Mind the Gap: September 2008 Archives

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This year it seems like the creative class that brought you "Rock the Vote" has taken its "we just want people to participate" gloves off. Will.i.am might have been the first off the block, but now there are the rockers. And the jazzers. Hell, even the thereminists are getting in on the action. In new music land, composers got vocal. Emails went out from the likes of Meredith Monk, La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela in support of the "Women Against Sarah Palin" movement. John Adams sent private emails encouraging recipients to make a donation. Now, I know people don't think "artist" and "Republican" in the same breath very often, but this time around it's not just Bono up there in the public pulpit. Everyone seems to be falling in. As my favorite 8th-grade cheerleaders used to say, "Let's get fired up!"

Okay, political pep talk over. You'd think I'd know better than to bring up such topics at dinner, but I don't and I have and it's ruined yet another pot roast. I promise we'll get back to hard-core musical topics after this. For instance, Mind the Gap has received it's first advice request! Get ready to correct me when I'm wrong.

UPDATE: But meanwhile, I mean, dear lord.

September 24, 2008 11:39 PM | | Comments (2) |

Aaah!


Aaaaah!


So very funny, so very (very) wrong.

September 15, 2008 9:45 PM | | Comments (3) |
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Cern has fired up the giant particle collider and somehow a number of Googlers have landed here looking for evidence of impending doom. 

Dear kindly visitors: I cannot explain how you have been led so astray, but I can offer you directions to this playlist to help you along in your journey.

And speaking of the need for music in extremis, ever need to wrap your instrument in Saran Wrap just to get through the concert in one piece?

September 11, 2008 9:07 PM | | Comments (0) |
Every morning I think about posting a bit on the race for the White House, but then I decide to keep such things in more appropriate places, like the editorial pages of small Ohio newspapers. Seriously, if you live or once lived in a battleground state, take a minute to see what's in the local paper and write the editor. Reach eyes that don't read blog posts with a single email!

Each day I think issues of national political concern cannot deteriorate much further, and of course I am almost always wrong. Today, I at least came across a musically relevant connection. It did nothing to dissipate my anger but at least it made me laugh--albeit in one of those awkward, no-reasonable-way-to-react-so-I'm-laughing kind of ways.

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There are plenty more. I particularly love this one.

September 10, 2008 6:22 PM | | Comments (0) |
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If you've ever descended the Carnegie Hall escalators and listened to a performance of, say, Morton Feldman's music in Zankel, you know that you need a certain amount of open-earedness. The MTA will not be stopped, and whether you can deal with (and discount) a little sound bleed from the subway running on the other side of the wall or not largely determines how much you'll enjoy your evening.

Well, fair music fans, the danger is about to get worse than a crowd of symphony subscribers in February. In all honesty, I initially though this writer was going to decry the terrible inspirational effect the construction noise around Juilliard was going to have on yet another generation of composers. In the end, however, it appears that Les is really only concerned with the decibel levels audiences will be expected to politely ignore. Wherever you stand on the issue, take comfort in the fact that we're all just riding one huge pendulum of concert decorum. But putting aside the inter-movement consumptives for a moment, ambient concert noise: welcome sign of life in the hall or performance death knell? Is this really a danger? What's the most ridiculous concert noise you've had to endure?

*Photo found on NYC subway musician Theo Eastwind's MySpace page.


September 8, 2008 7:18 PM | | Comments (5) |
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I am an advice column addict. What started with Ann Landers and Hints from Heloise when I was 12 has evolved into a steady diet of guidance from all sorts of sources--everything from Ask Prudence to Savage Love. I don't usually have the kinds of problems that tend to plague the letter writers. Still, I read with devotion.

It's a public service that is both entertaining and educational. Okay, sure, like staring at the ethical car crash that has introduced the nation to the Palin family, in large part it's probably just that human love of knowing what sorts of salacious drama the neighbors are involved in. I'm not a church goer, but I often paused to ask myself, "What would The Ethicist do?" and I suspect it keeps me on an equivalent moral path.

I've been browsing season brochures and thinking about the relationship between presenters and audiences. Whether a newcomer to the scene or a giant institution of culture, a lot of energy is expended on trying to catch the eye of Mr. and Mrs. Public. But it's a crowded room, and the target is elusive. I wonder what Dan Savage would advise if presented with this unhealthy relationship. Is culture trying too hard? Can the audience smell the desperation on the postcards? Or is culture in America playing too hard to get?

Self-criticism is difficult; it's why we need advice columnists to pull up the window shades for us sometimes. Who would throw over an amazing piece of art for another episode of Law & Order? Oh, Law & Order flirted with you, made you feel pretty and smart, but Art began the evening by presenting you with a seating chart and the check? I can see how that would be a turn off. Ahem, let's try again. Oh, you know Elizabeth? Small world. Let me get you a drink.

If you have a cultural question you don't think you can Ask Amy, feel free to drop a line.

September 5, 2008 2:05 PM | | Comments (0) |

Blogger Book Club III

July 27-31: The MTG Blogger think tank reads The Whuffie Factor: Using the Power of Social Networks to Build Your Business by Tara Hunt and considers how the performing arts are embracing technology and social networking for better and worse


more entries

Blogger Book Club II

June 22-26, 2009: The bloggers start in on this summer's non-required reading list and discuss The Invisible Dragon: Essays on Beauty, Revised and Expanded by Dave Hickey


more entries

Blogger Book Club

March 16-20: Bloggers discuss Lawrence Lessig's Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy Participants: Marc Geelhoed Steve Smith Alex Shapiro Matthew Guerrieri Marc Weidenbaum Corey Dargel Brian Sacawa Lisa Hirsch


more entries

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About this Archive

This page is a archive of recent entries written by Mind the Gap in September 2008.

Mind the Gap: August 2008 is the previous archive.

Mind the Gap: October 2008 is the next archive.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

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culture
About Last Night
Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City
Artful Manager
Andrew Taylor on the business of arts & culture
blog riley
rock culture approximately
critical difference
Laura Collins-Hughes on arts, culture and coverage
Dewey21C
Richard Kessler on arts education
diacritical
Douglas McLennan's blog
Dog Days
Dalouge Smith advocates for the Arts
Flyover
Art from the American Outback
Life's a Pitch
For immediate release: the arts are marketable
Mind the Gap
No genre is the new genre
Performance Monkey
David Jays on theatre and dance
Plain English
Paul Levy measures the Angles
Real Clear Arts
Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture
Rockwell Matters
John Rockwell on the arts
Straight Up |
Jan Herman - arts, media & culture with 'tude

dance
Foot in Mouth
Apollinaire Scherr talks about dance
Seeing Things
Tobi Tobias on dance et al...

jazz
Jazz Beyond Jazz
Howard Mandel's freelance Urban Improvisation
ListenGood
Focus on New Orleans. Jazz and Other Sounds
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Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...

media
Out There
Jeff Weinstein's Cultural Mixology
Serious Popcorn
Martha Bayles on Film...

classical music
Creative Destruction
Fresh ideas on building arts communities
The Future of Classical Music?
Greg Sandow performs a book-in-progress
On the Record
Exploring Orchestras w/ Henry Fogel
Overflow
Harvey Sachs on music, and various digressions
PianoMorphosis
Bruce Brubaker on all things Piano
PostClassic
Kyle Gann on music after the fact
Sandow
Greg Sandow on the future of Classical Music
Slipped Disc
Norman Lebrecht on Shifting Sound Worlds

publishing
book/daddy
Jerome Weeks on Books
Quick Study
Scott McLemee on books, ideas & trash-culture ephemera

theatre
Drama Queen
Wendy Rosenfield: covering drama, onstage and off
lies like truth
Chloe Veltman on how culture will save the world

visual
Aesthetic Grounds
Public Art, Public Space
Another Bouncing Ball
Regina Hackett takes her Art To Go
Artopia
John Perreault's art diary
CultureGrrl
Lee Rosenbaum's Cultural Commentary
Modern Art Notes
Tyler Green's modern & contemporary art blog
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