Rhapsody (on a F***ing School Night)

'Sup kids.

How's your Tuesday? Super-cool? Ours was, except for the whole staying-out-past-10pm thing on a school night - I'm definitely not a fan of that bullshit.

Every year that Alayna has been involved in Midland High's annual student talent show, Rhapsody Rendezvous, it has been on a Friday night in December. In the middle of the Holiday Season, when folks aren't stressing out about getting home at a decent time and having to wake up bright and early for yet another day of work.

Well, apparently there was a scheduling hiccup with the venue, Midland Center for the Arts, and Midland had to hold the damn thing on a random Tuesday in January. Totally sucked, but we survived. Hopefully the jackass in charge of scheduling learns how to adult next year, because I sure as hell don't want to have to do this nonsense ever again.

Since Abby is a Freshman now, we had two girls in Rhapsody this year, and a few different showcases they were featured in: Symphonic Orchestra (Alayna and Abby), JV Pom's performance (Abby), and Honors Orchestra (Alayna.) That broke up the monotony of watching random student acts and having to stomach the so-bad-it's-cringy, student MC 'skits' throughout the evening.

Anyway, I managed to find the evening's professional photographer's pictures online, and included them here for your viewing pleasure. 

Enjoy. . .

The photographer managed to get on stage and get pictures of all the kids performing during their practice before the audience showed up. All the high schoolers participating in the evening's big show left school halfway through the day on Tuesday and headed across town for some last-minute practice sessions before the big night.

The team would change into their official school uniforms for their pom routine later in the night.

I'm not sure how the photographer got all these pics being on stage with all these girls moving around like they do - that's a good way to get knocked flat on your ass.

The Cannonball, warming up with the orchestra during their practice session. Sadly I couldn't upload the video of the Symphonic Orchestra performing a suite of music from the Indiana Jones franchise, as it lasted nearly six minutes. Really impressive, though.

Abby joins the ranks of Symphonic Orchestra this year.

Later that evening, during the actual show, Midland JV on the stage.

Abby, front and center as usual.

Ella, also front and center.

I think this one's Honor's Orchestra (hard to tell because I had to film it in a way where the lit up phone screen wasn't visible to folks sitting around/behind me.)

Hanging out behind the scenes following another orchestra performance.

Not sure what's happening backstage at this point. . .

Alayna, hanging out backstage while the Marching Band closes out the evening with a showcase of three or four songs from their season.

Abby requested I get a video of the Drum Line doing their thing, which always ends the evening's show.

The girls with Papa and Nana, who drove down from Clare to check out the girls' performances.

. . . and of course they brought flowers, because God forbid the girls don't get flowers at the end of a show.

The Cannonball, please with her favorite - red roses.

Kiersten and Abby, at the end of the night.

- Brian

The Great Christmas Record Odyssey, Ep. XLVII

Hi again, music lovers.

We can't get ourselves any frickin' snow it seems, but we can sure as hell nab ourselves some audio nerdery. . .

Album Title:  An Evening with Arthur Fiedler & The Boston Pops:  Great Songs for ALL SEASONS

Album Artist:  Arthur Fiedler & The Boston Pops

They went out of their way to convince you, right out of the gate, that this album could be played year-round.  Check out the All Caps work in the title.  I definitely overlooked this fact when purchasing it at Radio Wasteland last month (for $2, mind you), and assumed, since it was in their Christmas section, it was a Holiday album.

And it sort of is.

Upon placing this on my turntable, however, I soon realized why this was advertised as music for ALL SEASONS:  the entirety of Side A is NOT Christmas music.

What.  The.  Hell.

Instead, we have your usual pickings of '70s Easy Listening fan favorites.  "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head," "What the World Needs Now is Love," etc. - Arthur Fiedler, like EVERYONE ELSE in the '70s, apparently can't get enough of Burt f***ing Bacharach.

Those two songs alone appear on probably 90% of every thrift store album one comes across, which leads me to believe that Mr. Bacharach was commonly believed back then to be the second coming of Christ.

His songs creep into every nook and cranny of mainstream music, forcing their way onto compilation LPs and demanding to be heard, like some drunk guy who shows up at a party uninvited.


I don't care for Burt Bacharach, and his presence here is not a welcome one.

So Side A, long story short, is a wash.  It sucks.  If you're a fan of listening to instrumental versions of 'classic' '70s Easy Listening, then you'll probably dig it, but that's not a genre I'm a fan of.

Side B, however, is Christmas music, and is done in Fiedler's typical 'pops' orchestral arrangements (listen to any orchestral offering that ends with '. . .Goes Pop' and you'll know what I'm talking about.)  It's not bad, but it sounds like department store background music.  Imagine you're walking through a J.C. Penney (remember those?) back in the '80s, during December, and you're picking out tacky gold jewelry for your mom.  This is the music that is playing over the sound system.  His take on Tchaikovsky is nice, as is his arrangements of other Holiday classical scores, but I have better versions on other LPs, and, ultimately, it's nowhere near enough to save this half-ass attempted offering from damnation.

I'm pissed I spent $2 on this.  While not horrible, per se - Fiedler is a talented artist in the 'Goes Pop' field, and if both sides were comprised of legit Christmas music we might be looking at a higher score, maybe a '6' or so  - I feel cheated that this is only half a Christmas album, and that an entire side of this LP is dedicated to Bacharach-ish shittiness.  

VERDICT:  3/10 - Seriously? (Burt Bacarach and Co's boring sleaze drags this album down considerably, and not even Fiedler's not-bad take on Christmas Classical music is enough to save it from being shelved. . . if not donated.)

- SHELVED -