Danceable LOTR

I'm spending way too much time online. But this is fun.

Music

You've got to listen to Chris' new songs, especially tracks 3 and 4.  And you should also listen to his older songs, especially tracks 5, 7, and 8.  Oh, and 2 and 9.  And the others.  Niels is taking a hiatus from performing and their post-Tucker drummer went on a mission, so Chris is doing solo recording with his early-graduation present Mac Notebook.  He needs a better mic and some new software I guess.  His effects pedal that John ordered  for Christmas still hasn't arrived.

The other day we were having one of our talks about what's good musically and listening to each other's YouTube suggestions, and he said that the truly immortal rock bands are The Clash, U2, Cold Play, The Killers (the lead singer, Brandon Flowers, was originally from Nephi and is sort of a Mormon)--ah, now I'm forgetting which ones he said are immortal and which are his favorite newer bands (also, he would probably choose different songs).  The Black Keys.  Provo's own Neon Trees (whose drummer once dated our friend Spencer).  He also had me listen to Billy Idol and Freddie Mercury for style ("nobody nowadays has it like they did in the 80's").  I showed him David Bowie and Mick Jagger (he thinks both and the Beatles are overrated.  He said he likes McCartney better than Lennon, and he doesn't much like hippie music).

Then we listened to Nina Simone (this song has been co-opted and corrupted for a WeightWatchers ad, but the original is sensational).  Chris groaned in appreciation, and laughed, when that old bluesy trombone kicked in.  Another fun one of hers is Pirate Jenny from Brecht's Threepenny Opera (so interesting the transition from Germany in the 30's to the American South in 1962), which song of course Chris had heard before.  Sometimes I think he knows all the music ever.

He says, all I ever want to do is make songs, and  I've had only 100 hits on my songs that I posted two weeks ago.  Marketing? I say.  But I don't know either.  I guess we all need a day job.

SLC and Temple Square

We went to SLC yesterday to hear the Timpview choir sing at the Joseph Smith Building and then in the Assembly Hall. John and Amy and I parked at Betsy's and walked downtown. That's the fun thing about B&B's house.

Notice the choir lining the balconies:

Chris was just left of Mr. Larsen:

Ethan liked the Christmas tree in the JSB:

We had dinner at an extremely crowded Crown Burger on North Temple. Nicolle, Colette, and Johnathan came too, but I forgot to take pictures. We walked back up the hill to warm up in Betsy's house. Alice warmed up Chris in his A Cappella tux:

Grandpa and Ethan play with Brett's Ferrari.

Amy and Betsy are silly. Less than two months until Ellie makes her advent!

Chris' Christmas Concert

We went with the grandparents to Chris' acappella concert this Thursday. It was fun to hear them--especially the Halleluia Chorus with all the choir alumni. I tried to upload it, but it must be too long for blogspot. After the concert we went to the Creamery for BYU ice cream. Yum. I was nostalgic for when we went to Ruby Begonia's for ice cream in the Woodlands after Dave's 5th grade Christmas band concert, and the girls' Nutcracker. How far back would that be? 20+ years. A lot of concerts and ice cream since then.

Las Vegas

John and I didn't find an open flight to Las Vegas for his conference, so we drove--it was a lot of fun to be together and only took a couple of hours more than flying would have. Or less. He was presenting with Stacy and Cat (above, on the right) on using writing in wilderness experiences. They did a good job, if trying to give too much information in a one hour forum. I liked the whole conference, which was full of skinny, weathered 'experiential educators' from the US and Canada--and I guess from other places too--John met a woman from El Salvadore--who talked about sustainability and environmental ethics. It sort of overlapped teaching, therapy, and wilderness.

Joe B's daughter Zina was there too, with a friend from Wasatch Academy. We went out to eat and wandered around a bit--below, the waterfall inside the Venetian.

Cat took a photo of John and me in front of the waterfall at the Wynn:

Here's a picture specifically for Brett (and Ethan):

My favorite of the hotel/casinos is the Venetian, with its fake sky and fake canals:

The next night after everybody else had gone home, we walked two miles south along the Strip and had the Caesar's Palace buffet:

We saw the water show at the Bellagio, and their gorgeous botanical exhibit inside, and saw the volcano erupt at the Mirage, and caught the end of the pirate show at Treasure Island, which has inexplicably changed its name (like KFC) to "TI."

But outside our window, abandoned construction, great dead hulks of darkness at night:

Yesterday before we headed back home we had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory with Jordan from England 2007. It was great to see him, even though we missed Rose.

Las Vegas is just incredibly, deliberately tacky. White trash on steroids. It’s so offensive that it’s beyond comprehension—I’m stunned into silence. The polished bronze backsides of 8 or 10 dancing girls outside the front door of our hotel/casino, and people taking photos (usually of the women in their party) posing with them, for example. Why, as a woman, would you want to pose with a bunch of ladies’ butts? Is it funny or what? But I was strongly tempted to take a photo of them too, it was so obviously meant to be photographed. My feeling as an American or Westerner around the foreign tourists, is like having a dirty-minded, rich, half-drunk, out-of-control elderly relative present at a reception. “Oh my gosh, somebody put Aunt LV in the bedroom before she insults the Prime Minister. Not the bedroom where the grandkids are sleeping!” (because who knows what she’d do to them). On the other hand, the foreign tourists wouldn’t be in Las Vegas if they weren’t hoping to see her do something crazy.

There’s a lot of construction just north of the Riviera and across the street—gigantic buildings in various stages, but with no one working on them. The cranes are idle and nobody is around. It’s kind of creepy. There’s a place like that on State Street in Orem, where the exposed beams, half covered with tattered wallboard, whistle in the wind. (More or less). Ah the elections. (The end of a lightning swift neuronal pathway: stopped construction > bad economy > Wall Street sharks > Dems and Repubs both in their pockets > elect anybody it will be the same.) Do I really believe that? I voted (Democratic) this Tuesday, for Dems who in Utah County would have been indistinguishable from the Republicans. Not that a Democrat would ever win in Utah County.

To end on a happier note: Chris has loaded his entire CD "Fire in a Snowstorm" online, here. Sweet.

Chris' Fall Choir Concert

I made it to Chris' THS Acappella Choir concert on Thursday after work. He of course didn't tell me about it until late the night before, so we couldn't invite Grandma and Grandpa, and John was still feverish with his sinus infection, so he didn't go. I guess choral singing is not his favorite type of music, but I certainly enjoy hearing them perform.

Here are a couple of short clips for your listening pleasure. Well, the sound doesn't come through too well on my camera's microphone, but you get the idea.

News of the (whoops! past two) Week(s)

We were all set last weekend to spend a night at the sand dunes in west Juab County, but reports of freezing nights scared us off, despite John pish-poshing our pampered city-ness. So instead we met up in SLC for the afternoon before Chris' All-State Choir concert at the tabernacle. Rob, Betsy, Ethan, and Amy came with us to Temple Square and surrounds to look at the flowers and the new construction at City Creek. In the end the flowers were a bit scanty, having just been pulled up for the spring bulbs to be set (I presume), but the visit was still fun.

We spent some time in the two visitors' centers. When Betsy asked Ethan who this person was, he shouted, "JeeJee!"

John was very civilized and appropriate...

..until the urge for a nap overwhelmed him...

...below, in the most public spot in Salt Lake. "Would you lie down on the steps of St. Peter's Cathedral in the Vatican?" I said to him. "Or on the floor of the Taj Mahal? This is just the same." He is shameless.

It was fun to spend time with the kids.

I think maybe my pretty new blue and teal scarf was not quite as cool as I thought it was. No, the scarf is OK, it was the rest of me. Sigh.

Betsy, Ethan, and Snoopy. Snoopy has his own sign. Ethan talks and talks, orally and with his hands (ASL). Maybe we'll learn sign as he does.

Ethan and Auntie Amy:

Rob at one of the new fountains next to Deseret Book at the new City Creek development. While there we saw John's new book (one of a collection of essays on Fathers).

Betsy, Amy, Rob, and Ethan skipped out on the concert, but that was OK because we got to sit by Liz and Alan
and Tana and J.Lynn. In fact we ate dinner before the concert at the nearby JBs with Tana, J.Lynn, and Shane, who was also singing.

They wouldn't let us take photos during the concert, so this one was taken beforehand, and about a third of the choir is missing. J.Lynn took pictures and video during the afternoon practice session, however. Here is a video of part of one of their songs. Pretty impressive!

J.Lynn took this photo of Chris. Liz and Alan's Frost is bottom right.

We did our writing group the next day at Charlotte England's cabin. I took my camera but forgot to take photos. We have been participating in the writing group for twenty years now.

This week was my first chance to swim since surgery (since a long while before that, actually. A side effect of endometrial cancer is that you're not so comfortable swimming). Anyway, it was great! I don't know why the pool is so underused in the evening, but there have only been four or five other people in the pool whenever we've gone. I think it has helped get me off my metabolic plateau. I've now lost 41 lbs. Even though my blood sugar is still above normal, it's much better than it was right after surgery. We'll see how it progresses. My blood pressure is usually between 110-125/70-80. I went to visit mom and dad at the farm on Friday and all we talked about was medical stuff. I am now officially Old.

Several of us, including Sergene, went to see RED on Saturday. Extremely silly. I've still got a crush on Bruce Willis though. Then John, Sergene, and I went to see The Magic Flute at BYU. Here for your listening pleasure, is the Queen of the Night.

Dancing!

I was reading Dooce today (I admit it, while procrastinating a psych eval), and came across this video. I totally agree with what she said:

If reincarnation is true, I want more than anything the ability to dance when I come back as another being. I don't care if I'm a frog or a piranha or a rock inside a cave. LET ME BE ABLE TO SAMBA! I could watch people dancing for hours. Forever, maybe. And when it's done right I get goosebumps and start to cry and feel like calling my mom to gush about the beauty of the earth because I know she won't go twitter about what a nitwit I am.

(plenty of Internet strangers already have that job covered)

I saw this on Kottke today and have watched it several times. And then I got goosebumps so badly that I had to go put on a coat. Maybe I'm being dramatic, but I am so envious of people with this talent.

Just, DAMN!

(also, seeing Patrick Swayze doesn't help the tears)

PS: Technical idiot that I am, I don't know why my blog format cuts off the right side of the video. You might want to click through to youtube to watch it.

Rob and Conn at the Water Gardens

Yesterday John and I went to the Central Utah Gardens (on U. Parkway in Orem) to see Rob and Conn play and sing some jazz. I love the gardens anyway, and find new plants to put in our garden all the time when we visit. It was even more fun to listen to them play.

Below is one of Rob's solos.

Colette's Third 5th Birthday Party

Nicolle and the babes came back from Ft. Worth, after a huge amount of trouble trying to get on standby. But we were glad! We drove up with the bunk beds to trade for the queen-size for A&J, and had a PARTY (Colette's 3rd birthday party of the year, according to Nicolle). That's just the way we do it.

And here's Colette singing a song (to a music video on Nicolle's iPod--I'm not exactly sure what song it is).



By the way, both Chris' and Brett's CD's are now in the mastering phase. I will put up any links as soon as I get them. Chris played us an acoustic song from his CD that he feels like is finished, and it's beautiful.

A Brief Music Bonus

...from Chris' spring choir concert:


He has had a few more shows with his band, Red and the Rovers (here on facebook and myspace, and his individual myspace spot for acoustic and techno), but I haven't been able to make it to his shows to get pix.

Muse at the E Center

First song (above)--can you see Matt Bellamy's cool glasses and silver lame jacket? Below, on the piano.







The crowd:


So for Christmas last year I gave Chris a monthly date, but I told him he couldn't just eat out at Panda Express all the time when it was his night to cook, we have to think of other fun things to do like concerts and movies. So he said, "I want to go to the Muse concert in April!" So we bought like the last tickets before the concert sold out, along with his friends Niels and Lydia, and we went last night. Great fun, even though I forgot to take cash for parking. We were early enough that we found an ATM and were back in time for the opening act.

Great stadium rock--lasers, balloons, rotating and elevating stage pieces. Matt Bellamy on guitar, keytar, piano, and bullhorn. A perfect mix of old and new songs.

Dulce Sky

Brett's band, Dulce Sky, has a new release.

THS Acappella Choir

Chris sings 1st tenor (he's wearing glasses, third row from the top):

Chris Sings

THS had its third-term concert tonight, and Chris sang with the Acappella Choir.

Your Weekly Dose of Art History

70 Million by Hold Your Horses ! from L'Ogre on Vimeo.

Hey I thought this was sweet and funny*. By way of Andrew Sullivan.

*but be aware that art history includes some (very mild) nudity

More R&R*

Chris and crew did the battle of the bands again at Timpview. They did Led Zeppelin Good Times Bad Times and a medley of two of their own songs. It was fun to watch/hear them for myself. A very low-key crowd though.

After seeing their show at Muse Music last week, Brett took one of Chris' guitars and rebuilt it for him. What a sweetie. We went north to pick up the guitar last night, and C is very excited about it.

I said to Chris how lucky he is to be able to hear and see all the old rocking greats on YouTube and iTunes rather than having to buy music one scratchy vinyl album at a time, and of course he said he'd rather do it the old way. "It was more real then," he said. He's always been nostalgic.

*Rock & roll Red & the Rovers rest & relaxation

Red and the Rovers at Muse Music tonight

They had a good crowd:
Niels:
I think this photo is cool (by Betsy):

I tended Ethan while B&B went with John. Betsy took the pix and video. It's impossible to get the sound, of course. Betsy said she thought they did a great job, and she kept having weird nostalgic flashbacks to when Chris was a little boy.