April 16, 2017

Notes from the Zombies concert at the Barrymore.

After last night's concert, wet from the rain and up past my bedtime, I wrote this list in my iPad to prompt me to remember things I might blog about. I didn't number the list, but now I see there are 9 items. Would have stretched for a 10th if I'd noticed. Since I'm getting a late start blogging, I'll give you the list for its enigmatic value and update item by item as I explain (or attempt to remember) the meaning:
Head high, glow sticks, no
Mansplainer lists jimi etc
Curly headed guy reeks, anosmia
Iphones
Diaries
Rain
Fifty years, first album
Whitest crowd
Standing os
Head high, glow sticks, no — Before the concert a woman came around to foist glow sticks on us. I said "no" approximately 10 times, with added protestations about not wanting the responsibility and concern about the potential for toxic leakage. But she would not take "no" for an answer. I ended up with a glow stick and instructions to break it to light it up and wave it around during "Hold Your Head Up." After she left, I said to Meade: "Whatever happened to no means no? If this were a rape trial, she'd be guilty."

The woman was not an employee of the theater, just a big fan, she said. A big fan of Argent, I guess. "Hold Your Head Up" is not a Zombies song, but the biggest hit of the band the Zombies' keyboard player Rod Argent formed after The Zombies. I did not follow Argent — it's prog rock — but I have heard the song on the radio enough to find it catchily familiar. It lends itself to glow-stick foolery in the chorus, which has a triumphant "Hold your head up WOMAN/Hold your head up WOMAN." You can stab the stick up and forward in a Heil, Argent salute on the "WOMAN." And trust me, the word is "woman," not "WHOA!" Rod Argent explained that to us.

Mansplainer lists jimi etc — Since it was general admission, you get there early and once you get that seat you want, you're going to have to sit in it for a good 40 minutes before the music starts. What to do with your time? You could talk, or you could try to read while the man in back of you talks. Who he talked to, I don't know, because he did all the talking. He was suffering from the delusion that his seatmate would admire him if he told her, one by one, about every concert he attended approximately half a century ago, complete with quotes from his father — "I don't care who the hell is playing" — can you imagine? Jimi was playing. One story like that, fine. But the man had an endless list, the next story always cued up and ready to stop the other person from offering the slightest contribution. At one point, I nudged Meade and started to lean over to whisper something like "That guy's concertsplaining" but Meade's slight smile and nod was enough to communicate to me that he and I were thinking exactly the same thing. You can't eavesdrop on Althouse and Meade doing mental telepathy in Row H.

Curly headed guy reeks, anosmia. That seat I was hoping would stay empty, the one right in front of me, between 2 couples, got filled at the last minute by a late-sixies-ish — in more ways than one — man with a big head of curly gray hair. Oh, no, he's sitting in front of me and he has big hair. Why'd I have to get the big hair guy? My problem was merely visual. (And, really, he only blocked my view of a large black box, which looked like the same box that temporarily deafened me in the right ear when I saw The Ramones play The Barrymore on May 27, 1995, just 3 weeks after we'd seen Mike Watt and The Foo Fighters.) But I'm differently abled. I have anosmia. Meade is more olfactorily aware. After the concert, Meade said: "That guy reeked of weed."

Iphones. Speaking of visuals. So distracting. Put them away, people. I considered getting my phone out to get one picture, but I thought it was too selfish, this idea that I should get one too. But it wasn't that everyone in the theater felt entitled and inclined to take one picture. It was that about 2% of the people thought it was okay to hold up their phone and video an entire segment. The screen looks very bright in the dark audience and it points back at everyone behind you. And maybe it's just me — the screen addict — but when I see the lit screen, I have to look at it. It's just riveting, even though it's nothing but an annoyance.

Diaries. There was no opening act, just 2 parts to The Zombies' performance. (The first set was a variety of things, including the aforementioned "Hold Your Head Up" and The Zombies' big hits "Tell Her No" and "She's Not There," and the second half was a second-by-second, live reproduction of the highly admired, influential studio album "Odessey and Oracle." (The spelling error on "Odyssey" is in the original.))

Between sets, I was reading on my iPhone. Arts & Letters Daily sent me to a review of a couple of books about graphomaniacs, including a woman who had written a diary that consisted of 148 volumes. The diarist, we're told, "never improves, never grows into art," because "She is deafened by solipsism." And: "Hers is probably the longest diary in history."

The next thing I go to read to pass the intermission time is the David Sedaris piece in The New Yorker, which I'd blogged but hadn't yet read in its entirety. The first thing I see when I click through is:
David Sedaris has kept a diary for forty years, during which he has filled a hundred and fifty-three handmade notebooks. The following entries, which document Sedaris’s years in Chicago, have been taken from the forthcoming book “Theft by Finding: Diaries (1977–2002),” which is out on May 30th from Little, Brown.
153?! That's more than 148, the number of volumes in "probably the longest diary in history." Kind of surreal to find that statement refuted numerically in the very next thing I read. And then there's the whole idea that the graphomania of the diarist is inherently limiting. People who write obsessively like that are solipsists, going nowhere. The career of David Sedaris tells a different story.

Rain. When the concert let out, it was raining and the car was 5 blocks away. No umbrellas or rain gear. It's funny how you can go years and years without getting soaked in rain. We're pretty good at avoiding getting caught in the rain, and I could have avoided it last night too by accepting Meade's offer to wait under the marquee...

IMG_1417

... while he got the car, but I wanted to be with him. Enjoyed driving home with the rain on the street lengthening the lights...

IMG_1419

... into glow sticks.

Fifty years, first album. The Zombies first album — which made up much of the first set — was an important part of the record collection that mattered so much to me in the mid-60s, when I was a teenager. The album came out in 1965, when I was 14. It was strange to think of being that teenager half a century ago, listening to that album on a record player something like this...



... and now to be so much older and to be hearing the band live, and they're older too but they sound just the same. One of the original Zombies has died, but the rest, along with me, are still living in the world, still enjoying the same songs, played the same way.

What would the person of the past — the me in the bedroom with the record player — have thought if she were to know that she'll get to see The Zombies live, but it will be 50 years from now, and it will be these songs — "Tell Her No," "She's Not There" — sounding just about exactly like this record she's playing over and over?

I think she would have found it very weird. In 1965, 50 years ago was 1915. No one was excited about songs from 1915 in 1965. My parents were still clinging to songs from 20 years ago, from 1945, and I thought they were hopelessly stuck in the past. In 1965, everything seemed to be changing every year. Just 2 or 3 years ago seemed very different and already replaced by much more advanced material. Ah, but no, in 50 years, you'll still be in love with the mid-60s music, and you won't be home alone — like you are now — with records. You'll be out in a theater jam-packed with people who feel the same way.

Whitest crowd. I said it to Meade as we were standing in line and I said it again as we were in our seats waiting for the show to start: "This is the whitest crowd I have ever been in."

Standing os. Standing ovations. I have never experienced so many standing ovations. The Zombies got a huge standing ovation just for walking out on the stage. For both sets. And they got a standing ovation after every song. And they got at least a partial standing ovation in the middle of some songs. At first, I could appreciate all the love, but after a while, I was getting cynical. All right. Settle down. Or even despairing: Now, mere clapping will seem like an expression of hatred.

I did some research. Are there too many standing ovations? Here's Ben Brantley in the NYT:
I would like to make the case, officially and urgently, for the return of the sitting ovation. Because we really have reached the point at which a standing ovation doesn’t mean a thing....

The S.O. (if I may so refer to a phenomenon that no longer warrants the respect of its full name) has become a reflexive social gesture, like shaking hands with the host at the end of a party.

Or, to put it in cruder and more extreme terms, it’s like having sex with someone on the first date, whether you like the person or not, because you think it’s expected.
And here's the English point of view, from Michael Henderson in The Telegraph:
Although the standing ovation purports to honour the performer, it is usually about the person who stands. It is, more often than not, a gesture of self-reward, or self-congratulation. It is a way of saying: “I have paid a few bob for this ticket, and I have got my money’s worth.”...

But this canker in our theatre-going is also rooted in a narcissism that has spread through all parts of life. ...  It is about letting it all hang out, without embarrassment – or, as some pop psychologist put it after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, it’s “emotional literacy.” Ah yes, of course.

At cricket matches, the cameras love to linger on those odd folk who dress up as Saracens and cavemen. Even at the rugby, a game played and watched by manly chaps, every try offers an excuse to let off rockets, metaphorically and sometimes literally. And to think they used to shake hands and say: “Jolly well done, sir!”
Ah, I wonder what The Zombies thought of us Americans, us Madisonians. We, most of us, must have thought, flattering ourselves, that we were showering them with love, rousing them to higher an higher heights. So eternally youthful, so bursting with energy. That's what the standing o-ers seem to think of ourselves. But perhaps The Zombies, being English, are more like Henderson in The Telegraph, and they'd prefer a more modest response. As John Lennon once said:

82 comments:

David Begley said...

Question to all. I was at the Red Lobster on Friday. Table of five women and one child. Two or three of the women were constantly messing with their phones while eating. This was in Omaha. Is this common?

MPH said...

How was the show?

Wince said...

Judging from your post, you shouldn't have dropped acid.

Paco Wové said...

"Is this common?"

Is what common? Is it common that five women and a child eat at a Red Lobster in Omaha, during which some of them mess with their phones? I'm not sure what part of that to find remarkable. I suspect that the following events are all common:
* people eating at Red Lobster
* people eating at Red Lobster in Omaha
* Groups of women eating at Red Lobster
* Women messing with their phones
etc. You can see where this sort of combinatorial process is leading.

Big Mike said...

I can't wait to read your post about the curly headed guy.

David Begley said...

Paco

Don't be absurd. Don't be nasty.

Based on the structure of the comment I was obviously asking whether it is common in other parts of the country that people become completely absorbed with their iPhones at a fairly nice restaurant and disconnected from their fellow dinners.

iPhones have changed life but I was surprised about this.

Happy Easter.

Heartless Aztec said...

When I saw them recently I was reminded that unlike ao many of the Brit invasion bands these guys actually played in minor keys. So who's your daddy Althouse?

David Begley said...

Althouse will note all of the iPhone picture taking at the concert. The new century's equivalent to lighters at concerts.

Paco Wové said...

Mr. B. –
Sorry, I am almost always absurd. However, I don't consider myself nasty and apologize for any offense taken.

Mobile phone absorption is such a common phenomenon (in my experience) that I am truly surprised you have not noticed it before.

Michael K said...

"iPhones have changed life but I was surprised about this."

We were watching Clint Eastwood's wonderful movie "Gran Torino" last night and the teenager grand daughter was playing with her iPhone in church at her grand mother's funeral. That was made in 2008 so it's not that new.

Paco Wové said...

The new century's equivalent to lighters at concerts.

Bob Boyd said...

"I'm getting a late start blogging"

I opened the Althouse page this morning and no posts yet.

I thought, 'She's not there.'

Fernandinande said...

David Begley said...
Is this common?


If they were commoners, yes.

David Begley said...

Paco

Apology accepted. This Red Lobster incident seemed extreme to me.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Rob Zombie?

madAsHell said...

The Zombies are touring?!?!?

A little research....a study has shown.....that they will be playing in Seattle on the 22nd. The tickets are $40 a head, and they will be playing at the Showbox theater.

I can't imagine ever again going to a concert in a small club. My fan boi is dead.

Paco Wové said...

I never knew that before about the Argent song. All these decades I've thought it was "Hold your head up, WHHOOOAAAAAA....." (x3) "Hold your head HIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGHHHHHHH!"
That's why I come to Althouse!

rhhardin said...

I said "no" approximately 10 times, with added protestations about not wanting the responsibility and concern about the potential for toxic leakage. But she would not take "no" for an answer.

I claim that "no" doesn't get quotes. It's really indirect statement.

Anonymous said...

Mr.B,

Paco is often nasty, maybe he thought you were a liberal.

Michael K said...

Your encounter with the glow stick lady sounds like the KGB caper with the American professor in the old USSR. It's best to let the stick drop to the ground and move away before the commissars arrive.

Bob Boyd said...

"But she would not take "no" for an answer."

Always be closing if you want the knife set.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Paco is often nasty -

Well, look at his graphic avatar, after all. I think he justified his taste in using it based on something having to do with Dane.

Yes, today's connies long for the example of civil behavior, morals and taste held to by the medievals. That's the cutting edge of political leadership for you!

Dust Bunny Queen said...

@ David Begley

Yes. It does seem more common. It is also disturbing. My husband and I don't have smart phones. He has a flip phone for work and I have one that I buy time by the 25 minute blocks. Time that I generally don't use and it lapses.

We are amazed and somewhat appalled by this phone phenomenon. A few weeks ago, we had spent the night out of town for business and were getting breakfast the next morning. As we do, we sit in the booth or at the table, joke and chat with each other. Across the room came in a young couple, about mid 20's. They spent the entire time not speaking one word to each other. They both were absorbed in their phones. They didn't even look at each other. Not even when they were eating. I'm surprised they were able to break away from the phones long enough to order their food.

Why are they even together? What is the point? I would rather be totally alone than sitting with someone who has the interactive capability and interest of a stump. What kind of life IS that?

This is a sad thing we see more and more often, in the cities especially. Not so much where we live. People, mostly, are still normal and interact with each other in real time, face to face. Those who are absorbed in their phones, seem to be tourists from outside the area.

However.....I fear that the plague of the mind eating phones is spreading.

rhhardin said...

Phones keep people from rotting their minds listening to music that is noise.

Wince said...

Next generation glo-sticks: Coldplay spends a ton of money on WI-FI linked LED wristbands.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

The Zombies were/still are one of my favorite bands from that era.

Now, their songs are on the Oldies stations. Still like to hear their music. And surfed (the commentator) is correct....minor key was unusual for main stream bands at that time.

rhhardin said...

Althouse and Meade doing mental telepathy

Pickup line.

"I can read minds (pause) You're thinking that I can't."

Samuel Morse and his wife did mental telegraphy. She'd tap the dialogue to his knee.

Big Mike said...

Your post on the curly headed guy was a let down. 8-(

Bob Boyd said...

"Your post on the curly headed guy was a let down."

You were hoping for body odor?

tcrosse said...

Samuel Morse and his wife did mental telegraphy.

That was Thomas Edison, who was deaf.

chickelit said...

...weeks after we'd seen Mike Watt and The Foo Fighters.)

I saw that same tour, man. Did I ever tell you at great length what a personable guy Mike Watt is? Let me concertsplain it.

Laslo Spatula said...

Events like this bring up an Eleventh Observation: The Battle for Concert T-Shirt Coolness Authenticity.

Old acts inevitably bring out the old guys who try to one-up each other with their vintage concert T-Shirts.

Authentic '72 Stones tour beats modern-made Beatles 'Butcher Block' shirt. Led Zeppelin tour shirt obviously a modern knock-off. Moody Blues shirt from the Eighties: authentic, but not really Cool. Etc Etc.

Then the old guy in the Nick Cave shirt, not playing the Vintage Game. Showing he's still hip to The Cool Stuff, but unfortunately is still rockin' a ponytail.

I am Laslo.

Carol said...

Boomers are a bore aren't they. There's always one who have to tell you their hippie war stories.I was there, man. There were 50 million of us there, you dumb ass.

I did see Jimi in 1968 and was too damn loud.

DavidD said...

@Bob Boyd,

ISWYDT

Marc in Eugene said...

Part of my job involves asking a series of questions and entering the answers into the appropriate boxes on the (paper or electronic) forms required. While one scarcely expects clients to prostrate themselves in supplication upon approaching me and my pen (or tablet), I find it rude that people (certainly not exclusively women, although I think it is more often women than men who do this) continue to use their smart phones during this process. On the other hand, those people remain the minority.

I was hoping that the curly-headed fellow reeked so strongly of marijuana that even AA caught a whiff of it but I guess that's not how anosmia works.

Meade said...

"And surfed (the commentator) is correct....minor key was unusual for main stream bands at that time."

Hmm. I thought minor keys are what gave rock&roll its signature "devil's music" sound.

Marc in Eugene said...

And, clicking through, it turns out I have heard that Hold Your Head Up song, although I'd never have been able to identify the singers and indeed that phrase ('hold your head up, whoa') are the only words to it I ever understood.

'Woman' and not 'whoa'? I suspect some feminist revisionism at work.

Paco Wové said...

"I thought minor keys are what gave rock&roll its signature "devil's music" sound."

I thought it was those devilish jungle rhythms.

Fernandinande said...

diabolus in musica = augmented 4th, supposedly banned in Renaissance church music but good for blues and heavy metal.

Laslo Spatula said...

""
In music theory, the tritone is strictly defined as a musical interval composed of three adjacent whole tones....

The name diabolus in musica ("the Devil in music") has been applied to the interval from at least the early 18th century...

George Harrison uses tritones on the downbeats of the opening phrases of the Beatles songs "The Inner Light", "Blue Jay Way" and "Within You Without You", creating a prolonged sense of suspended resolution...

According to Dave Moskowitz (2010, p.12), Hendrix "ripped into 'Purple Haze' by beginning the song with the sinister sounding tritone interval creating an opening dissonance, long described as 'The Devil in Music'."[33]

I am Laslo.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Can a post about zombies on Resurrection Sunday be considered in bad taste?

MayBee said...

Glow Sticks aren't toxic, btw

Meade said...

"But she would not take "no" for an answer."

And if she should tell you "take a glow stick"
And if she tempts you with toxic leakage
Tell her no no no no no-no-no-no

Bob Boyd said...

"Glow Sticks aren't toxic, btw"

If you drank one, when it came out would it still glow?

Asking for a friend.

Meade said...

Don't hurt me now
for your glow stick's wrong to me

David Begley said...

Average age of crowd?

I say 50. Some younger people today really like music from the 60s and 70s. My nephew's band (he's 18) plays songs from that era. Current music sucks.

madAsHell said...

A record player....

I recently became aware of a record player, much like the one you identified, but with a USB port. I'll guess that there is a niche market for capturing old recordings. Digital snap, crackle and pop.

George M. Spencer said...

Ah, 1915, I 'members it like twas yestersday. Sibelius, as I do recollect, got his colostomy that year, or was it Debussy? Some other composer feller got the radium for a cancer. First ever, and, Good Lord bless him, he lived until just recent. And let me tell you something more, I happened to be in mean ol' Frisco that year and saw some fellers playing ukuleles. No one had never seen the likes of such thing. Don't be telling me about Jimmy Hendricks. We had such a commotion when those ukes got hot. And back towards fall I put down a nickel for the 'Jelly Roll Blues' sheet music. I swear if my mother had a guessed what that title meant, I sure would have got a tanning, brother, and I don't mean with a sun lamp. So there.

walter said...

"One of the original Zombies has died"
Hmm..
I wonder how much accidental exposure the band has received via searches on "zombies".

Bob Boyd said...

I know she's a kind of girl
Who'd throw her glow stick away
But Meade still loves her so

AllenS said...

The last concert that I went to was a 2003 Bob Dylan affair in Bushkill PA. I'll probably never go to another one. Not my thing.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

"I said "no" approximately 10 times, with added protestations about not wanting the responsibility and concern about the potential for toxic leakage. But she would not take "no" for an answer."

This is what caught my eye, too. The polite but definitive "no" is a social skill few Boomers seem to have. Probably partly from a belief that others want to hear their opinions on everything under the sun (yes, I get the irony of participating in these comments). It took me until my early thirties to get it down, but it's saved me a lot of time, money, and aggro since then.

tcrosse said...

The Twin Cities audiences are noted for the Walking Ovation, which is accomplished in the aisles on the way to the car.

Laslo Spatula said...

Stevie Monroe, Lead Singer of "The Gazoo" says...

Man, the mid-sixties were some great times! My band The Gazoo were selling out small theaters and people were groovin' to our music! We woulda' made Number One with our song "Soda Pop-Art Soda" but we were too ahead of the times, and Andy Warhol reneged on designing our cover for us. But we're still alive and Warhol is dead, so: Suck It, Andy...!

People say I shouldn't carry a Grudge for fifty years against a man who is already dead, but I say to them: Suck it, too! Integrity, man: that was what we were about. If you couldn't handle Our Integrity then go listen to the Byrds, those fucking poseurs...

Did you know the Byrds ripped off one of our songs? The Gazoo recorded "Eight Smiles High," then the Byrds fucking do "Eight Miles High." Motherfuckers, all of them -- including that fat fuck David Crosby -- that was MY cocaine! And Roger McGuinn with your silly fucking glasses: Suck it...!

Our fans, though: they respected us because we never Gave in to The Man. I mean, Fuck Ed Sullivan! He thought the words "Orange Bubbles" in our song was a Drug Reference! What the hell could we change THAT to? Orange Troubles? Orange Doubles? It would make no sense: again, Man, it's all about Integrity...

But now, we're back together again to tour our first album, "Infinity Tambourine", and we know it's gonna knock people out! We're jamming better than we ever did, despite the arthritis and the keyboard player losing his left hand to leprosy. Yeah, Leprosy, man: I TOLD you those Times were Wild...

I am Laslo.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

The white crowd comment made me think of my son's observation about a BLM rally at the UWashington. It was the whitest gathering he'd ever seen at the U. Upon reflection, he realized that it was the absence of Asians, not the presence of Blacks, that made it so.

FullMoon said...

No is not an answer, it's an evasion.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dust Bunny Queen said...

No is not an answer, it's an evasion.

No is a complete sentence. It doesn't require any justifications or explanations.

Just....No.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

"No is not an answer, it's an evasion"

Only if you think you have a boundless obligation to explain yourself.

Michael K said...

"The last concert that I went to was a 2003 Bob Dylan affair in Bushkill PA."

The last concert I attended was at the Coachhouse in San Juan Capistrano and it was Willie Nelson and Leon Russell.

Willie's sister did her usual thing accompanying.

Leon left us last November. Willie is getting pretty old.(83 now)

I loved Leon's music.

I also like his sunglasses.

rhhardin said...

Standing ovations are mandatory at ball games, for the anthem.

rhhardin said...

Record players need an RIAA curve amplifier, if you go digital.

sane_voter said...

finish reading the post

stand . . . . clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap

Sit

sane_voter said...

Ann,

You really could do a one woman show with your keen observational skills. And I would give you a standing O when you walked onto the stage.

Etienne said...

Looks like the Barrymore doesn't do "billing" right.

Top Billing means the best act. By putting the production company on top, you make the performance act look secondary.

Maybe I'm just old fashioned.

I find people who go to concerts as being rather brave these days. Since the invention of camera and video cell phones, it is almost like going to a mental asylum.

I see those videos uploaded to youtube all the times, and they are crap. All they do is piss off the other people wanting to escape the technology for 30 minutes.

I hope they all die when their batteries explode.

Is that wrong?

Liesl said...

My husband is so introverted that he would rather avoid concerts at any cost, but will allow me to drag him along. I will happily put up with the crowd for the energy of the live show, especially if it is a band that I love. We went to Black Sabbath "The End" this past summer and the couple in front of us had smartphones equipped with some sort of advanced gadgetry and recorded the entire show. I was annoyed. My husband was furious. I managed to get a passable shot of Geezer Butler, though.

SOs at rock shows are largely superfluous because the crowd is usually standing and rocking out the whole time, anyway.

I love seeing the array of concert tee shirts. The best shows were Rush concerts, seeing how many of their tours were represented via tee (and apparently, Rush concerts are among the few where it's "acceptable" to wear shirts representing the band you're there to see, because Rush fans are, also apparently, a bunch of nerds).

Anonymous said...

I always thought of the Zombies as group composed of the distinctive singer Colin Blunstone, the white hot keyboardist Rod Argent, and three guys named Ed. Since the band Argent had the same makeup -and was pretty much the same band- it is mandatory that they play Hold Your Head Up at every Zombies concert.

Liesl said...

Etienne @1:08-- No. Not wrong. lol.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

madAsHell,

Ages ago, I bought a Monteverdi CD that was originally a 1967 LP (before I was born, though only just), made into a CD in 1989 and bought by me years later. I just ripped a copy of it for an old friend, only to learn that all the performers were themselves old friends of his: The lutenist was one of his closest mentors, the viol player was his teacher, the "wind man" was the brother of the faculty member closest to him at Columbia, &c.

Anyway, this CD was obviously dubbed straight from LP: You can hear the crackles and everything. We've done some dubbing of that sort ourselves. And, no, you really do not need a USB port right on your turntable.

Earnest Prole said...

Standing ovations are capital-V Vulgar.

DanTheMan said...

>>a hundred and fifty-three handmade notebooks.

He made his own notebooks???

Rance Fasoldt said...

I took my eldest grandson to the NCAA Wrestling Championships in St. Louis last month, and the audience was encouraged to download an NCAA app to their phones. The app synchronized the phone to the entry music used for each bout in the Finals, so that any of the 19,000 members who downloaded in Scottade Center could flash in unison to the music. Quite impressive. (Won handily by Penn State. Again.)

MadisonMan said...

The last concert I went to was in, I think, 1987. Nylons. At the Civic Center in Madison.

I'm not much of a concert-goer.

Crimso said...

Just because Wikipedia calls them prog rock doesn't make it so (but then I'd argue the latter years of The Beatles were prog rock). Prog rock isn't actually a classification, but rather a single band in different guises. Or so it seems.

sinz52 said...

"Ah, but no, in 50 years, you'll still be in love with the mid-60s music, and you won't be home alone — like you are now — with records. You'll be out in a theater jam-packed with people who feel the same way."

The 1960s were one of the most creative periods in American culture in our entire history, both before and since. "Back to the Future" made this point: Before rock came into its own in the late 1950s and the 1960s, popular songs sounded like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLEKE7-XM4g

And what came after the 1960s? Disco? The Spice Girls? ABBA? Junk.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

True about standing ovations. I think every time I've been to the theater in the past 20 years, the cast has received a standing ovation. It wasn't just a matter of Midwesterners being overly enthusiastic either, since it includes performances in San Fran and DC. Now,most of those performances were enjoyable and well-performed. Were they extraordinary? No, but as you noted if everyone stands it looks churlish to remained seated. So what do you do to reward a truly superb performance nowadays? No idea. The Standing O has become a participation trophy. When everyone gets one, it becomes meaningless.

Lewis Wetzel said...

Blogger sinz52 said...
. . .
The 1960s were one of the most creative periods in American culture in our entire history, both before and since.

Why? And how do you measure 'creativity'?
You need to be able to explain this if you want to avoid the 'I like it so it's objectively better' mistake.

Roger Sweeny said...

"148 volumes" can indeed be longer than "a hundred and fifty-three handmade notebooks" if the volumes are longer than the notebooks.

Dan Truitt said...

"In 1965, 50 years ago was 1915. No one was excited about songs from 1915 in 1965."

I have had 'xactly this same type of thought most of my adult life (born in 1954)

SoLastMillennium said...

Hey! Don't dis 1915!

Some people still like the hits of 1915!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqYYkWwfYhs

Etienne said...

The 1960s were one of the most creative periods in American culture in our entire history, both before and since.

Except for the British culture imported.

I don't think this is true. What we had in the 60's was the invention of Top-40 radio. It overcame juke-boxes. Before Top-40 bands could make a little extra money from records. They didn't have to tour every week. They could take a week off.

With the advent of Top-40 you had billions of records being sold. Then albums became popular, and finally FM radio made albums king.

I think media was more important than the music. It became easy for a band to sell a million albums with radio, TV, and press all banging on 8-cylinders.

Today we are overflowing with media, and people don't give a shit about Top-40.

You can listen to Slovenian music just as easily as American or British music.

Friedrich Engels' Barber said...

The Zombie who died: I once had an office one down from Paul. He went out of his way to make me feel welcome when I arrived, very young, in that office, and he was one of the most open, unpretentious people, especially for someone who had every right to be pretentious, I have ever met. A wonderful person.