The Hollow Men
:::this is the way the world ends:::
The Metropolitan Opera is offering free streams of their past performances. I have the luxury of two monitors at home, so I leave the performance up in a browser window and listen/watch throughout the day while I work in the primary screen. The process is a little more osmosis than active engagement, but by the end, I feel like I got 80% out of it as I would watching the first time.
One tip, I also pull up the synopsis of what happens in the opera in Wikipedia and it increases my understanding of the work immensely.
Opera sets seem to be a whole different type of stagecraft. All are spartan in some manner, “pointing” their construction to the performers. I watched the entirety of Carmen and they employed a complicated mechanism of rotating sets. The design and way the performers used this to dramatic effect was top-notch.
This week is Wagner week, and here is the schedule for The Metropolitan Opera.
I thought I’d post this J.E.-created Spotify playlist to Ye Ol’ Blog.
Stolen from Facebook, this was compiled from the Album Top 10 lists from the Yonder Days of 2018.
I thought it would be a good time to return to our blog. I am going to work on catching up with things I’ve set aside, intending to post but never posting.
So far, the only detour in our lives has been our kids were excused from school on Friday before Spring Break. This would have originally been Spring Break. We have changed plans — we will postpone the more adventurous intentions until everyone emerges later, all at once.
The interesting thing I’ve noticed has been a return to the good sort of boredom. There’s a restless, creative sort of energy I haven’t felt in a while. I think mindless distractions took up too much of my time. How to tell the difference between good pursuits and bad ones? Even good mindless from bad mindless?
Facebook doesn’t feel like one of the good ones. Perhaps this will be a refuge for us in these strange times.
This year marked the death of Johann Johannsson. Composer and soundtrack producer for films like The Arrival, Prisoners, and Sicario. I liked his personal compositions best. One of his early works was Fordlandia, which was one of my all time favorites. This live version is spectacular, maybe even better than the recorded because of the way he ends it.
Toby, and others – Elbow is a band a colleague introduced to me. At first I didn’t go for it that much, but I’m coming back to it slowly. A little 80s. a little Gabriel, and maybe some Smiths or something, but a decent listen.
Sara and I are going to see this guy, Nov 19th.
A lot of changes here. Looking forward to catching up with you all. Cheers to Tob, the best of us tonight!
I’ve been listening to back catalogs lately. I have the tendency to start in with an artist, and then move forward with them…a few exceptions (looking at you, Midnight Oil, Rush, U2, and Seventy Sevens). So now I’m playing catchup.
I’ve been hitting this lately:
Always good memories on this day, especially, gentlemen. Amazing to think of those Thanksgivings hosted in saintly cities. Hope your holidays have all been great, with good ones yet ahead. And very soon forty. Happy Thanksgiving! A raised toast to you all!
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