Life's A Pitch

No sooner do I tell the world (and by "the world" I mean "you three readers, hi there - xoxo") about my millions-making idea for Wii Conductor does my client Eric send me this from today's Boston Globe:When Paul Henry Smith and the Fauxharmonic Orchestra set up to perform, the sounds made are like no other symphony orchestra. There is no chorus of string instruments tuning, no scooting of chairs, no fluttering of the pages of musical scores. Rather there are just two imperceptible clicks as Smith turns on two computers - a MacPro for the … [Read more...]

I've mentioned how amused I get by Google Alerts in this zone before, but this is an especially good one:Such a multi-tasker, that David Lang. … [Read more...]

What's that you say? You got carpal tunnel from playing the Dudamel game all afternoon on Friday? Well then, there's no point in doing any work today now is there? You should really let yourself mend. If you're in New York, you can spend this afternoon chasing down two tickets to Carnegie Hall's opening night concert, which is this Thursday, October 1 and has a major harp component, woot. Carnegie has been Tweeting clues here all day, and if you can find their people from 5-7pm tonight, you can enter your name into a raffle for a pair of … [Read more...]

Well, this really throws a wrench in my idea for Wii Conductor, during which one's friends would have to wait an hour and a half in silence while someone conducted Mahler 7 at a party, but regardless: well done, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Deutsche Grammophon, on the new Gustavo Dudamel iPhone app. iPhone or iPod Touch owners can download the app (for free), set their own tempo, and condut "March to the Scaffold" or "Dream of a Witches' Sabbath" from Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique with their device. Wii Conductor really was going to be … [Read more...]

If you've ever e mailed with me, you'll know how much I love putting things in quotes. "Quotes"-quotes, air quotes ("   "), quotes where they in no way should be. There's a deli on 125th and Amsterdam called "Harlem" Deli with the "Harlem" in quotes. This is especially funny because it's next to a Citarella, "the ultimate gourmet market," and just down the road from a slew of cute Columbia University brunch spots. "Harlem" indeed.Fellow ArtsJournal blogger Greg Sandow sent this over yesterday and kindly said I could post it. It's a blurb … [Read more...]

As predicted, I did end up spending $40 at Fiorello's last night along with six other people who probably doled out as much or more. Since no one would share the chocolate mousse with me, I was forced to journey over to the Empire Hotel roof bar and blow some more money on this white espresso Godiva chocolate martini concoction. THIS NEARLY WAS YOURS, Lincoln Center! My intern Nate was watching the Tosca simulcast from the plaza, and he reported today that he didn't see any food or drinks for sale. 800-1000 captive people and nothing to sell … [Read more...]

I've said it before: Wendy at Ling Spa on the Upper West Side is a font of marketing ideas. There are few things I like more than hearing her stories about the fabulously wealthy women who come in all the time; my two favorites to date are the 1. the woman who claims her husband has never seen her without make-up (she sleeps with it on and only washes her face once a week, SO GROSS) and 2.  the 15-year-old whose mother suggested she get a Brazilian bikini wax "for her boyfriend," which is even more gross. Last week, Wendy told me that the … [Read more...]

A writer friend forwarded this along and asked if I'd ever tried the time-honored PR tactic of inflating a green couch, giving out free cookies, and making friends in Union Square. The short answer is no - no, I have not. I do appreciate his total commitment to the free cookies theme; he's created a Twitter feed and a Facebook page for the promotion. The odd thing - well, the oddest thing - is that he doesn't provide a link to listen to his music in this e mail. He's "not pushing music on anyone with [his] free cookies." Does he want to sell … [Read more...]

It seems the production company AEG Live is e mailing potential ticket buyers as Michael Jackson--"MJ", to a few hundred thousand of his closest friends, actually--to promote the upcoming movie This is It, which features Jackson's last rehearsals. Obviously this is beyond absurd because the man passed away. That said, it did make me think about faux personalized e mails. For the past two years, for example, I've been getting e mails "from" Barack Obama, and I have to say I like seeing his name in my Inbox. I wonder, then, if a presenter was … [Read more...]

Both the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic will offer open dress rehearsals for their opening nights this year. Here are the details from their websites:Free Tosca Open House Announced!September 2, 2009Don't miss the season-opening new production of Tosca--four days before Opening Night. On Thursday, September 17, the Met will launch its fourth season of free Open Houses, with the final dress rehearsal of Luc Bondy's new staging of Puccini's opera, starring Karita Mattila and conducted by Music Director James … [Read more...]

I was nosing around the New York Philharmonic website just now, trying to figure out how many tickets they had left to sell for opening night next week, when I was distracted as usual by something totally ridiculous. September 16, 2009: What a truly magical night for The Big Apple! Not only is a New Yorker finally leading the Philharmonic again, but the orchestra will perform at two major New York cultural institutions--Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall--at the same time. This will mark the unveiling of the New York Philharmonic's … [Read more...]

Eric is singing Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville at the Washington National Opera this September, which means, among other things, that I'll be throwing a DVF dress in a duffle and boarding a BoltBus on Friday to the...does D.C. have a funny city nickname? "Our nation's capital"? For the second year in a row, the Washington National Opera is presenting a free live simulcast at The Washington Nationals' stadium, Nationals Park. According to the Washington Post, last year's simulcast attracted about 15,000 people (!). Good on their corporate … [Read more...]

I was dragged to Bed [why is there no comma here?] Bath & Beyond by a friend this weekend,  and while he was sticking his face in front of on-sale fans, I wandered around and tried not to buy anything. A veritable Queen of Spending on things I don't need (my KitchenAid Citrus Juicer Stand Mixer Attachment, Equally Productive with Citrus Fruits of All Sizes is still in its box), Bed Bath & Beyond is a death trap for me. "You're right: my shoe rack does not have embedded moth balls. I should get another one." "I have some knifes and … [Read more...]

My friend Joe sent this over yesterday:As the proud owner of Emma, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park and the BBC Pride and Prejudice mini-series, I can assure those of you whose DVD collections may not be as bumpin' that the way this preview is filmed is spot-on stylistically. I didn't think it was laugh-out-loud hilarious, but it does kind of make me want to read the book. I've never actually seen a good trailer for an opera, have you? I've seen ads with performance clips that are nicely edited, but nothing produced and designed like this. … [Read more...]