U2 2018 Experience + Innocence Tour

Rolling Stone October 5, 2017

I seemed to have lost track of the more recent article that had a review of the current tour: U2 2018 Experience + Innocence Tour, which had Adam Clayton saying that if fans wanted to hear the old stuff, they should have gone to the "Joshua Tree" 30-year anniversary tour, which went around last year. In this new show, the new songs were on the menu with none of the songs from that album.

I attended both nights in Chicago for both shows- old and new. And as great as it was to hear "Joshua Tree" played in the album's order at Soldier Field on two lovely Chicago summer evening, I have to say that the show that reminded me of what U2 is all about was the more recent one.

Naturally, I was well rehearsed in the new material as I had it on repeat in heavy rotation to learn every song. I have probably listened to album in its entirety a hundred times ... easily. And two months after I saw it performed live, I'm still listening to it. I find their songs, like good poetry or fiction, is so layered that it takes many listens to get through them all. A song that seems so basic and straightforward, on its 20th listen, becomes something else. That's always the case for me with this band. I remember the first time that I heard "Who'd Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" from "Achtung Baby" I giggled. And my sister and I would shout out the chorus in a sort of comedy show, but ... on examination and after many listens, my tune has changed on that song. Some times that I am so excited for new music from a band that when I first hear it, I don't really hear it. I am overwhelmed with giddy excitement, which drowns out the intended meaning of what the song will become for me.

In this articles, RS  writer Andy Greene reports that Edge said: "We need to make sure that we are part of a current conversation in music culture in terms of production and songwriting, melodic structure ... we don't want to be perceived as - and we don't want to sound like - a veteran act out of touch with where the culture is ... it's a balance." I understand that RS is biased when it comes to U2 ... what are they ever going to say something bad about U2? But from the horse's mouth, the Edge, I think that I can confirm that what he's talking about is at the heart of why U2 continues to make relevant music thirty years into it. So many bands by this time have moved into a comfortable groove of what they know best, but that isn't how U2 rolls. I remember once hearing Bono say that he is as uncomfortable as comfortable being in a revival tent. Sure, this is out of context, but that he is okay with being uncomfortable tells us where his head is at. The band's life seems to be born from the uncomfortable and that has let them continue to evolve as a band. You can count on them for their 'wall of sound,' but it is their adventurous drive to grow still that sets them apart from the rest ... and in my wholly biased opinion, I do mean the rest.

And they have come and gone through my town. I was lucky enough to see them perform both nights. The experience is a blur ... it seemed to have happened so fast, and I sort of want another chance to see the show. Twice wasn't enough to get over the giggles from the excitement of seeing them on stage and get down to the business of peeling through the layers. God, I'd make a horrible critic. I could not watch just once to find the heart of it all.

The Met Gala

And the winner is ... Greta Gerwig. 

After I spent too much of my day analyzing the gowns worn at this year's Met Gala, I have chosen Gerwig's look as my favorite. All day, I imagined the images flashed before me as I nodded- yes, no, yes, no. Most of the nods, I fear, were no's. Too many women wore what they typically wear. Whether is was extravagant, skin baring or artful, the ladies showed up in the same ole, same ole ... just a different color. 

When I was looking at the bird cage on the head ... er, nativity scene, I thought what the lady in question should be wearing is black- head to toe and severe. Punk in its absence of form or function. David Byrne punk. Larger than life. Body-less. Too many of the women who wore skin grazing silks were neither, in my estimation, "heavenly bodies" nor of "the Catholic imagination," which was the theme for this year's Met Ball. What they looked like was the stereotypical 'sexy witches' that every teenage girl across America has thought was a good idea for a Halloween costume. Oh, I am not kidding about that. Once I volunteered to be a part of a haunted house for a good friend of mine who would organize one for his church. It was very un-church like as it was truly a haunted house wherein the Grim Reaper, my friend, would guide ticket payers through a maze of one grizzly scene after the next. He had asked me to be a witch, who would stir the potions of bone and spider in a giant paper mache cauldron that he had crafted and built into it a fog machine that made it particularly spooky. He had asked several of the teen aged girls from the church to dress up as witches to work with me in stirring the brew and spooking the crowd. Naturally, the girls showed up all vamped up. That was a day working with those teenagers and their their sexy witchiness when we were meant to be scary. 

That's how I felt this year's Met Ball went. All of the models and personalities and actresses sexed themselves up when it was meant to, in my opinion, represent the severity of what can be the costumes of Catholicism. But Greta Gerwig, she got the message. And for me, she stood out as severe, punk and ... dare I say, sexy. Covered from head to toe is looseness, with a wonder of what was beneath the folds of that silk taffeta.

Jean Grae and Quelle Chris

Rolling Stone Magazine April 19 - May 3, 2018

This regular column, "The Playlist," I always check out because I find gems like Jean Grae and Quelle Chris. I listened to the recommended song, "Breakfast of Champions," but found the song, not video, on YouTube. I checked out one of their other videos, "Gold Purple Orange," and I became an InstaFan. They are so freakin' groovy. You H-A-V-E to give them a listen. While I was texting the link to my nephew, who shares the same musical sensibility, I got caught on just this jam. As it winds to an end of a long 7 minute video, one of their bros busts in to be in the video. I laughed out loud because I have a friend who likes to bust out his guitar and 'ting ting ting.' He wears a white robe and his Ray Bans ... he's be the old man that would fit right in to this scene.

Next, the YouTube gifted me with CZARFACE & MF DOOM's "Bomb Thrown" Czar face meets Metal face. I am not going to claim any real knowledge of this genre, but CZARFACE sounds to be like a better JayZ. This also has a retro vibe .... very spacey. I'm not a cartoon or Marvel sort of person, but I appreciate the graphics of the video. It all makes me want to put on a pair of go-go boots and groove out.

And the gift kept giving ... next on the play list that was sent to me by my new favorite friends YT, Moonchild's "The List." My sister and her kids travel a lot for soccer, and my nephew makes 'mixtapes.' When they are driving home late at night, he has a cool jams vibe mix that he likes to play to unwind from a hectic day. Yeah, he's 17, and he has a cool jams vibe mixtape ... well, I sent this to him because it would fit right into it. I'm not sure that I could listen to a whole album of Miss Moonchild in an evening, but I certainly can seeing peppering her calm into a rotation of other.

The last, and really I have to stop watching YT, is The Avalanches "Because I'm Me." Just watch it ... it's delightful. Boy meets girl, girl plays coy and it is all works out in the subway. And the boy is played by a young one, who could be Michael Jackson back in the day, but is his own self quite confidently as he moon dances and sings to capture a heart. It's beautiful.

That's all for my report tonight ... I could spend all night listening to what is the best of the Internet- an opportunity for artists to reach out to find listeners on a Monday night when said listener should be doing the dishes.

Adam Rippon

It was difficult squeezing Mr. Adam onto this blog page. I had wanted to present it in the same manner as the magazine centerfold that he is in this month's InStyle magazine, but technology prohibited me ... or rather, my inexpertise at manipulating pictures on this platform. As I look at what I've settle on, I like it. I see 'wonder' as Adam stretches out from the page; and boy, his torso as it bends back is stunning- nearly Nureyev-like.

Lately, I have had an ongoing conversation, mostly with myself, that in my profession, teaching, the practice of it could be rated, or scored, similarly to ice skating. I started to think of this while I watched this year's Olympics and the explosion of Adam Rippon across the ice. He is not considered, technically, the best skater. The American, Nathan Chen, performed 6 quads (quadruple jumps, which is 4 full rotations in one jump) in his final skate. He did not win the gold medal as he performed poorly in his short program, but the 6 quads were athletically and technically, amazing. His artistry ... well, I found him to be stiff and robotic in the part of the program that makes skating elegant, beautiful, and emotional.

Adam's programs, the long and the short, were some of the best skating at the Olympics that I've seen. He is so beautiful as he moves across the ice. His performance was dramatic and compelling. Ah, but he didn't attempt any quads ... he didn't even plan to do a quad. He landed all of this triples, but that put him behind the leaders; even though, a few of them fell in their skates.

So I got to thinking about that and what I do. I work with a woman, who like Chen, can land the quads. Technically, she is perfect- planned, scoped, sequenced. But the artistry? I wouldn't want to be a student in her classroom. Her execution is stiff, robotic, and flat. I'd rather be a Adam than a Chen. I want to be captivating, fluid, and showing my students that I love what I do! Technically, I'm solid, and I'll land all the triples in the world, but their 'ease' will not jeopardize the effectiveness of the artistic presentation.

James Norton

Vogue March 2018

Grantchester is one of my favorite BBC crime dramas. Set in the idyllic English town of the same name during the 1950's, the handsome and vulnerable vicar drinks whiskey, smokes and listens to jazz while he struggles the balance of being a vicar and a man who loves his best friend, who has married her father's choice. Well, that was a mouthful! But it's all there in Grantchester. Another of the story lines that is charming is of his curate Leonard. Social awkward and gay, he finds a home in the vicarage of James Norton's character. The sensitive vicar is the best ally to assist poor Leonard in his battle against himself to live, as Oprah would say, his best life.

Norton was also in the series "Happy Valley," a real copper show that has him as an evil, criminal creating havoc in another English village. He's brilliant in the show, however, the true star is the female copper, Catherine Cowood, played by Sarah Lancashire. She's a ball buster make no mistake about it. And she's not a lot of what is typical in an American crime drama. Catherine is of a certain age, wears a uniform (not stilettos and mini skirts), and is so not perfect. I happened to catch a rerun of "Elementary," the American television show that stars  Johnny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes and Lucy Lui as his Watson. I have enjoyed the show in the past but while watching it again, I remembered that I was always thrown off by considering what Lucy Lui was wearing on the show. I didn't care for her style, and it was haute, and the shoes! What gum shoe could work for real with that get up.

And for this reason, I prefer BBC crime and detective series. Not only for the costumes, but for the fact that the producers of those shows are not ageist. Surely, some of the characters, like Grantchester, are handsome, but you are more likely to see a normal person play the role. And the normal person may even be over forty! I notice it. And I have to wonder, is it the creators or the audience that dictates this? Can Americans watch normal people act in television shows? Or is the American public so brainwashed by what I might call the 'Kardashian Effect' that they are only happy with what isn't really very ... real. An American crime show that I also liked was "Castle." My mom turned me on to it when we traveled together a few years ago. I liked the chemistry of the two main characters, and the sidekicks were pretty handsome, but Kate Beckett (Stana Katic), the detective in the series, always wore the most improbable shoes for someone who may have to chase a perpetrator down an alley. It distracted from the criminal aspect of the show.

I'm looking forward to another season of Grantchester. Apparently, it will be James Norton's last, which is too bad. He has apparently gone on to another show and possible, James Bond. Such is life as our own become everyone else's as well. I'm not too worried ... I know that the BBC, of whom I trust for the best in mystery and crime, has something else coming along for me to watch.

Iman

Harper's Bazaar April 2018

A couple of days ago, I listened to David Bowie's "Blackstar." I know the album in its entirety well as I listened to it on repeat for many months after it was released ... and after Bowie had died. I wondered then and still do if he purposefully began, especially, "Tis a Pity She's was a Whore" with a breath. And not just an ordinary breath, but a huge pull from the diaphragm breath that suggests that he was readying himself, gearing up, to breath at all. The album is probably my favorite of Bowie's, and it is made the more so in knowing that it was Bowie's last and for the fact that he certainly did not go gently into that good night. He lived ... and breathed ... until his last breath.

Seeing Iman in Bazaar right after that listen is almost unsettling. And I wonder if she catches herself listening to his breath? If I were her, I don't know if I would be able to listen to anything else.