Great Leaving Songs

Television- "Marquee Moon"
To get from the choir room where I work to my front porch takes all of "Marquee Moon" and about three and a half minutes of "Elevation." The guitars go well with "thank god I'm going home, but oh shit I've got so much else to do today." It's all tension, except maybe on the solos.

Orange Juice- "Three Cheers For Our Side"
The faster, swingy parts soundtrack the manic ride to an appointment you're late to, and the slower sections are like your friends drinking tea, and checking their watches.

Steely Dan- "Bodhisattva"
Duh.

I am very slowly moving out of my apartment, back in with the 'rents. And, you know, it's cool and whatever.

I can't get past the political overtones in 300 enough to fully enjoy the prettiness and artistry of it. So sue me!

City of Mahoganny

A crowd-pleaser it wasn't. As near as I could tell, they (the LA Opera) were attempting a kind-of-faithful, Brechtian production. The actors walked very slowly, and the performances were pulled back to almost dead pan recitation. The music is typically challenging to the ear, and the Brechtian device of "alienation" was in full swing. It was clear that we were there to learn Mahoganny's lesson of anti-materialism (anti-capitalism), rather than be "entertained."

And yet... the music smolders. The score has so much bile, and the male chorus gives so much muscle to the choral numbers. The English translation they performed was too clunky and too faithful to do it justice, and I want to hear it in German. Mostly, the entire cast is onstage, swallowing the lead players (even Patti Lupone). But Audra McDonald found a lot of breathing room in her character, easily commanding the stage and transcending the generally oppressive nature of the rest of the show. It was almost like she was having fun, which maybe the rest of the cast could have taken from.

I'm glad to have seen it, though I doubt I'd pay $165 to see it again.