Mel, Jeremy, Chris, Dan, Dan and I heard auditions for HOMER IN CYBERSPACE yesterday from 10 to 4. Talented UCLA students from the Theater, and Music Theater programs delivered a monologue and sang one song — either a “long lined song” or a patter song “showing off your articulation.”
Mel sits through auditions all the time. […]
I’ve been home with the flu for three days. Trying to stay in bed and make it go away. I watched lots of movies, an activity that keeps me still and in bed. Blogging and other sitting at the computer activities doesn’t help you get better I have found, so I’ve not posted too much […]
Here are three different performances of one of Norah’s great songs, “Don’t Know Why.”
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“Don’t Know Why” performed by Norah Jones (original video)
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“Don’t Know Why” performed by Pat Metheny
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“Don’t Know ‘Y’” performed by Norah Jones and Elmo
I don’t think composers can really write constantly without taking breaks. To a person on the outside, these breaks might look like “goofing off” but we composers know that you have to recharge your batteries.
Swallow.
Take big breaths.
Stretch.
Take a nap.
Have a meal or a snack.
Take a walk.
Run an errand.
Surf the web.
Putter in the garden.
Make a […]
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This “amateur” video drives me mildly crazy but it’s a unique entertainment and the process draws you in. This chap plays neither the piano nor drums. Does that mean that he is not musical? Heavens no. Computers now make making music quite simple for the so-called “non-musician.” Given the desire, most people should be able […]
Composer (and my teacher at New England Conservatory), Malcolm Peyton told us several times that a composer’s metabolism is reflected in his/her music. A brilliant observation — although I remember one classmate at NEC who loved to play late Liszt, Rachmaninoff, and Ravel, but when it came to writing his own music, it was like […]
Dear Tim
I love watching you on Project Runway. People tell me that we look alike, but you have MUCH better clothes. You have inspired one of our administrators here in the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music who now quotes you regularly and isn’t even gay. His favorite motto now is “rally!”
My note to you […]
Twice today I heard a friend dismiss someone because of something they said when they first met. In the first case it was an obnoxious bordering on hostile comment, and in the second case it was something someone said in their interview. And in both cases, they never updated their opinions of the person, and […]
There are always a few people who will keep a secret.
There are always a few people to whom you tell something, asking them to keep it a secret, but knowing full well that they WILL tell everyone. And I’ve come to realize that that’s the way it is.
If I send out an email to a […]
Mel Shapiro is from a different generation, one that has straw hat and cane numbers in their bones. Imagine my surprise to turn the page of our script to find that a straw hat and cane have been tossed onto the stage and now I’ve got four people singing and dancing to my music.
Oh […]
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