I was gonna ask you all how your Thanksgivings were, but then I realized that most of the people I talk to on this site are non US-Americans. So in case you don't know, Thanksgiving is the holiday here where we eat a lot to celebrate that fact that American Indians gave us a lot of food and were really nice to us before we killed them.
Or something.
So I tried to be all artsy and culture-y this weekend. I went to see my first opera-"Tristan and Isolde"-at the Met. It was 5 hours. 5 HOURS! I figured I'd just jump into the deep end. Why not?
Do you know the story? It's the old school love story thingie-boy meets girl. Boy and girl fall in love. Boy and girl die tragically. That's how ALL the old love stories end. Is that really telling? I don't know. But I didn't even KNOW this story (I thought I might have read it in college but couldn't really remember. And somehow I managed to keep myself away from the James Franco Hollywood version) but I knew how it was gonna end from minute one. It's like "Titanic" at that point. You're just waiting to see how long it takes the boat to sink.
Oh, and the other thing that got was that in this one boy and girl meet and hate each other at first, which is the custom, but then fall in love by means of a love potion. A love potion! That means that basically I was watching an opera about people on drugs for 5 hours. I kinda couldn't get over that.
Saturday I saw Arlo Guthrie and the Guthrie family with Pete Seeger at Carnagie Hall. That might sound a big Cumbaya to some (as Arlo himself put it) but it was amazing. Actually they do the show every year and this is my 4th year going. Arlo Guthrie is one of the most entertaining performers I've ever seen. He's a great songwriter and interpreter and an even better storyteller. He's one of the best monologists working anywhere.
Pete Seeger, if you don't know, is a remarkable person. It's the first time I've ever seen him live and I was in awe. First of all he's 89 years old. He sang with Woody Guthrie during the great depression. (Making him strangely relevant again-yay America!), then had a bunch of hits in the 50's (including "Goodnight Irene" and "Little Boxes"-which is now used as the theme song to "Weeds" and still totally subversive) and then was blacklisted for being a communist. Seeger believed strongly in workers rights and refused to compromise. So ended his hit-making career.
But he became strongly involved in the Civil Rights movement and worked closely with Martin Luther King Jr. in Alabama and other places, leading marches and popularizing what became the theme song of the civil right's movement-"We Shall Overcome." He also worked with musicians around the world and was largely responsible for making the song "Guantanamera" an internationally known song.
For the last 30 years or so he's been heavily involved in environmental law-founding the Clearwater Gang to clean up the Hudson River and working with RFK Jr. to keep Indian Point safe and clean. He also plays high schools, grammar schools, town halls, colleges-anyplace that will let him play and speak out. The guy is astonishing. I was in awe just being in the building with him.
Arlo gave Pete the last song of the night. He chose the obvious- Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land", but preceeded it with a short song he wrote about living in America before Dr. King. It was called "Don't Tell Us We Can't". Knowing what this guy has seen, it was something to hear him sing "This Land is Your Land" in a country that just elected Barack Obama.
And just so everyone knew where he was coming from, Pete sang the last two verses of "This Land". Woody Guthrie, for the record, wrote "This Land is Your Land" as an angry answer to "God Bless America", which he thought was smug and bigoted. His song was a clear cry that America belonged to EVERYONE.
The last two verses go like this:
There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me;
Sign was painted, it said private property;
But on the back side it didn't say nothing;
That side was made for you and me.
Then finally, the old man planted his feet and shouted out the last verse in the loudest voice he had summoned all night:
Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.
It was remarkable.
Or something.
So I tried to be all artsy and culture-y this weekend. I went to see my first opera-"Tristan and Isolde"-at the Met. It was 5 hours. 5 HOURS! I figured I'd just jump into the deep end. Why not?
Do you know the story? It's the old school love story thingie-boy meets girl. Boy and girl fall in love. Boy and girl die tragically. That's how ALL the old love stories end. Is that really telling? I don't know. But I didn't even KNOW this story (I thought I might have read it in college but couldn't really remember. And somehow I managed to keep myself away from the James Franco Hollywood version) but I knew how it was gonna end from minute one. It's like "Titanic" at that point. You're just waiting to see how long it takes the boat to sink.
Oh, and the other thing that got was that in this one boy and girl meet and hate each other at first, which is the custom, but then fall in love by means of a love potion. A love potion! That means that basically I was watching an opera about people on drugs for 5 hours. I kinda couldn't get over that.
Saturday I saw Arlo Guthrie and the Guthrie family with Pete Seeger at Carnagie Hall. That might sound a big Cumbaya to some (as Arlo himself put it) but it was amazing. Actually they do the show every year and this is my 4th year going. Arlo Guthrie is one of the most entertaining performers I've ever seen. He's a great songwriter and interpreter and an even better storyteller. He's one of the best monologists working anywhere.
Pete Seeger, if you don't know, is a remarkable person. It's the first time I've ever seen him live and I was in awe. First of all he's 89 years old. He sang with Woody Guthrie during the great depression. (Making him strangely relevant again-yay America!), then had a bunch of hits in the 50's (including "Goodnight Irene" and "Little Boxes"-which is now used as the theme song to "Weeds" and still totally subversive) and then was blacklisted for being a communist. Seeger believed strongly in workers rights and refused to compromise. So ended his hit-making career.
But he became strongly involved in the Civil Rights movement and worked closely with Martin Luther King Jr. in Alabama and other places, leading marches and popularizing what became the theme song of the civil right's movement-"We Shall Overcome." He also worked with musicians around the world and was largely responsible for making the song "Guantanamera" an internationally known song.
For the last 30 years or so he's been heavily involved in environmental law-founding the Clearwater Gang to clean up the Hudson River and working with RFK Jr. to keep Indian Point safe and clean. He also plays high schools, grammar schools, town halls, colleges-anyplace that will let him play and speak out. The guy is astonishing. I was in awe just being in the building with him.
Arlo gave Pete the last song of the night. He chose the obvious- Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land", but preceeded it with a short song he wrote about living in America before Dr. King. It was called "Don't Tell Us We Can't". Knowing what this guy has seen, it was something to hear him sing "This Land is Your Land" in a country that just elected Barack Obama.
And just so everyone knew where he was coming from, Pete sang the last two verses of "This Land". Woody Guthrie, for the record, wrote "This Land is Your Land" as an angry answer to "God Bless America", which he thought was smug and bigoted. His song was a clear cry that America belonged to EVERYONE.
The last two verses go like this:
There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me;
Sign was painted, it said private property;
But on the back side it didn't say nothing;
That side was made for you and me.
Then finally, the old man planted his feet and shouted out the last verse in the loudest voice he had summoned all night:
Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.
It was remarkable.
VIEW 16 of 16 COMMENTS
lexie:
I've never been to an opera; and my attention span barely lasts through a hour and 45 minute movie. I'd start writing on my hand and making sock puppets.
nena:
Thank you! I've been a year with endless problems with my internet connection. It had been ok for a month now so I thought I wouldn't have trouble about it anymore, but it seems I was wrong... so you see, I'm quite desperate.