Bad news can really knock the wind out of you.
Bad news can make you feel sick.
Bad news can ruin your whole day, sometimes longer.

What is bad news? News of death, poor health or scary maladies; news of financial, personal, or emotional loss; news of someone’s hostility for someone or something; news that someone broke up; news that someone is down on their luck; news that something is never going to be the way you knew it, ever again.

We find out news on the phone, the TV, the internet, email, mail, texting. magazines and the newspaper. That means that at any moment I could learn of bad news and be completely devastated. One must learn to roll with the punches. Today I heard some bad news and then had to get up an lecture about composing piano music, and analyzing three little pieces by Bartok, Schumann and Stravinsky. I did fine, it was a good lecture, but I had this taste, this ache in my body that hung on like a bad flu.

I keep forgetting how to do this. This should help me remember. Mmmm Mangoes!

This morning I will be attending a memorial service for Muriel Gluck who died last Friday. Mrs Gluck has been an angel for many institutions, including the UCLA Music Department, the UC Riverside Music Department and Juilliard School of Music. Her generosity has supported and changed lives of many musicians and audiences for the past two decades. I was a surprised to not find an obit for her yet, only a paid homage in the LA Times from Juilliard. I found an article from a UCLA publication by Mary Goodstein that tells her story nicely. We will miss you Muriel. You have touched the world and changed it. Thank you.

A Passion for Giving

by Mary Goodstein

Muriel Gluck has always been passionate about learning. Trained as a primary school teacher, she was never content to sip tea with other diplomats’ wives. During her late husband’s two-year tour of duty in Ceylon as ambassador under the Eisenhower administration, she established a children’s library. And that was just the beginning.

A native New Yorker, Mrs. Gluck was an inveterate traveler even before her husband’s posting. She says she inherited her wanderlust from her mother. “She was always going somewhere and I went right along with her,” she recalls.

A gracious lady with a keen sense of humor, Mrs. Gluck is modest about the interesting life she has led. When asked about female role models, she demurs. “I’ve been fortunate that I’ve benefited from people who have done well before me.”

Maxwell Gluck was head of the Darling Shops, at one time the nation’s second largest chain of retail female clothing stores. “I was lucky. I was married to a remarkable man,” Mrs. Gluck says. “My husband’s hobby was horses, and our first project was an equine research center in Louisville (the University of Kentucky Gluck Equine Research Foundation). He was interested in everything, but I was the opera buff.”

Through her philanthropy, Mrs. Gluck has endowed their richly-traveled cultured life with special meaning. The programs funded by the Maxwell H. Gluck Foundation are a true reflection of her lifelong love of opera and her zeal for education.

In 1990, several years after her husband’s death, The Juilliard School became the first recipient of Mrs. Gluck’s generosity. The success of the program there gave her the confidence and foresight to focus the Foundation’s vision toward providing funding for new and innovative programs in music, the arts, and education at colleges and museums across the country. Her goal is for each act of philanthropy to affect multiple beneficiaries so that each gift has a more profound and broader impact.

The UCLA Department of Music has emerged as a major beneficiary of the Gluck Foundation music programs. The Foundation underwrites the Gluck Fellows Music Performance Program, the Gluck Fellows Educational Outreach Program, the Opera Outreach Program, and the Music Theater Workshop. It also provides a significant portion of the annual funding for Opera UCLA.

Thanks to the determination and leadership of Muriel Gluck, the generosity of the Maxwell H. Gluck Foundation also plays a significant role in the greater Los Angeles community. With the Foundation’s support, UCLA music students are sent to perform in venues throughout the city in order to develop and hone their performance skills. Not only do the students benefit from the additional performance experience needed for their pre-professional training, members of the Southern California community who might not otherwise have the opportunity to experience live performing arts gain access to these concerts. By the end of this academic year, over 50,000 people will have benefited from UCLA’s partnership with the Maxwell H. Gluck Foundation.

[PHOTO: Left to right: Rosa Kaswick, Dr. Jon Kaswick, and Muriel Gluck, photo by Todd Cheney]

Sad, sad, sad. So much for Mr Robinson’s advice to young Benjamin in “Mrs Robinson.”

Think twice about tossing plastic “into the garbage.”

Daniel Wolf found this questionable resource: The Blog Readability Test where you can enter the URL of your blog, and find what level of education is required to understand it. I blushed to see that mine was Junior High School. I immediately put in Alex Ross’s blog and was relieved to find that his was the same; aworks and Jeremy Denk’s required a High School level (I alway find Jeremy’s excellent posts too long to read at this point in my life); The Standing Room was the same as Alex and me. The Overgrown Path requires a genius reading level. I wonder if Shakespeare had a blog what his level would be?

Warning for my older sexually active brothers who wish to preserve their hearing.

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US Food and Drug Administration has decided to put more prominent warnings of potential hearing loss on impotence drugs Viagra, Cialis and Levitra.

An FDA statement said the goal was “to display more prominently the potential risk of sudden hearing loss, and to guide consumers on what to do if they experience sudden problems with their hearing.”

Revatio, used to treat pulmonary hypertension, also will get the same labelling changes, the FDA said.

The warnings followed what the administration called “a very small number” of patients reporting hearing loss and at times ringing in the ears and dizziness.

“Because some level of hearing loss is usually associated with the aging process, patients on these drugs may not think to talk to their doctor about it,” said Janet Woodcock, MD, FDA deputy commissioner for scientific and medical programs, chief medical officer, and acting director of its Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

Copyright © 2007 AFP. All rights reserved.

Here is an interesting piece from Neal Adams debunking continental drift–rather, the earth is expanding. I have to admit, it makes sense.

Bionic Eye

Well, it’s happening: a bionic eye is on the way. I love this brave new world!

Video for Book Nerds

“A stop motion video that took me 4 hours to make, i had to move the books 903 times, the books move around and do interesting things.” From Adamuk12321

Professor keeps records…and then some

21,098 packs of cigarettes. 21,194 bottles of soju. 227,423 pages of manuscript papers. A life of 70 years can thus be broken down into its component parts.

Kim An-je, 70, a chair-holding professor at Dankook University, has published a book marking his 70th year. His 2,700-page book contains nearly 360 items of his personal data. Over his long career, Kim has written 25 books and 780 research papers, and until August 2004 served as the chief of the presidential office’s commission on the relocation of Korea’s administrative capital. According to his records, he has taught 18,327 students.

Soap Bubble Tricks & Performance Video Keith Michael Johnson

And this is just good clean fun. Who knew bubbles could be so bubbledelic?

[a quadruple thanks to neatorama]

I visit Internet Anagram Server from time to time to consult the anagram oracle, or “I, rearrange servant” –– a resource offered by wordsmith.org.
I recently consulted it to see what silliness would spring up if I put in REDBLACKWINDOW. And of course I had to put my own name in to find out what alter-egos might be lurking in that I Ching-like randomizer. (see above)

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 I could and could not bring on board and left EVERYTHING that was paste or liquid at home. I didn’t realize I just had to pack them in my suitcase. Going through airport security is becoming more and more a strip search. How long will it be before terrorists start putting bombs up their ass and we all have to get checked there before we board the plane? I’ll stay home.

As most of my musician readers are well aware, many stringed instruments cost more that a median priced home, and who can blame them, not wanting to put them on that conveyor belt that gets crushed by the 150 pound suitcases you see some people carry. What with the internet getting more and more powerful, we may just have to embrace virtual travelling and virtual performing. Perhaps the violin duo can podcast their concert and everyone can just stay at home and watch/listen to them on their video iPod. Yeah, that’s it.