skywhopper Posted July 22, 2012 Share Posted July 22, 2012 Is it possible to love and hate a show simultaneously? Thanks for the thoughts, Chuck. I was prepared to hate the show, but seeing it live I came to really enjoy and appreciate it. Certainly I don't think anyone disputes that they are at or near the top of every caption in terms of performance level, and they clearly have the design and arranging chops to blow any corps out of the water. Balance that out with some ingenious design that allows everyone to be performing at the top of their game whenever they are featured, and this show seems destined to win. And yet for all the intellectual tickles and performance highs, I feel they're missing the most important element for me--and the one that's impossible to judge--emotional effect. I can watch BD's show and enjoy the hell out of it, but it never tugs at my heartstrings, and I certainly never tear up or feel overwhelmed with emotion. They may be giving my cerebral cortex an incredible workout, but they aren't penetrating to my gut. Just yesterday I visited an art museum with my 10 year old daughter. We started in the impressionist wing and made our way through modern art and into the final section: art of the past 50 years. When we were almost through to the present time, after passing by canvases painted with a single, solid color, and a room with a film of a person putting on clown makeup projected on screens on each of the four walls and played in a loop, a room with a carved replica of a rotten tree trunk, and a string of a few dozen lightbulbs in a tangle on the floor, she pulled me aside and whispered "it seems like as time went on they got less and less creative". Dada paved the way for all of that. As Marcel Janco said: "We had lost confidence in our culture. Everything had to be demolished. We would begin again after the tabula rasa. At the Cabaret Voltaire we began by shocking common sense, public opinion, education, institutions, museums, good taste, in short, the whole prevailing order."The description fits nicely. And as a show about a self-referential art movement that accepted pre-manufactured items as legitimate works of art in themselves, using long self-referential pre-recorded audio clips to explain the art going on, just like modern art museums must include an explanation about why a canvas painted solid green is worth displaying, is genius in its own way, I suppose.Love it? Absolutely. Hate it? Most definitely. Does it make me cry? Alas, no. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Njfritz Posted July 22, 2012 Share Posted July 22, 2012 Can someone enlighten me on what is so mindblowing about this show? 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCImonkey Posted July 22, 2012 Share Posted July 22, 2012 Maybe it's one of those 3D puzzles that you have to cross your eyes at when you're looking at it. .....and yet, I can't see those either 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRASSO Posted July 22, 2012 Share Posted July 22, 2012 (edited) Can someone enlighten me on what is so mindblowing about this show? Duke Ellington was once asked AFTER a performance by a music critic ( that did not like Jazz ) from the NY Times to explain the jazz performance and his audience terrific response to it less than a half hour earlier. Sir Duke allegedly looked at the music critic, then paused, and then politely, but ever so succinctly said to the music critic from the NY Times : " If I have to explain my music performance and what " Jazz is " to you and my audience reaction to it, then frankly, unfortunately, my belief is that you will never come to understand what "Jazz is ". The NY Times reporter was not amused from reports. But Duke Ellington was probably correct whether this reporter wanted to admit it or not. One either likes a musical performance or doesn't. Its not rocket science here it would seem to me. One can't explain music. The evaluation to it generally does not come through the cortex or the cerebellum. It comes through the beating heart, imo Edited July 22, 2012 by BRASSO 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plan9 Posted July 22, 2012 Share Posted July 22, 2012 Maybe it's one of those 3D puzzles that you have to cross your eyes at when you're looking at it. .....and yet, I can't see those either "Concentrate, Mr Pitt!" ($1 to Jerry Seinfeld) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flammaster Posted July 22, 2012 Share Posted July 22, 2012 ignore the trolls! I have the opportunity to enlighten a couple of BDB drumline kids here for a few days at my place as they didn't have anywhere to stay. I am pulling out the Don Sebesky Records and Stan Kenton and all the groovy BD drums I have collected over the years including my 76 North shell and my 71 snare drum that I just finished restoring. If you don't get it or don't like it... Please just go away. You don't see me posting on your threads so I expect the same kind of respect. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ApathyJones Posted July 22, 2012 Share Posted July 22, 2012 It takes someone of chucks stature to point out, they are who they are and they do it better than anyone else on a very regular basis. Sorry mate, but this comment smacks of elitism and snobbery. The notion that one should defer in their personal appreciation entertainment value of show because of what someone else up on the ladder of educational pedigree and experience thinks, frankly doesn't alter one bit my personal opinion. What someone else likes is in their personal domain. I don't go there. What I like is in my domain.They don't go there with me. One's pedigree in all this is not worth spit. Maybe its because I'm a just the old fashioned cranky, contrarian sterotypical American here on this, but one's pedigree never impressed me much at all when it comes to one's personal music likes and dislikes. Nobody has a lock on " the truth " when it comes to what is enjoyed in a Performing Arts performance. Thats how I see it anyway. This Chuck's " opinion " above on entertainment value is no more valuable than anyone elses on here. I respect his take and observations. But I do not... repeat, do not... defer to it. That said, under the current judging standards and criteria utilized I can perfectly understand why the Blue Devils placed first last nite. It was a deserving 1st place win for them, imo. But was it my most entertaining show of the nite. No. Not even close. LOL, can't even have 1 positive Blue Devils on this forum without people interjecting nonsense. I guess it is a good thing that noone cares about your opinions. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flammaster Posted July 22, 2012 Share Posted July 22, 2012 Just listened to Variations on a theme by Eric Satie. I forgot how great this album is by BS&T and how they delve into out jazz a bit on that cut. Next up Bird and Bella in B flat by Don Sebesky. Unfortunately I could only find it on CD and not pristine vinyl. Still nice to hear on a vintage stereo. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tusayan Posted July 22, 2012 Share Posted July 22, 2012 I'm stunned at this. A thread on DCP praising the Blue Devils? Will wonders never cease. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arrangerx Posted July 22, 2012 Author Share Posted July 22, 2012 Just listened to Variations on a theme by Eric Satie. I forgot how great this album is by BS&T and how they delve into out jazz a bit on that cut. Next up Bird and Bella in B flat by Don Sebesky. Unfortunately I could only find it on CD and not pristine vinyl. Still nice to hear on a vintage stereo. I have the vinyl... and the CD... The BS&T version of Satie's work was SOOOooooo appreciated... just that little harmonic contribution echoing back to BS&T... another thread to follow down the rabbit hole... Excellent! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts