OC Register Cuts Arts Blog
over the weekend the Tim Mangan (OC Register music critic) posted an oblique and epigrammatic message that the Arts Blog (classical music, dance, theatre, and visual arts) would be no more.
“Well, I can’t say that it hasn’t been a blast, because it has. But it has been decided that this blog has lived its span and that we can better serve you at www.ocregister.com/arts.”
this is depressing.
limiting the OC Register’s arts bloggers to writing reviews and color pieces is definitely a step backward.
especially in journalism the blog functions best in which thoughts, ideas, and commentary are posted that may not quite fit into the ever shrinking daily newspaper (does anybody actually read the physical kind anymore?). it also creates conversations (the “Should I review Bocelli” post is a great example of this) that help define and connect the broader arts community as a whole.
but of course if you are reading this on my blog you already “get it”
Bookmarks from July 3rd through July 10th
“For me, what really made this blog so good was the combination of two things: (a) really good writing by Tim about a variety of topics related to classical music (plus the occasional diversion or two). The official reviews that get published in the hard copy version of the paper have always been and will continue to be among the best. The blog went beyond that allowed for all of us to read Tim’s thoughts and comments on things that would not have otherwise appeared in the paper. I hope the new format will allow him some, if not all, of the same freedom. (b) The reader’s comments to the original blog posts which added their own value, and more importantly, Tim’s willingness/ability to write his own follow-up comments in reply. A wonderful dialogue exists between those of us unwashed masses who add our comments and the respected music critic of The Orange County Register. The quality of this two-way communication simply doesn’t exist anywhere else (I stopped readying the comments at Culture Monster blog of the larger “other newspaper” long ago because none of the staff writers ever participated in the discussion).”
link: So long from The Arts Blog – The Arts Blog : The Orange County Register
“Despite the decision to forbid members from receiving pay for AA-related activity, it had no problem letting professional institutions integrate the 12 steps into their treatment programs. AA did not object when Hazelden, a Minnesota facility founded in 1947 as “a sanatorium for curable alcoholics of the professional class,” made the steps the foundation of its treatment model. Nor did AA try to stop the proliferation of steps-centered addiction groups from adopting the Anonymous name: Narcotics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous. No money ever changed hands—the steps essentially served as open source code that anyone was free to build upon, adding whatever features they wished. (Food Addicts Anonymous, for example, requires its members to weigh their meals.)”
link: Secret of AA: After 75 Years, We Don’t Know How It Works | Magazine
“There is, however, a cost to this taciturnity. Limiting our emotional response to the travails fighting men endure is a little bit like limiting war aims; it distances us from the conflict, prevents us from engaging fully, dramatically, suspensefully, in it. Certainly in this instance no one in this beleaguered group becomes fully particularized as a human being. This standoffishness became a ruling convention in films about the Vietnam War. Putting it mildly, our moral qualms about that war prevented everyone this side of John Wayne from unambiguously identifying with our troops. Which left us with a rather squishy humanism—“Oh, the poor guys, it’s not their fault; let’s go levitate the Pentagon, instead”—to tide us along. Because the aims of our wars since have not particularly advanced, that’s pretty much where we remain.”
link: Richard Schickel: Into the Valley of Death Rode the … 15? – Film Review – Truthdig
“These 444 decisions pertain to the adjudication of security clearance cases for contractor personnel under DoD Directive 5220.6, which implements Executive Order 10865.”
link: 2010 Industrial Security Clearance Decisions
“At last, after two hours of his tedious, hacky, right-wing manifesto, Gallagher gets to the part his (willing) hostages have been waiting for. It’s time to smash some shit. There are the watermelons, there is some cottage cheese (“It’s got the curds that blow up, just like on the news!”), there is sauerkraut and syrup and honey. Then Gallagher gets a tin pie plate. He opens a giant can of fruit cocktail and pours it in. He opens a can of some Asian vegetable—water chestnuts, maybe—and pours that in, too. “This is the China people and queers!!!” he screams and takes his sledgehammer to the thing with a fury that is no fun at all. Wet chunks of China people and queers fly everywhere. The hateful, bitter old man laughs. I cannot believe Bill Hicks is dead and this motherfucker is still touring.”
Bookmarks from June 15th through June 16th:[del.icio.us]
Bookmarks from June 15th through June 16th:[del.icio.us] the arts monastery project – “The purpose of The Art Monastery Project is to produce art that is relevant to the contemporary world yet is informed and inspired by tradition. Our strategy is to apply the disciplined efficiency and contemplative serenity of monastic life to art production. As [...]
"Paul Bailey Ensemble at home in Fullerton" OC Register-Tim Mangan (2007)
thanks again to all of you who made our “home” show at csuf on tuesday night. it turned out to be a great evening; nice crowd, saw some old friends and made a few new ones. i’m kinda short on words today and humbled by tim mangan’s very thoughtful review of us in the oc register.
http://www.ocregister.com/entertainment/music-bailey-composer-1852433-three-one
“On the FAQ page of the Paul Bailey Ensemble’s Web site (paulbaileyensemble.org) the group is dubbed an “alternative-classical garage band.” One wonders what that is until one hears it and wonders no longer. It’s a good description. This is a flexibly sized chamber ensemble, locally based, made up of friends and colleagues who have mostly studied at Cal State Fullerton. Tuesday night’s incarnation of the group, when it performed at Meng Concert Hall on campus, included an electric guitar, electric bass, keyboards, clarinet and trombone (the last played by the composer himself, Paul Bailey). It makes a funky, gritty sound, but it also capable of a warm euphony.
I would say that Bailey’s music is minimalist, with the proviso that the composer himself, like so many minimalists, doesn’t like that label. His favorite composers, though, include the minimalists Michael Nyman, Glass, Reich and Riley, as well as Satie, Monteverdi, Bach and Palestrina. His own music combines a minimalist’s interest in repetition, motion and simple harmony with Baroque bass lines. In fact, the passacaglia, a set of variations on a repeated melodic bass line, popular with Baroque composers, is Bailey’s preferred metier.
This style was perhaps most explicit in the opening number, “Cheap Admiration,” written in 2005 and based on a work by the 17th century composer Johann Pezel. A fuzz guitar got a little rhythmic riff going, a Baroque progression with a syncopated groove, and the other instruments joined in, layering and interweaving lines, spinning, turning and floating.
Bailey’s music doesn’t put on airs. It’s easy to listen to and to understand the first time. The composer seems to take joy in the simple motion of music, in plain harmonies and melodic scraps as ordinary as do re mi. The fascination comes from hearing it all spin around and work itself out, like a load of mixed laundry in a dryer, or flames in a fireplace.
His music does express something, though. His “Fearless Leader” had a Glassian hypnotic melancholy, a growing in tension, then release. “Eye for Optical Theory,” based on a Nyman theme, scampered along quickly and jazzily and was decorated with soulful trombone scoops.
“Life’s Too Short,” the second of an eventual trilogy, added three vocalists, who talked and keened a dryly witty, existential text, made more so by both its matter-of-fact repetition, lyrical limning and uneven meter. The trilogy’s finale will be “Life’s Too Long.”
The New York-based trio Real Quiet (cello, piano, percussion) were guests on the program and joined the PBE for Bailey’s “Principal of Sufficient Irritation,” a piece that features a short ostinato riff tossed all around like a hot potato. The work morphs and builds (at one point finding itself in a quasi Bo Diddley groove) and is one of the composer’s most ambitious and engrossing.
On its own Real Quiet added three pieces, by Annie Gosfield, Phil Kline and Marc Mellits. Somehow, I found these pieces, accomplished and polished though they were, less satisfying, perhaps because they took themselves so seriously. Gosfield’s “Wild Pitch” encompassed aggressive allegros, lonely dreams and quarter-tone decoration. Kline’s “The Last Buffalo,” a three-movement homage to Hunter Thompson, juxtaposed long-arched cello solos with a motoric central movement in a heavy tread. The three of the four movements performed of Mellits’ “Tight Sweater” seemed mere etudes in hopping and grinding minimalism.
But then came the grand finale, Frederic Rzewski’s 1969 “Les Moutons de Panurge,” which requires a touch of explanation. Both ensembles joined in for this ebullient gambit, written for “any number of musicians.” “Panurge” consists of a single melodic line of 65 notes which the players are instructed to perform in additive fashion, first 1, then 1-2, then 1-2-3, and so on until the end. They begin together but invariably get off, the composer instructing, “if you get lost, stay lost.” Also, the tempo continuously accelerates. The result is a kind of mad “Row, row, row your boat,” of canons gone wild and off track, of “Bolero” on steroids.
It’s not mayhem, though, the instructions providing for the relentless rewinding of the melody with a single note added to it each time; the listener is in a space where the music dances around him like so many bouncing atoms. To my knowledge, there’s not another piece quite like “Panurge” and these musicians had rollicking good fun with it. So did we.”
