Your Music is Bad and You Should Feel Bad!
Today's post title courtesy of the ever popular Dr. Zoidberg. And it was appropriate at one point tonight.
The story of a day trip to Normal:
Ellen and I decided to make it a whole day away today. We went to church, and afterward had a brunch/light lunch (omelets) before driving to Normal. We got down there plenty early, so hung out at Kalen and Kathy's apartment for a couple of hours, chatting with the girls and harassing Kalen while she watched two episodes of "Survivor" (episodes I'd seen, so I knew where all the best parts were to point out, and the episodes were awesome).
At 4:00, we picked up Ryan and headed out for an early dinner at a pizza place (a restaurant the girls could agree on, and had pre-picked). Very good deep pan pizza, at least the one Ryan and I shared, with a delicious flakey crust.
After dinner we dropped off Ryan and then the girls for their concert call (5:50pm call for a 7:00pm concert -- thus the early dinner). Ellen and I ran to do a couple errands, and then back for the concert.
Kalen and Kathy's group sang first, and in the second song Kathy had a special part in a double duet. Their songs were good. The group that followed them (the men's glee) was good. The men's a capella group that followed with one song was OK, though the arrangement wasn't the best and some of the parts got buried (they did "Papa was a Rolling Stone").
Then the night degenerated.
Next was a group of 12 that were doing some lesser known jazz and show songs. The arrangements here were even more of a mess, and much of both songs were garbled and lost. Then, intermission, after which was the never-ending mess of poetry and other writings set to "tone poem" music which turned out to be fairly atonal. There were four or five such pieces from different groups, all more-or-less in a row. Someone needs to pay attention to the program and get some variety in, especially as evening gets later. Finally, the last sone (at least before the Illinois State alma mater) was supposed to be a bit more "up" and mix in some percussion. Unfortunately, they didn't actually get percussionists. They just used people from other choral groups that weren't busy at that time. What they didn't get was anyone who could keep time. The girl who had the loudest instrument (like a cow bell, but two pitched bells) was totally off, and pretty much fouled up everything. It also didn't help that half-way through this mess the director decided to .... stop directing .. and stepped to the side of the chorus to listen. It was after this piece that I turned to Ellen and pulled out the quote in the title of this post.
So, I could have left the concert after about the first 15 minutes and enjoyed the night much more!
Anyway, after than we took the girls back to their apartment, loaded the car with some of their stuff (to make their moving out of the apartment in two weeks a bit easier). And, then we got home a bit after 11pm, about 14 hours after leaving in the morning.
Anyway, that's it. Matt didn't wind up joining us as he was busy. You can see his blog for today's update on his news and what he's been busy with. Kathy also has news about student teaching next year, which she should put into her blog.
The story of a day trip to Normal:
Ellen and I decided to make it a whole day away today. We went to church, and afterward had a brunch/light lunch (omelets) before driving to Normal. We got down there plenty early, so hung out at Kalen and Kathy's apartment for a couple of hours, chatting with the girls and harassing Kalen while she watched two episodes of "Survivor" (episodes I'd seen, so I knew where all the best parts were to point out, and the episodes were awesome).
At 4:00, we picked up Ryan and headed out for an early dinner at a pizza place (a restaurant the girls could agree on, and had pre-picked). Very good deep pan pizza, at least the one Ryan and I shared, with a delicious flakey crust.
After dinner we dropped off Ryan and then the girls for their concert call (5:50pm call for a 7:00pm concert -- thus the early dinner). Ellen and I ran to do a couple errands, and then back for the concert.
Kalen and Kathy's group sang first, and in the second song Kathy had a special part in a double duet. Their songs were good. The group that followed them (the men's glee) was good. The men's a capella group that followed with one song was OK, though the arrangement wasn't the best and some of the parts got buried (they did "Papa was a Rolling Stone").
Then the night degenerated.
Next was a group of 12 that were doing some lesser known jazz and show songs. The arrangements here were even more of a mess, and much of both songs were garbled and lost. Then, intermission, after which was the never-ending mess of poetry and other writings set to "tone poem" music which turned out to be fairly atonal. There were four or five such pieces from different groups, all more-or-less in a row. Someone needs to pay attention to the program and get some variety in, especially as evening gets later. Finally, the last sone (at least before the Illinois State alma mater) was supposed to be a bit more "up" and mix in some percussion. Unfortunately, they didn't actually get percussionists. They just used people from other choral groups that weren't busy at that time. What they didn't get was anyone who could keep time. The girl who had the loudest instrument (like a cow bell, but two pitched bells) was totally off, and pretty much fouled up everything. It also didn't help that half-way through this mess the director decided to .... stop directing .. and stepped to the side of the chorus to listen. It was after this piece that I turned to Ellen and pulled out the quote in the title of this post.
So, I could have left the concert after about the first 15 minutes and enjoyed the night much more!
Anyway, after than we took the girls back to their apartment, loaded the car with some of their stuff (to make their moving out of the apartment in two weeks a bit easier). And, then we got home a bit after 11pm, about 14 hours after leaving in the morning.
Anyway, that's it. Matt didn't wind up joining us as he was busy. You can see his blog for today's update on his news and what he's been busy with. Kathy also has news about student teaching next year, which she should put into her blog.
posted by TT at
4/29/2007 11:56:00 PM
3 Comments:
The two pitched bells thing can be called by various names depending on the music, but I think the original is the gankogui from African Ewe Drumming. If anyone cares
By
emperorryno, at 4/30/2007 10:12 AM
Dad and I decided it was probably a good thing you didn't go because of this gal and her inability to have any rhythm. You probably would have gone on stage and grabbed the instrument from her and said "just stop". Then perhaps showed everyone how it should be done. It was really bad. I think the director just got fed up with no one paying any attention to her direction which is why she walked to the side of the stage and let them go on in obvious disarray.
By
Nurse Penguinladi, at 4/30/2007 11:30 AM
The piece was Brazillian, which made it all the worse, since it could have been really cool with proper percussion. Interesting to know that the instrument in question is fairly widespread.
By
Kalen, at 4/30/2007 11:34 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home