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.

On thinking about meeting Julie Andrews

I was looking at the invitation my friend sent me to the November 15, 2012 event at Lincoln Center to benefit channel 13.  My friend sent it to me, because Josh Groban is appearing at this event -- and she knows that I am a Josh Groban fan. 

My friend briefly considered going to this event and inviting me to go with her.    Now she has decided that it is too expensive, which seems like a wise decision to me, though I would have been happy to go with her, if she wanted to splurge.

But, as I was thinking about attending, my thoughts began drifting away from the idea of seeing Josh, to the idea of seeing Julie Andrews.  

I gather that she can't sing any more, due to a botched surgery.  That's very sad, but it wouldn't matter that much to me, because I can remember her singing.

My parents took me and my brother to both "Mary Poppins" and "The Sound of Music."  

Movies didn't happen very often when I was a kid.  My mom was depressed and frustrated in her marriage. She did not like movies, because they tended to upset her.  The romantic ones reminded her of her unhappiness with my father.  The ones were people were hurt upset her, because she did not like seeing people hurt.  She especially did not like seeing children hurt, even in fiction.

Later on, my father sometimes took me to movies, because my mother would not go with me.

But these two movies stood out as exceptions.  We went as a family.  My mother loved them, because she loved music.  My father seemed to like them to.

I remember the songs from those movies being burned into my head.  We got the records.  We got the sheet music.  

So as I thought about the concept of actually getting to meeting Julie Andrews in person, I found myself crying.  I was surprised.  I realized that it had never even occurred to me to try to meet Julie Andrews.  

I've met Josh.  I've hung around outside places where he was appearing and gotten things autographed.  I've actually spoken to him.

But it's never occurred to me to try to meet Julie Andrews.  Why?  Mental blind spot, I guess.  

She was incredibly beautiful and had an incredibly beautiful voice as well.  Plus she acted well.  Those movies were enchanting.

So I went on line and tried to find her website.  I couldn't find one.  I found two fan websites, but no Julie Andrews official website.

I guess she's not really on the Internet, yet.  That's hard for me to imagine, since I live on the Internet.  I'm an internet junkie, but there are people out there who have not gotten on yet.  I guess she's one of them.

So, it occurred to me to write this blog and maybe, if she has someone getting clipping collections for her, this will come up.

I just hope she'll know that I am still a fan -- all these many years later -- even if she can't sing any more -- and those movies were really transformative events in my childhood -- rare family outings.  

So, even though I can't meet you, Hi, Julie!

Josh Groban Americans for the Arts Awards October 15, 2012

Event report

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Let me start by reminding people who might not have read all my posts in this blog that I am mildly autistic.  When I am in a crowded environment with lots of sensory stimulation, I get very overwhelmed.  My brain goes into slow motion.  I gather data that I process slowly over time.  

Writing is good for me, because I can do it later, when I'm alone.  Things come back to me slowly.  I've been writing this particular blog, piecemeal, as I think of things.

I went to the American for Arts Awards, October 15, to see Josh Groban get an award for his work with his Find Your Light Foundation.   He wants to focus this foundation on supporting arts education, particularly for kids who don't have the money for private arts lessons.

This award ceremony took place at the Cipriani 42nd St.  Here is a link to their website if you want to know more about them.  

http://www.cipriani.com/locations/new-york/events/42nd-street.php

They have a slide show to give you the flavor of their facility.

I am not a photographer.  I usually don't take pictures.  

Now people have asked me a couple of questions that I have been thinking about.  

The first question was "Did you have a good time?"  I would say no.  

I have special foods needs.  I called the venue in advance and they assured me that I would not be forced to sit and starve to death while other people ate.  They would make sure that I would have enough food. 

They totally broke this promise.  None of the hors d'ouevres were things I could eat.  

I was also making my maiden voyage with evening gloves -- something I never tried before, so I did not want to eat finger food anyway, but I could not have eaten anything they served even if I had wanted to.

Then we sat at the table where there were rolls & bread sticks that I could not eat and I had to demand something that I could eat, which they resisted, because they said the salad was coming in two minutes.  This was a bald faced lie, as the salad was not brought for at least half an hour.  I insisted they bring me some fruit, which they finally did, reluctantly.  

When they did bring me a salad, there was no dressing.  So while everyone else was eating cheese (which I cannot eat) and tomatoes, I was sitting there with an essentially non-caloric salad, which was not going to fill me up.

I had to demand dressing and that took a while as well.

Then, when they brought me dinner, I had no sauce at all, which again tremendously reduced the calories of the thing.  Fortunately, I made them leave the dressing, so I could put it on the vegetables.

Anyway, so that was unsatisfactory.

Then I had asked for fruit for desert, which took extra time, so I was eating during the young artists' performance.  The young artists were way too loud for my sensory integration issues with my ears, so I had to stop eating my late desert to try to fish my ear plugs out of my purse with my gloves -- which was awkward.  

I brought a dressy purse.  Normally, I have a purse with lots of compartments, so it's easy to find things.  This purse was just one compartment, so the ear plugs were under everything else & were hard to get to, especially since I was wearing the gloves, so I had substantial ear pain until I found the ear plugs.

Of course, I had gone there to gawk at Josh, but that gave rise to another problem.

Our table was located in the rear, northwest corner of the dining area.  As it turned out, when we got there, it was immediately adjacent to a window in the partition separating the dining area from the VIP schmoozing area.  

The people with the Americans for the Arts knew we were Grobanites.  I wonder if they knew they had put us at a table so close to where Josh was standing.  I should thank them if it was intentional -- though I suspect it was an accident.

Gayle, Josh's manager, was standing at the window, and as soon as she noticed that we were looking at Josh, she accused us of staring, so we sat down.

I'm used to being accused of staring.  I've been accused of that all my life.  Since I have this slow processing, and poor social antenna, it takes me a lot of time to gather the same information that other people can gather in a quick glance.   

These accusations always sort of come as a bolt of lightening out of the blue, as I sort of go into a spaced out state and don't notice what I'm doing, especially in a high stimulation event like that.

But, of course, I *was* staring.

Anyway, people have asked me if Josh had a date.  I'm a really poor person to ask that of.  I was at the Paul Newman event in the spring, where Josh brought a date openly.  I was only a few feet away from her and never really saw her.  I look at the videos of Josh outside the venue now and I see that she was there, about four feet in front of me, but I didn't notice.  

I guess that is partly because she was short and people were between us, but it was also because that was a crowded situation where I was overstimulated, so I was not observing well.

So, did Josh have a date last night?  I don't know.  He seemed to have a lot of attractive young women around him.  He seemed to be taking turns talking to them.  One of them turned her face towards us frequently, but I suspect she was a decoy.  The other women tended to keep their backs to us.  Trying to keep track of them was, to me, sort of like that shell game that con artists sometimes play in the city.  It's very hard to keep track of where the little thing you're trying to follow is, when they keep switching around the shells. 

Anyway, I go to this sort of event partly to practice networking & to have new experiences.  I feel that it was an educational evening.  I got to meet some people.  I got to see this very fancy venue.   I got to talk to Josh briefly.  I got to get all dressed up and try out my new evening gloves.    I got to try to improve my social skills, which always need work, given my mild autistic spectrum disorder.   I learned more about Americans for the Arts.

I also got to see Brian Stokes Mitchell, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Renee Fleming, all of whom I have seen before only on a screen.   I like seeing people in person and comparing how they seem in person to how they seem on the screen.  

I am suspicious that the electronic process that creates the illusion of moving pictures on  screens  is very hypnotic and tends to make people seem more exciting than they really are.  It's interesting to compare people in person to people on the screen.  I would like to have more opportunities to do that, because I feel that it is educational.

Certainly, after watching Josh on a screen, I find it difficult to reconcile what I see in physical proximity to him with what I see on screen.   It's partly that disconnect that makes me stare.   I'm trying to process the experience of watching the screen with the experience of seeing the human flesh.  

This is one of the things that likely makes me as a mildly autistic person seem odd to ordinary people who are not so interested in this type of observation.

But, did I have fun?  No, I wouldn't say that.  This is not to say I had a bad time, exactly, but I would say that writing this blog, for instance, is more fun for me.

The parts that I have included below in italics are the parts that I previously posted in several places on the Internet

It was raining quite heavily when I got into Manhattan.  Fortunately, Park Avenue has a strange configuration there around Grand Central Terminal, going around the terminal at an elevated level and over 42nd street, before returning to ground level a block farther down.  Therefore the crosswalk across 42nd Street at that point is underneath the overpass and I was able to cross without getting wet & then wait again under the overpass to cross eastward toward Cipriani -- leaving only half a block to walk in the rain with my silk dress.

Someone was waiting by the door of Cipriani with an umbrella to shelter people who walked up the steps into the venue, but I did not need that as I already had an umbrella.  

As soon as I entered the door, someone came up with a plastic bag to put around my umbrella.

Just past the man with the plastic bags was a line of gentlemen in white jackets to the left who were prepared to take coats, umbrellas and bags to check.  To the right was a table with people waiting to give us our tickets with our table numbers in them.  The tickets were all in little envelopes with our names on them arranged in alphabetical order.   We were at table 34, in the back.

Just to the right of the table with the tickets, was a velvet cord, blocking the VIP entrance.   The VIP's got their cocktails behind the table.  We turned back to the side with the men who were taking coats and went to a larger area where there were cocktails for the rest of the attendees.

I quickly found the five other fan club members, who were already there.  There was an open bar and hors d'oeuvres.  These included grape tomatoes on a toothpick with cheese, lox on very thin toast, and tiny quiches.  There were glasses of Bellini constantly being passed around.  One of my friends had previously explained to me that this beverage, a mixture of champagne and peach, was invented by Cipriani, though it has become a mixed drink that is knowing other places as well, but it remains the house specialty.

I tried to mingle bit with some of the other people, but I am a horrible networker.  I was especially curious about several young women who looked to be at least six feet tall and looked like models, but I did not quite get up the courage to talk to them.  

We stood around and talked and waited for Josh to come in.  We spotted Gayle and his parents before we spotted him.  His hair is shorter and he was not wearing his glasses, so it was a bit harder to recognize him.  

After he went into the celebrity area, we were able to say hello to his father over the velvet rope and talk to two of his high school teacher who had come from California to attend.  One of them told us that he had always felt that Josh would make it big, because he always had an aura about him, though it happened faster than he thought.  He talked about Josh's first interview with Rosie O'Donnell & how Josh had to come back to class at the high school the next day after being on Rosie.

Later his mother came out and talked to us and the teachers.  Jack at least claimed that he recognized my face from the GFC dinner last fall.

Then we were called to sit down.  The other Grobanites in the group had asked to sit together.  The organizers apparently knew to put me with them, because they asked me when I called in what was drawing me to the event.  I said "Josh Groban."  they told me "We love him, too," and apparently decided on their own to seat me with the other 5 Grobanites.  

The other two people at our table were two men.  One of them was a man who works at Christie's auction house, who had come in with a bunch of other Christie's employees.  Apparently, Christies gives millions of dollars to Americans for the Arts.  The other man was an employee of Americans for the Arts. 

If I understood correctly , Americans for the arts has two main focuses.  One is supporting community arts programs and the other is supporting arts education.  I might be oversimplifying this, but that's what I understood.

There were several honorees before dinner.  There was a speech and a videotape for each.   There were two large screens on either side of the stage, so that, even though we were in back, we could see the speakers perfectly clearly.

Then we had dinner.  During dinner, they played "Illuminations" over the loudspeaker.  I felt a bit for Josh, who has said he does not like to hear himself sing.

Dinner included a tomato mozzarella appetizer, a veal chop, vegetables, and a desert that I did not eat, so someone else will have to tell you what was in it.

After dinner, they had a group of young artists performing.  There were vocalists and instrumentalists.  They first did February Song and then a couple of jazzier numbers, which were -- if I understood correctly -- related to the other performer being honored, Brian Stokes Mitchell.  I thought the February Song cover was good and captured the feeling of the song fairly well, though it was a bit too loud for me & I had to put on ear plugs, but I have very sensitive ears.

After the performance, Renee Fleming gave a speech for Josh.  Then there was a video that featured, inter alia, Chris Botti, Angelique Kidjo, Kelly Ripa, and one of the high school teachers we had met.  Then Josh spoke. 

I saw other Grobanites making videos of Josh's portion of the program, so I think that will be up on YouTube.  I made a sound recording.  I don't do video.  But I don't think I'll have to post the sound recording as others had videos.

Then there were a couple more honorees after Josh, then the program was over.

As were leaving I picked up some discarded programs, which I sent out already to Grobies

Gayle promised after the show to have Josh autograph a copy of the ad that people designed here & put it up on the website.  She told us she knew about it, because she reads *everything* on this website. She insisted that she reads absolutely everything on this site.

We all hung around until almost everyone had left. and Josh came out to thank us for supporting him.  He posed for a picture with us, which I think will be posted here.   He told us that he still has two more songs to record before the album is finished, but he thinks it is almost done.

We also got to talk to Herbie Hancock who said he wants to do something with Josh again.

There was a goodie bag, whose contents I have not yet examined, though I gather it includes a can of coffee, a poster, and a DVD.

Then I added some bits as follows:

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addendum

Oh, yes, once we got to our table, we were not far from Josh, on the other side of the barrier, as he was mingling.  Gayle told us to stop staring at him, so we sat back down. 

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addendum

Oh, yes, Josh said he thought that the cover of February song was the best he had heard, that they changed a few chords, but he liked it.  I did not record that as I was still eating, but maybe someone else did. 

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addendum

Oh, the guy from Arts for America said that the room we were in used to be a bank.  It had lovely old stonework & tiled floors.  We estimated that the ceiling was 3 stories above us.   You could see where the tellers had been in the past off at the sides.

There was a wooden barrier about chest height around the dining areas, with the VIP mingling area to the west and the ordinary mingling area to the east. 

-----------------------------------

addendum

Oh, Josh told us that they had not actually given him the physical award yet.  They only had one up front.  They're going to send it to him.  He said it's very valuable and likely has to be sent by Brinks. 

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One more addendum:

Josh's parents said Chris wasn't there because he was busy with projects, which was nice to hear.

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I did this sketch to illustrate the incident where Gayle told us to stop staring

This is not to scale at all.  The dining area was much larger.  The point was that Gayle was standing in the window that we were looking at Josh through.  I did think I had spotted a person of interest just before she told us to stop staring, but I could not be sure.  I'm not good at recognizing people from photos, especially people who have faces that angle sharply away from their noses.  People with flat faces are easier to recognize from photos.

off color tweets

Awkward moments on twitter

Josh Groban started tweeting names of body parts, female body parts.

Some of us started tweeting names of body parts, male body parts -- at Josh -- especially about Josh's body parts -- and strategic pictures of Josh.

Who knows how much he reads or what he notices?  He tries to read his own twitter, but he has 500k followers now.  Probably he misses a lot.   He's a good scanner.  He picks up a lot.  He seems to try to tweet a new person every day, to spread the love around.  He does that well. He doesn't repeat often.

Anyway, last night he tweeted about a body part again.

That set us off -- the pictures started going around again, the comments.  I don't remember exactly what I tweeted, but it was at best suggestive -- if not explicit.

This time a new participant saw our tweets, a guy.  He told Josh.  Josh noticed.  Josh said it was gross.

Was this really the first time he noticed?  Or was he aware before, enjoying it, and just pretended he thought it was gross, because he was talking to another guy?  Who knows?

Ok, Josh, you know, a lot of women find it gross when you tweet the names of female body parts.  Now you know how it feels.

Then, suddenly, I realize that Josh is not the only person I follow.  I also follow some child performers. Some of the people I have met on twitter are kids who follow those child performers.  I remember that one of the people who actively follows me is a 13 year old girl from Indonesia, a Muslim.

Oops.

We really need to be careful on twitter.

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Addendum:  Need to remember that if I tweet another user, with their ID at the start of the message, then that tweet will only appear on the timelines of my followers if they also follow that user.  If one of the ID's at the start of the message is Josh's ID, then anyone who follows me and Josh will see it.

I believe that if I put Josh's ID at the end of the message that might not happen, but Josh would still see it in his timeline --- assuming he looks.  Perhaps that might be safer if the tweets are off color.

Greyson Chance

Ok, this has nothing at all to do with Josh Groban, just nothing at all.

I started getting into pop music right after the death of my friend Jim May 30, 2009.  He died of addiction.

I used to sing with him, before he died, and sang to him as well.

A few weeks after Jim died, Michael Jackson died, also of addiction.

I really did not know much about Michael Jackson, other than that I had seen him on TV when we were both kids.  He was about two years younger than I.  I guess I had heard "Billie Jean" and "Beat It" in the lobby of some building some time.  I guess I knew they were from Michael Jackson, but I did not inquire much.

I read that "Thriller" was Michael Jackson's greatest hit.  I had never actually heard this song or seen the famous music video.  I decided that, given that this person had just died, I ought to, perhaps, just look once at the video, to see what all the fuss was about.  I was sure I would hate the video.  I almost always hate popular music.

Oops.

I hardly knew what hit me.  I spent all of my free time for the next six months watching YouTube videos of Michael Jackson and getting his DVDs.  Somehow my grief at the death of my dear friend got sublimated into a Michael Jackson obsession.

Sometime, in December of 2009, I was asked to perform "Oh, Holy Night" at a Christmas service for my religious group.  I went on YouTube & found Josh Groban singing that song.

Oops.... again hardly knew what hit me.

Now I'm a hard core Grobanite, but, along the way, I picked up some other musicians as well.

One of them was Greyson Chance the wunderkind -- aged 12 -- whose creative Paparazzi cover took YouTube by storm.

I still like Greyson.  He's really a genius.  He writes & arranges his own songs.  He sings with great feeling.

Today he tweeted this

Greyson is now 14.  Do you see this?  This sounds like something an adult musician with formal music training would write.  This is a self-taught kid who is touring and going to school via the Internet.

I'm just blown away.  Just blown away.

Genius.  So amazing when it strikes.

Josh Groban Emmy's 2012

Yesterday evening was a bit overexciting for this dreary, middle-aged Grobie.

Oh, how I used to hate that appellation, because it sounds a bit like "grub" -- something icky -- but here I am using it!  Oh, well.

Now, for most of you, this might seem just the most inane thing in the world, but there are those of us who hang around on twitter chatting with one another and waiting to see if Josh Groban will tweet.   We entertain each other and then occasionally he throws something into the fire, which kind of brightens everything up.

So last night it was this

Now, if you read this, you will notice several things.  First, Josh initially tweeted as if he were planning to watch the Emmy's and encouraging us to do so as well.   Then, some people, who were actually watching the Emmy's started acting strange and I realized I had missed it.

Of course, I don't have a TV anyway, though perhaps ABC was streaming it on their website?  Who knows.

There are pundits amongst us who follow everything Josh does in great detail, and make sure that all Josh's appearances get on YouTube, and follow all the tweets back and forth to make sure that they know everything that is going on in Grobania.  The two chief pundits who I know about had not actually been watching the Emmy's and were caught quite as flat-footed as  I.

Fortunately, through the miracle of Grobania, someone did get the video & post it on YouTube, which turned out to be unnecessary, as Warner Music tweeted another one the next day; but it was quite a relief getting that YouTube video within a few minutes.

It was, I suppose rather pitifully, a real adrenaline rush moment here.  And then we all had to start chatting about what we had been doing and thinking at that moment, sort of like a mini "What were you doing when you first learned that John F. Kennedy was shot?"

Well, anyway, I took some stills, because this was one of those times when Josh actually smiled while singing.

You know Josh is a very handsome guy and he has an exquisite voice -- and he's funny -- but, usually, he jokes when he talks and sings these really somber songs full of gravitas when he sings.   I thought this larger still was especially nice.

So, being a bit shaky still -- you know it doesn't take much when you're a quiet soul -- I thought perhaps blogging would have a calming effect.

We'll see.  Not sure.

Lucia Micarelli

The last time I blogged extensively on Lucia Micarelli was on the "Analytical and Intuitive Minds" thread on FOJG.  I was upset that she was not going to be on the Illuminations tour.  The thread was deleted.

In case you didn't know, she was on the Closer and Awake tours.

Lizzie asked the mods if they had deleted the thread.  They denied doing so, which left us with the strong suspicion that Josh had deleted it himself.

I felt a bit badly.  It must have been a sensitive topic, which hadn't really occurred to me, though perhaps it should have.  I had strongly suspected before that Josh had read posts of mine on the website, but I had never been sure.  Now I feel fairly strongly that he must.

Anyway, Lucia's on TV now on the Treme show on HBO.  While she does sometimes perform on the show, she is primarily there as an actress.  Of course, part of her appeal was her high drama stage presence -- including an incredibly mobile and expressive face -- so it should not be a surprise that she is a great actress

BTW, I don't regard the word "actress" as offensive.  I've noticed that some people do.  I can't imagine why.  I used to live in France, where many words had male and female forms, and I became convinced that France was the least sexist country in the world.  They had a saying <<Vive la différence>>, meaning "long live the difference."  I like that.  I think the difference is good and nice and that women should not be junior men.

Nevertheless, she has done some rather extraordinary things as a violinist on that show including playing the violin like a ukele, and learning how to do jazz on the violin.   She has also started singing, which surprised me.  She sings in a dark, soft, bluesy way, which is interesting given that she often prefers a bright, loud, crisp sound on the violin.

What I really like about Lucia's violin playing is the way she can make that instrument have so many voices.

I first heard her doing a cover of "Kashmir" in a Youtube video taken from Josh's "Awake" DVD.  I was instantly riveted.  I had never heard anything like that on the violin.  Lucia demonstrated the ability to take an ancient instrument and make it new -- make it something it had never been before.

Since that time, I've seen that ability over and over with Lucia.  She can make that violin sound like a tired old blues singer in a dive bar, like an electric guitar, like a jazz tenor sax, like a cello, like a ukele, and mostly she does this soaring, unique sound that is so sweet and clear that it is almost impossible to believe that this is the same instrument that I was used to listening to in classical music.

On the second Treme DVD, her jazz violin on the song "Heavy Henry" is another transformative interpretation.  Whereas previously one might have thought much of her playing to be mournful or angry, this one is so full of light-hearted joy that again it is hard to place it as the same instrument that other violinists are playing.

Her "One More Cup of Coffee" with Steve Earle stands out on the Amnesty International "Chimes of Freedom" album -- at least to my ear -- as the most extraordinary and brilliant Bob Dylan cover out of the 75 on the 4 disc set.  The reason why this amazing recording is not a runaway hit escapes me.

I am baffled as to why this unique performer, such a genius, is not more widely appreciated.  I suppose it is partly that she is shy.

Anyway, not that anyone is likely to read this or anything, but I've made a playlist of those Youtube videos of hers that I found most exciting, which is practically all the videos I could find.   Here it is

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiv74vm_F0Y9z1Su09f1jldG74QRND_A3

I hope, if you do listen to these videos, you will come to agree with me that Lucia is not just a violinist but a paradigm changer, someone who does things with the violin that no one else does, a genius.  Also, I hope a lot of people buy her albums -- the third of which she is hoping to have out fairly soon -- so that she can make more albums.  I adore the first two and would like many more.

I also have this faint hope that she might perform with Josh again, but perhaps that is not the musical direction she is going in right now.  Still, she has great merit on her own.