Archive for the ‘Music & Art’ Category
Beard of the Week LXI: Some Guys and Some Dolls
This week's beard* belongs to Clay Boyce, artistic director, chair, and founder of Park Players, a group in Birmingham, Alabama, that performs live outdoor theatre. For example, next year is a big Shakespeare year with "As You Like It" and "Taming of the Shrew" on the playbill. In addition to his chairing and directing, Mr. […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, Music & Art
Beard of the Week LX: Spock's Theremin
This week's beard belongs to Mr. Spock, the venerable half-Vulcan who served as the science officer aboard the Enterprise in "Star Trek", the original television series. It is thought that he has another name that is unpronounceable by humans. In grade school I identified quite a bit with Mr. Spock. Personally I hoped to develop […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, Music & Art
Roger Ebert is Openly Heterosexual
Roger Ebert loved Sean Penn in Gus van Sant's new movie "Milk", about the legendary Harvey Milk.* Not only that, Ebert comes out as straight and makes a useful point: In 1977, Harvey Milk became the first openly gay man elected to public office in the United States. Yes, but I have become so weary […]
In: All, Faaabulosity, Music & Art
Britten's "Serenade"
Awhile back I bought a remaindered copy of a CD containing music by Benjamin Britten, in particular his "Serenade for tenor, horn, and strings", performed by Anthony Rolfe Johnson, tenor, Michael Thompson, horn, and Bryden Thomson directing the strings of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.* It's fantastic. I think I've mentioned before that I frequently […]
In: All, Music & Art, Notes to Richard
To Be Alive and in a Museum
From 8 February to 26 October, 2008, the National Portrait Gallery had an exhibition called "Recognize! Hip Hop and Contemporary Portraiture". Seven artists were represented, in photography, film, painting, graffiti, and poetry. The two graffiti artists were Tim Conlon and Dave Hupp, both living in Washington, DC. Alas, I didn't see the show. I will […]
Beard of the Week LV: SX-70
This week's beards belongs to an anonymous actor in this film from 1972. The film is 10:47 long; the actor who provides the excuse to include this first-ever video at Beard of the Week appears very, very briefly at the 1:48 mark; or, if you prefer, it's a different actor who appears very, very briefly […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, It's Only Rocket Science, Music & Art
Another Little Palin Song
Thanks to Alex Ross, who writes about music at The New Yorker and in his blog, my attention was drawn to this quirky little "number", a collaboration between Sarah Palin and pianist/composer Henry Hey. I love quirky, as you know by now. Ross described it as "Sarah Palin's magisterial explication of the Wall Street bailout, […]
In: All, Current Events, Music & Art
Beard of the Week LIII: The National Portrait Gallery at 40
This week's somewhat stern beard (with eyebrows to match) belongs to Adolph Cluss (1825–1905), an architect born in Germany, who immigrated to America, working in Washington, DC. A few years ago the Washington Post described him as "without question the least known of Washington's most important architects."* As used in the title of that article, […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, Music & Art
Beard of the Week L: Portrait of the Artist
self-portrait copyright © 2008 by Bill Pusztai (source), used with permission. This week's beard belongs to Bill Pusztai, a photographer and artist living in Toronto. In this photograph he seems to be doing some yoga but, for our purposes, he is displaying his magnificent beard as well as drawing attention to the gorgeous tattoo on […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, Faaabulosity, Music & Art
Mouthwateringly Beautiful
"Blackcurrant Leaf Sorbet & Blackcurrant Jelly", photograph by Sara Taylor from 100 Great Desserts, by Mandy Wagstaff, p. 66. Some few years ago I bought a cookbook called In & Out of the Kitchen in Fifteen Minutes or Less, by Anne Willan, photography by Sara Taylor (New York : Rizzoli, 1995, 128 pages). I like […]
In: All, Food Stuff, Music & Art
Beard of the Week XLIX: Wild & Gay Things
This week's beard belongs to Maurice Sendak, the famed artist noted for his book illustration, particularly the celebrated Where the Wild Things Are (from 1963). I write "artist noted for his book illustration" because of the piece in the New York Times ("Concerns Beyond Just Where the Wild Things Are", by Patricia Cohen, 2 September […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, Faaabulosity, Music & Art
Beard of the Week XLVIII: Father of the Composer
The week's beard belongs to Pierre Joseph Ravel* (1832-1908), father of the composer Maurice Ravel. As I started this entry I was listening to the concluding movement of Ravel's "Trio for Piano, Violin, and Violoncello", surely one of the most sumptuous sounding pieces I can think of–it's amazing the sound that these three instruments can […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, Music & Art
Loud, but Honest
From the National Portrait Gallery, "Amy Henderson, a historian at the National Portrait Gallery, discusses Ethel Merman, and her 1971 portrait by artist Rosemarie Sloat. The portrait is currently on view at NPG, in the 'Bravo!' exhibition, on the museum’s third floor mezzanine." It's an iconic portrait of Merman as Annie Oakley in Annie Get […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Music & Art
Byzantine Style in Commercial Art
The apse mosaic at the church of St. Paul's Outside the Walls, near Rome, Italy, is a gorgeous work of Byzantine style art. Here is a photograph Isaac took of the central figure of Christ, shown in a variant of his portrayal as "Christ Pantocrator". Near the Christ's right foot is a small, white thing […]
In: All, Music & Art, Plus Ca Change...
Thomas Tallis: Nine Psalm Tunes
This evening we were listening, with quite a bit of pleasure, to a recording we recently purchased. It's called "Heavenly Harmonies"; it records the 13-voice a capella group "Stile Antico" singing William Byrd's (c. 1540–1623) "Motets" (from Cantiones sacrae I & II) and "Mass Propers for Pentecost (from Gradualia, 1607), interspersed with "9 Psalm Tunes […]
Beard of the Week XXXIX: Schütz, Schein, and Scheidt
This week's beard belongs to Philip Cave, who has recently taken up the post of music director at All Souls Memorial Episcopal Church in Washington, DC.† Philip Cave (his website) is an accomplished tenor who has sung with the Hilliard Ensemble, The Sixteen, the Choir of the English Consort, and the King's Consort, among others, […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, Music & Art, Personal Notebook
The Lovely Cyd Charisse
Two days ago Cyd Charisse died. We liked seeing her in movies, watching her dance. To be honest, though, we seem most to associate her with Gene Kelly's voice as heard in the film series "That's Entertainment", once we noticed that he always referred to her as "the lovely Cyd Charisse". I suppose this is […]
In: All, Music & Art, Personal Notebook
Check Out Them Roses
Some things are just too fabulous not to share. Joe ("Sing Out, Louise!", Joe.My.God, 19 June 2008), looking into Patti Lupone's acclaimed Tony-award performance from "Gypsey", tripped across this homage by one Michael Burbach. I couldn't say it better than Joe: "I don't know who the heck this Michael Burbach kid is, but he is […]
In: All, Faaabulosity, Music & Art
New Castle, Delaware
This past February (which is to say, in 2008) we took a small excursion to visit our friends Tom & James, who live in Bear, Delaware. While we were there we had a small outing to New Castle, Delaware, where I took pictures. New Castle has a colonial origin, founded in 1651 by Peter Stuyvesant. […]
In: All, Music & Art, Personal Notebook
Barry Byrne & Turners Cross, Ireland
You may recall that I wrote recently about our new photo album with photographs of St. Benedict's Abbey Church in Atchison, Kansas. It was a gorgeous building and fun to take pictures of, it was so photogenic. You may recall further that when I tried to find more information about the building and its designer, […]
In: All, Music & Art, Personal Notebook, The Art of Conversation