Red {a performance}
One of my favorite musical groups is Red {an orchestra}. Combining classical symphonic music with a wide variety of contemporary work, Red concerts are always entertaining and often enlightening. Even when they don't quite hit a home run, they are always worth listening to.
Tonite's concert, the last of this season, featured work by Artistic Director
and Conductor Jonathan Sheffer. I went eagerly expecting to hear something
wonderful, and sorry to say I was disappointed.
The final piece, A Red Couch Floating in Lake Erie, was written by Sheffer based on poetry written about or related to Cleveland in some way. Four vocalists sang lyrics/poems set to Sheffer's music.
I thought the music was interesting throughout, even stirring at times. On the other hand, the poems Sheffer chose, including one about a Cleveland Indian ballplayer killed by a pitch and another about a trip to a Browns game, left me completely unmoved.
Later, a Helen Keller piece about being stranded by a snowstorm in Cleveland was followed by short statements from Malcolm X, Susan B. Anthony and Franklin D. Roosevelt. If there was some continuity of thought I sure didn't grasp it.
Maybe the real problem is that my idea of Cleveland would feature the words of Daniel Thompson and d.a. levy, not poems about a football game and a baseball player.
[Another view, added April 17] Plain Dealer music critic Don Rosenburg loved the performance.
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Web 2.0 successes
Another look at the status of Web 2.0, here's a list of the "10 Most Successful Web Startups To Date " Gives some useful info (target audience, launch date, pageviews, etc.) for all the usual suspects: MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, etc.
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Car tattoos
Seeing as how tattoo art is often intricate and beautiful, you'd think that the idea of removable car "tattoos" would lead to some pretty darn cool stuff. But if you thought that, you'd be wrong. The initial offerings from Car-Tatt.com include such beauties as "Snowboard Santa" and "Sally the Elf." Makes the flower decals of the 60s look avante-garde.