doodledee

It's been a musical weekend 'round these parts. On Friday night, I met the family down at Peavey Plaza for the annual '24 Hours of Music' festival that celebrates the start of Minnesota Orchestra's Sommerfest. I think this was the 5th year they've done it and logistically it was near flawless. Unfortunately I didn't like (or maybe didn't appreciate?) the line-up as much as in years past, but Spaghetti Western String Company were playing a 5pm set in Orchestra Hall and there was no effing way I was gonna miss that. It turned out even better than I had hoped. Witness: they previewed a bunch of awesome new songs from their upcoming EP, the air conditioning in the hall was set to about 66 degrees, and my kid actually sat quietly and watched for most of the show. Seriously, just try and paint a better picture than that. Uh huh, that's what I thought, you got nothin'.

Then Saturday we got up and headed back down for the morning program, which was billed as "family friendly". We got there in time see the last bit of the Twin Cities Bronze handbell choir which turned out to be an *enormous* hit. I think 'transfixed' would be the best word I could use to describe it. After the bells, a couple of ladies from the MacPhail Center got up and played some children's songs and the kids all danced and it was fun but it was also pretty hot which made it somewhat less fun for dads who are out of shape and prone to sweating. At least the nice ladies in the Marshal Fields t-shirts were passing out free water.

Now it's Sunday and I'm home alone and I'm finally taking the time to listen to the 5.1 mix of the new Ben Folds disc at skull-crushing volume. It's the first time I've ever listened to a full album in 5.1 and it's a little weird. I guess if they want to take the time to mix it in surround I'll go ahead and listen, but it's probably not something I'd return to every day. It's also disappointingly predictable: backing vocals? Rear channel. Splash cymbals? Rear channel. Lead vocals? Center channel. Duh. All those possibilities and they take the obvious way out. So lame. Or maybe I was just expecting too much, who knows.