Been beat up and battered around...

[jobey_in_error]

After randomly falling off the face of the earth, I'm randomly back. And bedraggled. Didn't think when I finally jumped into LJ that I would bring in a whole lot of real life, but you guys are too damn nice and I need a bit of a vent.

Comments

[lady_bracknell]

I don't mind being alone, either. Most of the time I'm too busy to notice there isn't anyone here. The other half's project sounds fun :D.

Good luck with the family! I suggest stocking up on vodka, just in case (but that might just be me, lol).

[litlover12]

VERY good idea. :-) Prayers and good wishes coming your way, Jobey.

[jobey_in_error]

Thank you very ♥

So what do you think of hip-hop Shakespeare? You are one of the people I was fairly sure would be less enchanted, but I could be mistaken too.

[litlover12]

I don't mind stuff like that, as long as the attitude is "Let's have some fun with Shakespeare!" and not "Shakespeare is too hard; let's dumb him down."

What I really can't stand is techno updates of classical music. Or something like that Handel's Messiah update that started out being classical and then suddenly switched to pop or rock or whatever it was. I had to dance to that in a college dance show, and it used to annoy the heck out of me. I kept wanting to say, "It's freakin' Handel, people! It doesn't NEED to be updated!" The problem with that sort of thing, IMO, is that it gives the impression that we all just listen to classical music out of duty, but we can only REALLY get into it if they suddenly start throwing modern sounds into it. Which is so not true.

[jobey_in_error]

I haven't heard the update--in fact I'm woefully ignorant of most classical music--but I'm in your corner with is that it gives the impression that we all just listen to classical music out of duty... which is so not true.

But it can't be a uniform agenda en mass, can it? Like you say when you compare let's-have-fun-with-Shakespeare to the dumbing-him-down-Shakespeare... that was a great distinction. And I think it holds there too. If a composer or musician wants to riff on Handel out of genuine passion, he can knock himself out. Even if, as you say, there's probably too many of them who are in the "we can only appreciate this if we modernize it" camp. (Not to mention the it's too hard to come up with a mass crowd-pleaser from scratch; adaptations sell more reliably camp.)

[jobey_in_error]

Vodka! There's an idea. I have no doubt my mom would ferret it out at once, but then maybe we're overdue to get drunk together.