Dawn Xiana Moon: Melodic folk pop infused with passion and honesty. From Chicago.

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Monday, May 30, 2005

Memorial Weekend, Part I

Or: four days of BBQs and out-of-town visitors. Highlights:

BBQ #1 was at a farm in Saline (well, not quite a farm, but they have two horses and the neighbor across the street is a farmer). Alex and Emily, old friends who got married last summer and moved to North Carolina, were in town for her birthday and gathered many people that I don’t see very often. And Emily brought me a much-belated Christmas present (when they visited for Christmas, they had problems with their luggage).

I left the BBQ early to play a concert at Zou Zou’s in Chelsea, a little café I’ve enjoyed for years. This was the first time I’d played there, and the wonderfully talented Rachele Eve opened for me. You need to hear this girl--she has a beautiful voice. Afterward, I had a rare I'm-almost-being-Asian night by hanging out with Tom Carroll and Bryan Kao, another of the whitest Asians I know; we had bubble tea (Thai tea for me, since I think having to chew tapioca balls while trying to drink is annoying) and played DDR at Pinball Pete’s (Ann Arbor’s resident arcade). We spent a good hour after that at my house telling all the jokes we could remember offhand. (Why do ducks have webbed feet? To put out forest fires. Why do elephants have large ears? To put out flaming ducks.)

BBQ #2 was in a southeast Detroit suburb, a joint birthday party for a friend from high school and his sister. Again, lots of people I hadn’t seen in a while, including a friend I hadn’t seen in years who toured with Sesame Street Live and afterward started a dance company with an old director/acting teacher of ours. It’s fun to hear that so many of my creative friends actually did end up having a career (or part of one) in the arts.

I left that BBQ early with my roommate Christina, Dave O. (another person I see sporadically because he lives in another state), and Bryan Kao because Christina wanted to go to a Polish festival. The festival was rather amusing--the only Polish things there were the pirogies and maybe some of the people--and the musical entertainment consisted of a band playing horrible covers. But we all decided to dance anyway (since there was a large dance floor set up under the tent for that purpose), and because Bryan and I are swing dancers we became the rock stars of the evening: a number of people kept coming up to us and telling us how great we were and a tiny old woman told us that she’d been teaching ballroom for 40 years and was impressed because we were so smooth. Obviously everyone should learn lindy. :-)

^ Top | 10:36 PM | | |

Thursday, May 26, 2005

Episode III in Summary

I may write a more detailed post later, because the movie has some interesting discussion points. But for now:

1. George Lucas should not direct.
2. George Lucas should especially stay away from directing love scenes.
3. George Lucas should not write the script.
4. George Lucas should especially stay away from writing love scenes.
5. George Lucas needs to get over his obsession with CGI.

Worst lines in the movie:

The flat scene was particularly amusing in light of IMDB's Bio on Hayden Christensen: "The star was chosen by director George Lucas because he felt that Hayden has raw talent and more sexual chemistry with actress Natalie Portman." Right.

^ Top | 12:18 AM | | |

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Episode III in Bullet Points

My brother caught the midnight showing of the new Star Wars movie; what follows is his (rather entertaining) summary.

Bring some ear plugs or be prepared to crack a lot of jokes.
The dialogue sucks. Completely and utterly sucks.
[Lucas] can't direct either. Considering he has one of the great directors [Spielberg] that has begged him to let him direct a movie.... Multiple times....
Don't even try nitpicking Ep III. You'll go nuts.
My biggest peeve was the instant travel flying in a ship and getting across the galaxy in a few hours. You could figure the entire movie happening in a week.
I do like how they killed the Jedi--the only sensible way to get rid of the order en masse.
Just beware of all dialogue. [ Dawn's Note: Yes, this came up in the conversation multiple times.] Especially of the lovers. During one of their "serious" "I love you" scenes, I couldn't help but start cracking up. I wasn't the only one either. It's super cheesy... beyond anything you could imagine.
"STELLA!!!!!!!!!!!!" [Vader] has one of those scenes--it was comical. Darth Vader... like that. I laughed. The whole mystique of Darth Vader... gone with that scene. It wasn't bad or anything... just felt so out of character for DARTH VADER.
The action scenes don't look as fake. Which is a major plus.
I liked the use of secondary characters, but I don't like the name-dropping.
The one thing I learned from Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith: Girls are evil... it's all their fault. (Go see it... it's a decent watch if you ignore all the dialogue.)

I have yet to see the movie, though now I'm far more interested than I was two hours ago--I used to be one of the most diehard Star Wars fans you could find, but my faith in the enterprise was shattered by the abominations called Episodes I and II. Perhaps III will restore at least some of the wonder.

^ Top | 2:16 AM | | |

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Struggling to Matter

It's strange to think that a science fiction series can be metaphorical comfort food--but there’s something about a well-written story with real character development that becomes engrossing and thought-provoking, not just distraction. Yesterday I was feeling down and ended up watching far too much Babylon 5; I over-indulged myself, but much of thematic material came at an opportune time.

None of these sentiments are particularly unique--it’s very human to resonate with the desire to make an impact in the world around us, to accomplish something of importance, to leave a legacy. Characters on the show are in positions where they literally change the course of history, but even if we do not leave such a large mark, who doesn’t want to leave something indelible in the world around us? To be a name that is remembered amongst a group long after we’ve left?

It’s also innate to long for unconditionality in our relationships. There’s a scene in which Delenn is about to face her past, in particular a moment of grief where she cast the deciding vote to wage a holy war that resulted in the near-extinction of humanity and incredible loss of life from her own (alien) people, a moment she has been trying to atone for in the years that followed the war. She’s kept it a secret from those now close to her, and when she is called home to answer for an unrelated decision she knows that piece of her past may reveal itself and tries to go alone, quietly. But Lennier refuses to allow her to leave without him; he had, as her friend, pledged to be by her "side through fire, storm, darkness, and death--could knowledge be worse?" She answers, "In this case, yes." But seeing his determination, she allows him to journey home with her, and is grateful for the company. In another scene one character literally gives his life in order to save that of another; a machine transfers his life-force into a dying friend who isn’t even conscious enough to know what he’s doing, isn’t conscious enough to hear his whispered "I love you." Who doesn’t long for such devotion, such loyalty, such unconditionality? Such willingness to lay everything on the line? A Christian will respond that you can find that in God, which, while true, neglects the fact that we were also created for community, for relationships with each other--and therein lies the difficulty. Of all my friends, I’m really only close to people I met in college, and not everyone I once considered close still falls into that category. Disconnectedness comes too easily, even when we fight against it. And I’m not sure why.

^ Top | 11:54 PM | | |

Saturday, May 14, 2005

Two Concerts

It’s been an interesting weekend (and Sunday’s not even here yet). Yesterday I was one of three local acts in an acoustic showcase before Akil Dasan’s set at the Trolley Stop—so I grabbed my newly-21 roommate (happy birthday, Sasha!), borrowed Alex’s car and my pastor’s guitar (as I own neither of these items), and drove through torrential rain to Taylor. It was the first time I’ve played at a bar. The crowd wasn’t huge but the other musicians were great: Tricia Concepcion played both guitar and keyboard, singing and playing multiple parts with herself thanks to a couple of fun effects pedals, and Steve Deasy filled the room with bluesy tunes that left me feeling a little foolish for playing my pseudo-jazz version of Summertime. I left with both of their CDs (Tricia just gave me hers, which I’m listening to right now, and Steve and I traded). Akil Dasan was also definitely worth watching—his first song was a stroll through hip hop hits on the acoustic guitar. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone beat box that well. Apparently he also has a background in classical guitar, because after freestyling to a few background tracks he played a two classical pieces just to prove that he’s a real musician.

Tonight I played for a Habitat for Humanity benefit in Monroe—for an audience of about seven, most of whom were musicians who had played before me. The event apparently wasn’t well publicized, but I did get to spend some time talking to Beth Stalker, who was nominated for a variety of Detroit Music Awards this year. And with good reason: she’s a wonderful musician who can’t decide if she should be playing blues, gospel, folk, or jazz. If you get a chance to see her live, go.

The benefit’s amusing moments consisted of Christian cheese: stuffed dolls of Jesus, Joseph (of Technicolor dreamcoat fame), Mary, and David (of Goliath fame), who could have doubled as John the Baptist with his furry tunic, and God Rocks—suckers that you’re supposed to dip into the attached pop rocks (remember those?). Oh, the jokes abound. It would have been hilarious to make the Jesus doll my new mascot. Today’s transportation was provided courtesy of my friend Andy, whose phone camera came in handy for capturing shots of us posing with the Jesus doll (aw, how cute).

Another amusing moment of the night came after the show: Andy and I stopped at Busch’s on the way home to pick up some food and when we walked out of the store a kid dashed up to us and asked if he could buy just one cigarette from either of us since the pack he’d just bought didn’t have any nicotine. His hopes were dashed when we both said that we don’t smoke. Random. Maybe he was too young to actually buy them himself?

^ Top | 11:50 AM | | |

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Random Linkage

Life has taken a turn for the crazy--yes, I know I haven't posted in a while--and I don't have time for a substantive post, but I'll leave you with some fun links.

1. A movie that looks promising: the Batman Begins trailer.
2. They used to have the coolest Flasb website I'd seen (granted, I'm not a huge fan of Flash), but they've since updated. Too bad. Fantastic music too.
3. Proof that men are more evil than women.
4. Because we need more functional cities. (The experiment of suburbia has failed.)
5. Want to be my friend? (Also a place for great music.)
6. Check out the gallery. Creating art with just paper.
7. Read people's secrets.
8. And finally, come to the Trolley Stop in Taylor this Friday and catch me opening for Akil Dasan from Missy Elliott's Road to Stardom show on UPN (admittedly, I've never seen it. I don't watch TV. I did watch the audition tape online though, and he's great--hip hop meets acoustic guitar).

^ Top | 12:14 AM | | |