Symphonica at Ahoy Rotterdam

UPDATE: All video links are now down. I have closed my Youtube account because there are copyright infringement claims on my personal camera recordings of the concerts I attended.

Steph and I just came back from George Michael’s Symphonica concert at Ahoy Rotterdam. The setlist is a bit nontraditional because the songs included are not-the-usual hits, covers and tributes. There is a mix of jazz tunes, a lot of melancholy and upbeat songs. Something for almost everyone. Most came from his covers album Songs from the Last Century and his final album Patience. There is a tribute to Amy Winehouse (“Love is a Losing Game”), a song about being gay (“Going to Town”) and some other covers that are never heard before in his past albums. There is a new song which Michael dedicates to his ex-partner (“Where I Hope You Are”).

The concert was a very wonderful experience for both of us. I am a big fan of Michael and I have all his albums (including some Wham! albums that I had to scour when internet was not yet the norm). I still have tapes of these albums. Tapes! The concert was on a stage with the members of the Symphonica concert on left and right and Michael and the piano (who seems to be the conductor as well) are on center. The background and lighting are visual feasts!

The stage:

Sorry about the head.

The attractive lady playing the violin seems tired.

Background singers and the piano:

Quite a visual feast:

The harp:

A shot while Michael is singing Feelin’ Good (the background does have some partial nudity):

Another shot:

Almost the end of the song Feelin’ Good (after which there is an encore):

I do not have a complete setlist but roughly we have the following songs (with links to my concert recordings in Youtube):

1. Through (from Patience)
2. My baby just cares for me (from Songs from the Last Century)
3. Idol
4. Cowboys and angels (from Listen Without Prejudice) — Terribly depressing, never performed live ever but highly recommended.
5. Kissing a fool (from Faith)
6. Going to a town (Rufus Wainwright cover)
7. Let her down easy (Terence Trent d’Arby cover) — Spend some time listening to the lyrics.
8. You have been loved (from Older) — Haunting as always.
9. Wild is the wind (from Songs from the Last Century, with a David Bowie touch) — Highly recommended.
10. Brother can you spare a dime (from Songs from the Last Century)
11. Patience (from Patience)
12. John and Elvis are dead (from Patience)
13. Roxanne (The Police cover)
14. Song To the siren (Tim Buckley cover)
15. A different corner (from the days of Wham!)
16. Where I hope you are (never released) — Highly recommended!
17. You’ve changed (from Songs from the Last Century)
18. True Faith (New Order cover) — Try comparing with the New Order version and see the differences.
19. Love is a losing game (Amy Winehouse cover)
20. Russian roulette (Rhianna cover) — More haunting than the Rhianna version and as a result, I was not able to record! Self-recommending!
21. Praying for time (from Listen Without Prejudice) — With slight changes to the usual lyrics since the song is already 20 years old.
22. Feeling good (Nina Simone cover)
23. Amazing / I’m your man / Freedom ’90 (from Patience, a Wham! track and Listen Without Prejudice) — Played during encore. Quite an enjoyable experience!
24. I remember you (from Songs from the Last Century)

I will upload some of the other songs once I finish some minor edits.

Assorted Links 30

1. Check out these cool resumes! These resumes landed a job at Google. Particularly bold is the one with an actual Google theme. Particularly nice is the one that was cross-stitched! There is also a nice resume from a French guy who uses a “vous etes ici” pun. Vous etes ici can be seen in maps around Paris. Stands for “You are here”.
2. 50 greatest celebrity prom photos. Self-recommending.
3. Sarcastic warning signs.
4. “Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again.”
5. Should we now expect older students getting into a Ph.D. program in economics?
6. In addition, should we now have a leaner admission process? Like this one. Writing now becomes a crucial skill!
7. For all wreslting fans out there: The tragedy that is Ric Flair.
8. Is there such a thing such as self-plagiarism? There is a whole website to track the writings Bruno Frey (one of the key people in the happiness and economics literature) and his colleagues.
9. “In short, it is your responsibility, men and women of the class of 2010, not just to be zealous in the pursuit of your ideals, but to be sure that your ideals are the right ones. That is perhaps the hardest part of being a good human being: Good intentions are not enough. Being a good person begins with being a wise person. Then, when you follow your conscience, will you be headed in the right direction.” For more, check this.

Hat tips to Newmark’s Door!

Have read, still being read

This is my first blog entry after a one and a half month hiatus. Here are some books that might pique your interest. No academic books here for the moment.

1. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. Started reading this on the train and finished about 15% between Rotterdam Centraal to Schiphol. Very engaging, poignant (though sometimes detached) description of reliving the sudden death of a loved one (in Didion’s case, her husband) at a New York hospital and how things preceding such a death seems to ordinary. It also does not help that their daughter was in a coma a few days earlier. An excerpt on how she was very forthcoming with an autopsy but was stunned by the suggestion of an obituary: “I remember a sense of shock. I wanted to say not yet but my mouth had gone dry. I could deal with “autopsy” but the notion of obituary had not occurred to me. “Obituary,” unlike “autopsy,” which was between me and John and the hospital, meant it had happened. I found myself wondering, with no sense of illogic, if it had also happened in Los Angeles. I was trying to work out what time it had been when he died and whether it was time yet in Los Angeles. (Was there time to go back? Could we have a different ending on Pacific time?) I recall beign seized by a pressing need not to let anyone at the Los Angeles Times learn what had happened by reading it in The New York Times.” Highly recommended.
2. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. Highly distorted by the temporal shifts in storytelling and the interrelatedness of different characters (mostly in the music business) across time, this novel is about what it means to grow old, to deal with the problems associated with looking back and evaluating past choices, to wrestle with being relevant when it is no longer your time and to accept limited forms of happiness. The goon squad here seems to be Lady Time and her shifting temperaments. Probably needs to be read twice.
3. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend. Recommended by my thesis supervisor. Fun to read but could a teenage have this much angst? Adrian Mole is from a lower class background in Britain during the 80s and lives with his dysfunctional family. As you could guess, he ends up taking care of things at such a young age while struggling with acne, teenage relationships and the need to be an intellectual. Particularly funny are his attempts at poetry, his correspondence with the BBC and his on-off relationship with a girl named Pandora (Who wouldn’t fall for the girl’s name?). Self-recommending.
4. Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart. Don’t let the book’s title mislead you. Although there is a love story which is really super super sad, the love story itself was quite predictable. The love story between Leonard and Eunice provides the structure for the novel. The almost twice Eunice’s age Leonard keeps diaries and books (in paper form) in a futuristic society where media and marketing dominates all spheres of human life. On the other hand, Eunice has a GlobalTeens account (similar to Facebook) where she records her conversations with a close friend about her family and her relationship with Leonard. Everyone in this novel has a PDA-like thing called an apparat where anyone could scan anyone for their profile, compatibility, sexuality and other usually private stuff at the touch of a button. While living in a society where youth is a commodity crucial for success and upward mobility, Leonard and Eunice pursue a relationship despite their baggage–from the need to recapture one’s youth to the obligations one has to family–and the pending collapse and the Chinese buying out America. A social critique about excesses and the virtues of growing old. Recommended.

Wedding wonderings

I attended a wedding yesterday. I have attended probably about 7-8 weddings already. Despite the religious beliefs of the couple, most of them opt for the church wedding. Usually the ceremony is integrated with a mass where the priest provides a homily. So far, I haven’t heard an insightful homily. My mind is wrestling with the thought that a priest could not possibly have any insights on marriage (aside from scripture, which is parallel to a normative theory). Probably the practice what you preach is not present with a priest because of the vow of celibacy.

The ceremony itself contained a lot of questions about raising children in a specific religion and so on. I wonder whether couples actually know how symbolic this could be or they might be taking it so lightly. In fact, I actually am a bit troubled about the inconsistency. If you take these questions by the priest likely, wouldn’t there be a higher likelihood that your own vows will be taken lightly as well? Even if you take your vows seriously, wouldn’t you in effect be “lying” to a symbolic church?

Actually, it seems cheaper to just get rid of the facility where weddings are held and choose a more neutral location—probably the place where pre-nuptial pictures are taken (since the photos always look beautiful after some post-processing)—and opt for a middle ground between a church wedding and a bohemian wedding. I think this would be nice practice for couples—compromise time or more crudely, bargaining hour. In fact, this compromise portion of the relationship (If you take weddings to be a big deal)

I actually wonder, when did women get the idea that having the gowns are all they have ever dreamed of? You always hear the argument that you only do it once. Well, you can do it as many times as you wish, right?

Filipino and Chinese weddings are a bit different. The wedding ceremony is almost similar. Chinese receptions are longer than Filipino receptions. Filipino receptions tend to have buffets while Chinese receptions are of the “pan to” nature or put a table and wait for the food to arrive one by one. Participants in both types of receptions are non-participative especially after eating. It is surprising that people don’t even do the basic minimum—clapping hands. Is it possible that participation is directly proportional to the monetary value of the gift?

Being in Manila

I am back in Manila and I must say that being unencumbered by my studies is having a positive effect on me. I tend to notice things I wouldn’t usually notice.

1. There is a store in Greenbelt 5 that gives discounts if you take a stand on the RH Bill. They have bags for both sides! There are “I am pro-RH Bill” and “I am anti-RH Bill” bags for your purchases. The discounts for purchases are available regardless of your chosen stand. Amazing.
2. There are just too many restaurants here in Manila that it does not seem plausible that all of them are actually good. In fact, some are just ridiculously expensive for the price (even after conversion to euros). This is where I like German food. It is cheap and it fills you up for the entire day!
3. I also recently talked to a dear friend about the experience in the dating scene. Somehow our conversation went to deciding exclusivity. How would people who date even bring up the topic? There are some expectations and fears of rejection from both sides, right? So could exclusivity be implied? If so, how do you signal exclusivity? I am sure a lot of signals may tend to get confused. Why is it so bad to be straightforward about it?
4. Let us try another one from the dating scene. How would you ask for oral sex (I think this is a worthwhile alternative for both sides especially if they don’t want to rush into a more physical status.)? What is the threshold number of dates?
5. I also went with a dear friend to Draft at the Fort Strip. They were supposed to serve beer from the tap. What rotten luck, they don’t have the drinks from the tap at that time. So disappointing. As a result, we have to order bottles. I was looking for wheat beer so that my friend could try it out. The waiter says that they have Paulaner wheat beer. Great! I asked where it came from. He said Russia. (Oh dear.) When he showed me the bottle, I saw German words. It came from Munich (well it spelled Muenchen). They also sell a lot of other imported beers but the funniest beer they sell is Beck’s. People think that this is one of the better beers. Please. You could buy this in the grocery in Germany for less than the advertised price. So who wants to open a day pub here?

Finish the 30 day song challenge.

So I must at least finish this challenge. I must say it gets boring as you move on through the challenge. I think the activity is better shared between couples or friends sharing music playlists. But for other people, I am not sure it is a good idea.

Day 26: A song that you can play on an instrument–Eurythmics’ Here Comes the Rain Again

I learned to play this song on my ukulele after giving up on the guitar. My fingers are not long enough or curvy enough to do the harder chords. It is frustrating. For ukulele, there are only 4 strings. I have played parts of Love Song by The Cure. Here is a live acoustic version.

Day 27: A song that I wish I could play–Hey Girl by Carole King

This song has been covered lots of times. This is the original though I miss the saxophone part found in Billy Joel‘s version. Here is Carole King (one of the best songwriters around–it will surprise you that songs you know are actually hers):

Day 28: A song that makes me feel guilty–Bruce Springsteen’s Hungry Heart

For those who have been to Berlin, I think you would agree that some parts of the video are shot in Berlin after the fall of the wall but before every chunk of the wall was given to other countries.Check it out if your eyes are fast enough. The song itself will make me feel guilty if I am as selfish as the person described in the lyrics.

Day 29: A song from your childhood–Eric Carmen’s Hungry Eyes

A song from Dirty Dancing and also sang by Stewie in a Family Guy episode. This is from Eric Carmen whom people would know from the song All By Myself (which was torn apart by the almighty Celine Dion).

There is an official video out there but again copyright restrictions!

Day 30 of the challenge is the most ridiculous of all. How could you possibly remember the song you liked a year ago? Come on.

It was fun while it lasted. I hope you did too.

Assorted Links

1. Penises and economic growth. I think this is a joke or at least a satirical approach towards testing growth convergence. (pdf file)
2. The 50 most jaw-dropping luxury purchases. Guess how much someone paid to have a steak lunch with Warren Buffett?
3. Canadian guy suing because he was not served in French. Ass. Sure you have rights but come on!
4. Khan academy. Will this replace lecturing formats in universities and drive down costs of education? Learn anything from basic math to history to differential equations to the financial crisis.
5. Learning Klingon Lesson 1. Somehow not surprising that a German is teaching it.
6. For those in touch with German politics, rate the physical attractiveness of your representatives at Sexy Bundestag.
7. Open letter from a Keynesian to a Marxist.
8. A day of IELTS testing from an economist who has to take it.
9. Woody Allen on inspiration.