I Love To Laugh / Ha Ha Ha Ha!

#Operaplot2011! Winners!! Announced!!!

(Runner-up Nixon Goes to China: you'd get my vote.)





(More about #operaplot from The Omniscient Mussel so you can play next year.)

Won't You Play That Pretty Music?

In which a ball run xylophone plays Bach's Cantata 147.

Full disclosure: I'm fairly certain this is a commercial for a cell phone - but that doesn't make it any less clever/mesmerizing. (I think it also brings up some interesting questions about music and marketing. It's "high-class" Bach on a homemade instrument, it's a familiar melody in an unexpected setting: the juxtapositions are intriguing, yes? All I know is: if this is what all commercials were like, maybe I'd watch more tv.)





(You might also like Rows of Tones.)

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People Call Her Sassy / That's Her Attitude

So why was I looking up musical affects mid-semester?

Readers, meet The Detritus Review.
I've been waiting for the right moment to introduce one of my favorite blogs, and this is it.

You know how sometimes you read concert reviews in newspapers and you wonder how someone who clearly knows nothing about music is not only getting paid to write about this Thing You Love The Most, but Is Simultaneously TAKING AWAY JOBS FROM LEGIT AND UNEMPLOYED MUSICOLOGISTS? (I feel strongly about it.)
Anyway: the three bloggers responsible for "Detritus" don't just wonder about these things. This is the mother of all music-criticism-deconstruction blogs, and it is guaranteed to make me laugh out loud no matter where I am (sorry, other library patrons) and to fill my daily snark quota. Maybe yours too?

I'll let it speak for itself: the 3/19/11 post.

This Is A Gift / It Comes With A Price

I'm directing you to an archived post at 2'23" for a little bit of Tuesday-relief/classical-music-humor:

It's titled... Hunting Babbitts.

You laughed.

So Many Stories Of Where I've Been

The Lost Chord, a musical parody of Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol" by Dick Strawser.

And it doesn't end there.

The Schoenberg Code: a serial novel in 12 chapters, and a parody of Dan Brown’s novel, “The Da Vinci Code".
Beethoven's Christmas Carol: a parody of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol."
Stravinsky's Tavern: A collection of short stories.

I love musical fiction. (All of this and more from Strawser's "Thoughts On A Train".)


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These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things

Obviously I used up my vuvuzela post too soon.

No matter: I refer you to Alex Ross' The Rest is Noise for a little Brahms vuvuzela-style.

(As Maureen points out: Alex Ross AND classical music (okay, no surprise there) AND Germany AND men in tuxes AND soccer - what's not to like?)
(Vielen Dank, Maureen!)

Dream The Impossible Dream

Matt Manos (who, as it turns out, was also the design intern for the Bravo Gustavo online/iphone game) learns how to to play a mandolin and ride a unicycle at the SAME TIME: The Mandolin & Unicycle Project.



Now THAT is a senior thesis, you know? The practical application may be a bit fuzzy, but you could say the same about musicology.

(For the more advanced team: Unicycle with Tuba and Trombone)

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