Not a Robot, But a Ghost
So I should write about Andrew Bird before I forget. At the risk of making some of you jealous,
My mind == BLOWN
I've heard his recorded stuff before, and I was a pretty big fan. But it does not even register in comparison to how amazing he is live. The venue, unusually, was Pickard Theater-- it was very much a sit-down performance, which (my preferences aside) is a brave choice with college students. It's not really dance music, though. The opening act was a guy on drums (among other things, including xylophone and synth) and another on saxophone, doing very intense recording-and-looping style music. I enjoyed it, but I talked to a lot of people who thought it was too busy, and they were probably right. There really was a lot going on, which made it difficult to decide what you should pay attention to.
Andrew Bird used recording and looping, too, but to a much clearer effect. He had a band (the two guys who opened were two of the three), but mostly for backup. He plays guitar and violin, has an excellent singing voice (even if the lyrics are often difficult to understand-- although I'm pretty sure it's more about the sound than the words), and is the most impressive whistler I have ever heard. (I got his new album, and I very very very highly recommend it.) There were a bunch of big red and gold gramophone-style bells on-stage; the two big stationary ones were probably some kind of reverb effect, but there was also a small double one (two bells facing away from each other) that he set spinning a few times, to get this awesome waaaAAAaaah-waaaAAAAaaah-waaaAAAaaah effect.
He started off on stage wearing a scarf and shoes, both of which came off early in the performance (I'm pretty sure I have the exact same pair of magenta and black striped socks). Um WAISTCOAT, which is all the fangirling I am going to restrain myself to. He's very fidgety and kept flinging his head back and twitching his legs. When he talked, it was kind of soft and shy and artsy and humorous. One of the songs (I think it might have been something about humanity in the future) he said he came up with while delerious with fever, which made me LOVE HIS BRAIN.
So in sum, if he ever plays anywhere within a 300-mile radius of where I am in the future, I am going to see him again and taking as many people as possible with me.
Speaking of brain-love, I have been thinking vaguely about how different dreams are from person to person. I mean, there are all kinds of dream-symbols which are supposed to be relatively universal, if you believe that (although I can't be the only person who has never had a flying dream). But at the same time, I always find it interesting to read cosmikumquat's posts because her dreams have a completely different style than mine, and I can usually say "I would never in a million years have dreamed that." ursulav... well, I dearly wish my dreams were as wacky as hers. And while liking Neil Gaiman as a person, I would be terrified to read about his dreams.
Classes are going surprisingly well, although I had to pull an all-nighter Monday-Tuesday and pretty much did not understand anything in Analysis the next morning, which was sad because we were defining new types of measures and I usually like that. Also, I was actually disappointed that Wethli didn't assign any homework for Drawing tomorrow... aka, I'm doomed. But in a good way. :}
My mind == BLOWN
I've heard his recorded stuff before, and I was a pretty big fan. But it does not even register in comparison to how amazing he is live. The venue, unusually, was Pickard Theater-- it was very much a sit-down performance, which (my preferences aside) is a brave choice with college students. It's not really dance music, though. The opening act was a guy on drums (among other things, including xylophone and synth) and another on saxophone, doing very intense recording-and-looping style music. I enjoyed it, but I talked to a lot of people who thought it was too busy, and they were probably right. There really was a lot going on, which made it difficult to decide what you should pay attention to.
Andrew Bird used recording and looping, too, but to a much clearer effect. He had a band (the two guys who opened were two of the three), but mostly for backup. He plays guitar and violin, has an excellent singing voice (even if the lyrics are often difficult to understand-- although I'm pretty sure it's more about the sound than the words), and is the most impressive whistler I have ever heard. (I got his new album, and I very very very highly recommend it.) There were a bunch of big red and gold gramophone-style bells on-stage; the two big stationary ones were probably some kind of reverb effect, but there was also a small double one (two bells facing away from each other) that he set spinning a few times, to get this awesome waaaAAAaaah-waaaAAAAaaah-waaaAAAaaah effect.
He started off on stage wearing a scarf and shoes, both of which came off early in the performance (I'm pretty sure I have the exact same pair of magenta and black striped socks). Um WAISTCOAT, which is all the fangirling I am going to restrain myself to. He's very fidgety and kept flinging his head back and twitching his legs. When he talked, it was kind of soft and shy and artsy and humorous. One of the songs (I think it might have been something about humanity in the future) he said he came up with while delerious with fever, which made me LOVE HIS BRAIN.
So in sum, if he ever plays anywhere within a 300-mile radius of where I am in the future, I am going to see him again and taking as many people as possible with me.
Speaking of brain-love, I have been thinking vaguely about how different dreams are from person to person. I mean, there are all kinds of dream-symbols which are supposed to be relatively universal, if you believe that (although I can't be the only person who has never had a flying dream). But at the same time, I always find it interesting to read cosmikumquat's posts because her dreams have a completely different style than mine, and I can usually say "I would never in a million years have dreamed that." ursulav... well, I dearly wish my dreams were as wacky as hers. And while liking Neil Gaiman as a person, I would be terrified to read about his dreams.
Classes are going surprisingly well, although I had to pull an all-nighter Monday-Tuesday and pretty much did not understand anything in Analysis the next morning, which was sad because we were defining new types of measures and I usually like that. Also, I was actually disappointed that Wethli didn't assign any homework for Drawing tomorrow... aka, I'm doomed. But in a good way. :}