Last night marked another notch on both my Elvis Costello and Bob Dylan belts. Dylan gave a less-than mediocre performance, but rallied near the end of the show with an excellent Masters of War and a Highway 61 Revisited; but the star of the was definitely Elvis. Costello is on his first solo acoustic tour in 12 years- Having seen him before with The Imposters, Emmy-Lou Harris, and Allan Toussaint it was something special to experience his lyrical poetry accompanied only by his guitar. Elvis Costello managed to bring intimacy into a huge, open gymnasium; even stopping to comment that this was the best acoustics he has ever found… in a gym.
With lyrics like poetry and an unmistakable voice saturated with emotion- each song seeming more like a cry or a declaration- it was impossible not to watch awestruck.
Tonight, I had dinner with Ariel Levy, writer for New York Magazine, contributor to Blender, Vogue, and Slate, and author of Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and The Rise of Raunch Culture. Conversation vacillated between politics and pop culture; and we chased wraps and pasta salad with feminism and washed it all down with bottled water. I couldn’t help but feeling that her time across the table from me was far less interesting than when she sat a desk-width away from Stephen as a guest on the Colbert Report.
Tags: Ariel Levy, Blender, Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, Female Chauvinist pigs, Masters of War, New York magazine, RIT, rochester, Vogue
