Archives for September 2008

This year it seems like the creative class that brought you “Rock the Vote” has taken its “we just want people to participate” gloves off. Will.i.am might have been the first off the block, but now there are the rockers. And the jazzers. Hell, even the thereminists are getting in on the action. In new music land, composers got vocal. Emails went out from the likes of Meredith Monk, La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela in support of the “Women Against Sarah Palin” movement. John Adams sent private emails encouraging recipients to make a donation. Now, I know people don’t think “artist” and “Republican” in the same breath very often, but this time around it’s not just Bono up there in the public pulpit. Everyone seems to be falling in. As my favorite 8th-grade cheerleaders used to say, “Let’s get fired up!”

Okay, political pep talk over. You’d think I’d know better than to bring up such topics at dinner, but I don’t and I have and it’s ruined yet another pot roast. I promise we’ll get back to hard-core musical topics after this. For instance, Mind the Gap has received it’s first advice request! Get ready to correct me when I’m wrong.

UPDATE: But meanwhile, I mean, dear lord.

Aaah!

Aaaaah!

So very funny, so very (very) wrong.

Cern has fired up the giant particle collider and somehow a number of Googlers have landed here looking for evidence of impending doom. 

Dear kindly visitors: I cannot explain how you have been led so astray, but I can offer you directions to this playlist to help you along in your journey.

And speaking of the need for music in extremis, ever need to wrap your instrument in Saran Wrap just to get through the concert in one piece?

If you’ve ever descended the Carnegie Hall escalators and listened to a performance of, say, Morton Feldman’s music in Zankel, you know that you need a certain amount of open-earedness. The MTA will not be stopped, and whether you can deal with (and discount) a little sound bleed from the subway running on the other side of the wall or not largely determines how much you’ll enjoy your evening.

Well, fair music fans, the danger is about to get worse than a crowd of symphony subscribers in February. In all honesty, I initially though this writer was going to decry the terrible inspirational effect the construction noise around Juilliard was going to have on yet another generation of composers. In the end, however, it appears that Les is really only concerned with the decibel levels audiences will be expected to politely ignore. Wherever you stand on the issue, take comfort in the fact that we’re all just riding one huge pendulum of concert decorum. But putting aside the inter-movement consumptives for a moment, ambient concert noise: welcome sign of life in the hall or performance death knell? Is this really a danger? What’s the most ridiculous concert noise you’ve had to endure?

*Photo found on NYC subway musician Theo Eastwind’s MySpace page.

I am an advice column addict. What started with Ann Landers and Hints from Heloise when I was 12 has evolved into a steady diet of guidance from all sorts of sources–everything from Ask Prudence to Savage Love. I don’t usually have the kinds of problems that tend to plague the letter writers. Still, I read with devotion.

It’s a public service that is both entertaining and educational. Okay, sure, like staring at the ethical car crash that has introduced the nation to the Palin family, in large part it’s probably just that human love of knowing what sorts of salacious drama the neighbors are involved in. I’m not a church goer, but I often paused to ask myself, “What would The Ethicist do?” and I suspect it keeps me on an equivalent moral path.

I’ve been browsing season brochures and thinking about the relationship between presenters and audiences. Whether a newcomer to the scene or a giant institution of culture, a lot of energy is expended on trying to catch the eye of Mr. and Mrs. Public. But it’s a crowded room, and the target is elusive. I wonder what Dan Savage would advise if presented with this unhealthy relationship. Is culture trying too hard? Can the audience smell the desperation on the postcards? Or is culture in America playing too hard to get?

Self-criticism is difficult; it’s why we need advice columnists to pull up the window shades for us sometimes. Who would throw over an amazing piece of art for another episode of Law & Order? Oh, Law & Order flirted with you, made you feel pretty and smart, but Art began the evening by presenting you with a seating chart and the check? I can see how that would be a turn off. Ahem, let’s try again. Oh, you know Elizabeth? Small world. Let me get you a drink.

If you have a cultural question you don’t think you can Ask Amy, feel free to drop a line.