@joshgroban & @ItsBMcKnight

 then

now (granted with worse sound quality)

It's interesting to hear how both men's voices have evolved over the years.

I would say that they're both louder and both have a more operatic sound, more vibrato, less reediness. 

@tonyann @lprnyc May 23, 2024

 Just in case you haven't yet heard of Tony Ann, here's a recent video

I found out about him on Instagram.  One of his videos was suggested to me and I was hooked. Actually, a lot of his compositions sound similar to each other, but I like listening to them all anyway.  

Let me just say a few warnings about this venue.  

1. It's super dark.  I couldn't read the menu without my cell phone flashlight.  (People at tables were required to order food) 

2.The salted almond appetizer was *way* too salty

3. I sat near the stage, but they were making artificial fog, which I now know makes me feel ill.  I had sort of thought that this concert was going to be my first crowded indoor even with no mask.  I ended up putting on the mask because of the artificial fog on stage.  I felt much better with the mask on.

4. The air conditioner was kind of hyperactive, which was good in terms of the artificial fog getting into the audience, but it was also pretty chilly.  

 5. The start time they tell you is one hour before the concert 

6. The bathrooms are all gender and the men don't necessarily close the stall doors when they pee, which strikes me as rude.

A friend later told me that this venue used to be called The Village Gate.  

If you sit at a table there is a required minimum order.  I knew that going in, so I wasn't surprised.

Tony was booked for 2 concerts that night, and they had to leave time for seating & ordering food before the concert; and buying albums and song books and getting autographs and selfies.  They allowed 3 hours for the early concert, but that really only allowed for about an hour of actual concert -- and Tony tried to chat between songs, so really there wasn't much playing.  There is supposed to be a concert at the Town Hall theatre in October, so, hopefully, that will be a full show, as that is a Broadway Theatre.

Tony didn't really have too much worked out to say.  People shouted questions at him.  I turns out that he doesn't like personal questions.  You might want to ask him professional questions, if you get a chance.

He did answer that he's from Toronto and is not married, but he never did tell us the answer to the question of what his ethnicity is.  He is clearly of Asian extraction, but more than that I do not know.  He is fairly tall.

He could use some joke telling training, but that might not fit in with his improv mentality.

He did tell us that he took up piano because he wanted to be a composer.  

He also told us that he improvises most of the pieces that we see on Instagram.  That possibly explains why they end without a formal ending.  That's been one of the things that I find curious about his music. There isn't a final chord at the end or ending sequence.  It just stops abruptly or fades out, for most of the pieces.  

The ending sequence that we're used to is just a convention, really.  There isn't a real reason why a piece can't just stop abruptly, but I'm not used to it.

He doesn't like to describe himself as particularly talented.  He just thinks that he worked very hard and practiced a lot -- tho I feel that that level of focus is a kind of talent in and of itself.  I personally don't have that kind of focus, to be able to master something to the point that I  would be able to truly excel at it.

He said he's going to be adding more instruments to an upcoming piece.  It will be interesting to hear that, tho it may obscure his extraordinary piano playing.

@officialdfoster and @katharinemcphee in Staten Island

The voyage to the St. George Theater in Staten Island was pretty long for me, coming from Westchester.  I chose to go on public transportation, because I otherwise would have been driving down there during rush hour and that might make things difficult from a restroom point of view.  Also, I wanted to ride the Staten Island Ferry, which I have not been on for many years.

The weather was good for a ferry ride.  It was neither hot nor cold and the water was quite calm.  

Everybody else looks so young on public transportation these days.  Maybe older people like me aren't back on yet.

The St George is a very beautiful historical theater, with ornate decorations.  It's a very short walk from the ferry, though a shopping mall and a park and then one more block.

The Fosters were good, tho the repartee sounded tenser than it used to. I hope their marriage is ok. They did mention that Dave was on oxy for back pain, though, and they had both just gotten over a virus, so that might have affected their mood.

I like to sit in the back row of the upper balcony, so no one is breathing on me. Unfortunately this meant that the video material they were showing was partially blocked with scaffolding. They showed an interesting video of the history of the artists that David worked with. I couldn’t see all the faces, though I recognized some anyway.

They had their three year old son, Rennie, out there playing drums briefly. He’s obviously taking after his dad who was playing with adult orchestras at age six. 

They also had Daniel Emmett singing, and some audience members.  Originally, Dave said he would have 2 audience members sing.  He ended up letting 2 more sing.  They were all 4 really good.  Kat said it made her nervous that there were so many good singers, but it was New York after all. One of the women was only 18.  Dave told her she was going to be singing on Broadway.

The concert was supposed to end at 9:30, but they got out closer to 10, maybe because more audience members sang.  Some of the audience members said that they were going to sing a capella, but the band was always able to pick up and join in.

There were three eminent band members whose history they also discussed and played excerpts from. We often don’t get to hear about studio musicians who are typically amazing.  Unfortunately, I didn't write down the names of these band members. They had a bass, a drummer, and a synthesist. 

I'm searching around the internet to find the names of the other performers.  I think the bassist was Keith Nelson.  The drummer was JR Robinson, who bills himself as Michael's drummer.  I'm still searching around to find the keyboard/synth player, who was very impressive filling in orchestral sounds.  

Daniel Emmett was on AGT, I think.  He was introduced as a new Josh Groban.  I would say Emmett has a wonderful voice, but he's not Josh Groban.  Josh has a fabulous ability to convey emotion with his voice, in addition to having a beautiful voice.  Emmett is good at conveying emotion, too, but he's just not Josh Groban.  

Dave has said before that he's tried to find another Josh Groban, but hasn't.  I still don't think he has, but Emmett is worth listening to nevertheless. 

It was a good show, overall. I think Dave was discouraged that it wasn’t a bigger venue and wasn’t full, tho he didn’t say so. He likes to be a hit, though he’s always used famous singers as foils, disguising his role behind the scenes, because his singing isn’t so great, though it’s definitely improving.

I was impressed that his Russian counterpart, Igor Krutoy, is actually a wonderful, emotive singer as well.  I think Dave might be getting there.  It sounded to me like his voice was resonating more than it used to.

Kat sounded fabulous.  They said she had been singing through a cold on that tour, which made me nervous.  I once read a story about Placido Domingo's father damaging his voice singing through a cold.   

In several cases, they played songs that had lost, rather than won.  They did the number where they were kicked off Masked Singer, which Dave blamed Kat for, which I didn't like so much.  It didn't sound like he was joking around. They played a song that had lost for an Oscar to a song from Top Gun.  Dave blamed the casting of the movies for the fates of the songs, so he showed scenes from Top Gun during his song, to try to illustrate how his song might have won with a better movie.  He said his music had been nominated for Oscars 3 times and had always lost.  That's ok.  He has plenty of Grammys.

Hellfire cover & Israel & Hamas

This delightful cover was recently posted by VoicePlay.  I'm just finding this group & enjoying them, particularly the bass, Geoff Castellucci.  

This cover was released before the recent conflagration in Israel.  Yet the lyrics keep running through my head in response to the war there.  "You know I am a righteous man and of my virtue I am justly proud..." leading him up to a decision to murder an innocent woman.

I suppose pride in being virtuous is involved in many instances of sinful behavior, but it seems so applicable to this particular conflict -- where both sides are so sure they have God on their side.

******

Some other people posting

People ask me all the time if I am "pro-Israel" because I am a Jew who has lived in Israel, and my answer is that being "pro-Israel" or being "pro-Palestine" or being a "Zionist" does not properly capture the nuance of thought most people do or should have about this issue. It…

— Isaac Saul (@Ike_Saul) October 10, 2023

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A post shared by Ger Killeen (@gerkill)

When I was a little boy, the Japanese military attacked Pearl Harbor. It was a surprise attack, and thousands of U.S. servicemembers perished. As a nation, we were stunned. And we vowed to strike back. Revenge was understandably on everyone’s mind, including many Americans of…

— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) October 8, 2023

@LindseyStirling @hhcamphitheater Concert Bridgeport 8/1/23

 Wow!  

I saw this concert a few days ago, but didn't have the time to devote to writing it up.  

I haven't been going to as many events as I used to, due to the pandemic.  This one promised to be sort of outdoors, so I went.

It's a very interesting structure: kind of a tent, to keep off any precipitation, but then a substantial open gap at the sides, to let air through.  Curiously, for an open air venue, it's nestled between two noisy transport corridors: the MetroNorth/Amtrak train track and I-95 -- the super busy corridor along the Connecticut Coast.  

Its positioning guarantees it will be a noisy place, even without a concert.  Necessarily, they're going to have to crank up the volume to allow the music to be heard over the background noise. I found it necessary to have ear plugs in for most of the concert.

The opening act was Walk off the Earth. This was a competent band with a female lead singer and 4 male instrumentalists behind her.  This seems to be the configuration so often.  The male instrumentalists seem to want to be able to concentrate on their instruments, without having to worry about stage presence, so they have a female do that.  From what I can tell, the lead singer in such bands may make more money off specific gigs, but she doesn't have the flexibility and consistency of employment that the backup musicians have.  They often get repeat gigs with other soloists.    Seems sexist

They did some interesting things.  They had a Beatles medley, where each line was a different song.  They had 3 kids come up to sing one song -- during which the female lead vocalist went upstage and became a backup musician, with a guitar.  They had one piece where the band all got together on one harp guitar to play a medley that included part of "Somebody that I used to know"

So, they were competent, but I did get impatient after a while.  They went on until 9.  Lindsey did join them for one number, but unfortunately the sound balance was such that her violin didn't carry too well.

She finally came on stage after 9, which was a huge relief -- hearing some of her familiar music, seeing her .....

And, then, she lost audio and had to mime for a while until it came back.

Ultimately, tho, she was fabulous.  There were 2 instrumentalists behind her.  One did drums and one did, I think, both piano and guitar.  She both danced and did aerials.  It was extraordinary watching her hanging upside down on a trapeze-like gadget 20 feet above the stage, spinning, and playing the violin -- just incredible.

She did the Bach Toccata & Fugue, which is normally played on the organ, but she pulled it off beautifully -- and as well as any classical violinist.  It was very fast, with simultaneous notes and so impressive -- transitioning into a rock with the backup performers

But really the most phenomenal was Crystallize.  I was able to take out the ear plugs for that one.  She was up on that trapeze-like contraption all dressed in white and spinning around yet the notes came out so exquisitely, with a wonderful tone that I would call fruity (not sure why).  I cried during the whole piece, because it was so overwhelmingly beautiful.

She also had 5 backup dancers who performed with her on many numbers.  They were all excellent dancers, tho not multitasking with instruments.

She did one aerial routine in a hoop without the violin as well & one duet where she got the guitarist to dance with her.  He did a good job, but not nearly so good as she did.

I was left in awe of this extraordinary performer.  I always knew she was good, but in person it was astounding -- all the more so because on her albums she often has vocalists joining her, but this time she didn't, which made her ability to hold the stage all the more impressive.

Brava, Lindsey!

******

Addendum about parking difficulties

First, ticketmaster tried to scam me out of $40 for parking, when parking at this venue is free

Then, when I got there, I got directed into an entrance where I was prevented from climbing into the ramp and had to go around about quite far to get back.  When you're going into the ramp at this venue, be sure to be in the rightmost lane. 

I was somewhat late due to confusion at the ramp, but only missed part of the opening band.

******

Here's an instagram post with Lindsey performing with Walk the Earth and one of their kid soloists.  Warning: SUPER CUTE 

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A post shared by Walk off the Earth (@walkofftheearth)

#LindseyStirling #WalkofftheEarth #BridgeportCT #HartfordHealthcareAmphitheater 

@joshgroban in @sweeneytoddbway

I was, at one time, totally obsessed with Josh Groban. I hung out on Twitter every night until 3 am chatting with other Grobanites and waiting for Josh to tweet. 

He knew we were there. Things happened that made it clear that he was reading what we were writing. Other Grobanites noticed also. 

There was a mysterious list of people who had tweeted him. Maybe he started it. As soon as you started tweeting him, you would get on the list. Maybe he followed the list so he could keep track of us.    But he was definitely reading, trying to see what we would say about him. 

Sometimes he directly answered a tweet. That happened to me several times. Or sometimes I would post a question and he would answer it in an interview. 

I started calling him my three quarters friend. There was obviously some communication back and forth, but there was also a disconnect.       

There were people who were obsessed with him, who followed the social media of women who had been spotted with him. There were comments made on Twitter by these women that seemed to be about him without actually mentioning his name. There were websites where people gossiped about these women. 

Some of these comments made him sound somewhat unsavory. I don’t want to repeat what was said. There’s every reason to think it was unreliable. 

 Yet, I believed them enough to step back from my obsession with him. 

The voices were spectacularly beautiful. The music was complex and fast. Singing some of those songs was like trying to say a tongue twisters faster and faster “Sally sells sea shells…”

Josh’s singing was magnificent, astonishing, loud, clear, well enunciated, and heading into bass territory. I wonder whether, after all these years of trying to be the barytenor that David Foster wanted him to be, he’s finally allowed to let us hear the strongest part of his voice — or whether his voice has simply gotten lower with age. That happens to many men.

He’s always been a great singer, but there was a step beyond here. Beyond great, as if he had woken up to a new level. There was that one song, I wish I could remember its name, where really his voice was like thunder. It was late in the first half. Perhaps someone will tell me which one it was. Perhaps I’ll get the record.

But it took me back to the unsavory things that were said about him, way back then, making me wonder if they were true, making me wonder his lifelong obsession with this show reflects something inside of him. It definitely has been a lifelong obsession. He named his dog Sweeney.

I was so surprised to discover that the song “nothing’s gonna harm you” was actually not Sweeney‘s song. It was someone else. That’s a song he’s sung in many many concerts for years. I assumed that whatever role that song was, he would sing the role that song came with — but, no, it was a different role.

He said something in some video that I saw that led me to believe he learned that song when he was four years old. Is it possible that his parents could’ve taken him to see *this* musical when he was four years old? Doesn’t seem like a good idea.

When I was a child, I saw “The Wizard of Oz” many times. I came to learn that it came on every spring. I would watch the newspaper for it. At first, I found the wicked witch very frightening. Later, I came to admire her iconic performance. 

I learned that, while Judy Garland died relatively young of drug addiction, Margaret Hamilton lived to be 83. By all reports, Hamilton was a lovely person who worked for a time as a kindergarten teacher and became very concerned at how frightening her performance had been — concerned about its effects on children. 

I developed a theory. I thought, perhaps, if you put all your goodness into your performances, you would take home the bad; while, if you put all your badness into your performance, you could take home your good. Maybe it will be that way for Josh. 

They did have Josh dancing briefly on stage. Anyone who knows Josh will know that that is kind of incredible. It was very brief though. On the other hand, I’ve noticed that as he’s gotten older, he’s gotten less inhibited. There has been a swimsuit photo that would’ve been impossible even 10 years ago. He’s been on stage with sequins. That also would’ve been impossible 10 years ago. During the Awake tour, he wore a T-shirt, as I recall. Also, during the Awake tour, he was running on stage, so a suit jacket would’ve gotten sweaty.

I should say something about the other performers.. It’s a large cast. In some ways, I found Annaleigh Ashford to be at least as good as Josh, if not better, not so much for her singing, but for her comedic abilities. It’s not exactly that she made me laugh, but she was a comedic actress in a tragic/horror musical. 

I found Ruthie Ann Miles‘ singing very intriguing. She had both a high, haunting soprano, and a loud, low belt. I’ve been criticized for having a lack of passagio. I didn’t hear any passagio from her. It was two voices. That’s the way I sing. I thought that meant I couldn’t sing on Broadway, but she’s doing it, and she sounds great.

I’ll have to look at the program and see if my memory is sparked about any of the other performers.

One of the reasons that I got disenchanted, with Josh, also, was the horrendous audio issues in his concerts. The audio was frequently way too loud and horribly distorted. At the NASA County Coliseum, they shone bright spotlights in our eyes, which was very painful. Theater, I knew that sort of thing wasn’t going to happen.

Still, I did go, even though I’m planning to have surgery in a couple of weeks, and getting a bug would be really bad from the perspective of having my surgery. I noticed that, although theater was packed, there were very few older people there.  I think people my age are not going out that much still.  Older people are still having severe consequences from Covid. That’s noticeable, because Josh has often had a contingent of older fans. I didn’t notice that the younger women behind me were saying his name over and over again. Therefore, there are definitely young women interested in him.

I really have to ask myself why I’m still so attached to him, despite all that’s gone on, that I would go out and take a risk with my health. I thought that attendance was dropping off at the seat at the show, because I’ve seen him advertising a lot; and the advance ticket sales have been way down. 

Nevertheless, the show was absolutely packed. I thought maybe I wouldn’t have much of a chance later. I needn’t have worried so much. Still, I suspect, this show will not have as long of a run as “Natasha Pierre, and the great Comet of 1812” had. Despite the brilliant performances, the subject matter is very disturbing.

I still have a weird sense of loyalty to him. There’s still something in my head that tells me he’s my 3/4 friend. I have met them a few times in person. There was a time when I would’ve gone after the show to get my program signed at the stage door. I didn’t even try that this time. I hadn’t had dinner yet, but it wasn’t worth it to me.

He might recognize me. He’s met me a few times, because I used to do that stage door thing, and one time I paid a lot of money to go to an event, where he would see me in person. I doubt that I would be important to him, even if he did recognize me. There are so many other fans.

And, yet, there’s that sense in my head that my 3/4 friend has a show that might have sales falling off, and maybe I really should go show up.

I should feel that way about “Triple Threat”. The guy who’s doing that (off-Broadway) show really is my friend. I did see it online, when it was streamed, though. It was really great, and very inspiring. If you get a chance, go see that. 

There was a long line for the women's room.  Fortunately, it did move quickly, but they restarted after intermission, before everyone got in.  That's not ok.  They should wait.

I was in a theater this summer that had made the restrooms co-ed and made sure that there were enough of them for people to get through quickly.   This involved making stalls that were private -- with floor to ceiling walls and doors with door jams.  Sinks were out in public. 

I don't think I'll buy the album for this show, tho, after all.  As beautiful as the music was, it's not exactly easy listening.

I tend to like to be in the back at the top, and did even before the pandemic, because I figure that germs are heavier than air and will tend to fall down into the orchestra.  The back row seems to be universally sold out on these shows, curiously.  Maybe it was cheaper.  

However, I realized I was out of practice.  I didn't think to bring binoculars, so I could see the performers's faces.  I know what Josh looks like, but not the others.  Maybe when you buy a seat near the back, they should suggest binoculars.

The lady next to me left her umbrella.  I tried to call out to her, but she was lost in the crowd.

#SweeneyTodd #Sondheim #JoshGroban #Groban #LuntFontanneTheatre #RestroomLines #Broadway #LostUmbrella

@tomcruise #MissionImpossibleVII #MissionImpossibleDeadReckoningPart1

I'm a longstanding Tom Cruise fan.  I've mostly been tweeting about my interest in pop singers, recently, but he's been there all along -- in my fantasies.

I actually went to see this movie on opening night -- very unusual for me, but I went to the 10:55 pm show, so there were only 5 of us in the theater.  Wednesday is senior day at my theater, so I got in for half price.  It occurs to me that this wasn't a great day to open a show.  In some areas, it was too hot to go outdoors.  In some areas there was flooding.  We had an air quality alert -- recommending that we not go out -- tho I'm not sure that it's possible to keep ozone out of your house.

Actually, being in the movie theater was fabulous.  They upgraded their filtration during the pandemic.  The air was great.  I found that my balance and focus, which had been affected by the ozone, were much better once I got into the theatre.  Everyone should go to the movies during Air Quality Alerts.

I know Tom has said that he likes to go on opening night so that he can enjoy the crowds. I'm still sort of quarantining.  

I noticed that the previews were much louder than the movie.  I wore ear plugs during the previews.  Also, I didn't feel attracted to any of those movies.  Somehow they seem to have not gotten my genre.  Except maybe the one about Bob Marley would be interesting.

Anyway, one of the things about action movies with Tom has been that I know he's having fun when filming.  He just loves this process, passionately.  Even tho some of these movies are very suspenseful and violent, somehow the fact that he's having fun comes through and makes the movie seem lighter.  

I really noticed that during his mummy movie.  I wouldn't normally go see a horror movie about mummies, but I went because of him and wasn't disappointed.  That underlying feeling that it was a fun experience came through.  

I haven't seen all his mission impossible movies.  I did see IV and loved it.

This one was different from what I expected, though.  Tom's character had become much more conflicted.  He really looked miserable a lot of the time.  Probably he was miserable. He has talked about how hard the shut down was for him and he was filming during the shut down.

Maybe he's getting into more nuanced acting.  A lot of people have said that they think he can't really act.  Maybe he was trying to prove them wrong.

I really like what Katherine Hepburn said about acting -- that her fans wanted to see her, her on screen persona, in different roles.  They didn't want her to be completely method.  They wanted her familiar personality to come through.  She had a certain amusing spunk.  It was fun to watch.

Tom has been like that too.  He loves the stunts.  His love of those stunts comes through -- subtly, without destroying the suspense.  I remember after one of the Mission Impossible movies (maybe IV) it was said that he wanted to do the bungie jumping stunt over and over, far beyond the number of takes required for the movie, just because he loved the bungie jumping.

In the pre-movie publicity, they got into that as well -- talking about all the prep he did for the scene where he rides a motorcycle off a cliff.   He spent months breaking down the parts of the stunts, so that he could put them together without dying.  

The fact that he was portraying fear, sadness, hatred, even depression much more effectively than ever before, in my opinion, took away from the enjoyableness of the movie.  I don't want him to be a method actor.  I want him, like Katherine Hepburn being Katherine Hepburn, to be Tom Cruise -- cool, collected -- cruising above the hoy polloi.

I also want to address the women.  The mission impossible team has the classic sexist composition of three men and one women -- the classic composition that has shut so many females out of acting, while providing more opportunities for men -- even though the pool of aspiring actors is more heavily female than male.  However, here they did add some prominent women -- so there were 4 of them  -- tho many more men than women in under five roles.

YET... I can't help but notice that Tom is in there -- heavily made up to look younger -- at 60, while the prominent women are all *much* younger.  There aren't any older women.  

Hellooo, Tom! I know you want to be inclusive. Where are the older women?  

I found parts of the movie fairly confusing.  There were multiple teams of people going after the MacGuffin.  I found it hard to keep track of who was who.  Who was behind which team?  Who was supposed to be in the US government team?  Who was in the main antagonist's team?  Too many faces.  More diversity might have helped.  They did have a prominent black and a prominent Asian who were easier to spot and keep track of.  However, there weren't so many diverse people in the under five roles in the teams.  Part of this was intentional, with the masks and all, but part of it was just too many people on screen.

They did say that they were making a lot of things go on at once so that people would have to have a big screen to see it.  But I would have to see it multiple times to see all that stuff. That might benefit them, but not me so much.

There was no obvious LGBTQ representative.  My son noticed in the latest SpiderMan movie there everyone was hetero normative. Here there wasn't a whole lot of sex/romance -- a bit of cuddling -- but no one had time for sex.  Some people were probably just single, which is good, as most people in the USA are now single.  However, my son is sensitive to this because his sister and other parent are trans -- so he wants to see more diversity in the the LGBTQ area as well.  

OTOH, when most people's love lives are not examined, I guess it doesn't matter.  This is more about people's professional/financial lives and less about their romances.  The typical Bond movie will always have a gratuitous sexual scene.  Why? It's good to avoid that.  Let's focus on the action.  I'm glad that they did.

I was really happy to see that the Russian submarine and its crew were not antagonists.  That was a disturbing part of Top Gun Maverick -- escalating the cold war mentality.  Here they avoided that, which is a good thing.

Hayley Atwell is a great magician, btw.

Anyway, like Top Gun Maverick, I'm going to say this is a good movie, but not a great movie.  I enjoyed it.  It hung together. The camera work was generally good -- except for the confusing part with so many people on screen.  The scenery was gorgeous in many places. The plot hung together. The suspense was good.  

I'll go to see the sequel -- but, Tom, please try to be a bit less depressing, ok?

#TomCruise #AirQualityAlert #movies #MIVII #MissionImpossibleSeven #MissionImpossibleDeadReckoning #stunts #russians #RussianTropes

As usual, I reserve the right to edit this later.