I intend to use every summer-y day that is left to the fullest. On Sunday, I went for a long bike ride, then I had breakfast on my balcony, went to the Glenwood Market to buy flowers, and then went to the beach. It was so lovely there that I lost track of time, and forgot for a moment that I had several things which I had to do (and as a result, I have a long list of what I was supposed to do but I didn’t).
And then, there was something new and special. I went to the concert at the new venue – they just opened on Saturday!
The venue is called The Checkout (so, if you forgot the website name, it’s close to impossible to Google it!) It is located in the old 7-Eleven building which was rehubed by Access Contemporary Music (and you can read all about their initiatives on their website).
The venue is naturally very small, and no wonder the event was sold out:
I didn’t know anything about Arvo Part, but Boris told me that he was super-avantguard, and the Soviet Estonia officials left him alone, because nobody could understand his music. I confess that I was very close to that “non-sophisticated listener,” and although the musiciants explained quite a bit about his music, I think I should do what they suggested: go to his website and see the graphical representation of his works :).
The future programming is very diverse in all senses of this work, and they do not publish a lot of details about what to expect, but I am definitely open to experiments! I like that this venue is close to my home (less than 40 minutes door-to-door, with all waits). I like that they have no amplifiers at all, and the audience is exposed to the live sound of the instruments and vocal.
On the way back, I saw one of the vocalists on the Red Line platform, and I thanked him for the music (he was the best!) and we talked about life and music all the way until I got off.
Hettie's Reflections 