Saturday, August 16, 2008

WRR’s Picnic in the Park closes out the summer with a concert and a movie

By Pegasus News wire

Classical radio station WRR will host a free music and movie event on Sun., Aug. 31 at the Dallas Arboretum (8525 Garland Road).

Dubbed "Picnic in the Park," the event begins at 7 p.m. with a concert by the Dallas Wind Symphony, known for their prodigious and finely-tuned windiness. (As I understand it.) According to the WRR description of the musical repertoire, the program will consist of "classic patriotic pieces, some movie and rock favorites" and - brace yourselves - "a few surprises."

"Isn't that John Cage piece done with yet?"

(Which is the part that concerns me. What if they decide to throw in this John Cage composition?)

Starting at about 8:30 (depending upon whether they play the Cage piece, and on how slowly they might choose to play it), the great Rob Reiner adventure/comedy The Princess Bride will screen under the (hopefully) starry skies.

While concessions will be available on-site, attendees are welcome to bring along their own blankets, picnic baskets (filled with their choice of edibles) and coolers (filled with their choice of beverages).

John Cage laughs and laughs

During the course of the free event, two tickets to Europe (courtesy Lufthansa Airlines) will be awarded to a pair of lucky folks.

Sponsors of the event include Lufthansa German Airlines, McDonald’s, Park Place Dealerships, Cork Fine Wines, Texas Ballet Theater, The Highlands Bank, AFI Dallas, Skintastic Medical & Surgical, the Meadows Museum at SMU and Piano Gallery.

Arboretum parking and admission is free after 5:30 p.m., by the way.

posted by JM

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• Arts > Fine Arts > Classical Music
• Arts > Movies / Film

Comments

Jason Rice Verified

John, don't threaten these nice people with Cage (you evil man). On the other hand, it would beat Satie's Vexations ::shudder:: (Yes, Cage was part of the first full performance of it - egads!)

3 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

John Meyer Staff

Couldn't help myself, Jason. In truth, though, both musical conceptual expressionism and the Lady of the Lake look better on paper than they do in reality. (Or so I hear.)

3 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Kevin Kunreuther Verified

'Twould be refreshing for them to perform this John Cage composition, though I must admit, the last time I heard it performed, the experience was marred by a butterfly letting one rip.

3 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

David Gouldin Staff

Not sure what you have against your modern composition namesake, John. I'd rather it be Cage than Tesh any day.

But I think you're safe:

1. It's hard enough to get a "legitimate" orchestra to perform the classics like Schoenberg or Webern, much less open up a piano and start banging on things.

2. By our own admission, there are no pianos in the Dallas Wind Symphony.

(Sorry to burst your bubble.)

3 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Jason Rice Verified

Oh good lord! David, you used the word "Tesh" in a sentence with a real composer's name. Go wash your mouth out, bud!

If you're up to a good hour of not-too-difficult listening and like prepared or alternate piano in a minimalist vein, I recommend a guy whose agent priced me out of using his stuff recently for a design: Stephen Scott - bowed piano. Quite a trip, but not in a painful way.

It has that sort of "That's a piano??" feel that early Queen "That's not a synth??" had.

3 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Jason Rice Verified

O heck - I really ought to learn how to drive these stinkin' computer things. The Stephen Scott link was a glitch. Suse's (Linux) mouse buffer capture is awesome.... but oddly enough, Windows doesn't behave like that so a "paste" means something a teensy bit different. - The Real Stephen Scott wikipedia article is more germane.

Sorry for the wasted bandwidth. (grrrr! -- this is the grief of multi-OS dev)

3 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )