It seems like it's becoming a bit of a tradition ... someone (usually krj if memory serves correctly) starts the TOP item in Spring Agora, and then it gets continued into Summer Agora. Talk about the music you listened to, the movies you watched, and the grexers you talked to, along with anything else TOP related.77 responses total.
A reminder, for those of you who haven't memorized the schedule (probably most of us, I would imagine), the TOP schedule can be found by going to www.mlive.com/aasf and clicking on the "Top of the Park" link.
Expect to see the Grimmy haunting TOP sometime this coming week.. :) Sadly I'm missing the Rockapella concert tomorrow.. <growls>
Tonight featured the Terraplanes and the Bugs Beddow Band. The house rocked all evening! I spotted bruin and scott, if I saw anyone else and am forgetting to report it, forgive me. I don't usually make a habit of reporting grexer sightings at TOP because it would keep me more busy than I'd like to be doing that.
Silvia and I were at TOP last night, and the music was indeed great. I'd never heard the Bugs Beddow Band before, and they really were awesome.
((( Summer Agora #10 <---> Music #102 )))
the night before bugs and terraplanes, the witchdoctors kicked out some nice jams ..... i didn't catch the name of the woman who opened the evening. maybe other can enter that. whomever she was , she was rally good, too.
Ah, TOP, the dwindling grex tradition. I think I've been at half of them so far, and at least a few appearances are just because I want to see something. Intermission during the Reduced Shakes Company show, for example.
The Witch Doctors were preceded onstage by Jo Serrapere and the Willie Dunns. (That was Thursday, two nights before Terraplanes & Bugs Beddow.)
Jo Serrapere gets two nights at Top of the Park this year. Unfortunately I had to miss her night with the Willie Dunns, but I'm going to do everything possible NOT to miss her July 2nd date with her country/bluegrass/oldtime band Uncle Earl, which also includes singer K.C. Groves. Uncle Earl's show at the Ark this spring was quite good, and I'm working to twist some arms to get some of you out for their TOP show. ----- Sunday night's show by The Raisin Pickers (named for the Raisin River which flows through their town, I think) was OK, but I wish they did more old songs and fewer new ones. TOP certainly is a dwindling Grex tradition: the only Grexers I saw were other, scg, and (briefly) dewshine. I'm probably skipping tonight's movie, though it is a fun one -- SHANGHAI NOON, Jackie Chan's western -- and I expect to be there for LEGALLY BLONDE on Tuesday.
I'm looking forward to tonight; both Funktelligence and Shanghai Noon.
SCG is in town? I'm going to be there shortly. It's Orange night at TOP, and everybody who's ever seen me in it knows (and fears) what that means.
I'm definitely scared.
(translation of #11: senna looks like our beloved State Tree, the orange traffic cone, tonight)
Anyway, I spotted senna, scg, other, janc, and one Grexer who I barely recognized and couldn't come up with a name for. Oh, and also biohazar.
(yes, scg is in town)
(...presumably for the CHS reunion this past weekend.)
How long is scg in town for?
(er, "this past weekend?" Bugger.)
Buddy and I went to TOP around 9:30 in the hopes that the rain might let up and that the movie LEGALLY BLONDE might be screened. However, the evening had been called off. We chatted with Eric/other a bit; he said the first band had gotten its set in tonight, but that the second band never took the stage due to the rain.
(that's a true shame. "Legally Blonde" was one of my favorite movies last summer. I suppose the plus is that I didn't miss it at TOP after all.)
re 17:
I'll be here until Thursday morning.
I spotted other under the parking lot deck about 8 oclock, but left when it became clear they were putting the monitors away for good. Then it rained. Hard.
I saw a couple Grexers at TOP on Monday, but I didn't remember their names. Otherwise, I would have said "Hello." So...if any of you saw me there with my sister and said "Goodness, twinkie is rude in person, as well!" please don't take offense. :)
Hmm. You didn't come and say hello to me. I'm easy to find at TOP. I'm the guy who spends the most time on stage without actually making any music. Plus, I wear a tag around my neck with my name on it. I'm usually weearing my "Discovery Wings Channel" basebal cap, to keep the sun out of my eyes, or in yesterday's case, to keep the rain out of my eyes.
Sure enough, spotted scg just five or ten minutes ago.
resp:24 Yeah, I've been to TOP but once, and Eric is indeed easy to find.
Spotted very very few grexers last night. In fact, the only grexer I spotted was other.
Spotted other, who gave me a free ticket to the Nnenna Freelon concert inside. Thanks, Eric!
Glad to provide. You were the only 'likely candidate' I saw tonight. The show wasn't selling very well, so they had a few tickets available to persons deemed likely to enjoy the show but unlikely to have purchased tickets to it.
Tonight! 8:15 pm at Top of the Park, the Ann Arbor-based bluegrass/oldtime band Uncle Earl, an all-woman band with Jo Serrapere and KC Groves on lead vocals, Tamineh Guarmany on fiddle, and -- if we're lucky -- the same part-time members on banjo and bass who played with the band in February for that great show at the Ark. I came back from my Maryland trip a day early so I wouldn't miss this show.
(also tonight is the Heidi Snyder Band, which I had the pleasure of seeing perform two years ago. [coincidentally, that was my last time at TOP.])
I think I'll head over a bit early.
Spotted other, krj, senna, buddy, STeve, and glenda at TOP tonight.
You forgot aruba and carol. I spotted the same list as above (except for me) but was planning on meeting up with krj, STeve, and buddy.
indeed, I forgot to mention aruba and carol. Apologies to Mark and Carol.
phenix showed up as well
Thanks to everyone who turned out on my recommendation. Uncle Earl's set seemed a bit rough to me, with rhythms and tunings being a little off and tempos a bit slow, though it came together better at the end of the evening. For their last song before the encore they brought up someone named Vita (from the Jeff-Vita Band) who had a really good song. Since Uncle Earl's last Ann Arbor show at the Ark, banjo player Casey Henry seems to be taking a larger role, including some lead vocals. Mary/buddy convinced Steve and I to stay for the movie, THE OTHERS. It was a very classy haunted-house movie with one wonderful moment when everyone in the audience jumped.
Spotted ea, other, senna, and aruba.
buddy and I showed up after it was too dark for spotting or being spotted.
(( NP: The Red Elvises "Live" CD, in honor of their appearance at TOP two years ago today. ))
I've talked to a couple of people who were under the impression that they had another week or two to make it to Top of the Park. Oops! These are the final two days. Saturday night is three bands I know nothing about: Kevin Meisel Band, Charlie Dentel and the Motor City Horns, and Roots Vibrations. Sunday night, George Bedard and the Kingpins get their traditional closing night spot -- they are a lively rockabilly band, lots of fun. And the final movie is "O Brother Where Art Thou," which the director now jokes is the music video for the quintuple-platinum CD of the soundtrack.
That's a great movie.
Ken, you've met Charlie Dentel. I've sung with him in choirs.
I might miss George Bedard, but I expect to be at the movie, with my entourage.
Kevin Meisel wrote and sang probably the only country song I've ever heard with the word "jurisprudence" in it. Interestingly also, they covered "Sweet Jane" by Lou Reed. Charlie Dentel is a singer/songwriter/keyboardist, with great musical skill and very good entertainment instincts. R&B. Roots Vibration is a calypso/reggae band. Also excellent entertainers, and very professional, they are a class above "Nite Flight," who have been the reggae band at TOP in recent years.
Catching up briefly: Thursday our dinner with the Polygon family ran a bit late so we missed almost all the patriotic music. The women's percussion band Repercussions, and their guest dancers, were a lot of fun -- seems to me I remember them from previous years. Grexers & associates spotted, besides the Polygon family, included jmsaul & Lisa, stacie, and of course eric/other. Saturday my other social plans were cut abruptly short, so I ended up at TOP for Charlie Dentel's set. He's got a nice 70's R&B/soul sound going; Charlie plays piano, and he's got a horn section behind him. The one cover I recognized was a Stevie Wonder song, though most of what he plays is originals. I agree with Eric that Roots Vibration was better than the reggae band from previous years; I stayed for about half of their set and might have stayed longer if I'd found anyone besides Eric who I knew.
(I have rather not nice things to say about "The Others", but I suppose I should save them for another item.) (another year, another missed TOP. maybe I'll make it next year?)
<krj wonders what not nice things Carson has to say.> So the season went out in spectacular fashion tonight. George Bedard's band added keyboard player Whit Hill for the occasion, and the organ and piano lines were a great addition to the sound. I resisted buying any of George Bedard's CDs, because I'm not sure they can be anywhere close to as much fun as the band is live. O BROTHER was even more enjoyable tonight than the first time I saw it, because the crowd was really into the film; I previously saw it in a mostly-empty theater. Stucci's ran out of French Silk (chocolate) ice cream, and I never did get that cheese pie I wanted. *sniff* Still, this was one of the most enjoyable TOP nights I can recall, and I tossed more money into the Obelisk and the TOP fund-raising hat than I had planned to. :) Grexers and associates spotted: buddy, russ, aruba, Carol, gelinas, Cindy, a number of younger Gelinases, senna, and other.
(One of those "younger Gelinases" wasn't; he was a friend.) I didn't see russ or other tonight. Otherwise, substitute "krj" for "gelinas" in the list preceding. :)
are you saying, then, Ken, that "O Brother.." is best viewed with an audience? Quite a few of the movies I've enjoyed were in virtually empty theatres..
Correction: Whit Hill is Al Hill's wife, a fine musician and dancer/ choreographer in her own right -- formerly known as Whitley Setrakian. The keyboardist sitting in with the Kingpins was Al Hill.
#50> "O Brother" does strike me as the sort of movie I'd enjoy more with a crowd. There are definitely movies where you want to see the movie, and any interruptions from the audience are a distraction; there are other movies that are weak on their own, and stand better as interactional experiences. I think the latter are usually movies that don't take themselves too seriously, and "O Brother" is definitely one of those.
The audience's reactions were interesting. The scene at the KKK rally is a pretty minor plot point -- ho hum, yet another death-defying escape -- but it got a much bigger round of applause than anything else. I suppose this is Ann Arbor, after all...
I liked "O Brother" as a movie; I liked the music _in_ the movie. But when I listened to the soundtrack album I didn't like it particularly at all. I think the visuals were a large part of the enjoyment.
I tend to agree. I should be wild about the "O Brother" soundtrack -- I like that kind of music in general and have a number of full-length recordings from several of the contributors that I really like. But for whatever reason the soundtrack doesn't do much for me, except in conjunction with the film.
I put the soundtrack on today, to listen to while tooling around town (when not listening to the news, that is). My memory for such things isn't very good, but I *think* it's in a slightly different order than the movie. I'm going to have to see the movie again, just to check. (Of course, we've already put it on the "must buy" list, just because we liked it.) Listening to the soundtrack, I figured out why "You are my sunshine" was in it, where it was. And "Big Rock Candy Mountains."
re #48: (if you look at a good majority of the shots, near the top of
the screen, boom mics are *clearly* visible. when I saw the
movie in theatres, my enjoyment came from spotting the mics.)
(simply put, the production was sloppy.)
re resp:48 & resp:57 - I saw this, too, carson! (and I thought I was the only one) It was very distracting --- for the first half of the movie, I was wondering if showing the mics and booms was intentional and/or related to the plot, at all. Finally, I had just decided that it was the sub-standard theatre in which I had seen the movie. Very, very sloppy.
(I have a conspiracy theory about the whole thing: "The Others" was executively produced by Tom Cruise, who *just* happened to be in the midst of divorcing the movie's star, Nicole Kidman, when the movie was released to theatres. you do the math.)
Where's a "Grexpidition" item devoted to oval and her trip?
("Grexpedition." the word is a contraction of "Grex" and "expedition.")
(you might ask oval, btw.)
What the hell are you talking about? Do you think I'm a total idiot? Answer the questions, not stupid things which I'm not sure where you got them from.
(see first sentence. nearly. no.)
I think polytarp was looking for the "grex perdition" item on oval's travels, which might detail her experience with customs, amsterdam police, her opinions regarding the dutch sex trade, any unsuccessful efforts to fight off polyglot beggars, etc. I don't know that oval's actual dutch experiences are anywhere near as colorful or likely to be at all interesting to polytarp.
'anywhere near as .....?) okay this is the second post that seems to be cut off for me, and i'm wondering if it's this damn stoned M$ pos i'm using.
(I vote "yea." I suspect there's a terminal setting you could put in a file somewhere to correct it, but heck if I know what either is.) <blank space below for oval's benefit>
lol thanks. i've retreated back to backtalk...
Well, hopefully, by the end of this week, TOP will be done for another year. We're still wrangling with storage issues. Actually, though, I've been asked to sit in on the periodic meetings of the Summer Festival board's Operations Committee, since I seem to best equipped of all available people to provide the board some measure of depth and meaning to the numbers they shuffle around.
resp:65 HyperTerminal probs?
carson wrote: "if you look at a good majority of the shots, near the top of the screen, boom mics are *clearly* visible." If you see boom mikes in a theatrical film, chances are overwhelming that the projector wasn't centered properly. The sloppiness isn't on the part of the filmmaker, but on the part of the theatre. It's regular practice to photograph films taller than they're intended to be shown (and thus including the booms), and have the projector grate cut off the part you're not supposed to see. So sayeth Ebert.
(hmm. does that explain the network television premiere of Rounders? boom mics were clearly visible there, too.) ([fwiw, _Washington Post_ film critic Desson Howe agrees that if boom mics are visible in a shot, it's the theatre's fault. I'm just not ready to accept that as 100% true in all cases.])
The TV screen is at a different ratio. Obviously, if the boom mike is visible there, it's because whoever transferred it into pan-and-scan messed up... presumably somehow related to the film distribution company.
I've heard that movies are now shot in an aspect suitable for television, with excess background at the top and bottom to be cropped for wide-screen.
(you know, you guys are REALLY screwing up my "`The Others' was sloppily produced because it was executively produced by Tom Cruise, who wanted to ruin his [at the time soon-to-be] ex-wife, Nicole Kidman's, movie career as spectacularly as possible" conspiracy theory.)
You're just perpetuating the stereotype that gay men are vindictive and catty.
(heh.)
<falls down>
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