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Category Archives: Popular music & culture
Cyclops on the edge
I have just seen Cyclops: A Satyr Play, Produced by Panic Theatre in association with Talk is Free Theatre, Written, Directed and Performed by Griffin Hewitt, with Original Music by Juliette Jones. If I said it’s Euripides’ only surviving Satyr … Continue reading
BELTing Over the Rainbow
BELT Monday night March 9th invited us to “another unforgettable night of communal singing at Crow’s Theatre” to “learn and perform the beloved classic “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz.” After spending Saturday morning March 7th studying … Continue reading
Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Popular music & culture
Tagged Anika Johnson, Antonin Dvorak, BELT, Christopher Bagan, Claude Debussy, Crow's Theatre, Guloien Theatre, Harold Arlen, Jake Schindler, JS Bach, Judy Garland, Opera Atelier, Opera Revue, Pelleas et Melisande, Rusalka, Sondra Radvanovsky, Song of the Moon, The View, The Wizard of Oz, Timothee Chalamet, Whoopi Goldberg
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Appreciating Canadian Artists on Flag Day
The day after Valentine’s Day, February 15th 1965, the new Canadian flag replaced the old one. On both February 14th and 15th we see red, both days to show our love. Twenty-nine years ago, in 1996 Jean Chretien proclaimed “Flag … Continue reading
Posted in Essays, Personal ruminations & essays, Popular music & culture
Tagged Canada, Canadian Flag, Flag Day, Red Ensign, Valentine's Day
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Mourning Donald Sutherland
I am another Canadian mourning the passing of Donald Sutherland. When celebrities pass we may sometimes feel the loss more keenly than would seem reasonable for a stranger. I never met him even though I saw many of his films. … Continue reading
2024 Met Gala – JG Ballard’s Garden of Time tone deaf to the rabble
The 2024 Met Gala fund-raiser used a JG Ballard story for its theme, The Garden of Time. Ballard is one of my favourite writers, especially his short stories and science fiction. Several have made wonderful films. Art and commerce lurk … Continue reading
Questions for Jack Hui Litster in anticipation of his Gates of Heaven: Requiem for a Life of Peace
Jack Hui Litster has recently had two original operas produced by OperOttawa. Jack is a multi-instrumentalist and composer of concert music and film and TV score based in Ottawa, blending his classical and popular music training. As Composer-in-Residence for OperOttawa, Jack … Continue reading
Posted in Interviews, Music and musicology, Opera, Popular music & culture
Tagged Gates of Heaven: Requiem for a Life of Peace, Inter Pares, Jack Hui Litster, Kahlil Gibran, King Arthur, Norman E Brown, OperOttawa, Requiem, Tan Dun, The Day You Were Born, The First Emperor, The Prophet, What Is Love?
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Pete Davidson’s Bupkis
Pete Davidson’s new series Bupkis is in the twilight zone between reality tv and fiction. It’s a kind of fiction made from reality…? I’m not sure, perhaps I’m giving it too much credit. It feels original. And so we watch … Continue reading
A Blue Christmas pointing me to Elvis’s redemption
The recent Saturday Night Live hosted by Austin Butler persuaded me to watch the recent biography of Elvis Presley, starring Butler. As we watched, Erika pointed to the similarity between Butler and Elvis, two men who both lost their mother … Continue reading
Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Dance, theatre & musicals, Popular music & culture
Tagged Austin Butler, Blue Christmas, Cecily Strong, Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis, Elvis Presley, Forrest Gump, Gabor Maté, Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Moulin Rouge, saturday night live, Strictly Ballroom, The Great Gatsby, Tom Hanks
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Popular Tchaikovsky at the TSO
Handel speaks from beyond the grave to remind musicians how he helps pay the rent in a meme. Ballet companies owe Tchaikovsky a similar debt, when families flock to the theatre for The Nutcracker. Popularity can be problematic when it … Continue reading
Sarah Polley – Run Towards the Danger
I have just finished reading Sarah Polley’s Run Towards the Danger, a book like none I’ve ever read before. It might be the most authentic autobiography I’ve ever encountered. Except that it’s not an autobiography. I notice too that while … Continue reading
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