It is puzzling – the tendency of an organization to shoot itself in the foot. After so many obvious examples of what not to do there is, more often than not, that institutional moment which causes one to quote that great American Philosopher Homer Simpson – “D’OH!!!” These days Homer is speaking in a mid-Atlantic accent.
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Enough Already!
Stop it. It happens. Get over it.
The 2011 Report Card
Good Morning! It’s time for the Year in Review, where orchestras that were in the news in 2011 receive their year-end grades from SticksandDrones. In the Biz we would call them “Mid-Term Juries,” and I’m sure that expression just put a shiver up the spine of the two musicians who actually read this blog. “B” is considered a passing grade. Anything below that is suspect. A “B+” or above, in this day and age, is considered a miracle near the level of the loaves and fishes. So, in no particular order:
An Ode To Jeremy
The most interesting conversations about Classical Music never happen in the Board Room, or after a concert, or in any venue that one would connect with the art form. My friend Jeremy reminded me of that on Thanksgiving Day.
Flogging the Wrong Horse
It has been an interesting couple of weeks on the orchestral front. New ED in Colorado, pissing match between a top soloist and a top conductor. Oh, and an orchestra that has lost it’s mind. Same as it ever was.
Dick Cheney LIVES!!!
OK, we all know that George Bush was not the architect of the Bush Doctrine, right? That honor, if you want to call it that, goes to Vader-in-Chief Dick Cheney. He pulled the strings and the Bush administration danced. It was the height of the Neo-Con movement in America. But not in music.
Thus Thought Zarathustra….
It’s time to get up on my high horse again. This time I’m inspired by an article on Sir Colin Davis, and a very particular idea at the front of it.
WWJD?
It was near the end of the first set, one of three scheduled for that night, when it happened. The band launched into their next chart and we heard the unmistakable strains of Stravinsky’s Firebird, several audience members around me shouted “YES!!!,” and my wife broke into a broad grin. I looked on stage at the laptop with the Apple logo and then I thought – “What Would Jobs Do?”