Some of you were there at the end of the Graduate Seminar -- what was it, two years ago? -- when I sang Lullaby of Broadway. One of you recorded it and posted it to YouTube.

Today, one of my students, from an anonymous e-mail address, posted to my sections' listservs a message with the subject, "pretty funny website featuring our favorite TA." All ( Read more... )

Last week, I auditioned for Glee Club. I got in, as my Facebook friends know, at least if they keep up with status updates ( Read more... )

This is a song that's gone around in my head a lot this week.

Click to view

Yes, it has some boneheaded economics. But that's not the point.

A friend's Facebook status update reminded me of the song Vem Kan Segla, and I decided to look for YouTube videos of it while eating lunch. Here's a particularly haunting rendition.

The English lyrics, as I remember them:
Who can sail without the wind?
Who can row without oars?
Who can part from a friend beloved
Without shedding a tear?

I can sail ( Read more... )

...with a musical: Empire. And it hasn't even been mounted yet. And I've only heard three and a half songs.

I just heard the title song, though, and I haven't felt that way about a new song since the time a cast member from Hairspray walked into Mama's and gave us Good Morning Baltimore. This has to make it to Broadway, and this song -- Empire -- ( Read more... )

A few minutes ago, I dropped in on a dance party.

Or should I say rose in, considering it's in the apartment upstairs?

Hardwood floors are great for dancing on, if you're the dancer, but not so great, if you're the person in the apartment below.

Fortunately, the man upstairs is a gentleman, and he's quieted things down a bit. Plus I got to dance a ( Read more... )

No matter how well you know a song, if you don't practice and think about it, it will go away.

In the past week or so, I went to Don't Tell Mama twice and sang two songs I think of as my standards. I don't think I was quite on key for either of them. The other night, on I, Don Quixote, I never felt I quite had the rhythm. And tonight, on Stars, I ( Read more... )

This says: "Evening Arts Series Gideon and the Blundersnorp: A Story Set To Music -Michael Shapiro with Linda Abrams."

Forgive me if I sound fannishly excited, but does this mean we're actually going to hear original music by Michael Shapiro?

Amazon says:

The most popular film composer of the modern era, John Williams created music for some of the most successful motion pictures in Hollywood history -- Star Wars, E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, and Jurassic Park are just three of the credits in his extensive oeuvre. Born February 8, 1932, in Long Island, NY, he was himself the son of a ( Read more... )