For those of you with blogs or websites, or those who love to study logic structure, check out Websites as Graphs. This is what Red Black Window looks like. To put it in perspective, click here to see others. Here are some amazing ones.
Prof. Berlioz: For the next few sessions I will be introducing you to writing for the solo stringed instruments, and I don’t mean the guitar, bass and banjo, I mean the violin, viola, cello, and double bass. The first three instruments are tuned in 5ths; the cello is an octave below the viola; the […]
Here is what appears to be an exercise video that doubles as a prefab description of being robbed for Chinese girls who visit America. Yeah, weird premise: I thought so too. Now, what I don’t get is, if these girls actually DO get robbed, will they uncontrollably go into this dance routine in hopes of […]
I realized that one could probably start a religion by codifying the things that make us happy.
No, just kidding, but if we cut to the chase in life, isn’t it happiness that gives us that little internal buzz that make life so fucking fabulous?
Speaking of which, take a look at Citrus’s wise post on Happiness.
And […]
For some strange reason, Grotrian has made available a cyber-piano-composition doohicky called a PIANOLINA that you can click on and drive everyone in your house crazy. It takes a piece of preexisting music and processes it one way or another, depending upon what it is that you do to it. I find it analagous to […]
Here is the original video of “Once in a Lifetime.” It’s great fun and interesting to see where some of David Byrne’s bizarre body gestures come from. For me, the piece really comes into its own in the live performance on the movie, STOP MAKING SENSE, which I hope to find, post and present a […]
Musicologist (or not?) Arthur M. Abell chats with many of our favorite turn of the [last] century composers in his book “Talks With Famous Composers.” I bring this to your attention not so much to endorse whether this guy was a charlatan or not, but some of the things Brahms supposedly said are quite interesting.
The […]
Sketch of Igor Stravinsky by Roger Bourland (1971).
One cold, rainy November night in Madison Wisconsin, I decided to listen to an LP that I took from my parents before leaving home: Igor Stravinsky’s “Petrouchka.” I didn’t know the music at all. I knew my Dad listened to the FIREBIRD from time to time, and I […]
When I was an undergraduate at UW Madison, I teased one of my classmates by, after telling me that she was moving to California, warning her that she might fall into the ocean after “the big one.” She stared at me with this icy glare and said: “ROGER, YOU CAN’T LIVE IN FEAR.” Very good […]
Sinéad O’Connor’s electrifying performance of this great song by Prince, “Nothing Compares 2U” is thrillingly captured in this video. The arrangement as well as the chord choices in this song are Neanderthal — I wish someone would remix it, cutting out everything except her voice, and start over. The sleazy ah-aaahhh-ahh in the background is […]
Here is a photo I found on the Rufus Wainwright message board taken by someone at Patrick McMullan Company. After much speculation on the RWMB about Rufus’s new beau, it was leaked that his new friend was called “Jorn,” but then we were told it was Jörn (mit umlaut) (”sounds more like yearn than porn”). […]
This is the most famous video on YouTube this week. Can you tell why? This youngster, named Isaiah Chevrier, is 4 years old and shows his amazing skill playing the African djembe. The facial expressions and expressive body language are those of an adult. He must have had a great teacher, speaking of which, could […]
Here’s a guy that did his homework.
This guy didn’t: (warning: may be disturbing to some; there are no close ups)
In 1912, Austrian tailor Franz Reichelt leaped from the observation deck of the Eiffel Tower in a combination overcoat-parachute of his own design. He expected to fly. He did not.
Two legends: Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley. I imagine Frank felt rather old generation here next to a hormone popping, knee buckling Elvis, fresh back from the army. Look at Elvis’s eyelashes: his face is so emblazoned in our memory, and his eyes are icons of pop culture. We all know those eyes. There they […]
Franz Mesmer practices animal magnetism on a a patient while friends look on.
[Here is the next installment in a continuing series called the spirit highway, about people and concepts found along the way.]
Somewhere along the way, I read that it is a good thing to channel one’s own sexual energy into one’s higher spiritual and/or […]
Berlioz in 1867.
[Doorbell rings. Prof Berlioz hollers down. Rufus waits patiently. Sound of keys against the door. Swearing in French, wrong keys. Silence. Sound of footsteps up from downstairs. More key sounds. Door opens. Rufus appears with a big smile and a flashdrive in his hand. Berlioz slaps him on the back and they move […]
(Liberty by Nitin Garg.)
I look back at my childhood as a young music lover and musician, and see that it was peppered with “heros,” “role models” (or so I thought), “cool people,” wayshowers, big brothers. These people ranged from local Green Bay heros like Jim and Lou Seiler who could do Byrd music as though […]
Alexander Pushkin: Tragedies petites. “Mozart and Salieri”
Xylography by V.A. Favorsky.
When people these days hear the name “Salieri” they conjure up the role played by F. Murray Abraham in AMADEUS whose character was envious of this brat who was touched by the hand of God. One of the short plays that I’m considering setting by Thornton […]
Here is a clip from a recent Brian Wilson documentary on the making of SMILE. It’s from 1966. In this touching sketch, Brian barely opens his eyes, he’s so lost in the song. The piano part, in his head, is the full band/orchestra but we mortals only get to hear the chunk-chunk-chunk-chunk piano part move […]
If you are a patterns-in-nature enthusiast, or a fractal fan, or a weekend computerized-Jackson Pollock, visit Ian Timourian’s website. He calls it “Mandalabrot.net.” He pursues his own passion for the above via computer and the results are stimulating. He also features his influences floating along a time-line below.
Subscribe in a reader