Category: Uncategorized

Louisville Orchestra Heading for Bankruptcy

The Louisville Orchestra are on the verge of bankruptcy and may not make payroll on Tuesday. At the same time, administration is negotiating with the musicians on a new contract.

CEO Robert Birman says, “The musicians aren’t a problem; they’re an expense we always agreed we would have.”

You would assume, hearing this, that Birman and his crew know that they can’t ask the musicians to sacrifice more than they have. But that’s not the case. Management is asking for base pay to drop from an already measly $34,200 to just under $29,000. They also want to lay off 16 musicians.

Birman also had this to say:

This orchestra has to have the discipline and the honesty to live within its means and almost to a person the community is saying we will not continue to just simply bear out this orchestra. They’ve got to get serious about coming together and finding a sustainable platform.

I’m not sure who the “they” are in this quotation, but it can’t be the musicians. Even to think of the players–who really are the orchestra–as a potential “problem” and an “expense” shows what the real issue is.

Read more in today’s Louisville Courier-Journal.

Raising Taxes for the Detroit Symphony, Cont.

I found a couple of people weighing in on the proposal to raise property taxes for the Detroit Symphony, which has been on strike for almost two months now. Bottom line for both: this would be a quick fix with little long-term benefit.

The Detroit News opined as such:

Musicians rejected a sweetened offer last week, saying the pay reductions it still demanded would compromise the quality of the orchestra. That seems a specious claim, considering that work rules in their contract make it almost impossible to fire a musician whose skills have waned. This contract fight is about the long-term viability of the DSO; taxpayers would do the orchestra no favor by approving a bailout before the tough decisions are made. 

After arguing why governments should support cultural institutions, Edmonton Symphony Orchestra conductor Bill Eddins makes a similar point:

Cultural Heritage tax proposals tend to embolden the opposition who thinks that the Arts aren’t important to a healthy social system.  And even if the proposed tax passes in the Detroit area I worry that it would just paper over the very real systemic issues that the DSO has been dealing with.  Just throwing more money at it does not a solution make.

Darth Vader is Not My Friend. I Will Not Buy a Cell Phone from A Sith Lord.

Darth Vader has always scared the hell out of me. I find nothing cute about Chad Vader, and this is just plain horrifying:


For years, I had a recurring nightmare where mechanical Anakin would relentlessly follow me everywhere. He’d never quite catch me, but I could never fully escape.

Thanks to NTT DoComo’s ad for the Samsung Galaxy S, I can relive the dream!

Five Questions to Ask About Raising Taxes for the Detroit Symphony

In an attempt to end the Detroit Symphony strike, a Michigan state representative wants to make it possible for people in three area counties to vote to help fund the orchestra with a small increase in their property taxes.

It’s worth considering: orchestras, privately run as non-profits, are nonetheless civic institutions, and there’s no reason why property owners shouldn’t pay a little bit for something that improves the cultural life of their city (and their property values). The tax increase would be small, only about $20 on an assessed $100,000 worth of real estate (by my calculations, so I could be way off).

Assuming such an initiative goes before the public, here are some questions to ask before voting on it:

1. Is the orchestra an essential service? These are tough times for Detroit, and before voting to saddle neighbors with an added expense, it’s worth asking if the orchestra is something that the area absolutely needs.

2. How much government money already goes to the orchestra? The Detroit Symphony has taken some hits, delivered by the musicians, for mishandling its budget. Instead of raising taxes, perhaps local governments should pressure the orchestra’s financial managers to more responsibly account for how they use public money.

3. Is this a symbolic act? It’s great to show your love, but such as small amount may do little to solve the problems the orchestra faces.

4. Will this money really go to the orchestra? Can the municipal government take the money and appropriate it for something else? What are the guarantees?

5. In the end, will it really make any difference?

Any more questions? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Inappropriate Christmas Music

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.”


Well, he lives in a three-bedroom colonial in California now. And he’s setting his holiday light show to Slayer’s “Raining Blood.”

Andrew Sullivan Wants You to Neglect Your Kids

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:

Picking on the Carcass of the Music Industry Can Be Fun and Rewarding

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.

Five Things: Music That Makes Me Think Deep Thoughts

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


There’s nothing like a song about chemotherapy to get you thinking about the great beyond. At least I think it’s about chemotherapy. I hear in this song all the pain that comes with the realization that your relationship with the one you love is short, transitory. Every time I listen to this I cry, so I don’t listen to it much. It’s exhausting.

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.


(I was going to post a clip of Bernstein going on about Beethoven. I stand by my choice.)

3. Arvo Paert’s Cantus in Memorium Benjamin Britten


Back when I was in college, Symphony Nova Scotia had a series for 20th-century music, and their performance of this piece (with Peter Lieberson conducting) was something I still remember. It was like nothing I had ever heard. This version is by A Far Cry, a group from Boston.

4. Ani DiFranco’s “Amazing Grace” on Dilate


This album came out the fall I arrived in the US for grad school, and I listened to it a lot. It’s maybe the most lascivious version of “Amazing Grace” I’ve ever heard. But I like it (although I think the church bells at the beginning are a little obvious).

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: