my heart will go on

(photos: Washington Post)

On Monday evening we met some of my old work mates for dinner at a very nice Greek/Turkish/Lebanese place in D.C., Zaytinya. Actually, there were supposed to be eight of us but only four showed up – we had a huge eight-person round top in an alcove that would have been perfect if the rest of the inconsiderate hacks had shown up. It ended up being Sue, Johnny B. (of upper NY and guest of honor), and the Eleven; a grand time all around the piles of mezze, wine, and pricey martinis. This is all merely a short back story and this isn’t meant as a “quick as a bunny” tale. I thought we should spend some time together at the blog and let the people know that we do in fact go out to dinner on occasion. As I was doing some research on the restaurant and parking, we’d decided to drive into the city (yes, we got a ticket…go figure), I realized that the one and only Celine Dion was playing at the Verizon Center a mere two blocks from our soiree. If you do the math on our 6pm reservation and the 8pm show time we were worried about two things: one, was the area going to be mobbed? Two, what if people thought we were going to the Celine Dion show? You can deal with the mobbed parking situation and streets easily enough, but the idea that some unknown person hanging around the city thinks you’re a Celine Dion fan is simply too much to bear. I think I may have tipped my hand, and rightly so, in order to continue the story.

I dug up the concert review at the WaPo online and gave it once over yesterday afternoon (you may not be able to read it unless you sign up for the “free” membership). The reviewer, who is the main WaPo concert and music critic, didn’t take much effort to hide his near hatred of Dion. I found the review fit my overall opinion of her and I think his description of her histrionics was dead accurate. This review led to a discussion at home last night about the responsibility of critics. Is there any point in sending a critic to a show if that person is wholly predisposed to not enjoying the show or being unable to put themselves in the shoes of the fans? I almost think that swinging either way – too great a fan or too much a hater – would then become an issue with just about every review. Do reviews fall under news or op-ed? I think that some of the best reviews I’ve read or heard were prefaced with the “I don’t much like this type of music (or this band), but this was a really good show (or record)…” Obviously, the counterbalance to that would be someone slagging off an artist they care deeply about – I know, I’ve done both when talking to people about shows and CDs. It seems that if you believe there shouldn’t be predisposition in a review then you’d have to find either a completely middle-of-the-road music fan/critic or you’d have to have every review open with a declaration of position. Or, I guess you could have a pure, idealistic person who can sit through the schmaltz of Celine Dion and keep that infection from the review. I’m not clear on which I’d vote for but after we debated it last night I realized that this review, though hilarious to me, was probably a little over the line when taking into account the whole of her career and not focusing on this particular show. Maybe a little insight into how the crowd reacted both during and the after the show would have given some depth to the review.

Vocal flyover…what a great line.

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