wikipedia enters the avatar state

today's featured article on the main wikipedia page is about avatar! the article is very comprehensive, with a great section on the many cultural influences that have been worked into the show. it also includes info about some of the great avatar toys and collectibles that are out there.

while anxiously awaiting the third season of avatar to air, i'm checking out the fansites frequently for info... and i just read on avatarspirit that there will be a new actor playing iroh next season. iroh is one of my favorite characters so i'm disappointed to hear about the change - mako, the actor who has played iroh since the beginning of the show, did a wonderful job of bringing iroh to life.

sufjan's kennedy center show on 2.5.07

i've been so disappointed at the lack of video clips from sufjan's kennedy center performance. some clips are surfacing slowly on you tube, but i (and lots of others, including pitchfork) thought the concert would be available on the millennium stage website, which has a great track record for making live performances available online. but the sufjan show is not going to be posted on the site.

the few you tube videos show a performance that works well at times, but also has some weak points. overall it seems like sufjan's music sounds best when performed by his own mini-orchestra, rather than the kennedy center orchestra. the orchestra overwhelms sufjan's voice on several songs. you tube also has video from sufjan's show at the zellerbach auditorium (uc berkeley) on 10.11.06 - worth watching in relation to the kennedy center performance. the zellerbach show was with the sufjan orchestra, and it's perfect.

listening project notes

will i ever finish my sufjan listening project? i'd love to take down my old posts, reorganize them, and publish it in one (hopefully improved) piece. but i just don't know if i can finish it. i've revised my recommended playlist so many times it's absurd.

i hope i can see some live clips after sufjan plays at the kennedy center tonight. his performances are so interesting and unexpected - i can only imagine what trickster sufjan has up his sleeve for the kennedy center audience. like the now-iconic wings the band wore on austin city limits, or the recent impromptu jam with david byrne at a benefit concert (i read about this on pitchfork, and they have a clip). i wish i could be at the kennedy center show tonight, or at least have the chance to watch a live webcast, but it looks like the show will be available on the awesome millennium stage site, which has tons of archived performances.

at some point, if i ever finish this project, i'll post an annotated sufjan playlist, which will compile my choices for his best and most interesting songs. right now, i'm so into greetings from michigan that it could be the whole playlist...