Lèse Majesté

WTF?

Toby "boot up your ass" Keith playing at the Nobel Peace Prize concert? Are you freaking kidding me?

Foodie adventures continued

Film, theater, and art were not my only pursuits on this trip to New York. I also went looking for a number of street food vendors I've been following online for quite a while. I found a couple of them...

The Schnitzel Truck has been making news lately as one of the more assertive new players in the growing vendor wars in the city. I was able to catch them on a day they were serving veal schnitzel, and oh my, this takes street food to a whole new level. Huge slab of freshly cooked schnitzel, Austrian potato salad, and braised sauerkraut. I took it a couple blocks to Madison Square Park where I sat out on a lovely day and ate my lunch in the park. Had to fight off some very aggressive squirrels who were determined to share it. This gentleman was sharing my bench. Note the furball who is about to jump on his shoulder to try to get to his food:

 

Another truck I've been trying to find and finally tracked down was Street Sweets. I found them a couple blocks from MoMA after I went to the museum's members' preview of the new Monet Water Lilies exhibit. They had just finished baking a most delicious treat. It was a sandwich cookie made with two flattened coconut macaroons, filled with Nutella. Oh. My. Gawd.

The one vendor I was still unable to meet up with was the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck. What a concept. Can you imagine the reaction it would get just about anywhere else in the country? ("Think of the children!") You gotta love a guy who offers free ice cream to anyone who will come perform a particular opera song at the cart. What was the specified tune? Glitter and Be Gay from Bernstein's Candide, of course. This entry was caught on video:

The gal can sing! Can you imagine walking down the sidewalk and stumbling upon that performance? Where else in the world would that happen? I love the reactions from the passersby.

BTW, just to wander off topic a bit, this reminded me of my favorite performance of that song by the amazing Kristin Chenoweth:

Complete with Patti LuPone chewing the scenery at the beginning!

Heath Ledger's video for Modest Mouse

Before he died Heath Ledger had envisioned a video for Modest Mouse's song King Rat and persuaded them to let him direct it. His production company completed the animated piece and has now released it as a fundraiser for Sea Shepherd. You'll see the connection as he turns whaling completely upside down:

The story of the project is told here.

The lowest of the low

To say I dislike Coldplay is an understatement of astronomical scale. I loathe them. I despise them. The affected caterwauling that passes for singing from Chris Martin is like a dental drill spinning up and spinning down next to my ear. Hell, in my ear. Those who know my musical tastes from way back when will be surprised to hear that I detest the sound of his voice even more than Robert Plant's. That is saying a hell of a lot.

Which is why it pains me to report that there is something even worse. And that is the sound of post-Superbowl drunks attempting to sing along to Coldplay in a karaoke bar. Not that I would go near the inside of one. But this hell house is open to the outdoors on the main (dirt-covered) street of West End here in Roatan.

It was enough to drive me to drinking. To IV narcotic use, perhaps, had any been handy...

Surreal press release quote of the day

"The opportunity for synergy between Sears and LL Cool J has been phenomenal," Craig Israel, svp/president of apparel at Sears Holdings, said in a statement. "It stems in large part from the authenticity of the campaign. Sears was a fixture in his life from the time he was a child. He is committed to bringing that same relevance to families today."

This will make you feel old

A profile of the baby on the cover of Nevermind - he's now 17... His old man explains:

"[He] calls us up and was like, 'Hey Rick, wanna make 200 bucks and throw your kid in the drink?,'" Rick recounts. "I was like, 'What's up?' And he's like, 'Well, I'm shooting kids all this week, why don't you meet me at the Rose Bowl, throw your kid in the drink?' And we just had a big party at the pool, and no one had any idea what was going on!"

Live Strange

The cast recording of Passing Strange is available for purchase on iTunes now. It's the first Broadway show to premiere its cast recording on iTunes. I think it's due in hardcopy form in stores early in July. Continuing the show's nonconformist trend, they recorded it live before an audience on stage in the Belasco Theater where it is running.

The cast and band also performed live at the Obie Awards a few weeks ago when it won the Best New Theater Piece award. The concert performance is captured in the video below. The first song, "We Just Had Sex," was too much for CBS and they weren't allowed to do it for the taped pre-Tonys show due to be broadcast this Sunday. The last three minutes or so of this video demonstrate the incredible energy of this show and why I keep raving about it.

Spring in Minnesota

Good grief. 80s yesterday with thunderstorms, 3.5-inch hail, and tornadoes, one of which killed a two-year-old just north of the Cities. And tonight there are frost warnings up in the northeast corner of the state.

Just as the gust front from that storm system hit downtown Minneapolis last night we headed out for a concert by the Dave Brubeck quartet at Orchestra Hall. It's amazing he's still out doing shows - I think he's 86 now. He moves a little slowly and leans on things when he stands, but he's still lively and plays a mean piano. He joked that after watching the TV all day they had better dedicate the first half of the concert to the weather. And then started with Stormy Weather, Sunny Side of the Street, and Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

It was a great show. The three sidemen are all retirement age themselves, it would appear, but young by comparison with Brubeck. One has played with him for 37 years, another for 30, so it's a real tight band. And of course they finished the program with Take Five, including a prolonged drum solo. They came back for a real brief encore, and the night was over.

The band with the golden flute

So Sir James Galway was in town to play with the Minnesota Orchestra over the weekend. And he has a recording date coming up in a week or two with the Cuban timba band Tiempo Libre for the first album to be put out under his new contract with Sony BMG. They need to get some rehearsal time in together. And one of the best jazz clubs in the country is right down the street from Orchestra Hall. Hmmm....

What a night. Somehow the Dakota booked them together for a live rehearsal performance. And Radio Girl scored tickets right at the stage. I mean I could have reached up and tickled the high keys on the piano - without getting out of my seat. Galway brought his famous gold flutes with him, including what he claims is the only gold alto flute in the world. They did an amazing set together - I'm ready to buy this CD, and it isn't even recorded yet! After a break, local sax man Doug Little joined Tiempo Libre for a fantastically energetic set while Sir James sat down for dinner at the next table.

(Speaking of dinner, they can still cook at the Dakota. I had a baby arugula salad with shaved fennel, pistachio, green apple, and pecorino romano to start, with a main course of lamb loin cassoulet made with cannellini beans, lamb sausage, and marjoram pistou. The salad was tasty if nothing special. But the lamb was to die for. Several thick medallions of it, seared with a nice rare center. Mmmm... )

Random notes about old midwestern rock

In a bizarre brush with semi-celebrity, I discovered last week that a member of REO Speedwagon lives upstairs from me. This got me thinking about some old, old musical connections. Back in my high school days, REO was one of the regional bands we saw a lot of back before they became a major national act. Their rise to fame pretty much corresponded to the arrival of Kevin Cronin as the frontman. I never really could stand that version of the REO sound, though. This is the band as I knew them growing up:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3QXHhgM_zW8

If you can get past that soporific host's introduction, you'll hear a very different band than the one that produced all the syrupy pop in the 80s. A friend of mine from back in the good old days used to say the best part of REO Speedwagon left to create Starcastle. He was referring to Terry Luttrell, the singer in that clip. But they also suffered a bit later on from the loss of Gary Richrath.

And to get seriously deep into prog rock trivia, Starcastle is still around too. They played the Rites of Spring festival last year, and guess who joined them on vocals? Annie Haslam ! I was so in love with her five-octave voice back in the 70s when she was fronting Renaissance. Ironically for a band that was often knocked for being a Yes clone, the guy now playing keyboards for Starcastle is none other than Rick Wakeman's son. And to tie this all to tech geek trivia, their original keyboard player was none other than Herb Schildt. Yes, that Herb Schildt.

Still to come... Is Pavlov's Dog still around? What about Head East? And are any of them performing anything worth listening to these days?