Bruce Dinkins, Director of Bands at Bowie High School.
This is somewhat personal, as I have a nephew in the Bowie high school band. I’ll probably be posting some more on this in the future.
Edited to add 6/24: Expanded AAS obit here.
Archive for the ‘Music’ Category
Obit watch: June 23, 2011.
Thursday, June 23rd, 2011Coffin’s got the dead guy on the inside.
Friday, June 10th, 2011There’s just really not a whole lot going on. You good folks are probably as bored and fed up with Shade and Tovo as I am, and most of you probably don’t care that much about fireworks or plumbing.
The NYT does, however, have a short piece on a recent altercation at a chamber music concert in San Francisco.
The musician John Eichenseer, aka JHNO, was performing a piece for viola and electronics, called “Untitled”, when one of the audience members became disruptive. Eventually, JHNO “threw down his instrument and stormed off the stage”, cracking his viola in the process.
It turns out the audience member who disrupted the performance is also a viola player, Bernard M. Zaslav:
Later in the article, Mr. Zaslav is quoted as blaming his reaction on literal physical pain the performance caused him, and it is noted that he apologized to JHNO and the concert organizer.
Bonus: Joan Jeanrenaud, formerly of the Kronos Quartet, was there and is quoted relatively extensively.
(Subject line hattip: the old joke about the cello (4th one down) and one of the greatest book titles ever
Obit watch: May 6, 2011.
Friday, May 6th, 2011This one’s going out to Mike the Musicologist: Arthur Laurents.
TMQ Watch: May 3, 2011.
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011So we’ve reached the last TMQ of the interregnum. What pressing questions were you hoping TMQ would answer? “What does Bin Laden’s death mean for U.S./Pakistan relations?” “Trump: serious contender or joke?” Nope…
Obit watch: April 26, 2011
Tuesday, April 26th, 2011Poly Styrene (birth name Marianne Joan Elliott-Said), singer for the X-Ray Spex, has died.
The LAT “Pop and Hiss” blog has a surprisingly good appreciation of her work, including videos. (However, the video for “Oh Bondage, Up Yours” cuts off the famous opening. Here’s a better version. I will say, though, that I think Randall Roberts is pretty much right on about the song, and about Poly Styrene’s influence on the punk movement.)
Fast and bulbous!
Wednesday, April 6th, 2011Okay, that title is misleading. The Library of Congress did not pick “Pena” as one of the 25 recordings added to the National Recording Registry this year.
They did, however, pick “The Blimp”.
Here’s a link to the complete list with audio samples.
A few things that jumped out at me:
- George Crumb’s “Black Angels (Thirteen Images from the Dark Land)”. I haven’t heard this recording; the only one I’m even vaguely familiar with is the Kronos Quartet
recording.
- Steely Dan! Yes!
- I see that the LoC decided to include a work from Blind Willie Johnson, but has once again neglected the work of the great Delta blues musician Narcoleptic Rutabaga Nixon.
- The story behind Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville and his recordings is rather interesting.
- GOPAC strategy and instructional tapes? Oooooookay…
Your Spider-Man update: March 25, 2011.
Friday, March 25th, 2011The “Geek Chorus” is going bye-bye.
If you’ve been following the show, I’m sure you’re aware of the “Geek Chorus”, described by the NYT as “a group of comic-book devotees who make up the plot of the musical as it unfolds”. But did you know this?
Mary Sue, call your office, please.
Obit watch: March 22, 2011.
Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011Blues musician Pinetop Perkins. (NYT.)
Drew Hill, former Houston Oiler.
Random notes: March 18, 2011.
Friday, March 18th, 2011Obit watch: Ferlin Husky.
Shocked, shocked I am:
In other news, I have not been able to find a current execution date for Antoinette Frank.
Keeping with our trend this morning of depressing our readers:
Here is the Charity Navigator page for the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation. Note the rating.
How do you kill a ZunePony?
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011I had not originally planned to comment on this story, figuring that I would leave it up to Mr. ZunePony himself.
However, I was just mucking out the Akismet spam filter, and got to wondering; does this mean an end to the endless Zune/iPod comparison spam? Those of you with WordPress blogs and Akismet know what I’m talking about.
“…not necessarily narratively coherent.”
Monday, March 14th, 2011Today’s news from the “Spider-Man” front isn’t really news as such: Patrick Healy and Kevin Flynn in the NYT recap the troubled history of the musical.
Didn’t someone think it was a bad omen when the first producer literally had a stroke as they were about to sign the contract? (He died two days later.)
The full quote, for Lawrence:
“Away with her.”
Thursday, March 10th, 2011This has turned out to be one chaotic morning, but I wanted to quickly note the latest news on the “Spider-Man” front:
A roundup of miscellaneous crap for March 9, 2011.
Wednesday, March 9th, 2011Some things worth noting in the NYT on this fine day:
Michael Ruhlman reviews Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking
Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider
Never mind.
You may ask yourself, “Why would someone pay $20,000 for a replica of an Eric Clapton Stratocaster, ‘complete with every single nick and scratch, including the wear pattern from Mr. Clapton’s belt buckle and the burn mark from his cigarettes’?” You would probably answer that question, “Because they’re a moron.” The NYT would like for you to know that evolutionary psychology suggests you’re wrong:
Yesterday was election day in Bell, California. How did things go?
Noted: Austin now has a Peruvian restaurant. (Okay, technically, Pflugerville.) Yes, I’m thinking Saturday Dining Conspiracy. No, not right away; we generally give places three months after opening before reviewing them.
Random notes: March 8, 2011.
Tuesday, March 8th, 2011Slow. Slow. Slow. And WordPress ate the first draft of this post. Argh. “Introduction to Literary Studies” is finished, but “Applications in Business Programming” fires up tonight.
So where were we?
Ken Hoffman in the HouChron on more rodeo food. The chocolate covered pickle makes us gag.
The NYT reports that Julie Taymor and the “Spider-Man” producers are “negotiating”. “Negotiating” in this case apparently means either “work with a newly expanded creative team” or “pack your <stuff> and get out”.
Speaking of art, damn it, art!, Lawrence has brought us happy news for those of you who own iPhones and are fans of Guy Debord, Karen Eliot, Monty Cantsin, and the Karen-headed Smile Monty (see also): there’s an app for that.
By way of Tam, we have learned that the Department of Homeland Security, which is apparently not satisfied with not actually catching terrorists, is going around confiscating Nissan Skylines. The Skyline is a car we were previously unfamiliar with, perhaps because it was never officially imported into the United States. One of Tam’s commenters provided this link to an excellent article about the rise and fall of a Skyline importer in California, which we commend to your attention.
Speaking of commenters, “Bob” (thanks, “Bob”) posted in this thread and provided a link with some new information about our good friend, the spamming scumbag Sven Alstrom. That link, in turn, led us to this one, which also has some good stuff about Sven. We were particularly amused by these two comments from LJWorld staff members:
and:
Sven makes friends everywhere he goes, doesn’t he?
Musical beg.
Thursday, March 3rd, 2011Does anybody have a digital version, or a pointer to one, of “Throw Him Down, McCloskey”?
I can find the lyrics and even the sheet music online, but I’ve been unable to find a recording of someone actually performing the song. I will be happy to pay money for a recording, but I’ve been unable to find one in either the iTunes or Amazon stores.