Musical interlude
When I was a kid and the internet didn’t exist, I used to spend a lot of time listening to records. That’s why, to this day, my brain still has access to the entire scores of many Broadway musicals and … Continue reading →
Category Archives: Arts
Open thread 11/23/2024
Chopin wrote this piece when he was eleven years old. It’s his earliest surviving work, but not the earliest he wrote. He was a child prodigy not just in playing but in composing: I think the pianist is thirteen here.
Continue reading →Do you feel the winds of change?
Ever since the election there’s been a sea-change, an atmospheric something that’s a bit hard to describe but has the whiff of possibility. I think everyone feels it to a certain extent. The left dreads and fears it, and perhaps … Continue reading →
RIP dancer Judith Jamison
Statuesque Alvin Ailey dancer Judith Jamison has died at the age of 81. She was a towering figure in the dance world – pun intended, because she was very tall – and there are plenty of tributes. This is mine. … Continue reading →
Being a living doll
I saw this the other day. It’s quite well done, particular by the male dancer: It’s actually an old trick that appears in many ballets, as well. For example, Coppelia (here she’s pretending to be a doll to fool the … Continue reading →
Beyoncé at the rally, versus Kundera: to dream the impossible dream of circle dancing
Whose decision was it that Beyoncé appear at Harris’ Houston rally to endorse her but not to sing? Not even one little itty bitty song? After all, isn’t Beyoncé like, you know, a singer? And when singers appear at political … Continue reading →
Love-gone-bad songs
If you look at the topic broadly, probably more than half of popular songs are about heartbreak or love gone bad. But I was thinking about a particular sort of heartbreak – the lover who was never sincere, the one … Continue reading →
Serenade: how to film ballet
Or how not to film ballet. I admit it’s a very difficult task. Film flattens a three-dimensional highly spatial art into two dimensions of flatness. Dance’s impact can only really be made in space, which allows for perspective and weight. … Continue reading →
Pas de Quatre
“Pas de Quatre” is one of the oldest ballets about which we have any knowledge. It’s from the Romantic era, when female ballet dancers first went up on pointe although in softer shoes than we have today. The aesthetic for … Continue reading →
RIP Kris Kristofferson
Excellent songwriter, handsome guy, he lived to be 88. Here he is with Johnny Cash performing a song Kristofferson wrote: I especially like this short clip of an interview with Kristofferson in which he pays tribute to his friend Steve … Continue reading →
RIP Michaela DePrince
I was shocked and saddened to read yesterday of the extremely untimely death of ballet dancer Michaela DePrince. To compound the sorrow, her mother died a day later. It’s an incredible tragedy for the family and for Michaela’s sister Mia … Continue reading →
Update on Gerard’s book
The projected launch date for Gerard’s book of 46 essays – THE NAME IN THE STONE – is November 1. I’m about 95% sure everything will be in place by then. I’ll let you know the details of how to … Continue reading →