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Category Archives: classical
A Flute for All Seasons
lassical music has a long history of instrument-swapping. Lute tunes transcribed for guitar. Harpsichord pieces performed on piano. Since guitars and pianos are easier to come by these days than lutes or harpsichords, this is a good thing for modern … Continue reading
Mario Takes a Walk
y kids introduced me to a whole string of video games about a guy named Mario, but I don’t think that’s who Jesse Cook is talking about. Somehow, Mario Takes a Walk completely possesses me every time I hear it; it’s one of those rare songs where both the live and studio versions I’ve heard punch me right in the solar plexus.Thumping danceable drums annoy me. Except sometimes. Adding a ‘thump thump thump’ to most music turns me off completely, so I have no explanation for why Cook’s music, which is nearly always flamenco guitar and thump, grabs me like it does. Continue reading
Four Seasons
ne of the first pieces of classical music I was exposed to was Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. We didn’t have a lot of classical music at home when I was a child, so my exposure started later than, say, Irish folk music or Roger Miller.There are eleventy-leven versions of Vivaldi’s most famous work, but the one that works for me is led by the insuperable Lorin Maazel. After experiencing this rendition, any other seems slightly mistimed; rushed, dragging, improperly syncopated, cadenzas which are frantic rather than energetic. Continue reading
The Grassies
orthern California now has a music award.The Grassies are the Northern California Artistic Achievement Award. Named in part for Grass Valley, where the first awards will be presented, and in part for the grassroots artists they honor, The Grassies are an idea long overdue. Originally intended to be a purely musical award, we (Co-Founder and Primary Evangelist Andy Gonzales and Know Your Music writer, Grassies Co-Founder and Anamchara Eolais Joel D ‘spinhead’ Canfield) realized it needed to encompass the arts in general to match our vision. Continue reading
Birthday Mashup?
orn this date (27 January) were Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756), blues legend Elmore James (1918), David Seville, creator of The Chipmunks (1919), and Nick Mason of Pink Floyd (1945) Continue reading
Clouds Over Mojave
omehow I’ve missed this: for some time, I’ve been working on a site called ‘Clouds Over Mojave’ dedicated to the amazing synchronicity between Jim Earp’s music and my life. The name comes from one of my favorites of Jim’s tunes. Continue reading
Still Haven’t Found What You’re Looking For? (4)
Finally catching up on recent searches. In descending order (I’m a database guy; I do things this way): Continue reading
Link Death
ink rot is a web phenomenon whereby links from one site to others begin to fail over time due to changes in the target sites.I’m about to introduce link assassination. Since I have to remove all my CDNow links, but haven’t had time to get all the Amazon.com links, I’m going to just kill them until I have the time. Continue reading
Turtles and Tricycles and Tortion
illiam Ackerman’s dreams must be difficult to follow, if they have anything to do with his song titles.I recently found a copy of Ackerman’s first album, “In Search of the Turtle’s Navel” and have enjoyed it almost every night since I bought it. A long-time casual fan of the founder of Windham Hill Records, I’ve lately become a bit more active in my appreciation. Continue reading
