summer singers

The Summer Singers gave a wonderful performance of Blue! 'Tis the Life of Heaven Thursday night. That piece is the second movement of Color Madrigals: Six Songs on Texts by John Keats and, since Vicki and her lovely singers premiered the third and fourth movements of that set last summer, it was like coming home.

In honor of Minnesota's 150th birthday, the concert featured music by composers from the state...many of whom were in attendance.















Here you've got Robert Berglund (who I met last time I worked with The Summer Singers), Matthew Culloton, Maestra Vicki Peters, Abbie Betinis, Michael Dennis Browne (some of his poetry was included), Jocelyn Hagen (who was the only other one courageous enough to go "toes out" with me) and this composer.

I love that picture because, last time there was a MN 150 concert, most of these people were there for a group picture as well. However, since it was in January, we were much pastier and way more layered in attire (and one of us was a little less pregnant as well). See for yourself.














(Just for good measure that's Michael Dennis Browne, Matt, Stephen Paulus, David Evan Thomas, Abbie, Craig Carnahan, Jocelyn, Tim Takach, me and Edie Hill.)

It was so nice to see everyone again. I was chatting with someone at the after party about how great it is to reconnect with an ensemble like that. Normally I write the piece, fly in for the premiere, nervously talk at the audience, make great friends and then abruptly drop off the face of the earth in terms of my dealings with the people I've met.

A genuine thanks goes out to the Summer Singers for having me back. I hope it's a yearly tradition!

Oh...and they did give me some fine Irish whiskey this time around (see previous entry). What could be better!

tom petty and the heartbreakers

I went to a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers concert at the Target Center last Wednesday which was totally awesome. My dad is a huge TP fan and we were able to get 6 tickets and take almost the entire family for some good bonding at the altar of the gods of rock.

This was about 20 minutes before they turned down the lights and the opening act, Steve Winwood, took the stage. He's an English guitarist who had a few hits in the 80s (remember Higher Love or Back in the High Life Again) and, for the most part, he and his band were great to listen to while the arena filled with people.
















They played this great blues tune near the end of their set where he went for a few bars of a solo, stepped back and then turned up. Once my ears starting hurting and the paint was peeling off the walls I knew I was at a real rock concert. Unfortunately, it was so good he never should have followed it up with 2 or 3 more songs. They completely deflated your sense of awesomeness.

Then the big dogs rolled out and turned the on-stage light show on. I had never realized it before this concert of mostly hits but I know a lot of Tom Petty songs and I don't even own any of his albums (this will change). And the even cooler thing is that a lot of people know a lot of his songs. Last Dance With Mary Jane was probably my unqualified favorite. Remember the creepy video, anybody?
















I was having a really, really good time until I realized (during Free Fallin') that I was standing with about 19,000 fellow music fans and they were all singing. Way cool...definitely inspiring...and the concert just got better from that point.

The Star Tribune wrote a good review for this event (read it here) and my favorite line is near the end when the reviewer states:

"Even though Petty was playing mostly familiar mid-tempo radio hits, the music had more immediacy, oomph and impact live."

Nail on the head, sir. I hope this isn't my last TP show.

my new favorite picture of all time

Click on this to see it a little bigger. Oh my god this is funny!

hamluke

I went to a production of Hamluke at the Lowry Lab Theater last week that was absolutely hilarious. It's a cross between Hamlet and Star Wars and it was so funny I almost wet my pants. No lie.

Before the show we knocked off another of Minnesota Monthly's best burgers in the state: the Lion's Tap in Eden Prairie. I went with the double cheeseburger and a side of delicious cholesterol. They really know how to make a thin burger at the Lion's Tap. Soooo good...
















Drinks at Pazzaluna before the show. This is one of my favorite pictures that I've ever taken. The light makes the glass pop perfectly and the focus on the bubbles is just right.
















Here's the sandwich board for the show out front. I really can't say enough about how fun and creative this thing was.





















As the title suggests, they combined characters from the 2 sagas.

-The king was Darthius (he was also the puppeteer for the cross between Yoda and Polonius: Polyodius).

-A puppet of Jar-Jar Binks was the gravedigger who unearthed not the skull of poor Yorrick but a storm trooper helmet that, in a really subtle nod to the original SW movie, Hamluke then addressed as TK421.

-Princess Leia and Ophelia became Opheleia. She doubled as Queen Gertrude/Amidala...Cinnabon hairstyle and all.

-The Players became Jawas played by 3 little kids.

-My personal favorite: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were Lando Calrissian and his bald, half-robot henchman.

The actors also stayed as close to the inflection of the characters in Star Wars as possible (the "I am your father" scene was frickin' hilarious). One of the funnier aspects were the lightsaber battles where the actors had to make their own sounds. If you live in the Cities and are a fan of Star Wars and Hamlet then you have to go and see this before it closes. It's the funniest Star Wars spoof I've seen since Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager.

last day of vacation

Dubuque, Iowa is on the way home from Decorah and, since my brother and his family live there, I stopped through for a couple days and did the uncle thing as well as I could...I'm not so great with the babies. Luckily, Gracie is pretty easy to get along with....
















...and Mya doesn't really protest too much yet (especially since my camera has a flashing red light on it).
















I blogged about Minnesota Monthly's list of the best burgers in the state a few weeks ago and it turns out that I've been driving by one of them every time I head to Rochester or points south. So, in one last act of I'm-on-vacation-and-I'll-eat-whatever-I-want, I stopped at the House of Coates (it's in Coates, MN) for supper. The waitress suggested the Swanee Burger and she seemed to know what she was talking about. It's got onions fried to perfection and bleu cheese dressing that you can't see. I was trying to finish reading Ned Rorem's second volume of diaries but this thing was not a one-handed affair. I think I got some burger grease on one of the pages (sorry, Ned!).

workspacery

Gratuitous post.

last blog from decorah

It's the last day of my summer composing vacation and, although it will be nice to not be hemorrhaging money, I'm going to miss this place. I've made some major headway on the opera (if I hadn't gotten a cold and subsequently lost my voice I would have gotten further) and it's in a fairly good place at this point. The vocal parts are done with rehearsal piano either written in or recorded for transcription and I feel good about the remaining few days I have left to work on it before "proper" commissions need to be started. I also had the chance to sit down with a stellar oboe player and pick his brain for an upcoming commission for that instrument and choir. I got some great ideas as well as some things not to do unless you want to piss the player off.

A few nights ago I went to Decorah's gourmet restaurant, the La Rana Bistro. I know the executive chef and, for some reason, have never eaten there. The fillet was beyond amazing.
















I rarely get dessert but, since the steak was so good, I figured I should try the strawberry rhubarb crisp. Apparently they lost a large portion of their crop during the huge flood last month and, somehow, it had miraculously grown back in a hurry. According to the owner, it was like having a second season.
















The burrito mexicana at Don Jose's.
















Lunch the next day at a new edition to Decorah: Rubaiyat. I had a great chat with the owner about their name. It has to do with some texts by Persian poet Omar Khuyyam that are all about living life to the fullest with the help of good food and great wine. She actually brought the book over for me to read through and I think I'll buy it sometime in the near future. How many small towns in Iowa do you think you can get an amazing plate of crepes with sauteed scallops and shrimp? I wasn't sure when she suggested such and odd combination but there was nothing to fear. I love this town.

For supper last night I hit the last "proper" restaurant in town that I hadn't yet. Albert's is attached to the cushy Hotel Winneshiek and serves a hell of a grilled-in-a-waffle-iron panini.

I shared this meal with singer/songwriter Aimee Ringle. We jammed a little before this (she kicks my ass on the guitar but it turns out I can play a mean Middle Eastern drum) and ended up having multiple great discussions about creativity, etc.

We met a friend of her's later who, when we were introduced, looked me in the eye and said something like, "You're the guy that wrote Moonrise, right? I played the horn part in 10th grade honor band and hated you! How many high G's can you possibly write into one piece?"

Thus ends one of my summer vacations. I have one more writing session today, a late lunch with Weston Noble and then it's off to Dubuque to spend some quality family time.

I've had lots of great discussions over the past week with people about how great this town is. Aimee gave me the best description when she called Decorah "a town invested in its own nourishment." She's totally right. There's good juju here and, since I'm not even close to being as articulate as she is, I'll just let James Russell Lowell speak for me:

It seemed the loveliness of things
Did teach him all their use,
For, in mere weeds, and stones, and springs,
He found a healing power profuse.

Granted, I did get sick while I was here...but you get the idea.

Mahalo.