My dear Rufus,
I read with interest that you are including a string quartet in your recent recording sessions. I also have read that you will be producing your next album as well. I hope that soon you will stop relying on others to orchestrate your music as well. The best way to learn how to […]
Visit J. Tarbell’s SUBSTRATE.
Lines likes crystals grow on a computational substrate. A simple perpendicular growth rule creates intricate city-like structures.
Click on the small, medium or large button and watch the “complexification art” of j. tarbell. His Gallery of Computation is a remarkable experience.
At The Isle of Wight festival
I spent yesterday doing a little preparation work for CAGES, the film by Graham Streeter, that is in post-production. Back from “vacation” I’m in the middle of composing, performing and recording music for this film. Today I finished reel one, which includes the very important opening credits and is about 17 minutes long. On this […]
As long as we’re on a Leonard Cohen roll, here is the song that grabbed many of us for the first time, making us lifelong Cohen fans. I got to know the original as well as the haunting Judy Collins rendition and love them both. The video finally showed up on YouTube, and there is […]
Every once in a while, a song comes into your life and it colors your entire season, say summer. And whenever you hear this song, you go back to that place. Allow me to highly recommend a song that will take you over and be your soundtrack for a few weeks, if not months: “Dance […]
Here is a map that shows the structure of Maui. On Friday, Mark and I went up the mountain on the right (Haleakala Crater) and you saw the pictures we took and heard the story. Saturday we decided to go around the left mountain. We had been warned the the road on the northern […]
musicroom.com is selling [no they’re not] a Rufus Wainwright collection called “Anthology” for £14.95. I have been deluged by Wainwright piano playing enthusiasts begging me for my transcriptions. I have denied them all, bitch that I am. But now, a light appears from the UK! Is it? Is it? could it really be? an anthology? […]
Dude, I don’t even PLAY tennis and my right elbow is killing me. My doctor said “if it is still a problem after 3 months, come back and I can give you a cortisone shot, but I’d rather not do that. Here are some exercises.” I think I’m bending my elbow all the way when […]
It’s 4:30 in the morning; up to catch a 6 hour flight back to LA. I have one more post that I’ll make tonight. We drove around the entire West Maui mountain. Wowie.
What was odd is that the moon didn’t appear a single time during our entire stay until last night at dinner where we […]
Mark Carlson, composer, rugged individualist, and fearless vacationer, has been touring Maui while I’ved holed up in this time share in Kihue finishing a new choral piece. He slathers himself in SPF50 sunblock, puts on his LL Bean hat, and with maps in hand takes off to explore, hike, and take pictures. Here is a […]
“Ángel de la guarda”
Cuando más triste y solo me sentía
Queriendo llorar en el salón
La niña sentada al lado mío
De pronto la mano me tomó
Y con los ojos más negros y tristes
Que he visto jamás
Me dijo sin palabras
“No te apures, no estás solo”
“Guardian Angel”
When I felt so sad and all alone
Wanting to cry in the classroom
The […]
Meet the man who has written the poetry I have posted here over the past week and whose marvelously inspired words I have been setting to music. I was thrilled to find this little cache of interviews on Color In Colorado, a website that deals with bilingual children’s literature (FXA has 5 books of poetry […]
Despite my preference for gin martinis, my mind is open to a wide variety of alternatives: for you, not me. Here’s one guaranteed to stimulate the carnivorous appetite: the Weenie-Tini. Andrew Fenton offers an extensive guide to mastering this culinary infusion on EG Forums. For the record, in that this cocktail uses Hebrew National beef […]
Here is an early sampler called the Mellotron. Each sound was made by lengths of prerecorded tape on a loop, activated when a key is pressed. You’ll see the innards of the thing later in the video. The Moody Blues used one in “Nights in White Satin,” but they only used string sounds. Here you […]
Those that know, know.
Those that don’t, don’t.
[James Merrill to RB during a recording session.]
“Anything following the word ’should’ is usually bullshit.”
Rev. Michael Lafferty
[I guess this means we shouldn’t say “should.”]
I have always preferred to write songs and choral pieces in my own language. Being an American, that means English, American English. As of this point, most of my performances are in English speaking countries and musically communicating in the home language just makes sense. I’m not convinced that anyone knows what is really being […]
Regular RBW blog commenter Danny McMahon (aka Fairyboy69) translated an article that appeared in Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (Aug. 18, 2006) and posted it on rutopia, one of the Rufus Wainwright bulletin boards. The article gives us a peak into Rufus’s new album, as yet untitled, it is NOT the Judy Garland show, and Neil Tennant, […]
While I take breaks from composing, I like to do Sudoku puzzles, the 9 by 9 number placement puzzle invented by the Swiss mathematician, Leonhard Euler (1707 - 83) and named by someone in Japan, meaning “single number.” I haven’t had this much fun since I made 12-tone matrices back when I tried to be […]
Vowels:
A E I O U
Consonants:
H K L M N P W
Corbin and I were IMing yesterday trying to figure out what our names would be in Hawaiian. Corbin could be “Kopu” or more fun “Kopu’u” and Roger just might be “Waku” or more fun “Waku’u.”
I just finished one of the Alarcón pieces and I feel spent. Y’know, like after sex. I’m sweaty, stinky, and need a nap. When I work, my heart rate elevates. I’m certain my eyes are fully dilated. I breath faster. I see nothing but what is before me. I get hot rushes all over my […]
Face and Heart
may our ears hear what nobody wants to hear
may our eyes see what everyone wants to hide
may our mouths speak our true faces and hearts
may our arms be branches that give shade and joy
let us be a drizzle, a sudden storm
let us get wet in the rain
let us be the key, the hand, […]
The terror alert status is still elevated, and musicians are just sick about it. A pair of American violinists may have to leave their fiddles in Britain because the airlines won’t let the instruments into the cabin. Having just gone through quite a few check points just getting to Hawaii, I relate. I misunderstood what […]
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