Today has been the first time that I can slow down a bit since I don't have any morning appointments to rush out to, no one to meet, etc. It's a bit of a refresher. I once again ventured to Caribou Coffee, for a latte this time vs. a mocha, and then grabbed a sandwich at Potbelly, another old favorite that didn't survive in CA so it's a bit of a treat. Businesses struggle to get setup in SoCal for whatever reason. Potbelly had one location that folded pretty quickly and Jimmy John's is still struggling to get going over there as well. Which Wich, an easy win in most parts of the country, closed most of their locations. It's kind of odd. CA folk tend to go to the same places that they're used to, even if they're not the greatest...it's strange.
Back to Caribou, I was mildly shocked yesterday to see the calorie count on their mochas. My god... No wonder they taste good! Back home, I skip certain drinks at places like Black Rock Coffee Bar because the calorie count is upwards of around 500 or so for a large; Caribou's mediums on their flavored specialty drinks were pushing in the 700-800 range! I mean, that's outrageous, in my opinion!
Next, I was on the hunt for a cheap DVD I could watch on the plane ride home since I only brought one with me. Since no one wants DVD's anymore, it's usually a fairly easy thing to find, although it's not always easy for me to find a movie I haven't seen before. It's part of the downside of being a cinephile. A trip to Barnes & Noble solved the problem where my best option ended up being "Goldfinger". I've been meaning to watch the old Bond films anyhow so why not? I also picked up another three CD's while I was there, something I really don't need but still insist on doing.
Next, it was off to the Walker for the festivities. Upon arrival, I was disappointed to see that the free gallery "shows" actually started at noon whereas I would swear that the emails said 3pm, hence my arriving at that time. It's not every day that I could have seen Julian Lage, guitarist extraordinaire, playing in a corner of a gallery and I ended up missing it. To add salt to the wound, Lage passed me casually in the hallway where I momentarily thought about asking him why the time change and then thought better of it.
My old bandmate then showed up while Zorn was playing the bizarre piece "Hockey" and so I was treated to both the wackiness of Zorn while catching up with an old friend. "Hockey" is a bizarre, rather silly piece played with what I believe are duck whistles, cello, and some eastern styled percussion and there is simply no way to describe it apart from saying it's like hearing a herd of ducks on acid (the ducks, not us). Next, there was one other piece done in the gallery done with classical instruments, and while pretty interesting (it reminded me of the "Psycho" theme, again on acid), it was hard to pay attention while standing in a crowd.
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| The Zorn composition "Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics that will be able to Present Itself as a Science" in the Walker Art Gallery |
After dinner and saying goodbye to my old friend, I quickly rushed up to the McGuire Theater for the first of the 3 Zorn performances, "Nove Cantici Per Francesco D'Assisi". This contained both Julian Lage and Bill Frisell, the latter most certainly being one of my favorite artists of all time and someone I've probably seen over 30 times by now. Strangely, I've never once seen him play an acoustic guitar so that was different, and this was basically an all acoustic guitar trio (sorry, I don't know the name of the third gentleman playing the nylon string). Quite frankly, unlike most Zorn based compositions, it was quite accessible and very beautiful, and most likely an album I'll seek out. My only complaint was that the set lasted 45 minutes and I could have easily been down with double that.
This in turn meant that I had an hour and fifteen minutes to kill. Bummer. So, I used it wisely and walked across the street and took some photos, some of which will probably be used for album artwork at some point. The famous Minneapolis "cherry on a spoon" is more or less the city symbol and I took quite a few pic's even though I've obviously seen it dozens of times before.
At 8pm, I ventured again up to the McGuire for the Chaos Magick performance. This was a bit more typical Zorn based but was still kind of accessible, much to my surprise. It was awesome, though, and definitely my favorite of the three shows. Again, it was only 45-ish minutes long and I really wanted to hear more. What's up with these short sets this year?!
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| Zorn directing Chaos Magick |
And so, yet another hour and fifteen minutes to kill doing pretty much nothing. I did talk a bit with a guy in the audience who seemed pretty well versed in Zorn, and then I also kept an eye on what I believe to be Marc Maron, although I can't imagine why in the hell he would be at this performance unless he was interviewing Zorn or Lage for the WTF podcast. I kept staring at him, and he was wearing unusual round glasses for him, but he was also wearing curiously pointed shoes and was slightly hunched over, and the more I looked at him the more I was convinced it really was him. He also seemed like an anxiety prone guy of which Maron is indeed and I think my staring at him was making him rather nervous. I'll have to listen to WTF over the next month or so and see if says anything about being at the show.
Last up was the New Masada Quartet, this time with Zorn actually performing (he did not perform with the previous two sets). This was pretty awesome as well but again it didn't seem as outlandish as he's been in the past. Is it just that I'm actually acclimating to it? That's both exciting and scary. After another 45 minute set which seemed way too short, I left the theater and headed back to the hotel. Zorn was scheduled to play the organ at the local basilica but I actually saw him do that a decade ago and it wasn't really my thing, hence I skipped out on it.
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| The New Masada Quartet |
All in all, it was a great day and night, and the performances were top notch...just all too short. It was certainly worth coming to, however, but I'm now hungry for more. It looks like there could be a small chance that Zorn might play at LA's the Skirball Center so I'll be keeping a close eye on that. If he's there or anywhere in the near vicinity (hell, even Phoenix, which seems unlikely), I'm there.
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