Music

A dear friend of mine from Cal moved to Westwood a few months ago to get her Ph.D in Urban Planning (I finally got it!). Being uber-talented, Beth is also a cellist at UCLA and her orchestra performed for the first time last night at Schoenberg Auditorium/Theater. Doris, BChoi, Scott and I went to the concert and we really enjoyed it. I hadn’t heard classical music live in a long time, and I have to say, just like with any hard-rocking band, I can get really into it. I really hope I didn’t have my jaw hanging open or something equally idiotic.

Anyway, listening to beautiful classics by Puccini, Liszt, Bernstein, and Haydn is always a great way to spend the night. Especially when it’s followed by rootbeer floats, milkshakes, chili cheese fries, southern fried mac n cheese, pie, and good company at Cafe 50’s. We all agreed that I have to find a way to get Beth to Cerritos regularly.

Sorry for the lack of pictures. Even if it had occurred to me, I don’t think I would have taken photos during the performance. Knowing my luck, I probably would have blinded the performers with the flash, and I was facing Beth.

Well, here’s the inaugural entry of my first “real” blog. I think the point of this blog is really to keep me from whining every day to my friends to “update your blog already”. I’m sure they were sick of hearing that. That being said, I expect this blog to turn out somewhat like Reina’s, more of a record of what I did over the weekend and what is bugging me.

The thing that is bugging me right now is the release of the Foo Fighters‘ acoustic version (I doubt a studio version exists) of “Skin and Bones” on the radio. It is, in my opinion, the worst song Dave Grohl has ever written. I will concede that this still means “Skin and Bones” is better than about 85% of the rest of the music that gets airplay these days. Yes, by today’s standards, that song earns a B+. If Foo Fighters had been presented with a choice to release any one of their acoustic tour songs on the radio, why would they pick the one that sounds like it’s sung in monotone and ranges about 2 notes? Okay, once in a while, Dave mixes it up and raises his voice when he says (says, not sings) “skin”, but that’s about it. I refer to that song as “my bathroom song,” because I (very fortunately) chose to go to the bathroom during that song. At the Civic Theater, they do pipe the music down into the bathrooms, which was nice, and let me hear that I was not missing anything. I believe it was also during that song that Andrew chose to text Jason with a message akin to: Borrrrrrrrrr-ring. [Oh yeah, and someday I should start calling Andrew “Fletch,” since that’s what everyone else calls him, and because I know several guys named Andrew, but it doesn’t feel right to call him “Fletch” when I haven’t seen the movie yet. If I’m going to call him by a nickname, I should know what the name means.] Anyway, I don’t like “Skin and Bones”, but damnit, whenever Dave Grohl’s voice is on the radio, you listen! The sad thing is, the release of this single appears to be a promotion of the upcoming CD/DVD release of their acoustic performance at the Pantages, which I swore I would get (and probably eventually will), but when I hear that song on the radio over and over again, it makes me reluctant to invest in the whole show. I do hope that the DVD includes all the little stories and comments Dave makes throughout the concert, as those really added to the performance and intimacy of the venue.

My little rant on “Skin and Bones” is also heartfelt because EVERY SINGLE OTHER SONG is to be TREASURED. The Foo Fighters would be my favorite band of all time if I had to choose, and their acoustic tour just blew everyone away.