Chicago: A Review Saturday, Sep 27 2008 

music and theater thisgaudygildedstage 8:01 pm

Yesterday, PJ and I went to see Chicago, which came to Athens as part of the university’s performing arts series. Here’s a Youtube clip from when the Broadway production visited The Early Show. The touring company we saw was, of course, based on this production.

Until yesterday, almost my entire knowledge of this musical was from the 2002 movie version starring Richard Gere, Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, John C. Reilly, and Queen Latifah. The only other thing I knew about the show was that Bebe Neuwirth had starred in it (and won a Tony) in the mid-90s. Here’s a clip of her as Velma Kelly performing during the Tony Award show:

I really only have two responses to the touring company version of the musical. On the one hand, this production suffers from the slightness of the musical’s book and the limits of being a touring company. But on the other hand, I finally learned why God created tight, low-rise pants for men!

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What I’m Listening to: Laura Marling Tuesday, Sep 16 2008 

music thisgaudygildedstage 7:39 pm

One of the features of iTunes that I like the most is the ability to surf through and see recommendations for artists that are similar to ones I purchase and/or already like. Last week while doing just that, I discovered Laura Marling‘s music. The following two songs are now stuck in my head — I can’t stop them from playing over and over and over again ….

Marling is an 18-year-old English folk-pop singer. This means that she’s another of the British musicians that I’ve recently come to love — I’m starting to wonder if I listen to anything besides British singers! (When I first asked myself that, the first thing that came to mind is that I’ve recently started listening to Annie Lennox’s last CD again, but she obviously doesn’t count since she’s Scottish. Oh well. I guess that just leaves Bishop Allen.)

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Summer Music Part 4: Jason Mraz Wednesday, Aug 27 2008 

music thisgaudygildedstage 8:07 pm

Earlier this month I composed a series of posts about the music I’ve been listening to this summer. I still have a few albums to go. One of my favorites has been Jason Mraz‘s new album, We Sing We Dance We Steal Things.(Btw, check out his webpage at www.jasonmraz.com — it’s great too!)

I really liked his first album, 2002’s Waiting for My Rocket to Come, but I have to admit that I never paid any attention to his sophomore effort, Mr. A-Z, which came out in 2005. Sometime around the time We Sing We Dance We Steal Things came out, however, Mraz garnered a lot of attention on some of the gay blogs that I read due to the following picture:

Apparently, Mraz posted this picture on his myspace page as part of a discussion of vegetarianism (or something like that — I didn’t see the original posting; I just followed it on the blogs). I’ve always thought that he was really hot, so let’s just say that this picture got my attention and alerted me to the fact that he had an album coming out.

Shortly after seeing the picture, I saw the video for the new album’s lead-off single, “I’m Yours,” on Vh1:

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Summer Music Part 3: Bishop Allen Thursday, Aug 7 2008 

music thisgaudygildedstage 7:27 pm

My favorite band right now is Bishop Allen. I first came across their music in Andrew Bujalski’s movies, which PJ and I saw earlier this summer during our mumblecore summer film festival. I really liked Justin Rice‘s music in Mutual Appreciation, so I bought Charm School (2003) and The Broken Strong (2007) from iTunes. Rice and Christian Rudder are the primary members of this New York-based band. Both are connected to Bujalski: just as Rice starred in Mutual Appreciation, Rudder co-starred in Bujalski’s Funny Ha Ha.

Since Charm School is the older of the two albums, I listened to it first. I instantly fell in love with this band’s quirky alt-pop sound. My favorite tracks off the album are “Things Are What You Make of Them,” “Quarter to Three,” and “Empire City.” Here’s a live version of “Things Are What You Make of Them:”

I loved the first album so much, that I was a little resistant to the second one. At first, I thought it was too sophisticated and that the band had lost its charm. But after listening to The Broken String more closely, I now love it as much as the first one.

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Summer Music Part 2: Adele Tuesday, Aug 5 2008 

music thisgaudygildedstage 6:42 pm

Yesterday I wrote about Duffy’s Rockferry. Another album that I’ve loved this summer is Adele‘s 19. Adele is also British — she hails from North London — but her sound is quite different from Duffy’s. Adele is much more a jazz musician than neo-soul or a throwback to the 1960s. Here’s a sample of her music, her first single, “Chasing Pavements:”

I first heard “Chasing Pavements” on Vh1. Of course the visuals of the video are eye-catching. It’s a great, creative video. But what really held my attention was the vocal. I like her combination of pop and jazz. The overall sound is pop, but her articulation and styling is jazz. It’s definitely very listenable.

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Summer Music Part 1: Duffy Monday, Aug 4 2008 

music thisgaudygildedstage 7:32 pm

I’ve been meaning to blog about the music I’ve been listening to this summer. I’ve put it off long enough that I’ve got about a week’s worth of posts to write, so I decided to make this music week. I’ll try to write about one album each day.

Today’s album is Duffy‘s Rockferry. I only started listening to it a week ago — PJ and I heard “Mercy” on the radio as we were driving back from Canada and then I got it from iTunes as soon as we got home — but I already love this album!

Duffy is part of the new British invasion of neo-soul singers. She’s often compared to Amy Winehouse, but her music actually sounds very different from Winehouse’s. First off, I love just about everything British — I’m totally the stereotypical American Anglophile. Second, I love this neo-soul movement — Winehouse, Adele, Paulo Nutini. Everything becomes new again, and this music is hot!

Here’s a sample, “Stepping Stone,” one of my favorite tracks from the album:

Duffy is a 24-year-old singer from Wales. She sounds like a modernized version of Dusty Springfield, but according to wikipedia she dislikes the comparison. Nevertheless, I think the comparison is apt.

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Grace Jones’s “Corporate Cannibal” Friday, Jul 11 2008 

music thisgaudygildedstage 8:00 am

Earlier this week, I was reading Towleroad.com and saw Grace Jones’s new video for “Corporate Cannibal,” the first single off her new album, which is due out later this year. Here’s the video:

I’ve written about my love for Grace Jones before. But to recap: I think she’s a brilliant performance artist who happens to use music as her primary medium. While her music is rarely appropriate for mainstream radio, it is nevertheless really good as music sometimes, but it’s always great performance art.

This new video is no exception. I like the electronica groove, and the visuals are really creative and interesting. I also think that the lyrics are more relevant than most songs currently on the radio. If this is any indication of where her album is going, I think it could be great. I’m really looking forward to hearing it. It could be brilliant or it could be a crazy disaster. Either way, it promises to be interesting.

(I could do without the growling at the end, though. That seems a little cheesy to me!)

 

Two Movies by Andrew Bujalski: Reviews Thursday, Jul 10 2008 

movies and music thisgaudygildedstage 9:09 am

In our tour of mumblecore movies, PJ and I are now watching films by Andrew Bujalski, who was also one of the actors in Joe Swanberg’s Hannah Takes the Stairs. Bujalski’s first movie was Funny Ha Ha (2002); the second was Mutual Appreciation (2005). I really enjoyed both films.

Here’s the trailer for Funny Ha Ha:

Funny Ha Ha stars Kate Dollenmayer as Marnie, a recent college graduate who hasn’t quite made the transition from undergraduate to post-undergraduate yet. She’s in love with an unattainable guy, Alex, played by Christian Rudder. Her friends, Rachel and Dave, played by Jennifer L. Schaper and Myles Paige, try to offer her advice (and some perhaps very unproductive distraction), but there’s only so much they can do. Bujalski plays Mitchell, a guy Marnie meets at one of her temp jobs. Mitchell has a crush on Marnie and even tries to get her to like him, but for Marnie he’s definitely no Alex.

Marnie

Marnie (Kate Dollenmayer)

Like other movies in this genre, however, the plot, such as is it, is mostly beside the point. Instead, the movie is really about dialog and character. Maybe it’s actually more accurate to say that it’s really just about character — the dialog and everything that happens is really in service of introducing us to these characters.

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Celebrating My Birthday Thursday, Jun 26 2008 

food and holidays and music and television thisgaudygildedstage 8:54 pm

Today is my birthday. It’s been a good, relaxing day. It’s not a particularly big year, so I don’t feel any specific anxiety about aging or anything like that. I’m healthier than I’ve been in a while, eating well and exercising. Since my last birthday, I’ve lost 20 lbs. and I’m feeling good. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the obvious fact that I’m balding, but that’s not particularly birthday related. My relationship with PJ is the best it’s ever been, and my career is going well. All in all, I’m happy with myself, my life, and the world around me. So, having a good, relaxing day seems in order.

I woke up early and opened my presents from PJ. These included a iPod nano, which is what I had wanted most this year, a soapstone Ganesha, and the first two seasons of Sex and the City on DVD.

I spent most of the day loading music onto the iPod. Of course I just started loading stuff without really knowing what I was doing. This ultimately meant that I ended up downloading many more tracks individually than I would have had to if I had just slowed down, read the instructions, and thought about it for a second. (I have music on two different computers, and that led me to make a poor decision early on.) But now I have 150 tracks on the ipod and lots more room — about 98% — left to slowly add more music over the next few days.

Soapstone Ganesha

I’ve decided to sit my new Ganesha on my desk. Here’s a picture of it. Click on it to see a larger version. This is my third Ganesha statue (or statuette — they’re each only about 5 inches tall). I also have some postcards of Ganesha.

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La Llorona Monday, Feb 25 2008 

books and music and teaching thisgaudygildedstage 8:25 pm

Today my Lesbian and Gay Literature class started discussing Felicia Luna Lemus‘s Trace Elements of Random Tea Parties. The novel is about a Latina named Leticia, as the book’s back cover tells us, “immerses herself in the post-queer hipster scene in Los Angeles.”

Leti begins her story by telling us that it is “really about my girl Weeping Woman, Nana, and me” (3). I thought it was important to make sure my students understood the folklore surrounding the Weeping Woman, so I did a little internet research to give them.

The story of the Weeping Woman, or La Llorona, exists in several forms. In all of them, she kills her children by drowning them. Her spirit now roams the earth looking for naughty children to snatch away and make her own.

During my research, I came across the following video on Youtube. I’ve completely fallen in love with it.

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