 |
Music •
Biography •
Press Kit •
Randomness •
Lyrics Gigs • Photos • Writing • Fun Stuff • Links • Contact |
Thursday, February 28, 2008 Encores Performing in cafes you don't ever expect your audience to demand an encore, but last week at the Heartland Cafe I played for a fantastic crowd that wouldn't allow me to leave the stage. The first encore was quite a surprise, and after asking for a vote I played another song on the guitar in honor of my roommate--she's always asking me to play the "French song." Though now there are two. The second encore was on piano, at the request of the the lovely Annah Zaman, who played before me: "You have to play another one on the piano, because I wasn't in the room just now." After two additional songs, I thought the encores were getting a little ridiculous--not so much that people wanted me to play, but rather that I didn't want to overstay my welcome, so to speak--and I had to pay my food bill, since my server was leaving. Annah, however, volunteered to pay the bill if I played another song on piano. Realizing that she was serious, I played number three. Then I ran, because it would have been strange to become another Evgeny Kissin (if I had half his piano chops I'd be thrilled, but I was once at a concert where as an audience we kept clapping just to see if we could make him keep playing--he played six encores that night). Thanks so much to everyone who came to the concert--you were a fabulous audience, and I hope to see you again soon! Labels: performing ^ Top | 1:23 AM | | | 
Sunday, February 17, 2008 Tidbits It may be due to the fact that I'm an English geek, but the SPOGG (Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar) blog is rather amusing. March 4th this year is National Grammar Day--the first one, I believe, of its kind. Anyone want to celebrate with me? I've been listening to the soundtrack from Once for the last seven hours. Last week I was fortunate enough to get comp tickets to the CSO's performance of Ainadamar, a work that hovers somewhere between opera and modern musical theatre--in Diana's words, "I'm on stage for about 90 minutes (of awesomeness) with 14 other Symphony Chorus ladies, members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a flamenco singer and flamenco guitarists and percussionists, a laptop musician, and an opera cast lead by Dawn Upshaw." While the performance reminded me of why actors are always joking about how opera singers can't act, the music was simply stunning. At a couple of points, a gypsy singer appeared on the balcony--and just a few notes were enough to steal the show. I would love to sing like that. ^ Top | 1:52 AM | | |
Thursday, February 07, 2008 Happy Chinese New Year!  Thanks to U! for the fabulous drawing, which he sent me as a greeting card (if you're wondering, it's the Year of the Rat). Have a fantastic year, filled with lots of friends, music, and real Chinese food! Labels: holidays ^ Top | 7:29 AM | | |
Saturday, January 26, 2008 "The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls." The last two weeks of The Daily Show provided some interesting commentary on not just American politics, but the media. Take, for example, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama's "escalating war of words"--since January 19, 2007, the media has been proclaiming that the "gloves are off" in the race between the two Democratic candidates. We could read this as hype, hype, and more hype. As Jon Stewart put it, "You know, if they're going to keep doing that, why do these candidates keep taking their gloves on and off? It seems inefficient." Or better yet, how about this? CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC constantly proclaim that race is an issue in the Democratic primary, and they've said that Hillary Clinton first played the race card. In actuality, Clinton said that it takes a president to actually make the policy that civil rights activists march for. Seems reasonable--civil rights activists hope to change public opinion and move policy-makers to act. They in themselves cannot change policy or create laws. Our media, however, turned her statement into an incitement of racial tensions. Contrasting Clinton's actual words to the commentary from the major news channels is both frightening and fascinating--her words are miles apart from the commentators' sensationalist accusations. Then there's Mitt Romney's supposed eruption and Bill Clinton's angry lashing of reporters. Romney played semantic games--this lobbyist isn't running my campaign, he's just an advisor--but his reaction to the reporter's statements wasn't even on the scale of "angry outburst," much less "incensed" (Hardball). And Clinton? He seemed awfully calm for someone who was "throwing a fit" (Fox News). Yes, he did say, "Shame on you." But I couldn't even rightfully put an exclamation point on his statement against the media looking to create racial issues out of thin air. Yet according to CNN, "He lashed out." All of this brings to mind Indiana University professor Julia A. Fox's study, "No Joke: A Comparison of Substance in The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Broadcast Network Television Coverage of the 2004 Presidential Election Campaign." She found that The Daily Show contained as much substance as network news. "A [second-by-second analysis] analysis of network coverage found considerably more hype than substance in broadcast newscasts. Examples of such hype included references to polls, political endorsements and photo opportunities.... Interestingly, the average amounts of video and audio substance in the broadcast network news stories were not significantly different than the average amounts of visual and audio substance in The Daily Show with Jon Stewart stories about the presidential election." The Daily Show is comedy. Very good comedy. But it's not supposed to be a news show. So it's a little sad when the actual news programs do such a poor job of providing substantive information that a comedy show stands with them on equal footing. Or as Stewart says, "You're hurting America." Labels: Jon Stewart, politics, The Daily Show ^ Top | 7:17 PM | | |
Thursday, January 10, 2008 The Daily Show Back on the Air I'll admit it: I've missed having The Daily Show on the air. Yes, Jon Stewart is back in the middle of the writers' strike, but he and Colbert held out longer than Leno, Letterman, or O'Brien. I admire the fact that both of them continued to make sure that their staff members were paid throughout the strike, even when the show wasn't in production--some other late night shows, meanwhile, were forced to lay off their staff members. Back in December, NBC laid off the non-writing staff members of both Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien. O'Brien paid his staff for another week, I believe out of his own pocket. Late night shows are responsible for employing a host of people--those people aren't writers and don't stand to benefit from any negotiations the WGA makes, however they feel--and the researchers, crew, and others already have a tendency to live paycheck to paycheck. The first couple of return episodes make it clear that Jon isn't happy about having to return without his writing staff (the show is currently running as "A Daily Show" rather than "The Daily Show" in tribute to the writers); he's also a little "off." But even if The Daily Show isn't in top form, I'm still glad it's back to point out the humor in our absurd political system. Without Jon Stewart and company, American politics is just depressing. Labels: Jon Stewart, The Daily Show, WGA, writers' strike ^ Top | 6:49 PM | | |
Tuesday, December 25, 2007 Merry Christmas!  Best wishes for a wonderful holiday! ^ Top | 5:10 PM | | |
Thursday, December 20, 2007 The Demise of Sigmund Poor Sigmund, he met an untimely end. He stood near the campus of Northwestern University, and his middle ball was pulled from his body--probably by an undergraduate. And his carrot nose was stolen. The final insult? Someone's dog left a yellow patch on his bottom ball. Labels: winter ^ Top | 5:18 PM | | |
|
