Mysteries Abysmal

Sophie, we are dying

Since attending the NEA Institute for music critics just two years ago, I'd guess at least half my colleagues have been downsized or eliminated from their positions as arts reporters, critics and radio hosts. On top of this, several people have voluntarily switched to more lucrative careers so the number of losses is closer to three-quarters. It's a startlingly high number for such a short time-span. Over the weekend, a very talented woman and scholar from Hawaii just notified us that the Honolulu Symphony has abruptly ended its season due to "lackluster revenues" and "mounting debts." Because of this, she will be losing her jobs as teacher and reviewer. Usually you can sarcastically ask if music really exists when a reviewer isn't there to cover it. In this sad case, it's silence across the board. 

URLz

Here are some recent reviews I'd forgotten to add due to a miserable bout with flu last week. On Monday, the Chicago Sinfonietta turned on the funnies at Orchestra Hall (Chicago Sun-Times) and two Sundays ago Garrick Ohlsson played Chopin and Liszt in a downtown recital (Chicago Classical Review). The Chicago Philharmonic recently riffed on the Three Tenors theme and the Baroque Band invited superb oboist Alex Klein for concerti of Vivaldi and Albinoni. (CCR)

Downtown Glass

Music review Philip Glass plays Philip Glass at MCA. Chicago Sun-Times

Hank Jones

 
wants to be a Christian, and I believe him. Click here and skip to 40:30.

Chitown Philly's back again

Here's my report on the current state of the Chicago Philharmonic, an orchestra where many Lyric Opera pit members call home. In January, Wynne Delacoma in Musical America reported that the philharmonic's future was very uncertain, but a successful off season has made possible a full slate of concerts for the '09/10 artistic year. Their first show is this Sunday at Pick-Staiger.

Things we said today

Rzewski and Kurtag, Chicago Classical Review

Chicago Sinfonietta  season opener, Chicago Sun-Times

(bonus: Rzewski plays Rzewski)

The fun of the shudder

said Edith Wharton of ghost stories. Paramount has just released a darned good one made for a slender $15,000. (Although it might be more accurate to call it a demon story.) I reviewed it today in the newspaper. Link: Paranormal Activity , Chicago Sun-Times, Oct. 2, 2009. Here are some fellow moviegoers' outrageous reactions after the midnight screening I attended last week. These things tend to be edited for effect, but I can vouch that there was some pretty spirited chatter following the film. Watch that video here.Lastly, Rod Serling's brilliantly inventive Twilight Zone turns 50 years old today. About a month ago I watched 20 episodes and can't recall a single moment where I was bored. My three favorites were "The Living Doll," "After Hours," and "The Hitch-Hiker." "It's a Good Life," however, has one of the strangest comedic devices cable television has ever produced. Long live the weird tale!

Fun-times

Last week I chatted with Robert Siegel, former editor of the Onion and now celebrated screenwriter of The Wrestler. He's recently taken up directing and his first film Big Fan featuring Patton Oswalt screens tomorrow night at the Music Box. Read the whole Sun-Times article here

Johannes be major

Tribune music critic John von Rhein wrote a memorable essay a few years back on the importance of amateur musicians. He said, "Musicians who play for love rather than money can teach even jaded ears something vital about what it means to make and experience music. They are one reason classical music remains a living art." Two weeks ago I caught a very talented trio in action who support these words.  They work strenuously in the legal and academic fields by day, but somehow put together a gorgeous performance of the Brahms B Major trio (first movement only.) And I'm not just saying that because I'm dating the pianist; these guys are legit.  But judge for yourself.

Civic minded

The Civic Orchestra of Chicago plays Hindemith and Beethoven. Chicago Classical Review

Lieberson at Unity Temple

Here's my take on Coming of Light for Chicago Classical Review; this is Peter Lieberson's song-cycle written for the centennial of Oak Park's Frank Lloyd Wright modern wonder. The Chicago Chamber Musicians were in top form, but the wonderously odd space of the temple was most mesmerizing.

Scaradouche

I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell Here's my review in the Chicago Sun-Times of the Tucker Max craze, which has now morphed into a film that never should have been made. If you're looking for an unadulterated trashy movie to while your Friday night, please look elsewhere. This thing farts through silk all the way to the bank.

Snickers

I like Jon Stewart a lot and think The Daily Show is one of the smartest political half hours on television, but I've never found that sensibility to be as funny as I'd like it to be. It is funny, don't get me wrong, but not funny in a Bill Maher-just-said-what-I-was-too-scared-to-vocalize kind of way. Villain to both the hard left and the religious right, Christopher Hitchens has, in my opinion, accurately identified the Stewart-and-minions phenomenon. Which is to say one that is largely self-congratulatory (Maher falls into this camp as well, but he revels in it instead of masking it. That latter is a far worse offense.) I remember a funny Chicago Reader movie capsule on Driving Miss Daisy, written by a very outspoken leftist who tapped into this Comedy Central brand of back-patting. He wrote, "Aided by a lachrymose Hans Zimmer score, it fairly drips with the kind of nostalgic liberal platitudes that make its upscale target audience applaud at the end--they're actually applauding themselves." 20 years later, Hitchens writes, "This [Comedy Central humor] works well with audiences who laugh not because they find something to be funny, but to confirm that they are--and who can doubt it?--cool enough to "get" the joke." This isn't across-the-board true, of course, but he may be onto something here. 

It Might Get Loud

 

Davis Guggenheim's (An Inconvenient Truth) excellent documentary about guitarists Jimmy Page, the Edge and Jack White hits theaters this weekend in Chicago. Here's my Sun-Times review. I hope people get out and see it, if only for some of the wonderfully odd new music it offers. I'm looking to track down Son House's "Grinnin' in Your Face," which Jack White plays on a scratchy turntable and declares to be the alpha and the omega of soul music.

Fate's knockers at my door

 

Via Doyle Armbrust, here's a  classical record cover that is strange, sexy and memorable. And yes, Beethoven's noses are colored for added effect. Amazingly I have not seen this one before.