In Which I Ramble About Les Miserables Which is Neither a Band Nor a Concert

From the title you have surely gleaned that this post is not in fact about music in the seeing-it-live or listening-to-a-new-release-or-playlist sense of the word, but is instead about music in the being-in-a-musical-movie sense of the word. From my stats and how often I actually update this blog, I have gleaned that no one will particularly care. Thus let the rambling begin.

I will start by saying that I am one of those people. You know. The ones that sat in the front row to see Les Mis on tour and own the COMPLETE soundtrack (like with all the little in between songs where Jean Valjean whines about his life) and has said soundtrack memorized and listens to the entire thing for fun and belted out On My Own to myself/whoever was in a 5-mile vicinity BEFORE Lea Michelle sang it on Glee. I am the person they made this movie for and I am the person that all of the people in the movie theatre prayed to baby Jesus (whose birthday it was) that I would not sit beside them because it would mean they would be forced to endure 3 hours of me subconsciously singing along to the entire movie.

For the above mentioned reasons, as well as my longstanding infatuation with Hugh Jackman, I was obviously pumped beyond belief for this movie and I took full advantage of my status as a Jew on Christmas and headed to the movie theatre to see it opening day (where I ran into about half the synagogue, but that is beside the point). For the above mentioned reasons I also came out of the movie with a lot of thoughts in my head, and an immense desire to sit down with a pot of tea and have a nice long discussion with someone about my feelings. (towards the movie. mostly.) Anyways since no one talks about their feelings in real life anymore and instead everyone writes them down and then sends them out into the vast universe that is the internet, I decided to sort of word vomit my thoughts here in no particular order or organizational fashion. If something I wrote interests you and you would like to discuss it and you know me in real life, please reach out to me, I am always happy to monologue about musicals. I mean discuss.

Here goes:

1. Anne Hathaway - ok this is a big topic of controversy amongst many and what I will say is this: she was miscast and did her best. I mean god, the woman acted up a storm! Did you see those tears? Did you hear those trembles of pain and despair in her voice? Here's the thing though. I think we all were excited (or terrified) to see little Mia Thermopolis the Princess of Genovia be forced into prostitution and then die unconvincingly of tuberculosis. BUT she will always be Mia! In some way or another. I don't irrationally (or rationally) hate Anne Hathaway, but she was such a sad sorry victim that sometimes I just wanted to smack her across the face. JUST BECAUSE THE MOVIE IS LITERALLY CALLED THE MISERABLES DOES NOT MEAN YOU CAN'T SHOW ANY OTHER EMOTION EVER. (This goes for you too Eponine chick, and kind of you too Marius. Jesus.)

2. Russell Crowe - Dear god why. I had hopes that you would shine through as this secretly amazing singer and you would be able to like even kneel in the presence of Hugh Jackman, but you didn't even show up to the duel. Like actually what. Javert is probably one of the greatest characters in all musical theatre history and can be one of the most terrifying and electrifying and he has some great songs. Unfortunately Russell Crowe did nothing but fill out his suit nicely. I am willing to rant more upon request... but you get the idea.

3. The adaptation itself- overall I would say it was a pretty valiant and relatively successful adaptation of the musical from stage to film. I could write a 10 page paper on why musicals should almost never be turned into movies, especially ones so tied to their stage identity (I mean really is it even really Les Mis without the rotating platform?), but that would be boring and would not stop people from trying. Tom Hooper clearly worked incredibly hard to stay as faithful as possible to the musical without just filming a broadway show and slapping it up on the big screen. There were no major cuts or changes that were incredibly noticeable (others may disagree) (ok but actually why did you cut the beginning of "A Little Fall of Rain" it might be the best part of the show), and there was definitely an effort made to bring key moments from the stage show into the film (the flags in "One Day More," Enjolras's epic death with his body strewn out the window etc) so it felt like they were acknowledging that the musical had it right all along and that it didn't need some big major overhaul or fancy re imagining. (i.e. Footloose, Phantom, most movie musicals) There is no such thing as a perfect adaptation obviously, but they definitely get an A for effort.

4. The pacing - ok this is one thing that just comes with it being a show written for the stage and not the screen. See the thing about movies and why they aren't usually musicals, especially operas, is that movies are all about quick cuts, short scenes, and fancy filming. You can't jump back and forth between largely different settings very convincingly onstage, so everything tends to kind of stay in one place. In the event that some big set change needs to occur, there is something that happens in between like say - a song! Or some cool and emotional transition music! Or a scene! These songs/music/scenes are important to the plot yes, but they also clearly serve a purpose, especially in Les Mis where we are watching the set pieces come on and off and spin round and round the stage. In the movie each song and scene was it's own thing and a lot of the transition music got cut seeing as there were no set changes. This meant that it was hard to tell what was really important and what was kind of filler. There wasn't much buildup for big numbers and instead everything just got kind of mashed together in a strange way. Also I think I understand what the desired effect was of having all the ballads be one shot and really close up (it's just like live theatre! They just sit and sing!), but like... this is a movie. No one is confused and thinks we are in a theatre. You can do movie things, just don't go overboard. Also usually the actors like walk around the stage and stuff, they don't just sit and cry, as emotional as that is. So mostly during those songs ("I Dreamed a Dream," "On My Own," "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables") I just felt like I was watching some actor sit and act really hard.

5. Eponine why you so moody? I mean I know why, but come on! Obviously Marius isn't going to like you if you just mope around all the time! Also girl. WHERE ARE YOUR INNER ORGANS. I legit thought she was CGI.

Like what the actual fuck is she animated

and finally

6. Hugh Jackman was great. He was so obviously comfortable with the whole broadway musical thing that he really was able to do something with it. So many other people seemed stuck in the "ohmygawd i have to sing and act AT THE SAME TIME sweet jesus" stage of things, and there he was eons ahead of them.

Those are my thoughts. I hope you feel more enlightened now that you just spent time you could have spent doing something productive reading all 1000000 pages of this. This is only a portion of what I could have written, so just thank your lucky stars that it is 3am and I am tired.

In Which the Summer Has Passed And I Didn't Blog a Whit

Every year I go into summer with a long list of all of the amazing new things I am going to do with all of the time that I suddenly think that I have, and this summer was no different. Way back in May as I packed up all the things in my apartment, I looked towards the months ahead, eagerly anticipating all of the reading, writing, songwriting, running, biking, kayaking, archery, eating, cooking, hiking, camping, swimming, sailing, acting, directing, sunbathing, berry-picking, building and concert-going I was going to do. However, when one is employed while simultaneously writing/directing/independently producing a play and attempting to maintain a social life while still cramming as many concerts in as possible, some things will of course be tossed to the wayside.
THUS I am now going to attempt to catch up a little over the next couple days with some very fun and exciting posts about some very fun and exciting music!
I am going to start off today with the Muse for Music/ Works for Words series that I saw back in June at the Fitzgerald Theatre. Both were a mixture of a talk on music and the art of songwriting (the former focusing on the subject matter of songs while the latter focused on the significance of the lyrics themselves.) While the subjects of these events would have been enough to draw me in on their own, the tickets were sold by the respective hosts, Jeremy Messersmith and Chris Koza with his band Rogue Valley. Two of my very favorite Twin Cities acts to be exact.
What struck me about these shows was not simply the incredible musicians (each brought out a number of local artists as guests including Caroline Smith of the Goodnight Sleeps, Chastity Brown, P.O.S. and more) or the immense fun that was hearing all of these artists cover the works of other artists, but the existence of the show in the first place. Here were two nights dedicated to local musicians getting to jam to some of their favorite tunes and share their opinions on music with the rest of the world in a formal setting. And it was being presented by 89.3 The Current, one of the most popular radio stations in the cities. I'd say that's about +200000 cool music points to the Twin Cities.
Events like these highlight the incredible community that is the Twin Cities music scene, something that I miss sorely when I am in Los Angeles. Instead of existing in a place where everyone is trying to get famous enough to get out, I find myself somewhere where everyone wants to be in. All of us there in the theatre that night felt like a fun little club of people getting together to play and listen to and appreciate music. In fact I felt so close to the musicians that I almost (emphasis on the almost) managed to walk up to Chris Koza and compliment him in person. Alas, I still found myself a tad too star struck. Perhaps next summer.

Summer of Music Starts With a Bang (and some sweet guitar riffs)

Now that the obscene madness that is my life has settled into a sort of pattern, I have decided to make the long and exhausting journey back to this particular corner of the internet and rant about music some more. Specifically concerts.
Specifically The Black Keys.

Only days after rolling back into the good old STP, The Whack Ol' Lady (my lovely mother and concert-attending-partner) and I made our way to the Target Center to see a couple of our favorite musicians tear it up on the big arena stage. These musicians were of course Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, or as they are better known, The Black Keys.

After years of attending only small venue shows (excluding of course big outdoor festivals and concerts), I was somewhat overwhelmed by the big-arena-rock-concert thing. It was like I had been suddenly whisked back to 6th grade when I saw my first real concert (also with the Whack Ol' Lady) at the Xcel. (I saw Green Day of course) (They were pretty fab really). Oh the excitement! The long hair! The tattoos! The unwashed teenage boys in the throes of puberty! Nothing had changed. I watched with amusement as the aforementioned young men frolicked about the arena trying their very best to appear hardcore and passive while simultaneously doing their best not to pee themselves with anticipation. This was their jungle gym now! No adults! (except for all the adults in attendance and the vast number of security guards) Rock music! Girls! Beer! (That they can't legally buy of course) Moshing! (Wait... that wasn't allowed either) Not to mention how cool they will look the next day when they stroll through the halls of their junior high (or high school. I do not discriminate. There are a multitude of grungy and unwashed young men in high school as well) wearing the concert tee from the night before.

The junior high population aside, there was something else I remembered from seeing Green Day so many years ago, and that was the gaudy and flashy excess of it all. And this was Green Day. We haven't even reached Taylor Swift or Lady Gaga in the stratosphere of superflous costumes and special effects. Still, it had been a show. I thought back to the many opportunities that had presented themselves, albeit always at extremely inconvenient times, for me to have seen The Black Keys in a smaller and more intimate setting, and I found myself wishing as I walked into that giant arena that I had taken one of those. But I needn't have worried.

Yes, there were TV screens flashing what appeared to be instagram in video form of the band from artsy angles, as if their designers had taken a bunch of hipsters and dunked them in the sugary mainstream before converting them into concert footage. And yes, they hauled out the biggest mother effing disco ball the world has seen for one single song. But it was as if through all of that Dan Auerback and Patrick Carney were still just on the little First Ave stage ('little' First Ave HAH) playing for a couple hundred instead of a couple thousand. They played as if they weren't even on a stage, and just making music because they just wanted to. And that's what made it a truly spectacular concert. Even in that giant space with thousands of screaming fans, they just stood up there and played the shit out of their instruments because that is what they do best.

I will leave you with this song off Brothers, because they absolutely killed it live.

Stay tuned for much more summer music including Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, Jeremy Messersmith, Rogue Valley, Jonathan Richman, and much much more!

Until then, may the force be with you!

In Which I Take A Road Trip By Myself and Listen to Great Music

Alright, so I wasn’t on route 66 exactly. However I have grown up with the belief that this is the ultimate road trip song, so naturally I am using it to set the scene. 

There is something romantic about road trips, it cannot be denied. Although if you really think about it what could possibly be romantic about spending hours in a hot and stuffy car while polluting the planet? Somehow when you are on the road, sun shining in and music playing as the landscape rushes by on either side of you, those things are quite easy to forget.

I had to drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles on Tuesday to bring my car to school, where I will obviously now use it to bribe people to be friends with me. I was dreading the trip at first because of the obvious reasons; it can’t be very often that someone is dying to drive seven plus hours in a car they have driven only briefly, entirely on their own. That being said, it just so happened that a solo road trip through the beautiful California countryside was just what I needed. When you live in the middle of the city, it is so easy to forget how beautiful nature can be, and this trip was the perfect reminder that sometimes the simplest things make you the happiest.

It was entirely by chance that I put together the perfect road trip mix. In an effort to not crash my car while fidgeting with my ipod, I simply scrolled down to the section of songs containing my unknown tracks (you know, all those CDs that the computer was too incompetent to recognize and I am too lazy to name) and pressed play. The result was the perfect musical blend, relaxing, exciting, sentimental, and fun all at once. Behold, the albums that kept me company on the road:

Florence and the Machine - Ceremonials. I finally added this to my itunes library and for whatever reason itunes decided it was not a real CD so it was banished to the unnamed tracks. It added the perfect amount of rock and vocal power to an otherwise relatively acoustic playlist. Driving to this made me feel pretty epic, especially with the hills on either side and the long road ahead.

Ryan Adams - Ashes and Fire. This was a recent acquisition from the Whack Ol' Lady (yes, my mother) and it fit in perfectly with the rest of my roadtrip soundtrack. I hadn't heard much Ryan Adams before this but I am definitely grateful that the Whack Ol' Lady included it in her Valentine's Day package! I recommend this album to anyone who enjoys being emotionally affected by music.

Ray Lamontagne - Gossip in the Grain. OK, it is becoming apparent to me (and I'm sure anyone reading this figured it out eons ago) that my ideal road trip music contains a great deal of achingly beautiful, sob-worthy albums featuring many songs about sad breakups and unrequited love... what can you do? Sorrow breeds the best music! I want to take Ray Lamontagne's voice and then roll around in it because I feel like it would be very soft and silky to touch. That weird notion aside, his lyrics are beautiful and the overall rhythm of the album is great to drive to.

Bon Iver - Bon Iver. Alright, yes I definitely have a thing for pretty/sad music. What can I say? I just love to be rendered emotionally unstable when I drive evidently. Bon Iver is great because the music is so relaxing and so gorgeous, it really matched the outside landscape. As long as you aren't in danger of falling asleep when you drive (this is not one for the 4am stretch), this album is perfect for the 'mellow out and appreciate life' section of the drive.

Natalie Angiuli - Hey Little Bluebird. This album was a nice break from the stream of sad and sentimental albums that made up the rest of the playlist (although to be fair she has some tear-jerkers too). Natalie Angiuli is a fantastic singer-songwriter and listening to her songs made me feel like the star of an indie movie in a little montage during the opening credits, or driving away into the great unknown to find myself in the dramatic climax. If you are looking for something sweet and fresh, you should definitely get over to itunesland and pick up her albums.

Dawes - Nothing is Wrong. This album is currently very close to the top of my "best-albums-in-all-of-time-and-space" list, so it is no surprise that it also happens to be the perfect driving album. Dawes (much like the other bands I've listed) has an incredible way with words, and their lyrics are some of the most beautiful I have ever heard. Even if you are just reading this blog so that you can feel better about yourself since you aren't me or something, I beg you to click this link and listen to this song. Their themes of love gone wrong (yes I'm aware this is very new and different for me) and the loneliness and bizarre nostalgia one finds in LA make for beautiful music that just happens to strike a serious chord with me. I still have yet to listen to "A Little Bit of Everything" without tearing up at least a little. My emotional instability aside, it is a truly fabulous album suitable for all times except maybe dance parties.

Ever since getting back to the city I have had this crazy urge to quit everything and run away to the countryside that I passed while driving here, however as that somehow seems rather counterproductive to being a functioning member of society it may have to be put on hold.

Craving more road trip stories and driving playlists? Not to worry, the Whack Ol' Lady and I will be road-trippin' it halfway across the country in May to return both myself and the newly acquired vehicle to our home state of Minnesota. Given our superior music tastes, it promises to be a trip filled with some fantastic tunes, which I will undoubtedly share with the world whether you like it or not. And that playlist will probably include some happier songs. Maybe.

In conclusion, listen to these songs and look at this picture and it will be almost like you are road-tripping with me!

And no that is not instagrammed and yes I was driving when I took this. Dangerous multitasking.

Valentine's Day is Just an Excuse to Eat Your Feelings and Other Love Ballads

Maybe Valentine's Day was created just so that there would be a day when it is totally acceptable for single women (or men, I am not discriminating) to listen to sappy music (yes... I will admit Taylor Swift made an appearance this evening), watch sappy movies, eat copious amounts of chocolate and generally wallow in their singledom. Emphasis on the sappy music and chocolate. It was this that inspired me to get my digital butt off facebook and venture down a road much less traveled... google. (How long has this site been google's minion? Have I been just living under a rock?) This past New Years, I made a resolution to force my opinions about music and concerts and the like upon the general public in the form of a blog, and what is better inspiration than a day centered around sappy love music?
Thus, I begin my crusade with this list: The Ten Most Roll-On-The-Floor-As-You-Cry-And-Chocolate-Drool-Drips-From-Your-Lips-Romantic-And-Or-Heartbreak Songs of All Time! In no particular order.
(And no, why would I title this list based on any personal experience?)

1. I'll Be Seeing You - Billie Holiday. Because really, who doesn't sob excessively when they hear this song?

2. The Way You Look Tonight - Frank Sinatra. Let's be real, by this point I fully expect my future husband to serenade me with this song at some point in my life. Men, take note, no matter what you do, you can never beat Frank Sinatra.

3. Love You To Pieces - Jeremy Messersmith. A little less famous than the first two, but just as achingly beautiful. No one twinges my heart quite like Jeremy!

4. Almost Lover - A Fine Frenzy. I will admit, I don't really know this band at all, but it makes the list because of the great amount of time spent on the dorm floor listening to this song after it was introduced to me. A great one for wallowing, really.

5. Blue Spotted Tail - Fleet Foxes. Perhaps one of the most beautiful songs in the history of creation. Simple, bittersweet, and part of one of the most fantastic albums of all time. Not your typical Valentine's sob-fest, but a great misty-eyed tune.

6. Such Great Heights - Iron and Wine. One of my favorite covers of all time, and another lovely little love song! Sweet, acoustic, the perfect little ode to love.

7. Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want - The Smiths. The Smiths obviously had to make this list at some point, and what single lady (thank you Beyonce, that term is much classier than 'spinster') isn't thinking this? I know I've had this on repeat... for my whole life...

8. If I Loved You - Carousel by Rodgers and Hammerstein. In honor of my History of the Broadway Musical Class, I had to add this one to the list. Sure I could make a list of the most heartbreaking and romantic show tunes (and I am sure I will at some point) but since this one was fresh in my mind and so very heart-numbingly romantic, I had to add it in.

9. Someone Like You - Adele. Well this shouldn't need much explanation.

10. Bleeding All Over You - Martha Wainwright. Quite similar in subject matter to the above, however approached from a more humorous point of view than that of soul-crushing angst.

BONUS! You Belong With Me - Taylor Swift. Because really, what Valentine's sobfest is complete without this song? Thank you for providing the world with an outlet for their highschool-aged angst Taytay, because no matter how mature we think we are, we never really outgrow it.

So there you have it. I apologize for the lack of genuinely happy songs... I am sure that all 2 people reading this have a wonderful impression of me, the internally-12-years-old-spinster who enjoys sappy music and whining about her love life. I promise that in the future I will attempt to be much more upbeat and slightly less of a teenager. Probably.

Until next time.