Josh in 2010.  I wanted to post it here for historical reasons.  I find that my thinking on this topic has changed somewhat since then.

Dear Josh,

I want to explain to you why I am giving you the DVD of the Estonian documentary called “The Singing Revolution” and why I want you to add Michael Jackson’s song “Heal the World” to the program of your upcoming world tour.  So many thoughts are crowding into my head, and I know you are a busy person!  I will try to organize them, though, like stampeding buffalo, they tumble over one another in the most unmanageable fashion, threatening to become a book rather than merely a letter.  I am not so good at producing sound bytes.

During 2009 and 2010 I have been largely unemployed, and spending much of my time on YouTube, which is where I found you, and also where I found Michael Jackson.   In this process, I have been struck by the power of music and dance and the power of telecommunication.  In 2009, telecommunications allowed the emotion of fear to spread instantaneously, both with the global economic panic and also with the swine flu panic.  I have hoped that 2010 forward might be the years where such experiences of simultaneity would be more constructive.

I’ve seen the most extraordinary things on YouTube.  My own history as a peace activist caused me to focus on certain ones: the enormous crowds Michael Jackson saw singing and dancing together during his concerts … his remarks about his audiences, “It’s beautiful.  It’s love.  Even the politicians can’t do that.” … the prisoners in Cebu, the Philippines dancing together to Michael Jackson’s music in an effort at rehabilitation … some dancers in Stockholm dancing to Michael Jackson’s song “Beat It” in a flash mob, asking others to do it, and cities around the world in rapid succession responding to that request … 1 billion people worldwide joining to watch Michael Jackson’s memorial service, including Judith Hill’s moving rendition of “Heal the World” … your group singing “We are the World” for Haiti … Kris Phillips leading a group of international pop singers in China (including a Russian, a Korean, and a Dutch/Egyptian) only about a month after you, at the World Expo in Shanghai, singing the same song.   

During the summer of 2009, I also saw the movie, “The Singing Revolution.”  I hope you’ll watch it.  The Estonians rose up for independence at the same time as the Latvians and Lithuanians, but unlike the latter two, the Estonians were non-violent.  They were non-violent because their revolution was a singing revolution, based around singing a single song at a music festival.  Their story was every bit as moving as that of Mahatma Ghandi in India or Martin Luther King, Jr. in the USA. 

Michael Jackson rose to prominence when he was about 10, which was also about the time Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.  He looked out in his audience and saw black and white people holding hands and singing together.  He realized then that music had power, just as the Estonians later came to see the same thing, just as so many people have seen it – the power to make people join in harmony rather than arguing with one another.

There are a couple of other stories I want to tell you in this regard.  There was the story of the Christmas truce.  Have you heard this story?  It happened during WWI, in the trenches, between some British and German soldiers, at Christmas.  It happened because they had a song in common – “Silent Night.”  The Germans put up a truce flag and started singing Christmas carols.  The British joined in.  They came out of their trenches.  They celebrated Christmas together.  Afterwards it was very difficult to get them to shoot at each other again.  Some troops had to be rotated off the front.

One of my friends had a similar experience singing Silent Night in Rockefeller center recently, where, when security guards tried to get people to move in the middle of the song they would not.  They sang louder and more and more people joined, making it impossible for the security guards to clear them until the song was over.

Thinking about all these things, I remembered that every country has a national anthem, that Martin Luther King, Jr. had people singing “We Shall Overcome,” that everyone has recognized the power of singing together – yet, YET, the United Nations fails to have an effective international anthem.  Apparently, there was a song, but capitalist nations felt that that song was communist or some such thing.  How on earth could we hope to have world peace if we don’t have a song we could all join in singing together?

Michael Jackson was trying to address this problem.  He wrote three songs that might be suitable: “We Are the World,” “Heal the World,” and “Cry.”  The second, “Heal the World,” was the song he said he was most proud of – the best song by the king of pop.  I was impressed that 1 billion people watched his memorial service and heard the first two together, though presumably they already knew them.  I was impressed that when I was on boards for a Michael Jackson fan website that there was a woman there from Sri Lanka who told me that “Heal the World” was in the official elementary school music textbooks there.  Now that is market penetration!  Michael Jackson performed in 40 countries.  That’s a lot of work.  It has brought some fruit.  I particularly like Michael Jackson’s short film for his “Heal the World” video that shows soldiers throwing down their guns

You are about to start a 2 year international tour from what you’ve said.  You have tremendous energy, that most people don’t have, that would enable you to accomplish this task, which seems to me, a middle aged woman, rather daunting.  You could deepen the penetration of these songs.

The best song — by the best pop singer — please don’t let it die.  Please add it to your concert program, or, if not that one, then one of the other two on this topic.

Please also look into the even called mjjworldcry that Michael Jackson fans tried to organize on the first anniversary of his death.  They wanted the whole world to join together in singing Michael Jackson’s song “Cry,” as illustrated in his “Cry” video – sort of like we had “Hands Across America” 20 years ago.  Are you old enough to remember that?  It seems like a possibility, what with the telecommunications we have. These fans did not succeed that first time, but they did not have celebrity endorsement.  They did not have corporate sponsorship.  I would also appreciate if you could look into helping organizing such an event.  You are so very good at networking.  I believe you might be effective in bringing it off.  I believe that such an event would have a significant impact on bringing more peace to the world.

So here’s my attempt at a sound byte, bowdlerized a bit from Lord of the Rings:

ONE SONG TO HEAL THE WORLD

ONE SONG TO BIND THEM

With love,

Straight Arrow

Chris Botti, Tarrytown Music Hall, Dec. 13, 2012

I went to see a concert by Chris Botti, Dec. 13, 2012.

Why did I go to this concert?  I went to this concert, because I am a Grobanite and I have seen Chris perform with Josh.  I have also seen Chris perform with Lucia Micarelli, who has also performed with Josh, and who I am just as obsessed with as with Josh.

This concert was at the Tarrytown Music Hall, in Tarrytown NY.  The concert was originally scheduled for November 8, but it was rescheduled, because Chris was performing with Barbra Streisand.  She trumped Tarrytown.  That's understandable, I guess.

I'm not quite sure what I expected from the concert.  I guess had this idea of Chris as this guy with this incredibly smooth, mild, soft tone.  I actually do have his DVD from his Boston performance, but I never listened to the whole thing, which was mostly because I really wasn't that into some of the pieces, but I figured I'd go hear him anyway.

I think I thought of him as jazz, and some of the pieces were jazz, but I wouldn't say they all were.  I would say there was something of a mix of genres, with some sounding more like rock jamming.  At least two of the pieces were classical -- a Chopin piece and Nessun Dorma -- though perhaps they were jazz versions of classical, because they really didn't sound classical.

Chris's band was all male.  There were 2 female soloists, a violinist and a vocalist, and a guest male vocalist, who had been flown in from Germany just for this concert, which I found fairly amazing.  I find that all male pattern disturbing.  I see it in a lot of bands.

I learned that Chris has been on tour for 9 years, 300 days per year.  I found that statistic fairly amazing, as well.

Some of the concert was intolerably loud for these sensitive ears of mine.  At first I thought they had overamplified for such a small hall, but after a while I decided they really did want to be loud -- so I just sat there with my ears covered some of the time.  I did not put in my ear plugs, because sometimes the music was soft.

Some people seem to prefer the way musicians sound live.  Personally, I find these louder musicians generally sound best to me on my home system, because I can turn them down.

The amplification gave a sort of smoky echoey sound.  I think this worked for the louder parts, though it distorted some of the softer parts.  The vocalists were hard to hear over the music.  Chris's softer, mellower parts did not come through as well under this sound system as they seemed to on the recordings I have heard.

His louder parts were of the sort that don't make much sense to me musically: a lot of loud, high hooting notes.  The other audience members seemed really excited, so I suppose there must be a lot of folks who like that stuff, but, alas, it's not my thing.

Chris introduced all his musicians.  Unfortunately, he said many of the names while the music was going on and people were clapping, so I could not hear a lot of them.  That made me particularly sad with respect to the drummer, who he praised very highly and who did play exceptionally well -- but I don't know his name.

We also did not get a written program, so I could not refer to that either.  A written program would have helped me remember the names of the pieces and the musicians.  I suppose I'm supposed to recognize all of them.  I did recognize some, but certainly not all.

I did hear the name of the violinist.  She was Carolyn Campbell.  She was very beautiful, in a sexy evening gown, and seemed very young.  Like Lucia, she performed barefoot.  That surprised me.  I thought that was peculiar to Lucia, but apparently not.  

I am obsessed with Lucia, because she was the first violinist who I ever enjoyed listening to.  She has a unique sound on the violin, which I enjoy.

I was particularly eager to hear Carolyn, who is now filling Lucia's shoes, or lack of shoes, as the case may be.  

I was favorably impressed with Carolyn.  She did have a nice sound -- definitely preferable to the classical violinists I have heard, and who I generally don't like --  but she was not Lucia.  This is not to say she was worse than Lucia, but she was just not Lucia.  Carolyn did an impressive, dramatic solo, which was something of the genre of the Kashmir solo that Lucia did on Josh's Awake DVD -- and it was a good one -- but, still, it was not Lucia.  

I don't know what it is about Lucia's playing that effects me so, but no one else gets to me that way.  Of course, I don't know what I would have thought even of her with that sort of misty, sounding echoey amplification that wasn't entirely balanced.  Maybe I wouldn't have liked her as much there, either.

Chris did a cute thing with Nessun Dorma at the end.  

He did a walk around in the orchestra during part of the concert.  That was nice -- not as loud as some of the other pieces, and some of that smooth, mellow sound that I like so much came through.

Apparently, while he was out there, he located a school girl who plays the drums.  He brought her up for the finale of Nessun Dorma and let her play on stage.  They supervised her to make sure she held off until the end, where they actually had three people playing to increase the noise.  She did a good job, from what I could tell, though there was so much noise at that point it was hard to distinguish much of anything, including the singer.  Still it was fun having her up there.

Am I going to another Chris Botti concert?  I don't think so.  I sort of wasn't expecting to enjoy this, because I don't really like jazz.  I guess, since my expectations were low, I probably enjoyed it more than I expected.  I do wish that musicians would realize that in an older, small concert hall, amplification is not really necessary and may detract from the sound quality -- especially for a trumpet.  I fail to see why a trumpet needs amplification in such a hall.

Curiously, Chris seemed to have some kind of flashlight at the end of this trumpet for when he walked out in the audience.  That was interesting.

Oh, also, there was no intermission.  Fortunately, they let us go to the bathroom during the concert, but the restroom door was propped open, which wasn't so good for the people sitting near there.

Young musicians don't seem to realize that older people can't necessarily wait 2 hours to go to the bathroom.  Of course, I did stupidly drink tea before the concert.  Not a good idea.

When I go to Lincoln Center, where they don't let you back in if you go to the bathroom, I had better remember not to drink much.  And they wonder why older people get dehydrated.  The idea of handicap accessibility is not well extended to people with the disability of weak bladder, but this concert wasn't so bad in that respect.

Oh, well, I can chalk all this up to an educational experience, I guess.