Being there is everything. Not just attending small venue concerts to hear musicians I’m enthralled with but making sure I’m pressed next to the stage.
I want to see what’s written on their faces, to witness the up-close interplay with their band mates, to judge how they play off the audience. I want to imagine how they feel as they peer into the bright lights and hear the adoring cheers. How much do they reveal of themselves, and how much is a mask of repetitive showmanship played out over and over from one city to the next? How much do they genuinely give besides music? Read More
Not fully grasping an intriguing story appeals to me. Take Lisa Barcy’s arresting animation and Andrew Bird‘s somber yet whimsical song “Lull” that accompanies it (click the image). The story instantly captured me. With each viewing, I see more in the drawings, hear more in the sounds, comprehend more meaning in this odd, fanciful tale.
I’ll be mulling it over for a long time, filling in gaps and creating a back story in my head. (Update: Turns out that the video is adapted from Barcy’s much longer Mermaid, which no doubt would fill in some of my gaps.) Read More
“I used to live on Prescott,” acclaimed singer and songwriter Josh Ritter tells me on the phone. I tell him I live nearby in Northeast Portland. We’re chatting like people who might have passed in the grocery aisle and nodded a hello but now are finally getting to know each other.
I’m trying not to come across as a blithering groupie but probably failing. It’s 10:30 Saturday night. I’m at home, and Josh — were buds now, right? — is in a parking lot outside a bar in Athens, Georgia, where he’s just performed. According to a reliable source (my daughter, Erin), Josh is sipping a drink and still sweat-drenched from another signature electric performance. For an hour he’s been greeting fans, posing for pictures, signing autographs, and doing a lot of hugging. And reveling in it. Read More
