.jpg)
Just in case you thought there couldn't possibly be a good classical music tie-in to the passing of Senator Kennedy (yes, I know about the musicians who will sing and play at his funeral service), the Boston Symphony Orchestra has very kindly provided a photo of the Senator conducting "The Stars and Stripes Forever" at a Boston Pops concert a few years ago. He certainly looks as though he's having a good time, as who wouldn't, in front an enthusiastic audience with a great orchestra at his beck and call. Video of this event has been made available to news organizations, which should contact the BSO press office if they'd like to show a clip.After graduating from Cambridge in 1954, Mr. Drew worked as a freelance music critic and as a publicist for Decca Records, for which he wrote liner notes and brochures. His first historical reclamation project was Olivier Messaien, an enthusiasm dating to his Cambridge days, for whom he made a case in several important articles.
Thousands of pages of internal e-mail and once-secret Congressional testimony showed Tuesday that Karl Rove and other senior aides in the Bush White House played an earlier and more active role than was previously known in the 2006 firings of a number of United States attorneys.Aides to former President George W. Bush have asserted that the Justice Department took the lead in the dismissals, which set off a political firestorm that lasted months. Mr. Rove played down his role in the firings in a recent interview and in closed testimony last month before Congressional investigators.But the documents, released by the House Judiciary Committee after a protracted fight over access to White House records and testimony, offer a detailed portrait of a nearly two-year effort, from early 2005 to 2007, by senior White House officials, including Mr. Rove, to dismiss some prosecutors for what appear to be political reasons.
Toasting a Natural Combination: Beer and BaroquePBO is proud to announce the first concert of our "Beer and Baroque" Series, featuring the Horns of PBO. Discover the joy (and quirks) of the natural horn with an evening of Baroque music and locally brewed beer. Join us at the Pyramid Alehouse, Brewery and Restaurantin Berkeley on September 14. Tickets include the concert and drinks and are available beginning next Friday, August 14 by contacting Office Manager Kenton Kuwada, (415) 252-1288. $20 advance/$25 door.Organized by board members Michael Colbruno and Brian Gould, this event is sponsored by Pyramid and Clear Channel Outdoors.
What I like about this: music, informal setting, low prices, beer. I wonder if you get to talk to the players afterward. I mean, any horn player will want a drink after the concert.
To celebrate the paperback release of "The World in Six Songs", New York Times best-selling author and research scientist Daniel Levitin will be doing a live, interactive web chat on Ustream.The chat will be taking place on Friday, August 7th starting at 5pm PST. Fans will have the chance to interact with Dr. Levitin through Ustream's chat and Twitter Social Stream. The event will be taking place here:
Me: Where would I find short stories by W. Somerset Maugham?Her: Can you spell that? I'll check in the computer.Me, blinking a bit: M-A-U-G-H-A-M.Her: And her first name?Me, just barely keeping my head off the counter: Him. Somerset. S-O-M-E-R-S-E-T.
He had no particular aptitude for trade, and that by which he lived (he had entered upon it thirty years ago rather by accident than choice) was thoroughly distasteful to him. As a dealer in pianofortes, he came into contact with a class of people who inspired him with a savage contempt, and of late years his business had suffered considerably from the competition of tradesmen who knew nothing of such conflicts between sentiment and interest. A majority of his customers obtained their pianos on the "hire-purchase system," and oftener than not, they were persons of very small or very precarious income, who, rabid in the pursuit of gentility signed agreements they had little chance of fulfilling; when in pecuniary straits, they either raised money upon the instruments, or allowed them to fall into the hands of distraining creditors. Inquiry into the cirumstances of a would-be customer sometimes had ludicrous results; a newly-married couple, for instance, would be found tenanting two top-floor rooms, the furnishing whereof seemd to them imcomplete without the piano of which their friends and relatives boasted. Not a few professional swindlers came to the office; confederate rogues, vouching for each other's respectability, got possession of pianos merely to pawn or sell them, having paid no more than the first month's charge. It was Mr. Lord's experience that year by year the recklessness of the vulgar became more glaring, and deliberate fraud more artful.
George Gissing, In the Year of Jubilee
From left, Will Crutchfield, Vivica Genaux and Angela Meade in "Semiramide" at the Venetian Theater at Caramoor.