Archive for the ‘Music’ Category

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Dinner with Dick.

Wednesday, January 26th, 2011

Or “Nixon In China: The Dinner”:

Nearly 40 years later, Mr. Tong will serve the menu again to about 60 invited guests on Jan. 31, after the Metropolitan Opera’s dress rehearsal for its staging of John Adams’s “Nixon in China.” The Zhou dinner figures prominently in the 1987 opera, by John Adams, which makes its Met debut next week.

I’d always thought that Nixon had rather crappy taste in food; his cottage cheese with catsup is notorious. However, at least according to this web site (which provides sources) the catsup thing is a base canard, and the Nixon family was quite fond of seafood. That puts the shrimp dishes in a new light.

Anyone seeking the full Nixon experience will naturally want to down a shot of maotai, which the restaurant will be pouring for $25 for a tiny cup.

I tried searching for maotai online, but couldn’t find any sources. However, I did turn up this Washingtonian article that goes into more detail about the banquet.

At their table, Chou En-lai said proudly to Nixon that mao-tai, with its alcohol level of more than 50 percent, had been famous since the San Francisco World’s Fair of 1915. Chou took a match to his cup, saying, “Mr. Nixon, please take a look. It can indeed catch fire.”

Posted in Clippings, Food, Mixology, Music, Nixon | 1 Comment »

TMQ watch: January 18, 2011.

Tuesday, January 18th, 2011

Is it possible to be a football atheist? Plus Easterbrookian ignorance about guns and stealing jokes from FARK. All in this week’s TMQ after the jump…

(more…)

Posted in Guns, Media, Music, NFL, Sports, TMQ watch | 5 Comments »

Special fast and bulbous obit watch.

Monday, December 20th, 2010

Don Van Vliet, aka “Captain Beefheart”, has passed away.

A long, long time ago, the actor we’ve hired to play my good friend Karl gave me a mixtape with parts of Trout Mask Replica on it. (I want to say this same mixtape had the legendary “Get That Screaming B—h Out of My Ear!” on it, but I’m not sure, and I don’t know where that tape is now.) I was always rather struck by “Well“.

Oddly, neither Amazon nor iTunes seem to have Trout Mask Replica, and what Beefheart they have is limited (mostly later works). I’ve also never been able to find the legendary “Lick My Decals Off, Baby” video; it doesn’t turn up on YouTube.

Posted in Clippings, Music, Obits | 1 Comment »

What’s My Melodic Line?

Thursday, December 16th, 2010

This little gem came across on a mailing list I subscribe to: a group of British musicians has gotten together as “Cage Against the Machine” and released their own recording of  ” 4′ 33″ “ for charity.

(The recording does not appear to be available from iTunes, but you can go to Amazon and pick from the original or seven different remixes of ” 4’33” “, only one of which is actually listed at 4’33” in length.)

What the article doesn’t mention, but the mailing list post does, is that “Cage Against the Machine” is also a deliberate attempt to keep the winner of “X Factor” in the UK from reaching #1 on the charts on Christmas weekend. (A similar attempt to do the same thing last year with an old “Rage Against the Machine” song actually worked.) When I mentioned this to Mike the Musicologist, he informed me that I was about 10 days late and a dollar short, and sent along a link to this thoughtful blog post.

Pretty much anything that sabotages one of Simon Cowell’s glorified karaoke competitions fills me with delight, and there have been times when I’ve wanted to walk up to musicians and slip them a few bucks to play ” 4’33” “. But I’ve got to give the blogger points; he’s right that there’s more to Cage than that one composition, and we run the risk of turning Cage into a joke by concentrating on that one piece.

(Subject line hattip.)

Posted in Art, Clippings, Music | Comments Closed

Random notes: December 10, 2010.

Friday, December 10th, 2010

Stuff from the NYT:

Longer, more detailed obit for John duPont.

What is the purpose of anthropology? Is it a science, or should it focus on “advancing public understanding”?

“String quartets are proliferating in Bay Area art spaces almost as fast as upscale food carts on street corners.”

Tata Nano 2010 = Yugo 1985.

…as Tata has struggled with problems like production delays and fires in some of the cars, rival cars like the Maruti Suzuki Alto have overtaken the Nano.

I would be remiss if I did not include this here. Sorry, but this is the best version I could find on YouTube:

“Unexplained fires are a matter for the courts” always makes me giggle.

Not from the NYT:

Lawrence was asking me yesterday if I knew anything about the Joel Rosenberg situation. I had to confess that I had not been keeping up with it, sadly. However, Popehat has decided to bring the noise in their usual inimitable way; I tip my hat to Patrick (and Ken, who Patrick says is responsible for “the good parts”).

Posted in Clippings, Geek, Guns, Music, Obits, Politics | Comments Closed

We’re not going to white collar resort prison…

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

Dear members of the Imperial Stars:

Here’s a link to the guitar tab for “Folsom Prison Blues”.

I think you might need that where you’re going.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Law, Music, Schadenfreude | Comments Closed

TMQ watch: November 30th, 2010.

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

So what has Gregg Easterbrook up in arms this week? Would you believe Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer?

Let’s get the vector, Victor.

(more…)

Posted in Mixology, Music, NFL, Sports, TMQ watch | 1 Comment »

Class acts.

Monday, November 15th, 2010

Friday’s XKCD started me thinking.

Here’s Randall Munroe, who’s established a pretty significant business providing content for free. He’s facing a tough family situation, so what does he do? He explains what’s going on to folks, providing as much detail as he’s comfortable with, thanks people for their support, and basically promises to keep on as best as he can.

Randall Munroe is a class act. Randall Munroe makes me want to buy stuff from his store.  (And today’s XKCD is pretty funny. Or maybe I’m just a sucker for Wagner references.)

When Ryan North goes on vacation, or on his honeymoon, he recruits guest artists for his comic. And a lot of them are pretty darn good. Ryan North is a class act. Ryan North makes me want to buy stuff from his store.

The Penny Arcade guys would probably be embarrassed by someone describing them as a class act, but look at what they do when they need time, or are busy at a con; or heck, look at what they do during the holidays.

There’s another web comic I read. It used to run five days a week. Then it started drifting down to four days a week. Then the artist had some personal issues and posted reruns for a while. Then he came back. It started drifting down to three days a week. Then two. Then once a week while he worked on other projects. Right now, it was last updated over a week ago. Two weeks elapsed between that update and the previous one, and a little more than two weeks between updates before that.

“He does it for free! How dare you complain?” Well, maybe. But right now he’s running a fund drive. In addition, part of his business model is providing premium content as an adjunct to the free webcomic. When he goes radio silent for weeks on end, what motivation do I have to pay for premium content, or donate money? Or even to keep reading his webcomic?

I feel like I’m coming perilously close to crossing a line. I don’t think artists have an obligation to keep providing stuff for free, forever. I can understand people becoming overwhelmed. But there’s a good way to handle that; the Randall Munroe way.

Posted in Art, Music, Uncategorized, Wagner | 4 Comments »

Random notes: November 4, 2010.

Thursday, November 4th, 2010

Remember the Vietnam War? It was in all the papers. Anyway, the LAT has an interesting article about the POW bracelets that were popular at the time. Oddly enough, this came up in a recent family discussion…

So let’s see. People living in illegal lofts in NYC get a law passed in an attempt to make their lofts legal, and, in the process, bring those lofts under the same laws regulating other residential housing in NYC (including “rent stabliziation”). Loft owners respond as you might expect. Tenants are outraged. Film at 11.

Speaking of outrage, I usually don’t join in with Internet lynch mobs, but this…this train wreck is just too good to pass up. I’m reminded of something Harlan Ellison once said. Loosely paraphrased: arrogance you can work around. Stupidity you can deal with. But arrogant stupidity? There’s no cure for that.

Edited to add: Oh, yes. I knew there was something else I wanted to mention: this Slate review of The Anthology of Rap, in which the reviewer complains that the book is full of transcription errors. Transcribing rap lyrics is hard? You don’t say.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Loser, Music | 3 Comments »

This one’s for Mike the Musicologist.

Monday, October 25th, 2010

Stephen Sondheim’s 1966 made-for-TV musical, “Evening Primrose”, starring Anthony Perkins (no kidding) is coming out on DVD Tuesday.

Just in case you were wondering where you could find it and how much it goes for, here’s a link to “Evening Primrose” on Amazon.

Interestingly, Tuesday is also the day that Sondheim’s Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes will be released.

Posted in Art, Books, Clippings, Music, Theatre, TV | 1 Comment »

Not since Carrie.

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

New York City’s MCC Theater is planning a “revival” of “Carrie”.

I put “revival” in quotes because…

[Stafford Arima, the director] predicted that about half of the songs would be different from the Broadway score, which was never recorded, contributing to the show’s legendary status.

and

Mr. [Bernard] Telsey [MCC co-artistic director]  said the draft script was in “very workable shape right now,” yet was so different from the original that he was not sure if MCC’s “Carrie” would be considered a revival or a reimagined work.

Posted in Art, Music | Comments Closed

A couple of random notes for September 30, 2010.

Thursday, September 30th, 2010

I’m ending the “instead of content” musical series with this link that Lawrence sent me, which I rather like.

I think I’ve made it through the worst of the chaos; things should be getting back to normal over the next day or so, modulo a few outstanding bits of business.

I also wanted to throw a link Lawrence’s way for his “A Short, Incomplete, and Somewhat Random List of People Who Have Had Their Heads Impailed on a Spike on London Bridge“. This is the kind of link you don’t know you need until you need it, and once you do need it, you’re happy to have it. I find it rather unfortunate that heads on spikes have gone out of style, as I have a little list of society’s offenders who would benefit from that treatment.

Posted in Admin, Music, Uncategorized | Comments Closed

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