Fame or Famine

“‘Clash of the Choirs’ is a live four-night musical event coming to NBC in December 17th. “Clash of the Choirs,” has tapped five musical superstars — Michael Bolton, Patti LaBelle, Nick Lachey, Kelly Rowland and Blake Shelton — to embark on a musical challenge as they return to their hometowns to assemble an amateur choir and prepare them to compete live in studio for the title of America’s best choir. The show will feature music genres ranging from current pop hits to holiday classics. The choir hopefuls will be judged each night by viewers watching at home.”
I’m so ready for …read more

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The Holiday Season is upon us. I confess to having mixed feelings about this; it’s the first holiday season after some pretty major changes in my life, and I always tend to get a little burned out by the crass commercialism that sweeps our nation this time of year.
That being said…I love music, dance, beauty, and there is a lot of that around, you just have to look a little harder to find it, past the plastic nativities and the canned music.
The next few entries are going to be dealing with some of the “variations” in holiday celebrations and arts. …read more

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Every once in a while I like to indulge in this pleasant little vice. I’m not proud of it – it’s a little embarrassing, to be honest – but at the same time, it’s almost necessary, a requirement of the Bachelor of Science degree that I earned (and will be paying off…forever).
I have to indulge in the completely worthless and futile speculation of the Chicken or the Egg, or, to put another way, the true roots of the Influences of Change in Art, Music, and Literature.
It involves discussion like this:
“This seeming dichotomy is explained by the stages of development the …read more

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I got to go see “My Fair Lady” thanks to the generosity of a friend in Milwaukee. You can read about the tour here…my own impressions were surprising to me.
When Liza sang her first solo, I realized what an amazing amount of sound quality is lost in recording. Her voice was like a crystalline glass filled with gleaming in the morning sun. The lighting of the stage, the ingenuity of the set design and choreography..for example, at the Opening Day at Ascot section I would almost picture the palette scraps, the renderings the costume designer must have made, the choreography…
Well, …read more

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One of the best sources for me to feel a part of the Great White Way is to read the Broadway Blog. They’ve gotten even better: Harvey Fierstein, author of hit plays like Torch Song Trilogy and Spookhouse, is putting up a new musical called “A Catered Affair” (based on the movie).
I’m sure I’ll be writing more about the actual show later – instead, let’s talk about the use of social media in this context. He’s blogging this, and like the joys of reading Sally Potter’s blog as she launches Carmen, his blog is more than just a “Show’s …read more

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“ “I’ve got a lot of colors in my box that I didn’t have when I was a so-called minimalist…I got them the old-fashioned way – I went out and learned how to do it.””
Ever since learning to appreciate “Einstein on the Beach” in college, I’ve held a special affection for Philip Glass. Especially with comments like his reaction to the practice of having dancers go offstage, turn around, and come back on. “After the third or fourth time,” he said in an interview (and I’m paraphrasing), “you just want to shoot them…”
This opera sounds a bit more accessible than …read more

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Hell yeah!
In fact, I almost bought a travelers saxophone. Go ahead, click on the page, and listen to the MP3 file of the sound of the sax. Now, remember that you are listening to it through a dinky little computer, and trust me that in person, you can feel the sound reverberating in your chest. I could not believe the sound of these things when Ginger played it for me, and winced as she pounded the instrument against the counter to prove its durability.
Of course, part of my attraction is the fact that it reminded me of a Krumhorn, which …read more

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Can you imagine what someone like Tarik would do with pants like this?

Reminds me of some of the work of Troika Dance…

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I’m going to my 20 year H.S. reunion in a month, and it amuses me that under “hobbies” I get to put “Burlesque Performer.” It’s very true; I spent the latter half of travel on thursday night choreographing a new number for the Peach Pies, where I get to sing “All I Care About” from Chicago. And it’s a great, great feeling to be back in that frame of mind, scribbling stick figures and arrows and lyrics.
But of course it caught my eye when reading the ROOT magazine feed that in San Francisco, they’ve started a Boylesque.
“SF Boylesque seeks to …read more

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I don’t know if this was the performance John mentioned in the comments, but there’s a great pic of Meshiya Lake at Washington Square Park on Flickr. Here’s the review:

“Caught Loose Marble with Meshiya Lake at Washington Square Park on July 7th. I’m listening and watching, being blown away by their combined talents, and thinking these guys may be having fun and making a few bucks, BUT do they actually realize how good they are? I mean they are GOOD.
The musicians play together like a well oiled machine and are equally entertaining on their riffs.
The dancers, whether dancing together or …read more

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