Monthly Archives: January 2009

When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers

Posted on by
5

Pittsburghers are wandering about these days, idling away the days and hours until The Happiest Day of the Year: Super Bowl Sunday.

My advice for how to make an evening go speedily by (whether or not you’re a football fan): Go to the Pittsburgh Public Theatre and see their current show, Metamorphoses.

Production still from Metamorphoses at the Pittsburgh Public Theatre; Pictured: J.T. Arbogast and Tami Dixon; Photo credit: Ric Evans

It’s a short show (90 minutes, no intermission) but full of fun. The play is a compilation of Greek myths as told by Ovid, but rendered in semi-modern situations.

The gimmick of the show — much talked about in reviews and previews — is that the stage is constructed as a real, live, water-filled pool. This is beautiful to see, especially with a throne or small arrangement of flowers perched on the edge, reflecting in the water and glowing in a spotlight. But it also plays a critical role of its own in all the stories.

The performers are funny and perfect, as well as wonderfully fit — much skin is visible. Direction is brisk, sets are minimal and evocative, the script is both true to the original text and modernized for today. It’s a lovely production, and I recommend it highly.

As the show makes clear, a prevailing truth of myths is that the gods are fickle, but they have rules. If you abide by the rules and respect the gods’ power, you will succeed, or at least survive. Here’s hoping the Steelers stay on the good side of the Football Gods this weekend — don’t tempt the Fates, make no displays of hubris, show lots of sportsmanship, and make sure Tomlin doesn’t overdress for the big game (Cold Coach = Victory) — so the gods will look kindly on them in the Super Bowl.

See the review of Metamorphoses in this week’s Pittsburgh City Paper, and find show details and ticket info at the Public’s website.

(Photo details: Production still from Metamorphoses at the Pittsburgh Public Theatre; Pictured: J.T. Arbogast and Tami Dixon; Photo credit: Ric Evans. Source of the quote in the title of this post: Oscar Wilde.)

One week and counting — best Steelers song round-up

Posted on by
3

Super Bowl Sunday comes in just one week, and all of Steeler Nation seems to be searching for “The. Best. Steelers. Song. Ever.“

If you are among these searchers and have thusly arrived here at My Brilliant Mistakes, here are a few key links to help you on your quest:

Bob Braughler at Masters of Gilligan/Subdivided We Stand links to Mr. Devious’s “Puhlahmalu” — updated for 2009 with references to Mike Tomlin and current players — and to the above updated “Renegade” video.

(“Renegade” is, by far, my favorite song to hear in a sports stadium. I love it even without the sports connection, actually. But I think it is the most crowd-energizing anthem out there.)

Bob also links to a video of the crew on the International Space Station representing Steeler Nation from space.

Pre-teen band The Pop Rocks reworks Pat Benatar’s “Heartbreaker” with Steelers lyrics. And they’re from Butler! Find details about them in the Post-Gazette. (Thanks to my friend India Amos for cluing me in on this.)

The blog Hail to Pitt provides a comprehensive listing of all the classic Steelers fight songs, and has warm words for the new Pop Rocks creation as well.

And if none of those is quite raunchy enough for your tasts, local force-of-nature Mindbling and her crew deliver a new and nasty fight song, one that I feel sure was the final boost the team needed to triumph over the Ravens: “No Sleep ’til Tampa.”

You Rock!!

Posted on by
Reply

One of my childish escapes guilty pleasures is playing Guitar Hero on the Wii.

I’m nearly through Medium level in “GH3: World Tour” — I haven’t mastered the fast fingering needed in the final section, and of course once I get through that I’ll still have to beat the final boss.

Now and again I make an attempt at playing at the expert level, and it’s just world’s harder than medium. So I find this video inspiring, astonishing, and maybe a bit depressing.

Yeah, he’s using a fake drum kit to play a fake guitar. And yet he’s my new hero.

(Thanks to Anthony for sending me the link. Or maybe curses to him, because now I want to go play all night.)

Burst

Posted on by
1

As I was getting ready to head out for the evening tonight, I noticed that the water pressure in my house was much lower than usual. With temps in the single digits and lower, I quickly guessed the problem.

How I spent my Saturday night

This pipe had been in my garage. When I found it, the water was coming out fast and furious, enough that I could hear it from the other side of the door.

I lucked out, in that it wasn’t near anything important so the gallons of water that sprayed out of it didn’t cause damage, plus it was easy to find and accessible for repair.

And I really lucked out when it turned out that my brother-in-law, who can handle basic plumbing tasks like this, was home and could help. He came over, took stock of the situation, headed to Home Depot for supplies, then came back to make the repair — including an extra cut-off valve to help prevent another such problem in future. Hooray for Mike!

Here’s to lucky breaks.

Encore! More of my conversation with John Adams

Posted on by
Reply

The three remaining segments of my interview with Pulitzer-prize winning composer John Adams are online at the Pittsburgh Symphony website.

Part 4: John describes the feeling of releasing a book in the current market, how he came to write the book Hallelujah Junction, and why he wrote a book like this.

Part 5: John talks about the creation and premiere of The Dharma at Big Sur, how he revises and improves certain works, and why not every piece is worth revising.

Part 6: John talks about Pittsburgh, Heinz Hall, and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

How technology is changing classical music — part 3 of my conversation with the composer John Adams

Posted on by
1

The third part of my interview with John Adams, the PSO’s Conductor of the Year, is available on the PSO blogs.

In this segment, John discusses how new technology has affected the way music is made, music itself, and the business of classical music. Read part 3 here.

I’m posting this interview over several days, in anticipation of two special concerts that he will be conducting with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra on January 16 and 17.

If you’d like to hear John Adams conduct the PSO in performing his works, I have a limited number of vouchers for free tickets. Please contact me for details.

The cheering squad

Posted on by
1

Yesterday for the Steelers-Chargers game, my two-year-old niece wore her Steelers cheerleader outfit. We said the Steelers needed her support and she should give them a cheer.

She started shouting sounds. “Ah! Oof! Whoa! Ack! Yeah!”

We all stared. After a minute, my brother realized that she was imitating us — those were the sounds we made while we watched the game.

Which is absolutely true. Whoa!

Rachel says Go Steelers!

Older posts on football and the Pittsburgh Steelers:

The very best Steelers song EVER (Jan 24, 2006)

Drink of the Super Bowl: No. 43 Trophy Cup (aka The Polamalu) (Feb 3, 2006)

“We tried everything to give that game away, but they darn well wouldn’t take it” (Jan 16, 2005)

Lamenting the lexicon of musical invective — part 2 of John Adams interview

Posted on by
Reply

The second part of my interview with John Adams, the PSO’s Conductor of the Year, is available on the PSO blogs. In this segment, John talks about blogging and history, not being recognized, and what it’s like to sit in the audience when his works are performed. Read part 2 here.

I’m posting this interview over several days, in anticipation of two special concerts that he will be conducting with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra on January 16 and 17.

Interested in attending one of the concerts? I have a limited number of vouchers for free tickets. Please contact me and I’ll set you up.

Interview with John Adams, part 1

Posted on by
1

In November, I had the chance to interview John Adams, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Conductor of the Year. John shared his thoughts on contemporary and classical music, audiences, writing his autobiography, Pittsburgh, the PSO and Heinz Hall, and more.

I’ll be posting this interview over several days over at the PSO blogs, in anticipation of two special concerts that John Adams will be conducting with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra on January 16 and 17.

The first part of the interview is here.

Cynthia Closkey and John Adams

Ready for any closeup

Posted on by
4

Today I made a little light tent, for closeup photography. I needed it for a client’s product photo — usually our clients have their own product images, and when they don’t I’m more than happy to refer them to a professional photographer in the area. But this was such a simple little job, and we needed it in a rush.

Plus, I was itching to try out the DIY $10 Macro Photo Studio I’d seen on Lifehacker — they’d initially mentioned it years back, and again recently. And goodness knows I need a better solution for shooting little things for this site, like cocktails and whatnot.

The project was simple. The box I used is a basic U-Haul cube (from my last move, nearly 10 years ago, still sitting in the garage with unused ski clothes mouldering in it). It’s perfect for most small items. For lights, I used some old lamps that previous owners had left in the house when I bought it. I bought the tissue paper at Target (since everything I had on hand was red or green for holiday gifts).

The product photos are clear and nice, and while the light color wasn’t
ideal — due to my using those incandescent lamps — Photoshop heped me
fix the colors and brightness easily.

I was so pleased I decided to celebrate with a Bijou cocktail.

Here’s my fab, oh-so-cheap-and-good macro photo setup:

Expect more and better closeup photos in future.