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A rousing Rigoletto at the Hollywood Bowl, Aug. 12, 2012
I have a “hunch” you will like this review I did for the LA Weekly about a concert performance of Rigoletto at the Hollywood Bowl . BWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA
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Claude Akins for U.S. Senate!
When I recently heard that Claude Akins was running for U.S. Senator in the Show Me State, I was elated. That ol’ boy Sheriff Lobo could sure show them politicans in Washington a think or two. So I...
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What does Frances-Marie Uitti remember most about John Cage?
The brilliant and lovely cellist Frances-Marie Uitti on John Cage: I remember John Cage laughing, always laughing no matter what happened. When the Frankfurt Opera House burnt down disastrously, right...
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William Wellman’s Track of the Cat
Track of the Cat: special collector’s edition DVD Paramount (2005) If Eugene O’Neill wrote a Western and Nicholas Ray directed it, you might get something like William Wellman’s 1954 film, Track of...
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The Curse of the Obama Chair
Poor Paul Ryan. All he wants to do is read a little Ayn Rand, but invisible Barack Obama won’t let him.
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Happy Birthday, John Cage
The page in Silence, by John Cage, which produced the title of my toy piano suite, Anything Therefore is a Delight. I was directed to this page and that particular line through a random number...
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The Night I Walked Into a Mission District Coffeehouse and Encountered a USMC...
Two decades ago I spent an evening hanging with my old UCSD roommate in San Francisco. We were in the Mission District, and Scott wanted to grab some coffee, so we walked into the first coffeehouse we...
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He knows if you’ve been potty
Santa wants to receive your warm human wastes Santa Claus is no. 1 at covering no. 2! That’s why I wrote this review on Amazon for this delightful product. If you enjoy the review, please be sure to...
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Always Nice to Get a Little Recognition
Well, 2013 has gotten off to a great start for me, thanks to Natalie Axton including my work for the LA Weekly in her roundup of the best criticism from 2012 at her blog, Living With Criticism. Ms....
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Stravinsky recalls the premiere of The Rite of Spring
Today marks the 100th anniversary of the premiere of one of the essential musical compositions of the 20th century, Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Below, from Stravinsky’s autobiography...
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Philip K. Dick on Wagner’s opera, Parsifal
From Philip K. Dick’s novel, Valis: ‘Pity’s highest power’ is just bullshit. Pity has no power … Everyone knows this, everyone who has gazed down helplessly at a sick or dying human or a sick or dying...
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Ambrose Bierce on Christmas
“It is unknown to me why a Christmas should be always merry but never happy, and why the happiness appropriate to the New Year should not be expressed in merriment. These be mysteries in whose...
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If one elect to live with barbarians, one must endure the barbarous noises of...
Another wretched year departed! Part 2 of Ambrose Bierce’s 1877 essay on “Christmas and the New Year,” just in time for the foolishness marking the end of 2013 (which was also the centennial of...
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“Hey Liszt! Check out those mazurkas!”
The Asiatic languor of Liszt’s shawty, handing down to her daughter the secret of the burning love potions possessed in the seraglios Leave it to Franz Liszt to write a book commemorating Chopin and...
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Queenie Pie, Duke Ellington’s neglected “opera”
I had no idea that Duke Ellington had ever composed an opera until I saw Long Beach Opera’s 2014 season. Turns out it’s not truly what could be called an opera, but it’s definitely the closest...
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Captain Haddock’s nightmare
What substance was Hergé smoking in his pipe when he drew this passage in Tintin in Tibet?
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Snowy wrestles with his conscience
From Tintin in Tibet by Hergé Blistering barnacles! Snowy taps into the Captain’s whiskey supply
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Some Like It Cold
My thoughts on the U.S. premiere (and second production of) Marilyn Forever by Gavin Bryars. I am disappointed that my description of an obscene phone caller “twanging his telephone wire” was edited...
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