I have started a new blog called music @ UCLA. Some years back, just like the Dark Crystal, the music department broke up and formed three separate departments: The Department of Music (which includes composition, performance, music education, and performance practice), the Department of Musicology, and the Department of Ethnomusicology and Systematic Musicology. Got that?
When […]
This just in from by old buddy, mezzo soprano, Kimball Wheeler, who now lives in Mexico and keeps me up to speed about important stuff:
I don’t know who this guy is but (squeals), OMG! he’s so gay!
Welcome to the 21st century of sports. For some countries, the fact that the International Gay and Lesbian Football […]
It can be so gratifying filling in the blanks of words you don’t know. Yesterday Mel put the word “treble” in a lyric. I wrote back saying, “don’t you mean ‘triple’?” to which he replied “no, it can mean a group of three things.” I was incredulous and used “triple” instead. There was “treble” meaning […]
“Benward,” as we used to call him, was an excellent music theory teacher. I had him for two year. We were always proofing his new text books, so we never got the real publications, just grey photocopies Benward had “Ism-itis” and could cull down every trend in the 20th century with an ISM. ModernISM, mimalISM, […]
Cher Rufus,
I hovered over your Judy Garland concert. What a spectacle! You are such a good boy, such a gay boy, and full of life and music. I cannot impose my old fashioned French aesthetic on you, so I applaud you Rufus. Bravo!
Your old, old friend,
Hector Berlioz
PS: I snuck a peak at Bourland’s Rufus book, […]
We went to the Hollywood Bowl with Frank and Terry to hear Rufus Wainwright’s farewell concert to Judy Garland. My longtime readers will remember that we attended the premiere of this show last year in Carnegie Hall. Rufus is clearly more comfortable with all these songs now days although I have the distinct feeling he […]
To celebrate Ronnie’s birthday, we accompanied her and her date to Cirque du Soleil’s latest show in Los Angeles, CORTEO. Roughly inspired by Commedia dell’arte, the show is full of breath taking sky acrobatics, juggling, silly clowns, and terrific music.
Being a musician in the Cirque ensemble is a real 21st century gig. It is […]
One of our traveling companions was Jenny, who is a regular reader of this blog, and a great friend. In Spain, we went to Figueres one day to see the Salvador Dali museum (where he is buried). There are many terrific and so so works in an amazing building. Wes OD’d on Dali and has […]
Hector Berlioz: Happy fall Roger, it has been a long time since we have chatted!
Roger Bourland: Hector! What a surprise! What brings you here? Rufus news?
HB: I trust you are attending his performance of the Judy Garland tribute at the Hollywood Bowl?
RB: Oh yes, I’ve had tickets for a year. We’re going with Frank and […]
Many of us remember The Turtles (”Happy Together”) whose front men were two zany California dudes named Mark Vollman and Howard Kaylan. This effervescent duo eventually joined Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention, and then I kinda lost track of what they were doing. Kill Ugly Radio reblogged my Boulez exorcism today and I found this […]
Yesterday I was amazed by the desperation of a young composer who came to visit me. Jean Claude flew all the way from Paris to interview me about the UCLA new Masters degree in film composition, er, visual media. He was SOOOO excited that we were about to launch this degree. In the course of […]
Two years ago I discontinued the LA Times. I just never read it, was tired of the music critics, and preferred to get my news on the internet. Yesterday I started the paper again. Like a kid at Xmas I got up early to fetch and read my Tuesday LA Times. I missed it. The […]
The Smirking Chimp dug up a marvelous piece of reseearch from Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, is entitled “Elvis to Eminem: Quantifying the price of fame through early mortality of European and North American rock and pop stars.” Why am I not surprised that rock stars’ health is not as robust as they get […]
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