1. I was hoping that Alan Parker's film version of Pink Floyd's The Wall would be available on my smarty pants television, but my initial search for the movie came up empty. What I've learned, though, over the last several months, though, is that Amazon Prime has a stockpile of 60-90 minute low budget quasi-documentary shows about rock groups. Sometimes the makers of these shows didn't get permission to use the artists' music so, as was the case of one of the programs I watched today, Pink Floyd's music was presented as played by other bands. But, I find that the interviews in these programs are informative. Sometimes the producers of these shows land old radio interviews or other archived stuff of things band members have said and, because the programs don't feature live interviews, they draw upon these bits. So, I watched two of these low budget programs today -- first, I watched a show focused on Pink Floyd's The Wall and the second focused on the increasingly fragile relationship between Roger Waters and the rest of the band, with special attention on David Gilmour.
It was fun viewing. I learned a lot. In fact, everything I learned today about Pink Floyd's staggeringly complex and dramatic live performances of The Wall was news to me. I'd never looked into this before. Learning what happened on the stage in those live shows staggered me -- and, it also helped me understand better some of what I saw Thursday night at the Australian Pink Floyd show.
As I listened to Roger Waters talk about The Wall and as I listened to the Pink Floyd biographers and music critics talk (glowingly), I kept thinking about Bertolt Brecht and his theatrical principle, the alienation effect. Seeing what Pink Floyd created on stage as they performed The Wall and knowing how much this rock opera explored Roger Waters' experiences with and insights into alienation, I wondered if a Brecht-Waters connection was coincidental or if Waters had learned about the theater of alienation from studying Brecht. I'll look into this more on my own and try to find what others have written about this connection -- I mean I can't believe I'm unique in having observed this.
2. As the second program I watched was drawing to an end, as David Gilmour was playing his brilliant lap steel guitar solo during his song, "High Hopes", I got a text from Cas telling me Jake was in the house. I quickly pulled myself together, rocketed up to the Lounge, plopped down in seat next to Jake at the bar, and we had a good session, yakkin' about all kinds of stuff, playing songs on the jukebox, and yakkin' with others in the bar -- Cas, Eddie Joe, Bob C., Debbie, Ginger, and others.
3. Before long, a lively late afternoon and early evening at the Lounge turned quiet as nearly everyone cleared out. I stuck around and yakked with Cas for a while. I needed to stop at Yoke's and purchase some coffee and half and half, so I took off, but about five minutes after I left, I realized I hadn't paid my tab. I turned around in the swimming pool parking lot, headed back uptown, paid my bill, and hurtled in the Sube down to Yoke's.
At Yoke's I suddenly felt an old urge return to have an Oscar Meyer salami and sharp cheddar cheese sandwich. So, along with the coffee and half and half, I bought the sandwich ingredients and upon arriving back home fixed myself two salami, cheese, and mustard sandwiches. I hadn't had one of these sandwiches since living in Eugene. They totally hit the spot.
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