Two teel deer reviews

[nigeltde]

The wonderful:

Last Sunday (the second), ecce_homosexual, my dad and his partner, and I went to see Zappa Plays Zappa, the appeal of which is perhaps only understandable if you're a bit of a Zappa nut. It was FABULOUS. I have left off posting about it because I don't really know how to describe it. It wasn't the best concert I've ever been to (Mars Volta), the most life-changing (Nick Cave (uh, I was high when I wrote that)), the most extravagant (Robbie), the most fun (Dirty Three, every time), blah blah blah. But oh we were all so keen to go! And we had such good seats! See, with it being seated, with a large component of the music being cerebral, you didn't get that swept-away feeling (although I cannot speak for ecce_homosexual, who was looking pretty orgasmic the whole way through, and who scored Dweezil's plectrum, the lucky little bitch).

But gosh they were impressive. I remember being knocked out by their exuberance, their raw jazz power, and their punctuality. They went on at eight with no support band (The Zappa Family has no warm-up band! The Zappa Family needs no warm-up band!) and didn't stop except for an encore pause until eleven. And they played phenomenal, technical, passionate music the whole way.

It was just excellent, and a real dream to hear Zappa's music like that. It was especially moving to see them play a few songs with the projection of Frank on the screen behind, using the voice and guitar tracks from old concert footage. He's the fucking coolest guy. And Dweezil was great too; he has a lesser, dorkier charisma than his dad but he was gracious and charming and really, really accommodating nonetheless. He stayed at the end until everyone who wanted one got an autograph. Also, Steve Vai looks like about twelve and, I think, weighs less than his guitar. But he sure seemed to be having fun.



* = tracks I was really not expecting and nearly shit myself over.

My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama (a great opener)
*Uncle Remus
*Doreen
*Dumb All Over (this was the first Zappa track I really listened to, when I was like twelve. My dad told me about it so I sat down and studied the lyrics and listened to the vinyl and although it's not the best song by far, I am very sentimental about it. I was especially happy because it was the first track Frank "sang" on the projection and I never expected it to be played live.)
Something from 200 Motels
I am the Slime
Cosmik Debris (Frank sang along!)
Pygmy Twylyt
San Ber'dino (ROCKED!)
Zoot Allures (awesome)
Filthy Habits (ROCKED!)
The Illinois Enema Bandit
*Muffin Man, which they finished with, which battles with a couple of other songs to be my favourite ever Zappa song and it was SO! GOOD! And someone even took a video of the guitar section!
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There were definitely more but I've forgotten them. And there was, in the middle of Pygmy Twylyt, this improv bit where each band member would get some time to show off and it was excellent. And then Ray White, who was so charismatic and funny and adorably eager to tap along out of time with the rest of the band and had a great rapport with the sax/keyboards/backup vocals chick, had to improvise a song out of the audience-supplied phrases, "city of churches," something I can't remember, and, fabulously, "point Percy at the porcelain." He turned it into this gospel-flavoured, man-love-in-jail epic.



The awful:

I thought, it's got Callum Keith Rennie, Zooey Deschanel and Alan Cumming, how unwatchable can Tin Man really be? And the answer is VERY, VERY unwatchable. I am talking excruciating. By halfway through I was skipping all the non-CKR bits and I certainly won't be downloading the second two parts. I deeply resent the first; that could have been a Top Gear! You bastards! It is glacial and uninteresting and over-acted (not in a good way. I'm looking at you, um, everyone not Alan Cumming). The CGI was unoriginal and poorly done. The stunts were terrible. It just felt like no thought had gone into it at all. Ugh, ugh, ugh. Atrocious.


PS: Am I the only person avoiding going back to tag all their old entires because they're cringeworthy-ingly embarrassing?

Comments

[lydia-petze.livejournal.com]

I downloaded the first Tin Man, but I had issues with the second episode not downloading properly, and by then, I had heard such overwhelmingly negative resonses I stopped trying.

Top Gear is definitely a better use of time and bandwidth, it sounds like. BTW, there is no TG next week, it's been bumped for snooker again, so that could be some bandwidth saved if needs be.

[nigeltde]

watcher100 gave it a caveated positive review, and that was about all I'd seen. She's a professional, though, and perhaps fans came in with different expectations. I, for one, expected coherency. Plus I have no interest at all in The Wizard of Oz itself (what is the appeal???).

[glynnis.livejournal.com]

The Mars Volta played two and a half hours?! I'm so jealous. They played for around 1.5-2 when I saw them in 2005. And they toured around the world too? I think the last time they played in LA, they opened for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, which...no. Have you heard any of their new album yet? It's supposedly been leaked somewhere on the web. Anyway, I love how appreciative the audience is with the million-crazy-instrument-playing. I never thought I'd see an LA audience appreciate a flute solo so much.

[nigeltde]

ITA about RHCP. Did the person who came up with that ever actually listen to the two bands?

I think they did a world tour including the middle East; according to wikipedia (or the document by Jeremy Robert Johnson it links to) the new album was largely inspired by an Ouija board they picked up in Jerusalem.

I heard Wax Simulacra, the first single, on the radio in the car the other day but my passenger was talking and talking and TALKING and by the time I realised it was TMV it was over :-( But what I heard was great, I remember unconsciously tapping along to it!

Flute solos FTW!

[lydia-petze.livejournal.com]

I rather like the Wizard of Oz - that was the main attraction of the thing for me, to see what they did with the source material. But, nah. I think I can skip this one, the fans have given it a definite thumbs-down.

[thegeekgene.livejournal.com]

The second and third part of Tin Man were rather less cringe worthy then the first. Alan Cumming, in particular, was totally amazing when they actually utilized him, though Zooey never did manage any new facial expressions.

(totally OT)

[xanphibian.livejournal.com]

I don't get involved in discussion off-LJ about fandom, but I wanted to say that your comments at scalzi's blog have made me grin and want to cheer you on. I've been refreshing the post repeatedly to read new comments (I might be a little obsessed at this point!) and getting annoyed. You're kind of awesome, though. :)

Re: (totally OT)

[nigeltde]

ha ha, thank you! I am similarly obsessed; this has been my occupation of the day (it's bBetter than vacuum cleaning!). Some of the comments are so bizarre, like the rape one; I have to keep wondering if I'm being trolled!

I think the best comment so far is by Patrick M:
You've never read any Joey/Chandler slash?

Me neither.

Hee!

Re: (totally OT)

[xanphibian.livejournal.com]

There have been some awesome comments! And some unintentionally funny ones, too. It's the analogies that have had me shaking my head, though. (although the Monster Truck still has me giggling)

The slash stuff is hilarious. I feel like I've had this conversation in fandom at least ten times in the past five years, but some of them seem to think they're saying things no one has ever thought of before! *g*

Re: (totally OT)

[nigeltde]

Yeah, I didn't know wrong fanfiction was until I realised it was exactly like off-brand pharmaceuticals being sold (on the street!) to undercover cops, who then FALSIFY THEIR PAPERWORK!

I can't believe I've wasted the last eight years of my life with this etch-a-sketch crap when I could have had the real deal! (the Mona Lisa.) (In my analogy, I am me, fanfiction is the children's toy and copyright law is a universal moral imperative....)

Re: (totally OT)

[xanphibian.livejournal.com]

*falls over laughing*

Re: (totally OT)

[nigeltde]

I got cocky; I had a go at an analogy; it blew up in my face.

Evil bastards. Never again!

Re: (totally OT)

[xanphibian.livejournal.com]

*grin* It's pretty close to impossible, isn't it? It doesn't help at all that ideas are such ethereal things, and that anyone can have one. I mean, somewhere in the process a thought becomes a story, but it's kind of iffy where one starts and the other begins. I'm thinking of the chat-log stories that have been posted on my flist lately, where it's just two fangirls chatting on AIM with 'and then he would say ...' and then they're posted and can be read as an actual *story*. They're just a conversation! But also enjoyable to read and share with others in the community when they are creative enough. I wonder when the possessive writers would draw the line between 'chatting about possibilities' and 'STEALINGSTEALING MORALLY REPUGNANT!' in that case. When you post the chat log? When you delete the screen names and time stamps? When you run it through spell check?

I think, for people outside of fandom, the idea of a decades-long conversation between like-minded individuals through creative works may not be very understandable. Personally, I don't care if they understand it, but I wish they'd stop trying to define what it is we do without doing a little research on the subculture of fandom. *sighs*

[ecce-homosexual.livejournal.com]

It was a donkey-punch to my g-spot, really. I spoke to a clerk at JB who KNOWS A GUY who met RAY WHITE on the Glenelg tram; scored a backstage pass. Sounds like fanfiction, I know, but supposedly it ACTUALLY HAPPENED.

[nigeltde]

holy shit! The fucker!