brainsplotch

It has been nagging me for months that I never returned to my promised blog post about Berlin, so I will return to it and try to retrace it to the best of my recollection. We arrived at the Berlin hauptbahnhof from Halle in mid-morning on August 15, 2023. The Berlin train station is probably the largest one I have ever seen, and if it's not the largest, it's easily the brightest and shiniest, full of steel and glass. As is customary for us, we sought the nearest Starbuck's--conveniently located in the train station--and once sufficiently caffeinated, made our way into already sun-soaked Berlin.  We crossed the Spree to the Spreebogenpark on the other side of the river, and then walked by the mid-century modern government buildings such as the German Chancellory and the Buro des Bundeskanzlers. My first thought was, "wait...this is Berlin? Is this what it looks like? So far, it reminds me of the drab government buildings of Lansing--only a bit larger."...

In the days since I wrote my Wayne Kramer tribute, I have been steadily bothered by my own unintentional slander of the MC5's debut album Kick Out the Jams . While I still consider it my least favorite among the band's three official albums, it's still a good album and absolutely worth investigating. If it's the first MC5 album one listens to, one must place it in its historical context to appreciate it more. The band had only recently been signed to Elektra Records, and the story goes Elektra thought the "5" were too raw and inexperienced to record a studio album. (But what young band ISN'T raw and inexperienced when they enter a studio to record an album?). In any case, Elektra decided to record the band at their home stomping grounds, the Grande (pronounced GRAND-ee) Ballroom, at the corner of Grand River Avenue and Joy Road in Detroit, on October 30 and 31, 1968. Their debut would be a live album. Detroit in October '68 was still only a year remove...

WAYNE KRAMER (Scott Dudelson/Getty Images)                On my drive home from work yesterday, I saw the news that Wayne Kramer, MC5 guitarist and overall legendary Detroit rock musician, had died. It came as a shock, because the last I had heard, within the last few months, was that Wayne was set on recording a new MC5 album and doing live dates. (I won't get into the dubious nature of a new "MC5" album with only one of the then two surviving members participating, but the idea of new music from "brother Wayne" was exciting). To find out that he'd succumbed to pancreatic cancer was a total shock. I can only assume that in the usual "older Midwestern guy" tradition, he'd kept his condition a secret. I then remembered the one time I saw Wayne Kramer in a live setting, when I caught the "MC50" show at the Fillmore in Detroit, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Kick Out the Jams album. I inexplicably never mentioned it in this b...

L. and I went to see cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Leonidas Kavakos, and pianist Emanuel Ax at Wharton Center last night. They performed three Beethoven pieces and, in an unexpected encore, a Schubert piece. I am not particularly knowledgeable about classical music, but have slowly (like at a snail's pace) grown to appreciate it more over the last 25 years or so, but certainly even more so after our kids played in orchestra in middle school and high school.  Regardless of genre, I will not pass up a chance to see live music, and particularly not when one of the performers is perhaps the most celebrated cellists...ever? Kavakos and Ax, as I have since learned, are also highly regarded musicians. (And I know any classical music experts reading this are shaking their fists in anger at my ignorance). The musicians took the stage at 7:45, fifteen minutes after the scheduled 7:30. They were all wearing Michigan State baseball caps, and Yo-Yo Ma said, "Go Green!" to th...