Amsterdam

I’m in Amsterdam, to audition for a number of opera programs, and as luck would have it a good friend of mine has offered to put me up for the week. He lives in this great apartment, near the Vondelpark, that Wes Anderson should probably shoot his next movie in. I’m not even exaggerating, it’s like the Tenenbaums just moved out. If you’ve never been to Amsterdam, you should know that the average apartment size is a lot smaller than most apartments in Manhattan.

I’m not even kidding. The steeps stairs (ladders?) alone prove it. And here I am, in probably the second biggest apartment in Amsterdam. There’s really no photo that can do justice of the space, but here is one anyways, taken in a jet-lagged daze. Oh, and did I mention the apartment spans four floors? Granted, the top floor is off-limits (my guess is that the ceilings will cave in if someone walks up there), but I wasn’t joking about Wes Anderson…

Last week, after seeing the Matthaus Passion, I decided that I needed to have constant access to every Cantata that Bach ever wrote, and ended up downloading 8Gigs of Bach. “Wonderful!” you might think. Upon finding out that none of the MP3s are meta-tagged, “wonderful” is quickly turning into “daunting”. I’ve taken to importing everything into iTunes, and then re-naming every file. It’s taking forever. This might be the only time you’ll catch me bitching about Bach having written too much music. But seriously…

Someone who is also creating a ton of music, but should in no way be compared to Bach is Claire Boucher (aka Grimes). She’s fast becoming the new darling of the hipster/indie/underground music scene. Her music, like her, is quite weird, but often also incredibly catchy. To her credit, Claire has always been a bit fringe/strange. I went to high school with her, and she hasn’t really changed her appearance that much since grade 8. We used to be Facebook friends, but when she started becoming famous I was deleted. Or she got rid of Facebook. Probably the former. Anyways, that’s beside the point. I still follower her on twitter, though, and a few days ago she posted the most ridiculous/funny thing ever. Check it out:

“In the last week I have discovered midi and non-4/4 time signatures, im having a breakdown b/c of all the possibilities that have arisen”

So here we have this smart, articulate, and creative woman, claiming never to have heard of 3/4 time. I’m having so much trouble imagining that this is true, that I think she’s:

a) the most innocent and naive person I’ve ever met

or

b) pandering to a crowd she knows is full of innocent and naive idiots.

I’m really leaning towards b, mostly because she then goes on to cite Ravel’s Bolero as her inspiration for “finding” 3/4. Despite her music being almost completely loop based, Claire is no dummy. She’s crazy independent, writing, producing, and performing her music completely solo. She has a team that works for her to help her get things done, but the creative work is largely her, and her alone. There are few artists who I can think today that are as independent as Grimes. She’s touring the EU in May, so if you get a chance, you should try to catch one of her shows. I just went to her homecoming show in Montreal, and it was really a lot of fun. Certainly worth the $10 price of admission (I kid you not…$10! So cheap!)

In a completely different sphere all together, everyone should listen to my friend Benjamin Sajo’s awesome compositions.
I’m a timid fan of contemporary music, but I really like what Ben has to say. The always glamorous Marjolaine Lambert performs his “Chanson de Geste”, below:

Also, I’ve noticed a lot of people I’ve talked to recently have never read G.E.B. If you’ve never read G.E.B, drop everything right now, and go drink in its brilliance.

You can get it for less than $10 on AbeBooks.com