#Selected March performances of my music. Join us at some of these events!

[migueldelaguila]

Selected March performances of my music. Join us at some of these events!

MigueldelAguila #americanclassicalmusic #contemporarycomposer #classicalmusicperformance #musicconcert #americancomposers #classicalmusician #musicevent #composerspotlight #livemusic #classical #composer #musician #performance #concert #contemporary #event #music

chambermusic #2024

Info: https://migueldelaguila.com

[apureniallsource]

Niall Horan tends to greet strangers with a compliment — which would be charming enough even if it weren’t delivered in a rich Irish accent and from the smiling mouth of an international pop star. “Love the glasses!” he cheers over Zoom, before eyeing my jacket: “And that, too!” I’m far from the only recipient of such warmth: In videos archived across the last 14 years, Horan greets loyal fans like old friends, eager to see them again, and treats journalists with a reverence that never comes across as hollow. Return the favor and he’ll hit you with cheeky bashfulness, like an exemplary student of the music industry’s best media training.

In 2023, Horan is far from his bottle-blond days spent in the world’s biggest boy band, One Direction, but the honest wholesomeness that made him America’s onetime favorite member and inspired some equally deranged and delightful memes (like the one that goes, “Imagine Niall Horan crawling inside your ear. You tell him to stop but he is in there”) still remains. And lately, everyone seems to want a piece of it, from world leaders — in March, he performed for President Joe Biden and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar at a White House event — to the millions of people who watch The Voice, where Horan serves as a coach and recently guided his mentee Gina Miles to the top prize. The Voice marks his first time working as a competition-show judge, but not his first time appearing on such a program: One Direction famously finished third on the United Kingdom’s X Factor in 2010 before going on to forever reshape boy bands as we know them.

For Horan — who will release his third album, The Show, on Friday — joining The Voice meant reconnecting with his 16-year-old self: the ambitious and courageous teen who toldThe X Factor judges back in 2010 that he was “ready to fill arenas around the world” before having sung a note. No wonder he was the first one selected for 1D after the boys were put together following their solo eliminations. (On the recent dearth of big pop groups, Horan thinks the future is all about the ladies: “I love Blackpink. All four of them have such individual personalities. That’s what made people love them.”) “I didn’t have anxieties then,” Horan laughs. “I was just having a great time.” That informs the advice he gives contestants. “On The Voice, you see a lot of technical singers who are very serious about what they do,” he says. “I’m just trying to get them to enjoy what they’re doing. You’re on one of the bigger shows in the country. Millions of people watch every night. Enjoy it.”

If there was any hesitancy in joining The Voice, an arena so similar to the one that kick-started it all for him, it was that he “wasn’t sure [if] it was going to be an overproduced thing where I get told what to do, say, and when to turn.” He smiles. “It’s absolutely not.”

Who can blame him for wanting some semblance of control? In the 1D days, cleanliness clauses threatened career consequences for any unsavory behaviors, and the band’s sheer popularity meant limited freedoms, a life of stalling in vans or rolling deep with security. “I couldn’t really go many places,” he says. “So I try to keep my private life as private as I possibly can. There’s a tendency in the world to take your arm off when you offer a handshake, you know what I mean?” He pauses. “But I’m not hiding.”

Niall Horan’s story is a master class in manifestation. The first voice in the 2013 documentary One Direction: This Is Us is his: “When I was small, I had a desk. It was weird because I wrote on it, ‘When I grow up, I want to be a singer,’” he says. “I scribed it in! It’s still on the desk.” Born and raised in Mullingar, Ireland, the only member of his group not from England, Horan describes his childhood self as both a prankster and a natural performer — he’d get in trouble for singing traditional Irish songs in the back of geometry class, embodying the same kind of irreverent playfulness that came to define 1D. (There’s a moment in the doc where Horan reveals he recorded “What Makes You Beautiful,” One Direction’s breakout hit, in his boxers, and another where he puts on prosthetics to disguise himself as arena security, unbeknownst to fans.)

One Direction sold 70 million albums and filled arenas and stadiums around the world before going on hiatus in 2016, but solo success wasn’t preordained. Horan’s first single, “This Town,” an acoustic slow burn, performed modestly but didn’t make it past the Top 20 in the United States. The funky follow-up “Slow Hands,” inspired by Eagles member Don Henley’s solo work, righted the ship. (Horan now calls Henley a close friend: “He’s always been very big on me being myself, not trying to chase anything that doesn’t exist — and he’s always there if I want to send him something and get a reaction,” he says.) Horan talks about the song with an air of relief. “The success of ‘Slow Hands’ and the first album felt like a big moment,” he says. “And the first tour — learning I can go around the world and still play to thousands.”

Another curveball came three years later, when he released his second album, the synth-pop-flavored Heartbreak Weather, on March 13, 2020 — the day the United States declared COVID-19 a national emergency. It was “a kick in the stomach,” as he describes it. “I was, like everyone, angry at the world for allowing this to happen,” he says. “And then the stillness took over for a second.”

Today, it’s hard to fight the impulse to eye-roll when celebrities talk about the pandemic, but Horan believes he, like everyone else, has been irrevocably changed by it. “I think I might be the eternal optimist,” he says. “I hadn’t had any time off in 10 years. I [thought I] might as well get fit and put the suitcase away in the closet for a little bit. Because at that point, my life was so rat race-y.” He spent his days working out, playing golf, and getting really into Formula 1. (Ask for his favorite driver, and he’ll give you the most Niall response of all time: “I’m a fan of nearly all of them.”) “The pandemic was horrific,” he says, but also: “It was boring! As a guy that travels the world on a regular basis, I was so bored.”

So he got to work on a new album sooner than he planned, writing the majority of The Show in Joshua Tree, without the kind of illicit substances musicians may be inclined to experiment without in the desert. (“No, jeez! No. Thankfully not,” he laughs.) The Show is Horan at his most adventurous, a kaleidoscope of pop-rock sounds of decades past, amped up for arena-sized grandeur. “I’m not just the fella with the acoustic guitar all the time,” he laughs. “I put my neck on the line.” The lustful track “On a Night Like Tonight,” for instance, starts off with a dreamy singer-songwriter intro before detouring into anthemic prog-rock — like Muse doing ’90s Britpop. “If you asked me to release a song like that seven years ago, I would’ve laughed in your face,” he says. “I’ve grown into it a bit. I gave myself permission. It’s probably not what people are expecting of me — and here’s my fingers crossed as tight as you can possibly get them.”

He describes the album as tackling “big life thoughts,” not just the kind you have after history-altering world events but also the ones on your mind as you approach your 30s. The first song he wrote for The Show was the title track, an ode to the gratitude he felt in a time of deep unrest. “You have to swim through the sh*t water to get to the clear stuff,” he explains. “Everything will be OK if you just see it out.” During the pandemic, he couldn’t help but think about how much better life was before, and how he should be thankful for it — or, at the very least, that he’s got to learn to take the good with the bad. The chorus goes like this: “If everything was simple, how would we know / How to fix your tears / How to fake a show / How to paint a smile / Yeah, how would we know / How good we have it, though?” “There’s a façade to most people,” Horan says, addressing the “how to fake a show” line. It’s not about going through the motions at a concert, but about the everyday performance of being a person. “I’m not saying we’re all going around faking everything, but there are parts of yourself you don’t give away.” He pauses. “I’m finding it hard to explain… In some ways, you’re always trying to be the best version of yourself.”

When Horan talks, he often punctuates vulnerabilities with a joke or a folksy aphorism. “The phrase in Ireland is ‘if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry,’” he laughs. But he doesn’t veer away from the hard stuff in song. “Meltdown,” the second single from The Show, was written as a balm for someone having an anxiety attack: “When it all melts down, I’ll be there,” he sings to the sufferer in the song’s chorus. “It’s at 180 BPM, which is a good representation of the heart rate [when beating fast],” he says, “but I also like to have a silver lining in my music.” (While he says he experiences anxiety on occasion, contrary to previous reports, he does not have severe OCD. “That got misconstrued,” he clarifies. “I’m not saying I’m fully OCD. [...] I’ve definitely had overwhelming moments.”)

When he does experience anxiety, he has a few grounding tactics. “I literally say to myself, ‘It’ll all be over in a few minutes. It’ll all be over in a few minutes.’ The thing to do in that scenario is try and keep yourself as calm as possible, and tell yourself that it will all be OK,” he says. “And weirdly enough, most of the time, it turns out OK.” Get this man a Calm app endorsement deal, stat.

That unrelenting optimism is a core facet of his personality. “I’ve always been like that: ‘This is sh*t, but I’m sure it’ll be OK soon,’” he says. But it perhaps accounts for just how well-adjusted he seems after going through the boy-band ringer and half a lifetime in the spotlight. He’s never been at the center of controversy, with the exception of dropping a curse here and there as a teen, which he does so now judiciously. (Recently, Horan enjoyed a pint of beer in a Guinness-branded documentary with singer Lewis Capaldi and was shown getting into a car and driving. His mum came to his defense, saying it was a nonalcoholic beverage. The debate ended there.) Even when I half-jokingly ask for his opinion on cults, a nod to The Show ballad “You Could Start A Cult,” he laughs. “It definitely worked as a metaphor for me! I don’t… no strong views on cults. At least, no public ones.”

That song, as he tells it, is about being so in love with someone that if they started a cult, you’d follow them into it. Is he madly in love right now? “That’s dead right.” He doesn’t mention his longtime girlfriend, account manager Amelia Woolley, by name because “if everyone knew everything, [my songwriting] wouldn’t be as candid, would it?” he says. “There’d be all these theories, and I’m not in town for that. I’m here to write what’s on my brain, and love happens to be one of those things that’s flying around me.”

Horan is staying accessible to fans in other ways, fully embracing the expectations of being a very famous person: He’s dropping skin care routines and goofing around on TikTok. This summer, he’s making his way across the festival circuit — good practice for 2024, when he’ll launch into the biggest solo tour of his career to date, which includes a headlining spot at Madison Square Garden, 12 years after 1D did the same. After a few disruptive years, he’s returned to the lifestyle that feels like home, now as a veteran professional and soloist in his own right. He’s the same nice guy, just with some life experience. And he’s enjoying the ride: “Looking at arenas full of people — it’s the best view in the world.”

[stringergames]

Downtime Roleplay 4 - Checking Out

Post Session 5 - Misty Eyed

Ireena and Magpie spend some one on one time in the Kolyana Library, as the rest of the party continue to exasperate Ismark downstairs.

Words spoken in Elvish are denoted in italics. Spoiler warning: contains spoilers for episode 5 of Edge of Night

Content warning: grief, implied dead parents, alcohol consumption

"So, Mr Magpie, do you like poetry?" Ireena smiles at him as they climb the stairs.

"I do, it can be very beautiful. I prefer such things set to music, but that's a personal taste." 

Magpie casts a slightly wary eye over the opulent staircase, taking in the disrepair and lack of upkeep. He takes another sip of wine and makes no comment.

"I enjoy the simplicity of poetry, so much can be said with so few words." Ireena is caught up in her own enthusiasm and does not notice Magpie's appraisal of the house. "Novels are good for escaping entirely to another realm, and you already know of my enjoyment of learning through books." This is said in Elvish, with a smile, before switching back to Common. "But poetry will remain my favourite, I think. If only for its love of pain that cannot be spoken in other ways."

Ireena opens a door on the landing that leads to a damp room piled with books, in the centre of which is a chair. The dust marks on the floor indicate that a desk once also stood there, but judging by the fate of other furnishings in the house, this was probably pilfered to become barricade materials a while ago.

Magpie replies in Elvish, quietly pleased to be able to use his native tongue. "Songs are my favourite, I believe. The dual storytelling between lyrics and tune is wonderfully versatile, but poetry definitely has a beauty of it's own, I can see why it calls to you so." He takes an almost hesitant step into the room, and checks back that she's joining him.

Ireena follows him into the study and responds in Elvish, clearly excited to be able to do so. "I wish I had a better understanding of music. It is a rare thing to hear music in Barovia that isn't a funeral march. Unless you encounter the Vistani whose performances are... livelier." Ireena smirks, and gestures to the room. "This is my library!"

Magpie quirks an amused grin at her Elvish, and takes a slow look around the room. "We heard Vistani musicians at the party. They played very well, Sierra was there among them actually. You'll have to see if she'll play the violin for you, it's truly beautiful."

"I would like that." Ireena pauses, wondering how far she can push her luck. "Maybe you would dance with me."

Magpie crouches in front of a bookshelf, scanning the titles distractedly, not so much as reaching a hand out to touch any of them. "I'm not sure you'd enjoy that, I was... never in a position to be taught any of the proper dances, and quite besides, I've been reliably told I have two left feet."

Ireena crouches next to him. "Then I shall simply have to teach you." 

Her smile is soft and her tone no longer teasing. The tension in her shoulders is heavy, but not directed at this conversation or her present company. It is tension she's clearly been carrying for a long time. 

"I like this one." She selects a book from the shelf. "It's long, but it tells the most wonderful story of a hero who journeys to find his way home after a long battle away from those he loves." She strokes the cover wistfully.

Magpie looks over at the book, admiring the cover. 

"Sounds like a compelling tale." He casts his eyes to the floor briefly, and takes another drink of wine before focusing back up on Ireena and the book. "You have so many books, it must be lovely to be able to come here and escape with them."

"Father loved to read. And there weren't exactly many other ways for me to spread my wings beyond this village." She sighs darkly and gestures at the window. "Even before..."

Aware that her façade has slipped again, Ireena straightens her shoulders and attempts another smile. 

"But yes, I am lucky. There are a few tomes in here that predate the beginning of the Von Zarovich reign in Barovia."

"Really? How old does that make them?" Magpie looks very interested at the promise of old books, a shadow that had fallen over his face lifting a little.

"Well over a century! Father rarely let anyone handle them, they're very delicate, but I always loved the way old books smell."

“Incredible. I shan’t ask to look at them, but what are they about? I often find some of the most fascinating stuff is in the oldest books.”

"There's a first edition of some very dramatic plays, and a couple of these epic poems too. If I'm being entirely honest, I am not completely sure I know what is in all of the oldest books Father had. But please, if you would like, feel free to select any volumes that take your fancy to take with you. It is wonderful to finally have a fellow bibliophile to share these with. My brother is not opposed to literature, but he's mostly been too busy with more important things to indulge me in expounding the joys of fiction."

Magpie looks gently surprised. "You'd let me bring some? Just like that?"

"I doubt Ismark will miss them, I will certainly be bringing some with me, and Father hardly has a use for them any more. Of course you may take some, as many as you would like." She laughs a little. "Or as many as you think you can carry, at any rate!"

Magpie laughs a little in return, a hesitant set to his face still. "It won't be many then. Most of us ended up here without a bag. You're sure I can borrow some?"

"Borrow, have, whatever you would like. And while we can't promise armour or weapons, I feel confident my brother can provide satchels or something to carry possessions in." Ireena puts a hand on his arm gently. "I mean it, really."

Magpie flinches at the touch, and pulls his arm away gently. "Satchels would be a great help, I don't think Fox's bag will survive anything else being put in it."

Ireena retracts her hand, but does not seem offended. "I did notice that sewing does not appear to be among Lord Ripley's particular skills."

Magpie laughs properly this time. “Apparently not, though I’m not sure I can say much after the gods awful job I did on those replacement gloves. It turns out not having something proper to cut the fabric with is a significant hindrance.”

"I hadn't liked to mention it, but they were somewhat unorthodox." Ireena giggles. "I wondered if it was some new trend from where you're from!"

“Decidedly not, just shoddy and hurried craftsmanship on my part.” He gives her a lopsided grin. “If you’re certain I can take a couple of books with me, do you have sections you’d rather I chose from? Or perhaps any recommendations?”

"You must feel free to choose whatever you'd like, although I suggest you take something less likely to fall apart when you touch it! But if you are open to suggestions, then I could show you some of my personal favourites?"

“I’d welcome that gladly, I find myself decidedly in a position of rather too much choice, and while I’d often like nothing more than to stay up all night browsing, I fear after the day we’ve had I need the rest.”

Ireena starts pulling books from shelves and various piles. They're all well-thumbed volumes, but don't seem in danger of falling apart completely. They span a wide range of genres: a poetry anthology by a Lord Byron, the classic epic poem she'd picked out earlier, a trilogy of long form fantasy, a collection of old Elvish plays, a couple of shorter looking novels (one historical fiction and one murder mystery), and a nonfiction biography of ancient rulers of Barovia. She sets them down in a pile in front of Magpie.

"This should narrow down the selection somewhat, I wasn't sure what you preferred, so I have chosen my favourites of many genres." She looks between Magpie and the pile a little nervously. "I hope there's something to your liking here?"

Magpie looks at the pile in astonishment, and brushes a gloved hand delicately across the covers. 

"All of it, I'd wager; I'll struggle to pick those that I can carry from such a fascinating collection." He looks up and catches her eye. "Thank you. Truly."

Ireena shows him a flash of the smile she must've had before the recent events of her life, and it lights up her whole face for a moment. 

"You are more than welcome, Magpie. I am aware that the journey ahead of us will be difficult, but I will not regret the opportunity to spend more time with you." She pauses and then adds almost as an afterthought, "With all of you. It will be nice to be able to say I have friends."

"It would be lovely indeed." Magpie looks back at the books, carefully thumbing through a couple of pages and starting to sort them into two neat piles. "After such a kind gesture, the least I could do is help you with your Elvish, if you still want to learn."

"Very much so, if it isn't too much trouble!" Ireena suddenly looks like she might cry and turns towards the door. "We should be getting back to the others, it is intolerably cruel of me to leave them solely in the company of my brother for too long." She turns back, and if her voice cracks, she doesn't acknowledge it. "Besides, as you said, you've all had a very long day. I imagine you will be wanting to rest soon."

Magpie blinks a couple of times at the abrupt change in mood, but makes no comment on it. He drains the last of his wine and sets the glass down, carefully picking up a stack of five books he'd set aside, the biography of rulers of Barovia, Elvish plays, and trilogy of fantasy, balancing them carefully in his arm before picking his glass back up. 

"Are these alright? Is it too many?"

"No, no of course not! That's fine! Would you like some help carrying them?"

"That's very kind of you, but I have a good hold on them, and there's no risk of me spilling my wine." He gives her a cheeky grin. "Well, shall we go and save the others from the company of your brother then?"

Ireena smiles back, small and shaky, but perhaps more real than some of her smiles up to this point. "An excellent idea, Mr Magpie." 

She leads the way back out of the study. She pauses on the landing and points at another door. "I believe that is to be your room for the night, if you'd prefer to drop the books off there, although I have no objections to you bringing them downstairs to share your finds with the others, if you wish."

"I –" Magpie looks torn, and a flicker of something passes over his face. "Perhaps, I'll drop most of them off. Bring just one down. To flick through."

"Great, I can wait here, or just meet you downstairs if you'd rather?"

"I'll be just a second." Magpie smiles at her briefly, and dips into the room to gently place the books down, keeping hold of the Elvish plays, and returning to her quickly.

"Shall we?" Ireena gestures at the staircase.

Magpie nods, and walks alongside her downwards, gently clutching the gifted book to his chest.

*

Written by Francesca Forrest & Nick Drew

Edited by Rowan E. Madden

Edge of Night is a dnd 5e actual play podcast, brought to you by Stringer Games. It is available on iTunes, Spotify & all good podcast providers.

[quadraphonictypewriter]

An article from the June 1975 edition of Yugoslavia’s Dzuboks [Jukebox] magazine. The first four pages of the article talks about the Deep Purple concert there on March 16, 1975 in Belgrade, and also mentions the second Yugoslavian concert in Zagreb, and the press conference beforehand. The last two are an interview with Jon Lord.

Below the cut is the complete transcript of the article (which I got by typing the whole thing out and doing a translate-and-refine process).

Setlist of the Belgrade concert

THE ARTICLE:

Rock business knocked on our door • No more old and new "Deep Purple": it's just Richie, Jon, David, Glenn and lan • Surrounded by the irresistible pressure of a powerful sound

Five of Mercedes' limousines drove away on Tuesday, March 18, in the early afternoon, selected the members of Deep Purple to the Zagreb airport, from there they move on to Scandinavia (some joked, "Eurovision Song Contest"), and thus ended the beginning of their European tour, and the entire course of the Yugoslavian tour. Two cities, 12,000 people at concerts, big money circulation… the rock business has knocked on our door as well. 

The predecessor of the band, whose exact number we could not find out (but there were over two dozen people), was in Belgrade as early as Friday to prepare the ground for the arrival of the stars. A day later, in the morning, the sports hall, "Pionir", began to take on the appearance of an exhibition hall - electronic equipment: from huge trucks, metal structures moved slowly to the stage, and on Sunday evening they rumbled so that your face cramps into a painful grimace.

The equipment, of course, needs its own attendants: there were so many that an uninformed passerby would surely think that every sound box was in the hands of some man.

But one should not exaggerate: the bulky guys in t-shirts with the inscription, “Deep Purple European Tour 1975," among whom the uninitiated tried to find the familiar faces of the musicians, are earning their bread honestly. It is a routine team so far in the service of many world groups, for which the foreplay of a rock concert means routine, while for the spectators in Belgrade everything looked quite spectacular.

HAPPY PRESS CONFERENCE

Our first meeting with Deep Purple took place on Saturday night, at the Hotel Yugoslavia, under the patronage of Jugoton. The Zagreb record company sold just over 100,000 copies of the album in Yugoslavia, so it decided to present the band with gold plates as a token of gratitude, at a special prepared press conference. Instead of the agreed 8 PM, the boys arrived two hours later: by that time, not all members were allegedly at the hotel. Some colleagues, however, had already sniffed out guitarist Blackmore, which later proved to be a successful catch, as the gloomy guy Ritchie didn't attend the press conference at all and completely distanced himself from the crowd forming around his colleagues.

While a large number of media representatives patiently waited for the conference to begin, many became bored and left. At 10 PM, David Coverdale, Glenn Hughes, and Ian Paice arrive. They sit behind the plush-covered table and look around the room, with the photographer pit and journalists looking at them with interest. At the very moment we begin to ask questions, Jon Lord appears to welcome applause. In the Deep Purple quintet, he seems to be the most familiar phenomenon.

UNIQUE DEEP PURPLE

During the conversation, Jon Lord often mentioned the names of Hughes and Coverdale, still considered newcomers to the group: “We have been together for about twenty months, actually two years, and we can't call them newcomers anymore. They are an integral part of Deep Purple. The change in lineup came naturally, as, after all, in all the periods of our career, all the ups and downs were natural. I doubt we ever did anything hastily. In that sense, Glenn and David come as an expected sequence of developments, events in our career." 

"I guess we brought fresh blood to the group," Hughes interjects. "Like when charging a discharged battery. No more old and new; Deep Purple: it's just Ritchie, Jon, David, Glenn, and Ian!" 

Jon Lord: “Seven years is a long period in this business. Whoever endures becomes an institution, and that implies the fact that you are domesticated everywhere. However, we cannot allow ourselves to constantly repeat things that have already been done. It would bore me, and the audience as well! At the same time, if we do things that we enjoy as creators, our audience will also enjoy it. 

Success is a beautiful thing, but when it comes, the challenge disappears. With the arrival of Glenn and David, this desire to challenge with new achievements has returned to us and now I want to keep it…”

On the other side of the table, where Paice and Coverdale sit, the conversation unfolds in all directions. The members also mention too many (unimportant) things for us to follow. The conference has long since lost its atmosphere of formality. In fact, everyone is having fun as best they can, especially since the hall is now mostly filled with people who are neither journalists nor musicians: there are staff from the escort team, girls, observers, the organizer…. Five plates of sweets, arranged on a stand behind the table at which the conversation takes place, are moved to the other end of the hall to be handed out as a show for photo-reporters. Eventually, the foursome receive commemorative plaques, but instead of Blackmore, the fifth copy comes into the hands of the group’s personal manager.

A PIONEERING ROCK CONCERT

Belgrade's Pionir venue was allegedly not filled to the last seat, although the atmosphere in the hall has given the impression of a sold-out audience. Kragujevac's Smak has just done its task of warming up the audience, and now there is a break that, in fact, should not have happened, but in such circumstances, the audience should be given the opportunity to get excited while waiting for the stars.

They are located in a safe area, in the hallway below the stands, which are a bit shaky. Judging by the sounds coming from the locker rooms, the men are obviously having a good time, and I hear Jon Lord playing some kind of boogie-woogie on the electric piano. Only one photo-reporter manages to reach them: he ignores the ban from the corpulent bodyguard.

Then, at the invitation of the so-called "stage manager", Deep Purple leaves the room behind the escort, as he makes his way to the stage with a bit of unnecessary nervousness. In the almost complete darkness, no one notices them taking their places behind their instruments. It is only when the spotlights flash, as the group moves into “Burn” that it roars terribly and excitement overflows the masses. In the fog that covers the stage, David Coverdale plays with the microphone stand, Paice changes the sides of his drum set, and Hughes jumps around joining Coverdale as two voices. My first impression seems to be to move away from the incredible pressure of a powerful sound. 

Everyone around me seems to be experiencing the same torture of "Heavy Metal!"

LORD: HEAVY METAL - A FICTIONAL TERM

And while the band begins "Stormbringer,” the second song of the set, it only amplifies the intensity of the sound and I remember Lord's statement from 24 hours ago: “I don't even know roughly what it means, heavy metal. The term was coined in the American press, and if you ask any English or American musician, everyone will tell you they don't know what it means. I don't like that label, in fact, I don't much like it. I understand that “heavy metal” means noisy music that hits you here, there, everywhere. But I always called it rock and roll. "Led Zeppelin," they were always just a rock band, we were always just a rock band."

But, in practice, when a man who is only at a distance of ten centimeters has to shout in your ear to be understood, such a statement does not seem at all convincing. Although Lord is partly right when he says, "The idea of a rock band, I suppose, is to affect the masses, but not on an intellectual, but on an emotional level."

That's just about the point of a "Deep Purple" concert. It provided an opportunity for an authentic experience of a rock event. You can listen to how much you like a live rock band, but there is an invisible line between the unacceptability of music that leaves you at a distance and the seemingly same stage event that you automatically get involved in, whether the process is due to simply belonging to a gathered audience, shouting, or trying to escape. 

Deep Purple, meanwhile, goes from song to song from the albums Stormbringer and Burn. When you take a closer look at them individually, perhaps the most interesting is the withdrawn Blackmore, who prefers to play rather than present. He is a good, and more importantly, convincing guitarist, although he often uses effects of which, however, the most spectacular, i.e. breaking the instrument, he did not have the honor to present. At one point it seemed to me that he was ready for it too, but he wasn’t - or he simply refrained.

And Paice impresses with surety. Deep Purple in general are great instrumentalists, no doubt about it. Only, they do not perform a type of music that exhibits instrumental skills, so you become aware of this skill only with such direct contact. On the other hand, they are not a typical show-group, and keep their stage effects to the level of the standard mood of rock performers.

ZAGREB - AND GOODBYE

The Purple concert lasts approximately two hours. If in the first part the program remains more or less easily recognizable, over time it takes on a freer form of rock jam-session, with occasional solos by Lord, Paice and Blackmore. Hughes leads the conversation, Coverdale supports the temperament of the hall, as if he wants to give the audience signs to stay in an equally frenetic mood until the end.

In Belgrade, and especially under the roof of the great Zagreb sports hall, the audience, by the way, should not be encouraged to be in a good mood. And that the mixed enjoyment of the audience at the front of the stage should not take on a dimension of excess, the ready family of Purple's bodyguards, who will intervene only in extremely dangerous situations, are also worried.

I doubt that the Zagreb concert was significantly different from the Belgrade one, except that I gained an interesting experience, i.e. that the loudspeaker was louder in areas further away from the stage than directly in front of it. The function of this equipment seems to have been exhausted in maintaining the volume intensity, while the effort to tint the sound spectrum has shifted into the background. No wonder, then, that tinnitus has become an infection that will - if nothing else - remain the most memorable memory of this occasion.

Dražen Vrdoljak

Darko Glavan talks to Jon Lord, organist of the group “Deep Purple,” which recently visited Belgrade and Zagreb, showing us what a concert of real "hard rock" masters looks like.

The Deep Purple concert was one of the rare opportunities to feel the ritual of a real rock concert in Zagreb. The Deep Purple rockers, routine masters of "hard rock" have shown an excellent knowledge of the mechanics of arousing rock fans, consciously choosing the marginal area between music and stylized stage effects. The emphasis on movement and visual spectacle to some extent limited the members of the ensemble in more fully expressing the art of mastering instruments, which was expressed only in shorter instrumental sections.

The successful concert of Deep Purple argues two theses that I have been advocating for a long time.

The first of them, which could be seen without the performance of Deep Purple, is the expressed need of the domestic audience for performances of top world rock groups and their willingness to spontaneously, without any inhibitions, join as equal participants in such events. Deep Purple's performance confirmed that a significant section of rock music primarily relies on multimedia effects, in which one of the essential aspects of a creative act is an event in which the audience participates at the instigation of the performers. Such manifestations should not be seen as some kind of music or perhaps "applied" or "instructed" music, but as a special form of artistic activity that requires specific models of critical approach.

Before the performance, Deep Purple held a press conference at the Hotel Yugoslavia in Belgrade, where they were presented with commemorative plates handed to them by "Jugoton" for the 100,000 albums sold in Yugoslavia. On that occasion, we spoke with Jon Lord, the unofficial boss of Deep Purple. The author of the text, Drazen Vrdoljak, also took part in the discussion

ONLY ROCK AND ROLL - OTHER NAMES DO NOT FIT

Youth Weekly - Many critics term your style commitment as heavy metal music. Do you agree with such classifications and did you consciously initiate such a style of rock music?

Jon Lord - Let's face it, it's not a term we accept, or like... We actually hate it... I don't even have a rough idea of what the label "heavy metal" should mean... We've always been a rock band, “Led Zeppelin” have always been a rock band. I want to devalue that term, because I don't like it... it was invented by an American journalist, but I don't know a musician who could explain its exact meaning. I guess it’s kind of synonymous with the noise that haunts you here, there, everywhere. But we call it rock and roll, I've always called it rock and roll..

Youth Weekly - So the main goal of your ensemble was the creation of original excitement, early rock and roll, in the conditions of a more developed electro-acoustic technology?

Jon Lord - Yes ... it's rock music. It affects the masses on a level that is not intellectual but emotional. It's not just for our band - that's the essence of all rock bands.

Youth Weekly - The album Deep Purple in Rock is the biggest success of your career. How do you rate it today?

Jon Lord - That album matured in the band members for about two years ... it was a very significant album, it definitely established the band. Honestly, although I run the risk of sounding immodest, overpowering, I think Deep Purple In Rock is a masterpiece within the framework of rock. I think we said a lot about rock at the time and with that album.

Youth Weekly - On your first albums you performed many successful versions of songs by various composers, such as Donovan’s "Lalena", "Help" by Lennon and McCartney, "Hey Joe" and "River Deep, Mountain High," not to mention the first hits like "Hush" and “Kentucky Woman." Is it possible to include another such song in your repertoire even today?

Jon Lord - If you want to record someone else's song, then you have to add a new dimension to it, elaborate it musically in terms of your own taste and expression ... if that doesn't work for you, then it's better to record your own material.

Youth Weekly - So, at the moment, there is no more pronounced possibility to edit a composition by another author?

Jon Lord - In fact ... on the new album we will include another song ... I can't remember exactly which song it was, it was Ritchie's idea ... but it's not certain because if we don't succeed in properly performing a song, we would rather use our own. Take the Beatles for example .... their songs are very difficult to perform; after their performance you get the impression that they got the most out of it.

THE ROLE OF ROCK CRITICISM

Youth Weekly - What kind of music do you listen to in your free time?

Jon Lord - Diverse music, everything I can hear ... if you are an architect by profession then you are always trying to find out how your competitors build houses, if you are a musician then you have to constantly monitor how other musicians play music .... that is, after all, your job. Music is not heavenly, ethereal, it is something earthly just like building houses. Music is a craft in which you constantly have to improve and that is why it is very important to respect the work of other musicians.

Youth Weekly - Could you single out a few favorites?

Jon Lord - There are many of them, but most often it is not a specific soloist, composer or ensemble, but usually a few songs from a single album .... I rarely like a complete album, I usually single out something that later possibly affects my work ... .I like, for example, some numbers of Yes, and Led Zeppelin... but I don't have a favorite band. But, let's say, if I say I don't like a certain album, it doesn't automatically mean I think it's bad. This mistake is often made by critics - they attack an album because they didn't like it and thus declare it a loser and a failure. They should be more careful and thoughtful in such articles.

Youth Weekly - We in Yugoslavia have taken a large part of our knowledge about rock music from the English or American rock press. What is your attitude towards rock criticism?

Jon Lord - I'm not against criticism ... but there are many critics I can't trust anymore. I'm not saying this because of possible bad reviews from my group or my solo projects - I knew a lot of honest groups, which created and played great music and which were ruined due to the negative evaluations of some critics. The critic has one advantage over the musician: he cannot be answered to at once. This bothers me because when I see an article in the newspaper that I do not agree with, all I have to do is write a protest, but the moment it is published - the essence of the discussion loses its meaning and relevance. Led Zeppelin are one of the world's leading rock bands. But for concerts on their American tour, which is just underway, they regularly get bad reviews, even though every ticket is sold out for their performance ... They work hard every night, play for a long time, and can't see the meaning of the critics' negative attitude. But there are also people I still trust, for example, Chris Welch from Melody Maker.

Youth Weekly - How do you think a critic should act?

Jon Lord - You should comment, express constructively and honestly your personal opinion instead of presenting your views to the audience as an undeniable fact; it is not a fact, it is only a judgement.

I AM NOT A MUSIC MACHINE BUT A MUSICIAN

Youth Weekly - In addition to working within Deep Purple, you have realized several independent projects. Why did you decide on such appearances?

Jon Lord - As a member of a group, I have been working professionally for a little over seven years. There is a danger that we will turn into an institution, and the institution implies that you are established at all levels, while I am constantly striving for new challenges. This, after all, made us change our line-up at one point - but now we have to avoid the mistakes we made in the past, and that makes us not feel overconfident about ourselves. Personally, I do not like everything to flow easily, I am ready to face difficulties. You can’t play forever what you played yesterday. You would get bored, and if you get bored, the audience gets bored too. You try to surprise the audience, you try to surprise yourself if possible, and I think it is. If you are excited about what you are playing, you will also excite the audience. I don’t think music has ever stepped forward if not experimented. So, one has to experiment. A conscious dream that my experiments are not vital to the musical life of the world, but for me personally they are, and unfortunately, people are not currently given the opportunity for that, which I will certainly accept

Youth Weekly - What does your latest album Stormbringer mean to you?

Jon Lord - Stormbringer was recorded last summer in Munich. It is our second album with bassist Glenn Hughes and singer David Coverdale. The songs are close to what we have always wanted to play, a bit softer and more moderate than our characteristic sound. After Burn we got closer, so we were more relaxed. I think, after Machine Head, it’s our most successful album.

Youth Weekly - Plans for the future?

Jon Lord - The next album will be a bit more rocking, we will start recording it on April 10, again in Munich. This year we will perform a little less and play mostly in countries we haven't visited so far - in South America, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. We are preparing for an English tour, but this year we are not planning a tour of the USA ... we need a vacation, we don’t want to be musical machines rather than musicians.

Darko Glavan

Recording: Vican Vicanović

[wendylehrer07-blog]

AC3 RestaurantBar

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[nogistreet]

Hinako Kitano - Bottled water (English Translation of her 2018/04/18 blog)

Good evening everyone.

This is Hinako Kitano.

I made a brief appearance during the second day of 46 TV last month.

It had been a while since I appeared in front of all of you; Same goes for meeting the staff. But more than anything, apart from a few members like Iori and Minami whom I’ve been meeting with even during my hiatus, it had been a long time since I’ve met with the other members. I almost became bashful just by getting eye contact with them.

I couldn’t meet with the 3rd gen at all, and because the senbatsu members were busy in the studio, and the Under members were heading somewhere else by the time I arrived, I couldn’t actually see most of them.

Even so, Rena (Yamazaki) ran up to me just to say “bye bye.” It made me remember what a meddlesome person she can be, and how nice she is. Junna sat down in my lap and we talked for a long time. It provided some peace of mind, and felt very nostalgic at the time. Miria and Ranze held my back as I was hesitating about entering the studio.

It’s because of all the support I’m receiving from all of these people that I was able to appear on the show, even if it was only for a short duration.

46 Hour TV is a very important event for us in Nogizaka46 So being able to appear, if just briefly, means a lot.

The members of the staff had taken some precautions too in order to make the environment as inviting as possible for me. I’m really thankful to them. It was fun!

-

Mahiro who graduated on March 31 It’s a shame I couldn’t meet you before your graduation. But I’m sure we’ll be able to meet soon anyway At that time, I want to do my best to make sure I can properly relay all my feelings of gratitude towards you.

The first time I was selected as a senbatsu member I had a hard time fitting in, but she would always call out to me whenever we were together; When I couldn’t keep up with the choreographies, she would stay behind in the lesson room and teach me personally; She’s helped me out a lot.

We spent a lot of time together as Unders, and Mahiro’s presence really made a huge difference, not just to me, but surely to the other members as well.

I’m a bit saddened by the fact that I won’t be able to be greeted by her voice anymore as I head for work, but I feel that she’ll continue to grow from now on, and I need to do my best in order to catch up.

Mahiro Thanks for everything up until now. Keep in touch!

I’m still on hiatus, but because of some gentle pushing from both staff and members I was able to make a minor appearance in the music video of the 2nd gen’s latest song “Scoutman.”

I’m not part of the actual song, nor do I join in on the dancing, so I won’t be in any performances from now on either. Appearing for a brief moment in the music video is the best I can do right now. Even so, I’m glad to have been able to take part in it.

I was told a lot of things during the recording

Stuff like “Welcome back” or “We’ve been waiting for you”

Saying such nice things. They’re all too nice. I love them.

While I’ll only be able to do it a little at a time I want to repay everyone for their kindness. I too want to protect this place I hold so dear This place where people are waiting for me

Thank you.

Please keep supporting me from now on as well.

[fakesam]

Belated Black Panther Thoughts

Everything happening regarding Black Panther right now feels like a miracle. You can only congratulate a giant, increasingly powerful conglomerate so much for realizing black money runs the same as white money, but it is still a moment to be celebrated. Seeing a movie this proudly black in the limelight, with such a large budget and plenty of promotional backing, is delightfully paradoxical given the toxic whiteness infecting the national atmosphere from the top down. This movie dropped at the right time. The biggest individual piece of promo comes courtesy of Black Panther: The Album, curated by Kendrick Lamar and the rest of the Top Dawg Entertainment braintrust. Licensed movie soundtracks have experienced something like renaissance over the last couple years, a business maneuver congealing the interests of film studios looking for anything to boost social media traffic and musicians to get some extra exposure and a decent payday. The results of these partnerships has been mixed at best, even when the Best Rapper Alive is involved. Remember when Kendrick rapped over an overly macho remix of Tame Impala’s “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards”? Most people don’t.

Even with this project, it was easy to develop some cynicism about the final results. Kendrick has become more and more intransigent about being the voice of the voiceless, but he’s hasn't been above easy mainstream pop dollars in the past. Man gave verses to Taylor Swift and Maroon 5, and performed with Imagine Dragons. “All The Stars”, the most successful single off The Album, is a pleasant enough pop-rap hit that struts perfectly over the end credits of a blockbuster, but it lacks the depth of feeling that has made Lamar the current Poet Laureate of Black America. There’s also “Pray For Me”, a Weeknd and Kendrick collab that sounds like it was salvaged off the Starboy cutting room floor. These songs are fine, but eminently forgettable. Thankfully, these tracks are clear outliers, the lone examples of mainstream genuflecting across the entire project. The uniqueness and specificity that makes Black Panther so appealing as a film is also apparent in the sprawling sonic odyssey of its soundtrack. It’s better than anyone could've hoped for.

The playlist era of album design, gives credence to the worst impulses of people just trying to get paid, narrative coherence be damned. Migos’ Culture II was ruined by an engorged tracklist that led to a runtime comparable to most of the nominees for Best Picture at the Oscars. Twenty-four songs was at least ten too many, but who needs an editor when the penalty for choosing quantity over quality is so minimal? But it’s the perfect format for a movie soundtrack.

Kendrick’s ability as a tastemaker has never really been a thing to consider until now. His albums are hermetically-sealed portraits of his psyche, exploring his personal tensions and how they’re informed by his personal history and the lineage of black strife in America. This intricate exploration of his inner self doesn’t leave much room for other voices - the featured artists welcomed into his world are brought in for a very specific purpose. Kendrick is also very selective about the songs of other artists he’s willing to jump on. Combine that with his social media reticence, and the lists of contemporaries that Kendrick listens to are tantalizingly vague. There’s an undeniable intrigue to learning who a near-consensus superstar genius deems worthy of the aux cord. Consciously leeching on to the burgeoning movements of younger rappers is a tactic that Drake has perfected over the years. The two current titans of hip-hop have been acting out a musical cold war for the last couple years, so it’s tempting in a sense to think of Black Panther: The Album as Kendrick running with Drake’s idea of a “playlist project” that he tried to make happen with the release of More Life.

But it’s much more tempting to talk about the sumptuous quality of this music on hand. The litany of artists brought together to assemble this album, a mix of established stars, burgeoning upstarts and total unknowns, bring disparate genres and musical approaches to the table, all cohesively strung together under the diasporic flag of black excellence.

It’s obvious in hindsight to see why Kendrick was so attracted to the project that he asked to oversee the entire soundtrack after watching snippets of the film during its production. The divide between T’Challa and Killmonger’s views on progress mirrors the internal strife that has Kendrick has been ruminating on his entire career. TDE took their role as gatekeepers seriously, drawing delineations between the conflicts of the movie and the endless struggle that is sadly inherent with the black experience. Black Panther could never have the intimate complexity of a solo Kendrick record, but it details the black experience with more nuance than many albums told from one perspective. The strokes are broad, but the completed painting is still worthy of admiration.

Most of TDE shows up in some form. SZA provides the hook on the aforementioned “All the Stars”, Schoolboy Q reminds us of his undeniable charisma on “X”. Ab-Soul puts together his first good verse since his 2012 album Control System on “Bloody Waters”. We even get a glimpse of the lesser seen, frivolous Kendrick on “Big Shot”, a bouncy, “New Freezer” interpolating Travis Scott collab that doubles as the latest entry in the “Dope Rap Songs built around a Flute Sample” pantheon. from rap to pop to heavily indebted house music from South Africa. But it’s the newer faces that making their formal introduction to larger audiences that makes this album genuinely exciting. SOB x RBE have received most of the acclaim for their scene-stealing performance on “Paramedic”, and that praise is warranted, but they’re not the only up and comers who killed it. Jorja Smith makes a war march sound like heaven on “I Am”, and South African artists Yugen Blakrok and Babes Wodumo make their case for international renown on “Opps” and the South African house jam “Redemption”. Kendrick is present on every song - his contributions ranging from being the best rapper alive to windy background vocalist - but he’s very much a secondary figure in the works of others.

It’s bears repeating how remarkable it is that this thing has been allowed to exist. That Future inhales a bunch of helium, interpolates Slick Rick, and asks for a blowjob with one absurdly entertaining turn of phrase. Someone at Marvel signed off on all of this. We should all be thankful for that man or woman or committee of persons. What could’ve been a simple cash grab for TDE becomes something much more stirring and exciting thanks to a commitment to take the source material seriously enough to use it as a launching point for work that is both evocative and entertaining. A perfect table setter for the main event.

As I sat in the chair of the theater waiting for the movie to start, I was slightly nervous about the quality of the movie. The hype cycle had spun into overdrive had built the movie to stratospheric heights. Black Panther stopped being a movie and became a religious communion. That’s a lot to live up to. Aside from the inescapable expectations created by fans, Marvel’s cinematic spell lost their power over me years ago, as the negative aspects of the “Movies as TV episodes” system became more glaring. Nothing of consequence ever happened and the action scenes were overwrought and anticlimactic, antiseptic, CGI-soaked action that put me to sleep. The last comic book movie I enjoyed without much reservation was the first Guardians of the Galaxy, way back in 2014, 87 years ago. Even Wonder Woman, one of the rare superhero films allowed to take some risks - as much as giving women the chance to be all-powerful warriors without the prompting of a man counts as a risk to some people - lost me during the third act when Gal Gadot fought a Bloodborne boss yelling corny “Give In To Evil and Join Me!!!!!!!” dialogue in the middle of a flaming airfield. When comic book movies go extremely comic book-y, I lose all interest. My expectations were middling despite the widespread adoration of the movie that compelled me to go see it in the first place. Not quite as cynical as I tend to be, but not wearing a T’Challa costume to the theater.

By the time the entire elite class of Wakanda was shimmying from on high while T’Challa fought for the throne of this Afro-futurist utopia (the first time this happens), I realized how wrong my assumptions were. I didn’t realize how much I needed this movie to exist. Just witnessing this much blackness - a proud, intelligent, secure version of blackness - actively enriched me while I was watching it. The power of representation isn’t lost on me, but I believed I was past the point where I would experience such gratification from a giant blockbuster. I underestimated how affirming it would be to see this much black prosperity on film. It’s amazing how impactful the casting of black actors in roles usually given to white people can be. I’m jealous of little kids who can look up to Shuri or T’Challa or Nakia and feel a little less ashamed of themselves at a young age. M’Baku’s capacity to be large and menacing and also capable of telling jokes about cannibalism is magical. I would watch all of these characters do anything for hours. Instant icons, all of them.  

Black Panther also solves the eternal villain problem that’s been flummoxing superhero films since Heath Ledger died. Killmonger is incredible. He is still a villain, since his endgame of choice is to start a literal race war, but his motivations and reasoning up to that point are totally understandable. From an outsider’s perspective, Wakanda is this hovel of selfish conservatism that does nothing to stop systemic oppression and kills anyone who whispers about their existence too loudly. Sitting pretty in their Vibranium-powered towers above the struggle. It’d be easy to resent Wakanda if you’ve never seen Shuri pranking T’Challa in her lab. The most logical emotion for him is anger. He went out like a G, too. That last line was perfect. I would have liked to see more of a conversation between Killmonger and T’Challa before he took over, but you can only hope for so much civil rights philosophizing in a blockbuster. It was enough to feel like the obligatory third act battle was had actual stakes. Black Panther finally made the Game of Thrones fandom sensible to me. Political maneuvering can be way more engaging than I realized. Blame George Lucas for that train of thought.

I find it hard to think about this movie in any critical sense because I’m so happy that it was allowed to exist in this form. After sleeping on it, I will concede that the South Korea sequence didn’t need to be that long. The “Andy Serkis is a Soundcloud rapper” goof was an airball. But anyone who would rather complain about about the scene’s usefulness as a plot device more so than celebrate the badassery of Chadwick Boseman and Danai Gurira is not to be trusted. Same goes for the fact that this movie has a sense of humor that can’t be reduced to just Tony Stark saying something snarky or tryhard quirkiness, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 style. They really let Ryan Coogler do that shit. Black Panther is the first Marvel movie that was clearly in the hands of an auteur, with a vision uncompromised by studio notes or the compulsion to tie itself to the rest of Marvel Cinematic Universe. This movie never feigns interest in the machinations of the Avengers or whatever wold-destroying portal they need to destroy, and thank god for that. The narrowness of the story lends itself to much more in-depth character development and a sense of place. It rarely feels or looks like other Marvel movies. Wakanda is too good for reality, but the open designs of the shopping areas and the impeccable fashion of the citizens tied into the history of African culture in a way that's easy to intuit. Shoutout to the Codeine Crazy-esque skyline in T’Challa’s first herb-induced vision. Shoutout to the guy with the giant disc in his mouth. Man had fits for days.

Even my mom loved it. I saw the movie with her and Danai Gurira’s performance was so good that she thought about shaving her own head in her honor. She also said she wanted braids like Angela Bassett’s character, but quickly decided against it because of the time commitment to getting such a hairstyle. But getting that level of inspiration from a Marvel movie spells out how special Black Panther is. I rarely watch movies with her anymore. Our tastes have mostly split as I’ve grown up. I haven’t seen her that giddy walking out of the theater since… ever? Her love of the movie really made it clear how special this moment is for the culture. I kinda hate that I said for the culture, but I don’t know how to end this.  Many thanks to Ryan Coogler and company for giving me that moment. Uhhhhhhhhhh bye.