darkoshi | Entries tagged with performances

I recorded both the opening and closing ceremonies from the Paris Olympics and finally got to watch most of the opening ceremony today. (Due to how it was recorded, I started off as the "L" teams were sailing by, and watched to the end. Now I've also watched from the beginning to the "E" teams. I hope to watch the rest tomorrow or rather later today.)

I've been quite enjoying it; it is so good!

Having started watching it in the middle, it was all quite suspenseful and surprising to me (I didn't know for sure that the boats meant there'd be no traditional parading of athletes into the stadium... nor even a traditional stadium).

The people in flowing dresses on top of long poles on the bridge, swaying back and forth and in circles! Very surreal yet familiar somehow. I can envision/feel myself doing that, despite my usual fear of heights.

In the library segment, I wished they'd translated the titles of the French books they showed. I reversed the video and paused it several times to write down the book titles. With help from a couple of other sites as well as Google translate, they are:

Paul Verlaine: Romances Sans Parole (Songs Without Words / Wordless Romances?)
Alfred Louis Charles de Musset: On Ne Badine Pas Avec L'Amour (Love is No Joke / You don't joke with love?)
Annie Ernaux: Pasion Simple (Simple Passion)
Guy de Maupassant: Bel-Ami (Good Friend)
Leïla Slimani: Sexe Et Mensonges (Sex and Lies)
Raymond Radiguet: Le Diable au Corps (The Devil Within)
Pierre Ambroise François Choderlos de Laclos: Les Liaisons Dangeureuses (Dangerous Liaisons)
Molière: Les Amants Magnifiques (The Magnificent Lovers)
Marivaux: Le Triomphe De L'Amour (The Triumph of Love)

That segment ended with a presumed threesome as the door closed!

The iPhone commercial where the security cams get wings and take off flying - those look cute to me, even with the single red "eye". It seems a mean thing for the iPhone to blow them up; they were just being curious!

I like the split-screen way the NBC broadcast showed some of the segments, so one could choose to continue watching the boats or other entertainment in the one window while the interviews took place in the 2nd window.

The boats going up and down in the waves! Is it normal for the Seine to have such high waves? Did any of the athletes get sea sick?

The singing decapitated Marie Antoinettes in the windows! With heavy metal and pink smoke!

The silvery mechanical horse running down the river (with silvery rider)! That was so cool!!!

The Eiffel tower light show at the end! The disco music! OMG SO AWESOME!!!

The giant floating fiery hot-air-balloon cauldron!

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Some of the segments looked quite dangerous to me. I am glad no one got hurt. (I hope no one got hurt.)

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I wish the American team weren't shown yelling "U.S.A! U.S.A!" most of the time. It gets so old. I half suspect (only half though) that NBC prompted them to yell it, too. You don't hear most other teams being so nationalistic. I don't watch the Olympics to see the American team in particular, or to cheer on the American team, as NBC seems to want to presume. Nothing against them (let the best athlete win), but American teams and American athletes are shown on American TV all year long.

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I recorded the opening & closing ceremonies on my Tablo (4th generation) over-the-air digital video recorder (OTA DVR), which I guess I'm still learning to use.
I had scheduled the Tablo to also record the 08/10 Olympics breaking competition on the Telemundo Spanish-language channel. That was the only OTA channel I found which was listed to show the breaking competition. But I'm very disappointed that my Tablo ended up with no trace of that recording. I had recently been very impressed while watching online videos from some other break-dancing competition prior to the Olympics, and had been looking forward to it.

I didn't get to watch any of the other events except for a small amount of speed climbing which was in progress when I turned the TV on one day. I usually like to watch at least some of the gymnastics. But this year the breaking (ahh, can't I still call it break dancing?) sounded like it would be more interesting to me to watch!

Our local Koger Center for the Arts has several performances coming up which look good.

They've even got Hamilton coming next year. I wasn't particularly interested in that musical to begin with, but with all the hype about it (it's been 8 years already, wow), I've gotten somewhat curious. Wait, there's a movie of it that I could watch instead? But it's still only available on Disney+ even though it was released 3 years ago? Hmmph.

October 14: Free outdoor concert, noon to 7pm. House Music Dance Festival

October 17-19: Come From Away.
This New York Times Critics' Pick takes you into the heart of the remarkable true story of 7,000 stranded passengers and the small town in Newfoundland that welcomed them.

Come from Away is a musical ... based on the events in the Newfoundland town of Gander during the week following the September 11 attacks, when 38 planes, carrying approximately 7,000 passengers, were ordered to land unexpectedly at Gander International Airport.

I don't really want to go watch a long musical about this (I'd watch it on TV maybe), but it sounds so fascinating... Operation Yellow Ribbon

October 27 & 28: South Carolina Ballet's Dracula: Ballet with a Bite (Columbia City Ballet).
This eerie and sensual ballet, based on Bram Stoker's classic novel, promises to captivate and thrill both dance enthusiasts and newcomers. With original rock/jazz music by Thomas Semanski and choreography by Artistic Director William Starrett, you'll be immersed in a world of enchantment and mystery. Don't miss this unforgettable performance celebrating its 32nd year

I haven't been interested in going to see this in prior years, as neither ballet nor Dracula appeals to me. But the red flowing gauzy outfit of the dancer in the photo on that page looks nice. And with rock/jazz music, maybe it's fun.

October 29: SC Philharmonic • Halloween at Hogwarts.
OUR POPULAR HALLOWEEN CONCERT EVENT IS BACK!
Join us for a family-friendly Halloween celebration as we transform the Koger Center into that famous school of witchcraft and wizardry. Enjoy a spooktacular program of hair-raising Hollywood favorites and plenty of John Williams' works from the Harry Potter films. Join us for tunes, tricks and treats! Costumes are encouraged!

August:
I took a week of vacation.
I watched the Peacemaker series on HBO Max, and enjoyed it. That show has the best title sequence / music.

September:
I got a new phone.
I drove to Myrtle Beach with my mom, for a half-vacation half-work week.

October:
I visited an Arts & Music festival and browsed the art.

I went to the SC Pride Festival and got to see a performance by Sheila E.. A nice thing about these public outdoor events here is how close up you can get to the stage and performers, if you want, compared to a concert with assigned seating.

I got my flu shot and bivalent Covid booster on the same day, one in each arm.

Wyze treasure hunt! It affected me, oddly, remotely. I wish I had time to describe the feels.

Halloween: I put up decorations and lights. I replaced the net fabric from my ghosties with a different fabric less likely to entrap flying insects. The new fabric is thicker and heavier, so I cut it into strips to make it look better. Turned out quite well; I was very pleased. I gave out treats. There were 13 trick-or-treaters.

November:
I early-voted the Friday before; stood in line for an hour. But I was relieved to get it done with.

On a whim, I bought a ticket to an online stream of a symphony being held tonight at our local arts center:

HAYDN - Symphony No.88
SHOSTAKOVICH - Cello Concerto No.1
RESPIGHI - The Pines of Rome

Thoughts:

The discordant noise of an orchestra warming up is horrible to have to listen to! At least here at home I can turn the sound off. Sitting in the audience, I wouldn't be able to.

Here at home, I can dance and sway, and do hula hoop while listening to the music. And eat dinner. Those poor people in the audience have to just sit there. I remember the last such symphonic event I attended in person, which was a performance of music from Star Wars. I remember disliking that aspect of it, feeling the pressure to sit quietly and unobtrusively in your seat while listening.

Other than that Star Wars and possibly another Sci-Fi music performance, I'm not sure I've ever been to any other symphonic/orchestral style performances. I remember hearing the "Peter and the Wolf" music when I was in elementary school, but am not sure if that was a live performance somewhere or a recording.

All of the performers are wearing black face masks. The wind/brass instrument players push down the masks while doing their parts. Then they put the masks back in place. I'm impressed by that.

I wonder if there are any orchestras that wear a color other than black.

Do cellos come in different sizes? One is huge, 2 others are smaller. Or are they different instruments? (Looking it up, it must be a double bass.)

I am reminded of my brother's first wife. She had a cello and would occasionally play it. That was so long ago. I wonder sometimes how her life is going. Did she become a doctor or a scientist, as she had planned? Germans don't use Facebook much and seem to have more privacy protections, so you can't just do a search and find much info.

They've finished the first piece and switched out and rearranged some players. This cello player now in the front on a small riser must be a star performer. She is not wearing a face mask, but is making up for it with entertaining facial expressions. I like how she has her hair done up, and the muscles in her arms. It's an interesting combination together with the glittery black gown.

There's an unmanned "Zildjian" gong in the back of the hall, tantalizing.

Another switcheroo. The cellist bowed and left and came back and bowed some more, and bowed and left the hall.

More performers now. More discordant noise, but a nicer sort. Maybe the gong will get gonged!

They must have several cameras in place; they've been giving a good view of many different angles.

Oh I see, the gong is being gonged lightly in this piece.

Well. That was that. Wasn't really much my kind of music; only a few parts that spoke to me, possibly they reminded me of other music from my past. Of course, this was playing it through my TV speakers; I'm sure it sounded more impressive in person.

Last weekend I went to a free concert in Finlay park, downtown. The band was Loose Ends featuring Jane Eugene, an R&B group from the 80s. I didn't recognize their name, but when I looked up some songs of theirs beforehand, at least one brought back nostalgic memories of my youth. So I thought I might enjoy the concert, and I very much did. They even had a meet'n'greet afterwards where audience members could buy CDs and get autographs and photos taken with the band.

I have a short clip of one of the songs that turned out pretty good audio-wise. I'll post it when I have time, if YouTube lets me.

I was at the concert with a family friend - it was her idea to go in the first place. After that concert was over, we met up with my mom and walked to the (tail end) of the Latin Festival which was taking place a few blocks away. We got to hear one or two songs over there before its last band wrapped up for the night. I bought a multi-colored flashing LED baton-type toy from a stall, yay!

The Wikipedia page for Loose Ends mentions several changes to the band members over the years, and seems to indicate that Jane is no longer with the group. That along with the "featuring Jane Eugene" part of the band name made me think that the other musicians playing with her here weren't original band-members, but I wasn't sure. I'm aware that band-members who have split up sometimes continue to perform separately under some variation of the original group name. Jane has a Twitter page and Loose Ends has a Facebook page, but looking at them, I was still confused.

Today I finally found an answer on this page:
https://citywinery.com/philadelphia/loose-ends-featuring-jane-eugene-11-7-2019.html
It lists the names of the musicians who perform with her; they aren't original band members, although Steve Nichol does occasionally make guest appearances.

There's a bit more info at the end of this page:
http://dance2.webdj.co/loose-ends-watching-you/
Carl McIntosh currently performs under the name 'Loose Ends Experience' or 'Loose Ends'...

"Loose Ends - Slow Down" (Watch on YouTube)

Video title: Loose Ends - Slow Down
Posted by: koollatter
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdKdnCSeJwQ

1986 Soul Train performance of Slow Down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzdPynoroCg

"Loose Ends - Hangin on a String (Re-Edit A.V)" (Watch on YouTube)

Video title: Loose Ends - Hangin on a String (Re-Edit A.V)
Posted by: 80's & 90's Forever
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-WWHoVH4QM

Friday evening, I got to see and listen to George Takei in person, at a "Sci-Fi Spectacular" concert at the Atlanta Symphony. There were people dressed up in Stormtrooper (not my photo; it was linked from reddit), Jedi, and Darth Vader costumes in the lobby (and on stage), but I suspect they were hired for the event, as I didn't see them in the audience. The concert also had a lot of good music, including performances of Duel of the Fates and When You Wish Upon a Star. Hearing the music live however, didn't sound any better or different to me, than listening to the same music on CDs or MP3s. And hearing it live like that has the drawback of you having to sit quietly while listening to it, whereas when listening to it at home, you can move around and dance, or do whatever you want.

Crossposts: http://darkoshi.livejournal.com/586705.html

I'm in Atlanta for Thanksgiving. Yesterday after arriving in town, we had a delicious vegan dinner at Cafe Sunflower. Then we checked into our hotel. This is one of the nicest hotel rooms I've ever had, even though the price was reasonable. It has a walk-in closet, a full kitchen, and a great view from the windows. This morning when I opened the curtains to check out the daytime view, I was surprised to see a marathon in progress. Bunches of people were running by, and more and more people kept on running by, for about an hour.

Today we visited one of Qiao's relatives for lunch, and later went to see a Cirque du Soleil performance of Amaluna, which was fantastic.

Crossposts: http://darkoshi.livejournal.com/586009.html

Cirque du Soleil performed Alegria here earlier this year. I bought tickets for myself and family... I got seats in the 2nd best section, and the tickets were about $50 each, after a company discount.

We recently got a flyer from work that Cirque du Soleil will be performing Michael Jackson THE IMMORTAL World Tour here next year. It sounded like a good show to go see, but I didn't pay attention to the ticket prices until a few days ago. They were a bit of a shock - $177, $127, $82, and $47. Even with the company 10% discount, getting 6 tickets in the 2nd best section like I did last time would cost almost $700! And this time, that 2nd best section even includes seats in the upper level. The $47 tickets are way in the nosebleed section.

For those prices, I was thinking that I would expect to see the Michael Jackson himself on stage!

I'm still considering going, but I'm not likely to invite my whole family along like last time. I wonder if they will even be able to sell enough tickets to keep the venue, or if they might end up cancelling due to low sales.

Crossposts: http://darkoshi.livejournal.com/434636.html

I haven't been posting much due to being busy trying to get various things done. And working, and being tired, and such. Sometimes I think of something to write, but then it doesn't seem worth the effort.

There was a death in my family, and a marriage, and some birthdays.

Cirque du Soleil performed Alegria in town here. I got tickets for Qiao, me, and some of my family. It was nice. One clown scene puzzled both Qiao and me. It seemed to consist of "Sad-looking person misses someone, goes on a trip, gets a disappointing message, and gets blown away by a snowstorm." But the acts were all good.

I was worried that I might have termites in the sunroom roof, where the window leak is. But it turns out to probably be carpenter ants, which sound a lot less terrifying to me.

The house is looking pretty geeky. On my left is a table with my work laptop. In front of me is my personal laptop, on its flexible mount. On the floor is a partially dismantled non-functional laptop which someone left with me. In the next room is my old computer. A few days ago, my mom's computer was sitting next to it, as she had gotten infected by the FakeAlert virus (which hides all the files and programs, making them appear to be gone), and we were fixing it. And that isn't even mentioning the geekiness which resides in Qiao's room.