I'm going to see my favorite band at the Williamsburg Waterfront tonight, even if it means standing in a veritable monsoon for four hours. The following graphic reflects both the weather forecast and my emotional state if this concert doesn't happen:In my desperate search for news of cancellation, I noticed that the Belle & Sebastian website currently has a feature that I've been meaning to blog about for a while now: launching a website with performance footage. I first noticed it on the BTTLS site and then again on the LCD Soundsystem … [Read more...]
Archives for September 2010
Information age of hysteria
My friend James, my sister and I went to see American Idiot on Broadway tonight despite already seeing it (me at Berkeley Rep, them on Broadway) and not loving it. We went, of course, because like all middle-schoolers to whom "Basket Case" "spoke," we weren't about to miss this:It was completely surreal to see a man who built a career on apathy love every minute of singing, acting (!), and dancing (!!) in his own Broadway show, and equally strange to hear an audience explode in cheers when an understudy was announced at the beginning of the … [Read more...]
My thoughts on the Met’s ‘Das Rheingold’
One ring to rule them all
The Metropolitan Opera's season opens tonight with a new production of Wagner's Das Rheingold. I will be wearing a gold dress and drinking at Valhalla after, why? Because I like a well-curated event. I also plan on asking Eric if I can borrow the ring for the night. It's entirely possible that the Met costume department will Wotan's-spear off my finger, but I'm gonna give it a go. Again, because I like an event. As usual, the Met has provided multiple ways for folks to experience the production:At the Opera HouseThe Met's 2010-11 season kicks … [Read more...]
The Cure for the Common Blog Post
Apologies for being M.I.A. (and not of the truffle fries variety). I've had Hilary, Nico and more Nico, and Eric on the brain.That said, I have had time to watch Mad Men. It's...about advertising, so it's...work-related...right? I won't give anything away, but if you too have been watching this season, you saw the episode where the cousin of Roger Sterling's (annoying and skinny) wife is applying for a job. This lad's portfolio includes other people's ads that he admires (Don Draper = not amused by this), and a series of slogans that all say … [Read more...]
Who doesn’t love family
This is what my sister e mails me today: "Thank you for officially turning me into a nerd." Let the record show that on the day she started work at the Central Park Conservancy, I received a donation letter from them in the mail. Coincidence? I think not. … [Read more...]
Be careful what you wish for
All classical music publicists try really hard to place their clients in different sections of the paper, but I nearly passed out when I clicked on a Google Alert and saw this last night:Sex & Dating...Great dates...Hilary Hahn. Private and quiet Hilary, right there under Sex & Dating. It turns out, they were listing this:String dateClassical music never seems less old and musty than when violinist Hilary Hahn shows up. The virtuoso will chat about her Pulitzer Prize-winning album at Housing Works Bookstore Café. FREE 126 Crosby … [Read more...]
You’ll be swell, you’ll be great
I had a Spring for Music festival meeting at Opus 3 Artists this afternoon, and was extremely distracted by the truly excellent vintage posters and flyers hanging in the conference room. The best one, from a publicist's perspective, was this Yo-Yo Ma booking flyer from the mid-70's: Sure, the pull-quotes are "Spectacular!" "Undeniable Skill!" "Prodigious!" "Spellbinding" and "An Extraordinary Cellist!", but they're from Novedadas Mexico D.F., Louisville Times, Vancouver Sun, Ottawa Journal and the Louisville Courier-Journal. There's nothing … [Read more...]
Back to school
I woke up at 5am today to get on a flight to LA. It really did feel like the first day of school, despite my complete lack of children. I had my not-trying-too-hard plane outfit picked out and everything. The season's starting, which means many things, including (but not limited to) me having to wear more make-up and fun (free!) CD release events. I'm en route to the sunnier coast because Nico Muhly has two albums coming out on Decca in a few weeks, and I'm handling the PR for them. [Fairly to moderately unrelated, you can read Nico and me … [Read more...]
Something else to do while you’re pretending to work
News from Apple today, via CBS: iTunes 10 So far 11.7 billion songs have been downloaded from iTunes. At the same time, 450 million TV episodes and 100 million movies have also been downloaded, as well as 35 million books. The 10th major version of iTunes features a hybrid view that displays album artwork if you have five songs from the same album. Apple also added a feature to help users discover music with a technology called Ping, a social network for music, according to jobs. "Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes," he said, which is built … [Read more...]