reviews

Caterpillar Power

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We were driving up to Boulder to see Cat Power last Friday. On the way was a phone call offering us tickets to Cirque de Soleil. We opted to see Chan Marshall in all her glory and pass on the circus tickets. What we got was a circus of our own.

I had never seen Chan Marshall live before but I have read enough reviews to understand that she has incredible stage fright and is prone to mini-breakdowns, rantings & ravings, false starts, rambling, and occasionally straight-up abandoning her audience. So, when she arrived on stage forty minutes late, I was just glad that she decided to show up. She sat down with her guitar and immediately tore through three great songs. Soon her mic started making a low rumbling sound… and then the wheels fell off.

Chan wondered if the rumbling that was coming through the speakers was buffalo or thunder, and quipped it must be buffalunder, and then stated that she wished that was a word someone would use to describe her ass. It was moments like these that made the audience laugh. However, much of the night the audience was unprepared or unwilling to accept Chan’s blunt personality and stretched-beyond-limits character and ended up wincing, shifting uncomfortably and often simply leaving because of how uncomfortable they felt.

Chan then proceeded to stumble through a half-dozen songs unable to actually complete any of them.

She continually complained about the sound but complimented the theatre. She said that, had she still been drinking, this show would probably prompt her to commit suicide. She wished for a “psychedelic sound button” on her piano and across the elementary classrooms of America. She talked of having her period, picking her crack, butt-crack, and “all her cracks”. She talked about getting sober and the vices picked up from becoming straight, all the while ashing her cigarette into her shirt pocket. She talked about old friends, and her childhood, and politics (feebly). She slammed her hands on the piano in frustration, left the stage for a little bit fuming with dissatisfaction, asking for the magic to return. She sat in silence for extended periods, and had the audience in silence , wondering if any sort of shouting or clapping would send her shattering into pieces. When the audience did scream, it was usually words of encouragement to, “keep on going!”, “it sounds great”, and “don’t worry Chan, we love you”.

Having no back up band to push her though finishing any songs Chan was free to stop in middle of songs, start in the middle of songs and just mash up a bunch of songs together –and she did.

She eventually finished her two-and-a-half hour set by singing an a capella version of “You Are The Sunshine Of My Life”, tinkling on the piano trying to decide what to play, then announcing to the audience thanks for listening and that she is going to leave us alone now. She then walked off the stage while pretending to moon the audience.

G described the show as though she were watching a train wreck and couldn’t pull her eyes off craziness on stage. I loved it. I thought it was raw and real, and yes – crazy. But it was so fucking honest that I couldn’t help but root for her every painful minute of the way.

This is not to say every minute was painful. Chan sang beautifully and her piano and guitar playing were superb – when she’d give herself a chance to play them. I loved hearing “Good Women” (Otis Redding cover), “Satisfaction” (Rolling Stones cover), “The Colors And The Kids” and “I Don’t Blame You”. This is a show I thoroughly enjoyed but judging from what others have said, and how many people left the theatre mid-show, my opinion is not a popular one.

Did anyone esle go to this? Does anyone have a set list (somehow I think that may be impossible)?

Snooze Is Nearly Asleep

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There are plenty of places to get a great brunch in Denver, Snooze isn’t one of them. Snooze has some great things going for it. Snooze also has some problems. Unfortunately, in this case, the bad outweigh the good.

My party arrived as a group of six. This may be more than Snooze is accustomed to but is by no means an outrageously sized group, particularly for brunch, which is often a friends and family affair. Sorry Snooze, I’m not letting you use that as an excuse. Despite being both seated and served quickly, our service was poor. Each of us had to ask for at least one of our drinks multiple times. We each had water and at least one more drink like a coffee, mimosa or bloody mary, but this is common for brunch too. A large party ordering multiple drinks is no reason not to bring us our order. We had a conversation that went very similar to this:

Wait staff: Can I get you anything else?
Me: Yeah, you could get me a water and him a coffee (pointing to my dad who ordered the coffee when we sat down).
Friend: I’d like a water too, please.
Waitstaff: Okay a water and a coffee then.
Friend: No, I’d like a water too.
Waitstaff: *stares into space*
Me: That’s two waters and a coffee.
Waitstaff: Okay, two waters and two coffees.
Me & Friend simultaneously: Sure.

The way our waitress was acting she must have been on the opening 1:30 A.M. shift. No excuse when you are competing with the 24 hour diners on Colfax who have waitresses sharper than Manolo four-inch heel. The best part was when she came over asking, “How is everything?” when we were still waiting on two of our orders to come out of the kitchen.

When the meals came out of the kitchen they were less than stellar. First off, choices were minimal. There are 11 breakfast choices and 7 lunch choices. This includes two types of pancakes, one item that is basically a bowl of hash browns, and the regular-old, way-too-big, breakfast burrito that everyone in town makes. All of it is simply mediocre.

Snooze is trying to make a name for itself in the imbibing department. True, they have a breakfast wine list and this is very cool and unique. Also true that my bloody mary was pink for some reason. Too much hoarse-radish I suspect. It still tasted pretty decent though.

To top it all off, Snooze is expensive. We ended up spending $170 (tip not included) for the six of us, only half of us drinking alcohol. That’s nearly $30 a person! For brunch! Yikes!

Now for the good parts of Snooze. The saving grace on the menu is the chocolate & peanut butter pancakes with chocolate chips, and the pineapple upside down pancakes. Without these two items Snooze would be sound asleep. Snooze has an incredible location in the ballpark neighborhood and is the only brunch spot in the neighborhood that I know of. Snooze’s operating schedule is of benefit as well. Opening at 1:30 AM on Saturday and Sunday make it a prime location for an after-party gorge. The best thing Snooze has going for it though, is the atmosphere. The place is so hip it almost hurts. This is thanks to the incredible work by the people over at Xan. Kudos to Xan, you did a wonderful job. Despite the food menu being weak, the drink menu is superb and the pomegranate mimosas are utterly delish.

Hopefully Snooze can fine-tune itself. Its menu needs tweaking and the wait staff need no-doze but the outfit has a lot of potential. Don’t take my word for it, go eat there and tell them what you think.

Midnight’s Children

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I’m a bit of a slow reader to begin with. When I read I take my time and try to engage every page and every word. I don’t skim and will reread sections when I feel like I didn’t understand them. This led to trouble while reading Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children. Damn this book took me a long time to finish. First it is fairly lengthy at 500 plus pages. And then there is Rushdie’s writing style. His method of writing doesn’t lend to casual reading. He uses a combination of Indian and English termed “Babu English” that takes a fair amount concentration. Not mention his atypical use of grammar and often distended and laborious sentences. This book is complex. Make no mistake about it. It is a sturdy tangle of thick, and often, obscure words.

Despite its density, the novel was pretty good. It was well written, it was original, interesting and unpredictable and I enjoyed reading it. The setting and characters were exciting well-developed and interesting. The multilayered novel consists mostly of the life story Saleem Sinai. A boy born during the first hour of India’s independence, along with 1,001 other children of India, all of whom were blessed with magical abilities. The trial and tribulations of Saleem closely follow with the actual history of India, from Nehru’s India toward Indira’s India, as well as that of Pakistan and Bangladesh (some of the novel takes place pre-partition). The political reality of the book would be much more rewarding if you have an interest in, or knowledge of, Middle Eastern history and religion.

Rushdie’s story telling ability is definitely notable and his telling tales-within-tales is very enjoyable but also very much like Garcia Marquez, whom in my opinion is more a pleasurable and worthwhile read. The magical realism allows for a surreal and distorted sense of the novel’s people and places. Much of the novel is larger than life and many of the events seem more important than they really are or should be. Adding to Rushdie’s literary complexity are many twists and turns regarding the relationships between the characters. In addition, there are name changes, sub-plots, nick-names, false-starts, tons of symbolism (much of it I didn’t even pick up on) u-turns, and plot twists.

I paid the price of patience with this novel but felt I wasn’t truly rewarded and that’s always a bit of a bummer. The novel just didn’t do it for me. It is by no means a life-changing novel or even near my top 10 best books I’ve ever read. And although a second read would undoubtedly open this story up, that probably won’t be happening for me.
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A Night At Jerusalem

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I went out to dinner with my pops last night and will be doing so again tonight. We ate at a little (only 10 or so tables, and some additional seating outside that was not an option because it was snowing) place called Jerusalem Restaurant over in the Denver University area. The Jerusalem restaurant is owned by the Wahdan family and has been in operation since 1978. Dinner was really relaxed and it was an enjoyable evening.

How To Be Good

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Last night I just finished up reading Nick Horby’s most recent novel “How To Be Good”. Nick Hornby, author of both “About A Boy” and “High Fidelity” (which is one of my favorite movies) has taken a different approach on his most recent novel. I can’t see this book being made into a movie, the book deals with issues and ideas that wouldn’t be easily transferred into the film media. Generally the novel concerns itself with what it means to lead a good life, how can we go about doing it, and how good does a person have to be in order to be happy?
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