On Monday night in London, Led Zeppelin made a triumphant return to the stage for the first time in 27 years.
The Washington Post has an interesting first person account of the scene by Erik Huey.
Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones stride onstage, joined by Jason Bonham, son of their original drummer, John Bonham, whose death in 1980 caused the band’s breakup. As they pick up their instruments, I’m consumed by one overwhelming sentiment: Can they pull it off? Can a trio of 59-to-63-year-old men recapture the raw thunder and sexually charged intensity of their youth?
For that matter, can we?
I’m an attorney now, staring down the barrel of 40. But think of the person you were decades ago — adolescent, unshackled by cynicism and Weltschmerz, full of youthful abandon and an unblinking belief in the sheer possibility of things.
From all accounts (a quick Google search away) the band delivered, and the fans who were lucky enough to pay outrageous sums to be inside the O2 arena were more than satisfied.
Speaking at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev called for a renewed commitment to eliminate the world’s nuclear weapons, saying the current generation of world leaders cannot coast on disarmament treaties of the past.
Gorbachev said the world missed an opportunity for greater global cooperation in the Cold War’s wake, describing the past 18 years as ones of “stagnation and regression,†where even avoiding a war in the middle of Europe was beyond the world’s leaders.
“After the Cold War, we lost our way, the world lost its way,†Gorbachev said. “We should be moving toward the goal of ridding the world of nuclear weapons.â€
Gorbachev acknowledged that the world has changed significantly since the Cold War’s end, but said the recent re-militarization — particularly that of the United States — is puzzling.
“I really don’t know who the U.S. wants to go to war with, nobody wants to go to war with the U.S.,†Gorbachev said.
In all seriousness, I’d love to see a candidate grow a pair and run a creative ad campaign. Leave the empty promises to the stump speeches. TV viewers don’t want vacant rhetoric. We want entertainment.
I just signed up for iLike, a Last.fm-like social music service that works in conjunction with iTunes.
One thing I noticed is they have a great offer for artists. Instead of jumping all over the interweb to manage one’s soc nets, iLike makes it easy to update from one interface.
All soc net users need this functionality, not just bands. Maybe iLike will extend this offer to all users at some point.
In a celebrity-obsessed culture like ours, writers can benefit from the creation of a personality that fits and enhances their writerly identity. Of course, it takes a special talent to pull it off. Many writers are simply too shy and otherwise focussed to enter these waters.
In today’s Arts & Leisure section of The New York Times, one writer’s journey from Catholic schoolgirl in suburban Chicago to Minneapolis copywriter to totally nude stripper to blogger, author and screenwriter is on display. Brook Busey-Hunt adopted a sexier non de plume–Diablo Cody–and is now a hot property in Hollywood screenwriting circles. Her screenplay for “Juno,†a film directed by Jason Reitman, is set for release by Fox Searchlight on Wednesday.
To get the full effect of her self-induced persona, see this appearance on Letterman. Dave asks her if her stripping wasn’t a form of prostitution and she replies, “I think everything is prostitution in a way…when you’re exchanging some kind of sexual stimulation for money, I think that is prostitution. I mean that’s a heavy question, Dave. Let’s keep it light here.”
Paste Magazine likes The National’s 2007 effort, Boxer, a lot. In fact, it’s their album of the year. I have to admit, I don’t have it and I know next to nothing about the band. So, let’s push on through the Atlanta-based music mag’s top ten (they actually rate their 50 best).
At number 10 is Shepherd’s Dog by Iron & Wine
No. 9) Cease to Begin by Band of Horses
No. 8) We’re Dead Before the Ship Even Sank by Modest Mouse
No. 7) Sky Blue Sky by Wilco
No. 6) Kala by M.I.A.
No. 5) The Reminder by Feist
No. 4) Icky Thump by The White Stripes
No. 3) Magic by Bruce Springsteen
No. 2) Neon Bible by Arcade Fire
No. 1) Boxer by The National
Number seven is the disc that gets played over and over in this household. It’s also nice to see The Boss rank so high. And when you consider Iron & Wine, Band of Horses, Modest Mouse and The White Stripes are on this list, it becomes a celebration of songcraft.
Some of the albums in Paste’s picks 11-50, I would have put in the top ten instead. Namely, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga by Spoon and Cassadaga by Bright Eyes.
It was a good year for new music. Some other albums I’d push to the top of any pile are Dirt Farmer by Levon Helm, Handshake Smiles by Arthur Yoria, From the Corner to the Block by Galactic, The Stage Names by Okkervil River and La Cucaracha by Ween.
“I have no money with which to build the modern American campus, but if you’ll design the buildings, I’ll work night and day to raise the means.†-Dr. Ludd Spivey, President of Florida Southern College, appealing to Frank Lloyd Wright in 1938
Lakeland, Florida is an old school Florida town with lovely lakes, a vital downtown core and a private college with the largest single collection of Frank Lloyd Wright designed buildings anywhere in the world.
inside Annie Pfeiffer Chapel at Florida Southern
We arrived on campus the Wednesday morning before Thanksgiving which meant that the visitor center was closed. However, the walking tour was all the more pleasant without students or crowds of any sort to distract from the main show. And what a show! FLW went all out in Lakeland and I kept thinking as we wandered around the former orange grove how nice it would be to spend four years on this campus, or longer if one were a faculty member or administrator.
Florida Southern is a private liberal arts school. They don’t have an architecture program. However, the school would do well to start one, or better yet a program in achitectural preservation and restoration. Given that many of the buildings were built in part by students working in return for tuition and board, there would something poetic about a new group of students engaged in preservation of this national treaure.
For more images from the campus, see my Flickr set.
My friend Mark asked me earlier today where I’d like to go to dinner. I said, I don’t know. How about something exotic? Something I can’t get where I live.
Mark delivered. Big time. He and his wife Sharon swooped over to Cambridge to get me and over the bridge to Bahstin we went in their Honda Accord. We parked downtown, then walked about six blocks to the North End, a neighborhood with no parking but an Italian restaurant every 20 feet. We dined at The Florentine, which was totally satisfying, but our dessert was the bomb.
After a port at The Florentine for Sharon and me and a single malt for Mark, we walked back down Hanover Street to Caffe Vittoria and it–like every other place–was packed. However, we were seated quickly, and the next thing I knew I was enjoying pistachio gelati and espresso while realizing that there is no place like this anywhere near where I live. It was nice to feel the Saturday night energy and experience the history of the place. And it was good to share the company of a friend I have not seen in nearly two decades (although it seems like just yesterday).
