Leslie has drug me off ter the muzak hall to hears some country muzak. ‘Parently that there Rosanne Cash is’a playin’ t’night. Oughtta be a right gud time.

Well. Not too bad. Of course she played her new album in its entirety. Huh.

2nd half she sang a lot of her old ones. And hardly ruined any 🙂 All in all not too bad.

Tonight we are at Azimuth Theatre for a performance of Wallace Shawn’s Fever. Wallace, of Vezzini fame (The Princess Bride) wrote this one man play in 1990 intended for performances in small apartments. Since Azimuth is smaller than an average apartment it’s appropriate.

Unfortunately for me it’s not supposed to be funny. Serious social shit and all…

Attending Gwynne Dyers’s lecture “What the First World War Taught Us” at the Matrix Hotel. Mssr Dyer has been a hero of mine for decades now. He is the author of War (and a shit-ton of others) and host of the mini series of the same name.

Thrilled!

There is a growing understanding that warfare, at least between developed countries, is simply not a useful policy tool anymore.

“Hope we get there before the war’s over!” wasn’t as bloodthirsty as generally assumed; it often signaled the hope for a free European holiday. Huh.

“The air was filled with hot metal. The trenches were dug because you could not live on the surface.” Hmmmm

Because the war was so horrific, so total, it had to be a moral war. It could not conceivably be about political readjustment as all previous world encompassing wars…

And because this was a moral war, the losers must have been evil and must therefore pay for ‘plotting’ their evil ways. Thereby setting up another war to readjust the scales again.

The UN wasn’t created to stop wars. It was created to stop the great powers for going to war. What we learned from these 2 wars is that a technological war kills too efficiently.

“In essence the creation of the UN made war illegal and gave the great powers a way to save face and back away from another great — and now nuclear — war.”

That makes the whole thing about illegal wars etc. make sense now…

Well she’s dragged me off to music again. This time it’s Brandi Carlile at the Winspear. I thought I swore never to come see music at the Winspear again after the Los Lobos debacle. Yet here I am.

Still, how bad could an alt Country singer in a formal venue be? I’m sure people will at least nod their heads…

Act I
Scott somebody or other. What can I say: the people beside us bailed and went to drink in the lobby and I wanted to go with them. Leslie wouldn’t let me. Let me sum up by saying there was some nodding… Into sleep.

Act II
Brandi came on with two backup guitar to much hooting and hollering. There’s a grand piano too so I guess we will see

She got everyone a little grooving. Enthusiastic crowd.

And she sure knows her audience: great performer. Too bad I don’t actually know any of the songs 🙁

At the Timms for Missionary Position.

Very interesting. It will be interesting to see how religion fares at the end of this one.

Based on a true story. But with a a very different ending. Speaking of which, that was the only weak part of the play.

Mile Zero, Brian Webb and the Timms once again.

Tania Alvarado choreographs HereAfter and Mile Zero Dance presents Visual Splice tonight.

Last time I saw Mile Zero I was ubër impressed so I have high hopes.

Here’s Alvarado’s piece:

Next up is Morita’s.

Unfortunately after a long set change, we got 5 minutes of performance followed by a computer crash. Restart.

All in all it left me grumpy. Probably would have been enjoyable under better circumstances.

Jimmy Rankin at Festival Place. Meh.

It started off slow but he got to rockin’ after a bit.

Neat venue though. Beer in your seats makes the time pass pretty well.

Tonight was Highlands sleigh ride night. We arrived late as per usual but in time for a seat. C made some boozy chocolate and we toured the mansions of the ritzy Aida Boulevard from the cheap seats.