Giggety!

Facebook really has usurped this as my primary method of sharing ideas, but I still will post here from time to time when something strikes me.

Like, maybe this:

Roger Waters kicked off The Wall tour in Toronto and I read a review. I cannot wait until Monday. This will be the third time I've seen him live. Once in 1999 on a purely solo tour, at a small 5,000 seat venue - which was brilliant. Once in 2007 for Dark Side of the Moon, which was amazing. And now for The Wall. No, it's not my favorite Floyd album, but it is the one with, I think, the broadest and most poignant social & political commentary that still holds today.

From Spinner.com

It's unlikely that any rock 'n' roll roadie works as hard as Roger Waters' roadies. Last night in Toronto -- on the first of three dates kicking off the former Pink Floyd singer's globe-spanning, 30th anniversary 'The Wall Live' tour -- they slowly and steadily constructed a massive, non-metaphorical wall across the Air Canada Centre stadium stage until, by intermission, the band was now completely hidden behind it. And after repleting up the rafters with crashing fighter planes, flying pigs and grotesque three-story tall animatronic puppets, they eventually send that wall a-tumblin' down at the climax of Waters' triumphant return performance.

Several generations have now grown up with Pink Floyd's 1979 magnum opus, chanting that they don't need no education, attending laser light shows, crowding Midnight Madness screenings of the Alan Parker film and listening to the prog-rock double-album epic in their bedrooms with the lights off. Needless to say, for all the many acts who have taken to playing full album concerts in recent years, few have boasted full albums quite as impactful as 'The Wall.'

Waters may not be Pink Floyd, but given the '70s legends ongoing irreconcilable differences, there's somewhat more enjoyment in watching a black hoodie-clad Waters front an anonymous Floyd cover band than, say, seeing David Gilmour play Pink Floyd karaoke. Though to be fair, it did take a full four players to replace Gilmour's contributions onstage, including uneven vocalist Robbie Wyckoff who often faltered on Gilmour's lines, though the crowd often helpfully out-sang him.

What made Waters' state-of-the-art 'The Wall Live' resurrection work so well was that it was ultimately about the album, not the man who wrote it or the men who performed it. But the big question that surrounded the tour lead-up was, Does 'The Wall' still matter?

Its core story of youthful alienation -- sparked by the band's dissociation from its fanbase once it reached stadium-size -- certainly continues to reach out to new and old listeners alike.

As for the album's additional themes of nationalism, fascism, corporatism and war, they may not ring quite as powerfully as when Waters last performed it on the collapsed husk of the Berlin Wall itself. But the new images from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and other global hotspots that Waters added to the familiar ones from the album art and cult film make clear that wars certainly haven't stopped being fought, revolutions haven't stopped being quashed and soldiers and civilians haven't stopped dying. This was emphasized by the crowd's roar of support that accompanied the slogan "Bring the Boys Back Home" during 'Vera.'

Waters also made sure to mix old-school sloganeering (Big Brother is Watching You) with new ones (iProfit) and the animated planes dropped bombs made up of Shell Gas and Mercedes-Benz logos alongside the old communist, capitalist and Christian and Jewish symbols.

The other question was, How well does Waters hold up? Almost creepily well, actually. At 67, his vocals are shockingly similar to those on the album as they mourn and marvel at the mysteries and inequities of life.

'The Wall' is really purpose-built for this kind of performance -- the double-album is perfect concert length and the songs are confident enough to take their time to set scenes and establish moods as with more traditional theatrical productions.

It was also conceived as a complete piece, so while the Toronto crowds certainly sang along loudest to the album's breakout hits -- 'Another Brick in the Wall (Part II),' which included a chorus of lip-syncing schoolchildren and giant professor puppet; 'Mother,' featuring a sky-high maternal puppet glowering down as Waters sang the acoustic number (marred by an early microphone flub); and 'Comfortably Numb,' performed high atop the now-constructed wall -- there was no feeling of impatience through the lower-key songs.

That was equally due, of course, to the unceasing spectacle of the concert, which also involved mind-blowing digital animation projected upon the wall itself, beloved scenes from the movie (marching hammers, anal judge, fornicating flowers) and astounding use of surround sound.

By the end, the crowd, ecstatic that the performance had actually met their sky-high expectations, began chanting "Tear down the wall," until the wall did collapse upon the stage as if it, and the album itself, were alongside Waters taking their own well-deserved bows.

Live Earth

So everyone's heard about this right? A worldwide 24 hour concert to raise money to fight global warming? If not, go here.

Sundance channel appears to be airing the entire thing from 4am Saturday (tonight) to 2am Sunday. Similar to Live 8, there's 7 concerts that take place one right after the other for an entire day, each in a different city.

Among the participants:

Roger Waters
The Police
Smashing Pumpkins
Kanye West
Madonna
Beastie Boys
Duran Duran
Damien Rice
Metallica

The list goes on.

I am going to watch the broadcast of the New York show and probably wait for the DVD (you know there will be one) for the rest.

Also, I've been thinking about re-working my blog template and I think I'm going to add a section called "Worthy Causes" where I'm simply going to provide links to charities and organizations that I think are worth my (and your) time and money. Once that's up, feel free to offer suggestions as I'm sure I will have inadvertently forgotten someone. It's easy to take a cause, think about it for a few hours and never act on it. It's more difficult to commit yourself, especially when you have limited time and resources.

That's why I love it when celebrities take up causes. They have the freedom that time and money allows. They also have the public eye. Rather than wasting that being some clubbing, pill-popping tramp like Paris, some celebs use their popularity for a good cause. If you can get more attention, and raise more awareness because of who you are, and your occupation and life circumstances allow you the time and access to make a difference - then god dammit, do it.

Some people roll their eyes and criticize celebrities for vocalizing their concerns. They're people too. They have opinions, and the right to voice them. The microphone is simply a little louder. And all this hubub about how artists should just keep their yaps shut... Tell me something - what art is apolitical? Art - whether visual or musical, paintings or films, has always been infused with political meaning. Sure, some of it is vapid, some of it always will be, but there have always been artists who used their art to send political messages.

Roger Waters, June 9 2007

Hands down the best concert I have ever seen. Musically, visually, energetically, and thematically it set a new bar that I do not believe anyone else could ever top. I know, I'm biased, but I've seen Floyd sans Waters, and I have to say there's no comparison. I had my doubts because the United Center has always been terrible for concerts. I’ve seen Clapton, Peter Gabriel, the Who and Neil Diamond at the United Center and while all were good concerts, there were always acoustic problems, echoes, stray sounds. You could never hear them clearly if they spoke. I was amazed at the quality of this sound. Not that I expected anything less. Roger Waters is known to tour with sound systems that can overcome even the most acoustically flawed spaces. It exceeded my expectations, and my expectations were already pretty high.

It was great that I got to take my dad, since he's the one that introduced me to Floyd in the first place. And, while I was not excited about having John's old phone at first, but when I realized that, hey... it' had a camera in it... and our seats were so close to the stage - literally the edge of the stage was maybe 200 feet away, if that. So this has turned into a photo essay.

The energy here was so much different than the Rosemont Theatre. Not better or worse, just different. At the 1999 show, there was a quiet reverence. At this show there was this electric flash that seemed to overtake everyone in the room. We were all connected by our love of the music. Tonight was special too because I brought my dad. One thing we’ve always shared is a deep respect for Roger Waters and Pink Floyd, though my fandom goes far deeper than his I think. It was great to be able to share something like this. The generational gaps in the crowd prove that some music, music that touches something deeply symbolic in ourselves, is truly timeless.

The whole show revolved around recurring themes. Would we expect anything less? The background music playing before the show was old rock n’ roll and blues like Chuck Berry, Elvis, and Billy Holiday. On the 30ft tall screen behind the stage was a layered, almost three dimensional image of a bottle of Johnny Walker, a half poured glass, an ashtray, and an old European radio with a toy airplane atop. A few minutes before the start of the show, the ashtray started smoking, and the 3D illusion was aided by a couple of smoke machines. A giant hand with a cigarette grabs the glass of Johnny Walker, puts the cigarette in the ash tray and then the background music begins changing as the hand turns the dials of the radio. Once, the radio came to “Dancing Queen” and quickly changed to another station, playing “Waterloo,” also by ABBA and quickly changed the station again. This theme of the man in his bedroom drinking, contemplating, returned several times during the course of the show.



Setlist:
In the Flesh
Mother
Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun
Shine on You Crazy Diamond (abridged)
Have a Cigar
Wish you Were Here
Southampton Dock
The Fletcher Memorial Home
Perfect Sense 1&2
Leaving Beirut
Sheep

Intermission
Speak to Me
Breathe
On the Run
The Great Gig in the Sky
Money
Us and Them
Any Colour You Like
Brain Damage
Eclipse

Encore
The Happiest Days of Our Lives
Another Brick in the Wall Part II
Vera/Bring the Boys Back Home
Comfortably Numb

I was absolutely blown away that he played Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun, it’s such a beautiful song. If you’ve never heard it, it is worth seeking out. Waters wrote the lyrics after reading some Eastern philosophical poetry (I’m not sure if was the Tao or something else). During Shine on You Crazy Diamond, the giant screen showed old images of the band from the late 60s and old Super 8 video of Syd Barrett. He practically played the entirety of Wish You Were Here, with the exception of Welcome to the Machine.

Even though I had seen the setlists online, and I knew what was coming, I still was not prepared for how Southampton Dock and the Fletcher Memorial Home affected me. Those songs off the Final Cut that I never thought I would ever hear live, bring tears to my eyes when I listen to them anyway. The album is based on Waters' opposition to the Falklands War, a war he felt Margaret Thatcher used to gain popularity and thus, betrayed the memories of the soldiers who fought and died in World War II (his own father among them). Hearing them live, watching the emotion roll over his face as he sang them, and hearing the crowd sing along while images of poppy fields and soldiers graves rolled by on the screen had a profound impact on me.

“they disembarked in 45
and no one spoke and no one smiled
there were too many spaces in the line
gathered at the cenotaph
all agreed with hand on heart
to sheath the sacrificial knifes
but now
she stands upon southampton dock
with her handkerchief
and her summer frock clings
to her wet body in the rain
in quiet desperation knuckles
white upon the slippery reins
she bravely waves the boys goodbye again
and still the dark stain spreads between
his shoulder blades
a mute reminder of the poppy fields and graves
and when the fight was over
we spent what they had made
but in the bottom of our hearts
we felt the final cut”


I was happy to see the images on screen during the Fletcher Memorial Home included the likes of George W. Bush, Osama bin Laden, Karl Rove, Saddam Hussein, and Kim Jong Il who obviously all belong in the Fletcher Memorial Home for "incurable tyrants and kings" along with its original residents Thatcher, McCarthy, Reagan, Begin, Brezhnev and Nixon.

I still maintain that Perfect Sense is some of his best writing. It's an amazingly powerful song, and this time it came with visual aids to go along with the scathing criticism of our media’s dismissal of war as entertainment --"It all makes perfect sense, expressed in dollars and cents, pounds, shillings, and pence." In an animated scene, we get an aerial view of a stadium, filled with water, almost like the Colosseum, the stands packed with cheering fans. In the water, there's a submarine and an oil rig and along with the sound samples in the song, we get the live, telecast play-by-play featuring Marv Albert. The entire place turned electric during the final chorus of that song.

Then, to pull all of this together, songs written 20-30 years ago, he included a new song he wrote a few years ago about a trip to the Middle East he took when he was 17 (making it 1960-61) and his car broke down. It’s the story of him being taken in by a poor Arab family who fed him what little of their food they had, and gave him their bed to sleep in. He said in his introduction that he never forgot that family and their kindness toward a stranger. It’s a commentary on our monolithic image of Arabs in the West as terrorists and violent people when the majority of them are simply poor people living their lives the best they can under the circumstances and wishing for peace. There’s an interview with Waters where he speaks about playing that song in Israel, in a small rural town inhabited by Arabs, Jews and Christians and he told them they’re the hope, the new generation that can help end all this strife. It’s a wonderful song. Much more direct and less symbolic than his usual body of work, but given the subject matter, it had to be.

During Sheep, he brought out the Pig. It flew around on remote control like a little dirigible. On it’s skin were images of a brick wall, with messages like ‘Religion Divides us All,” “Fear Builds Walls,” “Habeus Corpus Matters,” “Torture Shames Us All,” and on the butt, was “Impeach Bush Now” with a peace sign underneath. Now I’ve heard two songs from Animals live. Sheep is a classic Floyd song starting out fairly mellow and bluesy, and then morphing into full-blown energetic rock – all with a political message of course.


Dark Side of the Moon made up the entirety of the second set and hearing it live, with the images on the screen and the energy in the stadium was inexpressible. As the band left the stage for the intermission, the screen went black and there was a distant image of the moon slowly getting closer. Then, the pulse started. A faint red light in the distance blinking with the heartbeat as the band took the stage again. The light on a satellite orbiting the moon flew past the screen and started Speak to Me. Dark Side is a timeless classic album and a scathing political commentary on our individualistic, selfish lifestyles. I never realized that the ticking of the clock at the beginning of “Time” was Waters clicking his pick against the strings of his bass. I always thought it was a synthesizer. During Us and Them he flashed images of people and children living in refugee camps and impoverished areas of the world in contrast to what appeared to be New York (any modern city really) with well-dressed people hustling and bustling.

Carol Kenyon, one of his backup vocalists nailed The Great Gig in the Sky. I’ve always said that if I ever could sing, I’d want to learn to sing that. It’s one of the hardest vocal solos in rock in my opinion.





Now, you can’t conclude Dark Side without the classic symbol of the album – the prism. In the middle of the stadium, hanging from the ceiling, I noticed this strange looking contraption and I knew immediately what it was. It was a laser prism that created a floating, 3-dimensional, rotating prism above the crowd with the white beam and the rainbow casting light over us as it spun like a lighthouse beacon. With everyone singing along


All that you touch
All that you see
All that you taste
All that you feel
All that you love
All that you hate
All you distrust
All that you save
All that you give
All that you deal
All that you buy
beg, borrow or steal
All you create
All you destroy
All that you do
All that you say
All that you eat
everyone you meet
All that you slight
everyone you fight
All that is now
All that is gone
All that's to come
and everything under the sun is in tune
but the sun is eclipsed by the moon.”


The entire band took their bow and exited the stage. They came back a couple minutes later for the Encore set, before which, Roger introduced the band members. During “The Happiest Days of Our Lives”/”Another Brick II” the screen projected images of the new wall built in Palestine. It had spraypainted on it “Fear Builds Walls” and “No Thought Control” among other things, many written in Arabic and Hebrew. “Vera” and especially “Bring the Boys Back Home” drew such fury from the crowd. Another song I never thought I would hear live. Again the theme of war figuring heavily into his work. The show concluded with Comfortably Numb where the screen reverted back to the room of the man drinking Johnny Walker and were eerily similar to the scenes in The Wall where Bob Geldof is sitting in his hotel room staring off with empty eyes into nothingness. As if this whole time he has been listening and contemplating as we all have; as if the whole show was his imagination or an expression of the vast helplessness most of us feel looking at how fucked up the world is and thinking there’s not much we can do to make a difference.


Undoubtedly the best concert I have ever seen. It will take a lot for anything to top this. Musically and thematically, the entire show pulled together Waters political commentary on the world and brought us all closer together for a few hours. I have a deep love for that man. I know how silly that sounds, like I’m some sort of groupie, but it’s not like that. I love his ideas and his sincerity. It’s not a romantic or erotic, groupie-type love. It’s nearly paternal in a way. His thoughts and expressions have helped shape who I’ve become. There’s just something in his work that connects with me on a deeper level than almost anything else in this world and certainly no other music has this effect on me. Seeing him live, seeing how much he still feels the emotions of the songs as much as I do even after playing them time after time. Seeing how deeply and sincerely he loves sharing his ideas touches me like nothing else can.

Busy weekend

Vacation plans
John and I have been toying with the idea of going to Paris for New Years since this past Christmas when SecretRudy put the idea in our head. He noted to us that fares and hotels were really cheap that time of year and wouldn't it be fun...

So we mulled it over and decided, yeah, that would be fun. I've been looking at some information on flights and hotels and such, and last weekend, John and I booked a pretty cheap vacation package. I love Expedia and those such sites. It was so below our budget that we threw in an evening dinner package on top of the hotel and airfare.

Dinner on the Eiffel Tower, followed by an evening boat cruise down the Seine, followed by a show at the Moulin Rouge, and transportation to and from our hotel. I usually don't like doing the so-called "touristy" stuff, but if you're only going to a place for a very short time (a few days), sometimes it's the best way to get a small taste of everything.

The rest of the time I fully intend on spending walking around the city just doing whatever we feel like at a relaxed pace. The hotel is walking distance from the Louvre and Notre Dame - two of the sites on my "must go" list. Now, I know that one could easily spend 2 weeks in the Louvre alone, but we'll just have to pick our priority collections carefully. Other than that, whatever we feel like doing, we'll do. If we feel like sitting in a cafe playing Scrabble for 3 hours, we will (yes we have travel Scrabble - we brought it to Hawai'i too. There's nothing quite like sitting in a quiet oceanfront condo playing Scrabble with a man who cheats and tries to get you to accept "Quif" as a real word while listening to the waves crash on the shore).

Swimming
I finally got back to swimming again this week. I couldn't go for 2 weeks after my tattoo work and then Memorial Day weekend was too busy and last weekend I had stuff goin on. So I went Monday and did 30 laps in about a half hour. Not bad. Though I did realize that I'm not doing my breast stroke (hee hee, she said breast stroke) quite correctly. I'd love to find a swimming class that teaches technique instead of how not to drown. I looked up some videos online and found my timing is off and I'm extending my arms too far. So last night I went again and tried doing it the right way and - wow... a LOT harder.

Work
Our student worker is slowly losing his faith in the intelligence of his fellow students. You'd think college students at faculty with PhDs could figure out how to correctly complete scantron forms. Nope. I promised him that before he graduated, this place would turn him into a full-blown cynic. Higher Ed has that effect on people.

Bluesfest
I'd like to get to Bluesfest this year. I always think I'm going to go, and then for some reason, I never get there. Usually because it's not fun for me wandering in the hot sun with 200,000 of my closest friends. I generally try to avoid mass humanity. I might wander over after work Friday for a little while and check out the secondary stages. I have no real excuse not to - I work about a block and a half away from the park.

Roger Waters
I'm taking my dad to see Roger Waters at the United Center on Saturday. From the reviews and other such things I've read it's supposed to be a fantastic show. I hate the United Center with a white-hot passion, but what'y'gonna do? The sound is usually terrible, but I have faith since Waters is known to travel with sound systems that can overcome even the most craptacular acoustics.

Graduations
John's step sister is graduating high-school and was accepted at Texas A&M - Galveston to study Marine Biology. Her party is Sunday so that should be fun.

George Bush's Bullshit Excuses
Bush wants us to believe he has our best interests at heart when he vetoes a stem cell research bill. He said he didn't think it was right to force people to pay for something that is morally questionable (using tax dollars to "destroy" human embryos that are already going to be destroyed anyway). Why not pass a bill that makes it illegal for embryos to be grown in the first place then? I mean, there's always adoption, right? Isn't that what they tell the women seeking abortions? This, opposed to an immoral war in Iraq, Abstinence Only education programs, mercenary armies, and the illegal torturing and detention of human beings. Our tax dollars pay for those too, and last time I checked, the majority of people were opposed to most of those too. So, spare us your excuses Georgie.

Letters from the past

As I am anticipating seeing Roger Waters in concert again, I found myself rifling through my old records and memorabilia, and I found the concert program from the "In the Flesh" tour (1999). I opened it, and papers fell out. I had come home from that concert compelled to write down how I was feeling afterwards. I had totally forgotten I had written this.

I went to the show with my friend Joe, also an avid Floyd & Waters nut who has since moved away. We were not disappointed. It was at the Rosemont Theatre, a small venue that seats maybe 8,000 people. I remember the show selling out in minutes and reading some interview with Waters scathing remarks about scalpers. It really bites when people who don't care about the music buy the tickets to sell for a profit. I am expecting a fantastic show on June 9th, but I don't expect it to surpass the experience of such a small theatre.

I know it sounds silly to some people, but I have always had a deep emotional connection to this music since the first time I heard it. Some people have poetry they love, or books - I have this man's music and make no mistake it is poetry. It is difficult to explain, but in retrospect I think a lot of it has to do with how it taps into my dark side. It allows me to express those dark feelings I think we all have in a cathartic way. Not cathartic in the sense that high-energy music can be cathartic, but it lifts something off of me. I can't explain it - of course, there are a lot of feelings I have trouble explaining, and that's my point. I couldn't explain it myself, but I pull out a song like 'Us and Them' or 'Pigs' or 'Perfect Sense' and the words would be ones I've been grasping for. Maybe some of you other fans out know what I mean.

Anyway, here's a bit of my soul from almost 10 years ago. John and I were together then, but I don't even think I ever showed this to him. I'm sure I gushed about the show non-stop for weeks, but I never showed anyone what I wrote. Of course, I never have been one to show my feelings openly for fear they might be seen as silly. Reading this again made me think that it's time for me to change that. Who the fuck cares if you think it's silly. I sure as hell shouldn't.

And, as always, there is a perfect lyric for that thought from "The Trial"

Good morning, Worm your honor.
The crown will plainly show
The prisoner who now stands before you
Was caught red-handed showing feelings
Showing feelings of an almost human nature;
This will not do. ...

Roger Waters, July 24 1999

This was one of the most exciting and astounding shows I have ever seen. The sound was phenomenal, and the audience was (mostly) respectful of the music so unlike a lot of other shows, you could hear the quiet interludes. Hearing “Mother” and “Dogs” the way they originally sounded with Waters on vocals was amazing. I was certainly hoping he would play some of his older material, but at the same time hoped that he’d forgo the hits and play what he wanted. Hopefully, that's what he did. All I have to say is – Wow. To see someone like him in a small venue was a dream. I could see and hear everything. The man who wrote the lyrics that can express everything I feel was on stage, finally, I got to see him ‘in the flesh’ and I am so happy.

He played some songs from The Wall – “In the Flesh,” “The Thin Ice,” “Mother,” and from Animals (my second favorite Pink Floyd album next to Meddle) he played “Pigs on the Wing,” “Dogs,” and “Sheep.” During “Dogs”, in the interlude synthesizer portion of the song, everyone but the drummer and keyboardist sat on the couch (yes, a couch on stage, complete with coffee table and lamps) and kicked back playing cards! I had heard stories that this is what they used to do in the early days while the synthesizers took over for a while. It was fabulous.

From Wish You Were Here, he played “Welcome to the Machine,” “Wish You Were Here,”, and “Shine on You Crazy Diamond,” during which he projected an ever enlarging picture of Syd on the screen. It was very touching. He played some Dark Side songs and then moved on to his solo work. Radio Kaos, Pros & Cons of Hitchhiking, and Amused to Death. Of all, Amused to Death is my favorite – it’s haunting. “Perfect Sense” was intense – loud, and moving, and beautiful.

I almost cried at times, just thinking that the man who expressed so eloquently and perfectly how I feel about the world was right there. It revitalized the connection I had with the music when I first discovered it. It had that same, intense emotional effect on me. It reminded me that I haven’t listened to a lot of it lately and that I miss it terribly.

I am so thankful that I got to go and I am so overwhelmed with how I feel about the music again. I loved every minute of it. No, only if I could just tell him “thank you.” Thank you for helping me express myself in ways I couldn’t on my own. Thank you for speaking to me, thank you for your music and all it has done for me and how wonderful it makes me feel when I’m listening. Thank you for your message of change and hope. Many people I talk to find your music depressing. To me, it is uplifting. It lifts weights off my soul like nothing else. It is a release of those dark feelings we all have. It doesn’t just bitch, leaving you with no outlet. It dispels them and makes me feel better.

If only there were a way I could tell him.