| From Flatley to Zappa: Musical May in Stockholm [message #265494] |
Mi, 10 Mai 2006 06:26 |
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http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?ID=3760&date=20060509
Published: 9th May 2006 10:00 CET
Sweden, and Stockholm in particular, are on a well-trodden path when the
world's top artists hawk their wares around Europe. David Stavrou looks at
the delights on offer in May:
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It might have seemingly been around for ever, and it's certainly at the
commercialized end of Irish culture, but to millions of fans there's no
better night out than watching Michael Flatley kicking his legs in the air
in his extravagant arena shows.
The latest Flatley offering, Celtic Tiger will be in Stockholm (Globen, May
23rd) and Karlstad (Löfbergs Lila Arena, May 20th). According to its
promoters, Celtic Tiger "is an epic that fuses the spirit and history of
Ireland with dance and music".
Flately, known for his previous Riverdance and Lord of the Dance
productions, is an acclaimed dancer and choreographer that brought Irish
dance to enormous audiences around the world with catchy music and giant
productions.
For the small but fiercely dedicated sect of Swedish Frank Zappa fans,
Stocholm's Hovet is the place to be on May 19th. Zappa has been dead for 13
years, but his two sons, singer Ahmet and guitarist Dweezil, are giving his
fans a chance to see his music on stage again, assembling what they call
"the first official authorized presentation of Frank Zappa music by the
Zappa Estate".
Zappa's music is hard to describe and impossible to define. During more than
30 years there is practically no musical style he didn't experiment with and
master.
From the early days of "The Mothers of Invention", through experimental Jazz
and contemporary Classical compositions to music for films, progressive pop,
heavy metal and Rock'n'Roll albums, Zappa always supplied focused, versatile
and visionary music. He was a genius guitarist and composer but he was known
for his wild sense of humor and political activities too (mainly fighting
American censorship).
Ahmet and Dweezil are trying to make the legend live on.
"Frank always provided a great alternate perspective of things and it would
be great for a newer, younger audience to be exposed to his music" says
Dweezil.
Their weird names (their sisters, by the way, are called Moon Unit and Diva
Muffin), are not the only eccentric thing about Zappa; he has a spider, a
couple of comets and a microbe that causes urinary infections named after
him. He was an unofficial cultural attaché in The Czech Republic and three
of his songs made Ann Landers' list of the ten most obscene rock songs.
It is probably meaningless to recommend the Stockholm gig though: a real
Zappa fan would never take a journalist's recommendation seriously. As Zappa
once said, "most rock journalism is people who can't write, interviewing
people who can't talk, for people who can't read".
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| Re: From Flatley to Zappa: Musical May in Stockholm [message #265576 ] |
Do, 11 Mai 2006 18:29 |
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ZutboF wrote:
[of Zappa.]
>...and three of his songs made Ann Landers' list of
> the ten most obscene rock songs.
I was intrigued by this so I did a bit of hunting. According to wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Zappa
the three songs in question are
"Jewish Princess"
"Don't Eat the Yellow Snow."
"Dirty Love".
I can't help suspecting those are the *only* Zappa songs Ann Landers has
heard. In fact I don't know why Yellow Snow is there at all.
ISTM Dynamo Hum, Shove it Right In and Broken Hearts are for Assholes all
have much more claim to the label 'obscene' than any of the above.
So what are your top three Frankly obscene tunes?
And is Ann Landers a complete idiot? (That's a serious question. I'm a Brit
and though I've heard the name before I don't know much about her.)
--
SB
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| Re: From Flatley to Zappa: Musical May in Stockholm [message #265580 ] |
Do, 11 Mai 2006 20:42 |
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Steve Brooks wrote:
>
> And is Ann Landers a complete idiot? (That's a serious question. I'm
> a Brit and though I've heard the name before I don't know much about
> her.)
She's dead. But her advice column lives on, written by a ghost writer.
dave
--
A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read.
-Mark Twain
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| Re: From Flatley to Zappa: Musical May in Stockholm [message #265581 ] |
Do, 11 Mai 2006 20:49 |
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In article <UDJ8g.3344$fS1.2858 [at] newsfe6-win.ntli.net>,
"Steve Brooks" <steveb [at] postmaster.invalid> wrote:
> And is Ann Landers a complete idiot? (That's a serious question. I'm a Brit
> and though I've heard the name before I don't know much about her.)
Twin sisters Ann Landers and Abigail Van Buren (pseudonyms) were the
prototypical American advice columnists. One or the other were featured in just
about every newspaper in the country for decades. Both are now retired. John
Prine wrote a song about Van Buren that you may have heard - "Dear Abby."
--
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| Re: From Flatley to Zappa: Musical May in Stockholm [message #265586 ] |
Do, 11 Mai 2006 22:58 |
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In article <e400ur0du6 [at] news3.newsguy.com>, Sam Rouse
<nospamfun [at] anymore.com> wrote:
>Both are now retired.
One of them especially so.
John H.
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| Re: From Flatley to Zappa: Musical May in Stockholm [message #265637 ] |
Fr, 12 Mai 2006 21:39 |
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John Henley wrote:
> In article <e400ur0du6 [at] news3.newsguy.com>, Sam Rouse
> <nospamfun [at] anymore.com> wrote:
>
>
>>Both are now retired.
>
>
> One of them especially so.
>
>
> John H.
One of them's daughter now writes that column.
--
Les Cargill
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