Sometimes I am made of squee! :)
One way to make winterspel grin with glee at 4:30 in the morning? Hand her an old Shounen Club episode with the one performance she's been looking for...and watch her squeeeeee! More on that later.
As I mentioned yesterday, I saw a film and a concert over the weekend that were memorable.
Umrao Jaan
On Friday I went with my friend Lois to see the original Umrao Jaan, a classic Indian film from 1981 about a young girl who is kidnapped into slavery and eventually becomes a courtesan, as well as a renowned poet and singer. She was given the name of Umrao Jaan to replace the name with which she was born.
I really liked this film - it took place around 1857 which was a very tumultuous time in Indian history - 1857 was the year of the Great Mutiny when the Indian people, backed by the Indian Sepoys, a native contingent of the British military, rose up against the British and tried to force them to leave. It was a very violent and bloody time. This film deals with many different things: the culture of Lucknow at that time, the beautiful Urdu poetry that Umrao Jaan sings in her ghazals, the life of women in that particular society at that time. One thing that I really appreciated about the film, which was not typical Bollywood at all, is that while there was a lot of singing and even dancing in the film, it was all contextual. It wasn't at all like a musical or opera where characters break into song for no reason other than to sing their lines, etc. Rather, all of the singing was because Umrao Jaan was performing her music for an audience. I would LOVE to get a copy of this orginal soundtrack. The music was to die for.
The director, Muzzzafar Ali, was with us on Friday night and he conducted a question/answer session after the film. He was a fascinating man, quite tall with a magnificent mane of iron-gray hair. He is also a painter and a poet and he talked about how important the poetry was to the film. The film was based on a book of the same name, and he said that while he changed nothing from the book in terms of the story (although he left out some parts for time) he was dissatisfied with the quality of the poetry in the book, so he invited a professor who taught Umrao Jaan to live with him for a year and write the poetry that would be included in the film. He was also asked if he had been at all involved with the remake of Umrao Jaan (which I believe just opened in India)and I mentally groaned because I sensed he would hate such a question. Sure enough, he did (and he was not involved).
It was a well-spent evening, and Lois and I enjoyed ourselves tremendously.
Queensryche concert review
Saturday night, icajoleu and I went to Etete again for a fabulous Ethiopian dinner. It's my new favorite Ethiopian place and sure enough, we had a delicious meal with the vegetarian combo with fish plus a roasted lamb with onions and chillies in the center of our huge round platter. MMMMmmm, so good.
And then we walked over to the 9:30 Club to see one of my old favorite bands, Queensryche. I was crazy about Queensryche, a hard rock/heavy metal band, as a teenager and into my twenties. I stopped loving them after their lead guitarist, Chris DeGarmo, departed the band and their music took a turn for the worse. I rarely, rarely stop listening to a band that I've loved like I loved them, but I did. I ignored three albums, until this year when they released a sequel to their 1987 concept album, Operation: Mindcrime. That album is in my top five albums ever and I will never stop loving it.
Operation: Mindcrime tells the story of Nikki, a drug addict who is seduced to an underground movement that stands against the corporate-government establishment that is perceived as evil and destructive towards the interests of ordinary people. Sadly, this movement is headed by an evil brainwashing scary guy called Dr. X who recruits Nikki to be an assassin. Nikki is kept well-supplied with drugs until he is needed for a hit, and Dr. X sends his handmaiden, Mary (a prostitute who was "rescued" from her prostitution by Dr. X's henchman, Father William), to look after him. Nikki and Mary fall in love, and Dr. X later sees Mary and Father William as a liability and sends Nikki to murder them. However, Nikki is unable to kill Mary, but he later finds her dead (suicide) and is blamed for both the deaths. Although he tries to escape, he is caught by the police and ends up incarcerated in a mental hospital, drowing in his own despair.
I have SO MUCH LOVE for this album. It totally spoke to me as a teenager and a young adult, and even now, there are so many things that I love about it conceptually. It's a beautiful example of rock opera and the music is stellar, featuring singer Geoff Tate's soaring vocals as well as the trademark Chris DeGarmo/Michael Wilton harmonized guitar solos, which are truly things of beauty. I don't think I can adequately convey how cool it is to see two guitarists standing back to back playing the exact same complex guitar solo - in harmony. It brings a lump to my throat and I get so giddy with glee.
Saturday night, Mike Stone (new lead guitarist) joined original members Geoff Tate (singer), Michael Wilton (rhythm guitarist), Eddie Jackson (bassist) and Scott Rockenfield (drummer). To my great surprise, they actually play ALL of the original Operation: Mindcrime followed by a break and then they played all of Operation: Mindcrime II, which continues the story of Nikki who embarks on a mission of revenge.
Both performances were good, although Mindcrime II was much more vivid musically, which makes sense since it's their most recent work and their heads are in that space now. I had so much joy and glee from seeing the original Mindcrime because those songs are in my skin. I know every single guitar lick, every solo, every everything like it's truly a part of me. So even if it sounded paler, and the solos weren't the solos I remember with DeGarmo playing them, they were still pretty amazing to hear live. And this was my first time to hear all of it live! I missed out when they played all of Mindcrime during the Empire tour...
So after more than 2 hours of that, they came back for a 2 song encore. I had been praying so damn hard all evening that they might encore with something from my 2nd fave album of theirs: Rage for Order. Imagine my surprise when they ACTUALLY DID! I nearly fell over. And even better, they played a song that I don't think has ever been played much live: "The Whisper" which was so awesome my brain was just melting. The ended the show with a terrific rendition of "Empire," which was a big hit for them in the early 90s.
It was a great show, and I was SO HIGH after seeing it. It still makes me quite giddy to think that I got to see all of both Mindcrimes plus a song off RFO. And to think...I would have missed out if my dear, dear friend icajoleu hadn't bought tickets for us! :D:D:D:D
And finally to cap off my gleeful squeeing for the morning, I was able to finally watch an old episode of Shounen Club this a.m. - the one that contains Jin & Kame singing "Kanashimi Blue" by the Kinki Kids which I've been wanting to see for ages!. GLEEEE! I loved so much about this ep. The opening medley is terrific, as is the second medley with KAT-TUN, the NewS medley was sparkly and fun, Junno's solo was fab, and oh, there was so much more goodness. I'm killing myself to remember the name of the SMAP song that Kame starts to sing during the second medley, because it's one that I love, and of course, it's a Japanese title, and I can't remember it.
Here's a clip from the ep (not my rip): SC 2005.05.08 KATTUN & NewS: Baby Blue (41.56MB)
It's a fun, fun, fun ep, and here are caps!
Jin is such a loveable dork here as he waves to the camera. :)
As I mentioned yesterday, I saw a film and a concert over the weekend that were memorable.
Umrao Jaan
On Friday I went with my friend Lois to see the original Umrao Jaan, a classic Indian film from 1981 about a young girl who is kidnapped into slavery and eventually becomes a courtesan, as well as a renowned poet and singer. She was given the name of Umrao Jaan to replace the name with which she was born.
I really liked this film - it took place around 1857 which was a very tumultuous time in Indian history - 1857 was the year of the Great Mutiny when the Indian people, backed by the Indian Sepoys, a native contingent of the British military, rose up against the British and tried to force them to leave. It was a very violent and bloody time. This film deals with many different things: the culture of Lucknow at that time, the beautiful Urdu poetry that Umrao Jaan sings in her ghazals, the life of women in that particular society at that time. One thing that I really appreciated about the film, which was not typical Bollywood at all, is that while there was a lot of singing and even dancing in the film, it was all contextual. It wasn't at all like a musical or opera where characters break into song for no reason other than to sing their lines, etc. Rather, all of the singing was because Umrao Jaan was performing her music for an audience. I would LOVE to get a copy of this orginal soundtrack. The music was to die for.
The director, Muzzzafar Ali, was with us on Friday night and he conducted a question/answer session after the film. He was a fascinating man, quite tall with a magnificent mane of iron-gray hair. He is also a painter and a poet and he talked about how important the poetry was to the film. The film was based on a book of the same name, and he said that while he changed nothing from the book in terms of the story (although he left out some parts for time) he was dissatisfied with the quality of the poetry in the book, so he invited a professor who taught Umrao Jaan to live with him for a year and write the poetry that would be included in the film. He was also asked if he had been at all involved with the remake of Umrao Jaan (which I believe just opened in India)and I mentally groaned because I sensed he would hate such a question. Sure enough, he did (and he was not involved).
It was a well-spent evening, and Lois and I enjoyed ourselves tremendously.
Queensryche concert review
Saturday night, icajoleu and I went to Etete again for a fabulous Ethiopian dinner. It's my new favorite Ethiopian place and sure enough, we had a delicious meal with the vegetarian combo with fish plus a roasted lamb with onions and chillies in the center of our huge round platter. MMMMmmm, so good.
And then we walked over to the 9:30 Club to see one of my old favorite bands, Queensryche. I was crazy about Queensryche, a hard rock/heavy metal band, as a teenager and into my twenties. I stopped loving them after their lead guitarist, Chris DeGarmo, departed the band and their music took a turn for the worse. I rarely, rarely stop listening to a band that I've loved like I loved them, but I did. I ignored three albums, until this year when they released a sequel to their 1987 concept album, Operation: Mindcrime. That album is in my top five albums ever and I will never stop loving it.
Operation: Mindcrime tells the story of Nikki, a drug addict who is seduced to an underground movement that stands against the corporate-government establishment that is perceived as evil and destructive towards the interests of ordinary people. Sadly, this movement is headed by an evil brainwashing scary guy called Dr. X who recruits Nikki to be an assassin. Nikki is kept well-supplied with drugs until he is needed for a hit, and Dr. X sends his handmaiden, Mary (a prostitute who was "rescued" from her prostitution by Dr. X's henchman, Father William), to look after him. Nikki and Mary fall in love, and Dr. X later sees Mary and Father William as a liability and sends Nikki to murder them. However, Nikki is unable to kill Mary, but he later finds her dead (suicide) and is blamed for both the deaths. Although he tries to escape, he is caught by the police and ends up incarcerated in a mental hospital, drowing in his own despair.
I have SO MUCH LOVE for this album. It totally spoke to me as a teenager and a young adult, and even now, there are so many things that I love about it conceptually. It's a beautiful example of rock opera and the music is stellar, featuring singer Geoff Tate's soaring vocals as well as the trademark Chris DeGarmo/Michael Wilton harmonized guitar solos, which are truly things of beauty. I don't think I can adequately convey how cool it is to see two guitarists standing back to back playing the exact same complex guitar solo - in harmony. It brings a lump to my throat and I get so giddy with glee.
Saturday night, Mike Stone (new lead guitarist) joined original members Geoff Tate (singer), Michael Wilton (rhythm guitarist), Eddie Jackson (bassist) and Scott Rockenfield (drummer). To my great surprise, they actually play ALL of the original Operation: Mindcrime followed by a break and then they played all of Operation: Mindcrime II, which continues the story of Nikki who embarks on a mission of revenge.
Both performances were good, although Mindcrime II was much more vivid musically, which makes sense since it's their most recent work and their heads are in that space now. I had so much joy and glee from seeing the original Mindcrime because those songs are in my skin. I know every single guitar lick, every solo, every everything like it's truly a part of me. So even if it sounded paler, and the solos weren't the solos I remember with DeGarmo playing them, they were still pretty amazing to hear live. And this was my first time to hear all of it live! I missed out when they played all of Mindcrime during the Empire tour...
So after more than 2 hours of that, they came back for a 2 song encore. I had been praying so damn hard all evening that they might encore with something from my 2nd fave album of theirs: Rage for Order. Imagine my surprise when they ACTUALLY DID! I nearly fell over. And even better, they played a song that I don't think has ever been played much live: "The Whisper" which was so awesome my brain was just melting. The ended the show with a terrific rendition of "Empire," which was a big hit for them in the early 90s.
It was a great show, and I was SO HIGH after seeing it. It still makes me quite giddy to think that I got to see all of both Mindcrimes plus a song off RFO. And to think...I would have missed out if my dear, dear friend icajoleu hadn't bought tickets for us! :D:D:D:D
And finally to cap off my gleeful squeeing for the morning, I was able to finally watch an old episode of Shounen Club this a.m. - the one that contains Jin & Kame singing "Kanashimi Blue" by the Kinki Kids which I've been wanting to see for ages!. GLEEEE! I loved so much about this ep. The opening medley is terrific, as is the second medley with KAT-TUN, the NewS medley was sparkly and fun, Junno's solo was fab, and oh, there was so much more goodness. I'm killing myself to remember the name of the SMAP song that Kame starts to sing during the second medley, because it's one that I love, and of course, it's a Japanese title, and I can't remember it.
Here's a clip from the ep (not my rip): SC 2005.05.08 KATTUN & NewS: Baby Blue (41.56MB)
It's a fun, fun, fun ep, and here are caps!
Jin is such a loveable dork here as he waves to the camera. :)