Under a Red Roof

Just Like Summer…

March 27, 2009 in Listening, Spotlighting by Colleen | Permalink

I am cold and shivery and have been craving summer like nobody’s business. In my desperation, curled up in front of the fire, I close my eyes and imagine sitting outside, sun on my cheeks, bare feet tickled by the grass, the occasional flutter of a bird’s wing and drifting clouds filling my vision.

The soundtrack to this day dreaming is Gecko Turner’s Guapapasea! Oh how this sounds of summer! It is wiggle until you jump out of your seat and dance, roll the windows down, crank the volume music. He is a mix master of the royal degree, using Afro-Cuban, jazz, pop, and plain dreaminess to enchant the listener through the dozen tracks.

Sung mostly in Spanish, and therefore, mostly foreign and vacation-like, it makes me reminisce about my honeymoon (nearly sixteen years ago!) and our wanderings through Spain. Warm and wonderful, eating kilo after kilo of cherries and paella, then washing it all down with the fantastically mouth puckering Kas Limon. Sweet summer perfection and a very grand time.

So, if, like me, you want a little summer right now, but aren’t scheduled on a flight to paradise, cozy up, put the music on, and dream away…

Tags: Music

Cheated, Redeemed, and Always Delighted

March 6, 2009 in Eating, Listening, Spotlighting by Colleen | 2 comments

If you are one of my Facebook friends (I’m everywhere!), then you know that I went to see Itzhak Perlman with the Oregon Symphony this past Sunday. Above are the slightly blurred lights of the marquee at the Schnitzer, and the photo below is of the lovely interior. Man was I excited about this, having bought the tickets ages ago. The hubster and I got dolled up and everything. Then came the cheat, Mr. Perlman played beautifully for exactly sixteen minutes. Sixteen. After that, he sat in the conductor’s chair and led the symphony. Now I don’t care too much for whining, but as the sweet lady in the seat ahead of me said (and she’s been going for seventy years), “I paid to hear him play, not conduct.” Amen to that!

I wish I didn’t feel this way because the music was quite good and the rest of the players very talented in their own right, but, honestly, I’d rather cozy up on the sofa and listen to my favorite Schubert CD set, which I’ll tell you about in just a minute.

However, now is about redemption, and that is thanks to the bar at Higgins, my very favorite in town. After the symphony disappointment, we walked rather swiftly up the Park Blocks, hoping the place wouldn’t be packed. Thankfully, we were quicker than the rest of the bunch, nabbing the last booth. I ordered a Maker’s Ginger and felt much better, not that the experience drove me to drink. I’m not that kind of person, but when in Rome or a good bar, I do enjoy a cocktail.

Then, as is always the case, we enjoyed impeccable service and some pretty stellar food: smoked Northwest seafood (sturgeon, black cod, and salmon), a delicious salad, house made pickles, and a key lime tart with a hot pepper marmalade (the perfect balance to the sweet filling). I savored every last bite! Thank you Higgins for making our okay night at the symphony a super night on the town!

Now for the Spotlight I promised. It is Friday, after all.

I am a girl who likes all kinds of music, good music that is. Jazz, rock, funk, ska, rap, punk, country, classical, opera – if it is done well, I am all for it! So it should come as no surprise that today’s spotlight is on a classical composer, the always delightful Franz Schubert. He is one of those great prolific writers – composing over 1000 works in his short thirty-one years on this earth (1797-1828). I get a little weepy thinking that what I am listening to is nearly 200 years old. That’s something.

As I am a person who much prefers cheeriness over gloom, the Complete Works for Piano and Strings of Franz Schubert fits me like a glove. Robert Schumann famously said of Schubert’s Piano Trio in B-flat, Opus 99: “One glance and the troubles of our human existence disappear and all the world is fresh and bright again.”

I could not agree more. This is the perfect music for a sunny day or one where the clouds make you wish for it. Additionally, the total playing time for both discs is more than two hours and twenty minutes. You can easily while away an afternoon or evening, happily dancing about. Give it a try; I have on more than one occasion and am much better for it.

Nine More

February 6, 2009 in Admiring, Listening, Spotlighting by Colleen | Permalink

Last week I told you that Shabooh Shoobah had one of my top ten album covers. Here are the rest, in no particular order. The music ain’t bad either…

Tags: Music

Don’t Change

January 30, 2009 in Listening, Remembering, Spotlighting by Colleen | 1 comment

Isn’t this a beautiful cover? When I first saw it, mind you, this was on a cassette tape, so the image wasn’t terribly large, I thought it was a photograph of an exquisite sculpture. Only upon further inspection did I learn man and canine were made of flesh and bone. I find it both incredibly sexy and tender at the same time. The man has beautiful shoulders and arms, and the dog – a Greyhound or Whippet? is awfully sweet and poised, paws balanced just so. Definitely on my top ten list for album covers. Yes, definitely.

In keeping with yesterday’s post, I thought I would give a full blown Spotlight on this, my favorite INXS album. I first heard “The One Thing” and “To Look at You” when I watched Reckless with Aidan Quinn and Darryl Hannah way back in 1984. Save these two songs, and especially “The One Thing,” I have no recollection of the film, but the music is enough for me.

I know that taste in music is highly subjective, but I really feel like this is a timeless classic. While it does bring back many memories, the music never seems dated to me. INXS never went over the top with gimmicks or synthesizers, so there are no Flock of Seagull moments while listening to it. Not that the FOS were bad, but when you listen to them now, you know they are an 80’s band.

One of the finest and exceedingly rare occurrences in music is to have an album where every song is a gem. Shabooh Shoobah is one such example. It starts with “The One Thing” and keeps up the pace with clever lyrics, Michael’s very sexy, sometimes tender, and powerful voice, and ends with the crescendo “Don’t Change.” It is really difficult for me to choose favorites because I have a really hard time hearing the end of one song without longing for the next, so I will tell you my favorite lines from each song:

“The One Thing” – The way you move soft and slippery, cut the night just like a razor, rarely talk and that’s the danger.

“To Look at You” – I understand, I sympathize for a day dream, fairy tales and I love you

“Spy of Love” – Standing above this moment, listening to all I say, the spy of love will track me, will catch me.

“Soul Mistake” – Promises are carved out of lust, with a fire in the heart, that burns without regret, I vow to play the part.

“Here Comes” – Here comes my kamikaze, here comes God’s top ten.

“Black and White” – Got a need inside and I don’t know why, it’s a strong feeling that grows and grows.

“Golden Playpen” – Night club, ice cubes crackin’

“Jan’s Song” – Friends won’t argue, friends don’t care, now is the moment to get out of here.

“Old World New World” -Natives wearing turquoise and silver, dirty dogs barking in the distance, ooh people of a thousand tongues, I’m learning the primitive rites.

“Don’t Change” – Don’t change for you, don’t change a thing for me.

Oh my goodness, twenty-five years later and I still love it!

Tags: Music

Old World New World

January 29, 2009 in Listening, Remembering by Colleen | 3 comments

That’s the name of a stellar INXS song, from my favorite album Shabooh Shoobah. The awesome and, quite sadly, departed too soon, Michael Hutchence sings: “Old world, new world, I know nothing, but I keep listening.” Just a little aside here, too, INXS was my first concert at Red Rocks, and it did not disappoint.

Anyway, I’ve had the song and the sentiment stuck in my head ever since I started seeing people from much younger days on Facebook, for some it has been almost twenty years! I sit in wild wonder at all that I do and don’t know about their lives. It is both strange and wonderful, to see long lost faces and know where everyone is and what they’re doing.

Take these photos. This is Rob, the Batman fan formerly known as Bob. We met in high school, but neither of us has any recollection how it happened. There are plenty of other clearer memories, however, like opening day of Batman (the occasion for cooking a steak at my house), the opening of the Super Saver Cinema (Rob, do you remember what we saw?), and a night at the drive-in to see the Gubernator in Total Recall where I promptly fell asleep (that’s our giant bag of popcorn I’m holding).

As luck would have it, Rob found me just last week, and, even luckier, was in Portland on business on Monday, so the hubster and I met him at the Kennedy School for dinner. It was a grand evening of Gregory getting to know Rob while reminiscing for hours over cocktails and yummy food. We also reveled in the fact that it seemed as though no time had passed. That is friendship. Thank you, Facebook, for this lovely reunion, and Rob, see you next time you’re in town!