HoodedHawk

Just got back from the Motels’ concert at Ram’s Head, Annapolis, MD. Great show. Martha Davis is quite a character. I haven’t followed the Motels in recent years; Martha has obviously replaced a few of the original band members with some, er, younger players. Yep, they played “Only the Lonely” and “Suddenly Last Summer”, but also new songs such as “The Day That Won’t Go Away”, which Ms. Davis said was dedicated to Keifer and the show “24”. Fun!

After the concert Martha signed autographs for people, and seemed to have an interesting story for each person. She’s very nice and personable.

I went to see Suzanne Vega at Ram’s Head tonight (Tuesday). Great show; front row table at this intimate venue. I had never seen Ms. Vega live before and I can say she didn’t disappoint. She played songs from her first album (Suzanne Vega), through to her latest (Beauty and Crime). I really enjoyed myself (hey, they have “Genius Stout” on draft – made there).

I recorded the show on a Zoom H2 audio recorder. I just finished processing the first 17 songs of the set, and I have to say, the Zoom H2 in combination with Audacity on my MacBook really does result in good sound! Highly recommended. I’ve put three links below to mp3 snippets. They are saved as high quality VBR, so they are each about 1 MB. This is my first foray into “good” audio recording; I’ve avoided it in the past due to the cost of equipment. But the (relatively) inexpensive H2 has me hooked!

I had tried to record a Wilco concert recently at Tanglewood in MA, but that was a stadium concert, and I had set the gain too high (as well as playing with other settings), so most of the sound was clipped. This time I did more research, and left the gain on the low setting, and did not boost the “level” via menu options on the recorder. I also recorded at 48k/16bit, as my reading indicated that the “native” sampling rate of the ADC chip was 48k, not 44.1k. And 16bit was more than enough dynamic range. Also, it appears that all the “options” (and there are many) available on the recorder are done in the digital domain, *after* the source is recorded by the ADC chip. So post-processing on the computer will accomplish the same thing. Thus, I left things as “raw” as possible for the recording and I processed the files in Audacity, increasing the gain there to normalize, and split the large sound files into smaller individual song tracks. Note that iTunes read in the 48k sample tracks just fine, but when I tried to burn a cd via Toast, the sound was icky. I guess I’ll have to export as resampled 44.1k files to burn to cd. Anyway, the snippets are below:

Frank and Eva snippet
Pornographer\’s Dream Snippet
The Queen and the Soldier snippet

Kirsten and I had a great evening this past Saturday. We had dinner at Butterfield 9 in Washington D.C., before walking a block to see David Russell perform classical guitar at the Church of the Epiphany.

The dinner was great. The restaurant has a nice ambiance – quite elegant. Kirsten started her meal with the Longneck Squash Soup (goat cheese, roasted pancetta, and apple compote) – “Delicious”. She then had a 1/2 plate of the Carnaroli Risotto (glazed butternut squash, swiss chard, and black truffle) – “Delicious.

I had the “Chocolate Steak” (New England Elk, creamed parsnips, bitter chocolate, fleur de sel). The waiter said that elk tastes a bit like venison. That would be a good comparison, except that I have never had venison (that I remember). I figured I’d give it a try. Cooked medium-rare, the elk was melt-in-your-mouth delicious. It was coated with cocoa, making for a slightly crispy crust, while the bitter chocolate sauce under the steak was a neat complement; it definitely enhanced the flavors. My only issue was the size of the portions (small). Also, I was glad I ordered “Truffle potato puree” on the side, because what came with the steak was basically a garnish, and not a real side dish(es). The puree was delicious as well, though I would have preferred a more firm “mashed” potato side.

Neither Kirsten or I cared much for the “creme brulee” desert, as it was not a “classic” version; we would not have recognized it as creme brulee if not stated on the menu. It had a sort of “cookie” crust rather than caramelized sugar. The raspberry sorbet on the side with it was good.

Butterfield 9 is only a block from the church where the concert was held, so we used valet parking at the restaurant and picked up the car after the concert.

The concert was very enjoyable; just Mr. Russell on a slightly raised platform at the front of the church with no amplification. I could hear the guitar just fine, but I had difficulty hearing his intros clearly (also partly due to his Scottish brogue :) ). The pews were hard to sit on for 2 hours (we were glad for intermission). The music however was great. We had been listening to his Bach and Baroque cd’s – but he didn’t play any of those pieces. I greatly enjoyed most of his pieces with the exception being the one that was actually written for him by a contemporary. Oh well.

Brandon and I went to see Carbon Leaf last Thursday (Dec 13, 2007) at the 9:30 Club in DC. Carbon Leaf is a local (Virginia) band, and has about 6 albums out. Only the last two CD’s have had national exposure. I only recently heard of them while browsing on iTunes. I grabbed Indian Summer and loved it.

This was Brandon’s first concert and the band didn’t disappoint. He wasn’t very into the warmup band and spent that time watching a movie on my pda. However, once Carbon Leaf came on and started playing his expression changed and he had a good time. The band allows recording, so I videotaped the concert (at left is a still). Very enjoyable! I definitely recommend seeing them live.

Kirsten and I went to see 33 Variations Sunday night at the Arena Stage in Washington, DC. The play, written and directed by Moisés Kaufman, is about a present-day musicologist (Katherine, played by Mary Beth Peil) who (despite her daughter’s objections) travels to Bonn for research on Beethoven’s 33 Variations on a waltz by Anton Diabelli. The daughter, Clara (played by Laura Odeh) begins an initially awkward relationship with her mother’s (male) nurse Mike (played by Greg Keller) and they both eventually follow her mother to Bonn.

The staging of the play is great – for example while a librarian in Bonn is showing Katherine a manuscript of some of the variations, the stage behind the actors shows a projection of the manuscript, with the portion of the text highlighted. Musical accompaniment on stage is by Diane Walsh on piano – she times the music perfectly with the performers. The music is great (hey, it’s Beethoven!), and I picked up a CD by Diane Walsh while there.

The play is at times poignant, as mother and daughter come to terms with the mother’s wasting disease – and at times hysterically funny, as when Clara and Mike go out on a first date.

I really enjoyed this play (as did Kirsten) and highly recommend it. It runs through September 30, 2007.