The Family Guy Sings at Carnegie Hall

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice. Or you could buy tickets to see a show. We had the opportunity to see Family Guy Sings at Carnegie Hall in New York on Monday. The actors from the Family Guy performed a two part 100th episode of the series, where Stewie kills Lois and its second part, Lois kills Stewie, interspersed with songs from other episodes in the show as well as original numbers just for this show.

It was fascinating to see the actors speak in the voices of their characters from the show, because of course you have an idea of what they look like from the show, even if it is a cartoon. More interesting, and harder for the actors themselves, was when they had to do two , or three, different voices.

Seth MacFarlane sang the FCC song as Peter, Bryan and Stewie. It was amusing watching him keep the voices straight. He also performed other classics such as the Prom Night Dumpster Baby, and my favorite from The Road to Rhode Island, as Brian and Stewie. People in the audience called out for Shipoopi and he sang that, which was great. I do wonder if the young people know that is from the Music Man and not original to the Family Guy. He did sing some Family Guy altered love songs with Alex Borstein as Lois.

Mike Henry sang "Somewhere that's Green" from Little Shop of Horrors that he sings about Chris in the episode The Courtship of Stewie's Father as Herbert, the old neighbor who lusts after Chris with the whistling "s" in his voice. Mike Henry also voices Cleveland on the show and sang for the first time in public, the theme song of the new series The Cleveland Show.



From left to right, Seth Macfarlane, Alex Borstein, Mila Kunis, Seth Green, Mike Henry, Danny Smith, John Viener (barely visible due to the people in front of me). Walter Murphy writes much of the music for the show and directed the 40 piece orchestra and chorus which accompanied the actors. he is barely visible behind the line of the actors.

The audience was very excited to be there for the show and that energy spilled over on stage. Some on threw a package of what the actors claimed was weed during the first half. The audience was made of all types. Just after they sang one of the filthiest songs of the show (no censors in Carnegie Hall), Alex Borstein noticed an 11 year old in the first row, which was amusing.

I suppose seeing this show means I have crossed the boundary between casual viewer and serious fan. For the record, Lynn found the show and bought the tickets. Perhaps she is the bigger fan. I would certainly see the show again if I could, but I would like to be even closer to see the faces on the voice actors as they do they stuff.

64 A Capella Thriller for the season

Francois Macre performed all 64 tracks to produce this a cappella version of Thriller. It is fascinating to watch the screens blink on an off as that track is needed or not. It turns out to be pretty good and his accent is amusing when he sings as Michael Jackson or speaks as Vincent Price.



He uses no instruments and uses looping to do repetitive parts like the drums and base line.

Residual Halloween business - help with a playlist

Since Halloween started the weekend it seem like the whole weekend could continue the spooky theme. Thus I thought I could still ask the web for advice for a Halloween music mix for today's party.


To make the mix I need to use what is available on my iTunes. Here is the list:

Thriller - Michael Jackson
Grim, Grinning Ghosts - Theme from Disneyworld's Haunted House
The Devil Went Down to Georgia - The Charlie Daniels Band
Toccata & Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 - J.S.Bach
Men in Black - Will Smith
Hell - Squirrel Nut Zippers
Pets - Porno for Pyros
O Fortuna - Orff: Carmina Burana

Firstly, I was constrained by what I have available, so don't bother suggesting "Monster Mash" or other perennial Halloween favorites, because I don't have them and don't want to buy them.

Secondly, I was embarrassed that I don't have Thriller on CD, my copy is a tape! Grabbed that album from iTunes plus the video. "Grim, Grinning Ghosts" was acquired on a Disneyworld themes CD after our trip in February, it was a must have.

Finally, are "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", "Men in Black", "Hell", "Pets", and "O Fortuna" Halloween songs? I thing "Hell" fits the bill because it is about hell. I want to include "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", because the devil is in it and that is Halloweeny, right? "Men in Black" and "Pets" have aliens in the story, so does that make them Halloween mix list worthy?

What do you think? Please offer some advice in the comments. You just might save a party faux pas.

My debut album

Follow this process to generate your new band's name, debut album and album cover art:

1. Click to get a random wikipedia article. The name of the article is the name of your band.

2. Get a random quotation. The last four words of the last quote is the name of your debut album. Reload the page to get more random quotes.

3. Explore the last seven days at Flickr to get some album art. The third picture is your new album cover art.

My new band, Unexpected Company, will be performing "All Your Fine Trappings" on our first album. Here is the art.



I think the process worked rather well for me. What's the debut album for your new band?

(via Prefsurfer, via This Could Only Happen to Me, via a DIYnot forum post, via a random e-mail forward)

Sousaphone destroyed in parachute accident

A parachutist overflew his landing site and plowed into a military band at a military review in Kansas Thursday, hurting several band members and destroying at least two sousaphones.



After some concern that there would not be enough members to continue the ceremonies, the band played on.

I am worried that incidents like this will quell the recent enthusiasm for playing the tuba and sousaphone generated by the advent of the Sousaphone Hero video game. Once kids realize how dangerous playing the sousaphone can be they may think twice about taking it up. Or it may have the opposite effect, as thrill junkies hop on the sousaphone bandwagon due to the romance of braving danger to play the instrument they love.

Music and Music Visualization for the Masses - Classical style

I just finished reading Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson again. In one scene one of the many main characters, Lawrence Waterhouse, who loves math and organs, wants to take a crack at fixing the organ in the church to which his (hopefully) future wife belongs. They won't let him near the thing until he jumps up and starts playing Toccata and Fugue in D minor. He is such a genius that he transposes to C sharp minor on the fly, because that will sound better on that organ. Musicians will cower and whimper at the scariness of someone actually being able to do that. The author's description of the performance is humorous in itself, especially the part where Lawrence kicks off his shoes and starts playing pedal tones and low notes to shake the whole church. He pretty much blows the mind of the pastor, music director, and future fiance, and blows his own mind as he figures out a math problem that has been plaguing him and runs out of the church.

Unfortunately Catholic churches these days seem enamored of the piano and don't play even the electric organs they have anymore, let alone the real pipe organs in some of the older churches. I miss that "God has entered the room" sensation described above that you get when a good organist is playing a good organ and really pumping out the low notes. Almost any Bach organ piece is sufficient for that effect.

Thus, I was inspired to go search the web for some free performances of Toccata and Fugue in D minor, and was looking for a site that I remembered with videos for visualization of the notes of the music as they were played. The site is the Music Animation Machine and one of the most popular animations is in fact for Toccata and Fugue in D minor. See it embedded below, just click:



There is a ton of other great stuff at the site, the page with the list of music with videos is here. As regards Bach, I would say that I am more a fan of the fugues than I am of the toccatas, I suspect it is the rigor and repeats with variations in the fugues that I like so much. My favorite is the Little Fugue in G minor. Unfortunately the visualization (youtube link) is a midi piano and it really sounds best on the organ. A good version on the organ can be (paradoxically) found at the PianoSociety webpage (link to mp3, BWV 578 - Fugue in G minor ("Little Fugue")).

You could and should spend many days searching and listening to all the great free stuff at the Piano Society. Some of my favorites from the Piano Society are ...

• Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody (mp3 link Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C-sharp minor, S.244/2). You will remember this from the cartoons.

• Debussy Clair de Lune, (mp3 link Clair de lune). My mom wants me to finally learn this and play it for her at the nursing home someday. The Music Animation Machine visualization (youtube link) will blow your mind with all of those notes.
  

• Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, KV 466, Romanza (mp3 link Romanza). Possibly his most famous tune, made famous again in the movie Amadeus.

All of it is nice music to listen to while working or reading or even when doing nothing but listening.