If you’re desperate for something to fill your Friday afternoon, and not the comment-leaving sort, you could do a lot worse than spending an hour and a half (give or take) with Chuck Klosternman and Bill Simmons in their two part ESPN podcast. It’s nominally about sports, but they spend a good bit of time… Continue reading MJ, Fame, Writing, and More
Category: Music
Two-Word Lyrics: Independence Day Edition
I have a new appreciation for Cathy and Amanda and the rest of the infant room staff at the day care center, after two days of chasing a fully recovered SteelyKid around the house because she still had a couple of coxsackie virus blisters on her hands. They’re earning the money we’re paying them. She’s… Continue reading Two-Word Lyrics: Independence Day Edition
Understanding and Enjoyment are Orthogonal
In a comment to Friday’s classical music post, Chris Evo recommended a TED talk by Benjamin Zander that has the goal of convincing his audience that they love classical music: If you’re not able or inclined to watch it, he goes through a Chopin piano piece in detail, and explains how it plays off our… Continue reading Understanding and Enjoyment are Orthogonal
What Is Your Musical Background?
There’s an interesting discussion going on in a place I can’t link to, spinning off a comment to the NEA post from the other day: The point is that the amount of people who see value in or are trained to appreciate more esoteric, more difficult, less accessible music **may** have dropped. The basic idea… Continue reading What Is Your Musical Background?
If It’s Not Boring, It’s Not Art
One of the PDF-only studies that I complained about earlier is a hand-wringing report from the NEA on how public appreciation of art is on the decline. As summarized by Inside Higher Ed: Compared to the NEA’s 1982 survey, the steepest decline was in ballet, which that year was seen by 11.0 percent of college-educated… Continue reading If It’s Not Boring, It’s Not Art
Festive Science
There’s a nice write-up about the World Science Festival in the New York Times today: The second annual World Science Festival, a five-day extravaganza of performances, debates, celebrations and demonstrations, including an all-day street fair on Sunday in Washington Square Park, began with a star-studded gala tribute to the Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson at… Continue reading Festive Science
Two-Word Lyrics Quiz, #3
As you can guess from the title, I’ve done this twice before when I had stuff to do that precluded quality blogging. Kate’s in Rochester for a court appearance, leaving me home with SteelyKid, so this seems like a perfect occasion for a third go-round. The pairs of words in the following list are consecutive… Continue reading Two-Word Lyrics Quiz, #3
Pop Culture Interlude: Left-Field F-Bombs
I spent most of yesterday huddled under a pile of blankets on the couch– being feverish and light-headed is great if you’re in a Pink Floyd song, but not so much if you’re trying to be a functioning adult. It seems to be the Thing That’s Going Around this term, though, and while I’m feeling… Continue reading Pop Culture Interlude: Left-Field F-Bombs
The Hold Steady at Valentine’s, Albany
Everything I’ve read about the Hold Steady says that they’re a great bar band, which always seems a little improbable. I mean, the songs are complicated, with tons of words and odd subject matter (“I dig those awkward silences, ’cause I grew up in denial, and I went to school in Massachusetts”), and Craig Finn… Continue reading The Hold Steady at Valentine’s, Albany
Interesting Stuff at Boskone
I usually post something here about what panels look interesting when the Boskone program goes up on the web. This year’s program went up over the weekend, and I’m just now getting around to making a list of worthwhile items. This tells you what kind of week I’m having. Anyway, I looked the program over… Continue reading Interesting Stuff at Boskone