Co-op anchors future development in Great Barrington (12/14/12)
Hands on a Hardbody in American Theatre
Photo: Brantley Gutierrez
The release of the economically titled Phish box set “Hampton/Winston-Salem ‘97” provided a chance to review the release by way of my memory banks of the original shows. Part review, part essay, full-on musing. It’s nice to have an excuse to write about Phish, which doesn’t happen very often nowadays.
“‘Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,’ Wordsworth wrote of the French Revolution. ‘But to be young was very heaven!’ Allow me to hyperbolically apply the same equation to the act of seeing Phish play at the Hampton Coliseum in 1997.”
I had the chance to just run with a sort of essay on Steely Dan by way of preparing the populace for their show at Tanglewood on Tuesday evening. Had the chance to quote some of my favorite Dan lyrics; I’m curious to hear what anyone may think of this. Just click on “Comments and Reactions” below.
“Fagen’s lyrics are frequently so dry, so cynical, so dense with in-jokes and references that hint at worlds of meaning while remaining curtly mysterious, that even hipsters can find this radio-ready mainstream behemoth to be irresistible.
In detail-rich lines dense with cultural signifiers—Dean and Deluca and Gramercy Park, a car phone in a Chrysler (in 1980), Cuervo Gold and “fine Columbian”—Fagen depicts a world of cocktail lounges and late-night ice cream parlors, romantic conquests that lead to malaise and romantic failures that inspire pride, white men possessing disposable income and a good dose of nihilism.
I had the chance to write about Marc Ribot’s solo-guitar score for Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid in today’s Boston Globe. He performs it tonight at good ‘ole MASS MoCA.
“I don’t want it to be heard as a concert. I want to disappear, which is what good film scoring does. If the effect is done perfectly, people will think they’re seeing what they’re, in fact, hearing. It’s a kind of alchemy.’’