With Holly being in the service industry our Valentine's Day celebration were going to be muted again this year. She pretended she didn't care that we wouldn't be able to do something special but I knew better. So when a friend offered a pair of tickets Symphony NB's show at the Playhouse the day after Valentine's Day I figured I could make a romantic night of it and jumped at the offer.
Because of her schedule we weren't going to have time for dinner and the show so I decided to surprise her with a nice meal when she got home. Risotto is her favourite so I tried my hand. I have made good risotto in the past; this was not one of them. Fortunately, thanks to people with far more talent than me, the show would not match the meal.
We had watched the Symphony's Christmas show at the Delta in December and loved it but were both excited to that full symphony sound in a room that was designed for it. We took our (good) seats a few minutes before showtime. A friend's parents took their seats behind us and were amused to see us there.
The theme of this show was 'Tales' which had me thinking that this was a symphonic version of Storytellers. I was mistaken. The music, from the instruments and, later, vocals, told the stories. And while the vocalist was singing words, they were, of course, in no language that I could understand. No matter, the music did tell a story a moved from hopeful to haunting, joyful to (apparently) enraged. Those were the stories it was telling me anyways.
The first piece, Shubert's 'Overture to Rosamunde', was an instrumental and allowed us to appreciate the difference the sound in the Playhouse provided. Truly a full, rich sound. After that conductor Michael Newnham introduced Sopranno Lynne McMurtry who provided the vocals for the rest of the show. Anytime I have seen a soloist I am amazed at the sound they put out without any amplification. Mrs. McMurtry was no different. Amazing pipes.
Having said that, I think I might prefer the symphony on its own. The vocalist was incredibly talented but I found myself lost in her voice and missing the intracacies of the instruments. And, from my two trips thus far, that is where I get the most enjoyment. I am blown away by the minutiae of the individual players and how they add up to an incredible sum of the parts that allows me to intepret the tales I think they are trying to tell. Another great performance.
Well hello there, it's been awhile. Craiger gave me a pair of tickets to Symphony New Brunswick's Christmas performance on the condition that I write a few words about the experience. I figured if I was writing, I should write here first. So here goes.
Last night I had the pleasure of attending Symphony New Brunswick's Christmas concert which was, in part, their adaptation of Peter and the Wolf. Now, my familiarity with the symphony is limited at best. To me, and most New Brunwicker's I assume, a crescendo is a pizza McCain makes. Nevertheless I am a sucker for live music of any kind so jumped at the chance to take in this show.
What little orchestral music I do know, however, included Peter and the Wolf. We had it on vinyl growing up and although I couldn't have hummed the tune yesterday if prompted when the strings started with Peter's tune it brought back a flood of memories. I remembered that this story made me afraid of both wolves and horn sections.
After a short break the players returned and we were treated to a selection of songs from the Nutcracker. I was again amazed at how much of it I recognized. I was even more amazed, however, with the richness of the sound. I am always impressed when a band of any size can get a big, full sound and make it seem like there are more people on stage then there are. So when the stage actually is full the sound matches it and then some; so intricate. I also still don't know exactly what the conductor does but I do know he's doing something; he was out of breath and sweating at the end of every piece.
I am happy to have had the chance to see the show and bring back all those childhood memories but also to know that there are enough talented musicians in the province to make up a symphony. I especially liked the New Brunswick touch they added to Peter and the Wolf by bringing Lucien in as the narrator. I'm pretty sure of the countless orchestras around the world that have done Peter and the Wolf Symphony NB is the only one that had a Acadian speaking franglais as a narrator. Very fun show and I look forward to seeing the symphony again sometime soon. . Pace out.
|Driving home from a (great) night of summer golf on Friday night we stumbled across I Wish, the semi-old rap song by Skee-Lo. It's actually a great song and while it's impossible to forget those catchy lyrics I somehow forgot that catchy beat. Hard not to get you moving. The next day I heard the unfortunate news that Manute Bol had passed away and this morning Normy sent me the attached picture.
Manute Bol was a freak and travelled the NBA as a journeyman freak like a modern day circus show. Except that he figured out how to make money off his freakishness. He could block shots with the best of them. He is 2nd all-time in the blocks per game average (Mark Eaton is 1st - no shit) and is the only player ever to compile more blocks than points in a career. Much more importantly, and much less well known, is that Manute was a incredibly generous and selfless man. He died nearly broke after having donated most of his personal earnings to humanitarian aid to his homeland of Sudan. Read this nice piece from Deadspin here.
Watching his story as a youngster and learing where he came from broadened my horizons and his story, and his incredible height filled me with wonder. RIP.
The Stanley Cup playoffs ended on Wednesday night with the Blackhawks happily beating those damn Flyers. It was good to see the Cup go to an Original Six team and not to those insufferable bastards in Philly (fans and players alike). It was a great playoffs thanks, almost entirely for me, to a nice deep run from the Habs. It was probably flukey and I'm guessing that Jaro Halak is more Penney than Dryden or Roy - although praying otherwise, unless they don't resign him. It was fun to care again though, and this CBC montage will serve to remind me for a while to come:
And now, starting today in fact, sporting attention turns (or in most cases stays with) the World Cup in South Afica. It is the biggest sporting event in the World. That is to say that more of the world watches it than anything including the Olympics. I will be watching but not like I watch the Stanley Cup. I have no vested interest in who wins. Canada is not there so there is no National pride on the line. I will hope for the underdogs and I will hope for the teams that play the game right, have the fewest divers, and don't generally look like idiots. The last one is tough because they are, after all, soccer players. ;)
Canada may not be there but we do have a role to play. (One of) the official theme for the World Cup is Wavin' Flag by K'Naan who is Canadian. Hey at least it's something:
I practiced tonight for the first time in what seems like years but was actually only a couple of months. I have Plantar Fasciitis which is a painful inflammation of the Plantar Fascia Ligament which extends from your heel to your toes. It characterized by a generally annoying dull pain the mostly feels like I'm walking on bruies heels. In addition to being a pain in the heel, it's a pain in the ass.
It's likely caused by my not stretching enough prior to exercise and, just maybe, adding some extra weight as I've gotten older. Malcolm once had the same affliction and, at the time, his acupunturist told him she good prick him but it would only do some much good; the bottom line, in her words - "Mr. Malcolm, you too fat for your feet". I hope that's not my case but it's a least a part of it. I certainly am if I want to remain active.
Anyways, rugby season is getting started, I've got new orthotics, and I'm hopeful I can get back in form. As usual in situations like this, I look to Snoop for guidance and reassurance:
I missed this over the weekend when it was new news but I was sad to learn today the Dennis Hopper died. He was in a great career's worth of movies including Hoosiers which is one of my favourites, not to mention one of the top 5 best sports movies of all time. He played a drunk which was a common theme for him and potentially not that much a departure from reality. A lot of his roles may have been easy for him to play; he typically played a hippie, a rebel or an nutbar which seems to match his off-screen persona. He was very funny though. I wasn't born when Easy Rider came out but the perfect age when he hosted Saturday Night Live and parodied it in the opening in '87 (sadly nowhere to be found on the internet). It was one of my all time favourite SNL skits when SNL was really great. I liked Dennis Hopper from that moment on and loved him after playing Shooter.
He was one of Hollywood's great characters and got his long-overdue star on the walk of fame just this year. He died of prostate cancer reminding me once again to quickly state Fuck Cancer.
Everyone one at the office was pretty excited last Friday when, early on in our morning, someone realised that the Google homepage had a playable version of Pacman embedded in it's logo. And this week, as if answering the question asked in offices around the world, a study came out revealing that the average visitor to Google stayed 36 seconds longer to play the game at least briefly. I can say that I was above that average but quickly won the game and realized you could not proceed past level 2. More importantly I only played while waiting for a conference call to start, I swear. I'm sure there were some real champs. All told, thanks to the huge volume of Google searchers, the study estimates that a total of 4.8 million hours were lost (in the U.S.). I think I would have been wasting my time some other way so I don't think The Man should blame Google.
With Holly being in the service industry our Valentine's Day celebration were going to be muted again this year. She pretended she didn't care that we wouldn't be able to do something special but I knew better. So when a friend offered a pair of tickets Symphony NB's show at the Playhouse the day after Valentine's Day I figured I could make a romantic night of it and jumped at the offer.
