Kelly Clarkson in Macau

Kelly Clarkson in Macau

I had the chance to see Kelly Clarkson perform in Macau, China at the Cotai Arena inside the Venetian casino on May 8, 2010. What an absolutely fantastic performer! I guess you could say I’m one of her fans now.

Of course I have heard her name for years and have seen bits of her performing on American Idol; and those many clips on YouTube. But to hear her live was really something. A great set of pipes. I marveled at her constant control between head and chest voice – her effortless floating up in the ether with light dancing turns, swooping down like the Red Baron to a beefy chest voice and back up again for some real gospel style runs up in the stars. Amazing.

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Symphony of Science – We Are All Connected

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGK84Poeynk

“We Are All Connected” was made from sampling Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, The History Channel’s Universe series, Richard Feynman’s 1983 interviews, Neil deGrasse Tyson’s cosmic sermon, and Bill Nye’s Eyes of Nye Series, plus added visuals from The Elegant Universe (NOVA), Stephen Hawking’s Universe, Cosmos, the Powers of 10, and more. It is a tribute to great minds of science, intended to spread scientific knowledge and philosophy through the medium of music.

Philippine Airlines Midnight Madness F**ked up

Dear Philippine Airlines,

When you promote on your website that you’re going to have these great specials but only from midnight to 6am Manila time only on one particular Saturday night/Sunday morning (so that we have to stay up all night to get the special deal which we don’t even have details on ahead of time), maybe you should make sure your website is ACTUALLY AVAILABLE to handle the traffic. Like when your website said to the likes of “this time we’ll be able to handle the traffic so make sure you stay up all night for the great deals”. And what about the likes of “we realize we had tech problems last time we tried this, but this time we’ll be ready for you”.

Got a tip for you: You know why your website is down because of too much traffic? Because you ADVERTISED IT WAS ONLY AVAILABLE MIDNIGHT TO SIX AM MANILA TIME – so that’s the only time we could all try to access it all at once. Great marketing, make everyone hit your website at the same time so it crashes.

I’ve got three people that wanted to go to Puerto Princessa in Palawan Philippines and I stayed up all night for your deals (and several hours trying to access your website).

Are you trying to get us all to just book with Cebu? I don’t get it. This is not very “Mabuhai” of you. It really sucks. I’ll grant you that the Philippine Airlines “Midnight Madness” did indeed grant me madness, just not the kind I was expecting.

Your biggest fan,

Conrad Askland

Cirque Michael Jackson

The Associated Press

Date: Tuesday Apr. 20, 2010 1:33 PM ET

LOS ANGELES — First the Beatles and Elvis, now Michael Jackson.

The acrobatic troupe Cirque du Soleil announced Tuesday that it will put on a live touring show featuring the songs of the King of Pop starting late next year.

That will be followed by a permanent production in Las Vegas in 2012 at a property owned by casino operator MGM Mirage.

The casino company did not say which venue will host the show.

Cirque and Jackson’s estate will each own 50 percent of the project and share equally in the cost of putting it on. The estate will also receive royalties from the use of Jackson’s music and other property.

And CNN.com:
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/04/20/michael.jackson.cirque/index.html?eref=edition

Los Angeles, California (CNN) — Cirque du Soleil and Michael Jackson’s estate have struck a deal to bring the late pop star’s music to the big tent starting next year.

The show will go on tour near the end of 2011, and a Las Vegas, Nevada, show will debut the following year, according to Cirque du Soleil President and CEO Daniel Lamarre.

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Leoš Janáček – String Quartet No. 2, ‘Intimate Letters’ (1 of 4)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jh7aXjRj08

I did not like this piece on first listen – then I read about it’s background: the description of Janacek’s unrequited love and pining. And now the piece is very powerful to me.

Janacek once wrote: “I maintain that a pure musical note means nothing unless it is pinned down in life, blood and locale; otherwise, it is a worthless toy.”

And that is exactly true for this piece, the “Intimate Letters”. How many songs do we each have in our personal lives that are tied to a certain event or emotion that triggers our memory when we hear it? Or to have a piece like this framed with new information so the performance takes on a deeper perceived meaning.

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The Clowns of Cirque Du Soleil

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVwRv7tnRcA

A montage of the clowns of Cirque Du Soleil. I see Dimitri Hatton here from our ZAIA Cirque show doing his Montgolfiere passage and “Mad Conductor” act. I’m sure that Onofrio Colucci is also in this video but I’m not sure which clown he is (formerly with “O” and Zaia, currently with ZED in Tokyo).

You’ll also see Brian Dewhurst from Mystere. I had the chance to see Mystere performed in Vegas several years ago and the pre-show antics of Dewhurst stand out in my memory as one of the highlights of the show. He is SO funny.

John Cage 4’33”

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUJagb7hL0E

You might have heard the piece 4’33” (Four minutes and 33 seconds) by John Cage for piano, but here it is presented by a full orchestra.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcHnL7aS64Y

John Cage talks about Silence. “We don’t know a difference between time and space, we don’t know where one starts and the other stops.”

Where do Musicals come from?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbltJNYaH0k

Where do Musicals come from? Also on my blog you can find related clips from “Broadway: The Golden Age”. I own this movie and it’s fantastic for giving an understanding of the roots and development of the American Broadway Musical. This short clip here is from the same producers. (In fact I did a glowing review of the film and one of the producers posted a comment here on my blog – not THAT’S cool.)

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