Wicked!

Wow, just listened to it again last night... I'm getting very excited to see it again, only 7 weeks to go! Some wonder what the fuss is about with this retelling of an old classic. Well, I'm here to tell you, it's not just hype. This show is all about substance.

Let's take the subject matter, to start with. While on the surface it seems to be a show about righting the story we all know and love from the Wicked Witch of the West's point of view, deeper listening shows us it's actually about much more. Such topics as: accepting people for who they are; learning from everyone, no matter their race, political views, status; asking whether we make people who they are by how we treat them; social and political oppression; right and wrong, and how our personal point of view is just that, not necessarily the truth.

One of the things that I find so entertaining about the show is the well-put-together lyrics. And it's funny, because when I first heard the show, some of that bothered me. But as I listened more, I caught more of the double-entendres and how witty the dialog and monologue often is.

A couple examples. The first is early in the show in the song The Wizard and I, sung by Elphaba. She sings about how she sees a vision of the future. In this vision she sees all of Oz celebrating because of her. Little does she know, that celebration is not because people love her, but quite the opposite. She continues in the song with such statements as, "I'd be so happy I could melt," a clear reference to The Wizard of Oz movie. Another line I love which shows Stephen Schwartz' brilliant writing is in Popular, maybe the most accessible of all the songs in the show. The song is all about how Glinda is helping Elphaba learn to become popular. In the song Glinda sings:

And with an assist from me, to be who you'll be, 

Instead of dreary who you were... well, are. 

There's nothing that can stop you,

From becoming popu-ler... -lar

Brilliant! Mixing familiar pronunciation of the word 'popular' (pop-yoo-ler instead of pop-yoo-lar) with the actual content of the show, and making it work... not every writer can do that.

I think one reason I love the show so much is because I know the story behind it, having read the book, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. I don't read a ton of novels, but this is one I've read twice. While I can't recommend it to everyone, due to some downright naughty parts, I do recommend it to any adult who is particularly interested in the show, and can look past the language and content in some parts. Don't get me wrong, the whole book isn't like that, but there are parts that are inappropriate, especially for young audiences.

Anyway, I love that Gregory Maguire created a completely alternative understanding of the classic story. It doesn't feel cliché, yet treats the whole story and adds twists we wouldn't expect too. Then, on top of that, the musical takes it a step further and adds additional tie-ins to bring the book and the movie even closer. Probably one of the funniest lines from the musical is when Boq, a Munchkin, brings a drink to Nessa, Elphaba's sister, while at a party. She asks what's in it, and he replies, "Lemons and melons and pears." "Oh my," Nessa exclaims! I don't want to give away too much, but the ruby slippers are dealt with too. Does anyone else find it odd that the iconic ruby slippers aren't ruby in the original 1900 novel? My guess is that because the movie was a landmark in color pictures, they wanted to spice it up. Any other ideas?

I love this show. The music, I haven't even mentioned. It is truly wonderful. Melodic, fun, fantastic chords, intense, intriguing, recurring themes. It's truly a musical for the ages, and is appropriate for all of them too :)

Only 49 days to go! If you couldn't tell I'm looking forward to it.

Music Monday - Foo Fighters

So, it's post-election, and all is well. So some say, anyway. I'm grateful to my wife for posting something she read about how we need to step up and support our president. Whether a supporter of Obama or not, he's our president; that's who we have chosen. Let's all get behind him and give him the support President Bush didn't receive, both from his opposing party and his own, particularly during his second term. I am a supporter of President Bush. Does he speak eloquently, as some presidents have? Not always. Does he have a strong spirit in the face of adversity? Absolutely.

Likewise, I fully support Barack Obama. I don't get as involved as I probably should politically, so I don't know Obama's background, aside from what the jaded media has told me. The media wants me to focus on history being made. Instead, I plan to focus on Barack being our 44th president, deserving of the same respect and admiration that all our presidents deserve. I look to the future with hope for a stronger, smarter, greater America.

So why the political ramble when my post is a musical commentary? Well, I'm quite curious to see what messages are going to come through popular music over the next four to eight years. There seems to be a whole lot of artists who do an awful lot of criticizing, but few providing suggestions. It comes back to the old saying, "Don't judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes." Can any of us honestly say we understand what the president goes through? Only 43 people in history can relate. So let's see where the music of the next decade will take us. I hope it can lift us, not tear down. Vocalize your feelings. That's what makes this country great. But do it respectfully.

Alright, enough. I really want to post about music here, since it is Music Monday. Last time around I spoke of Paul Gilbert. This time it's another of my top three favorites, the Foo Fighters. There are some bands that no matter which direction they go musically, I'm going with them. The Foo Fighters are just such a band for me. They are both feet on the line straight up the middle of what I like. From their hard driving rock anthems to their slow and mellow ballads, it just strikes the right chord with me. I really like stark dynamic shifts, when done properly, and these guys really hit this nail on the head.

Take for example their latest release, "Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace". The second track, Let It Die, is a great number that starts with a nice quiet guitar. This builds through the verse and fills out to the bridge, picking up instruments and momentum as it goes. But when the first chorus hits, it's like a shot in the arm. Full on wall of sound; my poor stereo isn't made to handle it. I have to balance everything to suck as much life from my tape-adapter-to-iPod setup as I can, to crank it as loud as possible, without distorting the sound too much. Fantastic.

I think one of the things I love so much about the Foo Fighters is their ability to write richly textured rock with strong melodies and harmonies, thought-provoking lyrics, a dose of class, with a wicked punch. As my "Songs I Wish I Had Written" indicates, Everlong is probably my all time favorite song. Hard to tie it down to a single top song, but boy is that song an emotional one for me. It's an adrenaline rush with a vision. That song more than any other makes me want to perform on stage (a big one), something I'll likely never do, but sure wish I could. No matter how many times I've listened to that song, it never gets old. Some songs are like that.

Other noteworthy works from the Foo Fighters: "One By One", which I believe to be their heaviest album to date; "Skin and Bones", in either DVD or CD form, showcases the Foo Fighters live with several other band members, playing a much more orchestrated sounding set; "In Your Honor", a double-disc offering which has a disc of heavy tunes and a disc of mellow tunes (including a duet with Norah Jones called Virginia Moon); any B-Sides you can find, because they seem to do great covers pretty much every time out.

If you like well-crafted, powerful, melodic hard rock, the Foo Fighters have something for you. But they are mature enough to dish out some mellow tunes to keep it interesting. If you haven't given them a fair chance, it's time you do. My recommendations for first time listeners, start with "The Colour and the Shape". It's dated based on it's release date, but I believe it to be the most listenable Foos album particularly for new listeners. Next, I'd probably go to their latest, "Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace", which I'd say is the most well rounded musically of all their albums. From there, if you like what you've heard, pick and choose. "There Is Nothing Left to Lose", their third showcases the band as a three-piece, before they hooked up with Chris Shifflet (guitar) and has moments raw and unbridled such as the opening cut, Stacked Actors, but moves to the commercialism of Learn to Fly, one of their most well-known songs.

Learn to Fly brings up another point I haven't made. As with Paul Gilbert, the Foo Fighters are not afraid to let humor into their music. However, it's not usually as blatant as it is with Gilbert. Lyrically, there's some humor in some of their songs, but most of the time it comes out in their attitudes. Their videos often show this, and Learn to Fly is a great example (it features Dave Grohl in at least five roles, I'm trying to think if there are more, and Taylor Hawkins and Nate Mendel in at least a three roles each also). If you're a fan of Led Zeppelin, or have ever even heard Stairway to Heaven, search for Foo Fighters Stairway to Heaven on YouTube. They performed as a two-piece (yes, just two, Dave and Taylor) and it's one of the funniest, yet impressive, performances I've seen in a long time.

Well, it's getting late, my wife is telling me I need to hang it up for tonight. Hope this has been useful for someone.

I've Been Tagged

So my wife tagged me, it's taken a bit to post this because it's about six quirks. Well, I consider myself pretty quirky, but for some reason, I'm having trouble figuring out which six things are quirks, instead of which things just make me weird :)

1. I always lock the doors to my car. You might say that's not so weird. Well, it is when it's summer and all your windows are down, but you lock the doors, and ask others to do so as well. It's a habit I'm glad I'm in, though, even if it comes across as odd.
2. I'm a Mac user. In most things in my life, I'm all about low cost mainstream. But for some reason, the feel of a single button on my mouse (yes, I'm an old school Mac user), Quartz on my screen, and BSD under the hood make it worth the "price" of admission. I'm a Windows user too, but only because most of corporate America is blind and seems to think less money up front is better than less money over time. I'm still computing on my 9-year-old G4 AGP ("Sawtooth") tower at home (though I did just upgrade the hard drive and RAM a month ago), and my PowerBook is now four-and-a-half years old.
3. I like nearly all my food au naturel. I don't do salad dressing, butter hardly anything, like my veggies steamed or raw, etc. It's a healthier lifestyle, though my caloric intake negates most, if not all that. Still working on controlling the intake.
4. I'm extremely particular when it comes to color schemes, specifically with websites. I'll see two completely unrelated things together, and think how I like those colors together and want to find a use for that color scheme on a website. It could be a magazine page laying on some packaging on my desk, or a box next to a shirt. Sometimes it just starts with one really cool color, and I have to find the "match" for it. Somehow this obsession doesn't translate to my fashion sense, however.
5. Odd numbers. No evens for me. If I have a choice between two numbers and one's odd, one's even, the odd will win. This one is interesting to me, because it's changed over the course of my life. I used to be nothing but evens, now I'm all about the odds.
6. My music collection. Okay, I have a very large music collection (CDs particularly) and I'm very specific when it comes to my collection. Everything is alphabetized by artist, in the case of artist names, it's last name then first. Within the artist, albums are organized by release date, not title. As a result, my iTunes library is also extremely organized, and EVERYTHING has the proper tags. It drives me crazy to see some people's collection of MP3s where the only way to tell what the song is is by looking at the name of the file. I'm also quite opinionated when it comes to music, as any of my family and friends (or at least they used to be until I hounded them about some musical topic incessantly) will tell you. The positive aspect of that, though, is that I'm quite well-rounded in my musical taste, and know a fair amount of history about many of the artists I follow.

So I started writing this post a long time ago, not sure why I never bothered to finish it, except because I had a hard time coming up with six quirks. I asked people around me and one told me that being a Mac user isn't quirky. However, since it's taken me so long to write this post and I had a tough enough time coming up with these six things, I'm going to leave it alone, and move on with my bloggable life.

Music Monday - Paul Gilbert

So it's Music Monday, not likely to become a weekly installment, but I like alliteration and it seems to be a hit in the blogosphere. Recently I wrote about "both sides" albums, and I came across another I failed to mention, thought I'd give the shout out it deserves. Most people aren't of the listening ear I am, so I don't expect a lot to find interest in this. But to those who appreciate great guitar and entertaining lyrics, while being wrapped around melody-rich power pop-style rock, Paul Gilbert is a must listen.

Paul has been part of various acts, the biggest of which has probably been Mr. Big. They did that song "To Be With You" in the 90s, though I almost hate to mention that, as it's not really representative of their work in general. The song does, however, showcase Paul's writing, as he wrote that song and still performs it now, with artful adaptations and refreshed rhythms.

His first album, King of Clubs, is such a joy to listen to. After playing with Mr. Big for a few years, he had some solo work that needed a venue, and this is definitely it. My favorites on the album are Vinyl (love the drums at the beginning, which Paul laid down himself, from what I remember reading), I'm Just in Love (a great display of power pop rock with a fantastic classically-inspired guitar solo), Bumblebee (straight-forward power pop with a serious punch), and Streetlights (has one of the best solos I've ever heard). Paul's now gone on to do many other solo albums, all of which have their merits.

And I have to make mention of one of the funniest things he's recorded. I love humor in music. Both lyrical, as well as musical. Some artists take things way too seriously; not Paul. He's pretty much the antithesis of taking himself too seriously. Well, I'm the church-going type, so I'm certainly not promoting Beelzebub here, but from his album Burning Organ, the song "I Am Satan" starts with a classic that I can't believe I never heard before.  He starts the song by counting off, 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 6 - 6. The song is very tongue-in-cheek, but makes me laugh.

So, if you're looking for some fun new music, and don't want to take it too seriously, check Paul out. He even maintains his own website, which, if he wasn't, would be a wreck of an online presence. But considering that he's not a web designer, we'll let him off the hook :)

Slight Change in Direction

So, I've decided that I don't like the "negative" sound of my posts here, so I'm going to try and branch out a bit more and do more than just Apple-speak. I particularly like music, so that will likely make a heavy showing, starting with this post.

I listen to a lot of music; some would argue too much. But there are very few things that can affect me the same way music does. It makes me laugh, cry, happy, sad (but in a good way–I'll explain later), gets me pumped up, calms me down, and generally speaking has a major emotional impact on my life.

Genres I particularly enjoy include:

Hard Rock - Foo Fighters, Van Halen

Power Pop - Jellyfish, Fountains of Wayne

Punk Pop - Houston Calls, All-American Rejects

Progressive Rock - Liquid Tension Experiment, Rush

Jazz - Miles Davis, Diana Krall

Musicals - Wicked, Into the Woods, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Alternative Rock - Dishwalla, Switchfoot

... just to name a few, and some of my favorites in the genre.

There's not a whole lot of music I won't listen to, but I will admit that R&B isn't my favorite. I'm pretty specific when it comes to that. Same with country.

So this week I was "reunited" with an old favorite album. You know the kind of album you listen to and you just can't put it away. It might be in the CD player for 2-3 weeks straight. There's not too many like that, but there are some. This one was a relatively unknown band (sometimes they can be the best) Ednaswap. They've long since broken up, but Wonderland Park was their last effort, and I'm ashamed to say I don't know their other albums. Need to pick those up one of these days. But this album is truly a great example of the creative music of the 90s. My favorite tracks on the album are Without Within, 74 Willow, and Liquid Soul. Anne's voice is so strong; love the gut-wrenching vocals, and the combination of the great guitars with the keys is one of my favorites sounds.

The first album I remember ever being so good I couldn't "put it away" was Van Halen's 5150; a true classic. I have a special designation for those kinds of albums. It doesn't apply so well these days, but I grew up in the 80s and cassette tapes were very important. Well, these special albums would make it on both sides of a tape, so I didn't have to rewind, just flip it over and start again. Other albums I classify in this distinguished category are The Colour and the Shape - Foo Fighters, American Idiot - Green Day, Redhead - Bleu, Bellybutton - Jellyfish, Superunknown - Soundgarden. There are others that probably deserve the designation, but those are the ones that really "lived" in my car stereo for weeks on end.

Well, enough's enough. Better close this post and get going on my day. I'm sure it will be filled with some wonderful musical creation. One of these days I need to create some music of my own...