I’m Trying Very Hard

19. October 2010 · 2 comments · Categories: Oboe, Videos, You Gotta Be Kidding

… to not be a hater:

In addition to oboe, Colin also plays clarinet, English horn, violin, five-string banjo, acoustic/ electric bass, piano, saxophone, flute, guitar and harmonica.

Now normally I kind of roll my eyes and laugh when I read things like this. Or I merely add a few words (“…but none well at all.”) to the sentence. Because I’m just that much of a skeptic.

But this guy? This guy is a member of Quartetto Gelato.

I’ve posted this before, but it’s probably worth another look and listen:

It Might Not Really Work …

04. June 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: You Gotta Be Kidding

… but I think Mozart would just love this. If you’ve read his letters you know all about his potty humor!

As Spiegel Online reports, the German waste-facility’s owners believe the music, coupled with more oxygen, will make their microbes eat biosolids more efficiently, saving money and leaving less residual waste. Their idea comes from the German firm Mundus, headquartered in Wiesenburg, whose founder cites Mozart’s “very good effect on people.”

It’s fairly easy to poo-poo this experiment, especially given other wildly-marketed but later refuted claims attributed to the man’s music. Many of these Mozart miracles first surfaced after Frances Rauscher at the University of California, Irvine questioned in a 1993 paper (pdf) in Nature if listening to classical music could increase adolescent performance on IQ tests. Though Rauscher found that the music did seem to increase performance, later studies showed no effect.

I read it here.

Spiegel article.

Doggie Concert!

13. May 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: You Gotta Be Kidding

Sydney Opera House will be reaching out to an entirely new audience demographic next month when it stages a musical event aimed at canine listeners.

The performance, which will take place on the northern boardwalk outside the venue, is the work of New York wife and husband team Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed.

The music stems from works that Anderson has been writing over the last 11 years for her rat terrier named Lollabelle. Most of the pitches will be too high for the dogs’ owners to hear, but they will be able to monitor the sounds on meters and, as Anderson points out, they will also be able to see their dog’s ears twitching.

Attention spans are quite short in the dog world, it seems, and the concert will last only 20 minutes.

And what sort of audience response is Anderson expecting? “We won’t be playing any sudden noises…We don’t want them to get super-excited. But it’s OK with me if they run in circles. They can express themselves and make a little mosh pit if they feel like it.”

I read it here.

Woof!

And yes, that is “the” Laurie Anderson (and yes, I like her):

And It’s Only $789.98!

21. September 2009 · 2 comments · Categories: You Gotta Be Kidding

I received an email about a new 90 CD boxed set of Yo-Yo Ma recordings:

THE ENTIRE RECORDED LEGACY OF THE INCOMPARABLE CELLIST A DELUXE, NUMBERED, LIMITED EDITION BOX SET, AND A 312-PAGE BOOK

I think they want me to promote this. But they didn’t offer to send it to me for review. Gee, I wonder why.

Of course I could order it from Amazon. (But I’m not going to.)

Here’s a video you can enjoy. It’s free.

Don’t Do This On Stage Either

01. July 2009 · Comments Off · Categories: Huh?, You Gotta Be Kidding

But really … maybe the guy was just too darn warm?! Now I’m usually cold in a plane, but I suppose some people might not be like I am. (Although I can hardly imagine!)

She said the man was “completely naked” as he was taken in handcuffs off the plane.

As the plane took off again, Keegan said the usual announcement to please fasten your seat belts came over the loudspeakers with a twist.

The message included “a reminder to everybody to please keep your clothing on. It got a couple chuckles,” Keegan said.

I read it here, thanks to my sister sending me the link. :-)

We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Drummer ;-)

15. October 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: Videos, Watch, You Gotta Be Kidding

Really?!

12. August 2008 · 6 comments · Categories: You Gotta Be Kidding

He reigned for about forty years. During that time he ate in all of the finest restaurants and slept in the finest hotels for free — because he was the Emperor. He had three seats permanently reserved in the front row of the San Francisco opera house — one for him, and one each for his two dogs.

This is about self-proclaimed “Emperor Norton”, whom I’d never heard of. But what do I know, as I’m not from The City?

But before I place a link here, anyone know if this is true?

Because Mozart & Andy Williams are so Classical

06. August 2008 · 2 comments · Categories: Links, You Gotta Be Kidding

Found over at the OC (Opera Chic):

The Hamilton City Council has deemed its latest scheme to reduce alcohol-related crime in the CBD as a resounding success.

Nightclubs are playing classical music like Mozart and Andy Williams around closing time as a way of dispersing the crowds.

Inner city streets have also been closed as a way of preventing cars hitting pedestrians.

Hamilton Mayor Bob Simcock says the behaviour has improved greatly since the trial started.

Yes, indeed. Sometimes I’m yearning for a little classical music and I think to myself, “Mozart or Andy Williams? Mozart or Andy Williams? Mozart or Andy Williams??” It’s a tough call and I never know who will win.

You can read it too.

Batgirl

10. July 2008 · 3 comments · Categories: Links, Read!, You Gotta Be Kidding

… and absolutely nothing to do with music. But I’m sorry, I can’t resist.

“I keep thinking how could I have not known it was there?” Miss Hawkins said. “I will certainly be checking my bras every morning from now on.”

Um, Well. Okay then.

I read it here. You should read it too.

You Gotta Read It …

21. May 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: Links, You Gotta Be Kidding

… and you still might not believe it. Really.

A story about a performance of Carmen. This story had me checking my calendar to see if it was April 1. Or maybe there are other days where people get to tell whoppers? Hmmm.

  • Part One
  • Part Two

    ICK. This sounds like the worst job ever.

    Can it really be true?

    And then there’s this:

    Maestro Bátiz holds some major political power; his dynamic personality attracts it like a magnet. For a short while, the mayor of Mexico City even appointed him as an honorary Chief of Police. When an oboist in his orchestra tried to take an audition for a different orchestra, Bátiz had the oboist arrested and thrown in jail so he would miss the audition.

    Wow. Amazing.

    • Too Scary for Words

    17. May 2008 · 2 comments · Categories: Videos, Watch, You Gotta Be Kidding

    Leave it to a trombone player.

    … and there are more. I’ll spare you, though. I’m nice that way.

    We Ain’t Snobs

    04. April 2008 · 1 comment · Categories: Comics, Links, Ramble, You Gotta Be Kidding

    Such an unconventional piece might have met with some opposition among strict opera-goers, but when he introduced TMCM to an Opera America conference in Seattle two years ago, he noted that the reception was “unpretentious. That’s what shocked me, ’cause you just think about opera as being so stodgy…and then these people were so welcoming.”

    I always have two reactions to comments about opera or classical folk being stodgy, snobbish, or elite. First I sigh. Then I kind of laugh.

    I do wonder how this all started. But oh well. We are just folks. Really. ;-)

    The quote above is from an article about a new opera. It’s called Too Much Coffee Man. Which makes me smile. Is it about too much coffee? Or is there someone called “coffee man”? I read that it’s from a comic. I rarely read comics.

    I’m snobby that way. ;-)

    Okay … I lie … I do check out this on occasion:
    Oboehemia (I don’t quite understand how this site works; I think you have to look around for the comics, as they aren’t all on the front page)

    Speaking of opera…
    Is this another April Fool’s joke? I hope so! But there’s a report of an Anna Nicole Smith opera. Due to her “tragic” story.

    No. Comment.

    Heh … Not Just The Met ..

    04. April 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: Ramble, You Gotta Be Kidding

    … has illness issues that change the opera roster:

    At the Pittsburgh Opera a performance of “Aida” on Tuesday became a night to remember, ending with the conductor singing the tenor role of Radames from the pit in the fourth act while continuing to lead the orchestra.

    Read here.

    But … hmmm … that was April 1. Could this all be a joke? Just delayed a bit? One wonders. (This one, anyway.)

    Bury that Bass

    27. March 2008 · 5 comments · Categories: Links, You Gotta Be Kidding

    Could it be true? Was there a Hungarian custom of burying a bass?

    “Every year for the past 100 years, Hungarians in the city of Roma would bury a double bass to signal the end of the wedding season and also would confess their sins that were committed against the instrument. Then they followed up with an all night party. A strange custom to be sure, but a custom nonetheless. Well 2008 saw that custom nixed from Hungary’s event calender. The bureaucrats in Hungary basically forgot to put it on the list of festivals that has been held every year on the first Thursday of every February.”

    Oh Jason … what think ye? (Maybe you just know some bass players you’d rather bury?)

    Read here.

    Too Funny!

    19. March 2008 · 2 comments · Categories: Havin' Fun, Links, You Gotta Be Kidding

    The lights are down, the conductor Valeriy Ovsyanikov is ready on the podium, and…

    …silence. Followed by a few gentle rustles. Nobody seemed quite sure what was happening.

    Then came the tell-tale shuffles at the back of the pit as the missing players slunk on. Dear reader, unless I am very much mistaken, it was the horn section!

    We were sitting too high up to see their faces clearly, but I reckon Hoffnung could have done a good job at imagining them… He could also have conjured exquisitely the expressions of the trumpet players who had to echo the fanfares but sounded suspiciously as if they were laughing as hard as I was.

    Ahhh … hoorah for horns! Or not. But ya gotta love it. Sort of. Thanks for the laugh, Ms. Duchen!

    And if that wasn’t funny enough, visit this blog and read about that naughty piano that says an “uh-oh” word. Click on THEIR link, and then click on the video of the news segment. It’s pretty bizarre, especially because the station must have decided the naughty word really was being said, since the bleeped out that note. Amazing. Stupidly amazing.

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