Category Archive for 'Cool people'

About Leon: that harmonic stuff

Thursday, September 17th, 2009

e was called “Leon” not “Leo” or “Leonard.” I made this clear with Pete and Deb who are debating calling their son “Leo” extolling my preference for “Leon” as in “Leon Kirchner” who died today.
Leon was my teacher at Harvard between 1978 and 1983. I remember fondly our coffee breaks between classes; the composition seminar [...]

Arthur’s diary

Friday, July 24th, 2009

A man, who I’ll call Arthur, died in 2006 at age 60, leaving everything to his mother. He was a professor of zoology. In the case that he died before his mother, which he did, his mother was to give certain things to UCLA. Some were earmarked for the Music Department. His mother died recently [...]

Beautiful plea for nondiscrimination

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

My work, not me

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

Some good friends had dinner with Kathleen Turner last week. The conversation that stood out was KT relating one of her pet peeves: fans complimenting her.
“OH MISS TURNER, I LOVE YOU!”
(In a grouchy voice) “You don’t love me, you don’t know me; you love my work.”

Tell it like it is girlfriend!

New directions in music criticism?

Monday, July 13th, 2009

A raw, angry, and provocative must-see interview from XXXXX, music critic of many publications, who has seen the need for and income from his reviews plummet. Bloggers (I guess, like me, although I have no plans of replacing a music critic: they’d have to pay me to do that) are doing it for free. It’s [...]

Remembering Michael’s songs, or not

Thursday, July 9th, 2009

Yesterday, on my third day of staying home with the flu, I heard the mom next door trying to teach her son some Michael Jackson songs.
“Beat it… beat it…. beat it….” Hmm, not sure what the rest of the words are. Let’s try another. “Thriller…. thriller…. dum dum dum da da da de…” Hmm, [...]

Neil and Paul: Day in the LIfe

Monday, June 29th, 2009

A terrific cover by Neil Young of “A Day in the Life” with a walk-on cameo by Paul McCartney. Young seems profoundly moved at the end, almost tapping into the primal scream John so loved. He didn’t have the courage to smash his guitar, but he broke all the strings instead. It’s ok Neil, we [...]

Alan Tower

Sunday, May 31st, 2009

Alan Tower and I fell out of touch for a while but reconnected this weekend. We have been friends since 1971, from the dorms in UW Madison and were able to spend five hours on Saturday night talking, eating, and playing music. He says I taught him guitar and [...]

Meeting Hauschka

Monday, May 11th, 2009

Today Volker Hauschka stopped by to chat about an upcoming collaboration with me on a new film by Graham Streeter (of CAGES fame). Volker is taking the prepared piano into a new realm, and it is quite often transcendent, hovering, beguiling, pretty to listen to, and original. His career seems to be taking off. Seeing [...]

Loza blend

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

Today Prof Steve Loza visited our class to share is passion. Of Mexican heritage, he studied classical music in college, but wanted more and became profoundly curious to learn of his own heritage, and ultimately became an Ethnomusicologist, but keeping his feet in performing and composition.
He spoke of the blend of indigenous, Spanish, and black [...]