CD review time!

Ingram Marshall's Hymnodic Delays is something I picked up after reading a mention of his work in the New York Times. I've struggled to find ways to describe this recording, partly because Mr. Marshall's work is unjustly obscure and partly because this recording is a diverse sampler of his work. Three pieces are represented on this recording, a work for orchestra and tape, a suite for four unaccompanied voices, and a string quartet/tape piece.

All three works are fairly slow-moving, more of a feeling of meditation than, say, dancing. "Hymnodic Delays", the vocal work, has a bit of movement in comparison with the others--the harmonies are dry and acrid here, emphasized by the spare arrangement of the voices in space and the performance by early-music specialists, Paul Hillier's Theatre of Voices, emphasize that by using early-music styles. The string quartet, "Fog Tropes II", seems like one of those ideas that are really obvious, once you hear it. It's an integration of shimmering, mournful sounds by the quartet (the Kronos Quartet here, as good as they've ever sounded) and recorded drones of real fog horns. It's gorgeous and moving.

Yet "Fog Tropes II" isn't the best work on the disk. That would be "Kingdom Come", performed ably by the American Composers Orchestra and Paul Dunkel. It opens with beautiful string writing, seemingly shadowed by ominous, hollow, recorded sounds that surge and recede, sometimes sounding like distant tympani, and eventually coming forward as voices: a muezzin's call to prayer here, a church choir there. As the taped sounds mutate, so does the orchestra, with angered surges of brass and filigrees of woodwinds. The piece has a deeply sorrowful tone (it was written upon the death of Mr. Marshall's brother) that highlights the anguish while tempering the joyful beauty. This is a masterpiece.

10 out of 10

CDs listened to today:

• François-Bernard Mache: Andromède
• Prince: Graffiti Bridge
• Bill Watrous: Manhattan Wildlife Refuge
• Nikolai Myaskovsky: Symphony No. 1
• Smithereens: 11
• Juraj Filas: Sonata For Trombone And Piano (At the end of the century)

It's time for more video evidence that deep down, I'm still a fourteen-year-old boy.

You may remember that these fine folks gave us an important health and safety video. Now, they share the secrets of podcasting with you:



CDs listened to today:

• John Corigliano: Symphony No. 1
• Jason Lindner: Premonition
• Konono No. 1: Congotronics
• Paul Hindemith: Concertmusic for Piano, Brass, and Harps, disk 1
• Arild Plau: Concerto For Tuba And Orchestra
• Rand Steiger: Hexadecathlon: "A New-Slain Knight"

I sounded off on a tech issue today.

A poor, unnamed soul today made the mistake of asking me about some tech matters. Well, I cut loose. My peeve today was that when I buy a media file from an online retailer, say iTunes or Amazon, they don't back up my data for me. If you have a hard drive failure or otherwise lose your purchased file, you have to buy a replacement copy. I already paid for the rights to the file! I should be able to have access to a fresh copy on their servers any time I need! After all, my purchase was for the rights to a file, not that particular file. If I can back it up on my hard drive at home, why not on some mega-corporation's server farm?

CDs listened to today:

• Ludwig van Beethoven: The String Quartets
• Terence Trent d'Arby: Neither Fish Nor Flesh
• Kenny Wheeler: Music For Large & Small Ensembles
• Allan Blank: Concerto For Clarinet And String Orchestra
• The Joggers: Solid Guild
• Hanson: Middle Of Nowhere
• Rand Steiger: Hexadecathlon: "A New-Slain Knight"
• Kevin Puts: Dark Vigil
  

Isn't that perverse?

I really can't decide. I drove past the big, newish aquarium facility near downtown. It was supposed to be a publicly-funded deal, non-profit and all that, but it quickly failed. A private restaurant chain bought the entire thing for a fraction of the money spent building the huge site and now it's some kind of overgrown, overpriced seafood restaurant.

It's one thing to order and eat steak at, say, a cattle ranch, I suppose. At the ranch, they raise the animals strictly for eating. But at the aquarium, the fish are on display for you to admire and appreciate as living miracles. Except for the ones on your plate that they've killed and destroyed. Isn't that just a little perverse?

CDs listened to today:

• Alfred Schnittke: Symphony No. 8
• Cuong Vu: Vu-Tet
• Nick Didkovsky: Amalia's Secret
• John Adams: Harmonielehre
• Beatles: Please Please Me
• The Joggers: Solid Guild
• Ingram Marshall: Hymnodic Delays
• Rand Steiger: Hexadecathlon: "A New-Slain Knight"

You know, I'm feeling cheap lately.

I'm catching up a little after an unexpected expense (about three-and-a-half weeks of spending money) and that always makes me feel parsimonious. I can always overcome these feelings, but you know it's bad when you start trying to round down the waitress' tip rather than round up.

I had a good day of not feeling that way on Saturday when I got the chance to take my seven-year-old nephew to a hockey game. It was a college game, which is a nice price compared to the local NHL tickets, but even so, when you throw in dinner out (I had a coupon, so I was thrilled when he wanted to go to my "usual place"!), a treat at the game, and parking, the outing was over $60. I think that, when you're seven years old, a $60 outing makes you less than a cheap date!

It was worth every penny; he enjoyed it.

CDs listened to today:

• 24-7 Spyz: Gumbo Millenium
• Juraj Filas: Sonata For Trombone And Piano (At the end of the century)
• Dmitri Shostakovich: The String Quartets, disk 1
• Various Artists: Something For Everybody
• Bill Watrous: The Tiger Of San Pedro
• The Joggers: Solid Guild
• Richard Wagner: Prelude from Tristan Und Isolde
• Rand Steiger: Hexadecathlon: "A New-Slain Knight"
• Nine Inch Nails: The Perfect Drug
• Porno For Pyros: Pets
  

New pop songs in the spotlight!

My usual top hits playlist was kind of short on new material this week. MTV didn't broadcast any TRL episodes and Fuse didn't update their Oven Fresh pages, so I feel like a got a vacation from coming up with a long, long post... Only three new songs this week, two from the UK:

• After much promotional support, Duffy debuts on the UK charts at number one with "Mercy". She's another one of those young British soul singers who sound much older, like Amy Winehouse or Joss Stone. This is a nice up-tempo track that borrows heavily from Motown, but it's rather busy-sounding, with a few too many layers of old tricks.
• The other UK debut is from H Two O featuring Platinum, "What's It Gonna Be". It's a catchy, energetic dance track in the European style. It's fine in that not-quite-product, not-quite-art way that so many pop songs reach.
• Puddle of Mudd is back with "Psycho" and it's not bad. It's better than their usual, with a kind of bouncy verse and a roaring chorus that's considerably more tuneful than most of what I've heard from them.

CDs listened to today:

• Arild Plau: Concerto For Tuba And Orchestra
• Thea Musgrave: Concerto For Clarinet
• Elliott Smith: XO
• Bill Watrous: Manhattan Wildlife Refuge
• Christopher Rouse: Concerto for Trombone (Joseph Alessi, soloist)

CD review time again?

Remy Shand's The Way I Feel is out of print, according to my local music store. I'm not sure that's true, given that neither Amazon's nor Motown's web sites show the disk as out-of-print. Released in 2002, it didn't sell at all well and it was released on a label, Motown, that's never been kind to releases that don't sell well. They have never shown a willingness to let quality recordings take the time to find an audience and sell steadily. It's better than most of what Motown released that year and if you want it, I hope that Amazon is still selling it when you read this.

So, what is this disk? Remy Shand is a Canadian fellow whose singing, writing, and performing is rooted primarily in the music of the seventies, especially Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, with a nice dash of Prince thrown in. I don't want you to think that this is a derivative disk, here, rather that it has an excellent stylistic pedigree. His singing alternates behind a sugary falsetto and a full voice that sounds a touch adenoidal at the top of phrases. It's well-suited for his romantic, meditative songs.

The album's got a hermetic feeling, the risk a musician takes when he plays all (well, nearly all) the instruments himself. With an emphasis on romance, even the up-tempo songs are slightly gentle grooves with a mildly funky set of rhythms based on electric piano riffs, mellow guitar, and simplified drum parts. There are some well-chosen horn accents here and there and while there isn't much excitement (even a bit of brooding), the overall feel of the album is one of calm, confident romance.

8 out of 10

CDs listened to today:

• Konono No. 1: Congotronics
• Witold Lutoslawski: Symphony No. 3
• Prince: Batman
  

I love time-wasters.

A friend recently began doing more on Facebook, leaving MySpace behind for the most part. I've had a long-neglected Facebook profile and his new activity has me taking another look at the site. While the Facebook crowd is considerably more sedate than the bunch at MySpace (remember, you're still talking about high-school and college students, so the standards are pretty low--but I've yet to see a news organization show a Facebook profile of a suspected murderer, a MySpace specialty), the application has better privacy settings than MySpace, permits less tweaking of profile code (the sort that leads to unviewable page colors on MySpace), and allows add-on application goodies to your profile.

Some of these applications are pretty fun, and make Facebook more enjoyable, even if it has fewer users and such tight restrictions on interactions. You can throw virtual sheep at friends, sign petitions, challenge pals to trivia quiz contests, and display your book or music collection. At first, I got sucked in to a geography quiz game, wasting ten minutes at a shot trying to remember what the flag of Bhutan looks like or precisely where the capitol of Côte d'Ivoire is.

Then my friend installed a virtual CD rack, showing some of his favorite CDs. there went a couple of weeks of my free time! You have probably noticed by my listening journal that I own a lot of CDs. I'm a bit proud of my collection and this application is exactly the wrong thing for me. You see, they have roughly 400,000 users and they rank the users according to who has the most disks... While I'm not the most competitive guy, it was suddenly important for me to be ranked in the top 100 users. That meant entering, manually, my entire CD collection, plus the vinyl. Yes, I'm now in the top 100! What a good use of my time, no?

The application also ranks albums by how many users have them. I'll probably comment on that at some time in the future. Fascinating stuff.

CDs listened to today:

• Aaron Copland: Symphonic Ode
• Libertines: Up The Bracket
• Kevin Puts: Dark Vigil
• Jennifer Higdon: City Scape
• New Order: Substance
• The Joggers: Solid Guild
  

Don't let them mislead you.

Today's New York Times article describing Senator John McCain's problematic history with lobbyists has already drawn a veritable storm of criticism. The most heavy criticism is from two sources: other mainstream media sources and the right-wing chatterers (ironically, Rush Limbaugh is vocal on this matter, despite his apparent loathing for Sen. McCain). If you listen to the fuss these groups are making, you'd think they never read the article.

Feel free to use the provided link and you'll see that the article is almost entirely about Sen. McCain's ethical tone-deafness regarding his own behavior. He's cozy with lobbyists while he rails against them; he runs his campaign with a staff full of lobbyists while saying he wants them out of business. Senator, there's a reason why the advice is never only to avoid impropriety, but also the appearance of impropriety.

I suppose I must agree that the Times should have left out the part about how the Senator was so cozy with a young, pretty, blond lobbyist that some of his staffers feared he was having an affair with her. This is where the mainstream media fell down. They aren't reporting at all on the fact that the Senator was clearly showing signs of impropriety in not only that instance, but also in his famous dealings during the savings and loan scandals of the late 1980s. He needs to display the rectitude we want to believe he possesses and these matters show he's not capable of it. Why can't we discuss that, since he's a potential President of the United States?

As for the right wing, I assume they are merely repeating their usual efforts to drum up hatred and distrust for the mainstream media. The strategy, of course, is simply to make sure that anybody who dares to report a viewpoint that disagrees with them (or worse, reveal that the conservative view is wrong) is isolated and pilloried. They'd rather have you focus on the sex than the real story. They want to make sure you don't read the real story because you might conclude they are wrong. I'm not sure how much of this is even conscious thought on the part of the extreme right-wingers these days. Their hatred of those who disagree with them is so poisonous, I doubt they can see past it.

CDs listened to today:

• D'Angelo: Voodoo
• Ingram Marshall: Hymnodic Delays
• Georges Bizet: Symphony In C Major
• Green Day: Nimrod
• Kenny Wheeler: Music For Large & Small Ensembles
• Cuong Vu: Vu-Tet
• Nick Didkovsky: Amalia's Secret
  

My heart got broken a little today.

It happened while I was returning from a quick visit to the convenience store this afternoon. On my way back to the office, I spotted a Maserati Quattroporte sitting in traffic as I walked by. It's striking how big and gorgeous those things are, all elegant understatement and flowing lines.

I was admiring the huge tailpipes and thinking of what a wonderful, muscular sound it must make when the light turned green and the car surged forward. And that's when my heart broke.

The engine was ailing and the car wheezed like an asthmatic fat kid as it moved.

Maybe it's because the great sedan looks like a battleship rather than a sleek athlete, but it really can't suffer the indignities of such infirmities. Suddenly, I noticed it was covered in winter road grime and had a clunky satellite radio antenna on the roof. The magic was gone because an inattentive owner has dishonored such a beautiful example of the carmaker's art.

At least I still have those memories in Italy of sailing down the Passo Falzarego on my bicycle, coming around a bend and suddenly being confronted with that huge, aggressive grille and only having time to register the signature tridenta emblem as I dodged him and he me before that silver Maserati was behind me. Seeing a Maserati at home on its native soil on a twisty, mountainous road is like seeing a cheetah hunting in the wild. You know you've seen something special!

CDs listened to today:

• Janet Jackson: Miss You Much
• John Mayer: Heavier Things (EP)
• Alfred Schnittke: Symphony No. 8
• John Adams: Grand Pianola Music
• Beastie Boys: Ill Communication
• Remy Shand: The Way I Feel
• Cuong Vu: Vu-Tet
• Ludwig van Beethoven: The String Quartets, disk 6
  
• Nick Didkovsky: Amalia's Secret
  

Following up!

My, um, entire readership (you know who you are) has been asking, what about the hotel charges from my visit to Vancouver/Portland? The story is that the hotel processed my bank card for the wrong amount--charging me for only one night instead of five. Well, karma didn't work for me and I wound up getting charged for the full amount after I pointed the matter out. Oh well, at least I'm not dishonest on that one!

CDs listened to today:

• 24-7 Spyz: Harder Than You
• Juraj Filas: Sonata For Trombone And Piano (At the end of the century)
• Richard Wagner: Siegfried-Idyll
• Various Artists: Shades of Technology, A Drum and Bass Journey
• Bill Watrous: The Tiger Of San Pedro
• Cuong Vu: Vu-Tet
• William Schuman: Symphony No. 10
• Nick Didkovsky: Amalia's Secret
  

New pop songs!

Are any of them worth hearing? I added 16 songs to my top hits playlist this week and it's the usual mixed bag:

• Panic! At The Disco is the big debut this week with "Nine In The Afternoon". They seem to be following the lead of My Chemical Romance's "Black Parade" and the band is no longer playing the "two guitars, bass, and drums" emo style. This is a big production with a bouncy piano beat, plenty of studio tricks, and a big strings/horns arrangement and even if it's not as good as "Black Parade", it's worth a listen. It's the most Beatles-like hit song in a while.
• It's been a while since Missy Elliott has been in the charts, but she's here now with "Ching-A-Ling". She and Sean Combs see, a lot alike to me: a decent set of guest performers with a knack for good production, but a terrible performer. This one isn't that great, but it's not awful, given the stellar supporting cast.
• "Like You" from Bow Wow is here. It's nothing special, just a sugary, romantic, mid-tempo confection that's hardly distinguishable from the rest of the music industry's "product".
• Having just met the Jonas Brothers in person a couple of weekends ago, I feel bad saying that "When You Look Me In The Eyes" is their weakest single yet. The singing doesn't survive the slower tempo and the song is not up to their usual standard.
• It hasn't been that long since the last Against Me! single, which is bad news. Guys, it's not authentic punk just because you bellow rather than sing and nobody beyond your own little circle of believers really likes your tuneless stuff--even if they respect your "commitment" to the punk/political ethos.
• You know, I remember thinking that Chingy's "Right Thurr" was a novelty song and we'd never hear from him again. He's had a longer career than I expected and he's back in the charts with "Gimme Dat". With a guest shot from Ludacris, this is pretty good.
• "I'm Not Jesus" by Apocalyptica is pretty interesting. It opens with a little dose of Nine Inch Nails-style brooding before opening to a broad, muscular chorus. Not bad.
• The Audition, from Chicago, brings a tiny dose of that city's famed power-pop to the charts with "Warm Me Up". It sounds suspiciously like another generic Emo band at times and it's a really undistinguished tune.
• You know, sometimes you hear some of the top hits in the UK and you just have to scratch your head. This week's puzzler is "Weightless" from Wet Wet Wet. In case you wondered what the most generic product of the 1970s pop music industry sounded like, take a listen. Mid-tempo, heavy studio augmentation, and a frightening resemblance to the worst of Eric Carmen. Stay away...
• As if you needed a tour of the history of pop music for the last 40 years, your next stop would be courtesy The Feeling, which is a loose-limbed throwback to the style they used to call "dance-oriented rock" (think late 80s). It's a near-disco beat with layered, oh-so-slightly noisy guitars. The song is charming enough, if not the most brilliant thing ever. I have a weakness for this stuff, so I may not be the most unbiased judge.
• And continuing our historic tour, we come to a star who's solo career was very prominent in the early 1990s. Morrissey is back on the UK charts with "That's How People Grow Up", and, having not listened to him in a while, I'm surprised to hear him these days. He's still crooning about issues in a kind of pop-psychology way, although I'd say he's missing the remarkable songwriting skills of his earlier days. The tougher guitar sounds are pretty good, but an odd fit for his style of singing.
• J Holiday is hardly a throwback. He's the state-of-the-art pop star these days with a blend of R&B, hip-hop, and the latest in electronically modified singing. "Suffocate" is the new song and it's another slow jam that's a little too much. "Bed" was better, but this stuff is pretty predictable product--not art--that won't be remembered in a few years.
• Another one of those UK dance acts, Goldfrapp is on the charts with "A&E". This is not a dance track, though. It's a middling ballad that you don't have to rush out and hear.
• How long since a new Chris Brown single? Weeks? In case you were worried, there's a new one rising on the charts: "No Air". I've never thought much of Mr. Brown, so this song won't make much of an impression on me. He's a much better dancer!
• I really liked Kylie Minogue's last single, where she seemed to be channeling her inner Ann-Margret with a bouncy, sexy dance number. This track, "Wow" isn't nearly as much fun and the chorus pretty much makes me cringe.

CDs listened to today:

• Claudio Monteverdi: L'Ottavo Libro dei Madrigali
• The Presidents Of The United States: (eponymous)
• Arild Plau: Concerto For Tuba And Orchestra
• Verne Reynolds: Partita
• Bill Watrous: Manhattan Wildlife Refuge
• Cuong Vu: Vu-Tet
• Roger Sessions: When Lilacs Last In The Dooryard Bloom'd
• Nick Didkovsky: Amalia's Secret
  

This is so messed up.

I was reading an article today discussing circumcision. The gist of the story was that there aren't a lot of reasons for doing this. One doctor called it a procedure in search of a reason, which I really liked. Still, the arguments that the procedure is unnecessarily cruel are silly. Ask any adult male how awful it was, he'll tell you he doesn't remember. Let's set aside the cruelty argument, shall we?

What was most interesting to me was a link in the story (I can't find the original story now). It was a link to a posting about female circumcision. It's unusual to read about this side of the story: that we in the West are imposing our cultural biases on those in other societies when we oppose female circumcision (call it "genital mutilation" if you like). The follow-up post was also fascinating. Maybe we need to listen to these people.

Could it be racism to impose our views on them? Yes, it's not medically necessary, but neither is male circumcision and nobody's demanding that Jews stop that--and only a few call it "male genital mutilation".

CDs listened to today:

• Lemonheads: It's A Shame About Ray
• Kevin Puts: Dark Vigil
• György Ligeti: Sonata For Solo Viola
• Oliver Nelson: The Blues And The Abstract Truth
• Konono No. 1: Congotronics
  

And another CD review.

I own a box set of the complete string quartets of Ludwig van Beethoven, recorded by the Végh Quartet. Like most of these box sets, this one is eight CDs and it's not inexpensive. You need to invest wisely when you spend that money and I think you'll find that this set is a good choice.

When you discuss a collection of performances that cover such a large number of works--really an entire career--it's hard to focus in on just one work or the other. Beethoven's quartets are a key part of his masterpieces and it's worth noting that only the sonatas for his own instrument, the piano, outnumber his quartets. His typical characteristics are here, the rhythmic vitality, the short melodic elements that repeat, the endless invention, the brusque willingness to ignore classical conventions. It's fascinating to listen to the works progress, from the rather conservative early works, following the teachings of his mentor Joseph Haydn, to the later works where he seems to cast off any sense of convention (I've heard an argument from the Arditti Quartet that the Great Fugue, part of the 13th quartet, is the first Modernist music). For me, string quartets are often the most intimate view of a composer's thoughts, perhaps because so many of them are pianists, meaning their piano works reflect the instrument and its challenges, rather than the music in their heads. These quartets are sensational, showing complete mastery of the composer's craft.

Performed in the 1970s, these recordings show more tape hiss than we're used to hearing these days, but the sound is still warm and intimate. The Végh quartet, led by founder Sandor Végh, has a dry, woody sound, although Mr. Végh has a tendency to play flat (he plays first violin throughout). The team plays with beautiful lyricism, especially cellist Paul Szabo, and they are clearly comfortable with the demands of illustrating the works' logic and form. At times, they are a little cautious and this is more of a problem with the later quartets when a firm hand is needed for the nearly violent fortissimos and sharp, aggressive rhythms. Overall, though, these are musicians steeped in the traditions of Beethoven's Austro-Hungarian empire and they play with tremendous sympathy.

9 out of 10

CDs listened to today:

• Frederic Chopin: Polonaises, disk 2
• Green Day: Insomniac
• Kenny Wheeler: Music For Large & Small Ensembles
• Georg Friedrich Handel: Sound An Alarm
  

Fifteen days.

These are the statistics broadcast by ABC News tonight. From February 1 through today, 32 people have been murdered in seven mass shootings of at least three people each. We are a nation awash in a sea of guns, where every mentally ill person has easy access to them, where every angry husband has one, where every lost temper becomes life-threatening and every despondent moment can end a life.

You know what those who advocate the status quo say? That we need more people to carry guns, because they will be able to stop these lunatics. That's right, without any training, they will correctly assess every risky situation and make the right decision about who should live and who should die. Of course, extensively trained police officers don't always get this right, but what's the harm in adding, say, a hundred million perpetually armed adults to the mix? It'll make things safer, right? Not one of them will have a sudden attack of road rage or get in a heated discussion after a few drinks? And even if they do, they can all be relied on to refrain from using the military anti-personnel weapon they carry, right?

Gun rights are considered a virtue by the conservative political class, held hostage by the highly effective lobbying efforts of the National Rifle Association, among others. That always seems odd to me, because those same conservatives like to talk about a "culture of life". But then, they also advocate application of the death penalty, so you can't really take this as an honest intellectual position.

As for me, I'm tired of watching people in college classrooms, clothing stores, offices, and all these other quotidian places die because, even for the lunatics, getting a gun is about as difficult as getting a ham sandwich. We can split hairs over the precise meaning of the fourth amendment and what the militia clause means, or we can decide that the right to life starts with taking guns away from nearly everyone. Let's start with some modest restrictions and see what happens to the gun death rate. I think the overall murder rate will go down. Guns just make mayhem too easy, a push-button killing device you can activate from a comfortable distance. The moronically simplistic argument that "guns don't kill people, people kill people" ignores the simple logic that if people are so dangerous, we shouldn't give them convenient tools to do monstrous things.

CDs listened to today:

• Garbage: Independent Access
• Girls vs. Boys: Park Avenue
• Bill Watrous: The Tiger Of San Pedro
• Alfred Schnittke: Symphony No. 8
• Ludwig van Beethoven: The String Quartets, disk 2
• Beastie Boys: Check Your Head
• Remy Shand: The Way I Feel
• Hector Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique
• Cure: Wish
• Ingram Marshall: Hymnodic Delays
  

Yup, it's time for video again.

I've said it before, I have the taste of a fourteen-year-old boy when it comes to web videos. I've also said that sometimes, my preferences are actually more like a nine-year-old boy's. This video is for the nine-year-old in me (and you, I hope). And c'mon, you already knew gummi bears and chemistry are fun, right?



CDs listened to today:

• Roger Reynolds: Dream Of The Infinite Rooms
• Smashing Pumpkins: Melon Collie And the Infinite Sadness
• Arild Plau: Concerto For Tuba And Orchestra
• Roger Sessions: Symphony No. 9
• Truman's Water: Of Thick Tum
• Bill Watrous: Manhattan Wildlife Refuge
• Richard Wagner: Prelude From Tristan Und Isolde
• Various Artists: Say What?
• Juraj Filas: Sonata For Trombone And Piano (At the end of the century)
• Garbage: Independent Access
  

CD review time already?

William Schuman's Symphony No. 10, conducted by Gerard Schwarz, is part of a phase I went through a while back when I realized I didn't have all the Schuman works I wanted. In my haste to get all his symphonies, I marked my Amazon.com wish list with a couple of CDs I actually didn't really need. This is one of them. A girlfriend bought this before I realized it contained only the 7th and 10th symphonies--and I already had recordings of both. Hence, I mark this by the conductor to distinguish from the 10th symphony disk conducted by Leonard Slatkin. There are worse things than having two performances on separate recordings when it comes to Schuman symphonies.

The 7th symphony shows Mr. Schuman's characteristic style of dense, slow-moving, dark harmonies, but it's less monumental in feeling and the leavening of folk-melody elements actually give the work a light-footed feel that's not only unusual for William Schuman, but very pleasant. The 10th symphony, subtitled "American Muse" is a self-consciously "major work". Again, it's huge and filled with thick, tense harmonies, but the structure is clearer than the 7th, helping things move along, despite clocking in at over a half-hour. Oddly, despite the title, the folk melodies aren't as pronounced as the 7th, but the pleasures of this work come from broader themes embedded in Mr. Schuman's typically rich writing.

Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony once again show that their long relationship recording American composers is a boon to all of us interested in the topic. It's a shame that musicians like William Schuman, Howard Hanson, and Walter Piston (among others) don't get a better hearing, especially with exemplary recordings like these.

8 out of 10

CDs listened to today:

• Kenny Wheeler: Music For Large & Small Ensembles, disk 2
• György Ligeti: Nonsense Madrigals
• Bill Nelson: The Strangest Things
• Kevin Puts: Dark Vigil
• Claudio Monteverdi: Il Sesto Libro Dei Madrigali
• Possum Dixon: (eponymous)
• Konono No. 1: Congotronics
  

Habeas corpus has been on my mind lately.

It's frustrating to see how few Americans know about this right and the way that our current president has worked to reduce our access to this. People tend to think of this as some tricky legal maneuver abused by prisoners or something. It's actually the most important check on police powers. You see, if we agree that the very fact of liberty is the most basic right, then we have to agree that the power to take that away is the most dangerous of all powers. This is the power of arrest.

The most important check on the power of arrest is habeas corpus (Latin for "show the body", loosely translated) because it's the right we all have to demand that a neutral party, namely a judge, decide that the arrest was legal and proper. Without this protection, the government can arrest and detain you, me, or anybody and leave us in jail as long as they like without trying us for a crime--or even charging us. With the prisoners that the United States has captured in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, the president and his team have commanded that they be held without serious judicial review in Guantanamo Bay military facility. He then argues three things to keep the prisoners:

1. They received judicial review.
2. They are not in the United States, so US law does not apply to them.
3. They are not Americans and therefore aren't eligible for the protection of our laws.

Boy, this is a big load of fertilizer.

Received judicial review? Well, technically true. The prisoners (or detainees, as the administration would like you to call them--it sounds less cruel) went before military judges--who work for the president. These are not neutral jurists. They serve at the pleasure of the president and are not truly part of the independent federal judiciary. It's like the policeman who arrested you got to hire, train, and pay the judge who decides if the arrest was fair. There was no serious judicial review.

Not in the United States? Why? because Cuba isn't a state and Guantanamo Bay is part of Cuba? Again, this is technically true. But this is clearly a case of "extraterritoriality", like embassies. The Cuban government exercises no control over that base--in fact, they're hostile to the USA. The base is wholly controlled and maintained by the US military, clearly an extension of the federal government and commanded by the president. This is another fiction based on the thinnest of technicalities. If a person were to land at Guantanamo and murder a civilian, for example, they would be arrested and tried by the US government, either military or civilian courts. It's insincere fantasy at best to claim this isn't the United States.

Non-Americans don't get access to real habeas corpus relief? So, the president is claiming that this is not a human right like, say, free speech or free exercise of religion? So liberty itself isn't an inalienable right? Has he read the Declaration of Independence? And how can he be taken seriously in a place like the Arab world when he claims to want to bring them Democracy, but won't acknowledge that liberty itself is a basic foundation of the rights Democracy brings?

It just sickens me. This is only different in degree from the "Dirty War" in Argentina, where rightist members of the government could "disappear" people without trial, executing them as they pleased. I'm not sure Senators McCain, Clinton, or Obama understand the urgency of righting these egregious abuses. The administration has even tried to label American citizens arrested inside the United States as "enemy combatants" and avoid habeas corpus. Why is it reasonable to think his people will stop?

CDs listened to today:

• Cure: Wild Mood Swings
• Remy Shand: The Way I Feel
• Frederic Chopin: Polonaises, disk 1
• Green Day: Dookie
• Ingram Marshall: Hymnodic Delays
• Sofia Gubaidulina: Seven Words for Cello, Bayan and Strings
• The La's: (eponymous)
• Kenny Wheeler: Music For Large & Small Ensembles, disk 1
  

Let's talk about what's new in the pop music spotlight.

There are a lot of new songs again this week and I thought the crop was weaker than usual until I started writing this. It's actually a mixed bag!

• A band from my area, OneRepublic, has a new single. This time, they won't be out there with help from Timbaland, who substantially remixed their last, "Apologize". The new song is "Stop and Stare" and it certainly lacks the character of the previous tune.
• The Apple iPod effect has struck again, boosting Yael Naim's "New Soul" into the US top 20 after it appeared in an ad for the Apple MacBook Air. Shoot, I wasn't paying a lot of attention when my iTunes started playing it and thought it was a Feist tune at first. It's not bad at all, maybe not quite at the level of sophistication that Ms. Feist brings.
• Ne-Yo is back. It seems like he's been missing from the charts for a while, which just shows how frequently he visits. His new song, "Go On Girl", is a sugary arrangement and a rather insipid song.
• Hot Chip wouldn't be terribly welcome on the US charts, where more purely dance music isn't our thing. So for now, they're on the UK charts with "Ready For The Floor". It's a soulful track with a bouncy electronic beat, if not a lot of energy.
• "Bodysnatchers" from Radiohead is a track that seems a little heavier rock than usual. The tempo is pretty brisk, something I'd like to hear more of from these guys.
• One Night Only debuts with "Just For Tonight" and it's an odd duck. This is pretty much the indie rock style that still makes the UK pop charts, but the song has an odd tension that's never really resolved.
• "Crank Dat Batman" seems like it's another version of Soulja Boy's "Crank Dat". Of course, he didn't perform this, but I'm having trouble seeing why I should listen to this piece of low-budget cheese from the Pop It Off Boyz.
• Lil Mama is back with another joint in her signature style, "Shawty Get Loose". It's not quite as bouncy as "LipGloss", but it has the same high-energy chants and some guests that actually seem to drain the energy, rather than add to it.
• Speaking of Feist, she's enjoying a second minor hit with "I Feel It All". Not nearly as much fun as her earlier "1, 2, 3, 4", this song is still pretty good. It has a rollicking guitar rhythm that propels some singing that's a little more demonstrative than usual for Ms. Feist. She actually sounds like she's having a good time.
• "Feathers" by Coheed and Cambria sounds like every other song I've heard from them: a high-energy swirl of drums and precisely placed guitars back a helium-voiced singer. There's no reason for another one, is there?
• Jack Johnson returns with another one of those songs that seems to be targeted at parents of toddlers and pre-schoolers--no, not the zany, chaotic stuff of classics like Pee Wee Herman or Spongebob Squarepants, more like if the Teletubbies wrote pop songs. "If I Had Eyes" has a lilting gentle, groove and a simple, easy-to-sing melody where even the fast-moving parts seem measured and slow. He's hard to dislike, but golly, this isn't challenging stuff.
• Jimmy Eat World is a pretty reliable band. I hear some call them "emo" and I suppose that's largely true, given the raw emotional crises they sing about in straining, not-quite-punk arrangements. It's definitely better than most emo acts and this song has a lovely chorus.
• Need more dramatic, portentous arrangements? 30 Seconds To Mars is here for you, with "A Beautiful Lie"! Wow, the chorus on this one is over the top, ascending to a huge peak. Too bad the song's bombast undercuts that by simply not being bombastic enough. Fellas, you need to go all the way over the top to make this kind of song work!
• OK, oddball track of the week comes from Fuse TV's Oven Fresh, where they're featuring a clip from the film Juno. The film's stars, Michael Cera and Ellen Page, shyly sing a brief, off-key, awkward duet called "Anyone Else But You" to a gently-strummed guitar or two. Sweet, but not worth hearing too many times.
• Even with some stiff competition, this week's most awful track is "Sun Goes Down" by David Jordan. It has a kitchen sink in it, along with folk song elements, a big art-rock chorus, twangy guitars, horns, steel drums and a really bad song on top of this mess.
• Elliot Minor has actually brought us an up-tempo song. "Still Figuring Out" shows that no matter how fast you play a song, there's a producer who can file off the rough edges and make it sound boring. Of course, Mr. Minor is a pretty ordinary performer, so he was half-way to boring before the producers got hold of this one.

CDs listened to today:

• Juraj Filas: Sonata for Trombone And Piano (At the end of the century)
• Bill Watrous: The Tiger Of San Pedro
• Alfred Schnittke: Symphony No. 8
• Ludwig van Beethoven: The String Quartets, disk 1
• Beastie Boys: Paul's Boutique
• William Schuman: Symphony no. 10 (Gerard Schwarz conducting)
• Hector Berlioz: Grande Symphonie Funebre et Triomphale
  

I think there should be a Wikipedia article about me.

So I've written one that I'll try to get published soon, just going to tweak it a bit. Here's the early draft (some parts of this are actually true...):

Gavin: Inventor of Silly String, Most Handsome Man Alive, Legend.

Gavin lives in central Denver. Quietly employed in the telecommunications industry, he still finds time to rescue dolphins, publish a brilliant blog, and lead an opera company while serving as artistic director for two internationally-known orchestras.

Born in New England, Gavin came to the world on a spring day of great note. Tales of the day indicate a rainbow appeared in clear skies and flocks of songbirds came to the hospital to greet the momentous birth.

A brilliant student and talented young musician, Gavin studied the trombone and tuba. While he was an undisciplined student, he achieved a B.A. in Philosophy while making the dean's list eight straight times.

He then began a legendary series of exploits that are the core of his fame:

• Conquest of Canada: He conquered Canada twice, returning the nation's territory to its people the first time after learning that Canadians frequently eat a kind of fern called a "fiddlehead" and the second time after a fit of boredom brought on by a visit to Nunavut.
• Discovery of the Hidden Secrets of Failed Brownies: The key discovery is that brownies have moral standards and are sensitive to the moral failings of the baker. He also discovered that certain techniques make the brownies increasingly sensitive to the moral peccadilloes of the baker (the most important, from least sensitive to most: chocolate chips, nuts, and frosting). His continuing work in the field has also recently revealed that, since peanuts are not technically nuts, they are less risky than walnuts and pecans in the area of moral sensitivity.
• Industrial Research: In addition to his development of silly string, Gavin is also credited with the creation of Allen wrenches (but not the bolts) and electric socks.
• Culinary Achievements: Gavin has developed six varieties of cheese, all critically acclaimed. He is also known as the inventor of candy cinnamon bears.
• Literary Achievements: In addition to his renowned semi-autobiographical novel series, "Saviour of the Universe", Gavin has published numerous epic poems and science fiction short stories. Without exception, the works have been hailed as "genius" by critics and his blog remains required reading for discriminating cognoscenti worldwide.
• Music: While no longer active as a performer, Gavin's tuba-playing is still fondly remembered by all who hear him. His work on the tenor tuba was said to make all who heard it weep with joy. His stylish performances on the trombone are still considered the standard for the instrument.

Gavin has been the recipient of numerous awards. The most notable include:

• Six-time winner of the world's most handsome man
• Twice named funniest visitor to Canada, despite the brutal conquest and occupation of Winnipeg
• Voted "best husband material" by the American Association of Mothers of Hot Daughters
• Named "most charming smile" twice in Witch Weekly (Observers note that, if not for Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, Gavin would have likely won at least six of these accolades. Sadly, Professor Lockhart's terrible accident of a few years ago has put to rest the speculation about which celebrity has the most charming smile.)
  

Gavin's current pursuits are a source of constant fascination to the news media and his exploits frequently bump Britney Spears' disturbing story from the tabloids' front pages. Recent reports state:

• Shocked reports circulate that he is no longer seeing anyone romantically and is clearly emotionally available. Most experts agree that Gavin is simply far too great a catch for this to be true.
• Gales of laughter in his presence indicate his wit is as sharp as it has ever been, perhaps even better than the legendary conference call of 2005, when six people were reported to have laughed until their heads actually fell off. All six died instantly.
• His continuing interest in cycling has led to rumors that he will again return to Europe to cycle the Alps or Pyrenees. Millions of European women have signed petitions begging him to return. The petitions all complain that Lance Armstrong was clearly an inferior cyclist and lacked Gavin's considerable personal warmth and charm. Recent news reports reveal that the Swiss government is threatening to forcibly annex any nation that hosts Gavin on a bicycle ride, in the knowledge that in doing so, the prosperity and happiness that all citizens feel during a Gavin visit will immediately be felt by all Swiss citizens (after Gavin visited Spain for two hours, the GDP rose 6%, fertility rates rose 4.5% and crime fell 18% in that nation).
  

CDs listened to today:

• Arild Plau: Concerto For Tuba And Orchestra
• Various Artists: The Rough Guide To Bhangra
• Bill Watrous: Manhattan Wildlife Refuge
• William Schuman: Symphony No. 9
• Deee-Lite: Groove Is In The Heart
• EMF: Unbelievable
  

I had a brief brush with fame today.

I took my fourteen-year-old niece to the mall to replace her iPod and just as the fellow at the counter asks for payment, she says, "that guy looks like one of the Jonas Brothers!" It doesn't take long for us both to realize that the gaggle of teenage girls around the guy, plus two others, meant that indeed, we had found the pop stars. Immediately, all thoughts of paying the iPod bill are out of her head and she's urgently asking me in a suddenly nervous voice, "do you have a camera?" Luckily, I came packing a camera phone today.

The poor cashier! While he stands there, mystified about this sudden panic, I tell my niece that she has to go over and ask them for the photo herself. So she rushes over, phone in hand, as I explain to the Apple Store fellow about the Jonas Brothers Band and then, in a rush, my niece is coming over with two of the three brothers and my camera phone, asking me to take the picture. As I framed the image, I'm pretty sure I said something stupid and adult (in my defense, I may be the only non-parent adult in the entire city who knows about the Jonas Brothers and has their songs in my iTunes library). My poor niece was clearly flustered and excited to meet the guys, but sadly, we didn't get a picture of the "cutest one".

Here's the photographic proof that my niece met the Jonas Brothers (plus a public thanks to them for being so gracious):CDs listened to today

• Roger Reynolds: Coconino...A Shattered Landscape
• Smashing Pumpkins: Siamese Dream
• Konono No. 1: Congotronics
  
• Roger Sessions: Symphony No. 4
• Truman's Water: Godspeed the Punchline
  

Let's review a CD.

Bill Frisell Quartet is an eponymous CD that features an odd bit of instrumentation, which isn't unusual coming from this guitarist. Along with Mr. Frisell's guitar, he adds trumpet, trombone and violin. Of course, nothing Bill Frisell does is conventional, and I'm not even sure that you can categorize his music, although I'll bet that if you visit your local music shop, you'll find his disks in the jazz section.

Bill Frisell is as eclectic a musician as you're likely to encounter. He plays an electric guitar heavily modified with electronics, including looping and pre-set effects he triggers while playing, but he also plays gorgeously on an unadorned acoustic guitar now and then--and every variation in between those ends of the spectrum. At times, it's difficult to distinguish what is Mr. Frisell's playing and what is studio effects added afterward. Meanwhile, he takes the opportunity to use his wide sonic palette to explore seemingly every possible aspect of American musical tradition, from the blues and Western swing to tightly focused jazz fusion and some tunes that sound suspiciously like they were inspired by Hollywood soundtracks.

This disk is a good example of Mr. Frisell's approach, ranging from a clear, yet eerie, nod to Bob Wills' "Deep In The Heart Of Texas" to "Prelude", a bit of muted trumpet and dissonant, floating guitar notes, reminiscent of Miles Davis' interludes on the Jack Johnson soundtrack. In between, there are hints of bluegrass with elaborately plucked guitar figures and down-home fiddling, smeared New Orleans jazz lines, and animated marching tunes. Bill Frisell grew up in Denver and current Denverite Ron Miles joins him here, a welcome addition. Mr. Miles' trumpet sound is as blurred and warm as Mr. Frisell's guitars usually sound and his solos add a bit of the spark that the leader doesn't always provide.

That missing spark is a common problem for Mr. Frisell. He favors languid tempos with complex, slow-moving harmonies and melodies. The tempos, even when they move to the brisk side, don't burn and nobody ever sets up a real groove (not necessarily due to the lack of a conventional rhythm section) or an actual racket. This languid mood may be because the disk is mostly material from a film soundtrack: it stands up on its own well enough, although the languor may be partly due to the need for the music to stand as a background for other media. Still, Mr. Frisell has far too much personality on the guitar to ever fade to the background and if you haven't heard him perform "Convict 13", which he's recorded more than once, you deserve to treat yourself to that beautiful tune.

7 out of 10

CDs listened to today:

• Gyorgy Ligeti: Musica Ricercata (adaptation for barrel organ)
• Ned's Atomic Dustbin: God Fodder
• Kenny Wheeler: Music For Large & Small Ensembles
• Claudio Monteverdi: Il Quarto Libro Dei Madrigali
• The Posies: Dear 23
• Kevin Puts: Dark Vigil
  

In case you didn't know.

There's a television and film writers strike. I was reminded of that this week when TV hosts Steven Colbert, Conan O'Brien, and Jon Stewart staged a mock feud. It seems that, without writers, they had to pump up some fake gag dispute. I haven't been watching Mr. O'Brien much, but I can assure you that Mr. Stewart's Daily Show and The Colbert Report have been pretty weak without their regular bunch of writers.

So the three hosts staged a dispute about who had given whom their start on the road to success. It ended in fake fisticuffs and, frankly, it was painful to watch. I was never thrilled when Mr. Colbert went to his own show. Yes, he's brilliantly funny, but on the Daily show, he and the writers only had to come up with about ten minutes of material per week. It didn't really improve his comedy to start doing 90 minutes per week. Now he's filling 90 minutes without writers and Mr. Stewart is filling 90 minutes a week without writers or correspondents. And while they have declined in quality, their shows are still better than a lot of what's out there. It's a bit sad.

And I really miss Samantha Bee's work. First, maternity leave, then the writers strike. Still, she took infants hostage tonight in a brief cameo. That cheered me up! Of course, who doesn't enjoy stolen babies?

CDs listened to today:

• Luciano Berio: Notturno
• The Cure: Staring At The Sea
• William Schuman: Symphony No. 10 (Gerard Schwarz conducting)
• Frederic Chopin: Nocturnes, disk 2
• Green Day: American Idiot
• Remy Shand: The Way I Feel
• Sofia Gubaidulina: Offertorium
• L7: Bricks Are Heavy
• Ingram Marshall: Hymnodic Delays
  

I want to review another CD today.

Sometimes, when you see him today, you forget he was once a powerful legend of hip-hop. This CD is a reminder.

LL Cool J's Mama Said Knock You Out, released in 1990, shows the star at the peak of his powers. Of course, these days, he's shilling in Pepsi Super Bowl ads and generally relying on his charm, charisma, and good looks rather than producing anything worth listening to and that's a shame, because LL is one of the most gifted MCs in the history of hip-hop.

This is also a good disk to listen to when you want to reflect on the changes to commercial hip-hop over the last fifteen or twenty years. Today, no MC is expected to carry an entire song, never mind a full-length CD, without ample help from guest performers, singers, perhaps a crew. This disk is almost entirely performed by LL, with a notable exception on Farmer's Blvd. (Our Anthem), where he explains he's bringing back friends who haven't enjoyed the same success as he. Nowadays, a major hip-hop release would also bring a veritable cadre of producers--one or more for each track--where this disk is entirely produced under the auspices of Marley Marl.

While the manner in which this disk was created is very different from today's modus operandi, it's still fresh-sounding. Yes, the slang is dated (shoot, even the luxury brands in the name-checks sound ancient... who knew champagne brands had such short lives as hip-hop icons back then?) and the sound is, well, simple by today's baroque standards, but this is the best disk from a seriously talented star. Marley Marl's beats cruise along like a big luxury car, bearing fabulous narratives and LL's familiar blend of winking nods and sheer confidence. Today's hip-hop word nerds, looking for the most clever of rhyme schemes will be disappointed, but nearly all of the rhymes are carefully constructed tales that don't spend a lot of capital on switching performers and topics like some disorganized cocktail party where you might stroll past different speakers holding forth on random topics.

The disk has a classic that stands the test of time in the title track as well as a clunker or two (Cheesy Rat Blues is pretty inexcusable) and yes, LL has always had a problem with coasting on his likability rather than bearing down on a verse. But even his hostility expressed on old-fashioned battle raps sounds like fun rather than anything to be afraid of. Yes, this may be rapping a mom could love, but you can still enjoy it.

9 out of 10

CDs listened to today:

• Konono No. 1: Congotronics
• Consolidated: Dysfunctional
• The Cure: Never Enough
• Bill Watrous: Manhattan Wildlife Refuge
• Juraj Filas: Sonata For Trombone and Piano (At the end of the century)
• Bill Watrous: The Tiger Of San Pedro
• Alfred Schnittke: Symphony No. 8
• Ludwig van Beethoven: The Piano Trios, disk 5
• Bahia Black: Ritual Beating System
• Bill Frisell Quartet: (eponymous)
  

Time for new pop music!

Last week, I complained that MTV's TRL seemed to be having a clearance sale of odds and ends. This past Thursday's TRL was even more peculiar, as they featured music videos "that changed the world". I'm not gonna review them here, they're too old, but you might be interested to see what they promoted as world-changing:

• A-Ha: Take On Me
• Michael Jackson: Black Or White
• Gorillaz: Feel Good Inc.
• All-American Rejects: Move Along
• Fatboy Slim: Weapon Of Choice
• The White Stripes: Fell In Love With A Girl
• Jamiroquai: Virtual Insanity
• OK Go: Here It Goes Again

But here's what really entered the spotlight this week:

• Kelly Rowland managed to put two different songs on my list this week, one featrued on Fuse's Oven Fresh and the other on the BBC top 20. Work (Put It In) is the Fuse feature and it leans heavily on the same styles that Destiny's Child used for so many years. While she lacks Beyoncé Knowles distinctive voice and persona (hence, the backup singer job), Ms. Rowland is a strong performer and this is a good tune.
• I don't know why Mario isn't a bigger star. It seems like every hit song he produces is first-rate and Crying Out For Me is no exception. This is pretty much a slow jam with a tear-jerking theme and there aren't many singers who can make this work as well as Mario.
• Bullet For My Valentine arrives to pummel you with Scream Aim Fire. Built around a vintage thrash-style jackhammer rhythm (complete with half-time sections) and guitars that smooth out the thrash with simplified riffs, you won't forget the giants of speed metal, but this is a pleasant, if lightweight, diversion.
• It's been a while since we heard from Dashboard Confessional, but I suppose all good things must end. This was always an act that had all the classic Emo-style elements, but not a lot of real, solid, honest music-making. The lyrics were always the show and it seemed like every DC song had at least one line that was amazing. Bad news: Thick As Thieves doesn't even have that one lyric that stops you cold.
• The other Kelly Rowland hit is Daylight and it debuted in the UK last week. It almost seems like it was specifically created as a product to sell in the British market, plucking soul and R&B from the classics grab-bag and cobbling together something that sounds vaguely familiar (I suspect that the Gym Class Heroes' presence is as much cause as symptom). It's pleasant enough.
  
• Speaking of artists that mine classic pop, Lenny Kravitz follows a heavy barrage of advertising and promotions with his latest, I'll Be Waiting. I've always found him easy to enjoy, but hard to love. His classicism skirts on the edge of a massively conservative attitude toward pop music and I think part of the reason I can't fully enjoy Mr. Kravitz's work is that his most enthusiastic fans seem to embrace his work as much to reject more contemporary pop-music movements like hip-hop as to actually enjoy his tunes. In another time, he would have been called a "safe" singer and that makes me uncomfortable. This is a tepid, shuffling power ballad that only a ten-year-old who's never heard a power ballad will like.
  
• I was surprised to see that critics' darling M.I.A. was featured on Oven Fresh. Her Paper Planes is probably the most conventional pop track I've heard from her, with sing-songy verses, but even this has an edge of aggressiveness, featuring an accent of gunshots echoing the chorus. Boy, it's sure refreshing to hear a unique voice like hers in pop music, but I'll bet this tune won't be a huge hit.
• Matt Costa's Mr. Pitiful is a nice effort. Based on a bouncing piano rhythm and an anthemic melody, I can't imagine it'll ever be a huge hit.
• Ride It, by Jay Sean is some extremely smooth R&B. In fact, it's so smooth, it's nearly devoid of personality. Enjoy it if you can.
• Last up is one of those hip-pop party anthems with shouted choruses and little more than a good-time vibe. This one is Webbie's Independent and it's hardly of the same quality as the classics of this type, like Mim's This Is Why I'm Hot or Nelly's Hot In Herre.
  

CDs listened to today:

• Ottorino Respighi: Feste Romane
• Slow Dive: Just For A Day
• Kevin Puts: Dark Vigil
• Roger Sessions: Symphony No. 3
• Tripping Daisy: I Am A Elastic Firecracker
• Arild Plau: Concerto For Tuba And Orchestra
• Various Artists: R & B Life No. 15
  

I've been registered as a member of three political parties at various times.

I change registration for various reasons and am currently registered as a Democrat. That means I have to attend the party's caucus for my district tomorrow night. Ick, what a waste of time.

Still, that means I need to make a decision about whom to support for the presidential nomination. In my district the State House and State Senate seats are held by incumbents who are so safe, they frequently run unopposed (this is why I refer to the Democratic Party's nominating process as "the politburo") and our Representative to the Congress is only slightly less safe--apparently, some districts in my city have actual Republicans...

As of this writing, the Democratic candidates present a difficult choice. Neither is my first--or even second--choice. Those awards went to Gov. Bill Richardson and Sen. John Edwards! While it's clear that the inspiring Sen. Obama is the kind of guy who might offer a chance to stop repeating the cycle of personal destruction and ugly partisan battles that Washington offers, I worry he lacks the right expertise and organization to effectively govern. I'm also fed up with his continuous claims that he was right about opposing the invasion of Iraq (thank you sir, you were right that one time). His résumé in the Illinois state legislature is underwhelming, in my view, and he's dead wrong when he claims Social Security reform is the most important government and economic reform issue.

Sen. Clinton is dead right that health care is the key issue of government and economic reform. I've been reading a lot of New York Times columnist Paul Krugman on this subject--he's an economics professor--and he reports projections that, by the time Social Security is even the slightest bit of a problem, health care costs will swallow 20% of the United States economy. His column today illustrates a key reason why I am seriously leaning toward Sen. Clinton. Plus, she's not clueless about how to govern and is married to a brilliant political advisor. Still, do I really want four or eight more years of Whitewater and "who killed Vince Foster"? Will her husband know his place and keep to it? And can I tolerate her practice of carefully calibrating her positions on every issue? Sure, you can see it as politics as usual (you know, compromising), but there's a point where it's just calculating and spineless.

I swear, I may just insist on supporting Sen. Edwards anyway. Can I do that?

CDs listened to today:

• Gyorgy Ligeti: Musica Ricercata
• Fats Navarro: The Fats Navarro Story, disk 4
• Ingram Marshall: Hymnodic Delays
• Claudio Monteverdi: Il Terzo Libro Dei Madrigali
• The Posies: Dear 23
• Kenny Wheeler: Music For Large And Small Ensembles
  

Another disappointment.

I watched the Super Bowl today. Most of my friends aren't really football fans, so I went home after running errands to watch the recorded game alone on the TiVo. The game was close and dramatic, but I still found it rather dull. I think this is a sign that it doesn't matter how good a game the Super Bowl is, if the Broncos aren't playing, I don't care. And frankly, I don't think it has helped that I grew up watching them lose--badly--four times.

And this year, even the commercials seemed rather disappointing. I especially hated the ones for the sales information company (no names repeated here, I don't want to give them any more word-of-mouth). They seemed downright bigoted to me.

CDs listened to today

• LL Cool J: Mama Said Knock you Out
• Remy Shand: The Way I Feel
  

Ooh! Review a CD!

William Schuman's Symphony No. 9 has been on my regular playlist long enough--just look at the listening journal entries! Still, I've had great affection for this composer since I was a schoolboy and got to play in a band that performed his George Washington Bridge. In fact, the first time I bought compact disks, one contained his seventh symphony. This CD is a recent acquisition, of course, featuring both his fourth and ninth symphonies as well as two short orchestral works, Orchestra Song and Circus Overture, performed by the Seattle Symphony with Gerard Schwarz conducting.

Mr. Schwarz has been a friend to mid-20th-century composers when it comes to recordings and he keeps that reputation intact here. We're lucky to get a band as good as the Seattle group for a relatively obscure composer like the late Mr. Schuman--especially on the budget label Naxos. This is a sign of the changing fortunes of the classical music recording industry. A few years ago, Naxos would have recorded these works with some obscure East European orchestra of dubious standards. Still, the Seattle is not exactly the Berlin Philharmonic and while the winds and percussion are superb, the string sound isn't ideal at times--given the thick harmonies, Schuman works need rich string sounds.

William Schuman (never to be confused with Romantic composer Robert Schumann) is a unique voice in American composition. A former president of the Juilliard Music School, Mr. Schuman wrote remarkable orchestral works with clotted, dense harmonies that seem to sometimes possess a life of their own, sounding as if they are in motion even when unmoving. He always had clear ideas about using the sections of the orchestra as individual units and these works are mostly evidence of that mature style: the brass soars, the woodwinds ornament, the percussion thumps and jingles, and the strings surge. I've never seen works from Mr. Schuman as easy, tuneful romps (OK, even the brisk passages with complex rhythms seem to lumber). These frequently lack humor, but they strain against the bonds of traditional harmony and rhythm, even as they conform to them (this isn't chaotic stuff). To me, this is the sound of mid-century, industrial America.

Overall, the works here are strong, if not Mr. Schuman's best. The orchestra is good and the conducting is first-rate.

7 out of 10

CDs listened to today:

• Bill Frisell Quartet: (eponymous)
• Frederic Chopin: Nocturnes, disk 1
• Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band: XXL
• William Schuman: Symphony No. 10
• Sofia Gubaidulina: 'Stimmen... Verstummen'
  

When partisanship goes horribly wrong...

The other night, I was watching ABC's evening news broadcast and they were reporting on how the most conservative members of the Republican Part aren't comfortable with either of the two major candidates who are still running for the party's nomination: John McCain and Mitt Romney. To illustrate one of the reasons for the lack of enthusiasm, they showed a brief clip of Rush Limbaugh's radio show webcast. In it, he complained that Senator McCain was known for sometimes working with Democrats! The tone of his remark made it clear that this was not only a near-criminal act, but rather disgusting, to boot.

To me, this is the final proof that crystallizes a realization for me. The most radical right-wingers are more loyal to their party than to America itself--it's more important to them that their out-of-touch ideology be victorious than for America to be a good and just place (however you interpret "good and just"). I have no doubt that the far Left feels the same way and both groups need to be ostracized, not given prominent radio programs where they can spout their poison.

I won't vote for Senator McCain, but my opposition is based on a couple of important policy areas where I disagree with him. There are plenty of areas where I admire his views and, what's more, he's a great American. If Mr. Limbaugh can't see that, he's a very small man, indeed.

CDs listened to today:

• Bill Watrous: Manhattan Wildlife Refuge
• Juraj Filas: Sonata For Trombone And Piano (At the end of the century)
• Bill Watrous: The Tiger Of San Pedro
• Alfred Schnittke: Symphony No. 8
• Ludwig van Beethoven: The Piano Trios, disk 4
• Arrested Development: 3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days...
• William Schuman: Symphony No. 9
• Luciano Berio: Ritorno degli snovidenia
• The Cure: Mixed Up