Archive for April, 2008

A little break

Thursday, April 17th, 2008

Taking my cue from my Deans in an effort to avoid burn-out, I planned a 4-day weekend months ago to Lake Tahoe with Daniel. I figured this would be a good weekend to take off. Well, that didn’t really turn out perfectly — you always leave stuff undone, but sometimes I have to just get […]

Dog-speak

Tuesday, April 15th, 2008

I love how dogs and humans communicate. It’s usually a limited list of things they want: food, play, and affection. In the morning, usually when I write my blog, the dogs will come downstairs to be with me. More precisely, to sit and stare at me to let me know that breakfast time is now. […]

Getting a “D” in typing

Sunday, April 13th, 2008

In grade school, I took a class from Miss Ding Dong (can’t remember her name) in typing. She didn’t like me very much. My hand-eye coordination was not the greatest in typing (although I was always good at sports) and as a result, I got a “D” for a grade that term. I’m a blazing […]

Alan Rich out as Weekly critic

Saturday, April 12th, 2008

Start blogging Alan, you’ll be a natural. In fact, I’ll volunteer to teach you how.
[Reblogged from LA Observed]
Alan Rich out as Weekly critic
Kevin Roderick
Another local music critic down, not many left to go. Alan Rich, who is at least 83, was let go as classical music critic over lunch with LA Weekly editor Laurie Ochoa, […]

Ariel Ramirez: Misa Criolla (Gloria), Jose Carreras

Friday, April 11th, 2008

Josie introduced me to this composer. There are quite a few different performances you can find on YouTube, this one was especially spirited, but doesn’t allow embedding. The performance below features a nice performance by José Carreras.

Here are the program notes from the YouTube post:
Ariel Ramirez is one of South America’s most prominent composers. His […]

Meeting Alf

Thursday, April 10th, 2008

Yesterday, composer for The Simpsons, Alf Clausen visited our school and focused on the broadway music that he has featured on that show. I only popped my head in from time to time as my chairmanly duties pulled me away, but the Mancini studio was packed — smelled like a basketball gym in there. Most […]

Apparition on the wall

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

Look what appeared in our living room this morning.

Thinking about gay and lesbian choruses

Tuesday, April 8th, 2008

In the mid-1980s my publisher told me about the gay choral movement. Several of his composers had written for the chorus in New York and he encouraged me to make connections to try to join that world. It didn’t happen until 1991 when the late Leonard Raver (organist to the NY Phil) recommended to Jon […]

Solo performances on bluetooth headsets

Sunday, April 6th, 2008

Here is a brilliant comeback by Larry David for those moments where you are trapped with someone shouting into a bluetooth headset, oblivious that s/he is annoying everyone.

The Top 50 Classical Blogs, Using 4 Different Methods

Saturday, April 5th, 2008

In the blogosphere, rankings get made from time to time. Scott Spiegelberg seems to have been the instigator a few years back in so-called classical music blogs. I have reblogged a new set of rankings by Classical Convert. Visit CC to get all the links for the blogs below. I notice that very few of […]