Did you ever wonder what happened to that guy in high school who thought he was deep because he listened to metal. “It’s not Satanic,” he’d say. “I’m a Christian, and I can tell you that the lyrics actually remind us about evil. They’re a warning.”
On his blog, Andrew Sullivan has a conversation going about childrearing. Katie Roiphe from Slate pines for the “benign neglect of the 1970s and ’80s,” and Mark Oppenheimer worries that helicopter parenting destroys individuality.
I grew up in a rural area–big back yard; acres of open field to run through; cows–and it was relatively low-risk for my Mom to open the door and kick me outside. I loved it. I could run around, make believe, just sit and watch the clouds go by. I’m glad that today I live in an area where my wife and I can give our children at least a modicum of that freedom.
I also grew up in that era of benign neglect Roiphe is nostalgic for, and almost died three times before I was twelve: once by drowning, once when I was run over by a truck (long story), and once by a fall from a bridge (also, long story).
If parents today coddle, it may be because we remember those death-defying moments a little more vividly than the fun stuff.
This post doesn’t have much to do with music, so listen to this. Happy birthday, Caitlin, you irrepressible, irresistible force of nature:
Through the Daily Dish, I found this Pop Matters article on the music you can find in CD bins at 99 cent stores.
Thanks to the complete devaluing of the CD and the ruination of the recorded music industry, you can find better than ever stuff at places that used to only stock not-played-by-the-original-artists ’70s hits packages. I found Boston’s second album at the drug store last week for well under $10. Thanks to Pathmark, I got to know the artistry of Waylon Jennings just a little bit better.
Now’s the time to get out there and make your finds. While we still have the chance.
The New York Times critics’ blah-blah about Lincoln Center’s White Lights Festival–dedicated to spirituality and exploring our “inner universe,” something like that–got me thinking about music that makes me contemplate the Big Questions.
1. Rheostatic’s “Shaved Head” on Whale Music
For end-of-life poignancy, it’s right up there with Alden Nowlan’s “This is What I Wanted to Sign off With.”
2. Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”
In whatever version I hear it, this melody gives me that little chill on the back of my neck. You can’t help but feel as if we’re all in this together, and everything’s going to be OK.
3. Arvo Paert’s Cantus in Memorium Benjamin Britten
4. Ani DiFranco’s “Amazing Grace” on Dilate
The close association I have with “Amazing Grace” is highly connotational. My mom told me once that “The Old Rugged Cross” was my grandfather’s (her dad’s) favorite hymn, and it was played at his funeral. My grandfather died just before I was born, and whenever I hear any spiritual, I think about how Mom’s story helped connect two family members that never knew each other.
5. Above all, though, there’s this:
The Seattle Symphony is performing a cheesy-music favorite tonight and Saturday. They have a sound clip and program notes on their website.
They’re also playing, with Elisa Barston, Philip Glass’s First Violin Concerto:
Through his Facebook page, Menon Dwarka reminded me (and a lot of other people, really) that Gorecki’s Third Symphony also played a musical role in Julian Schnabel’s Basquiat:
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra musicians, on strike for weeks now, are putting on their own holiday concerts, starting this weekend:
If I were the musicians, who seem to be both unified and highly motivated to do things their own way, I would start thinking about how they can abandon the orchestra as a corporation and form a new group in Motor City. Stop picketing, and start doing more playing.
Twitter buddy Claire Swait responded to my comments on David Hockney’s iPad art, making the point that it’s the talent of artists that matter, not the media they use.
I’m not sure the Vestibules would agree:
The Ballad of Marshall Mcluhan from Randall Acronym on Vimeo.
Canadians can be quite silly.
Is it really that cute, that groundbreaking, to do this sort of thing on an iPad?
David Hockney’s got a display of Apple art going on in Paris until the end of January:
As Open Culture mentions, the blog Messy Nessy Chic has some samples online.
In the above video, Hockney muses over the problems of displaying his iArt. He goes with hanging rows upon rows of iPads and iPods on the walls of the gallery.
I have an idea: print the damn things out!
1. He’s the all-time NHL points leader, and scored 92 goals in 1981-82, a single-season record. Gorecki or Gretzky?
2. He won first prize for his First Symphony at the UNESCO Youth Biennale in Paris in 1961, his earliest significant critical recognition outside of Poland, decades before a recording of his Third Symphony was a hit in the US and UK. Gorecki or Gretzky?
3. His wife was involved in an illegal betting scandal that resulted in the arrest and conviction of former NHL player Rick Tocchet. Gorecki or Gretzky?
4. In 1979, he quit his job at the Music Academy in Katowice to protest the Communist government’s refusal to let Pope John Paul II visit Poland. Gorecki or Gretzky?
5. He was dealt in 1988 by the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings in the NHL transaction forever known by hockey fans as “The Trade.” Gorecki or Gretzky?
On his blog The Rambler, Tim Rutherford-Johnson surveys the Górecki obirtuaries from major papers in the US and the UK.
I remember these times with pleasure because they were a great reawakening for Polish music. I don’t know how we got away with it year after year.
A colleague of mine at work winced (virtually) when I located Gorecki’s relevance within the 1990s as a source for and inspiration to trip-hop musicians and soundtrack writers. Some obituaries Rutherford-Johnson cites do the same thing, focusing on the Third Symphony, while others provide a broader perspective.
Mark Likes Music 
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