Life's A Pitch

I just got back from Coney Island, where I thought I was going to have an Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind-esque winter beachwalk, but ended up just eating cheese fries at the Nathan's and loaning a drug dealer my phone. Aliza and I got on the F train at 57th and 6th. As part of Make Music NY's first winter installment, cellists (and, we learned, violinists, too) were performing the prelude from Bach's Cello Suite no. 1. The idea, as I understood it, was that F train riders would hear the same repeated melody every time the subway doors … [Read more...]

Via Reddit, via Gawker, via Anastasia Tsioulcas's Twitter feed, we have an amazing post-internet-date-rant. The webbie date took place--WHERE ELSE--at the New York Philharmonic. Out. Standing. ——— Message From: Date: Sun, 4 Dec 2011 14:19:39 -0500 Subject: Hi Lauren Hi Lauren, I'm disappointed in you. I'm disappointed that I haven't gotten a response to my voicemail and text messages. FYI, I suggest that you keep in mind that emails sound more impersonal, harsher, and are easier to misinterpret than in-person or phone … [Read more...]

Via Cory Arcangel's Twitter feed: … [Read more...]

No sooner had I internet-whined about my alma mater not publicizing the Dartmouth Aires's journey to fame and fortune on NBC's The Sing-Off, do we receive this note from college president (!) Jim Yong Kim: November 22, 2011 To the Dartmouth community, Last night, the Dartmouth Aires advanced to the finals of NBC's a cappella show The Sing-Off. Members of the Aires, like all Dartmouth students, excel in many ways. They are scholars, athletes, contributors to communities outside Dartmouth, and exceptional musicians. They have excelled in … [Read more...]

My ex-boyfriend recently alerted me to the fact that my beloved Dartmouth Aires have been on The Sing-Off on NBC this season. Who knows where the incessant Dartmouth alumni alerts were about that, but I'M SURE GLAD THE NEW SPORTS CENTER IS ALMOST DONE, Alumni Relations Office. I used to cut through the gym to get home in the cold senior year, so I guess it did me some good. The Dartmouth Aires, though! I had this crazy host for my prospective student weekend at Dartmouth who made me go to every a cappella concert offered--and they were … [Read more...]

Michael Kaiser wants those crazy kids to turn their loud rock 'n roll music down! You with your "chat rooms" and your hippy hippy shake shake and your mobile telephones. He wrote a blog post on the Huffington Post about how social media and bloggers are ruining arts criticism. Before we go on, kindly take a moment to absorb the irony of  someone writing for the Huffington Post commenting on the demise of traditional media outlets. I've covered these topics before, and I don't want to be That Blogger who just writes the same post over and … [Read more...]

About a month ago, The New Yorker ran a fascinating profile of Taylor Swift. After noting that in the past five years, Taylor Swift has sold more albums than any other musician (a cool 20 million),  the writer points to the not-so-secret of Swift's success: "Swift's ability to hold her audience's interest reflects, in part, a keen understanding of what fuels fan obsession in the first place: a desire for intimacy between singer and listener." The piece goes on to describe how Swift's mother handpicks superfans from the audience of her … [Read more...]

New York City's classical music station WQXR got a nice New York Times hit last week in the advertising section. Yay for classical music getting featured in another part of the paper! Stuart Elliott from the Times reports that WQXR created a poster in the style of Shepard Fairey--of Obama campaign/possible image theft fame--to promote what they are calling "Beethoven Awareness Month." The concept is based not on Fairey's Obama poster, but rather on the Andre the Giant Has a Posse thing-thing/OBEY Giant posters: I personally feel … [Read more...]

Update on the World Series Orchestral Battle of Destiny, which ends tonight. I was at Siegfried last night, but could have actually watched the end of that crazy game, even after a 5.5 hour opera, if I didn't go to the after-party. The New York Times randomly reports on the Dallas Symphony, and Alex Ross checks in with St. Louis: As Red Sox fans, we here at The Rest Is Noise take no position on the current World Series, which finds the St. Louis Cardinals doing battle with the Texas Rangers. Applying purely aesthetic criteria, however, we … [Read more...]

Congrats to the DeCoro Choir from Latvija, for writing the best Twitter bio--and perhaps the best bio, period--that I've ever seen.   … [Read more...]

I think Declan, who works with me, sent this over to make me feel bad about not doing enough for Hilary's Ives album. I mean, even the video ABOUT the ad campaign is cooler than anything I've ever done. When they have the hamburgers wrapped in Jay-Z prose it's like COME on. I like how "big pimpin'" decidedly does not roll off the tongue of the voiceover dude. There's just nothing better than advertising that gets more press. And press that gets more press. Those are my favorite things. … [Read more...]

The World Series starts tonight and I don't care because the Yankees were an unmitigated post-season disaster. I will try and be happy for the two teams that made it, though, if only because both cities have very good symphony orchestras. The St. Louis Symphony has already stepped up to the plate...ba-ZING!...and taped themselves in Cardinals' gear playing 'Take Me Out To The Ballgame". They sound darn good, too: But now it's BETTIN' time. The Dallas Symphony asked the St. Louis Symphony on Twitter if they should bet on the Series. … [Read more...]

Credit Suisse, NYC tourism, and the New York Philharmonic have placed banners all over the Upper West Side (and perhaps elsewhere, but I never leave) of Philharmonic music director Alan Gilbert: One of the photos is the above, but another is randomly Alan Gilbert with his mother, Yoko Takebe, who happens to be a violinist in the orchestra. She's totally cute, but the problem is that 99.999999999% of people traipsing around Manhattan don't know mom is in the band, so it's just like, what is that woman saying to that man and what does the … [Read more...]

Via Pablo Heras-Casado: I thought I was going to beat Alex Ross ("ARoss", as my cousin calls him) to a 12-tone something, but he Tweeted back that the video was a shortened version of "Arnie Schoenberg and His Second Viennese School," a spoof radio commercial by Cleveland station WCLV on April Fool's Day, 1977.  Alex's post with the full audio is here. And while we're loosely in the Mad Men genre, my favorite thing: … [Read more...]

  I mean really, America: snap out of it. … [Read more...]

A small collection of flowers, letters, Post-Its, candles and drawings for Steve Jobs outside the Upper West Side Apple Store on Broadway last night.     … [Read more...]

Last night, violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter performed on David Letterman to celebrate the release of her box set, which Dave called, "the ideal hamster habitat." Earlier in the evening, Dave discussed crack and freebasing with Samuel L. Jackson, and a girl could only dream that he and Miss Mutter would cover the same topics. Mutter played with long-time collaborator, ex-husband, and Knight of the British Empire Andre Previn, and looked damn good in her little red dress. Why musicians feel the need to play … [Read more...]