We woke up one morning last week and my wife looked out the bedroom window and it was cloudy, dark and cold. She dressed accordingly. She then went downstairs, got ready for work and left out the front door where…lo and behold…it was a warm, sunny beautiful day. She called up to me: “It’s raining in the back of the house, but it’s sunny in the front!” She had to come back upstairs and change clothes for a nice, warm, sunny day.
Seattle weather for you!
McCaw Hall (2nd floor view)My wife suggested we go this morning to the opening celebration of the new Marion McCaw Hall at the Seattle Center & I’m glad she did. We have subscribed in the past to the Symphony and Ballet while they were resident companies at the old Opera House, which preceded this iteration. The old building was pretty much a horror show. It looked like it came out of the sleek, anonymous architecture of the 1950s. The acoustics were abysmal. In order to get to the top tier you had to wend you way up a zigzag maze of tunnel like ramps. Once up in the top tiers you were so far above and away from the action you almost didnt feel you were in the hall.
I must admit I was a doubter about this project. As former New Yorkers, my wife and I are used to venues like Carnegie Hall and performances like those of New York City Ballet and the Metropolitan Opera. While Seattle’s cultural scene is fairly good, it just can’t measure up to New York’s. The Symphony, while playing in a great hall, doesn’t measure up to the sound of its own hall. While PNB is an excellent company, for some reason most of its performances seem to be half-full. It gives the impression of a community that doesn’t appreciate its own artistic resources. Therein lay our doubts about whether Seattle could really pull this project off. In addition, the old hall was so bad, I just didn’t see how it could be rescued or revived.
The old hall was razed down to its I-beams and then rebuilt from within. I dont know how they did it, but theyve accomplished something remarkable. I predict that like Benaroya Hall and EMP, McCaw Hall will become another ‘destination’ magnet for tourists and art lovers alike.
Everything about the old hall is a distant memory once you see the new one. It is magnificent. It has an undulating glass fa硤e and the interior lobby has a set of tall metallic columns that is contemporary in style without being completely impersonal & antiseptic (as much clean, sleep contemporary architecture can be). The hall itself is gorgeous and elegant. The sound for musical performance is miles better than the old hall. It may not equal Benaroya Halls, but then again McCaw was built for opera and ballet and so has different requirements. The halls visual lines are harmonious and consistent. The site lines are excellent. While I didnt like the boxes because they were raked at a steep angle & felt like you were on top of the performance, all the other seats were great. Even the food quality is a
vast improvement over the old halls (though a tad pricey).
Im not sure I like the metallic scrims lining the passageway in front of the hall. I understand that each of these scrims will be lit at night and the sight promises to be impressive. But the scrim wall of metal blocks the view of the beautiful glass fa硤e, which is unfortunate.
For more, see Marion McCaw Hall. I say, go and enjoy!
Orchestra Baobab, the seminal Senegal musical ensemble, played Seattle’s EMP Museum in the Sky Church (The Church of Rock ‘n Roll-get it?) tonight before an audience of about 300 people. I’ve seen many African bands, but I’d never seen this group, since they disbanded in 1982 and reunited for a world tour in 2001. On a sultry, sweaty Seattle night, they were inspiring.
Orchestra Baobab is an all-male ten-piece ensemble with lead, rhythm & bass guitars, alto & baritone sax, three percussionists and two singers. They sing in French and Senegalese. The playing was tight-this is a mature band that knows where it’s been and knows it has something to say musically. These guys played as if they’d known each other for years. They respected each other’s contribution to the band’s sound. The lead guitarist had a fluid and supple sound like the best African guitarists (Nico and Franco). The two sax players were brilliant with the baritone sax player being especially boisterous and exuberant in “taunting” and encouraging the crowd to join in the musical festivities.
Orchestra Baobab’s musical influences run from Afro-Cuban rumba to reggae to North African rai with other stops in between. They mostly play in a slower, quieter groove. Like the best African bands, they work into a nice, cool musical groove and gently sustain it with repetitive musical phrases that both lull and stimulate the listeners’ senses. The crowd was dancing and grooving to the music with some couples doing slow, sexy dance steps. It was that kind of evening.
Judging from this concert, their current record, Specialist In All Styles, is well worth buying. Learn more about the group at their website Orchestra Baobab
My only quarrel is that with an all-male ensemble (as almost all African groups tend to be for some reason-aside from male chauvinism, why is that?), it’s nice to see female dancers break up the testosterone monopoly. That didn’t happen tonight, unfortunately.
I saw several children in the audience including toddlers in their parents’ arms. While I applaud their desire to introduce their children to the sounds of the world’s cultures, as a father of a 2 year-old, I have to wonder what they were thinking? This was a concert that lasted till 9:30 PM!! Am I just an old fogey or what?
EMP deserves credit for hosting this concert. It has hosted some other fine world music concerts in the past and one hopes it will do more in the future.
Coming soon in this blog:
Seattle’s world music resources–concert venues, world music concert hosting organizations, world music on radio, etc.
There is a peculiar element to the political thinking of Israeli right wing leaders like Sharon and their media mouthpieces like Leslie Susser: no matter how bloody and heinous Israel’s actions they can all be defended (in a twisted Orwellian way) as advancing peace. In other words, if I kill a a top leader of my enemy, then I make him more willing to embrace me and the peace process. Makes sense, right? So here’s how Leslie Susser presents the argument in After Cease-Fire Talks Stall, Israelis Kill a Hamas Leader on the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) website:
In an ironic twist of fate, the lethal post-Aqaba wave of terror might finally get the road map on the road.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon maintains that Israel´s decision to target Hamas leaders like Abdel Aziz Rantissi yielded two dividends: It forced Palestinian terrorist groups to consider a temporary cease-fire with Israel more seriously, and it pushed Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas closer to taking immediate responsibility for security in some of the Palestinian areas.
Now, if you followed that–the Rantisi assassination attempt made Hamas more serious about negotiating a cease fire. Despite the fact that the next day a Hamas bomber blew up an Israeli bus killing 17; despite the fact that Hamas immediately announced it was calling off talks for a cease fire with the PA. To top it off, today’s New York Times headline says: After Cease-Fire Talks Stall, Israelis Kill a Hamas Leader
To read Susser’s article go to: Did air strikes help the road map?´Cease-fire now seems more likely
Lest you think the worst of Sharon’s motives in trying to kill Rantisi, Susser sets your cynical mind at rest: “Palestinians and some members of the Israeli opposition maintain that Sharon, in trying to kill Rantissi, Hamas´ No. 2, deliberately was trying to scuttle a peace plan he ultimately distrusts. Sharon sees things very differently”
Any reputable journalist would, at this point in their article run some kind of quotation from Sharon or one of his advisors to support this unsustained characterization. Not Susser. Not a shred of evidence to support this supposed characterization of Sharon’s thinking. How do we know that Susser’s surmises reflect Sharon’s real beliefs if he won’t provide any material to support them? At best, this is bad editorial oversight at the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, which published the story; at worst, it reflects Susser’s delusional thinking about how to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Seattle is an all year round food paradise, but summer is extraordinary. Here is a list of some of my favorite foods which are now, or will shortly be available (actually some are available all year, but I just love telling people about them):
Copper River salmon: if you’ve only ever eaten Atlantic farm raised salmon, you haven’t really eaten salmon the way it should be. The frigid waters of the North Pacific make this Alaskan king salmon the best in the world (lots of tasty fat). The flesh is the darkest orange you’ve ever seen (& it’s natural, unlike the color of farm-raised). I read an article in the New York Times saying that the freshly caught salmon is taken from port to waiting helicopters who fly it to a major Alaskan airport, from which point it is shipped to New York, London and Tokyo within 24 hours or less. The prices in restaurants in these cities are astronomical, but here in Seattle a Copper River salmon steak sells for $12.99 a pound.
Rainier cherries: these are the sweetest (and IMO the best) cherries in the world. They’ll be available here in about three weeks. I look forward to them all year and they never disappoint. If you’ve only ever tasted a Bing or some other variety like it, you’ve never really had a cherry.
Dahlia Bakery ice cream sandwiches: Tom Douglas has just begun his summer season in which he makes ice cream sandwiches. Don’t think of Good Humor, think of something silky, smooth, rich & huge! I recommend the peanut butter crunch with vanilla ice cream. I prefer chocolate to vanilla, but this combination works beautifully. Kudos to Tom!
Gerard & Dominique smoked salmon: these French folk in Woodinville are smokers par excellence. This smoked salmon is as smooth and elegant as fish flesh can get.
For more of my favorite Seattle foods and restaurants look at Seattle food favorites
