if i could take this moment into my hand
Nov. 14th, 2005 04:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ink_splotchI'm back! And I want to go back already. I miss Ann, I miss Lee, I miss my old school, I miss Meredith, I even miss Hampton Roads. And it's not that I don't love Copenhagen and my life here - I really, really do - but sometimes I think life'd be easier if I stayed. Even though it's in no way an option.
Any way! To the fun part (or one of the fun parts)!
Bruce Springsteen is insane. Also wonderful. Seriously. The concert was acoustic, just him and about 8 guitars, a piano, an organ and a harmonica. Well, just him and a local pianist called Bruce Hornsby who joined him on "Better Not Touch", thus allowing for Springsteen to dork around during that song, which was great; the concert was mostly rather serious, so seeing Springsteen being the dork that he, let's be frank, is, was great. I <3.
Anyway, he started with the acoustic version of "Born in the USA", which I don't usually like, but the way he did it - as a performance piece and with slightly altered lyrics - was really amazing. He was lit up so it looked like he was monochrome; the song was done completely basic, the beat being laid by Bruce stomping on a board and then singing the altered lyrics. I didn't even realize it was BitU until he came to the line about killing the yellow man, but it was all kinds of amazing - it kind of set the tone.
The concert was so, so good - Springsteen is an amazing storyteller. Because it was a rather intimate concert, he explained a lot of the songs - the ideas behind them, where they came from, all that jazz, which was interesting and funny - I think that's one of the most underrated things about Bruce Springsteen, he's a funny guy. And of course eloquent and really rather strange. He also indirectly called me a stalker, which was amusing ("There are certain fans who've flown across the Atlantic to see my concerts, often more than once and I like to call them...stalkers"). At one point he had out a kids drawing of his old street - explaining where all the different family memembers who lived along the street, before segueing into "Jesus was an only son".
The mix was good - most of the songs were serious, storytelling ones, the ones with definite character voices, but there were enough upbeat songs ("Blinded by the light", "Don't Look Back" and "All the Way Home", amongst others) that no one left the place utterly depressed. And okay, let me be shallow for just a moment - Springsteen is a gorgeous man. He's absolutely *beautiful* when he's performing, which is strange, because I don't really find him attractive, but seeing him at the concert - part rock star, part average guy, part fuck-I-don't-know-but-wow - I couldn't take my eyes off of him, quite literally. And it's not just his looks, really, but he's very, very, very intense when he's singing - his entire *body* seems to be part of the music, it really is incredible and mesmerising. And really fucking intense, did I mention that?
That said, special mention needs to go to the last song - it was an awful lot like what I imagine being on drugs would be like - hell, it was a little like being drunk except more amazing. The song went on forever, three lines repeating, with the organ in the background and it was just trippy, there's no other word. It was crazy, I completely lost track of time and where I was, it was insane and so, so good.
Awesome concert. Amazing. There are no words.
The rest of the trip was great as well - good seeing Meredith, Ann and Lee are still two of the most awesome, wonderful people I know and if I have a relationship like that after 25 years I'll consider myself incredibly lucky. Amazing people - I love them so much.
Also, got my mug! And books! And a very nice pair of jeans. I'm very pleased.
My Dad and I also walked through the Smithsonian Holocaust museum, which obviously is not amusing, but impressive and huge and impactful and so damn good. And surprisingly rounded - I think this is the first Holocaust museum I've been in that says, straight up, "*we* fucked up. *Everyone* failed here." It also was extremey meticulous - details about every aspect of the holocaust, from book burning forward - mainly on the Jews, of course, but more-than-average focus on the other victims of the Nazis, which I thought was nice - well, decent. Then there was the Jewish uprisings, in the ghettos, in the camps - I'd never heard about them before; most history books present the Jews as passive victims and this museum didn't, which was exceedingly interesting. And then they also had a follow-up - a room dedicated to the fact that even *after* the Jews were liberated, most of them had nowhere to go - their homes destroyed, not welcome back in their countries. 2 million displaced victims of the Holocaust, by far the majority Jews. Again, something I don't think is really covered in the history lessons I've had. The museum was amazing and so definitely worth the look, even if you don't have the investment my dad and I might have (my dad's grandmother on his mother's side worked on the boats to Sweden, my dad's dad's family fled on said boats).
And I am back. Yay for me! Oh, and our new topic in English? The renaessance in England. Oh, I think I can deal with that. Yes, I do believe so.
Any way! To the fun part (or one of the fun parts)!
Bruce Springsteen is insane. Also wonderful. Seriously. The concert was acoustic, just him and about 8 guitars, a piano, an organ and a harmonica. Well, just him and a local pianist called Bruce Hornsby who joined him on "Better Not Touch", thus allowing for Springsteen to dork around during that song, which was great; the concert was mostly rather serious, so seeing Springsteen being the dork that he, let's be frank, is, was great. I <3.
Anyway, he started with the acoustic version of "Born in the USA", which I don't usually like, but the way he did it - as a performance piece and with slightly altered lyrics - was really amazing. He was lit up so it looked like he was monochrome; the song was done completely basic, the beat being laid by Bruce stomping on a board and then singing the altered lyrics. I didn't even realize it was BitU until he came to the line about killing the yellow man, but it was all kinds of amazing - it kind of set the tone.
The concert was so, so good - Springsteen is an amazing storyteller. Because it was a rather intimate concert, he explained a lot of the songs - the ideas behind them, where they came from, all that jazz, which was interesting and funny - I think that's one of the most underrated things about Bruce Springsteen, he's a funny guy. And of course eloquent and really rather strange. He also indirectly called me a stalker, which was amusing ("There are certain fans who've flown across the Atlantic to see my concerts, often more than once and I like to call them...stalkers"). At one point he had out a kids drawing of his old street - explaining where all the different family memembers who lived along the street, before segueing into "Jesus was an only son".
The mix was good - most of the songs were serious, storytelling ones, the ones with definite character voices, but there were enough upbeat songs ("Blinded by the light", "Don't Look Back" and "All the Way Home", amongst others) that no one left the place utterly depressed. And okay, let me be shallow for just a moment - Springsteen is a gorgeous man. He's absolutely *beautiful* when he's performing, which is strange, because I don't really find him attractive, but seeing him at the concert - part rock star, part average guy, part fuck-I-don't-know-but-wow - I couldn't take my eyes off of him, quite literally. And it's not just his looks, really, but he's very, very, very intense when he's singing - his entire *body* seems to be part of the music, it really is incredible and mesmerising. And really fucking intense, did I mention that?
That said, special mention needs to go to the last song - it was an awful lot like what I imagine being on drugs would be like - hell, it was a little like being drunk except more amazing. The song went on forever, three lines repeating, with the organ in the background and it was just trippy, there's no other word. It was crazy, I completely lost track of time and where I was, it was insane and so, so good.
Awesome concert. Amazing. There are no words.
The rest of the trip was great as well - good seeing Meredith, Ann and Lee are still two of the most awesome, wonderful people I know and if I have a relationship like that after 25 years I'll consider myself incredibly lucky. Amazing people - I love them so much.
Also, got my mug! And books! And a very nice pair of jeans. I'm very pleased.
My Dad and I also walked through the Smithsonian Holocaust museum, which obviously is not amusing, but impressive and huge and impactful and so damn good. And surprisingly rounded - I think this is the first Holocaust museum I've been in that says, straight up, "*we* fucked up. *Everyone* failed here." It also was extremey meticulous - details about every aspect of the holocaust, from book burning forward - mainly on the Jews, of course, but more-than-average focus on the other victims of the Nazis, which I thought was nice - well, decent. Then there was the Jewish uprisings, in the ghettos, in the camps - I'd never heard about them before; most history books present the Jews as passive victims and this museum didn't, which was exceedingly interesting. And then they also had a follow-up - a room dedicated to the fact that even *after* the Jews were liberated, most of them had nowhere to go - their homes destroyed, not welcome back in their countries. 2 million displaced victims of the Holocaust, by far the majority Jews. Again, something I don't think is really covered in the history lessons I've had. The museum was amazing and so definitely worth the look, even if you don't have the investment my dad and I might have (my dad's grandmother on his mother's side worked on the boats to Sweden, my dad's dad's family fled on said boats).
And I am back. Yay for me! Oh, and our new topic in English? The renaessance in England. Oh, I think I can deal with that. Yes, I do believe so.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-14 06:20 pm (UTC)*fans self*
Also:
YOU'RE HOME OMG I MISSED YOU SO MUCH DON'T EVER LEEEEEEAVE ME!!!!!!
(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-14 06:48 pm (UTC)I WON'T AND I MISSED YOU TOO AND IT'S GOOD TO BE BACK, DESPITE EVERYTHING *GLOMPS*
(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-14 07:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-14 07:50 pm (UTC)(and if you ever feel like trading places -- America for Denmark -- just tell me. ;D)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-16 01:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-17 04:44 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-17 04:48 pm (UTC)Hee, if I need to do a bigger presentation about it, I may take you up on that *g*
What're you up to tonight, btw?
(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-17 04:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-17 05:21 pm (UTC)