Belt

September 9th 2007 by E..

Last night, I went with other Y-Rock people to the Mann Center to see Elvis Costello and the Mann Festival Orchestra…it was fun telling people about the station (we had a little table set up with Y-Rock swag and other fun things)…we joked around with each other, too!

I’m not sure why rock musicians are fascinated with composing classical works…Joe Jackson, Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, they’ve all done them…so has Elvis Costello…he came out at showtime to say that he would be back in a little bit, but that the orchestra was going to play parts from his composition, Il Sogno…now, I was pretty much expecting to see something similar to My Flame Burns Blue, an album recorded with a full orchestra that featured orchestra arrangements of Elvis’ classic songs…and that was, in fact, what played out after the opening pieces…sure, I knew pretty much all of the songs he did, “Veronica”, “She”, “Green Shirt”, “All This Useless Beauty” and more, but they were not rocking or jazzy so much as they were very pretentious…

When did Elvis Costello become like a ‘respected musician’ kind of guy?…the same goes for David Byrne and John Doe…what happened to my punk rock and roll?…oh well…

At least his voice is still pretty good, and he has a nice sense of humor that shone through in the stories he told (also, longtime sideman Steve Nieve played piano and hooter)…

Day 26 - September 8th, 2007

I would really like to see him again, but with his rock outfit The Imposters, instead…the last time he was here, he played with them and even brought out Allen Toussaint to perform a few tunes from The River In Reverse, a truly enjoyable collaboration…

Dad and I went to the Phillies game today…they ended up winning, but it should have been a shut-out…one highlight, though, was seeing a foul ball come right towards our section and connect with a beer vendor’s cheek…like, right in fron of us…it was weird, but I think he was ok…then there’s this guy…

Day 27 - September 9th, 2007

He’s at every game, holding up that barn door between innings, and calls things like, “Big, colorful pictures…No big words!” in reference to the gameday magazine and program…he noticed that I was taking a picture of him, so he gave a little smile!…that’s more than most of the people at the ballpark can say for the last half of today’s game…

Tonight there’s an abridged Folk Show, so maybe I’ll build a bridge…

E.

Lyric of the Time:
In my mind it all goes back
Lost control of what I had
All my thoughts left one by one

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