Handel's Story.

Handel's Coronation Anthem, in three movements.


just back in december i had the opportunity to collaborate on the Briercrest Christmas Celebration as a Vison Team member and contributing artist. My task was to listen to the music selections, and to put something on to 3 large screens, that would sit behind the choir and be the entire backdrop for the Celebration.
Paired with our lighting design, there would be no decoration in the gigantic modern hildebrand chapel. It was a new direction for the Christmas Celebration, so the stakes were high.


I chose to complete animations in Apple's Motion for the screens, treating them as one large surface.


The night opened with Handel's Coronation Anthem, and i listened to it endlessly.
When it came time to assign imagery, the song, more than any other in the Celebration spoke itself into a story in my mind. 


All i could see when i heard the piece was the Biblical Creation Account, Genesis 1-2.  I saw the hebrew words (i studied ancient-hebrew in college) and the complex ideas show in their ancient script that is lost to our roman alphabet.  I saw colors and the flow of creation and redemption, as told from long ago.


the first movement jumps and is full of a wandering and busy Joy, i see the rainbow split from threads from the darkness, circling out and sizing out the seen spectrum.  the spectrum breaks into deeply contrasting lights as light and dark are created. A cloud and blue of day, a black and red for night. the white of cloud, the dark coffee-bean brown of soil and the clear highlights of water come together until the earth floats in the stars and in the song takes us at the end of the movement to a grove a trees that fall behind us as we move through the deep of them.


It all gets dark and blue for the second movement, and we see adam and eve, happy and in white, against the sad movement that already has let out the news of their fated fall from joy and grace. they are in love and soon, as the choir's song vamps, they are ashamed and blaming, and running.
the end of the second movement they are caught under the eye of a powerful God.


The third movement is moving through the trees again only now they are winter white and spring is breaking through and all turns green and gold.
This is the royal end and the redemption and reuniting of adam and eve, and God and humanity.


The song is such a story, with beginning middle and end, and my interpretation likely will never leave me, despite anything Handel ever intended. 


If it's a coronation, it is the story of the prodigal son who returns home after taking his father's inheritance before he dies and squandering it- only for his father to throw the greatest of feasts for him and setting a crown on his head.

Toys and Interpretation Part 2

     An article in the Chronicle of Higher Education relates well to this thinking through of Toys and Interpretation.

The article was written by a sociology professor who applied for a job in a toy store. She wrote about her interview for the job as follows. The professor--a white, middle-aged woman--was interviewed by Olive, an African-American woman: 

"Olive told me that she wanted to hire motivated sellers who could provide excellent customer service. Although I didn't have any retail experience, I told her I thought I could do the job. Olive put three toys in front of me: a CD cartridge of a Lara Croft Tomb Raiders video game, a white Barbie in a bikini packaged inside a sand pail to take to the beach, and a black Barbie dressed in a 1970s outfit. Olive said, 'Pick one and sell it to me.' 
"I took a deep breath. In my other life I am a professor of sociology who specializes in gender and sexuality studies. Barbie has become a symbol of the postmodernist turn in gender studies; her cultural meaning has been deconstructed and reconstructed by a number of feminist theories. I devote an entire section of my course on sexuality to unpacking Barbie's cultural significance. But far from being helpful, those arguments paralyzed me. The complex race and gender politics of the situaltion--me, a white woman selling a black or a white Barbie to Olive--were simply overwhelming. 
"I said, 'Well, you don't have to sell Barbie: girls always want her (mentioning that I had read that the average 10-year-old girl owns eight of the dolls), so I will sell you the CD.' Lara Croft is not exactly a wholesome or apolitical alternative to Barbie. One of the earliest female icons of computer gaming, her long flowing hair, enormous breasts, and crack fighting skills set the standard for the dozens of imitators that followed. I said tha if we assumed Olive had a PlayStation she needed the game because it was the basis for a movie that had just opened. I also said that it was important for girls to be computer literate; as long as their parents approved of the content, girls should be exposed to the same computer games as boys so they could compete in the real world. 
"Olive shook my hand and told me I had the job!"

 --Christine Williams, Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin: an excerpt from her book "Inside Toyland: Working, Shopping, and Social Inequality," published by University of California Press

"you don't have to sell Barbie" 

I also wondered if you have to sell Tomb Raider, i mean boys don't mind playing an action game where there is a woman with enormous breasts, and girls love the empowerment of the "Action-Star Woman". 

I wonder what it means, that you don't have to sell Barbie. Besides the point that Barbie has achieved a high-enough popularity that it sells itself, i wonder why. Are their certain toys that capture an important part of every human's needs as they grow up. Do dolls help serve a certain purpose for little girls, of idenification, of longing to grow into something, of idolizing? 

Like toy guns, which, if you don't buy, boys will make (and make anyways) out of a fallen tree branch, or anything that can be held as a gun (like a banana) - Dolls can be a home-made device, and i'll bet were often made in the last 2 centuries. I'll bet there is a vast history of dolls on wikipedia somewhere, waiting for interested people to look up. 

Interesting how certain toys and games we play as kids act as a sort of preparation for later experiences in life.  I wonder how they can help/hurt our encounters in life, and how important it is to look ahead to experiences that will come later (like falling in Love, marriage, huge Kung-Fu fights) when we are kids playing with toys.   I wonder......

Review: Flight of the Conchords: Episode 13 (no spoilers)

I scanned through my list of free On-Demand HBO episodes and saw it, my dream.

The immortal Flight of the Conchords' 1st Episode to their new and 2nd Season was there, gleaming before me, a comic "new" logo next to the title.  Episode 13 was finally at my fingertips.

Flight of the Conchords was easily the Best Comedy of last year, of a long time, even counting The Office, maybe. The brilliantly funny songs and situations along with genius dialogue and characters of gold has had everyone excitedly telling their friends about the 'new show everyone needs to hear about', and has seen something of on YouTube or the Radio.  

Instant cult-following and dedication.  The first show to get me dressed up for a theme party.

Critic-acclaim and mass obsession by fans memorizing dialogue and song lyrics only grew to millions across the globe, for the very first time, spending their days becoming accomplished at speaking with the New Zealand accent.  

Even in strictly conservative circles fans of the Conchords found each other publicly enjoying their comical inheritance.  Standing in line for some "We Serve Starbucks Coffee" at Briercrest College, I overheard a college kid humming the first part of the "Business Time" chorus, and saw another kid passing by finish the line and turn to the other with a look of "you know!" on their face.  It was beautiful.

Episode 13 began and i enjoyed the new Opening Credits, and thought about the many shows like The Office and Dexter that haven't updated their Opening Credits.

I wont give away the show's content but here are my first thoughts:

1. ...Maybe i shouldn't have watched this alone, maybe i needed my friends with me to make it funny.

2. The dialogue and Story and Characters are all there and good, but...

well....

The songs weren't funny, lacked that certain magical "something", and the episode was easily the worst episode yet. Let's hope it's the worst episode they'll ever make.

Two of the songs had potential, but i sat wondering at how the boys lets it slip by.

The budget was obviously a LOT bigger, and maybe their salaries were big enough that they didn't care.  It doesn't make sense: it was written by James Bobin & Jemaine Clement & Bret McKenzie, just like most of Season 1 was, including the awesome "Sally" Opener. 

Still, i am sad to say i expected more (even after being warned that everyone was disappointed by it) That was supposed to be the big Season 2 Premiere? I hope its not a sign of things to come.

The opening song especially put a damper and spin on the whole episode that sadly swallowed up the great story-line and a number of amazing dialogue bits.

Most Critics i've read on the episode, so far, all liked it and didn't see the great divide I found between Season 1, and this opening.  They admit it wasn't the best-written, but not as nearly disappointed as the crowd of fans i know.

Who knows... maybe when I watch it with Carrie Hilderman and my other devoted Conchord fanatics we'll all laugh and fall in love with it.

Maybe not.

Video of the Week "WTF Award"

This week's WFT Video award goes to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCFJ3LURCtc

do it. I know you want to,

tell them Tony sent you.

religous "Blending"

If you want to blend in, in any church or cult, be it a Lutheran supper or Wednesday muffins at Heaven’s Gate Cult or a typical Jehovah Witness lock-in, you can very simply, when the meal/service/kool-aid time is over, start putting away chairs.  When they see you put chairs away they know you are one of them, and not just one of them, but a solid ‘top-notch’ believer.  This key might save your life someday.

I used it at a Morman christmas supper yesterday night and I had folks (yes, it was a woman in a classic ugly mormon moo-moo-ish dress..that was light blue denim)  chatting with me at length, and, when mentioning a brother of hers, she used the insider phrase ‘he’s not a member’ to differentiate him from one of “us.”  Even a dread-headed model like me who didn’t close his eyes or fold his arms during their prayers can fit in and be assumed a mormon.   See..... I told you. Cleaning up, especially in the chair-putting-away department is key. You could become a bishop.  

All you need is a religion and a meeting involving chairs.

Note on Praying, if you keep your eyes on the religious leader until everyone closes their eyes -you’re safe. No need to fold arms or use whatever posture they choose to get their heavenly reception tuned in right.  So, unless you take a posture of “what do I do” like you look around at everyone when someone says ‘let us pray’ or ‘lets bow our heads’ or ‘it’s carpet time’,  prayer requires no effort because they can’t see you.

Muslims are harder to fit in with because of certain religious fashions (the Sikh too), and because depending on the muslim praying fashion or sect, they could have their eyes open. But you’ll likely never need or want to “fit in” with them so, no worries.

For catholic masses, or any “pew” situation, of course the chair trick is useless, so one must take things up a notch to be left alone. The key there is to wear a suit (white shirt should be choice, as some sects use them religiously [pun intended]...unless its a black church, but white can pass their too, but no ‘top-notch’ rewards) and you must shake peoples hands and smile and carry a large ‘scripture-esque’ book with you, and you’ll be assumed to be on the “in”.  If you want people to think you’re top-notch, then say something like “you’re a blessing” to the pastor/preist/speaker/talk-giver/juice-pourer dude, and everyone will think you are a top-notch slinger in that religion. Babes will follow. And remember, you are always “visiting here from canada/california/put-interesting-place-here”.  I once had a leather journal of mine mistaken for a bible (which is funny, cuz it doesn’t look like any bible-leather cover I’ve ever seen, but hey, points are points)

The christmas supper was the first Morman thing I’ve really done in a long while in terms of the psuedo-christian cult social circuit.  My dad and step-mum and my baby sis went, so I had addition introductions and people would say things indicating they knew all about me like “enjoying the warm weather for a change?” and I’d think “how do they know I’ve been living in canada....?” so... I guess my dad shares more about me than I ever imagined.  I got invited by a mom or two to their “firesides” or “singles social events” ... They must’ve been convinced by my chair moving that I was a mormonite ... They’ll be sad when I never show up on a Sunday...although I bet they have daughters who would be awesome sacrifices for the Creech volcano.  Maybe I should go to a mormon singles event.....um....nahhhhhhhh. I’d rather hit myself in the face with a tack-hammer...  ...unless I’m bored one night.

Good thing I rarely get bored.

Convo

Tony "i used to date lots and lots and lots and lots of girls"

Kim  "was that when you had short hair?"

haahah

Anthony is

This was on Facebook:

Anthony is a lot of things (status update, 1:54 am Sep 17)

John Paul Trammell commented (4:45am Sep 17 )

But a Fool is not one.

anthony thomas creech commented (1:34 am Sep 18)

really? ...i always fancied myself a fool. Perhaps it is the most true thing about me, endlessly foolish.

But what men are, in the middle and in the end, are different. A foolish man who hopes on the right starry light can be revealed as wise in the end, though scorned in the middle.

i wouldn't mind that at all. 

buy it while it lasts

my new friend at The House of Hunt recently pointed out a new item hitting the market that i'm sure you'll not want to miss.

Tired of all that secular-trash-devil-music used on Guitar Hero and Rockband?

Still want to hit buttons to a beat and a TV screen and feel like a musician without all the hard work of really learning anything?

then i've got just the thing for you:

Guitar Praise    (click to get more details)

Proof that as Christians we have no need of creating Rock Anthems worthy of notice to make it on a video game

what can i say about this?

This is pretty much the future of all music.

My great friend (yea, even a Friend of Sinners) John Clapper,  sent these to me to give me an idea of the kinds of things some churches do to "attract young people"

    i think you'll find this priceless

now this next one has a dance i'm memorizing for next Sunday,

Kingsnake

Little known fact about Paul Creech (my brother and the king of the free world).

he'd sign his name and follow it with his own bestowed title... "Kingsnake"

We all had little Alter-Ego nicknames we'd use of ourselves in our private writings and drawings...if you want to call what 11-14 year-olds write "writings" 

Herbie would draw "H C Cool" on stuff

i was, as always, an unimaginative follower, and used "T C Cool"

if find anymore i'll dish them out, you must understand that they were an extremely important part of our growing up.

Good nose or Bad nose part deux

Time to VOTE- which nose is better, more "attractive" and, ultimately Perfect.
I think it's an easy win for Ashley Zarate, but now you can decide.

The Happiest Man in the World