rustywalker42 said:Found this interesting little piece floating around on some random corner of Yahoo News:
What’s everyone thinking about this? Do you think the author hit the nail on the head, or am I just being a cynic? Are we looking at a decade or two where movies are basically just hollow shells designed solely to sell us on 3D gimmicks...
Hmm, looks like the author might be Arsen Oremovic and the original probably ran in the New York Post. Either way, it's a solid read, and honestly, I'm right there with him on every single point...🙂
Thomas Jackson64 said:Yeah, sure, we should just line up all those folks from the middle of nowhere who moved into your big metropolis and hang them in the main square. They’re clearly the ones responsible for wiping out your precious urban culture.
If you want to talk about what actually trashed our urban culture, look at the war... honestly, right in the heart of a city like Chicago, you can see it happening—people living on the tenth floor tossing their dinner scraps out the window for the stray dogs to scavenge. It's like they brought every single rural habit with them when they fled to the city just to stay alive. You have to admit, it's pretty damn hard for an urban vibe to take root when the people living in the center weren't raised with that mindset to begin with. And I already know the counter-argument I'm going to get—that even in peaceful times, people move from the countryside to the city—but there's a massive difference between moving for a job and fleeing into a metropolitan area at four in the morning through some field that, oh, coincidentally happens to be a former minefield...
The capacity at Madison Square Garden felt like it was slashed by at least two-thirds because they had seating set up right on the floor, and since the stage was angled toward the stands, one entire side of the arena stayed completely empty while the floor area was maybe thirty percent full... I honestly doubt the promoter did this just to squeeze out more profit, because there’s no way they made much money doing it that way, especially since tickets were actually cheaper than what you'd pay elsewhere in the States, costing about $36 compared to the usual $50 or so you see at other shows.
Just got back from Austin. It was definitely worth the trip, no doubt about it. To my surprise, Madison Square Garden—which is an all-seated venue—looked at least 80% full, or at least that’s how it felt to me since the stage was facing the main seating area and even the floor spots seemed mostly taken. Joan is incredibly soft-spoken, really great at connecting with the crowd; she practically chats with us between every single song, mostly sharing these pacifist messages, which ties into the setlist since she stuck mostly to those themes. She had two guitarists with her at times, and other times it was just pure solo acoustic... maybe she was being a bit too focused on the peace movement, I don't know, maybe it's just because of the venues here and how much that stuff moves her, but we missed out on some songs I know she usually plays. On the flip side, we did get a surprise rendition of Waitsov's The Day After Tomorrow, which isn't exactly her standard fare. She really won me over during Love is Just a Four Letter Word when she did this little vocal imitation of Dylan's 60s style 🙂 which a good chunk of the audience caught onto immediately. From what I can recall, she played Suzanne, and of course Diamonds and Rust and With God on Our Side... then wrapped everything up by singing Amazing Grace right along with the crowd.
I honestly can't figure out why I get this nagging feeling that we don't see nearly enough big concerts here in the States, mostly because so many people mistakenly assume they wouldn't be able to fill a room. If they had brought Baez to a place like Carnegie Hall and actually marketed it properly, I'm certain the place would have been packed.
I know, honestly, there’s just no point in putting on a concert for peace or refugees anymore, and as for a regular show, there’s zero chance they’ll actually get the invite 🙂
EDIT: stormyviper11, I’m assuming the tour isn't canceled, I think I saw somewhere that the commemoration isn't even for another week, or maybe I'm just wrong, anyway I'm heading out in about an hour... Anyway, I listen to plenty of music that my average acquaintance has never even heard of, but the truth is, Joan has absolutely shattered every record when it comes to that. Literally nobody who's ever asked me which concert I'm attending for her has ever heard of her 🙂. So your comment holds water. Still, though, I'd love to see at least Bruce Springsteen or Bob Dylan perform here in the States .
Maps are pricey but they're worth every cent, maybe around $60 (Bob Dylan, obviously)... you can find more details over on the Dylan thread 🙂
You should definitely catch Baez if she’s your favorite, since she doesn't just roll into Minneapolis whenever she feels like it, and I'd bet my life savings that The Rolling Stones will hit Washington, D.C. before we see her, Dylan, or Bruce Springsteen again...
EDIT: Since I'm already rambling about Dylan—not that it's really off-topic given how a Baez-like setlist always includes four or five Dylan tracks per show—anyway, urban travel agencies offer pretty decent deals for trips to New York City. Personally, when I tried to DIY my own trip, I ended up winding up in Germany...
I'm heading out to Minneapolis as a bit of a warm-up before seeing Bob Dylan in April, and honestly, maybe just some much-needed downtime after my mother's... 🙂
I used to listen to him quite a bit back in the day—well, maybe two or three years ago, if I’m being honest... there’s just something about his sound that gets under your skin and stays there, you know? It’s infectious. I think I might actually go dig through my collection and find some sort of Greatest Hits compilation to put on and just drift away for a while...
You’re missing a few heavy hitters on that list, specifically Bob Dylan and especially Richard Pryor. I mean, how can you leave out a guy like Pryor... someone who was basically fading away from illness, openly admitting he’d spent his entire life drowning in booze and drugs, only for God to step in with multiple sclerosis just to save his soul 😬, and still not consider him one of the coolest legends out there..
darksurfer26 said:The movie is honestly solid, but it doesn't quite hit the heights of Raya for me. Also, have you guys noticed how everyone is suddenly scrambling to cash in on biopic trends lately? I even heard they’re working on a film about Bob Dylan's life.
You mean a biopic?
If you're talking about I'm Not There, I wouldn't exactly call that a traditional biopic since they're having seven different actors play Dylan—including Cate Blanchett playing him during the 1970s era... someone is taking a massive gamble here, and there's a real chance they just end up making a total mess of it...
Richard Kelly said:I honestly can't think of a single decent song The Rolling Stones have put out in the last, what, twenty years? I just don't see why people even bother showing up to their shows anymore...
It’s all about those songs they wrote forty years ago...
Oh, I should probably mention—she’s under this impression that there’s just too much filling in the tooth, thinking it’ll somehow just... dissolve or balance itself out over time... but he told me straight up that while that might happen in some perfect little "theory," in the real world, we're talking a fifteen to twenty-year process that never actually settles things completely.
So, my dentist thought the easiest way out of this mess was just to pull the root tip, but then the specialist he sent me to basically brushed me off... she told him straight up she wouldn't even touch it unless the pain becomes absolutely unbearable or things start swelling up uncontrollably. My dentist—who’s actually a great guy, really knows his stuff—just rolled his eyes at that whole thing and suggested I head into NYC to find a second opinion, since there’s no point in getting stuck with her "wait and see" attitude when all he can offer is an extraction...
So, regarding those sessions for the Barrett solo stuff—since we’re already digging through the deep archives of Pink Floyd history—David Gilmour once mentioned that it was easily one of the most grueling jobs he ever had to deal with. Apparently, he had to record those Barrett tracks over and over again because Syd was constantly fixated on these abstract details, never quite satisfied with anything... it sounds like they were barely scraping by to finish the albums, and David was definitely losing his mind a little bit in the process.
When you start looking at how acid use can trigger schizophrenia, Barrett is obviously the face everyone associates with that tragedy, but there’s a whole list of others too... you've got Tom Hall, the drummer for The Elevator Boys, then Arthur Lee from Love, Peter Green during those early Fleetwood Mac days, and of course, the legendary Brian Jones. Even the singer from The Elevator Boys, Rocky Ericson, ended up in a psychiatric ward.
I have this one memory of a quote I read somewhere—I honestly can't recall where now—but I think it was Richard Wright saying that the rest of the Pink Floyd guys never even touched LSD themselves. It's a hard pill to swallow, though... just feels a bit unlikely if you ask me. 😉