The System Is Down, Yo

The Cairo Opera House is closed until further notice: WQXR reports.

Problems / Problems / Problems All Day Long

Retrospective diagnoses: epilepsy, depression, cystic fibrosis.
CHOPIN'S HALLUCINATIONS

It's brand-new research/speculation, so you can't find it in a book.


(moburns gets all the credit for that last link)

It Is The Future / The Distant Future

Pianos with 102 keys.

This is real life!

Just Me And My Guitar

I started this post looking for photos or video of Christian Marclay's phonoguitar (a modified turntable he could strap around his neck and "play" [he especially liked recreating Hendrix tunes]), but: turns out that's difficult.

I did, however, find a video of one of his newer works, Guitar Drag (2000). Yes, that's an amplified Fender with a rope around the frets, dragged behind a pick-up truck over rural roads in Texas. Obviously.
The piece is a sort of homage to guitar mythologies, instrument smashing and shock performance, as well as a response to the 1998 lynching-by-dragging of James Byrd, Jr. And (with no good way to segue back into the relatively trivial) Guitar Drag is also about sound: fourteen minutes of what the Washington Post calls "found-art power chords." There's even a commercial recording out there somewhere.

Hear My Confession / I Have Been Wrong About You

I know this video is practically old news, but I'm easing into the new year.
Hey, Happy New Year friends!