~larcher

Continuing with this “amateur minidisc recordings of Christmas music” series, here are a couple more from the archives (that is, Christmas two years ago). The Round Rock Caregivers (who I gather are now called “Faith In Action Caregivers – Round Rock“) hold a benefit choral concert every year at Christmas time, where the choirs from the sponsoring churches each perform a few songs. These two were sung by our church’s choir (of which Natalie is a member).

• In the Bleak Midwinter – (words by Christina Rosetti, music by Gustav Holst)
• Masters in this Hall – (English words by William Morris, traditional French tune)

Again, the recording quality isn’t the best, but it’s better than no recording at all.

So, here we are at T minus 8 days to Christmas and almost T plus 3 months since last posting maybe it’s time to break radio silence again — literally, this time! At my parents’ church every year at Christmas, as his gift to the congregation one of the priests plays Silent Night on the harmonica. Two years ago, I brought my minidisc recorder and cheap, homemade stereo mic to church and recorded it. Then I didn’t transfer it to a PC until after the new year, so I didn’t post it (who wants to listen to Christmas music after Christmas?). So here it is, finally.

Silent Night – Harmonica: Fr. Henry Petter; Vocals: St. Elizabeth Ann Seton congregation

The quality is what you’d expect from the equipment and the “microphone placement” (on my lap in the pew), but I think it’s still listenable. Might be slightly better with headphones. I cleaned it up a little in Audacity: added fade in and out, and a high-pass filter to lessen some of the pretty serious thumps in the first half (doors closing, possibly?).

Expect more bootleg Christmas music postings in the next few days …

First,I’ll post in full the text of a certain policy/license agreement:

IMPORTANT! WRISTBAND POLICY:
This is your 3-day wristband for 2007 ACL Music Festival. Wristband must be worn all three days for entry into the Festival. The wristband will be scanned at Festival entrance to allow entry. It is your responsibility to keep wristband secure and in-tact and to ensure no attempts of duplication are made. Subsequent and/or multiple presentations of a counterfeited wristband are VOID and will be seized by Festival security staff. Wristband must fit securely on wrist and cannot be slipped on and off. Wristbands are non-transferable, non-exchangeable and cannot be replaced. Do not remove, stretch or tamper with your wristband in any way or you will not be allowed entry. If the wristband is tampered with or mangled it can not be replaced. Lost or stolen wristbands cannot be replaced. Event takes place rain or shine. THERE ARE ABSOLUTELY NO EXCEPTIONS TO THIS WRISTBAND POLICY.

Unfortunately, I did not see this policy until the Festival was over and I had removed my wristband … because it was printed on the inside of the wristband, which was firmly attached to my wrist by Festival staff when I entered the gates on Friday. The outside of the wristband does bear a similar warning in much shorter form:

VOID IF REMOVED

Silly legal statements aside, this year’s ACL Fest was (musically) great .. off the top of my head, my top 10 would probably be:

• Gotan Project
• Arcade Fire
• Wilco
• Yo La Tengo
• Bjork
• Regina Spektor
• Andrew Bird
• Ghostland Observatory
• Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
• Ocote Soul Sounds (joint thinger between Grupo Fantasma and Antibalas)

So the music was awesome. The weather was hot, no surprises there. The parking wasn’t too bad, got plenty of exercises walking to and from. The crowds though … maybe I’m just getting old and cranky, but it seems ridiculous to have to fight your way to a stage, and still be a quarter-mile away, and then when you sit down, to have to arrange chairs and everything to keep people from creating a pathway right in front of you. And the pathways are there, it seems, because about 1/2 the crowd shows up late because they were watching another band, and the other 1/2 leaves early to go find a spot at another stage for another band.

Alright, I think that’s about enough ranting … I will say that at this point I’m disinclined to go to ACL Fest next year, especially if ticket prices go up yet again. But I probably said the same thing last year.

update (9/26/2007): Tickets for next year’s ACL Festival just went on sale (already!). The super low Earlybird Ticket Price is $135 (compare with $120 this year). Meh.