"If you believed, they put a man on the moon, man on the moon".

It's not always easy to be in a relationship with a geek, but I have to say that Karli has been an accommodating and flexible partner, one who has been more than willing to participate in things like visits to the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle or side trips to photograph giant robots in Japan.

However, I was a little apprehensive when I suggested that I was interested in going to see ex-astronaut Chris Hadfield perform with the Victoria Symphony at the end of March. It somehow struck me as being above and beyond the call of duty to expect that she would be interested in joining me.  To my extreme pleasure, she instantly expressed her eagerness for a weekend away on Vancouver Island that would culminate in attending Commander Hadfield's symphonic performance.  Tickets have been purchased, hotel reservations made, and we're looking forward to a fun little getaway next month.

All that being said, I'm a little curious as to the actual content of the show.  Presumably it will highlight songs from his 12-cut album, Songs from a Tin Can, but even with an orchestral backup, that's only about 40 minutes, and the performance is slated to run from 8-10 pm.

The description of the event says that Commander Hadfield "will be singing, playing his guitar and telling stories about his time as an astronaut and is joined by the VS performing space-themed music."  "Space-themed music" certainly opens the door to a wide variety of fairly epic Hollywood movie scores for the orchestra - John Williams' Star Wars theme, Thus Spake Zarathustra from 2001, and so on - but I wonder if Chris Hadfield covers any pop songs other than the well-known version of David Bowie's Space Oddity that he recorded on the International Space Station?

Even if the show is called Rocket Man, it would be a very confident person* who would perform that particular Elton John hit with the spectre of William Shatner's version looming in the background.  Deep Purple's Space Truckin' really isn't Hadfield's style, and Peter Schilling's Major Tom seems a bit derivative after covering Bowie.  Bif Naked's Spaceman?  Cygnus X-1 by Rush?**  I think I've seen a video of a Hadfield version of the Beatles' Across the Universe, so that's probably part of his non-album repertoire.

Probably not Man on the Moon by REM, though - I don't think that a retired astronaut would approve of the chorus.

- Sid
 

* On the other hand, based on all evidence I think it's safe to say that Chris Hadfield would classify as a very confident person, so who knows.

** Do people actually cover Rush? I'm sure that there are several tribute bands working their way through small town bars in Northern Ontario, but it's difficult to imagine, say, Adele deciding to reinterpret Spirit of Radio for her next album.