The Great American Pastime

Its Baseball Season again. So although I missed the Fenway South Season opener (Red Sox vs Orioles @ Camden Yards) I did manage to see the ol Florida Marlins (eventually to become the Miami Marlins as everyone basically knows it should be) play at the new Washington Nationals Stadium for the first time.

Happily my old team won - that they are doing good is a miracle - maybe the sell off of players is finally to an end with the new manager and owners (Even I lost track of that).

But Its interesting in what they consider for new stadiums. The architecture is seriously uninspiring - supposedly taking the concrete and steel look of DC vs. the Neoclassical look they could have incorporated from the city's government buildings and made it different from all other stadiums. So it looks boring, the view is relatively blocked so you really cant see much beyond the Washington Monument or the far off National Cathedral. But at least it took one inspiring step and built it part way into the ground like Camden Yards was done. At least it doesn't stick out like a major sore thumb.

Eventually I will see its predecessor (RFK Stadium) go much like the good ol venerable Orange Bowl did a short time back (looking at the pictures of the demolition tears my heart out as I once lived within 5 blocks - saw many Dolphins games there and even The Boss, Journey, and the Police in concert there). I sure do hope they do something decent with the area of the new Nationals Stadium- and not just a bunch of chain stores. Otherwise it was good to see the Marlins winning again- a good 7-3 score, and some cool fireworks to country music? In D.C. ?


(My last view of the Orange Bowl, summer '07)

Music for the Eyes

One of the hidden Gems of this city is all the gala and special events that you can score tickets to once in a while for an amazingly inexpensive price.

Thus was the start of May when my good friend Stefanie calls me up at 6pm asking if I wanted to go to a Gala event at the Kennedy Center for the performing Arts at 8pm since they had a VERY last minute drop out. I knew that this involved The most Amazing living conductor of our time (IMHO) John Williams. So despite that I was down in Del-Ray, on my bike - did not stop me from saying no - I would get home, somehow fast enough to clean up, eat something and get to the Kennedy Center in time - and despite being well over 8-10 miles from home - by George I did it!

The event was the annual fund raiser for the Center itself - and the theme was THE ART OF FILM MUSIC and featured the films of David Lean (including personal favorites of Bridge Over the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia and my mom's favorite Dr. Zhivago) and the films of Steven Speilberg - of which was a treat since Williams has composed & directed soooo many of them, including JAWS, ET, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (which I remember seeing during a summer vacationing in Puerto Rico and was subtitled in Spanish as I remember seeing the original Batman that way also)

Anyway it was quite amazing to see Martin Scorsese, John Williams & Steven Spielberg in person - even if at a distance. Even more impressive was seeing Williams at work. It was probably as close to being *IN* the recording studio as possible when they record a piece for the movies.

Though I much rather have preferred "Belly of the Steel Beast" from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (that is the peice where Indy "battles" the WW1 era tank to save his father) - Williams chose the opening set piece of "Indy's Very First Adventure" (the opening sequence that gives good background to a young Indy played by River Phoenix).

Williams & Spielberg basically first showed the film without music, then - live with the National Symphonic Orchestra, Williams played to the film the corresponding music which (according to Spielberg) included over 45 music cues and other things I cant remember. Like I said - the closest to being in a recording studio with Williams. And although he played other pieces of Spielberg's films - he also did parts of ET's Finale, The complete Indy Close credits, a compilation from Hook, and so many in their performance and unheard of THREE (3) encores!

So needless to say - John Williams is rated #1 amongst my top modern composers/directors - not just for this - but he also gave me all the music for Star Wars (Main title, Imperial March & Duel of Fates in particular). Though I still give MAJOR props to Basil Polidorous for his Conan Soundtrack and Jerry Goldsmith for his 13th Warrior Soundtrack.

Running with the Horses

Wait - didn't we cover this subject before? Well never mind that (ok actually mind it if you wish - I don't mind) since this is the what is now becoming a tradition to enjoy the Gold Cup Affair whether its International of the Virginia version.



Luckily I went back on my winning streak taking home yet more of Dave's $2 Bills and a few of his specially procured presidential coins (John Adams & Thomas Jefferson). I did not realize that the coins will have a different president on each run that is minted (2 or 3 per year?) Kind of neat similar to the State quarters that the mint did. Question is - do guys really want a junk load of change jingling in their pockets? SO the Jury is still out whether we transition to those $1 coins .... I figure at some point the demand will be for those good old Jefferson $2 bills as the dollar gets weaker.

Hiking Season has begun!

A few interesting hikes over the last month or so with two of note that are rather different. The first one was a great new one out in Shenandoah National Park. The Meneka/Signal Knob Trail was a fun hike as the first of the year one. Not very picturesque or lots of water this is a nice forest trail with lots of ups and downs in a round loop for about 9 miles. This was a fun one since we had two shepherding dogs to keep all us humans in line.

The second hike is unusual from most of the others as it was an Urban Hike with portions that you could almost never tell you were in the middle of the city along Soapstone Valley and the Melvin Hazen Trail. Connected via Rock Creek Park it makes an interesting contrast with the forest and the trappings of our city - finding the oddball sewer access or the variety of buildings from expensive to cheap apartments spotted amongst the trees.

This hike definitely has sparked an interest in trails in the area of which there is more to come.

Tale of the Flying Cherry Blossom

Once there was a teeny tiny Cherry Blossom that wanted to fly. So it worked all winter long to bloom, waited patiently and silently through the cold through the snow and through the dark.

Then one spring day it was fed up - it wanted to fly. It pushed hard to free itself from its small prison with all its might until suddenly, it saw the light. It was free, and it saw it had many brothers and sisters. It was happy, but still it wanted to fly.

Then suddenly one sunny day the wind blew - it saw its chance and let go. Up it went - up, up in the sky - and it saw a glorious sight. not just many blossoms, but other bigger blossoms of all shapes, sizes and all colors and made of many things all over the sky.

And thus the Blossom was happy - but as the blossom flitted about through the great monuments it started to fall, slowly and gliding to the ground. Down it fell to the ground, a single blossom, one of millions, unnoticed, but happy.

(more pictures of Cherry Blossoms here and Kite Festival Here)

Re: Your Brains

Just A few notes on a great set of bands that I saw about a month ago: Paul and Storm who's set was :

Opening Band /Your Town /Count to Ten /Nugget Man /Easter Song /Mothers Day Song

“Commercial Break” / Nun Fight / Lullaby for your Vagina / Urinal Cakes
James Taylor on Fire / Randy Newman theme song for LOTR, Passion of the Christ (Go Hobbit Go & Go Jesus Go)
TMBG as the Ice Cream Man / The Captains’ Wife Lament (seamen everywhere!)


And then Jonathon Coulton was the main act. His songs as Paul and Storm's are found on their web sites (follow the links) as I cant explain them well - so listen to it yourself - they are hilarious! :

Future Soon / Ikea / Shop Vac / A Talk with George (Plimpton) / I’m your Moon (Pluto Song)
Baby Got Back (Cover) * / Soft Rocked By Me * / Code Monkey * / Chiron Beta Prime *
Creepy Doll * / I Feel Fantastic * / I Crush Everything * / Skullcrusher Mountain
Mandelbrot Set / Still Alive / You Ruined Everything /
Re: Your Brains

Encore: 1st of May (F*#$ Outside) * / Sweet Caroline (Cover) *

Check them out if possible

I Got the Fever!

Dengue Fever! yes its true - and I'm contagious! Well more like the band Dengue Fever (MySpace or Wiki) - not the disease. I got to go to thier show at the Black Cat almost a week ago with Exit Clov opening (though I missed Cordero's act ).

Exit Clov (who will be playing Austins SXSW festival soon), is definately a band to watch out for in the future - though thier sounds style is wide ranging and cohesive (which shows talent) it is too wide ranging to give them an identity. Lead singers (twin sisters of asian descent which I overheard fullfills 80% of the male populations 16-45 fantasies) are classically trained - violin & piano (translate synth). Using these tools and some good bass lines they put up songs that were melodic (the venue might have been too big for their sound - or maybe it was just drowned out in the rear where I was ), but others just poped out and worked the crowd well like MK ULTRA and DIY (Do It Yourself). Overall a neat little band that I want to give a second chance listen at a smaller venue - say ... March 22nd at IOTA in Arlington.......


But Dengue Fever was the real star of the show.

They are apparently getting rave reviews from Tapei from NPR and across to us here! Better described in others words (I can't do it justice) "vintage Cambodian pop, Western-influenced surf and psychedelic rock sounds".

Sounds complicated? Yes! And it also is FUN!! and very good!

I actually got into the gaggle near the stage , a rarity - but a well worth effort. Seeing lead singer Cchom Nimol in her cool silk Cambodian dress, and the rest of the band - gave it more energy, and you could enjoy the onstage antics of bassist Senon Williams and Lead Guitar Zac Holtzman (jumping up & down in sync as they played) even more. I even managed to grab the set list which was (with a few notes where possible):

• Hold my Hips
• Shave my Beard (cover of old Cambodian traditional song)
• N.Y.E.
• Tiger Phone Card (Fun
• Lost in Laos (lead Guitarist Zac made tha guitar sound like a sitar!)
• Sober Driver ( Sung by Zac w/ CChom, about a long distance relationship)
• Seeing Hands
• Clipped Wings
• Thanks A Lot
• Ah GoGo (Fun Cambodian Pop Song!)
• Pow Pow
• 1000 Tears
• Mr. Orange

Encore:

• SniBong CChom brought 2 people up on stage from the audience to do the songs with her)
• Glass of Wine
• I'm 16

Overall I am a fan of this group now. After the show I got to talk to Senon extensively about their current tour (I wish could remember in more detail), but as you can see by the set list - it wasnt a short show! So hopefully you'll get the fever also!