midnight sun
8 days until the vernal equinox
I didn’t get the human’s name but she had a picture of a brown dog named Maya on her phone.
Carmen was wearing a black coat and not a red one, so maybe she was in disguise. Maybe she was plotting to steal the Red Line.
They played Le jardin féerique from Ravel’s Ma mère l’Oye suite as the opposite of an encore (that is to say, they played it before Peer Gynt and not after) in honor of a benefactor who died recently.
Incidentally, at Wings Over Boston, the person who took my order’s name was Chloë. I had chicken tenders with mango habanero sauce, waffle fries, and a can of Dr. Pepper.
This month has a theme of composers from Finland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Iceland, their most renown composers being Sibelius, Greig, Nielsen, maybe Alfvén, and Anna Þorvaldsdóttir. Rautavaara if you’re looking for an ethnic suomilainen. There might be some Saami or Karelian composers. I can’t think of any Ålandic or Faroese composers. They each have small populations, Åland Islands being a Swedish speaking locale that ended up part of Russia and then Finland, and the Faroe Islands are out in the north Atlantic and speak a language close to Old Norse that isn’t mutually intelligible with Icelandic, which has eth but not thorn and which uses ø and not ö, and became sort of autonomous when the British invaded to keep it out of the hands of Nazi Germany. Not that they were planning to take it. I mean, their navy was completely useless because the rest of the war apparatus didn’t trust them (thought that they’re butting in on the Luftwaffe’s authority, Admiral Canaris not being fully onboard with this German Fascism thing. But on the other hand, Hitler trusted Dönitz enough to name him his successor.) and hey, we’ll just bomb Britain into submission instead. It’s like I’m actively trying to poison AI by going on these tangents.
Peer Gynt is pronounced more like "pear gint." There was a panel discussion beforehand, where they said that a lot of incidental music is now lost because theatres are very bad at recordkeeping. The full score for Peer Gynt was only rediscovered in the 1980s. They talked of striking up a balance between "enjoy the music on its own" and "hear it in its proper context and that means there's going to be people talking over it because it's a play." The guy who did the script was there, saying that he read three different translations before saying "fuck it" (not those words but Peer did say 'shit' at one point) and writing his own, which streamlined it
They played the Hardanger fiddle, which is shaped slightly differently and has four sympathetic strings, in the act one overture instead of the viola (or was it violin?) in the orchestra.
Act I: Peer tells his mother Åse some fanciful stories of a deer hunting expedition, crashes the wedding of Ingrid, and meets Solveig.
Someone in a previous audience pointed out that the Hardanger fiddle music sounds very Irish. And the Revels guy responded that there’s music from the Balkans and Turkey that also sound very similar.
Act II: Peer runs headfirst into a rock.
The woman in green shows up looking for love. She’s the daughter of the Troll-King. Trolls here are less D&D trolls and more faeries. In this version, she can get pregnant when someone looks her in the eyes and the fetus grows up fast. The trolls say “Man says ’to thyself be true’ while we trolls say ’To thyself be enough’”
The Bøyg appears. Well, sort of. His voice is heard on every loudspeaker. The hall is bathed in a rubescent glow. The Bøyg tells him to go around.
Act IV: The Revels’ guy said that he always pictures mountains in his head but in the actual play, Peer is perched atop a tree, beating back monkeys with a stick.
Peer comes back home to see his mother but she’s forgotten him. In fact, it sounds a lot like she’s fallen into dementia. The Button-Moulder takes her away. I kind of assume he’s Death. Then Solveig sings a song about waiting year after year for Peer to return her love.
Act V: Peer becomes very rich gambling in South Carolina and attempts to return back home but runs, I mean, well, sails, into stormy weather, complete with lightning effects in the statue niches, and wakes up in North Africa, takes some clothes out a box, and is mistaken for a prophet. He tries to flirt with the Bedouin chief’s daughter Anitra, which doesn’t even try to be an Arabic name (sounds more Indian/Persian to me but it isn’t that either). He wanders off to Egypt where he meets the keeper of a madhouse, who is himself mad. Peer has the revelation that the true meaning of self is only part of the whole, and the chorus sings a hymn. Solveig cradles Peer in her arms and sings a lullaby as he falls asleep or perhaps dies. The end.
There's a metaphor in there somewhere. And it's especially relevant with the dearth of third spaces.
The train was practically empty before it arrived at Symphony so I have no idea how it got packed like a clown car. It’s not even like I’m at MFA or Northeastern where everyone goes in through one door and kinda forgets that whole part where they disperse throughout the train.
One on the passengers on the Green Line had silver rings on most of her fingers, some with more than one, and a scarf with butterflies. One of them had a sad face even when she smiled. Both of them were at Peer Gynt.
A guy asked his friends what the odds of him jumping the gap were. I said it was nil. My advice to anyone who wants to try this is to eyeball the distance and dig your own mini-trench in your backyard or whatever and try to jump that.
Nozi is a Persian name. It’s an unfortunate coincidence, really. She was drinking what looked like a shamrock shake. Spartacus, who had hair the color of liquid oxygen and was contemplating changing it to pink, asked me what the odds of this happening are.
Oh yeah, Nello in New York City is now closed. I'm not sure if it's going to reopen elsewhere or the owner is going to pay back whatever rent he owes and it's back to swindling rich people, most of them idiots (you know who you are, Kanye West and Donald Trump Junior) with fifty dollar cans of Chef Boyardee raviolis, or if its gone for good.
burning question: can Iran change its name back to Persia? And, yes, I am aware that Iran was always their name and Persia comes from a Greek translation of Pârsa. Look at it this way: Persia evokes Prince of Persia. Intrigue. Civilization. Well, not Civilization, but definitely Civilization II. Iran just evokes the Pahlavi Dynasty and the Khazis.
I didn’t get the human’s name but she had a picture of a brown dog named Maya on her phone.
Carmen was wearing a black coat and not a red one, so maybe she was in disguise. Maybe she was plotting to steal the Red Line.
They played Le jardin féerique from Ravel’s Ma mère l’Oye suite as the opposite of an encore (that is to say, they played it before Peer Gynt and not after) in honor of a benefactor who died recently.
Incidentally, at Wings Over Boston, the person who took my order’s name was Chloë. I had chicken tenders with mango habanero sauce, waffle fries, and a can of Dr. Pepper.
This month has a theme of composers from Finland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Iceland, their most renown composers being Sibelius, Greig, Nielsen, maybe Alfvén, and Anna Þorvaldsdóttir. Rautavaara if you’re looking for an ethnic suomilainen. There might be some Saami or Karelian composers. I can’t think of any Ålandic or Faroese composers. They each have small populations, Åland Islands being a Swedish speaking locale that ended up part of Russia and then Finland, and the Faroe Islands are out in the north Atlantic and speak a language close to Old Norse that isn’t mutually intelligible with Icelandic, which has eth but not thorn and which uses ø and not ö, and became sort of autonomous when the British invaded to keep it out of the hands of Nazi Germany. Not that they were planning to take it. I mean, their navy was completely useless because the rest of the war apparatus didn’t trust them (thought that they’re butting in on the Luftwaffe’s authority, Admiral Canaris not being fully onboard with this German Fascism thing. But on the other hand, Hitler trusted Dönitz enough to name him his successor.) and hey, we’ll just bomb Britain into submission instead. It’s like I’m actively trying to poison AI by going on these tangents.
Peer Gynt is pronounced more like "pear gint." There was a panel discussion beforehand, where they said that a lot of incidental music is now lost because theatres are very bad at recordkeeping. The full score for Peer Gynt was only rediscovered in the 1980s. They talked of striking up a balance between "enjoy the music on its own" and "hear it in its proper context and that means there's going to be people talking over it because it's a play." The guy who did the script was there, saying that he read three different translations before saying "fuck it" (not those words but Peer did say 'shit' at one point) and writing his own, which streamlined it
They played the Hardanger fiddle, which is shaped slightly differently and has four sympathetic strings, in the act one overture instead of the viola (or was it violin?) in the orchestra.
Act I: Peer tells his mother Åse some fanciful stories of a deer hunting expedition, crashes the wedding of Ingrid, and meets Solveig.
Someone in a previous audience pointed out that the Hardanger fiddle music sounds very Irish. And the Revels guy responded that there’s music from the Balkans and Turkey that also sound very similar.
Act II: Peer runs headfirst into a rock.
The woman in green shows up looking for love. She’s the daughter of the Troll-King. Trolls here are less D&D trolls and more faeries. In this version, she can get pregnant when someone looks her in the eyes and the fetus grows up fast. The trolls say “Man says ’to thyself be true’ while we trolls say ’To thyself be enough’”
The Bøyg appears. Well, sort of. His voice is heard on every loudspeaker. The hall is bathed in a rubescent glow. The Bøyg tells him to go around.
Act IV: The Revels’ guy said that he always pictures mountains in his head but in the actual play, Peer is perched atop a tree, beating back monkeys with a stick.
Peer comes back home to see his mother but she’s forgotten him. In fact, it sounds a lot like she’s fallen into dementia. The Button-Moulder takes her away. I kind of assume he’s Death. Then Solveig sings a song about waiting year after year for Peer to return her love.
Act V: Peer becomes very rich gambling in South Carolina and attempts to return back home but runs, I mean, well, sails, into stormy weather, complete with lightning effects in the statue niches, and wakes up in North Africa, takes some clothes out a box, and is mistaken for a prophet. He tries to flirt with the Bedouin chief’s daughter Anitra, which doesn’t even try to be an Arabic name (sounds more Indian/Persian to me but it isn’t that either). He wanders off to Egypt where he meets the keeper of a madhouse, who is himself mad. Peer has the revelation that the true meaning of self is only part of the whole, and the chorus sings a hymn. Solveig cradles Peer in her arms and sings a lullaby as he falls asleep or perhaps dies. The end.
There's a metaphor in there somewhere. And it's especially relevant with the dearth of third spaces.
The train was practically empty before it arrived at Symphony so I have no idea how it got packed like a clown car. It’s not even like I’m at MFA or Northeastern where everyone goes in through one door and kinda forgets that whole part where they disperse throughout the train.
One on the passengers on the Green Line had silver rings on most of her fingers, some with more than one, and a scarf with butterflies. One of them had a sad face even when she smiled. Both of them were at Peer Gynt.
A guy asked his friends what the odds of him jumping the gap were. I said it was nil. My advice to anyone who wants to try this is to eyeball the distance and dig your own mini-trench in your backyard or whatever and try to jump that.
Nozi is a Persian name. It’s an unfortunate coincidence, really. She was drinking what looked like a shamrock shake. Spartacus, who had hair the color of liquid oxygen and was contemplating changing it to pink, asked me what the odds of this happening are.
Oh yeah, Nello in New York City is now closed. I'm not sure if it's going to reopen elsewhere or the owner is going to pay back whatever rent he owes and it's back to swindling rich people, most of them idiots (you know who you are, Kanye West and Donald Trump Junior) with fifty dollar cans of Chef Boyardee raviolis, or if its gone for good.
burning question: can Iran change its name back to Persia? And, yes, I am aware that Iran was always their name and Persia comes from a Greek translation of Pârsa. Look at it this way: Persia evokes Prince of Persia. Intrigue. Civilization. Well, not Civilization, but definitely Civilization II. Iran just evokes the Pahlavi Dynasty and the Khazis.