well there was a great show tonight at dangerous curve in los angeles. the all-star line up: lloyd rodgers group, brother mallard, and paul bailey ensemble. pbe premiered the new vocal piece “life’s too short” and it was really great. i’ll be posting some photos when i figure out which box has my usb stick.

in a few weeks i’ll be moving to nyc to finish up my dissertation, it should be interesting and hopefully i’m post about that.

i found this clip of cnn’s crossfire from 1986. robert novak is the co-host, who represents the views of the right (not surprising considering his role in the valerie plame scandal)

the discussion is over some proposed legislation that rock music should be censored by the government because the lyrics are “advocating” a lack of morality such as incest.

zappa makes an interesting comment about how the ronald regan administration is pushing the country toward a fascist theocracy. i guess he was right.

Frank Zappa on Crossfire

i hate you john zorn for making free-improv “avant-garde” jazz synonymous with downtown, cool, hip, and artsy.

it’s not!

and maybe also for stealing from butch morris.

maybe it’s the kids faults for buying into such crap.

or maybe i am too blind to see the light! but then again….i saw zorn play once, a 10 minute set at the tonic bar (no longer exists by the way, maybe the pack of rats crossing in front of you as you walked up the street to the place was a turn off? maybe it was just that they were priced-out like everyone) and it was, at best, saxophone masturbation. the stone isn’t any better, unless you like second-rate wannabe zornites.

as i look for a place to live in nyc, i decided to check out timeout to see whats going on in the desolate place known as bushwick…here’s two quotes:

this is a show at the bushwick starr:

“Tonight this new experimental series in Bushwick features trumpeter Peter Evans, a remarkable improviser with relentless breath flow and extreme timbral audacity. ”

mm…timbral fetish at it’s best i’m sure.

and then at goodbye blue monday:

“Saris—the duo of percussionist Harris Eisenstadt and bassoonist Sara Schoenbeck, joined tonight by trumpeter Nate Wooley—headline what’s sure to be a stimulating night of avant-jazz and free improv.”

more stimulating than a night at the opera—that’s probably true.

anyone seen this before?

John Cage on TV

check it out. as my boyfriend says, “it puts john cage in context.”

this was originally going to be a brief response to a post on paul bailey’s blog (which is actually more of a response that should be directed to daniel wolf’s recent postings on the death of classical music) but it’s too long so i’m just going to put it here:

i don’t want to be associated with “classical music”. classical music has always meant elitism and music for the select few. i’ve never believed in music for only those who can afford it.

if people believe technology is destroying classical music, they are just missing the mark. which i think is what daniel wolf is arguing against, as well. but he comes from the defense since he believes that classical music is still alive and calls himself a “classical composer”.

classical music is dead because the canon has been codified and the list of key players has been set in stone. it cannot be changed or altered. the german composers are the masters and that is that. the 19th century attitude toward music, evolution, and people has not changed in regard to classical music or musicology, which cannot survive without the classical music canon.

i don’t know why someone would want to call themselves a “classical composer”. why not just call yourself a composer? or a musician? when someone attends an opera house or a concert hall like the disney hall, and listens to a performance of beethoven’s fifth or see a performance of la traviata, what they are doing is paying to go to a museum. the canon is simply a collection of musical objects that can be put on display for the elite who can afford to see it. there is nothing alive about it.

remember, the opera house was originally about rich people wanting to show off to each other how much wealth they had by the location of their box seat subscription. the opera show was nothing more than a decadent spectacle. that has not changed. what has changed is that people actually believe that an opera is something enlightening and something to be revered.

music is not being made in the concert hall or opera house. new ideas are not being promoted. new voices are not being heard. why not? because what you have to say is worthless because you are not bach, beethoven, mozart, mahler, or anyone from the 19th century musical canon. and if you are allowed to speak, you must be convoluted and unintelligible. i think classical music is really a tragedy when you think about it in terms of its ability to stiffen and suppress. everyone has the right to make music and be heard. the classical music establishment does not allow this.

i don’t want to be a part of the museum. i’m not dead.