iPod might be the greatest thing to happen to music since ears. But my personal listening habits (and many others who I scientifically polled…), seem to evolve around listening to the same bunch of songs. Granted it’s the same 200 or so songs, but there’s an extreme amount of repetition. Wondering who was being imprisoned in the virtual Siberia of my personal music device, I...
Find it here, but listen to it … there!?
Back in ye olde days, I had a pretty sweet system. Bose speakers, Denon receiver and cd player, and the oh-so-pricey gold Monster Cables connecting everything together. I was a sophomore in high school, and I saved up (Jewish) confirmation gift money, went to Tweeter’s “Scratch ‘n’ Dent” sale, and lugged it all home on the T — from Harvard Square to Oak Grove...
The Fine Art of Pissing People Off
It has always amazed me that the “squeaky wheel gets the grease.” And while there are quieter, more deserving people in need of help or praise, there may in fact be more to gain by squeaking your wheel. That being said, I wonder if pissing people off is actually the better vehicle for success. I once worked with a CEO whom everyone (without exception!) despised. In virtually every...
It’s 2009 and boy are my arms tired …
Now that we’re into a new year, and most people have already made and/or broken their resolutions, I wanted to address a l’il issue that bugs me. For those who know me, this isn’t the following: 1. People who put butter on their bagels. Wrong for SO many reasons. 2. Grown adults who type/text like 12-year old girls. Srsly. IDK, it’s just retarded. 3. I don’t care...
The Death of Idealism
Lately, as we march deeper into the nastiness of recession, I’ve seen those whom I consider good people become less than honorable. The fear of many things -mostly financial- has whittled away their sense of idealism, decency, and simple tact. And this ultimate loss of idealism, in all honesty, reduces me to tears and raises me to absolute rage. To my colleagues – we are all, with...
Something amazingly good
Bruce sang that there were “57 channels and nothing on.” Back then, he wasn’t far off. But the good folks at Comcast have found a way to trump that by nearly ten-fold. Then, when the despair reached its zenith, on popped “Spectacle.” Debuting on the Sundance channel, Spectacle features Elvis Costello talking/singing/playing music with some iconic folks. The premiere...
And he found brown m&ms in the bowl…
In an odd way, I think he did the right thing. In the world of music, massaging the ego is usually lesson one. There is an eminent Russian conductor encamped at a private home in Brookline, and he is fuming. In an extremely rare public flare-up in the outwardly genteel world of major symphony orchestras, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, the 77-year-old maestro who is one of the last living links to a...
Dorothy Parker lives on – sort of.
Criticism, in its best and worst form lives on. The late, great Dorothy Parker wrote some of the finest, including: “This not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force” (The Algonquin Wits, 1968) “Katharine Hepburn delivered a striking performance that ran the gamut of emotions, from A to B” (Review of Katherine Hepburn in “The...
Turn me on, Deadman
Once a month I go out and buy some music. You know: in the store, CD in hand, and actually purchase items. While it’s a longer discussion, I really do like having a physical product and an interaction with a real person when I buy music. Call me crazy… Anyway, here’s what I bought, and they all come VERY highly recommended: Belle & Sebastian – LateNightTales (2006)...