I know this whom is right—or if it isn’t, please feel free to argue it out with John Donne or Ernest Hemingway.
Or James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich.
While on one of my not-frequent-enough visits to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario,* I enjoyed one of the best stagings of Macbeth I’ve ever seen. It was modernistic and militaristic, but somehow without anachronism. At one point, the actor who played the titular role did a chilling enactment of a man losing his grip on everything he once stood for, while wearing a Kiss the Cook apron and holding a barbecue spatula.
The opening scene was all mist and the sound of artillery and the entrance of Macbeth and Banquo, in infra-red goggles, was proceeded by their laser sights. It was a powerful moment and one which my mind immediately set to music.
This music:
That’s the San Fransisco Symphony, under Michael Kamen, featuring Metallica.
The S&M concert album was my first real introduction to Metallica** and I was smitten. Those horns, that guitar, the strings—those vocals. I would have given my eyeteeth to play in that symphony during that concert—look at that audience. Feel that energy.
Who needs caffeine? Okay, yeah, always—but not while I’m listening to this.
To tell you the truth, I have no idea why this all came to mind this morning . . . if it’s some kind of omen, I have a feeling today won’t be boring.
___
* Go.
** Mom doesn’t care for “thumpy music,” and Dad likes to be able to hear the words. Or that’s the explanation I was given. My sister played it anyway. I became a bassoonist. We all rebel in our own ways.
Earful of Cider 