May 16, 2006

• Last Tuesday I had a fantastic day of being blown away all day long by different forms of art.  It was truly wonderful, in what has otherwise been a very difficult week at work.  Is that the purpose of art?

  
  

  

  
  

  That day was the release of the new Chili Peppers double album Stadium Arcadium.  I also got a call last week from the RHCP fan club telling me that I was one of ten fan club members to have won an autographed deluxe edition of the new album.  At first while casually skimming the album on i-tunes, I was worried that the new album may not have been as strong as initially promised.  Flea has been saying "If you don't like Stadium Arcadium, you don't like the Red Hot Chili Peppers".  Them be fighting words.  So I took flea up to task, got my headphones on and laid in bed to listen through the album straight through.  I have to say that I agree with Flea.  This record is a masterpiece,  it's genius, it makes me happy.  It's probably the top record to have come out this decade.  It has the melodicism of more of their recent music, but it also has a lot of funk, and heavier guitar that was more prevalent in their earlier years.  All the critics, whom I agree with on this, are raving about Frusciante on this album.  John Frusciante on almost every song, has embellished the music with awesome guitar solos (me and my friend Kane's wet dream come true as guitarists that worship him).  In addition to the solos, he's created many musical segments with multiple layered guitars intertwining together and leading the songs to an even higher climax.  He uses layers of his background vocals, and effects pedals to the same effect.  I'm so glad that the Peppers decided to play music more in their old style again, but at the same time taking it to the next level by adding that newfound, and still improving sense of melody.  I'm going to be listening to this record for years to come, and hopefully my whole life. 

  
  

   

  
  

  Later that night Mixy and I caught the Arthur Miller play All My Sons at the Geffen Playhouse.  Starring in it included well known Broadway actor Len Cariou,  the man-the myth-the legend Neil Patrick Harris!!! (and Roseanne Show alumni Laurie Metcalf).  The play is set after WWII, and centers around a family who lost a son in the war a few years back.  Further intricacies of the plot include the living son wanting to marry the dead brother's girlfriend, and the secret revealed that shady business dealings by his Dad led to deaths of some airplane pilots during the war.  First of Mixy and I agreed that this was the best play we have ever seen.  We're not theater experts and we don't live in NYC, but we've definitely experienced a fair share of theater over the years.  It was brilliantly acted.  The script sucks you in.  It was definitely an emotionally intense play.  During a lot of plays, it can be difficult to understand all of the dialogue, which distracts from the suspension of disbelief you need to have to fully immerse yourself in the story.  Not in this case.  You forgot that you were even watching a play. 

  
  

  

  
  

  The four lead actors were just amazing.  It's so unusual to have a cast where there are at least 8 actors which have pretty large roles, in which all of them just do a perfect job.  I have to confess that my favorite was NPH.  We saw him in Rent a while back and he was good during that (also great cameo during Harold and Kumar).  Again it was a "Talk Back Tuesday" at the Geffen, so the actors came out after the play in casual attire and did a Q and A with the audience.  NPH was very articulate, and it made me an even bigger fan of his.  The final comment from the audience was from an older lady, "Neil, I just want to let you know that your performance was so amazing tonight, that I didn't see you as Doogie Howser anymore!!!"

  • 1:33 pm
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