Fall/winter events round-up
Mar. 11th, 2018 02:20 pmSo, it's been a while. I definitely don't have time to maintain a journal online like I used to, and with giving myself the freedom not to post all my books, I also haven't been keeping up with event posts. But the thing about that is that I've got Goodreads for book tracking, but I genuinely use LJ/DW for capturing memories about events. So here's the abbreviated, compromise-with-myself version of stuff that happened over the past six months or so.
Friday September 22: Josh Ritter Free at Noon concert at World Cafe Live/WXPN: This was the first free at noon I ever went to, which is silly because I can walk to XPN from my office in about 20 minutes along the river, and it's a concert, for free, and not at 10:00 at night. I loved seeing Josh Ritter - he's always such a treat, so happy to be performing, and he really seems to like XPN, too. It was my first time hearing the songs from his album Gathering, which was actually launching that day; it's about like any Josh Ritter album. But the show was good.
Sunday September 24: The Magic Flute at the Academy of Music: I saw this as part of Opera Philadelphia's inaugural fall opera festival. I've never seen a performance quite like this before. The set was basically one big screen, and it used animation and technology to make the story unfold. Performers sort of stuck their heads out of cutouts in the screen to sing, and certain characters got animated bodies instead of human bodies (like the queen of the night was a giant spider). Totally interesting, fun to watch, a really different take on opera.
Friday September 29: Rainer Maria at Underground Arts: I was so excited to see Rainer Maria, who were one of my very favorite bands back in the day, but I went about going to this show all wrong. I'd never been to Underground Arts before, and I forgot about opening bands, and that bands tend to play really late at night. So I arranged the sitter to come and put Freya to bed, thinking F and I could get some date time in before the show, and told her we'd be home around 11. We did have a nice time at a bar near the venue (seasoned popcorn yum), but then we suffered through two different opening acts.
Callowhill was fine and listenable, but Olivia Neutron-John was just cringe-worthy. We couldn't help live-posting to Facebook about it, and notable quotes included "It was the hair of Robert Smith, and an attempt at the vocals of Ministry, all over synth space pop." And "Alas, it was more gothy, electronic screaming with hints of new wave, a dash of disco, and a pinch of anguished art school performance theatrics." And "I mean, there were melodic moments, but overall I spent the set wondering what her mother thinks of her life decisions. I would like to see this woman comb her hair, stop screaming, and sing a nice song for once. So if anyone was doubting my mom cred, there you go." So yeah, I didn't buy her album.
And then we waited and waited and waited for Rainer Maria to come on, and kept texting the babysitter to extend our time, and by the time they came on we got to see four songs before we had to leave to get home by midnight. So thumbs down on that. If I'd planned it better, I would have had the babysitter come at like 10pm-1am and skipped all the crappy bands. Sigh. Next time.
Friday October 20: First Aid Kit Free at Noon concert at World Cafe Live/WXPN: I really love this band, they are two sisters from Stockholm but they have a really countryfied jam. And I got to see them live and not have to pay to go see their actual show when they came back to Philly in February (a decision influenced in no small part by the OMG I hate opening bands experience described above). But the free at noon show was great. Which reminds me, I need to pick up the new album.
Saturday October 21: Goat yoga at Mad Lavender Farm in NJ: This was seriously the best. I went with my friend Sarah. Yoga class is held in the goat paddock, and the inhabitants climb on you, eat your hair or your mat, demand to be petted, and of course pee wherever they feel like. But the great part is that you absolutely have to be "present moment" when you're doing yoga with goats around. Goats don't let you get distracted, they want to be petted right now. So much fun.
Saturday December 16: The Nutcracker: This is now a Freya-and-Mommy annual tradition. We went with friends (Freya's best bud Eva and her mom) again this year, but we went to a different production: the last two years we did Nutcracker 1776, performed by The Rock School in Haverford College's Centennial Theater, but this year we saw one by the Academy of International Ballet performed at our local middle school. The change was partly due to poor planning, and partly due to Freya having a church friend in the performance. It was good, but I don't think as good as the one by The Rock School (Freya's friend notwithstanding, as that little guy did a great job).
December: Dogfish Head Beer Talk and Tasting at the Penn Museum: I can't remember exactly when this was in December. I went with my friend Archaeology Wife for the first time in a while. This was a really cool event: the owner/brewer of Dogfish and a Penn professor talked about their collaboration to brew ancient ales based on analysis of remains scraped from the bottoms of ancient pottery. I already loved Dogfish's ancient ales, so it was just cool to hear them tell the behind the scenes stories. There was also a beer tasting, with some snacks paired with the various beers. Really cool event.
December: Terracotta Warriors exhibit at the Franklin Institute: We joined the Franklin
this year specifically for this exhibit. They had a special new members reception that was free, so F and I did that as a date night so we could see it ourselves. Then we went back with Freya and my parents. Really interesting exhibit. The first half was about the history and the figures themselves, the second half about the archaeology involved. Freya had read a book about them (go Magic Treehouse) and was excited to see them. The Franklin also had a cool phone app where you could take photos with terracotta warriors wherever you were, so we played with that. Now if we go back to the Franklin even once more, we'll have gotten our money's worth out of the membership.
Saturday January 20: Women's March: I was excited to go to the Women's March for the second year in a row. This year we got a lot closer and could actually hear some of the speeches. Just so much great energy.
Sunday February 18: Written on Skin at the Academy of Music: I have never seen an opera like this before. Incredibly intense, incredibly dark. Really fresh. Older operagoers seemed confused (overheard from nearby seats: A: "No one's been applauding for the arias." B: "What arias?" and also, "Are we there yet?"). And it was confusing, but also enormously well done; we heard from a lady that her friends had seen it in NYC and then come down to see it again here (so they must've liked it to begin with) and thought the one here was even better. The ideas of illuminated manuscripts, glowing boxes, what it means to create a book, what it means to be in a human body. A definite wow.
Movies:
I saw Star Wars in the theater with friends in December. We were all pretty torn about it; there was a lot to love, and also a lot that was unexpected. I thought at the time that I wouldn't want to watch it again, but I'm now looking forward to a rewatch. I think people who liked it liked its ability to reimagine how things work in the Star Wars universe. I also saw Black Panther a few weeks ago, and that was undeniably excellent.
Friday September 22: Josh Ritter Free at Noon concert at World Cafe Live/WXPN: This was the first free at noon I ever went to, which is silly because I can walk to XPN from my office in about 20 minutes along the river, and it's a concert, for free, and not at 10:00 at night. I loved seeing Josh Ritter - he's always such a treat, so happy to be performing, and he really seems to like XPN, too. It was my first time hearing the songs from his album Gathering, which was actually launching that day; it's about like any Josh Ritter album. But the show was good.
Sunday September 24: The Magic Flute at the Academy of Music: I saw this as part of Opera Philadelphia's inaugural fall opera festival. I've never seen a performance quite like this before. The set was basically one big screen, and it used animation and technology to make the story unfold. Performers sort of stuck their heads out of cutouts in the screen to sing, and certain characters got animated bodies instead of human bodies (like the queen of the night was a giant spider). Totally interesting, fun to watch, a really different take on opera.
Friday September 29: Rainer Maria at Underground Arts: I was so excited to see Rainer Maria, who were one of my very favorite bands back in the day, but I went about going to this show all wrong. I'd never been to Underground Arts before, and I forgot about opening bands, and that bands tend to play really late at night. So I arranged the sitter to come and put Freya to bed, thinking F and I could get some date time in before the show, and told her we'd be home around 11. We did have a nice time at a bar near the venue (seasoned popcorn yum), but then we suffered through two different opening acts.
Callowhill was fine and listenable, but Olivia Neutron-John was just cringe-worthy. We couldn't help live-posting to Facebook about it, and notable quotes included "It was the hair of Robert Smith, and an attempt at the vocals of Ministry, all over synth space pop." And "Alas, it was more gothy, electronic screaming with hints of new wave, a dash of disco, and a pinch of anguished art school performance theatrics." And "I mean, there were melodic moments, but overall I spent the set wondering what her mother thinks of her life decisions. I would like to see this woman comb her hair, stop screaming, and sing a nice song for once. So if anyone was doubting my mom cred, there you go." So yeah, I didn't buy her album.
And then we waited and waited and waited for Rainer Maria to come on, and kept texting the babysitter to extend our time, and by the time they came on we got to see four songs before we had to leave to get home by midnight. So thumbs down on that. If I'd planned it better, I would have had the babysitter come at like 10pm-1am and skipped all the crappy bands. Sigh. Next time.
Friday October 20: First Aid Kit Free at Noon concert at World Cafe Live/WXPN: I really love this band, they are two sisters from Stockholm but they have a really countryfied jam. And I got to see them live and not have to pay to go see their actual show when they came back to Philly in February (a decision influenced in no small part by the OMG I hate opening bands experience described above). But the free at noon show was great. Which reminds me, I need to pick up the new album.
Saturday October 21: Goat yoga at Mad Lavender Farm in NJ: This was seriously the best. I went with my friend Sarah. Yoga class is held in the goat paddock, and the inhabitants climb on you, eat your hair or your mat, demand to be petted, and of course pee wherever they feel like. But the great part is that you absolutely have to be "present moment" when you're doing yoga with goats around. Goats don't let you get distracted, they want to be petted right now. So much fun.
Saturday December 16: The Nutcracker: This is now a Freya-and-Mommy annual tradition. We went with friends (Freya's best bud Eva and her mom) again this year, but we went to a different production: the last two years we did Nutcracker 1776, performed by The Rock School in Haverford College's Centennial Theater, but this year we saw one by the Academy of International Ballet performed at our local middle school. The change was partly due to poor planning, and partly due to Freya having a church friend in the performance. It was good, but I don't think as good as the one by The Rock School (Freya's friend notwithstanding, as that little guy did a great job).
December: Dogfish Head Beer Talk and Tasting at the Penn Museum: I can't remember exactly when this was in December. I went with my friend Archaeology Wife for the first time in a while. This was a really cool event: the owner/brewer of Dogfish and a Penn professor talked about their collaboration to brew ancient ales based on analysis of remains scraped from the bottoms of ancient pottery. I already loved Dogfish's ancient ales, so it was just cool to hear them tell the behind the scenes stories. There was also a beer tasting, with some snacks paired with the various beers. Really cool event.
December: Terracotta Warriors exhibit at the Franklin Institute: We joined the Franklin
this year specifically for this exhibit. They had a special new members reception that was free, so F and I did that as a date night so we could see it ourselves. Then we went back with Freya and my parents. Really interesting exhibit. The first half was about the history and the figures themselves, the second half about the archaeology involved. Freya had read a book about them (go Magic Treehouse) and was excited to see them. The Franklin also had a cool phone app where you could take photos with terracotta warriors wherever you were, so we played with that. Now if we go back to the Franklin even once more, we'll have gotten our money's worth out of the membership.
Saturday January 20: Women's March: I was excited to go to the Women's March for the second year in a row. This year we got a lot closer and could actually hear some of the speeches. Just so much great energy.
Sunday February 18: Written on Skin at the Academy of Music: I have never seen an opera like this before. Incredibly intense, incredibly dark. Really fresh. Older operagoers seemed confused (overheard from nearby seats: A: "No one's been applauding for the arias." B: "What arias?" and also, "Are we there yet?"). And it was confusing, but also enormously well done; we heard from a lady that her friends had seen it in NYC and then come down to see it again here (so they must've liked it to begin with) and thought the one here was even better. The ideas of illuminated manuscripts, glowing boxes, what it means to create a book, what it means to be in a human body. A definite wow.
Movies:
I saw Star Wars in the theater with friends in December. We were all pretty torn about it; there was a lot to love, and also a lot that was unexpected. I thought at the time that I wouldn't want to watch it again, but I'm now looking forward to a rewatch. I think people who liked it liked its ability to reimagine how things work in the Star Wars universe. I also saw Black Panther a few weeks ago, and that was undeniably excellent.