The Lord of the Rings On Stage

If you haven't heard me blabbering on about this for the past couple days, I figured you might as well hear me blabber on about it here.

The Lord of the Rings on stage. Beautiful, aren't they?

Regretably, they stopped touring in June of 2008, meaning they're not coming to the U.S., meaning in twenty years I'll have to bring it here.

The music has honestly changed my life... perhaps maybe in a small way, but still significantly, I think.





I sincerely love these two pieces. I hope you might find them valuable as well!
I'm off to Film class!
Isaac

Steven Sondheim

I have like five minutes to write this, but I just wanted to show you this (apparently really well-known) musical theatre composer: Steven Sondheim. Here's a few excerpts of his works:








"Music is the richest of the arts because it's the most abstract."

The man's a genius. He studied under The Mr. Hammerstein.

I'm just inspired.

And now I'm late for tap class.

When I Thought I Had Quite Forgotten Everything

This short clip brings to mind those dusty hours after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays that I spent on the cancha in the park outside of Binimea, scraping my knees and blocking soccer balls. We would sometimes make the people who were already using the cancha to play against us. Sometimes we'd win, and a lot of times we'd loose.

I can see it in my mind-- the cancha, the goal cages, stretching upwards to form basketball backboards with the rims ripped off. The dust. Everywhere. The wind, especially in May.

I think I need to go back.

This Post has no Sequential Train of Thought

On my walk home from University today, I decided to venture into one of the many thrift stores lining Broadway street. It was definitely against my better judgment, as I am, obviously, a poor college student who refuses to buy himself food. However, one look at this Schoenhut toy piano, I honestly couldn't help myself. I found out from the ever-knowledgeable store clerk that this thing goes back to the forties and quite possibly the thirtiest. This one's rare, because it still actually carries a tune. Such a beautiful piece. Resting oh so smugly on top is a Dr. Grabow pipe that I found for six dollars. I now need to find out how to actually go about smoking one.

My parents came in last weekend! It was such a good thing for me to see them again. They're amazing individuals, both of them. I spent the Saturday afternoon with them and my sisters. Such a good day.
I do look rather stretched. I should start eating more...

Music of the Near Future

I was reminded of this video again today. It's such a beautiful short story. I feel like I could watch it an infinite amount of times and still keep thinking up new concepts from the story that I hadn't caught before.

I just wanted to make a quick Woohoo for all the music coming out in the next couple of months. For starters, let's make a list:

Switchfoot- Vice Verses (September 27th)

Radical Face- The Family Tree, The Roots (October 4th)

Coldplay- Mylo Xyloto (October 24)

Yann Tiersen- Skyline (Autumn...?)

Sigur Ros- Inni (November)

And I'm hoping for a new Freelance Whales cd in the near future. Pleeeeeaaaase??
Any other new albums I should know about?

The thought just hit me: I don't know if it's appropriate or not, but our album will be released around about this time as well. Perhaps this is a sign that we are destined for epic greatness? Doubtful. At least our album will have a lot of company.

Jeremy Larson's Live DVD

They Reappear (Live at the Gillioz) Trailer - Jeremy Larson from Brook Linder on Vimeo.

One of my favorite artists Jeremy Larson will be publishing a live dvd of his performance at the Gillioz Theater from back in March. I, personally, drove twelve hours with my good buddy Ben Dunn to see this show, as it could never be performed anywhere else on earth, and Jeremy Larson is just one of those musicians you have to see at least once in your musical lifetime.

I'm pretty sure the filming and editing was all done by Brook Linder. i know nothing about this person except from what I can get from their videos on their vimeo page, which are sooooo incredibly shot and edited that all I can say is that she/he is definitely an artist worthy of taking on this project.

I'm just excited.
And it's Friday.

Hullo, Friday.

What Facebook Is / Does/ Isn't/ Doesn't

I signed into my blog so that I could write a post about how incredibly worn down I am from school. Then I realized that that topic was pretty much exhausted on my very first day of school, and no dead horse needs any such beating.
Instead, let's talk about Facebook.
No, I'm not going to play the whole game of "Omg, I h8 my facebook pg. i tink I mite duleet it." Those statements never go much farther than that (And believe me, I've been guilty of this). For all the amount of complaining facebook gets about how it dominates people's lives, and for all of the Omg'd threats of possibly deleting it, here it remains as one of the most influential parts of our lives.

Aldous Huxley predicted that in our time, something like this might happen. Communication being so easy, and entertainment being so readily available, some of us could hardly imagine a life without it. And some of us (me included) would wish for some time away from it, but can never get it, because we are, sadly, dominated by it. You might refute me. Okay, but just know that by refuting me, you are proving that you're reading this blog, which you probably found out about through facebook, as I posted a link on my Wall, which you saw as you were making your daily browse through facebook, right underneath the relationship status of that one girl you knew from highschool and never really talked to, and right above that youtube link of Mumford and Sons- Little Lion Man, from that guy who is always a bit behind the times and is quite unaware of it. So maybe this doesn't prove that we're dominated by facebook. But it does prove that it is, at least, a big part of our lives. And I'm not so sure if this is a good thing, or bad. I'm definitely not one to make that call.

What bothers me most about sites like facebook is how incredibly self-centered they can make us. Status updates--- usually about ourselves, and occasionally someone else. Yet all the while our heart jumps when somebody "Likes" it. Somebody read my status AND liked it??? Omg....

There are countless other examples that I really don't want to get into, because I'll make myself out to be some pompous pompy-pants who doesn't have much else to do but complain about facebook. Which I DO!

I also want to say that I'm sure there are up sides to facebook. Again, I'm MUCH to busy to go there.

In fact, I'm much to busy for anything and everything. Too, tooo busy...

And now I shall go check my facebook.