Tuba Christmas

Quick post about a thing that happened last December before I went home for Christmas and New Year’s. After getting back from AIChE, my plan was basically to do whatever research necessary, go to band, be inducted into a frat¹, finish my class, and get out of Ann Arbor at the earliest possible date. Which I did, after doing one thing for fun – Tuba Christmas.

I learned about Tuba Christmas a few years ago, and always kind of meant to go, but one year it was really cold and another year I think I had something else going on. Last year, I was determined to go, no matter the weather or whatever else was happening. As it turns out, it was pretty cold and Handel’s Messiah was being performed at Hill Auditorium at the same time, but I chose Tuba Christmas. As may be deduced from the name, Tuba Christmas involves tubas (and euphoniums), playing Christmas carols. The musicians range from band students to retirees, all gathered together to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

Tuba Christmas at the Farmers' Market Pavilion

The event took place at one end of the Kerrytown farmers’ market pavilion while the Sunday Artisan Market was also going on. [The Artisan Market features handmade items created by local artists and runs on Sunday afternoons from April to December.] Tuba Christmas lasted about an hour with over a dozen different carols. For each carol, the musicians would first play, then the audience was invited to sing along the second time through. It was fun, and I’m glad I finally got to go and experience it.

¹Not actually a frat. It was Tau Beta Pi (TBP), the engineering honor society, which I’ve been eligible for since I was an undergraduate at Cornell. They kept sending me letters, so I finally went to check them out. They require volunteer hours and seem less intent on selling the Michigan™ brand² than most Michigan-affiliated groups, so I joined.

²Maize and blue, block M’s, the Leaders and the Best, Go Blue, the Michigan Difference, etc.

Road Tripping: The Michigan Edition

Days after my friends left, another Cornell friend came to visit. Last year we met in Chicago; this year she came to see me; maybe next year I’ll go see her. We had plans to go on a road trip, but first we spent a couple days in Michigan. First, we got more use out of my Ford Museum membership by making the rounds through the museum and Greenfield Village. Besides all the usual spiels, we got printed copies of the Declaration of Independence, caught most of the Wright brothers’ (+sister Katharine) first flight at Kitty Hawk retelling, saw wool being carded, and heard Edison’s recording device. Inside, we walked through most of the planes/trains/cars/assorted farm equipment, but spent more time in the historical With Liberty & Justice for All exhibit, which covers independence, the Civil War, Woman’s Suffrage¹, and the Civil Rights movement.

Clockwise from top L: Wright Brothers' house, Wright Brothers' bicycle shop,

Rose Parks bus, Hot dog car

After dinner, we returned to Greenfield Village, this time for music and fireworks. When we were in Ithaca, we used to be able to watch city fireworks from the slope. It wasn’t the official viewing location, and you had to be okay with having some of the fireworks blocked by West Campus, but it was kind of fun to share in the unofficial experience on campus with other students. As far as I can tell, Ann Arbor doesn’t do fireworks for the Fourth of July. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra, however, partners with Greenfield Village to do an outdoor concert ending with fireworks accompanied by music. It sounded like it could be good, so I got tickets. The weather had possible thunderstorms in the forecast all evening, but the rain held off, and they only cancel for lightning, no refunds, so we went back to the village. As we found a spot on one side of the lawn, it started pouring.

DSO concert at Greenfield Village

Of course it did. They didn’t evacuate the premises, so we put on raincoats, huddled under umbrellas, and waited it out. After the rain delay, we got to listen to an abbreviated concert. Honestly, you go to outdoor concerts for the experience, not for a quality musical experience. Even the combined dulcet tones of a hundred musicians blaring away don’t carry well outside. There were speakers, so we could still hear, but a lawn in the rain is no acoustically architectured concert hall. They started out with “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which I first played in seventh grade for a PawSox game in Rhode Island and last played three years ago in Schoellkopf Field for a lacrosse game at Cornell. They played the overture from Candide (Bernstein, played it last fall in band), some jazz, skipped Copland’s “Variations on a Shaker Melody” (“Simple Gifts,” most probably), played the Army/Coast Guard/Marines/Air Force/Navy service songs (played most of these in ninth grade at Memorial Day parades), John Williams, more jazz, and ended with (not shockingly enough) the 1812 Overture. During the fireworks, there was more music – think patriotic tunes along the lines of “God Bless the U.S.A.” Although the rain threw things off a bit, the experience was still worth it. We managed to get out without too much trouble, even after forgetting where we left the car, and were only slightly damp.

The next morning, our destination of choice was the Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park. I’d been once with my parents on our way back to Ann Arbor from Chicago after my brother’s graduation. It’s a couple hours from Ann Arbor, but it’s somewhat different from a typical art or natural history museum, so I think it’s worth visiting. They have lots of plants, some conservatories, a new Japanese garden, and dozens of sculptures amidst the paths and trees. The sculptures range from abstract figures and blocks to metal people, horses, birds, other animals, and giant shovels. Everything’s generally arranged in a big loop, so it’s pretty easy to navigate. We made a round, had lunch, and took a quick walk around the Japanese garden before heading out.

Clockwise from top L: Giant horse, crashed UFO, giant neuron, parallelepiped

Since we’d driven the couple hours across the state, we figured we’d drive a little more to the western side of the state to see Lake Michigan. With the help of Google, we found Hoffmaster State Park and the lake. There was a small beach area but it was pretty crowded and we didn’t have any beach things, so we walked along the shore for a bit to enjoy the sand, water, and views. Before driving all the way back across the state, we climbed up to an overlook for a view of the lake. Then it was three hours in the car on some wonderfully paved highways (read: terribly paved) back to Ann Arbor where I packed for the start of our road trip the next day.

Lake Michigan, Hoffmaster State Park

¹The one thing I was absolutely supposed to learn and remember from US History II was that women gained the right to vote from the fifteenth² amendment to the Constitution.

²Just kidding. It’s the nineteenth³ amendment.

³For real this time.

Winter semester+

The plus is because the semester officially ended at the beginning of May, but I’m going to recap until the end of May, because I’m writing at the beginning of June. So besides inadvisably trekking through the arboretum, I did a lot of other stuff.

I TA’d again, and in class related news, I had 44 students (up from 32 the previous year), and graded 8 problem sets (up from 7 previously) with 5 questions each, which amounts to 352 problem sets and 1,760 problems, plus/minus undone/incomplete assignments. There was also a midterm, that I graded entirely by myself, and a final, that I graded with my advisor immediately after the students finished taking it to get the class over with. I was required to had the pleasure of holding three office hours per week, for a total of 45 hours of instruction, plus/minus time spent on Reddit. When not grading, picking up work to be graded, returning graded work, or helping students with homework that I would later grade, I fielded emails, mostly about the homework, which, as you might know, I graded.

When I wasn’t fending off students, I was doing what I’m mostly paid to be doing, as in, research. I had meetings with my advisor a couple dozen times in five months, for an average of slightly more than one meeting per week. Since I was TA’ing for him and we sometimes have phone meetings with our collaborators, that’s pretty average for my research group. Also average for us is only having group meeting about every other week, enough for everyone to present once a semester. Near the end of the semester and into summer, we had three defenses in the span of five weeks. To celebrate, we had a lab party at our advisor’s house where we had dinner and played Pandemic and saved the world. As people prepared to graduate, the lab decided to become social and start drinking together.¹ We attended a few happy hours and also a Detroit Pistons game.

¹Drinking with my lab goes like this: We arrive at the bar between 5:30 and 6 pm. Half to two-thirds of the people present order a beer. A couple people order fries. A few more people order dinner food. We talk and finish our meals/single drinks. We leave before it’s dark out and are home by 8 pm.

Band continued as usual. We had our last sixteen rehearsals and three concerts of our fortieth season. The January concert featured overtures, including Malcolm Arnold’s “A Grand, Grand Overture” (for Three Vacuum Cleaners, One Floor Polisher, and Concert Band). Yes, really. I hadn’t played anything that fabulous since PDQ Bach’s “Grand Serenade for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion” my senior year of high school. In March, we had a joint concert with Measure for Measure, a men’s chorus founded by former UM glee club members. We played “Battle Hymn of the Republic” with them, and Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture” by ourselves. If you’re a band or orchestra person, you’ll know it if you hear it. Our final concert of the season was on Mother’s Day and to celebrate we played pieces by female composers, plus Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” with a UM music school professor.

The band at Hill Auditorium with Measure for Measure

(taken from Facebook)

Outside of band, I had the opportunity to play some clarinet music with people from church. For whatever reason, we seem to have an unusually high concentration of music school students, so a couple times so far, we’ve done informal concerts where the music students plus me play. In February I did a couple pieces from Lord of the Rings accompanied by harp, which was a first for me. Then in May I played the third movement from the Mozart clarinet concerto with piano accompaniment for the first time since high school. Both my accompanists were better than me, but I enjoyed myself and no one’s ears bled from my playing, so we’ll call it a success. It wasn’t all practicing and performing for me, though. Within a span of a week in April, I attended a harp recital, a piano recital, and a glee club concert. I saw the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra perform in January for Mozart’s birthday at the beginning of the semester, and after the end of the semester, I went to see the Detroit Symphony Orchestra play Hadyn's concerto for two horns and Brahms’s fourth symphony.

In April, I also went to see Avengers: Endgame on opening night, the first time I have ever seen a movie on opening night. In preparation, I had been watching the previous 20 movies, and I was happy with how they wrapped this phase of the MCU up. I brought musician’s earplugs that I had from pep band, which was a great decision because my brain did not hurt after three hours in the theater. I closed out this five-month stretch with a church Memorial Day picnic featuring barefoot soccer, Secret Hitler, and speed Scrabble. My feet were bruised for over a week, we spent all of Secret Hitler yelling at each other, and I can’t spell, but it was a great day. Now on to summer.

Winter

Back in Ann Arbor, winter was creeping into the city when I returned to work. I stayed in Michigan through Christmas and New Year’s; there was snow, sleet, ice, and a day of negative 40 wind chill; I trekked through the Arboretum in the middle of a snowstorm, in single digit weather, and while the entire thing was a giant ice slick; then one day we woke up, the snow was gone, the weather was warm(ish), and spring had arrived. That actually sums up all of December, January, and February pretty well. Michigan did get some snow, but the roads stayed clear and the temperatures (mostly) high enough that I ended up biking to band a couple times in January and February, which was not the case last year. At the end of January/beginning of February, the university declared classes cancelled for two days for extreme cold. Air temperatures were in the single digits with wind chills of negative 30 to negative 40. I agreed with the first day of no classes because a significant number of students have to travel to campus, wait for buses, walk to class, etc. The second day was cold, but not that cold. Cornell semi-regularly got down to negative 30 wind chill and their response was to send out a mass email telling people to wear layers and be careful when walking to class. This time, I did, however, wear my winter jacket for the first time in four or five years.

The Arboretum in a snowstorm

In the middle of January, I returned to Hill Auditorium to see the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra play Mozart, including the Requiem accompanied by local high school and community choruses. A week later, Ann Arbor was hit by a snow storm. Naturally, I thought that was a great time to go to the Arboretum to get some pictures. It was a fantastic time to go to the Arboretum. The only other people dumb, I mean hearty, enough to be there were runners and other photographers. The next day, in 11-degree temperatures, I returned to the Arboretum for more pictures. Funnily enough, I only saw about 11 other living things there – five cross country skiers, two snowshoers, some people walking, and two dogs. I made one last winter trip to the Arboretum near the end of February, when the snow was packed down and had gone through several freeze/thaw cycles so all the paths were pretty slick. Not dangerously icy (and still better than the sidewalk outside of my apartment that spawns black ice every time it sleets, or rains and freezes, or snows and melts and refreezes), but I wouldn’t have recommended it for children, the elderly, or anyone who hasn’t had to run for the school bus at six thirty am on partially shoveled frozen sidewalks.

One day later.  Eleven degrees at the Arboretum

The last of my winter adventures were a walk at the Barton Nature Area with a family from church and a bike ride on the Border to Border trail to Gallup Park on the first moderately warm/clear day in March. I’d never been to the Barton Nature Area because it’s in one of those areas of Ann Arbor that’s a pain in the neck to get to without a car. It’s next to Bird Hills Nature Area, which I also still haven’t been to, and has some unpaved trails and a dam. The Border to Border trail, on the other hand, is fairly accessible. I get on the trail about halfway along its path through Ann Arbor, and on this occasion, I biked in the Gallup Park direction. It was in the low forties, with sun, and unfortunately I wasn’t the only one taking advantage of the break in the weather. Most of the time the pedestrians and bikers are decent at staying to the right, giving signals and/or space when passing, and generally not running each other over, but not this day. There were multiple people walking straight down the middle of the trail, stepping into my path, and weaving back and forth.

Top: Melting Arboretum.  Bottom left: Barton Dam.

Bottom right: The Huron River from Gallup Park on the Border to Border Trail.

So that was winter. Research, questionable outdoor activity, and I also TA’d, again, possibly for the last time. I might write more about my teaching experience, or I might post another five hundred words on the contents of my refrigerator. If you’re really fortunate, you might get both.

The Sound of Music, Volume 4

Rent (2005 movie) – I was familiar with a good amount of the music from Rent before I saw it. After seeing it, I liked the soundtrack even more. It goes with the plot/book well and is varied in melody and tempo.¹ The plot follows a group of struggling artists living the Bohemian life in New York City while dealing with various relationship troubles and HIV/AIDS. It’s based on Puccini’s La boheme, if that gives you any further clue about the plot.
Notable songs: “Seasons of Love,” “One Song Glory,” “La Vie Boheme,” “Without You”

A Chorus Line (1985 movie) – Apparently the original Broadway version of A Chorus Line was supposed to be about aging stars looking for one last chance, not young dancers trying to get their first big break, but if you can get over that, it’s not a bad movie. It takes place almost entirely onstage and depicts dancers auditioning for a new musical. As the day progresses, the auditionees are asked to talk about their lives and reveal their pasts, all while vying to be chosen for the chorus line.
Notable songs: “I Hope I Get It,” “Nothing”

Carousel (1956 movie) – After seeing this musical, I think my last major Rodgers and Hammerstein musical to watch is The King and I. Overall, I liked it, but it was slow, and this is coming from someone who enjoys doing things like making eight dozen of the same sandwich and reading cereal boxes. The plot can mostly be summed up as “do Billy and Julie really love each other?” with some side issues. It’s based on a Hungarian play by Molnár, Liliom. “June is Bustin’ Out All Over” is a fun extended dance break though. [Side note: For some reason, this musical reminds me of the third act of Burning Bright by John Steinbeck, which has little to no relation except both works contain a boat.]
Notable songs: “June is Bustin’ Out All Over,” “A Real Nice Clambake”

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1999 movie) – In this musical, Andrew Lloyd Webber takes on the story of Joseph and his coat of many colors (plus what follows). This version includes an unnecessary (in my opinion) frame story but otherwise is flashy and entertaining, and I am a fan of Pharaoh/Elvis.
Notable songs: “Any Dream Will Do,” “Joseph’s Coat,” “Go, Go, Go Joseph”

Jesus Christ Superstar (1973 movie) – And here’s more Andrew Lloyd Webber, presenting a somewhat fictionalized version of Jesus’s last week on earth. There’s an entire subplot involving Judas. Mainly, this musical was a little weird – partly true, partly not, and sung entirely as a rock opera. Then again, someone else wrote an entire musical about the Shroud of Turin (Into the Light, which lasted a whole five days on Broadway, in case you were wondering).
Notable songs: “Hosanna,” “King Herod’s Song,” “Superstar” [Incidentally, “Red Solo Cup” by Toby Keith has a line that sounds exactly like a line in “King Herod’s Song.” It makes for a slightly bizarre listening experience.]

That wraps up another group of musicals, probably my last for the near future. At this point I’ve seen most of the common/popular musicals that the library has, plus I haven’t been watching as many movies in the past couple months.

¹Not going to name names here², but there are some musicals where every song sounds the same, except with different words.

²But . . . if I have a hard time coming up with notable songs for a musical, it’s probably one of those musicals where every song sounds the same, except with different words.<sup>3

3</sup>Nested footnotes.

Happy Birthday Wolfy

In this episode of “Sometimes I leave my apartment and don’t go to my office, Kroger, the library, band, or church,”¹ I celebrate Mozart’s birthday with the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra (A²SO) at the Michigan Theater. Because I’m cheap, I only pay to sit in the back of the balcony. Will I be able to hear the orchestra? Will I be able to see the orchestra? Will Mozart be properly feted? Find out next time right after this commercial break by reading the next line.

Yes. It was a good concert. It was the first time I’ve been in the audience at the Michigan Theater instead of on the stage². I could see and hear just fine, unless scores of people reading this are now going to buy balcony tickets at future A²SO performances, in which case my seat was horrible; there was a pillar three inches in front of my face, you needed binoculars to find the stage, and the acoustics made the orchestra sound like a chorus of kazoos.

The orchestra opened with a premier of a piece by a UM composition student. That was followed by the Mozart Clarinet Concerto, which was the main/actual reason I was at Mozart’s Birthday Bash. This clarinet concerto was composed in 1791 for Anton Stadler on the Basset clarinet and was one of Mozart’s last works. It’s been used in movies – the second movement in Out of Africa and the first in The King’s Speech. During high school, I had the misfortune pleasure of suffering through playing this clarinet concerto under the tutelage of my clarinet teacher. After months of agonizing diligent practice, we produced an instant platinum album a single CD recorded by an iPhone. Naturally, when I found out the A²SO would be playing this piece, I had to get a ticket to see it.

It’s a different experience listening to a performance of a piece that you’ve spent months playing. Being familiar with a piece is one thing; knowing every rest, run, and arpeggio is quite another. But since up through the end of the eighteenth century, many composers used few dynamic/stylistic markings, every publisher (and player) of the Clarinet Concerto has a slightly different interpretation of the piece. Other things of note: the soloist played the concerto on the Basset (A) clarinet instead of transposed for the Bb clarinet, and he wore a neon yellow/gold suit jacket that I could very clearly see from the back of the theater.

After intermission, the second half of the concert featured Mozart’s first and last symphonies. His first symphony was written in 1764 at the age of eight. I was still over a year away from picking up a clarinet at the age of eight. His last symphony, Symphony No. 41, was composed in 1788. It’s a little more complex than his first symphony. Just slightly. It’s three times as long, is scored for more instruments, and includes five themes going at the same time at the end of the fourth movement. But. Both his first and last symphonies contain the same four note motif . . . just surrounded by parts of varying complexity. I think that’s pretty cool.

And so, with a final chord, Mozart’s Birthday Bash concluded. I enjoyed myself, and also the chance to be in front of the stage, instead of on or behind it, for once.

¹Seriously, I haven’t left the Ann Arbor city limits in over two months. I have some thoughts on why this feels different from never leaving Ithaca while I was at Cornell, but I think that needs to be its own post.

²The Ann Arbor Concert Band also performs at the Michigan Theater.

The Sound of Music, Volume 3

I’m back with yet more musicals, and this edition even has The Sound of Music itself in it.

Once Upon a Mattress (2005 TV version) – This is an adaptation of “The Princess and the Pea,” and it’s on the light and fun side. The plot is simple, but the somewhat exaggerated behavior of the characters is amusing and keeps the musical going.

Notable songs: “Shy,” “Nightingale Lullaby”

South Pacific (1958 movie) – This was better than I thought it would be. The story is about Seabees and Navy nurses on an island in the South Pacific during World War II. There’s love, espionage, malaria, and the mysterious island of Bali Ha’i. Some of the visuals were . . . interesting – a few times when the characters were singing (usually about Bali Ha’i or love) colored mist would descend over everything, which mainly made me question if my computer monitor had suddenly broken. I’m not quite sure what effect they were going for, but whatever it was, I didn’t get it. Additionally, a number of the main actors don’t sing their parts. It’s more noticeable for some of them than others.
Notable songs: “Bali Ha’i,” “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair”

The Sound of Music Live! (2013 live TV production) – Basically any production of The Sound of Music is going to be compared to the 1965 movie (which I’ve seen multiple times). For this version, Carrie Underwood was cast as Maria. She can sing, but she’s not an actress, and unfortunately, through no fault of her own, every time she appears the first thing you think is, “that’s not Julie Andrews.” The von Trapp kids worked well together, and the producers stayed true to the original Broadway musical. (The 1965 movie is pretty close, but it moves some of the songs around and cuts a couple.) Worth a watch just for the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical numbers.
Notable songs: Basically all of them (“The Sound of Music,” “Maria,” “My Favorite Things,” “Do-Re-Mi,” “Sixteen Going on Seventeen,” “The Lonely Goatherd,” “So Long, Farewell,” “Edelweiss”)

The Phantom of the Opera (2004 movie) – Solid adaptation. None of the actors were amazing, but they all performed well. I do disagree with some of the director’s choices to value cinematic spectacle over atmosphere and storytelling; there are a couple big scenes that are filmed more to show off camera angles and sets than to tell the story. Yes, this is an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, but we don’t need Starlight Express levels of spectacle. Starlight Express is a musical about trains performed entirely on roller skates. There’s lots of strobe lighting and neon and it would not be out of place to have a disco ball hanging from the theater ceiling.
Notable songs: Also a lot – “Think of Me,” “The Phantom of the Opera,” “The Music of the Night,” “Notes/Prima Donna,” “All I Ask of You,” “Masquerade”

Newsies (1992 movie) – All I knew about this musical before I watched it was the song “Seize the Day.” It’s based on the New York City newsboys strike of 1899, and it’s a pretty standard Disney happy-ending-type movie, but I liked it anyway. When Newsies was originally released, it did not do well, but later gained popularity and was adapted for Broadway. Alan Menken (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, etc.) did the score and 18-year-old Christian Bale stars as Jack Kelly.
Notable songs: “Carrying the Banner,” “Santa Fe,” “Seize the Day”

Another decent set of musicals. Nothing earth-shattering, nothing that made me want to gouge my eyes out, which is always a good thing.

The Sound of (More) Music

The next batch of musicals. Including two more live musicals (because they’re already filmed, and so end up on DVD), two classic-ish (depends on your definition) musicals, and three Disney-related musicals.

Into the Woods (2014 movie) – The plot mashes elements of “Cinderella,” “Jack and the Beanstalk,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” and “Rapunzel” with the story of a baker and his wife trying to have a child. I realized halfway through that I had previously seen Into the Woods Jr., which cuts the entire second act, so there were still a lot of things about to happen. It was a bit dark, but I was pleasantly surprised by the cast. I did not know James Corden could sing, though I guess he does host carpool karaoke. . . . The princes were wonderfully dense (see “Agony”). Also, Meryl Streep as the witch was pretty fabulous.
Notable songs: “Prologue: Into the Woods,” “Giants in the Sky,” “Agony”

Peter Pan Live! (2014 live TV production) – This was based on a musical adaptation of Peter and Wendy, J. M. Barrie’s play. I haven’t seen the Disney movie in years, but I remember it being at least somewhat decent. That said, Peter and Wendy did not make a great musical. Most of the songs, excepting the pirate features, were forgettable or not that exciting musically or lyrically. At least the choreography in the pirate songs was fun to watch. Neverland was very Technicolor. I don’t think I would have gone quite so cotton-candy-colored, but that’s a production choice. Also on the production side, the commercial cuts were terrible. The scenes would cut out while the orchestra was still holding their last note. That’s not how cutoffs work.
Notable songs: “I Won’t Grow Up,” maybe?

Mary Poppins (1964 movie) – Another Disney movie I hadn’t seen in years, and I was surprised by how good it still is. The scene inside the chalk drawing is still my favorite.
Notable songs: “A Spoonful of Sugar,” “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,”
“Chim Chim Cher-ee”

The Music Man (1962 movie) – I’ve seen either the Jr. or full version of this performed live, so I knew the basic story – Harold Hill sells marching band instruments and uniforms to towns, collects the money, and flees before everyone realizes he knows nothing about teaching music, except this time he falls in love. Robert Preston is great as Hill and Winthrop is child Ron Howard. If you’ve ever wanted to see Ron Howard as an 8-year-old singing, this is your chance. I didn’t realize the number of songs I was familiar with, but it was almost half the musical numbers.
Notable songs: “Rock Island,”¹ “Seventy-six Trombones,” “Pick-a-Little, Talk-a-Little,” “Gary, Indiana,” “The Wells Fargo Wagon,” “Shipoopi,” “Till There Was You”

The Wiz Live! (2015 live TV production) – Like Peter Pan, this is another musical where I just don’t like the musical itself. The Wiz is a soul/R&B reworking of The Wizard of Oz, and it’s well done and produced, but I remain partial to the 1939 movie.
Notable songs: “Ease on Down the Road”

More of a split decision this time. Into the Woods was unexpectedly well done, while Peter Pan and The Wiz aren’t must sees, in my opinion, and Mary Poppins and The Music Man are two standards from the golden age of musicals.

¹This is a very clever song. It uses the natural sounds and rhythms of the words to suggest the motion of a train even as the actors remain stationary (in the stage production). “Comedy Tonight” in Forum (see previous musical post) does a similar thing where Sondheim decreases the number of syllables in a series of rhyming words to speed up the feel of the song without increasing the tempo. These observations courtesy of The Secret Life of the American Musical by Jack Viertel.

The Sound of Music

You may have noticed that a lot of my post titles come from songs [see: every post I wrote about summer 2016 (posted in January 2017)]. You can thank band for that. I’m beginning to reach the point in my musical career¹ where I have a song for most occasions². In that line of thought, I’ve been watching a number of musicals. The branch of the Ann Arbor public library system I go to sorts their DVD selection by genre (action, comedy, etc.) and musicals have their own section, so I’ve been working my way through some of the more well-known musicals, including the following:

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966 movie with Zero Mostel reprising his stage role) – Forum is one of those works where everyone spends their entire time running around trying to trick everyone else. Several identities get stolen, there are numerous love polygons, and it’s absurd overall. It’s a fun watch.
Notable songs³: “Comedy Tonight”

Hairspray (2007 movie) – A movie adapted from a Broadway show (2002) adapted from a movie (1988). Based on three minutes of research on Wikipedia, it looks like the 2007 movie and the Broadway show are pretty similar while the original movie has the same plot but a lot of details were changed for the later musical and movie. Hairspray follows Tracy Turnblad’s journey to stardom as an overweight dancer on The Corny Collins Show and her efforts to desegregate the show. The score contains a number of upbeat 60s dance tunes with a bit of a Broadway ballad feel at times. Some of the songs could have been more varied in style and dragged on a little, but overall I liked the movie. And in keeping with tradition, John Travolta plays Edna Turnblad, Tracy’s mother.
Notable songs: “Good Morning Baltimore,” “You Can’t Stop the Beat”

Company (2011 staged reading with the New York Philharmonic) – Company is a series of scenes about the perpetually single Robert and his married friends as they have dinner, fight, get married, and live their lives. This filming used minimal props/set/costumes and the orchestra was actually seated at the back of the stage rather than in a hole in the ground. It worked, and keeping the set simple focused attention on the lines instead of flashing lights or smoke machines.
Notable songs: “Another Hundred People,” “Being Alive”

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967 movie) – In the “see how many people you can scam” style of Forum, J. Pierpont Finch scams his way into jobs at the Worldwide Wicket Corporation. If you know that guy in group projects who does nothing but answers all questions after the presentation with “we,” that’s Finch. Worth a watch for its (satirical) take on climbing the corporate ladder.
Notable songs: Nothing very memorable, but “Grand Old Ivy” is amusing

Grease Live! (2016 live TV production) – This was an interesting production. The opening and closing numbers were purposely done on the soundstage set, with clearly visible supports and the cast riding around in backstage vehicles. The rest of the musical was contained in single scenes that looked like elaborate stages. It was all fine except for the race, which looked like two grown men pretending to drive stationary cars like kids ride carousel horses. I wish they’d found a way to make it look more convincing, but they tried. They also added a song for Frenchy (Carly Rae Jepsen) so she could show off her singing ability, but the style wasn’t quite right. In addition, the actor playing Danny Zuko, Aaron Tveit (who went to Ithaca College), looked too old. My personal policy is that actors playing high school characters can look like they’re in college, but not any older than that. And finally, Grease commits the offense of two characters singing a duet in perfect harmony . . . from two completely different locations (I’m looking at you, “Summer Nights”). Other than that, Grease is a classic. I’ll be looking for the 1978 movie starring John Travolta as Danny Zuko; fun fact: Aaron Tveit was in Hairspray on Broadway. However, he was not Edna Turnblad. He was cast as Link Larkin.
Notable songs: A bunch – “Summer Nights,” “Greased Lightnin’,” “Beauty School Dropout,” “Born to Hand Jive,” “You’re the One That I Want,” “We Go Together”

I’d say all of the above musicals are worth watching. Grease Live! was a little unconventional and if you don’t like watching musicals filmed on stage, skip Company, but otherwise there are a lot of good lyrics and songs and some fun acting. The next set of musicals is still to come.

¹Not actually a career
²Road trip? “On the Road Again.” Long walk? “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles).” Just set your pet budgerigar loose? “Free Bird.” Missing hairbrush? “The Hairbrush Song.”
³Notable to me, in that I remember them or they’re known in pop culture.

dy/dx Day

For the first time since my matriculation at Cornell, I went to Slope Day as a willing participant. Part of the reason was that I figured I should go to Slope Day at least once, but the bigger part was that for the first time in four years, the main guest was not a rapper. I will listen to almost any kind of music, including country, folk, and techno Christmas music, but excluding rap and heavy metal. Anyway, the main feature was Walk the Moon, who does “Shut Up and Dance,” which is in the pep band folder, so I had to at least go for that song.

I started my day out by volunteering to help set up Slopefest, the carnival type event that takes place on Ho Plaza. The previous year, there had been games and food, but this year they decided to focus on the food to help keep people from drinking on an empty stomach. (Reasons for the switch – Budget cuts? Too many drunk beanbag tossers? A cornhole boycott?) Most of the food they were offering was sugar-laden, which I’m not sure is the best thing to eat with large quantities of alcohol, but I wasn’t in charge of the event.

After my shift carrying tables, setting up tents, and scooping five gallons of chocolate frosting, I returned to my apartment for a lunch featuring Fritos, a banana, and yogurt. Later that afternoon, I went back to the slope to see Walk the Moon. The plaza was significantly more crowded than when I had been there at 8:30 in the morning, and the best way to describe the slope was insane. I met a couple friends, then retreated to the far reaches of the slope where 1) I could hear things that weren’t extremely amped electric guitar or screaming, 2) I wouldn’t be trampled by drunk people, and 3) I couldn’t feel the bass.

View from the top of the slope

It was a nice hot sunny day for the middle of May in Ithaca so I spent over an hour on the slope listening to Walk the Moon. Funny story about the weather. The year before, the forecast predicted a major thunderstorm on Slope Day, right up until the night before the event. The Slope Day committee started to panic and make contingency plans for Slope Day to be held in Barton, which would have been terrible because Barton is a fraction of the size of the slope, and the amount of people and alcohol packed in there would have been awful. But they plan just in case. Then the day of Slope Day dawns. It’s a beautiful sunny day. Not a drop of rain falls all day.

This year, this was the weather forecast:

Weather forecast for Ithaca the week of Slope Day

It happened pretty close to what they predicted, but what makes it so amusing to me is that on Saturday (5/7), AAIV had our field day outside at Treman State Park. On Monday (5/9), the pep band had our last rehearsal of the year, which is always a series of outdoor concerts around campus. Thursday (5/12) was Slope Day. In between every one of these outdoor events, it rained. So thanks, weather machine. But no thanks for what happened at graduation. That would be coming up in just a couple short weeks.

Free is my Favorite Price

Before the end of July and the conclusion of Cornell’s summer series events, I attended three more events: two Tuesday night performances at Schwartz and one Friday night arts quad concert.

The first performance at Schwartz was a violinist and a pianist. The first half of their concert featured Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61. After a brief intermission, they played a half dozen shorter pieces that were more “fun.” They each performed a solo piece, then played a series of pieces with names like “Jane Shakes her Hair” and “Jim Jives” (I’m not kidding . . . this time). At the low end, a ticket to a Boston Symphony Orchestra concert costs over thirty dollars. This was free. Granted, the BSO is slightly more involved than two musicians, but this was a good substitute for the moment.

The second Schwartz performance was also an instrumental group, but of a slightly different style. They played klezmer music. Klezmer is a Jewish music genre from eastern Europe, originally played mainly at weddings and other celebrations. In terms of instrumentation, a klezmer group feels a little like the rejects from jazz band. Klez Project, the group that performed, featured a clarinet*, violin, tuba, drums, accordion, piano, and lute.

*There are jazz clarinetists, but typically featured as soloists, and many clarinets switch to saxophone for jazz band.

The surprise of the night came after the group finished their first couple of songs and the clarinetist was introducing the band members. I had thought one of the members looked vaguely familiar, but I think a lot of people look vaguely familiar. Then when he was introduced, I wasn’t listening very carefully, but I thought the clarinetist might have said a name I recognized, so I looked in the program, which I apparently hadn’t read very thoroughly. The percussionist was one of my p-chem professors.

That aside, the concert was fun, and the music was lively. The friends I went with and I were considerably younger than most of the audience, but that just means everyone my age missed out. Going to the bar takes money; running total for my night activities = $0.00.

As for the Friday night concert, Mutron Warriors held the distinction of being the only non folk band to perform this summer. Like at the Rockwood Ferry concert, my roommate and I went armed with a Frisbee and staked out a spot to throw the Frisbee around and listen to music. Another fun night in Ithaca for the grand total of zero dollars and zero cents. I can live with that.

Moral of the story: if it’s free and I’m free, I can probably be persuaded to go to it, whatever it is.

Far Above Cayuga’s Waters

During their first semester at Cornell, all the engineers are enrolled in a class that everyone just calls 1050 (ten fifty). It groups people together who have indicated an interest in similar engineering majors and tries to pair them with a professor and/or peer advisors (sophomore through senior volunteers) in that major. The class meets once a week and usually features such fascinating presentations as “Reduce Stress: Eat and Sleep” and “Plagiarism is Bad.” (Actually, the engineering ethics presentation is pretty interesting. But seriously – I’m tired because I didn’t sleep? I had no idea. Tell me more.)

One of the fun 1050 sessions we had was a tour of the clock tower. A chimesmaster showed us the practice room, the chimes museum, and finally, after climbing 161 steps (the number behind the 161 Things), the chimes themselves. At the end, after enjoying the view from the top of the clock tower, a few of us who had remained behind were allowed to play the hour bells. It was unhypothetically exciting.

Before this summer, I’d been back up to the chimes once or twice (for sure at least once to a morning concert back before I started doing problem sets at 1 in the morning). This summer, my roommates and I have been to a couple of the special Saturday night concerts. The first one featured music by pop divas (their words, not mine) and the second Disney songs. The concerts are supposed to be around sunset, and both times we’ve gotten some sunset colors, but nothing spectacular because of clouds.

Still, you get views in every direction from the clock tower: the arts quad to the north, Cayuga Lake to the northwest, West campus and Ithaca to the west, and to the south, Collegetown, and, last but not least, Olin Hall.

Aerial view of Olin.

The first concert was well-attended, but not crowded. The second concert, on the other hand, was packed. I suspect someone told the summer college students, because there were whole groups of them recording things on their iDevices and taking selfies everywhere. Kids these days. I’m hoping to go back for another morning concert, because those start at 7:45 am and it’s pretty likely you’ll get a private concert. If I time it right, I might be able to see sunrise from the clock tower. If only I can crawl out of bed on time . . .

Sunset-ish colors over Cayuga Lake

Rockwood Ferry

Another series of events the School for Continuing Education puts on is Friday night concerts on the arts quad. Being Ithaca, the five groups performing this year – Rockwood Ferry, Not From Wisconsin, Joe Crookston, Mutron Warriors, and the Ruddy Well Band – are described as progressive chamber folk, chamber folk, folk, Afro-funk, and Americana/folk. Good thing I like folk music.

I made it to the first performance of the summer by Rockwood Ferry, and it wasn’t bad. It was free, so I really didn’t have anything to lose except some time and inner ear hair cell functionality. But my time is worth about minimum wage (you can make more money working in the dining hall than being a TA) and the sound was kept to a very reasonable level, so I came out ahead on both counts.

Friday after work, my roommate and I packed dinner and a Frisbee and headed over to the arts quad. When we arrived, a decent sized crowd had gathered to enjoy Rockwood Ferry’s progressive chamber folk songs. There were plenty of families who live in Ithaca, and children running around. We found a spot near the back of the crowd to sit down, enjoy the music, and eat dinner, which in my case consisted of the highly nutritious combination of a peanut butter and jam sandwich and a Boston kreme donut. A Dunkin Donuts just opened up in Collegetown, and as a New Englander, it was my duty to go get a donut. They’re not the best donuts I’ve ever had – that honor would have to go to freshly made apple cider donuts from a cider mill in Vermont – but . . . it’s a donut. I like donuts.

(Stage is behind the tree)

After dinner, we listened to a bit more music then broke out the Frisbee. We found a mostly clear patch where we played for awhile, but we were between two trees and on opposite sides of a sidewalk. We moved to a spot farther away but with much more clear space. The night’s festivities featured throws under the leg, t-rex Frisbee, stand-in-one-place Frisbee, left-handed Frisbee, one-handed Frisbee, and heave-the-Frisbee-as-far-as-possible Frisbee.

When the concert ended, it was getting a little dark to see the Frisbee, so we called it a night and went to do a bit of sunset chasing:

All around, it was a great end to the week and start to what would turn out to be a very busy weekend.