Paul Krugman in the NYT warns us of Eurodämmerung within months, but like the girl in Don’t Dream It’s Over, we turn past to the TV page. To the balm and cocoon of song, of a life’s drama passing by, Live!, in 2.5 minutes of limelight. ‘You owned it! You were hungry! Well done, well [...]
Being fully middle-class with fully middle of the road tastes I occasionally listen to NPR’s All Songs Considered, which fits snugly amongst Stuff White People Like, being self-consciously mainstream alt. In the sonic arena I must be whitish as I find their selections tolerable and every now and again appealing; luck prevents me from regular [...]
October 27, 2011 – 10:18 am
Mitsuko Uchida, she of the OMG look at my Issey Miyake pleats, right. (Picture from her great album of the final trio of Beethoven piano sonatas.) This global elite product of Japan-Vienna-London recently took part in the admirable Lunch with the FT series. The interview includes a quite provocative take on positive discrimination, her views [...]
August 24, 2011 – 11:10 am
From a New Yorker cartoon. Picture two straw-chewing, cockeyed hobos perched on a wall. Hobo 1 to hobo 2:“Crazy busy. You?” How does a witness on oath in court give a sensible answer as to her location on a date say a year ago? It’s hard to remember last week, impossible to recall a day [...]
By W H Chong
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Also posted in art, books, drawings, movies, photography, wheeler centre
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Tagged aboriginal art, Ballarat, Beethove, Foto Biennale, Jason Greig, Jessica Au, Juan Davila, Konrad Winkler, Mapplethorpe, MUMA, MWF, Namatjira, Randy Newman, Sophie Cunningham
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August 2, 2011 – 11:01 am
At the morning kaffeklatsch with my yoga group Amy Winehouse came up, which reminded me of this great bit of writing about the tragic beehive. It was posted in the London Review of Books blog and takes off from this fascinating photo. Lidija Haas writes: In my favourite picture of Amy Winehouse, she’s holding a [...]
I recently attended a Gloriana concert where the highlight was Ariel Ramirez’ wonderful “iconic” Misa Criolla. It was just fantastic and we, the people, forced the choir into a gratifying encore of the “Gloria”. I was just sufficiently conscious to switch on my kneecam. I was familiar with this piece in a recording where the [...]
Culture Mulcher’s first post in June 2009 featured Gil Scott-Heron’s legendary, genre-birthing The Revolution Will Not Be Televised as a commentary on the Iranian Green Movement — which didn’t come through as a revolution, but presaged this year’s Arab Spring. Last December, I plugged his first album since 1994 as my favourite of the year. [...]
March 28, 2011 – 11:39 am
On Sunday in a quiet inner city church, the Gloriana chamber choir sang Arvo Pärt’s Da pacem Domine. And I was reminded of Gorecki’s No. 3, of lying on the carpet in an apartment above Lavender Bay in Sydney, very late one night in the mid 1990s. The soprano was Dawn Upshaw. It was like [...]
December 22, 2010 – 7:54 am
If I had fiction fatigue this year, (see book mulchings) I also suffered from melody fatigue. My favourite new CDs featured kinds of rap; there was also a bunch of old stuff which is definitionally classic. And there’s all the other sonic offerings too, given away free, made by people who love to do it. [...]
By W H Chong
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Tagged Alan Saunders, Bach cello suites, Beethoven, Chris Cunningham, Eric Whitacre, Fresh Air, Gil Scott-Heron, Gloriana, Harriet Gilbert, Indicast Show, James Murphy, Laurie Anderson, LCD Soundsystem, Mitsuko Uchida, Philosopher's Zone, Terry Gross, World Book Club
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December 1, 2010 – 5:12 pm
‘In 1818, well before Bach’s Mass in B Minor was given its first complete performance, the Swiss music historian and publisher, Hans Nägeli, described it as “the greatest work of music for all ages and of all peoples.” This was an incredible assertion at a time when Mozart’s works had already become a permanent feature [...]
