Memed again...

Rob of the madly eclectic blog Eine Kleine Nichtmusik has "memed" me with an interesting one: List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they’re listening to.

Shaping my spring? Hmmmn. Well number 1 is easy; I just blogged about it --- You'd Think by Now by Carrie Newcomer, one of those songs that get into the sore spots of your life, then presses down. Lovely song, tough situation to be in...

2. Well, as I blogged yesterday, we've just seen The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and while the music isn't the strongest point of the show (songs are pleasant enough, but the overall humour is what makes the show entertaining), I have had the theme song stuck on the brain (watch for special guest Al Sharpton in this excerpt performed at the Tony Awards):

3. I'm been turning to The Proclaimers for comfort quite a bit this spring, but I really have a soft spot for "When You're In Love" from their Perseverance album: "Romantic love rots your brain, no doubt about it/ You're out of your mind..." Oh darlin', no truer words spoken (or sung):

4. For some Can/Con, I've been singing Had Enough of You Today, my favourite song from Bark by Blackie and the Rodeo Kings (a sort of folk/rock/country super-group comprised of Stephen Fearing, Tom Wilson, and Colin Linden - okay, they're reasonably well-known as solo artists in Canada). Can't find a decent You Tube performance of this rocker so the 30 seconds at Amazon.ca will have to do. I think this is Tom Wilson's song (ooh, just checked and he co-wrote it with Davor Valuma [a record producer in Vancouver] and Bryan Potvin of The Northern Pikes -- no wonder I love it!) and he wrote it after a road trip with his mother and his ex-wife, but we've all had days like this. Love the grrrrind...

5. I was listening to Colin Murray's "In the Company of" on BBC radio with guest star David Tennant, and right afterwards they played this amazing song, "Oxford Comma" by Vampire Weekend: Just to give the illusion that I'm in the know...

6. I've loved "Face the Face" by Pete Townsend for years, but lately have been attempting to find a clean version of the original video, which features, among other things, a turn by Pete's daughter. All I can find is this posting with the first verse missing: Oh hell, let's jive!

7. Another one I loved for years is the Rankin Family's version of Ho Ro Mo Nighean Donn Bhoidheach. I just heard a version in English yesterday "Ho Ro My Nut-Brown Maiden" which was all testosterone, lust, and thrusting. Maybe that's how it's supposed to be sung, but I adore this dreamy wistful interpretation with its lovely harmonies and round-like ending:


So there, I guess, is my musical spring this year. It's actually not the meme that's tough; it's the tagging. I tend to "lurk" at most blogs, and those where I actually speak up are darned busy blogs. Darnit, I'm only going to tag three people. (Does this mean I'll die at midnight, or lose a million dollars or something?) I tag Vanessa of Stopping to Eat the Roses for her no doubt interesting perspective from her perch in the Philippines, Jonas of Poetry in Motion who has recently rejoined us in blogger-land, and Jane Henry of Maniac Mum who, as a writer and mother of four, clearly doesn't have enough to do. Now I suppose I have to go tell these lucky people that they're "it"....

Broadway Across Canada - Putnam County Spelling Bee

The Resident Fan Boy and I decided to splurge and purchase season tickets for the whole family this year for Broadway Across Canada (evidently the Canadian subsidiary of Broadway Across America). This has been the first year I've even been remotely interested in the offerings. I'm particularly looking forward to Spamalot in the fall, and Wicked may be just the ticket to ease the heartbreak of having to return to Ottawa after six weeks in Victoria this summer. The first show was The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and in a way, this was the kicker. Younger daughter loves spelling bees. There was a spelling bee in the Peanuts movie A Boy Named Charlie Brown, and she astonished her godmother by insisting on coming along to Spellbound at the University of Victoria's Cinecenta when she was seven.

In preparation for the show, I ordered the original cast soundtrack, and played it during dinner. It sounded pretty pedestrian to me, so when we headed off yesterday in the rain to catch the bus, my expectations weren't high. We have a loge for the matinée showing, another splurge, but the privacy is easier on us and second daughter who then has a totally unobstructed view of the stage. We were uneasy when the National Arts Centre ushers tried to encourage us to take seats in the orchestra section, saying there were "sound problems". The Resident Fan Boy and elder daughter were all for heading down, but I said, dammit, we have loge seating, far forward --- how bad could the sound be?

The answer turned out to be: not a problem at all. We could see from our vantage point that the Southam Hall theatre was disappointingly sparse, presumably because this show hasn't had quite the same buzz as the really big Broadway productions. But you know, what the soundtrack CD didn't convey was how very funny this show is. Part of the hilarity comes from the inclusion of four ringers amongst the spellers. I'm not sure if they were chosen from the audience beforehand, but they didn't appear to be actors, although all of them were reasonably attractive, seemed quite comfortable on the stage, and took the jokes at their expense ("She won her local bee by spelling her own name.") without a boggle.

The actors themselves were your usual frightingly talented musical performers, able to sing, dance, act, and improvise. And we heard everything quite clearly. I saw elder daughter laughing easily throughout and younger daughter held up her two favourite puppets so they could see, and told me afterwards, "My favourite bit was the stars." Not quite sure what she meant by that. I'll have to ask her.