It was my little sister’s birthday yesterday – she’s 34. As Lucy Harker said in Nosferatu “time is an abyss, a thousand nights deep”. I will also be having a birthday soon – on the 13th of Feb (which wasn’t a good High School birthday at all – the day before Valentine’s…). I’ll be 37 so let’s hope that Goethe’s theory of entelechy has some merit…
Unfortunately, in this regard, it appears that Beth Orton no longer loves me. In 2003 and 2004, she toured Oz in Feb and played the Tivoli in Brisbane a week before my birthday. Meaning I got to go for free. Though my friend never arranged the negotiations for the betrothal, as I requested. But this year, although Beth played at the Leonard Cohen tribute (I saw LC play live on my 17th birthday…) she doesn’t appear to be touring. She’s playing dates in Canada instead. Maybe I should move. They pay academics really well, have female PMs, and make groovy movies about love and human remains and barbarian invasions. And I can speak French… A tad cold, I believe though…
For what it’s worth, my thesis is dedicated to Beth O.
Anyone catch the Cohen tribute gig btw?
ELSEWHERE: The Age reviews the Cohen gig.
Saw the Len show last night. I’ve had a spit about the downside at my place so I’ll accentuate the positive here.
Your girl was really good. I forget the songs she did, I meant to take notes. During ….. eh, I forget … she had some sexy rock star interplay with Jarvis Cocker. (OK, I have to mention it just once: If she hadn’t been rooted to the spot reading the lyrics it could have been even better!)
Musically, the rest of the night was really good too. I mean, how could it not, with that line up?
Sigh, Leonard tribute would have been great.
Years ago Jennifer Warnes released a CD of his songs and that was just wondeful.
Was playing Beth Orton the other day at work, as you do, and got lots of, “who the hell is that?”
Such an expressive voice. Perhaps too expressive for some.
Canada is great although a tad cold. BUt when it comes to jobs most of the time they say they give preference to citizens and permanent residents. I can understand that as they live next door to the US and would be in danger of being swamped. It also doesn’t stop me applying – I’m not a USan. But nothing has come along so far *sigh*
Cheers, Amanda – read the review at your place – it would have been annoying that the performers were reading the lyrics – particularly as I think it’s a show that’s been put on before?
yeah but every symphony concert i’ve been to the musicians read the music.
yeah but every symphony concert i’ve been to the musicians read the music. I think amanda is spoilt from spending 6 weeks in Tamworth where most of the performers can’t read anyway and she’s also shitty ‘cos Nick didn’t look “right into her eyes” when singing.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved the night and there were some wonderful performances. I just have a chip on my shoulder about that whole issue.
This is a VERY late comment, but for the record I went to one of the gigs and started to write up a few notes about it – which ended up becoming an absurdly long review of the show. If anyone’s interested you can read it over at my page.
They Came So Far For Beauty
I was lucky to be able to see the final show on the Sunday night. Seeing I made a list of all 34 songs played by a moveable feast of 14 different vocalists, I thought I would indulge myself with my own review of the show.