Crikey!

2009-11-28

Doing a PhD is so bloody hard - [乱写]

17:00, Friday afternoon. Feeling soooooo very tired. :'( :'(

Due to an unexpected incident, I need to work extra hours this weekend in order to get things done. :'(

This is not because of anything I did, but I'm the one who needs to work extra hours, who has to skip the pizza party, who has to eat my words about plans for Sunday.

:(

Now I'm complaining. Let's just stop at that.

Tag：PhDLife

exhilarating 发表于00:51:23 | 阅读全文 | 评论 0 | 编辑 | 分享 0
2009-11-20

零碎的感慨 - [乱写]

The Decemberists太棒了，Colin Meloy居然一度让观众替他弹吉它。我越来越喜欢这些美国乐队。

终于看到了他们的现场，这意味着我又欠一篇心得。我那个“这辈子一定要看到现场”的单子越来越短了。我觉得终会有演唱会看腻的那一天。

Andrew Bird的11日演出心得早晚要写，但此刻还没酝酿出来，似乎我总需要一段时间来接受爆炸性的事实，之后才能慢慢的写出来。这和“长歌当哭，是必须在痛定之后的”大约是一个道理。

话说Andrew Bird的死忠粉丝群到底是些什么人？

那天在Union Chapel门前排队时，我站了第一名。站第二名的女生是加拿大人，正在爱丁堡读文学硕士。她专门从爱丁堡飞去伦敦看鸟先生的演出。

站三四五名的是美国人，两女一男。我无意间听到如下对话：

女：你来自什么地方？
男：纽约。
女：城市？还是州？
男：城市。
...
男：你学什么专业？
女：生物。
男：哪个学校？
女：哈佛。
男：从没听说过。
女：（笑）是啊，我们学校特别小。一点也不出名。

我心想，哇塞，同行嘛...为什么鸟先生这么吸引生物学家？哈佛的，剑桥的...还都这么早早的来排队。要了命了。

演出结束后，我在地铁站遇到一位英文讲得很吃力的意大利女孩。她专程从意大利飞来伦敦看Andrew Bird。哦天！我说，刚刚Andrew有出来和大家见面哎，你和他说话了么？她听到这个，似乎眼泪都要掉下来。“没有。我的英文太糟了。但是我爱他。” 我看着她，觉得很感动。“抱歉我太激动了”，她的黑眼睛亮晶晶的闪。

哎。真是要了命了。

Tag：AndrewBird

exhilarating 发表于06:53:46 | 阅读全文 | 评论 1 | 编辑 | 分享 0
2009-11-16

Andrew Bird @ Union Chapel, London 2009-11-10 - [音乐-现场]

11月10日和11日，我在伦敦的Union Chapel看Andrew Bird。两场的票早已全部告罄。之所以打定主意两场都来，纯粹是因为自己夏天在爱丁堡看他的现场后轻而易举的爱上了这位大眼鸟。而现在，看过这两场演出后，我猜想，未来若有Andrew Bird的演出，而自己力所能及，便一定会奔去。在小妹这里达此标准的音乐人天底下只有两个，另一位是Graham Coxon。（你这是在讨好谁？）

心得写了个开头，便写不下去了，然后就糊里糊涂索性都写成了英文（惊）。可是为了方便大家阅读，还是在此简要概括一下。

说简要概括并不确切。其实英文心得是认认真真的写演出写音乐；中文心得是随随便便发发花痴。

不过也没什么特别可花痴的，无非是此人浓眉大眼，睁眼时令人害羞，露出笑容时脸上出现两个酒窝。总之一个字：杀。

10日的演出中有个瞬间尤其值得自己珍藏：鸟先生忘了Mx Missiles的歌词。当时我坐在第一排，喊出那句歌词给他提了醒，他才继续唱了下去。搞得我非常荣幸又进一步陷入紧张，一副要时刻做好提词准备的提心吊胆状态。

演出依然很精彩，可惜曲目不多。鸟先生似乎有些游离，两处忘词，两首歌重新开头，也有一处忘了和弦。然而忘了词儿的鸟先生糊里糊涂的站在台上，显得无比可爱。

好，欲知更多细节，请看英文（殴殴殴）：

Mr Andrew Bird has spent the whole of 2009 flying around the world putting on shows.

He did 28 dates in 31 days with St. Vincent in October. I wasn't lucky enough to be a resident of the United States during that time to witness their collaboration on stage, but from what I heard, those shows were regarded as the best shows ever by many, even Mr Bird himself. He gave a little speech at the last stop of their tour together (in 9:30 club Washington DC), saying it was the best tour ever for him, that he was able to “jam” with Annie Clark of St. Vincent. It was also described that these two performed St. Vincent’s hit song “Marry Me” with eyes fixing on each other the whole time. It is no coincidence that people wish they were more than collaborators onstage. The comments I’ve seen include “Andy and Annie should date”, “make babies” and even, “have lots of super-skinny, musically talented children”.

Anyway, his “best tour ever” ended on Oct 28th. After 10 days’ break, his second round of European tour began. Andrew was booked for two dates at Union Chapel in London, an active church / music venue most suitable for small, intimate shows. Both nights were sold-out. I had intended to come for only one date, but after being entranced by his live show in Edinburgh this summer, to go to both dates seemed a must.

Union Chapel is beautiful. I would go as far as saying it’s my favorite music venue in London. The acoustics are fantastic. I particularly love the wooden benches. Yes, unnumbered wooden benches. Queuing outside for more than 1 hour, then going inside and sitting in the front row, this is all very great.

Supporting band Moriarty consists of band members from New York and France. They are probably the best supporting act I’ve seen this year. Old school jazz and American folk might be their most obvious influence. The lead singer's voice reminds me of those diva ladies in the 30s. Their music is complex and multi-layered. Their stage performance is most distinctively old school style, with all band members huddling in front of the same microphone. There's a mystic air about the lead singer. At one time she greeted the audience with a low whispering "Good evening, bird watchers." Her eyes could talk. In other words, there was much captivity in them. She was seen often exchanging glances with the guitarist, who bears a striking similarity to Ewan McGregor. By the way, this is NOT the reason why I think highly of them. I've never seen any band give a theatrical stage performance as interesting as theirs.

Moriarty left the stage at around 8:30. When Andrew’s roadies were busy setting up instruments, I noticed his sock monkey lying at the edge of the stage. I believe its name is “the night-hanger”.

When Andrew got on stage holding his sock monkey, the crowd gave the warmest applause and cheers. He was wearing jeans, green checked shirt, dark sport coat, and a scarf, which, later I knew was a present from a fan a couple of weeks ago. No glittering shoes were seen. Mr Bird didn't bring them to Europe. He started with instrumental violin looping. Layer upon layer, soon the chapel was filled with intricate violin melodies, which evolved to be The Happy Birthday Song. Half way through the song, he made his horn revolving by hitting a pedal. Then he removed his shoes. His socks are red.

After the second song Water Jet Cilice, he greeted the audience with some Bird-esque talking: “Hello…I don’t know…I’ve just got off the boat…I’ve got sea legs…That’s what you have while on a boat…I don’t know.” At the same time his left hand is seen making occasionally nervous gestures in the air. :)

He introduced “Sweet Matter”, a previous version to Dark Matter. “Recently I’ve started to mash-up my own songs…not intentionally.” He had a false start due to a looping problem and had to start it a second time. The line “That’s the taste of neuron blinking” evoked some laughter just as it did when he performed it in Edinburgh.

He launched into “Why?” straight after that. This is a song I could never get tired watching him play. I could never get tired watching him play anyway. He mentioned in a previous interview that he had been playing this song on almost every show for the last 7 years and hadn’t got tired of it. The way he plays it, his facial expression during that song always get me under a spell. I’ve seen people declaring this song to be the sexiest song they’ve ever heard. Well, I’ve also seen people commenting “Andrew Bird’s voice is like sex with a violin.” Hmmm…I’m not sure. You tell me.

“I always feel better after playing that song. It’s like it got something off my chest.” Andrew declared. “But I’ve changed the pronouns to protect…myself. I get people throwing things at me because sometimes I don’t give enough…emotional response. I’ve been playing that song for the last 7 or 8 years…It’s still true. Maybe that’s why it still works.”

I giggled. He once admitted that he often takes the other person’s point of view when writing a song consists of dialogues. I suppose he had been damned for being easy-going. :P

“Oh No” was played following “Oh Ho”. It’s interesting how he arranged the set in this way so that the palindrome still works. The audience that night was quiet, which probably lead Andrew to ask if everybody is alright. “Normally you’d expect the British audience to be a bit more … heckling”. (lol)

When giving background to the song “Effigy”, his talking was constantly interrupted by a woman’s laughter from the balcony. “It’s my birthday!” She shouted. It felt a bit weird at the time, particularly if you take into account that Andrew was talking about “a guy, sitting at the end of a bar/pub (‘you guys go to pubs here’ He said), blurted things out that have nothing to do anything, making people really uncomfortable.” So we have a song about loneliness and awkward social behavior, illustrated by some awkward social behavior from a member of the audience. (OK I’m being mean. I just hate seeing Andrew interrupted.)

“Wake Up” was introduced as an unfinished song, “It’s been there for so long and starting to become an old song.” It occurred to me as a variation of “Trimmed and Burning” with the line “Jesus made my dying bed”. Like the other mashed-up song “Sweetmatter”, he had a false start with this one and had to start a second time.

Mr Bird said he forgot to put something on the set list. “It’s very important. It’s about what kind of animal you become.” It took us no time to realize the song was “Anonanimal”, one of my most loved tracks on Noble Beast, and a song you can expect on every show in Andrew’s Noble Beast tour. When he played this song in the US last month, there were times when he forgot that he had to get ready for switching to the guitar. And this was what happened exactly. In the middle of the song, he put down the violin and hurried over to pick up the guitar, while gesturing to the audience with a lifted finger and a half apologetic face. “I always forget to switch to the guitar.”

What I especially love about “Anonanimal” is that he sings “Don’t tell me this one I know I know this song I love this song” with his eyes wide open. Mr Bird has giant dark eyes. You don’t see them wide open during his live shows that often. He usually keeps them half closed, at the same time swinging his head into all directions. But occasionally when he opens his eyes, there’s so much clarity in them and it makes one shy to stare. He sometimes reminds me of an owl. Indeed there is something bird-like about him.

Also included in the set were new song Lusitania and Tenuousness. During the latter he had to make a gesture to the engineers at the mixing desk to kill the track of the Moroccan instruments. At the end he commented, “I was amazed that things don’t fall apart … that was before I did that song.”

After that he treated us with an old song “Mx Missiles” from the 2005 album “The Mysterious Production of Eggs.” I would be thrilled to hear him play any of his old songs, what thrilled me even more was – I was able to help him when he forgot the lyrics.

He didn’t remember all the lyrics, which hit me as a surprise. The song appears on his 2005 album and he played it last month in a radio session, so it hasn’t been that long! He wrote that song after all! Anyway, he got confused during the first few lines and had to start again. I felt a bit relieved when he picked it up the second time. The audiences gave knowing and forgiving laughter. But he stopped again during the bridge. “I didn’t know what you were…?” I shouted out the lyrics. He got it. The song continued. I felt absolutely honored to have been the one who could give him a hand. There was similar situation in his US tour last month when he forgot the lyrics and was reminded by a member of the audience. I just never dreamed that it could happen to me.

The cheers and applause didn’t get less warm. Indeed, it’s still a brilliant show, even if it’s not perfect. I once said “A bad day at fishing is better than a good day at work, an imperfect show from Andrew Bird is way better than a perfect show from many more”.

“There’s only time for one song.” He said. “But I’d like to let you decide what that is.” All of a sudden suggestions poured down. The guy behind me even went as far as shouting “Anything you remember!” Oh that was really rude! But we laughed. Mr Bird laughed too. “That was fair” He said. In the end the choice was between Scythian Empires and Plasticities. There might have been more demand for Scythian Empires, but I was in the front row and I kept shouting Plasticities. :P

So we had Plasticities. That just made the night perfect for me.

That was the end of the main set. On his set list, he put down “I’m going home” and “Weather Systems” for encore, but he only played the first one. It’s an American folk type of cover song I believe. When he waved and bowed to the audience, then took his monkey and walked off stage I was still waiting. I didn’t expect him to play just one song for encore. Probably he was too tired.

There was a fight over the set list (obviously), since Andrew was the only performer there was only one copy on the stage. A friend I met earlier that evening congratulated me on the little rescue I’d done for “Mx Missiles”. I could not help but smiled, and secretly thought, I bet Mr Bird would remember his lyrics well tomorrow. Well, judging from my experience the next day, I was very wrong.

Like I said, it was still a good show. But I wish the set could be longer. He played 15 songs in total, including the instrumental “On Ho”. I think he was tired, probably due to his traveling across the Atlantic, plus he didn’t put on any show in the previous week, he might need some adjustment.

I had prepared a gift for him. After the show I waited by the back door, and was soon joined by 3 other people. It was really cold outside. We felt even colder when we learnt there’s a fireplace in the lighted room by the street. It’s a room with art deco windows. I didn’t want to peek into the window but other people did. It turned out that Mr Bird himself was in that room. During the time we waited there was at least status updates. We knew he ate sushi, drank milk from a glass, and then a beer. Mr Bird ate sushi and then drank milk. What an adorable man. We waited for 1 hour 40 minutes. We waited until the lights were out, until doors to both the front and back of the building were locked. Mr Bird didn’t show up.

I secretly blamed the other people, who were noisy all the time. Andrew knew there were people waiting outside, but he didn’t come out to meet us. I still can’t believe it. That’s just so unlike him, who is generous and sincere.

Maybe he was tired. But I’ve got a present for you Andrew! How can you do this to me?! It was later suggested by a friend that Mr Bird didn’t feel like meeting the person who knows his lyrics better than he does. Well, this is comforting thought.

That was how my Tuesday night ended up in chaos. Come to think of it, that was the first time when my wait by the stage door turned to nothing.

Set list:

The Happy Birthday Song

Water Jet Cilice

Sweet Matter

Why?

Natural Disaster

On Ho

Oh No

Effigy

Wake Up

Anonanimal (not on the set list)

Lusitania

Tenuousness

Mx Missiles

Plasticities (chosen over “Scythian Empires”, which is actually on the set list)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I’m going home

Weather Systems (on the set list but left unplayed)

Tag：AndrewBird gig

exhilarating 发表于10:17:49 | 阅读全文 | 评论 1 | 编辑 | 分享 0
2009-11-15

所谓近况... - [乱写]

似乎每次写到近况，都是那两个字儿：混乱。

不混乱的生活都是相似的，混乱的生活却各有各的混乱法。

电影上映是有档期的，比如年末上映的那些片儿，个个心向奥斯卡。然而终于我也逐渐明白，音乐演出也是有档期的。不然怎么解释自己今年5月和11月的混乱呢？

5月我跑了6场演出；11月目前已经跑了4场，还有3场。

有趣就有趣在，订演出门票的时间总是3个月甚至半年以前，你永远估计不出，等到真正该奔演出的那阵，自己是闲得优哉还是忙到撞墙。

这一次就赶得巧。11月4号我看Wilco。还没等去看，倒先听说加拿大的某个实验室投了某文章去某杂志，从消息看来，他们做的东西大概是我要投的文章的一半。

于是好么。抓狂哇。拼命写哇。还好分析都做完了，就差写。我当然是着急的。我老板说话倒特别有水平，他写邮件说：很少有文章是在十全十美的情况下发表的。你要赶在任何人的文章被发表之前把你的文章投出去。

我心想，哎，这两句多多少少是矛盾的么...

好在我的文章之前已经写了大半。于是用了一周时间，把草稿扔给老板，我就开心的度周末去了，包括去伦敦看Yo La Tengo。

周一回到实验室查邮件，老板果然在周末把草稿过了一遍。他居然说很好，咱们应该争取这周结束之前把它投掉。我心想，你过于乐观了吧？然后经housemate的善意提醒：你老板不是乐观，他是在变着法的催你快干活。

嗯！果然我housemate比我有心眼。我的确有努力干活。只是周二和周三都得跑去伦敦看Andrew Bird。而且我运气超好，8-11号剑桥到伦敦King's Cross夜里没有车。这种事情大概一年也就这么四天，结果被我赶上了其中三天。当晚回不来，早晨又要赶去实验室。每天睡4个小时。疲于奔命。

我只好安慰自己，这世界是公平的。既想发文章，又想自己玩得开心，还要逗老板开心，还要吃得好睡得好。天下哪有这么美的事儿？

如今这周过去了，想来也还算完满。文章是有进展的，目前只需修改文字细节。鸟先生见了，礼物送到了，演出时他也穿了。

鸟先生真是个心思细腻的人。

目前我欠了四篇心得，分别是：Wilco, Yo La Tengo, Andrew Bird x 2

Tag：PhDLife gig

exhilarating 发表于04:09:52 | 阅读全文 | 评论 1 | 编辑 | 分享 0
2009-11-08

Bright Star，Ben Whishaw的Bright Star - [电影]

按照惯例，应该叫Jane Campion的Bright Star。可见我全是私心。

这个电影被我活活盼了一年还不止。如今它终于在UK上映了，我马上跑去看。

首要观感：想看Ben Whishaw的同学，请尽管去看这电影吧！你们不会失望的！

由Jane Campion编剧和导演，Bright Star讲述的是John Keats和Fanny Brawne的爱情故事。它首先是一个浪漫的爱情故事。诗人的爱情总是浪漫的，更何况电影里有好几段诗歌朗诵呢；其次，它是一部Jane Campion电影，即便它讲的是真实故事，它依然是Jane Campion的女性视角，或者不如说，电影描绘的是Fanny Brawne眼中的Keats。

电影的情节好少，少到可以用一句话来概括：Keats和Fanny Brawne恋爱了，他们的爱情虽然美好，却不能长久，因为Keats先生不久于人世。

这是一部安静和滋养心灵的电影。步调极缓，音乐很少。环境和色彩都美极了。满眼是绿色的英格兰乡村，白色，粉色或紫色的花丛。主人公慢慢的散步，轻轻地说话。Ben Whishaw出现在这种背景之下，那真是——美——好。

他演的Keats给人的第一印象是生机勃勃。Ben在采访里说，他揣测角色时曾和一位诗人谈过天。那位诗人说，像Keats这样25岁就离开人世，却留下那许多创作的诗人，一定不是病恹恹躺在床上，而是充满活力的。

接下来Keats恋爱了，他也有疯狂和忌妒的瞬间，然而大部分时候我们看到的Keat是安静，平和，理性，深情款款的。相比之下Abbie Cornish演的Fanny情绪更加大起大落，这也可以理解。Keats和Fanny恋爱时她只有18岁。

写到这里，终于轮到我说那句很废又不可避免的话了：Ben Whishaw实在是太迷人啦！

电影的很多场景里，他静静的坐着，瘦削的，沉思的，内敛的。他的眼窝深深，眉毛浓浓一抹，炉火映在他灰绿的眼睛里，眼睛亮亮的，神情近乎忧郁，然而他五官的线条啊，柔和的像只小猫。Jane Campion也说过Ben漂亮的像一只猫。他一度在家里养了13只猫。然而近来DailyMail做Ben的专访却拍了一系列他牵两只大狗的照片，实在是莫名其妙。

我忘了说他的声音，他清晰温柔，带英格兰中部口音的声音。电影片尾字幕的伴奏便是Ben Whishaw朗读的Ode to a Nightengale。我对Keats的诗歌没有喜爱也没有研究，然而此时觉得他的朗读一定有陪伴入眠的安神功效（？）。

Keats要启程去意大利养病，临行的前一晚，她大哭。他哄她说，Let's pretend I'll return in spring。然后两人依偎在一起设想未来共同的生活。然而那便是他们的诀别。那段戏真是动人。

有些媒体最近会说起Ben Whishaw凭借这个角色冲击奥斯卡的可能性。我觉得不够现实，然而我何尝不希望他至少拿个提名。他之前演的所有角色都几乎把他逼到精神奔溃的边缘，"I rarely survive a film. My mother is very unhappy about that." 然而这一次，他说出演Bright Star的经历对他来说是滋养的（healing）。提到Jane Campion，他叹息说，“I hope she hasn't spoilt me for other work.”

嗯...现在小妹我就盼它出DVD了。然后就可以买回家，想什么时候看就什么时候看，想看多久就看多久。

Tag：BenWhishaw

exhilarating 发表于07:11:49 | 阅读全文 | 评论 3 | 编辑 | 分享 0