From the monthly archives:
I was just watching TV and realized that blogging is the Everyman’s TV. I looked at all the content and image manipulation asking myself: would you do this if you could on your blog? The answer would be: yes.
But blogs have a “dear diary” aspect to them, one that the ultahomogenized network TV doesn’t have. [...]
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Wow, anti-war concerts are still happening. Are the 60s back? Hmm, no I guess not. Rolling Stone reported anti-war concert that happened last night featuring Michael Stipe, Bright Eyes, Steve Earle, Rufus Wainwright, Fischerspooner, Moby, Peaches and Devendra Banhart. Yeah, it’s not the 60s. The article gives an overview of who sang what, but as [...]
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The concept of contrast is one that is elemental in life. I stumbled across a passage in The Urantia Book about art that helped me focus on one of the important underlying forces of art: “great art invariably involves the effective maninulation of contrasts.” As a composer, here are some parameters in music where contrast [...]
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There are many resources for digitized cylinder discs on websites and blogs. I’ve been listening to many ancient recordings and am happy to pass on to you a few amusing and/or entertaining numbers.
The first is a digitized cylindrical recording made at UC Santa Barbara’s Donald C. Davidson Library. The song is called “Eli Green’s cake [...]
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Four Day Hombre
The UK indie group, FOUR DAY HOMBRE, has decided to issue stock in its label, Alamo Music. In fact, 30 fans have foregone their new kitchens for a chance to own stock in this rock band, described as being somewhere between Coldplay and Radiohead.
Can you imagine if we had the opportunity to buy [...]
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Following the success of “Hidden Legacies,” I received a commission in 1993 for a work for the Windy City Gay Chorus, conducted at that time by founding director, Richard Garrin. Richard’s energy as a conductor was high: he created tremendous momentum, thrilling phrasing, and a very sexy singing sound in his 60 voice male chorus.
Their [...]
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[A continuation of the first chapter in Teresina's book called "Ride 4 Your Life."]
After my knee became stronger, I got cocky and bored (a very dangerous combination). Between swimming, the clothes changing, chlorine hair, and having to go to the gym, it was just too much to do everyday. And I also wanted to sweat. [...]
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The death of the CD continues. Now, the LA Times just announced that my hometown orchestra will begin selling it’s concerts as downloads. I’m thrilled. I’m sad for Virgin and Tower and all the rest, but times are changing and I’m ready. How about you?
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Now that I’ve finished my Rufus seminar, I must confess: over the last 4 months I fell out of love with Rufus.
When I get to know the music of a particular composer or songwriter, I read everything I can about them, I listen to EVERYTHING they have done, I become completely obsessed. This fanaticism pays [...]
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I know, I know, it’s a sad moment: the Rufus seminar is over. We had our last class of the quarter. (We are on quarters at UCLA, which means 10 weeks: the first class was an introduction.)Today the class was “teacher’s choice” meaning I brought in my iPod and played my favorite songs outside the [...]
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