First Plymouth

Last week I was in Lincoln, NE for a few days. It was the best of times and the worst of times. When I arrived the weather was beautiful, with temperatures in the upper fifties. I drove around quite a bit and took some pictures that do not do justice to the beauty of the plains (see photo album). But on Friday night and Saturday the weather turned, well nasty. The wind picked up at the same time the temperature dropped. Then came the ice and snow. The wind and the precipitation created the perfect situation to have my flight back to Atlanta cancelled, as well as those on Sunday. As one flight is cancelled, the next one fills up and it appeared I might not leave until Tuesday. With a bit of planning, I was able to fly out on Monday. But this extended stay gave me the opportunity to brave the bad weather and attend a service at First-Plymouth Church (http://www.firstplymouth.org/).

To see more my my photos of First Plymouth, click here:  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=101221&id=1510516273&l=2211a1f0f6.

First Plymouth is a magnificent building that was finished in 1931. Is architecture reflects early church designs and it integrates beautifully with the neighborhood in which it is located. The interior of the church is magnificent. It is one of the most beautiful I have seen, especially with the addition of the Lied organ. The organ is a large instrument that can be subtle and forceful, when needed. The church is not so large that a large reverberation causes the music to become muddy. The organ supports the Plymouth Brass and Choir quite nicely. The music alone is worth a visit to the church.

The interior of the church is predominately blue, gold, and walnut, which when combined, provides warmth without being ostentatious.

First Plymouth is a first-rate piece of American church architecture and worth seeing.

A New Take on an Old Tradition

“A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Lessons_and_Carols) was performed last evening at the Glenn Memorial Auditorium at Emory University.  It is based on the English tradition but contained many contemporary choral pieces.  The performance was by the Emory University Chorus and Emory Concert Choir, the latter being of some renown in the choral music world.  A brass quartet accompanied some of the pieces. 

I am very familiar with the traditional English version and was somewhat surprised by the introduction of the new works, but it is a University music department-sponsored event, so they probably feel some responsibility to recognize contemporary music.  I really liked “The Dream Isaiah Saw” by Glenn Rudolph.  It was spirited and rhythmic. 

The brass quartet had some major intonation problems, especially the French horn. 

The director was Eric Nelson, who is a professor, choral conductor, church musician, and composer who is director of choral studies at Emory.  He is a self described “passionate apologist for the choral craft and its importance in contemporary society.” It was a joy to watch him turn to the audience to conduct its choral pieces. He did it with obvious joy.

 

The chorus and choir were very good.  I was surprised how few people of color were in the ensembles, and in the audience, given the demographic makeup of Atlanta.  As has been said, the most segregated hour in the country is between 11:00am and 12:00 pm on Sunday.    

Spivey, dear Spivey

I attended a faculty recital last evening at Clayton State University, Morrow, Georgia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clayton_State_University).  The campus is beautiful- it is full of trees and has a nice pond with nicely landscaped roads throughout.  It bothers me, however, that the President of the University has to have his name listed as Dr. Thomas J. "Tim" Hynes, Jr.  Why the “Tim”.  I never have understood that who thing, but I digress. 

The recital was by Dr. Daniel Pyle.  By the way, I don’t get the whole “Dr.” thing either.  Why not a simple “Ph.D.”?  Mr. Pyle performed on the Albert Schweitzer Memorial Organ.  This is no box of whistles, but a wonderful full-throated organ that has some of the lowest notes I have ever felt.  The program included works by Bach, Reincken, Schumann, and Persichetti.   Mr. Pyle was kind enough to share a bit of musical history about the Bach and Reincken pieces.  The Persichetti piece was the outlier in the program.  He died in 1987 but not before having influence on his students, such as Philip Glass and Thelonius Monk.  I generally like modern composers, but the Sonata played seemed like random (loud) sounds that only an academic could love.  But all in all, it was a nice recital, and Pyle seemed up to the task, although there were occasions where he seemed to have some technical difficulties.  

The recital took place in Spivey Hall (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spivey_Hall).  A major feature of this small hall is the Organ which was installed by Fratelli Ruffatti of Italy.  The entrance to Spivey Hall reminds me of a Marriott Hotel lobby.  It has that fake Queen Anne appearance with mahogany furniture, tapestries, and brass chandeliers.  Not my taste- at least not this year.   The biggest disappointment to me was the design of the hall itself.  As can be seen in my photos (surreptitiously taken before the photo Nazis came) is an insipid Greek-revival, with trompe l’oeil  paintings on the organ.  While I am sure the benefactors had a lot to say about the design of the hall, it seems like a missed opportunity to design a small contemporary performing space.  Oh well, when I give millions to a university to build a vanity building in my name, I will make it so. 

Oh Charlie....

Every Monday, on one of the hi-def cable channels there is a marathon of the original “Charlie’s Angels” TV shows (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie's_Angels).  The show is mind numbing- much like a shot of novocaine directly to the brain.  But, I like to watch the show because being brain-dead every so often is enjoyable- at least to me, and as long as it is figurative. 

“Charlie’s Angels” cycles through the same actors as the bad guys every three or four episodes.  The music is usually some variation of late-1970’s wah-wah guitars with a disco beat.  It would quite a contest to decide who the worst actor of the three women would be, but my vote would be for Cheryl Ladd.  Whenever she tries to play “dumb” she invokes some variation of a southern accent.  Jaclyn Smith, to her credit, seems continually in a daze.  Kate Jackson was supposed to be the smart one and I guess she earns the title by default. 

The series was somewhat controversial in its time.  It was described as “T & A” or “Jiggle” TV.  These three actresses, and the other actresses who cycled through the show, were simply not built to jiggle or to cause one to focus on their collective Ts and As.  It was the late 1970s and the American public had not yet developed its fascination of having everyone grow to the size of an NFL linebacker.  These were petite women who would not have had a muffin top or camel toe because their stretchy clothing was way too tight.  Kate Jackson, in fact, may have had the tiniest waste I have ever seen on an adult woman.  She also had the shiniest hair, but HD shows that she needed to borrow Katy Perry’s Proactiv solution. 

The “Angels” usually never invoked physical violence, and use their savvy to catch the bad guy.  But there was one episode, the title of which escapes me, that maybe should receive special recognition.  The plot was the usual but it required that Kris (Cheryl Ladd) shoot the villain.  She did, as duty called, but she actually had a reaction to it.  She trembled and needed to be comforted by one of the other Angels because “it was her first time.”  This may be one of the few times on TV where someone seemed to feel remorse after shooting someone, even if it was a bad guy.  I liked that, and it was a moment that made sitting through the episode worthwhile. 

So I will, from time to time, shoot up with the mind-deadener that is “Charlie’s Angels.”  They are a beautiful trio caught in bad scripts- but they have nice hair and small waists.   

Redemption- bah! Humbug

“Skyline” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyline_(film)) is an alien invasion movie starring Eric Balfour AS Jarrod and Scottie Thompson as Elaine.  The movie received almost uniformly negative reviews, but I must differ.  It’s not the worst I have seen, and it is certainly better than any Jennifer Aniston movie.  I like the notion of an alien invasion movie that has no exposition to explain where they come from, or what their intentions are.  No one needs to explain that they come to kill and harvest as many of us as they can.  “Skyline” is certainly not original- it draws its inspiration from “Independence Day”, “Cloverfield”, “V”,   and the last (and worst) of the original “Alien” series.  The special effects are pretty good in “Skyline” and the creatures are frightening and disgusting.  I thought the film did a nice job of showing how totally confused and afraid we would become if these ugly-ass killing creatures descended upon us.  We would be powerless and most sources of information would be shut down.  We would be left to our own devices, which, I am afraid judging by the last election, are not all that great. 

There are things I didn’t like about the movie.  The first is that Balfour and Thompson have no chemistry.  She is supposed to be pregnant but the way the two characters relate to each other, the procreation must have been by way of artificial insemination.  The film also has Jarrod be something of a wimp.  The part of the movie that I liked least was the ending.  If the final ten minutes could have been eliminated and all humans were destroyed, I would have found it more satisfying than what the ending actually was.  Screen writers and directors seem to have a requirement that love has some great redemptive power and can survive through all kinds of adversity, including having your brain sucked out by some horrible looking creature machine.  Given the havoc that was being visited on human by the invaders, I think it would have been every person for themselves and love-be-damned.  Maybe that’s the cynic in me.  I also don’t understand why aliens would back off hurting its prey because she is pregnant.  Does that mean after the baby is allowed to be born; the aliens will then suck out its brain?  Sounds to me like conservatives who want to save the unborn at all cost, and then throw them to the wolves after they are born.  Well, when I write the next installment of “Skyline”, I will correct these problems. 

I did not feel that the 90 minutes spent watching “Skyline” was a total waste.  It was not nearly as bad as watching the president feign anger at republican shenanigans, when he is actually one of them!

Folk Music?

During a fit of insomnia, I watched one of the semi-annual PBS pitches for funding.  The hawking was wrapped around a retrospective show of the folk-music craze of the late 1950s and 60s.  It was hosted by John Sebastian.  The show was a fascinating look at a phenomenon that I remembered as reflecting and to some degree encouraging the peace and civil rights movements.  I was surprised to hear how bland the music was. Many of the songs had no edge or grit.  The performers often seemed smug and cute.  “If I had a Hammer”, sung by Trini Lopez was a great example of a fine song being trivialized.   In fact, some of it was just silly, e.g., “Don’t Let the Rain Fall Down, “and   “Tom Dooley.” To include these novelty songs with Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” in the same category does an injustice to some really good music. 

There were, however,  some notable exceptions to the white-bread nature of this music. One was “Kingston Town” by Harry Balafonte.  In the video of him performing the song, he was smooth and handsome and he had a wonderful smoky voice.  Another was Jesse Colin Young singing “Get Together,” which became an anthem for peace and brotherhood.  Young continues to have a great voice and passion to go with it.  There was a duet of Pete Seeger and Judy Collins singing “Turn! Turn! Turn!”  Seegar had written the melody for the song, the lyrics of which came from the biblical Ecclesiastes. Collins’ voice was pure and without the cold edge that had come to characterize her more mature voice.  However, this beautiful song was like easy listening music.  In contrast, Roger McGuinn reprised the Byrds’ rock-tinged, grittier version of the song. It was a wonderful contrast to the Collins-Seeger rendition and it was apparent that the Byrds had transformed the song’s lyricism with musical power. 

The most powerful portion of the show, however, was sung by, of all people, Bobby Darin.  This rat-pack-in-waiting singer had written one of the most potent lyrics for “A Simple Song of Freedom:”

Come and sing a simple song of freedom
Sing it like you've never sung before
Let it fill the air
Tell the people everywhere
We, the people here, don't want a war

Hey there, Mister Black Man can you hear me?
I don't want your diamonds or your game
I do want to be someone known to you as me
and I will bet my life you want the same

Come and sing a simple song of freedom
Sing it like you've never sung before
Let it fill the air
Tell the people everywhere
We, the people here, don't want a war

Seven hundred million are enlisted
Most of what you read, most of what you read, is made of lies
But speaking one to one, ain't it everybody's sun
To wake to in the morning when we rise?

Come and sing a simple song of freedom
Sing it like you've never sung, never sung, before
Let it fill the air
Tell the people everywhere
We, the people here, don't want a war

No doubt some folks enjoy doin' battle
Like presidents, prime ministers and kings
So let's all build them shelves so they can fight among themselves
and leave us be those who want to sing

Come and sing a simple song of freedom
Sing it like you've never, ever, sung before
Let it fill the air
Tell the people everywhere
We, the people here, don't want a war

Come and sing a simple song of freedom
Sing it like you've never, ever, sung before
Speaking one to one
Ain't it everybody's sun
To wake to in the morning when we rise
Speaking one to one
Ain't it everybody's sun
To wake to in the morning when we rise

This powerful paean to peace and freedom stills strikes home some 50 years later.  It surprised me that Darin, a wannabe Vegas entertainer, penned this and had the chutzpah to sing it on national television.  Go Bobby Darin!  I hope that it might be heard by Bush/ Obama, Kim Jong Il, Ahmajinedad, Netanyahu,  Bin Laden, the pope,  radical Christians and Muslims to name just a few of the tyrants and warmongers on the world stage today.  

The Next Three Days is not such a long time

“The Next Three Days”  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Next_Three_Days) is directed by Paul Haggis and stars Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks.  There are also appearances by Liam Neeson and  Olivia Wilde.  Having Banks and Wilde in the same movie provides for some great eye candy.  Crowe ,  on the other hand, is becoming a bigger star- literally. 

The movie was filmed in Pittsburgh and concerns a loving husbands attempt to rescue his unjustly imprisoned wife from life of incarceration.  The main part of the story involves Crowe’s meticulous planning for and implementation of a prison-break plan.  The plot is full of holes, and for the most part, stretches credibility.  But it does have some great qualities.  Did I mention Banks and Wilde?  But seriously, I was very troubled by the moral ambiguity of the story.  I have led a life seeing mostly gray, so moral ambiguity is an old friend.  But here, Crowe and Banks are nice people, but I didn’t know enough about them to like them.  So when Crowe develops his plan to rescue his wife, he is willing to take the lives of others (undesirables, yes, but people nonetheless) in an effort to recapture his wife and family.  After he killed the thugs, I found his situation less compelling.  In addition, I wondered how he ever thought that his family life could ever be untroubled in the future after what he had to go through in order to save it.  It’s like our foreign policy where we believe that the way to save another country is to destroy it.

There is one scene where Banks demonstrates her acting chops.  She is in an elevator after he recently sprung her from a civilian hospital.    She has a look of fear in her face when she looks at Crowe that is so believable and compelling.  I felt her terror.   Maybe to get into the mood she was contemplating what would happen if Crowe fell over on her. 

The soundtrack was quite good.  The music by Danny Elfman fit the grittiness of the film’s image.  There is one song, I believe by Moby, which has his trademarked sadness and gloom.  It was also fitting for the subject matter. 

It’s been about an hour since I saw the film.  I still feel anxious- so maybe the film was a success in spite of itself.