Last Thursday, March 7, 2013, I had the pleasure of watching Ramzi (Zee) Karkabi and Marilyn Kasparian along with Patrick Khoriaty in a live, acoustic performance at Nova Club in Sin El Fil. And what an enchanting performance it was!
The event started at 10 pm with only a few people in the audience. The crowd was not very big, but that's probably expected for a week night and at that late hour. Nevertheless, the set up was great. Zee and Marilyn sang their hearts out as Zee strummed along on his acoustic guitar and Patrick accompanied him for a few songs on the bass and sometimes the guitar. Zee's voice is beyond amazing! Husky, deep, wide-ranged, passionate... his vocal skills are definitely praise-worthy as is his guitar playing. He is the front man of the much loved Lebanese band, "Linger", and therefore has experience in the field of music and performance. Marilyn looked very sweet and lady-like, sitting on the stool opposite Zee. When she first began to sing I was taken aback. I had never heard her perform before, though she has been performing for awhile as she was the vocalist of the band "Phobia". Her voice is deep, raspy, and flawless, reminding me somehow of a mix between Martha Wainwright, Amanda Palmer, and Lisa Hannigan... the best qualities in these women's voices shone through in Marilyn's voice. I was caught between a sense of envy and awe. Hands down, she is the best Lebanese female vocalist I have heard to date!
The way the place was arranged conjured up an intimacy between everyone present and made the performance just that much more heartfelt. The tables and couches were arranged around Zee and Marilyn who were sitting on stools at the center of it all. Candles decorated the tables and a few dimmed spot lights shone around the room. There was an abundant flow of popcorn to the tables along with a few drinks as 'the cherry on top' of an entertaining evening.
The duo covered a long list of well known hits by some great artists; to name a few: Muse (Endlessly), System of a Down (Lonely Day), Damien Rice (9 Crimes), and Amy Winehouse (Back to Black). One of the most touching songs Zee performed solo was Pink Floyd's Mother. Marilyn's solo performance of I'll Kill Her by Soko has to be my favorite performance of the evening. Their very sensual duet of the song Evelyn Evelyn (by Evelyn Evelyn) made me speechless! Although I had to leave a few minutes early, I'm pretty sure I caught most of the magic and my honest opinion is that Zee and Marilyn are one of the most talented duos around. They definitely give other bands in the scene a run for their money.
You can catch them Thursday (10 pm) at Nova Club, Sin El Fil and Sundays (9:30 pm) at Calvados, Broumana. Check out their Facebook page HERE.
The event started at 10 pm with only a few people in the audience. The crowd was not very big, but that's probably expected for a week night and at that late hour. Nevertheless, the set up was great. Zee and Marilyn sang their hearts out as Zee strummed along on his acoustic guitar and Patrick accompanied him for a few songs on the bass and sometimes the guitar. Zee's voice is beyond amazing! Husky, deep, wide-ranged, passionate... his vocal skills are definitely praise-worthy as is his guitar playing. He is the front man of the much loved Lebanese band, "Linger", and therefore has experience in the field of music and performance. Marilyn looked very sweet and lady-like, sitting on the stool opposite Zee. When she first began to sing I was taken aback. I had never heard her perform before, though she has been performing for awhile as she was the vocalist of the band "Phobia". Her voice is deep, raspy, and flawless, reminding me somehow of a mix between Martha Wainwright, Amanda Palmer, and Lisa Hannigan... the best qualities in these women's voices shone through in Marilyn's voice. I was caught between a sense of envy and awe. Hands down, she is the best Lebanese female vocalist I have heard to date!
The way the place was arranged conjured up an intimacy between everyone present and made the performance just that much more heartfelt. The tables and couches were arranged around Zee and Marilyn who were sitting on stools at the center of it all. Candles decorated the tables and a few dimmed spot lights shone around the room. There was an abundant flow of popcorn to the tables along with a few drinks as 'the cherry on top' of an entertaining evening.
The duo covered a long list of well known hits by some great artists; to name a few: Muse (Endlessly), System of a Down (Lonely Day), Damien Rice (9 Crimes), and Amy Winehouse (Back to Black). One of the most touching songs Zee performed solo was Pink Floyd's Mother. Marilyn's solo performance of I'll Kill Her by Soko has to be my favorite performance of the evening. Their very sensual duet of the song Evelyn Evelyn (by Evelyn Evelyn) made me speechless! Although I had to leave a few minutes early, I'm pretty sure I caught most of the magic and my honest opinion is that Zee and Marilyn are one of the most talented duos around. They definitely give other bands in the scene a run for their money.
You can catch them Thursday (10 pm) at Nova Club, Sin El Fil and Sundays (9:30 pm) at Calvados, Broumana. Check out their Facebook page HERE.
Eloquently pu... No wait, sorry. I wish I could say that, because you can see port eloquence from the S.S. Ashley's Writing, but the poor girl's an olde thing that has failed to move on with the times.
ReplyDeleteWhile I do not know the audience you are trying to appeal to, your critique very much emulates the Vox Popule. There's nothing inherently wrong with this except for the manner in which you go about it. Your writing, in short, is bland.
Not even bland in the way a TUC cracker is bland - exploding with a puff of crumbs and drying out your mouth in such a horrible way you know you will never forget it.
It's not even forgettable bland, that is such a powerful memory leech you have to share it to get people to experience it.
It's just bland, it delivers the information and flies away on shapeless, beige, wings.
The whole thing felt like watching an aerobics video, with you as the presenter going through the motions, or rather the Emotions. False smile flashing in the sun.
No accusation can go unjustified, so I'd urge the jury, who in this case is also the defendant, to lend their eyes to some of the offending sentences.
Your opening is pretty straightforward, which is fine if you can back it up with decent wit later, but concludes with... Well:
"And what an enchanting performance it was!"
Unless you’re talking to the layest of laymen, "Enchanting" is a last resort adjective. Also if you have to resort to punctuation to get emotion across you should take a good long look at your sentence.
The biggest hurdle when writing prose is understanding that, like poetry, it has it's own rhythm. Knowing when to use a word, or a string of them and the effect they will have on the rhythm of your piece is essential. Not knowing how and when results in this:
"The crowd was not very big, but that's probably expected for a week night and at that late hour. Nevertheless"
Shorter words followed by a massive one, not a complex one mind, just one that has four syllables. Following a sentence where the longest word is three syllables long breaks all sense of flow with a sickening crack.
Then comes your word choice. Now I'm not saying every word has to be what the barely literate call an "SAT word," but English is a language with so many facets and niches that anyone who has a moderate understanding of it can express themselves poetically. For example:
"I was caught between a sense of envy and awe."
Because we all know emotions are such gentle creatures as to catch rather than tear their victims.
But the biggest offender by far, is your use of hyperbole. Simply put, very little is "flawless" and even something that is needs a slew of other adjectives to qualify it before the use of that one.
It is best avoided altogether, because the moment someone points out a flaw the object being described becomes: not-quite-so-flawless-anymore-but-never-mind.
The same goes for beyond amazing. Amazing is I leave the event bursting with emotion, usually with my jaw hanging somewhere around my knees. Beyond amazing I flop home in tears at the sheer beauty of what I've experienced.
The band may have been so good as to make you feel like that, I wouldn't know, but you need a lot more justification before you can call something beyond amazing.
As I say your writing is far from bad, but it's not magnificent either. Patch up your Olde ship and you will be more than able to reach port eloquence. Until then, I'd recommend a bucket, just in case she starts taking on water.
Woaa! You sound like you have a personal grudge against the author of the article. While I can understand how the exaggeration in her writing style may have irritated you, there was no need to attack her in such a vitriolic mannner.
ReplyDeleteNot a personal grudge no, just seeing writing that could be good but isn't makes me sad and just a little grudging
ReplyDelete