1 Aug 2004 dcoombs   » (Master)

Work

Our CEO came for a visit and a motivational talk on Thursday. We decided to remind him, in case he had forgotten, that it is a dangerous idea to bring customers, investors, journalists, etc to our R&D MontrealOffice, by getting as many people as possible to not wear any pants.

Mission accomplished.

Music

The Yann Tiersen concert was amazing, and so much more than I expected since my only prior exposure was his beautiful work on the Amélie score. We got a lot of lovely piano music, yes, but we also got some pretty unique solos on accordion, violin, viola, and, I kid you not, he used a violin bow on a xylophone. His ability to play the piano and accordion at the same time is equally remarkable.

The man is the kind of mad genius modern composer I admire without hesitation. As a performer, talented and highly volatile. Full of anger, full of sweetness, alternating on a whim. He throws himself with no warning at all into raging passages, quite literally shredding his violin bow on the strings, and demonstrating that there aren't enough impassioned, fearless, bitter accordion virtuosos in the world today. A travesty, that.

The encore contained a 15-minute segment of echoed, feedback-laden electric violin and space-guitar noise. I've never seen anything quite like it.

I must hunt down some CDs.

Planes

YUL to LHR tonight on AC 864.

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