Category: Uncategorized

Orchestra Death Watch: Detroit Symphony Negotiations Grind On

Two million dollars is what the Detroit Symphony and the union are fighting over. Management wants to keep that money for community outreach; the musicians want it for their salaries.

Once again, the musicians whine for the short gain instead of going for long-term engagement with the city and the people that, ostensibly, will help sustain their organization.

The orchestra says that they’ll need to cancel the rest of the season in “two days” if they don’t reach a settlement. I thought that ship had already sailed. It seems as if the strike has been going on forever. 

Football Makes for Lousy Music

I heard Kate Jacobs’s “Rey Ordonez” yesterday. It’s one in a long line of baseball odes, and there are lots of songs about hockey–but why doesn’t anyone write about football?

Maybe it’s because football isn’t fun. Baseball and hockey have crazy fun-loving characters and lovable losers (I’m looking at you, Maple Leafs). Football has psychotics that (literally) commit horrible violent crimes; winning’s not the main thing, it’s the only thing.

So, this Super Bowl Sunday (don’t sue me NFL), check in with Brian Wilson (who’s making a case to be the next Bill Lee, apparently), find out why Gerry Cheevers’s mask was so creepy, and listen to some music:

And if I’m wrong about football, let me know.

Songs that Make Me Uncomfortable, Huffington Post Style

On the Huffington Post this morning, Alida Nugent gives her list of songs that have left her thoroughly creeped out:

I have now changed my definition of love. After hearing these songs, Love, to me, is clowns at the circus, that weird guy who owned an emu farm and antique shops.

In some cases, the lyrics make you shudder, but in others, it’s about the context: Chris Brown’s horrible misogynistic rage issues ruin “Forever”; the video does in Lionel Ritchie’s “Hello.”

I’ve got my own list. What about you? Any songs that make you want to take a shower–or call the police?

Update?

Jennifer Higdon, who won a Pulitzer this year for her Violin Concerto, wants orchestras to program more new music–because it sells:

The only orchestra concerts I’ve attended lately that have been sold out have had new works on them (and yes, I go to concerts without new music).

I’ve also been to concerts where half the audience walks out with the composer in the audience right before the world premiere of his big new piece.

Sometimes Explaining Yourself Just Makes Things Worse

In a recent blog post, Eva Yaa Asantewaa knocks The New York Times‘s A. O. Scott for his solipsistic approach to movie criticism. She quotes him:

I have to say that the goal of criticism has never been to control or reflect the public taste–neither is possible–but rather the simpler (but also infinitely difficult) work of analyzing and evaluating works of art as honestly and independently as possible.

There’s a frightening decadence running through a lot of mainstream cultural criticism these days, including music and dance. (If you click through, you’ll see it comes mostly from one particular outlet.)