So I knew I was taking some time off this week. My mom’s in town, as are my aunt and uncle — a long-planned Montana Christmas — and I signed up for time off quite some time ago. But I didn’t realize I had the whole week off until I stopped by the [...]
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Six ninety an hour – Are they kidding? Who can live on that?Bah, humbug. Share on Facebook Advertisement It’s been awhile since I was last inspired to poetry by the news. But today, all that changed. Rocky shoots Rambo –Look out Tango, here comes Cash; Who will draw First Blood? Share on Facebook Quick, name two popular music styles that have absolutely nothing to do with each other, but which recently have developed an odd crossover audience ’round these parts. Hint: You’re as likely to hear one as the other blasting from the bowel-buster boomboxes in the backs of pickups cruising Higgins Avenue on summer weekends. Yep, I’m talking about rap and country. And finally, somebody has figured out how to put the two together, proving conclusively that there’s actually not much artistic distance between “Get Along Little Doggies” and “Who Let the Dogs Out.” [Read More...] I’ve written before about the vexing and exciting truism of music in this Internet age: With so many choices, there will never again be a band with the widespread mass appeal and familiarity of the Beatles. Our world is simply too fragmented now. This past week, one of the writers over at NewMusicBox conjectured that we actually do have a universal music still: Christmas tunes. It’s certainly an interesting theory to chew on for a moment; but I’m not entirely convinced. The Montana Lyric Opera is offering free tickets to its production of “Amahl and the Night Visitors” at MCT on Friday night. Yes, we’re talking about the same night as the Griz championship game. Obviously, the game presented an unfortunate and somewhat unforeseeable scheduling conflict for the opera company (of which I’m a board member). But if you feel like Tivo’ing the game and getting some bonus live culture action, just show up at the MCT box office on Friday and tell them you’re there for an “executive comp” ticket. That’s the password, but it’s no secret — tell your friends, tell your mom, tell your waiter or your parole officer! If you can pay something for the ticket, fine, but we’d much rather have butts in seats than bucks in our pockets, given the circumstance. I know that I’m biased about this company. But if you’ve read my stuff enough, you know that I have a tendency to be critical of even the things I love, or of the artistic products of my friends (a fact that has gotten me into hot water on occasion…). This production of “Amahl and the Night Visitors” is not perfect, and I won’t say it is. But honestly, I’ve not seen a better homegrown theatrical production in Missoula than this. I won’t place it above MCT’s recent “Jesus Christ Superstar,” but it’s on equal footing. Frankly, even as a supporter of the company, I was pretty shocked at how fine it was. What follows is an honest effort to be honest about what I witnessed at Thursday’s opening night…. Aside from producing a silly podcast for fun with a friend, and playing World of Warcraft with some other friends, my main extraprofessional pursuit these days is helping out a new opera company, the Montana Lyric Opera. I became an opera junkie during my days as a student at Indiana University, and I’ve long wished that Missoula could have its own professional opera company. Well, now we do; and the first production is coming up this weekend: “Amahl and the Night Visitors.” It’s a great opera for people who’ve never heard opera before: It’s short (only about 45 minutes), it’s in English, the music is very accessible, and it’s a great holiday treat. Indeed, in other parts of the country, performances of this opera are a celebrated annual holiday tradition; if this weekend’s performances succeed, hopefully a similar tradition will take root here. Dear dad, I’m sorry we missed talking on your birthday this year. Oh, I know, I was always bad about remembering which day was the big day anyway. I suppose we can laugh now about the years when I called, all full of birthday songs and well-wishes, a day early or late. I always knew it was either December 16th, or 17th, or 18th. Mom’s is the 17th of June, right? So yours was the 16th. I think. December birthdays are tough anyway; with the other holidays and celebrations stretching from Thanksgiving to New Year’s, sometimes things get lost in the shuffle. I do remember the day you died, quite vividly – even if, ridiculously enough, I’m not entirely sure of the date. I can perhaps be excused for that slip of memory, because by the time I found out you had passed away, it was the next day, and I was on the other side of the planet, sitting on a bus stuck in traffic in Shanghai, China. Did I find out the same day, or was it technically the next day? Whatever, dates are just dates. Experiences are probably more important to recall, or so I tell myself. The second installment of J&B’s Nightcap is posted up now. Once again, listener discretion is advised, mostly because the dang thing’s so long. But given this blast of cold air that hit this weekend, the discussion of cold-weather ailments is particularly apt…. Share on Facebook It was one of those legendary shows for which Jay’s Upstairs will always be remembered; indeed, it was a show that literally changed the place. In the late 1990s, few outside of
So when the band came to town for a gig with local bands the Helltones and Volumen, fans came out of the woodwork. |
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