Friday, 10 October 2003
god, away for a day and it seems like all i can post is blogs i dig da most (if i did that all the time, i wouldn't get away from skykicking or technicolor or joshblog).
silly dat, don't want to lay myself open to accusations to blogs referencing other blogs, though i do have some sympathy for k-punk and twanboc in that argument referred to earlier.
love CoM of course, and his points to Ingram sound fairy nuff, but are his values being read into his analysis of other blogs. well that's not unusual, apologies for making such stoopid pedestrian points, but time is all as once, linear non-linear string theory, it's all the same hurrah etc., talk about what you want yeah. just cause some peeps have been discussing prog of late, it's not reason to go around hallooing the blog is dead, Luke nailed it with ref. to those concerns.
anyway, come back later, before one goes away for the weekend to visit the wild beauty of this place (among other delights), might have a bit of a ranting screed about something read in the wall street journal t'other day.
silly dat, don't want to lay myself open to accusations to blogs referencing other blogs, though i do have some sympathy for k-punk and twanboc in that argument referred to earlier.
love CoM of course, and his points to Ingram sound fairy nuff, but are his values being read into his analysis of other blogs. well that's not unusual, apologies for making such stoopid pedestrian points, but time is all as once, linear non-linear string theory, it's all the same hurrah etc., talk about what you want yeah. just cause some peeps have been discussing prog of late, it's not reason to go around hallooing the blog is dead, Luke nailed it with ref. to those concerns.
anyway, come back later, before one goes away for the weekend to visit the wild beauty of this place (among other delights), might have a bit of a ranting screed about something read in the wall street journal t'other day.
that's the most on-point thing i've ever read at a blog. nice one Luke (though if i was discussing it with Daily Express type lifeboat arguments-type folk who genuinely aren't racists, but are effectively succouring racists, i would not slur racism, even if i wanted to, cause i wouldn't want to be inccorectly identified as some fucking Morning Star reading student who throws the word "racist" around at people of a vaguely right-leaning persuasion it disagrees with {a stupid trick}. but hear hear Luka - the Daily Express doesn't seem to realise that - whilst it's not being racist per se, and many of its readers surely aren't either [though they are shabby parochialists, which is nearly as bad in my book, insular tits] it gives succour to fuckwits of all hue and stripe with its foaming. TRUE DAT)
it's funny watching flaky left-wingers moaning about Arnie's election success.
instead of trying to be a little positive and perhaps point out that - given turnout was about 60% in Cali, about a third greater than usual - Arnie's measure of success in drawing many traditional Dem voters to his camp (e.g., Hispanic voters, Union votes, etc.) should be applauded as some sort of vindication of people power (one newspaper having a good analysis that this victory was a sort of turn away from partisanship, as voters were seen to not identify Arnie explicitly with the GOP so much), the ludicrous Nancy Pelosi was moaning it was a sad day.
i know it's already a cliche to say it's not Arnie's fault that Davis was so incompetent (he deserved the recall, and wasn't it sad to see the ACLU dirty their name by turning to partisanship and Dem-boosterism during this episode), but one thing he can be defended on is at least he took votes away from the rightist candidates the Republicans put up.
in contrast to that McClintock bloke, at least he is gay-friendly and has decent views on the ol' Mary-Jane.
also, he's not a Nazi (these daft "he's even had Nazi allegations against him"-type moaning).
see Alfred Gerstl and Albert Kaufmann, two Graz boys, about Arnie being taken - back in 1964 - by onetime Austrian resistance leader Gerstl to a counter-demonstration against Neo-Nazis massing?
Arnie, they hint, waded in.
Simon Wiesenthal is his boy, a real hero, the Gropinator once said. anyone who reads on the subject knows their relationship.
i'm not saying there's not problems, and maybe it's not my business to comment at all, since i'm not Californian. just, some of the strange bubble-chamber leftism i've been reading and hearing and seeing over the last few days has been a little tedious and toothless in its flapping.
perhaps he can take the lead from the other famous one-time actor who led Cali and raise taxes in a progressive manner most high.
when the Gipper raised taxes to the tune of a billion dollars back in the day, in today's money it would be five times that.
say what you like about him (and i certainly do, specifically with regards to his Americas entanglements, of course), but that's pragmatic realism in action.
/
Bill O'Reilly, on the other hand, moaning about the Los Angeles Times excessively targeting Arnie over the dodgy groping, etc., allegations, is being - one feels - disingenuous.
tho' i feel sorry for him over the NPR sniping at him, i agree that seems like a plain case of old-fashioned bias, and shouldn't be brooked.
it's sad, cause it gives opponents of the NPR (e.g., Republican lawmakers, conservative commentators, and so on) more ammunition for their arguments that its large subsidies should be cut, or perhaps even stopped completely.
don't want to alarm, but that would be sad.
~
instead of trying to be a little positive and perhaps point out that - given turnout was about 60% in Cali, about a third greater than usual - Arnie's measure of success in drawing many traditional Dem voters to his camp (e.g., Hispanic voters, Union votes, etc.) should be applauded as some sort of vindication of people power (one newspaper having a good analysis that this victory was a sort of turn away from partisanship, as voters were seen to not identify Arnie explicitly with the GOP so much), the ludicrous Nancy Pelosi was moaning it was a sad day.
i know it's already a cliche to say it's not Arnie's fault that Davis was so incompetent (he deserved the recall, and wasn't it sad to see the ACLU dirty their name by turning to partisanship and Dem-boosterism during this episode), but one thing he can be defended on is at least he took votes away from the rightist candidates the Republicans put up.
in contrast to that McClintock bloke, at least he is gay-friendly and has decent views on the ol' Mary-Jane.
also, he's not a Nazi (these daft "he's even had Nazi allegations against him"-type moaning).
see Alfred Gerstl and Albert Kaufmann, two Graz boys, about Arnie being taken - back in 1964 - by onetime Austrian resistance leader Gerstl to a counter-demonstration against Neo-Nazis massing?
Arnie, they hint, waded in.
Simon Wiesenthal is his boy, a real hero, the Gropinator once said. anyone who reads on the subject knows their relationship.
i'm not saying there's not problems, and maybe it's not my business to comment at all, since i'm not Californian. just, some of the strange bubble-chamber leftism i've been reading and hearing and seeing over the last few days has been a little tedious and toothless in its flapping.
perhaps he can take the lead from the other famous one-time actor who led Cali and raise taxes in a progressive manner most high.
when the Gipper raised taxes to the tune of a billion dollars back in the day, in today's money it would be five times that.
say what you like about him (and i certainly do, specifically with regards to his Americas entanglements, of course), but that's pragmatic realism in action.
/
Bill O'Reilly, on the other hand, moaning about the Los Angeles Times excessively targeting Arnie over the dodgy groping, etc., allegations, is being - one feels - disingenuous.
tho' i feel sorry for him over the NPR sniping at him, i agree that seems like a plain case of old-fashioned bias, and shouldn't be brooked.
it's sad, cause it gives opponents of the NPR (e.g., Republican lawmakers, conservative commentators, and so on) more ammunition for their arguments that its large subsidies should be cut, or perhaps even stopped completely.
don't want to alarm, but that would be sad.
~
ah, leave it to our kid to send a helpful email when one is o/s, keeping one up to date with the main topics of the day. to whit: =
1. IDS Speech today to the Tory Conference was very well written,
but delivered with all the style and panache of watching Paul Dickov
play football. Also unless everyone has forgotten, their campaign to
hold a national referendum on the new European Settlement is a tad
hypocritical, can't recall them holding one on Maastricht, Brussels
etc. or indeed anything whatsoever in 18years in charge.
2. The England football team are a bunch of tossers. Rio's excuse
that he 'forgot' his mandatory drugs test wouldn't hold water if he
was a 10year old boy with late homework. He should be punished (the
fact he is a rag is a bonus) and the whining overpaid twats should
shut up and get on with qualifying us for Euro 2004.
whilst on the subject of footy, does anyone know which Newcastle players it is alleged that are the alleged rapists, allegedly? my mate would tell me that 'everyone "knows" its Magpies' but refused to go into further detail in his most recent email, as he is a football journalist back in Mcr and "Big Brother" monitors what they send out, apparently, and so he didn't want to get in trouble (though he would say The Leeds guy who was arrested is Jody Morris, no danger there)__
1. IDS Speech today to the Tory Conference was very well written,
but delivered with all the style and panache of watching Paul Dickov
play football. Also unless everyone has forgotten, their campaign to
hold a national referendum on the new European Settlement is a tad
hypocritical, can't recall them holding one on Maastricht, Brussels
etc. or indeed anything whatsoever in 18years in charge.
2. The England football team are a bunch of tossers. Rio's excuse
that he 'forgot' his mandatory drugs test wouldn't hold water if he
was a 10year old boy with late homework. He should be punished (the
fact he is a rag is a bonus) and the whining overpaid twats should
shut up and get on with qualifying us for Euro 2004.
whilst on the subject of footy, does anyone know which Newcastle players it is alleged that are the alleged rapists, allegedly? my mate would tell me that 'everyone "knows" its Magpies' but refused to go into further detail in his most recent email, as he is a football journalist back in Mcr and "Big Brother" monitors what they send out, apparently, and so he didn't want to get in trouble (though he would say The Leeds guy who was arrested is Jody Morris, no danger there)__
Wednesday, 8 October 2003
much as i've been admiring, in isolation, the middle-class anomie tropes getting an airing over at k-punk, the rambler and those wonderfully controlled/superbly realised posts over at crumbling loaf that started this whole miniature seminar off, i can't help but let my own stupid paternalistic politics interfere in what should be an aesthetics-alone appreciation of great writing and insightful comment. therefore, almost spoiling my own enjoyment of it all.
but i do keep thinking of daily mail/daily express type 'attack on middle britain' puff pieces and all the negative stuff that goes alongside that that i'm sure we all would not wish kept popping up; i.e., the middle england nonsense.
if only we didn't let so many illegals in___
if only we chopped off burglars' hands___
if only our communities were not so mixed___
or whatever.
hey, i'm amplifying for absurd/dark comic effect, but that rubbish does not sit well with anyone with a brain, surely?
[i know that's not what Nick and Mark were writing about anyway, but nostalgic longings about some things/confused alienation with no easy end in sight, are some stuff always open to misuse by some set of numpties with an agenda aren't they]
but i do keep thinking of daily mail/daily express type 'attack on middle britain' puff pieces and all the negative stuff that goes alongside that that i'm sure we all would not wish kept popping up; i.e., the middle england nonsense.
if only we didn't let so many illegals in___
if only we chopped off burglars' hands___
if only our communities were not so mixed___
or whatever.
hey, i'm amplifying for absurd/dark comic effect, but that rubbish does not sit well with anyone with a brain, surely?
[i know that's not what Nick and Mark were writing about anyway, but nostalgic longings about some things/confused alienation with no easy end in sight, are some stuff always open to misuse by some set of numpties with an agenda aren't they]
oh, and finally, the guardian thinks more rock (in dance, etc., getting it into dance) is "the future".
hmm.
A lot of old people know Gullah language, 'cos that' all they've ever speaken all their life. But they feel like people look down on them now when they speak Gullah language...They feel like the young people take 'em for fun. They come and say: Why you speak so bad? See, I don't know what she talk about.
_Janey Hunter.
hmm.
A lot of old people know Gullah language, 'cos that' all they've ever speaken all their life. But they feel like people look down on them now when they speak Gullah language...They feel like the young people take 'em for fun. They come and say: Why you speak so bad? See, I don't know what she talk about.
_Janey Hunter.
so the interlude is wondering about that guardian list of the 40 most influential pop artists in the uk today.
in a sense, you can't really (and i ain't about to) argue with it; it's the guardian, WYSIWYG. and although they headline it as greatest, they actually admit it's influence. it seems a fair list therefore.
see, i ain't even heard of selfish cunt, at no.40, which is embarrassing, hah.
otherwise, well, fallacy yeah, mr scruff is still popular cause a lot of 'non-dance fans' (in the parlance) goes to his nights, so there we go. joss stone is about to break big in the USA, so perhaps she will have a butterfly wings effect on girls that sound like her back in the UK, but can't get a deal.
to be fair, franz ferdinand, and especially lone pigeon - ack, betas claptrap! - should go away, and the topley-bird mercury nom was for an album that wasn't much cop.
hundred reasons are incredibly popular with ver kidz (i do still read rawwk zines from time to time), but clearly putting spiritualized in there these days is a bit daft. girls aloud, well, yadda, of late the stuff hasn't been much cop, 'no good advice' was rather mediocre wasn't it? hmm, i bought it, had it for about a day, then got rid of it. 'sound of the underground' was an ironic title i gather, as the moribund sound of that record wasn't particularly anything, much less underground. still, live and learn eh.
british sea power are another case of the ack! no's, but i suppose the cinematic orchestra are now in the cool cachet stakes again with their take on the Vertov sndtrk.
Rishi Rich hurrah in a tackily tokenistic way eh, Muse are good at being Muse, Richard X your carriage awaits, Belle and Sebastian just NO, Lemon Jelly foo's like 'nice weather for ducks', there are few more overrated indietronica types than Kieran Hebden i think Jon Dale and i can agree, Pet Shop Boys hurrah obviously (all the middle-aged homophobes where one works affected to 'go right off them' when they were told about the origins of the group's name), david holmes: hmm. there's something cheesy and almost a bit infuriating about how the decicedly rock end of the rock press jumped on that one album of his from a year or two ago that collabs with the like of bobby gillespie on it - oh, look, it's got rock attitood! super! sleazy and bit MC5 and the fugs meets deep soul. but as a dabbling DJ, holmes is the way forward, so fair enough.
broadcast and beth gibbons we should, well, they should both be over by now.
coldplay are a bit like a block of cheese in this here american supermarkets, then Ingram gets a deserved entry, goldfrapp and the jaxx and the 'babes hurrah, and it's valid to see the chemicals there cause even though they're shit and boring these days, it says influential not BEST at the top of the list (even though the html tagging means that in your browser at the top line it says "best"), you can't really complain about SFA, it'd be like kicking a puppy, dizzee ras and bowie side by side is a funny one, now, as absurd as it is to have the streets (as he would surely be the first to say himself) above dizzee on any list, the fact that the guardian are still deluding themselves [quote: "Mike Skinner pushed UK garage to a whole new level"] shows you what angle the guardian are coming from: the Dury/narrative traditions/cocktail of influences us older critics can enjoy, but especially the Specials, etc., trope; then there's the darkness, mis-teeq and blur. in varying degrees, i suppose those three are all english treasures, for one reason or another.
the roots manuva write up is a bit dodgy, i.e., 'he opened the door for the streets, dizzee rascal et. al.' hmmm?
the bottom four tell you all you need to know, it's an influence list, white rock will out, most people in the UK are white, i suspect that white rock is very popular (i don't know about statistics), at its core the guardian of alexis petridis (as a great deal of superior music writers could tell us) is still that paper, so it seems like an accurate snapshot of what the youth (who buy kerrang! and the nme in big numbers still, don't they?) are down with. so fair enough.
i will allow myself one truly editorialising comment herein, which is to note that what i've heard of the libertines - fa really, the odd TOTP appearance - i have not been impressed. still__
Tom here is interesting.
i'm going to allow a shabby 16 year old punk-rock 'zine type approach to slip in here, and say the reason why Petridis writes like he does in the piece is to show how down/trendy (see, malignant rocking 16 years olds write like this, i see their zines) he is with 'it'. it's clearly a non-event and Robin is clearly right, it doesn't merit comment.
that Petridis thinks it is still worth getting worked up about shows he is a bit silly.
remember, he's the buffoon who rightly got his arse kicked by Sherburne with his daft DANCE MUSIC IS SHIT AND DANCE IS DEAD column in the graun a few weeks back.
harrumph.
in a sense, you can't really (and i ain't about to) argue with it; it's the guardian, WYSIWYG. and although they headline it as greatest, they actually admit it's influence. it seems a fair list therefore.
see, i ain't even heard of selfish cunt, at no.40, which is embarrassing, hah.
otherwise, well, fallacy yeah, mr scruff is still popular cause a lot of 'non-dance fans' (in the parlance) goes to his nights, so there we go. joss stone is about to break big in the USA, so perhaps she will have a butterfly wings effect on girls that sound like her back in the UK, but can't get a deal.
to be fair, franz ferdinand, and especially lone pigeon - ack, betas claptrap! - should go away, and the topley-bird mercury nom was for an album that wasn't much cop.
hundred reasons are incredibly popular with ver kidz (i do still read rawwk zines from time to time), but clearly putting spiritualized in there these days is a bit daft. girls aloud, well, yadda, of late the stuff hasn't been much cop, 'no good advice' was rather mediocre wasn't it? hmm, i bought it, had it for about a day, then got rid of it. 'sound of the underground' was an ironic title i gather, as the moribund sound of that record wasn't particularly anything, much less underground. still, live and learn eh.
british sea power are another case of the ack! no's, but i suppose the cinematic orchestra are now in the cool cachet stakes again with their take on the Vertov sndtrk.
Rishi Rich hurrah in a tackily tokenistic way eh, Muse are good at being Muse, Richard X your carriage awaits, Belle and Sebastian just NO, Lemon Jelly foo's like 'nice weather for ducks', there are few more overrated indietronica types than Kieran Hebden i think Jon Dale and i can agree, Pet Shop Boys hurrah obviously (all the middle-aged homophobes where one works affected to 'go right off them' when they were told about the origins of the group's name), david holmes: hmm. there's something cheesy and almost a bit infuriating about how the decicedly rock end of the rock press jumped on that one album of his from a year or two ago that collabs with the like of bobby gillespie on it - oh, look, it's got rock attitood! super! sleazy and bit MC5 and the fugs meets deep soul. but as a dabbling DJ, holmes is the way forward, so fair enough.
broadcast and beth gibbons we should, well, they should both be over by now.
coldplay are a bit like a block of cheese in this here american supermarkets, then Ingram gets a deserved entry, goldfrapp and the jaxx and the 'babes hurrah, and it's valid to see the chemicals there cause even though they're shit and boring these days, it says influential not BEST at the top of the list (even though the html tagging means that in your browser at the top line it says "best"), you can't really complain about SFA, it'd be like kicking a puppy, dizzee ras and bowie side by side is a funny one, now, as absurd as it is to have the streets (as he would surely be the first to say himself) above dizzee on any list, the fact that the guardian are still deluding themselves [quote: "Mike Skinner pushed UK garage to a whole new level"] shows you what angle the guardian are coming from: the Dury/narrative traditions/cocktail of influences us older critics can enjoy, but especially the Specials, etc., trope; then there's the darkness, mis-teeq and blur. in varying degrees, i suppose those three are all english treasures, for one reason or another.
the roots manuva write up is a bit dodgy, i.e., 'he opened the door for the streets, dizzee rascal et. al.' hmmm?
the bottom four tell you all you need to know, it's an influence list, white rock will out, most people in the UK are white, i suspect that white rock is very popular (i don't know about statistics), at its core the guardian of alexis petridis (as a great deal of superior music writers could tell us) is still that paper, so it seems like an accurate snapshot of what the youth (who buy kerrang! and the nme in big numbers still, don't they?) are down with. so fair enough.
i will allow myself one truly editorialising comment herein, which is to note that what i've heard of the libertines - fa really, the odd TOTP appearance - i have not been impressed. still__
Tom here is interesting.
i'm going to allow a shabby 16 year old punk-rock 'zine type approach to slip in here, and say the reason why Petridis writes like he does in the piece is to show how down/trendy (see, malignant rocking 16 years olds write like this, i see their zines) he is with 'it'. it's clearly a non-event and Robin is clearly right, it doesn't merit comment.
that Petridis thinks it is still worth getting worked up about shows he is a bit silly.
remember, he's the buffoon who rightly got his arse kicked by Sherburne with his daft DANCE MUSIC IS SHIT AND DANCE IS DEAD column in the graun a few weeks back.
harrumph.
Tuesday, 7 October 2003
{throwaway local correspondents' post} :=
last night was spent at some Lakeview (vaguely chi-chi area half diverse eateries, half very attractive youngsters with money to burn) boozer, that had the pleasant surprise of Soul Jazz (your correspondent was all unashamedly 'hey, they're a London re-issue and comp. label o my rockular companions!!', thereby disowning their Osalunde releases and perpetuating that wrong-headed chestnut that JA. is all they hammer, o like playthings of the cruel gods are we eh) and old funk on the jukebox, plus some Brill Building Pop and the obligatory college rock.
some Noo Yoik pencil-tie outfit were first up, who looked like they were from Williamsburg (prejudiced? moi!), and indeed, they were (ho-ho).
they were sort of interesting when they stretched themselves out, but otherwise they plied a standard melodic Strokesian rock trope that is mined in richer seams elsewhere.
the other band were a lot better, some side-project of Sistermachinegun of Positron Recs' fame, kinda noisy and antic, rilly on point funky drummer.
interestingly, Stevie Winwood - the old gaffer of mine who was best mates with the sticksman from A Certain Ratio really liked him - has been playing in Chi-town of late, though i have been purposefully avoiding his reviews in favour of just sitting to the cool jazz standards soundtrack in fragrant neighbourhood caffs.
before i came to the Windy City Ingram briefed me on all his obscure house labels to look out for, but finding stuff is hard, i must say, for a neophyte.
i had to disappoint Red Rob by confessing the only local labels i was familiar with were the likes of Hefty and the ubiquitous Thrill Jockey (also the aforemention Positron of course).
it's odd, certain strata of the hipsterati in this city are rather too falling over themselves to congratulate their Chicago Underground Trio and Sea and Cake type-fare (a plague on that witlessly bad 'who stole the i walkman' from them there isotope 217 eh folks), to the extent that - for a place that has produced so much good blues (Elmore James one of my favourites here), jazz, and house, all these gifts just given to the world, just like that (and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, let's not forget them) - post-rock styled shenanigans seem to be the default fashionable option.
this is the town that's responsible for AACM people!
-and yet you get the impression people are so far up Tortoise's arse, that you imagine John McEntire is shitting out pitchfork readers whenever he goes for a dump_
mind you, the wire always likes this narrative of post-rock/free jazzers cross-pollination, so what do i know.
the radio station i keep bigging up is wont to play the big choons from the Mary J and Missy debut albums, so that's awright by me.
anyway, this best music in this town is always being heard at crosslights, on the Spanish language stations.
last night was spent at some Lakeview (vaguely chi-chi area half diverse eateries, half very attractive youngsters with money to burn) boozer, that had the pleasant surprise of Soul Jazz (your correspondent was all unashamedly 'hey, they're a London re-issue and comp. label o my rockular companions!!', thereby disowning their Osalunde releases and perpetuating that wrong-headed chestnut that JA. is all they hammer, o like playthings of the cruel gods are we eh) and old funk on the jukebox, plus some Brill Building Pop and the obligatory college rock.
some Noo Yoik pencil-tie outfit were first up, who looked like they were from Williamsburg (prejudiced? moi!), and indeed, they were (ho-ho).
they were sort of interesting when they stretched themselves out, but otherwise they plied a standard melodic Strokesian rock trope that is mined in richer seams elsewhere.
the other band were a lot better, some side-project of Sistermachinegun of Positron Recs' fame, kinda noisy and antic, rilly on point funky drummer.
interestingly, Stevie Winwood - the old gaffer of mine who was best mates with the sticksman from A Certain Ratio really liked him - has been playing in Chi-town of late, though i have been purposefully avoiding his reviews in favour of just sitting to the cool jazz standards soundtrack in fragrant neighbourhood caffs.
before i came to the Windy City Ingram briefed me on all his obscure house labels to look out for, but finding stuff is hard, i must say, for a neophyte.
i had to disappoint Red Rob by confessing the only local labels i was familiar with were the likes of Hefty and the ubiquitous Thrill Jockey (also the aforemention Positron of course).
it's odd, certain strata of the hipsterati in this city are rather too falling over themselves to congratulate their Chicago Underground Trio and Sea and Cake type-fare (a plague on that witlessly bad 'who stole the i walkman' from them there isotope 217 eh folks), to the extent that - for a place that has produced so much good blues (Elmore James one of my favourites here), jazz, and house, all these gifts just given to the world, just like that (and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, let's not forget them) - post-rock styled shenanigans seem to be the default fashionable option.
this is the town that's responsible for AACM people!
-and yet you get the impression people are so far up Tortoise's arse, that you imagine John McEntire is shitting out pitchfork readers whenever he goes for a dump_
mind you, the wire always likes this narrative of post-rock/free jazzers cross-pollination, so what do i know.
the radio station i keep bigging up is wont to play the big choons from the Mary J and Missy debut albums, so that's awright by me.
anyway, this best music in this town is always being heard at crosslights, on the Spanish language stations.
{with apologies to all concerned___}
==================
Adelaide Courier
+All the News that's Fit to Muck-Rake!
-LOCAL MAN PICKS FIGHT WITH ENTIRE INTERNET
__
Torrensville, SA; 6 October 2003
= Area man, and U of A employee, Jon Dale, Monday, stepped up to the plate, waded in, and then offered out the gaping maw that is the vast fastnesses of the information superhighway en entire.
Commentators are divided on the wisdom of Dale's bold move, and the efficacy of his methods.
Professor Simon Reynolds, a long-time correspondent of Dale's, told us - down a very bad line which he put down to New York Mayor Bloomberg's smoking ban in the city's bars - from his office in the Manhattan-based Greenwich Research Institute for Mass Ecstasies (GRIME), that "there's a feeling here that Jon may have, in a very real sense,
effected a paradigm shift. It's a very exciting time for the Adelaide Rock Scene Exegesis (AR** [nevermind - Ed.]), there's no doubt about it."
Dr. Philip Sherburne, of San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit Musical Analysis Network (BARTMAN), another American peer of Dale's, reckons that "this is another shot across the broadsides of conventional canonical wisdom from the man Dale's usually searing pen, and I think it'll bear fruit".
Meanwhile though, some bloke in a pub in Brisbane sounded a note of caution telling your reporter that, whilst Noxagt's "Scando-rumblings have got me right excited mate", Brookyln outfit Oneida were "over-rated, perhaps as over-rated as the, er, opera house place in Sydney Harbour" and that he "never could stand any of the Japanese crews".
~
==================
Adelaide Courier
+All the News that's Fit to Muck-Rake!
-LOCAL MAN PICKS FIGHT WITH ENTIRE INTERNET
__
Torrensville, SA; 6 October 2003
= Area man, and U of A employee, Jon Dale, Monday, stepped up to the plate, waded in, and then offered out the gaping maw that is the vast fastnesses of the information superhighway en entire.
Commentators are divided on the wisdom of Dale's bold move, and the efficacy of his methods.
Professor Simon Reynolds, a long-time correspondent of Dale's, told us - down a very bad line which he put down to New York Mayor Bloomberg's smoking ban in the city's bars - from his office in the Manhattan-based Greenwich Research Institute for Mass Ecstasies (GRIME), that "there's a feeling here that Jon may have, in a very real sense,
effected a paradigm shift. It's a very exciting time for the Adelaide Rock Scene Exegesis (AR** [nevermind - Ed.]), there's no doubt about it."
Dr. Philip Sherburne, of San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit Musical Analysis Network (BARTMAN), another American peer of Dale's, reckons that "this is another shot across the broadsides of conventional canonical wisdom from the man Dale's usually searing pen, and I think it'll bear fruit".
Meanwhile though, some bloke in a pub in Brisbane sounded a note of caution telling your reporter that, whilst Noxagt's "Scando-rumblings have got me right excited mate", Brookyln outfit Oneida were "over-rated, perhaps as over-rated as the, er, opera house place in Sydney Harbour" and that he "never could stand any of the Japanese crews".
~
Last week, J.M. Coetzee, South African-born writer who teaches at the University of Chicago, was named winner of the 2003 prize. Nobel groupies may recall, however, that Chicago area residents had reason to celebrate the 2002 prize as well: The winner was Hungarian scribe Imre Kertesz, whose novels are published in English exclusively by Northwestern University Press.
And if Kertesz's experience is any guide, Coetzee's name soon will set bookstore employees scurrying.
"We've been really pleased" at the post-Nobel sales for Kertesz's work, says Donna Shear, director of the NU Press.
The press publishes "Fateless" (1992) and "Kaddish for a Child Not Born" (1997), the first and third volumes of Kertesz's trilogy about life in a concentration camp, a fictionalization of the author's own experiences in Auschwitz and Buchenwald, to which he was sent as a teenager. The second volume, "Fiasco," has not been translated into English.
Prior to the Nobel Prize, Shear reports, "Fateless" had sold approximately 300 hardback copies (at $68 a pop) and 3,600 paperback copies ($19.95). After the Swedish Academy's announcement, readers snapped up 800 hardback and 40,000 paperback copies.
And if Kertesz's experience is any guide, Coetzee's name soon will set bookstore employees scurrying.
"We've been really pleased" at the post-Nobel sales for Kertesz's work, says Donna Shear, director of the NU Press.
The press publishes "Fateless" (1992) and "Kaddish for a Child Not Born" (1997), the first and third volumes of Kertesz's trilogy about life in a concentration camp, a fictionalization of the author's own experiences in Auschwitz and Buchenwald, to which he was sent as a teenager. The second volume, "Fiasco," has not been translated into English.
Prior to the Nobel Prize, Shear reports, "Fateless" had sold approximately 300 hardback copies (at $68 a pop) and 3,600 paperback copies ($19.95). After the Swedish Academy's announcement, readers snapped up 800 hardback and 40,000 paperback copies.
Monday, 6 October 2003
speaking of the chi-town tribune, there are two good pieces in the editorials today.
i'll quote them below [cut and paste ahoy].
Only if you are a Democrat irretrievably committed to one of your party's first nine announced candidates for president does the following paragraph represent a devastating development:
A former military leader has announced that he's a member of your party--which many voters perceive to be wimpy on national security and military issues--and he wants to be your nominee for president. He doesn't have a bad resume: top of his class at West Point, Rhodes scholar, recipient of a Silver Star for bravery because of a Vietnam War incident in which AK-47 rounds ripped into his shoulder, hand, leg and hip. He's also a four-star general, speaks Russian and served as Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. And while his record is more that of an interventionist than of a peacenik, he presents himself, if somewhat ambiguously, as an opponent of the Iraq war that many Democrats opposed. The path ahead of him isn't exactly untrod: If he wins the nomination, he could become the 12th general to assume the presidency.
The package that is Gen. Wesley Clark would prove attractive to most parties searching for a ticket that could retake the White House. But not the Democrats of 2003. Instead, several of the party's other contenders have been fragging Clark--that's battlefield slang for intentionally wounding one's own officers--for two weeks, lobbing verbal grenades at the man who suddenly is the leader of the pack.
Eight days ago, Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor whose resume is a faster read than Clark's, served up this take on his new rival on CBS's "Face the Nation": "A good guy, very qualified, but he was a Republican until 25 days ago, and I think that's going to be hard to swallow for a lot of Democrats." Dean also has said that "the biggest problem [Clark] is going to have is convincing people he's a Democrat."
Clark brought some of this on himself by divulging that he had voted for Richard Nixon in 1972, Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984, and George Bush in 1988; he also disclosed, however, that he had voted for fellow Arkansan Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996, and for Al Gore in 2000.
Some people would conclude that Clark is an independent thinker. Fellow Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts instead sniffed that while Clark "was voting for Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, I was fighting against both of their policies." Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, another Democratic contender, accused Clark of "working to forward the Republican agenda" by speaking at a GOP event in 2001. Clark has been reduced to asserting that his grandfather, "a Jewish lawyer in Chicago," was a delegate to the 1932 Democratic convention here.
A cynic would attribute the snippy reactions of other Democratic wannabes to the fact that Clark, having just wandered in from the cold, already leads The Other Nine in public opinion polls. There are many possible reasons for Clark's standing in the polls, but one of those possible reasons is that many Democrats evidently favor a candidate about whom they know next to nothing over nine candidates who have spent months (or years) trying desperately--and without success--to break into a lead.
Not that Clark should get a free walk to the nomination. His opinions on issues, and his plans for the nation he would lead, are open to question and attack. Biography isn't destiny; Gen. Douglas MacArthur was one of many leaders who discovered that Americans can be more interested in honoring a military hero than in asking him to bivouac at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
But Clark does deserve a chance to present himself to the nation before his jealous rivals rule him out of order because they disapprove of his political evolution. Republicans have been more, what's the word, permissive about their candidates' pasts. They welcomed Dwight Eisenhower as their presidential candidate in 1952 despite fears that he might be a closet Democrat. And in 1980 they rallied behind Ronald Reagan, who unarguably had been a Democrat.
What the attacks on Clark most starkly betray is other candidates' lack of trust in Democratic voters. Maybe those voters will conclude Clark would make a fine president; maybe they will conclude he's just a shameless opportunist--like many candidates of both major parties who've sought, and sometimes reached, the presidency.
But the loyal Democrats who show up for party caucuses and primaries are perfectly capable of deciding what they think about Clark's devotion (or lack thereof) to the party, without self-serving guidance from other Democratic candidates. And so what if Clark presents an unconventional answer to the question: "What, in 2003, does it mean to be a Democrat?" That's proven a tough issue for many members of the party to resolve. Are they part of a loose coalition of interest groups dedicated to their respective liberal causes? Or are they united by some singular philosophy--like that which launched Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal--and if so, what is it?
How those dilemmas get resolved, more than any candidate's pedigree, stands to attract, or repel, the independent voters the Democratic candidate will need if he or she is to unseat George W. Bush in 13 months. As Joe Erwin, chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party, told the Tribune last week: "You don't have to be born into this party. Voters will look at the person, judge his sincerity and his vision and decide if he's got what it takes to make that vision a reality."
Simple and true. If Democrats want to demand that only lifelong members can seek to represent them on election ballots, or if they demand loyalty oaths, well, that is their privilege. Imposing those rules might be onerous and foolhardy, but it also would be honest and fair. More honest and fair, certainly, than fragging a popular new candidate from behind. In some cases, far behind.
-and-
Brace yourself, New Hampshire. If the libertarians make good on a promise, 20,000 of them soon will be headed your way determined to transform you into a "free state."
No, not a state where everything is free, although that would surely be a powerful draw to citizens of the other 49. No, the libertarians have in mind a state that offers its citizens more liberty, smaller government and fewer laws. By libertarian standards, that's a free state.
New Hampshire beat out nine other states, all with small populations and libertarian leanings. The voting was organized by the Free State Project, a two-year-old libertarian Internet-based club that has already signed up more than 5,000 "liberty-oriented" people. Those first signers have pledged to move to New Hampshire once the project reaches its goal of 20,000.
The free-staters believe that an infusion of 20,000 libertarians into a state whose entire population (1.2 million) is less than half the size of Chicago will be enough to tip the balance.
Given New Hampshire's history, you'd think the balance wouldn't have to tip very far to become what the libertarians imagine as utopia. The Granite State has traditionally boasted low taxes, a lean state government, a citizen legislature and a constitution that guarantees the right to revolt and doesn't rule out secession. Its motto is "Live Free or Die."
That sounds pretty much like a siren song for libertarians, although if the state is going to insist on that, some might object. The Free State Project motto is "Liberty in Our Lifetime," a somewhat less impassioned position that leaves the "or else" to the imagination.
The libertarians might be on to something, though. Yes, New Hampshire is the "Live Free or Die" state, but its citizens have been waffling in recent years. George Bush beat Al Gore by just 7,211 votes there in the 2000 election. Bill Clinton won big in 1996.
So 20,000 libertarians just might be enough of a force to hold the balance of power.
If nothing else, they would just about cancel out the 22,188 New Hampshire citizens who voted for Ralph Nader in the presidential election.
Bring in the moving vans.
i'll quote them below [cut and paste ahoy].
Only if you are a Democrat irretrievably committed to one of your party's first nine announced candidates for president does the following paragraph represent a devastating development:
A former military leader has announced that he's a member of your party--which many voters perceive to be wimpy on national security and military issues--and he wants to be your nominee for president. He doesn't have a bad resume: top of his class at West Point, Rhodes scholar, recipient of a Silver Star for bravery because of a Vietnam War incident in which AK-47 rounds ripped into his shoulder, hand, leg and hip. He's also a four-star general, speaks Russian and served as Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. And while his record is more that of an interventionist than of a peacenik, he presents himself, if somewhat ambiguously, as an opponent of the Iraq war that many Democrats opposed. The path ahead of him isn't exactly untrod: If he wins the nomination, he could become the 12th general to assume the presidency.
The package that is Gen. Wesley Clark would prove attractive to most parties searching for a ticket that could retake the White House. But not the Democrats of 2003. Instead, several of the party's other contenders have been fragging Clark--that's battlefield slang for intentionally wounding one's own officers--for two weeks, lobbing verbal grenades at the man who suddenly is the leader of the pack.
Eight days ago, Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor whose resume is a faster read than Clark's, served up this take on his new rival on CBS's "Face the Nation": "A good guy, very qualified, but he was a Republican until 25 days ago, and I think that's going to be hard to swallow for a lot of Democrats." Dean also has said that "the biggest problem [Clark] is going to have is convincing people he's a Democrat."
Clark brought some of this on himself by divulging that he had voted for Richard Nixon in 1972, Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984, and George Bush in 1988; he also disclosed, however, that he had voted for fellow Arkansan Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996, and for Al Gore in 2000.
Some people would conclude that Clark is an independent thinker. Fellow Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts instead sniffed that while Clark "was voting for Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, I was fighting against both of their policies." Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, another Democratic contender, accused Clark of "working to forward the Republican agenda" by speaking at a GOP event in 2001. Clark has been reduced to asserting that his grandfather, "a Jewish lawyer in Chicago," was a delegate to the 1932 Democratic convention here.
A cynic would attribute the snippy reactions of other Democratic wannabes to the fact that Clark, having just wandered in from the cold, already leads The Other Nine in public opinion polls. There are many possible reasons for Clark's standing in the polls, but one of those possible reasons is that many Democrats evidently favor a candidate about whom they know next to nothing over nine candidates who have spent months (or years) trying desperately--and without success--to break into a lead.
Not that Clark should get a free walk to the nomination. His opinions on issues, and his plans for the nation he would lead, are open to question and attack. Biography isn't destiny; Gen. Douglas MacArthur was one of many leaders who discovered that Americans can be more interested in honoring a military hero than in asking him to bivouac at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
But Clark does deserve a chance to present himself to the nation before his jealous rivals rule him out of order because they disapprove of his political evolution. Republicans have been more, what's the word, permissive about their candidates' pasts. They welcomed Dwight Eisenhower as their presidential candidate in 1952 despite fears that he might be a closet Democrat. And in 1980 they rallied behind Ronald Reagan, who unarguably had been a Democrat.
What the attacks on Clark most starkly betray is other candidates' lack of trust in Democratic voters. Maybe those voters will conclude Clark would make a fine president; maybe they will conclude he's just a shameless opportunist--like many candidates of both major parties who've sought, and sometimes reached, the presidency.
But the loyal Democrats who show up for party caucuses and primaries are perfectly capable of deciding what they think about Clark's devotion (or lack thereof) to the party, without self-serving guidance from other Democratic candidates. And so what if Clark presents an unconventional answer to the question: "What, in 2003, does it mean to be a Democrat?" That's proven a tough issue for many members of the party to resolve. Are they part of a loose coalition of interest groups dedicated to their respective liberal causes? Or are they united by some singular philosophy--like that which launched Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal--and if so, what is it?
How those dilemmas get resolved, more than any candidate's pedigree, stands to attract, or repel, the independent voters the Democratic candidate will need if he or she is to unseat George W. Bush in 13 months. As Joe Erwin, chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party, told the Tribune last week: "You don't have to be born into this party. Voters will look at the person, judge his sincerity and his vision and decide if he's got what it takes to make that vision a reality."
Simple and true. If Democrats want to demand that only lifelong members can seek to represent them on election ballots, or if they demand loyalty oaths, well, that is their privilege. Imposing those rules might be onerous and foolhardy, but it also would be honest and fair. More honest and fair, certainly, than fragging a popular new candidate from behind. In some cases, far behind.
-and-
Brace yourself, New Hampshire. If the libertarians make good on a promise, 20,000 of them soon will be headed your way determined to transform you into a "free state."
No, not a state where everything is free, although that would surely be a powerful draw to citizens of the other 49. No, the libertarians have in mind a state that offers its citizens more liberty, smaller government and fewer laws. By libertarian standards, that's a free state.
New Hampshire beat out nine other states, all with small populations and libertarian leanings. The voting was organized by the Free State Project, a two-year-old libertarian Internet-based club that has already signed up more than 5,000 "liberty-oriented" people. Those first signers have pledged to move to New Hampshire once the project reaches its goal of 20,000.
The free-staters believe that an infusion of 20,000 libertarians into a state whose entire population (1.2 million) is less than half the size of Chicago will be enough to tip the balance.
Given New Hampshire's history, you'd think the balance wouldn't have to tip very far to become what the libertarians imagine as utopia. The Granite State has traditionally boasted low taxes, a lean state government, a citizen legislature and a constitution that guarantees the right to revolt and doesn't rule out secession. Its motto is "Live Free or Die."
That sounds pretty much like a siren song for libertarians, although if the state is going to insist on that, some might object. The Free State Project motto is "Liberty in Our Lifetime," a somewhat less impassioned position that leaves the "or else" to the imagination.
The libertarians might be on to something, though. Yes, New Hampshire is the "Live Free or Die" state, but its citizens have been waffling in recent years. George Bush beat Al Gore by just 7,211 votes there in the 2000 election. Bill Clinton won big in 1996.
So 20,000 libertarians just might be enough of a force to hold the balance of power.
If nothing else, they would just about cancel out the 22,188 New Hampshire citizens who voted for Ralph Nader in the presidential election.
Bring in the moving vans.
so i feel a bit guilty about approvingly quoting what was a slag off of Glass (even if he is a sacred cow and i agreed with it covertly heh-heh) so here's a handsome write up of a new one of his from today's chicago tribune (besides, david henry hwang rocks my world) in the interests of balance :=
Despite the many theaters and opera houses that have been clamoring for and presenting his music theater works for more than three decades, Philip Glass has retained a particularly close relationship with Court Theatre.
Indeed, for this prolific composer, University of Chicago alumnus and prodigal son, every homecoming has brought a new artistic departure - a different approach to the wondrous mystery of how music and storytelling conspire to create something that resonates beyond themselves.
The latest such work is "The Sound of a Voice," a two-part opera by Glass and librettist David Henry Hwang that settled into a monthlong run Saturday night at Court Theatre, where the Midwest premiere scored a quiet but decisive triumph. The opera kicked off the Court's 49th season in a splendid co-production with American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Mass., which gave the world premiere there in May.
Even more so than the composer's earlier music theater piece, "In the Penal Colony" (which Court premiered in 2000), "The Sound of a Voice" is visual and aural chamber music of Zen-like restraint, a delicate blurring of Asian and Western cultural sensibilities enhanced by the subtle poetry of Glass' score, the first music he has composed using non-Western instruments.
Using only four singing actors and four instrumentalists, director Robert Woodruff's exquisitely spare production exploits the intimacy of the Court's thrust stage to create music theater that is haunting in its sounds but even more moving in its silences. The theme of both operas is isolation and the often painful path men and women must travel to achieve intimacy and understanding in their romantic relationships. Hwang used ancient Japanese ghost stories as the departure for his text, which began life in the early '80s as a play. Through his language, as spare and telling as haiku, traditional Japanese archetypes speak with a modern social and psychological sensibility.
In the first, and stronger, of the two-character operas (also titled "The Sound of a Voice"), an aging samurai warrior (Herbert Perry) arrives at the home of a mysterious woman who lives alone in the forest (Suzan Hanson). She ostensibly befriends him and they develop a sexual longing for each other that, like that of another mythic pair, Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, can be fulfilled only in death. Much of the suspense hinges on ambiguity. Does the man wish to seduce the woman or kill her? Does she intend to hold him captive forever, like the flowers she cultivates?
In the second part, "Hotel of Dreams," an elderly writer (Herbert Perry's brother, Eugene Perry) visits a geisha house that allows men at their end of their lives to relive their youth -- or, rather, to remember what it means to remember. The brothel's protective madam (Janice Felty) encourages his plunge into dreams and fantasies before she enters them, which leads to a very Japanese spin on Wagner's Liebestod, in his Tristan and Isolde opera.
Glass' score trades in many of his familiar musical fingerprints -- pulsing ostinatos, repeating rhythms, short vocal lines based on simple melodic ideas treated in parlando, or conversational, style. As minimalist as Hwang's text, the music happily takes a back seat to the drama to which it is so tightly wedded. If the score breaks no new ground for Glass, the fine brush strokes of instrumental color lend texture and atmosphere to every scene, especially in the first opera.
Using such traditional Asian instruments as the pipa (a four-stringed lute fluidly played by the astonishing virtuosa Min Xiao-Fen), the flutelike shakuhachi and 16 different percussion instruments including various drums, woodblock, tom-toms, wind chimes, castanets and finger cymbals, Glass employs the Westernized equivalent of a Japanese noh or gagaku ensemble to create, in effect, a fifth character in the operas.
When Herbert Perry's warrior spied on Hanson's Hanako undressing, the mournful, circling flights of the flute mirrored his repressed desire for her. In the second opera, the splintery strumming of the pipa over the sustained cello and the glinting bells became an important dramatic catalyst as soon as the shakuhachi took flight.
All four singing actors sang strongly and brought their characters to life subtly but indelibly through Woodruff's brilliant direction; one was especially taken with Hanson's bright, pure singing. Alan Johnson drew a precise reading from an excellent pit band consisting of Chase Pamela Morrison, cello; Susan Gall, flutes; Tina Keitel, percussion; and Xiao-Fen, pipa. The handsome production is by Robert Israel (sets), Kasia Walicka Maimone (costumes) and Beverly Emmons (lighting) again proved that less is indeed more.
Despite the many theaters and opera houses that have been clamoring for and presenting his music theater works for more than three decades, Philip Glass has retained a particularly close relationship with Court Theatre.
Indeed, for this prolific composer, University of Chicago alumnus and prodigal son, every homecoming has brought a new artistic departure - a different approach to the wondrous mystery of how music and storytelling conspire to create something that resonates beyond themselves.
The latest such work is "The Sound of a Voice," a two-part opera by Glass and librettist David Henry Hwang that settled into a monthlong run Saturday night at Court Theatre, where the Midwest premiere scored a quiet but decisive triumph. The opera kicked off the Court's 49th season in a splendid co-production with American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Mass., which gave the world premiere there in May.
Even more so than the composer's earlier music theater piece, "In the Penal Colony" (which Court premiered in 2000), "The Sound of a Voice" is visual and aural chamber music of Zen-like restraint, a delicate blurring of Asian and Western cultural sensibilities enhanced by the subtle poetry of Glass' score, the first music he has composed using non-Western instruments.
Using only four singing actors and four instrumentalists, director Robert Woodruff's exquisitely spare production exploits the intimacy of the Court's thrust stage to create music theater that is haunting in its sounds but even more moving in its silences. The theme of both operas is isolation and the often painful path men and women must travel to achieve intimacy and understanding in their romantic relationships. Hwang used ancient Japanese ghost stories as the departure for his text, which began life in the early '80s as a play. Through his language, as spare and telling as haiku, traditional Japanese archetypes speak with a modern social and psychological sensibility.
In the first, and stronger, of the two-character operas (also titled "The Sound of a Voice"), an aging samurai warrior (Herbert Perry) arrives at the home of a mysterious woman who lives alone in the forest (Suzan Hanson). She ostensibly befriends him and they develop a sexual longing for each other that, like that of another mythic pair, Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, can be fulfilled only in death. Much of the suspense hinges on ambiguity. Does the man wish to seduce the woman or kill her? Does she intend to hold him captive forever, like the flowers she cultivates?
In the second part, "Hotel of Dreams," an elderly writer (Herbert Perry's brother, Eugene Perry) visits a geisha house that allows men at their end of their lives to relive their youth -- or, rather, to remember what it means to remember. The brothel's protective madam (Janice Felty) encourages his plunge into dreams and fantasies before she enters them, which leads to a very Japanese spin on Wagner's Liebestod, in his Tristan and Isolde opera.
Glass' score trades in many of his familiar musical fingerprints -- pulsing ostinatos, repeating rhythms, short vocal lines based on simple melodic ideas treated in parlando, or conversational, style. As minimalist as Hwang's text, the music happily takes a back seat to the drama to which it is so tightly wedded. If the score breaks no new ground for Glass, the fine brush strokes of instrumental color lend texture and atmosphere to every scene, especially in the first opera.
Using such traditional Asian instruments as the pipa (a four-stringed lute fluidly played by the astonishing virtuosa Min Xiao-Fen), the flutelike shakuhachi and 16 different percussion instruments including various drums, woodblock, tom-toms, wind chimes, castanets and finger cymbals, Glass employs the Westernized equivalent of a Japanese noh or gagaku ensemble to create, in effect, a fifth character in the operas.
When Herbert Perry's warrior spied on Hanson's Hanako undressing, the mournful, circling flights of the flute mirrored his repressed desire for her. In the second opera, the splintery strumming of the pipa over the sustained cello and the glinting bells became an important dramatic catalyst as soon as the shakuhachi took flight.
All four singing actors sang strongly and brought their characters to life subtly but indelibly through Woodruff's brilliant direction; one was especially taken with Hanson's bright, pure singing. Alan Johnson drew a precise reading from an excellent pit band consisting of Chase Pamela Morrison, cello; Susan Gall, flutes; Tina Keitel, percussion; and Xiao-Fen, pipa. The handsome production is by Robert Israel (sets), Kasia Walicka Maimone (costumes) and Beverly Emmons (lighting) again proved that less is indeed more.
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