One last late night, Sister Saviour, before it’s too late.
Okay, I’m going to start with a list of interesting things I saw at the Royal Gardens at Kew in England. Photos are on facebook.
Atlas Cedar Cedrus atlantica (fam. Pinaceae)
Peacocks
Holly Oak Quercus ilex
Wollemi Pine Wollemia nobilis
Monkey Puzzle Araucaria araucana
Pagoda tree Saphora japonica
Pitcher plants Serracenia sp.
Ebony tree Diospyros ebenum
My trip to L.A. to see Paradise Lost was incredible. L.A. is a fairly strange city. Unlike Chicago (or any other city I’ve seen) it doesn’t really have an identifiable downtown. The whole thing is incredibly decentralized. It seemed like a never-ending suburb to me; the buildings were short, and there were vacant lots intermittently. All in all it was rather disconcerting. It made me wonder how any business got done without a pinpointable commercial epicenter.
At any rate, the performance was out in Pasadena, about an hour and half trip from our hotel, after two buses and a train (don’t bother going to L.A. unless you have a car rented, or if you have absolutely no schedule). The theater was tiny, with 99 seats. There wasn’t a bad seat in the whole house, and you were never more than 20 feet from the stage. The stage and costume had a sort of run-down futuristic grunge look. He had changed the music quite a bit since I saw the music performed at Northwestern University more than a year ago. The singing was all absolutely incredible. The lead, Extasis (played by Eric Whitacre’s wife, Hila Plitmann), is an unbelievable soprano, hitting high notes reminiscent of Mozart’s Queen of the Night aria like they were nothing. She had the ability to pull them out of nowhere at these insane intervals. The music wasn’t quite as driving as when I saw it previously performed, I think due to the bass being balanced lower at the show.
Greg, Alexis, and I saw Jason Crystal before the show. He’s working as a microphone technician/directing a small ensemble in the show. After the show Eric Whitacre was in the lobby talking to people and signing autographs. I had him sign my program, and Alexis had him sign sheet music for her mother. He said a recording of the show was going to be out soon. They’re splicing together recordings from the shows which end Sept. 2.
Most importantly, however, is the fact that Eric Whitacre complimented my hair. Yes, the Eric Whitacre, who has perfect hair himself and knows it, complimented my hair. I can never cut it again ever. All you doubters and naysayers have been pwnd.
Unfortunately, I have more bad news independent of the Hutsell’s case. On Tuesday July 24th there was a car accident at the corner of Deerfield and Kate’s Road. [Susan Smith],17 and a Deerfield student, was killed in the crash. Her car, driven by another teen, went straight through a yellow light. An oncoming car of teenagers tried to make a left through the yellow light. All other injuries were not life-threatening. Though [Susan] was not wearing her seat belt, I was almost relieved when I heard that no alcohol or drugs were involved in the accident. This is such a horrible accident in an already much injured community. Many wonder if Deerfield is cursed. I myself have trouble believe that so much death could have visited such a small, unpresuming city as Deerfield in less than a year.
This brings me to a few interesting articles that appeared in the July 26th edition of our local newspaper. It seems that police busted a teen drinking party the previous Friday. There were six arrested teens who had their mugshots printed in the paper. [John], 19, was one of the three people to survive the car crash last Homecoming that killed two Deerfield teens. [Josh], 19, is the brother of [Jenny] who died earlier this year in an alcohol related incident. [Chris and Alexa], both 19, were attending the party at the Hutsell’s the night of the accident. The owners of the house these teens were at were not a home and did not know about the party. Consequently all six teens were charged not only with possession of alcohol by a minor (and consumption in some cases), but also with criminal trespass to residence. This charge in itself is hardly significant, but it sends a message that the police are tolerating less and are more willing to charge to a fuller extent of the law.
The Hutsells were convicted on misdemeanor counts of endangering the health of a child, violating the state’s liquor control act, and attempted obstruction of justice. They are awaiting sentencing. As a side note, not a single teen who attended the party at the Hutsell’s house has been charged with possession or consumption of alcohol by a minor.
My question is if people honestly think that anything is going to change if we tar and feather people for the misdeeds of others while those who are at fault are amongst the hypocritical crowd jeering as their scapegoats are ridden out of town on a rail. I think it would be a much more effective example if the teens at the party October 13th at the Hutsell’s and the six teens at the most recent party were garroted in the town square, or perhaps in front of the school, and left hanging as a daily reminder to those not yet killed by their own stupidity.
The city I live in, the city of angels.
Sorry that it’s taking me so long to write that update on the Hutsells. Unfortunately this isn’t it either. It’s a difficult think to write about; I get very worked up about the issue. Anyway, I need to go to bed now because I have to get up early tomorrow morning to catch my flight to L.A.
Through a series of rather unfortunate events, it seems as though only Greg, Alexis, and myself will be going on the trip (Eytan, Josh, Franklin, and Zach are all unable to make it for various reasons). Regardless, I head into the trip undaunted and thoroughly excited to finally see the full production of Paradise Lost by our favorite composer Eric Whitacre. Unfortunately none of my friends from L.A. are going to be in town (by which I mean Levy and Eisenhower), but I have been told to eat at the In ‘n Out Burger. Updates on the show and Deerfield’s teen drinking problem when I return.
Listening to: Kraftwerk
No one will recall/All to no avail
I just got back from the second day of Lollapalooza. I heard a little bit of the Cold War Kids. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is better live, I think, than in recordings (the singers voice is more tolerable live). Regina Spektor was great. She’s so shy and adorable. She would get this slightly embarrassed grin every time people cheered. Also, she stopped in the middle of one of her songs (literally in the middle of a phrase) and said, “I think that person is sick. Stop everything, that person over there is sick,” pointing to some part of the crowd. “Can we get somebody to help her? Where are all of the Lollapalooza people? You guys wave your hands so they know where she is. And make a little highway.” Several minutes later after they had extricated the one-too-many woman, Regina picks back up exactly where she left off, in the middle of the same phrase. It was at once both funny and adorable. After that was Snow Patrol, who rocked out pretty hard, despite having lighter songs than most of the bands. The last band was Muse. They were good, but not amazing. The light effects were epileptic in proportion. They rocked out pretty hard, too. It was a great day, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow. Still can’t get the Daft Punk show out of my head. Best. Show. Ever.
Finished: East of Eden John Steinbeck
A Handful of Dust Evelyn Waugh
The Moon and Sixpence W. Somerset Maugham
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows J. K. Rowling
Listening to: More Daft Punk than you could possibly handle
Running at full tilt, my sword pulled from its hilt.
Many, many things to catch up with since the last post. I just got back from a week in England with my family. We picked Miriam up at the end of a month-long summer academic program she did at Oxford. We stayed at Oxford for a few days. I absolutely love the town. (Grad school?). Then we went to London for 4 days, just sightseeing. We went out to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. It was incredible. Kew Gardens is supposed to be one of the best botanic gardens in the world in terms of the plant collection. I’ll post a list of interesting plants I saw at a later date. I also expect I’ll put my photos on my Facebook profile.
In other news, Lollapalooza is this weekend. I just got back from the first night (today being Friday, despite what the timestamp on this says). Just today I saw Son Volt, The Polyphonic Spree, M.I.A., LCD Soundsystem, and The Rapture, all of which were awesome. Most important, however, is the fact that I saw Daft Punk live. I was blown away. I have never seen a better live performance in my life. As is their custom, the French duo performed in helmets (nobody knows what they actually look like) on a raised pyramid-shaped stage/mixing board. Rather than playing one song, having a full break, and playing the next song as most bands are wont to do, the entire hour-and-a-half show was one long remix of their best songs. They integrated the beats and themes into a giant super-song. You were never entirely sure when one song ended and the next began, and thematic echoes could be heard from a tune three songs ago. All in all, I was incredibly over-stimulated, and it was awesome.
Okay, I have more to post, but I need sleep for tomorrow’s concerts. Facts and opinions about the Hutsells’ trial are forthcoming. Stay tuned for my next post.
