weekend o' culture!

saturday night i saw a film about the brazilian musician tom ze. tom ze's records were released domestically on luaka bop, david byrne's old label. david appeared in the film, and is the only english-speaker in this trailer:



sunday i went to the oregon symphony. one half was comprised of a work by James MacMillan called "The Confession Of Isabel Gowdie", about a woman accused of being a witch, who was subsequently strangled and burned at the stake. heavy stuff. the second half was the complete incidental music to mendelssohn's "a midsummer night's dream", complete with women's chorus and actors.

and tonight i saw pianist valentina lisitsa. i could have listened to this woman all night long. i was blown away. the entire audience was blown away; she did FIVE encores. she looks like a delicate flower, with gwyneth-like features. but she's a fucking powerhouse at the keyboard: