Murder by death
"Art is not about giving people what they want. It's about giving them something they don't know they want." - Joshua Fineberg
Maybe these words will help explain this upcoming art exhibit in London's East End.
Schadenfreude, maybe
I see it all the time: people will turn to classical music if they're bored with the current pop/rock scene. Even if this means that the music functions as Plan B or Plan x for most, it's still a heartening trend. I lurk on a few sports message boards that often provide spirited off-topic banter usually tilted towards the political, but here's a recent thread from a fellow seeking "classical music" recommendations. One guy named "Big Bank Hank" writes in with zeal: "Not exactly what you're looking for, but the interludes between, before and after opera "movements" generally give me a music boner." There were a few mildly surprising contributions, like a Gorecki 3rd plug, some Stravinsky and a Howard Hanson shout-out (probably from an Interlochen grad?). The thread's worth a skim if you don't mind wading through a few obligatory "skinflute" and "bowel movement" jokes.
Farrakhan got game?
This might be common knowledge, but I hadn't a clue that Farrakhan was an amateur concert violinist. Here's a brief video of him playing the Beethoven concerto a few years back, and Bernard Holland was on the scene when he played the Mendelssohn concerto in '93. Hannity never told me about that. Rumor has it that Louis and Condi are releasing a mystery sonata cycle this fall on Telarc.
Ripe peach
Googling "Maxon Crumb" the other day turned up a few pleasant surprises. The ascetic, deeply troubled brother of Robert still lives in the same SF dump as he did in the 1994 film; and as of 2006, he's even mingling with a lady friend. (Although sexual contact still sends him into seizures.) You should listen to this interview with him by SF Chronicle reporter Edward Guthmann. So much intelligence and talent like the rest of his brothers, but you can tell he just wasn't wired for this world. I like those kinds of people. (photo credit: Michael Macor)
Sorta into the wild
Movie review of Blindsight, Chicago Sun-Times, April 11
Giltner house
This is spooky. A woman writing a book about Michigan hauntings recently contacted me since she found out my family had once resided in the above Tudor. The house was built for an MSU dean in 1924 and his 25 year-old daughter was shot there five times to death by her jealous best friend. The two were apparently licking invitations on a day leading up to her (Elizabeth Giltner) wedding. Of course my family discovered this house's quaint little history after they moved in. So this author forwarded me a ghastly old New York Times PDF article dated Dec.9, 1936:
"I did it on an impulse and don't know why," Lieutenant Mulbar quoted Miss Morgan as saying. "For about a year I've had a frequent impulse to kill. I shot Elizabeth with my father's pistol."
...
"She is definitely insane and shows no signs of remorse. She would do the same thing tomorrow if she had the chance."
The killer, Miss Morgan, was hauled off to Detroit where she hung herself in her jail cell. Needless to say my folks didn't last more than three years in that place. I lived there for less than a year during my transition from undergrad to grad school, and I have no desire to ever find out what room in which the crime took place.
Wednesdays 8-10pm
Cyber Classical's back yo, at least for another 10 weeks. Gerry and I then get the the summer off to mull over our hit show's future; we haven't yet decided if we want to accept syndication offers and all the sneaker deals. Many thanks to DePaul for continuing to let a couple non-students fill their airwaves with classical's latest smooth grooves. We'll do and play anything, so shoot us an email with a request. And if you're in the Chicago area and want to come on and talk about something on-topic, we've got a seat for you.
LvB's rule of three
During the second game of the Final Four last night, there was a stretch of commercials all within a single hour that used snippets of Beethoven's 9th: a Lowe's Hardware advert, a trailer for the new movie Get Smart and that 50-Cent/Vitamin Water classic. That has got to be a record, trumping the frequent uses of "Take Five" and Bocelli's "Con Te Partiro." If one's music education came solely from primetime television, wouldn't the "Eroica" theme seem like alien obscurity compared to the "Ode to Joy" chorale?
PLOrk and Windy (city)
College networking Time Out Chicago, April 3-9. The Princeton Laptop Orchestra could very well seem like aliens to traditionalists. They're-a-comin' to Northwestern's Sonic Divergence festival this Saturday, and Bang on a Can follows on Sunday w/ Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche. Time Out's provided some various PLOrk sound samples in the link.
Beatles in the night
SMB points me the way to this video of Luciano Berio and his wife Cathy Berberian doing a wicked version of the Beatles' "A Ticket to Ride." She starts singing after the 3:00 minute mark, but I really latched onto the shaggy editing and puppet cameos that come before that. Awesome find, Stephen. Also, Justin Davidson notes that the 20 member ensemble Alarm Will Sound will do a live acoustic performance of "Revolution #9," a project way overdue. Since high school, I've felt that the White Album was da bestest and most colorful album ever made (And I still feel it contains more musical diversity than any of Radiohead's albums). I may not have listened to Numbuh 9 as much as "Sadie" or "Warm Gun," but its inclusion always put the album in a different class from its rock rivals.
