Inside The Museums / Infinity Goes Up On Trial

A favorite daydream of mine involves camping out in the British Library's Treasure Room Mrs-Basil-E-Frankweiler-style* (underneath the interactive Blake display - I've really thought this out) - but the Library has pre-empted me with the fantastic new Virtual Book Exhibit in its online gallery.

Now you can flip through pages in the manuscripts of William Byrd's My Ladye Nevells Booke, Mozart's diaries, or Handel's Messiah (not to mention the 15th century Sherborne Missal, or a selection of Leonardo da Vinci's sketches) without having to pay for a plane ticket. (I doubt this will stop me from daydreaming about London, though.)



*That book with the kids who live in a museum? At night they gather coins from the fountain so they can buy something to eat from the café, and they are on constant watch for the museum guards who patrol off-hours.

Cymbals Eat Guitars

(via arbroath)

Black Horse and the Cherry Tree

Aren't these beautiful? Joel Scilley uses burlwood to create his Audiowood turntables.

This past fall, I bought some records at a used booksale for 25 cents each. They were still in their plastic wrappings - Bernstein, Serkin, and the New York Phil playing the Emperor Concerto; Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra playing Mozart's Jupiter Symphony... I don't have a record player, but it seemed too sad just to leave them. (The Times They Are A-Changin'.)


(via trendhunter)

Can't Leave Rap Alone / The Game Needs Me

The Encyclopedia of White Rappers: An alphabetical listing of all the white rappers who have recorded albums with major record labels.

I don't know quite what to say about this. Okay.

(via trendhunter)

Ramblin' Man

Tom Waits: a little bit drunk?




Hobo songs are nothing new for Mr. Waits. He also sings one part of the duet in Gavin Bryars' "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet." If you ever have time to listen to the whole 70-minute piece: do. In the meantime, a clip:

Let's Get Literal, Literal

The original music video for Aha's "Take On Me" was nominated for eight awards at the 1986 VMAs.

I like this version better. (It's the narrative theorist inside me.)



youtube

In Heaven There Is No Beer

You guys, this is my Great Uncle George's Ballroom! He also used to raise prize roosters - home town hero etc. etc. - only then someone discovered that the roosters' curly tails (curly tails win prizes) were actually MANUFACTURED with a CURLING IRON. Minor scandal, but he had "The Show Must Go On" etched into his gravestone, so that's that.

This explains a lot about me, doesn't it?

In other news: here's a great short history about my Great Uncle George's Ballroom and German immigrant music:




(ps. Yes, you read that right. The name of that band is: 6 Fat Dutch Men. These people are related to me.)

On the Radio / Oh Oh

Have you ever wondered what kind of music is playing in Amsterdam / Moscow / Birmingham / Istanbul / Rio de Janeiro RIGHT NOW?

CitySounds.fm collects electronica-leaning tracks produced / selected / uploaded in cities around the world and streams them to you. Très bien! / Sehr gut! / Very good! I'm in a "Chicago" mood today.

(This / is / a / post / full / of / slash / marks.)

You Light Up My Life

Michael Vorfeld is a German percussionist. And this is his sound installation. The lights go on, the lights go off; they pop and flash and ding - and we get music-sound.



Sound installations. How fascinating! I think I'll spend the rest of my life studying them.

(via neatorama)

Tale As Old As Time

Ooh, vintage-type music advertisements from the early 1900s! I like them.

Aeolian Pianola Piano Player (1905)
If only this were true...



Conn Band Instruments (1926)
I'm more into timpanists, myself.



Columbia Grafonola (1920)
I really hope someone actually took their Grafonola to the beach.


(more, via Vintage Ad Browser)

Alternate Endings

Hilary Hahn wants to be an astronaut too!

I'm With The Band

Artist Brian Marshall used found objects to create a robot band. (They've even got names!: Gamon sings vocals, Johnson's got lead guitar, Ritan plays the bass, and Topper on drums. Awww cute.)
If you're in the area, you can see his show at the RedMohawk gallery in Wilmington, DE on January 29th.

(via neatorama)

Catty Smile / Oscar Wilde Confrontation

Thing Three:

“The typewriting machine, when played with expression, is no more annoying than the piano when played by a sister or near relation.”
- Oscar Wilde

(via thinkexist)

It Is The Distant Future / We Are Robots

Thing Two:
The Beethoven Scanner! Now THIS is a scanner. The various music departments in my life should look into it.




(via everyoneforever)

Cello Song

Schools start up again today. I'm so excited to learn about Contemporary Opera, I could sing! (Although it wouldn't be pretty.)
For those of you who are not about to embark on such a fascinating term - I thought it might be nice to have "HUMOR" as the order of the day.

Thing One:
The Well-Tempered Limerick (1979) by Virginia C. Albedi
(A set of 141 limericks on the subject of string quartets.)

Quartetto Loquacio

Some ladies decided for fun
To play Opus Eighteen, Number one.
But they talked and sipped sherry,
Became wondrous merry,
And never got past the first run.


Note to a Maestro

The string section sends its regrets.
We're tired of your raving and threats.
Rehearsal's a chore
And a tedious bore.
We're off to play Haydn quartets.


Geriatric Special

In the scherzo we thought we had made it,
But Mrs. Brown's discords delayed it.
Inside of her eye
A speck floated by
Which she thought was a run, and she played it.


(oh so many more!, courtesy of Chamber Musicians of Northern California)

This Is Not the Greatest Song in the World / This Is Just a Tribute

MJ on top of a mountain? The Norweigan Alpine Ski Team has a great sense of humor.

That is all.



(via trendhunter)

Always Wrapped Up In Her Books

Confession: I love fictional novels about real musicians.

Confession Part 2: I have a particular weakness for Clara/Schumann/Brahms novels. The story is such a soap opera - writers love it! - and I've read them all:


Good Things I Wish You by A. Manette Ansay (2009)



Trio and Trio 2 by Boman Desai (2004, 2006)


Longing by J.D. Landis (2005)
By the way: this is my pick! "What a good book," says the english/music major.


Clara: A Novel by Janice Galloway (2004)

I once walked into a secondhand book store and came out with the only new full-priced book in the store because it was a Clara/Schumann/Brahms novel. The owner nicely pointed all that out to me, but Trio is hard to find and this one was signed so what-could-I-do. Anyway, now the bookstore owner and I are friends; I browse the music section, and his pet cat hides behind the stacks and pounces on my feet when I least expect it.

(If you know of any others, you should pass them along.)

Won't You Take Me To / Funkytown

(via Funky Lunch)

Home Grown Tomatoes

The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra:

"The Vegetable Orchestra performs music solely on instruments made of vegetables. Using carrot flutes, pumpkin basses, leek violins, leek-zucchini-vibrators, cucumberophones and celery bongos, the orchestra creates its own extraordinary and vegetabile sound universe."

It just never gets old!