So I'm visiting Portland for my brother's wedding, but that's not the important part. My mother abruptly says to me yesterday, "you know, you still have one drawer of stuff in that chest in the living room." Baffled, I went to open the drawer and see what of mine was still in Oregon, lo these six years after I thought I had colocated all of my ( Read more... )

I'm looking to buy a few recordings of Good King Wenceslas and In the Bleak Midwinter to round out my Christmas mix -- mostly I have albums of individual artists, who tend not to cover choral pieces like these, so I'm missing them. Do you have a favorite recording of either/both?

A friend wrote to ask whose arrangement of The Planets my band did a couple of years ago. I sensed he was fishing for parts that he could borrow and wrote my reflections, at a two year remove, of the experience, and thought it worth capturing here as well. ( omg whut did you write, grubby? )

I spent about 10 hours between Saturday and Sunday working on my forthcoming transcription of Adventures on Earth for my band. It was a good experience on several levels ( Read more... )

What is your favorite cover of a Beatles song? You can pick more than one, but I'm looking for a few more versions of Beatles songs to seek out....

Over the weekend, I somewhat whimsically decided that I was more interested in buying an accordion than I had been previously. nebulocity1976 could help you pinpoint the exact moment this happened, as I dragged his hiney over to my computer to watch me search ebay for accordions ( Read more... )

I have maintained for some time that "Single Ladies" is the most recognized, most enjoyed, most parodied/imitated music video since "Thriller."

In case we needed further proof:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLj5zphusLw

It's simply a matter of time until a prison does this.

So, the other day I finally had some strange impulse to download the Minogue version of "I should be so lucky," along with several other songs unrelated to the writing of this post. I then totally forgot about it, until the song popped up in my shuffle experience last night while walking to rehearsal ( Read more... )

An overture featuring three soloists "playing" vacuum cleaners and one "playing" a floor polisher. I'm not sure the piece is as great as the concept. I'm sure I've heard that there's a band arrangement, but here's an orchestral version ( Read more... )

The soloists were at the OMG Requiem (my name for the ALW Requiem) on Sunday evening, providing new sources of energy just as the choir was, well, needing some. The soprano and tenor both have ginormous voices, very appropriately so for the triple-fortes that Sir Andrew has written in some places. I already knew that we wouldn't be having a boy, ( Read more... )