Archives for November 2011

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 awareness … [Read more...]