culture triple feature
Mar. 27th, 2017 07:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
twoelevenlast week we went to two "classical" concerts, chamber music and orchestral music. bliss. dïe überblønde felt that was too much culture for one week, but she's a bit overwhelmed these days.
the chamber concert started with haydn's fire symphony, though i was disappointed to discover that it contained only artificial fire. it is very pretty tho, and we're going to get a copy. assuming we don't already have one; always a problem for people with lots of music.
we're also going to get a copy of larson's concertino for trombone and strings (opus 45), but we know we don't have that, since we'd never heard of him before. also, natalie mannix, the local principal trombonist, can play a mean trombone, and she has a few albums of her own. we may get those.
i wasn't feeling well, so we bailed at halftime. one of the other regular concert-goers did catch us on friday and say we missed a good performance of schubert's fifth symphony. fortunately, we do have a copy of that. not as good as live, but it'll do.
friday's orchestral music started with elgar's serenade in e-minor for string orchestra; that's another one to buy. that was followed by one of da falla's ballet suites, without the dancing, but with denyce graves singing mezzo-soprano. she's apparently famous with opera types, but i can't distinguish good opera singing from great opera singing. i don't have much desire to learn how, either.
the star of the show was beethoven's 7th symphony, which is just so damn upbeat and perky. it's like somebody slipped ol' ludwig some really good weed; his music is usually much more serious. maybe he was still on a popular music kick after the pastoral symphony. i gave the performance a standing ovation. the DSO is rarely that sharp, so i was pleased.
last week i saw logan. i agree with most of the common assessments: patrick stewart's acting is excellent, hugh jackman's isn't bad, and overall, the movie is the best x-men movie since one of the first two, way back when. (i tend to put deadpool in its own category, even tho it is technically an x-men movie.)
well, the plot is expendable. aging supers face new villains, fight battles, kill lots of people. lots and lots of people. it has its moments -- mostly scenes with patrick stewart -- but i wasn't as excited about it as the reviewers were. at least wolverine seems pretty dead at the end of the movie. i'm firmly of the opinion that too many superhero characters are run into the ground by a prolonged series of sequels, and letting them lie fallow for a while -- or dead, in this case -- is the best thing one can do with them.
while i understand there are plenty of people who can't get enough of wolverine, i thought adding wolverette (his daughter) and wolveroach (an evil-twin clone) was a bit much. daughter? ok, for motivational reasons. even then, a daughter with related-but-different superpowers would have been more interesting. the clone? superfluous.
the movie did meet the minimal ebert criterion and then some, but saying "best x-men movie since either the original or the first sequel" isn't much of a recommendation. see it if you're a wolverine fan, or a supers completist.
the chamber concert started with haydn's fire symphony, though i was disappointed to discover that it contained only artificial fire. it is very pretty tho, and we're going to get a copy. assuming we don't already have one; always a problem for people with lots of music.
we're also going to get a copy of larson's concertino for trombone and strings (opus 45), but we know we don't have that, since we'd never heard of him before. also, natalie mannix, the local principal trombonist, can play a mean trombone, and she has a few albums of her own. we may get those.
i wasn't feeling well, so we bailed at halftime. one of the other regular concert-goers did catch us on friday and say we missed a good performance of schubert's fifth symphony. fortunately, we do have a copy of that. not as good as live, but it'll do.
friday's orchestral music started with elgar's serenade in e-minor for string orchestra; that's another one to buy. that was followed by one of da falla's ballet suites, without the dancing, but with denyce graves singing mezzo-soprano. she's apparently famous with opera types, but i can't distinguish good opera singing from great opera singing. i don't have much desire to learn how, either.
the star of the show was beethoven's 7th symphony, which is just so damn upbeat and perky. it's like somebody slipped ol' ludwig some really good weed; his music is usually much more serious. maybe he was still on a popular music kick after the pastoral symphony. i gave the performance a standing ovation. the DSO is rarely that sharp, so i was pleased.
last week i saw logan. i agree with most of the common assessments: patrick stewart's acting is excellent, hugh jackman's isn't bad, and overall, the movie is the best x-men movie since one of the first two, way back when. (i tend to put deadpool in its own category, even tho it is technically an x-men movie.)
well, the plot is expendable. aging supers face new villains, fight battles, kill lots of people. lots and lots of people. it has its moments -- mostly scenes with patrick stewart -- but i wasn't as excited about it as the reviewers were. at least wolverine seems pretty dead at the end of the movie. i'm firmly of the opinion that too many superhero characters are run into the ground by a prolonged series of sequels, and letting them lie fallow for a while -- or dead, in this case -- is the best thing one can do with them.
while i understand there are plenty of people who can't get enough of wolverine, i thought adding wolverette (his daughter) and wolveroach (an evil-twin clone) was a bit much. daughter? ok, for motivational reasons. even then, a daughter with related-but-different superpowers would have been more interesting. the clone? superfluous.
the movie did meet the minimal ebert criterion and then some, but saying "best x-men movie since either the original or the first sequel" isn't much of a recommendation. see it if you're a wolverine fan, or a supers completist.