Mezzotono - Christmas Carols in Dublin

Over the last 3 months I have been part of a wee choir (very informal) rehearsing Christmas Carols in 4 voices, to sing them in Dublin city centre among other places. We're called Mezzotono, which means 'half note' in Italian (most of the members are from Italy, and Italian is the language of music anyway).

Last year we rehearsed for this purpose as well, but never got to sing in town, because we left it too late, and people were then going home for Christmas etc. There's only a handful of us, so we don't have a lot of volume to draw on, but it's easier to organise and do impromptu things than with a truckload of people.

So, this year we began in September, with a plan. We had the same songs we did last year, plus some new ones, in exciting arrangements that came up during the course of autumn. Our repertoire is as follows, all arranged for soprano, alto, tenor and bass. (Just in case you're curious - I sing the soprano bits).

Adeste Fideles (sung in Latin, also widely known in English as Come All Ye Faithful)
Hark The Herald Angels Sing
Joy To The World
Deck The Halls
We Wish You A Merry Christmas
Silent Night (a verse sung in each of the languages German, Irish and English)
The First Noel
Jingle Bells
Winter Wonderland
O Tannenbaum (sung in German)
On Christmas Night
God Rest You Merry Gentlemen

I will never forget the first moment we all sang together last year, after everyone learning their various voices for Adeste Fideles. The harmonies and beauty of the thing were so amazing - I had completely forgotten the power of singing together in a group like that! How soothing it is to create something together like that - perfect antidote to stress! Now, I don't think Adeste Fideles is the most beautiful arrangement in our canon (it is pretty darn good, although On Christmas Night is better), but there's something special about it to me anyway, because it was the first one we sang.

Unfortunately, not all the singers made it out to sing in town, due to various reasons (weather being one of them), but 5 of us did go. We have now learned important lessons about wind, and about how noisy Grafton Street is, and how busy. How cold it can get when you're just standing still, and the importance of shelter. Lots of people noticed us, but only a few stopped to listen. One time a couple of people actually came over to join in, which was fun, and they sang along with us for a couple of tunes (melody voice only, mind you. Hehe). At least this year we did get to do what we set out to do and sing in town. :)

This is us, after a wonderful afternoon spent singing around Temple Bar and Grafton Street:

Concert Report - Bruce Springsteen & E Street Band, Odyssey Arena, Belfast, 15 December

It was amazing! Bruce owns that stage from the minute he sets foot on it, and it’s like he’s just having a party with a few thousand of his closest friends. I took a lot of pictures – will upload them all to Facebook later, when I get a chance. He’s great to just watch move around, throwing his arms in the air and jumping up and down with the beat. You can tell that these guys have played together for a long time, but they have the same thing U2 have – they can keep playing songs that are 30 years old, as if they were written yesterday – same energy.

There was a bride & groom in the audience, who had evidently come straight from their wedding reception to attend the gig. Bruce saluted them a couple of times, and towards the end Little Steven was conducting a whole little ‘conversation’ with the bride from the stage. Very funny.

Patti was still babysitting at home, so Soozie was singing with Bruce on Magic - I definitely did not mind - Soozie rocks! That duet was really great. Gave me goosebumps. The audience was singing along to most of the new songs, as well as the Rising songs, and for Born To Run everyone was just belting it out at the top of their lungs. Awesome. For Santa Claus Is Coming... Bruce put on this Santa Stetson that someone threw onstage – red with a white furry trim. He looked very cool in that! Clarence put on a normal Santa hat for his Ho-Ho-Ho’s. What a way to finish a gig! The crowd was great as well, not like we had last year in Dublin for the Seeger Sessions gig, where no-one on the floor moved.

To go back to the start for a bit : The trip up to Belfast on the bus was fine – I was running to catch the 3pm in Busáras, because of course the bus from Blanchardstown ended up taking ages. Walked from the bus station behind Europa Hotesl to the Odyssey Arena through a beautifully Christmas-lit Belfast city centre to the Odyssey Arena (see Facebook for more pictures). It was only 20 minutes or so – a lovely walk.

Belfast City Hall Christmas Lights:

Found my seat, which was in a great spot, and started talking to 2 sisters from Manchester sitting next to me – one of them turned out to be a U2 fan, the other was mad about Bruce. They’d both been at the second Croke Park gig 2 years ago. (That's U2 we're talking about here, ed.) We walked back to the Europa Hotel after the concert, where they were staying and just had time for a quick pint before I got on the bus back to Dublin at midnight.

And then, I thought I’d be clever and get off at the airport and get a taxi from there instead of trying to get a taxi from town. Turned out there weren’t any taxis at all in the airport. Nor anyone else for that matter – I’ve never seen the place so empty!! The only noises were the pedestrian light beeping and the security announcements. Scary biscuits. Turned out any taxis dropping people off at Departures were heading straight back into town without swinging by Arrivals. I got talking to a guy also looking for a taxi, so we went up to Departures and got a taxi within 2 minutes. He was going in the opposite direction, but we shared it anyway – just wanted to get home! In bed at 10 past 3, so not bad at all in the end. Very sleepy on Sunday...still am....zzzzz.....

Set List:
Radio Nowhere
No Surrender
Lonesome Day
Gypsy Biker
Magic
Reason To Believe
Because The Night
She's The One
Livin' In The Future
The Promised Land
Waitin' On A Sunny Day
The River
I'll Work For Your Love
Devil's Arcade
The Rising
Last To Die
Long Walk Home
Badlands

Encores:
Girls In Their Summer Clothes
Kitty's Back
Born To Run
Dancing In The Dark
American Land
Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

Phoenix Park Ramble

I was staying over at BethAnne's on Friday, in Chapelizod, and decided to walk back into Dublin city centre through Phoenix Park on Saturday morning. It was dry, not too cold, and the autumn colours were pretty darn mesmerising. Phoenix Park is a good 2 km from city centre, but I had nowhere to be, and besides, town would only lure me into spending money, even if practising resistance of temptation does tend to build character....

Anyway, I had myself a good ramble, got to see some things I'd never seen before (Phoenix Park is BIG), and made it into town just in time for the rain to start. How's that for timing!!

This is a picture of the Papal Cross, which marks the site where the Pope held a mass mass (I meant to write it twice) during his visit to Ireland in September 1979. Apparently over a million people attended the mass! It has lights installed along the width and breadth and you can see it from miles around at night. Very nice.

This is the Wellington Memorial, which I have visited before as it's very accessible, near the main entrance to the park on Parkgate Street. It's the second tallest memorial in the world, after Washington Memorial in D.C., but unlike that one, Wellington Memorial is not hollow, so there's no climbing it to enjoy the view. Would be cool though. This has always looked a lot smaller to me than it actually is - it's pretty huge. It's a landmark visible from a long way off, just like the Papal Cross at night.

This is just a lovely autumn scene from Phoenix Park, complete with lamppost. Everybody sigh....now!

Very late concert report: Tori Amos at Oxegen, 7 July 2007

I just remembered that I have completely forgotten about a concert report! *gasp* Pia, how COULD you!!!

So *ahem* without further ado, I better give you:

Tori Amos, 7 July, Oxegen 2007, Punchestown Racecourse, Co. Kildare

Oxegen is a 2 day festival (used to be called Witnness) held in the lovely Punchestown Racecourse, otherwise known as the Mud Pit (I kid you not, we saw people who had apparently taken mud baths without bothering to undress first. Absolutely EVERYONE was wearing wellies (flowery, funky, boring ones. Mine are from Dunnes, and have tiger stripes. *Grrrrrowl*. I learned a very hard lesson in Marlay Park in June about wellies). Some of the mud bathers seemed to think everyone else liked mud too, and were flinging mud about without a care in the world. No thank you! More on that a bit later.

We had bought the tickets primarily to see Tori, seeing as this was her only Irish date on the American Doll Posse Tour. The lineup was actually pretty impressive for both Saturday and Sunday (we had tickets for Saturday only). We drove up from Dublin, and were only mildly impressed with the parking facilities (any empty field around the course had been propositioned it seemed). It was definitely NOT to the standard that I had seen in Marlay Park for the Peter Gabriel/Crowded House gig (see previous concert report from June). Anyway, it could've been worse. We put on our wellies, and made our way up to the festival ground, taking a massive detour, because the signposts for the main entrance seemed to have gone AWOL. Anyway, met up with the rest of the posse and found a good spot, ie dry, spread our blanket and sat down.

Oxegen had 5-6 stages, some of them inside tents. We had a good view of the Main Stage from our blanket, currently occupied by Avril Lavigne (love your hair, doll). I remember seeing only 2 other bands before we had to go to the Pet Sounds stage to prepare for Tori - Goo Goo Dolls and The Fratellis. Goo Goo Dolls were really good, and it was pretty awesome to hear 80.000 people singing along at the top of their lungs to 'Iris'. You could see yer man the LV (don't know his name) being amazed by that response. The Fratellis were emphatically bad, their rhythm section being literally all over the place. Okay, Toriphiles, time to head for the tent!

We actually saw Badly Drawn Boy as well who was on before Toir, because we figured we'd have to get in there early to get a good spot. I do a fairly good impression of an eel, if I may say so myself, and it helped us get into the 2nd and 3rd rows in front of the stage. Yay! (Later, I read on a Tori tour site that some people had actually been there all day in order to get in front for Tori. Maybe they just weren't very good at being eels. Hmmm..)

Anyway, we waited and waited for Badly Drawn Boy to finish. He started late, due to technical issues, which didn't help, because at the other end of things, he actually kept playing while they were wheeling Tori's Bösendorfer onto the stage, and until they simply unplugged him. Take the hint, dude! It's not that he was bad or anything - based on the audience's reaction to him, I'd expected most of the first 3 rows to leave at the end of his gig, so we could get an even better spot. But, no. They didn't. They went even madder when Tori - sorry - when Pip took to the stage, laying into a vicious rendition of 'Cruel' (complete setlist below, with album info as well).

Oh, and remember the mud bathers described above? Well there was one of them right next to me in the audience, drunk as a skunk, naked to the waist and covered in mud, who was locked in a world of his own together with his maybe-girlfriend, who had her back to the stage the entire time. Towards the end of the gig they left. Thankfully. Don't know what they were doing there in the first place, because they sure weren't
paying ANY attention to the performance!

On that note - back to Tori. The set was relatively short, seeing as this was a festival slot and not a full Tori concert. Pip rocks! For those of you, who don't know who Pip is, see my earlier post with review of the American Doll Posse album, or check out Tori's website - then it will make a bit more sense :) I had sort of hoped for Clyde, because she's the doll I can relate to the most, but hey, at the end of the day, I'm happy just to have seen her at all.

I don't think I will ever tire of 'Cornflake Girl' live, it is simply so infectious. Tori has the same vibe about her that U2 have when playing old songs live - it doesn't seem to ever get boring for them! Which is a really good thing! It means they have a strong connection with us, the audience, and that is part of why I love their music so much - it's not made in a bubble for a bubble. It has heart and soul and blood and sweat and tears.

This is Tori during 'Cornflake Girl':
SETLIST
As Pip:
Cruel (From The Choirgirl Hotel, 1998)
Body And Soul (American Doll Posse, 2007)
Fat Slut (American Doll Posse, 2007)
Bliss (To Venus And Back, 1999)
The Waitress (Under The Pink, 1994)

Interlude: Professional Widow remix (Boys For Pele, 1996)

As Tori:
Big Wheel (American Doll Posse, 2007)
Cornflake Girl (Under The Pink, 1994)
Bouncing Off Clouds (American Doll Posse, 2007)
Code Red (American Doll Posse, 2007)
Precious Things (Little Earthquakes, 1992)

New York Weekend Trip

Some have said I am mad to go for a weekend only. Maybe I am - I was originally planning to go for a full week, but as I've been to New York twice already in the last two years, I felt I didn't need a full week - I have seen and done practically all I really wanted to.

It also freed up days off to spend on other trips, which I definitely do not regret. The only thing on my list for actual sightseeing this time around is the seasonal decorations on Rockefeller Center.

For those of you who don't know, the background is as follows: My sister and her boyfriend were supposed to run in the NY Marathon this Sunday, and I was supposed to come over and cheer them on. But now she's not, because she's expecting twins. We're all still going over there anyway though. Can't wait to see how the bump is coming along!

A colossal bonus, which more than makes up for not being able to wave Danish flags in people's faces on Sunday, is the fact that we got tickets for a brand new Cirque du Soleil show called Wintuk, at Madison Square Garden for Saturday night. The show opens officially on Tuesday, but we are catching one of the preview performances. How unutterably perfect is that? I don't know much about the content of the show, which is just the way I like it with Cirque du Soleil. I'm sure it will be awesome!

I have decided that this will be the last longhaul flight I take (until such time as they invent some really really environmentally friendly fuel). The CO2 emission figures for flying are not pleasant reading, and although I know you can carbon offset your travelling (and I did), I feel that to prevent is better than to cure. All I can do is start with the woman in the mirror (sorry to paraphrase Mr. Jackson). So, I am going to cut down on flying (I am incredibly sick of Dublin Airport anyway), and see what other options there are for getting around. Busses and trains and ferries will all take longer, but I will hopefully learn to appreciate the journey as an end in itself instead of merely a means. Okay, Pia, see if you can write the next 3 sentences without including brackets, hmmmm??

Onto another topic: what am I going to do with myself in NY, except for the Marathon and Cirque du Soleil and hanging out with people?
SHOPPING!!!! I have researched adresses of interesting shops (mostly books and yarn), and will try to figure out the most efficient route to take through Manhattan for my Shopping Day (otherwise known as Monday). Darn, there goes another set of brackets!!!