Fall and The Wall

                       

TURN, TURN, TURN: It wasn't pouring down rain today, which marked quite a change in our weather as of late. We decided to take advantage of the patchy sky and take a nice long walk.  

We headed up and over the hill and took note of the seasonal changes in our neighborhood. We loved the tree pictured up top. It was the colors of sherbet.

Gold is appearing all over the landscape.

The kids got some swinging in. 

We also stopped to appreciate plants which are interesting all year long. This one looks like it was paint-splattered.

And isn't this hydrangea lovely?

REALLY BIG SHOW: In the seemingly never-ending effort to document our field trip to NY and England, I continue to play catch up. Today's chapter, finally, a proper review of Roger Waters (and company) performing "The Wall" at Wembley Stadium.

Interestingly, CJ's desire to see "The Wall" performed live was the impetus for our whole trip. A hardcore Pink Floyd fan, last April he mentioned (and mentioned and mentioned) his desire to see the show, and I told him that I was pretty sure Waters was on tour in Europe at the time or soon. We looked it up, and saw dates across Europe, including one in London on Sept. 14. We looked at tickets and saw they were still available and reasonably priced.

"Well, can we go?" CJ asked.

Instead of the obvious answer, "NO!" I thought about it said, "Well, maybe. Let's see what your dad says." So that afternoon, while CJ and Annabelle were in yoga class, Christian and I mulled it over over a couple of pints of microbrew and decided that it seemed like reasonable request after all.  We'd been planning to have our next Big Trip be to New York, and heck, if you're all the way in NY, London is just a hop across the pond, right?

CJ was one happy boy after yoga class, when we told him Roger Waters was a go. We bought our concert tickets that night and the rest is history. ;)

I'd always wanted to go to Wembley, the site of so many iconic concerts in past years. Walking up to it was a thrill.

And once inside, as I stared down at the stage from our lofty seats, I couldn't help but picture Freddie Mercury roaming the stage, at the height of his Queendom. :)

As you can see, the stage front featured an enormous wall, with just the middle open. 

The show started around 8 p.m., just as the skies were darkening.

The concert was quite the production.

It started with fireworks. Literally!

The wall wasn't a static monolith. Rather, it was the focal point, on which words and images were constantly splashed during the show.

Below, a chorus of school aged children sing "Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2" toward a tormenting school master (a huge puppet).

The school master tormented the crowd a bit, too.

As the show progressed, the wall got bigger and bigger.

And more and more of the band disappeared behind it, though their images were projected on it.

Here, the band can barely be seen.

And now, they're all gone. But can you see tiny Roger, below, approaching Really Big Roger?

By intermission, the large white wall was complete, and on it, memorials to war victims were projected.

I had always thought of "The Wall" being very anti-establishment, but not until that concert did I realize what a strong anti-war message it conveys. And, as was the case at the concert, the message was often delivered with gripping visuals.

For instance, there was this startling video - of Roger 'gunning' down the crowd, with a hail of gunfire. A little unnerving ...

And the searchlights during "In the Flesh" were creepy, too.

During ***, a string of words appeared on the screen over images of suffering.

The series of screens read ... 

Every gun that’s made
Every warship launched
Every rocket fired represents
In the final sense
A theft
From those who hunger and are not fed
Those who are cold and are not clothed

And Waters ended it with this phrase ...

Apparently, I wasn't the only one wondering about the quote.  Waters explained in a post on Facebook. ... , 

"It’s part of a speech Eisenhower made on April 16th 1953. ... I came across this quote in an op-ed piece in the NY Times by columnist Bob Herbert.

The truth of Eisenhower’s statement hit me like a battering ram. For anyone who doesn't get it, this old dead republican warrior President is explaining to us that we’re all in this together, white, black, red, yellow, Hindu, Christian, Moslem (sic), Jew, North American, Latin American, European, Asian, African, Middle Eastern, whatever, and that every dollar we allow our governments to pour into the gaping maw of the war machine is one dollar less available to help fellow human beings in need. In need of food, yes, clothing, yes, but also, here at home and abroad, in need of the education to demand that our governments lift our politics above the level of bullies in a schoolyard.

That’s what old Dwight meant.

You can say he was a dreamer, but he’s not the only one.

Roger Waters"

So there you have it.

During the show, they launched the flying pig, of course. There simply *must* be a flying pig. It was pretty damn cool, controlled via remote, and flying all over the stadium.

Toward the end of the show, they purposely crashed it into the crowd, who proceeded to dismantle it, of course.

And speaking of dismantling, you know the wall had to fall.  Here, Roger hits it with his guitar. (Oh, how my old, tired Sony struggled at the show, but I didn't want to risk taking my big camera and having it confiscated.)

Going ... going ...

 Gone! Well, mostly.

I had the kids write concert reviews today. CJ's is first.

On September 14th, 2013, we went to London, England, to see Roger Waters perform "The Wall Live." During the show, We saw him perform all of the songs from "The Wall", and not only that, but there was a major message of anti-war.
We went to Wembley Stadium, the largest stadium I have ever seen. I noticed that Wembley Stadium was meant to be a football stadium, but it worked anyway for a concert. Also, there was a LARGE arch over the stadium, probably to attract attention. Not only that, but there were many glass images of football games. 

When we were on our way to the stadium, we had trouble parking, (due to the size of Wembley Stadium) and if we had not made smart moves, we would have missed the concert. We had trouble finding empty spaces (no pun intended) for parking, and it would have been a waste of our money if we had missed the concert.

At the concert, I had noticed that there was a EXTREMELY LARGE audience there, and I can guarantee you that the majority of them were Europeans and/or tourists (for obvious reasons.) During the show, I saw a person wearing a coat with the design of the flag of Brazil on it (as proof that some people came from FAR away to see that concert).

When we left the concert, we (no joke) actually went to the best porta potty (porta loo, as they call it there) I had ever seen, as it had flushes, you didn't have to see the pile of human waste at the bottom, and there were air fresheners so that it didn't smell awful. Also, when we got outside the stadium, there was an entire sea of humanity outside, walking to their cars (or whatever transported them.) We got to our cars by jumping over the fence.

(Side note: my favorite song from the concert was "Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 2. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvO3Jf5bTkE (Preview) )
(Pt. 2 begins at the 5:24 mark in the video)

And here's Annabelle's take:

On the 14th of September, my family and I went to see Roger Waters, a former Pink Floyd band member, perform CJ's favorite album- Pink Floyd The Wall at Wembley stadium. The stadium was HUGE and many people were there, almost the whole stadium (that wasn't behind the stage) was filled. Before we got to the stadium, though, we were stuck trying to find the right parking lot, because Wembley had many of them. After we did it was easy to find parking. Lines for food, drinks and bathrooms were very long but that wasn't too much of a problem. The show had great special effects, such as projections on the wall. Speaking of the wall, they actually built it during the performance! At first I didn't notice, but then I saw that it was always getting bigger. My favorite song was Another Brick in the Wall pt. 2 (here's a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8utzJfL-QU) and some of the suprises would definitely be the loud points in the music. Afterward we got back to our car and away from the human sea by climbing a fence. Overall it was a GREAT concert and I give it a 11/10!!!!

WONDERFUL WIZARD: Night before last I saw "The Origins of Oz" pop up on our TV listings on The Smithsonian Channel. I thought CJ might enjoy the show. I thought right. We all did, in fact.

It's hard to imagine we don't all know everything there is to know about The Wizard of Oz by now, but 75 years later, some aspects are still new to us, as it turns out. For instance, the one hour documentary showed real-life locations that inspired L Frank Baum's "Land of Oz" and explained how elements in the classic tale came to be. We also learned about Baum's humble roots, his fame, fortune, financial ruins and rebounds. He led a rollercoaster of a life.

Good news, Oz fans, you can watch the whole documentary online! Just follow this yellow brick road. Er, I mean, link!: http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/sc/web/show/137669/the-origins-of-oz

It's hard to imagine a story that is more enduring or pervasive in our culture. Heck, during the Roger Waters' concert we went to, images of Dorothy and friends were projected on the wall during the show.