From the monthly archives:
Alden Ashforth bought a gavel some years back for the Chair of our department at that time, Tom Harmon, and I have inherited it in my new capacity as the new Chair. I guess I’ll use it if people start shouting and have to bang it against the table shouting “ORDER! ORDER!” Hmm, doesn’t really [...]
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Some Dutch dudes do a Dalcroze duet.
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Here is a video guaranteed to put you in a perky mood. It’s one of those “gosh life is great and my diet pills have just kicked in gosh darnit I’m gonna clean this place.” Which is what? A school room? So this is a video about a female highschool janitor fantasizing about something? And [...]
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I’m sure you’ve read those little articles that show how various combinations of vinegar, baking soda, eye of newt and wing of bat can clean almost anything in your house. Back in the 1960s, there was a craze to scrape banana peels and smoke it, in hopes of getting high. I don’t remember trying that, [...]
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A mesmerizing work by American composer Frederic Rzewski beautifully performed by pianist Roger Wright. Alden Ashforth told me once that Rzewsk had the first score of Webern before anyone else did in the US. This would be the early 50s. Randall Thompson would have nothing to do with it, nor Walter Piston. Harrumph.
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An excellent and faithful cover of Gram Parsons and Chris Etheridge’s song “She.” Norah does a great job, but there is a heart wrenching passion in Gram’s peformance that is unique to him. A tasty song; should become a standard. Maybe Nora will make it so.
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Glenn Gass, my old friend from the New England Conservatory of Music in 1978, visited with his wife Julie on Friday. After spending a blessed year on Kauai, they returned to the mainland with their two boys by going directly to Disneyland (ouch). Glenn called me once and left a message from that magical city: [...]
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A few months back I got a ticket for sailing down the mountain from Lake Arrowhead, singing at the top of my lungs, oblivious that I was speeding. The phenomenon is called “velocitization.” Deveyesh Mistry writes in the blog Tips for Driving:
Wondering what Velocitization is? It’s the basic feeling you get when driving at a [...]
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And now for something completely different. (Thanks Mark!)
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Andrew Bird is one of the great talents today who, like Rufus Wainwright, straddles popular and classical traditions. Here we hear Andrew tap into his Dylan/folk roots. Here “Oh, Sister” sounds an awful lot like Neil Young’s “Helpless.” He utilizes a loop machine (in the tradition of Terry Riley and Imogen Heap) and lays down [...]
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