I don't get starstruck by musicians. The power held by politicians, however, puts me in awe of elected officials.
That's why I was intent on exploring much of the world they inhabit during a recent trip to Washington D.C. I spent hours in the galleries of the House and Senate and roamed the halls of Congressional office buildings like a teenage groupie in search of her favorite teen idols.
My first trek to the Kennedy Center was an integral part of that experience. I witnessed guest artists Nicola Benedetti (a violinist I reviewed at the Folly Theater in February) and cellist Leonard Elschenbroich perform Brahms and Tchaikovsky with the National Symphony Orchestra.
The performance was more than fine, but I was just as interested in gazing at the Watergate building from the riverside patio and wondering how often the honorary trustees Michelle Obama, Laura Bush, Hilary Rodham Clinton, Barbara Bush, Nancy Reagan and Rosalynn Carter visit the Kennedy Center as I was in analyzing the music.
For the record, the sprawling complex may be much larger than Kansas City's Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, but it's not nearly as nice. And while I sat directly behind a famous actress, I was disappointed that I didn't spot a single politician.
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I featured 77 Jefferson in last week's segment of KCUR's Local Listen.
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Mills Record Company made a nice video of a performance by the Ray-Tones at the record store.
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Various Blonde made a video for "Downtown Frown".
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The KC Cypher Series ends its second season on a low note.
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Here a trailer for The Pleasures of Being Out of Step, a documentary about Nat Hentoff.
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The Neil Cowley Trio's Touch and Flee is RIYL: the Brad Mehldau Trio, European jazz, the Esbjorn Svensson Trio. Here's an album trailer.
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Bixiga 70's Ocupai is RIYL: Fela, Brazilians playing African music, Antibalas.
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The lo-fi production and plaintive keening of Tim Cohen's voice on the Fresh & Only's House of Spirits put me in mind of Mekons. RIYL: 1985, Fear and Whiskey, American Music Club.
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Lee Fields repeats a successful formula on Emma Jean. Solomon Burke, don't fix it if it ain't broke, Wilson Pickett.
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File under uneasy listening. Say Anything's Hebrews is RIYL: the Get Up Kids, diaries, Brand New.
(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)
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