To shave-a da face


No real post today, as I’m too tired from wrestling Critic-at-Large Moe into tonsorial submission. However, those in the Boston area can see yours truly wrestle a live accordion tonight, part of a recital by soprano Rebekah Alexander to benefit the HOPE Initiative. The show begins at 8:00 PM at Boston University’s Marsh Chapel; suggested donation is $10 to $20.

Seriously—an hour-and-a-half to give that dog a haircut. What is this, Samson et Dalila?

Fellow cats, mesh your gears / Won’t you lend your politic ears?


A couple of pies waiting at home for my lovely wife, spending the day doing last-minute get-out-the-vote canvassing in New Hampshire. The one on the left is supposed to have the Obama logo in the center, but it’s somewhat obscured due to my filling it with way too many blueberries, which overflowed the vents. (Insert your own joke about liberal profligacy here.) On the right: a sour cream pumpkin pie. I may be an elitist, but not too much of one for The Joy of Cooking: those pie recipes never let me down.

Wash down the past two years’ electioneering follies with this purplish and thus bi-partisan concoction. The scotch gives it a vague sort of toasty, pancake-y vibe; hence the name.

Morning in America

1½ oz. blueberry juice
½ oz. Cointreau
½ oz. scotch whisky
Champagne, chilled

Shake the first three ingredients with ice and strain into a champagne flute. Top off with champagne. (I like a relatively sweet, vanilla-overtoned scotch; if your single-malts are on the peaty side, maybe try some Johnnie Walker Black instead. If you’re working with blueberry juice cocktail, perhaps add a touch of lemon juice if it’s too sweet.)

And, whatever your persuasion, get out and vote! Even if you cynically doubt its actual efficacy, you’ll at least be a player in one of the largest regularly scheduled productions of street theater ever conceived.

One more thing: let’s not forget… the farmer:

Joe the Plumber


As it turns out, “Joe’s” real name is Franz, he’s not a licensed plumber, and he isn’t even registered to vote. However, he would pay no taxes at all under either candidate’s plan, since he’s been dead since 1809.

Still, as is seemingly customary in such situations, he is being pursued for a possible record deal.

Many happy returns of the day


COMPOSER LEAVES
SKELETON TO
MUSEUM

WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, April 14.—Mr. Percy Grainger, the composer who died on February 20, specified in his will, which was filed for probate today, that his skeleton go to the University of Melbourne, Australia, “for preservation and possible display in the Grainger museum”.
…
Mr. Grainger’s instructions concerning his skeleton have not yet been carried out; whether they will be is still questionable. A friend said that Mr. Grainger’s widow had flown to Australia with the body soon after the death, and it had been buried at her request in a coffin beside that of his mother in Adelaide.

—The Times of London, April 15, 1961

Alas, Grainger’s vaguely Benthamite wishes were, indeed, ignored. The University of Melbourne does have his death mask, though.

Majestic 12



Tune in to Counterstream Radio this evening at 9:00 Eastern, and you can hear yours truly free-associating about “American Serialism,” the first in Counterstream’s “Crash Courses in New Music.” Babbitt, Martino, Wuorinen, Powell—the gang’s all here, and just in time for Hallowe’en. (If you can’t tune in tonight, you can catch it again Sunday afternoon at 3—it’s also available on demand.)

Future installations include Kyle Gann on Minimalism, Tom Lopez on acousmatic music, and Lara Pellegrinelli (aka Dr. LP) on the new jazz. (Great big thanks to Molly Sheridan for shepherding the thing through, and Corey Dargel for deftly assembling and mixing down a script with a density of montage that would have made Eisenstein blush.)

There’s always room for

Reviewing Steven Isserlis and Jeremy Denk.
Boston Globe, October 29, 2008.

Local readers are highly encouraged to head back to the Gardner museum this Sunday (11/2) at 1:30, when Jeremy Denk will be bringing his Evel Knievel “Concord” Sonata-Hammerklavier program to Boston. Also: I can’t possibly be the first person to notice this, but it’s downright uncanny how much Isserlis in performance looks like Roger Daltrey in Tommy.

Editorial


If you can’t figure out my politics, you’re just not paying attention, but this space tends to be non-partisan; like I’ve said before, as important as it is, politics is a lousy way to pick your friends. But I will make one public endorsement this cycle, and that’s to encourage everyone in California to vote no on Proposition 8, which would rescind the right of gay couples in that state to marry. (Similar measures are on the ballot in Florida and Arizona.) I make this endorsement—stuck here in Massachusetts, I can’t actually vote against the thing—because, honestly, I can’t think of any reason for anyone of any political persuasion who believes in the virtues of a democratic republic to object to gay marriage. Except homophobia. Which I won’t dignify with a response. Beyond that one, anyway. But if you need more convincing:

If you’re a liberal: Come on, it’s a straight-up civil-rights issue. It’s the foam on your vote-for-Obama latte! It’s the… look, just get some clichés from your nearest wingnut and fill in the blanks. And vote, OK?

If you’re a conservative: Do you really want the government telling you who you can and can’t marry? That’s the first step down a slippery slope leading to, um, progressive taxation!

If you’re a member of the Thermodynamic Law Party: Without institutionalized marriage keeping open the possibility of energy exchange with the rest of society, gay couples will become adiabatically closed systems, preventing them from importing negentropy and thereby increasing, not decreasing, the entropy of such non-traditional but long-standing family units.

If you’re a Narodnik: You know the Tsar would have been for Prop 8.

If you just don’t like gay people: You know who I just don’t like? Baal-worshiping smooth-jazz fans. There, I said it. I’m not proud of it, but there it is. And I still don’t see where I get the authority to tell two Baal-worshiping smooth-jazz fans that they can’t marry each other.

If you’re a musician: Then this is the closest to a pandering pocketbook issue you’re going to get in this election cycle. A “no” vote means that many more wedding gigs. Or do you want to give up jobs in the middle of a recession?

In all seriousness, if you at all value the idea of personal responsibility, as even this incurable lefty does, I would think that preventing any two consenting adults from legally and publicly confirming their commitment to each other should seem at least a little counter-productive. Here in Massachusetts, gay marriage has neither a) devalued or undermined my own straight marriage, or b) unraveled the fabric of society. In fact, four years later, it’s exactly what it should be: a non-issue.

Also: Critic-at-Large Moe encourages Massachusetts residents to vote Yes on 3.