VARIOUS ENTERTAINMENTS

Not much time for blogging these days.  Oh well…  Here’s another random update from a couple weeks of rather constant entertainment.

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1.  Jennifer and I saw the Kronos Quartet at Emory for $5 about nine days ago (thank you student ticket prices).  It was really quite strange – an avant garde string quartet is an interesting thing to see.  In general, when industrial or post-rock musicians start making a non-musical racket by banging on things and making static sounds for a few minutes, I tune out and/or shut off the music.  But when a group of classically trained musicians decide to perform “Armenia” by Einsturzende Neubauten (essentially three minutes of banging and grinding metal) in the middle of their set, one has to look at it in a very different way.  I must say, though I don’t enjoy it as music, such a thing performed live is actually a very interesting experience.  They also played an eclectic array of other songs – including one of Jim Thirlwell’s many many pieces of monotonous and dreary boredom, a Sigur Ros song, the tune from The Fountain (which they co-wrote with Mogwai), and several with Chinese pipa player Wu Man.  It was simultaneously a very hit or miss set (especially the Wu Man bits, of which there were far too many), and a wonderful performance.

Such is the effect of unpredictability in a sequence of otherwise not particularly good music.  Anyone who has a chance to see them (especially for the tiny amount that I paid) should take the chance.  It’s certainly an uncommon musical experience.

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2. Two nights ago, I went to see the Dan Tyminski Band (sort of a bluegrass supergroup – featuring the man who performed Man of Constant Sorrow for O Brother, Where Art Thou), also with Jennifer.  (In fact, we can pretty much assume she was there too from now on.)  That was also fun.  Although bluegrass is so restricted by its genre conventions that even its most ardent supporters have to admit that it eventually gets monotonous, about 90 minutes of it in live performance is a lot of fun.  All five of the guys onstage (with perhaps an exception for the bass player) were extremely talented, and their rapid picking on the solos was very amusing.  And, of course, the constantly depressing lyrics performed in an ultra-happy way was also nice.  (“He beat her up because she ran around / she shot him and they laid him in the ground / now there’s two kids without a home.”  All sung in a pretty trio.)  It’s fine stuff if you’re in the mood, and one could hardly do much better than this group of guys.  Dan has a nice voice, and the rest of the night is basically a stream of solos in which each person tries to outdo the previous one.  Fun.

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3. About three days ago we had the campus movie fest finale for our particular school.  Suffice to say, we did not win (although we were nominated for Best Picture).  The whole thing was an appalling experience.  If you’ve ever wanted to relive the experience of high school (a bunch of idiots with no taste using laughter as a popularity contest) – and really, who wants to do that – then feel free to attend one of these things.

It was nice to see our film on the screen, but everything else was a real struggle.  Crappy movies, crappy presenters, and an audience that found inexplicable ‘plot’ twists (rather than humor that was in any way motivated) to be the funniest things in the world.

Stay away from these things, I beg of you.

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4. Have been watching the second season of Torchwood.  We’re now six episodes in, and its actually far superior to the first season.  The characters have – gasp – character!  Honestly, Ianto is so far removed from his first season emptiness that he’s practically a completely new character.  (In fact, when they finally showed him playing doorman again in episode six, it did not sit well; he’s not that person anymore.)  And the same could be said for most of them.  Jack’s off the cuff, sex-obsessed one-liners are back.  Gwen, Tosh, and Owen – though thin, so far – are not any worse written than they were last season, and may even be slightly improved.  And even Martha Jones – that personality-free character who almost single handedly made Dr. Who season three unwatchable – is being used for positive ends (most of the time).  She came in during episode six, and her dullness actually allows the other characters to spit out more one-liners; she’s essentially playing straight man.  (And, let’s face it, that’s about all she’s capable of anyway; she is flat out one of the most terrible actresses on the planet to have achieved steady employment.)

So if you were worried that this season would be more “Cyberwoman” and bad movie remakes, fear not.  It’s actually been pretty solid so far.  (Don’t take that to mean ‘brilliant,’ however.  It’s just ‘good.’)

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5. In a few weeks I get to see Silver Mt. Zion perform in Atlanta.  I’m excited.

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6. Even sooner, They Might Be Giants will be playing here as well.

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Don’t ask me why there’s all of a sudden so much entertainment in Atlanta.  This was a dead zone for most of the last eighteen months.  Whatever the reasons, I’ve had a lot of fun these past couple weeks in between reading for classes and finishing up my thesis.

You wish you were me.